• Travel

    Omaha, Nebraska Trip::Part 5

    August 5, 2022 - By 

    This is the last Omaha post! In this post, we woke up in Mount Vernon, IL and made our way home. About 25 miles south of Mount Vernon on I-57 in Benton, IL we passed this George Harrison Commemorative Mural, which I had read about on Atlas Obscura. I just snapped this from the highway, but you can pull off to get a picture in front of it. Our first stop was in Land Between the Lakes. which is located in Kentucky and Tennessee between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. This was designated a U.S. national recreation area in 1963…

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    Omaha, Nebraska Trip::Part 4

    August 3, 2022 - By 

    Continuing on with another Omaha post. Wednesday After the loss Tuesday night, we had to determine how long we were going to take to get home, what route we were going to take, what cities we wanted to be sure to go through, etc! Our plan for that day was to drive to Des Moines, IA, St. Louis, MO, and spend the night in Mt. Vernon, IL. We pulled off to check out an old Danish Windmill in Elkhorn, IA. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a windmill like this in person and for sure, not this close up. There’s…

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    Omaha, Nebraska Trip::Part 3

    August 2, 2022 - By 

    Monday Auburn had a 1 o’clock game, so we got up and headed downtown and walked to the team hotel for Tiger Walk. In downtown Omaha they have an area called Pioneer Courage Park full of beautiful sculptures. Here we are in our seats before the game started. Auburn beat Stanford, which was so exciting. I was so happy for Rob that he finally got to an Auburn win at the CWS and that they lived to play another game. After the game, I honestly don’t remember what we did after that…I’m thinking we went back and ate leftovers at…

  • Life - Travel

    Omaha, Nebraska Trip::Part 2

    July 29, 2022 - By 

    Sunday Here we are for another travel post. This one shares Day 2 of our trip to Omaha, NE mainly to watch Auburn play in the Men’s College World Series. In case you miss my Part 1 post>>>Part 1 We checked out of our hotel that morning, because we had an VRBO booked for the next couple of days. We ate some breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for the day. Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is a 3,000-foot footbridge across the Missouri River between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska that opened in September 2008. On the bridge…

  • Travel

    Omaha, Nebraska Trip::Part 1

    July 28, 2022 - By 

    A few weeks ago on a Monday night when Auburn played Oregon State in the 3rd and final game of the series to determine who was going to the Men’s College World Series we didn’t have any plans to go to Omaha. However, Rob looked at me during that game and said, you know if we when we’re going to have to discuss going. After the win, Drew and Caitlyn came over and we started looking at hotels and thinking about if we could take off work that quickly. We’d have to leave by Friday afternoon to get there by…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Little Havana and more

    June 27, 2022 - By 

    Today is the last Carnival Horizon post! This post is covering the day we got off the ship and what we did afterwards. Disembarkation day is never fun, but it really seemed to go better this time. The day before we picked up luggage tags. If memory serves there is an early group and later group. We picked the later group. However, I think everyone has to be off the ship by like 11am. I know its been forever since we’ve cruised, but again I thought it went easier and much less chaotic. We were off the ship, collected our…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Amber Cove

    June 10, 2022 - By 

    Hey y’all! Back for another cruise post. Today I’m sharing our time in Amber Cover the Carnival port near Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic. When we arrived in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic, Rob and I headed to find our tour guide. We had booked The Best of Puerta Plata excursion. This is a tour that drives by many highlights of the city. You are able to get out for several of the stops as you’ll see below. Looking back at our ship Following our tour guide to our bus. Watching as we drive to our first stop Puerto Plata Cable Car…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – La Romana

    May 13, 2022 - By 

    Here’s probably my favorite day off the Carnival Horizon. The day we were in La Romana, Dominican Republic we got there around a 11, so we had time in the morning to go to ‘sit down’ breakfast. It was nice to not have to get up super early and just be able to go a little slower that morning. Here we are waiting for clearance to get off the ship. We were all excited for an excursion day. No renting a car in the D.R.!! The excursion was called Monkeyland & Dominican Flavors for Families. We loaded an air-conditioned bus…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Day in Bonaire

    May 5, 2022 - By 

    I really hope you’re enjoying all these cruise posts. Travel posts do take quite a long time to put together, but I love having them to look back on and remember our time. Today I’m sharing about our day in Bonaire. Views from our ship as we wait to get the all clear 12°8’53.34″ N 68°16’39.76″ W Bonaire is an island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is Kralendijk, near the ocean on the lee side of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Venezuela.…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Afternoon in Aruba

    April 19, 2022 - By 

    Today I’m sharing my final post about Aruba for this cruise and there is still a lot to cover so its gonna be long. 🙂 After leaving Arikok National Park, it was time to plug my phone into the radio so we could follow along with the app I had purchased and listen to descriptions of places to drive by or stop at. We have used the GyPSy Guide app before while traveling and loved it. However they don’t have one for Aruba, so after some research we decided on the Action Tour Guide Aruba (The Full tour). For this…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Arikok National Park

    April 16, 2022 - By 

    Who knew I’d be writing so many posts about Aruba, but I really just think breaking our day down into smaller chunks make for better posts. I hope you agree! So today I’m sharing about the time we spent in Arikok National Park, Aruba. We came through the SouthEast entrance Vader Piet. 12°27’58.122″ N 69°53’33.612″ W (Just a reminder some of the pictures will have GPS coordinates that link to that location on Google Maps in case you want to go to that spot on future travels. If one of the pictures doesn’t have coordinates after it, it means its…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Pet Cemetery on Aruba Beach

    April 14, 2022 - By 

    I’m continuing on with details of our day in Aruba. After leaving our lunch spot, we passed Baby Beach. 12°24’55.848″ N 69°52’57.264″ W Not too far from there as we continued along the coast we happened across a huge Pet Cemetery. Around 1924, Lago Oil & Transport Co. was building Lago Colony now known as Seroe Colorado for their employees of the oil refinery in San Nicholas, the people started burying their pets here in this secluded place. Through the years the burying of pets has continued and it now stretches almost a mile long. (source) 12°25’15.642″ N 69°52’19.662″ W…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Lunch in Aruba

    April 13, 2022 - By 

    We ended up stopping for lunch at the Rum Reef Bar & Grill. (On Google Maps) This is a modern, clean building located on Baby Beach with beautiful views as well as an infinity pool. View from our table. Rob’s step dad, David, ordered the Monkey Juice (Dark Rum, White Rum, Crème de Banana, ½ Banana, Baileys, Coco Lopez) and then Rob and I decided to share one. It was so yummy! The special of the day was the Mahi Mahi. I got the platter. Rob got the Mahi Mahi sandwich. Really fresh and delish! Click to menu and prices…

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    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Morning in Aruba

    April 12, 2022 - By 

    I am so excited to be talking about our first port of call on our cruise. Aruba!! As I wrote this post, I realized there was just too many details and pictures to share so I’m breaking it down into multiple posts. Let’s jump on in. We were scheduled to arrive at the port in Aruba at 9am. However we arrive and were cleared a little early. The four of us soon had eaten breakfast and were ready about the time they announced we could disembark. We had rented a jeep for the day. Rob had done lots of research…

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    Carnival Horizon – Time on the Ship

    April 8, 2022 - By 

    Happy Thursday, everyone! Today I’m continuing my posts about our cruise that we took last month. If you missed our misadventures getting to Miami you can read about that here>>>>Getting to Miami. Today I’m sharing about the time while on the ship, including embarkation day, evenings after being at port, and of course, the fun days at sea. Here’s a few details on the cruise: Carnival Horizon 8 Day Itinerary Miami > 2 Days at Sea > Aruba > Bonaire > La Romana > Amber Cove > Day at Sea > Miami Cabin 2220 (Port hole) My in laws (Alice…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Getting to Miami

    April 1, 2022 - By 

    Today I’m starting my series on our Cruise that we recently just got back from. It’s been several years since we’ve cruise and we were so excited to go cruising this last Christmas, but then we cancelled. When we got the email about the deals happening, we just couldn’t pass them up. Let’s jump into this adventure…that almost didn’t happen. Friday, we worked and I ended up going home before lunch because I had a few things left to pack and wanted to get some things done around the house before leaving for 10 days. I had become concerned that…

  • Life - Travel

    The Cruise that Never Happened

    December 30, 2021 - By 

    Back in November, Rob and I were bouncing ideas around about what to do with our 2 weeks off at Christmas. A trip to Texas or Baton Rouge to see family? A trip to the beach or the mountains? A cruise? Me: “a cruise? yes please!” After some research we found the one we wanted to book. We bounced the idea around with our family and we read about the fact we’d have to sometimes wear masks inside. Ok, yeah. We can handle that. Our rule of thumb is if we can get a cruise for less than $100/day per…

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    North Georgia Mountain Trip 2021

    July 20, 2021 - By 

    The Wednesday before the 4th of July Rob and I got off work, loaded up the car, and we along with Alex made our way up to the North Georgia Mountains for a few days. Traffic was frustrating for the 1st hour or so. They skies were gorgeous though. We stayed in a cabin in Ellijay, GA. (rental info) We loved all the outdoor seating with outdoor speakers as well as all the outside activities; bumper pool table, darts, hook and ring, etc. My favorite were the hammock chairs and now I totally want some at home, just not sure…

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    Atlanta Getaway 2015

    May 18, 2021 - By 

    If you’ve read most of my travel posts recently you know with COVID and us not traveling much, it’s given me the opportunity to go back through my photos and find all the travels I never got to write about. Today I’m going waaay back. Rob used to attend a conference every fall in Atlanta. I would go too even though Atlanta’s not far. It was always such a nice getaway. A good break for me. Day 1 We left Sunday after church and headed up to Atlanta. We stopped at The Varsity for a late lunch before getting to…

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    Spring Break 2021

    April 20, 2021 - By 

    For Spring Break we usually drive down to Florida to visit with Rob’s Grandparents and take in some Spring Training games. Our old son, Drew and Rob are the real baseball fans of the family. This year with Drew not being able to take off work and knowing that Alex could pretty much care less to go to baseball game and the fact that Sunday of Spring Break was Alex’s birthday, we decided to let him invite a friend and to go to amusements parks. We decided that we would try to attend games within about an hour of Tampa,…