• Travel

    Hiking and Driving – Colorado Springs, CO

    October 27, 2020 - By 

    Again, here we are. Still in COVID times. Not traveling. Blah blah blah. I’m taking advantage of this time to continue to catch up on travel posts! Today I’m continuing our trip to Colorado Springs. Rob was there for a conference. I was there for fun and relaxation. After getting up, eating breakfast with Rob at the conference, I headed out for a little adventure. I decided to hike part of the Columbine Trail. I parked at the Middle Columbine Trail and started hiking up. I could hear a stream across the road and saw an airplane overhead. I didn’t…

  • Travel

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    September 15, 2020 - By 

    Today I’m continuing to talk about what we did on our Rochester, NY trip. This was our 3rd day. However, we got up ate breakfast at the hotel and drove about 3 hours across the border to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Yeah, so I love old bridges and I always take pictures of them. There’s usually nothing special about them, just interesting landmarks. This was taken in Gasport, NY at 43°11’43.518″ N 78°35’38.208″ W New York apples are so good! There was pretty long line to cross over the border at Queenston Bridge, but it moved decently fast. We were starting…

  • Travel

    Rochester, NY | Trip Report Day 2

    August 11, 2020 - By 

    Today I’m sharing with you our Day 2 of our Rochester, NY trip. That morning I dropped Rob off at his training and headed on over to the Erie Canal. We were there the night before, but it was getting dark. So I was anxious to see it more in the daytime. That morning it was pretty foggy and overcast, which made for some interesting photos. The Erie Canal is a canal in New York, United States that is part of the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System, which was built to create a navigable water…

  • Travel

    Visit to the Eastman Museum [Rochester, NY]

    August 4, 2020 - By 

    Visit to the Eastman Museum [Rochester, NY] - If you're ever in Rochester, New York and you love beautiful homes, gardens and history, the George Eastman House is a must see! George Eastman is the founder of Kodak Films, so not only is this his former home, it's also home to the International Museum of Photography and Film (world's oldest museum dedicated to photography).

  • Travel

    St. Simons Island Trip – Part 2

    July 28, 2020 - By 

    Last week I shared the 1st part of our St. Trip with you. Click to read that>>>>St. Simons Island Trip-Part 1 Today’s post covers the 2nd half of the trip from Wednesday through Saturday when we head home. Wednesday So after a pretty tiring day in Savannah, on Wednesday we decided to stick around St. Simons. Rob and I ventured out while the boys stayed back at the condo. We stopped by Gascoigne Bluff Park. As you can see this is another gorgeous spot with Live Oaks and Spanish Moss. What you don’t see in the pic is the 9…

  • Thinking of a trip to St. Simons Island Trip soon? Check out this post to see what to do not only in St. Simons but what day trips you can take from there!
    Travel

    St. Simons Island Trip – Part 1

    July 21, 2020 - By 

    Saturday Earlier this summer we were itching for a change of scenery and decided to take a week off and go on a vacation. With Drew starting classes right before the 4th of July, we determined that the week before that would be good. This ended up being Drew’s graduation trip. No, it’s not NYC, but it was better than nothing! We got up early Saturday morning and headed over to St. Simons Island, Georgia. We stopped in Dawson, GA at Mark’s Melon Patch (8580 Albany Highway Dawson, Georgia 39842) for some peaches. I enjoyed their Sunflowers and Zinnias so…

  • Travel

    Mountain West Trip: Denver, CO

    June 23, 2020 - By 

    Thank you for following along on our Mountain West Trip. This is the last post for this trip. Today I am talking about what we did the last day in half, all of which was spent in and around Denver, CO. We had a few things on our list for Denver. First two things were Denver Mint and Coors Brewing Company. The Denver Mint wasn’t doing tours that day for some reason, so we headed over to Coors Brewing Company for a tour. It’s $10 for non-Colorado residents ($5 if you live in CO) and it includes a full tour,…

  • Travel

    Mountain West Trip: Roadtrip from Vernal, UT to Denver, CO

    June 16, 2020 - By 

    Today we’re continuing on our Mountain West Trip that I’ve been sharing. Click >>> Mountain West Trip 2019 Posts to see more from this trip. As we drove through Vernal, I snapped a few more pics as we headed to Jenson, UT. Our first stop was Dinosaur National Monument. Since the boys are older, they weren’t super thrilled about it. I enjoyed it, because the teacher in me still geeks out over this kind of fun stuff. Exhibits at the Quarry Visitor Center introduce the variety of resources and places to explore within the monument. The Quarry Visitor Center is…

  • Travel

    Mountain West Trip: Roadtrip from Jackson, WY to Vernal, UT

    June 9, 2020 - By 

    Today we’re continuing on our Mountain West Trip that I’ve been sharing. Click >>> Mountain West Trip 2019 Posts to see more about this trip. We got up, loaded the car, grabbed some hotel breakfast, and headed out for more open road! Not long after that we passed this sign that said Auburn, WY. Since we’re from Auburn, AL, we’re always interested when we see other states with towns called Auburn. It was hardly a town with a population of less that 400 people in the 2010 census. The first settlement in Auburn, WY was made in 1879. The bottom…

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    Mountain West Trip:Grand Tetons & Jackson Hole

    June 2, 2020 - By 

    Today I’m continuing on with another post about our Mountain West Trip. If you remember we left off on our Part 2 from Yellowstone. That night we stayed at the Head Waters Lodge at Flagstaff. This was a cabin like room with all the amenities you need except TV and internet. We did have a little bit of a walk from our car to our cabin, but there are sidewalks and luggage carts to help you lug all your stuff to your cabin. After a very hard sleep, we woke up and loaded the car back up and walked over…

  • Life

    Getting Out of Town for Georgia Reopening during COVID

    May 12, 2020 - By 

    This last week, Rob and I took Thursday and Friday off because it was the end of the time when our work allowed us to take off without actually using vacation. We bounced the idea around of going up to the North Georgia Mountains and staying in a VRBO. However, there was something that just really made me hesitant, so we plan to do that later. Instead the fam treated me and allowed me to decide what I wanted to do…pretty much the entire long weekend! And if you know me, you know making decisions even the smallest ones bring…

  • Travel

    Mountain West Trip:Day in Yellowstone-Part 2

    May 3, 2020 - By 

    If you missed my 1st post about Yellowstone click>>>>Mountain West Trip:Day in Yellowstone-Part 1 Part 1 is highlighted in Yellow. Part 2 is in Blue. Click map to see larger view. You can click again to zoom in even more. (Original Map Courtesy of https://yellowstone.net/) The next area we hit was Fountain Paint Pots Trail (map). This boardwalk is about a half mile (.8 km) walking loop. Some of the highlights of this area include: Silex Spring Silex is Latin for silica, which is a major component of rhyolite (extrusive igneous rock), Yellowstone’s most common volcanic rock. The clear blue…

  • Travel

    Mountain West Trip:Day in Yellowstone-Part 1

    May 2, 2020 - By 

    If you missed my first few posts from our Mountain West Trip you can see those listed here. This post is from the 1st half of our epic day in Yellowstone with so many amazing sights, which means so many pictures to share. From traffic jams caused by bison crossing the road to geysers and hot springs. In this post, I’ve added some GPS coordinates and linked them to Google Maps. I kinda wished I’d done that previous travel posts, but never thought it would be that important. My Canon EOS 6D DSLR Camera has a built in GPS which…

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    Mountain West Trip:In & Around Casper, WY

    April 2, 2020 - By 

    This is another post from our Mountain West Trip. Day 3 we got up and Drew was in charge of showing us around Casper. First we drove up to the top of Casper Mountain. We saw this Coyote as we drove. Up on top of Casper Mountain is a small Ski Resort called Hogadon Basin Ski Area. Of course since it was summer it was closed, but it still beautiful up there. Beautiful views Before leaving the mountain we explored the other side, which has an Archery Range. Then Drew showed us where he was living and we got to…

  • Travel

    Mountain West Trip:Wyoming Road Trip

    February 28, 2020 - By 

    This post is continuation of our big Mountain West Trip we did. Here’s the first post in case you missed it>>>Mountain West Trip – Colorado Springs We got up that morning and checked out of our hotel in Castle Rock and headed to Wyoming, with romantic country music sang by a good Romantic country music songwriter playing in our car for a fun trip! Our final destination for that day was Casper, WY, where Drew has been since May. While I was so anxious to see him, I was excited to see more of Wyoming and explore it a little…

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    Mountain West Trip:Colorado Springs

    January 29, 2020 - By 

    Our older son, Drew, was in Wyoming for an internship for the summer so we planned a trip to the Mountain West; Colorado, Wyoming, Utah in early July of last year. We flew out on a Wednesday evening and landed in Denver, CO, got our rental car drove to Castle Rock, CO where we had a hotel for the night. Comfort Suites Castle Rock 4755 Castleton Way, Castle Rock, CO 80109 The next morning we got up and drove to Pikes Peak. Alex wasn’t with us when we went a few years ago, so we knew this was a must…

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    Pacific NW Trip: Grand Floral Parade & More

    January 19, 2020 - By 

    When planning this trip and knowing that the Rose Festival would be going on we structured it so we’d be in Portland at the right time. We decided that since we were here during the Grand Floral Parade that we needed to go. I was glad we did. It was also Fleet Week, which is always a sight to see. We were hoping to get over to ships after the parade to get a tour of one of the US Naval Ships but we missed it by a few minutes. So instead we walked up to the near by bridge…

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    Pacific NW Trip: Exploring Oregon Coast

    December 20, 2019 - By 

    In this post, I’m continuing to share about trip to the Pacific Northwest. This is the day we spent on the Oregon Coast, which is always my favorite. We first drove out to Cannon Beach. There’s several lots where you can park for a small fee as well as free street parking, which is what we ended up doing. After we parked we looked up on the internet to see when low tide was, because if you want to look for sea urchins and star fish you need to plan ahead. Luckily for us, low tide was about to occur…

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    Gatlinburg Fun & Soccer Tourney

    December 13, 2019 - By 

    In early December we headed off to Gatlinburg for a soccer tournament. Follow your team’s journey with the detailed match reports by SportScore. Friday Friday we worked half a day and then went and check Alex out of school. Came home and loaded the car and picked up #5 to try and make it to Gatlinburg in time for their Christmas Parade. Our friends, the Farrows were there with their younger son, so we met up with them at the parade. Here I am with Julia. I loved that they had a car that looked like the one from Christmas…

  • Travel

    Pacific NW Trip: UW Tour & Mt. Rainier NP

    December 11, 2019 - By 

    University of Washington Tour The last day in Seattle began with a tour of the University of Washington that was done for the conference attendees and their families. Walking the campus, I loved the mixture of —style and new modern buildings. Here you see Gerberding Hall (GRB) on the right and Suzzallo Library, which are both Collegiate Gothic style of architecture that is so beautiful. This library is probably the most iconic building on campus. This is the Graduate Reading Room, which takes up the entire western side of the library at 250 ft.long, 52 ft. wide, with a 65-ft.…