Now that my daughter is married, it’s harder to drag her away for a trip. My friend Kelly can only plan one trip a year with me as she goes to lots of horse clinics (she’s quite the equestrian) plus feels like she has to save SOME vacation time for her husband. So, I travel solo sometimes. I’ve been to Canada on my own, visiting Montana and North Dakota on the way home from Banff and Jasper. And I’ve been…
Morocco has been on my must-see list for ages. Kelly and I planned this for a few weeks after my daughter’s wedding, September of 2017. It took us a while to finalize our plans. There is so much to see in this gorgeous country. And all the travel sites and blogs I read about Morocco and lists of “top things to see and do” made it difficult as I wanted to see it all. We both earn a decent amount…
“I’m in Burma.” “Burma?” “You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me.” – Seinfeld, Mr. Peterman to Elaine Burma. The Golden Land. Kelly and I went to Myanmar in late February 2017 for fifteen days. We planned our trip using trip.me, a travel consolidator that works with local travel companies in dozens of countries. As we usually do when planning a trip, Kelly and I did plenty of research on our own, determining…
An African “Safari”! One of many items on my travel wish list. My friend, Kelly, her husband, Manny, my daughter, Alex, her boyfriend, now husband, Mike, and my friend Leslie all went to Africa in October 2015. Kelly, Leslie, and I all worked together and did our research and planning over lunches in the breakroom. After comparing many companies, reading reviews, and comparing routes, we decided to use Wild About Africa. The specific itinerary we booked is no longer available, but…
Mike, my daughter’s boyfriend, now her husband, was talking about racing in the Tour Divide when they visited, Christmas 2014. This is a self-supporting bike race from Banff, Alberta, Canada along the Rockies to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, 2745 miles. He was talking about flying up and wondering how to pack his bike and his supplies. I, mostly joking at that point, said, I’ve never been to Banff so if you need someone to drive you there, I will. He…
I invited Alex on a short holiday trip with me, over Thanksgiving week. She was able to get a few days off work. I booked a 3-city Switzerland tour with Go-Today. We left Saturday, November 22, from Peoria, via Chicago to Zurich. Zurich We arrived about 1100 on Sunday. After getting through customs we took the train to town and walked to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Arlette Beim, a nice old-fashioned place very close to…
Kelly and I loved our visit to Croatia in 2013 and wanted to see more, so we planned several days in north and west Croatia, several days in Slovenia, then a few days in Venice, Italy. We flew out of Peoria to Chicago on Saturday, August 30th for our flight to Zagreb. Croatia We arrived Sunday morning at 1000. After passport control and getting cash (just me because Kelly’s card wasn’t working, so I took out the max to share…
My daughter’s college roommate, Kim, spent two years teaching English in Madagascar as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). I wanted to visit Madagascar, so Kim invited Alex and me down during her school’s break, April 2014, just a few months before she was due to finish her two years of service. Unfortunately, Alex couldn’t get time off her job, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Sorry, Alex. I booked round-trip flights to Antananarivo and Kim did all of…
I love, love this beautiful country. It is one of my favorites and one I would happily move to permanently if I could get citizenship. Alex and I visited Australia and New Zealand in 2005. We spent about 20 days on this trip but most was in Australia, with only five days on the South Island and two nights in Auckland. When Kelly and I were talking about travel in 2012, she couldn’t go in September/October like we usually do,…
For the past several years, when Kelly and I had been traveling in Europe, we met people who told us Croatia was a “must-see”! So we decided to plan a trip. We wanted to visit several of the islands plus Dubrovnik. We both tried finding cruises, and Kelly came across Sail Croatia, they offered a week long small boat cruise (36 guests) from Split to Dubrovnik with stops in Hvar, Vis, Korcula, and Mljet. We booked the trip with 3…