World Travels – Ullan Adventures

R & R in the Bahamas

Kirsten / May 16, 2021

There isn’t much better than a pina colada in a coconut at a swim up bar!

Like the rest of the world, the COVID pandemic ground our travels to a halt. We were hoping to get vaccinated so we could take some sort of trip this summer, but really weren’t sure when our names would come up in the vaccine lottery.

Well, on some random weekend in March, both of us found out we could get vaccinated ASAP. Chuck’s parents were planning to visit the week after we were both fully vaccinated so Chuck asked them to watch the kids for a few days, and luckily they said YES!

After over a 1 ½ years of not being on a plane, we were so excited to go somewhere, anywhere. Normally, we like very active, busy trips, but after the past year, we wanted ocean and low-key. The Bahamas were open to US travelers, and offered quick, non-stop flights, so it made the perfect choice.

It was a little weird being in an airport again as it was the most people I’d been around in over a year. But it quickly felt normal again, except for the masks. And after an easy flight, we arrived!

After a quick taxi ride, we arrived at our hotel, the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. Luckily our room was ready, so we were able to drop off our bags and head down to one of the many restaurants for lunch. And drinks of course! (Despite all the booze pictures, we really didn’t drink that much – I think we just only took pictures of our drinks!)
And then the vacationing began.

We spent the bulk of our 2 main days sitting at the pool which we NEVER do. We are just not “sit at the pool all day” people, but on this trip, that was exactly what we needed.

And what better way to pass the time than with some frozen cocktails from the swim up bar! I’ve always wanted to get a drink from a fresh coconut, so I was quite excited to finally get one!

Both evenings we went to the jazz club for live music – man was it nice to enjoy live music again – and just chilling. Unfortunately they weren’t playing jazz, but they were pretty good, so it was still nice.

Chocolate & Espresso martinis at the jazz bar

The resort also had flamingos and I fell in love with these guys. I kept heading over to watch them.

These guys were fighting and making such a ruckus

One day I left the pool to run to the bathroom right as they were doing the daily flamingo parade. I quickly grabbed my phone then caught up to them as they did a little flamingo info session.
We didn’t hang out at the beach very much as it was extremely windy the entire time we were there. We still did get some beach chilling time in though.

Aside from that, there was some eating, a little bit of gambling at the casino, some wandering around, and that was about it. Oh and getting our COVID test for our flight back home. Yeah, that was fun. 🙂

All in all, it was exactly what Chuck and I needed and we’re so grateful to his parents for watching the kids so we could get away. We both really liked the Bahamas and figure we’ll be going back some day.

The hotel was good, and we were pretty happy with our stay, although our room was a little weird. I’m not sure who thought having the bathroom open to the bedroom was a good idea?!? Regardless, I would stay here again.

Stepping into North Korea

Kirsten / July 20, 2019

I remembering hearing about the DMZ growing up and learning a long time ago that Americans were allowed to visit and even step into North Korea. For years, I knew if I ever made it to Korea, this would be at the top of my list. So when I planned our trip to Japan, I made sure to include South Korea as part of the itinerary so I could include a trip to the DMZ too.

And then I started to stress. I liked the idea, but man did it freak me out to go there. Chuck and Mara weren’t phased, but Beckett was adamant that he wouldn’t go. Cue lots of reading, researching, thinking about it, and more reading. Ultimately, we decided that it would be safe as people had been doing this for years and years and years without a single incident.

That didn’t stop Beckett from refusing to go though. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay home by himself, so reluctantly he went along. Chuck and Mara were excited. I was still freaked.

We took a tour – you have to – that handled everything for us. We boarded a motor coach around 8am and drove about 90 minutes to the border. Our first stop was lunch.

Our first view of North Korea across the water

After lunch, it was off to the Dora Observatory, where we got a look at the border and into North Korea. It was fascinating to look into North Korea and see people going about their lives.

South Korea in the foreground and North Korea across the river

After that, we went to the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel. This was one of the tunnels the South Koreans discovered that led from North Korea into South Korea. You first watch a video, then get into a little mining train and descend in a very narrow tunnel a good 5 minutes deep into the earth. Beckett was pretty freaked out by this, so once we got to the bottom, Chuck and Mara got out to explore the tunnel, while I rode back up with Beckett.

There didn’t seem to be much down there, just a long walk to a door that was at the border between North and South Korea.

Then we had a few minutes to take some pictures before we went to the main event.

Then we headed to Camp Bonifas which is the UN Command military post located just south of the border. We joined with other tours and went into an auditorium for a security briefing. We also had to sign some paperwork basically acknowledging the danger we were about to take.

As we boarded the buses to go to the border, Beckett started to freak out and refused to go. I felt so bad for him, but at this point, there was no way to stay behind. One of the American soldiers came up to talk to him, and told him that they would stay by his side the entire time to make sure he was safe. And he did. The guy was so nice and really made sure Beckett was ok.

After a short drive, it was showtime as we arrived at the Joint Security Area (JSA).

We then got to stand at a place I’ve seen in pictures so many times. It was surreal. You can see that Beckett is less than thrilled to be here.

After another briefing, it was our turn to enter the building. The soldier went into North Korea and talked for a bit, before he told us we were allowed to enter the North Korean side.

We’re in South Korea, and he is in North Korea. The microphones on the table mark the border.

This next part happened so fast. We walked into North Korea, took some selfies, and before I knew it, they were telling us we had to leave. I think we only got 2 minutes on the North Korean side so I didn’t get the pictures or videos that I would’ve liked. It didn’t help that there were so many of us in the room, that its not that we had much of a chance anyway.

Still, WE STOOD IN NORTH KOREA!!!

Walking across the border into North Korea

In North Korea with the background as South Korea

And then it was over and we were back outside.

Despite Beckett’s initial resistance, he was over the moon once we entered the building and stood in North Korea!

From there, we walked down to the Blue Bridge where Moon Jae In and Kim Jong Un had a historic, private conversation in April 2018.

We also got some time to take pictures of the Freedom House before boarding the buses and heading back to Camp Bonifas.

Once back at Camp Bonifas, we boarded our first motor coach to continue our tour.

The soldier that was keeping an eye on Beckett, gave him 2 military patches before we left.

Our final stop was at the Dorasan Station. This is a train station which used to connect North Korea and South Korea. The hope is that one day, this station will be used to connect them together again.

We bought tickets to Pyeongyang, North Korea

Waiting for a train that wasn’t coming yet

The train network linking Korea to Europe

And sadly, this was our last stop, so we headed back to Seoul.

Overall, it was such a neat experience. It wasn’t as scary as I expected, but that’s also probably because they removed all the soldiers with guns from both sides 6 months before our visit. Still, I never felt unsafe or had an concerns once we got the border.

And as soon as Beckett got to cross into North Korea, he was so happy and relaxed. He ended up being so glad that he went, and so proud of himself for pushing through his apprehension.

I think for all of us, this was one of the top experiences of our entire trip and definitely our top experience in Korea.

Asia South Korea

4 Days in Seoul, South Korea

Kirsten / July 17, 2019

We arrived in Seoul after an exhausting, but fun 11 days in Japan. After grabbing some snacks at the airport since we missed lunch and picking up our pocket wifi, we headed for our hotel to drop off our bags. Normally we’d drop our bags and head out to explore, but this time we all chilled in the room for a bit before wandering around.

Our hotel was in Insadong which is one of the top tourist areas known for more traditional Korean shopping and food. The hotel was a great choice as we had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, there was an included breakfast buffet which was awesome, plus we had a full kitchen and living area. The location didn’t turn out to be the best choice for us though and I kind of think we would have had a better time somewhere else.

The pedestrian only streets around our hotel were neat, but after a brief stroll, we we’d seen all we wanted to see. Plus the restaurant choices weren’t the best. At this point, we were all so tired and hungry and honestly just needed some “normal for us” meals. The first night, Chuck and I actually went to an Indian restaurant and then picked up some ramen and other food from a mini market for the kids’ dinner.

The next morning we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace. After visiting there, we found a burger place on our walk back to the hotel and it really hit the spot. Normally you can’t find a good burger outside of the US, but this place was pretty close and we were all able to get fed!

We then wandered around Insadong and found a stand making King’s Dessert. This consists of taking a block of honey and rolling then stretching it into 16,000 strands which are then filled with nuts or chocolate. The guy made a special batch for us and we took a bunch home to snack on the rest of the trip.

Cute alleys off the main pedestrian street

After a brief rest at the hotel, we took the subway to a different area of Seoul for our Korean Dessert making class. There didn’t look to be a good place for dinner near the class, so we took the subway back to our hotel and then walked a good 15 minutes to the Myeong-dong night market to hunt for dinner. We love night markets and had a great time exploring the market and trying the food.

Area between our hotel and the Myeong-dong night market

Day 2 started with us visiting the Bukchon Hanok Village which is a traditional Korean village. I’d seen this on travel shows and it looked so cool. And it was cool, but… not as amazing as I was hoping!?!? It may have been the heat, so while we enjoyed seeing it, I wasn’t as blown away as I expected. That said, I’m really glad we went.

We had lunch at the same burger place from the day before then wandered around Insadong some more, mostly on the hunt for treats. I ended up picking up some Starbucks and discovered the best Starbucks drink I’ve ever had although I can’t remember specifically what it was now. I was hoping the drink would come to the US, but sadly it hasn’t yet. I loved the drink so much, that I ended up getting one most of the remaining days in South Korea.

We had plans to visit another section of Seoul, but we scrapped them for some relaxing time at the hotel.

That evening, we revisited Myeong-dong for a traditional Korean BBQ meal then strolling around the night market again.

Day 3 had us waking early for our long day of visiting the DMZ & North Korea.

The day was incredible, but tiring so we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant about 10 minutes from our place then crashed for the night.

Day 4 was our last full day in Korea and there was still so much we hadn’t done. First up was going to Gangnam. Beckett has always LOVED that song, so we had to go to the area to check it out. We found the one stage and proceeded to dance to the song and take pictures like total tourists.

We never found the other stage – it turned out to be far away – and then found a Japanese shabu shabu meal for lunch. Yes, despite eating so many shabu shabu meals in Japan, we were back for another one!

Gangnam was overall pretty disappointing, so after walking a few blocks, we hailed a taxi and headed for the Siloam spa, which features several different hot, cold, and mineral rooms. There were some cool buildings there though.

We had a really nice time relaxing at the spa before heading back to the hotel to pack up.

For dinner, we walked a gazillion miles to a pizza place and after a really long wait, we were treated to pretty authentic NY style pizza that totally hit the spot!

Day 5 had us leaving South Korea and starting our long journey home.

All in all, I enjoyed our time in South Korea, but I have many mixed feelings. I didn’t love Seoul as much as I expected, but I didn’t hate it either. There were so many things I had planned that we didn’t do from going up the top of Lotte World Tower, one of the world’s tallest buildings that has a glass floor on top, to visiting Lotte World, the world’s biggest indoor amusement park, to visiting other markets and sites. But we were so exhausted that we couldn’t have fit in one more thing. Plus finding food for all of us was far more challenging than I expected.

That said, visiting the DMZ was an absolute highlight of my travels and we got to see and experience many cool things so it was definitely worth going.

Asia Japan

Tokyo, Days 1 & 2 – Harajuku, Shibuya, and Meiji Shrine

Kirsten / July 6, 2019

A couple of years ago, I was watching a travel show where the guy showcased food from Osaka and other places around Japan. Beckett got really excited and said that he wanted to go there to try the food they were showing, and boom, a travel plan was born. Chuck and I had previously talked about going to Japan, but hearing Beckett’s interest made us decide it would be our next big trip.

After a year and a half and a ton of planning, we were off.

Chuck arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport and take us to our rental. It was actually very cost effective compared to the cost of all 4 of us having to take the train to the metro. And it was so nice to not deal with any logistics when we arrived all tired and jet lagged from the flight.

We had a slight issue getting into our rental as we first couldn’t locate the lockbox and then the code they gave us didn’t work. Eventually we got in and were able to drop off our stuff, before heading out for some dinner.

Our rental was such a great find! It was a 3 bedroom 2 story house only a few blocks from Harajuku. And it cost less than a hotel room would’ve been. Add in that it had a kitchen and a washing machine and it ended up being such a great choice for us.

For dinner, we found a cute little ramen shop a few blocks from our rental. We first waited for a table to become available, then ordered our food from a vending machine type machine out front. Then we sat down, handed them the tickets from the machine, and received our food. It was delicious!

Then we hit a mini mart to stock up on breakfast foods and headed back to our rental for some much needed rest.

The next morning we were all awake by 4am, but having our instant Starbucks coffee and some breakfast foods made that better.

It was strangely rainy and cool the next morning when we headed to Harajuku. We had breakfast at this Kona themed restaurant that was exactly what we needed.

Look at the mountain of whipped cream on her pancakes! They were as good as they looked.

After breakfast, we wandered the famous Takeshita Street in Harajuku, but unfortunately it was too early so many things weren’t open yet. The rain and cool weather didn’t help either. Since our rental was so close by, we were able to go back a couple more times and found it jammed packed and far more like we expected.

After walking thru Harajuku, we walked over to Meiji Shrine. Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine set in a forest. Its a good 10-15 minute walk from the park entrance to the shrine. Along the way there are some torii gates and some really cool sake barrels and it was quite relaxing being among the trees in the heart of Tokyo.

At the entrance of the shrine, there is an area to cleanse your hands and mouth with instructions in English so we knew what to do. Seeing as it was raining and we were really jetlagged, we didn’t stay for very long before heading back to the rental. We did buy a wooden prayer tablet where we each wrote a message before hanging it with all the others.

Cleansing our hands before we enter the shrine

After resting at the rental, we headed out to Shibuya for lunch. We found a place that has shabu shabu which was the first of many shabu shabu meals we ate over the next 2 weeks.

Then it was off to the first of many arcades for some fun. As soon as Beckett walked in, he spotted “Duck” in a crane machine and it became our mission on the trip to win Duck. He tried and tried, but wasn’t successful, however we kept our eyes out for him at other arcades. Eventually he was successful winning “Mini Duck” at a crane machine on day 4!

We ended up spending a lot of time in this arcade and had a blast. We found a 4 person air hockey table, we all played Mario Kart, the kids discovered this drum game that they couldn’t get enough of, and there were plenty of other games and fun to be had. We visited quite a few arcades throughout our time in Japan!

We then wandered around the Shibuya area and to the Shibuya Scramble. This is the world’s busiest intersection and is quite the site to behold. It was raining the first time we went, but we went back another day to see it at rush hour.

After wandering around Shibuya some more, we headed back to our rental for some much needed rest.

After some dinner, it was finally time for sleep! Phew, what a busy first day!

Europe Finland

Helsinki, Finland

Kirsten / September 22, 2018

Chuck in the icy Baltic Sea as part of an authentic Finland sauna experience

Helsinki was our last stop on our 10 day Baltic blitz trip. We arrived via ferry from Tallinn early in the morning. When I say ferry, I should say small cruise ship as it was far more like a cruise ship than a typical ferry. The ferry had multiple restaurants, a bar, and sleeping cabins across multiple levels. I was a wreck on the ship as I had barely slept the night before, but managed to catch a quick nap after having some breakfast. The seas were a little rocky, but napping and ginger candies helped me not get too motion sick. The crossing only took about 2 hours so it was still pretty early when we arrived.

We took a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Fabian, and luckily they had our room available even though it was barely 10am. As much as I wanted to go out and explore, I desperately needed sleep so I took a couple of hour nap before we headed out for lunch.

Our first stop was to the Central Market along the waterfront. We were able to find some lunch at one of the food stalls – moose meatballs for Chuck and yummy salmon fish and chips for me. My legs were still shot so Chuck wandered down to the Uspenski Church while I rested. We then wandered around the market and bought each of the kids a stuffed animal, a reindeer and a moose.

We then swung by the Helsinki Cathedral before walking down the Esplanade. We also found some cool stores to do some shopping, mostly for Christmas ornaments.

I wanted to buy so many Christmas things at this store!

Then it was time for a traditional Finnish sauna experience! I found a place in Helsinki that has both the traditional smoke sauna and a wood-burning sauna. And it was open for men and women at the same time (many of them are open for women at one time and men at another).

This place was really cool. After getting changed in either the men’s or women’s locker room, you are supposed to shower naked before going outside and into one of the 2 saunas. It was cold and raining that day so it was quite unpleasant being outside in only a swimsuit. But the saunas warmed you up quickly.

We headed for the traditional smoke sauna and boy was it hot. I mean hotter than I think I’ve ever felt even in other saunas. And the smoke was heavy as well, but you could still breathe OK. After a bit in there, we headed back out to the cold, got a glass of water, then headed for the wood-burning sauna. After a bit in there, it was once again back into the cold for some water and back into the first sauna. Rinse and repeat. After a while, I was done so I sat around a wood burning fire and chilled – literally – while Chuck did more sauna time. Then I got dressed and left him to keep going back and forth.

He decided to go full traditional Finnish style and take a dip in the icy Baltic Sea in between sauna visits. I did put my feet into the water, but that was all I was going to do. Brrrr.

As he kept going to the saunas, I went into the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious bowl of salmon soup and a coffee while enjoying the great view outside.

After taxiing back to the hotel and getting cleaned up, it was time for dinner. Chuck found a steak restaurant nearby that sounded good, and when I looked it up, I realized it was owned by Stefan Richter whom I used to watch on Top Chef! I was really excited to get to eat his food!

I ordered a local Finnish steak and Chuck went for a reindeer steak. My steak was the best I’ve ever eaten. The meat is so much better than what we get in the US with this amazing flavor and texture. Chuck loved his reindeer as well.

On our way out, I saw Stefan at the bar and then he walked past me and left the restaurant. As we walked out, he was sitting outside and started chatting with us. He ended up talking to us for a good 10 minutes and we learned so much about his restaurants and what he’s up to. It was such a cool experience!!

The next morning we only had time for a quick walk back to the harbor, briefly checking out the Old Market Hall, and taking a few more pictures before it was time to head to the airport.

At the airport we had to get another meal of meatballs with lingonberries that we had when we arrived and once again they did not disappoint. Best airport food I think I’ve ever had.

And then we started our trip back to the US (via Reykjavik).

All in all our Baltic trip was amazing AND a complete whirlwind. We were barely in any place more than 48 hours and packed in 5 countries in 10 days with a stop in Iceland on each side. We’re used to packing in a ton, but this time I think we overdid it especially when I take in consideration the good month or two it took for my legs to stop hurting (no joke!). BUT I loved all we saw and did and experienced, so it’s hard to regret any of our choices. And I loved everywhere we went and feel so lucky that we got to experience that part of the world!

Estonia Europe

Fairy Tale Tallinn, Estonia

Kirsten / September 20, 2018

Picture Walt Disney building a medieval town and you get Tallinn . It’s straight out of a fairy tale! Cobble stone pedestrian only streets, check. Town walls you can walk on, check. A massive square, check. Neat restaurants with outdoor seating, check. It almost seems fake, but in a good way.

We arrived around 1pm after our 4 hour bus trip from Riga. The bus station is miles out of town so we had to taxi to the Old Town then walk into the town as its completely closed to traffic. We had time to eat, outside as the weather continued to be gorgeous our entire visit, before we met up with our Airbnb host. She took us to our rental and we promptly dropped our bags before heading out for a free walking tour of the old town.

Viru Gate – entrance to the old town. We ate lunch at the outdoor restaurant on the right.

The tour, while informative, wasn’t that great. Our guide talked way too much, however, he did take us all around the far side of the old town where we saw the Kiek in de Kok, the Maiden’s Tower, past the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and to viewing platforms that overlooked the city.

From there we walked down the town walls and into the lower old town before finishing in Town Hall Square.

If you’ve been reading about our entire trip, you know that this would be the perfect time to stop for drinks and dessert! We went to Troika (you can see it in one of the above pictures) and got a vodka sampler and crepe dessert. Some of the vodkas were delicious, some were not, but it was still fun to try. And combined with the atmosphere of the square and the perfect weather, it was a wonderful break from sightseeing!

Vodka sampler – cranberry, chokeberry, galangal, lemon, and I think pine nut

Then it was time to meander thru the rest of the old town. We walked and walked exploring the other side of old town and tons of little streets.

We headed back to Troika for dinner as I was craving more authentic Beef Stroganoff. When we got back to the square, they were projecting different movies on the side of the Town Hall to commemorate 100 years of the Republic of Estonia. One showed the history of Estonia going back to the beginning of the earth, while another showcased current Estonian culture. It was fantastic sitting outside eating and watching the show along with locals.

The next morning we took a taxi to Kadriorg Palace a few miles from the old town. This was single-handedly the place I was most excited to see. I’ve wanted to go to Russia my entire life to see the churches and palaces and here was a palace built by Peter the Great for his wife, Catherine.

The palace was very cool and disappointing at the same time. The outside and grounds were nice, but most of the rooms inside were very bland and there weren’t really any furnishings. The main hall was gorgeous though!

The palace now houses art and other artifacts, the most exciting being the Faberge eggs. Unfortunately our pictures of them came out blurry so I don’t have any to share.

Getting back to old town proved harder than we expected as we couldn’t find a taxi at all. We walked thru Kadriorg park to a busy intersection and still couldn’t find a single taxi. Luckily after a bit, I spotted a taxi dropping off other tourists and was able to flag him down. Phew.

Next up was visiting the KGB museum inside the Hotel Viru. I was really excited to see this as well, however I didn’t realize you could only go as part of a set tour and you had to book them in advance. So we showed up to find no open tours till much later and it just wasn’t going to work out. Oops. Although if this is the only thing I screwed up this trip, I don’t feel too bad.

So we decided to visit the Tallinn Town Wall which you can climb up and walk along. This was actually pretty cool and gave another great vantage point to see the town.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the background

Across the street is St. Catherine’s passage which is thought to have been built over 700 years ago. They also had some tombstones hanging on the wall dating as far back as 1388!

Tombstones dating as far back as 1388 on left wall

At this point both our legs were exhausted because we had walked for hours and hours every day. If I’m being honest, I was actually in pain and trying not to cry because my legs and knees hurt so badly. So what is the best cure for that?!? Sitting to enjoy a coffee and dessert!

We stumbled into this chocolaterie in a little courtyard that had delicious desserts and was such an adorable place to enjoy a rest. The cake was every bit as good as it looks.

After resting up, we decided to re-explore most of the old town again. Why did I do this when I was already miserable? I guess because I loved the town and wanted to see it as much as possible before we left. I’m not very smart sometimes. But it was cool to see the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral again, revisit the viewpoints, wander the cute little streets, and soak up the town as much as possible before stopping for dinner and a local beer and heading back to our rental.

We tried to get to bed early that night as we had an 7:30am ferry the next morning and needed to be at the ferry dock by 6:30am. Unfortunately I got about an hour of sleep as I was in agony all night and had one of my most miserable nights in recent memory. Chuck’s legs weren’t feeling that great either as we really overdid the walking on this trip. Luckily we were able to flag a taxi in the morning and were able to skip walking the couple of miles to the dock.

Despite this, I look back on Tallinn so fondly. It was adorable and quaint and everything you’d want a medieval old town to be!

Europe Latvia

Riga, Latvia

Kirsten / September 18, 2018

We took a bus from Vilnius to Riga (cheap, about 9 Euro!) that took 4 1/2 hours and arrived around 1:30pm.

Our first order of business was walking about 10 minutes from the bus station into the Old Town and getting into our Airbnb.

After lunch it was time to explore Old Town Riga. We first saw the Cat House which has 2 cats perched on its turrets. There is a funny story that the owner was refused entrance to the Guild across the street, so he put the cats with their butts facing the Guild. They were eventually turned to face outward, though.

From there we headed to the Swedish Gate, Riga Castle, then the Three Brothers. The Three Brothers are 3 houses that are the oldest houses in Riga. The oldest was built in the 15th century and the newest completed in the 17th century.

We then headed back into town to the famous House of Blackheads. The House of Blackheads was built in the 14th century for unmarried merchants when they came to Riga.

After doing some laundry at the apartment, we headed out to dinner. This time we found a Latvian restaurant with outdoor seating where we got to try some more new foods. We started by trying the local liqueur, Black Balzam,which was fairly nasty . We got an appetizer of black eyed peas with ham, Chuck got the pork knuckle, and I got a local casserole that was just ok.

The next morning we headed out of the Old Town past The Freedom Monument and to the Nativity of Christ Cathedral. Unfortunately there was a service going on, so we weren’t able to go inside.

From there, we made the mistake of walking to the Art Nouveau section of town. We didn’t have a map and were going on my memory and we ended up wandering forever until we found another tourist who gave us directions. We were pretty over it by that p0int so after a quick look around, we found a taxi dropping off other tourists and took it back to the Airbnb.

Art Nouveau buildings from the early 1900s

That afternoon, we headed to the Central Market, which is Europe’s largest market and is partly housed in old Zeppelin hangars.

Chuck even tried Kvass, which is a beer-like drink made from dark rye bread, yeast, sugar, raisins, and water. It’s only lightly alcoholic, less than 1% if I recall. Not really that tasty, though probably still better than Bud.

We then walked south of the market to the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust museum. Unfortunately it was randomly closed that day so we weren’t able to tour the museum.

We stopped back by the market for some dessert before heading back to Old Town.

Dessert complete it was time to head out for a drink. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we found an outdoor bar in one of the squares for a beer and a cider then we meandered thru the Old Town.

There were so many flowers all over the city. We were surprised as it was mid-September.

For dinner, we went to Folkklubs, which is an underground restaurant. It was packed, but we managed to snag 2 seats at the bar as someone was leaving. The place seemed filled with locals and later in the evening there were musicians playing while people did traditional dances.

Cielavina – meringue with nuts layered with chocolate ganache, forrest berry sauce, and whipped cream. Delicious!

The next morning it was time to head back to the bus station for our 4 hour ride to Tallinn, Estonia.

Europe Lithuania

2 Delicious Days in Vilnius, Lithuania

Kirsten / September 16, 2018

Wild mushroom soup in a bread bowl and Svyturio Baltijos beer (one of my favorite beers of all time!)

The more I researched what to do in Vilnius (and Riga and Tallinn), the more excited I got about the food. This is pretty unusual as I’m not a foodie and while I love trying local foods on my travels, it’s not one of the things I’m most excited about. I left Vilnius with it being one of my favorite food destinations in the entire world! Sure it was adorable and had many more things to love, but it’s the food that I’m still dreaming about.

We arrived around midnight from Copenhagen and promptly took a taxi to our hotel, the Grotthuss Hotel, and went to bed. After a lovely breakfast at our hotel the next morning, we headed out to explore the old town of Vilnius.

We wandered towards the Gates of Dawn and then down to the Hales Market where we explored the various food stalls and tried some of the local foods.

Cepelinai – potato dumpling filled with mince. We both hated it. Very disappointing.

Delicious! We got one stuffed with chicken and mushroom and just chicken.

After the market, we headed thru the old town to Cathedral Square. The old town is so cute and I instantly fell in love with it.

Around Cathedral Square, we saw the Palace of the Grand Dukes, the Vilnius Cathedral, and Gediminas Tower perched on a hill above the town. There were signs all over announcing that the Pope would be at Vilnius Cathedral a week after our visit and part of the sites were closed as they put up stands and prepared for his arrival.

Room off the main chapel that was jaw droppingly beautiful

One highlight at Cathedral Square is the Stebuklas Miracle Tile. In 1989, approximately 2 million people held hands from Tallinn, Estonia, thru Riga, Latvia, and ending at this spot in Vilnius to form the longest unbroken human chain in history as a protest to the Soviet government to restore their freedom. It was pretty cool seeing the tile and thinking of that day back in 1989.

At this point it was getting pretty late in the day, but we had an hour or two till the Palace closed so we decided to pop in to check it out. Overall it was pretty disappointing, but there were some neat artifacts such as books from (I think) the 1200s, a drinking vessel from Ivan the Terrible, and royal swords, thrones and other regalia. There were also great views of Vilnius from the top.

At this point we were starving, so we headed to this outdoor restaurant called Etno Dvaras on the main strip for a late lunch. This is where we discovered food heaven.

I ordered a wild mushroom soup in a bread bowl and some potato pancakes with bacon, while Chuck got fried bread covered in a cheese sauce and some potato and cheese casserole. I also ordered a local beer and it was hands down one of my favorite beers I’ve ever had in my life. Chuck hates beer and he even kept stealing sips. My food was delicious, but the fried bread with cheese was mind blowing. I wish a beer pub around here served this as it was one of the best bar foods ever.

Earlier, Chuck had noticed a street market off of Cathedral Square so we headed over to check it out. There were a ton of booths selling everything from local foods to soap to crafts. And of course dried fish. There is always a fish stand that reeks.

Gingerbread from a local stand – it reminded me of the gingerbread from Oktoberfest. Sadly it was not good.

Fish. Lots of stinky fish… Walk away from the fish stand…

It was starting to get dark as we headed back to our hotel and we wandered into a local festival with live music. As we got there, hot air balloons started drifting by which was pretty cool. We sat and had a drink outside while listening to the various bands before heading back to the hotel for a quick rest.

For dinner, we headed back to Etno Dvaras and I had the best Beef Stroganoff I’ve ever had.

The next morning we headed to Trakai castle about 30 minutes away from old town Vilnius. We elected to take a taxi as the public transportation logistics were kind of a nightmare, plus it didn’t cost that much more to go this route.

The castle was originally built in the 14th century and was one of the main centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The castle soon fell into disrepair, and was rebuilt in the last 100 or so years. Even though it’s technically “new”, its still a neat place to visit and a beautiful location too.

After visiting the castle we stopped for lunch at a spot across the lake from the castle. We got these delicious pierogi type things in a cheese sauce, more kibinais, and some funky tumeric tea. Delicious.

Yummy lunch with a great view of the castle!

Everything was great until we decided to come back to Vilnius. We tried hailing a taxi, but there were none to be found. We found a tourist center and they said someone could be there in hours, and then that they couldn’t find anyone. This left one option – walking the couple of miles to the bus station then taking a bus back to Vilnius and then walking back from the bus station to our hotel. It sucked. A lot. BUT we made it back and once we were back to Vilnius, we decided to explore more of the town instead of resting at the hotel.

First stop was Užupis which is a neighborhood that declared itself it’s own Republic and has it’s own constitution, currency, flag, and even a president. Their ambassador is a cat. Yes, really. We only wandered around for about 5 minutes as there wasn’t much to see. Sadly, we didn’t get to see the cat.

From there, we walked to St. Anne’s Church which was opened in 1500. There is a stone out front commemorating the first public protest of the Soviet occupation as well.

From here we wandered thru the side streets of Old Town back to the main strip and sat down for some coffee and dessert and people watching.

On our way back to our hotel room, I wanted to make a 2nd stop to the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit we’d visited on our first day. I’ve never been so spiritually moved being in a church before and I wanted to go sit quietly and take it all in. It was so calming and I’m glad I went back to sit.

At this point our legs were killing us – I wish I’d taken my Garmin to see how far we walked – so we took a short rest at the hotel before trying to find a restaurant near our hotel. We found a restaurant serving Georgian food. Neither of us had a clue what Georgian food was, but it was busy and close so we gave it a shot. It was a revelation!

I got the Shkmeruli which is chicken in a garlic cream sauce served in a clay dish. And Chuck got chicken shashlik. We also got Georgian red wine and Imeruli which is a dough filled with Georgian cheese. It was all incredible. One of my favorite meals of my life actually! Of course we had to get dessert and got a delicious honey cake with fresh fruit.

Shkmeruli – chicken in a garlic cream sauce

The next morning we walked to the bus station and took a 4+ hour bus trip from Vilnius, Lithuania to Riga, Latvia with Lux Express. The bus was very modern and comfortable and it was a neat way to see the countryside and little towns.

Belize Central America

Ambergris Caye, Belize

Kirsten / December 1, 2017

Our trip this year took us to Ambergris Caye, which is an island off the coast of Belize and right next to the Belize Barrier Reef. We were looking forward to some sun, ocean, and swimming with tropical fish and this place definitely delivered.

We had a nice 6am flight to Belize via Atlanta. Once in Belize, we flew in a tiny, 12 person plane about 15 minutes out to the island. We flew so low you could see the reef and the other islands.

From there, we had to take a boat taxi about 20 minutes to our place. But once we arrived, all the traveling was worth it! We were greeted with rum cocktails and an inviting resort with amazing views, turquoise blue water, and soft, powdery sand.

Unfortunately, paradise was ruined by tiny no-see-ums that harassed us anytime we were outside. They even attacked our faces while in the pool. We were forced to eat inside on our first day and for breakfast the next morning because we were being eaten alive.

Luckily, in a strange way, we started getting extremely strong winds for the rest of our stay which kept the bugs at bay. We would gladly take the wind over the bugs, so it ended up being a good thing and salvaged our stay. The forecast called for rain for our entire visit, but we only got the occasional storm coming through which never lasted for long.

On Day 2, we took the kayaks out exploring hoping to snorkel or see some fish. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take them out very far and could only explore the sea grass areas and some mangroves.

On Day 3, we finally got into the ocean when we went scuba diving. And on days 4-6 we went out snorkeling each day. We spent the rest of the time lounging around and trying most of the resort’s cocktails.

Happiness is a rum drink in a heated pool (the gorgeous view doesn’t hurt either)

On Day 6, we headed into the main town to explore. We found the town very underwhelming and returned to the resort after about 30 minutes.

On Day 7, it was time to pack up and take the 3 flights home.

All in all, I’m glad we went to Belize, but I don’t need feel the need to return especially since the bugs are so out of control. It was really nice to get some sun, ocean, and tropical fish.

England Europe

A Long Layover in London

Kirsten / July 8, 2017

On our way back from our 2018 Africa trip, we were able to do a long layover in London. Chuck and I have been to London, but it was the kids’ first time. We only had about 4 hours to spend in the city, so we took a Hop On/Hop Off bus that drove by all the major sites.

We took the tube from the airport to Piccadilly Circus and boarded a bus with the Original London Sightseeing Tour on their yellow bus route. We drove past Hyde Park then to Grosvenor Gardens before arriving to Buckingham Palace. We hopped off here and walked the couple of blocks to the main gates.

There was a changing of the guard scheduled that day about an hour later, but we didn’t have the time to stick around for it if we wanted to see anything else.

We hopped back on another bus and headed for Westminster Abbey. Next up was Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament. We didn’t get off the bus as it was moving slow enough for us to get a good look as we drove by.

After passing by, we headed across the Thames, past the London Eye, then back over the Thames to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Then we passed the Thames again and got a great view of Tower Bridge in the distance.

From there, we drove up to the bridge and drove over the bridge seeing the Tower of London on the left. We hopped off at this point so we could get a better view of the bridge and also because it was nearing lunch time.

We then found a pub for lunch that was exactly what we were looking for! Of course Chuck got fish and chips and I got one of the meat pies! And we split a draft hard cider as well. So good!

At this point, it was time to head back to the airport for our flight home.

All in all, it was a whirlwind few hours, but at least the kids got to see many of the major tourist sites (from the outside at least) and got to see some of London. And it sure beat spending hours and hours at Heathrow as well.

And with that, our 3+ week trip to Africa was in the books. What an amazing trip!

Africa Botswana

Very Cool Day Trip to Chobe National Park, Botswana

Kirsten / July 5, 2017

On our first full day in Victoria Falls, we decided to do a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana. The Botswana border is about an hour from Victoria Falls and the park is about 25 minutes past that. Even though we’d just wrapped up 6 days in Kruger, we still wanted to visit Chobe as it’s known as one of the best safari parks in Africa.

Our morning started bright and early at 6:30am when we were picked up and transported to the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls. After a brief stop at our tour company’s office, we drove nearly an hour to the Botswana border arriving around 8am. We first got stamped out of Zimbabwe and then we proceeded to wait and wait and wait. We were the only people with our driver, but apparently we were meeting up with another group and a driver on the Botswana side which were both late. It took us about an hour for everyone to arrive and then we were off to a lodge to wait for our boat trip.

Around 10am we headed out on our boat safari which was the part I was most excited about. The boat trip takes place on the Chobe river and goes around an island that is currently owned by Botswana. On the other side of the island is Namibia as the Chobe river forms the border between the 2 countries.

We were out for about 3 hours and we had quite an adventure! We started off seeing lot of different birds (I highly recommend this trip if you’re a bird lover), a couple of crocodiles, hippos, a buffalo, and more.

African Darter. He dives in the water then swims with his head out of the water which makes him look like a snake. We saw one swimming with a fish in his mouth.

These guys landed on the front of our boat and hung out for part of our trip

We also saw a few new things: 2 different monitor lizards, a group of banded mongoose, and a rock python. We pulled right up next to the rock python. Yay!

Rock python. We were so close to him. Too close!

And then things got interesting. Our boat guide thought it’d be awesome to pull right next to a crocodile. Poor Mara and Beckett were in the front of the boat and were so close! The boat guide then back out and came in even closer to the crocodile – so close that the crocodile swung around then dove in the water to get away. It freaked out everyone in the boat! And if that wasn’t enough, he pulled in super close to another crocodile and proceeded to sit there for a while. The kids tried to move away, but the boat guide told them not to move. After we moved away, Mara burst into tears and went to the middle of the boat because it scared her so badly. I don’t blame her – none of us would’ve been happy to be in her seat either. 🙁

Croc selfies – We are probably 7′ from the croc

Video of pulling close to the 2nd croc:

After the crocodile scares, we tooled around some spotting more hippos, birds, and crocodiles.

More hippos. Thankfully we didn’t get too close to them!

And then we headed over to watch some elephants. Two of the elephants did some play fighting while the 3rd crossed the river. Once on the other side, he flopped down in the mud then flopped on the other side to cover himself in mud. Because the mud is so slippery, he had to get down on his knees to crawl out of the mud and onto the land. The other elephants also crossed and proceeded to take a mud bath as well. It was really cool just watching them go about their day.

At this point, it was time to head the rest of the way around the island, get close to Namibia (but we didn’t land so we can’t count it!), and head back to the lodge for lunch.

Lunch was a buffet back at the lodge, which unfortunately didn’t have very many options at all. Chuck and I were able to find something to eat, but Mara and Beckett didn’t find much at all. The desserts and drinks were swarming with bees too (no joke) which made them very unappealing. At least we prepared ahead and brought protein bars and nuts so they had something to snack on.

After lunch, it was time for our game drive. We headed out along the Chobe river and got a similar view to the boat safari, but this time on land.

We also saw so many elephants! Chobe has 70,000 elephants in the park, and it was fantastic seeing huge herds of them all over the land.

Hippos in the mud (they look like shiny rocks) and elephants on the land

We then stopped for a quick drink break and to stretch our legs for a few minutes before continuing on our game drive back to the lodge.

We ran into a group of giraffes, and also got some great views of the Chobe river on the way back. We also saw another rock python coiled near a tree. I don’t have any good pictures – consider yourself lucky as he was HUGE!

Close to the lodge we ran into a herd of zebra as well.

Our game drive lasted about 2 hours and ended around 4pm. We then left the park and headed straight to the Botswana/Zimbabwe border to make the trek back to Victoria Falls. We got back to the Zambia side of the falls around 6pm and were quite hungry and exhausted. We stopped at an Italian restaurant we’d been at the night before hoping for a quick meal.

Unfortunately everyone else seemed to have the same idea so it took forever to get our food. In the meantime, poor Chuck was so exhausted he threw up and the kids and I were trying desperately not to nap on the table.

Eventually we ate, made it back to our hotel, and promptly fell asleep.

All in all it was a long, but great day. It would’ve been nice if we’d left a bit later so we could’ve eaten a proper breakfast and if lunch was better. But the park itself was wonderful and I’m thrilled we were able to include it on our trip.

Details: We booked our day trip through Shockwave Adventures. They had great reviews and also offered us a great price. What I didn’t realize was that they picked up us 30 minutes earlier so we could get from Zambia to Zimbabwe and then we drove from the Zimbabwe border to Botswana. Other tour companies will pick you up 30 minutes later and drive on the Zambian side to the border which means we could’ve slept in a little more AND gotten some breakfast. There also wasn’t a tour guide for our whole journey and we kept getting passed from person to person (to be expected), but no one really told us what was going on. I understand that others can run late, but I don’t think the hour at the Botswana border was handled well. We also were kept in the dark about the rest of the day. The tours themselves were great though, so it’s hard to be upset. If I was going to do it again though, I’d pick a different company.

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Africa Victoria Falls Area

3 Whirlwind Days at Victoria Falls

Kirsten / July 4, 2017

We arrived into Zambia on the afternoon of July 4th for our visit to Victoria Falls which was the last stop on our 3+ week Africa tour.

Victoria Falls straddles the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Falls themselves are in Zambia, but the best vantage point for viewing is on the Zimbabwe side.

We chose to stay on the Zambia side for a few reasons: 1, we couldn’t find non-sketchy lodging in our price range on the Zimbabwe side, 2 we could use points to stay at a Marriott on the Zambia side, 3, Zimbabwe was having money and safety issues, and 4, I thought more of our activities were on the Zambia side.

It turns out I was very wrong on that last point, and we would’ve been better off on the Zimbabwe side. Every activity we wanted to do was on the Zim side, so we really never had a need to go to the Zambia side at all. And since all the hotels weren’t near the falls, we had to pay for a taxi to and from the hotel THEN go through immigration on the Zambia side, THEN take a taxi across the bridge and THEN go through immigration on the Zimbabwe side which was quite time consuming and a pain in the butt. In fact, I think I counted that we EACH got 32 passport stamps in 3 days just from crossing borders over and over. Lesson learned. Luckily we were able to get a multi-entry visa for each country or this would’ve cost a fortune!

Lots of baboons hang out near the border crossings

Waiting to cross the Victoria Falls Bridge

Entering Zimbabwe on the Victoria Falls Bridge

Our hotel was great though so that part worked out well!

Once we arrived, we dropped our bags at the hotel, and headed to the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe for a proper high tea. None of us have ever had a proper tea before and we couldn’t have picked a better spot. We couldn’t see the falls from the grounds, but we did have a neat view and had grazing warthogs come by as well. Not to mention pastries, petit fours, tiny sandwiches, and 4 different types of tea!

You can see the mist from the Falls in the distance

The next day we were up bright and early for our day trip to Chobe in Botswana. We were exhausted after that and had dinner near our hotel, then went to bed.

The next day was our last day in Victoria Falls and we still hadn’t really seen the falls! Since we all wanted to do the swing jump, we headed to lunch in Zimbabwe then to sign up the kids to do their jump. Unfortunately the only border officer handling entrances decided to leave right as we made it to the front of the line. We assumed he was taking a bathroom break and would be back shortly. About 45 minutes later, another officer finally came over and stamped us through. The line was ridiculous at this point and we lost some precious time!

After lunch, the kids went to do the Gorge Swing. You can read more about that here.

And then after that, it was finally time to see the Falls! They were magnificent!

The Falls are the largest in the world and span over a mile. It isn’t one big waterfall, but consists of multiple falls. At the park we started by seeing the Falls on the western side then walked east the length of the Falls till we hit the end of Zimbabwe. Some areas were so wet that we ended up soaked by the end. Words don’t convey how spectacular it was to be there seeing the Falls, and hearing the rush of water thunder down.

Beckett catching the rainbow. He didn’t find a pot of gold though. 🙁

The Eastern edge of the view from Zimbabwe

After our visit the Falls, it was time for me to jump off the Victoria Falls Bridge.

Then it was time to return to the Zambia side for dinner and packing. The next morning, we headed to the Victoria Falls Airport in Zimbabwe and started our long journey home.

Africa Kruger South Africa

A Dream Day in Kruger National Park

Kirsten / June 27, 2017

I’ve dreamed of going on an African safari since I was a kid. Back then it seemed unrealistic and reserved for the ultra-rich. As I got into my 20s, I started seeing affordable deals and knew it could happen someday. So when I first created my bucket list in my late 20s, the African safari was #1 on the travel list. However, it still took me another 20+ years to get there. But I finally got there! And I got to take my kids and husband along which was the icing on the cake.

We arrived at the Crocodile River outside the park around 10am and immediately saw hippos and crocodiles in the river! Upon crossing the bridge, we saw our first giraffe as he casually ate then walked right in front of our car!

We weren’t even in the park yet and had already seen 3 different types of animals!

After entering the park, we headed to the Hippo Pools to see more hippos. Along the way we saw a rhino in the distance, more giraffe, a dwarf mongoose, and of course hippos at the pools.

We then headed to the Lower Sabie camp. It’s only 34km to camp, but given that you want to go very slowly so as not to miss anything, it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there. It also took a long time because we kept stopping over and over to see the animals.

We quickly came upon 3 White Rhinos grazing right next to the road! I can’t even describe how excited we were. We sat there for a long time watching them and taking pictures and video. I still feel so incredibly lucky we got such a great rhino sighting!!

As we drove on we saw warthogs, more giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, and so many impala.

Warthogs. There was a baby warthog, but I didn’t get a picture of him.

Herd of impala with warthogs and a zebra mixed in

After that, we came to some water and saw a huge crocodile basking in the sun. We also saw some neat bird – I think he’s the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill.

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (I think)

Next, we came upon a herd of elephants beside the road. One of them was pulling bark off a tree and eating it. One of the moms had a baby with her and after a while, she looked at us, flared her ears, and made it clear we were no longer welcome, so we quickly drove away.

Elephant pulling bark off a tree and eating it

Next up was more giraffe and hippos out of the water!

Giraffe in foreground with hippos in the background

As if that wasn’t enough, as we got near camp, there was a mass of cars pulled off looking at a lion! Our first lion sighting in the first few hours!

See the lion right above the tree stump?

We finally pulled into camp around 1:30pm quite hungry. The restaurant was on a fantastic deck with an incredible view. As we ate, we saw at least 10 giraffes across the river and some buffalo relaxing at the water’s edge.

The restaurant at Lower Sabie Camp. Not the best picture, but the only one I have of the deck and surrounds.

Black bellied starling?!? These guys were all over the restaurant trying to swoop in for a snack.

After getting settled into our cottage at camp, Chuck and I went to Sunset Dam around 4:30pm for sunset. There are usually big cat sightings at the dam, but we only saw more hippos, crocodiles, and a bunch of birds. It was still neat to see though.

Hippo in the water, crocodiles on the edge of the water, and a stork

Beautiful, rainbow bird. I have no idea what it is, so I referred to them as “fun birds” the whole trip.

At dinner, we were treated to a beautiful sky. We also had a barn owl in the rafters hooting away. And there were impala and kudu grazing in the grasses beside the restaurant. Unreal.

I’m still in awe of our first day in Kruger. It was a complete highlight of my life, and even the kids and Chuck were blown away by all they saw. Definitely a dream come true for me!

Driving Route:

We entered Kruger via the R571 from Komatipoort to the Crocodile Bridge Gate.
After the gate, we took the left fork to the S25, then a left onto S27 to the Hippo Pools.
We then retraced back to the gate and took the right fork onto H4-2 to Lower Sabie camp.
The H4-2 trip is 34km and was scheduled to take 1:20, but it took us about 2 hours.

Animal Sightings:

Before the Crocodile Bridge Gate: Hippopotamus, Crocodile, Giraffe
To/From the Hippo Pools: Giraffe, Rhinoceros, Dwarf Mongoose, Hippopotamus
Along H4-2 from Crocodile Bridge Gate to Lower Sabie camp: Rhinoceros, Warthog, Impala, Wildebeest, Zebra, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Elephant, Lion, Crocodile
At Lower Sabie camp: Buffalo, Hippopotamus, Kudu, Impala, Giraffe, Barn Owl, and lots of birds
At Sunset Dam: Hippopotamus, Crocodile, Storks, and lots of other birds

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Africa Cape Town South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Kirsten / June 23, 2017

After 5 days of island life on Mauritius, we headed to Cape Town for 3 days. Instead of a hotel, we got a condo through AirBnB near the V&A Waterfront. Wasn’t always the most convenient place relative to all the attractions we visited, but the views were nice and we had plenty of dining nearby.

The views from our condo:

The view from our condo – Table Mountain in the distance

The first morning we grabbed breakfast then headed to Table Mountain. The weather wasn’t perfect, but we’ve heard that Table Mountain gets shut down often due to bad weather and wind, so we needed to jump on getting up there when we had a decent enough window.

We drove part way up the mountain, then took the cable car to the top. The car spins so everyone gets a view as you ascend.

It was freezing up top! It was also a bit hazy so the views weren’t amazing, but it was still pretty cool. It was also far rockier up there than we expected. We spent about an hour wandering around the top taking in the views of the city from all sides.

We gave the kids a camera so they could capture their perspective. We should’ve known this is what we’d find:

At one point we saw a sign warning not to feed the Dassies. What on earth is a dassie? Eventually we found out. They’re adorable!

Beckett fell in love with them and bought himself a stuffed dassie to bring home.

After Table Mountain, we grabbed lunch, then headed down to the V&A Waterfront. The waterfront area has a mall, indoor food stalls, shops, and restaurants. We ended up picking this pub for dinner and the food was awful, but at least their hard cider was good. 🙂

The next morning we were up at 4:30am for our Great White Shark trip in Simon’s Town. After the shark trip, we had lunch then went to Boulders Beach to see the wild penguins. Yes, Penguins! They were adorable. We saw plenty of baby penguins and saw them wandering around, swimming, and just hanging out. We even had one “attack” Beckett’s shoe.

Penguin “attacking” Beckett’s shoe:

We then headed back to our condo and relaxed the rest of the day as we were pretty exhausted. Since we didn’t see any sharks, we called the shark company to see if spots were available for the next morning and 2 spots opened up. So the next morning, Chuck and I woke at 4:30am and headed back down to Simon’s Town to try to see Great Whites again. The kids were able to sleep in and had a nice, relaxing morning playing games on their iPads.

Unfortunately Beckett started to not feel well right before we got home and proceeded to throw up once we got back. The poor kid had a fever and felt awful so that shut down any plans we had for the afternoon. Mara and I did venture back to the V&A waterfront to wander around and have a snack. And later Chuck and Mara went out for dinner and brought me home food so I could stay with Beckett. It wasn’t exactly how we expected our last day to go, but such is life. And at least we got to do all the things we REALLY wanted to do.

Luckily Beckett was well enough the next morning for our flight to Kruger. It still took him 2-3 days to get fully better, but at least he could travel.

Overall, I went into Cape Town with high expectations and came away disappointed. I thought I’d fall in love with the city, but I didn’t. It was pretty, and I could see how fun it’d be during the summer. I think Chuck and I would’ve enjoyed it more if we had gone to Stellenbosch to go wine tasting or driven down to the Cape of Good Hope. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my time there and am very happy we went. But I left not really ever needing to go back.Save

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Africa Mauritius

5 Relaxing Days in Beautiful Mauritius

Kirsten / June 17, 2017

Once I saw pictures of Mauritius, I quickly added it to my list of places to go. It looked incredible! Plus, I’m always up for visiting a tropical island, especially one in a location I’ve never been before, the Indian Ocean.

When I booked our United flights, I realized we could stop over in Mauritius for free on our way to Cape Town. This seemed like a perfect way to start our trip.

We first flew on a red-eye to London, had a long layover in London, flew to Istanbul’s Ataturk where we had just enough time to grab some Turkish Delight and a snack, then took another red-eye to Mauritius. In total, we had 21 hours of in air flying time, and it took 30 hours, 30 minutes to arrive. We hired a shuttle company to drive us the 1 hour to the resort as we didn’t feel like landing and doing it ourselves after that much travel.

We were so happy to arrive especially once we saw our resort, the Victoria Beachcomber. Mara was so excited she threw up in their lobby. Ok, it was from motion sickness not happiness, but she did feel better after throwing up then seeing the place.

Yeah, this works.
Yes, that is the kids posing.

After checking in, we changed then headed to the buffet lunch as we were quite hungry even though our stomachs thought it was 6am. And then it was time to relax and play!

After lunch, the kids were really excited to try water skiing. They were able to stand up pretty easily holding onto the bar beside the boat. They loved it!

Beckett ended up going out water skiing 3 or 4 times during our stay, while Mara went out twice.

Mara water skiing:

Beckett water skiing:

Over the next few days, we took advantage of the free kayaks, stand up paddleboards, paddle boats, water skiing, mini sailboats, and more. The kids loved being able to go down to the beach and head out in one of the water craft. Chuck and I took them out too, but loved watching the kids enjoy the ocean just as much.

The kids spent so much time in the pool that I thought they were going to turn into fish

For a small fee, they also had an inflatable chair that they drag behind a motor boat which looked like a lot of fun. Chuck and Mara went first, followed by Beckett and I. It was a lot of fun although I made the mistake of giving the driver a thumbs up meaning to go faster – oh, we went faster and we really started flying around. It was awesome. Until the next morning when I couldn’t walk and had to cancel out of scuba diving. But it worked out as I went for a massage to help and had an interesting, but very good massage. The kids really wanted to go on the chair again, so we sent them out on our last day.

The kids getting towed in a giant inflatable chair

Luckily my back was better the next day and Chuck and I were able to go out scuba diving then. We only booked 1 dive and are glad we did as it was one of the worst dives we’ve ever done. There wasn’t much coral and what was left was mostly in poor shape, plus there weren’t that many fish or anything of interest. I thought the diving was supposed to be good in Mauritius, so we were pretty disappointed. But it’s still nice to get in the water, so it wasn’t a total loss. We did get to see a lot of clams, a moray eel, these neat sea cucumber type things that looked like fan filters, and I saw a lobster.

As you can see, the reef isn’t in great shape

The resort also had free snorkeling trips where they’d drive out to a reef about 10 minutes away and let you snorkel for 40 minutes. We all went our first full day and Chuck and the kids went the next day, but I stayed behind because of my back. The kids loved being the ocean and got so excited pointing out all the neat things.

Aside from all the ocean activities, we enjoyed the all inclusive buffet and drinks. They had juice cocktails for the kids and Beckett must’ve ordered 50 “Emotions” during our stay which were some mango, tropical fruit infusion. The kids also had more sodas and shirley temples that you can count. Chuck and I fully enjoyed the fruity cocktails and drinks of the day as well.

The buffet also had a rotating variety of food each night. Despite that, Beckett had pasta with tomato sauce for every dinner. Mara was more brave and discovered a love for calamari. She also joined us at the seafood restaurant one night where we had a lovely 3 course meal with our toes in the sand as we watched the sun set.

On another night, we ate at the Italian restaurant on site. We were so looking forward to an amazing Italian meal, but came away a little disappointed.

We also went to the one restaurant for snack time and got pancake/crepes and drinks.

When we weren’t eating, drinking, playing in the pool, or playing in the ocean, we enjoyed hanging out along the beach or around the resort. It was so beautiful there. And a great place to watch the sun set each night.

Too quickly our time was over and we headed to the airport for our flights to Cape Town.

Beckett asleep before we even took off. I think we wore him out!

Our time in Mauritius was even better than I hoped. The kids have never been big ocean/beach fans, but they loved all the water sports and had an absolute blast. The all-inclusive was absolutely the way to go as we didn’t have to think about the cost of all the food and activities and could just enjoy whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it. And we really allowed the kids a lot of freedom so they were able to enjoy themselves without many parenting reins on them.

We also ended up with some great family time as everyone was so relaxed and happy and not distracted by work, electronics, to do lists, etc. It was also a great way to start our trip to Africa as it let us adjust to the time change and let us recover from the flights. It also set a nice, relaxing tone for the rest of our trip.

Europe Iceland

3 Fantastic Days in Iceland

Kirsten / January 31, 2017

View of Reykjavik from the top of the Hallgrímskirkja Church

I traveled to Reykjavik after 2 great days in Copenhagen on the free stopover deal on WOW Air. I arrived at my hotel, the CenterHotel Plaza, around 4pm quite hungry as I missed lunch again while traveling. After dropping my things, I walked about 5 minutes to the harbor to the Saegreifinn (Sea Baron) restaurant for their world famous lobster soup. I had just watched a Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern where they showed how it was made, so I had been looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I only give it a “meh”. It was good, but not great. I was still glad to try it though and enjoyed the experience as well.

After relaxing at the hotel, I went out for a proper dinner of fish and chips. I tried Ling which made for a pretty good fish and chips.

Then it was time to head out on my Northern Lights tour! I returned after midnight and had to immediately get to sleep as I had early morning the next day going on my Golden Circle tour.

I returned from the tour around 5:30pm and quickly headed out for a meal of Plokkfiskur which is a fish, potato, and cheese gratin.

Then it was time to explore downtown Reykjavik so I walked one of the main streets up to Hallgrímskirkja Church then walked back on Laugavegur, the main shopping street.

That night I didn’t have any plans so I went to a bar across the street from my hotel, Micro Bar, and had a local, Icelandic beer – very good – before getting some sleep.

The next morning I finally got to sleep in and have a casual breakfast at the hotel as my next excursion didn’t leave till noon. Unfortunately there was a bit of a snafu with getting picked up for my Blue Lagoon excursion. I stupidly waited inside (but looking out) as I had done for my 2 other tours because it was freezing rain outside. But these guys didn’t stop at my hotel and stopped down the street at a bus stop. When I checked in with the front desk, they told me about waiting at the bus stop and I was told to take the taxi to the bus terminal for the main bus to the Blue Lagoon. Luckily there was a taxi out front who raced me there in time, but then my credit cards wouldn’t work for some strange reason. He actually let me go without paying as I didn’t have any cash either, so I was able to make my bus in time. I almost cried when he told me to go – what a nice person! Phew!

The bus trip takes about 50 minutes to the Blue Lagoon and it’s great to see the topography along the way.

The Blue Lagoon is awesome! It’s definitely an experience. You have to shower naked before getting dressed and going down, but they do have private showers and they give you a towel so it wasn’t a big deal. They also have an indoor pool that goes outside so you don’t have to walk outside in the freezing cold to get in.

The water is so warm, it’s like crawling into a fantastically huge bath.

First stop was making my way to the face mask bar and slathering myself with the silica mud. It was awesome seeing everyone walking around with their faces covered in white goop! Of course I was the only person without their phone taking selfies, so I don’t have any pictures to share. Once you’ve let the mask set, you rinse off, then do the algae mask, which is a green/gray goop this time!

While that was working on my wrinkles, I swam all around the place then up to the swim up bar. My ticket included a drink so I opted for a glass of Prosecco which I enjoyed while sitting on a bench in the lagoon.

At this point, it was freezing rain on us and the wind was brutal on our faces so it was starting to get a bit unpleasant. I also was feeling really off that day since I’d been sick the entire trip, so I decided to leave the lagoon after only 45 minutes or so. Once dry and warm, I was able to get a snack before taking the bus back to my hotel.

Then it was time for an insanely late lunch of grilled scallops back at the Saegreifinn, before wandering around the downtown some more. Later I went out for a steak sandwich to The Laundromat Cafe, which is exactly as it sounds, a laundromat with an attached cafe. Even though I didn’t do laundry, the food was delicious so it was worth going.

The next morning it was raining out, but there was still one thing left I wanted to do – go up to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja Church. Even though it was about 10:30am and the sun had just risen, it was still so dark and gray because of the rain. It was still really cool to see Reykjavik in all directions!

The inside of the church is really cool too with this amazing pipe organ. An organist came in and was playing the organ so I sat and listened to him for a while before heading back.

Then it was time to pack up and head to the airport for my flight back to the US. I was sad to leave Iceland, but also looking forward to returning home as I’d missed Chuck and the kids so much.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Iceland. When I arrived, the land near the airport reminded me of the Big Island except covered in snow. Parts of it looked as expected and parts of it didn’t. It was also pretty chilly, but not nearly as bad as I worried, I guess because I was dressed for it. It was also wonderful to get out in nature and see pristine land, breathe the clean air, and drink the pure water. I definitely loved my time there and was glad I finally made it to this Bucket List destination.

Denmark Europe

2 Busy, but Fun Days in Copenhagen

Kirsten / January 26, 2017

Lots of bikes near the Strøget stret — Lots of bikes near the Christiansborg Palace

I arrived in Copenhagen around 11am on a WOW flight that had a brief stop over in Reykjavik. I then took the metro from the airport to the Kongens Nytorv metro stop in the city center before walking the 4 blocks to my hotel, the Best Western Hotel City. Luckily they had a room available even though it was only noon. After dropping off my stuff in the room, I walked about 3 blocks to the famous Nyhavn waterfront district to find some breakfast/lunch as I was starving. The Nyhavn area was so picturesque and lined with restaurant after restaurant. Despite it being about 32F out, the restaurants all had outdoor seating with heat lamps and blankets. I choose to eat inside though as it was still a bit too cold for me.

I settled on a place still serving breakfast as my stomach thought it was 6am. I had the most unusual, but delicious scrambled eggs with bacon, greek yogurt with triple berries, and coffee.

After my belly was sufficiently full, I decided to walk to the Little Mermaid statue. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk from Nyhavn, and the route I took went past Amalienborg Palace which is the home of the Royal Danish family. Every entrance is guarded by the coolest looking soldiers on patrol.

The Little Mermaid is in fact pretty small and situated on the Eastern side of the Kastellet fortress.

I then had just enough time to pick up my camera at the room before heading on the Christianshavn free walking tour that started at 3pm. Our guide, Daniel, was awesome and did a lot to bring the city and sights to life. We met near Christiansborg Palace and he explained about it and the Børsen building before we wandered over the bridge to Christianshavn. The tour lasted for 90 minutes and took us to a couple of churches where he explained the history, to an old wooden building – one of the remaining ones that didn’t burn down in the Copenhagen fires – and then we finished at Freetown Christiania.

Our group of 34 – Photo courtesy of Copenhagen Free Walking Tours

After the tour was officially over, we walked into Freetown Christiania. This area is an autonomous artist/hippie neighborhood in Christianshavn. The area is home to 850 permanent residents and has it’s own rules. It also has a ‘green street’, Pusher Street, where one can buy weed. That practice is illegal in Denmark, but it’s partly tolerated in Christiania. Taking pictures of it is strictly forbidden though.

I walked through Christiania with the others, but didn’t go onto Pusher street. It was interesting to get into this community within a city, even if it was brief.

After the tour, I wandered back to Nyhavn for a meal of fish & chips and a Danish beer. Then it was finally time for sleep! Unfortunately I slept great till about 1am, and then was awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night. Ahhh, time change woes!

The next morning, I got an early start as I wanted to head to Sweden after breakfast at the hotel. Yes, Sweden! Sweden is only about a 15 minute train ride from the Copenhagen airport so I thought it’d make a fun day trip. After taking the metro back to the airport, I boarded a train to Lund, Sweden. The entire trip took 50 minutes, but that was partly because of a long stop to spot check passports when we got to Sweden, and a long stop in Malmö. Lund is a college town (city) founded in 990. Once I arrived, I went to a creperie and had a fantastic egg, ham, and cheese crepe. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well so I only wandered around for about an hour before I took the train back to Copenhagen. The trip back only took about 30 minutes and shortly thereafter I was back in the city.

Once back, I wandered down Strøget street which is a car-free shopping street in the heart of town. There were your usual upscale stores, but also some European brands, souvenir shops, and of course, a Lego store. I just had to go in the Lego store! Unfortunately they didn’t seem to have any Danish specific Lego sets or I would’ve picked them up for the kids.

I walked the entire street, which is one of the longest pedestrian shopping streets in Europe, down to Tivoli Gardens. Unfortunately, Tivoli is closed for the winter so I could only see it from the outside.

After strolling the Strøget street back, I went to the Tower at Christiansborg Palace to get a birds eye view of Copenhagen. It’s free, and I only had a 15 minute wait before they let us in. The views were fantastic and you can even see across the water to Sweden!

After going up the tower, it was time to relax at the hotel a bit before dinner at an Italian restaurant back in Nyhavn. After dinner I wandered up to a coffee shop for a latte, before hitting a Meyers Bageri where I finally found a Danish danish!

The next morning I only had time to eat breakfast before heading back to the airport for my trip to Reykjavik.

All is all, I really enjoyed my time in Copenhagen. The city is quite laid back and easy to navigate. I love how bike friendly it is and how people spend time outdoors even when it’s freezing out. I also love how safe it is – people would bike up to a shop and just leave their bikes out front without any locks! I definitely enjoyed my time there and would love to return some day!

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Galapagos South America

Isabela Island, Galápagos

Kirsten / January 18, 2016

Isabela was the 2nd island on our trip. We mainly wanted to go there so we could snorkel with penguins and seahorses, but also because everyone said it was their favorite island. We only had 1 late afternoon/evening and 1 full day on the island so we didn’t have time to do much.

We arrived on Isabela after a long day of ferry rides starting at 7am with a 2 hour ride from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz, a 5 hour layover on Santa Cruz, then a 2 hour ferry ride from Santa Cruz to Isabela. I was so happy to finally get there, partly because it meant I could get off speedboats and partly because it was gorgeous there!

When we arrived, we realized the dock was 1km from the town so we hired a taxi – more like a huge sightseeing thing that I wish we’d taken a picture of – for the ride to our hotel, La Gran Tortuga. I guess the hotel was full because they moved us to a room a block away which turned out to be just fine.

Our first impression was that we loved the main town, Puerto Villamil. It is so tiny and full of character and we loved that roads aren’t even paved.

We didn’t have time to do much except check in for our snorkel trip, get some laundry done and eat dinner. For dinner, I took a risk and ordered fish and it was outstanding. Best meal of my trip so far. Unfortunately, I woke quite sick the next morning (maybe it wasn’t the fish?!?!). Really unfortunately, it was also the day of our big snorkel trip to see the penguins so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go. Luckily I rallied and we had an amazing day!

When we got back into port, we saw some penguins swimming around the dock. They are so fun to watch!

There were some massive marine iguanas hanging out near the dock too.

We then wandered to Concha de Perla near the dock to see if we’d get to swim with penguins and/or sea lions. Unfortunately neither were present although Chuck did get to swim near a marine iguana.

The next morning we took the 6am ferry from Isabela to Santa Cruz. We were sad to leave as we really didn’t get to spend enough time on Isabela. Next time!

Galapagos South America

San Crístobal Island, Galapagos

Chuck Ullan / January 15, 2016

San Crístobal Island was the first stop of 3 islands on our Galapagos tour. Just looking out from our room near the harbor, you could see sea lions, crabs, pelicans, marine iguanas, and more.

The afternoon of arrival, we just laid low and checked in at the dive shop. Next day was diving at Kicker Rock, and the final day there was spent on an island tour.

2 full days is plenty for the island. Everything that you can see is easy to get to, so you wouldn’t really have much to do if you stayed longer.

The crabs are very cool. — The Sally Lightfoot Crabs are very cool.

Big ole marine iguana just hanging out. — Big ol’ marine iguana just hanging out.

On our last day there, we did our own island tour that took us to the Galapaguera de Cerro Colorado Tortoise reserve and breeding center, plus down to Puerto Chino beach.

Puerto Chino beach reminded us a little bit of Kua Bay in Hawaii. We were both homesick a little bit.

We struck out on finding blue-footed boobies here, so our taxi driver took us back to a spot near town where we found them, plus a cool view of the town.

We stayed at Hotel La Zayapa, which worked out very well. Fantastic location, nice views from the room and very clean. Nothing fancy about it, but a solid mid-range choice.

New York North America USA

Welcome to New York! – by Mara

Kirsten / November 8, 2015

Welcome to New York!!!!

For my birthday I wanted to go to New York City so we drove up on Friday and stayed till Sunday. It was a five hour drive each way but it was worth the drive!

One of the things I wanted to do in New York City, was go up the Empire State Building. Why I wanted to go up the Empire State Building is because I read the Percy Jackson series and the Empire State Building is featured in the books. Also, I wanted to face my fear of heights. So on Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and then walked to it. I was nervous at first but faced my fear and went the whole way up to the 102nd floor! It had a breathtaking view! I loved it!

After that, we stopped to get lunch and then walked to Mood. Mood is a fabric store that they use in Project Runway. It was way bigger than I expected and has a crazy amount of fabrics and other materials.

After all of this, we rested at the hotel and went down to the tip of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty. After that, we went to Little Italy and got some of the best cannolis that I’ve ever had.

The next day, we went to Central Park and my brother and I were climbing all over the rocks there. Then we went to Dylan’s Candy Bar. It had a lot of selections. Yum!

Then we went to Max Brenner’s for lunch and chocolate. Beckett and I split this crazy sundae and mom and dad split this chocolate fondue trio. It was gooooood.

After all of this, we went back to the hotel, packed up and drove back home.

I loved being in NYC!!!!!!