Alaska

In 2018, we decided to vacation in Alaska.  Actually, my daughter, Ally, suggested it.  Between our family vacations and a job that had given her the opportunity to travel through many of the US states, Alaska was one of two US states she had not yet visited.  Hawaii was the other state, and the majority opinion of the family was to go to Alaska.  This trip included myself, my husband Greg, our three adult children-Ally, Sarah and Ryan- and Ryan’s girlfriend, Kelly.  Ryan and Kelly had been dating for quite a while, but Kelly did not really know our family that well. I think she was very brave to go on this trip. She had met me and Greg, and Kelly and Sarah had known each other even before Kelly and Ryan had started to date.  But she had never met Ally.  Ryan, being the typical younger brother, had told Kelly stories about Ally, and now Kelly was a little scared of her.  I’m sure the stories were exaggerated.  The stories consisted of the a.m. Ally, pre-coffee.  Just to be clear, Ally is a sweet, kind person….

……except in the morning before coffee. 

Everyone knows-don’t talk to her, don’t be too cheerful, avoid eye contact, and don’t get between Ally and the coffee pot.  Just stay out of the way and no one gets hurt.  Kelly is a wise girl-she followed Ryan’s advice, and she and Ally got along just fine. 

We arrived at the airport in St. Louis to catch our flight to Alaska.  Ally was living in Annandale, Virginia, so she was taking a different flight and meeting us in Anchorage.

We were rolling our large pieces of luggage through the airport (minimalist packing was not a thing for us in 2018), and Sarah suddenly flipped over her bag and landed flat on the floor. An airport employee happened to be standing nearby.  She gasped and asked if Sarah was alright.  She gave the rest of us a look of reproach because we were all bent over laughing.  Obviously, this lady had never traveled with the Halls. 

These were some of the views from the window of the plane as we were approaching Alaska.

We arrived in Anchorage, met up with Ally, and got ready to start our Alaska vacation. Our first stop was Denali National Park.  These were some of the views we had on the drive to Denali. It seemed like each time we thought we had seen the most beautiful view, we would round a curve and there would be a more beautiful view.

We stopped along the way to take pictures of some moose.

I had booked a cabin, called Aspen Haus. These cabins are in a secluded area near the town of Healy.  The cabins were in a wooded area and were very nice.  They had little kitchenettes and the owners let us use a grill on the property.  We grilled pizzas one night.  I left Ryan in charge of the grill.  The toppings tasted good. Maybe turn the heat down a little to protect the crusts next time. There were paths in the woods and we enjoyed walking around and exploring the area. 

Ryan and Kelly took a walk one night and came upon a junior moose.  There was a playground near the cabins. The playground area was run down and a little creepy.  As we were walking around the playground, the swings started moving by themselves.  It was probably just a breeze, but I had a lot of fun making up a story to scare Ally.  She hates being scared, which made it more fun. 

We checked out some easy hiking trails on the first day. The scenery was beautiful and we took some great pictures.

Later that day, we went on an ATV tour.  I had never driven an ATV, but how hard could it be?  Turns out, it was terrifying.  The look on Ryan’s face in this picture makes me think he was probably watching me practicing on the ATV. He was right to be concerned.

The guide put me right behind him, and I tried really hard to keep up.  I didn’t see any of the scenery because I was holding onto the handles for dear life, looking at the guide’s tires, trying to stay right behind him so I didn’t drive off the side of the mountain.  When we stopped for a break, the guide turned to me and said, “I don’t think you’re having a good time.” Was it that obvious? Was it the look of terror on my face?  Or maybe it was my white knuckles as I gripped the handlebars on this death machine on wheels. I got off the ATV, painfully attempting to straighten my fingers. The guide offered to let me ride in a side by side with another guide.  When they took my ATV away, Greg came over to see what was going on.  I told him that I was going to ride with the guide because I was scared.  He then admitted that he was scared as well, and he would like to ride in the side by side too.  They ended up letting Greg drive the side by side.  We felt much safer and we were able to enjoy the rest of tour. The kids really enjoyed the ATVs. 

Sarah ran hers into a bush, but she was unharmed.  She soon untangled herself and she was able to continue on the tour. 

It was a fun day!

We went to a dog sled demonstration.  There was no snow, since it was summer.  We were able to see the dogs, and we were able to pet some of them.

They took a guy in a sled on a ride on a dirt path, but it wasn’t the same as seeing the dogs pulling the sled in the snow.  I’m trying to convince my family that it would be fun to go to Nome, Alaska during the Iditarod and volunteer to help with the race.  Volunteering to help with the race is really a thing.  Since the race goes from Anchorage to Nome, we could volunteer in Nome, Anchorage, or at trail checkpoints along the way.  So far, I have not been able to convince anyone that this would be a fun vacation.  The comments have included, “I don’t want to work on vacation” and “it would be really cold.” I will keep working on them.  I think it would be a great experience. 

I did a little research, and I found a hike I really wanted to do.  I wanted to hike Mount Healy.

Greg opted out of this activity.  The next day, the kids and I set out for the hike. Mount Healy reaches elevations of 6000 feet, so this was going to be a good hike.  We started out at the Denali Visitor Center, on the Taiga Trail. 

The trail was steep and rocky.  After a few hours, Sarah began complaining and she was really starting to struggle.  She was falling behind and she started talking about going back.  I did not want her going back by herself. There are grizzly bears in Alaska, and I figured two of us would be a better match for a grizzly than Sarah by herself. 

Sarah sat on a rock, burst into tears, and proceeded to have a meltdown.  I sent Ally, Ryan and Kelly on up the mountain and I sat with Sarah for a few minutes.  I offered to go down with her, but she refused because she said she knew how much I wanted to hike this mountain.  She finally calmed down and decided she would continue on.  The trail was a switchback trail.  Sarah decided she would take a shortcut.  Now.  I know all of you avid hikers will be judging us for this next move.  But remember, this was in 2018, and we have learned a lot about hiking etiquette since then.  We now know that climbing between the switchbacks is a big no-no, and we would never do it again.  But that day, it seemed like a good idea….at first.  Sarah changed her mind by the time she had accomplished the task. The hat says it all.

We finally made it to the top of Mount Healy.  Ryan rewarded Sarah with an Oreo. 

We all made it!

It was beautiful at the top.

While we were hiking, Greg followed a tour bus around the park in our rented van.  That was actually a clever idea.  He found some beautiful places and we visited them the next day.  We went on the Savage River Loop Trail.

It was an easy, approximately two mile hike along the Savage River. 

Is that a Sasquatch footprint?

As far as Ryan is concerned, it is. We enjoyed the day.  

Ryan-always living on the edge. That was going to be cold if he slipped and fell in. 

The next day we left for Anchorage.  I had booked an Airbnb.  It was very close to the coastal trail.  The coastal trail leads to downtown Anchorage. The Airbnb had bikes we could use, and we spent some time riding bikes, walking on the trail, and souvenir shopping in Anchorage.  Ryan had been looking for signs of a Sasquatch the whole time we were in Denali.  He’s a believer. He did not have any luck in Denali, but he did find a Sasquatch in Anchorage.  Not exactly in the wild, but he was willing to pose for the picture anyway. 

One day, we took the train from Anchorage to Seward.  Seward is located just outside the Kenai Fjords National Park.  The train had huge windows and the train staff would announce on the speakers when they saw wildlife.  The train would slow down so that everyone could see. We arrived in Seward, where we had reservations for a whale watching boat tour with Kenai Fjords Tours.  We were going on the Glacier Cruise. The Glacier Cruise was one of everyone’s favorite days.  We saw several whales on that day. 

We saw puffins,

and some sea lions.

We were served a light lunch and some delicious cookies.  The boat got really close to a huge glacier. Hence…the name of the tour, Glacier Cruise. I think all the guests would have been disappointed if we had not seen a glacier.

Pieces of ice were floating in the water.  The crew lifted some ice out of the water so we could get our pictures taken with the pieces of the glacier. 

It was a beautiful day, and we all had so much fun. In fact, Ally had so much fun that, a few months later, she quit her job in Virginia and went back to Alaska to work on a boat with Kenai Fjords Tours. But that’s a story for another time. I need to be careful about where I take my family on vacation.  Kelly and Ryan occasionally make noises about moving to Scotland.  Maybe I should make the next vacation in our home town.  Then they can all move back here and I can have them all close all of the time.    

We all had a wonderful time on this trip.  One word of warning…if you travel to Alaska in the summer, it does not get dark at night.  We tended to lose track of time.  We would be grouchy and snapping at each other and then we would realize that it was 11:00 pm and we had not had dinner yet.  So you may want to set an alarm or something so that you can remember to eat and rest.  It’s a very weird feeling-we were wearing sunglasses at 9:00 or 10:00 at night.   

Tips:

  1. The Aspen Haus cabins can now be booked using Airbnb.
  2. If you are interested in volunteering for the Iditarod, check out the website Iditarod.com/volunteers/.  And if you are serious about going, let me know.  As it stands with my family right now, I will probably need to find someone to go with me. 
  3. If interested in the Glacier Cruise, visit https://www.alaska.org>details>kenai-fjords-tours.
  4. Set your alarms to remember to eat and rest if you travel to Alaska in the summer. 
  5. It is considered bad hiking etiquette to climb between the switchbacks on a trail. It damages vegetation, loosens soil, and leads to erosion. Don’t do it.
  6. Tickets for the scenic train from Anchorage to Seward can be found at https://www.alaskarailroad.com
  7. ATV tours can be found at https:/www.denaliatv.com. If driving an ATV terrifies you, they will let you ride in a side by side. And if your husband is willing to admit he is terrified too, he can ride with you in the side by side.

Friend trip to Amsterdam, Bruges and Achen

Most of my stories are about trips with family.  Occasionally, I take a trip with friends. My friend, Vicki, wanted to plan a trip that included Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Bruges in Belgium, and Aachen in Germany.  So Vicki, our friend Mary, and I started planning the trip.  Mary’s husband, Ken, and my husband, Greg, decided they wanted to go as well.  The trip was planned for the end of March/beginning of April, 2023.  It was during tulip season in Amsterdam, and Mary, who is a gardener and a florist, was very excited about seeing the tulips. 

We booked our flights and then we started to book hotels and activities.  We were flying into Amsterdam to start our trip. 

I think I should explain something about my friend, Mary.  Let’s just say…she is not very adventurous when it comes to hotels.  Vicki and I pretty much have the attitude that if the hotel is clean and safe, we don’t have to have luxury, but Mary prefers the luxury. Vicki and I also like to stay in unique places.  Mary? Not so much. I suggested that we stay in this hotel that looked like suspended boxes.  Mary nixed that idea right away.  I found this interesting hotel in Amsterdam called Hotel Not Hotel. 

Mary was not super excited about this hotel, but I managed to convince her to try it when I told her one of the rooms was plant themed. Each room had a name.  Our room was called Mrs. De With.  Mary and Ken’s room was called Poison Ivy.  Vicki stayed in one of the Secret Bookcase rooms.  Vicki’s room was literally behind a bookcase.  You couldn’t even tell it was a room unless the door was opened.  It just looked like a bookcase.  The names of some of the other rooms included Sin City, Invisible Room, Blue House, Casa No Casa, the Sun Room, Crisis Free Zone, Amsterdam Tram Cart (really a tram cart) and Volkswagon (really a Volkswagon Van).  The hotel had kind of a hostel feel to it.  The lobby was full of couches, chairs and tables, and the rooms were very small, so most people hung out in the lobby.  Some of the rooms had private bathrooms, but most of the rooms had no bathroom and the guests used a shared bathroom/shower room.  There was a very small restaurant attached to the hotel.  You ordered your food in the restaurant and they would bring the food to you in the lobby.  I thought the hotel was very cool.  I’m not sure Mary was convinced. 

One of the first things we decided to do was to take a canal cruise. We were tired from the flight and it was cold and raining, so the idea of sitting in a covered, heated boat did not sound like a bad idea. Ken and Greg found a bench to wait while the women figured out how to secure the tickets for the tour.

The cruise was enjoyable. We were able to see some of the sights of Amsterdam, while a guide gave us a lot of interesting information about the city.  After the cruise, we stopped at a restaurant to try the Dutch Apple Pie. 

Mary really wanted to visit a tulip farm.  We had scheduled the Kukenhof tour, but Mary had mentioned that she wanted to be able to ask the tulip farmers all about how to grow tulips. Since the Kukenhof tour was very large, I did not think she would have that opportunity on that tour.  I found a private tour on a family owned tulip farm. It was called Tulpenexcursie.  The farm was located outside of Amsterdam in a town called Slootdorf. 

We left the next day to go on this tour. We had to take a train, then a bus, and then the owner was going to pick us up and take us to the farm.  We managed the train, but we missed the bus.  There was not another bus going to Slootdorf in time for us to make the tour.  We ended up taking a very long, very expensive Uber ride to Slootdorf.  We found the owner (the farmer’s wife) and she gave us a ride to the farm.  We were the only guests on that day, so we got a very private tour.  We were served coffee/tea and some delicious desserts.

Then we went on the tour.  Mary had a wonderful day.  The private tour allowed her to ask all questions she wanted.

I am not a gardener-in fact, plants come to my house to die-but we all had a great time. It was very interesting.  We learned how the tulips were grown, harvested, and prepared for selling. 

We learned how the family farm works and enjoyed learning about a family owned business in Amsterdam.  This business hires young people who live and work on the farm during tulip season. 

The next day, we all went on the Keukenhof tour.  We booked the Windmills and Countryside tour in the morning, and the Keukenhof Excursion in the afternoon.  The tour bus took us to both tours.  The Windmills and Countryside tour included visiting the fishing village Volendam, where we visited a cheesemaker and we bought some very good cheese. Mary, Vicki and I learned how to make stroopwafels. Greg and Ken found a bench. 

We visited Marken, a small seaside village,

where we watched a traditional clog maker making shoes.

We saw the windmills in Zaanse Schans.

It was very cold and very windy, but we still had a wonderful time. 

In the afternoon, we were taken to the Keukenhof gardens.  Flowers, flowers and more flowers. 

I thought Mary might just start to skip through the flowers.  Wait.  I’m pretty sure I did see her skip a time or two. 

The men found a bench.  Vicki and I stuck it out with Mary looking at the flowers. I looked at a LOT of flowers for being a non-gardener. 

The trip had been going very well so far. However, I had started to develop a cough and body aches.  But that didn’t slow me down.  I was not going to miss anything on this trip.

We visited Anne Frank’s House. This was high on my list of things I wanted to do.  I had been fascinated by Anne Frank’s story since junior high school.  We visited the Rijksmuseum to see the Vermeer exhibit and other art. 

I have a confession-I knew nothing about Vermeer’s art.  I did my usual museum routine-I walked around for a while, trying to look like I was cultured, and then I saw that Greg had found a bench, and I joined him. We also visited the Van Gogh Museum.  I really enjoyed this museum.  I am familiar with some of Van Gogh’s art, so I didn’t have to fake it as much. 

I had read about this bike path outside of Amsterdam near a town called Eindhoven, which was Van Gogh’s hometown.  The artist Dan Roosegaarde created a bike path based on Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. The path contains thousands of twinkling colored lights that are charged by daylight and then at night, the stones display parts of the Starry Night painting. We would have to take the train to get to Eindhoven, and we were not able to work this in before we left Amsterdam. We were coming back to Amsterdam at the end of the trip, so I still had hope that we would be able to visit this path.

Before we left Amsterdam, we needed to do some laundry.  I have really been working on minimalist packing. One of the tips I regularly see is to pack half of the clothes you need, do laundry about midway through the trip, and wear those clothes again.  I did not manage good minimalist packing this trip.  I took my Cotopaxi backpack.  It has a large zippered section on one side, and three smaller zippered sections on the other side.  I used packing cubes and stuffed a lot into this backpack.  It was SO heavy. I looked like a turtle, walking through the airport, hunched over, with this overstuffed backpack on my back. Greg, who is much better at minimalist packing, had gone through most of his clothes and needed the laundromat.  Mary and I set out on our last morning in Amsterdam to find a laundromat, lugging our bags of dirty clothes.  Mary was very unsure about this adventure.  I had googled laundromats and I found one that was not too far from our hotel.  Mary wanted to Uber.  Mary, Mary, Mary.  You should know me better than that by now.  Why Uber when we can walk and experience the neighborhood?  Mary expressed her reservations most of the way to laundromat.  It didn’t seem like the best neighborhood.  But we found the laundromat, managed to figure out the machines and the correct money, and ended up with clean clothes. And we were not mugged, which was a concern of Mary’s. I’m sure there were a lot of people on the streets of Amsterdam waiting to mug two American ladies and steal all of our dirty clothes.  

We lugged our bags of clean clothes back to the hotel and prepared to take the train to Bruges, Belgium.

We had booked rooms in Bruges at Hotel Dukes Palace. Mary picked this place. 

She thought she needed some luxury after she had tolerated staying in a room called Poison Ivy.  The hotel was very nice and it was very close to the center of the city.  We arrived at night, had a nice dinner, and got some rest.  I coughed my way through the night, and by the next morning, I knew I was going to have to get some medicine if I was going to make it through this trip. I asked a person at the hotel desk for a recommendation for a doctor.  I called the number they gave me and made an appointment. After breakfast, Greg and I set out on foot to find this doctor.  Turns out, looking for a doctor’s office is a good way to see part of a city you might not otherwise see.  We finally found the office.  It was in a residential area and looked like a house, so it was a little hard to find. There was no receptionist, so we just sat in the waiting room and hoped someone would see us before long.  After waiting for about 20-30 minutes, a man came to the entry and called my name.  He took us into a room that had a desk, but no examining table or anything that really looked medical.  I thought maybe it was bookkeeping and they were going to take care of the billing first.  Nope.  The man was the doctor.  He sat behind the desk, asked me some questions about my symptoms, then asked me to stand up.  I thought maybe we were going to go into an examination room. Nope again. The doctor walked over, he listened to my chest, and he looked in my throat, nose and ears. I’m not sure I’ve ever been examined while standing up before.  Then he went back around to his desk, wrote three prescriptions and took my money.  That was an interesting doctor’s visit. We found the pharmacy, left the prescriptions, and went to find Mary, Ken and Vicki. 

We all took a bus tour of Bruges, called City Bus Tours.  It was a good way to see the city in the one day we had.  The buses arrive every 30 minutes in the Market Square and tour around the city. 

After the bus tour, we walked around the Market Square, shopping for souvenirs and buying chocolate, of course. 

Then Greg and I headed back to the pharmacy to get my medicine.  The doctor had prescribed an inhaler, an antibiotic and some medicine to help with the cough.  Luckily, the doctor had written the dosage instructions for each medicine, because the names of the medicines and the instructions on the bottles/boxes were in Dutch. One of the boxes had Braille on it, but since my Braille is about as good as my Dutch, that was not helpful at all. Oh well.  I guess I didn’t need to know exactly what I was taking.  As long as it made me feel better, I didn’t really care what it was.  I have to say-the cough medicine was very effective.  The instructions were to take the cough medicine only at night. I should have known that there was something very strong in those pills.  About 15 minutes after taking the pills, my arms started tingling and I felt like I was sinking into the bed.  Vicki translated the ingredients on the bottle label the next day.  The medicine had codeine in it.  That explains a lot.  But I slept very well and hardly coughed all night.

The next morning, we took the train to Aachen, Germany.  We checked into our hotel, Hotel 3 Konige, which translates to Three Kings. The hotel was very close to the sights of Aachen.  We dropped off our luggage in our rooms, and we went to see the sights.  We went to Katschhof Square.  Katschhof Square is known for being the inner courtyard of Charlemagne’s palace.  It is the connection point City Hall and the Aachen Cathedral. 

We watched some street performers, Mary and Ken danced to one of the songs, and we visited several of the most popular sites. 

Later that day, we went to Drielandenpunt, which translates to “Three Country Point.”  It is also the highest point in the Netherlands. There is a monolith at the point where the borders of Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium meet.  If you stand in a particular spot, you can stand in all three countries at the same time.

There is a playground and a restaurant. There are hiking trails. I couldn’t resist getting on a trail for at least a little while.

There was an observation tower.  Mary and I climbed the tower.  We are the first two-you can see my white hat.

No one else was willing to try it.  There were a LOT of stairs. But the climb was worth it.  Greg and Ken waited on a bench.

You can see the three countries from different sides of the tower.  I wish I could identify which country is which, but I don’t remember.

There was also a labyrinth. 

I didn’t think the labyrinth was a great activity for someone with no sense of direction, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. There were clues to help to find the correct paths to take.  The labyrinth had spontaneous spouting water walls.  You had to time it just right to get through the walls without getting wet.  It was cold that day (actually it was cold the whole time we were on this trip), so the last thing I wanted was to have wet feet or wet clothes.  Sometimes one or two of us could get through, but if another person tried to get through, they would get soaking wet.  Mary and I went through one of these water walls, with Vicki behind us.  I turned around and told Vicki to go ahead and go through.  I swear I thought it was safe for her to go through.  There was no ill intention at all on my part.  But Vicki got soaked….  The fact that I was laughing so hard I could hardly stand did not help my case, but I really did not intend for Vicki to get soaked by the water.  Her reaction, which included angrily screaming my name, indicated that she definitely blamed me for the soaking.  I think maybe she has forgiven me by now, but I can’t be sure.

The next morning, we had to leave Germany and take the train back to Amsterdam so we could catch our flight the next day.  I still really wanted to go to Eindhoven to see the Starry Night bike path.  The rest of the group tried to convince me that we did not have time, but I became kind of stubborn.  I really wanted to go, and the group finally gave in.  We took the train to Eindhoven and found the bike path.  We arrived before dark, so we walked around on the path until it started getting dark. Greg and Ken were really excited to be there, in the cold, waiting for it to get dark. They couldn’t think of anywhere else they would rather be.

Then the path started to sparkle.  It was pretty cool.  

We spent some time with the sparkling rocks, and then caught the train back to Amsterdam. 

We had booked rooms at a hotel near the airport.  We arrived at the hotel around 11:00 pm. Vicki checked in, Greg and I checked in, and then Ken and Mary tried to check in.  They were told there were no more rooms.  We were confused.  They had reservations.  How could they not have a room?  The hotel staff said they had overbooked, so they had given Ken and Mary’s room away.  It was late, we were tired, and Greg…let’s just say, the staff had no problem understanding how he felt about the situation.  While Greg was making his feelings known, I called another hotel and found rooms for us.  The rooms were over twice the price, but at least everyone now had a bed to get a few hours of sleep.  We could walk to the airport from this hotel.  When I told the first hotel that I wanted to cancel our reservation, they told me I couldn’t. Completely frustrated, we left the first hotel and went to the other hotel to get some sleep.  I wasn’t giving up easily though.  I contacted the corporate office of the first hotel, and after a few weeks, they refunded my money.  The next morning, we took our very early morning flight home. 

Tips:

  1. We booked the tour to Keukenhoff through www.tours-tickets.com.
  2. If you’re interested in the tour with the family owned tulip farm, go to www.tulipexcursion.com.
  3. Book a canal cruise by going to amsterdamcanalcruisesnl.  There are many activities that can be booked on this website.  We choose the City Canal Cruise.
  4. Luckily, there are usually plenty of benches in tourist areas. I think Greg and Ken found them all.
  5. Tickets for the Van Gogh museum can be found at www.vangoghmuseum.nl.
  6. Tickets for the Rijksmuseum can be found at www.rijksmuseum.nl.
  7. Tickets for the Anne Frank House can be found at www.annefrank.org.
  8. These are the hotels where we stayed: Hotel Not Hotel at www.hotelnothotelamsterdam.com, Hotel Dukes Palace at hoteldukespalace.com, and Hotel 3 Konige at www.h3k-aachen.de.
  9. It is free to walk the grounds at Three Country Point, but there is a fee for the labyrinth. There is also a small fee to climb the observation tower. Tickets can be purchased on site.
  10. If you have more tech skills than I do, I suggest labeling your pictures of the three countries that are seen from the tower at Three Country Point. It would be really nice to know which country is which.
  11. I recommend the bike path in Eindhoven. The rest of the group was not as invested in seeing this as I was, and I kind of threw a little tantrum to get my way, but everyone admitted it was worth it. They may have had second thoughts when we found out the hotel had given one of our rooms away because we arrived so late. So far, no one has directly said they blame me, but I may have sensed a little something…..I still say seeing the sparkling bike path was way more fun than sitting in an airport hotel for the entire evening.

The Halls Fall in Love with Scotland

I belong to this great group called Wanderful.  This is a women’s travel community that supports women travelers, creators, and business owners.  One of the things they offer is what they call “global meet ups.” They pick a place somewhere in the world, book a block of rooms at a hotel or a hostel, and plan one group activity a day. The rest of the time, the women are free to plan their own activities.  The meetups are typically Thursday-Sunday.  I have had the opportunity to attend several of these meetups.    

In September, 2023, the global meetup was in Edinburgh, Scotland.  We decided to plan our family vacation around the meetup.  My daughter, Sarah, my daughter-in-law, Kelly, and I attended the meetup.  The rest of my family was coming in on Sunday, after the meetup, and we were planning to spend another week in Scotland for our family vacation. 

Sarah, Kelly and I left on Wednesday to travel to Edinburgh.  When we boarded the plane, we were informed that all the overhead luggage space was taken, and we would have to check our bags.  Several hours later, we arrived in Edinburgh and went to baggage claim to get our bags.  I saw a backpack that was the same color as mine, but I didn’t think it was mine because it was torn up.  I waited for my bag to show up.  It never did.  The torn up backpack continued to go around and around the carousel.  I finally realized the backpack was mine.  There were burn marks on the bag,

the zipper was frayed, a hole had been ‘”chewed” in the bag, and two of the straps had been shredded so that I could not even put the bag on my back to carry it. 

What was going on in that cargo hold?  I googled cargo holds.  The internet said cargo holds were fireproof and temperature controlled (apparently not), and they can hold animals. There must have been a huge, slobbering, growling, fire breathing dog, chewing on my bag and tossing it around, like a giant dog toy. 

The first few days went fairly smoothly.  Probably because the Halls were not in charge of this part of the vacation, since it was the Wanderful global meetup.  We stayed in a hostel near the Edinburgh castle. We visited the Edinburgh castle, which was very near the hostel.

We went to the market, and we made backpacks/purses at a bagmaking class. 

We went to a whiskey tasting. Other than an occasional glass of wine, I’m not a big drinker, so I tried to hide the involuntary shudder that happened with each tasting.  I did enjoy the chocolate though. There were some other little snacks provided after the tasting.  Which is a good thing, because apparently, I was starving my pregnant daughter-in-law.  As I have mentioned in previous stories, food is not really my focus when I travel.  I tend to get caught up in the activities and kind of forget about meals.  My son, Ryan, sent me a text from the US, telling me to please feed his wife.  She was hungry, but she didn’t want to say anything.  I made sure she had plenty of opportunities to eat after that. 

We went on a tour of Mary Kings close.  We took the tour called the The Real Mary Kings Close Women’s History Tour.  This is a tour that celebrates the women of the closes and how they shaped the history of the city of Edinburgh.  Mary Kings Close was a “haven for independent women.”  Forty five percent of the properties on the street were owned or run by women, which was unusual for the 17th century.  To be honest, I just went because it was a scheduled event. I didn’t even know what a “close” was.  But I’m glad I went.  I really enjoyed it.  Here is a picture of the group of Wanderful women, plus our tour guides.

We hiked to Arthur’s Seat.  Arthur’s Seat is an ancient, extinct volcano.  It is the main peak of a group of hills that form Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. At the top, there is a great panoramic view of the city.

We went on a tour of the city. This tour was unique.  This tour company, called Invisible Cities, trains people who have been homeless to become walking tour guides.  The tour was called Real Women of Edinburgh tour.  There were several women from the meetup who went on this tour.  We walked through the streets of Edinburgh, with our guide leading us and telling us stories about significant women in Edinburgh’s history. At an intersection, we heard a firetruck siren.  Part of the group had already crossed the street, but the rest of us had to wait for the firetruck to pass.  I stepped out into the street, forgetting that in the UK, they DRIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD!! I heard the firetruck horn blaring and I was looking for the truck to show up on the other side of the road.  Turns out, the horn was blaring at me! I was standing right in the path of the firetruck, because the firetruck was DRIVING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD! After I got over the shock of almost being run over by a firetruck, I felt completely humiliated.  Here I was, with this group of well traveled, confident, solo women travelers, and I had almost been run down by a firetruck because of my own stupidity. I hung my head, crossed the street, and was promptly reprimanded by our tour guide.  I wanted to crawl into the gutter. It didn’t help that Sarah and Kelly were laughing so hard, they could hardly walk.  So glad to have been able to provide a little comedic entertainment. 

The drawing below was done by one of the employees of Invisible Cities.

The rest of my family-Greg, Ryan, and Ally- arrived on Sunday, and we started our family vacation.  I had planned a very busy schedule, as usual.  We were planning to spend a few more days in Edinburgh before leaving to see some other parts of the country. I had booked an Airbnb in Edinburgh.  The owner of the apartment was an author and had left copies of the book in the apartment to purchase.  We thought that was pretty cool, so, of course we bought a few copies of the book.  We really enjoyed exploring the Royal Mile, and walking up and down Victoria Street. Victoria Street is said to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter.

We found some great restaurants, and we did some shopping.  This is what Greg would look like in a kilt.  He did not buy the kilt.  I think that was best. 

We rented a van and left Edinburgh.  Kelly had bought Ryan a 5ft. x 5ft. plot of land in Scotland for Christmas, making him a Lord in Scotland. 

We were on a mission to find Lord Ryan’s land.  We put the coordinates in the GPS and set out to find the land.  Greg started out driving.  Did I mention they drive on the other side of the road in Scotland?  Maybe at our age, our brains are less flexible, but Greg had a hard time remembering this fact as well.  The trip to find the land was a little scary.  I’m not sure we were even on a road the whole time.  We finally found the place where we thought the land was.  Kelly had bought Lord Ryan a little rock, and we all signed our names on the rock.  Lord Ryan placed it under a little tree on his land. Hopefully, it’s still there.

Ryan took over the driving.  This is not intended to be an insult to Greg, but since Ryan is younger, I’m thinking his brain was more flexible.  He adjusted very quickly to driving on the other side of the road, and the ride became much less scary. 

Our next stop was Peebles.  I had booked rooms at the Barony Castle.  It is a 16th century castle that has been turned into a hotel, conference and wedding venue. It’s on the southern border of Scotland, in the town of Peebles. Peebles is on the River Tweed.

It was Ally’s birthday and I wanted to make the day special.  The Barony Castle advertised a delicious dinner and a spa. What a great birthday surprise!  A nice dinner and a massage.  When we arrived, they told us the spa was closed.  Of course it was.  We settled for walking the grounds of the castle and posing for some pictures. 

We discovered some sheep on the property next to the hotel. I wanted to get up closer to the sheep to get a better picture.  I seriously considered climbing the fence, but I was afraid there might be a sheep dog that would not appreciate my intrusion. 

Plus, Lord Ryan discouraged the idea.  I don’t think he wanted to have to jump the fence to rescue his mom.  He probably thought that would be undignified behavior for a Lord.  We did have a really nice birthday dinner for Ally in the hotel restaurant. 

We left the next day to continue our adventure. We were very close to the border of England, and Kelly had never been to England, so we crossed the border and went to a little town in England called Berwick-upon-Tweed. Berwick-upon-Tweed is a historic town in Northumberland, England, located just south of the Scottish border. The River Tweed enters the North Sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed.  They were having some sort of a little festival, so we walked around the town, visited a lighthouse, and grabbed a little lunch.  It was a nice little spontaneous stop.  

We continued on to reach the Airbnb in Nairns.  The house was near the beach.  Nairns is located on the Moray Firth, a large sea inlet of the North Sea.  Since we had made our spontaneous stop, we were running a lot later than we had planned.  The kids had tucked me and Greg in the back seat, turned up the music, and taken control of the van. 

As we were driving in the dark, a large hare started running in the road ahead of the van.  Ryan tried honking and trying to scare the hare out of the road.  The hare was certainly scared, but it just kept running in front of the van, rather than getting off the road.  Sarah decided to take matters into her own hands.  She told Ryan to stop the van.  I was protesting from the back of the van.  Somehow, I didn’t think running after a hare on the road in the dark was a good idea.  But what did I know. Sarah did manage to scare the hare out of the road, but I’m afraid that hare may never be the same again.

We finally made it to our Airbnb in Nairns, without running over any hares or any other Scottish critter.

We got up the next morning to take a walk on the beach. 

Then we set out to go to Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye.  We stopped at a gas station in Nairns, and Greg and Ryan got out to put some gas in the van.  They loaded back up and off we went.  We had been driving for several minutes when we heard a clunking sound.  That didn’t seem right.  Then the van wouldn’t accelerate.  That was not good.  Ryan pulled over and Greg called the rental company.  He told the guy on the phone about the clunking sound and the stalling of the van.  Somehow, the man immediately knew to ask what kind of fuel we put in the van.  When Greg told him they had put regular fuel in the van, the man, sighing very loudly, informed Greg that the van took diesel fuel.  Oops. The man told Greg that he would come pick him up, tow the van, and take Greg to the rental agency to get a new van.  However, he only had room for one person.  So the rest of us got out of the van and began to walk the rest of the way to Inverness. 

Ryan was not happy about the situation.  He was mad at himself for putting the wrong kind of gas in the van, even though we had tried to convince him that it was not his fault.  It was a while before he got over it. 

We finally made it to Inverness. Inverness is the capital of the Scottish Highlands and is the closest city to Loch Ness. The area on the way to Loch Ness had several restaurants and shops, so it wasn’t a bad place to walk around. We set on the path to Loch Ness.  Ryan was hoping to see the Loch Ness Monster….  We didn’t get to see the monster.  We couldn’t even figure out how to get down to the lake.  We considered running through the grass to the edge of the lake, maybe spinning around with our arms out, like we were in the Sound of Music, but it looked like we would drop right into the lake if we went past the line of trees.

We decided we better stay on the path.  It looked like maybe there was access to the lake on the other side, but by that time we had been walking for several hours, and no one wanted to walk all the way around the lake, knowing we would have to walk all the way back.  Besides, what if Ryan’s wish of seeing the monster came true and one of us was snatched off the side of the lake and eaten by the Loch Ness monster?! We were able to see some Highland cows up close, so that was fun.

At that point, we really weren’t sure where Greg was.  We had left him on the side of the road, by himself, in a foreign country, hoping some stranger from a rental agency would pick him up.  In hindsight, that doesn’t sound very caring or responsible, but at the time, it seemed like a good idea. We walked back to town.  Good news.  The rental agency guy did pick up Greg and he gave Greg a new van.  We found him walking toward us as we came back from Loch Ness. We bought some ice cream, go in the new van that was filled with diesel fuel, and continued on our way to Isle of Skye. 

Driving to the Isle of Skye took a little longer than we had planned.  The Isle of Skye is the largest of the Inner Hebrides. We finally made it.  Greg decided he would stay with the van rather than take the hike to the Fairy Pools.  The rest of us hiked down to see the Fairy Pools.  It was so much fun and it was so beautiful! 

After the hike, we were all starving. I’m not naming names, but some of us were hangry. 

We loaded back up in the van and went in search of a restaurant.  Unfortunately, most of the restaurants on Isle of Skye were closed for the evening.  We did find a pizza restaurant that was still open.  We excitedly went to the door, only to be turned away because their kitchen was closing.  We ended up eating really bad gas station food for dinner.  Yuck.  But it was better than dealing with the unnamed hangry people in the van.

We got up the next morning and drove back to Edinburgh, where we stayed the night at a hotel near the airport so we could catch our flights the next day.  We all had a wonderful time, and most of us decided Scotland was one of our favorite trips.

Tips:

  1. I had never considered staying in a hostel.  I always had the impression that they were only for young travelers. I thought by staying in a hostel, you would have to sleep on dirty pillows and cots, running the risk of bed bugs and lice.  But since attending the Wanderful meetups, I have a whole new outlook on hostels.  If you do your research, you can find some very nice hostels.  The hostels where we have stayed for the meetups have been very clean and have very nice accommodations.  They have a friendly atmosphere, with places for groups to gather, or where you can work or make travel plans.  The cost is very reasonable. I would definitely consider a hostel stay if traveling alone or with other adults. 
  2. For those of you who do not know what a “close” is, here is a definition.  The closes are narrow, steep streets or pathways that branch off the main streets off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The closes had homes, shops and other businesses.  If interested in booking a tour, you can go to bookings.realmarykingsclose.com/book to find their complete list of bookings. 
  3. THEY DRIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD IN THE SCOTLAND!!!
  4. One thing I did not get to do is a multiday hike in the highlands.  I really wanted to do this, but I could not find a guiding service when I was planning the trip.  This year, I worked with WHOA travel adventure group to plan a hiking trip in Scotland in 2026.  WHOA has many adventure trips available for women.  However, I knew there was no way I could go on a hiking adventure in Scotland without Ryan.  I contacted WHOA, and found out that they plan private trips as well.  So in September of 2026, my kids (including my grandson, Remy, who will be almost three at that time) and I are going to do a multiday hike in the Scotland highlands!  If you are interested in joining a group of women for an awesome adventure, check out the choices at whoatravel.com.  There is contact information on their website if you are more interested in a private trip. 
  5. If you are going to eat on the Isle of Skye, plan to eat early.  The restaurants close early there. 
  6. Check out sheswanderful.com if you are interested in joining an amazing community of women who love to travel.  They have so many things to offer, whether you are a creator, business owner, or just love to travel. 
  7. Be sure to check the little sticker where you put the gas nozzle on a vehicle when you are in a foreign country.  It will save a lot of time and money.
  8. The airline did reimburse me for my bag. It took some effort and persistence, but they reimbursed me in full for the cost of my bag.
  9. Watch out for hares when you’re driving at night in Scotland. Apparently, they would rather race a vehicle than jump off to the side of the road. That is, until Sarah gets out to chase them.

Going West-with a teen, pre-teens, and a budget

In 2004, Greg and I decided we wanted to take our family on a vacation out west.  Greg’s brother, Mark, lives in Missoula, Montana, so we planned to add a visit with his family to our itinerary.  We didn’t have a lot of money in our travel budget-well, let’s be honest, we didn’t have much money in any area of our budget. I actually had a lot of fun planning this trip.  It was a challenge figuring out how we could do the things we wanted to do with the money we had, and I enjoyed the challenge. Places on our agenda included Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Mount Rushmore National Park, and Glacier National Park.  Looking back, that sounds like a rigorous schedule with three kids.  Ally was a teenager (14 years old, and very good at it),

Sarah was 12 years old and Ryan was 10 years old.

We opted to drive.  We had a lot of places we wanted to go, so driving our own van would be much less expensive than flying out there and renting a car.  We thought it would be very educational for the kids to drive across the country and see all the sights.  Greg planned the route.  Which was a good thing.  I can get lost in my own house.

I booked rooms in lower cost hotels.  I wanted clean, but low cost. I also had to make sure the hotels had rollaway beds available, because after spending all day in a minivan together, we wanted to make sure we continued the close, family togetherness by stuffing all five of us in a single room with two double beds, one rollaway, and one bathroom.

I started my research on entry fees into the parks and any other costs that might come up.  We talked to Mark and scheduled our visit with him and his family.  We booked a rafting trip in Glacier National Park. 

I started collecting things for the kids to do on the trip.  I started buying new books to read, movies to watch, crossword puzzles and word searches.  We had a DVD player in the van.  The kids took turns picking the movie to watch.  Ryan almost always picked the Bigfoot documentary. Although he really liked Bigfoot (he still does), I think he repeatedly chose that movie mostly to aggravate the girls.

One of the biggest expenses on a family trip is food.  To cut the cost of food, we brought along a cooler packed with our own food rather than eating at restaurants for every meal. I packed juice, milk, muffins, poptarts and cereal for breakfast when breakfast was not provided at the motel.  I packed bread, peanut butter & jelly, lunch meat, cheese, chips and fruit for lunches.  We ate a lot of lunches at rest stops, so the kids could get out and run around a little.  About a week before we left for the trip, I cooked taco meat, fried chicken and Italian beef and froze them in containers.  I took the crock pot and all of the condiments and sides.  We ate the chicken one night on the road.  One morning, I put the taco meat in the crockpot at the hotel, and when we got back in the evening, we had tacos for dinner.  We did the same thing with the Italian beef.  I thought this was a great idea, and it mostly was, except the night of the Italian beef. The entire hallway smelled like Italian beef when we arrived back at our hotel.  We had leftovers on a couple of nights, and the rest of the time, we ate out for dinner. 

We packed a lot into our days.  Our first stops were in South Dakota.  We went to Wall Drugs.  Wall Drugs is known for 5 cent coffee and free ice water.  It has restaurants that are known for hot beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and homemade gravy and for homemade doughnuts, rolls, and pies. It has several gift shops. It has an area called “The Big Backyard,” where kids can play, with a splash pad, and a place to pan for gold and dig for treasure. Wall Drugs is a very popular spot to stop in South Dakota.  We happened to be at Wall Drug during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  There were motorcycles everywhere-on the road and at Wall Drugs.  It was fun, but it was very crowded. Sarah really got into the spirit of things.

The kids all bought a cowboy hat so they could feel like true Westerners. 

We stopped in the Badlands National Park.  The Badlands were beautiful.  The Badlands landscape includes buttes, canyons, pinnacles and spires.  There are fossils of several species. Wildlife includes antelope, bighorn sheep and deer.  The winters in the Badlands are cold and windy, and the summers are hot and dry.  The landscape often looks striped.  This is due to fossilized soil layers called paleosols.  The paleosols are red due to the high iron content. 

Ally actually smiled for this picture! 

We visited Mount Rushmore National Park. The faces of four presidents, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, are carved into the mountain.  Each face is approximately 60 feet tall. The construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1941. Over 400 workers were involved and cost $989,922.32. Gutzon Borglum designed the carving and oversaw the project, and his son, Lincoln Borglum, assisted. The park was named after Charles E. Rushmore a New York lawyer, in 1885. The park includes a half-mile walking trail, a museum, a gift shop, and a dining room. The park is open year round. 

The kids were all thrilled to be at Mount Rushmore. 

Ryan is risking his life by touching Ally with his foot.  He was willing to take the risk to get the reaction. 

We continued on to the Teton National Park.  The Teton range is the youngest mountain range in the Rockies. The range was named by French-Canadian trappers. As they approached the range from the west, they saw three towering mountains and named them “Trois Tetons” which means “Three Breasts.” The Tetons have over 200 miles of hiking trails, several bodies of water for fishing, and backcountry camping areas. The Snake River is good for white water rafting, and the scenery is beautiful. Wildlife includes grizzly bears, black bears, bison, moose, elk, and pronghorn.

For those who know me, you will not be surprised that I still wear this sweatshirt. It is now over 20 years old.  

We rode the cable car to the top of the mountain.

I think we actually wore the kids out that day. 

For those of you of a more sensitive nature, I will apologize for the part of the story that follows. As mentioned in previous stories, we do not consider a trip an official family adventure until somebody throws up. And this trip was no exception.

I believe all moms have their own superpowers. One of my particular superpowers is the ability to immediately wake from a dead sleep to the sound of a child getting ready to puke. I would like to thank my three sensitive stomached children for giving me plenty of opportunities to refine this skill almost to perfection. It even works for the sound of a retching cat. Anyway…One night in the hotel, I suddenly woke up and knew Sarah was getting ready to throw up. I yelled, “Ally! Get out of the bed!” I knew that if anything coming out of Sarah got anywhere near Ally, we would have a real puke fest on our hands. Ally dove off the side of the bed and lay on the floor with her head covered, like a soldier in a foxhole. I leaped off my bed and flew over Ally with the speed and agility of Wonder Woman, grabbed the now puking Sarah, and rushed her to the bathroom, leaving a trail of vomit all the way to the bathroom. We called the front desk and got new bedding, a bucket and some bleach. We spent the next hour or so changing bedding, cleaning up vomit, and bleaching the bathroom. But we have never let a little vomit stop us. If we did, we would never get to do anything. By the next morning, everyone was up and ready to continue with the adventure.

The next day, we went to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Crow Agency, Montana. The monument is located within the Crow reservation and honors the Battle of Little Bighorn, which took place in 1876. The Battle of Little Bighorn is also know as Custer’s Last Stand. Custer’s Last Stand was a decisive Native American victory in the Great Sioux War on June 25-26, 1876. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong and all of his men were killed by Lakota and Cheyanne warriors.  

For the entire trip, Ryan had been hoping to see a mountain lion or a bear.  He looked for them everywhere-when we were driving, walking trails, visiting monuments.  We saw elk and buffalo, but no bears or mountain lions.  He finally settled for trying to sneak up on a rabbit. 

The rabbit was on to him. 

We visited Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the U.S. It sits on top of a dormant volcano. It has more geysers and hot springs than any other place on earth. One of the most popular geysers is Old Faithful. It erupts more frequently than any of the other large geysers. It has erupted every 44 minutes to two hours since 2000. It makes a sulfur smell that is unpleasant, but that does not stop millions of people, including us, from visiting it.

Yellowstone National Park is home to America’s largest buffalo herd, grizzly bears, elk, and wolves.

The scenery was beautiful.

We finally made it to Missoula, Montana to visit Greg’s brother, Mark.

We relaxed at the hotel pool, and we had a nice visit with Mark and his family.   

We took a day and drove to Glacier National Park, where we went white water rafting. 

As usual, Ally looks thrilled to be there.

Ryan was excited to be there.  He looks like he is plotting his strategy for aggravating his sisters on the raft.  Give a ten year old boy an oar and put him in some water near his sisters….the opportunities are endless. I don’t remember specifically, but I’m sure there was unwanted splashing, at the very least. 

I managed to get her to smile a little, but it definitely looks forced. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.

Once we left Montana, we were headed home.  We drove from Missoula, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska in one day.  That was a LONG trip.  Sarah had the right idea. 

This was probably when Ryan was watching the Bigfoot documentary…again. 

When we arrived at our hotel at about midnight, they did not have our room ready.  I had booked this room prior to leaving on vacation, so it wasn’t as if we had just dropped in to see if they had a room available.  There were several young adults goofing around at the front desk and no one was getting our room ready.  Greg let them know how unacceptable this was, and they ended up getting us a room at another, nicer hotel.  I think they were scared. Greg can be a little intimidating when he is angry, especially late at night when he has been traveling for about 15 hours. We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way home. It was a long road trip, but we visited a lot of places and were able to spend time with some family. I would call it a successful adventure.

Tips:

  1. This road trip was a good way to visit several US national parks. It gave us a good idea of some the places we would like to visit again for a longer period of time.
  2. At the time we took this trip, it was easy to enter national parks. You just paid the entrance fee and entered the park. It’s not currently quite as easy. Some parks require a pass or timed entry reservation. It is important to check before you go. You can find this information at recreation.gov.
  3. It is possible to travel with a family, even on a small budget. Cutting lodging costs and food costs will give you more money to spend on experiences. It’s very helpful to have a pretty solid plan before you go, but be flexible enough to enjoy spontaneous adventures.
  4. We gave each child their own souvenir money at the beginning of the trip. They were able to make their own decisions about what they wanted to buy, but we made it clear that this was a set amount. They did really well with making decisions about what they were going to buy.
  5. A ten year old boy never runs out of ways to aggravate his sisters, and he will use most of them on a long road trip.
  6. You can get 14 year old girls to smile for pictures. You just have to work at it a little harder.

Mt. LeConte…..With My Sister

We love Mt. LeConte in the Smoky Mountains.  We have hiked the mountain every fall since 2021.  If you have read all my stories, you may remember the first story was about our first hike on Mt. LeConte, and how I almost killed my husband.  This is another story about hiking Mt. LeConte, in 2024.  My sister, Shelly, joined us for this hike. 

I’m beginning to think that maybe I am not the one to take non-hikers on a hike.  There were some concerning similarities in the hike with my husband and the hike with my sister. 

Shelly is very active.  She likes to ride her bike, and she participates in several exercise classes every week.  But she doesn’t hike much.  When she said she would like to join us on the hike this time, I told her it might not be the best idea to start with this hike. The Alum Cave trail, which is the one we take, is a 2763 foot gain in elevation in 5.5 miles. But she wanted to go.  She had a few questions about the hike.  One question was “How long does the hike take?”  When I told her that the hike, up and back, would take about 5-7 hours, her next question was, “What do I do if I need to go to the bathroom?”  I told her there was a bathroom at the lodge at the top of the mountain, but if she needed to go while we were hiking, then she would need to squat behind a tree or a rock. She got a disgusted look on her face and said, “I’m not doing that.”  A few weeks later, she told me she had purchased a portable toilet to take on the hike. 

I told her she better get a backpack to carry the toilet, because it was not going in my backpack.  I bought her a Kula cloth (a reusable, antimicrobial pee cloth) for her birthday.  She found that disgusting too. 

We typically camp at the KOA in Pigeon Forge the night before and the night after our hike.  Kelly and Ryan have made the hike with me every year.  We all gathered at the KOA.  Remy, my grandson, who was nine months old at the time, was joining us on the hike this year too.

My husband, Greg, and Shelly’s husband, Aaron, were camping with us, but they were not going on the hike the next day.  Shelly called me over to their campsite and proudly held up her backpack she had bought to take on the hike.  It was camouflage and it was huge.  It was a hunter’s backpack, designed to hold guns, bows and arrows, but in this case it was going to hold a portable toilet.  This toilet…  It collapsed, but it was still big and it was heavy. 

There is not a rock or a tree big enough for me to be caught sitting bare butt on that thing.  It would be hard to be discreet while using that toilet. But she insisted on taking it, so there we were. 

We started out the next morning very early, before sunrise.  It is difficult to find parking at the Alum Cave trailhead, so you have to get there very early to get a space.  Plus, since we were hiking at the end of October, the days were getting shorter and we wanted to be back down the mountain and at the campsite before dark.  It was still dark when we started out on the hike, but it wasn’t too long before it started to get light.

As usual, the hike was beautiful and I was enjoying it very much. 

Shelly wasn’t too fond of the bridges, which looked like logs that had been cut in half lengthwise with a rail on one side, and she expressed her feelings at each bridge. 

The similarities between the hike with my husband and the hike with my sister were starting to emerge.  After a while, we began to hear comments, such as “Oh my gosh! How long is this hike?” and “There are more stairs?!” and “It’s so steep!”  These comments were very familiar.  We all decided it would be a good time to take a break.  As we were resting, I asked Shelly if she wanted something to eat.  She reported that it was not time for her to eat yet.  Shelly had been on a diet.  The diet required that she fast until a certain time in the morning.  I had told her she should not follow the diet that day, because she needed the calories for the hike. Apparently, she did not think that was good advice.  She had started out on this hike without eating anything. But I did finally convince her to eat a granola bar.  We continued the hike.  Shelly’s back was beginning to hurt because she was carrying this heavy toilet in her huge backpack. She finally decided the toilet was not worth the trouble.  She took the toilet out of her backpack and we hid it under some leaves, with the intention of picking it up on our way back down the mountain.  Kelly dropped a pin for the location so we would know where it was.  As Shelly was taking the toilet out of her backpack, we discovered she had also packed two glass bottles of tea, a few bottles of water, some protein bars, and a roll of toilet paper.  And by this time, she had also stuffed her coat, her sweatshirt, and her hat in the backpack. That was a lot of weight in that backpack.

We made it to Alum Cave.  We rested a while, and then continued the hike.  Shelly was getting very tired.  She was worried that she was not going to be able to make it. 

I offered to go back down the mountain with her, telling Kelly and Ryan that we would wait for them at the bottom.  (Greg had also told me that he did not think he was going to make it when he was doing the hike, but I did not offer to go back with him because we had reservations for the lodge. Priorities, you know).  Shelly very firmly told me that she was going to finish the hike because she had told people she was doing this hike.  Stubborn runs really strong in our family.

Other comparisons between the the hike with my husband and the hike with my sister: 

Greg                                                                Shelly

Stopped talking altogether                            Regularly commented on the conditions….

Experienced shoulder pain                            Had back pain due to the gigantic backpack

Significantly slowed pace as he tired            Significantly slowed pace as she tired

Vomited                                                         Cried

Reached destination after dark                     Reached destination after dark

Much happier going down the mountain    Much happier going down the mountain

We finally made it to the top of the mountain.  There were bathrooms… well… outhouses, for hikers to use.  I have to admit, the bathrooms were stinky.  Shelly expressed her opinion about the stinky outhouses.  But I think using a stinky outhouse with a door was still better than sitting on a portable toilet on the side of the trail. 

We went to the lodge to buy snacks and souvenirs.  We took some pictures to commemorate making it to the top. 

We rested for a while before heading back down the mountain.  Shelly seemed happier about the idea of going downhill.  She was convinced that would be easier.  But she still had the gigantic backpack. 

We started down the trail.  Shelly was moving pretty slowly.  I told Ryan and Kelly to go ahead and go to the parking lot.  Remy had been in the carrier most of the day, and I thought he needed to get out and move around.  They took off and Shelly and I continued down the trail.  Shelly was complaining that the backpack was hurting her back.  She took off the backpack and started carrying it in the front of her.  Then it was on one shoulder.  Then it was on the other shoulder.  Then it was around her neck. Then it was on her head. 

I offered to carry the backpack so we could move a little faster, but she refused to let me carry it. We looked for the toilet, but we could not find it.  We later found out that Ryan and Kelly had picked it up. People on the trail kept asking Shelly if she was ok as they passed us by.  I guess they weren’t used to seeing people carrying their backpack on their heads.  Pretty soon, we stopped seeing other people and it felt like we were the only ones on the trail.  I finally insisted on taking her backpack.  She was able to move faster without the backpack.  It started getting dark.  I told Shelly to start making some noise.  She asked me why.  I told her it was because I did not want to surprise a bear.  Her response was, “A bear?! There are bears?!”  Now, while my statement was mostly true, my reason for saying it was mostly to get Shelly moving a little faster.  And it worked.  We finally made it to the parking lot, found Kelly and Ryan, and headed back to the campground.  I called Greg once we had cell service and told him I thought we should order pizzas rather than try to cook at the campground in the dark. He insisted that we should cook the food we brought.  That was not what I wanted.  It had just taken us 12 hours to do a hike that usually takes about 5-7 hours.  But when we got to the campground, Greg had everything ready for us to eat.  We all had dinner, cleaned up, and went to bed.  I was very proud of Shelly for successfully completing the hike!

Tips:

  1. You may want to think twice about going with me on a hike if you’re not really a hiker.  It appears that I am not the person to show you a good time.
  2. Don’t fast before a hike.
  3. A portable toilet is not a good idea on a hike.
  4.  Nobody will steal a portable toilet hidden in the leaves on the Alum Cave trail at Mt. LeConte. And who would have really cared if they had?
  5. The Alum Cave Trail to Mt. LeConte is a great hike.  The views are beautiful, and the trail is very well maintained.  I highly recommend it. You can hike Mt. LeConte as a day hike, or you can stay the night at the lodge at the top.
  6. There are six trails that lead to the top of Mt. LeConte.  We have only hiked the Alum Cave Trail every year, but we plan to start hiking the other trails next year.  Alum Cave Trail is the shortest, but it is the steepest.  The other trails are Rainbow Falls Trail, Boulevard Trail, Trillium Gap Trail, Bullhead Trail, Brushy Mountain Trail.
  7. If you want to score a night at Mt. LeConte Lodge, visit their webpage, lecontelodge.com, and follow the directions.  Be sure to submit your email request during the submission period.  The reservation requests are for the following year.
  8. If you are considering a Kula cloth, you can buy them at REI stores. You can also go to their website at http://www.kulacloth.com. They sell more than just Kula cloths. They support Leave No Trace practices and sustainable adventures. They are actually a really cool company. If you subscribe, they offer webinars and all sorts of information about hiking, backpacking, and other outdoor adventures.

Italy-Our Family Vacation-Cinque Terre

I was so excited about spending time in Cinque Terre.  Cinque Terre is a group of five villages along the Italian Riviera coastline.  The villages are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

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My friend, Amy, had been there before and she highly recommended it.  I was looking forward to a hotel on the beach, kayaking, and relaxing in a lounge chair after the last several days of frantic sightseeing. 

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Months in advance, I attempted to book a hotel room or an Airbnb in one of the villages of Cinque Terre.  There were none available for a group our size.  Cinque Terre is a very popular vacation spot for many people. 

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I finally found an Airbnb in La Spezia. La Spezia is a short train ride from Cinque Terre. The Airbnb was a boat! How cool would that be? The owner advertised that he would take his guests to Cinque Terre for an additional fee.  That sounded nice.  We could take the boat rather than the train, and what could be more fun than spending a few days living on a boat?  Spoiler alert. Lots of things could be more fun than spending time on THAT boat.  

We left Pisa and took the train to La Spezia.  I messaged the owner of the boat to make arrangements to meet him at the pier to start our adventure on the boat.  The boat was supposed to be available at 3:00 that afternoon, and it was close to 3:00 when I messaged him.  He messaged me back and told me he had taken some people out on his boat, and he would not be available until 6:00.  A little irritating, but we could handle that. We agreed to meet him at 6:00 at the marina.

We needed to do laundry, so we walked through the streets of La Spezia, pulling our luggage, and found a laundromat. We started several machines.  About an hour later, at approximately 4:00, the boat owner messaged me and said he was ready to meet us.  I told him we were in the middle of doing laundry and reminded him that he had told me to meet him at 6:00.  I told him we would try to hurry up and finish the laundry and I would message him when we were ready.  He called me about a half an hour later and rudely told me he could not wait for us much longer.  Let me get this straight….I booked the Airbnb, paid for it in full, arrived on the agreed upon time of 3:00, just to be told we could not have access to boat until 6:00 because he decided to make some extra money taking people out on his boat. Now, at 4:30, the owner is telling me that he cannot wait any longer for us to get to the boat because he decided that he is ready earlier than the agreed upon time of 6:00. Did I have this correct? I reminded him again that he had told us 6:00. I’m pretty sure I was gritting my teeth when I said it. 

We hurriedly tried to finish the laundry.  We could not seem to find a taxi, so we hurried through the town of La Spezia, on their cobblestone streets, with all of our luggage, to get to the marina. We finally arrived at the marina and met the boat owner and his wife. I introduced myself, but he chose to talk to my husband, Greg, rather than me. I had booked the boat, made all of the arrangements, and paid the bill, but he did not address me at all.  Then before we knew what was happening, he had put my husband Greg, and my son Ryan, and their luggage, in his air-conditioned car, while the rest of us, all female, were expected to continue walking to the pier, behind the car, pulling our luggage. It was very hot, and we were very tired, so by the time we arrived at the boat, I was beyond angry. In his defense, I can sort of understand why the owner did not want me seated behind him in the car, with access to the back of his head. 

We finally reached the boat. We gathered in the seats at the front of the boat to get our instructions from the owner. 

They served us some fruit and then gave us information/instructions:

  1. Do not use the bathroom on the boat. 

Who books an Airbnb and does not expect to use the bathroom on the premises? We were told we were expected to walk down to the bathrooms at the end of the pier to go to the bathroom and shower.  The public bathrooms were clean, but there were no curtains or doors on the showers, resulting in very fast, very uncomfortable showers.

2. It will cost 100 euros per person to take the boat to Cinque Terre.

By the way, we couldn’t actually get off the boat to explore the villages of Cinque Terre. We could just wave at them as we boated by.  When I declined, he acted insulted.

3. He would bring breakfast to us in the mornings.

We had to agree on a small window of time to have breakfast the next day.  When we told him that we would be leaving very early on the second morning, he informed us that he would not be providing breakfast that early.  Even though that was included in the price I paid for the Airbnb. 

As he was giving us these instructions, he did not look at me one time.  Maybe he was unsettled by the daggers shooting out of my eyes.  The owner finally left the boat. We began to inspect the boat, what there was of it.  From the front of the boat, there were a few steep stairs to the kitchen/dining area. There was a tiny bathroom, which of course, we could not use.  The kitchen/dining area was so small, our suitcases barely fit.  The sleeping areas were four tiny spaces in the wall, maybe the size of a twin bed. These spaces were supposed to hold two people. There was barely enough room for one full sized person. The boat had no air conditioning, at least none that the owner told us about. If there had been air conditioning, the owner probably would have told us we could not use it.  The looks on everyone’s faces were….well, let’s just say, the looks were not saying, “We are so excited that you found this boat, Mom!” We were hungry, so we went to the marina to have dinner at one of the restaurants.  We went back to the boat, shuffled sideways around our luggage, wedged ourselves in our little bunks, and proceeded to sweat through the night.  The good thing was, we were so dehydrated from sweating that no one had to get up during the night and walk down the pier in the dark to go to the bathroom. 

The next day, we walked to the train station and took the train from La Spezia into Cinque Terre.  I wanted to hike between the five villages, but since the temperature was going to be close to 100 degrees that day, no one volunteered to join me.  We took the train from village to village instead.

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We all wanted to start at different villages, so the girls went one direction, Ryan and Kelly went another direction, and Greg and I went to another village, with plans to meet in one of the villages for dinner later that day. We did meet up with Ryan and Kelly in one village, had lunch, and spent some time on the beach. It was very hot and crowded, but we all had a really good time exploring the villages. 

There were shops, lots of gelato, beautiful views of the rugged coastline and Mediterranean Sea, and colorful houses stacked on cliffs.  It was a really fun day.

We met for dinner and then took the train back to La Spezia.  We were really tired and did not feel like walking, so I called for a taxi, requesting a van, to get back to the marina.  Our van arrived, but before we could get into the taxi, another family-it appeared to be a dad, mom, and two teenage kids- started to get in the taxi. Or I should say started getting in OUR taxi.  We told them that we had called for this taxi, but the man just told his family to get in the van.  The teenage daughter told her dad that this was our van, but he would not listen and kept telling his family to get in the van. What we wanted to do was reach in there and pull that jerk out of the van by his ear.  What we did was stand there with dumbfounded looks on our faces, watching the taxi drive away with the other family in it.  I tried calling for another taxi, but the taxi company did not answer.  We were hot, sweaty, tired, and now we had to walk, again, to the marina.  I don’t think anyone said a word.  We made it to the pier, went to the boat, got our things and walked down the pier to take very quick, very uncomfortable showers. In the girls’ shower rooms, we took turns being lookouts for the person in the shower.  I’m not sure what we would have done if someone had come in. We hadn’t come up with a secret code work or anything.  I guess we would have just yelled something like, “cover up!” or “grab your towel!” Anyway, we managed to clean up, wedge ourselves in our bunks, and attempt to sleep one more night on this incredible Airbnb find. 

We had to get up before dawn the next morning to get to the train station and go back to Rome.  Ryan and Kelly were leaving to go home that day, so we had to get them to the airport.  I tried to call a taxi to take us from the marina to the train station.  No luck.  So we walked (again) to the train station instead. We got on the train and started back to Rome. I was checking and double checking the time, and we had plenty of time to make it to the airport.  Okay.  Everything was going to be okay.  Then, the train stopped.  An announcement was made that there was a breakdown on the train and we had to change trains.  We gathered our luggage, got off the train, waited for another train, and boarded that train.  We sat there for a while.  Shouldn’t we be moving? Toward Rome? Toward the airport? After a long wait, there was another announcement.  The first train had been repaired and we needed to get back on the original train.  We gathered our luggage, got off the new train, and got back on the first train.  We finally started moving and were again on our way to the airport. We no longer had plenty of time to get to the airport.  We were barely going to make it to the airport on time for Ryan and Kelly to make their flight. I was on the edge of my seat the entire train ride.  We finally arrived at the airport.  I told the girls we were going to leave our luggage with them and I was going to go with Ryan and Kelly to find the security line for their flight.  Greg said he was going to go with us.  I told him we were planning to run, so he might want to stay with the girls.  Greg doesn’t like to run.  He insisted on going with us. Okey dokey.  We all grabbed some luggage, and we took off running.  I saw the American flag on a security line sign, threw the luggage at Kelly and Ryan, gave them a hug, and told them to get into that line.  Greg had kept up enough to be there in time to give them a quick hug before they got in the line.  I was very impressed.  They sent us a text a little later saying they had made it to their gate and were getting ready to board their plane.  I can’t believe they made it. 

Greg, the girls, and I spent one more night in Rome together.  We ate at a nice restaurant, and then the girls took an Uber to the airport early the next morning.  I had scheduled our flights so that Greg and I had one night together in Rome, just the two of us.  We spent time walking to a nice little restaurant near the Vatican, having some pasta, and just enjoying each other’s company.  It was a nice way to end the vacation.  

Tips:

  1. Cinque Terre is very crowded in the summer. You will want to book accommodations far in advance, especially if you are traveling in a larger group.
  2. When booking accommodations for Cinque Terre, avoid booking a “luxury boat” on Airbnb. It was not luxurious, and it was barely a boat.
  3. You will be amazed at how fast you can shower when you’re using a public shower with no doors or curtains on the shower.
  4. I have been accused of expecting my family to walk too much on vacations.  I have been told the same thing by co-workers when we go to conferences.  What is wrong with walking?  It gets you where you want to go, and it is a good way to see the area rather than whizzing by in a taxi or Uber. Not everyone agrees.
  5. Walking is a great way to see new places, despite what my family and co-workers say.
  6. Sometimes there are circumstances that cause people to have to walk rather than taking a taxi on vacations or conferences. Having to walk is not always my fault.
  7. When you call a taxi in La Spezia, be ready to jump in right away when it arrives. Otherwise, another family may steal your taxi.

Italy-My Family Vacation-Florence

We had a wonderful time in Rome, but it was time to move on.  We boarded the train to make our way to Florence.  We absolutely loved Florence.  We stayed in a beautiful, spacious apartment within walking distance of most of the sights we wanted to see.  The apartment had five huge bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and a big kitchen.  The only not so great thing about the apartment was a long entryway that had a step up. If the light was not turned on when we entered the apartment, it was easy to trip on the step and face plant on the hard floor.  Luckily, that only happened to one of us.  That was me.   

We saw many of the sights of Florence.  It’s a very walkable city. We went to the Centro Storico, which is the historic center of Florence.  It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It’s known for its art, culture and shopping. 

We went to the Uffizi Gallery, which is a famous landmark and art museum.  It has paintings by Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo Da Vinci.  There are more, but those are the names I recognized. We also visited the Academia Gallery, which has the famous David statue by Michelangelo.

Now, I would like to say I am extremely cultured and know a lot about art.  But I am not.  I wanted to see some of the famous works of art I had always heard about, but other than that, I kind of lost interest roaming around the museums, looking at the statues and paintings.  My friend Vicki, on the other hand, knows all about the works of art and wanted to look at everything.  And I mean everything.  I finally left her, made my much faster route and exit through the museum, and went to explore other parts of the city with my husband.  She had a wonderful day, and so did we.     

I had heard about this book, Wine Doors of Florence by Robbin Gheesling, that had pictures of all the wine doors in Florence. I ordered the book and took it with me to Italy. Wine doors date from around 1532 and were in use until the early 1900’s.  These wine doors were used by the nobility to sell their wines.  People would knock on the doors or ring a bell to be served. 

We had so much fun walking around Florence, looking for the wine doors listed in the book.  Each picture had an address included, making it easier to find the doors.  Even so, some of the doors were still a little hard to find.  Most of these doors are no longer functional, but there are a few from which wine is still sold. We found one door where they were selling wine.  The kids, and Vicki, all had a glass of wine.  I did not have one, because I do not like the wine in Italy. It is very dry. I only like very sweet wine.  Basically, juice. 

Looking for the wine doors was a wonderful way to see to the city. We went to places in the city we would not have otherwise explored.

There are pictures of 81 doors in the book.  I did my best to find all of them, but we only had time to find 19 of the doors. Greg thought we did a good job finding the doors. I considered it just a start. We have to go back to Florence to find the rest of the doors.  Greg rests when he can….

We rubbed noses with the boar in the Mercato Nuovo market.  Rubbing noses with the boar is supposed to bring good luck. Maybe Greg was trying to find enough luck to make it through this vacation.

We ate at a restaurant called Garga.  This restaurant was recommended to us by one of the “high finance” ladies on the bike trip. She told me that the chef would come out and talk to us, and that we should tell him she recommended the restaurant to us. The chef must have been busy that night, because he did not come to our table. We also have never been featured on a high finance show on Youtube.

I don’t remember if it was at this restaurant or not, but at one of our meals, my oldest daughter, Ally, ordered cow’s tongue.  Cow’s tongue? A tongue that has been in a cow? I would be kind of grossed out if a living cow licked me.  No way am I going to eat a dead cow’s tongue.  Ally said it was really tender. Ew. That made it sound worse.  My daughter, Sarah, decided she would be brave enough to try a bite.  As she started to take a bite, I leaned over to her and made a loud, slurping sound. She put her fork down and could not take a bite.  I know I could have acted more maturely, but a tongue?  

We could have stayed in Florence for several more days.  Everyone loved it.  But we had a schedule.  We were due in Cinque Terre.  We took the train to La Spezia, stopping on the way to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Most of us took the wet, slippery, steep stairs to the top.

At the end of our visit, we parted ways with Vicki.  She was going to Venice, while we were heading to La Spezia and Cinque Terre. 

Please be sure to read my story next time about our visit to La Spezia and Cinque Terre.

Tips:

  1. You can book tickets for the Academia Gallery at www.galleriaacademiafirenze.it.
  2. You can book tickets for the Uffizi Gallery at http://www.uffizi.it/en/tickets.
  3. Rubbing noses with a public boar seems a little unwise, considering we had all just been through the pandemic.  I’m kind of surprised we all did it, but we survived.
  4. Make sure you turn on the light when entering an unfamiliar apartment to avoid face planting on the stairs.
  5. You can buy tickets for the Leaning Tower of Pisa at www.opapisa.it.
  6. I highly recommend the book Wine Doors of Florence by Robbin Gheesling.  It was really fun looking for the doors while exploring the city.  And if you don’t find them all on your first trip, you will have a great excuse for going back. 
  7. Cow tongue, or any other tongue, should not be considered food, in my opinion.
  8. For a good meal, check out Trattoria Garga.  The address is Via del Moro 48/R, Florence, Italy.  The phone number is +39 055 239 8898. The website is www.casatrattoria.com. 

Italy-My Family Vacation

At the conclusion of my previous story, I mentioned that my friend, Amy, and I took separate trains to meet our families after the bike trip.  This may not sound like a big deal, but I am not a solo traveler.  I want to be a confident solo traveler, but that is something I have not accomplished yet. I have attended talks/webinars about solo travel, I have read Beth Santos’ book Wander Woman about solo travel, I have read books about women who have had amazing solo trips around the world, and I am working my way through the Backpacking Badass training about being a confident, competent, solo backpacker.  The idea of being able to backpack or take a trip to anywhere anytime I want, without having to coordinate with others’ work schedules/PTO, being by myself in the quiet wilderness or wandering through the streets of a city in a foreign city, feeling confident and competent, is very appealing.  But the truth is, I would probably be crying and shaking the entire time. I can be confident and brave when I travel with others, even if I am the one that is doing the planning and organizing.  In fact, I really like planning and organizing a trip.  But the idea of being by myself in unfamiliar territory turns me into an anxious mess.  So casually saying Amy and I took separate trains may have been a bit misleading. 

Anyway…I did manage to get on the correct train, and after an anxious ride during which I checked, double checked, triple checked the stops, I arrived in Rome.  The train station in Rome is at the airport.  I went out to the taxi line to get a ride to my hotel for the night.  When I was reading tips about international travel, one tip was to always get the price of the trip prior to getting in the taxi.  So being the confident, solo traveler that I was at that moment, I asked the driver about the cost of the ride.  He gave me a fee, put my suitcase in his trunk, and off we went.  When we arrived at the hotel, I gave the driver a euro bill that covered my fee plus a generous tip.  He reached down between his door and his seat, and he held up a bill that was worth half of what I had given him.  I thought he was trying to give me change, so I indicated that I did not need change.  He started shaking the bill at me, and I finally figured out that he was asking for more money.  He was saying that the bill he was holding was what I had given him.  I knew that was not true, so I told him I had given him the correct fee.  He continued to shake the bill at me, getting louder about insisting that I give him more money.  I should have just left the taxi, but my suitcase was in the trunk and I was afraid if I got out of the taxi, he would drive off with my suitcase.  I finally gave him more money.  He got out of the taxi, got my suitcase out of the trunk and drove off. I was very upset and shaky when I got to the registration desk at the hotel. I was also furious-with the driver for ripping me off and with myself for giving him more money.  That experience didn’t exactly inspire confidence in my solo traveling aspirations. 

My friend, Vicki, who was joining my family for part of our vacation, was meeting me at the hotel.  My family was arriving in Rome the next day.  Vicki and I booked a stay at a hotel that had previously been a monastery, called Domus Sessoriana. 

All of the rooms are converted from the cells in which the monks had lived. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was pretty much just a hotel room.  My only information about monks comes from movies, but if they had decent rooms with private bathrooms, maybe it’s not such a bad gig.  Except for the itchy robes.  And the frequent meals of thin soup. And the isolation.  And the no talking….People who don’t know me well think I’m quiet.  People who know me well would agree that I would last maybe half an hour with the no talking thing.  And that would be pushing it.

The Domus Sessoriana is next to the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which contains relics from the cross of Christ, including a piece of wood believed to be part of the cross, a nail, and a thorn from the crown of thorns.   

We had booked tickets to attend an opera that night.  The opera was showing at the Baths of Caracalla. The Baths of Caracalla were the city’s second largest Roman public baths. They were likely built between AD 212-217 and fell into ruin after AD 530. They now have sightseeing tours of the ruins, and they host concerts, operas and other special events. 

We saw the opera Carmen.  I brushed up on the story because I thought it would all be in Italian.  I know very little about opera, and did not realize Carmen is a French opera, so everything was in French.  But they had the words in both Italian and English on a big screen, so it was very easy to follow the story.  It was a beautiful night to be outside watching an opera.  We had a wonderful time. 

The next day, Vicki and I set out to find the Airbnb I had booked for our time in Rome.  Soon, my family arrived and we started our Italy family vacation.  We had about three days in Rome before we were to leave for Florence, so, as usual, we tried to stuff as much as we could into those three days. The first day, we just walked around the area near our apartment. We saw the Ponte Sisto Bridge.

We ran into a parade.  It looked like some sort of religious celebration, but we had no idea what the occasion was. 

We went to the grocery store and the bakery, stocking up on food to have in the apartment.  We scheduled a food tour for our first night.  When the food tour started, we were unsure if this was going to be a good experience.  The lady who was doing the tour, Emma, seemed kind of nervous.  We later learned that this was her very first tour.  She ended up doing an incredible job.  When the tour was over, we were trying to figure out how to get back to our apartment.  Emma started giving us directions about which bus to take, and then she said she would just go with us, since she lived nearby.  When we got off the bus, she walked us to our apartment!  She joined the kids (young adults) that evening for drinks, and she met us for dinner the next night.  We had made a friend in Italy!

I will admit, I am not a history person, so when I travel, I will research beforehand to try to figure out what it is I’m going to see.  In case there is someone reading this that is willing to admit that you just memorized the history stuff for tests and then quickly forgot it, I will add a little information about the popular attractions in Italy that we visited.

The next day, we went to the Colosseum, which is the largest amphitheatre in the world, made of stone and concrete. It was built between 72 A.D. and 80 A.D. It could seat 50,000 spectators, and hosted events such as sporting events, gladiatorial combats, and animal hunts.  There are many underground passages in the Colosseum.  Two thirds of the Colosseum has been destroyed, mostly by vandalism, earthquakes and fires. 

We went to the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was the political, religious and cultural center of ancient Roman life.  It is home to many ancient ruins, including the Temple of Vesta, the Arch of Titus, and the Temple of Saturn.  It is rumored to contain the burial site of Romulus, the founder of Rome. 

We enjoyed these tourist activities, but it was incredibly hot.  Italy was experiencing one of the hottest summers in history that summer.  The following day, we had tickets for a Vatican tour.  My son, Ryan, had been up all night vomiting, because, well, it’s not a Hall vacation until someone throws up.  He insisted he was ok to go on the tour, so off we went.  Again, an incredibly hot day.  Our tour guide was not the friendliest person in Italy. She was friendlier to a family in our group that was clearly not from the US, so we thought maybe she did not like Americans. That’s ok. We didn’t care much for her either. We did enjoy our visit to the Vatican.

We went to the Trevi Fountain that evening. The Trevi Fountain was commissioned by Pope Clement XII to display the power and influence of the Catholic Church in Rome.  You are supposed to throw coins into the fountain to ensure that you will return to Rome.  I threw three coins in because I wanted to keep going back to Italy.  I’m kind of surprised Greg threw in a coin.  He does not typically want to visit a place more than once. It was peer pressure, I’m sure. He looks so excited… and a little concerned when my third coin went in. Watch this video to see how excited he really was.

I have since read that there is a myth that if you throw one coin, you will return to Rome, if you throw two coins, you will fall in love with an attractive Italian, and if you throw three coins, you will marry that person. I was just trying to increase my chances of getting to return to Italy.  I didn’t get to know any attractive Italian men on the trip.  Which is fine.  I think I’ll hang on to Mr. Enthusiastic. 

That night, we ate at a restaurant that my daughter Sarah had heard about. It was a little family owned restaurant.  It was a little hard to find, because we had to walk down several winding streets, but it was very worth it. The food was served family style.  The host/waiter’s mother was the cook. She came out of the kitchen to our table with a huge bowl of pasta. Everyone was given a serving, except Greg, my husband.  After everyone had some pasta on their plates, she took the huge bowl, still filled with pasta, handed it to my husband, and patted his stomach.  She then handed him a fork and a spoon. She didn’t speak any English, but I think we all understood that she expected Greg to finish off all that pasta! We all had a lot of fun that night! 

The next day we packed our bags and took the train to Florence.  Read my story next time for more about our Italy trip.

Tips:

  1. The good thing about trains is if you get on the wrong one, you just get off and get on the one going the other way.  But that’s hard to remember when I am traveling by myself and shaking in my seat.
  2. If you want to stay in a hotel that used to be a monastery, you can find one at domussessoriana.com.  The price was very reasonable.
  3. If you are by yourself and have only a small piece of luggage, I would keep it in the seat with you when you ride in a taxi, rather than putting it in the trunk. Then the taxi driver cannot drive off with it after he tries to scam you.
  4. Another taxi tip would be to take a picture of the bill as you’re handing it to the taxi driver.  I was completely taken by surprise by this scam, and certainly did not expect him to reach down and switch bills on me.
  5. I don’t remember which company we used for our food tour, but I highly recommend food tours.  They are a great way to see part of the city you’re staying in, and, in my experience, the food has always been great.  Many of them will accommodate food preferences or restrictions, such as allergies or a vegan/vegetarian diet.  And maybe you’ll make a new friend.
  6. A great book to inspire and inform you about solo travel is Beth Santo’s book, Wander Woman.
  7. You can book a Colosseum tour by going to thecolosseum.org.  I recommend a tour. Of course, that could just be my lack of history knowledge talking.  But I wouldn’t have known what I was looking at without the tour.  There are several from which to choose, some that allow you to go in the underground tunnels. 
  8. You can get tickets for the Roman Forum at www.colosseumdiroma-tickets.com.  We did not do a guided tour, but guided tours are available.
  9. We booked our Vatican tour through Get Your Guide at www.getyourguide.com.  
  10. The myth about finding and marrying an attractive Italian if you throw three coins in the Trevi Fountain apparently is not true.  Which was a good thing in my case.  I’m just hoping throwing three coins tripled my chances of returning to Italy.
  11. For a delicious authentic Italian meal, friendly people, and great atmosphere, check out Ristorante Der Pallaro.

And the journey continues…..

Italy

I saw my first National Geographic Traveler magazine in a doctor’s office waiting room.  There was an article about a guided biking trip and it caught my interest. But let’s be honest-just about every story about travel catches my interest.  Years later, I came across a company, Duvine, that offered guided bike trips all over the world.  I had always wanted to go to Italy, and the bike trips in Italy looked amazing. My friend, Amy, and I signed up for the trip, and then COVID hit and the trip was put on hold. A couple of years later, when travel opened up again, we made plans to go.  We were going on a four day bike trip, and our families were meeting us in Italy after the trip so we could each go on a vacation with our families. 

Maybe this is a good time to say that I am not an avid biker.  I enjoy riding my bike, and I will ride it on the country roads and around my town or on some of the bike trails in the area, but I would not call myself a “cyclist.”  I do not have a fancy, expensive bike. My bike is from Walmart. Years ago, when I was picking out my bike, I chose the smallest one, since I am under five foot.  When I asked the salesperson if the seat would lower, he said, “no, but she will grow.”  I didn’t tell him the bike was for me.  I picked a purple bike, because, well, I like purple.  This bike has served me well for several years.  However, I did not realize that it might be a source of embarrassment to others.  One time, when my son was in his snotty teenage years, I came in from riding my bike around town and told him I saw one of his friends.  I said I had waved at him, but I didn’t think he had recognized me.  Ryan said, “Good.”  I said, “Ryan! Are you embarrassed by me?”  He said, “Mom.  You’re riding around town on a little purple bike.” 

We traveled to Italy the summer of 2022.  Our bike trip was called Tuscany 4-Day Bike Tour.  Amy and I flew into Rome and took the train to Chiusi.  We had booked a hotel in Chiusi near the train station, which was where we were supposed to meet our group from Duvine the next day.  We got on the train, rode for a while, and then discovered that we were on the wrong train.  We got off the train in a little town where no one at the train station spoke English. We were finally able to communicate that we wanted to go to Chiusi, and they indicated that we needed to be on the train going the opposite direction. We got on the train, hoping we had made ourselves clear enough to be on the correct train.  We did manage to get on the correct train and successfully made it to Chiusi. 

When we arrived, the door to the hotel was locked.  There was a phone number to call so that someone could come and let us in.  We called the number, and in a little while, a man came over and checked us in. We had booked a room with two beds.  When we arrived at our room, the room only had one bed.  We went back down to the lobby and called the number again.  Apparently, this man worked at both the hotel and the restaurant behind the hotel, so he was running back and forth between the two. The man came back over. He told us we had, in fact, booked a room with two beds, and he gave us a different room. This room had a regular small bed and a rollaway bed, but at least there were two separate beds. I went into the bathroom in our hotel room and shut the door. When I tried to open the door, it was stuck.  I tried a little harder, but the door would not open.  I continued to try to open the door, but no luck.  Amy started trying to open the door from the other side.  Still no luck. I decided to go Chuck Norris on the situation. I started kicking the door and hitting the door with my shoulder.  I mean, I did it tough guy style-standing back and punching the door with my foot with all of my strength. The door did not open.  It was starting to get hot.  There was no window in the bathroom and our room did not have air conditioning.  I was a little concerned, but Amy was panicking.  She went down to the lobby and called the poor man over from the restaurant for the third time.  He did not speak English very well, and our Italian was even worse, but she finally convinced him to come to the room. She managed to make him understand that the door was stuck and I was on the other side of the door.  It probably helped that I was yelling “I’m in here!” while banging on the door in the bathroom. He called a maintenance man to come to our room.  He took the doorknob off the door, and I was able to escape from the bathroom.  He held up the doorknob, looked at us, and said “it is broken.”  I was not trying to be ungrateful, but I may have rolled my eyes. Mr. Obvious took the doorknob and the two men left the room. We could not completely shut the door the rest of our stay, but that was really ok with me.  I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to shut the door even if it had a doorknob.

The next morning, we were met at the train station by the Duvine staff. We were taken to the village of Montofollonico to have lunch and to get our bikes.  Let me just say, Duvine is not a company that expects you to “rough it.”  I’m talking about five course meals and fancy hotels.  Amy and I quickly realized that this particular group of people on this tour would probably not be on a trip that required them to “rough it.”  During the week, we often heard conversations about high finance, personal chefs, health retreats. That is not our world.  We had nothing to add to those conversations. We just took pictures of the scenery. 

Every meal was delicious, but they had some weird stuff on the menu.  As mentioned in previous blogs, I am not an adventurous eater. When they placed the food in front of us, the first thing Amy did was look at me to see my reaction.  Amy, who is a very adventurous eater, often had to tell me what the food was and assure me it was edible.  But I did try most things, so I was very proud of myself. 

Every accommodation was luxurious.  However, they seemed to have difficulty understanding that Amy and I were not a couple.  At the first hotel, Villa Svetoni, we were listed as Mr. and Mrs. John Hall.  At the second hotel, II Falconiere Relais, the two beds were separated by about two inches.  If you look really closely at this picture, you can see the tiny split between the beds.  We called them our “Bert and Ernie beds.” 

II Falconiere Relais was like a castle. It had a beautiful pool and amazing scenery. The doors to the rooms were big and wooden, and we had an antique looking key on a big ring that we used to get into our room.

On the second day of cycling, we stopped at “Barbara’s Farmhouse,” where we learned to make pasta and had a delicious lunch. Our lunch included fresh vegetables from the farmhouse’s own gardens, as well as the pasta we had made. The ladies who taught us to make pasta were mother and daughter. They were so nice and made us feel right at home.

Amy was an experienced pasta maker, so she made it look easy.

My experience with making pasta consists of pouring a box of breakable noodles into a pot of boiling water. My pasta making efforts required much more concentration.

That evening, we went into the town of Cortona, where we wandered around the town, had some gelato, did some shopping, and looked at the beautiful views.

The scenery every day was gorgeous.  On the third day, we biked around Lake Trasimeno.

We stopped and had a tasting lunch at a beautiful winery.

That evening, our final dinner was at the Michelin starred restaurant at our hotel, II Falconiere Relais. The servers placed the plates with covers in front of us, and then they all lifted the covers at the same time. Fancy!

The biking itself was fun, and sometimes challenging. Most of the people in our group had opted for the electric bikes.  I did not, so I was often at the back of the group. Some of the people who had started out on regular bikes switched to electric bikes after the first day.  I was determined to do this trip on a regular bike.  Amy switched to an electric bike, but being a good friend, she continued to ride at the back of the group with me.  On the last biking day of the trip, we had to go up a mountain.  As we were getting ready to go, one of our guides asked me if I would like to ride in the van.  I was somewhat confused and asked her why.  She said because we were going up a mountain and it might be hard for me.  She was trying to be helpful, but I have to admit, I bristled a little. Apparently, she did not know me very well. I told her “NO” and got on my bike. Honestly, the mountain was not as challenging as some of the other days because it was a switchback road, making it less steep than some of the hills we had biked.  We reached the town, and Amy and I were waiting at a stoplight to cross the road.  One of the members of our group came riding up.  He said to me, “You made it! I’m impressed.  I was one of the ones who voted that you would not make it.”  The group took a vote? Who were these people? I just stood there looking at him.  As he rode off, I looked at Amy and said, “I think I’m offended.”  She replied, “I think you should be.” 

Amy and I had not formed any close relationships with any of the members of the group during our trip, which was fine, but I was not having positive feelings after the voting episode.  Let’s just say, there was no hugging or tearful goodbyes with the other members of the group as we parted ways at the end of the trip.  However, I was tempted to take a poll to see which way each of them had voted. At the end of the trip, when Duvine took us to the train station, Amy and I took different trains to meet our families.  She was meeting hers in Cinque Terre, and I was meeting mine in Rome.

Be sure to read next week’s blog about my family’s Italy vacation.

Tips:

  1. If you want a luxurious cycling experience, Duvine offers trips all over the world. You can find them at http://www.duvine.com
  2. You may want to consider closing the door from the outside of an unfamiliar bathroom first to make sure it opens again. That way, you’re not trapped inside when the doorknob malfunctions.
  3. If everyone but you in a group is using an electric bike, you will be the last to arrive. Everywhere.
  4. Don’t let it bother you if you are the last in a group. Take your time, enjoy the scenery, and be proud that you are doing the trip your way.
  5. Pouring a box of breakable noodles into a pot of boiling water is not considered making pasta.
  6. It’s ok to be offended if a group of people you barely know takes a vote about your ability to make it up a mountain on a regular bike, while they’re sitting on their electric bikes.

Backpacking in Oregon

It was 2021.  I decided we should take a family backpacking vacation.  We had done plenty of hiking, but we had never done a multi-night backpacking trip. I wanted to backpack part of the Pacific Crest Trail.  After all, I had seen the movie “Wild” and Reese Witherspoon was able to do it by herself, so surely we could do it.  For Christmas, 2020, everyone received backpacking backpacks, backpacking tents, lightweight sleeping pads and sleeping bags, and water bladders/filters.  We were all set.  Did I mention it was 2021? There was a drought and record-breaking wildfires in Oregon in 2021.  So of course, that is where I chose to go backpacking.

Our group consisted of me, my husband-Greg, my daughter-Sarah, my son-Ryan, and my son’s fiancée-Kelly.  Also included were our dog, Josie, and Kelly’s dog, Stella.  We opted to drive to Oregon, because we wanted to go home by way of California so we could stop in and visit with our daughter, Ally, who was not able to go on our vacation because of work.  It would take us several days to make the drive.  I had also booked an Airbnb in Portland for a few days after the backpacking adventure.

My husband and I had different thoughts about what traveling on this trip would look like.  In my mind, I had pictured five backpacks thrown in the back of the car, a couple of coolers, and we were good.  In reality, this is what we looked like.

My husband built a camping box, put it on a trailer, and we hauled it across the country.  He calls it the Chuckwagon.  He also built a smaller one for my son, so he and Kelly hauled one on the back of their car as well.  This is us, stopped at a gas station parking lot, cooking tacos out of the back of our car.  Definitely a Beverly Hillbilly sort of vibe to this trip.

I booked campgrounds along the way for each night.  The first night I scheduled a campsite at a hipcamp. Hipcamp offers unique camping experiences by private landowners who rent out their land to campers.  We were scheduled to stay at Uncle B’s hipcamp in Monroe, South Dakota.  I had never stayed at a hipcamp before and I didn’t know what to expect.  My family was a little apprehensive about the name.  Uncle B?  Does that sound a little creepy? I told them we were either going to have a great experience or we would be murdered in our sleep. Either way, it was going to be an adventure.

We ended up loving Uncle B’s hipcamp, and Uncle B was really nice as well.  His hipcamp was a small farm.  He had a very large vegetable garden, and a variety of small animals, including a litter of new puppies. 

He brought us eggs every morning, and he brought us supplies to make s’mores every evening.  He personally met and had conversations with all of the campers.  He invited us to go into the barn to see the puppies. 

The bathroom/shower facilities were very clean and nice.  And we were not murdered in our sleep. 

We continued to make our way to Oregon.  We stopped at Wall Drugs in South Dakota, and we detoured slightly so we could stop at Mount Rushmore for a little while. 

We stayed at a KOA in Sheridan, Wyoming the next night, we stayed in a campground in the Tetons the following night, and we camped at Crescent Lake in Deschutes National Forest in Oregon the next night.  We were supposed to stay one night at Crescent Lake campground, and then set out on the trail.  My family pleaded to stay an extra night at Crescent Lake to rest and relax before we started backpacking.  I booked an additional night, and we rested from our long drive. 

We sat around a campfire, explored the area, and went for a swim in the lake.  Well, we sort of went for a swim.  The water was extremely cold, so we didn’t stay in for long.  Crescent Lake is a deep lake that is was formed by retreating glaciers, located in the Cascade Mountains at higher altitude, and it has limited direct sunlight due to its location in the mountain range.  So it is very cold. We thought our dogs might enjoy a swim.  Our furry dog, Josie, seemed to like it ok.  Kelly’s dog, Stella, was not a fan.  Here is a picture of Kelly-posing prettily for the picture, Ryan-looking lovingly at Kelly, and Stella-thinking this was the worst day of her life.  

By the way, we were not the ones who made the cheesy heart. It was already there.

The next day we started out on the trail. Ryan woke up really grumpy that morning. He said he did not think we should be doing this since we did not know what we were doing. He’s had enough experience on our trips to have reason to be concerned. But he should have also known that not knowing what we were doing does not stop us from doing it. By the time we reached the trailhead, I think he had resigned himself to making the best of another family vacation experience.

We filled up our water bladders and our water bottles at the trailhead, and we were excited to try out our new water filter along the trail.  Did I mention the area was currently having a drought?  We hiked for several hours, and we began to consider finding a water source. We had an app that was supposed to show where we could find water.  None of the places on the app actually had water.  It looked like there had been water there at one time, but it was currently completely dried up.  We finally found one place with a little water, but it was covered in mosquitos and looked really gross.  We were also getting covered in mosquitos.  We eventually came upon what looked like a dried up pond or lake bed.  This was a very bad sign for water, but we found if we stood in the middle of the lake bed, the mosquitos did not bother us as much.  We decided to camp there for the night. 

We still had not found water, so we passed on trying to cook our dehydrated food, and we chose to just eat our snacks for dinner.  We put all of the extra food in a few bags and Greg and Ryan hung them in a tree to protect them from the bears. 

I guess they did it right. We were not eaten by bears that night. I actually have significant concerns regarding bears when hiking, especially in grizzly bear areas. And we were not exactly experienced backpackers. I once watched a program about dealing with bears on the trail. They taught that your response to the bear depends on whether the bear is being predatory or defensive. I’m not sure I would be able to determine this logically when I am facing a bear. I suppose I could just ask the bear, but then I feel like he would eat me just for asking stupid questions.

We set up our tents, ate our snacks, and tried to get some sleep. Something big inspected our tents during the night.  We all heard it, but none of us was brave enough to open the tent to see what it was.  In our minds, it was a bear or an elk. In reality, it was probably a raccoon or, at most, a deer. 

The next morning, we got up and ate a few more of our snacks.  We were a little apprehensive about going further on the trail since we had very little water left and we had no idea if we would be able to find more.  We decided to go back to the trailhead where we started, fill up on water, and then decide where we would hike next.  As we were hiking, Kelly said, “I would like to see the ocean.”  It took us about five seconds to decide to abandon our hiking plans and go to the coast instead.  I found a nice hotel in Newport, Oregon. 

We arrived at the hotel, very dusty and dirty from our previous adventures, but they were very nice and assured us they were used to dirty travelers.  We checked into our rooms, took showers, even bathing the dogs.  We went out for a nice dinner, walked on Nye beach, and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Newport.  Our hotel was right on Nye beach and the next morning I went for a run on the beach.  It was beautiful.

If we had known about Newport when we were planning this trip, we would have planned to stay there longer.

We left the next day to go to Portland.  We spent a few days in Portland, walking around the city, eating street food, and going to Powell’s bookstore.  Powell’s bookstore is the largest independent chain of bookstores in the world. They actually give you a map when you arrive so you can find your way around the store.  For anyone who is reading this and knows me, you would know that being surrounded by that many books was wonderful.  Having to navigate a map was not.

After our time in Portland, we went to Sacramento to visit with Ally for a couple of days, and then made the long drive home.   We have a rule in our family. Whoever is driving gets to pick the music. Sarah drove most of this trip, so this was my experience in the passenger seat. I love watching Sarah enjoy her music. Watch the video and see why.

Tips:

  1. If you have never been backpacking before, your first trip should not be in an area that is experiencing drought and wildfires.
  2. Actually, now that I think about it, you should not backpack in an area that is experiencing drought and wildfires even if you are an experienced backpacker.
  3. Since I now know how little I do know about backpacking, I have joined the Backpacking Badass program.  It is a program that helps you learn backpacking skills so that you can be safe and confident on the trail.  I am currently working through the modules of the program and have learned a lot.  If you are interested in checking it out, go to www.shedreamsofalpine.com.
  4. I highly recommend visiting Newport, Oregon.  We stayed at the Elizabeth hotel, which is very nice, but there are an abundance of hotels on the beach and in the town from which to choose.  The town is walkable and peaceful, and was a great way to unwind after a backpacking adventure.
  5. I always thought mosquitos were thicker in wet areas.  Apparently, the Oregon mosquitos like dry conditions very much.  We had the bites, in all sorts of places, to prove that fact.
  6. For a really nice hipcamp, check out Uncle B’s hipcamp in South Dakota.  We would like to return some day and stay there as a base while we do day hikes.  The hipcamp website is www.hipcamp.com. 
  7. If you do choose to stay at a hipcamp, be sure to check on the facilities before you book. The different hipcamps vary quite a bit on the amenities they offer, so you want to make sure you know what you are getting before you book. 
  8. Ally has since informed us that it was a very bad idea to camp on a lake bed. She also informed us that hiking on a closed trail is a very bad idea (see previous post). Perhaps I should listen to my oldest daughter more often.