Canada 2026

I had a really great time on my vacation to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and P.E.I. The people were great and the views were amazing. I'm not really in the mood to put down anything in depth so this will suffice for now. 

Back home and it's hot! We are almost to the "BER" months and I'm hanging in there. I am so looking forward to shorter days and cool temps. 

Anne of Green Gables musical

As the sign says, the house LMM was born in.

Confederation Bridge, PEI

Field of flowers

Somewhere on the Bay of Fundy

Caves on the Bay of Fundy

Ferry in the fog

Lunenburg

Peggy's Cove

 

Spring Break

Woke up this morning to thunder and lightening. And hail. It's been raining but now it's snowing. I'm sick so I guess its a good day to stay home. 

I got back last night from a trip with my sister and the twins. I will say it was a good trip in some ways, but it was also difficult. My nephew has autism with another disorder called PDA. He's such a cute little kid but he goes Jekyll/Hide all the time. He's in therapy and she's doing all she can for him, but that doesn't make it easy to deal with. So yeah, we had some hard times. But there were also good times. I don't want to stop doing stuff with them just because it's difficult at times. 

We flew into Seattle and stayed by the airport at first. We took the train into the city and explored Pike's Market the first day. Then we drove to the peninsula. One day we spent at a state park climbing over rocks and looking in tide pools. I love being on the water like that. It's one of my favorite places. I'm not a sit on the beach type of person, but I love walking and exploring along the water. 

Another day we spent some time in Olympic National Park. It was so beautiful and I want to go back one day.  Took a little walk along Crescent Lake. 

And also did the hike to Marymere Falls. 

It was about 1.5 round trip so not long and not hard. Perfect for kids. I loved just being in a green forest with pine, moss, and ferns. We also explored Port Townsend and Port Angeles. We would have liked to include a ferry ride, but just couldn't fit it in this trip. That's ok. We'll just have to go back!

I felt fine the entire trip, although did get a bit stuffy one night, but I didn't feel sick. Yesterday my nose started running a bit on the flight home but I still didn't feel bad. By the time I went to bed last night, I knew I was getting something. So now I'll just stay home til I feel like leaving. I did pick up a few groceries on the way home so I'm fine and happy to be home in my own bed.

Home, Sweet Home

I love being at home in the quiet. 

I spent last week in North Carolina, traveling for work. The trip was fine, and it was nice to see my team. I got home Thursday night around 8:30 and then worked a half day on Friday. I packed my bag again (differently) and left Friday at 12:30 for a road trip to Escalante, UT with my sister and the twins. 

We had a good time. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped in Escalante before and it was very small. The hotel was good, but there were not many options for food and pretty much everything was closed on Sunday. We had planned ahead and had ramen and other options. 

We did a few small hikes to some Petrified Forest state park, and the Devil’s Garden. And played in the hotel pool in the afternoons. We also did the short hike to Mossy Cave this morning and because it is Presdent’s day, the national parks are free. We stopped at Bryce on the way home. We didn’t stay long, but the wind was blowing and up at 8000 ft, it was cold! Still, it’s beautiful to see and we got our free dollar’s worth. 

Now I’m just sitting here enjoying my quiet, clean, and chaos-free home. I love the kids, but it can be a lot. I have a busy week ahead and this will actually be my only night home until Friday. I have things every night this week. 

We passed the 2 year milestone for mom on the 14th. Still can’t believe she’s gone sometimes. She did love a good road trip though. 

Europe Travels

So this year when I turned 50, I knew I wanted to do something to celebrate in a big way, but didn't know what that was. Then I saw this trip listed on the WTT website and decided this was it. I loved going to the Christmas markets in Germany and Austria with mom in 2018 so seeing them in 4 countries seemed like a good idea, and 3 of the countries were completely new to me. 

I left the day after Thanksgiving and flew to Switzerland to meet up with the group. I upgraded myself to premium with my miles on the flight from JFK to ZHR and I think I will be doing that in the future the next time I go on a long flight. It was nice to have more space. I actually fell asleep for a couple hours. 

Zurich was fun and I did enjoy our ferry boat ride on Lake Zurich. The Christmas markets were almost entirely food stalls. I did eat a good sausage and Nutella empanada though. 

Limmat river

The next stop was in Basel, Switzerland. I can't say that I had any strong impressions of Basel. Where the Christmas market was, looked like a European town. 

Rhine river

Then we journeyed into France. Our first stop was the Museum of Printed Fabrics in Mulhouse, and I must say that I would have never chosen that type of museum but it was absolutely fascinating and I loved it. We had a private tour, which is another thing I wouldn't have gotten on my own. I bought a Christmas ornament in their gift shop with is just a ball printed with a fabric pattern they have in the museum. 

Then we headed to the Christmas market at Colmar and this was by far my favorite market of the bunch we saw. Very old European, traditional looking. I bought a few more ornaments here. They are wooden circles with pictures of old fashioned Christmas scenes on them. 

After our stop at Colmar, we made it to Strasbourg, where we stayed for 2 nights. I did enjoy Strasbourg as well, but it was very crowded and a very popular place to be at Christmas. The church was beautiful and it was nice to see something besides a market. LOL  Strasbourg has a lot of the half timber houses that look like they are leaning a bit from old age, and it was fun to see them. 

Then we left France and went to Luxembourg. I was excited for this one because it's not a country (or city) I would have ever chosen to stop at on my own. I loved it. The city is beautiful. During our walking tour, I got to hear all about their history, which was great for my history loving self. 

Bock Casemates - WWII tunnels

Palace of the Duchy

And after Luxembourg, our final stop was in Brussels. It was a big city and while the markets were fun, I didn't have any strong impressions, other than construction and traffic, and by that time I was ready to sleep in my own bed. I did bring back a lot of chocolate and ended up with a great bowl of pho one night. 

Besides, all the different countries and Christmas markets, I also took a macaroon class to see how they were made. That class included tasting and taking home some delicious macaroons (which I ate along the way since they don’t stay good for that long). We did a chocolate class in Belgium, which I wouldn’t exactly call a class. We didn’t learn much about chocolate but we got to fill molds with chocolate to make our own to take home, which was fun. I have no idea what I’m going to do with all that chocolate, since I also bought so much. Terrible problem to have, and I’m sure the kids will eat it. 

All things considered, it was a pretty good trip. 

I'm Home

I've spent the last 10 days in Europe and now I'm home. I'll have to put some details here later, but for now this will do. 

I went to Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The stops in France (Milhouse, Colmar and Strasbourg) and Luxembourg (Luxembourg City) were my favorite. 

Now I'm home again and sick. LOL at least it waited until I got home to feel actually sick. I've lost my voice and have a terrible cough. And a few sinus problems. I don't feel great, but not truly terrible either. 

Luxembourg on a misty morning. 

Cedar City - Part One

We did our trip to Cedar City and the Utah Shakespeare Festival this week. It’s one of my favorite things and I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. This year it was me and my 2 sisters and all their kids (minus one and then plus one from my brother). So nine of us. We decided with the price of 3 hotel rooms, it would be easier to rent an AirBNB. It was a good decision. The house was in a different location than where we are used to staying, but it was actually really easy to get places and close enough to everything we wanted to do. I had a really good time. 

The house was little pricier than we had wanted to spend, but my very frugal sister had love at first site and we talked my other sister into it. The entire house has every room decorated like a different movie. Pictures just don’t do it justice. 

Barbie Room - the twins favorite

The Up room - this was my room

The Star Wars room - one of my sisters stayed here 

The Harry Potter room - one sister and a couple kids slept in the 4 bunk beds -(one bed for each house)

The Pirates of the Caribbean room - my 2 oldest nieces slept here

Then there was the Home Alone bathroom and the Raiders of the Lost Ark living room. Plus a Napoleon Dynamite game room, and a movie theater room that was not even on the listing. Adults and kids alike had so much fun. One of my sisters is planning her own family trip there already and I’m pretty sure we will try to go back. 

I think we counted 8 tvs and then there were games of all kinds and a trampoline in the backyard. As soon as we saw the house, we knew we didn’t need to spend a lot of money on entertainment. 

Truly an experience that was worth a little extra money.