Travel and Tourism
Hawai’ian views
There are never enough pictures to share the awesome creation that Hawai’i is!
Maps, beaches and a bucket list
As we continue to work our way to even more UU communities, I can’t help but take joy in the loving and accepting people our faith attracts! Our growth from your shared knowledge is immense and will be with us always.
2015 ended with my 14-year-old son, Austin, marking his 43rd state visited! As a homeschooling mom, I can’t imagine a better life experience for him than physically seeing the many places in our history books.
I’ve also now visited all but one state, and I can’t wait to take that trip to Alaska to complete my map. (Still on my bucket list!) But with 2016, comes a move to Hawai’i. Of course it won’t be so simple, but we plan to keep our summers busy with mainland travel. The motorhome will still be waiting us each time we set foot on the lower-48.
Here’s to a wondrous 2016!
Boise UU Fellowship in Pictures
Such a beautiful location and mini-park on the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship campus.
Here are a few of the things we loved!
Visiting Boise
After spending the last week in Elko & on the Shoshone-Paiute Tribal Lands, Nevada, enjoying the local cuisine and time with family, we are now at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho, and will be attending services at the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Garden City, Idaho, this coming Sunday.
Omaha’s The Old Market
Under a beautiful night sky filled with the mixed clouds of converging fronts, Austin and I met up with an old friend and toured the vibrant Omaha downtown known as The Old Market. After steak dinners and local brew at Upstream Brewing Company, we walked about and then found the unique and fun Hollywood Candy store, an old-fashioned candy and antique basement store. The night ended with a cruise downtown enjoying the wonderful architecture of the city.
It’s a world of trees!
Spending the night in Nebraska City, Nebraska. We are just next to the Missouri River and the Arbor Day Farm!
Fall 2015 Route = Heading west!
Our route is locked in. Didn’t plan on the extra miles for Oregon and Washington this trip but just couldn’t see going all the way to Berkeley and not hitting them! Taking it easy as we go, so we’ll announce actual visits as they come.
See you on the road!
Checking in!
Okay, so I made it two months sans the blogging. Not very long, but long enough to separate myself from the daily feeling that I just had to check my email and blogs and Twitter every single day. What a great feeling!
The two months have not gone without my being busy though. I traveled to Nevada/California for my niece’s wedding to her beautiful partner Alyssa. I even took the Amtrak train round-trip from Indy to Reno and got to see some great views along the Colorado River, and the most beautiful sunrise over the mountains at one of my old hometown’s in Nevada. Of course, there was flooding in Nebraska and that spoiled my transportation to GA (train took too long plus rerouting that made me miss my ride) but I wouldn’t have missed the wedding for the world!
Family things happened, some good like above, but some not so good and I had to make a trip to Northeast Ohio for a funeral. But, as life is, that same week I went to an ultrasound for an expected grandbaby in November.
Got to spend a few nights at an Alpaca Farm, really! A Bed & Breakfast with three dogs that adopted us, one at all times and the other two mainly when breakfast arrived each morning. 😉
Spent lots and lots of hours playing in my gardens with flowers literally everywhere and may apples and pawpaws growing. Deer in the yard everyday, squirrels and a full moon spotting of a beautiful red fox in the driveway. Summer has been good.
So now I settle a bit because I have a new part-time job teaching English for the school year. I’m taking graduate courses and of course I’m still volunteering with the Master Gardeners, and I’m working to start a local UU group in my nearest town.
The only way to live is moving forward!
Top 5 Bucket List items, for Life!
If you’ve been following me on my blog Dusty’s Musings, you’ve seen that I’ve been working through my top 5 bucket list items over the past couple weeks. It took some serious brain power and a little bit of smoking ears here and there, but my list is complete!
Top 5 Bucket List Items
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
Details and plans collude at Dusty’s Musings. Life won’t just happen on it’s own. Okay, at least a life worth living won’t just happen on it’s own!
Thanks again to Lesley Carter at Bucket List Publcations!
30 of My Best Adventures
One of my favorite WordPress blogs is Bucket List Publications by Lesley Carter. She has the right attitude and the get-go to live a full life that she’ll never regret. Recently, Lesley challenged her readers to make their own “Top 5 Bucket List.” Something short and doable in a hectic world.
As someone who’s never actually sat down and put pen to paper on a bucket list, I thought that I should first recall some of the most exciting experiences of my life before I look to the future. So, giving leeway for my memory, here are my top 30 of a lifetime! (Not in any order of importance!)
1. Did touch-and-goes in a Blackhawk on a snow-top mountain, Kosovo
2. Admired the Mona Lisa, The Louvre, Paris, France
3. Climbed a rock, only to rappel back down a cliff leading straight into a kayak, L’Al’Legne, Belgium
4. Slept inches from the home of a monster, Loch Ness, Scotland
5. Played on a glacier, Briksdalsbreen, Norway
6. Took an off-road jungle tour, Kualoa Ranch, O’ahu
7. Watched Old Faithful let off some steam, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming
8. Went to the top of a mountain, Gstaad, Switerzerland
9. Ate pirogues in Boleslawiec, pasties in Newquay, enchiladas in Juarez and drank hefeweizen at the Brauhaus and gluhwein in Wiesbaden. Too many are the gastronomical delights!
10. Petted an alligator, Beaumont, Texas
11. Saw the musical Grease performed live, London’s West End, England
12. Cruised a river aflame, Rhein River, Germany
13. Watched the ‘boys ride the bulls, National Finals Rodeo, Las Vegas, Nevada
14. Drove on a dangerous mountain pass, Macedonia to Albania
15. Hydroplaned on the open water, English Channel, Calais to Dover
16. Rode bareback in a desert monsoon storm, San Pedro River Valley, Arizona
17. Glided on a bullet train, Thalys, Brussels to Paris
18. Sailed on a Catamaran, Honolulu, Hawai’i
19. Became a United States Marine, Parris Island, South Carolina
20. Hiked along the North Rim, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona
21. Got my first tattoo, Budingen, Germany
22. Looked down on the Colorado Rockies from the cockpit of a C-130, Chicago to L.A.
23. Rode my horse in a PRCA Grand Entry and Rodeo Parade, El Paso, Texas
24. Collected rocks and minerals 1,000+ feet under the surface of the earth, Meikle Gold Mine, Carlin, Nevada
25. Cruised a BMW on the German Autobahn
26. Bouldered the day away, Coronado National Forest, Oracle, Arizona
27. Lived in an extinct volcano, Aliamanu, O’ahu
28. Rambled the Scottish Highlands
29. Rode the coasters, Roller Coaster Capital of the World, Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
30. Spent an entire year traveling fulltime in an RV
Wow, that was more difficult than I expected! So many more locations and countries and experiences are bouncing in my head–far too many to list here. My life has truly been an adventure thus far!
And now, to accept Lesley’s challenge …
Co-posted from Dusty’s Musings, Writing my own Bucket List.
traveling tUUsome 