Please welcome our newest Guest Adventurer, Kathy Gottberg. She is the author of five published books and writes and blogs at SMART Living 365.com (http://smartliving365.com) where she shares ideas about creating a happy, healthy, and meaningful life every day of the year. And obviously she also loves to travel!
Please join me and give a round of applause to Christina Mueller. She is a midlife ROCKSTAR! She took on a huge challenge in order to get healthy in midlife. She looked this Spartan Race in the eye and owned it. I am in awe of her determination, strength of character, enthusiasm and her willingness to seek adventure in a big way! She has guts and is ever so humble. I begged her to tell her story and I promise you will be inspired. Thank you Christina!
It began as a journey to lose weight. It ended with feeling more accomplished and fit than I had since I was in my 20’s. And I also lost weight. So what is the middle part of this story? I became a Spartan.
Welcome back Laura from the Coast of Ilinois! Laura once again tells a fantastic story with wit and colorful commentary. Thank you! The perfect time for more Tales of the Caribbean! Jamaica Edition! As mentioned previously, our SFJV (Supremely Fancy Jamaica Vacation) set up home base at the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall Resort. Truthfully, home base …
How much fun! Today our readers are sharing where to travel at the holidays! A huge thank you to all of you who sent in your stories and photos! From our readers in no particular order: Edward Pizzarello ~ Pizzainmotion.com We do love to travel during the holidays. We just got back from …
Kim Tackett who writes the blog Tour of No Regrets, traveled to Spain with her husband Steve. Kim always has something clever to say and tells a fantastic story. Her photos are fabulous too! Thanks, Kim!
We’ve traveled much of Europe, but never Spain. The stars aligned for this trip…it was Steve’s 60th birthday, our best friends were traveling in France and could meet us for a week so the guys could cycle in the Pyrenees, and Steve and I would still have time to wander on our own. In fact, this was the first trip in years where we weren’t hosting or visiting our daughters. They’re awesome, but traveling with two is pretty sweet! Our trip started in Barcelona, where we met up with our friends, then to San Sebastian (bike riding for the guys, cooking lessons for the gals) and then we were back on our own again. We went to Madrid, Granada and Seville, where this story picks up.
We knew we were pushing it, and the back end of our trip wouldn’t be enough. Or it would be too much. As we planned, we understood this was the point where we would need a cafe in a small village, and time to do nothing but sit, read, write, draw and visit the local markets (you know, nothing). But we only had a few more days and couldn’t miss Seville or Granada. We knew 1 day, 2 nights in each wasn’t right, but we kept comparing it to Yosemite. What if you had one chance to see California and missed Yosemite? Would one day be better than nothing? We compared Seville and Granada, and especially the Alcazar and Alhambra, as Yosemite, and added the last two stops.
In Seville, we stayed a little out of town, at a charming Moroccan inspired hotel, the Alcoba del Rey. They had an incense menu. And a rooftop patio, perfect for kissing under the stars, if one (or two) were so inclined. We skipped the incense, and visited the patio instead. We knew this was where we should be taking things slower—using local buses, leaving the guidebooks behind. But we didn’t have time for that, we had stuff to do, and took advantage of the taxi stand outside our door. (Sidenote: Every taxi driver wants to talk about gun control and Donald Trump. Also, even if they don’t speak English, they all seem to listen to American country radio. Steve thinks they understand the passion. I think they think we like it. Either way, it’s confusing.)
Teri and Roger are owners/innkeepers for the 1802 House Bed and Breakfast in Kennebunkport, Maine. Teri was was kind enough to share her personal thoughts about becoming a new grandparent. The beautiful 1802 House Bed and Breakfast is a member of the Select Registry Distinguished Inns of North America, has been awarded the TripAdvisor.com Certificate of Excellence, and is a BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection property.
My husband and I are currently living in Maine where I’m lucky enough to be living my dream of owning and operating a Bed and Breakfast. My husband is English and we met in Boulder, Colorado 20 some years ago working at IBM when he was on assignment to the USA. We married and my daughter and I moved to the UK. I spent 20 years there and while it certainly feels like home now, I always had this desire to own an Inn. And really, the USA is the place to do that. We talked about it for years, looked occasionally and couldn’t find anything, then kept on with our corporate lives. In 2012, while we were in Kennebunkport on our first Maine holiday, we found THE INN. Perfect location, perfect size and a really beautiful property. Six months later, we had moved back to the USA and became the new owners of the 1802 House Bed and Breakfast.
Please welcome our newest Guest Adventurer, Steve Howen, who writes the very clever blog: Tales From An Empty Nest. Steve is married to M’Lissa and has two lovely grown children, Kelsey and Kendall.
Steve will captivate you with his stories. Do you remember when you saw Jaws for the first time? I was in 8th grade – How about you?
Forty years ago this spring, the beach seemed like a great place to my 14-year old male brain. Forty years ago today I would not have gotten into the waves if Cheryl Tiegs was waiting for me. I love the water and I loved Cheryl Tiegs (that year’s SI Swimsuit Edition Cover Model), but Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg ruined it all. According to the fine folks at the Florida Museum of Natural History, there have been just over a thousand shark attacks in the United States in the past 343 years, which seems like pretty good odds given the risks I am willing to take for a chicken-fried steak. Of course, like Mayor Larry Vaughn in the movie, the researchers may have had ulterior motives in protecting the tourism industry.
Not much has been made of the film’s anniversary and I am not sure why. It is a seminal work in the thriller genre and one of the most popular movies ever made. Adjusted for inflation, Jaws still ranks seventh all time for ticket sales. But good, popular movies are made almost every year; it is the lasting impact of the film that sets Jaws apart. Other than dorky golfers quoting Caddyshack, I can not think of any film that is so strongly connected to an everyday activity decades after its release. And there are a lot more swimmers than duffers.
This post is written by Tam Warner Minton of the super awesome blog: TravelswithTam
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett
Yesterday I wanted to meet a friend for lunch, but my car was in the shop. I called Uber and was quickly picked up by a friendly and delightful driver from Guinea, Africa. We began to talk about Guinea’s location, and he was overjoyed when he discovered that I had actually traveled to Africa and visited several countries there. A story emerged which highlighted, perfectly, why we should all travel. The driver worked on the morning of his daughter’s wedding, and he drove that day in the suit he was going to wear at the event. One of his clients asked him who it was that taught him how to put on a suit. You have to admit, that is a rather odd question. (The inference being, of course, that someone “civilized” had to have explained to him how to wear a suit). The driver, who speaks clear English and has been in the USA for almost 30 years, admitted he was very angry about it. People in America, he said, do not travel often enough, and have no idea about the cultures of other places. I agreed.
Since my discussion with him, I have done a little research, and yes, it is true that the vast majority of Americans have never traveled out of the country. I have had people tell me they are not interested in going to other places because America is the “best”. I’m not going to argue about patriotism, but my question is, how do you know? If you have never been to another country, how can you know what is “best”? And does everything have to be rated as good, better and best? Can’t it just be different? I realize that not everyone wants to travel, but there is no question that it provides invaluable experiences and insight to the traveler and to the people the traveler knows or meets. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” I agree, St Augustine, I agree.
I started to write a post about what I love about summer and then I read this clever one from Kim Tackett, who writes an amazing blog called Tour of No Regrets. She captured the essence of summer perfectly and I wanted to share her thoughts with you. I bet you will agree with her list! ~Suzanne
Most people know I am not a fan of the heat. Therefore, it would make sense that I’m not a fan of summer. I presumed this was true, and started a 10 Things I Hate About Summer post. But the fact is, once I listed “the way the sweat drips down your back at 6:30 in the morning” and “the way your skins sticks to the car seat” I didn’t have much. As a lark I retitled this 100 Things I Love About Summer, and imagined I could muster up 10. Not only did I get to 10, but 100 was pretty easy. Go figure. I told Steve what I did, and even he didn’t believe me…but I did, I do, and here it is.
Please welcome our newest Guest Adventurer Liz Reiman from Jacksonville, Florida. Liz and her husband Jim, met in college at Wake Forest University in 1980. Thirty plus years later they are still happily married with four grown children Rob (26) third-year medical student in Brooklyn, Chris (25) business exec in Dallas, Jack (23) starting new job at Wal-Mart …
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