SCOTLAND....Im coming for you!!

 

This is the year of Over the Hill.  The big one.  FIVE-OH.  THE BIG 5-0.  (Not me, Im still the trophy wife.  Of course, I am talking about Dear Hubby. He is the one dipping his big toe into the old pool.)

A few years ago I asked him "If you could travel anywhere for your 50th birthday, what would you say?   Dont worry about cost, or what you think I would like, this is YOUR trip.  Where would you like to go for the big 5-0?"

He thought about it for a little bit, had a few ideas but ultimately decided that he wanted to go on a tour of Scotland.  

SO I did what every good trip planner does- I went on Amazon and bought Rick Steves Scotland book and Map!    

I read blogs. 

I bought a notebook to keep all my ideas, scribbles and notes in.

 I have been  following every Scottish hasthag on Instagram, reading every Scottish itinerary, getting ideas from  friends and family who have been to Scotland etc etc etc. 

I have a notebook full of ideas and lists, revised and revised again itineraries. 

I spent months looking for airline tickets (daily!!), and figuring out multiple itineraries, based on which airport we will be flying into.   

We fly out of a home airport that isnt a major hub, so tickets can tend to be pricey, which is why when I found a great price, I jumped!

Now that tickets are booked, it is time to really get to the nitty gritty, and the heart of it all...THE ITINERARY!

 I started with a rough itinerary. The major cities we were seeing, and the 3 areas we were using as our "home base".  I mapped out every day with one of the cities we will be sleeping in.  I have  lists of our "MUST DO/ABSOLUTELY CANNOT MISS", a list of our "WOULD REALLY LIKE TO DO/TRY HARD TO GET TO IT",  and a "WOULD BE NICE,/BUT WONT HURT MY FEELINGS IF WE DONT GET TO IT".  

 

So now that I have a starting point, and I know where we will be sleeping every night, I start filling in our days with MUST DO's, then add  WOULD REALLY LIKE TO's, and then  WONT HURT MY FEELINGS.  That way once we get done with a MUST, and we have the time and energy, we can choose  something from our alternate lists.

To bus and Train, or to rent a car?? That is the question.

Although the bus and train system in Scotland is reputed to be wonderful,  we have decided to rent a car to make sure we can hit all those wonderful little towns that tend to be off the beaten path. 

With all the things that I wanted to be able to do, I didnt want to be beholden to a bus or train schedule, and I had read that in some of those smaller off the beaten trail towns, the busses may only run once or twice a day, leaving us a LOT of waiting time.  Plus with a car you have the freedom to go and see more.  And as it turns out,  10 days with a car is cheaper than buying 2 Scotland rail passes! 

I have already booked the tickets, I have booked the car, and I have gone in and booked the hotel rooms in our 3 major home base of operations (with the intention of looking around more and re-booking if needed). Really, the hardest part is done, now it is just finalizing our various lists and figuring out what we can realistically see and do.

I continue to look at blogs and recommendations, scour trip advisor  and have broken out the hiking boots to get them broken in and ready for an adventure.

Now we wait....impatiently.

2022 Oahu Adventure DAY 5 and 6...and then home

 The next 2 days of our trip was super jam packed FULL and crazy!   These were the days I REALLY was excited about.  Ever since I was a kid I dreamed of going to the POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER!!! (PCC) . We deliberately scheduled the tickets for one of our final days because we knew we wanted to go out with a bang!

The PCC is a living cultural exhibit and encompasses 6 simulated tropical villages.  Performers in each village demonstrate traditional songs, dancing, games, food and more. Hands on participation is a must!! 80% of the PCC employees are students at BYU-Hawaii, and their work pays for their college education. The Islands in PCC are Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand. They have a special Rapa Nui exhibit as well. 

We started our day fairly early, and went to breakfast (back again to Sweet E's...yes they were that good), then took the 45 minute trek up to Laie.

We started at the Laie Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The beautiful grounds and visitors center are open to the public, and it was such a peaceful and amazing place! There are missionaries there to answer any questions etc.  Built in 1919, this temple is a sacred place for the LDS population , not only in Hawaii, but around the world. It is definitely a reverent atmosphere and the sheer beauty does cause quiet contemplation.

We stopped in at the visitors center for a quick look around and learned the amazing history of this area. 

STORYTIME:  When I was little I was in the Brownies.  One year each troop had to pick an area and at the large "jamboree" type thing, present a cultural display. Our troop was assigned Polynesia.  My mom, having lived in Hawaii years ago, taught our troop a song and dance called the Hukilau.(a fishing song)  We dressed up in Crepe paper hula skirts, put flowers behind our ears and wore leis and danced the Hukilau in front of all the other brownie troops in the region.  To this day almost 40 years later I STILL remember the song and dance. It is a core memory for sure.

How is this relevant?

In the visitors center we watched a little movie about the influence of the church in Laie, and how the people came together for a church building and temple.  In 1940, the LDS church building of the congregation in Laie, burned to the ground.  At that time the members would be responsible for raising half of the money required to build a new building , which seemed a monumentally impossible task for the small fishing village of Laie. a good 45 minutes from Honolulu, this little city saw few visitors, and the good people of Laie just didnt know where they were going to get the 60,000 to put forth as their half. so in the late 40's, after World War II, the members of the congregation and city came together to help rebuild their church.  They  had a luau and started spreading the word. Over 1000 people came to the first luau. This became a monthly event that happened and was catered to tourists. Dancers and ukelele players would stand along the roads to let people know something was going on. 

They then came up with a great idea.  Have the tourists come down to the beach and pay to join in a Hukilau (fishing net pull).  The big nets would be swaying in the waters, full of fish, and the tourists would pay  ( I think it was 5$) to help pull the nets in!  Not only were the saints getting paid they were also having mainlanders do their heavy lifting!!  The Children of Laie would sell coconuts or dive for lobsters to help with the efforts.  

Then in 1948, popular songwriter Jack Owens visited the event and wanted to get in and help the cause. He wrote the popular Hukilau song and released it.  It was a success on the mainland and has been recorded by several notable artists since.  There was a dance made up to go along with the song as well....Long story short the saints in Laie were able to raise all the funds and more, so by the time their new building was constructed it was completely paid off. !  Talk about Divine providence.

Now...fast forward to the early 80s and my mother teaching our troop this song and dance.  She had no idea where it had come from, just that it was popular all over the island and the luaus etc.

So that was a fun little connection for me.

Next we head over to the PCC and had a reservation for lunch at POUNDERS.  This restaurant is on the grounds of PCC and (from their FB page) "Pounders restaurant is a Chef driven made from scratch restaurant on Oahu’s North Shore in the town of Laie. We are located at the entrance to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We feature the very finest in fresh, island-style dining. Our menu features Big Island Beef, local farm fresh produce, and fresh fish purchased daily. We also offer a wide variety of bakery items including: lilikoi and guava rolls, monster brownies, haupia bars, cookies, and a variety of cream pies and fresh cheesecakes all made fresh daily."

The current executive Chef of Pounders is none other than Graham Elliot, and if you are a huge Masterchef nerd like me, then you know that you definitely want to eat here!!

Can I just say I had the chef special, which was a sliced steak with fresh poke.  Seriously the best poke I have ever had IN MY LIFE!!!  Worth every stinking penny.  And that side salad with the passionfruit dressing (DROOL).  Dont have time for a meal?? Stop by their bakery and get one of their special GIANT brownies or cookies.

The PCC is open Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri and Sat 1245-9pm.  You can get there early and shop in their Hukilau marketplace, they will happily take your money!  

Welcome to the PCC.  This statue is the first thing you see through the doors. It talks about Hamana Kailili, the grandfather of the Shaka.

Dont stop right now to take a picture when it first opens, everyone will be crowded around it and you wont get a good photo. Wait until you come back out.

Despite being there all day we only saw about 3 of the villages in depth and blew through the other 3.  We splurged on our tickets went to the Royal Luau that night as well and finished off with HA: Breath of Life Fire show.

The Luau was very well organized and included music and dancing. You get a pina colada smoothie and flower lei too!!

After the Luau we went over the the outdoor theater where HA was being performed. There was no photography allowed, but it was amazing!!  It follows the story of a young man and woman and it follows them throughout their courtship and birth of their son. Their son grows up and it is his journey throughout life as told through the various Polynesian cultures and song and dance.  The last 20 minutes is one of the most exciting and breathtaking things I have ever seen. 

NEXT DAY:

Back up to Laie.  Finn FINALLY got his Spam Musubi .  Thats all he talked about the entire trip.  It was the ONE THING he wanted. He finally found some at a little place called L&L Hawaiian Barbecue.  He was a happy boy. 

We head back over to the PCC. The great thing about the PCC is that the tickets are now good to revisit within 3 days of initial visit! We were able to go back and hit some of the presentations we missed the first go round, and revisit a favorite (New Zealand), play games, take a ride through the lagoon, take a ukelele lesson and more. It was a jam packed day. Finn also finally got to take this photo...because he is Finn.

At the end of the day we head up to North Shore and went to a restaurant on the beach called The Beach House to finish our trip with a fabulous meal and watched a sunset from our table.

We head back to the BnB ,cleaned, and then packed up for an early departure the next morning.

Again we used Aloha Shuttle for return to the airport.

Aloha means hello, goodbye and love.  This aloha was goodbye, but we know we will be saying aloha(hello) again !!

And always aloha (love) for the amazing trip we were able to have.

2022 Oahu Adventure-travel day

This year we were super blessed to be able to take a family trip to Oahu!

 Back in August I received an email from Scotts Cheap Flights,  alerting me to a super great deal to the Hawaiian Islands.  I hemmed and hawed, and tried to decide just WHICH island to go to.  Charles and I had been to Kauai, and I knew we wanted to try a different island this go-round. By the time I actually got to book the flights, the deals were gone. (wah wah waaaahhhhh).  I promised myself, if I ever saw that email again I was going to jump on it.

Then in September my luck struck again.  Another email with even CHEAPER flights.  Charles happened to be in the next room, and I yelled to him "Hey I am booking tickets to Hawaii, where are we going?"

He asked how much and I said $275 round trip per person!! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT???

He said, "Well at that price I say we take Finn with us and go to Oahu, since there is so much history stuff to see that he would enjoy!"

Well you dont have to tell me twice. I had those tickets booked before he could even blink. (AND it was all 3 of us to Oahu for less than what used to be 1 normal price ticket!!) 

Now all we had to do was wait!!  Since Finn was coming with us and this would not be a "just us/romantic" vacation, we decided to find a place to stay that had 2 bedrooms, because I mean, what 18 year old wants to sleep in the same room as his mom and dad and have to go to bed when they do?

Well January finally rolled around and our first day was a LONG travel day.  When I booked the flight we left our home airport around 2pm and had a 1 hour layover in Seattle and then straight on to HNL.   

Due to flight cancellations and covid and all that other bull----, our original 1st leg was cancelled and rebooked with a different flight.  We were still through Seattle, but now we had a 4 1/2 hour layover! WOOF.  The flight to Honolulu itself in total was less than 7 hours,  but with the travel time, airport time, our new and (not) improved layover, we now had a very long day. All in all it was about 13 hours.

When we left our home it was a dry, snappy 25 degrees F.  Seattle wasnt much better. However when we reached Hawaii it was a toasty 80 degrees!! We walked out of the airport and a moist blast of warm air hit our faces. Finn immediately went "Woah, it's hot...I forgot what humidity felt like!"

I did manage a quick selfie so we could see the Aloha on the Airport sign, However it is difficult to get a good selfie with all three of us because Finn is so tall..and my arms are  not. 

Here is the airport tower without us blocking it.  It is the first thing you see as you depart the terminal and head towards baggage claim.  ALOHA!

COVID DETAILS:  With the covid restrictions in place, we did  upload our vaccine cards (or a negative 48 hour pre flight test result) to their safe travels website.  We were verified and sent a QR code to our phones for the quarantine exemption.  Once we reached Seattle (or to the final leg of your flight that goes into Hawaii), we took our QR code to the covid pre-check area in the airport. They scanned our code, verified our identity against our ID's and gave us a wristband so we could bypass the lines in Honolulu.   Once we arrived in HNL they waved through anyone with a wristband , and those who did not pre-check had to wait in line and show tests or vaccine cards.  Glad we took the extra steps to upload and get the wristband. 

We had prescheduled a shuttle with Aloha Airport Shuttle.  They were prompt, courteous, their van was clean and best of all they were friendly and affordable.  Highly recommend. 

We went to our Air BnB that I had rented for the week, up in the Palolo valley.  We wanted to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city (HNL) and I KNEW that I would have zero use for Waikiki, as it is a walking tourist trap.  I found this AMAZING little place on Air BnB, it was a renovated basement apartment, complete with kitchen, washer and dryer and all the other little perks.  PLUS he also rented us his SUV through Turo for 1/3 of what a car rental would have cost.  Our car was there ready and waiting for us at the house! 

The Palolo area of Oahu is up in the hills about 5 miles from downtown Honolulu, and it was far enough away to feel like paradise, but close enough that you weren't driving forever to do anything.   

Once we got to our Air BnB, we opened up the windows and let a gorgeous crossbreeze through and fell asleep listening to the sounds of crickets and birds. It was wonderful.

 

8 months until vacation!!

It has been booked. I am so excited!!
8 months until we leave!!
While looking online and reading reviews, I came across this cruiseline I hadnt heard of. MSC. It has been around since 1960 and is originally out of Italy/Mediterranean. It is the 4th largest cruise company in the world and the ships are the mega type luxury liners.  They have been in the US, competing in the US cruise market for a short time.  Reviews have been good, the price is right and we decided to take the plunge!

REASONS TO CELEBRATE:
20th wedding anniversary
Hubbs graduating his radiology program!
Pete-man turning 17!
Finn starting High School!

So for all those reasons and more I decided to indulge in a balcony room to boot!!

                                               So, WHERE ARE WE HEADED TO??
Ocho Rios Jamaica

Grand Cayman Islands

Cozumel Mexico

Nassau Bahamas

Cruising here we come!!

Now is the frantic time of saving money, of watching weight so we dont have any fatty fatty cruise photos, of making sure we can find passports!

Now is the time to start scouring tripadvisor and shoretrips and all those sites to figure out the best excursions and prices.

I cant even tell you how much I am looking forward to sun, sand and snorkeling!

This is going to be a crazy long 8 months. I can feel it.

Day 5 Part I Sedona Arizona

Woke up in Flagstaff to a drizzly day.  We headed out after breakfast and decided to make a quick run through Sedona.  I had been there before, but Charles hadnt.  It was only 30 miles there, (but south and out of the way) but I really wanted to drive through Oak Creek Canyon and for him to see it.  I Love Sedona, the quaint little artsy town, and the red rocks are hypnotizing.

We drove on 89A, a super winding, hairpin turn route that took us through Oak Creek Canyon. It was a thrilling, grip-the-steering-wheel-and pray type road. It took us through breathtaking mountains and into Sedona.
ALL photos were taken through the car window. It was really rainy and kind of gross outside to start the day.

We get into Sedona and just do a quick drove through. We didnt really stop, just took pictures.  Like I said it was a quickie side trip just so Charles could get a look. Next trip we will spend more time.

Yes that IS a McDonalds.  the golden arches are Green here. cool huh?

When we were done, we turned around and drove right back the way we had come, back through the canyon, back through the twisty hairpin turns of death and back to Flagstaff.  Next Stop Walnut Canyon National Monument.

Day 2 Bryce Canyon National Park

 GRAND STAIRCASE ESCALANTE and BRYCE CANYON

The next morning we awoke , excited to start our day and head out to Bryce Canyon. Now I had been to Bryce Canyon as a teenager twenty four(cough cough cough) years ago. At the time I dont think I quite appreciated the beauty and staggering awesomeness of this park.
Bryce Canyon has "HOODOO's".
Now, whats a HOODOO??  Hoodoo, in spiritual, magical terms means spell.
In geological terms it is a tall thin spire of rock, usually made of softer stone, topped by a harder stone.
In Bryce Canyon, both these terms come together.
To put it bluntly, these hoodoos have hoodooed us.  They were magical.
We decided to drive from Torrey down through scenic route 12, through Dixie National Forest, then Grand Staircase Escalante and into Bryce Canyon.  WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!
We started in the Dixie National forest near Torrey.

 lookout point in Dixie.

Hillsides were covered with the famous "Quivering Aspens". I imagine this is spectacular when they change colors in the fall.

We made our way through the forest and into the Grand Staircase Escalante Area. This was spectacular. Driving through the canyons, that you know took blood, sweat and tears of thousands of workers, along with thousands of pounds of dynamite.  This drive took us about 3 hours. We stopped off quite a bit at all the scenic turnouts and viewpoints. The actual mileage isnt a heck of a lot, and the speed limit is reasonable. But to get the full beauty, take your time.

small canyon we were driving through

photo opportunity

Dude, you're choking me.

After a brief Stop in Tropic UT to fuel up, and lemonade up, we finally made it to Bryce.  We took the advice of the Ranger and drove all the way in to the park to the very bottom and started our way back, viewing everything bottom to top.  We took a great hike (Bristlecone Loop) and had a picnic.

There are tons of these little chipmunks everywhere. They look cute, but dont feed them.

As we made our way back, we stopped off at all the various lookout points and stopoffs. It did, however start to storm at the very end, so the last 2 stops on our route were abbreviated.  But Bryce did not disappoint.  It was ...wow.

view from Bristlecone

before the tired grumpy set in

these are the thieving little beggars...

Bristlecone trail loop view

 More Views from Bristlecone...

Photos from other stopoff points:

never thought a crow could look so majestic...

selfie...

Ampitheater

Ampitheater

hoodoos are spellbinding!

driving to the hotel we drove through a rock. pretty cool.

Bryce Canyon was full of surprises. We just loved it.  I wish we  could have had another hour or two with no rain,  I am sure I could have found another 400 photos to take.