Happy New Year!
So I made it through another fab trip with my mom, Edinburgh and Glasgow were amazing! I do wish we could have taken that tour we originally signed up for but we still managed to see and do a lot. We used the heck out of those hop on/hop off buses. I can't say enough about how well they run in Scotland. I remember using the London buses a ton as well. It helps get you around to all the sites and the view from the top deck is always good. I will post more about our trip later (probably six months later, ha ha!) Here is a shot of my mom in London visitng Zeus the cat we see every year we stay at this studio apartment:
Our Utah adventure continued: This year we decided to drive around and see Canyonlands as well. I have never been to a National Park that wasn't well thought out, beautiful in the design of the visitor center, well run and organized. Gosh! If you haven't been to a National Park in this country (please skip the disneylands and theme parks), I highly recommend it. Canyonlands was no exception!
Getting ready for a two week trip with my mom to London (ahem) and Scotland (yay!!) This Sept travel tradition has been wonderful for my mom, who is dealing with mild dementia and I have enjoyed the process of researching/planning with her throughout the year. Wishing we could bring the rest of the family along, but it is so expensive even with just the two of us. Last year we added Paris to the mix and somewhere in the middle of all the steps and cobblestones, my mom threw her cane away and started hoofing it for real. Something changed in her for the better and I am happy to say she is still moving around easily. Originally we had signed up for a tour but it fell through (not enough people signed up for that week and I couldn't switch work around to go a different week) so we pieced a short trip up to Scotland from London ourselves. I think we will have a blast no matter what, we always find a way to laugh and amaze ourselves and get lost and then found. Traveling with a parent as a middle aged "kid" (yes I guess I am!) has it's quirks, for one I sometimes snap at my mom like she is one of my kids and then realize, oops! I am the kid, she is the mom (she lets me know by just one look) but hey, I am in "mom mode" and it's hard to switch back and forth sometimes. I will post on the blog if I can during the trip, when traveling with my mom we tend to turn in early and I get tons of uninterupted reading/computer time. Hoping to get this blog put into book form (I have only the first 6 months of it so far) but what a task that will be! Every year I wonder if this will be the last and then panic all will be lost somehow. We'll see...
and miles and miles of wetlands!
yep, we finally did it. disneyworld. hmmmm. where to start? having grown up down the street from disneyland, i have to say that disneyworld was always some kind of dreamy far far away type place i would never ever see, too far and too expensive, not worth it. as a kid though, EVERYONE wanted to go to disneyworld, it was epic!! such a mystery though, even when i researched it online, i couldnt really grasp what it was going to be like? when we went to eurodisney (in paris) i remember it feeling like a tinier, edited disneyland. very cool, but not as big and just slightly "off" like you were in a dream or twilight episode. for some reason i had a hard time with the disneyworld website, it confused me and i didnt know if it was one big campus linked by, i dont know, trains or trolleys? why did people say to "stay on site" what did that mean? lucky for me, my sister in law is in the military and she booked us rooms at "shades of green" a resort hotel "on campus" so to speak. once we arrived there and drove into what is the "disneyworld campus" i could see how it was organized. basically it is four parks with roads and large patches of green space between each. there is epcot, the animal park, hollywood disney studios and magic kingdom. for those of you familiar with disneyland here is the comparison: magic kingdom is everything you have seen in disneyland (pirates of the carribean, small world, space mountain etc), the animal park is like a wild animal park with a few roller coasters and areas for little kids to ride smaller rides (it is dinosaur themed), epcot is like a tour of the world and future (similar to california adventure with some of the same rides) and the disney studios is like the hollywood studio area of california adventure. ok, so this is what my opinion is: it is nice to be able to tackle each park one day on a 4 day hopper pass BUT in about 5 hours you basically have seen all the major rides and attractions, leaving you with hours and hours of shopping time. no thanks. all four parks have massive areas of shopping which annoyed me to death. oh and downtown disney? yep, another HUGE shopping area to waste more money. Magic Kingdom was laid out much like disneyland but edited and smaller, just like the euro disney. no matterhorn and things like the small world ride were not housed in the elaborate building with facade you expect to see. it was similar (and adjacent to) the peter pan ride. ok, so yes we had a blast and yes we managed those fast passes to reduce our wait times, but i could have done with a little less shopping. i am sure really hardcore disney fans want to buy everything mickey mouse they can get, but i just wasnt into it. during our disney week we spent one day at the kennedy space center, worth every penny. it was so well done and we saw lots of foreigners from all over the world enjoying themselves. i was so proud of how well it was organized and how they shuttled you around to different displays all over the center. the information was presented in a very creative and innovative way that inspired me to think about the space past and future in a way i havent in a long time if ever. if you are doing a whole week in orlando, by all means break up the disneyworld time with a tour of the kennedy space center, you wont be disappointed!!
i was expecting heat but i'll tell you, in august it was hot hot hot! our trip started in north carolina (flying into raleigh) with a few days at the beach. we then took a drive down to "middleton place" in south carolina and another quick stop in savannah before landing in orlando for a week at disneyworld. middleton place was a wonderful surprise as it is a working plantation/farm which showcases local fresh food in it's restaurant. just walking the grounds was amazing and we spent most of our time there just walking around. i first read about the place in a sue monk kidd book (love it when something i read about finds it's way into a trip).
Where have i been? yikes! Another year of Camp Shiwaka has passed, this is the 7th year my first Camp Fire group has attended camp together with me as leader (actually one year I lead the Rocket Cats... but we were still all together). Next year my girls will be Day Camp Aides, wow! Where has the time gone? Each Spring we sign up again for the following year and I was so happy that all my girls signed up again for yet ANOTHER year!! Here are some highlights:
We took a trip to Utah over spring break, I hope to have a full post on that trip with lots of photos. One of my favorites was this one:
I am back to work, feeling the stress of a busy schedule again, ugh! we are finally getting our living room painted, it's more like a major restoration project and costing a small fortune. i am super excited and enjoy the progress. it is a bit of a mess though, kicking my OCD into top gear. since i had to work this weekend the kids went to the desert with their dad and cousins, here's a few shots sent to me:
having a few more days off, i was ablet to FINALLY go through my iphotos and fix many of the goof ups that happened when i tried to put all of my photos from my old comuter onto the new. for some reason i had random duplicates all over the place, probably 1/3 of my storage taken up by this goof. i still haven't finished, but i have put a dent into it. along the way i came across lots of fun photos so i thought i'd do a little time warp for 2013:
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