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Paris: Our Trip & Tips
It didn’t begin with a lifelong goal of seeing the Eiffel Tower. It started with an email alert. “Low cost fairs from Asheville to Paris” It was an update from my Going account – the same account that helped me take my London to London for her graduation gift last year. It was back in October and the flight was too good to pass up and those truly amazing deals go lightning fast so I didn’t waste any time. I looked around my house and said, “Who wants to go to Paris with me? This is not a required family vacation. This is a spontaneous(ish) opportunity and if you want…
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Guatemala: Day Two
(Will you be patient with me if these posts take weeks?) It’s another senior season of BUSY. My first baby boy is about to graduate and I cannot allow myself to spend too much time pondering that just yet. And, if you’re counting, that leaves only TWO kids in high school. Our numbers game is weird lately. Back to Guatemala though …. You read about the first day here. I promise I won’t do an eight day play by play. Well, I don’t PROMISE. But – we’ll see. When we left Antigua to make the second part of our journey to where our main stay would be at San Juan…
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Guatemala: Day One
It seems I’ve hardly stopped moving since our plane ride from Guatemala ended and London picked us up late that night at the Greenville airport. (Pretty sure I sat behind Pedro Pascal on one of our flights. I mean, okay. I’m not pretty sure. I’m just pretend sure. It looked like him. Sort of. I can’t explain why he’d be flying economy with me, but not all choices are explainable.) I’ve wanted time to think about my experiences – time to let all that we saw and all that we did and all that I thought to filter through. And maybe it has. The truth is that time is simply…
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The Deal With Me & Low Cost Flights
I love a deal. And I love an adventure. It seems I find myself talking about this website where I find both an awful lot so I figured a post about it was maybe overdue. Going is a website. It’s like a clearinghouse for low-cost flight deals. You do not purchase any tickets directly from Going. Here’s what you do: You create a profile and then choose a home airport. If you want to try the free version, you can pick up to five airports. The Premium version gives you up to ten airports. The Elite version offers unlimited airports, mistake fare deals and first class rates. Once you sign…
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a little this, a little that
I wouldn’t actually want to live a life that went in a steady straight line. Steady straight lines aren’t really my thing. But this month – this past week – I’ve been bumping and trotting along a hundred little paths. Here are some of those paths and where they’ve been leading: I’m working with two very talented local artists to create a mural on the side of a building in Travelers Rest. I’ve long wanted to bring some new art to the streets of TR. I’m no artist and actually painting a mural would not register in my skillset. But organizing and promoting and gathering the right folks together –…
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On the Road: Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies
This month we touched a jellyfish, walked underneath a hammer head shark swimming right along above us and stood in awe at the weirdly awesome body of the sea horse dragon. And oh yes, we saw an octopus. I heart aquariums. (I also heart honesty and I’ll do my best to keep you guys informed – so, you should know that this post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the links, I’ll receive compensation.) We spent a week in the Tennessee mountains earlier this month and had the incredible opportunity to visit Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in downtown Gatlinburg and…
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Flying With Kids: Why You Can And Should Do It
Flying with kids. Does that fragment of a sentence send shivers down your spine? Do you get all panicky at the prospect of boarding a giant metal flying machine and flitting across time and space with your squirmy children all cooped up and contained in one small gray square of a space for hours on end? No? Good. Great. Flying with kids does not have be scary. Flying with kids means one really cool thing – NOT driving with kids. Flying means faster to the destination. Flying means no traffic stops and bathroom breaks and fast food binges. You should fly with your kids. For real. And – flying with…
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Spend a Day in Flat Rock, North Carolina
(This post originally appeared on Kidding Around Greenville’s website.) I love the town of Flat Rock every time of year, but Flat Rock in the fall is just about the best. If you have a day to spend during this autumn season, you should choose to spend it in the mountains of North Carolina. _____________________ Flat Rock, North Carolina. It’s smaller than an amusement park, but it’s loads more fun. Just over the mountain, a short drive north of Travelers Rest, it’s an easy, beautiful drive. It’s a perfect place to spend a day – especially in the fall. First Stop: Flat Rock Village Bakery Opens at 7 a.m. Buy a scone, a muffin or…
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Field Trip: Eliada Corn Maze
The best part about writing for the local website Kidding Around Greenville has been embracing the opportunity to explore our own adventures right here where we live. Looking for article ideas for them has given me fresh eyes for discovering cool spots across the mountains in North Carolina and right here in our town too. Last week the kids and I made our favorite over-the-hill drive (I just can never get enough of those mountains, no matter the season) to Asheville to a well known annual corn maze that I had only heard about but had never visited. Eliada is an organization in Asheville that is doing really fabulous things for…
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Tricks of the Trade: Storing Our Souvenirs
This summer’s Prairie Adventure is crashing in at our door. blink. blink. And the car will be loaded and we will be on our way. (I only wish packing a car for a two week trek was that painless. I really do.) Last year I saw this idea on Pinterest and I snagged it for last spring’s Harbor Island vacation. First, I purchased a plain wooden suitcase-looking box at Hobby Lobby. (It was only about $6 with my 40% off coupon. Man, I love that store.) Next, I painted the box. Harbor Island’s box has a yellow coat. Then we packed the box in the car and took it along on…
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More Kids Than Adults: Lessons Learned
I haven’t been home for a full week. Seven days. Seven nights. It’s July. And in our framily July means one thing. The annual July Fourth party. A tradition at least twenty years in the making. And – oh boy – will I have a lot of things to say about this past week. Here’s the first . . . Lots of us slept at the farm house. The grand total was something like this – 5 adults. 9 kids. (And some days held more children drifting in and out.) The point is – the adults were outnumbered. The kids could have thrown a coup and forced us to feed…
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there & back
It is always late when I write this blog. And I am usually sleepy. But I might be even more sleepy than usual. Because I’ve been adventuring – you know? Against all odds, my pal and former college roomie Beth and I met together in the mountains of North Carolina for some Girl Adventures. I feel confident that I will revisit this experience in future posts, when I am less sleepy and it is less late. I happened to arrive at our rustic-chic resort before Beth and I found myself with some things I am not very familiar with. Alone time. Silence. Freedom of choice. (I know I will delve…
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a little bit of this
Honestly, I am just a little bit too busy right now to complete a full post tonight. What with a little bit of this in the morning and some of this in the afternoon and maybe a game or two of this in the evening. But don’t worry. This adventure ends soon and I will be back with all the details of said adventure. So until then hold your horses.
