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Travel Blogs Travelsake runs

• Our June 2017 trip to the Mighty 6! - Utah's Mighty 5 National Parks and the Grand Canyon
• My Previous Adventures - I'm using this blog to get map pins in place for all my previous trips. Totally ignore the red lines! They in no way represent the "path" of my travels.
• Our Family Vacation to Alaska - We're heading back to Alaska, this time with the kids. We're going to fly into Anchorage, rent a car and head to Seward for a glacier/whale watching cruise. Then we'll continue driving to see the beautiful scenery, including Kenai Fjords glacier and Exit glacier, with a stop in Talkeetna. Then it's on to Denali for more exploring for a few days before heading to Valdez for more glacier/whale watching cruising. The trip ends with an excursion via float plane to Kodiak Island to see salmon jumping into bear's mouths as they swim upstream to lay eggs.
• Our Family Vacation to Belize - Santa's going to have to find us in the rainforest! We're spending 5 nights at Black Rock Lodge, a unique eco-lodge nestled in the dense rainforest above the Macal River in the Mayan Mountains of Belize. Then we're ringing in the new year at the beach. We're spending another 5 nights at Coco Beach Resort, a luxurious place nestled on the island of Ambergris Caye.
• Our Family Vacation "back" to Florida - We're returning to Florida, this time to relax on Cocoa Beach and to check out Universal Studios. The kids can NOT wait to visit Harry Potter land (secretly, neither can I!!).
• My Aruba Adventure - Bill and I are taking a quick, relaxing vacation to the sandy beaches of Aruba. Plans are to do a snorkel trip, take a 4-wheel run out to some natural pools and spend a lot of time relaxing on the beach!
• My Australian Adventure - To celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary Bill and I spent three weeks in Australia exploring the areas in and around Sydney, Melbourne, and Cairns. There isn't actually much "blogged" about in this blog, as I'm putting it up years after we went, mainly just to post some pictures about our trip for people who wanted to see it.
• My Costa Rican Adventure - A 10-day Costa Rican adventure. My husband, Bill, and I split our time between exploring the rainforest in the Osa Peninsula and going on adventures in the Arenal Volcano area . Disclaimer: The photos in this blog may be bad and blurry. We borrowed a digital Nikon SLR camera (at that time we only had a little automatic digital camera and wanted something sharper and with more range). Well, the Nikon wasn't working right! Autofocus would sometimes work, sometimes not, pictures weren't coming out clear, etc and we ended up coming home with a bunch of crappy pictures. So view at your own risk.
• My Thailand Adventure - This trip was a SURPRISE birthday present from my husband, Bill. He did it all; booked airfare, hotels and planned tons of fun excursions and plenty of massages. And kept it all a secret. Thanks honey!!
• My African Adventure - We are heading on a three week African adventure for our 20th wedding anniversary. We're starting with a two week safari around Tanzania followed up with some endangered silverback gorilla trekking in Uganda. It all starts with a night in Arusha before heading out to Tarangire for a couple of days. From there we'll go to the Lake Manyara area and hope to see some animals at this popular watering hole. Then it's down to the Ngorongoro Crater to check out the wildlife there. We'll then head to the Central and Northern Serengeti to hopefully see some river crossings. After that we're flying to Rwanda for some monkey viewing and then driving to Uganda for trekking in the jungle to find the endangered Silverback Gorillas.
• Our Family Vacation to South Dakota - We're taking our first family driving trip with the kids to South Dakota. We're staying in a cabin in the mountains, in Hill City. It's about an 800 mile trip, so we'll be stopping off to spend a night in Sioux Falls both ways to give the kids (okay, really us) a break from the car. Of course, no trip out west would be complete without a stop at the Corn Palace and Wall Drug, and we also plan to stop through the Badlands on the way. Then once there we'll see Mt. Rushmore, do some horseback riding, pan for gold, check out Custer State Park, drive through Bear Country and whatever other exciting adventures we can find. Just a note that I didn't originally blog this trip, so I'm going back from memory, 10 months later, and updating it. Therefore, descriptions will be vague for some things, and I can't remember the exact dates we did certain things. Oh well ;o)
• Our Family Vacation to Tennessee - We're taking another road trip with the kids, this time to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. To break up the 800 mile trip, we'll be spending a night in Louisville, KY. I cannot wait to eat lunch at Tom and Chee! Once in Tennessee, we're staying in a gorgeous log home in Gatlinburg, and plan to explore the surrounding area. Besides hiking around the mountains, we have plans to go rafting, horseback riding, zip-lining, and ride in a monster truck.
• Our Family Vacation to Florida - We're heading to Orlando, Florida for a week of Mickey!! That's right, it's the kids first trip to Walt Disney World, and we're going to try to keep it a surprise until we get on the plane (or probably until we get to the airport when they figure it out). It's a week of nothing but the Disney World parks: Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. Although, we are staying in a 3-bedroom rental home with a private enclosed, heated pool, so when we need a little break from all things Disney, we can go swimming. We've got lots of little special things planned and the kids don't know about any of it. Monday we're doing Cinderella's Royal Table and dining with Cinderella and her princess friends in her castle for lunch. Wednesday we're eating breakfast with the characters from Disney Jr. at Hollywood & Vine. And Friday, the thing I'm most excited for!, we are heading to Pirate's League to all get made up like pirates, then we are boarding a ship for the Pirate's and Pals Fireworks Voyage, where we get to watch the Wishes Fireworks floating around the lagoon. I've gotten a little carried away trying to come up with cool Disney trinkets to surprise the kids with each morning we are there. I found some Disney character chapstick and hand sanitizers; I also got Disney temporary tattoos and nail art. I made up the kids Disney journals with pages for each park and activity that they can write about, I had passport books made up for stamping at the countries in Epcot, and I found some little Disney notebook/pen sets for writing. I also found cute little Disney photo frames to put their favorite vacation picture in. And I made personalized invites for the character breakfast, lunch and pirate voyage to be left by their bedroom doors the morning of those surprises. I think we're about set!
• Our Family Vacation to Wyoming - We're heading off on another family road trip, this time to see the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. I've never been to either and can't wait! This will be our longest drive yet, so I'm hoping we don't all go crazy before even arriving. We'll start out the first day driving 733 miles to Wall, South Dakota where we'll spend the night at a hotel across the street from the famous Wall Drug. Then we'll get up and head out for the remaining 570 miles to Moran, Wyoming. It's also the hardest trip yet to find lodging for. We usually just rent a house for the week, but that isn't an option for this trip unless we want to stay an hour away. So we're doing hotels and cabins to be closer to the park. Also, since it's such a large area to see, instead of staying put in one place we'll be spending only a couple of nights in each area so we can explore most of the park.