A Mother/Teen Daughter Travel Blog
A few weeks ago, we attended the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show at The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Having never been to a travel show, we really didn’t know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised by the enormous amount of diverse exhibits featuring incredible destinations we have yet to explore in the world. The sheer size and energy inside the arena was exhilarating!
Unlike my mom who views winter as the season of sadness and hybernation, I view it as a glorious time of year. Yes, the nights are loooooooong, the days are short, and it can be painfully freezing, but in my opinion these fifteen reasons to love winter far outweigh any negatives:
Two years ago this February, my mom started an Instagram account. When my brothers and I found out,we were a bit upset to say the least. Ok, seriously pissed off. There was no way she was going to be creeping on us. Moms and other old people should know their place… Facebook. Go tell the world how to make precious Pinterest Pumpkin napkin rings, or brag about the money saving organic, gluten free, vegan mangoes you found at Trader Joes. Anything! Just stay the beeeeep away from Instagram! Everyone knows Instagram is solely for those 25 and younger. It’s clearly written in the Millennium Code Book for dummies.
Hi All. It’s Brooke!
Over winter break, we took a Central American Cruise on Carnival Magic. Our first port happened to be Cozumel on Christmas Day. Choosing an excursion, we didn’t want to do something super crazy because we wanted to keep the entire family together and make it as stress free as possible, so we decided on spending the day at Paradise Beach.
One of our excursions during our Christmas Carnival Cruise 2017 was to the Central American country of Belize. We narrowed down our excursion choices to cave tubing, scuba diving or hiking the Mayan ruins. Last year, we snorkeled in caves in Riviera Maya so cave tubing was voted off the list. While scuba diving at the Great Blue Hole sounded remarkable, being novices, we’ve really been planning on a full scuba instructional vacation, and furthermore, the phrase “heavily inhabited with sharks” left the Mayan ruins as a fine selection. Besides, we already had water based excursions planned for Honduras and Mexico.
For Christmas this year, we decided to trade in the cold and snow for the tropics and set sail on a Carnival Cruise. (Itinerary coming in future post) Since we had a wide range of age groups traveling, we figured a cruise would meet everyone’s needs. Don’t get me wrong, we had a spectacular time–laughs, wonderful memories , quality time together, etc. However, upon reflecting if we’d cruise again during the holidays, or anytime for that matter, this is still left undecided.
Christmas.
Forty-seven years celebrated exactly the same– same family members; same neighbors; same hand made ornaments each telling a nostalgic tale, same trivial meal preparation squabbles; same Christmas Eve Mass…sacred traditions created with love and family bonding for almost half a century.
So what happens when you lose an integral part of that tradition?
As Thanksgiving approaches, we are thinking of all the blessings we are so grateful for–family, friends, our faith, freedom, health, education…our gratitude list could wrap around the globe–but what we are extremely thankful for this year, is the “world” itself; we are grateful for being bitten by the travel bug and having the desire to see every corner of this awe-inspiring planet!
Talk about an epic weekend! Hi everyone. It’s Brooke. I just got back from the most incredible weekend in San Francisco and want to share our adventures with you. I’m not saying we hit everything on our list because we didn’t come close, but we certainly tried to get as much in as possible.
This past weekend we headed up to Door County, Wisconsin for our very first time. For years, I’ve heard colleagues and friends talk about how wonderful Door County is, and I honestly never had it on my radar until recently. Spending a good portion of this past summer in Michigan, it was only respectful to give Wisconsin a fair shake, so I began asking around, researching and crafting a weekend itinerary that turned out to be more than we could have ever hoped for!
Pedis-n-Passports 