A Summary of My 2016 Travel Adventures

At the beginning of every new year I like to look back at the previous year and review my favorite outfits, and remember all the home, garden, and crafting projects I took on, and also all our travel adventures.  Our travel adventures is always my favorite to review because I remember such happy times.  I also think one tends to forget vacations so quickly, so it's nice to go back and look at pictures and re-live them through memories.

Here is where I traveled this year!

This year was the first time in probably over thirty years where I traveled by plane alone.  I must admit, I had a lot of anxiety about it.  So did my husband.  He said over and over again "Just come back to me!"  He was so afraid I would die in a plane crash.  I don't know why.  But, I made it to Florida safely and back, and it was a really good experience for me to do that all by myself.  I went to Florida for two weeks to see my son and daughter.  We had so much fun and crammed so much into that two week period is was ridiculous!  Here are some of the highlights of that trip:

                                       Florida Adventures

Cape Canaveral National Seashore

Cape Canaveral was one of my favorite Florida beaches.  I love the natural setting and the absence of the typical tourist stuff you see on most beaches.

The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter

Seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was one of the highlights of this vacation.  I've never been much of a Harry Potter fan until I went here...now I'm a Harry Potter fan fanatic!

Disney Springs

Disney Springs is such a beautiful place to spend an evening.  

The 16th Annual Orlando Wetlands Festival

Hands down our favorite activity of this trip was the Orlando Wetlands Festival.  It was one of the happiest days of my life.  My son loved it so much he wants to " ...go back and take Dad!"  I don't know if that will ever be possible as it is only one day during the year, but who knows?  Maybe when he retires someday?

Cocoa Beach

Even though Cocoa Beach is probably my least favorite beach in Florida, it was still fun to see all the "I Dream of Jeannie" memorabilia and the cruise ships.

Mead Botanical Gardens

Mead Gardens was a bit rustic, but we sure enjoyed the pre-historic size palms!  Plus, I captured this great photo of my son.

The Albin Polasek Museume and Sculpture Gardens

This was such a beautiful and tranquil garden!

Harry P. Leu Gardens

We loved the giant bamboo in the Harry P. Leu Gardens.

Kraft Azalea Park

The magic of Kraft Azalea Park was beautiful

My children have since moved back to Illinois and even though everyone says it's nice to have them closer to home again, I am going to miss going to Florida.  I absolutely love that beautiful state!

In 2016 I only took two "big" vacations...my solo trip to Florida and our road trip out west, but we had a lot of fun weekend adventures.

In February we went to Minneapolis to see the Broadway Tour of "Newsies".  We rented a hotel room and had a wonderful romantic night.  You can read about that adventure HERE.


Easter arrived early this year, and we did our usual trek to Milwaukee to see our home church's Easter Musical.  We also visited with our lifelong friends Kirk and Shannon and enjoyed a movie in a historic theatre!  You can read all about that fun weekend HERE.

We also went to Stillwater, Minnesota in the spring to hunt for treasures for my new beauty room!

The month of May brought our biggest road trip ever:  3500 miles to Las Vegas, Nevada!  We spent three days in Vegas, but had a lot of fun on the way there and back too!

Our first stop was in Glenwood Springs, Colorado where we enjoyed hot springs for the first time in our lives.  You can read about that experience HERE.

After checking into our hotel in Fruita, Colorado for the night, we took a stroll on top of Dinosaur Hill.


But perhaps our favorite part of this trip was just the jaw-dropping scenery to get there!  Read all about our adventures of driving Scenic 1-70 West HERE.

In Vegas we enjoyed our stay at the Flamingo Hotel, shopped till we dropped, saw Celine Dion in concert, admired all the flowers and gardens,  and walked around the strip admiring all the lights.

We took a fun bus trip from Vegas to see the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon West.



On the way home from Las Vegas we stopped at Arches National Park where we hiked one of the most difficult trails of our lives, yet found this park one of the most beautiful places on earth!

And our final day of this amazing road trip was spent in Vail, Colorado;  one of the prettiest mountain towns I ever did see!  I felt I was in Europe, not America!





In July we went tent camping with the kids for five whole days!  We saw lots of waterfalls at Copper Falls State Park, Amnicon Falls State Park and Pattison State Park, The Black River National Scenic Byway,  and we visited the cities of Ashland,  Bayfield, and Hayward.



I also attending my very first Blogger Meet-Up with Karen from "She Thought She Could So She Did" in Minnehaha Park, Minnesota




In late summer my husband and I had a blast at the Minnesota State Fair and Wildwoods Wildlife Zoo!



This year we had an unusually long and warm fall, so we took advantage of it and went hiking somewhere every weekend.

We went to Hoffman Hills State Recreation Area

Wildcat Mountain

We combined a convention in St. Paul, Minnesota with a visit to Vermilion Falls Park on the way home.

On our second attempt, we successfully hiked Barn Bluff in Red Wing, Minnesota

And we visited the sweet historic town of Galena, Illinois (post coming next week!)

We don't travel as much during the winter because of winter road conditions and we also can't leave our house longer than one day or it freezes up (we heat with wood).  But we were able to visit the kids for a couple of days during Thanksgiving Week (Jackson's First Car Trip) and we made our annual trip to the Mall of America where I got lots of new goodies including my first pair of OTK boots!

As always, as I complete this post I feel extremely grateful.  Many of you know we had planned to take more vacations this year but had to cancel them due to an unplanned medical bill (thanks ObamaCare!  Looking forward to the GOP "Repealing and Replacing" it).  So instead of taking long vacations in far away places we did a lot more locally and a lot of weekend trips.  It's been not only fun, but I've discovered things in my own neck of the woods I didn't even know existed.

I'm really looking forward to 2017 and a lot more opportunities to travel.  We already planned our spring vacation and we got a ocean front room on Myrtle Beach for five days and we will also be swinging through Charleston on the way home.  We still hope to take that vacation out west to see Mt. Rushmore and maybe we will make it back to Branson and elsewhere too.... we'll see!  Here's to good health and no more medical bills!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

The Black River National Scenic Byway: Sandstone Falls

This is a continuation of a series of travel posts of a camping trip I took with my family back in July.  To start at the beginning, go HERE.  The rest of the posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Sandstone Falls was the last waterfall we had to visit on the Black River National Scenic Byway, and it ended up being one of our favorites.

It all started with a beautiful walk through a lush green forest.

It started to drizzle just a bit, so Ashley pulled out her beautiful rainbow umbrella giving me a great photo opportunity.

The walk from the parking lot to the falls is only 1/4 of a mile, but like most of the other falls in the area, it had a lot of stairs.

Sandstone Falls is a fun waterfall because you can get out and play in it and feel fairly safe.  It meanders over rocks, so you can jump from boulder to boulder and even wade a bit in certain areas.

It's bordered on either side by gorgeous, lush, evergreens.

Sandstone Falls drops a total of 25 feet in two sections, a five foot initial drop and a twenty foot second drop.  Sandstone Falls is named for the sandstone rocks along the riverbed that the water has cut channels through.

My son had a great time playing in this waterfall for it was the most accessible of all the waterfalls we saw on the Black River National Scenic Byway.

What a surprise it was finding these pretty daisies growing happily in this rocky area.

I enjoyed these falls for I could find a comfortable a spot to sit and enjoy the view and not worry about my husband or son doing something stupid and getting hurt.   See me sitting on the first rock formation with Ashley and Jason in the distance?

The next day we decided we had enough of woods and water and wanted to enjoy a day in civilization.  Read more about our day in Bayfield, Wisconsin in next week's travel post.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE and Travel Tuesday!

The Black River National Scenic Byway: Rainbow Falls

This is a continuation of a series of travel posts of a camping trip I took with my family back in July.  To start at the beginning, go HERE.  The rests of the posts, in chronological order, are HERE, HERE, and HERE.

After we enjoyed our picnic lunch and spent some time on the beach of Lake Superior, we headed back down Black River Road to see more waterfalls.  Our next waterfall on the road, which is actually the last waterfall on the road, was Rainbow Falls.  We would hit this falls next before finishing the day with Sandstone Falls (next week's travel post).

Now, Rainbow Falls has two trails you can take to reach it.  One which is off Black River Road, and the quickest way to reach,  and the other which begins back at Black River Harbor.  We didn't take that one because we knew we'd be driving right past it on the way out.  However, in hindsight, we wish we would have taken that trail because you get better views of the falls from the opposite side of the river.  Your view is obstructed from the trail we took.

There are lots of steps again to reach the viewing decks of Rainbow Falls,  200 to be exact!

But the steps are certainly worth it for the views are gorgeous.  It's about a half mile walk from the parking lot to the falls.

Of course my husband and son always live life dangerously and leave the viewing decks and trails to explore further.

 Even Jason and Ashley were more adventurous than I.  Ashley climbed up the rock (the one that obstructs your view) to get this picture of the falls.

My husband and son walked way above the falls to get this shot.  So I guess your view isn't so obstructed from this side of the river if your willing to leave the trail and viewing decks.

Remember the picture above of Ashley perched on the rock?  Well here she is, along with Jason, as seen from the other side.   I have no idea how my hubby got down there to take this picture.  I was sitting obediently and safely on a bench on the viewing deck.

 There is a smaller deck closer to the bottom of the falls that gets you closer to the water.

My son Jordan standing above Rainbow Falls.

And here is the "obstructed view" of rainbow falls as seen from the viewing deck.  There is a rock right next to the falls and viewing deck and you have to peer around it to see the falls.

So why is it called "Rainbow Falls" you wonder?  Because the waterfall creates much mist, which on a sunny day creates a constant rainbow.  But unfortunately we were there on a cloudy day so we did not see any rainbows.

I read three different versions of how high these falls are, so I'm not sure which one is correct. One said that the height of these falls is 30 feet and the crest varies depending on water level.  The other said it had a 45 foot drop, and yet another said a 20 foot drop.  I have absolutely no idea why everyone had a different measurement.  I've never encountered that before!

My son ventured off the trail to get to the base of the falls.  This picture was taken looking down at him from one of the viewing decks.

Here he is again, peering back at us before he goes off exploring beneath the falls.  I think I called out to him to be careful, or to come back, not that he would listen anyway. :)

Next week I will finish our day in the on The Black River National Scenic Byway with a post on the last falls we visited:  Sandstone Falls.

Until then, Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE and Travel Tuesday!