On the Road: Vegas

These pictures were taken from the safety of our locked car because Vegas is terrifying and disgusting.

Road Trip: Bishop Castle Part III

The look of actual fear.

Road Trip: Bishop Castle Part II

Road Trip: Roadside Attractions

Growing up my family and I would take 2-3 week road trips in the RV all around the U.S, the farthest North we went was Canada and the farthest east we went was Chicago all starting in Los Angeles. When you spend so much time traveling around the U.S. (much of which is an expanse of a whole lotta nothing (I’m looking at you Kansas) you develop a certain taste for Roadside attractions because if you don’t get out and stretch you might go crazy.
Because of this healthy love of roadside attractions I insisted that on our Red Rocks road trip we stop, or at least drive past many of the crazy “attractions” I found.

We got a little lost looking for this Life Size Brontosaurus Family in Santa Fe, New Mexico but I say it was worth it (Ben probably disagrees).

We didn’t stop at Buffalo Bill’s Casino in Primm, Nevada on this road trip but when I was a kid my family and I stopped here and I have a VERY vivid memory of that roller coaster. It was definitely the biggest one I had ever ridden at the time but the reason the memory is so vivd is because the seatbelt my mom and (7 year old ?) brother wasn’t working and my mom was hanging on to him for dear life so he would fly out from underneath the bar.  All in all the whole experience was terrifying for everyone.
Good times.

World’s largest Watermelon in Green River, Utah. This 8th wonder of the world was parked in the back of a parking lot in the tiny hamlet of Green River, it was 6/10 on the sketchy scale that day.

This is Herkimer, the Worlds Largest Beetle in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
We didn’t stop and say hi but I will always remember him.

World’s Oldest Largest Rocking Chair in Penrose, Colorado. Turns out there are many “worlds largest” rocking chairs in the U.S. but this one was the largest in 1990.

Giant Tee Pee in Lupton, Arizona.
This was another drive by mostly because I don’t need “genuine” Native American art made in China.

Hopi Travel Plaza Dinosaurs near Holbrook, Arizona along Route 66.
Turns out these dinosaurs are 40 years old.

Alfred Packer’s Grave in Littleton, Colorado. This particular “attraction” required a little more effort than the ones on the roadside but I couldn’t pass up the chance to see the grave of a convicted cannibal.

Road Trip: On the Road Part I

Way back in 2015 I was surprised with an amazing birthday road trip to
Red Rocks to see my Number 1 lady, Florence and the Machine.
I finally went through the photos.

The theme of the Southwestern United States is: Expanse.

Nevada:

 

Utah:

Colorado:

New Mexico:

Places I’ve Been: Fes, Morocco.

Bab Bou Jeloud, The Blue Gate

Morocco was probably one of the most overwhelming places I have been, I mostly remember it as a whirlwind of color, sound, smells, Arabic, French, and bottled water. We paid to sleep on roofs on rented mats under questionable blankets, we wandered the Medina’s with no plan and no understanding of the language…it was a real adventure.

On the plane we met a German who had a guide book and was willing to travel with us for a bit, with his help (basic knowledge of French) he got the taxi driver to drive us from the airport to the gate of the Medina, we ended up sleeping in a Hostel just inside the gate.

We woke up to the sound of the call to prayer (I wasn’t kidding about the roof)…

…and the sounds of the street vendors morning routines.

Street Life.

I only took my DSLR camera with a fish eye lens with me because I wanted to capture as much as I could as quickly as possible, I didn’t wan to be waving my big camera around making people uncomfortable or making myself more conspicuous as a red headed woman wearing pants and a t-shirt (I wore a pashmina around my neck the entire time).

An eight year old boy tried to hustle us on this roof after we made the mistake of wandering into a rug market.

Chouara Tannery is an 11th century tannery that is still in operation.

Day View from our roof.

Night View.

When I first moved to Germany my Mom asked that I didn’t go to Africa while I was there….Morocco was the first trip I booked when I had a chance to start travelling and I regret nothing. I would never trade the experiences I had in Morocco but If I were to do it again I would most definitely make a plan and do a little more research….and if you are a female planning on travelling to Morocco to wander the old Medina’s I would most definitely go with a man or at least two other women…it is not the most comfortable place for a single (or even two) woman who don’t blend in. [Most people are wonderful, but it’s the small percentage of people who decide that they don’t want to leave you alone that make it uncomfortable.]

TBT: Apple Picking

Back in October my family and I went out to New Jersey for my nephew’s baptism, on one of the days we were out there my sister, brother, brother in law, nephew, aunt and dog in law drove out to Warwick, New York for some apple picking.

I’m not real gung-ho about getting within 10 feet of a baby but I made an exception for this guy.

Five Pins for Saturday.

Some of my current top five favorite pins from the wonderful world of Pinterest on this beautiful Saturday.

Stina Persson’s Watercolor’s are inspiring me to actually try out watercolors.

This bench haunts my crafty dreams. 

Kelsie over at Cut Craft Create is inspiring me to make my own world map version of her personalized photos map from her paper anniversary.

Michael Badt’s Flickr photo stream of his adventure through the streets of Chefchaouen in Morocco makes me wish I had the chance to visit when I was there.

The ladies at My Sister’s Suitcase are reminding me that my love of sequins is not strange at all.

(None of these images are mine, they belong to their respective owners and you should definitely click through the images and discover some wonderful talent!)

Places I’ve Been: Ireland.

Ireland (Éire)
April 2011

In April 2011, I met my friend Kailey in Dublin, Ireland. I had only been at the hostel (after getting lost and taking bad directions from some random guy on the street) for a an hour or so before we (Kailey had some options) started planning out our Ireland adventure. We settled on a bus tour from Dublin to Galway. It was a wonderfully sunny couple of days and all of the pale red headed people were out en masse with ALL of the SPF.

Every mile or so there is an old stone castle circa: a long time ago.

I fed a lamb.

Moos.

Stone walls everywhere.

Poulnabrone Dolmen Megalithic Tomb.

Majestic Cliffs of Moher.

A castle and Dublin.

Galway.

Galway.

Dublin.

Kailey and I avoided the fee to go inside Christ Church Cathedral by attending Mass.

Places I’ve Been: Catalina Pt. 2

Welcome to part 2 of my grand Catalina post. Like I said the other day we spent a majority of our time in the bustling metropolis of Avalon. The weather was perfect, despite having to outrun a winter storm to get to the island, but we got the clear days where you could see straight to the mountains on the main land….ugh take me back.

Big city life.

Our chariot arrived via the sky.

Via Casino Way to the Casino…all of the childhood memories.

Catalina Tile.

I want vacation forever.