2011 – Day 3

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Travel Spirit

This morning I made us an omelet, 12-grain toast, strawberries, blueberries and banana for breakfast. We drove 1 1/2 hrs. to the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was driving and after we paid the $15 entrance fee, there was another somewhat “scary” mountain road to traverse before arriving at the top where the Park was located.

We waited in line for about 30 minutes for tickets to the Cliff Palace and then went to the Museum for a 20 minute video about the Park. We then toured Spruce Tree House. This is the walk down to it…

After eating our picnic lunch, we were ready for the 1:30pm tour of Cliff Palace. It almost looks like a miniature reproduction…

The tour guide was very friendly and made the tour interesting…

We had to climb some ladders…

We got back to Durango at 4pm…explored the town some…ran into Oprah…(not really)…

This is a Hummingbird Moth…at first I thought it was a Hummingbird!

We had dinner at Francisco’s, which was very good. Next stop was the Balcony Bar & Grill, where there was live music and very strong drinks! We had a long island, which we nicknamed “After Mesa..Got Verde Wasta”. This is the duo…it looks like she’s naked, but she’s not!

It was another great day!!

Positive Energy Adventure – Colorado/New Mexico 8/2011 – Day 2

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Travel Spirit

We got out of bed about 6am…had a leisurely cup of coffee and breakfast…then drove a few miles towards Silverton, Colorado to the Molas Trail, which is part of the Colorado Trail. It was recommended by the couples we met at our Resort. We hiked part of the 8 mile round trip trail that descends to the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Train.

After hiking, we drove the 20 something miles (1 hour drive time) to Silverton on the million dollar, mountain road. Kathy did the driving…because for some reason (probably a combination of factors…caffeine and altitude) I was very jumpy and nervous. The town of Silverton is cute…

We had lunch at the Brown Bear Cafe, which was recommended by a local. It was tasty!

We drove back towards Durango and stopped at the other Molas trail…across the highway from the first one…and hiked for another 1 1/2 hrs. There were a lot of wild flowers…It was a beautiful day and hike!

Feeling invigorated and filled with the love of nature, we drove back to our VRBO and made a fresh grilled fish and vegetable ke-bob dinner. Life is good!

Washington/British Columbia Trip – Day 4

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Travel Spirit

Although we hadn’t planned on going to Olympic National Park, it turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip for me. It was another 13 hour day. We drove 40 minutes from Seattle to catch the Edmonds/Kingston ferry, where we drove our car on. The ferry ride over took about 20 minutes. After driving a couple of hours, our first stop was the beautiful Crescent Lake, where we had lunch at the Lodge. The blues are so brilliant!

From there we made our way to the Hurricane Ridge Road entrance to Olympic National Park. It was a windy road with scary cliff drop offs, but so worth it! We hiked the 3 mile round trip, Hurricane Hill trail. I have hiked at some amazing places, but this is my favorite hike.

I felt like I was in the Alps. The fresh pine scent intermingled with the fragrant wild flowers, along with the truly spectacular views was amazing!

Washington/British Columbia Trip – Day 3

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Travel Spirit

Today was a 13 hr. day. I decided to drive the full loop (rather than just drive to Paradise…by way of the Nisqually entrance) around Mt. Rainier. Some of the drive was on windy roads with steep drop-offs. Our first stop was Sunrise, on the Northern side of the mountain. It was in your face rugged beauty.

Next we drove to Silver Falls, a short hike to a beautiful water fall.

We ate our packed lunch and stopped at Reflection Lake next.

From there it was a short drive to Paradise, where we wanted to hike. The trails were shut down due to late snowfall, so we drove to Longmire and hiked the 5 mile Rampart Ridge trail, which took about 2 1/2 hrs.

Notice the bee on the flower…

We didn’t see any bears…but some cute deer!

Just outside of the National Park we found the Copper Creek Inn for dinner. The food was good and the yuppy rustic ambiance was cool!

Washington/British Columbia Trip – Day 2

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Travel Spirit

If you want to keep costs down and get some exercise when visiting downtown Seattle, park at Amgen Co. There is a free public lot right next to the sea wall. It’s about a 40 minute walk to Pike Place Market. We got an early start and arrived to the market around 8:15am, as the vendors were setting up.

I got a photo of the “famous” fish throwing guys! The guy next to me threw the fish to the guy on the right.

The monorail was fun to take over to the Space Needle. Since it was a cloudy day…I didn’t want to go to the top.

This is a large art piece near the bottom of the Space Needle.

On the walk back to the car…I took photos at the Olympic Sculpture Park.

This is a metal tree…

It ended up being a $7.50 day…purchase of donuts at the market and the monorail charge!

We grilled steaks back at the house for lunch and took a nap. Discovery Park is only a 10 minute drive from the house, so we took a nice 2 mile walk on the trails.

I was told this is a weather Doppler radar.

Lodge to Lodge Hiking on the Appalachian Trail – Day Three

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Travel Spirit

There was a 50% chance of thunderstorms today, so we were prepared. We left Skyland a few minutes after 8:00am, after having a big breakfast and began our almost 10 mile hike to the car parked at Thornton Gap.

The trail was well marked and we never got lost. Like yesterday’s hike, we ran into a few other hikers, but not many. I had researched the pattern for thru-hikers and verified that most of them had already been through this section of the trail about a month earlier, on their way to Maine.

Luckily, it only sprinkled once for about 2 minutes and the clouds kept the temperature in the 80’s, although it was quite humid.

The longest hike Cindy had taken before this had been about 5 miles. She was concerned about hiking 17 miles in two days, but she did a great job! We only took a couple of breaks (other than when taking photos) and kept a good pace. I love to see people challenge themselves and realize that they’re capable of doing more than they thought originally!

One-third to One-half of the trail on today’s hike was rocks…like below. The shuttle guy, Rodney, calls them “ankle busters”! They made the hike more difficult, not only physically, but mentally.

There were a lot of flowers on the trail. I discovered that when my flash went off, the background was darkened, which really made the flower pop!

These look like the kind of berries that bears like. Luckily, we didn’t run into any… we only saw some bear poop on the trail…but it didn’t look fresh!

Cindy nicknamed this rock “Plumber’s Rock”…

After researching the area, I had reserved a room at the historic “Mimslyn Inn” in Luray, Virginia. It’s located within a 15 minute drive from Thornton Gap (where our car was parked) and has a pool and hot tub. As soon as we checked in, we took a shower, poured a margarita and went out to the hot tub. Our calves were sore and it felt great. The pool was the perfect temperature also. After relaxing for a bit, we were starving because for lunch we had only eaten an apple and a granola bar, so we went upstairs to shower and made our way to the “Speakeasy Lounge” for dinner. We both had a tenderloin wrap. The wrap was made with spinach…yum…yum!

I drove us to find some “White Lightning” (kind of like moon shine) and a blackberry syrup, so we could recreate the blackberry moonshine slushie drink we’d had at Skyland Resort. After returning, we took a few photos of the lovely grounds at the Mimslyn. They have weddings here and it is lovely!

Lovely Cindy!!

We’re both glad we had the opportunity to do this and look forward to the next adventure!

Lodge to Lodge Hiking on the Appalachian Trail – Day 2

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Travel Spirit

After a good night’s sleep, Cindy and I were the first to be seated for breakfast in the dining room at 7:30am. Breakfast was included so I chose the “Eggs Appalachian“…similar to Eggs Benedict, but on a biscuit instead of a muffin. It was tasty! Our box lunch consisted of a sandwich, an apple, a granola bar and soda of choice, prepared by the Lodge, at a cost of $11. We had filled our water containers with ice and water before breakfast and were ready to hit the trail by 8:00am.

Today’s hike was 7.7 miles from Big Meadows Lodge to Skyland Resort in Shenandoah Nat’l Park. I would rate this section as moderate in difficulty level because of the length. There was a variety of terrain ranging from level and soft to rocky and on an incline/ decline. I especially enjoyed the ferns that were growing alongside the path in many sections. It created a very lush look.

This little guy was only about an inch in length. Cindy spotted him and thought he was a toy at first because he didn’t move. We were able to stick our cameras right in his face and he didn’t budge.

At this section, we had to make our way across the rocks that had slid down the hill.

I didn’t grow tired of looking at the green….every where green!! We only passed a couple of groups of people hiking. After being warned by family/friends of all of the possible dangers…bears, snakes, deranged hikers, mountain lions…I had armed myself with a large pocket knife!

Cute mushrooms!

More deer about 1/2 mile from finishing! It took us about 5 hours to arrive at the next lodge….which is about 2 miles per hour.

Lodge to Lodge Hiking on the Appalachian Trail – Day 1

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Travel Spirit

This gallery contains 3 photos.

After driving 8 hours from Cincinnati to Thornton Gap (an entrance to Skyline Drive – a 115 mile scenic road & where I left my car parked) in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, my friend Cindy and I were picked … Continue reading →

What girls do on a girls’ weekend

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Travel Spirit

This weekend I went on my annual girls’ weekend with my friends Sherry, Gina and Dee. This was Dee’s first trip with us. The tradition started almost 20 years ago with a trip to Put-n-Bay and the destinations have included Myrtle Beach, Red River Gorge, Ky, Indianapolis, Shawnee Nat’l Forest, and Nashville, to name a few. Typically, we would find a cabin with a hot tub and the weekend consisted of eating, drinking, talking and hiking. But more recently we’ve been heading to cities for sight-seeing and listening to bands. I’m usually in charge of finding the accommodations and booked a 3 bedroom condo in the Highlands section of Louisville for the weekend that I found through VRBO online. It was in a great location, within walking distance to restaurants, boutiques and a large park with walking trails.

The Highlands reminds me of Yellowsprings, Ohio. It was an eclectic blend of boutiques selling handmade jewelry, vintage clothing, books and wares from around the world; cozy coffee shops, a yoga studio, art galleries, and many restaurants that varied from Indian to Asian.

This painting caught my eye in one of the shops!

An interesting sign…

While walking down the street we were stopped by a local T.V. reporter wondering if we’d be interested in giving our opinion on pornography pop-ups on the internet. So…being it was a new experience…I volunteered. I don’t remember most of the questions, but I’ll be able to view it on their website.

We had fun trying hats on in one of the shops…a little pricey for me at $190 per hat!

It was a beautiful fall weekend for our escape…so we went hiking in Cherokee Park.

We went to a bar that caters to the over 40 crowd called Jim Porter’s Good Times Emporium. Boasting three live bands (Pop, Rock and Blues) we had a great time dancing most of the evening! Our husbands don’t particularly enjoy dancing…so we indulged ourselves!

The following evening we dressed for Halloween and our first stop was 4th Street Live in downtown Louisville.

We stopped a man on the street to take our photo before we left the condo…he was a bit shaky I believe! As you can see, Gina was a girl scout! But what was remarkable about it, was that it was her uniform from when she was 9 years old!

After having a very tasty dinner at the Red Star Tavern, our plan was to party downtown…but it seemed a little dead…so we took a taxi back to Jim Porter’s.

Being “Supergirl” I had to pick someone up, so I chose this girl…but the photo turned out too blurry to post!

This girl “the naked girl costume” won third place in the contest at Jim Porter’s. I didn’t think it appropriate to take a picture of the front, although it wasn’t real!