budget

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel,  Uncategorized

    Republic of Georgia: Last Thoughts from our Trip

    Today is the last post chronicling this summer’s two week vacation to Georgia. We were able to visit two areas during our visit, the capital, Tbilisi, as well as the sea port of Batumi. We ate and walked and spent time with our friends. We shopped and ate some more, and really enjoyed what this beautiful country has to offer. This was our 3rd visit (the first two being 7 and 6 years ago), so we knew what to expect, but still were able to visit new parts of the city and country. One thing we had not done before was go to one of the flea markets. There were…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Botanical Gardens

    You probably will agree with me after you admire the pictures in this post, but I think this is the most beautiful botanical gardens I have ever visited. And we didn’t even get to see everything because it was much larger than we expected and with all of our walking, we decided to stick to some of the highlights. Welcome to Batumi Botanical Gardens! By Georgian standards, the botanical gardens were a little expensive, 20 laris per person (our 6 year old being free). So we paid 100 laris ($36) for our family of 6 which wasn’t too made by American standards. And it the picture above, you see a…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Singing Fountains

    On our first walk on the boulevard by the sea (Batumi Boulevard), my hope was to end at the Batumi fountains which I had read about. The fountains move in synchronization with music and with lights in the evening. However, we walked in the wrong direction. The boulevard or promenade is 7 kilometers long and since we had walked probably several kilometers in one direction, we decided to leave the search for the next evening. The second night found us once again stopping for ice cream and this time, we ordered the next size up with was still less than $2! Yum! We walked as it got darker and came…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Boulevard: A fun walk

    Our hotel, the Hilton Batumi was in the perfect location to enjoy both the Black Sea and to take leisurely walks along Batumi Boulevard. The boulevard is a multi purpose pathway along the sea and is bordered on the other side by different hotels and restaurants. There are several paths so that bikes, scooters and such can have a pathway separate from walkers. There are also many trees bordering sections of the boulevard. Our hotel was very near the octopus structure where children and adults enjoyed roller skating. It is such a picturesque spot! It also offers a little bit of shade. We stayed 3 nights in Batumi and we…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Tbilisi Botanical Gardens

    This is our 3rd time going to the botanical gardens in Tbilisi. They are just a short steep walk up behind our hotel, and it was the perfect outing the morning following our arrival. The city had gotten a lot of rain the weeks prior to our trip, so there were a few areas where you couldn’t go because of some landslides, in particular the waterfall where everyone had dipped their toes the last time we were here. However, since we were taking our time, we discovered a few new areas we had never explored. Since it was late May, early June, the roses were in bloom! We enjoyed them…

  • budget,  travel

    Traveling to the Republic of Georgia: some Insights

    I am back! We just returned on Monday from our 2 weeks in the republic of Georgia and I have quite a few blog posts planned to share our trip with you. Today, I thought I would share some insights on why we chose to return to Georgia for the 3rd time and some quirks and tips about traveling there. The pictures I am sharing in this post are of fun cat murals found in Old Tbilisi where we stayed for most of your trip. The first question I am answering is the choice of our destination. Yes, this is the 3rd time we have traveled to the republic of…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Centennial Park, Atlanta

    During our staycation during Spring Break, the boys and I joined my college friend Staci and her family at Six Flags and the Georgia Aquarium. Before lunch, needing a little break and outside time, the boys and I walked around Centennial Park. I was surprised that I had not seen this area of the park before. We really don’t go down to Atlanta very often as we often have to deal with traffic: a 45 minute drive can take 2 hours with the right (wrong) conditions! But when we do, we always enjoy our time downtown. The iconic ferris wheel has been near Centennial Park since 2013. I actually have…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Inflatables!

    Has any one seen the Inflatable Anthem with the Holderness family? I love all of their videos and parodies. Any time I see an inflatable at Christmas time, I think of their video. Last week, I promised my 3 youngest some fun when they accompanied me to get my haircut 1 hour from the house. We ate a great lunch at Whole Foods and then did 18 holes at a fun little mini golf place. This was a great budget activity for less than $30 for the 4 of us. We had some great laughs and thankfully it wasn’t freezing cold: maybe upper 40s? The inflatables made the course a…

  • budget,  historic,  travel

    Hayesville, North Carolina

    I had never heard of Hayesville, NC until I booked our rental, but the area turned out to be a delightful area to spend a week in summer. The weather was pleasant, nature was just beautiful (that combination of mountains, trees and fields is gorgeous) and there was lots to do. Today I am sharing the tiny town of Hayesville and a few pictures of our cabin and surroundings. Hayesville is a small town with a population of about 450 and is about 20 min from Hiawassee, GA and Murphy, NC. While waiting for our pizza to be ready that first evening, we walked around the square and admired the…

  • budget,  travel

    Nooga Lights and Chattanooga Choo Choo Ice Skating

    After spending the day at Renaissance and Coolidge Park (see my post here), we checked in at our hotel and headed out for dinner. My friend Rachel was great with her recommendations for our stay. We ate at Fiamma’s pizza for dinner and I thought our wood fire pizza was very tasty. We then drove about 25 minutes to Chester Frost Park for their Nooga Lights Show. The week after Christmas was $23 per car, and you were able to do the loop as many times as you wanted too. I did think it was overpriced (I think it should be $15 at the most), but we did enjoy it…