travel

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel,  zoos and aquariums

    Oatland Island Wildlife Center

    After visiting Little Tybee Island, we stopped for lunch at the Crab Shack which I recommend before heading to our next adventure: Oatland Island Wildlife Center. Our meal at the Crab Shack was definitely a splurge as we ordered the Captain Seafood Platter for 3, an appetizer and some kids meals. However that seafood platter was delicious. We also spent some time looking that the alligators (which have been mostly born in captivity and listening to them roar)! It was pretty cool. All of the alligators were small in size. This adventure is very budget friendly at $3 per person (we had to buy our tickets online to reserve a…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Little Tybee Island Tour with Sundial Charters

    One of the reasons that I like to sometimes find very budget friendly or free lodging when we travel is so that we may enjoy a more expensive excursion that we would usually not budget in. This past weekend, our family had a very short mini vacation in Savannah/Tybee Island and we used the last of our hotel points to book two rooms for two nights. Since we were limited on points, we ended up booking our rooms at the Double Tree by Hilton by the Savannah airport. The rooms were spacious with a little living room area and the complimentary breakfast (for Diamond Members) was perfect to start the…

  • hikes,  historic,  outdoors,  travel

    Picketts Mill Historic Site

    Last Friday brought us to a new historic site 30 minutes from the house. I sure am loving finding these places nearby. I took the 3 younger boys and my neighbor/friend and her daughter and we packed a lunch to enjoy on our hike. “Pickett’s Mill is one of the best preserved Civil War battlefields in the nation. Visitors can travel roads used by Federal and Confederate troops, see earthworks constructed by these men, and walk through the same ravine where hundreds died. An authentic 1800s pioneer cabin is furnished and open for tours during certain events. On May 27, 1864, the Federal Army, having been stopped in its advance…

  • budget,  historic,  outdoors,  travel

    New Echota Cherokee Capital State Historic Site

    A couple of months ago, I decided to get the annual pass for the Historic Sites in Georgia as there are many we haven’t visited yet and quite a few within an hour drive. So this past Sunday after church, we stopped by the New Echota Cherokee Captital Historic site. The land and town was the site of the Cherokee National capital from 1825 to 1838 (all my information is from the flyer for the self guided tour). After the removal of the Cherokee tribes the town disappeared and the land was turned into farmland. In the early 1950s the land was purchased by some local citizens and deeded to…

  • budget,  historic,  travel

    Frankfort, KY: the State Capitol

    My husband travels the Southeast of the United States and Kentucky used to me one of the states he traveled to regularly for work. When we decided to spend a day in Frankfort, visiting the state capitol was on top of our list. Unfortunately because of Covid, we couldn’t go inside (it looks really grandiose in pictures) but we were still able to walk the grounds which are very impressive too. The current building is the 4th permanent build since Kentucky became a state in 1792. The earlier state capitol building (1830) is still in downtown Frankfort. Because of the size of the new state capitol it could not be…

  • budget,  travel

    Frankfort, Kentucky: Murals

    When we took a day to visit Frankfort and the state capitol there, I did not expect to come accross a number of murals all in really close proximity. Once we saw one, I googgled the location of others and we walk to a few and found a couple more on the way out of town. While we enjoyed our walk, lunch in a parking lot (a lot of restaurants are still closed to indoor eating) with some rain, it was really kind of sad that a number of businesses had closed down due to the continued shutdown in the state especially here in Frankfort. This mural was near the…

  • budget,  travel

    Versailles and the Arboretum in Lexington, KY

    My husband has traveled through Kentucky for work and mentioned seeing a castle in Versailles which is really close to Lexington and just downt the road from Keeneland. We headed there and were pleasantly surprised by this fun castle which is a hotel and spa. One of my readers, Leslie shared the following link if you want to read about how this castle came about: https://myoldkentuckyroadtrip.com/2011/09/20/versailles-lexington-road-castle/ From the road you can see the castle and wonder what it is! I wasn’t sure if we would be able to walk around so we were able that we could. I was very impressed with the grounds and thought this would be a…

  • budget,  travel

    Mount Sterling, KY and Keeneland, KY

    To take a break from hiking, we decided to find a small picturesque town to visit. Someone at the grocery store suggested Mount Sterling so we headed that way with a picnic packed. We did save money on this vacation by buying groceries and packing a picnic lunch every day. We shopped in a couple local boutiques, ate our lunch in a little square and took some pictures. Mount Sterling This outfit of the day was fairly comfortable until I realized that we were walking too much for these shoes. By the time we visited the arboretum, I took them off and walked barefoot! This town was pretty small so…

  • hikes,  outdoors,  travel

    Rock Bridge and Angel Wings Trails, Daniel Boone Forest, KY

    Welcome back to my synopis of our spring break to Kentucky. On our second day, we planned two hikes. We were pleased with the 3 short ones we had done the first day so we choose a slighty longer one and decided to add another one before heading back to our rental. I chose the hikes by searching them on the internet, looking a distance and features such as arches. Once again, I packed lunch but we left it in the car to eat at a picnic table since we knew the hikes were not especially long. Rock Bridge Arch I chose this trail because it was a longer ones…

  • hikes,  outdoors,  travel

    Daniel Boone National Forest: Day 1 Hikes

    One of my favorite things about our hikes at the Daniel Boone National Forest was that many were very short (less than a mile) and very scenic. The forest is renown for its many arches and on our first day there, we were able to see some pretty fantastic ones. These first two pictures were taken off the main road where a trail started. We did not take the trail but had to stop because the view of the ridge was amazing. Sky Bridge Trail Now this trail is 0.8 miles long and was special due to the crossing of the sky bridge which is wide but does not have…