travel
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Falcons game date night
Thanks to Ed, a friend of my husband, we were able to go on a date night to the Falcons’ football game at the Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta. It was a great budget friendly date since all we paid were our parking and a bottle of water walking back to our car. What made this date special is that we typically just go out to dinner for our dates so doing something out of the ordinary for us made our outing very special. Thanks Ed! Neither my husband nor I are big professional football fans but he does know the game and I have watched enough college football games to…
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Travel bucket list
I keep an ongoing travel bucket list that I tweak as the time passes. This bucket list allows me to make plans financially and helps me budget for trips and vacations. I usually plan the following year’s vacations and then keep in mind larger abroad trips that we want to take. Today I am sharing my long and short term bucket lists and where we plan to vacation this year and next. Short term travel plans I typically map out our vacations about a year in advance if they are within the United States. With the children’s school schedule in mind, I am able to plan some time away so…
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Lessons from summer travels
Since we traveled so much this summer I thought it would be interesting to come up with some lessons I learned from our travels. I love traveling with my family I love going abroad and while it is expensive, with a budget throughout a year or two and with connections and lodging where we travel, it is feasible for our family to travel! We love spending time together whether at the beach or the mountain or the capital town in the republic of Georgia! I am willing to make sacrifices during the year for us to go on vacations. We spend less than others on birthdays and holidays, we do…
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Dahlonega Gem Panning
We live about 1 hour and a half from Dahlonega in the North Georgia Mountains. Dahlonega is an old gold mining town which features a gold museum in the town square as well as a gold mine, the Consolidated Gold mine. The mine is the largest hard rock gold mine east of the Mississippi. The mine was founded in 1896, and focused on removing gold trapped in quartz veins throughout the property. Gold mining They offer a 40 min tour of the mine followed by a short video showing you how to pan for gold which you try your hand at. This actually is quite difficult and since we were on a time schedule…
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Summer in Review
Well, this summer was a summer to remember! We visited several countries, several places in the US and spent some quality time with friends and family. I am actually having a hard time adjusting back to the routine of daily life as I miss my special friends and also miss the places we visited. We made some wonderful memories to cherish and I hope my children remember these summers when they grow up! France and Spain It had been 6 years since we had visited France so we decided this was a good year for that trip since my youngest wasn’t 2 yet and we would save a lot on…
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Nickel and Suede, Liberty MO
So I couldn’t help myself knowing that the Nickel and Suede shop in Liberty was only 30 minutes from my friend’s house and kind of on the way to my 2nd friend we were visiting and we stopped by for some shopping. It was a little difficult to enjoy the experience with the little one not wanting to leave my side; another boy was tired and cranky and everyone wanted to be in the store. I finally convinced all of them to stay outside after they had a quick look see inside. I went in with the illusion (my son’s word) of only buying two pairs of earrings. While I…
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Kansas City: Kaleidscope and Crown Center Mall
While visiting my college friend in Missouri, we decided to take our boys to Kansas City which is only half an hour from her house. Wanted to be thrifty, we decided to visit Kaleidoscope and Crown Center Mall. Kaleidoscope Hallmark Kaleidoscope is a place where children can be creative with art. Children use materials from Hallmark manufacturing to create their art. As certain things run out, the materials are replaced them with other materials. The materials often to a season or holiday. During our visit, the center was celebrating Kaleidoscope 50th anniversary so children were able to make birthday hats among other things. The center is free and distribute tickets…
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St. Louis zoo and turtle playground
On our way to visit my friends in Missouri and Kansas City, we decided to stop for a sleepover in St. Louis. It is about an 8 hour drive from Atlanta and we wanted to explore what the city has to offer. A week or so before we left, my friend informed me that the zoo was free as well as the botanical gardens and a number of museums so we decided to visit the zoo this time. We enjoyed our time in St. Louis so much that we are planning our spring break there next year. I wasn’t sure what to expect in a free zoo but oh boy…
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Zoo Atlanta
What a nice way to spend time with friends! Last week, one of my friends invited the boys and I to join her and her daughters at the Atlanta Zoo. I have had a yearly membership off and on over the years. As the zoo has made improvements the family membership has increased in price from around $99 to now $139 (2 adults and 4 children ages 3-17). Distance and busy schedules does not make it worth our while anymore to be members but thankfully my friend had just renewed her membership so we were able to accompany her for free on this outing. The weather turned out perfect for…
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Tallulah Gorge
Last week, we visited a friend of mine and combined our visit with a hike at Tallulah Gorge. The gorge is about an hour from her house (and would have been 3 hours from mine) so we spent the night there before going to the gorge. We first spent a few minutes in the visitor center where there were some displays with taxidermed animals that are local to the area. We received a map from one of the rangers with directions to the different overlooks to see the fall and decided to walk the loop from the North rim across the suspension bridge to the South rim then across the…