Travel – Page 2 – Treat Yourself to Travel

Cascading through Washington National Parks

April 28, 2020September 11, 2022Posted in National Parks, Read Them All, State CapitolTagged Baby Travel, Mount Rainier, National Park Pass, National Parks, North Cascades, Olympic, Road Trip, Travel, Washington2 Comments

Every year for Mike’s birthday (when there isn’t a worldwide pandemic) we go on some type of getaway and it usually involves a baseball game. In June 2019, we found a deal to Seattle, so we got on a plane for a 5 day trip filled with Washington’s three national parks, its state capitol in Olympia, a baseball game in Seattle and a few other adventures tucked in. At 8 months old, Addy was already a super traveler having recently returned from her first cruise and European adventure in April. (Check out our trip recaps: Breathe in Barcelona, Sète on a Nice Yacht, Crank It Out While Cruisin’ Italy and Loopin’ London.) Our trip throughout Washington state was so photogenic, it inspired me to write one of my first children’s books called Where Are You, Mount Rainier? which you can find on Amazon.

Olympia

State Capitol in Washington | TeamTravelsBaby

After arriving to Seattle airport and getting our rental car, we headed to Olympia, which hosts the gorgeous state capitol building and campus. We started with a view of it from Port Plaza Park and walked the Olympic Farmer’s Market. I got my first vacation coffee treat nearby at Dancing Goats Espresso. Once at the Capitol building we joined a tour so we could get an insider’s look into the chambers. There’s also a gorgeous Tiffany lamp that hangs from the dome. Of course we couldn’t leave without getting Addy’s picture on Mike’s shoulders as this has become a tradition for us. We also made a pit stop to nearby Tumwater Falls for a pretty waterfall.

Addy and Daddy at the Capitol | TeamTravelsBaby

Mount Rainier National Park

View of Mount Rainier at Reflection Lake | TeamTravelsBaby

Initially worried about rain, we lucked up and enjoyed beautiful weather where we could get out of the car and see Mount Rainier. We stopped at many of the different view points to take in the scenery, including an unbelievable reflection of snow-covered Mount Rainier. We managed to find one great hike to a waterfall too. This park has multiple entrances (of course check if they’re open before you go) so we didn’t have to backtrack. We entered from the west and exited near the southeast.

Views from Mount Rainier National Park| TeamTravelsBaby

Mount St. Helen’s National Monument

Mount St. Helen’s after the fog lifted | TeamTravelsBaby

Nearly to the border of Washington and Oregon, we made the trek beyond gas stations to visit Mount St. Helen’s. Pro Tip: Get gas when they warn you it’s the last station! While we had a foggy drive up the mountain (plus the fear of running out of gas), we got a fabulous view at the top where the visitor center is located. Don’t miss the reflection on the visitor center or the hike nearby.

Mount St. Helen’s National Monument | TeamTravelsBaby

Olympic National Park

This park is huge and boasts many different environments. We started in the south through Lake Quinault and visited the Hoh Rainforest. We found lots of weird looking caterpillars. From here we saw the seastacks for sunset at Rialto Beach before a night in Forks. We drove past the gorgeous Lake Crescent and then hiked to Marymere Falls, which I would definitely recommend. We ended at Hurricane Ridge which still had snow. While we didn’t see any bears, we had fun hiking near the visitor’s center here as well as the drive. We popped down to Port Angeles which had some cool street art and a really cool coffee bar called Bada NW where I indulged. On our drive to Seattle we spotted Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to a variety of birds. Since we have the America the Beautiful pass, we didn’t have to pay the nominal fee here either.

The different landscapes in Olympic | TeamTravelsBaby

On our way into Dungeness NWR | TeamTravelsBaby

Street art in Port Angeles | TeamTravelsBaby

Seattle

Mike and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary in April 2016 with an Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver and then a few days in Seattle. So on this trip, our sole purpose was to see a baseball game where the Seattle Mariners play. Luckily it was an evening game, so we walked the park while it was still light out and we could see downtown and the Space Needle, Mount Rainier and then eventually a beautiful sunset.

Snoqualmie Falls and Leavenworth

Snoqualmie Falls plus a beautiful rainbow | TeamTravelsBaby

After leaving Seattle we made a pit stop at Snoqualmie Falls. It’s a beautiful 268 foot cascading waterfall. We continued our journey to an adorable mountain Bavarian town called Leavenworth. It reminded me of another cute Danish town called Slovang that we visited with friends on our Santa Barbara trip that you can read about here. Leavenworth is home to a huge nutcracker museum if that’s your thing. Nearby, I got a yummy treat from the Gingerbread Factory before we walked along Waterfront Park.

North Cascades National Park

As part of our journey to get to North Cascades National Park we took a 52 mile scenic road that runs between Darrington and Granite Falls. This road apparently closes often since there’s a 14 mile section over Barlow Pass that is unpaved. Fortunately it was open and a nice drive with places to stop along the way. Before entering the national park we spotted the Cascadian Farms roadside stand. MAKE THIS STOP! There are delicious milkshakes sold here – I tried the raspberry and loved it! On the way into the park, the official NPS sign is really cool! The snow on top looks legit! Since we arrived close to sunset the first night, we went to the Diablo Lake viewpoint. We stayed one night relatively close to the west entrance of the park in a place called Mount Baker Hotel for under $100. It was a really nice hotel – we had a separate living space from the bedroom. One word of caution is there is no cell phone service in this area, so I didn’t know the front desk person called to check that we were still coming since there is not 24/7 concierge service. Fortunately she waited for us and we got the key without issue. We found a cute drive-thru coffee shop the next morning and then explored the park with a hike up to Pyramid Lake. Similar to Glacier, there is a scenic road that runs through the park. It’s about an hour drive from the west entrance to the Washington Pass Overlook which is definitely worth it on a clear day. I only wish we had more time to hike in this park.

Sum It Up

We arrived to Seattle on Saturday, June 1^st in the morning and knocked out Washington’s three national parks, a national monument, the capital city and a few other spots before flying home on Wednesday, June 5^th in the evening. The secret to a great national park trip is to get up early to enjoy the sunrise whenever possible and to stay out until at least sunset and dusk. The other secret is, showering can be totally overrated and a time waster…so unless you really have to, it’s worth skipping to pack more into your day! Spritz yourself with some Febreeze and you’ll be golden! If we find another good deal to Seattle, I would definitely want to make it to the Columbia Gorge and Portland, Oregon and/or use it to explore places like Victoria and Vancouver Island.

We’re so glad you checked this post out! See you next time! | TeamTravelsBaby

While you’re on my site, I hope you’ll check out some of your other trips and leave your thoughts/share your experiences.

By Way of Lakes and Falls (Icefields Parkway)

April 24, 2020Posted in Canada, National Parks, Read Them AllTagged Alberta, Athabasca, Canadian National Park, Discovery Pass, Icefields Parkway, Parks Canada, Peyto Lake, Travel1 Comment

The Icefields Parkway is impossible to miss if you plan on seeing Banff and/or Jasper National Parks. It’s nearly 170 miles between these two parks, but the time clicks by as you’re engorged in the beauty of the mountains, lakes and animals surrounding you. Even if you’re short on time, you will not be disappointed by this drive or a few pit stops! We had a blast as part of our 12 day trip with our 11 month old.

Banff National Park

Lake Louise at sunrise | TeamTravelsBaby

This park is worth a trip unto itself. If you want to read all about it, check out my article, Banff, There It Is. From here you can take one of the most scenic roads, the Icefields Parkway to another gorgeous park called Jasper National Park. This article focuses on some of our favorite stops between the two parks in order from east to west.

The symmetry of Moraine Lake’s reflections | TeamTravelsBaby

Bow Lake

Leaving Banff, Bow Lake was the first lake where we stopped and got out. It’s about 30 minutes from Lake Louise and there is limited parking by the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. It was pretty cold when we got out, so we didn’t linger too long but enjoyed taking a few pictures before warming back up in the car.

I have a thing for reflections | TeamTravelsBaby

Peyto Lake

Only a stone’s throw away, this lake should not be missed! It boasts the beautiful glacial deep teal color and has a unique shape with the mountains in the background. It was quite a steep hike from the parking lot, but also rewarding because of it. The path is a bit narrow for two way traffic, but everyone seemed to manage and pass when they could.

Obligatory family shot at Peyto Lake | TeamTravelsBaby

Icefields Parkway Itself

Big horned sheep along the Icefields Parkway | TeamTravelsBaby

In early September, the leaves weren’t all quite changing to fall foliage, but we did have fun pointing out the few that were red, orange and yellow! Good thing we were keeping our eyes on the road so we didn’t miss the huge group of big horned sheep ready to cross the road. There are places to pull off on the parkway, so we pulled over to watch the group together. It’s an extremely enjoyable drive between Banff and Jasper.

Athabasca Glacier

It was extremely cold and windy, but we managed to bundle Addy up and start walking toward this glacier in the Canadian Rockier. There are signs that show where the glacier was at different points in time and it’s hard to believe how much it has receded (the picture below shows where the glacier was in 2006). The hike is worth getting out of the car for, but if you’re short on time, you can at least catch a glimpse from across the Icefields Parkway. We didn’t pay to walk on the Columbia Icefield, but if that interests you, make sure to do your research.

Sunwapta Falls

Technically we entered Jasper National Park to see this beautiful waterfall. The river is split around an island and then it that joins at the waterfall. There’s a quick walk down to it or a view from the bridge. I would imagine once the fall colors are in full effect it would be ridiculously beautiful here. We got a tiny taste as you can see from our pictures.

Sunwapta Falls with a taste of fall colors | TeamTravelsBaby

Athabasca Falls

Also in Jasper National Park, this waterfall is a gusher. It’s a quick walk to the waterfall and then it’s worth taking a few extra minutes to walk through the canyon. We headed back to the Icefields Parkway and saw a huge elk before making it to the town of Jasper.

Sunset view near the canyon | TeamTravelsBaby

Jasper National Park

Male elk along the Icefields Parkway | TeamTravelsBaby

The Icefields Parkway connects two incredible parks. I would love for you to check out my article, Bear Jammed in Jasper to get a taste of Jasper National Park and some of the incredible hikes and wildlife it has to offer. Here’s a taste!

Medicine Lake in Jasper National Park | TeamTravelsBaby

I didn’t want this trip to end | TeamTravelsBaby

Catch you on our next adventure recap | TeamTravelsBaby

And in case you missed it, check out Yoohoo! Yoho is Where It’s At! to read about our adventures through the neighboring British Columbia National Parks and On the Border of Glacier and Waterton Lakes to see how our trip started off. In total five posts summarize our 12 day trip! Be sure to subscribe for email notifications or follow us on Instagram.

Yoohoo! Yoho is Where It’s At! (B.C. National Parks)

April 21, 2020September 11, 2022Posted in Canada, National Parks, Read Them All, State CapitolTagged Baby, Baby Travel, British Columbia, Canada, Canadian National Park, Discovery Pass, Emerald Lake, Grand Teton, Kootenay, Parks Canada, Revelstoke, Travel, Yellowstone, Yoho2 Comments

As part of our epic road trip to see Banff and Jasper, we also managed to see other nearby parks in British Columbia to include Mount Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho and Kootenay. We also squeezed in the Montana State Capitol on our way back to Jackson Hole airport by way of animal-centric Yellowstone. Leave a comment at the end and let me know what you thought!

Mount Revelstoke National Park (British Columbia)

We left Golden early in the morning and drove to Mount Revelstoke National Park. We started with a short easy boardwalk hike called Skunk Cabbage followed by the Cedar boardwalk trail. The real highlight for us was the Meadows in the Sky Parkway up to a parking lot near the summit. From here we had an option to take a shuttle, but opted to walk instead. We find that hiking to a destination makes it more rewarding than taking the easy way. Before heading to Glacier National Park of Canada, we stopped in the little town of Revelstoke so I could get a coffee treat at Conversations Coffee House.

Glacier National Park of Canada (British Columbia)

Great Glacier hike on a foggy day | TeamTravelsBaby

Easily combined to make for a full day with Mount Revelstoke, we opted for the Great Glacier hike. Round-trip this hike took us about 3.5 hours to hike (approx. 5 miles round-trip). There is quite an ascent going up and once the skies started to clear, gorgeous views of the mountains, a waterfall, and running water in the valley below. We also passed the remains of Glacier House on our way out. I was so tired from carrying Addy a good portion of the way up that once we switched, I had to stay out of eyesight of Addy so we could make it back down without switching again. It was fun listening to Mike entertain her with descriptions of everything he saw from rocks to trees to mushrooms.

We stayed in a Ramada Limited Hotel in Golden, which was a nice hotel and ideally located between Glacier and Yoho. As a bonus, I got 10% off with my key card at Bear & Bone Burger, which was walking distance from the hotel. The gunsmoke burger and yam fries were absolutely delicious and I would highly recommend it!

Yoho (British Columbia)

If you couldn’t tell, I absolutely loved photographing the reflections here | TeamTravelsBaby

If you take out Banff and Jasper (which both live up to the hype), Yoho was my favorite Canadian national park that we visited this trip. We ate our free hotel breakfast and then headed to Wapta Falls. This waterfall is a gusher! It was a relatively flat hike out, with some mud and rocks to the view point. Then we continued down in order to get a better view. Next up was one of the most stunning lakes of the trip (not quite Lake Louise or Moraine Lake, but definitely up there) called Emerald Lake. It was a stunning greenish turquoise color. We walked part of the lakeshore path, took in the reflection views and had a memorable photo shoot with Addy. On our way back to the main road, we stopped at the Natural Bridge. This was a nice spot to pop out and take some pictures. The park’s visitor center is in Field – we made a pit stop for our stamp before going to see our last waterfall. From the parking lot, it’s a very short walk to Takkakaw Falls. This narrow and tall fall (the second tallest in Canada) is really cool because you can go down to the rocks along the water for pictures without people. There’s also a spot with one of the “red chairs” that are scattered throughout the Canadian national park system.

Natural Bridge near Emerald Lake | TeamTravelsBaby

Kootenay (British Columbia)

Wider view of Olive Lake | TeamTravelsBaby

The Paint Pots hike toward Marble Canyon was the only hike we did in this park. From the pot holed parking lot, there’s a bridge with stunning views of the mountains and a river below. Hiking boots are definitely necessary as there are small boards you walk on to stay off the electrified looking water. The ink pot here is unique and we found this hike virtually to ourselves.

As we made our way toward the exit of the park we stopped at Olive Lake. It was a pretty lake with reflections and fish. It was a short drive from here to the exit by Radium Hot Springs. If we had more time, we would have stopped to check these out. The drive is definitely worth taking this route.

Paint Pots hike in Kootenay | TeamTravelsBaby

Crossing the Border

This time we checked the hours to ensure we wouldn’t have any issues. We found the border crossing virtually empty, but we were the random selectees to pull over and have our car inspected. We hung out in the station while they checked everything out. For sunset, we made it the small town of Whitefish, Montana. This town is adorable and I only wish we had made it before the small independent shops had closed.

We found a Wal-Mart in Kalispell to load up on more snacks and then found a hotel here for the night. Check out my article called, On the Border of Glacier and Waterton Lakes to read about Glacier National Park which we primarily explored on the front end of our trip.

Addy taking us over the border | TeamTravelsBaby

Helena, Montana

Montana’s State Capitol | TeamTravelsBaby

As we made our way back toward Jackson Hole, we stopped in Helena, the capital of Montana. The inside was stunning and multi-floored. We joined a free guided tour so we could see inside the chambers. One of my favorite parts about taking Addy to a state capitol building is we’ve started a tradition of taking Addy’s picture on Mike’s shoulders in front of it. We explored the little downtown and found an adorable coffee shop, General Mercantile next to an independent bookstore called Montana Book Company. We don’t really collect any souvenirs on our trips, but one thing I do like to buy is a unique and locally written or illustrated book. On this trip I bought The Chumiss and the Micken, which is an incredibly adorable and beautiful book about the age old question about which came first – the chicken or the egg. It is a children’s book that I enjoy reading to Addy and would recommend to others.

Addy and her Daddy doing their thang in MT | TeamTravelsBaby

Yellowstone National Park (USA)

Pronghorn, the fastest animal in North America | TeamTravelsBaby

When I was pregnant with Addy (June 2018), we crushed Yellowstone National Park. (I hope to write about that trip soon.) Since we were merely passing through for sunset and the following morning on this trip, we weren’t there to see it all, but rather to try and see animals. We took the scenic Beartooth Mountains drive. Then before even entering the park through the Gardiner, Montana entrance (to the north), we spotted a ton of big horned sheep, a herd of elk and pronghorns. Once we finally entered, we found a HUGE male flaunting his rack in anticipation for the fall rut.

Lamar Valley is a must drive if you want to see animals in Yellowstone. Of course, sunrise and sunset also happen to be the ideal times. The people who have scopes and follow the wolves were out in the morning and were generous enough to let us have a look. We could see wolves way out in the valley surrounding a bear trying to feed off the same dead bison carcass. My one non-animal pro tip is to stop in one of the stores and try the $1 huckleberry ice cream sandwich – you will be yearning for a second one!

Lamar Valley has a ridiculous number of bison | TeamTravelsBaby

Grand Teton National Park (USA)

On the short list for our future retirement home | TeamTravelsBaby

The drive is so scenic from Yellowstone and throughout Grand Teton. We literally only had a few minutes to jump out for a few pictures of the mountains and another huge elk. There is one gas station close to the extremely small airport. It was very easy to return our rental car and get through security here before walking on the tarmac to our plane. It’s also really interesting that this airport offers bear spray rentals! This is definitely something to consider for a future trip as bear spray is more expensive that I thought and you have to properly dispose of it. And in case you’re wondering why we picked Jackson Hole, it’s because Frontier was offering tickets for $249 each! This was a steal for this airport!

Returned the car without issue | TeamTravelsBaby

JAC, the prettiest airport to fly in and out of | TeamTravelsBaby

Notes for Next Time

Revelstoke: A longer hike in the Summit Area
Glacier: Balu Pass
Yoho: Lake O’Hara alpine area which needs to be booked WAY in advance and looks absolutely unreal.
Kootenay: Radium hot springs (the actual hot springs) and Juniper-Sinclair Canyon

Breathe in Barcelona

April 17, 2019May 1, 2019Posted in Cruise, Europe, Read Them AllTagged Baby Travel, Barcelona, Cruise, Day Trip, Europe, European Travel, Pullmantur, Spain, Travel6 Comments

View from the MNAC | TeamTravelsBaby

Barcelona is the perfect sized city on the Mediterranean with gorgeous weather (this was April). Whether you have an extended layover, 24 hours or a few days, there’s something here for you as the central part of the city is easily accessible from the El Prat airport. On our two week European adventure with our 6 month old, we had about one full day before our Pullmantur week long cruise and two full days on the back end (we also visited Girona, about 100 km away).

View from the MNAC | TeamTravelsBaby
MNAC View | TeamTravelsBaby

Unforgettable View: From the front steps of the MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya)

We love seeing any city by foot or by bike. With a baby, we found walking to be the most convenient mode and used the Tula carrier we were gifted for Addy. It was ideal for carrying her since she weighed somewhere between 16-17 pounds on our trip and an American sized stroller is not as convenient (but I would argue still doable if you felt the need to have one). If you have limited time, I would recommend arriving to Placa d’Espanya by the Arenas de Barcelona (huge mall). From here head toward the beautiful archway and hill. Conveniently, there are escalators that will take you all the way up to the MNAC and even beyond it. First you’ll see the Montjuic magic fountain. Check to see which days/times it is turned on as it looks like it is spectacular! At the top of MNAC, take it the beautiful view of Barcelona. If you continue behind the MNAC, you’ll arrive at the 1992 Summer Olympic Annex. We didn’t find any Olympic rings to take a picture of like we saw in Innsbruck, Austria’s Olympic site, but it was still cool. If you continue on a longer walk, you can continue uphill through gardens to see the Montjuic Castle. There is a cable car (I read it’s a bit overrated/expensive), but I feel I can always appreciate a view more when I’ve worked hard to get there. While we didn’t visit inside the Castle (5 euros to see inside), we found the views from the outside were lovely and you can even look over the edge and see the cruise ships.

View from the Top of Montjuic
Addy in Barcelona

Unlimited People Watching: The famous street, La Rambla

La Rambla is a fun street to walk with a huge pedestrian walkway down the middle, lined with kiosks of sweet treats, souvenirs and restaurants. The section closest to the Mediterranean starts at the Columbus Monument and it continues to the Placa de Catalunya. The famous market, Mercado de la Boqueria shouldn’t be missed (it’s closed on Sundays)! If you’re willing to wander off the main block, head to the Gothic Quarter and find the Cathedral of Barcelona. It’s absolutely stunning and free to enter. If you want to climb it, head there between 10 am-12 pm daily with your euro coins! If you’re down by the water, cross the bridge and check out Maremagnum, which is a huge shopping mall (and a good place to find a bathroom).

La Boqueria
Barcelona at Night
Placa de Catalunya
Cathedral of Barcelona
Cathedral of Barcelona
Barcelona by the Med

Unlimited Sand: Platja de la Barceloneta is a huge sand beach and you can also stroll the paved promenade, check out the street sellers, view sand castles and take in the city.

On the way to the beach, you can pass by the old port (Port Vell) where lots of products for sale by street sellers. After a walk along the beach or promenade, we found the Parc de la Ciutadella had pretty buildings and a small lake with swans, herons and other types of birds. Like Paris, Barcelona boasts its own “Arc d’Triomf” (not quite the same, but still a great photo op) that is at the end of a nice broad pedestrian street that’s easily accessible after leaving the park.

Port Vell
The Beach
Addy in Barcelona
Blue Heron
Columbus Monument
Arc d’Triomf

Unlimited Photos: La Sagrada Familia is the famous church that has been a WIP for nearly 140 years.

A trip to Barcelona would not be complete without seeing it. You can walk around the entire church and there’s a small pond on the backside that gives you some decent reflection photos. The church is also lit up at night (check for the exact times – we saw it at 8:30 pm).

Pro Tip: If you know your dates, then book your tickets in advance if you want to see inside (try all of the ticket types to find available times).

La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia Up Close

Another Pro Tip: If you’re visiting Barcelona on a Sunday, check to see if the Picasso Museum is still free in the afternoon/evening.

Transportation: The T-10 card (10.2 euros) was perfect for our trip which we could share for the metro and Rodiales train (within Barcelona). Even though we had about 3 days in Barcelona, we typically walked everywhere and used exactly 5 trips each for a total of 10 on the card. If you’re coming from the airport, it costs one ride for the Rodiales (R2Nord) and one ride for the metro (to wherever you’re going). We found the public transportation to be very convenient. If you’re more limited on time, you may want to consider the AeroBus which is a coach style bus that drops off in Placa de Catalunya. There are other items like the Hola BCN travel card (primarily a transportation card by number of days) and Barcelona card that may be worth a look, depending on your particular trip and needs.

Graffiti
Street Art

Where We Stayed: We really liked the two hostels we stayed in – Pension Peiro (super close to the metro stop Paral-lel and convenient for embarking on a cruise or exploring Montjuic) and Primavera Hostel (super close to the metro stop Verdaguer and convenient for walking to La Sagrada Familia). In April 2019, we found both locations for under $100/night and stayed in a private room (shared bathroom) with our 6 month old. Both hostels let us drop our luggage/stroller off early without any issues. Primavera Hostel had a shared kitchen that was really nice with coffee and our room had a balcony! Use my booking.com referral link and we both get $20!

Cruisin’ from Barcelona: This is an awesome port city to start or end a Mediterranean cruise and we would recommend it! We found it was walkable from Pension Peiro to our ship (you can also pay for a bus that leaves from close to the Columbus Monument which I think was 5 euros round-trip). If you like cruising, check out our post about our Canary Islands cruise in February 2019!

Treat Time
Addy and Daddy
Ready to Cruise the Med

Sète on a Nice Yacht

April 14, 2019August 22, 2019Posted in Cruise, Europe, Read Them AllTagged Baby Travel, Cruise, Day Trip, Europe, European Travel, France, Monaco, Pullmantur, Travel2 Comments

The south of France (aka the French Riviera) and Monte Carlo, Monaco are even more beautiful than the pictures portray. Having the chance to see the smallest country, the Vatican and the second smallest country, Monaco, on the same vacation was incredible. The people in Monte Carlo were super friendly and the views from the Prince’s Palace of the coast and all of the incredible yachts were surreal. The train system between the port city of Villefranche-sur-Mer, Monte Carlo and Nice was extremely easy to navigate, inexpensive and the train stations were walkable into the heart of each city. Our second port city, Sète, was another easy “do-it-yourself” stop. Did I mention we did all of this with our 6 month old baby?! These stops were part of our week long Mediterranean cruise on Pullmantur. Check out this trip report as well as our time in Barcelona, Italy and London!

Overview

Villefranche-sur-Mer (Saturday, April 13, 2019) – Monte Carlo (Monaco) and Nice
Sète (Sunday, April 14, 2019) – Some use this as the gateway to Carcassonne (the walled castle), but we used the day to explore this seaside fishing town.

Our boat arrived to Villefranche-sur-Mer and we learned that we needed to tender into port. This means you go from the cruise ship onto a smaller boat that serves like a ferry to get you to the walkable town. Luckily, it also meant we had a gorgeous view of the coast from our cruise ship and also one from the smaller vessel. The only downside was it meant we had to queue when the cruise ship gave the “all clear” before we could start our day of exploring. But as they say in France, c’est la vie!

Monaco – So many yachts! | TeamTravelsBaby

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Getting to Monte Carlo from the port city of Villefranche was super easy because it is extremely well marked on the way to the little train terminal. Because a cruise ship was in port, there were many people ready to help us purchase our tickets who spoke a variety of languages. It was less than $4 to get our ticket to Monaco and less than a 20 minute ride (which ran about every half hour) with only three stops (Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Eze, Cap-d’Ail) before we would exit at Monte Carlo. I used this site to look up times before our trip: https://www.thetrainline.com/ . It’s hard to believe we planned trips before the internet!

Monte Carlo is also well signed and super clean. We followed the signs to the famous Casino first, knowing that many pre-booked excursions head here. On the walk, there are tons of high end jewelry stores (Carré d’Or). We enjoyed the picture opportunities in Casino Square then went in to the Casino lobby. It’s free to enter the lobby and they had a separate line for men and women. There are some amazing red dice in the lobby which make for a great photo op. After a few pictures (you have to pay to enter more than the lobby), we headed to the back side of the casino where we enjoyed a walk overlooking the water on our way to the Formula 1 race track that hosts the Monaco Grand Prix every May.

The weather was warm with a Mediterranean breeze. On our self-made walking tour, we got directions from the race track to Place d’Armes. This lovely square had an indoor and outdoor food market called Marché de La Condamine. While we didn’t have a chance to try it, I read somewhere that “Barbagiuan”, which is a deep fried pastry stuffed with Swiss chard and ricotta is popular in Monaco. We crossed the street and followed the signs to Port de Fontvielle. We cut through the humungous Fontvielle Shopping Center on the way there. We lollygagged along the boardwalk where we could see a ridiculous number of yachts and dream about our retirement to a place like this! In order to get what we believed would be the best view of the city, we followed the signs that took us up to the Prince’s Palace (be prepared for a steep, but not too lengthy walk). We made it just in time to see the changing of the guards (occurred at 11:55 am), which drew quite the crowd. We wandered the narrow streets lined with food and gift shops and mostly, stopped to enjoy the unparalleled view of the coast, yachts and heavenly place we were in!

View from the top of the hill by the Prince’s Palace | TeamTravelsBaby

We made our way back to the train station, bought our tickets from a machine and took the train about 25 minutes to Nice, France (we passed by Villefranche-sur Mer, where we started).

Nice, France

The Nice train station was pretty large and the tourist site has good maps. We exited the train station, hung a left, passed the Basilique Notre-Dame de l’Assomption and then turned right onto the Avenue Jean Médecin. This is the main street and you’ll notice the black and white tiled walkways. This street is lined with shopping options and is a straight shot into old town (Vielle Ville) Nice.

Really cool water display with a sick backdrop in Nice | TeamTravelsBaby

We didn’t have much of a plan for this city other than to wander and see what we could. Along the main street, we watched the water display before we found Cours Saleya, a lovely market in old town where I bought a small bag of lavender for ½ a euro. We walked to the beach, which was rocky, instead of sandy. There were many people sunbathing and relaxing. While we didn’t walk the entire 7 km (less than 4.5 miles), we really loved the Promenade des Anglais. After seeing tons of gelato places, I finally found one with lavender (yum!) and indulged.

On our walk, we found an adorable independent bookstore called Librairie Masséna and I was able to find a book for Addy with vibrant pictures. It made for a great souvenir and it will be a good test of my French as I try to read it to Addy. From here we grabbed a cappuccino and sat at an outdoor café before making our return journey to Villefranche and our cruise ship. Fortunately the train ride was less than 10 minutes and under $3.

If you stay in Villefranche or have additional time, here are a few places I had on my list that you may want to check out: Saint Elme Citadel, St Michel Church, St Pierre Chapel, Rothschild Estate and Gardens and Rue Obscure (Dark Street).

Sète, France

This city is a working fishing port city known for its series of canals (like a mini Venice) where you can find water jousting in the summer. We found the local tourist site to be extremely helpful for getting an overview of the city and what there was to see: https://en.tourisme-sete.com/sete-cruise-passengers-information.html. After taking the free bus to the port entrance, we walked to the central market called Les Halles on Boulevard Gambetta (opens at 6 am). Inside a really nice vendor gave me a free “nazette”, which is like a little oblong table biscuit. I really wanted to try a “zezette” or a “nazette” at Crèmerie Lou Pastrou, a shop next to Les Halles, but they had extremely limited hours on Sunday (9 am – 12:15 pm).

We made our ascent up Mont St. Clair (about 600 feet tall and the highest point in Sète). On our way, we found lots of amazing street art. The view from the top was incredible and it was great to do this first thing before it got too warm out. There is a huge cross at the top and also a fisherman’s church called Notre Dame de la Salette. This church is unlike any we had ever seen before – it’s small, but has unique paintings inside on every wall. There’s also a building next door where nuns live and you’re allowed to climb to the top for an even better view!

View from the highest point of Mont Saint Clair | TeamTravelsBaby

From here, we made our way down to Pierres Blanches National Pine Forest. It’s lovely to have so much green space in the middle of a city. We wandered a few paths and enjoyed views of the Mediterranean and Thau lagoon (Étang de Thau) before we started heading back to the rest of the city. We took a nice long walk along the water that eventually got us to the Théâtre de la Mer (we could only see the outside) and the Cimitière Marin, which is a beautiful cemetery with decorations on the headstones and the Mediterranean as the backdrop.

As we continued our walk we could see the Lighthouse of Mole Saint Louis at the end of a narrow peninsula (we didn’t go up it, but it’s around 3 euros to climb it). Nearby, we climbed some steps to Quartier Haut which also boasted some beautiful street art and views of the lighthouse (some say this area reminds them of a Little Naples). We made it back to Les Halles for a different experience since it was bustling with people compared to the early morning. We wandered through other streets, found a pop up market and wandered the canals searching for more street art along the way. This city was the perfect end to our cruise experience and I would highly recommend a half day or day in this city.

While we did not go here, I read good things about the International Museum of Modest Art (MIAM) in Sète. Many people on our cruise went to Carcassonne (UNESCO World Heritage site), which is about 80 minutes away and is a walled castle. We opted not to go here because there seemed to be enough to do in Sète and because it was going to be challenging to “do-it-ourselves” in the amount of time we had at port.

Thank you!

Thank you for checking out the France and Monaco portion of our Mediterranean cruise and European adventure! Do you get the article title now? We hope you’ll take a few minutes to browse our other trips or read about our time in London, Barcelona and nearby Girona (great stop for Game of Thrones fans) and our ports in Italy. Be sure to follow us on Instagram! Until our next adventure!

I’m sure you can see why we fell in love with Monaco (cover image)! | TeamTravelsBaby

Crank It Out While Cruisin’ Italy

April 12, 2019July 9, 2019Posted in Cruise, Europe, Read Them AllTagged Baby Travel, Cruise, Day Trip, European Travel, Florence, Naples, Pisa, Port of Call, Pullmantur, Rome, Travel, Vatican3 Comments

Italy is a European country that everyone should strive to see in their lifetime. A cruise is the perfect way to get a taste of beautiful Italian cities like Naples, Rome, Pisa and Florence as well as the world’s smallest country, the Vatican. On our Mediterranean cruise we tried to “do-it-ourselves” as much as possible so we didn’t get crushed by cruise line excursion prices. Check out our trip report!

Naples (Wednesday, April 10, 2019) – Pompeii, Herculaneum, Mount Vesuvius.
Civitavecchia (Thursday, April 11, 2019) – The gateway to the Vatican and Rome.
Livorno (Friday, April 12, 2019) – The gateway to Pisa and Florence.

Naples

Naples was a great port city because you literally disembark and walk straight into town. This is the one port where we booked an excursion (outside of the cruise line) because after extensive research on do-it-ourselves transportation and talking with a good friend who had recently been, this ultimately was going to make the most sense. We opted to book an excursion through Shore Excursions Group that covered transportation from the ship to Herculaneum (impacted by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) then to the famous Pompeii, onwards to Mount Vesuvius and ultimately back to the ship. It was decently priced and Addy, our infant (6 months) was free. As this was a transportation only service, we still had to buy tickets at each site. A car seat was unnecessary and a stroller was highly discouraged due to the uneven terrain at each location. We only brought our Tula carrier and we still think it was the best decision. I would also highly recommend this excursion because it ran exactly as promised, the guide in the car (separate from the driver) spoke very clear English and shared history and recommendations with us during our rides to each destination. Herculaneum is very doable in the 60-90 minutes given to view it as it’s much more compact than Pompeii.

Herculaneum

Overview: 11 euros each; must check your bags for free and this is a separate line from the tickets if you didn’t purchase ahead of time so divide and conquer if you can; bring some information to read (they ran out of English guides when we were there)

View once you enter Herculaneum | TeamTravelsBaby

Pompeii

Overview: 15 euros each; this place is HUGE so make sure you know where you are dropped off and are supposed to meet back up; tickets can be purchased ahead of time or at the gate; pick the top items you want to see (if you look at the map we focused on section I-II and VII-IX)

Mount Vesuvius

Overview: Bring cash for your tickets which are 6.5 euros each; a jacket and good walking shoes are a must for hiking to the top and cross your fingers it’s not too foggy!

Civitavecchia (gateway to Rome and the Vatican)

From our ship we took a short bus ride to the port entrance (there wasn’t a walking option). Once we left the entrance, this city was very well signed and it was about a 15 minute (almost perfectly straight shot) walk to the train station. Take it from us – you can absolutely get to Rome and back to the ship without paying for an overpriced cruise tour. While there is a new speed train, I would recommend the “slow” commuter train if you plan to go to the Vatican first. We looked up the schedule ahead of time so we knew we wanted to catch the 8:39 am, 8:55 am or 9:16 am train and anticipated a 40 minute ride to S. Pietro station. We were able to purchase the ticket from a machine with a credit card, but be weary as we had a staff person try to sell us the new train ticket, which for us didn’t make sense because we would have waited around the station for quite some time for the 9:35 am train plus it’s slightly more expensive.

Saint Peter’s Basilica | TeamTravelsBaby

We took a short walk from S. Pietro station and I read online that if you get in the line for Saint Peter’s Basilica by 10 am, it’s about a 45 minute wait. This was accurate almost to the minute for us, even with the line looking very intimidating. We didn’t have much time to look around once we got inside, but we are happy we got the few minutes we did. On the way in we saw the Statue of David and were amazed by the views inside. If you have more time, you may want to pay to see the dome or check out the Grottoes (it’s free, but make sure to do it last as you’ll end up outside afterwards). We had to hustle to the Vatican Museums for our 11:30 am confirmed ticket (BUY THEM AHEAD OF TIME, print and have your passport just in case). It was a good 20 minute walk from the exit of the Basilica to the Vatican Museums. It’s absolutely beautiful, but they herd everyone through, so do your reading ahead of time. The Sistine Chapel is lovely but unfortunately, you can’t take pics or videos. Adjust your expectations and expect to be “rushed” through the Vatican. Personally, my favorites were the room with paintings on the ceilings and floor to ceiling tapestries (Tapestries Hall) and Raphael’s Room.

The view by Castel Sant’Angelo of Saint Peter’s Basilica | TeamTravelsBaby

We found we could always find someone to help us with directions. Even though it wasn’t recommended by most, we walked from the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo and then across the Tiber River (which also has a beautiful view of the Vatican) in order to see the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Venecia and ultimately the Colosseum. We were amazed by all of them and I was so happy the Trevi Fountain wasn’t under construction (like it was in May 2010). This was a TON of walking while carrying a baby (more than 3 miles), but a great way to see the city (versus finding and taking public transportation or paying for a cab). Luckily there was a metro stop right by the Colosseum and a guard there was able to give us directions on where to transfer so we could get on the commuter train back to Civitavecchia.

Livorno (gateway to Pisa and Florence)

View at sunset by our ship in Livorno | TeamTravelsBaby

Livorno…this is how cruise companies get you. First, we had to pay (well, we didn’t…but that’s another story) 5 euros cash or so for a roundtrip bus ticket to get from the cruise ship to a square in town (I believe the Piazza del Municipio). This annoyed me only because there wasn’t an option to walk. From the square, we opted for the approximately 1.5 mile walk to the train station (Livorno Centrale), where we crossed the famous Piazza della Republica to board a train for Pisa. (There is a bus option to Pisa too.) Even though it’s almost a straight shot, I definitely recommend bringing a map, asking locals (use the word “stazione”) or using the GPS on your phone if it works. Once we were at the station, it was super easy. Trains leave every 15 minutes or so, it’s a 15 minute ride and only $3 a person! Let me tell you, this is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than what you will pay with a cruise line AND the funny thing was when we arrived to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it was about the same time the people from the cruise line tour were arriving by coach bus. After we arrived in Pisa (at Pisa Centrale, train station), it was about a 15-20 minute walk to the actual Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Square of Miracles. En route to the Leaning Tower, the bridge we took over the Arno River has a pretty view and lots of vendors were selling beautiful flowers. We also passed through two markets which were neat to browse. In my research, one thing I learned is infants (and actually anyone under 8) CANNOT go up the Leaning Tower. This helped us to stay focused on the view from the outside. We enjoyed taking lots of fun pictures, as one does when they’re here. (Having climbed up it in May 2010, if you have to miss out on going inside in order to spend more time in Florence, I think it’s the right call. Of course if you’re taking a land tour of Italy and not cruising Italy, definitely go up it!)

The Leaning Tower of Pisa and Square of Miracles | TeamTravelsBaby

We made the walk back to Pisa Centrale and took a train to Florence (stop: Santa Maria Novella) which is about an hour ride and about $11 per person. The ride was comfortable and once we arrived in Florence, we got a map at the Tourist Information center (across the street from the train station by a church) and started making our way toward the Arno River to see the Ponte Vecchio (bridge). It’s the bridge which houses tons of jewelry stores. From there it’s a nice walk down by the Uffizi Gallery to see the statues of famous men like Da Vinci, Giotti and Botticelli. At the end, it opens up and you can see the Piazza della Signoria, the Statue of David and Neptune’s Fountain. We walked to the famous Florence Cathedral (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore) and waited in the very long line. We ultimately got in (it’s free) and saw Brunelleschi’s Duomo. At first it’s not obvious why everyone waits so long to get inside, but once you see the painting inside the dome, you will be amazed. It’s beautiful like the Sistine Chapel. We enjoyed walking around the leather market and inside Mercato Centrale (lots of food choices). Florence is a beautiful city with friendly people (in May 2010 I enjoyed a few days here with friends and highly recommend getting tickets to the Florence Cathedral to go to Giotto’s Bell Tower). We made the walk back to the train station, bought our tickets (about $13 per person) and got on our train back. Make sure to VALIDATE your ticket (any machine will do). We found that our train back to the port city was a long walk from the entrance and didn’t get a chance to. Luckily, a nice Italian women helped us and wrote our train number and time on the ticket for us and we didn’t get in trouble.

Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence | TeamTravelsBaby

Cruisin’ Italy

We went on a Pullmantur cruise out of Barcelona (check out my article about this awesome Mediterranean city) because the prices are extremely reasonable and kids are free (as in you don’t even pay port taxes or fees). And while we don’t drink, this is also an all-inclusive cruise line (think free house wines with lunch and dinner) AND they have an espresso bar which is also FREE! If you want to keep your trip affordable, take the time to plan it out and “do-it-yourself”, but also recognize that you can’t do it all. A cruise merely gives you a taste of each city so you know where to return to. Our biggest tip is to make sure to have the train schedules ready, your maps ready and not to be afraid to ask for directions! Happy travels and be sure to check us out on Instagram @teamtravelsbaby!

Loopin’ London

April 7, 2019July 14, 2019Posted in Europe, Read Them AllTagged Baby Travel, England, Europe, European Travel, Hostel, London, Travel, Weekend Trip2 Comments

Three days in London is the perfect amount of time to get a taste of this huge city that will leave you wanting more! We were lucky to experience the city with minimal rain and boy oh boy did we pack it in! Some highlights included the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Camden Market. London has amazing public transportation and is also extremely walkable. Check out our trip report, pictures and tips!

Thursday, April 4 morning through Sunday, April 6 morning
Arrived via Heathrow (LHR) airport and departed via Stansted (STN) airport
Transportation: Oyster card, pay as you go for the Underground (subway) and buses
Accommodations: Excelsior Hotel, easy walk from Kings Cross Station; feel free to use my Booking.com referral link for any hotel accommodation and we each get money at no additional cost to you

Thursday (Day 1)

We picked a hotel near Kings Cross station because it’s a hub with lots of different Underground (aka “The Tube”, aka metro/subway/train) lines running through it. It was easy to get on the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow airport and take the Tube for about a 50 or so minute ride without any need to transfer. The Excelsior Hotel was conveniently located about 2 blocks away once we found the correct exit and allowed us to store our luggage early.

We were able to start exploring before 1 pm and headed to the Tower of London. We figured a weekday would probably be a little less crowded then the weekend and we were right. We walked up and bought our ticket without issue (you can also get a slight savings by buying it ahead of time). We took a free tour with one of the Beefeaters, saw lots of the notorious crows and the famous crown jewels. We brought our stroller here (plus our rain cover that we ended up needing), which worked out fine. We enjoyed walking along the top of the castle wall through each of the towers and just left our stroller until we returned for it. If you do this, make sure to go in the room that tells about the Royal Beasts (animals). We made one of the three offerings of the White Tower tour (when we went it was offered at 10:45 am, 12:45 pm and 2:15 pm) and ended up getting a PRIVATE tour because no one else came. We really enjoyed it. From inside and outside of the castle you can see Tower Bridge, which is beautiful and often confused as being London Bridge. It’s definitely worthy of a few pics! If you look up from inside the Tower of London you can also see the Shard (cool looking triangle glass building) which was completed around 2012.

View from London Bridge facing Tower Bridge | TeamTravelsBaby

From here we walked the River Thames and crossed the London Bridge. On the way we got to see the Monument to the Great Fire of London (you can pay to go up it). The view of Tower Bridge from the London Bridge is spectacular on a clear or semi-clear day. We stumbled upon a gorgeous church called Southwark Cathedral (the city’s oldest gothic church) and the Borough Market as they were closing once we crossed the London Bridge to the south bank. This area has some amazing street art that’s fun to find or stumble across in our case. We continued along the river past Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to the Millennium Bridge where you get a gorgeous view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Before crossing the Millennium Bridge, you may want to pop into the Tate Modern, art museum. While we didn’t have time to see any art, it’s free, so it makes a great stop for a bathroom and changing station if needed. Actually, many of London’s amazing art museums are free, just like the Smithsonians in Washington, D.C. If you do have time or can time it right to be here on a Friday or Saturday night when it’s open late (until 10 pm), you can look for work by famous artists such as Cézanne, Dali, Matisse, Picasso and Warhol. While you’re walking around London, don’t forget to keep your eye out for the iconic red telephone booths which make for another great photo op! If you decide to keep walking around, like we did, you can see additional places like the Royal Court of Justice, London School of Economics and Covent Garden to name a few. We ended up walking to Convent Garden because there was a Tube station here with a direct ride (8 minutes) on the Piccadilly Line back to Kings Cross.

Friday (Day 2)

We started our morning early with a Tube ride. When we got off the train, we wandered through the official Temple Bar Gate which signifies you are entering the City of London. Make sure to check out the cool dragon! Since we brought our stroller again, we were able to enter St. Paul’s Cathedral through the accessible entrance and then were taken to the ticket counter to purchase our ticket. It’s absolutely gorgeous inside the Cathedral and the tour with a guide is included in the price. After our tour, we left our stroller and moved Addy to our on-person carrier to climb the many stairs (very narrow in some places) up to the dome. This should NOT be missed! The views from the top are spectacular! You can also enjoy some time wandering the crypt. From here we made our walk to the Royal Court of Justice. It’s free to enter after you pass security and some people say it has a Hogwartesque feel to it. Unfortunately, they don’t want you to take pictures inside (good luck trying to do so incognito). Covent Garden was not too far around the corner and is super fun to walk around. There are tons of shops, restaurants and good people watching! If you have time to spare in this area, it’s a short walk to Neal’s Yard which is a super colorful hidden alley.

View from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral | TeamTravelsBaby

Hopping on the Tube is super easy with the Oyster card. We rode the Piccadilly line from Covent Garden to Green Station. We enjoyed wandering Green Park, St. James Park (to see the famous resident pelicans; they are fed daily at 2:30 pm, but we saw them even outside of feeding time) and seeing Buckingham Palace (if you want to see the changing of the guard this happens around 10:45 am. Because we LOVE to walk and see it all, we continued to Hyde Park. This park has lovely flowers, tons of birds, and points of interest to see like Kensington Palace and Gardens. We exited on the south side of the park by the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall. From here, we ventured to a street with many museums and popped in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Besides being a free museum, it also has late hours on Friday nights (open until 10 pm), which made it a great place to rest and again find a free bathroom. If you are here earlier in the day, the Natural History Museum is on this block and is free too.

The resident pelicans of St. James Park | TeamTravelsBaby

As if our feet weren’t exhausted, we trekked on to Harrods, the must see humungous department store. We walked the main floor and then took the elevator to the kids section. The organization of each cubby-like room is by theme (stuffed animals, Legos, Barbie dolls, etc.) and fun to see…but forget about being able to buy anything. Take a picture, it’ll last longer. The baby furniture section and the creepy kids’ mannequins were also unique to see. Then right outside of Harrods we hopped on a bus heading in the direction of Piccadilly Circus and got off there (very short, less than 10 minute ride). It’s a fun area to see at night and we loved posing for pics in the Lego Shop at Leicester Square. They had a life-sized Tube train with characters to sit with and a map made entirely from Legos. Let’s just say we CRASHED after this day of exploring London!

Addy needs a giraffe | TeamTravelsBaby
Creepy mannequins | TeamTravelsBaby

Saturday (Day 3)

We woke up early and rode to the Embankment station which put us right along the River Thames. It was a beautiful walk with views of the London Eye. If Big Ben weren’t under construction until 2021, we would have had a nice view of the clock as well. Since we did not buy our tickets ahead of time for the House of Parliament (aka the Palace of Westminster), we had to go to the ticket booth located in front of Portcullis House on Victoria Embankment, which was actually on the way from the train station. If we had gone during peak tourist season, it would have been better to buy these ahead of time, but luckily we were able to secure tickets for later in the day.

In the meantime, we hustled over to Westminster Abbey (across the street) and got in line to purchase our tickets. Luckily, we were able to secure them here and go right in (it opened at 1:30 pm on Saturday). We got the self-guided tour headset and thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful church (if we were here during peak season, we would have purchased it ahead of time). So many famous people are buried here like Isaac Newton and Charles Dickens! Since my visit as part of my study abroad experience in May 2010, Stephen Hawkins’ ashes were buried in Westminster among other brilliant science-y people (think Newton and Darwin). When you get near the Poets’ Corner, you have the option to pay and climb up Westminster Abbey.

Quick snap inside of Westminster Abbey | TeamTravelsBaby

From Westminster, we exited into Parliament Square (where there are tons of famous statues to see like Mandela and Churchill) and it was booming with people! It was like a bunch of tour buses opened their doors and the people flowed out to the streets! We crossed the street and entered the House of Parliament for our ticketed time. Touring this was an absolute highlight and getting a self-guided tour headset is included in the ticket price here too. We were only allowed to take pictures in the first two rooms, but the other rooms are gorgeous and I definitely wish I could have snapped away!

After we exited, we walked along Horse Guard Road between St. James Park (another chance to see the famous pelicans) and a lot of other beautiful architecture on our way to Trafalgar Square. We made it to the National Gallery, which hosts loads of famous work from artists we’ve all heard of like Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Renoir and Van Gogh. The beauty is, this place is FREE, so you don’t have to feel bad only seeing a few particular paintings and on Friday nights it’s open late (9 pm).

Guard
Monet
Van Gogh

To catch a breather, we hopped on the Tube and road past our hotel stop at Kings Cross up to see Camden Market. This area has tons of shopping, incredible street art and murals and is a must see area of town, very different from the sites we had seen up to this point on our trip. After a nice coffee break, we walked to Regent’s Park. We enjoyed the park stroll on our long walk back to Kings Cross. Other things in this area include: Queen Mary’s rose garden, the ZSL London Zoo (the world’s oldest scientific zoo) and Hampstead Heath (supposed to have great views) if you have the time.

Sunday

London is definitely a city that requires more than a stopover. There is so much to see that even with our three days, we know we could come back and see more. On Sunday morning, we took the Tube from Kings Cross to Tottenham Hale station. We then had to buy a separate ticket for the Greater Anglia Railway to take a direct commuter-type train for 35 minutes to Stansted Airport. Even with a baby and our luggage, we found this to be incredibly easy and worthwhile since we were flying on an inexpensive one-way ticket via Ryan Air to Barcelona, Spain to board our Mediterranean cruise to Italy and France. Check out those hyperlinks to read about those portions of our trip!

Trip Planning Considerations and Tips

For some, it may make sense to purchase the London Pass. Ultimately, we decided on the Oyster pay as you go card and purchasing individual attractions. This article may be helpful for your review: https://www.londonpass.com/london-attractions/
If you are looking for other ideas, perhaps free or inexpensive ones, this article may be helpful: https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/budget-london/101-free-things-to-do-in-london
There are tons of other blog articles with ideas for stopovers, weekends and 3 day adventures. I also found reviewing the Free Tours by Foot, such as this article to be helpful: https://freetoursbyfoot.com/things-to-see-near-buckingham-palace/
Transportation: Make sure to have a map or a transportation app. If you’re not using your phone overseas except on Wi-Fi, I definitely recommend screenshots or physical paper maps for reference. Of course, you can always just ask a local! If you’re going to use your phone a ton, it may be worth getting a portable battery bank!
Accommodations: Our hotel, was really more like a hostel (Excelsior Hotel). We had a shared bathroom and a private room. Since we had our stroller, two pieces of small luggage and a backpack, plus a pack-n-play, there was virtually no room to walk in the hotel room. For us, this was perfect because it was the least expensive place I saw for 3 nights (because we didn’t want to have to switch hotels in the middle of our short trip) in a good central location. We also knew we wouldn’t spend any time in the room except for sleeping.

Often mistaken for “London Bridge”, this is actually Tower Bridge | TeamTravelsBaby

The First State in 2019

January 7, 2019January 10, 2019Posted in Read Them All, State CapitolTagged Capitol, Coffee shop, Delaware, Dessert, State Capitol, TravelLeave a comment

Did you see what I did there? Delaware is considered the “First State” as it was the first one to ratify the Constitution of the United States and was also the first state we visited to kick-off the new year! On our Sunday day trip we visited Dover, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Henlopen and Rehoboth Beach. We got very lucky with a 50ish degree day, which made it a perfect day to be outside and exploring new places. It also meant that because it was January, we had each of these places to ourselves.

Don’t Ditch Dover

Dover is a really quaint capital city. The highlight for me was stopping at the House of Coffi. The coffee house is adorable with lots of unique art inside to match their unique selection. I completely indulged with a cinnamon roll latte and red velvet muffin (yep, muffin, not cupcake)! No wonder this place has 4.8 stars on Google!

After you’re loaded with your caffeine, it’s only about a 10 minute walk to see Wesley College. It’s was the first private college in Delaware and has beautiful brick buildings. The gorgeous Victorian houses along the way really make the walk worthwhile. On your loop back toward the coffee shop, stop by Woodburn, which is the Governor’s Mansion to at least get a picture of the building or gardens.

Across from the House of Coffi is the huge public library and then easy access to all kinds of Federal buildings from the post office to the archives and eventually the huge Legislative Hall (or State Capitol). Coming in January has its perks – like being able to photograph the entire Legislative Hall across the Green without a single person in the pic! Seeing the Old State House is also nice and right next to it is where we found free, unlimited parking for our time here.

In talking with the locals at the coffee house, Silver Lake Park was recommended. The park has a pretty waterfall and some nice areas to walk. While we didn’t try it, McGlynns Pub and Restaurant were recommended to us because of the perfect location in the middle of the lake.

All in all, this is a great day trip from the Washington, D.C. area as it’s only two hours away over the Bay Bridge. If you’re interested in touring any of the historical places or the Capitol, make sure to verify the hours online in advance.

Prime Hook and Cape Henlopen

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and Cape Henlopen are great stops on a nice day for some hiking. Prime Hook has tons of trails and it’s free! We hiked the Dike Trail and Boardwalk Trail near the Visitors Center (which was sadly closed due to the government shutdown along with the restrooms) because we were able to take the stroller on both. We only saw one great blue heron, but if you love birds, you’ll want to check the website for which migratory birds will be there and when. We found Christmas Holly, which is Delaware’s State Tree along the Boardwalk path.

Cape Henlopen normally costs $10, but for some reason it was free the day we went. It’s really close to the Lewes Ferry that will take you to Cape May, New Jersey. We drove up to Herring Point which had ample parking. There’s a great view of the ocean as well as access to a beach. The physical structure there has a “spy” history. Across the street from the physical structure are some paths, including a nice boardwalk path along Gordon’s Pond. If you have time, the Visitor Center offers free bikes on a first-come, first-serve basis and there are tons of biking paths to take advantage of.

Sunset on Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach is one of the many beaches in Delaware (some other include Dewey and Bethany) and popular for retirees. From researching which beach to check out, it appeared Rehoboth would be the best due to the one mile boardwalk. We timed our arrival so we’d get there around 4:30 pm and close to the sunset time. We are so glad we did because the sky looked beautiful. With the exception of a jewelry store, candy store and a restaurant that were open, this place was a ghost-town. While I imagine it is completely different during the summer, I think I would still prefer Ocean City, New Jersey.

We didn’t go, but I read “the Avenue” and the Tanger Outlets are popular to check out due to Delaware being tax free on clothes. Plus, if you’re a AAA member, don’t forget to stop by the Tanger Info Booth and get your coupon book!

If you want to make this trip a full weekend adventure, I recommend reading my article about the East Coast of Maryland called Ponies by the Seashore.

Cruisin’ the Canaries

February 26, 2018July 14, 2019Posted in Cruise, Europe, National Parks, Read Them AllTagged Canary Islands, Cruise, Europe, European Travel, Island Hopping, Madrid, Morocco, Pullmantur, Spain, Stopover, TravelLeave a comment

La Palma, Canray Island | TeamTravelsBaby

Have you heard of the Canary Islands? They’re a group of Spanish islands near the coast of Morocco with temperate weather, lots of national parks, volcanoes and beaches! If you’ve ever wanted to island hop, doing so via a cruise is a great way! There are seven main Canary Islands and we got to explore five of them, plus a city in Morocco during our week long Pullmantur cruise (Horizon ship) and a stopover in Madrid. We traveled February 16 – 26, 2018, which was the perfect time to escape the cold Washington, D.C. winter.

Top Benefits of Cruisin’

Stress-free. You don’t have to pack and unpack every night.
Time-saver. You get to cover a lot of ground without exerting any effort.
Eat without thinking. You know where all of your meals are coming from.
Fun galore! There are lots of activities and shows for entertainment and pools to relax by.
Socialize without the clean-up. You can meet people who share your love for travel from all over the world.

Tenerife, Canary Island

We were here for the end of Carnival (a huge celebration where everyone dressed up in costumes like it was Halloween). Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the main city where Carnival was being celebrated and is also where the port is for the round-trip cruise.
Wandered through Strasse Park, which had very unique agriculture.
City of La Orotava is an old historic city with beautiful views.
Easy to rent a car from the airport and drive on the island.
Arrived one full day ahead of our cruise departing to explore the island (and found a safe place to carsleep).

La Palma, Canary Island

Curved around and up the mountain to see the Santuario de la Virgen de las Nieves, a famous church with a beautiful view of the city.
Hiked in Caldera de Taburiente National Park where we saw a few Canarian ravens and a stunning rainbow!
Viewed the famous Spanish balconies and black sand beach while eating delicious ice cream!

Agadir, Morocco

The port is not extremely close to the town (probably 45 minute walk) and we came across a few stray dogs and cats. Be careful as we found the dogs will follow you.
Traveled to the Kasbah, which is the highest point. There are camels you can ride on or take a picture with. The inscription reads “God, Homeland, King” on the side of the mountain.
Shopped three Souks (markets) and learned about Moroccan oil. Negotiated a great deal for a painting with tree goats in the argan tree in a small souk by the beach.

Lanzarote, Canary Island

Los Hervideros is an incredible water hole. The water is so strong that you are not allowed to swim as people have died trying.
Drove through Timanfaya National Park to see the crater. We stopped at El Diablo Restaurant in the park to see a demonstration of the volcanic heat. This restaurant makes its food from the volcanic heat.
Some drank wine, while I ate ice cream at La Geria.

Fuerteventura, Canary Island

Walked along La Oliva, a beautiful sand beach.
Visited a cute, small town called Betancuria and the ruins.
Explored the port city of Arrecife and Puerto del Rosario.

Gran Canaria, Canary Island

Strolled through the quaint town of Vega de San Mateo and Tejega (one of the most beautiful cities in Spain).
Ate a fabulous lunch in the City of Teror, saw their famous balconies and stepped inside their historic church.
Saw the Roque Nublo or cloudy rock, which was beautiful.
Promenaded along the Playas de las Canteras which was the happening beach near the cruise port and took in a beautiful sunset here.
We had a fantastic tour guide and a small group of travelers from around the world. The funny thing is, we spent the first thirty minutes of our time on the island panicking that our excursion wasn’t going to happen because the excursion company (Shore Excursioneer) confirmed a different time with us then they did with the person picking us up for the tour.

Madrid, Spain

Booked a flight with a stopover in Madrid (less than 24 hours; arrived 3 p.m. and departed 1 p.m. the next day) because it’s only 30 minutes via public transportation to get to the city center.
Bird-watching in the huge park, El Retiro Park.
Peaked into the train station, Atocha and also found the perfect, last minute hostel with a private room called Far Home Atocha for only 40 euros that I would highly recommend. Use my Booking.com link and we each get $20!
Awed at the Almudena Cathedral, and would definitely tour it the next time we visit this city.
Traipsed through town and saw places like Plaza Mayor, the San Miguel Market and the bear and strawberry tree in La Puerta del Sol.

Full Disclosure

I was about 8 weeks pregnant on this trip, so I couldn’t fully indulge on the Pullmantur cruise line which offers free alcoholic beverages (like house wines) in the price of the cruise.
I had all day sickness – morning sickness, motion sickness, you name it and still had an amazing trip and would recommend checking out www.vacationstogo.com (free with your email address) to find this cruise and other deals!

Rich(mond) in History

December 31, 2017August 29, 2018Posted in Read Them All, State CapitolTagged Coffee shop, Dessert, Richmond, State Capitol, Travel, Virginia1 Comment

View from Belle Isle Bridge | TeamTravelsBlog

Richmond is Virginia’s capitol and full of U.S. historical sites. It also boasts cool street art and some delicious treats! Spending a holiday weekend during the cold months meant no crowds, easy to find parking and the sites were still open!

Richmond Highlights over New Years’ Eve Weekend 2017

Belle Isle Pedestrian Bridge
Maymont
Hollywood Cemetery
Carytown – Street Art, Carytown Cupcakes, Lamplighter Coffee
Virginia State Capitol
Shockoe Bottom and Main Street Station

After sipping our free hotel coffee, we headed into Richmond. It was a cool morning and we parked near 300 Tredegar Street in order to take the Belle Isle Pedestrian Bridge. The bridge is really unique and gives you some great views of Richmond.

Belle Isle Bridge View | TeamTravelsBlog

After a little exploring, we got back in our car and drove to Maymont. We parked outside the gate and walked onto the property, which is beautiful! The mansion itself is gorgeous, but we didn’t take the tour (I’m 99% sure I did as a kid though, because the whole place felt nostalgic to me). There appears to be a lot to do, like a nature center, the mansion tour, etc. if you have time and are interested.

The Hollywood Cemetery was a must see for us. Before you drive into the cemetery, there’s a map you can get or take a picture of, which we found to be really helpful as we didn’t want to miss any of the historical figures like James Monroe and John Tyler. I think because we were here on a holiday weekend during a cold month, this is why it wasn’t busy at all and even enjoyable to drive around and park where we wanted to take pictures.

We drove to Carytown next and found a free parking spot on a side street. This street is a must see with its cool street art, the delicious cupcakes at Carytown Cupcakes (you really can’t get just one) and the yummy coffee at Lamplight Roasting Company.

Yummy cupcake | TeamTravelsBlog

Caffeine | TeamTravelsBlog

As it was approaching 1 pm, we made our way to the Virginia State Capitol which has pretty short hours on Sundays and is closed on holidays, like New Year’s Day. Again, I think because it was a holiday weekend, we basically had the place to ourselves and one of the docents gave us an excellent tour.

The statue of George Washington in white marble under the rotunda is incredible and has a lot of details that you may not notice without a tour guide or doing some research ahead of time. We had a little bit of time afterwards, so we explored the Capitol grounds which included seeing the Governor’s Mansion on one end and St. Paul’s Church at the other.

Our last stop in Richmond before making the two hour drive home was Shockoe Bottom historic area. We found another side street parking spot and checked out the artwork along the street before making it to the train station. The train station is beautiful inside with an art exhibit, a mini visitor center and because it was NYE, they were setting up for a party upstairs. Don’t miss the opportunity to take a picture with the “Love” sign in the Main Street Station.

Let me know what we have to see next time we make it to Richmond! Did you guess right? The cemetery grave site pictured above was for James Monroe.

Carytown Street Art | TeamTravelsBlog

Hooray for Luray Caverns

December 30, 2017August 29, 2018Posted in Read Them AllTagged Coffee shop, Dessert, Travel, Virginia3 Comments

Reflecting Pond at Luray Caverns | TeamTravelsBlog

They say Virginia is for lovers, so we spent our New Years’ Eve weekend exploring its offerings. Luray Caverns and Monticello were highlights for day one. Read our next post about day two in Richmond, which impressed us more than we expected!

Virginia Weekend Highlights over New Years’ Eve Weekend 2017

Luray Caverns (near Shenandoah National Park)
Staunton (5 Historic Districts, Reunion Bakery & Espresso)
Charlottesville (Monticello, The Pie Chest, Pedestrian Mall)
Richmond (GardenFest Illumination at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden)

We left our place early on Saturday (December 30, 2017) in the morning to drive out toward Shenandoah National Park. We had our National Park pass ready, so we thought after seeing Luray Caverns, it would be nice to enjoy the drive south along Skyline Drive.

Fried Eggs at Luray Caverns | TeamTravelsBlog

Unfortunately, due to snow, we learned that many parts of Shenandoah were closed. We went ahead and drove directly to Luray Caverns and bought our ticket for the next tour. At this point in time, we had been to a few other caves (Cave of the Winds in Colorado, Wind Cave in South Dakota and Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota) and had enjoyed each experience as every cave seems to have something unique about them.

Make sure to read the rules online about your boots before heading out to a cave (hint: it has to do with bats and the spread of white-nose syndrome). Luray Cavern has many “must sees” including the reflecting pond, the stalacpipe organ and fried eggs. My biggest piece of advice is to make sure you know how to use your phone camera or regular camera in lower light settings.

Your ticket also gets you admission into a few of the nearby buildings, so if you’re into old cars it’s worth taking a walk through the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum or if you’re into old toys you may want to pop through Toy Town Junction which are both in the same parking lot.

We headed south from Luray to a small historic town called Staunton. Staunton is made up of five historic districts (Newtown; Wharf Area; Beverley; Gospel Hill; Stuart Addition). Staunton is home to Mary Baldwin University, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and the American Shakespeare Center. We parked near both between the Beverly District and Gospel Hill and enjoyed a walk downtown along S New St. This street has a historic store front called Cranberry’s Grocery and Eatery and a nice coffee shop called Reunion Bakery & Espresso. It’s also a short walk to the train tracks and the Wharf District, which has a cool bridge and the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church is worth a peek. Staunton also hosts a Harry Potter-esque world of wizardry weekend every September.

View from Wharf District Bridge | TeamTravelsBlog

For 2018, it’s called “Queen City Mischief and Magic”. While we haven’t been, I have read the city is transformed for this particular weekend. Plus, you’d be close enough to Shenandoah to potentially see the leaves change color! If you love Instagram like me (I hope you’ll follow me @TeamTravelsBlog), tag your Staunton pics with #LOVEStaunton #QueenCity and @visitstaunton .

From here, we continued eastward about 40 minutes to Charlottesville and specifically to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. We made it in time for the last regular tour of the day. This home should not be missed. We took the free shuttle to the house, then walked by the grave site and took a trail back to where the museums, gift shop and ticket counter were located. The tour guides are passionate about his life and sharing information about the house. The views also happen to be incredible!

From here, we went to downtown Charlottesville, where the University of Virginia is located. There’s a “pedestrian mall” which is essentially a car free street with a variety of stores, restaurants and bars. Similar concept to the 16^th Street Mall you’d find in Denver, Colorado, just on a smaller scale. On one of the side streets, I saw a pie place called “The Pie Chest”.

Peppermint Crunch at The Pie Chest | TeamTravelsBlog

O.m.g. this place is amazing!! I could literally make a trip here just for the pie.

As if we hadn’t fit enough into our day, we drove about another hour to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden outside of Richmond. We wanted to see the beautiful winter lights display here called GardenFest Illumination. For many years we’ve gone to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. to take in the free display of holiday lights, which are definitely a must see. But as we were looking for something different to do, this was great! There were a variety of indoor and outdoor displays, animals, storybook characters in lights (see the Giving Tree below), moving lights and changing colors.

Yep, we were exhausted by this point. I found a cheap, last minute deal using Booking.com (use my code and we each get $20) for a place under $60. We crashed and knew we’d have a chance to sleep in and then explore Richmond in the morning. If we took a similar trip, any must-see places you would recommend? Read all about our day in Richmond here!

Other nearby ideas if you’re planning a similar trip:

Shenandoah National Park
Staunton (Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, American Shakespeare Center)
Charlottesville (Ash-Highland Estate)
Orange (Montpellier)

“Santa Barbara and the PCH Pacifically”

November 14, 2017December 12, 2017Posted in Read Them AllTagged California, Coffee shop, Dessert, Travel, USA Travel4 Comments

Sunset at Malibu State Park | Teamtravelsblog

Santa Barbara and the Pacific Coast Highway, California Highlights over Veterans’ Weekend 2017

Pacific Coast Highway – Malibu State Park, One Thousand Steps Beach, Carpinteria Bluffs, El Matador State Beach and the Malibu Pier
Stearns Wharf and State Street
Gaviota State Park via El Camino Real
Solvang for dessert and Sides for lunch
Lizard’s Mouth in the Los Padres National Forest
Sunset from Franceschi Park
Sunset by the Four Seasons Hotel

I can’t complain about the LA traffic, coming from the DC area. We left LA and headed west on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) toward Santa Barbara. Since the sunset was shortly before 5 p.m., we found a free spot along the PCH near a veterinarian hospital and walked into the Malibu State Park. The reflections and cranes in the water were beautiful. We walked to the beach and found a tiny obstruction blocking a clear picture of the sunset as the tide was rolling in. This didn’t stop us from enjoying it or getting pictures.

We turned our attention to the water behind us and found fish jumping out of water and all kinds of birds! It was fun to watch along with the surfers on the ocean side. After the sunset, we continued our drive, to State Street in Santa Barbara. This is the happening street with the restaurants, shops, bars, etc. and we found free parking on Chapala Street. We walked to Stearns Wharf and saw (and heard) the party ships on the ocean. The boardwalk is nice to walk along and the seafood restaurant toward the end has live lobsters and crabs you can catch a glimpse of in the window. Reminded me of trips to Publix as a kid when my brother and I would watch the live lobsters when we were grocery shopping with our Dad. Before heading to our friends’ place, I got an evening coffee at the Santa Barbara Coffee Roasters which was the only open coffee shop I could find on Saturday night.

We met our friends at a gorgeous mansion about 15 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. They rent a room and bathroom is a beautiful home with eclectic art work, an expansive backyard and multiple fireplaces! We got to stay in the amazing loft! The place felt like a dream!

Gaviota State Park | Teamtravelsblog — Gaviota State Park with our friends | Teamtravelsblog

After a restful evening, we ate a delicious breakfast and then drove to Gaviota State Park via El Camino Real. We parked up the hill from the park, in a free spot and took a nice short hike. We then walked into the park for a view from the beach. From here we drove about 20 minutes to Solvang. This city is amazing!

It was founded over 100 years ago by 3 Danish men. There are tons of bakeries, cute shops and details to see like old red phone booths (we couldn’t help ourselves) and windmills. After exploring the town, we were starving! We at a place relatively close by called Sides. The food here was literally, the best we’ve ever had! The burger, fish tacos and butternut squash soup were incredulous!

We knew we wanted to walk off our food, so we drove through Los Padres National Forest and headed for Lizard’s Mouth Rock. Prepare yourself for the windy drive to get here! This was a short, but amazing walk! The large rocks overlooking Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean are a must see! We took endless selfies! We made our way from here to the One Thousand Steps beach before high tide. Luckily, it wasn’t literally 1,000 steps to the beach. The beach is covered in beautiful rocks.

One Thousand Steps Beach | Teamtravelsblog

As it was getting closer to sunset, we made our way to State Street. We got coffee at Dune and explored Paaseo Nuevo, saw the McConnell’s ice cream store and then drove to Franceschi Park. It was crazy to learn that the surrounding houses had banded together to get approval for an illegal gate to block visitors from visiting this park months prior. We didn’t have any issues, parked in one of the limited spots and took in a gorgeous purple sunset! We also explored the abandoned looking mansion.

Franceschi Park Sunset | Teamtravelsblog

As if we hadn’t packed enough into one day, we drove to the Four Seasons Hotel in Montecito to see the last bit of the sunset. Back at the SB mansion, our friends introduced us to a game called Exploding Kittens*! It was such a blast.

Monday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to Carpinteria Bluffs. We love seeing animals in their natural habitat and after a leisurely walk, we found the sunbathing seals! We’re glad we didn’t give up – it really was only a matter of continuing to walk north with the ocean to your left until you see them.

Seals at Carpinteria Bluffs | Teamtravelsblog

The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is exactly what we hoped – a relaxing drive with non-stop beaches to pick from. We stopped at El Matador State Beach, Zuma Beach and Malibu Beach and Pier on our drive back to Los Angeles. El Matador was our favorite as we saw a perched pelican, tons of curlews (type of bird) and two beach photo shoots! The rock formations are really incredible here too.

Pelican at El Matador State Beach | Teamtravelsblog

Curlews at El Matador State Beach | Teamtravelsblog

If you want to read about how we spent the rest of our Monday in Los Angeles or our day prior to Santa Barbara, check out my previous article titled, “Ve-nice to Hollywood”. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and the connecting Pacific Coast Highway are completing doable on a long weekend! I hope you picked up some tips!

Us at the Lizard's Mouth | Teamtravelsblog — Us at the Lizard’s Mouth | Teamtravelsblog

Ve-nice to Hollywood

November 11, 2017November 21, 2017Posted in Read Them AllTagged California, Coffee shop, Dessert, Travel, USA Travel, Weekend Trip, Zoo1 Comment

Lots to see in Los Angeles and it’s more than the rich and famous! Hiking to the Hollywood sign, seeing the Melrose Avenue street art and taking in the Venice Beach sunset are among the highlights!

Los Angeles, California Highlights over Veterans’ Weekend 2017

Santa Monica Pier
Venice Beach (sunset, street art and bread pudding)
Venice Canals
Third Street Promenade and Sidecar Donuts
Hike to the Hollywood sign and Bronson Caves
Graffiti at the Old LA Zoo
Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard
Street art on Melrose Avenue and Alfred Coffee on Melrose Place
View from the Griffith Observatory

When we find a great flight deal we go for it! We took a direct Spirit flight from Baltimore (BWI) to Los Angeles (LAX) and arrived shortly after noon on Friday, November 10^th. We picked up our cheap rental car from Payless since we got a great deal through CarRentals.com. While it wasn’t the fastest service and we caught them trying to charge us the wrong price, everything ultimately worked out and we were on our way without being upsold on any of the extras. We parked the car at the Convention Center by the Santa Monica Pier and met our friends. (Traveler tip: If you go on a weekday, park at the Santa Monica mall instead. The Convention Center is a good cheap spot on the weekend.) The pier was fun to walk along – enjoyed the street performers, checked out the roller coasters, got our picture with the “66-End of Trail” sign and saw the fishermen at the end of the boardwalk. We especially enjoyed watching the sunset here.

We moved our car to Ocean Boulevard street parking part way between the Santa Monica beach and Venice beach to a meter that was free after 6 p.m. We walked along the pedestrian and bike path, which was lit. When we got to Venice beach where all of the stores are, we found lots of homeless and seemingly homeless people. While we felt safe, it didn’t seem like our kind of scene (read to the end to see how our opinion changed on our second visit here). We continued from here to the Venice Canals. The houses along the canals are beautiful and if you’re lucky, people will have their lights on so you can get a peek inside their living rooms. I’d love to find an AirBNB here!

I saw a picture of the Sidecar Donuts on Instagram and I knew I had to try one! We parked on 5^th Avenue, paid the meter and made the short walk. I tried the maple bacon donut and it was SO GOOD! From here we walked down the Third Street Promenade. It reminded us of carless streets like the 16^th Street Mall in Denver. We watched more street performers here, saw a Barnes & Noble with the old school signing and found huge hedge dinosaurs. We also poked our head down 4^th Street which had trees decorated with colorful changing lights. Before calling it a night, we took a quick detour to Rodeo Drive and saw all of the fancy designer stores.

Instead of carsleeping this trip, we stayed at our friends’ place nearby, ate a lovely homemade breakfast, got serenaded by their 3 year old with Let It Go and headed out the door by 8 a.m. We arrived at 3200 Canyon Road by 8:30 a.m. and were able to secure a parallel parking spot for free. It’s a steep hike, but a rewarding hike from here to the Hollywood sign.

While it was a bit foggy, we did enjoy seeing downtown LA from the top too. Before returning to our car, we made a left past the Smokey the Bear sign and made the very short trip up to the Bronson Caves. They’re cool to walk through and if you walk all the way around, you’ll get another view of the full Hollywood sign. We were back in the car by 11 a.m. and made a short trip to the Old L.A. Zoo in Griffith Park. The parking was plentiful and free. After a few minutes of seeing the old cages that were abandoned in the 1960s, I was ready to go and didn’t see the appeal. It didn’t look like the Instagram pictures I had seen that showed graffiti. The trick is you have to climb the stairs in the second exhibit or come down from the top. The graffiti work is really cool and it’s a bit eerie to crawl through what used to be animal enclosures.

From here we headed to see the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Blvd. Luckily we found two hour free parking on Emmet Terrace. Hollywood Boulevard is extremely touristy with some inappropriate stores, but for us, we had to at least see some of the famous stars. We enjoyed calling out names and noticing the different symbols depending on the person’s industry (e.g., entertainment, music, television, etc.).

After we got our fix and checked this off the list, we headed to Melrose Avenue. We found free street parking on North Orlando Avenue nearby. I really liked the vibe of Alfred Coffee on Melrose Place and they had nostalgic Lisa Frank cup sleeves. Melrose Avenue was perfect for taking pictures! We headed up and down the street so I could take pictures of the pink building, the famous wings, “Made in LA” wall, comedian wall by the Improv, the Marilyn Monroe portrait and much more!

Marilyn Monroe on Melrose | Teamtravelsblog — Melrose Avenue Street Art | Teamtravelsblog

From here we spent two days around Santa Barbara and the Pacific Coast Highway. Check out my next article to read more about that part of the trip. On Monday afternoon, we returned to Los Angeles and drove to the Griffith Observatory. The Observatory was closed, but we paid $4 to park and take in the view from here. The Observatory is beautiful and the walk around the building is superb! Even with some light fog, we still got some great shots of the skyline. You’ll get another chance to see the Hollywood sign. We also spotted a mom and two baby deer wandering around.

LA from Griffith Observatory | Teamtravelsblog

Baby deer at the Griffith Observatory |Teamtravelsblog

With a few hours left on our trip, we returned to the Venice Canals. We parked for free on N. Venice Boulevard near the LA Public Library. Since we made it before sunset, the lighting and reflections were perfect! The houses are all really unique and beautiful. Lots of people own little boats and we even saw a flamingo paddle boat!

Venice Beach | Teamtravelsblog — Venice | Teamtravelsblog

We walked back to Venice Beach and found ourselves having a completely different experience from our first one. Venice was a happening place! We found amazing street art along the strip and closer to the water. I ate the most amazing classic cinnamon and salted caramel bread pudding from Espresso Yo’self. The skate park is a must see! Watching the skateboarders is completely mesmerizing as they dodge one another, flip their boards and stick their landings. By 5 p.m. the sun had set and the sky changed to the most magnificent colors. I couldn’t put my camera down!

Before we knew it, it was time to return our car to Payless, shuttle to the airport and fly home on the red eye flight. California is incredible and we will be back! Remember to check back to read about our two days around Santa Barbara and the PCH.

Sunset on Venice Beach | Teamtravelsblog — Venice Beach Sunset | Teamtravelsblog

Cluster your day around Custer

October 29, 2017November 15, 2017Posted in National Parks, Read Them All, State CapitolTagged Coffee shop, Colorado, South Dakota, Travel, USA Travel, Wyoming1 Comment

Sunrise at Custer State Park | Teamtravelsblog

South Dakota amazed us! Sylvan Lake and a drive along the Needles Highway in Custer State Park shouldn’t be missed! Jewel Cave National Monument is incredible and different from nearby Wind Cave. Our whirlwind three day trip wraps up here with a pit stop in Cheyenne and Denver too!

South Dakota Trip Highlights on Sunday, October 29, 2017

The animals – elk, bison, pronghorn, white-tailed deer
Jewel Cave National Monument
Crazy Horse Memorial
Custer State Park – Sylvan Lake and Needles Highway
Cheyenne, WY – Paramount Café, Big Boots
Denver, CO – 16^th Street Mall

I woke up super early, so I decided to get our day started. We headed for 16A (road name) from Rapid City, South Dakota so we could get on Iron Mountain Road. I read online and I was told that Iron Mountain Road was a windy road into Custer State Park that offered cool one lane tunnels. There were a few benefits of going before the sunrise: 1) The night sky is visible and filled with stars; 2) Not a single other car on the road; 3) Tons of deer. The road has a few pull offs and eventually connects in with the Wildlife Loop of Custer State Park by the visitor center. This was great for us because we arrived to the Wildlife Loop right around sunrise (sunrise time: 7:25 am) and the perfect time for animal viewing.

Bison on the Wildlife Loop | Teamtravelsblog

As we began our drive from east to west, we saw two male elk in the distance. As we watched them, they ultimately approached the road and crossed the street in front of us. Talk about good timing! Throughout our drive, we saw many buffalo and some white-tailed deer too. The highlight though was when we saw four pronghorn on the side of the road. I’m really happy they weren’t scared off by our car because we were able to get some great photos and video!

Pronghorn in Custer State Park | Teamtravelsblog

From the Wildlife Loop we headed through Custer to get to Jewel Cave National Monument. The entire time drive is through the Black Hills National Forest, which in and of itself is beautiful. Jewel Cave is often compared with Wind Cave since they’re only about 45 minutes apart from each other. In my opinion, the two caves are quite different and both worth a look. We took the 10 a.m., 80 minute Natural Tour ($12/person). The size of the cave, which is ranked #3 in the world, feels enormous compared with Wind Cave. There are incredible stalactites (icicle-shaped and hang from the cave) and stalagmites (generally under the stalactite and formed from the water dripping). While Wind Cave is known for its boxwork, the stalactites and stalagmites are more abundant in Jewel Cave.

"Bacon" at Jewel Cave — “Bacon” at Jewel Cave | Teamtravelsblog

There’s also a really amazing formation known as “bacon”, which legitimately looks like the world’s biggest bacon strip found in Jewel Cave. We found the tour to be worthwhile and also enjoyed a peaceful “Walk on the Roof” above ground.

After leaving Jewel Cave, we headed back to Custer to check out the Crazy Horse Memorial. Crazy Horse is not an animal, but rather a Native American leader of the Lakota tribe. This Memorial is not a finished work, but rather a work in progress that was started in the 1940s.

Current Crazy Horse Memorial — Crazy Horse Memorial | Teamtravelsblog

If you pay the $12/person, you gain access to a very large museum of Native American history. We found the 23 minute video to be really informative and it talks about the history of the Memorial as well as the continued work. It turns out that a Native American, known as Standing Bear, approached Korczak Ziolkowski, a Polish man to take on the creation of the Crazy Horse Memorial. Mr. Ziolkowski also happened to be a Mount Rushmore sculptor. Since his passing, his family created a foundation that continues to work on the Memorial and the museum offers a large scale statue of what they expect the final Memorial to look like.

Crazy Horse Mini Version | Teamtravelsblog

You can definitely get a view of the Memorial without entering the Crazy Horse Memorial area. This may interest you, especially since it’s another $4 if you want to take a school bus closer to the Memorial, which is an active construction site. Nevertheless, we both learned a lot in our short visit.

From here, we knew we wanted to try to see Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park and drive along the Needles Highway. As we drove toward the Sylvan Lake Entrance, we saw some enormous longhorn cattle. Past the Custer State Park pay station, there is a parking lot for Sylvan Lake. This lake is an absolute hidden gem – it’s beautiful! While it was very cold out, we braced it to take a short walk by the lake which boasts enormous rocks.

We then followed the signs for the Needles Highway. It’s a very windy road, has an 8-foot wide tunnel that I was sure we wouldn’t fit through and views similar to what you’d experience at Zion National Park. This part of Custer State Park could definitely be a national park – it’s incredible! One curve after the tunnel, we saw a man with binoculars pulled over. We joined him and after our eyes adjusted, we realized he had spotted mountain goats blending into the side of the mountain. What a treat! If we come back, we will definitely spend more time exploring here.

Needles Highway | Teamtravelsblog

Sylvan Lake | Teamtravelsblog

We hit the road to start our ride back to Denver, Colorado. The drive is beautiful and you can enjoy fast speeds and see animals like horses, cows and bison on both sides of the road. It was a few hours before we made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming. This is the capitol, but unfortunately their state capitol building was under construction so we didn’t get a good picture of the building or a chance to tour the inside. A few minutes up the street we found free parking and walked to the Paramount Café located at 1607 Capitol Avenue so I could get a coffee treat.

Paramount Cafe in Cheyenne | Teamtravelsblog

This place was decorated for Halloween and I ordered a Casa Bonita (honey, cinnamon + vanilla latte) from their “super secret menu”. This is one of the most reasonably priced coffee shops I’ve been in to, which is probably a little insight into the cost of living here.

Up the street from the Paramount Café, you can discover a few of the “Big Boots of Cheyenne”. There are a few around the Depot Plaza and Museum. Even the clock on the old train station was decked out for Halloween with an orange color and cat-like eyes. This was a good pit stop on our journey back to Denver. Since we made surprisingly good time, and it was Sunday, we found a free parking spot on Champa Street only a few blocks from the 16^th Street Mall. You’ll have to read about our previous and more complete Denver experience in another blog post.

"Big Boot" at Cheyenne Depot Plaza — “Big Boot” at Cheyenne Depot Plaza | Teamtravelsblog

We returned our rental car and made our red eye Frontier flight without issue. This concludes our incredible three day adventure in South Dakota with a side of Cheyenne and a sip of Denver. We hope you’ll follow us to our next adventure!

The Baddest Lands Around

October 28, 2017November 7, 2017Posted in National Parks, Read Them AllTagged Coffee shop, National Park Pass, South Dakota, Travel, USA Travel, Weekend Trip3 Comments

Wake up at Custer State Park and then enjoy all that the Badlands National Park has to offer! We loved seeing so many animals in their natural habitat. One of the biggest highlights was seeing two male big-horned sheep fight!

South Dakota Highlights on Saturday, October 28, 2017

The animals – elk, bison, swift fox, deer, badgers, prairie dogs, big-horned sheep
Sunrise along the Wildlife Loop at Custer State Park, drove west to east
Wall Drug for coffee and a donut
Badlands National Park – Door, Window, Notch and Cliff Shelf Trail
Badlands National Park – Big Badlands, Yellow Mounds and Pinnacles Overlook
Rapid City – Art Alley and president statues

We woke up excited to find more animals. If our day visiting Wind Cave National Park was any indication, we were going to be in for a good day. It was a very short drive from our lodge to the Blue Bell entrance onto the Wildlife Loop of Custer State Park. The first animal we came across was an entire herd of elk! To top it off, the elk were bugling (this is the sound they make)! We were completely mesmerized.

Elk in Custer State Park | Teamtravelsblog

Once the herd moved along, we did too. We continue along the loop until we came across four bison grazing near the road. As we watched them, they began to walk toward our car. Was I scared? Uh yea, a little! The bison watched us to make sure it was safe to cross the road behind our car, which was a great opportunity for more pictures and video.

Driving through Custer State Park is a must on your visit to South Dakota! As we continued, we saw an endless gang of bison.

Bison at Custer State Park | Teamtravelsblog

The sunrise was beautiful as the day began to break. We also found tons of deer by the visitor center at the I-36 intersection. This is the best map I found if you want to follow along: https://gfp.sd.gov/state-parks/directory/custer/docs/custer-map.pdf We exited the park on I-36 east and continued to spot bison. We used this exit so we could easily get on to I-90 toward Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park. Wall Drug was about a 75 minute drive.

From the moment you get on I-90, where you can drive 80 miles per hour, you’ll start to see hokey advertising for Wall Drug. Mike was skeptical, but I was determined to stop here and try their 5 cent coffee and famous donuts! “Wall Drug” is the name of the store, which is located in Wall, South Dakota. The maple donut was delicious and the coffee was good – who can beat 5 cents? If you have a few minutes to spare, check out the backyard’s giant jackalope for a photo op. In less than 30 minutes, we had arrived at the Badlands National Park. We were thankful, yet again, to have our Annual National Park Pass for $80, since this park currently costs $20 by car.

Our first stop in the park was the Big Badlands Overlook. Make sure to take note of the details on the mounds and stay alert for rattlesnakes. Luckily, throughout our entire day in this park, we did not see a rattlesnake. Needless to say, I would have flipped out if we did!

As we continued, there was a large parking lot that had the trailhead for the Door Trail, Windows Trail and the Notch Trail. We started with the Door Trail, which begins with a nice boardwalk and then offers yellow numbered poles to follow to the “End of Trail” sign. It’s about 0.75 miles round-trip and a good hike to immerse yourself in the park. We learned here that it was named “the Badlands” by the French who called it “Les Mauvaises Terres” because the land was difficult to traverse. The Window Trail was super short and has a pretty view. One of the big highlights for us was the Notch Trail! The trail starts off easy as you’re following the poles to stay on the trail. Then you arrive at a wooden ladder and have a choice. We opted to climb the wooden ladder because it’s part of the adventure! Once at the top, you follow along some steep cliffs, may have some challenges finding a pole to follow and eventually make it to the end which overlooks the Cliff Shelf Trail. We met two really nice cross-country travelers here and swapped stories about our favorite national parks and must sees! The Cliff Shelf Trail was another short and beautiful boardwalk trail with stairs.

If you want to follow along or plan out your trip, click here for a good, free map of Badlands National Park.

Since we were at the Badlands during the off-season, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was the only visitor center open. It has real facilities and a place to fill your water bottles. To date, we’ve found that all of the park rangers we’ve met offer great advice. He recommended that we drive the Wildlife Loop Road for our best chance at seeing wildlife and that we continue onto the unpaved road called Sage Creek Rim Road in order to see bison, prairie dogs and potentially other animals. He also advised that people were reporting big-horned sheep near the Conata points of interest on the map. We also learned that the Badlands is a free hike park, so you can hike anywhere, but they strongly recommend following an existing buffalo path since this animal always takes the path of least resistance. You’ll know a buffalo path when you see one.

While we stopped for some pictures of the scenery, our first major stop was the Yellow Mounds Overlook. I don’t know why, but the color yellow that twinkles in the light reminded me of the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz.

We met a bike rider who thought he spotted a big-horned sheep, so we got in our car and followed him. We turned onto Conata Road and sure enough, there were tons of big-horned sheep! It felt like we hit the jackpot when the two males started butting heads!

| Teamtravelsblog

We were completely mesmerized as we watched the female big-horned sheep graze and the males continue to fight off and on. As the next 30 or 45 minutes unfolded, there became a clear winner, the dominant male who rejoined the rest and left the inferior male to lick his wounds.

Before turning onto Sage Creek Rim Road, we found two young big-horned sheep in the Pinnacles Overlook parking lot. Have your camera ready on the Sage Creek Rim Road. As we were driving, we saw a swift fox cross the road with a prairie dog in its mouth! We opened our windows and the prairie dog town was going crazy! They were so upset that one of their own was kidnapped! Mike had a really good eye and spotted a badger! We’d never seen one of these before. The badger was on the hunt for a prairie dog itself. This badger interrupted another badger keeping quiet that appeared to have a better strategy than the first one. It was interesting as we scanned the land, there were no prairie dogs nearby, as they had all disappeared into their mounds and had clearly taken note of the badgers lurking. As we continued on the drive, we saw bison and a few loner big-horned sheep. If you’re looking for a specific place with prairie dog (even though they’re everywhere), check out Roberts Prairie Dog Town.

| Teamtravelsblog

Bison | Teamtravelsblog

| Teamtravelsblog

If it isn’t obvious, Badlands National Park is incredible!

We returned to the Pinnacles Overlook to watch the sunset. The light illuminates the landscape in a magnificent way. We also saw another big-horned sheep grazing. As dusk set-in, we drove back toward the Yellow Mounds Overlook and saw tons of deer on the side of the road. Make sure to be careful and drive with your high beams when you can. We exited the park at the Pinnacles Entrance which was about 9 miles to the interstate. We saw more deer along this drive then we saw people in Badlands National Park!

Sunset at the Pinnacles Overlook | Teamtravelsblog

Mike drove us safely to the city called Rapid City in South Dakota, while I took a nice warm car nap. The parking on Main Street was free and made it right before 7 p.m. I wouldn’t go out of your way, but if you have 30 minutes or so to spare, it’s fun to check out the various president statues and Art Alley (by the Alex Johnson Hotel) all within walking distance. Art Alley has some cool graffiti. We found statues of FDR (note the cane behind the podium), Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur to name a few. Since it was in the 50s, we found a safe place to carsleep for the night.

Art Alley in Rapid City | Teamtravelsblog

I hope you’ll check back with us soon to hear about our Sunday travels. They include more Custer State Park highlights, Jewel Cave National Monument, Crazy Horse Memorial and some incredible drives around and through the Black Hills National Forest. I would love to have you follow us on Instagram if you enjoy our photos and content!

Wind Cave is Rushmore than a Cave

October 27, 2017November 5, 2017Posted in National Parks, Read Them AllTagged National Park Pass, South Dakota, Travel, USA Travel, Weekend Trip3 Comments

Wind Cave National Park and Mount Rushmore National Memorial are must see places on any visit to the western part of South Dakota! If you’re an animal lover, we hope you get to see bison, coyotes, prairie dogs, pronghorn and mountain goats like we did!

South Dakota Highlights on Friday, October 27, 2017

The animals – bison, coyotes, prairie dogs, mule deer, pronghorn, mountain goats
Rankin Ridge trail (1 mile loop) at Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave natural entrance tour
Boland Ridge trail at Wind Cave National Park
Mount Rushmore National Memorial

We arrived to the Denver airport on Thursday night around 11 p.m. on a last minute, direct Frontier Flight for $97! For our three day trip, we found a car with Payless Car Rental for under $70. I love using CarRentals.com for great, last minute deals! Have I mentioned before that we’re carsleepers? Well, we are and we love it! We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot in Fort Collins, Colorado about an hour away and then headed to Wind Cave National Park (another 4 hours) in South Dakota very early in the morning. Through our travels, we’ve learned to be light packers and filled one of our two personal items with two blankets.

We entered the park from I-385 intending to find the visitor center, but turned onto I-87, which was not the right way. It was meant to be though because we got some great views of bison. We found a few bison almost instantly upon turning onto the road and then two more up the road at Lookout Point Trail. Here’s a map of the park if you want to follow along: https://www.nps.gov/wica/planyourvisit/upload/WICAmapBrochure.pdf

As we continued along I-87, there are two narrow bridges. After the second narrow bridge, we drove about another mile or so before we pulled off to the side. Stay alert because it turned out we had parked by a prairie town! A prairie town is literally grasslands with adorable prairie dogs and their homes.

Prairie Dog at Wind Cave | Teamtravelsblog

Since it was so quiet, we could hear them chirping to each other and enjoyed watching them eat and pop in and out of their mounds. From here, we turned around, made it back to I-385 and found the visitor center. On the drive up to the visitor center, again, there are TONS of prairie dogs to see. If you have an interest in touring the “Wind Cave”, it’s a good idea to buy your ticket early (we were told they’re refundable). We bought our tickets ($5 per person) for the Natural Tour for the 1 p.m. tour and got advice on places to see from the extremely helpful ranger. Since we had a little less than 3 hours before the tour (we barely missed the 10 a.m. tour), we drove back up I-87 to Rankin Ridge. It’s a relatively easy 1 mile loop that gets you to the highest point in the park. While on our hike we saw a mule deer (keeping our streak alive with this being our 7^th national park in a row of spotting a deer) and some beautiful views of the park. Traveling on the off season has some huge advantages – we didn’t see a single other person!

Coyote on I-87 — Coyote at Wind Cave | Teamtravelsblog

Rankin Ridge at Wind Cave National Park — Rankin Ridge | Teamtravelsblog

On our drive back down I-87, we looked up and saw a coyote slowly crossing the field! As we followed the coyote, we spotted a second coyote! How cool is this? I took this picture from a bit of distance with my Nikon Coolpix L340*. We also found the same bison from earlier in new positions by the Lookout Point Trail and near the intersection of I-87 and I-385. While on the main road (I-385), we drove past the visitor center and found tons of bison on the side of the road. We were in picture heaven! As we approached Gobbler Pass, we spotted a coyote (our third one)! We stopped and watched the coyote walk by two bison, completely uninterested in each other. What was interesting was listening to the prairie dogs going crazy and warning each other!

We turned around because we didn’t want to exit the park and used the map to find the tiny pull off (for about 3 cars) at the Cold Brook Canyon trailhead. It was a peaceful walk, with tons of bison remnants to watch for as we stepped.

We returned to the visitor center for the 1 p.m. tour. Wind Cave recently became the 5^th longest cave in the world (up one spot from #6). The ranger who served as the guide was super passionate and started by showing us the natural entrance. It’s really small! The park measures the barometric pressure so you can see whether the wind is blowing into or out of the cave. The highlight was entering the room at the end dubbed “The Post Office” which has beautiful boxwork (the cave is famous for this). The cave was definitely worth the $5!

We found the park map to come in handy. From I-87 we turned onto NPS-5. This is an unpaved road, but easy to drive. Along the drive we saw lots of prairie dogs and some pronghorn. We got to the intersection of NPS-5 and NPS-6 where we turned and found the small lot for the Boland Ridge trail. Again, we had to watch our step for animal remnants, but we also wanted to enjoy our surroundings. We came across a band of pronghorn. They watched us like hawks and it was fun to watch them jog away considering they’re the fastest animal in North America. We also found many more bison in this area. Wind Cave National Park impressed us!

Pronghorn at Boland Ridge | Teamtravelsblog

We drove almost an hour out of the park, through Custer (where there are gas stations) and onto Mount Rushmore National Memorial. As we were approaching the parking entrance, we spotted deer grazing and two mountain goats! As we looked up from the mountain goats, we realized they were perfectly in front of the presidents’ heads!

Mountain Goat at Mount Rushmore | Teamtravelsblog

We took advantage of the photo opportunity and then continued to the parking lot. We fully expected to pay about $11 for the parking structure, but there were no attendants when we entered shortly after 5 p.m. We parked for free and began our walk up to the memorial. The walk is beautiful. As you walk the Avenue of State Flags, you can get a picture with your home state and notate the day it became a state.

There is a large viewing area as well as steps down to another viewing area to see Mount Rushmore. Since we arrived before sunset (sunset time: 5:51 p.m.), we enjoyed the memorial in the natural light and then stayed past 6 p.m. to see the illuminated memorial which was also cool. While this place may be crowded in the summer, there were minutes at a time where we had the entire place to ourselves!

We got a great tip from the gentleman in the Mount Rushmore store. After leaving the memorial, we followed the signs for the “Profile View” where you can park and get pictures of George Washington’s profile. Since the evening temperatures were set to fall into the 20s, we opted to find a last minute hotel deal. I am a huge fan of Booking.com*. We found a highly rated lodge called Calamity Peak Lodge for under $60 in Custer. If you’ve never used Booking.com* before, I would encourage you to use my link* so we can each get $20 when you book. The lodge was really unique inside with wooden walls, clean and had all of the normal amenities. The owner was extremely nice and met us as soon as we called to check us in. I would definitely recommend this place.

As we have in previous trips, we decided to call it a night at a reasonable time so we could wake up with the birds and go searching for animals by sunrise! Check back with us to read about the animals we found in Custer State Park and the Badlands National Park on Saturday!

Park’d in Chicago

October 10, 2017October 16, 2017Posted in Read Them AllTagged Chicago, Coffee shop, Day Trip, Illinois, Travel, USA Travel, Weekend Trip, ZooLeave a comment

An inexpensive weekend getaway to Chicago to walk along Lake Michigan, take in the skyscrapers on the Chicago River, see the polar bear playing and drink the coffee treats. Plus Chicago offers so many parks!

Chicago, Illinois Highlights for Sunday, October 8:

Millennium Park and the Bean
Walk along Lakeshore path
Navy Pier
Lincoln Park Zoo – the polar bear
Dropshot Coffee & Snack Bar

Let’s start off by stating two important facts: 1) We slept in a Wal-mart parking lot and 2) we managed to get 61,204 steps by the day’s end. We arrived the morning of the Chicago marathon, so not surprisingly, many streets were blocked off and my initial parking plan was not going to work. We were SUPER lucky and stumbled upon free parking on Lincoln Avenue not too far from Lincoln Park.

We walked a few miles before arriving at Grant Park, which was closed for the marathon, so we started down Michigan Avenue and I bought a unique pour over coffee at Fairgrounds Coffee. As a bonus, this place had a nice bathroom. We wandered across the street to Millennium Park and the Bean. Walking around and through the Bean, posing for selfies was fun as you can get some awesome reflection pictures with the skyscrapers in the backdrop. We made our way from here to Maggie Daley Park where we saw the rock climbing walls and then to Lake Michigan along the Lakeshore path. Renting bikes probably would have been a great idea, but we chose to walk the path up to and around Navy Pier before continuing to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

The zoo is incredible and it’s free! The zoo was beautifully decorated for the fall season and the animals were lively in the warm weather. The polar bear playing in the water with its toys was an absolute highlight. Check out my video on Instagram. The macaque monkeys were also very playful to watch and there were babies! Baby animals of any kind are always top notch in my book! Another notable animal included the pygmy hippo, which you can see a video of its snack time on my Instagram as well. There were other large animals like double-humped camels, rhinos and big cats. I was bummed not to see the red panda, which is my favorite animal, but this just means I will have to return to this zoo in the future. We exited on the west side of the zoo, regrouped for a bit and then made our walk up Michigan Avenue.

I was craving a second coffee treat of the day, and read good reviews about Dropshot Coffee & Snack Bar. The decorations were incredible – it’s a sports themed coffee shop! There’s everything from bleachers to a scoreboard on the wall and the prices were reasonable. Don’t leave without checking out the lower level which looks like a pool and has lots of games, plus clean bathrooms. Michigan Avenue was fun to walk along, full of people, especially marathon runners sporting their completion medals. It was pretty exciting to learn that an American won the men’s marathon earlier in the day. One thing to note about Michigan Avenue is the stores close around 7 pm on Sunday nights.

Chicago, Illinois Highlights for Monday, October 9:

Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park
View from the BP Bridge between Maggie Daley and Millennium Parks
French Market
View of the city from Adler Planetarium
Wicker Park (The Wormhole Coffee)

We got lucky again and found an amazing, free parking spot near the location of the Maxwell Street Market (which I don’t recommend). We walked a little under a mile to Grant Park and found the most magnificent fountain, Buckingham Fountain. The park was pretty desolate with remnants of the marathon from the day before. We walked through the park and smelled some beautiful roses before coming to the BP Bridge between Maggie Daley and Millennium Park. The BP Bridge is about 925 feet long and is a great viewing point for the city’s skyscrapers. We took a few more Bean (aka Cloud Gate) pictures and then started our walk along the Chicago River from the Michigan Avenue entrance. The skyscraper reflections, public art and river pathway make this a great stroll. We loved stumbling across the oversized deer statue.

After the river, we headed to the French Market which is inside the train station. It’s about 30 booths with delicacies like macaroons. Whether you plan to eat or not, it’s a neat place to check out. From here we took a rather lengthy walk along Michigan Avenue, past Millennium and Grant Parks to the museum area by Shedd Aquarium (highly recommend) and the Adler Planetarium. I cannot recommend this view of the city skyline enough! You can see Navy Pier in the distance and get a full view of the city skyline to include the Willis Tower. Lots of people were picnicking in this area.

We walked back to our car and drove about four miles to Wicker Park. The first time we had to pay for parking, but fortunately it was only $2 per hour and we were there less than two hours.

We went into The Wormhole Coffee, which is a nostalgic coffee bar filled with Gremlins, Bowser in his castle, Ninja Turtles and E.T. stuff among lots of other things. It’s pretty expensive, but unique. I loved the “Cool But Rude” latte that I got made with fresh ginger and curry sauce. We wandered through the park and on our way back to Milwaukee Ave., I spotted Andre Royo, the man who played Bubbles in the television show The Wire and Thirsty in the show Empire.

He was extremely down to Earth, chatted with us for a few minutes, and took an awesome selfie! Keep your eyes peeled for the street art around Wicker Park that shouldn’t be missed!

Since we still had about two hours of vacation before returning our rental car, we drove to the Magic Hedge Bird Sanctuary. There’s nothing too noteworthy here, except for another nice place to view the city skyline and it connects in with the Lakeshore path. Then right outside the airport, we parked at Robinson Woods South. It’s a park where we spotted over 9 deer grazing close to dusk. It’s also a good place to view planes that have just taken off from the Chicago O’Hare airport. Our car rental return and ride home on Spirit Airlines were uneventful, which is the way we like it.

Chicago is a world class city and we will definitely be back. What did we miss and should plan to do next time?

Wisc’d Away Before Chicago

October 8, 2017October 16, 2017Posted in Read Them All, State CapitolTagged Capitol, Chicago, Coffee shop, Day Trip, Madison, Milwaukee, MKE, Travel, USA Travel, Weekend Trip, WisconsinLeave a comment

Wisconsin State Capitol | Teamtravelsblog

Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin are two great cities around the corner from Chicago worth jumping in the car to see over the course of a day. The State Capitol in Madison is the second tallest and offers a 360 degree view of the city!

Madison, Wisconsin Highlights for Saturday, October 7:

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michelangelo’s, coffee shop
Market in Capitol Square (Saturdays only)
State Capitol rooftop
State Street
Thai Pavilion in the Olbrich Botanical Garden

As soon as we arrived at Chicago O’Hare (ORD) airport at 7 am, we took the Budget-Avis shuttle to get our rental car and hit the road for Madison, Wisconsin. Luckily, I found an amazing car rental deal through CarRental.com days before our trip (under $72 for 3 days)! The fastest route is taking a toll road, so having cash is key! It cost less than $10 across 4-5 toll booths which are located on the right side of the road when it splits. When we arrived in Madison, we drove through the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, which is beautiful! One amazing thing is there is tons of free parking on campus during the weekends and it’s walking distance from all of the sites. Click here for a list. We parked in “Lot 26” which was along the main road, directly outside the Observatory and had a front row view of Lake Mendota.

We walked down to the lake and over by the Memorial Union Terrace. There are lots of nice boats docked and seating to take in the scene. You can also pose for a picture with UW’s mascot, the badger. We walked along Langdon Street to see a lot of Greek houses before making our way toward Capitol Square. I spotted Michelangelo’s, an artsy, large coffee shop which has two entrances. The specialty menu is really unique as it’s made up of drinks created by current and former employees. I tried the “espresso miel” which was a latte of honey and cinnamon that I enjoyed!

On Saturdays, there is a large market (Dane County’s Farmers Market) that starts early and usually ends by 1:30 pm in Capitol Square. This is the area that surrounds the State Capitol, which is the second tallest one in the U.S. (behind Louisiana). While I didn’t have a chance to try it myself, Stella’s Bakery is a popular offering. Exploring the Capitol is a must! The rotunda is beautiful, you can explore on multiple floors (with or without a guided tour) and the bathrooms are clean. Plus, it seems like a well-kept secret, but you can find the spiral staircase to the rooftop and enjoy a 360 degree view of Madison for free. This was a highlight for us. From here, walking along State Street is ideal as there are lots of shops, restaurants and bars before you return back to UW-M’s campus. If you’re a bookstore person, definitely check out A Room of One’s Own.

Once you’re back at your car, take the 15 minute ride to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.

It’s free to walk around and there’s a beautiful Thai Pavilion that was donated by the Thai government.We accomplished this itinerary and a few other spots in about 5 hours. If you have more time, some other ideas would be to rent bikes and explore the lakes along the paved bike paths, take in the view of the city from Olin Park or check out the places along Williamson (“Willie”) Street.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Highlights for Saturday, October 7:

Milwaukee Public Market
Milwaukee Riverwalk and Art
View from Veterans Park

The drive from Madison to Milwaukee was very easy, under 90 minutes and toll free. It was raining when we arrived, but stopped shortly after. We found free parking near Van Buren and Michigan Avenue. The location was great because it was walking distance to the Milwaukee Public Market in the Historic Third Ward.

The market is small, but has a good variety. I tried the bee at Anodyne, saw the around the world market clocks and got a classic picture of the “Milwaukee Public Market” sign.

Milwaukee is very walkable and it’s only a few blocks to the Milwaukee River. All along the river you’ll find public art such as Rosie the duck, the Bronze Fonz, a statue of Arthur Fonzarelli from Happy Days and other artistic pieces. I recommend timing your walk close to sunset so you can enjoy the colorful sky and reflections on the water. We were particularly lucky because a little boy called out a rainbow that appeared near the duck family statues.

Break from the main path to see the Old World Third Street. Before starting our drive to Chicago, we drove to Veterans Park for a short walk which has a lovely view of the city and would also be a great place for the sunset along Lake Michigan.

Be sure to check out my next entry on our two days in Chicago that followed.

Moose, Elk and a Black Bear, Oh My!

September 5, 2017November 4, 2017Posted in National Parks, Read Them AllTagged Colorado, National Park Pass, Travel, USA Travel, Weekend Trip2 Comments

Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado can’t be missed. If you can travel from Grand Lake on the west side to Estes Park on the east side, you won’t regret it! On our journey from west to east we saw moose, elk and a black bear!

Rocky Mountain National Park Highlights on Monday, September 4 and Tuesday, September 5, 2017

The animals – moose, elk, black bear, Stellar’s Jay (bird)
Adams Falls (west side)
Continental Divide (middle)
Many Parks Curve Overlook (middle/east side)
Alberta Falls (east side)
Bear Lake (east side)

I had done all of the driving up to this point of the trip and as we were leaving Maroon Bells, it finally caught up to me. Mike’s foot was starting to feel better, so he offered to drive us to the Grand Lake entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). While I-70 east was easy, cruise control driving, the way the GPS took us to RMNP was insane! It was up and down a mountainside, narrow roads, and quite honestly, made my heart skip some beats. Luckily, it didn’t snow or rain, so we made it to the RMNP without incident. We started our trip with the traditional “National Park” sign and then drove by the lodge to get a picture and view of Grand Lake. If you have a few minutes to spare, it’s worth parking in the lot and seeing the beautiful lake.

View of Grand Lake from the Lodge | Teamtravelsblog

You’ll start to contemplate your existing retirement plans and see yourself here. It is so peaceful! Again, make sure you have the Annual National Park Pass for $80 or risk spending $30 just for this park. If you want a map of the park, here it is: https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/upload/ROMOmap1_small.pdf

From here, we stopped at the Kawuneeche Visitor Center, where we made it in the door about a minute before closing. The park ranger was kind enough to give us a map and make a few recommendations. His best advice was to drive up and down the main street, especially at dawn or dusk for the best opportunity to see animals like elk or moose. He also heeded us that if we saw two cars pulled over, to go ahead and be the third, because this meant animals! We drove the main strip and pulled into a few of the points of interest, but we didn’t do any hiking until we got to the last pull off on the left, which was the Colorado River Trailhead. The first part of the walk is a bit steep, but then it’s quite level after that and has a main intersection that allows you to choose different trails. During one of the sections, we looked up and spotted an animal. We were so caught off guard that we ended up scaring the “elk-moose”, whatever it was, before we got a good look. We’re convinced it was a moose, but without our photographic evidence, we couldn’t say for sure.

As the sun started to set, we did as the ranger advised and drove the main strip. It didn’t take long before we saw groups of cars pulled over looking at herds of elk. We were lucky that people were willing to share their binoculars for better views and a park ranger was also present at one of the stops offering information about bugling (the noise that elk make). We didn’t get any elk close ups and didn’t see a moose, but we were exhausted and knew it would be a good idea to get some sleep so we could return to the main road before the sunrise. We filled the car with gas in Grand Lake and then we used Booking.com* to find a nearby, last minute hotel for the night. We stayed at America’s Best Value Inn-Bighorn Lodge. The receptionist office is not 24 hours, so make sure you check the closing time for any hotel you’re considering. We arrived at the receptionist office shortly before closing and got a nice, clean room. After two nights in the car and five out of the previous six nights, I was ready for a shower and a bed to rest my head.

Our plan worked! Early to bed and early to rise! We dropped our room key in the dropbox and were back on the main strip before the sunrise (sunrise was: 6:35 am). We couldn’t believe it – there were SO MANY UP CLOSE ELK! We had a blast stopping in the pull offs and on the side of the road to capture photos and video of the adult and young elk. We got some great ones of elk crossing the street and grazing on the side of the road.

Once we were satisfied with our elk experience, we drove back out of the park and to a separate section of the park where Adams Falls is located. You actually drive through part of downtown Grand Lake to get there. There’s a large parking lot, facilities and a short hike to a beautiful waterfall. We even got lucky and saw a deer here! As our seventh national park on this trip, Arches National Park was the only one where we didn’t come across a deer. I’m not sure if it was the time of day or if it was because it was the Tuesday after Labor Day, but we got the place to ourselves. We also got another wonderful view of Grand Lake.

Back in the car, we drove back into the rest of the park and past the Kawuneeche Visitor Center. We drove slowly, as we wanted to see animals. We saw a car pulled over and decided to go see what they were looking at. We were rewarded and saw a moose grazing. At one point, the moose even looked straight at us and I got some cool shots with my Nikon Coolpix L340*.

Just when we thought the show might be over, an adolescent moose appeared out of nowhere. Our car and the one in front of us, inched forward and then we got to see the momma moose cross the street and the adolescent one scurry across close behind. I was so happy that Mike was ready with the camera and got a video of the whole thing!

At this point, we were satisfied and started our drive to the tundra. On the way, we stopped to take a look at Lake Irene, which was pretty and the Continental Divide. By the Alpine Visitor Center, which was actually quite busy, we made the extremely windy and cold walk up the stairs on the Alpine Ridge Trail. There’s a sign at the top that says “elevation 12,005 feet above sea level” which makes for a good photo op. We continued our journey east through the park toward Estes Park. We made a few stops at places like the Lava Cliffs and Forest Canyon Overlook. While we were at Many Parks Curve Overlook and enjoying the panoramic viewing platform, we saw a group of people gathered and sure enough, they were looking at a black bear! It wasn’t super close, but luckily the zoom feature on my camera really helped us to get a better view.

Continuing through the park, we followed the signs to Bear Lake. A huge sign said there were no parking spots and to take the shuttle, but we took our chances. We found a spot in the Bear Lake parking lot and hiked to Alberta Falls. This waterfall is incredible!

Alberta Falls in RMNP — Alberta Falls | Teamtravelsblog

There are huge rocks alongside it that you can climb on and find great places for selfies! From here, we went to Bear Lake and watched the birds. The blue and black bird known as Steller’s Jay was here and really beautiful to see. On our drive down from Bear Lake, we found another great opportunity to see male and female elk. We pulled the car over and took advantage of the photo opportunity.

We absolutely LOVED RMNP and will be back again! We made the easy 90 minute trip to Denver and I hope to tell you all about this wonderful city soon!

Steller's Jay by Bear Lake — Steller’s Jay by Bear Lake | Teamtravelsblog

My Aspen to Maroon Bells

September 4, 2017October 25, 2017Posted in National Parks, Read Them AllTagged Colorado, National Park Pass, Travel, USA Travel1 Comment

Maroon Bells and Crater Lake are located in the White River National Forest near Aspen, Colorado. Both lakes are picturesque and shouldn’t be missed on your trip to Colorado.

White River National Forest Highlights on Monday, September 4, 2017

Maroon Bells
Crater Lake

We woke up early and on a mission! From my research, I knew we had to arrive at Maroon Bells before 8 am if we wanted a chance to park in the Maroon Bells parking lot. The drive through Aspen, Colorado on the way to Maroon Bells is beautiful. In the GPS, I used 76 Boomerang Rd, Aspen, CO 81611 to guide our drive, which I believe is a parking structure. Instead of stopping here, we continued along the road for a few more minutes until we came to a toll booth at the entrance of the White River National Forest. It was a definite bonus to learn that the Annual National Park Pass that I’ve written so much about works here too and saves you $10! Once we showed our pass and got a map, we followed the signs to the day parking where there were rangers who guided us to an open parking spot. We were parked by 7:30 am and thankful because the lot filled up quickly and if you can’t find day parking before 8 am, you have to park in the parking garage and pay for a shuttle. I found this site as well as this other site to be super informative as I was planning. From everything I had read, Maroon Bells is one of the most photographed sites in Colorado and after a visit, this is no surprise.

The walk up to the lake, Maroon Bells, is incredible. In the morning, the reflections of the mountain on the water will fill up your iPhone memory space. I still can’t believe we were here. There were families posing by the lake, dogs being walked and kids laughing. There are a few different hikes you can take. We started off by walking around Maroon Lake on the Maroon Lake Trail and then continued to the Scenic Loop Trail. Take your time and remember to look up and behind you to really appreciate its beauty. Don’t miss the beaver dam either.

Start of the Scenic Loop Trail | TeamTravelsBlog

We saw signs for Crater Lake Trail and decided to check it out. The map says it’s a 3.6 mile round-trip hike. The hike is a bit intense as it’s primarily uphill and there are different terrains, including sections that are rocky. There are different spots along the trail to “pull over” and let people pass you that are inclined to walk faster. We were tired, so we gladly let people pass as we made our way to the top. Once you clear the final trees at the top, there is a magnificent lake called Crater Lake.

There are lots of logs you can sit on and enjoy your snack or lunch. Tons of ducks were relaxing on the logs in the water, while others were dipping their heads in the water for their own lunch.

The walk down was much easier than the hike up. As you make your way down, make sure to keep an eye out for the opening where you can get some good shots of Maroon Bells. There are also tons of lovely birch trees to photograph too.

Birch Trees in the White River National Forest | TeamTravelsBlog

We probably could have stayed here all day, but we got to the car, where the parking lot had significantly emptied since the morning and made the approximately 3.5 hour drive to the Grand Lake entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. This was recommended to us by the ranger at Canyonlands and we are so thankful we took her advice! When we saw Grand Lake, we started to reminisce about our time walking and biking along Lake Zurich in Switzerland.

Check out our article tomorrow about our evening and following morning exploring Rocky Mountain National Park before we round out our trip in Denver.