Travel Wishlist:

Everyone has that one place they always dream of visiting. I was bit with the travel bug when I was young (I think it started with our moves across the country). I have a never ending list of places that I would like to visit. The following is my never-ending, always adding destinations I would like to visit and experience I would like do:

North America:

- Take a Civil War Road Trip
- Visit British Colombia
- Visit all the Florida State Parks
- Visit Colonial Williamsburg
- Visit Asheville, NC
- Take a railroad trip throughout Canada
- Take a cross country train ride with Amtrak
- Hike in Oregon
- Visit all 50 states



- Stand with the Redwoods
- Gaze into the Grand Canyon
- Go to Yosemite!!
- Visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
- Visit the haunted Alcatraz
- Banff National Park
- Niagara Falls
- Yellowstone Park
- The Fingers Lake, NY
-  Visit Wrigley Field  (July 2015)
- Visit Boston
- Fenway Park

South America:

- Visit Machu Picchu  (September 2015)
- Take a Amazon River Cruise
- Iguazu Falls
- Patagonia
- Costa Rica
- Canopy Tour in Costa Rica

Europe:

- Visit Scotland (Isle of Sky, Edinburgh, the whole country)
- Stonehenge
- Road trip across England
- See the Black Sea
- Count Dracula's Castle
- Petra, Jordan
- Visit Norway
-Visit Ireland
- Visit Romania
-Chase and see the Northern Lights



- Visit Iceland

Middle East:

- Petra

Artic:

- Visit the Falkland Islands
- See Polar Bears in their natural habitat

 

Asia:

- Shicheng, China
- Visit a Temple
- Great Wall of China
- Samurai Culture in Japan
- Kyoto Japan
- Mount Fuji

Africa:

- Visit Kuger National Park
-  Go on a safari
- Go on a night safari
- Visit Victoria Falls
-  Ride Camels in the Sahara Desert

Personal:

- Go to as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites as possible (3)
- See Moose in their natural habitat




- Get my scuba diving license
- Cage diving with sharks
- Ride in a Helicopter
- Ride in a hot air balloon
- Step foot on all 7 continents (3/7)
- Whale Watching
- Try a food native to every country I visit
- Swim with Dolphins (2013)
- Snorkel with Manatees
- Volunteer at an Elephant Sanctuary

Atlantis and Swimming with the Dolphins

For this cruise we didn't have anything planned beyond getting on the ship and enjoying ourselves. After we arrived at our room we had a booklet listing the excursion that were available for the following day at Nassau. When we both saw that swimming with the dolphins were available we agreed that we should do. It was something I had always wanted to do, so I was fine with shelling out the money for it. The option we chose was the shallow swimming with the dolphins and the aqua venture park. This allowed us six hours at Atlantis, swimming with the dolphins and access to their water park and all the rides. It cost us $150 per person.

The Atlantis property is awe inspiring huge. We had a guide that took our group from the ship to the property and directly to the water park section. It's very easy to get lost and it can very easily take you 30 minutes from one side of the property to the other. We were assigned a time of 10:30am to swim with the dolphins. We had almost two hours before then, so we started riding all the water rides. It was nice being at the property that early, because most of the resort guests were still sleeping or just getting up. This means no lines for the rides, lockers or beach chairs.

 

 

There are six water slides available on the property. They are the Leap of Faith (the one you see on all the commercials), challenger slide, the abyss, the surge, the drop, serpent slide, the falls and the jungle slide. The first ride we went on was the abyss and this is a pretty crazy slide. You are completely inclosed in a tube with rushing water. As soon as you push yourself off there is a drop that puts your heart in your mouth. There is eventually a opening in the tube that I thought meant you were at the end of the ride. This is not the case!!! I opened my mouth and choked on water the rest of the way down. At the end of the ride you are spit out into a cave with aquariums. This is definitely a thrill ride that will give you a rush.

The challenger slide is two slides side by side and you race someone to the bottom. The serpent slide was and still is my favorite ride. This ride requires a tube, single or two person. This ride is also enclosed and towards the bottom you spit out into a clear container, where you can observe all the sharks and fish swimming around you. We also rode the drop, the surge and the falls. They are all open water slides that require either a single or two person tube. They are very fast slides!! I also went on the leap of faith. Since I was at Atlantis I had to ride it at least once . . . and once was enough. I was scared to ride this and it's terrifying (at least to me) to sit at the top staring straight down the slide wondering how you can possibly survive it and not fall into the shark infested waters below. I had to force myself to push off (with my heart in my stomach) and go down. It was over in a few seconds and you don't really see the sharks as you go by them.

We walked to the dolphin cay where we were suited up in a tight wetsuit . . . did I mention tight? Then our group (maybe around 6 or 7 people) were shuttled into a room where we watched a short informational video on dolphins and how to interact with them. We were then taken to a section of the pool, with our instructor, and met our dolphin Noah. Noah was at Atlantis with two of his siblings, who were rescued during Hurricane Katrina and brought to Atlantis to recover from their injuries. Noah was such a sweet dolphin!! We spent around a hour with Noah and the instructor will answer any questions that you have about dolphins, in fact they really encourage questions. We were able to feed Noah, have pictures taken with him, and he performed tricks for us. Noah has quite the personality! He was constantly swimming away and stealing brother and sister from other groups and bringing them back to our group. There were multiple times we had 3 dolphins interacting with us and it was a blast!!!

Noah doing tricks

One of my favorite pictures from my travels.
 

Afterwards we purchased our pictures (the only way to get pictures). You are not allowed to take your camera to swim with the dolphins. If you want any pictures you have to purchase them from Atlantis. They have different package options available and we chose to purchase a cd and split the cost. The rest of the day we spent riding the water slides and lazy river. We unfortunately didn't take a look at the aquariums while we were there, but I hear wonderful things about them. We also had to purchase lunch while we were there. The food and drinks were slightly pricey. Overall, I'm so glad we chose this excursion and were able to swim with the dolphins. It was such a blast and this day was the highlight of our cruise. However you do have to pay for a locker to use during the day, lunch and any drinks and this can add up to be a pricey day. The resort itself is beautiful and there is so much to see and do. I have no doubts I will be back again.

Cruisin to the Carribean . . .

In December of 2013 I went on my first cruise. This was a girls weekend away with one of my friends. We chose to take carnival cruise line and purchased our four day cruise for $200 each. We had two days at sea, 1 day in Nassau, and one day in Freeport. The nice thing about a cruise is you pay the money and that includes your food, most drinks and your room for four days. However, there are some exceptions as to what is included in the price. If you want to eat at any of the speciality restaurants that will cost extra, all alcoholic and soft drinks will cost you extra, along with any excursion you choose to do. In order to offset the cost of this most cruise lines will offer dinner packages, soda packages and packages for your drinks.

We were on the Carnival Ecstasy ship, which did offer a alcoholic package. We had looked into purchasing one, but the cost was too much in our opinion. It was $59 a day, every person staying in a stateroom had to get it, and you were cut off at 10 drinks in a 24 hour period. Each cruise line allows each person to bring a limited amount of alcohol on the ship with them. We chose to do that and just purchase whatever drinks we wanted.



This ship was an older ship and you could see that around the boat. Our state room was pretty spacious as was our bathroom. I really surprised about this after reading reviews about the staterooms being small. We had plenty of space for the two of us. We chose to pay a little bit more for an exterior room with a window. The interior rooms were running about $50 cheaper, but I was afraid of getting claustrophobic.

Our stateroom

We had our towel animals waiting for us every night. We loved the surprise of a new animal every night.

The food on the ship was surprisingly good. We ate in the dining room 3 nights and one night we grabbed food from the "cafeteria" and ate outside. I had dessert every single night .  . . mainly the hot lava cake.

We also can't forget those delicious late night drinks that occupied us to the different shows.

This ship had shows every single night and we took advantage of them. We really enjoyed the Hasbro Game Show and Newlyweds. The pool on the ship was relatively small and always crowded. That was disappointing, but it comes with the territory. They also had a waterworks area on the top of the ship with slides and a waterpark for the children. One thing I really liked about this ship was the serenity adult only area. This was at the back of the ship with lounge chairs, hammocks, hot tubs and a bar for anyone 21 and older. It seems like this is was the place for parents to escape from their children, because of this it was sometimes hard to find a lounge chair open.

Overall this was a nice weekend getaway for a relatively cheap price. The cruise was $250, our excursion was $150 and about $100 in drinks for a four day vacation. Cruise ships are not my preferred travel style. I like to visit a place and immerse myself into the culture and try and find every nook and cranny wherever I go, and that is impossible to do on a cruise. However, if your looking for a cheap relaxing weekend getaway then I would definitely recommend a cruise. The shorter cruises mainly go to Nassau and somewhere else in the Bahamas and that is nice to do every once in a while. The longer cruises have some fun destinations, but you only get a couple hours at the destination. While this isn't my preferred travel style I can still see myself every once in a while going on a cruise.

Keep an eye out for our Nassau excursion review!!

Who prefers cruises as their main vacation style?

U.S.S North Carolina Battleship

Driving into Wilmington this is one of the first things that you will see. This huge towering battleship. The second I saw it I knew I had to see it. I didn't do a lot of research for this trip and seeing the battleship was a nice surprise. The U.S.S North Carolina was commissioned on April 9, 1941 and was the first of 10 battleships to join the American fleet in World War II. She is 728 feet long. HUGE! I felt like an ant standing on the deck of this ship. I love visiting pieces of American history and this was my first time visiting a battleship. As a visitor you have almost complete freedom of the ship to roam through. There are some parts, such as, the watch towers that have restricted access or doors that have been welded shut. Unfortunately, the gift shop closes before the ship does and we didn't know this.

Feeling like an ant

 

The grandfather of the Kitchenaid mixer

Eating and sleeping quarters (for some)

This is a great attraction for anyone (families, solo travelers, history buffs). It would also be a great location for a wedding. We were able to see a wedding in progress while we were there. If you plan on seeing most of the ship allow yourself a couple of hours. I believe we spent over two hours and had to leave, because they were closing.During the summer months they are open from 8:00am-8:00-pm (check for their holiday hours!) During the winter months they are open 8:00am-5:00pm.
      
                      Admission Prices:
Children 5 and under: free
Children 6-11: $ 6.00
Military (including spouses and children): $10.00
Seniors (65 and up): $10.00
ages 12 and up: $12.00

For more information you can visit http://www.battleshipnc.com/

Airlie Gardens

Airlie Gardens are a historic non-profit garden located in Wilmington, North Carolina. They have historic buildings, cemeteries, walking trails, wildlife, formal gardens, a 468 year old Oak Tree and butterfly gardens.

I love nature and being surrounded by it. After leaving historic downtown Wilmington, my grandmother suggested that this should be our next destination. And so we took off, got lost on the way, but made it to the gates of Airlie Gardens. We paid for our admission and headed in. I was surprised by how vast the gardens really were. We walked through most of it and it was absolutely beautiful.

 This is a relaxing destination for anyone in the Wilmington area. I try to incorporate some sort of nature and or hiking into my trips. I love how different destinations are from one another and being in nature helps to relax me. I was amazed at all the perfect photography opportunities there were for me. This would be a perfect place for a photographer interested in landscape photography.

 

           This was my first time seeing purple tulips! Which happen to be my favorite flowers!

We visited the bottle chapel that is onsite. It is a structure that was built with cement and bottles (wine, beer, syrup bottles, ect). This was a very peaceful and soothing part of the gardens. I love how they created designs, such as, the butterfly out of the bottles.

We were lucky enough to see some wildlife while we were touring the gardens. This was my first time seeing swans in their natural habitat. What beautiful creatures! The male swam around the nest the female was on, but never ventured far from her.

I would undoubtedly recommend anyone in the area to stop and tour these gardens. The scenery is absolutely stunning. It is recommended that it will take an hour to an hour and a half to tour the complete area. Adult and children tickets are available online or at the gardens. Airlie Gardens offer discounted tickets to military personnel that can only be purchased at the gardens. They are open Monday- Sunday 9am-5pm (last tickets will be sold at 4:30pm). Airlie Gardens host lots of events throughout the year. Perhaps you will have the added bonus of a concert while in the area!

The following link will take you to their website: http://airliegardens.org/

Do you like to incorporate nature into your trips? If so what type of nature?

Wilmington, North Carolina

America is such a beautiful country with so much to see! The other weekend I took a road trip with my brother and his fiancée. We drove through Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina. Our final destination was Wilmington, North Carolina to visit family. We woke up early Saturday morning and hit Wilmington in order to make the most of our only day in the city. We walked through historic downtown Wilmington and River Street looking at all the shops.

 We randomly decided to stop for brunch/early lunch at Dixie Grill. We chose this place because there were so many people standing outside it. That must mean they have good food . . . right? It was a little bit of a wait, but well worth it. The food was absolutely delicious!! We didn't have to wait long on the food once we were seated and the service was great.

And the syrup bottles were old coke bottles!

We visited the outside of Bellamy Mansion. There was too long of a wait for the tour and we had other things we wanted to see. It was a beautiful historic home.

We spent the rest of the morning driving around Wilmington looking at all the historic homes. Almost every home is in the historic area is a home with some sort of history to the country or to the city of Wilmington. The historic placards on the home provide you with the history of the home. Some of the homes are open for the public to tour and some are not. Wilmington has a trolley that you can take or horse carriages if you would like for someone to tell you the history of the city. They start on River street, along with the ghost tours. In our next post will be Wilmington: Airlie Gardens and USS North Carolina Battleship.

September's Destination . . .

It was the morning of March 4, 2015. My brother came into my work and told me that he and his fiancée had decided against going to Dominican Republic for their next trip. I was vaguely interested in this until his next sentence. We decided on Machu Picchu instead. I may have whipped my head around so fast that it caused whiplash. See, Machu Picchu is on my Ultimate Travel Bucket List and I've always wanted to go there. I mean it's Machu Picchu. How could you not want to go to this beautiful New World Wonder?

Can you really resist this view?

I think he was purposely building up the suspense to see my reaction. It's no secret how much I've wanted to go there. They invited me along to go with them!! The trip was booked by 4pm that afternoon. Woot Woot! This will be my first trip to South America, a whole new continent! I'm so excited. We booked this trip on Groupon through Gate 1. I had researched Gate 1 several months ago when I was putting my feelers out for planning a trip to Machu Picchu. I'm a pretty independent traveler, so I prefer not to travel with a travel groups. I feel like I can see and do more on my own, I can spend as much time as I want at a destination, and I have the flexibility to change my itinerary. Those options aren't necessarily available to you through a tour group, but I'm willing to give it a try.

It's a five day trip with airfare, hotels and most meals are included. This trip cost me right around $1000 with the additional tours we chose to add on. We will spend a full day at Machu Picchu. We chose to visit several of the markets and we chose to do a Peruvian cooking class with the foods we purchase at the markets. We also chose to eat dinner in a Peruvian home, visit some ancient sites.

Peru looks like a beautiful and diverse country. I really can't wait, and there is so much more to this country than just Machu Picchu. Unfortantely, we won't have time to visit more of the country. However, I plan to keep Peru on my list and one day visit the rest of the country.