Category Archives: travel

Cadair Idris

I am linking up today with Casey from True Colours for the travel series: Wanderlust. The theme for August is Natural Wonders and I continue our recap of our trip to Wales with a sneak peek of our mountain hike. We stayed in the town of Dolgellau in Gwynedd for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Dolgellau is located next to the mountain Cadair Idris in the southern end of Snowdonia National park. The famous peak on Cadair Idris is a popular location with many paths from which to choose from to get there.

The day before our hike my husband and I had prepared our boys for the trek with a stop at the local sporting store in town for hiking boots. While there we talked to the store keeper about which path to take to the top. He told us of two ways: one easy path and one more challenging trail. On the day of during our hike we got to the point where we had to choose either the longer easier path or the ‘shorter’ more challenging path. Since we take our sons, six and eight, on regular country walks in England we decided we could bypass the easy way.

Our journey took us up the grassy sides of the mountain, through a trail of rocks and boulders, pass rock formations created by the passing of a glacier, and next to crystal clear lakes and rocky streams. All of which were frequented by sheep, which became a common sight through out our ten hour hike.

While the path we chose was more challenging than the easy path which our trail met up with eventually, it was nothing compared to the way back down. Imagine making your way down a steep trail where your feet constantly have to secure their footing on the loose rocks before taking your next step. However it was all worth it to make it to the top peak with my husband and sons. To be so high up that the clouds practically touched our heads, to see the towns so small below, and see as far out as the ocean where it met the land.

My Wanderlust for Wales has only deepened since our journey. This is Cadair Idris. Our first mountain to climb with our boys, and the first to many more to come. Both for hikes and for upcoming photographs from our time in Wales.

Travel, Beach, and Sandcastles

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Another Edition of Travel Tuesday with my cohost Belinda and I decided I wanted to skip forward in my recap of Wales and share with you one of the reasons I love going to the beach. My family loves going to the beach. From the west coast of Monterey, to the island of Oahu in Hawaii, to Seaside Heights at the Jersey shore on the East coast, to across the pond to pebble beaches of Brighton, and now over to the beaches in Wales. It is all about being near the ocean, smelling the salt in the air, and enjoying our time at the seaside.

We ended up going to the beach twice during our week in Wales which made me conclude that I could easily come back every year just to spend two whole weeks at the beach. Honestly my sons would be quite happy about that. With everything we did in New Jersey last Summer, some which were not that cheap, they preferred the free visits to the beach the most. One of their favourite things to do, well after running into the ocean to body surf a million times, is to build sandcastles. Last year they had an amazing time with Nonna using all the neat buckets and shovels for sandcastle building. There is just now limit when it comes to creativity and will power.

While we were in Wales I was inspired by two builds from other patronages of the beach. Though not big and intricate, they were simple and beautiful. The first because the kids who had built it took the time to bring little flags for which to decorate the castle. They even had the Welsh flag with the dragon on it. The second was a speedboat because what could be a better setting for one than the beach?

The folks at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks put together a lovely infographic about The World of Sandcastles and Sand sculptures. It is all part of a Sandcastle building competition where you can take part, send in a photo, and win a holiday at one of their four holiday parks for up to six people!

Infographic presented by Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks.

Please share this Sandcastle Infographic and Photo Competition!

Q: What has been some creative builds you have seen at the seaside?

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Here’s how it works:
1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!
2. Grab the lovely button.
3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 8 am GMT.
4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!
5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!

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My sponsor today is no stranger to the world of travel. Selena has been to over thirty countries and she plans to double that number in the next five years! Now that is a goal I would love to join in. I was so excited to find out about Selena when she found my blog because we have a lot in common. We are both US Air Force brats that moved around a lot as kids and now both live in England. I find her story really inspiring to myself. After her daughter left the house her life evolved to finding love again, moving overseas as an expat, and now exploring the world. I am just attracted to people who love life and love seeing all it has to offer. I think you will love Selena too!

Recommended Posts by Selena:

18 Month Well Expat Check Up

Be Friends with Selena: Blog | Twitter | Bloglovin

Country Walk in Dollegau, Wales

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First off if you are a reader from Casey’s blog, We Took the Road Less Traveled, and have come here by way of Essentials for a Country Walk, thank you for stopping by! Today I continue our recap from our 10th Anniversary in Wales.

It is our first full day in Dollegau and we took the first part of the day fairly easy by exploring the town and taking all the kids to the park. Ryan really wanted to do more exploring, so despite the looming dark clouds he got me out of the house for some alone time. It was a good thing we had waterproof shoes and rain jackets for we got rained during the walk back. However the rain only enhanced our experience in the picturesque countryside of Wales. Between all the wild life I got on camera (minus the deer that leaped out into the road…it was too quick!) and the beautiful backdrops it was as if we had stumbled into our own fairytale. When you are celebrating ten years of marriage what else could you possibly ask for?

It always astounds me how much of a work out a simple country walk can be and how hot it can get with my wardrobe choices. So when it decided to pour down rain on us, i actually welcomed the cool rain with open arms. Seeing the really dark clouds and many electrical lines we decided to do an impromptu run back to our bed and breakfast. I loved every second of it and so glad that Ryan convinced me to a pre dinner country walk. It become one of my most favourite and cherished memories from our trip. I hope you enjoy the photos!

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I will try to keep this short but I am a huge fan of my sponsor, Erika, of the blog Chimerikal. We met by way of the Blog Every Day in May challenge and since then I have loved reading her posts about travel, the world, and all her inspirational outlooks on life. If you are having a bad case of the monday’s (or even if you are not) you should definitely check out Erika’s blog today for inspiration to brighten your week.

Recommended Posts by Erika:

Unleashing My Inner Nomad

Be Friends with Erika: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

5 Places to Visit in Liverpool

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It is Friday and we are so very close to the weekend. What better way to celebrate a couple of days off than jetting to a new destination. One of the perks for choosing the expat lifestyle for my family was being able to travel frequently, even within the UK. There are so many amazing destinations within our grasp from Bath, England that we have not yet explored. Epic ApartHotel, my sponsor for August, brings to you a special guest post on the top five places you should see when visiting in Liverpool.

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Five Places You Need on Your List
W H E N V I S I T I N G I N L I V E R P O O L

Liverpool is a place that has a rich past. The history makes it a perfect destination for anybody looking to explore England’s vast cultural heritage. Liverpool is also a very active city. For those of you looking to go out for a day or evening there are plenty of pubs, bars and many fantastic festivals and exhibitions to explore.

Liverpool has bags of maritime heritage and has plenty of historical points of interest. As it was once one of the biggest ports in the UK, bringing in exciting treasures from around the world. Liverpool was awarded Capital of Culture back in 2008. The city has enjoyed a vast amount of regeneration projects in the UK, which has given the city centre a glamorous make over.

Liverpool has many top tourist attractions including The Beatles story, The Liver Building, and the Albert Dock to name just a few. Here are a five reasons why Liverpool should be up there on your places to go list when visiting the city.

Liverpool ONE

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Liverpool ONE is world class. It is home to some fantastic shops of well-known brands that people flock to Liverpool to visit. In 2009 Liverpool One was awarded Top Shopping Location of 2009 by leading trade magazine Retail Week, beating off Westfield Shopping Centre in London.

The £1BN scheme has really propelled Liverpool into the top five shopping locations in the UK. Liverpool ONE also houses a state of the art cinema, many top restaurants and a grassy park area that is perfect for chilling out in the summer months.

San Carlo

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San Carlo is one of Liverpool’s best Italian restaurants serving an extensive list of traditional cuisine in an open and airy stylish restaurant. Separate to the restaurant is a sleek bar and lounge area which is inviting for you to kick back and enjoy the authentic Italian waiters and buzzing atmosphere.

San Carlo Liverpool is not a theme restaurant but a highly lavish exclusive Italian venue for people who appreciate fine food, good service, luxurious and comfortable surroundings and indeed value for money. If you enjoy Italian food you must experience San Carlo.

The Bluecoat

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The Bluecoat in Liverpool started out life as a school but has been radically transformed into a buzzing creative retreat for all of those creative people in and around the city. At the Bluecoat you can treat yourself to some fabulous food, visit the plenty of quirky independent shops and also some varied music and art events to suit all.

Panoramic 34

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Liverpool truly is a fabulous city and has some fantastic places to eat and drink. At the Panoramic 34 you can view the entire cities goings on from the 34th floor.

The Panoramic is one of Liverpool’s most striking buildings and is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the sky line. What better way to enjoy a glass of champagne after a long shopping day or during a night out on the town. The food and cocktails are famous and are a talking point across the city. This is a great place to visit if you are heading to Liverpool.

EPIC Liverpool –Apart Hotel and Serviced Apartments

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If you are looking for somewhere to stay whilst you visit Liverpool, look no further. Located in the L1 district of Liverpool at the heart of the thriving city is Epic Serviced Apartments and Apart Hotel. Come in and unpack your luggage and make yourself feel at home. You really will feel like royalty for your whole stay.

Epic presents an alternative luxury to a city centre hotel, with more space and more home comforts at exceptional value. Epic is the ideal place to stay for both leisure and business travelers. Staying at Epic gives you the perfect location and opportunity to explore Liverpool with direct access to the cities best shops, restaurants, tourist attractions, nightlife and so much more.

EPIC LIVERPOOL: social media

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

* This was a sponsored post by Epic Liverpool and images are all sourced.

Driving Through Wales

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Thank you everyone for all your messages yesterday for my family and for the feedback on my post yesterday The Story of How He Died. Yesterday was our five year mark since my dad was killed and it definitely makes it harder as an expat when you cannot return to any one spot with all the family to remember a loved one. However, I hope it encourages all to make good choices and to always think before getting behind the wheel.

It is happenstance that the next part of my trip from Wales to share on the blog today is about driving through Wales. As we do not have a car in England, getting to drive through the countryside on our journey through Wales was quite the treat. It is just as you would imagine it: winding country roads, hillsides dotted with sheep, green fields with horses, and cute little villages brimmed with history.

Of course when you are not used to being in a car and you add in the factors of twisting roads, round-a-bouts, and being in a car where someone constantly weaves in their lane you are bound to get a little motion sick. For Ronan it was being the the back of the car with all the winding roads and so we stopped to get some fresh air. Luckily his Nonna, my mum, is a dōTERRA consultant who travels with a variety of essential oils. So with a little peppermint and some fresh Welsh air we were back on the road again.

Since I usually do photography posts on Thursday I wanted to showcase a few portraits I have taken up to this point in the trip in Wales. The composite above was taken while we were taking a break from driving to get Ronan to feel better from feeling carsick. There was complete cloud cover which creates a natural light diffuser for a perfect lighting situation. I had a reader a while back ask me what to do when you live somewhere where it is always cloudy. To them I responded, ‘take photographs every day!’ It can be the sun that can be your worst enemy when it comes to getting nice portraits. I lived in Hawaii for years and I would only shoot in the very early morning or close to sundown since the sunlight was so strong without the use of shade. Here are a few more portraits from the past two days of this portion of the trip.

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I am happy to introduce you today to my featured sponsor

for the month of August, Gillian from Gladley.

She is also an expat, but a Brit living in the USA.

Recommended Posts by Gillian:

My appearance on HuffPost Live

Three things I say incorrectly

The other kinds of long distance relationships

Be Friends with Gillian: Bloglovin’ | Twitter | Instagram

Crickhowell Town, Wales – Travel Tuesday

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This is my first post about our trip to Wales for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We drove from where we live in Bath, England to Dollegau, Wales. Instead of driving straight through we decided to stop somewhere halfway so that the kids could all get out and run around for a bit. It was in the town Crickhowell, Wales where we got out and met up with our friends. Up to this point Wales had been seen from behind the glass windows of the car in awe. The countryside is so beautiful and dotted everywhere with sheep.

Upon arrival in Crickhowell we found the remaining ruins of a castle that became the majestic backdrop for the childrens’ park in town. Adjacent to the playground a cricket match was going and there was a neighbouring field of sheep. It could not have been a more perfect setting for our first experience in Wales for this trip.

There were five kids among the two families and they had an amazing time playing together despite the rain. At one point the rain was just coming down in buckets while they screamed and ran and enjoyed every drop. All in all it was a lovely place to stop and definitely worth a look for this week’s Travel Tuesday post.

A Compass Rose

Here’s how it works: 1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere! 2. Grab the lovely button. 3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 8 am GMT. 4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts! 5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!

The Royal Crescent

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I have to say that a favourite part of living the expat life in England is the many gardens through out the cities. The Brits really know how to make use of small places. It is nice to know that even if the countryside is a bit far out of reach by foot, theres a nearby park just waiting for you to enjoy during your lunch hour. There are several great ones in in Bath and amongst those must see sights is the Royal Crescent. So of course when my mum came to visit we made sure to arrange a photo op in front of it. When ever the day is nice you can find the lawn dotted with locals enjoying their lunch, friends chatting up after work, and tourists posing for their photographs. We chose this as our meeting place before our picnic and had a game of frisbee with the boys. While I brought my heart shaped umbrella just in case, we had a lovely day of sunshine with no rain.

Q: Are there nice parks or gardens where you live?