Happy New Year!

2019 has been such a wonderful year in so many ways! I've achieved more of my goals than ever before, checked off a bunch of things from my bucket list and discovered new and wonderful people, places and activities that bring me so much joy! I think this is the first new year that I don't have to make radical changes to my habits or routines - I just need to plan to have as amazing a time in 2020!

So I started out the new year with a lovely walk with the most handsome dog in the world. I paid close attention to the beauty of nature all around me...

And when I came back, just looking at our home and my boy felt so good:)

I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and I'm so grateful. Hoping your year is wonderful too!

Iceland - part two

We flew priority class to Iceland which was totally amazing - particularly given that we were still feeling unwell...

For my first meal in days, I had a traditional Icelandic Christmas dinner - it was delicious!

We stayed in an apartment right in the downtown area of Reykjavik...

But even though it wasn't crazy cold (right around freezing), the winds were so icy and my chest infection made being outside really difficult...:(. I did manage to get out for breakfast one morning with Gail though which was really nice...

And we booked the famous Golden Circle tour to see some of the sights and learn a bit about Iceland...

We saw where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet...

With only 4 hours of light a day in winter, it never really feels like daytime. It's a haunting and mysterious place...

At the end of the day, we saw the famous geysers erupting:)

And then back to bed again:(. For the New Year's Eve celebrations, I stayed in the apartment on my own. Luckily the fireworks were everywhere and I got to see a bunch right outside the front door!

On our last morning in Iceland we went to see some of the sights of the city...

Iceland is an amazing place, but I'll be honest, I was relieved to get back to the warm air and get to see a doctor. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon and ready to start the new year over:)

Happy New Year from the UK!

We left on Boxing Day for our family vacation in the UK. As soon as we landed at Gail's we got straight down to business with some proper English bacon...

And a half of bitter shandy at the pub....

And a mince pie at mum's...

...and a snowball at another pub:)...

We (over)indulged in many more British pleasures during the trip and I didn't photograph them all thankfully but suffice it to say shares in Walkers prawn cocktail crisps and Bovril probably saw an uptick that week...

Since my two grandnieces both had chicken pox, we switched out the order of events a bit and headed up to the Lake District at the beginning of the visit to give them chance to recover:). We live on the border of the Orlando town of Windermere so I wanted to show Mike and Maddy the original place that it was named after. This is me and Mike at Lake Windermere on our 19th wedding anniversary...

We saw a tiny bit of snow in Kendal, and a boatload of mint cake:)

We had a lovely walk around Tarn Hows and took lots of selfies with pretty English cows:)

The next day we had breakfast on the infamous Lake Coniston where Sir Malcolm Campbell had set the water speed world record at 141.74 mph (228.108 km/h) in the Bluebird in 1939. After his son Donald Campbell had set four successive records on the same lake he decided in 1967 that he needed to exceed 300 mph to retain the record. Although he achieved a top speed of over 320 mph he then sadly lost control and was killed instantly.

Mike and Maddy loved the scenery and especially the sheep:)

The Lake District is the home of William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. We loved pretty Hawkshead in particular...

But it was cold...! We headed back to Gail's and enjoyed a day catching up and snuggling up watching British TV. I got my fix of British birds through the window...

Then we went over to see Sean and Tracy and Mike got to meet Skyla for the first time - she loved him!

I miss my Tracy so much....

Then we headed over to see Stephen and Kayz and meet Nancy for the first time:)

She is so adorable!

It was so strange seeing in the new year with Big Ben!

We spent our last night seeing Jan and Darren and saying goodbye to Mum and Dad...

Thank you Gail for putting us up (and putting up with us)...:)

Hope to see you all again soon and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We had a few days of vacation left after Christmas so we decided to head up to the Georgia mountains for some family relaxation time. Mountain Man Mike wasted no time in getting a fire together as soon as we arrived in our lovely cabin in the woods...

We received an emergency notification call in the  morning  that there were flash flood warnings in effect down at the bottom of our mountain so Mike risked life and limb first thing to go and get more wood (and bacon, beer and s'mores) from Betty's country store so we would have everything we needed for a couple of days:)

Later that evening the warning expired, so we went down to the local town of Helen to see what was going on. The river level was really high but it looked like everything was OK thankfully...

Per Wikipedia...formerly a logging town that was in decline, the city of Helen resurrected itself by becoming a replica of a Bavarian alpine town, in the Appalachians instead of the Alps. This design is mandated through zoning first adopted in 1969, so that the classic south-German style is present on every building, even on the small number of national franchisees present...we loved it!

The next morning we drove to Amicalola Falls, a 729-foot (the highest) waterfall in Georgia. It is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia:)

This was a particularly special visit for me since we had visited this exact spot on Jan 1st 2004 and I had not really enjoyed it:(. I was still very much a 'city mouse' at the time and didn't yet appreciate the outdoors at all. And I remember complaining incessantly about all those steps to the top of the waterfall. As a firmly converted 'country mouse' I couldn't wait to get back and see what I had missed!

12 years ago... and today in the same exact spot! Look - same rocks on the right!!

Fortunately Maddy has always been able to 'get it' :). Here she is now...

 

 

And back then...

Those steps were still tricky though;)...

But so worth it!

 

How lovely:). Afterwards, we discovered that close by was Dahlonega, the site of the second of the six major Gold Rushes in America. Turns out they have an actual mine you can tour...:)

 

 

It completely fascinating!  Our trusty tour guide showed us how gold was extracted using actual machinery from the late 1800s...

He even showed us a live, hibernating tricolor bat:)

And we got to do some gold panning later too!

 Afterwards we drove around for a while checking out some cool, abandoned stuff...

Later on we pulled up our favorite Roadside America app and couldn't resist a trip to the General Babyland Hospital where Cabbage Patch Kids are born.

It is set up exactly like a hospital with nurses and everything. We actually got to see "Mother Cabbage" give birth...it was hilarious, creepy and a bit disturbing all at once....

 

 

The new delivery...

But the weirdest part for me was the massive wall of celebrity photos who have sent their best wishes and/or presumably visited the hospital...like Kevin Kosner and Bob Geldof...

...and The Fonz

 and Caitlyn Jenner...

and The Donald??...

It was very strange indeed. We found some more offbeat attractions close by....like this ancient burial mound...

And this Wampus box outside the old Sautee Store...

 

We cooked some steaks and watched the ball (and the peach) drop from the cabin at midnight. On our last day, we went for a morning hike at Unicoi State Park.

Maddy found quartz which she was sure was full of gold...

And we ended the day at pretty Anna Ruby Falls:)

We all had a lovely, relaxing, fun trip and it was a great way to start out the new year. 2015 has been filled with some amazing adventures and I hope for some more crazy, random fun in 2016. Happy New Year to you all:)