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CURRENTLY VISITING HAWAII!!

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Akaka Falls

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!



You have a standing reservation to see it all!

Nov 27, 2010

Christmas in Utah


I really don't know where you'd go to beat Utah for the best Christmases in the world. I'd like to go to the Kristkindle Markt in Munich once, just to see it. But I think Utah is about perfect when it comes to celebrating. The state brags that it has "the best snow on earth" and I think it does.  It's powdery and lovely and generally falls in Christmas card style melting quickly off the streets. Salt Lake City is big enough to attract every conceivable kind of Christmas production from the Rockettes to the symphony and of course they have temple square and the Tabernacle choir all for free. My favorite tradition is the Festival of Trees--hundreds and hundreds of trees all decorated to the hilt and all proceeds go to the children's hospital.  You have not experienced sensory overload until you've seen this festival.  We'll be seeing it next week--traveling on the train that runs from Ogden to SLC.  The train is great fun---clean with little tables to play games on and big windows to watch the snow.

Just this weekend (Thanksgiving weekend), we've had a lovely time.  Much colder than usual but roads clear to travel to my sister's house for the feast.  Dave and Catherine were up early for some insane black Friday shopping.  I slept in, and then walked to some nearby stores.  That night we went to the free "Christmas Tree Jubiliee" a mini-festival of trees here in downtown Ogden.  Today, we spent decorating the house like many families in the area and went to the Christmas parade downtown.  The parade was about half an hour and afterward the Christmas Village was lit and they had fireworks.  Ogden's Christmas village is charming.  Little houses like the one pictured above dot the block around the main city buildings downtown.  Each house is fully decorated inside and out with little Christmas scenes.  Vendors sell hot chocolate.  Music fills the air. Visiting the village is free. Also free during the season is the Messiah sing-in--if you do it in Ogden.  Or, you can pay and go to Salt Lake and sing with the Utah Symphony.  There are Christmas Carol sing-ins, inexpensive performances of the Nutcracker and of course lots of skiing and sledding.

Happily, the best Christmases come from within no matter where you live.  But if you want atmosphere--Utah is the place to go.
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