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CURRENTLY VISITING HAWAII!!

Hawaii

Hawaii
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!

Jul 7, 2015

July 6, London

Her hostel, Monkey in the Trees, doesn't live up to it's great name. Hard beds that are triple bunks. She's on the bottom, which triggered the unfortunate thought, "Just like Auschwitz." The free breakfast isn't much, toast and tea with maybe hard-boiled eggs. But no matter! Today was finally the long anticipated---the Harry Potter Studio Tour! She slept in, and had a meat pie in honor of the the family reunion we were attending in Butte, Montana. (Note--if you ever go to Butte, a pasty, from Nancy's Pasties is a must).


It sounds like the perfect tour to me. Everyone gathered in the great hall to see a movie about the movies, and then they were set free to explore to their hearts content. Catherine was there for five hours. I'm sure she bought waaaay too much stuff, but, as she says, "I didn't buy half the stuff I wanted."



One of the things that she did buy was this butter beer ice-cream. Best ice-cream she's ever had. 


The sets from the films have been maintained. Here's the real Diagon Alley


And the beloved Knight Bus


But my favorite is this story she told us about the Japanese tourists.

" A group of Japanese VIPs visited the set and they saw Buckbeak. So they bowed, and he bowed back. So they bowed, and he bowed back and this went on for quite a while until the VIPS begged them to stop so they didn't have to break protocol."

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