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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!

Jun 14, 2016

Paris and London

The study abroad officially over.


 Grades still a mystery, Catherine went to Paris Disneyland before coming home. Paris is cold and she threw out her long pants but that does not stop any devoted Disney fan. She took the shuttle from the airport straight to Disney leaving her luggage in the locker.

She knew her friend, Madison was in the park, but Madison didn't have a cell connection, so they had to leave it to luck to meet up. But Disney is magical. Of course, they met up.


At the end of the day she had to find her hotel, which happily didn't seem to be much of a problem, even if the bus was squeaky. This was a relief to me since I was the one who booked it. Besides having a room with a bed, the hotel also has llamas, goats, bunnies and ponies. 


The next day Catherine was up early to catch her "Magic Hours." Wonderful! She was about the only one who came early. She had all of Main Street to herself!


She was the first to ride Buzz, which assured her that she had the high score of the day--at least for a little while.

There are many differences between Disneyland Paris and the American parks. Crush is a roller coaster---


Mr. Toad's is a restaurant, not a ride. The haunted mansion has a scary zombie theme--except for the singing busts which don't fit in at all. My favorite is Alice's curious labrynth. Catherine skyped me today and took me on a tour. 

Another real oddity, the rolicking pirate music was actually the hymn, "Who's on the Lord's side Who?" 

Not different is that Earl of Sandwich is still her favorite place ever. The Beef and blue sandwich was especially magical. Also, Disney merchandise is universal. I have no doubt there are gift shops on Mars.  Since Paris is hosting the Eurocup, Catherine got the ears to celebrate. 



The original plan was to stay for the fireworks, But since she rode everything that was open multiple times and she's going to have a string of bad sleep on long airplane rides, she decided to skip the fireworks and instead be at the park in the morning for as long as she can before catching her flight to London. 

Nothing like starting your day at Disneyland and ending it at platform 9 3/4.