Friday, July 13, 2018

{EUROPE} Day Two - St. Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands

Port of Call: Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands

We arrived at our first destination before we awoke, enjoyed breakfast out on the deck, and tendered over to the quaint little town of Saint Peter Port, capital of Guernsey, and where the writer, Victor Hugo lived in exile from 1855-1870...


I have to say that everyone we encountered during our brief visit was just delightful, the friendliest locals...always willing to answer questions and give directions...



First, we strolled up High Street, the main shopping area in town, and continued on up further to wander through Candie Gardens…



My favorite part of the gardens were the couple of greenhouses sprinkled throughout...










There is also a statue Victor Hugo there. We made sure to get a photo with it, as his home is currently closed for renovations...


Once we got back down to the pier, my mother headed back to the ship while the kids and I set off on a pretty adventurous walk (more like a climb) from St. Peter Port down the coastline to Fermain Bay...



Called the Cliff Walk, it's part sidewalk, part road, part dirt path, and part stone steps (lots of stone steps!). It was a bit strenuous, but the perspective from up above the water was incredible...


and the reward at the end of the 30-45 minute walk from town was lunch at The Beach Café...


with a view of the bay...



Knowing where we were headed and what to expect along the way made the walk back to town both faster and a little easier, too. Doesn't it always seem to be that way?


Before tendering back to the ship, we walked on the beach at Havalet Bay to get a closer look at Castle Cornet looming behind...

Thursday, July 12, 2018

{EUROPE} Day One - Travel By Air, Land, & Sea

After flying through the night, we arrived in London first thing this morning (technically the middle of the night for us, of course)…


crossed the border, collected our luggage, met up with our driver, and set off to board our ship in Southampton. We enjoyed a really comfortable drive through the English countryside, stopping to visit the famous Stonehenge along the way...


before settling into our "home away from home" for the next couple of weeks...

This is not only the FIRST trip to Europe for the littles (+ FIRST flight for two of them), but their FIRST ever cruise, as well (we're obviously very loyal to our road tripping ways)…




I'll go ahead and say it...  I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to be able to coax them off this ship at the end of our voyage!




They were pretty much hooked approximately 1.3 seconds after their feet hit the deck...

Off to explore a little more before setting sail...

More {EUROPE} 2018 Fun

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Ready to CRUISE! {2018 edition}

So, we're breaking tradition this summer, and while I AM a  little  sad about missing out on road tripping out to Montana and Wyoming (our originally scheduled programming), I'm BEYOND thrilled to get the opportunity to show our children another part of the world!

My parents LOVED to travel and visited a good many places together before my dad passed away (nearly 10 years ago now). Since then, my mom has continued to travel, hitting up Australia, China, New Zealand, and South Africa (she's seriously a rockstar) since he's been gone. In the meantime, I've made it my life goal to get her to Antarctica so that she can check off her last continent and become a bona fide member of the Continent Club. She doesn't seem to be all that interested in such a trek (or membership for that matter), but I'm going to continue working on her. Like I said, it's my current life goal...not kidding!

With all that said, she's been to a lot of places for sure, but as we all know, this wonderful world is big, and there's always more to see. Shoot, I'm still trying to see & do everything on my list in my own country, and that’ll take more than just one trip to each state! Last summer, she told me that still on her list to visit were both Ireland and Scotland, and not only was she planning a trip, she wanted to take us all with her...

So, that's how we got to where we are now...


Looking forward to our grandest family adventure yet...what a GIFT!


And, we're off!


{Road Trip} 2017 - A Look Back at LAST Year


Tuesday, July 3, 2018

{Summer FUN} SC Governors VII - Charleston Part I + a BONUS VP

Another day in search of the graves of a few more SC Governors...

As it turns out, a good many of our SC Governors are buried in and around Charleston, SC. While down at the beach for a few days, we took a day trip into Charleston, armed with an ambitious list of 8 governors to find, but sadly, we nearly came up empty-handed...

Stop #1 - St. Philip's Church - Charleston, SC

St. Philip's Church is a very historic church in the heart of downtown Charleston.


I believe that there are actually 4 SC governors buried in this churchyard, BUT part of it was closed for renovation and repair. I know that some, if not all 4, of our governors are in the closed portion, but we were unable to confirm as the church office closed early in observance of the 4th of July holiday...

Knowing that we'll have to come back, we wandered across the street to the section that was open, and checked off the grave of Vice President John C. Calhoun...



John C. Calhoun served as the 7th Vice President of the United States under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

Stop #2 - Circular Congregational Church - Charleston, SC

Circular Congregational Church is a very unique church that kind of resembles a castle! Located on Meeting Street, its graveyard actually borders that of St. Philip's Church.


Governor John Mathews is said to be buried here, but we couldn't find him, or the church office for that matter. The church doors were locked, as well. Many of the gravestones are very old and their inscriptions, illegible. So, this one will remain on our list...

Stop #3 - St. Michael's Church - Charleston, SC

Just down Meeting Street from Circular Congregational Church is St. Michael's Church, built on the original site of St. Philip's Church.


I believe that there are actually 3 SC governors buried in this churchyard, including Governor John Rutledge, the 1st SC governor independent of Great Britain and signer of the US Constitution...


Much like the gravestones at Circular Congregational Church, many were illegible, and his was the only one we were able to find, surely due to the special signage by his grave ...

Governor Rutledge was born in Charleston, SC on September 17, 1739 and died in Charleston on July 18, 1800.



Regardless of our luck, it was a fun day roaming around downtown Charleston...


but I suspect that we'll be back with a very similar itinerary soon!