Once in a lifetime...

"I'm so excited for you. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

When people said this to me last year, I felt it to be true. Spending 4 weeks abroad was likely not an opportunity that would repeat itself. Until this year. We're doing it again and we leave in 4 days!

1st week - Edinburgh Scotland for both of us.
2nd week - Edinburgh Scotland and surrounding area for me and
                   Beijing, China for Tim.
3rd week - Budapest, Hungary for both of us.
4th week - Oxford and London, England for both of us.

Due to delays in getting my passport renewed, I wasn't able to get a travel visa to China in time to go there with him. Well, technically I could still get it, but I'm unwilling to pay $500 for a rush to get it.

So, I've been searching around trying to decide what to do while spending a week alone. And, I've decided that this is where the once-in-a-lifetime really applies. How often will I have the opportunity to spend each day, for 7 days straight, exactly how I want to in Scotland?! Not very often.

I could take the Jacobite train ride (Harry Potter train), visit Isle of Skye, visit Loch Lomond or Loch Ness, Stirling Castle, Dunnottar Ruins (Tim and I might do this one together the first week), Leath harbor (oldest or one of the oldest in Scotland), haunted underground in Edinburgh or so many other options available to me.

You might think I'm excited to be separated from my husband for a week, believe me, I'm not. Any and all of these things would be much better with him. However, I refuse to allow the separation to keep me from enjoying the sights around me. I'll walk through Dean Village in the Fall. I'll shiver along the coastline of Leath and see the Forth of Firth bridge (without having to cross it) and stroll through a cemetery surrounded by trees of yellow, orange and red leaves. And I'll be grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Mackinac Island Annual

This past weekend, Tim and I traveled on our now annual adventure to Mackinac Island, MI with our dear friends, Steve and Bunny. This was our fourth trip there with them and no less great than the first one!

We have our spot on the retaining wall at the base of the park below the fort. Well, really it's Bunny's spot, but we all claim it now since we all sit there together after arrival and before departure and often during our stay.

The views are spectacular and the feel of the island is relaxed. There are no motorized vehicles (with the exception of emergency ones) on the island, unless they are doing road repair. They have horses, horses and carriages, and bicycles if you don't want to walk. We walk. We sit. We eat wonderful food and sometimes we shop.

 Where we stay (every time) is called The Inn on Mackinac. It's a beautiful Victorian B&B that's painted green with accents of purple and yellow and is fronted with a beautiful patio surrounded by a well-cared-for flower garden.

 The views from practically anywhere on the island are gorgeous. The weather this time round was perfection. Low 70's each day, a little rain one night and fluffy white clouds in a stunning blue sky during the day.

 There are a couple forts (Mackinac and Holmes) on the island, the Grand Hotel (where Somewhere in Time was filmed), many shops and eateries, a gold course, intriguing cemeteries, Arch Rock, Sugar Loaf and Devil's Kitchen to name a few things to see/do there.

While we have and do still take walks to see these thing, the best part of this trip is having time away from the stresses of work and every day life and to enjoy this time with friends. We laugh so much sometimes until we cry. We let go of the things bottled up. We are able to just be ourselves with no pretense or egg-shell walking. 

Tim and I were talking about how odd it is that we do this each year, because he and I generally want to see other parts of the world and even other areas in the states instead of return to the same place each year. However, this place with these friends has become so special to us, that we can't imagine not having this annual trip. 

In less than two weeks we'll have already arrived in Edinburgh Scotland for the start of our 4 week journey of 2016. I'm no longer stressing about it. This little annual get-away was just the thing I needed to get my mind back on track and in the right set, that now I'm fully excited for our next adventure together. My husband and I.

Raising my glass to another great year on Mackinac Island with great friends. Cheers!

Simply Remembering

I'm excited! I'm nervous. I'm excited! I'm stressed. And I'm excited!

The gambit of my emotional state as time draws close to departure for our month-long trip to UK, Hungary and China is unnerving. Mostly, I'm excited, but I'm also a little nervous and a little stressed. In an effort to ease some of this nervousness and stress, I decided to look back at some of our photos from previous trips and remember the excitement and calm that those experiences provided.

Here are some of those photos:

A Macaron welcome to St. Ermines - so delicious!

Is it Big Ben?

Tower Bridge

Christchurch Cathedral

Stonehenge

The Royal Mile, Edinburgh