Travel Plans For 2023

kaneohegirlinaz

kaneohegirlinaz

Wannabe TV Chef
Joined
19 Nov 2021
Local time
4:20 PM
Messages
6,341
Location
Central/Northern AZ, gateway to The Grand Canyon
Website
mykitcheninthemiddleofthedesert.wordpress.com
DH & I have not traveled since 2019, ever since the World got kicked off it's axis.
Now that much of the World has opened back up to outside travelers, we got to thinking ...
This year is a milestone Wedding Anniversary for us, so what to do, what to do?

Hawaii 014.JPG


Our first thought was, we were married in Honolulu Hawaii USA, why not go back there?
We have been renting a lovely one bedroom apartment just outside of Waikiki for years, it's in the same residential neighborhood that we first lived in.
Right!
That's sorted.

Are you starting to make future plans to travel somewhere?
 
Yep, I mentioned not long ago that we have a Mediterranean cruise booked for Autumn - Barcelona to France, stops all around Italy, Corfu, and Montenegro. We added a day in Barcelona and three days in Rome at the end.

Mini travel, we’re going up to Ohio Amish country, about three hours away, just for one overnight. That’s at the end of March.

MrsT also has a short Caribbean cruise at the end of this month, a work event, and she’s also going on a Disney Caribbean cruise in December with her best friend.
 
Yep, I've mentioned it elsewhere, we're travelling back to the UK (stopovers in Tokyo and Helsinki) in mid October for just over 2 weeks (returning via Tokyo) in the first few days of November. Families are already trying to arrange trips whilst we're in the UK. Our niece is also getting married whilst we're there.
It will also be the first time we'll have travelled abroad with dual nationality, so instead of keeping track of 1 passport each we'll have 2 each to juggle!
 
We're planning a 2 week trip at the end of April to take advantage of the multiple bank holidays at the beginning of May to stretch our leave allowance a bit further :okay: Not exactly sure where we'll go yet...we're thinking northern Germany, but it'll depend somewhat on the weather. We'll have another 2 week trip in September to south-western France, and over the summer a few weekends away in the New Forest. Depending on the annual leave situation we may also manage to get a quick autumn trip in to Alsace, but we'll have to play that one by ear. And then we'll finish off the year with a trip to Cologne for the Christmas markets at the end of November or beginning of December.
 
We're starting to plan a car trip from Arizona to Newport Beach California in May.
Of course, I have all of the restaurants mapped out :okay:
There's this Asian Marketplace with a Food Court that I can't wait to get back to.
We've visited Newport Beach several times and have our favorite haunts, but we really want some beach time.
 
Going home to Bermuda in April for the first time since COVID, I can't wait! We have a couple of friends joining us who were supposed to be on this trip when we were originally supposed to get married pre-COVID. Looking forward to giving them a grand tour, eating some fish sandwiches, doing some sailing and relaxing.

11 day transatlantic, NYC to Iceland in May on the NCL Prima. Looking forward to seeing the north of Iceland with stops in Akureyri and Isafjordur.

November, 11 day transatlantic from Barcelona to NYC via Cartagena, Spain; The Azores; Bermuda, also on the NCL Prima
 
We've been trying to make plans to visit the Grand Canyon North Rim, stay for a coupla days and have a meal in the Main Lodge Dinning Room... reservations were suppose to open on February 1st, but seems to have been delayed until today ... I've gone online through out the day with no success ... I'm getting perturbed !!

We already have our reservations for our motel room at the North Rim and am so excited to finally get to check mark off one more from my "Bucket List"
:woot:

travel-bucket-list.jpg

(not my bucket list, but I have been to 28 of these ☝️)

We were at the GC South Rim for their 100th birthday and I was speaking with one of the rangers and he explained to me that we shouldn't bother with paying the high price of a cabin at the NR, that you really wouldn't get a better view of the Canyon than sitting on the patio of the Lodge. I'll save that extra money for a nice bottle of Champagne to sip while watching the sunset.
 
Having not travelled anywhere since 2019 it would be good to get away. As some may know, I'm recovering from a broken leg right now, so mobility is severely limited. In fact, I can't actually get out of the front door due to steep steps. I'm hopeful I'll be mobile in a few months but in any case, I don't think I can get away with my partner due to his dementia. It would be too confusing for him and mean I had to be on 'super duty' to supervise him all night in a place he didn't know. That wouldn't be very relaxing!

At the moment. I'd be glad to get a day trip away somewhere on the coast once I'm 'mended'.
 
The last trip I went on pre-covid was a weeklong getaway to Ottawa in Feb 2020, which I decided to take because I had some pretty crappy stuff happening in my professional life and frankly just wanted to run away from my problems for a bit. We’ve been to the cottage, but no real travel.

Finally we’ve booked a weekend getaway for our anniversary this year. We’ll be headed to an eco-adventures resort for a weekend in June, where we’ll stay in a wooden yurt. There’s a firepit and included smores package, and I’ve booked us a beer tasting, kayak tour, and axe throwing. There’s also plenty of hiking trails around the site, a winery, and a couple of restaurants as well.

I’m really looking forward to it! Very excited to finally be going somewhere and since it’s mostly outdoors, should be pretty covid-safe too.
 
Grand Canyon North Rim Update:
as for mentioned, I have been trying to make dinner reservations in the Main Lodge dining room ever since the "lines" opened on February 1st with no luck.
I contacted the park through their Face Book page and got a response this morning.
They are aware of the issue, but it's their concessioner that manages that website.
For laughs and giggles, I wanted to show DH what it the page looked like when you tried to pull it up.
Just like magic, there it was, up and new and improved.
I made a dinner reservation via Open Table and requested a table closet to the windows.
The prices are sky high, but this is a "Bucket List" request for me.
 
You think sporting events mark things up? MrsT is going on a work cruise next week, and she chose to pay for a certain amount of bottled water in advance, because it’s cheaper than buying them singly during the cruise.

She bought 24 16.9oz bottles, and pre buying them, as well as using her travel agent discount, it cost her a mere…$20US!

Keep in mind, we can buy those same bottles here for anywhere between $2.99-$3.99!
 
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