DON’T PLAN THE EXACT DATES AND TRY TO FIT THE FLIGHTS TO IT! Be open to a general time frame.
Sometimes I pick, sometimes they pick, sometimes we figure it out together. Oftentimes, this is based on the cost of flights and the time of year. I am always asked “how did you find flights that cheap?!” We set nothing until we find the flights. We usually look at shoulder seasons (April, May; October, November) because it’s much cheaper and there aren’t nearly as many people at the main sights. Until recently, this worked just fine even though the boys were in school. However, with high school having higher stakes and it’s harder to make up, we will have to start traveling at times that fit between school and baseball.
That said, let’s look at the previous travel dates. We have done two major trips to Europe, both at the end of October which worked out perfectly and our flights ended up being ~$300/person round trip. Pick a time of the year, use Google Flights and Hopper to be able to figure out what the best departure and return dates are, and then plan the trip after that. I will say that Hopper used to be amazing and much more flexible. Lately, I’ve been using Google Flights the most since you can use the price grid and move around dates to see what the best deal is and then set a tracker for that time or for anytime for a certain amount of days/weeks.
From the US for European vacations, we’ve have flown in and out of Paris for most often and Munich for the other because that was the cheapest and then it’s quick and cheap to jump on a European airline from there. We have flown EasyJet and Transavia and it has worked out great! I will say, Transavia appeared to track cookies and the prices would go up if I didn’t book immediately. When I cleared cookies, it would go back down.
Let me start by saying Mexico isn’t really my jam. Los Cabos, however, offered many gems and does warrant a trip back to do all the things we really want to make sure we do before Mexico is checked off the list. Previously, my husband, children, parents and I have been to Cancun together – just the parents, children, and I have been one more time. Los Cabos is no Cancun, thank the heavens, though I could see how Cabo San Lucas and the resorts would be very similar. What I dislike about both Cancun and Cabo San Lucas is the feel of a 50-year-old Spring Break. I am not a partier. I never had any desire to do Spring Break in my younger years. I do not like shots, crude knickknacks, drunk people, and loud music. I really did want to see authentic Mexican towns that aren’t entirely catering to American tourists. All that said, let’s go…
First tip – Never. Ever. Under any circumstance. Fly American Airlines through DFW. We missed our first day of the trip sleeping in a DFW hotel and then taking a very early flight the next day. More on this later.
We finally ended up in San Jose del Cabo on Wednesday. Because of the kerfuffle in Dallas, my husband ended up on separate flights from the rest of us but after delays we landed about the same time. Since we were supposed to land much earlier, we scheduled a Cabo Airport Shuttle service which was easy to do online, handed us a beer in the car, and talked to us the entire way to the AirBnb. My husband arrived shortly after us with the rental car. We took the rest of the day to grocery shop, lounge by the pool, and take naps before walking down to dinner. Luckily, as I mention in my tips, Wednesday wasn’t a planned day anyway because you should always take a day to settle in and relax before you launch into your vacation!
Vacation mode on Thursday! I had found a place called Buzzard’s online and I thought it was near the beach we wanted to go to…it was not but it was worth the drive! We saw that it was only open for a couple more days and we were going to be able to grab lunch and drinks two days before they shut their doors forever. Toes in the sand and drinks in hand kinda lunch! Worth it but unfortunately, it doesn’t help anyone reading this and wanting to visit as they are no longer in business.
Things you can do! Definitely do the Thursday night Art Walk and if you can, you need to do this. The Art District is lively, filled with artists, tourists, locals, and food carts. It was a great way to shake off the Dallas dust and dive into our Mexican vacation. Since my sister has an allergy to bivalves and potentially more things from the sea, eating out was definitely an adventure in a coastal area known for its seafood. My husband and I found a great rooftop eatery, Simaruba, and when the first thing they asked was “do you have any allergies?”, we called my sister and her boyfriend to come join us. This was a spectacular meal. I highly recommend the squid ink risotto but everyone ordered something different and it was all phenomenal. A little off the main plaza so we weren’t worried about it being a tourist trap though we didn’t really see anything that felt that way other than potentially the Italian eatery.
The reason this whole trip happened was because my sister was heading down for a dear friend’s wedding. We were just tagging along. On Friday, the wedding festivities started and my husband and I were off to explore just the two of us. Well, it started with three of us but then we lost my sister’s boyfriend to wedding festivities in the evening. Beaches in Los Cabos are easy to come by but more difficult to navigate if you are looking for a specific thing. Some are surfing beaches, some are swimming beaches, some are you-absolutely-cannot-swim-here beaches (like the first one after our lunch at Buzzard’s). We wanted swimming and snorkeling and heard that Santa Maria was a fantastic place for this as it is in a protected cove. The water is beautiful. It is a little off the path so it wasn’t busy. The snorkeling was great according to the sis’s BF. It is definitely choppy as you get closer to the rocks on the side but the right side was where the boats brought people and the lifeguards didn’t yell at you. Things to note – it’s a walk so if you plan on taking a ton of things and hanging out for the day just be warned. It’s a pebble beach, not a sand beach. Wear something on your feet that you can walk in pebbles with because it is HOT and could burn your feet but also just difficult to walk in. The birks were a little painful since the pebbles kept getting between my feet and the bed.
(Above photo is from visitloscabos.travel)
I’m not going to include much else here for the evening. It was fine. Food was terrible. Drinks were fine. Shopping was fine. Walking the streets was beautiful as always but nothing worth noting so we’ll just save some time.
Wedding Day! Well, for others but a day alone to explore! Upon the advice of a dear friend, hubby and I headed to Todos Santos and the Green Room. This was a wonderful day and I am happy to pass on this recommendation! Todos Santos is a great little town to spend the day browsing shops, eating good food, and drinking local beer. Check out La Catrina Cantina for lunch and Todos Santos Brewing for drinks. We were skeptical about La Catrina Cantina but ended up eating ourselves sick! It was delicious! I don’t drink beer so I’ll take the hubby’s word that the beer was good. The seltzer they had on tap was fantastic! All that said, the highlight of the trip was definitely the Green Room! It’s a drive out of town but worth every second! After arriving, you walk down an adorable path through tall bushes to sit with your toes in the sand on a pristine beach to watch the sunset while sipping the best food and drinks we had on the trip. I cannot say enough about how worth it this was. Do not miss it if you are in the area. It was absolutely the best part of this trip.
The next few days were a blur of typical Cabo San Lucas things – boat cruise to the Arch, drinks on a rooftop overlooking the marina, typical Mexican/American food but still fun, just not really anything to write home about. However, drinks were good and views were great at Rooftop 360 at Corazon and if you are craving some typical Mexican food that you would eat at home but better, check out Texican.
Now, one of the most beautiful places I have been to was saved for our last real day in Los Cabos. It’s a drive to get over to La Paz, but Balandra Beach is worth it. 100% worth it. It’s an interesting place to get to. It’s legally protected so you can go at either 8:30AM or 1PM. Only a certain number are let in so it is quiet and pristine! We chose to come in by boat after snorkeling with the sea lions. I’d share pictures and the tour we took for this but we’ve never actually received the video and photos of that. We thought we would be snorkeling with baby sea lions but we got the adolescent sea lions which was very similar to snorkeling with adolescent children. They don’t care that you are there. They want nothing to do with you and would probably prefer you didn’t come at all. The trip out was interesting and we saw blue-footed boobies which were roosting on their migratory island from the Galapagos. Once we pulled into the bay though, we were blown away. This water is absolutely crystal clear, shallow, warm, just perfect! The tour company had lunch for us on the beach which was fine but just swimming and walking around, checking out the wildlife, and enjoying the quiet surroundings really was a highlight. This is the one place we are planning on returning to so our family can enjoy this and couple it with snorkeling with whale sharks that are in the Gulf of California. We wrapped up the tour and wanted to grab an actual lunch and see what La Paz had to offer. It was too hot to actually walk around. Lunch was absolutely horrible and we didn’t eat it so I don’t have much to add to this part of the trip. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant to tell you to avoid it but I don’t. Sorry about that. It’s on a corner and all the seating is outside so that narrows it down to about 300 places.
Oh, back to the Never. Ever. Under any circumstance. Fly American Airlines through DFW. On the way home, we got stuck again. We already knew it was coming and the first flight delay from Los Cabos to DFW, we headed to the airport immediately and tried to jump on an earlier flight. My hubby dropped up and returned to the car. Due to a bit of a language barrier, the person at the counter booked my sis, her boyfriend, and me on one flight which boarded in 19 minutes. We ran through the airport and security and somehow made this flight. My hubby got on the next one, which was the one I was trying to get us all on but failed. We landed in DFW with plenty of time to make the next flight home BUT, we just kept seeing flights coming in and flights out getting canceled. As the airport got progressively fuller and we got progressively more nervous, after about 10 delays, they canceled us right as we were about to board. Lines at this point were so long, we estimated about five hours to even get to talk to anyone. We overheard one passenger being told to go to another gate so we slipped out of line and headed to that gate as well. Luckily, there was only one other person ahead of us, we were put on a standby at 9AM the next morning, and booked our own hotel hoping to be reimbursed (I’m not sure if we ever did). Somehow, by some miracle, despite being in the 4th, 8th, 14th, and 15th on the standby list, my husband made it on, and then I was called with “my party” so we all made the flight! It was a nightmare, just like the flight out. At least on the flight out it wasn’t midnight and we were given a hotel and food vouchers. Not so on the way back but thank the gods for the gate agent that stayed for 19 hours and at least got us on that standby.
Never. Ever. Under any circumstance. Fly American Airlines through DFW.
Let’s start with I don’t like bourbon but having been passed/to a couple of whisky distilleries when I lived in Nashville so I believed that bourbon distilleries are very beautiful sites. My husband and I were in Kentucky for a wedding at Buffalo Trace anyway so I invited my momma to meet me for her birthday and a girls trip on the bourbon trail. I thought she had always said she wanted to go but while we were there she mentioned she never really thought about going so I must have dreamed it and away we went.
I drew up a spreadsheet for her to do some research and pick the ones she wanted to see in our few days. We ended up adding a couple just because we had the time. We did not pick based on the bourbon, just on the easiest route and ones that looked interesting. Mainly, I wanted to go to Bardstown because it looked adorable and it was very haunted. We did a loop from Cincinnati as those were the easiest flights from Colorado. Tips for first timers, some we received from people that have been and some we collected while researching:
Distilleries all have dates they are closedand times that are unavailable. Book your tours and experiences ahead of time.
Don’t go on a tour of every place. Mainly, the bourbon making process is about the same but how they finish it is different. Find experiences at distilleries instead of just the tour.
Let’s just dive in. Kentucky in April is rainy. Remember that if you plan to go in April. The good thing about April is that it wasn’t very busy anywhere so getting tours was relatively easy. A couple of things were already all booked up like The Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown which has an amazing history BUT right next door is The Jailer’s Inn which was absolutely wonderful.
I will say, this was a loosely planned trip of let’s just do whatever we want, whenever we want so the first day didn’t actually have any plans. After waking up whenever we wanted, Momma said “let’s go to Buffalo Trace” because my brother did ask if we could find Pappy Van Winkle’s which we absolutely did not have luck in purchasing this rare bourbon. I had been to Buffalo Trace about 10 times over the wedding weekend but it is beautiful so I had no issue heading back. We walked right up to a tasting and could have spent hours in the gift shop. Buffalo Trace was the only distillery that offered heavily discounted items on site but does limit how much you can buy within a certain time period. The Bourbon Cream mixed with their root beer was absolutely delicious and we drank this at night for the rest of the trip!
After Buffalo Trace, we just drove around and decided we would check out Woodford Reserve just to do it. I do not recommend heading out here unless you actually like Woodford Reserve. The buildings, grounds, and staff were underwhelming at best. We were basically just told to head to their restaurant/bar so we did. We grabbed a mixed drink that cost a fortune but you get to keep the copper cup and a charcuterie box which was box of mainly packaged foods that were not particularly good other than the cheese spread. We sat out on the porch and watched the horses behind the building. We tried to drink the concoction but honestly, it was terrible so we dumped it, took the cups, and headed out.
Our second day was our first booked tour at Maker’s Mark on our way to Bardstown. This was by far the most interesting, most beautiful, and best experience. The grounds were stunning. The stories were riveting. And this is the only one I could actually drink! At the end, we purchased the most recent batch of staff’s private reserve and got to dip the bottle in wax to seal it! I cannot say enough about how wonderful the Maker’s Mark experience was. It’s everything you go on the Bourbon Trail to do. Historical buildings, stories filled with local lore, and you feel like you could be back in time to the birth of a bourbon.
After a wonderful experience, we headed into Bardstown to check in to The Jailer’s Inn and grab lunch at the Talbott Tavern to see if we could experience the paranormal throwing our silverware around and moving our glasses. Alas, that did not happen. We were warned by our host and owner at The Jailer’s Inn that they had been going through some staff turnover in the kitchen so we will forgive the fact that the Kentucky Hot Brown was not particularly good. The atmosphere is everything you would hope for in a place that has such a colorful history. I definitely recommend this place and hopefully the kitchen is back on track so you enjoy the food as much as the surroundings. After lunch, we did a little Main Street shopping – a lot of local artisans and a variety of old things and some actual antiques; A LOT of rhinestones and rivets. There was one shop in particular that my mother and I could have bought just about everything in there. Do not miss out on Shaq & Coco.
Day Three! The Bardstown Bourbon Company was a completely different experience than any of the things we had done so far. This distillery is so new that they did not have any fully Bardstown Bourbon Distillery bourbons as it wasn’t old enough to fully age so they blend with other distilleries. If you are going on the trail for the history of it, this isn’t your place. They thumb their noses at the local lore and opt for a very modern take on bourbon. The fun part was the experience! We did a Shaken and Stirred mixology class where we made two drinks in the private bar created for the owner. We got Momma pretty intoxicated as I don’t drink bourbon so she had her two and my two…all before we had any food. It was a beautiful day so we headed back to the restaurant, grabbed some food, enjoyed the weather outside before heading back into Bardstown.
Since we didn’t have anything planned, this afternoon was a “what do you want to do and see?” so we looked up everything we could drive by of historical significance. We basically found a bunch of things that were rebuilt or moved from somewhere else and everything was closed so we walked the Kentucky-version of the Appian Way, The Cobblestone Path.
Then we drove forever to who knows where to find the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born but as we read more, it’s a symbolic cabin in the middle of field that they think was where he was born so we skipped it and tried to make it to a haunted battlefield in time…we did not so we found a little restaurant at the Beaumont Inn, Old Owl Tavern, that was fantastic before driving back to Bardstown. When we got back to The Jailer’s Inn, we decided to sneak into the original portion of the jail that is still intact to look for ghosts. I don’t know that we saw anything, we were too scared to actually walk down the pitch black corridor. However, that little light that I though was a reflection or a light outside…in the light of day, there is no window with glass there so I’ll let you decide. That night, I do think I had my first paranormal experience. The Garden Room is rumored, like most places in Bardstown, to be haunted. In the middle of the night, I woke to an overwhelming smell of smoke and sat bolt upright in bed. The room immediately got frigid. Then, everything just dissipated. No smoke smell. Normal temperature. There was no fire at The Jailer’s Inn in the past but there have been fires at The Old Talbott Tavern throughout the years. Our room directly faced The Old Talbott Tavern…
That was the last night of our Bourbon Trail vacation so it was time to get that tour of The Jailer’s Inn before we headed to Jim Beam on the way back to Cincinnati for our flight out the next morning. The owner of The Jailer’s Inn is clearly a passionate man who loves his ownership and job so much. He was very entertaining as he walked us through the small jail and took all the best photos. I really do recommend staying here and if not sleeping here, at the very least, get yourself a tour from this amazing man.
Jim Beam – this distillery is GIGANTIC, as you would expect. We did another tour here even though I said “one tour is enough.” I will say, if you are to do two, this would be the way to do it. Most of the information was the same but there were a few fun facts that we did not learn on the Maker’s Mark tour including why so many of the buildings are painted black and pointed out that the trees around a distillery are also black. There is a fungus that grows around distilleries due to the distilling process. This was also a telltale sign during prohibition, often giving away illegal stills. We were able to completely bottle our own bottle of Knob Hill from start to finish for an extra cost so of course we did it! Momma made a reservation at the restaurant onsite, The Kitchen Table, which was perfect timing since the skies opened up on walk over there and we were able to enjoy a fantastic lunch while waiting out the deluge. The food was fantastic as were the cocktails. It was a great end to a fun, and our first, Momma and daughter trip! We now have many bottles of fine bourbon, which no one in our family drinks other than my brother and my uncle so we are always ready for entertaining others!
If you have any questions about a Bourbon Trail trip you are planning, contact me and I can help a little bit or at the very least, below, I shared the list of all the distilleries, links, and dates/time they are closed (as of April 2023) that are on the smaller inner circle of the trail. Bourbon is a personal taste so you should make your tour your own but if you are like Momma and me, I can give some tips on why we chose the way we did it.
Oh, Hawai’i. This one was expensive and really stressful. We started the chaos the day before we left with the oldest boy getting covid. When I say we plan for a lot of flexibility, this proves it from the start of this trip but wait until the end…
Okay, spreadsheet completed, so many stops to try to see it all since there really isn’t a cheap way to get to Hawai’i so let’s see it all! Well, now the husband and oldest won’t be seeing Honolulu or O’ahu but let’s get started anyway and they’ll join us in Honolulu airport to catch the flight to Kona. We fly to San Francisco, spend the night (where I rent a car at midnight for the next day since there are only four of us), and head out the next morning to Honolulu…the youngest starts coughing on the plane to Honolulu. Throw a mask on him and test him as soon as we get the chance upon landing and thank goodness, he is negative so we all tear our masks off and head out to explore the island. Now that we have a car, we blow the first day’s plan and just drive around to see the North Shore, grab some poke, stick our toes in the sand, and head back for our ghost tour of Honolulu.
I typically love ghost tours or haunted tours because you get a bit of history, walk around to some back corners of a city, and have a little fun. The Ghosts of Old Honolulu Walking Tour led by Lopaka Kapanui, who really is a master storyteller, does weave together the history of Hawai’i, the Palace, the state and federal buildings, and some modern crime tales. We did not catch anything on our cameras like we did in New Orleans and did spend a lot of time trying which would be the only reason I wouldn’t highly recommend this tour. I would definitely recommend it if you want great stories about the area around the Palace and state and federal buildings. Lopaka is a native Hawai’ian with a great sense of humor and an uncanny ability to tie together the traditions and history of Hawai’i and the more modern day crime in the area. Luckily, we didn’t see any cheating men here sitting in front of the haunted well on the Palace grounds.
Day 2, Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. We booked ahead of time at the Pearl Harbor website to make sure we had a spot on the ferry to the Arizona. You have to book these separately. We handed our two extra guaranteed seats to someone waiting in the “if there is room” line so it all worked out. This was amazing. You grow up hearing about Pearl Harbor, you’ve seen the movies, you’ve read the history books, but it really becomes bigger than the stories when you are there and you can see it first hand. This is definitely a MUST DO if you are in Honolulu. NOTE! No bags are allowed in. There were lockers and there was quite a line to use them. Luckily someone gave us a heads up in the parking lot so we left our bags in the car. I think we gave ourselves enough time to see it all in 4 hours and were even able to grab lunch there though I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s meh. If you were going without children or with people that want to read every sign, give yourself at least another hour or two. I think we all would have loved to have more time at the memorial but you have 15 minutes from the time to unload to the time you are being loaded back up so know that this will not fill up your day.
Since we blew our first day plan, we turned the afternoon into a beach day at Waikīkī and we really could have spent all day every day here. They aren’t lying about Waikīkī. It is paradise. We walked down the beach and grabbed another pineapple smoothie for the youngest who definitely now likes to drink things out of pineapples. We ran into a beach souvenir store. We just really soaked it all in for our last night in Honolulu and finished it off with a pizza from Domino’s because it was late and we didn’t know where else to go. We tend to end up at one basic fast food meal during vacations just because it’s quick, we know it, and we don’t go to bed hungry. There is no shame in this.
On day three prior to heading to the airport, we had a free day that I mention in my tips so we could go back to see the things we wanted to see if we had the chance. We headed up to the Punchbowl Cemetery which was breathtaking and had a magnificent view of Honolulu and ran back by the Palace so we could see it during the day. Then, return the car, meet the rest of our party, and fly to Kona to start the actual Focus on the Garman Family trip to Hawai’i!
The end of this day was a wonderful lunch and Mai Tai at A-Bay’s in Waikoloa Village which just happened to be on the route but was much needed for the very tired two who just joined us and those that were just relieved they were here. After lunch, we checked into the hotel, became very skeptical about how much we were going to like it here, were blown away at our “basement room”, took in a beautiful sunset, drinks, and bites with an old friend of my husband. To the hotel for the moment, while our room ended up being breathtaking, it is a pretty big resort that was either a 10-minute walk to your room or a 10-minute wait for a monorail to get anywhere. Parking was terribly expensive. And you were forever away from anything other than what was available at the resort. This isn’t typically how we like to stay and we were grateful for a car but then ended up spending so much time driving everywhere we wanted to go and the Big Island is in fact very big so that was often hours at a time in the car. I do not recommend this unless you are a resort person. If you are, then this resort was beautiful. Our “basement room” opened directly onto a lawn which was overlooking the ocean. The accommodations were very up-to-date and very comfortable.
Since we knew we would be a little tired from the first half of the trip, we planned day four to just be easy sites to see the typical Hawai’i things – valley, waterfall, stargazing, spam. We did pretty well sticking to all of this! May have been the only day we stuck to a plan. We started with Waipi’o Valley Overlook, headed to Akaka Falls State Park for a very easy walk through the forest and out to the Falls, then headed to TEX Drive In for food and malasadas. I was really excited about this as it is touted as a must do. I disagree. The malasadas were very good and since we didn’t eat them anywhere else since we had more than enough to last the entire trip, I’ll say they are good but cannot compare them. The rest of the food, well, it was spam. It was all fine. I would not say it’s a must do, in fact, I’d say you can skip it. I really wanted to give a better review but I’ll be honest. If you’re driving by, sure, stop in! We were going to finish the day by driving up and stargazing at Mauna Kea. It didn’t even occur to me that my teenage son, who has lived at elevation since he was 15 months old, wouldn’t be able to handle a mountain…we made it to about 10,000 feet before Papa was feeling it in his lungs and the teenager was getting a headache. By the time we got to the visitors’ center, the teenager was saying his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head. We ran to the bathroom, grabbed some sweatshirts and long sleeve shirts since the same teenager forgot our warm clothes bag in the room, had just enough time to see that it would be incredible to stay up here and see the skies on a night of a meteor shower but instead, we need to head back down.
From here on out, the spreadsheet was just blown to hell and we did whatever we wanted. This was supposed to be the resort day because Papa and Grandma had a timeshare tour but Papa wanted to go to the beach so it started with a trip to Beach 69 for some snorkeling and grabbing coffee from a truck on the turn off, which was absolutely delicious. The reef at Beach 69 has definitely been badly impacted by humans and the warming of the water as most of the coral was dead but the fish and such, were still very there and very lovely. I even saw a small octopus! I would still recommend snorkeling here even if Papa wouldn’t. After a few hours, we were to head back to the room so Papa and Grandma could make it to their tour and then we’d be night snorkeling with the Manta Rays in Kona that night. My husband and I drove to get groceries for our hike to the black sands beach at Pololū Valley However, as soon as my husband and I got back to the room, we were informed that the tour was actually two hours earlier so they missed it and had to reschedule for the following day so we kissed the rest of the plans goodbye! We still made the night snorkeling and now without a tour to attend, we headed to Kona to shop and grab dinner before the snorkeling. This was actually a wonderful change of plans. We were able to spend all the money, get all the souvenirs, and had an AMAZING dinner at Kona Inn. Kona Inn was situated in a shopping center overlooking the water so I was definitely skeptical but it was absolutely the best meal we had the whole trip. The boys wouldn’t recommend the fish and chips but realized that it was time they become a bit more adventurous with their ordering since we shared a lot of ours. Another beautiful sunset and then to the boat to drive out into the Pacific ocean to jump in the rather chilly water and have our chins brushed by manta rays. Papa still says that diving is better but after reading all the reviews, all the comparison threads, I chose to snorkel with everyone instead of the two of us breaking off to dive without them. I definitely squealed through the snorkel the first time one of these gigantic beasts came up under the board! We all highly recommend the Manta Ray Night Snorkel* with Bite Me Sport Fishing. The guides were funny and helpful and the experience was really a once in a lifetime.
The next day, the plan was to head to Volcanoes National Park, hit up the Volcano Winery on the way if we could, Papa had a colleague who lived in Hilo so we’d meet up for a minute. But first, they had to go to their rescheduled timeshare tour. This took far longer than it should have since Papa hasn’t met a timeshare he could say no to. We didn’t leave until very late, so we decided to meet the friend at Volcano Winery which was when the rain rolled in. Quick review on the winery, the Volcano Red and the Volcano Blush were great and we ordered a few bottles to be shipped home. The rest were very sweet and we didn’t even finish the tasting. The volcano artwork on the walls is absolutely gorgeous and the bacon cheese ball was a great snack! By the time we got to Volcanoes National Park, it was foggy, cloud covered, and getting dark very quickly. (At this point, Papa has also been coughing the entire way over and I grabbed him a mask at the national park’s visitor center. About this time, he’s starting to get the chills and not feel well but I’ll get to that in a minute…) We made it to the first stop on the loop as the sun was setting and the fog was so thick that you couldn’t see anything. Grandma, my husband, the boys and I did the little hike through the Devastation Trail where the sun set, we couldn’t see anything anymore and headed back to the car to decide what to do. Decided the lava tunnel could be done and maybe there was a glow from Kīlauea. There was not, we just looked into the dark at where we guessed there was a crater. We wrapped it up. Headed to the gift store to get an ornament, water, bathroom break, and headed out. At this point, Papa is going downhill quickly and we are suspecting he has covid which we have all been dreading since the very beginning as he has pulmonary fibrosis and this could be devastating. Grandma and I were dropped off at Walgreens to make sure that we had supplies for him before everything closed and the boys all headed to pick up McDonald’s and we started the trek back across the island.
We get home, Papa tests, it looks negative and we finally take a deep breath and go to sleep. Going into our last day, we decided to try to hit the Black Sand Beach down south and Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau and Two Step Beach which is called Two Step because it is two steps into the water and onto the reef. But the morning wasn’t going to cooperate. I didn’t trust the test the night before but decided I was overreacting. In the morning, Papa decided to test again and he was positive. Everyone slapped on their masks and started sanitizing everything. Whatever tiny scrap of a plan we had before gone. But Papa loves the ocean and feeling a little better than yesterday, he wanted to go snorkeling while we tried to find a way to get covid meds called in for him. Thank you, UnitedHealthcare’s virtual care, for getting the meds ordered and we did a little snorkeling at Two Step while we waited for it to be filled. This was a really good call. It was choppy but the sea life was wonderful. At one point, we were worried that Papa had swum out to the ocean to call it a life because he was enjoying himself for so long we couldn’t even see him anymore. In the midst of all this, we are also trying to coordinate new flights, find places for them to stay since their return would now be delayed. Everyone took a big sigh and tried to make it through. We grabbed food at an outdoor restaurant which isn’t really worth mentioning – Papa masked of course. My youngest decided that he really doesn’t like the ocean. Everyone is just over everything at this point.
After dropping three off at home, my husband, Grandma, and I thought we’d try to head back up Mauna Kea to go see those stars. We made it about 20 miles from the resort when we realized that we forgot to get gas. We talked about it! But we didn’t do it. We had enough gas for the miles but we were headed up the mountain. While we were deliberating – go back and get gas, risk it? – Papa called and thought that we still had his meds in the van. We gave up. This vacation is over.
It was finally time for four of us to head home and keep our fingers crossed that Papa was going to be okay. They booked a car, found a place, and rebooked flights. I promised I’d be back if he took a turn. He didn’t and they actually ended up going back to Volcanoes and seeing everything, making it to the black sand beach and snorkeling with the turtles, and it went pretty well until the day before they left. He was testing negative but started getting really sick again. They never really figured out what that was but put him on a steroid and antibiotic and it cleared up. Maybe too much snorkeling with covid!
This was a test. The vacation where all the things went wrong. The vacation that really lets you know that all the planning in the world can’t do anything for you sometimes so just sit back, take a deep breath, and roll with it. With all the chaos, we still had some really bright moments and all liked Hawai’i.
Maybe we’ll be back, maybe we’ll just say the Polynesian gods are not in our favor. Hopefully the links above can help you and the gods will be on your side.
The Have-Beens: The Boys x 1000, Papa x 2, Grandma x 3, Me x 100, Husband x 1
The Newbies: Sis and Sis’s boyfriend
The Garmans are Detroit Lions Fans. The Boys are New Orlean Saints Fans. Why not travel the most haunted city in America to see them face off! We’re all in – Grandma, Papa, husband, boys, sister, sister’s boyfriend – let’s go!
This was a hectic, quick trip but we all had so much fun. The only real advanced planning was my self-led haunted tour, everyone wanted to do an after-dark cemetary tour, and obviously the game.
The boys’ father is from New Orleans so they are there all the time. In fact, they got back on Tuesday from a trip for Thanksgiving and we put them back on the plane on Saturday. They love it there but they never get to do much of the tourist stuff because the family is there. They do get all the good non-touristy food though which I am envious of.
We got in late Saturday night, rented a car and headed to the Quarter for a quick haunted tour planned by me from past experience and from Haunted History Tours Presents Journey Into Darkness: Ghosts & Vampires of New Orleans. We were getting in too late to take an actual tour so I just pulled out the four on Royal Street. We grabbed some Voodoo Daiquiris and headed out to explore at about 10:30PM. Bourbon was in full swing so it was a bit chaotic. The oldest wanted to show us a few of his favorites like Hotel Monteleone so he led us around. It was great since I haven’t been there with him since he was about 5 years old. I love seeing him approaching adulthood so we followed him around. We finally made it home around 2AM.
Sunday-Game Day – walking into the Superdome as Lions fans was amazing. Lions win so four of us are pumped, two of us don’t care, and two of us are heartbroken. This definitely took the majority of the day.
For dinner, my sis is allergic to bivalves and basically anything from the ocean which definitely made it a little tough but on her list from her “traveling with allergies group”, we were able to grab a reservation at Meril’s. They were able to tell her what doesn’t come in contact with any “sea juices” and what could be edited so she was able to eat without issue and we all absolutely loved everything we ordered – except the corn. That was weird. Don’t get the corn.
After the preplanning around the Cemetery Tour after dark (we booked the 9:30PM tour), we found New Orleans Cemetery Bus Tour After Dark* led by Geoff. This. Was. AMAZING! I really cannot say enough about this great tour but I’ll try to limit it. Half of our group are believers in the paranormal and belief we have or are experiencing it, three are probably believers but can’t point to anything, one is a definite skeptic. Regardless of where everyone stood, the tour spoke to everyone and was informative, fun and funny thanks to Geoff, and spooky as hell. My sister and I had several photos that definitely make us think we caught something while we were in the mass graves of the yellow fever and Hurricane Katrina Memorial. This tour takes you to places A.) you wouldn’t think to go otherwise, B.) you can’t go in without this specific tour like the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Thanks to Geoff, who is an Odd Fellow, we were able to get in! Great little stop in the middle for beignets, bathroom break, and beverage refills which was nice. Seriously, if you are going to New Orleans, I would take this tour. (Photo below – red is my sis’s shadow; white – you decide, we were all back at the bus…)
On Monday, we took in the National WWII Museum which is immense and probably needed more time than we had to give. There was so much to see, wonderful interactive experiences including your dog tag so you could follow along with the story of a WWII soldier. This is probably not a great stop if you have limited time in New Orleans because it really will take a full day. They close at 5:00PM so you could still do something at night (like the tour above!). We finished off the rest of our time just driving around, seeing the garden district, grabbed some Creole Creamery on Prytania, dropped my sister and her boyfriend off at their hotel since they were spending a few more nights and headed to the airport.
Exhausted and happy, we landed back in Denver at Midnight.
Helpful Product Tip:
I had seen this bag floating around in my ads and thought it would be a great bag for a quick weekend flying on Frontier which is very strict about your “personal item” and thought this looked a lot better than trying to stuff everything in a backpack where everything falls to the bottom and you can never find what you need while en route. Not even questioned by the Frontier agents when walking on when everyone else was having to get their’s measured.
I liked that it opens like luggage for easy packing, there are three front pockets for easy access items. I will say that the “shoe pocket” basically takes up the entire interior so I use it more for things like my meds and liquids that may have to be pulled out if anything is going on with TSA Precheck.
*I do get a small commission if you book or buy. I will never recommend something I haven’t personally used and enjoyed. I was not paid or given these items ahead of time. I want to give you honest help, not bank on a bad product or service.
To undertake planning for multi-generational travel can be a daunting task. What teens, adults, and seniors want to do can vary widely. So how do you plan so the teens aren’t bored and the adults get to see the boring-to-a-teen things? Sometimes (most of the time), you don’t get to do it all.
First, buy the travel book. I go with Lonely Planet only because they lay things out the way my brain works and have a lot of options like a pocket guide for cities, road trips, specific islands. I have lots of time sitting around waiting for kids to finish baseball practice or have to get to games early and then have to wait until the games start or driving to out of state tournaments. I start marking it up including the recommended eats. The eats sometimes work out, sometimes don’t but it’s nice to have a meal time planned on some days.
I start with a spreadsheet that lays out the days on the top and the time on the side. Block your flights and travel times first. Next tab includes an options list – MUST DO, would be great, meh, and if we are bored. I link those to the website of the place to go and share this with everyone to go through when they get a chance. Last tab is a cost breakdown. We did this once without keeping track and it ended up in a “you all paid for too much, what do we owe you” and we had no idea so now I always keep track.
Tips:
Don’t book more than one tour in a day. It gets really hectic running around to one tour after another. It’s fine if it is a back-to-back thing at the same place like the Colosseum and the Roman Forum so you aren’t going back to one spot on multiple days.
Plan your days around a part of town or locations. Like in Paris, today is St. Germaine, tomorrow is Montmartre, etc. and then you can layout your transportation plan whether it’s public transportation or you are driving and parking.
Book your lodging central to your plan. We’ve been on the outskirts before because it was cheaper and we ended up spending an hour every day just getting to where we wanted to go. In Paris, we were on the Île de la Cité and it was great because we could always stop off at home and drop purchases, sit down for a second, get a shower if we didn’t get it in the morning due to some plan. Find the center even if it’s a little more. We tend to do AirBnB because it allows us all to be in the same place. One bathroom is never enough though. It will save massive headaches if you don’t have people waiting for showers or to pee.
Plan a few meals. Everything revolves around eating. If people are hangry, everything gets derailed. Sometimes it’s packing a lunch for everyone if we were planning on hiking to a beach in Hawaii. Sometimes, it’s a lunch spot that is recommended, that’s right between one thing and the next. Trying to plan meals on the fly can end up with everyone eating at tourist traps, overpriced food or being so far away from anything that everyone ends up at each other’s throats because everyone is starving.
Map your travel. Nothing is worse than trying to navigate on the fly. If you have a plan for the day, use google maps to map it and share the link to yourself or copy the link into your spreadsheet. I’ll be honest, this map is often changed on the fly but at least you have seen where things are on a map and in relation to each other.
Allow for downtime and down days. We are terrible at keeping to this but we do always make sure that the day after international travel is a down day. We learned this in Munich as we all fell asleep on the hop-on-hop-off bus the minute we sat down. It’s great to have a day in the middle that helps if some plan blows up or you want to make it back to something you missed.
Start your new destination with a city tour. We’ve done hop-on-hop-off but I don’t love them. In a landlocked city though, it’s a good option to get your bearings and make sure you see the things. It’s better to plan a city tour that is actually led by a guide and then you can head back if you saw something you didn’t know about or looks cooler than you imagined. In a city with a river or lake, we love these tours. Sometimes, all we had was a day to see everything so this was the plan for the day! A few we have loved: Lake Lucerne Panoramic Boat Tour* Best of Zurich Tour with Cable Car and Ferry* – unfortunately, it was a foggy day so we saw nothing from the cable car but we laughed about it anyway! Looks like our Amalfi Coast with Pompeii is no longer available but we jumped in a van from our hotel in Naples and hopped up the Amalfi coast with time to wander in each city, grab lunch in Sorrento, and then dropped off to a pre-booked guide at Pompeii. It was great! It was about $98/person in 2021.
Try some of the off-the-beaten-path or hidden gem tours! The one we did in Rome was a half-day tour where we saw things you would never stumble upon like the cannon that goes off everyday to set the clocks and sends all the church bells ringing. Plus, the haunted Tour or Ghost Tours are always a fun way to see the back corners of a city. A few we loved: Haunted Rome Ghost Tour – The Original Hidden Gems and Rome Catacombs* – we LOVED this one! And it allowed us to see the Appian Way which we probably wouldn’t have gotten out to otherwise. Cefalù’s hidden corners and legends tour with Ambra
I’m sure I have more tips and tricks but here is just the starting place as you take this kind of planning on!
Focus on the Garman Family Travel 