Panama Canal 2017

Once again, I get to scratch a layout off the top of the need-to-scrap list! With this page about our 2017 cruise through the Panama Canal complete, the oldest story not yet told is from our trip to Ohio in summer of 2018. It's crazy to think that I might actually get caught up with vacation photos before the next time we're able to travel! 

Panama Canal 2017 (affiliate link)

My goal with this page was to include as many photos as possible (39!) and still have space for a lot of journaling. Everything else about the page was inspired by the "Defense of the Dark Arts" challenge during the Yer a Wizard Online Virtual Crop. The layout had to feature dark-colored embellishments, background, and title. I don't normally use a lot of dark elements, so this was definitely a challenge. I don't love how it turned out, but it's fine. I'm definitely glad to have it in the album. 

Pre-Travel Planning and Staying Organized During Vacation

I'm busy planning our next epic trip, a 6-state summer adventure, anchored by a friend's wedding in Ohio. I thought I'd share with you everything that goes into planning a deRosier multi-state trip, packed with as many attractions and as much learning as we can squeeze in. This type of travel isn't for everyone, but we're big fans of thoroughly experiencing a place when we visit and not wasting a minute. We want to visit the most important historical sites, try the local food, enjoy the natural environment, view the local art, and revel in what is different about the location from where we live. 

The trips vary a little bit, but the main steps I go through for a major, multi-destination trip are:

1. Pick primary destination
2. Pick secondary destination(s)
3. Set start and end dates for the trip
4. Buy plane tickets
5. Schedule bunnysitter
6. Start travel binder
7. Research attractions
8. Read about quirky or unique things about the destinations
9. Create calendar with rough plans penciled in
10. Book hotels and rent car
11. Contact media relations staff at museums, visitors' bureaus, etc. 
12. Schedule any time-specific activities (tours, shows, etc)
13. Fine-tune calendar with important activities blocked in
14. Research restaurants and local specialties
15. Print a daily schedule with all information in one place

It sounds like a lot of work... and it is! But I love every minute of it. By putting in so much work ahead of time, we are able to see and do so much more on the trip. Every minute of research I put in translates to understanding the destination better and thus making informed decisions about where to go in our limited time. We don't go home disappointed to have missed something that we didn't learn about until it was too late. 

Most of the steps are self-explanatory, but I to want do share more about my travel binder and the daily schedule that goes into it. This is what the first page from our fall trip to Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey looked like: 

Here's the same page with arrows pointing to the types of information I include on each page.

I create a page like this for each day of the trip, slide them into page protectors, and put them in a 3-ring binder. Here's that same Annapolis page, Day 1 of our trip, in the binder. I use the pocket on the left to hold tickets, brochures, maps, or other paperwork. This binder works really well for me and keeps me organized both in the planning stages and while we're traveling. 

All the information for Annapolis fit on a single page. When I need more than one page for a day, which sometimes happens when there's no particular order of how we need to schedule things over the course of two days, I just use two page protectors. These pages are from our time in Baltimore. 

Are you a very scheduled traveler like I am, do you plan nothing and go with the flow, or do you fall somewhere in between? I'd love to hear from you!

Santa Fe and Albuquerque

Our family got back from a whirlwind New Mexico trip last week. Steve had a business trip in Santa Fe; Trevor and I flew in on the 2nd to last day of Steve's conference, then stayed through the weekend. It was a fabulous trip.

While Steve was in meetings, Trevor and I took a walking tour of Santa Fe and then visited a stop along the Chocolate Trail to try a very New Mexican treat, Red Chile Pinon Biscochitos. The biscochito is New Mexico's State Cookie. (Note to self: Petition California's legislature to adopt an official State Cookie. I'm not sure what it should be, just that we should have one too.)  

We visited the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors, both excellent. 

We started the next day at the State Capitol, nicknamed the Roundhouse because of its shape. 

It was notable for its unique architecture, the many stunning pieces of art on display, and the refreshing lack of a need for security. 

The Urban Adventure Quest started right next to the Capitol. Steve's conference had ended, so he was able to join us. Good thing, since we needed all the help we could get! Some of the the questions on this Quest were a little tricky! But the sites were beautiful. Along our way, we saw the oldest church in the United States...

... next door to the oldest house in the US (1646).

We saw a lot of beautiful and interesting public art. 

We finished with a time of 1 hr 48 minutes! You can see where we stand on the all-time leaderboard for Santa Fe. We're Team deRosier. 

We rented a car, said goodbye to Santa Fe, and drove the 1 hour to Albuquerque, where we spent the rest of the weekend. We visited the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, where we enjoyed a fascinating (if nauseating) show about fractals on the planetarium dome. We took a trolley tour and learned all about the neighborhoods of Albuquerque, its history, and the many TV shows and movies that have been filmed there. 

We also did the Albuquerque Urban Adventure Quest. It was so much fun! It covered the Old Town area and had us racing around inspecting murals, searching storefronts, studying maps, and solving puzzles. We worked very well together and managed to score at #1 on the Albuquerque all-time leaderboard! Hopefully we're still in 1st when you read this. 

Our next stop was the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Wow. It was spectacular. I took tons of photos of the art on display. Trevor and I couldn't stop talking about ideas we had for art projects of our own, inspired by the Pueblo art and New Mexico in general.

We ate dinner in the Pueblo fusion restaurant at the Cultural Center. Their Tewa Taco was fantastic and this buffalo stew was to die for.  

I should mention that both Santa Fe and Albuquerque are a foodie's paradise. We had amazing food everywhere we went. And pretty much everything had green and/or red chile served with it or on it. (If you get both, which we did, that's Christmas style!) Even McDonald's had New Mexican items on the menu. We didn't eat there since we do everything we can to avoid chain restaurants when traveling, but I had to get a photo of the sign. 

Speaking of signs, here's another unusual sign in Albuquerque. Can't say that I've ever seen an 18 MPH speed limit! Turns out it's part of Bicycle Boulevard. It runs for about 7 miles and has pavement markings, purple street signs, and the unusual speed limit, all designed to give cyclists priority on the road.

 We couldn't travel to Albuquerque without driving Route 66 at night! It was pretty cool.

We enjoyed yummy hot dogs and tater tots from the Dog House, which is apparently prominent in Breaking Bad. (We've never seen it.) We love the neon dog, wagging its tail and eating hot dogs.

On our final morning in New Mexico, we went hiking at Petroglyph National Monument. It was an outstanding way to wrap up a great trip. 

We'd highly recommend a visit to New Mexico if you've never been! And if you go, definitely try out the Urban Adventure Quests in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Use the coupon code CREATIVELIFE for 20% off, or check their Facebook page for other promotions.

Expect to see a lot of New Mexico inspired projects from Trevor and me in the near future!

Urban Adventure Quest, Salt Lake City

Steve, Trevor and I just got back from a fabulous vacation to Salt Lake City. We packed in an incredible amount of sightseeing. We took a hop-on-hop-off tour to learn the lay of the land and to get an overview of everything Salt Lake City has to offer. We did two scavenger hunts inside the Capitol and checked out the beautiful grounds. We explored Temple Square and admired the amazing views from the LDS buildings outside the Square. We visited the Clark Planetarium and saw an IMAX movie there. And we ate at two of the highest Yelp-rated restaurants in town. And that was just the first day! Seriously. We are hard-core tourists.

On our remaining days, we toured Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolate factory, went to the Great Salt Lake (we waded up to our knees), visited the Ft. Douglas Military Museum, explored 'This is the Place' State Heritage Park, did three of the five TaleBlazer Games at the gorgeous Red Butte Garden, went to the Bonneville Salt Flats, and ate at many more of Salt Lake City's fantastic restaurants.

 

 

 

 

We also did our second Urban Adventure Quest. And it was just as awesome as the first one we'd done in Sacramento. In the spirit of full disclosure, the owner of Urban Adventure Quest gave me a free code to use for this Quest after I'd paid for and blogged about our first experience back in March. I assure you that didn't influence my opinion of the Quest. I highly recommend it, whether you pay full price, use the coupon code for my readers, or get it for free! (Sorry, no link for that one.)

Just like in Sacramento, we made our way to the starting point of the Urban Adventure Quest (in this case, the Union Pacific Depot, an easy walk from our hotel). We read the first of 19 challenges, the timer started, and we were off!

Downtown Salt Lake City is very pedestrian-friendly. I love the LOOK, complete with eyeballs, painted in all the crosswalks.

With only three people on our team this time (and none wearing a knee brace or using a walking stick as a cane), we were optimistic that we'd have a great score and finish even higher than our decent Sacramento showing. But alas, we misread a clue early on ("Which one is NOT...") and made not one, but two, incorrect guesses on a question. Just like in the Amazing Race... #readyourclue. Sigh. Ten points off our score. But we were optimistic that we could complete the rest without a mistake. Onward! 

You might notice there aren't any other people in the photos I've shared so far. We started the Quest around 8:45 am on a Saturday. While it was a pleasant 75°F, it was also raining. We were the only ones standing out in the open, hunched over a cell phone, holding a hat over a notepad trying to solve puzzles. Whenever possible, we moved to an overhang to read and answer clues.

The Salt Lake City Quest takes you to from the Union Pacific Depot to Temple Square. 

From there you go to the State Capitol. It's a pretty short walk, but the walk to the Capitol is uphill all the way. Then once you get there, you're faced with a bunch of steps to climb! But it's well worth it. Utah has one of the most beautiful Capitol buildings I've ever seen.

The next stop was City Creek Park. We hadn't explored it at all during our previous days in Salt Lake City (we did the Urban Adventure Quest on our third day there), so we had to take some time check it out and pose by the "Human" paver.

 

The Quest finished up back at Temple Square. It was 2.5 miles total and we finished in 2:51:22. Other than our early mistake, we got all the questions correct, for a total of 590 points. Not bad! In fact, if you're curious to see where we fall on the all-time Leader Board, check it out here. We're deRosierFamily.

After exerting our muscles and brains for nearly 3 hours (while trying our best not to get soaked), we were more than ready for lunch. We'd heard great things about the Lion House Pantry. It's in the historic home of Brigham Young and features cafeteria-style homestyle cooking.

It was incredible. I had a turkey pot pie that was to die for. Steve had a beef and barley stew and Trevor had ribs. Each of our meals came with the Lion House's famous rolls. Oh my gosh. So delicious!

If you're local to Salt Lake City or will be traveling there, I highly recommend setting aside 3-4 hours to do the Urban Adventure Quest. If you're not going to be in Salt Lake City anytime soon, check out the other locations. There are 46 so far. We've got our eyes on several of the California ones, plus I'll definitely be doing the Phoenix one when I'm there for the CHA Mega Show in January!

March Photo Challenge, Soda Springs Snow Trip

One of my creative goals for the year is to practice photography through photo challenges (January, February). I don't know that my photography is improving, but I'm having fun and I'm photographing things differently than I would without the challenges, so I consider this experiment a win.

For March, I used this Picture Scavenger Hunt by Doodlecraft as inspiration. I brought it along during an impromptu snow trip we took with our friends Suzzi and Ronan. We usually have a larger group and do our snow trips in Bear Valley where my inlaws have a cabin, but it isn't available for us to use this year. So the five of us ended up renting a place in Soda Springs for two nights instead.

Rather than finding all 36 items, I chose 25. I didn't take them all at once; they're spread out across three days. Here we go! 

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SOMETHING RED: Trevor's jacket, the snowball maker and the snow poles in the background are all red.

SOMETHING TO EAT: Does everyone eat freshly fallen snow, or just those of us for whom it's a novelty?

SOMETHING CLEAN: More freshly fallen snow.

SOMETHING SHARP: Icicles!!

SOMETHING HARD: More icicles! Yum!

SOMETHING TINY: A mug-sized Trevor!

SOMETHING BLUE: It was snowing pretty heavily much of the time we were there, but we did get beautiful intermittent blue skies. 

SOMETHING THAT MOVES: It was COLD for those of us spoiled by Bay Area temperatures! I loved looking at this old-timey thermometer, not only to check if the mercury had moved, but also because it was just cool. 

SOMETHING NOISY: This snowplow is not going to be sneaking up on anyone.

SOMETHING WET: After a spectacular crash, there was snow down his shirt, down his boots, and in his mittens, but Trevor wasn't going to let being a little wet and cold end his snow play.

SOMETHING PINK: We had very little space to pack since all five of us drove up together in our 5-person vehicle, which was stuffed with cold weather gear. I handled all the cooking, carefully limiting what I brought with ingredients that could be used in many ways. We had ham with almost every meal!

SOMETHING SPECIAL: Ronan and Trevor have a wonderful relationship. They're both only children (though Ronan just gained a stepbrother and stepsister a few months ago!) and Trevor has always thought of Ronan like a big brother. I love seeing them together.

SOMETHING WHITE: Sour cream. One of the very few foods Trevor doesn't like. He didn't put any on his stuffed potato. Ronan doesn't like cheese. Weird kids.

SOMETHING BLACK: Ronan was dressed in black from head to toe!

SOMETHING SHORT: Me. A good way to feel REALLY short is to stand under a tall tree and look straight up. 

SOMETHING GREEN: The pine needles looked so pretty covered in snow.

SOMETHING WITH WHEELS: It's like our car was playing hide-and-seek!

SOMETHING ALIVE: I love taking selfies of Steve and me together by sticking my arm out and hoping for the best (no fancy selfie stick or cell phone that lets you see what you look like in the picture for me). I didn't realize I was so zoomed in! It's a cool shot though.

SOMETHING ORANGE: I baked yummy orange bread for breakfast. It's the recipe that's made from unpeeled oranges. You can see the peel in the bread if you look closely. 

SOMETHING COLORFUL: Dyed eggs became tasty breakfast burritos. 

SOMETHING DIRTY: Acres of gorgeous, freshly fallen snow and this kid is playing with the snow that was plowed off the road?

SOMETHING YELLOW: We played a lot of card games, including Phase 10. That yellow nine was the last card I needed to make my phase. Hurray!

SOMETHING GLITTERY: I love the way this frozen drip sparkled in the sun.

SOMETHING TASTY: Being me, I couldn't resist preparing a taste test for the group. I brought along this awesome Dark Chocolate Tasting Odyssey and score sheets. So. Much. Fun.

SOMETHING YOU LOVE: This face, smiling up at me after a sled crash landing. I really, really love this kid.

March's photo challenge, complete!