Chicago

Chicago!

Another one of my favorite adventures has been Chicago. So full of life and culture. I must admit I am a bit of an architecture geek. Not kidding, I dare to admit I actually have a Frank Loyd Wright Coloring Book, and I may or may not actually have colored it in with the precise Pantone shades, LOL. Speaking of being an architecture geek, the hotel I stayed at was Embassy Suites in Rosemont just a block or so from the Airport, it is with in walking distance from the subway station. This hotel is an homage to Frank Loyd Wright. The hotel has windows, carpeting and many other details that all reflect the images of FLR inspiration. The crown moldings and traditional recessed wainscoting treatments on the walls and it has a very craftsman type feel. The hotel did not disappoint. I can say the Hilton brands in general never disappoint me and always go above and beyond my service and quality expectations. The complimentary breakfast was hot, fresh and made to order.

 The first thing I did after getting settled into my room  was to grab a bite to eat for lunch at Basil's (the hotel's restaurant and bar) I had a refreshing summer salad and a tall glass of unsweet tea (why yes, yes I am a northerner lol). I went back to my room and enjoyed a nap. It sounds like a waste of time but that bed was so fluffy and soft!  As a mom to three kids, I take advantage of nap time when I can. After my nap I was able to explore a bit and found out from the friendly front desk staff that there was a free concert and fireworks show in the park across from the hotel later that evening. I spent the rest of my afternoon exploring the Rosemont area and found there was a large outlet mall and a King's concept bowling alley/gaming center with  food and drinks. I also discovered an I-fly indoor skydiving center nearby.

The next day was an all day conference and they brought in Giordano's deep dish Chicago style pizza for lunch! Giordano's is something one must experience while in Chicago, I am more of a Brooklyn style pizza lover but Giordano's was really good. Once the conference was finished, I decided to jump on the subway and take the blue line to downtown. Once downtown,I walked around a bit to see what I could see. Then I ran across a BIG BUS tour. In just about every major city in the U.S and abroad you can find Big Bus. They allow you to hop on and hop off as much as you like throughout your day and you pay a flat rate or a multi day rate. There are also several different tours you can choose from. It's an inexpensive mode of transport too. I am just going to let my photos speak for themselves. I had a terrific time.

So much to do and so much to see in this amazing city. Since I was actually here for a business convention, I only had one day to see and do it all. I took in as much as possible, the bus tour helped me to see a lot of the city and get some great photos. I kept hearing about this great place I just had to try called Eataly. Eataly is an authentic Italian dining and shopping experience. When you walk in the door downstairs you are surrounded by all sorts of Italian wines, spices, and pastas for purchase, just off to your right there are several different dessert counters, offering Gelato, and countless hand made desserts ordered ala carte and customized to your liking. I tried the salted caramel chocolate gelato with chili.  It was a party on my lips!  Afterwards, I headed upstairs for appetizers and the main course:  Yes, I ate dessert first!   Upstairs there were many different food counters to choose from:  a caprese bar, a micro brewery,  wine and antipasti specialties, and of course fresh from scratch pizza and pastas. I sampled several of the charcuteries and then had the house made goat cheese Agnolotti with a Granita. I finished off my Eataly experience with a nice limoncello.

The nice thing about Chicago is that it is a very walkable city, I took the L train from the airport to the down town red line and was able to safely walk and explore everywhere I wanted to go.  I left Eatly, and headed a few blocks away to the Navy Pier. The Navy is an iconic Chicago landmark housing a plethora of local city vendors, arts and cultural acts. The city holds many different cultural, artistic and community events. The day arrived they were actually hosting a community foam party in the front of the venue and everyone was invited to participate but I refrained. The pier was bustling with people, there were all sorts of shops and what I like to consider carnival or fair type food vendors. The Navy pier has a giant Ferris wheel and snack vendors of all types and in the summer on Saturday nights they offer a complimentary fireworks show that would put most 4th of July shows to shame.The fire works were spectacular, I sat on the steps of the venue with many other viewers taking in every moment!

Photo Courtesty of https://navypier.org/

Surfers Healing Virginia Beach

In August, Kristy and I spent 2 glorious days on the beach with over 450 surfers and their families at the Surfers Healing Camp in Virginia Beach.  We were there sharing what travel services we can provide for those families who have special needs to consider when making their travel plans.


For 21 years Surfers Healing, an organization whose mission is "to enrich the lives of people living with autism by exposing them to the unique experience of surfing"  has been hosting camps where surfers from all over the world, help children on the spectrum experience surfing.  This year marked the 14th year the camp has been held at Virginia Beach.  The event is so popular that families register in order to participate in a lottery to win slots for their children to surf.

We fortunately had our tent next to the speakers tent and the massage tent where the surfers and event organizers congregated. We met surfers from all over the world, including Hawaii and Australia who traveled to surf with these children.

 Event organizers thought of everything - including tents to shade surfers as they awaited their turns.

Families watching their surfers

One happy surfer!

We met families from faraway states who traveled for this event.  We are happy to help with any travel plans you may have to participate in my local event or any other events across the country.  With the exception of the Hawaii 2018 camps, which are TBA, registration for all 2018 camps is closed.  2019 is just around the corner though!

If you would like more information about Surfers Healing Virginia Beach click here.

For information on Surfers Healing Camps nationally click here.

Meet Becca, the Newest Member of Our Team!

 Today, we'd like to introduce you to the fabulous Becca!  Becca is a mom of five, wife to a military veteran, military mom, homeschooling mom, and Disney lover extraordinaire.  Please help us welcome Becca to the team as she tells us a bit about herself!

My favorite way to spend time is helping friends plan their Disney trips.


I love sharing tips and tricks along the way to help make their vacations more memorable and stress-free. Planning itineraries, making dining recommendations and reservations, making fastpass recommendations
 and reserving them for you - these are all services I provide with pleasure! If you’re looking for a travel specialist who feels like your knowledgeable Disney friend - you’ve found her! Message me for a quote today and let’s start making your Disney travel
 dreams come true. ❤️



My first disney World trip was in 1989, followed by another in 1992, when I was a teenager. I began taking my own family in 2002, followed by trips in 2005, 2006, 2007... you get the idea! We visit
 our favorite magical destination nearly every year, sometimes more than once. ;-)



Though our first family trip was as a family of four, our latest trip included all five of our children and our new son-in-law! We have stayed multiple times at Disney’s Pop Century, Disney’s Caribbean
 Beach, Disney’s Port Orleans (Riverside and French Quarter), and at Animal Kingdom Lodge - as well as a few nights at a Disney Springs Resort.



After my family’s second trip, I discovered that the planning is one of my favorite parts of going to Disney World. I started sharing that love with friends and planning itineraries that worked
 for them, too. My friends and family have finally convinced me to put my passion to work, and now I am excited to make it official - and I can’t wait to help you with all of your Disney booking and planning needs!

To Break Ground in the Sky

Part 1 of a ?-Part Series: To Break Ground in the Sky

Greetings, travelers. It is I, the Guest Blogger. I have returned to incrediblememories in response to a very courteous request from my Blogette (wife), who mingled her very courteous request with a very courteous and totally pressure-free prompting about how her weekly post is due tomorrow and she doesn’t have anything written yet.

So, let’s talk about taking a trip to our nation’s capital. I realize in our current cultural and political climate setting foot inside the Washington, D.C. beltway may sound as enjoyable as undergoing root canal surgery performed by an angry chimpanzee. However, that may actually be the best reason to visit. The current climate thing, I mean, not the chimp. There are chimps in D.C., in the National Zoo. I’ve seen them. But to my knowledge they’re not allowed to practice amateur dentistry. Not on first-time visitors, anyway.

No, I mean if we are to believe the mainstream media or (God help us) Twitter and Facebook, our country is terribly divided. Maybe. But regardless, this wide spread perception is precisely why one should visit the capital, specifically the National Mall. For those unfamiliar with it, the Mall is a large section of land just south of the White House in downtown Washington, D.C. It stretches from just past the Capitol Building on the East side to the Lincoln Memorial at the edge of the Potomac, then across the river to Arlington National Cemetery. Other than the locations already mentioned, this large swath of land is home to the U.S. Smithsonian Institution and various memorials.

The Smithsonian itself isn’t a singular thing. It’s the largest series of museums, galleries, and research organizations in the world, all free of charge to the public. The Smithsonian can pull this off because it’s funded by federal appropriations along with private trust fund assets blah blah blah boring financial stuff blah blah who the heck cares. You don’t pay to go into the Smithsonian museums. They’re free, all the time. Win.

For today, we’re just going to focus on the Air & Space Museum because 1) I’m very familiar with it, so the research requirements are light, 2) I’m too lazy to write about all 19 parts of the Smithsonian at once, and 3) there is no way you’d read about all 19 at once anyway.

In planning a trip to the Air & Space Museum, you’ll first want to consider how to get there. If you’re staying in downtown D.C., you may be within walking distance. Pedestrians are a staple of D.C. life, so you’ll enjoy a cozy walk with many other tourists, would-be bureaucrats, Congressional staffers, food truck vendors, and homeless people.

I’m kidding, of course. Congressional staffers are never allowed outside as sunlight is fatal to them.

If you’re not within walking distance, you’ll face the classic Do I Drive or Do I Metro dilemma. Washington only has one empty parking space and it’s under construction, unfortunately. So, parking on the Mall can be a challenge. Thankfully, D.C. has a pretty decent metro system, simply called The Metro. There are multiple stations around the city and just about any metro line will stop off at the Mall at some point, so that’s a viable option.

Before riding you must get a Metro SmarTrip card by offering your debit card as a token sacrifice to one of the many imposing ticketing kiosks at any Metro station.

If it deems you worthy, you’ll receive a SmarTrip card in return and you are on your way.

The Air & Space Museum is one of the easiest buildings to find on the Mall because it’s somewhat centrally located and is pretty distinctive.

Inside you’ll find an incredibly impressive collection of exhibits, artifacts and memorabilia commemorating America’s...well, Air and Space exploits.

At first glance, the museum appears to have on display every single rocket NASA ever fired.

That’s just one shot of them. There are many more.

As you explore, you’ll find rooms and sections dedicated to different eras of flight, specific missions, like the moon landings, scaled down mock-ups of an aircraft carrier hangar deck and bridge, as well as at least one example of pretty much every kind of flying machine ever conceived.

There is a room dedicated to the Wright Brothers and the birth of manned flight. I highly recommend it. Few moments can be said to have truly altered history’s course. A couple of bicycle engineers on a beach in Kittyhawk, N.C. are responsible for one of them.  

In addition to the one pictured here, the museum also has the Wright Brothers plane Amy Adams and Ben Stiller somehow piloted out of the building in Night At The Museum 2, but I didn’t take a picture of it.

There are several rooms dedicated to aviation during WWI and WWII, which are incredibly poignant, humbling and tremendously informative. There is also an ode to more modern military aviation trends.

A personal favorite of mine, though, is the Tuskegee Airmen exhibit. Those worthy gentlemen receive an entire room honoring their impressive and groundbreaking accomplishments. One of the highlights is the below placard describing their commanding officer, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.

Lt Gen Davis believed being an American was indeed a privilege, but one that must be earned.

There is more than I can possibly mention here. Much, much more.

No other nation broke ground in the sky like this one did. Lindbergh’s plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, is on display. He crossed the Atlantic in this thing, in the dark, and it didn’t even have a windshield. I’m not kidding. Look.

You really should see this place. Everyone should see this place. Not being satisfied with mere earth, a few driven, borderline insane people decided to try for the stars. We haven’t gotten quite that far yet, but man, where we have gotten to is pretty spectacular.

I hope you find your way there soon.

Next time: The National Gallery of Art! Really!

Photo credit: all photos are either my own or are public images put out by the Smithsonian. If you believe a photo featured here is from another source, please let the Blogette know, and after delivering a thorough tongue-lashing to me, she will take it down.

China - Part 2

As promised - PANDAS!!  Aren't they adorable??

Our daughter got to sit with a panda. He's about 1 year old.

I think Day 6 just may have been my favorite day on the tour.  We spent the morning at the Panda Reserve in Chengdu and were able to see many giant pandas in a beautiful park setting.

In the afternoon, we went to a city park to experience the culture.   We drank our jasmine tea, had our ear or neck shoulders massages,watched games of mahjong, ate some beautiful sugar treats and observed the activities of the locals.  I loved it all!

In the evening we attended a traditional Sichuan Mask Changing Opera.

By Day 7 we were exhausted and quite happy to have our day of relaxing  in the "City of Relax" as our guide called it.  We were able to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast and then head into the city of Chengdu before we caught an evening train.  We went to a spa where we all 4 had massages and did some shopping.

Massages are not like they are in America!  Sharing a massage room with another couple gave "couples massage" a whole new meaning. lol   Thankfully all massages were fully clothed.  I opted for just a foot/leg massage.  My husband had 1/2 hour of foot/leg and 1/2 hour of full body.

While shopping I stumbled upon 2 things I love - Pandas and the red phone box that reminds me of my beloved England.

Day 8 was another favorite day.  We took a river cruise on the Li River and saw the beautiful countryside of China.

Our river cruise ended in Yangshuo where we had Tai Chi lessons, the girls had cooking class and we saw a water and light show that was directed by the director of the Beijing Opening Olympics.

I loved that Yangshuo was definitely a Chinese tourist destination, and that while there we had time to truly observe our cultural differences.

Our last day was spent in Guangzhou after the official tour had ended.  It was more of a time of personal memories and sightseeing as Guangzhou is where the American Consulate is and where I had spent time with both girls as babies. I wanted them to see where we had walked together when they were infants. We were blessed to have another family from our trip to share that time with as well.

 We visited the hotels where I had stayed many years ago - the Victory Guangdong Hotel.

And the elegant White Swan hotel which has been remodeled.

We walked to the local park. 

 I adore the sculptures spread throughout Guangzhou.

And I'm pretty sure there were marching drills the day I walked along this promenade on the way to the Consulate both times I was here before.

In my International Travel blog post, I briefly discussed group or individual travel.  While in general, our family style veers more towards individual travel, for China  a group tour was definitely the way to go for us.  We enjoyed the camaraderie of our shared interest in the group (all families who had adopted from China) and the assistance and expertise of all the local tour guides who knew the language and culture.  Both of these aspects added greatly to our enjoyment of and confidence and comfort during a trip to a country with such a vastly different language and culture.  

We have been dreaming about this trip for many, many years and are so happy it is now an incredible memory.