In October 2024, I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico and crossed an item off my bucket list by attending the International Balloon Fiesta. I spent a few extra days in the Albuquerque area and took a side trip to Santa Fe, which was about an hour away from the AirBnb I was staying in. Santa Fe was exceptional and the tour I booked through Airbnb Experiences was the “icing on the cake,” so to speak. Tour Santa Fe with me in this blog post!

Everybody loves doing something fun and unique for the holidays! This is the final post in my running event posts of select Omaha-area holiday events that I’ve either been to in the past or look like fun. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the options available and have maybe even been to something featured in this post. Get ready to see The Historic General Dodge House in Council Bluffs decorated for the holidays!

Did you know November is Native American Heritage Month? In honor of that distinction, I’m writing about a wonderful and informative museum in Oklahoma City called the First Americans Museum. Oklahoma City is beautiful and well worth a trip and the First Americans Museum is a “must visit” attraction while you are there!

For a fun and informative Halloween activity, be sure to take in the Wicked Plants at Lauritzen Gardens from now until November 12. It’s super creative, fascinating, educational, spooky, and beautiful all at once! I DARE YOU to visit!!!

Recently, I was fortunate to be able to cross an item off my bucket list. I have wanted to attend the world’s largest hot air balloon festival (the International Balloon Fiesta, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico each October) for quite a while. I was in New Mexico for nine days and attended the Fiesta four times while I was there. Allow me to show you around! Includes video, plus I’ll give you some insider tips along the way!

Prior to this past August, I had only been in Victoria British Columbia for a grand total of six hours, including two hours at Butchart Gardens, in 2013. That was just enough time to visit the gardens briefly, go to the Royal BC Museum, and have an ice cream cone downtown. After I got there in 2013, I realized that six hours was not nearly enough time to spend in Victoria. And in August of 2024, I got to go back! It was AMAZING!

When you go to Seattle, you go to the iconic Space Needle! It’s almost a given! But did you know that the experience has been upgraded in the last few years? Let me show you more!

I just returned from yet another fun day at the Iowa State Fair! You might think a fair in 2024 is an old fashioned place that only a few folks attend. Not so in Iowa and several other places in the U.S! In fact, in 2023 more than 1.1 million folks attended the Iowa State Fair and this year at least one daily attendance record was broken, so the Fair just keeps getting more and more popular.

I love taking unique ways to travel, whether it be by air, train, unique automobile, or animal!  I have ridden in many types of vehicles, planes, trains, trolleys, tractors, boats of various types, and horses. So I was excited to try a water taxi in the canal in downtown Oklahoma City in April 2024. Yes, you read that right. 😏 It surprised me too!

Well, Freebie fans, you are in luck! This weekend only (August 3 and 4) you can explore 70+ Omaha-Council Bluffs area spaces and places completely FREE! Let me repeat that - FREE!!! Is that awesome or what?!?

I spent the Fourth of July this year in the Okoboji area in Iowa, as I sometimes do. This year, due to flooding in Northwest Iowa (heartbreaking), I had to take a different route than normal to get there. On the way home I was looking for fun stops on Google Maps and I spotted Lost Island Lake Nature Center a ways south of Spencer, Iowa. So I paid it a visit on the Sunday afternoon after the 4th.

If you’re like me, you love to discover unexpected little gems when you travel, especially ones that are underrated or somewhat unknown. When you find a place like that, it feels sort of like you have opened a surprise birthday gift and are delighted. That was the way I felt when I visited the ESSE Purse Museum and Store!

Salem, Massachusetts is a fascinating place both for its long and varied history and for the events that took place there - e.g. The Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem of today touts both in a big way. Not only is it a great place to learn about colonial history, it also has become famous all things witch and supernatural related. And don’t even get me started on the town’s Halloween Festival.

I have always enjoyed a good story. When I travel, I like to listen to podcasts and audiobooks. They seem to help driving long distances fly by. I have several travel podcasts I enjoy, but I found a new (to me) podcast this week that may top them all.