2011 Roundup!

So, dear readers, as you may have noticed we haven’t added any trip summaries in almost a year.  Rest assured, we haven’t stopped traveling; we’ve just gotten severely behind on our posts because of other exciting life events (house+baby!).

Rather than trying to remember all of the details in a timeline as with longer trips, I wanted to give a quick summary of our excursions throughout the year as a record of our travels and their highlights.

Las Vegas, NV — February

We went to Vegas in February for my sister’s wedding; congrats Tracy and Louis!  We stayed at Excalibur where the reception was and just stayed for the weekend.  I’d never been to the Hoover Dam, so I booked a group tour for Friday.  Unfortunately, I booked it for the wrong month, and then when I called to change it, they changed it to a different incorrect date!  Luckily, after the bus left without us, we were able to reschedule for Sunday and had a great time.  The tour included stops at a chocolate factory, a cactus farm, and a casino with free lunch.  Also, with our hotel booking, we got a free show and opted for Beatles Love, which was amazing.  We’d both highly recommend it to others.

Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC — April

For our one year anniversary, we planned a trip to Jaime’s home away from home — Charleston, SC — where she attended college and lived for several years after graduating.  We went with two other couples and decided to start in Savannah, GA for a few days first and then finish up the trip in Charleston.  Neither town has the typical touristy things to do, but you just soak in the history, culture, and southern hospitality.

In Savannah, we took a trolley tour of the city and its great little squares scattered throughout, strolled along the water, and ate an insanely great lunch at Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. In Charleston, we rented a three bedroom beach house right on the water in Folly Beach.  We visited a lot of Jaime’s old favorite hangouts, including the gorgeous College of Charleston campus.  We walked along the battery, relaxed in the park, visited old graveyards, and just took in the scenery.  Outside of the city, we visited Fort Sumter and the fascinating unrestored Drayton Hall Plantation.

Cancun-area, Mexico — July

In early July, we were trying to figure out what to do for Jaime’s birthday, and simultaneously plan a ‘baby moon’ trip before the baby came.  I get a lot of travel deal emails, and I spotted an insanely cheap deal for three nights at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico including flights for less than the flight itself.  How could we say no??  Well, we didn’t.

The resort was the Iberostar Paraiso Beach Resort, which was one of five related resorts along the Gulf of Mexico about 30 minutes south of Cancun.  We spent a lot of time at the resort enjoying the free food and drink (non-alcoholic for Jaime), but we also made time for two excursions.  The first one was taking a bus to the city of Playa del Carmen.  We tried to enjoy the beach there, but it was WAY too bright out, so we stuck to the streets.  The city has one long street about 20 blocks long full of stores and restaurants, so we just wandered around and picked up a few trinkets.

The other trip was a group tour offered by the resort to Chichen Itza.  We opted for the premium tour, since everything else was paid for on the trip, which included a ride through a colonial city (Valladolid), a free lunch with “traditional” dancer entertainment, and a swimming break at the Ik Kil Ceyote.  I liked swimming in the sinkhole with the hanging vines and fish much more than I expected; it was a great experience.  Chichen Itza was amazing to see in person, I only wish you could still climb it.  The site was very extensive and we had a guide show us everything with some free time to roam around.

Seattle, WA and Portland, OR — August

I had a work conference in Seattle and Jaime decided to come along and make a trip out of it.  While I was at the conference for three days, she hung out with a colleague’s wife and went on several tours by herself.  Jaime went to the Pike’s Market, took a ferry to Bainbridge island for the day, and took a tour of the various locks.  In the evenings, we did some touristy things together, including wandering around Fremont, going to the top of Smith Tower, and taking the Underground Tour.  The Underground Tour was hilarious and is highly recommended.

We have some friends in Portland, so we extended the trip to spend a few days down there.  We took the train from Seattle and really enjoyed the scenic views.  We stayed with family friends Sarah and Brent who took us to their favorite food carts and restaurants.  We also visited Voodoo Doughnuts on more than one occasion and spent an afternoon at the Saturday Market.  Outside of the city, they took us to Hood River where Brent went kiteboarding and we did some shopping.  On the way back, we stopped at several famous waterfalls along the way.  Also while in Portland, we met with one of Jaime’s friends Rachel who took us up to Mount Hood and we hiked up to the gorgeous Mirror Lake.  Afterward, we enjoyed lunch with great mountain views.

On Sunday, we got bumped from our flight and were forced to stay another day in Portland.  Oh, shucks!  We went back to the Saturday Market (yes, it runs every Sunday too), and took the bus out to the lovely International Rose Test Garden.  We also wandered around downtown a bit more because heading back to the free hotel that the airline paid for.

Mississippi Palisades State Park and Galena — September

In September, we went on a long camping weekend with two other couples (the camping regulars) and another couple and their two kids.  We camped in and hiked around the Mississippi Palisades State Park.  There are a lot of great bluffs and overlooks with short to long hikes.  We spent one rainy day in Galena.  We took a tour by Ulysses S Grant — the one and only.  It was a very informative tour about Galena and the region.  The rest of the day was spent strolling the streets and shopping.

Indianapolis — October

Jaime’s no-travel date for her pregnancy was October 6th, so we planned a last minute ‘baby moon’ trip to Indianapolis, a city we’d both been through but never spent any real time in.  We stayed right on Monument Circle, so everything was easily walkable from where we were.  Unbeknownst to us, Indy has a lot of massive war memorials along a long promenade.  We strolled along and stopped to read all of the plaques, slabs, monuments, etc.   While here, we were surrounded by a huge college football parade that the whole city seemed to come out for.  It was a fun experience.

We then continued our walking to the mile-long canal that cuts through the capital.  We strolled along about half of it, which included even more memorials!  This city knows how to commemorate events!  The canal is beautiful and provides a lot of great city views as it curves around various museums on its southern half.  We ended the night with a hilarious magic show (where Jaime got pulled on stage), and a nice fancy dinner.

Our last morning in Indy was spent visiting a large graveyard where we stopped at a few famous graves, including President Benjamin Harrison and criminal John Dillinger.  The afternoon was spent at the free Indianapolis Museum of Art, which was very extensive, and virtually empty.  We both enjoyed Indianapolis more than we expected to, and it’s a great place to spend a long weekend.