A Travel Blog

These are my beautiful parents. They are living a dream! They both retired a year ago from long time Education Careers in the Public School Systems. I'm so proud of them. They worked so hard for so long and now that they are retired what are they doing? They are selling their house and travelling! A month or two here, a week or two there, wherever they want to go.

So where have they gone so far? Germany, Australia, Ireland and currently they are touring small towns in Italy! I mean who would NOT want to do this?! Now to be honest two of those trips were before retirement but they needed some practice and they were still recent trips! Oh I forgot to mention Bulgaria and India is in their near future!

Want to follow their journey since you can't take them yourself? At least not yet, right? Hop on over to Refired Roamings to see where they go next!

Road Trip

A few things to mention and a few worth noting:

(This will be a totally random post from things I saw or visited on my road trip this summer)

1. We passed by what looked to be a horrible barn fire! Please keep the drought-ridden places in your prayers - one of my father-in-law's neighbors lost his house and pastureland to a bad prairie fire.

2. If you are ever in Woodward, Oklahoma you must stop in and eat at Polly Anna's Cafe!! It is one of the most unassuming places and their bathroom is one of those "it's through the kitchen to your left sweetie" RUSTIC kind of bathrooms but let me tell you, I got BBQ'ed chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, boiled cabbage, salad, a dinner roll, my drink AND dessert for $4.99!!!!! It's their lunch specials and their dinner is similarly priced! I'm telling you you can not get that good of homemade food for that price when traveling! So skip the chain restaurant and head downtown to this little old cafe! You'll be glad you did!

The street view. (Above)

My husband's burger meal. (above)

My yummy chicken!

3. I think the huge white and bright wind mills in Kansas are beautiful to watch!

4. When traveling with your spouse it's always important to talk and entertain the other one - my husband pointed out this road sign and we went off on a funny tangent of the competition between Ford and Dodge Companies! The conversations you have when you are road rummy.

5. Historic Dodge City was...I truly apologize, but a disappointment. I thought there would be a lot more specific or original artifacts and sites but most of it is just artifacts of that "era". Just one person's opinion but I thought for what was there it was not worth my $10 ticket.

However a cool big black train is ALWAYS worth a photo op!!

Make sure you check your guns at the door or you may get thrown in jail! No not really. But it is fun to walk inside their "jail" and make funny pictures!



Boot Hill. Most of the original bodies were moved quite some time ago so they pretty much recreated the names and stories of those who were buried there at one time, although they were never sure they got all of them so it's believed some may still be there.



Okay so the gun shoot out: Again personal opinion - a cheesy short show. Kids would be super entertained because there is humor in it but I don't recommend it for small children because it's all about the violence of the land so lots of fighting and shooting. (Although of course done in a nice manner in their play acting, if you know what I mean)

6. When traveling, always take time to slow down and take in the sights around you. The beauty of the wonderful things God created. Take for example these golden fields against the aqua blue expanse of sky and the perfectly white sweeping clouds.

Travelling?? Have kids in tow??

If you will be travelling for the Thanksgiving holidays and have some little tykes to entertain I found a perfect, affordable and creative item that is a must have for your to-go bag! I first discovered Crayola's Dry Erase Crayons at my son & daughter's doctor's office. They had a huge white dry erase board and when my kids picked up crayons and asked if they could please draw I quickly told them they couldn't use crayons on a dry erase board and I wasn't sure how the crayons ended up there.

From the receptionist's desk she kindly informed me they are new dry erase crayons and it was just fine for the kids to use! I was amazed and as a teacher of toddlers had to check this out! Sure enough - they are crayons that easily write on and wipe off of dry erase boards!

I dashed to the grocery store (yes they were at my local Kroger's store) and was even more surprised by finding a travel set of these awesome new crayons! I fought impulsiveness and just bought the crayons for me to try for now (which I have LOVED) but plan on buying one or two for my niece and nephew's - especially since my brother and his family will be moving in the spring!

So if you need something new and exciting to keep your kids attention and perhaps keep their noise level down for a bit - head on over to your local Wal-Mart, Kroger's or just click here to shop from Crayola.com!

A stop on our journey...

Since my blog name is "A Walk in My Shoes", I figured I'd give you a literal walk in my shoes. Well okay not MY technical shoes but I WILL tell you all about a fun stop we took on my latest trip to New Mexico! One of my parents and I favorite spots to stop is Fredericksburg, TX. It's located in Hill Country and has SO many cute little shops on their downtown strip. It's blocks and blocks of fun shopping! It's tourist crazy in the summer so beware of summer weekends but if you hit it in the off-season it's not bad at all! Course if you don't mind crowds then who cares!

A couple days before we left my mom hopped on her iPad and made reservations at the Peach Tree Tea House. This is a quaint and DELICIOUS place to eat! We had a late reservation because of travelling and were starved and tired when we got there but my complaining ceased as soon as I tasted their food! It was WELL worth the wait.

Again this a highly popular place so I recommend making an online reservation if it's a weekend. But SO worth it! They also have an attached gift shop with home decor and a few other things that you can toodle around in while you wait for your table. It's located just one block off of the Main street.

The second place is a new clothing boutique shop I found called Hip Dingo! Don't care too much for their logo, however the clothes were very fashionable and trendy and SO well priced!

To make my point I bought this adorable summer dress there:

And it only cost me $30!! I know right?! Tell me that isn't a cute dress! (okay not really - I don't want to hear if you don't like it because then you'd burst my bubble!) But still lots of cute clothes including the blinged out pocket jeans similar to Miss Me brand! There are only 5 locations or something like that. I did find a website but I'm thinking it's brand new because hardly any clothes were really on it yet. However you can just click here, or on the logo above, to find it. Maybe they'll be adding things soon.

Last but not least (we were travelling THROUGH so we didn't have much time, sorry) was a kitchen store that we ALWAYS stop at! Literally we ALWAYS stop. Of course we are Italian and so cooking is a passion for us. So if you're Italian, or you just like cooking definitely stop in at Der Kuchen Laden! It has so many fun gadgets and pretty serving and prep dishes! This past trip I got a Le Creuset Grinding Stone for my mom's birthday, two crown shaped cookie cutters (one large, one small), a cow-print chocolate milk maker mug - I may have to post about this, it would make a GREAT gift for a little boy or girl - because it has a button on the handle that you push and it stirs up your chocolate milk! My kids LOVE IT! And then I also threw a Blender Bottle (those cool smoothies cups with a metal ball inside for mixing!!) and a fridge magnet that says"My Cup of Tea" (because I'm a daily tea drinker!)! Okay I'm rambling but it's a fun store - go check it out! Click on their logo below to see their website:


And I really need to be going but if you are spending some time there my mom would also highly recommend tasting some Becker Vineyards wine and definitely stopping to see the lavender fields at Wildseed Farms! Oh and who can forget some fresh peaches! (If it's peach season that is :) ) Happy traveling!

College Hill Bed and Breakfast

An account of our late summer travels, part 1:

On our way to retrieve our kiddos from the grandparents we decided to make our last night without kids special. We would be stopping in Wichita, Kansas and so I googled the city and found numerous B & B's. This one caught my eye with the private outdoor hot tub and my husband liked it because it was SO close to the Insterstate and we wouldn't be spending forever in the dark trying to find our way there. So reservations were made for College Hill Bed and Breakfast. (Oh and we got a 10% discount for being full time clergy!! This also applies to active military I believe)

When we pulled up we found the cutest country-style house with bright blooms and bountiful foliage everywhere! I love Bed and Breakfasts because it feels like staying at a friend's house versus the "I'm just a room number" feeling you get from hotels.

Here are the owners, Jerry and Suzanne who are originally from Dodge City. They are a delightful christian couple that were incredibly inviting and hospitable. They even easily worked around our getting in late and my husband's food allergy.

Here is the dining table where we sat and had the most delicious breakfast EVER! My mouth waters just thinking about it - it was Banana Stuffed French Toast (I think is what they called it) and of course sausage, eggs OH and who could forget their homemade pecan syrup. I think the syrup, with crushed bits of pecans in it really made the meal for me! The inn keepers sat with us as we all relaxingly chatted about this and that. Oh and I was delighted to know they had REAL coffee creamer not just the powdery stuff. I think Suzanne realized my delightment because she offered me a refill in a To-Go cup knowing we had a long day of travelling ahead. Here are a couple more pictures from around the dining room:

Our bedroom was the Library Suite. It had a soft, plush king size bed, our own dining area, sitting area with HD TV and a small collection of books, and of course the private outdoor hot tub! Here are a few views of our room:

And Nick and I can't just visit a place without exploring it a little bit! So we ventured off to Downtown in HOPE of eating at a quaint Italian restaurant but arriving too late settled for the local sushi place. Hand in hand we strolled around the Downtown square and seeing an ad for a Music Festival going on that very weekend I wished we could have stayed two more days and enjoyed it!

But none-the-less we left the next morning South Dakota bound - but if we ever return to Wichita most likely we'll be back to see our new friends Jerry and Suzanne!