2018

2018 started with a bang and continued to have fireworks throughout my year.  I arrived on Maui in Hawaii on New Year's Eve after the sun had already set.  Exhausted from traveling 14+ hours from the east coast, I crashed well before midnight local time only to wake up and walk out to my balcony with wide eyes unable to believe my luck of landing such an amazing place to live.  The sun was shining and the ocean was sparkling with palm trees blowing and I audibly gasped with a wide smile on my face when I saw it.

As luck would have it, I not only had this incredibly beautiful, dream place to live but I also scored with an amazing roommate in Ester.  It was my first time renting from someone and rooming with them so I was not sure how it was going to go but I could not have wished for a better experience and gained a new friend in the process.  We spent many mornings on the balcony drinking cups of tea and waiting "for the show to start".  We witnessed humpback whales fin slapping, tail slapping, swimming gracefully, fighting, courting, and even teaching their babies to breach!  What an incredible experience.

I worked in a long term care/skilled nursing facility while I was in Hawaii and it was my first time stretching my PT skills in the area. I worked with an amazing group of people and came to the realization that I love being a physical therapist no matter what area I am working in.  Helping people to stand and walk again and seeing the excitement of the patient believing in themselves again, brings me such joy that I am at a loss for words to describe it.

Mom and Dad flew out to Hawaii to visit and spent time on Maui with me.  We then went island hopping to the Big Island and Oahu.  A big life highlight occurred on the Big Island when I had the privilege of swimming with wild spinner dolphins!  First landing in the water and hearing the squeaks and sounds of the dolphins communicating with each other before finally having them appear and swim so close to me that I could have reached out a touched one was an experience that will live with me forever and will always put a smile on my face every time that memory surfaces.

I left Hawaii in time to experience a New England summer and fall.  I moved to Salem, Massachusetts land of maritime history and more well known for the witch trials.  I rented space downtown for my first time living in a small, walkable city and spent countless hours walking up and down the charming streets, gazing at the architecture of the historic homes and the characters that make up the city.  I fell in love (again!) with the state of Maine and made many weekend trips to the state to check out different small coastal towns and stuff my face with lobster rolls and delicious seafood in almost every one I visited.  I continued to feed my new found love of whale watching while I was in Massachusetts and took a boat tour there as well.  I was able to witness a baby whale breach over and over again while his mama slumbered nearby.

Mom and Dad once again came to visit while I was in New England and we made our way up the coast to Nova Scotia, Canada.  It's a beautiful area of the world, full of maritime history and friendly residents who were happy to show off the beauty of the area.  From the maritime museum in Halifax to a boat cruise in Peggy's Cove, dinner in Lunenberg, fort tour in Louisbourg, and driving the Cabot trail while staying in Baddeck, we drive almost 2,000 miles in 9 days but saw a lot and I discovered the birthday cake timbits from Tim Hortons make an excellent snack on a Canadian road trip!

I made one other big trip this year to Iceland!  It was a 10 day Grand Circle tour around the entire island with fantastic vistas from every view point and stunning landscapes unlike anywhere else that I have traveled to in my past.  While there is lots of volcanic activity and rocks left from lava flow long ago, it is covered in green moss that makes you consider there really could be fairy tale elves living amongst it!  I was super excited to get to hike on a glacier while I was there.  Gorgeous waterfalls, coast line, geysers, and even spotting the Northern Lights awaited our excited eyes and made the sometimes cold, wet weather all worth it and the beautiful weather days even more appreciated.

I spent the end of the year with my family and friends both near and far.  I made a trip out to Austin, TX to see the my brother, Chad, and his family and was blessed with time to catch up with good friends while I was there.  It had been 2 years since my last visit which was way too long!  I spent the rest of the time in Florida and got to have several visits with my brother, Todd, with his family and with my parents.  I have had the time to do things I love including reading, cooking old favorite recipes and trying out new soon to be favorites, and taking the time to watch the sunset.

Next year is shaping up to an exciting start!  I accepted a contract in Santa Maria, California on the central coast which is another dream location for me.  2018 has been an exciting year with lots of new and memorable experiences and allowed me to spend lots of quality time with my family and friends.  I am looking forward to continuing to broaden my horizons in 2019 and hopefully keep up my whale watching obsession in California!

Nova Scotia Road Trip

Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces of Canada have been places that I wanted to see for several years after I had taken my first trip to Maine in college.  When I took the contract in Massachusetts, my parents and I decided at the end of my contract would be the perfect time to drive up to Canada and get to see the area.  I had some friends, Maren and Jeffrey, who had spent a good part of the summer up there so I was able to pick their brains and get some good ideas of places to stop to add to the places I already knew that I wanted to see.

We left Friday afternoon after work and made our first stop in Portland, Maine.  Unfortunately, it was just a quick stop for the evening to try to break up the drive time.  We drove all day on Saturday with the plan to make it to see the largest tide change.  We were running a little behind on our way to Hopewell Rocks and I did not realize that I needed to plan an extra hour early because we were heading into the different time zone (oops!) so we actually arrived at mid tide instead of high tide like we were planning.  It was still neat to walk around and see where the mark on the rocks where the tide comes up to and look at the pretty scenery.

Sunday was mostly a driving day to make our way over to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  We made a stop along the way for lunch and I wish I could remember the name of the town and the restaurant we stopped in because they had THE BEST fried clam bellies that I have ever had!  They were huge and so delicious!  They were served with French fries and there were so many clam bellies in the to go box that I never even got down to the fries.

One of my favorite things in Halifax was going to the Maritime museum and learning the history of the area and its ties to the ocean and shipping trade.  We met the Brimeyers, friends from home, for lunch who happened to be on a cruise stop in Halifax on the same day we were there!  The waterfront has shops and restaurants that we perused during our time in the city.

We spent a day traveling down to Peggy's Cove, a very small town with a famous lighthouse.  We had only planned for a quick stop but decided on taking a little boat cruise and ate lobster rolls for lunch at picnic tables looking over the little harbor.  From there we visited another maritime town, Lunenburg, that was delightfully colorful with multicolored buildings and boats lining the waterfront.  There was a whaling museum there but we got there late and really only had time for walking around and dinner.  I enjoyed some of the best blueberry beer that I have ever had (and I've had quite a few!) with my dinner!

We made our way north to Baddeck, Nova Scotia and kept that as our home and jumping off point for 3 nights.  Baddeck is a small coastal town with a little street of shops and restaurants.  We stayed at the Silver Dart which was beautifully situated over looking the water.  I did not realize the significance of the hotel's name until we went to the Alexander Graham Bell museum that was located there.  He was not only the inventor of the telephone but also played a part in aviation and his plane was called the Silver Dart.

We made two day trips from there.  The first was over to the other coast to see the Louisbourg Fort. It is a replica of the fortress that was originally built there but is such a thoroughly researched and well constructed replica that you would never know when walking around.  The idea to construct the fort was originally brought about due to high unemployment in the area and was a way to bring employment to the area, first through construction and then by way of tourism.  It was well worth the drive over from Baddeck!

Our other day trip was around the Cabot Trail.  When I first started researching this trip, I read the Cabot Trail was Canada's answer to the Pacific Coast Highway and it was pretty spectacular and reminiscent of the PCH.  With hairpin turns gazing out over the ocean and a variety of blues greeting our gaze, multiple places to pull over and snap pictures or just stare at the scenery, it was a relaxing day with views I did not expect to see so far north in Canada.

Overall, our time in Nova Scotia was a joy.  It was fun to check out another part of the world and get to experience the beauty and friendliness of Canada.  The added bonus of amazing seafood just sealed the deal as a great place to visit!

Stowe, Vermont

When I first decided to work in New England for the summer I was really hopeful that they would need me to extend through the fall so I could get the chance to see the fall leaves change colors.  Growing up in Florida, it is not exactly something that I got to witness and while I have traveled to places to see all the beautiful color spotted trees, I have never seen the process of the trees changing colors.  Of course, after making the decision to come up here and hope to see the leaves showing off before winter I had an amazing opportunity arise to go to Iceland in the beginning of October (more about that to come in another post) which was also suppose to be prime leaf peeping season.  So I booked a weekend up in Stowe, Vermont for the last weekend in September with hopes of see radiant reds and yellows before the leaves abandoned their trees for the winter.

I left early Saturday morning and resisted the urge to stop at Dunkin Donuts on my way out of town which seems to have become my road trip ritual but knew I would be indulging in the fall delights along the way including my first stop just outside of Stowe at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill for apple cider donuts and hot apple cider.  The second my car door swung open the heavenly scent of cider donuts filled the air and the crisp fall air felt brisk and comfortable.  I poked around the shop for a bit  but didn't find anything that I could live without before taking my spot in line to pick out my donuts and cider.  The Cold Hollow Cider Mill has tables with swings attached outside and I was able to enjoy my donuts while swinging like a kid.  Great start to the weekend!

I made my way into Stowe and drove around for a bit to get my bearings before stopping for lunch at the Blue Donkey for a burger and sat myself outside to enjoy the view.  From there I traveled to Moss Glen Falls and after a short hike I could here the thundering of the falls before I could see it.  Cascading down the hill in tiers instead of a straight fall it was worth the short hike to get there.  Once the some of the crowds left the area it was quite peaceful to listen to the water falling.

My next stop for the day before checking into my hotel was to try to find a covered bridge.  Emily's Bridge was one that was listed and you could still drive through it if you wanted to although I didn't.  One of my favorite movies is an old Chevy Chase movie from the '80s called Funny Farm and I always quote the line "That's not a bridge, that's termites holding hands!" whenever I see an old wooden covered bridge.  This one was in good shape though and was fun to walk through and around.  I later did more research and learned it is called Emily's Bridge because it is supposedly haunted by a little girl named Emily.  Kind of happy that I read that AFTER I walked around and explored the bridge.

I stopped at a brewery for dinner and bellied up to the bar to test out the beer as well.  I ordered the truffled mac and cheese for dinner and when the bartender asked if I wanted bacon on that... Ummm, do bears have ears?  Yes.  Bacon makes everything better.  I got to watch part of the Gator game and then a couple from Britain ended up sitting next to me.  They had been to the U.S. 8x and were traveling around New England for 2 weeks and we had a great time laughing and comparing cultural differences.  My Gators won and it was a fun night!

Sunday morning, I had to die for Kentucky Bourbon Caramel Crepes at the café at the hotel (have you noticed a food theme yet??) to fuel me up for the day.  I drove up to the Trapp Family Lodge (yes, those Trapps) where the theme driving in is "A little bit Austria, a lot Vermont."  I had no idea when I planned the trip that the Trapp family of The Sound of Music fame had settled in the area when they had to leave Europe.  The story goes that they chose the area because it reminded them of Austria and they frequently had guests from making friends around the world while performing.  Eventually they opened the lodge to the public and there are all kinds of activities you can do on the property.  It was really worth the stop even though I only looked around and looked at the pictures hanging in the lodge.

From the lodge I decided to drive over to take the gondola to the top of the mountain and have lunch at the restaurant up there.  There are lots of trails that I could have hiked on and even a zipline on the top of the mountain but my quick weekend away did not allow much time for that.  The view of the valley below with pops of red and yellow from the trees changing colors made for a great companion view to a delicious lunch.

My last stop on the way out of town was the Ben and Jerry's Factory.  I couldn't go all that way without at least a quick stop.  I decided to take the tour with an entertaining video of how it all got started and then getting to peek into the factory itself.  Our guide was entertaining and explained a lot about the ice cream making process.  Of course, the highlight was the free sample at the end!

The drive back home was beautiful winding along the highway.  The were so many times that I said wow to myself especially when the light hit the leaves just right.  I really wish I could have stopped to take a picture but instead I get to carry the mental picture with me instead.