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We are back from our summer travel and packed a whole lot into a one episode recap! We apologize in advance for some audio difficulties on this one, especially after taking so long to get it live. Thanks for hanging in there with us!
On this episode we cover Tamara’s summer trips to:
- Nantucket (read her 3 days in Nantucket itinerary)
- New Brunswick, Canada (Road trip itinerary, places to stop on the Fundy Parkway, and tips for visiting Hopewell Rocks)
- Prince Edward Island, Canada (3 day PEI itinerary)
- Sailing on the Schooner Heritage Maine Windjammer
- Walking holiday on Hadrian’s Wall Path
And Kim shares about her adventures:
- Mediterranean cruise on Costa Cruise Lines (One Day in Rome Itinerary)
- Gorilla trekking in Uganda
- Alaskan cruise on Holland America
- Graduation trip to Disney World and Universal Orlando (How to Save Money at Disney World)
Full Episode Transcript
[00:00:00.250] – Kim Tate
Here’s a quick peek at everything we’ve been up to this summer. Welcome to Vacation Mavens, a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts. Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel.
[00:00:30.200] – Kim Tate
So, Tamara, we are finally settled back in. I’m sure our loyal listeners have missed us. I have missed talking to you. But we both have been just a little bit busy this past summer. So I’m sure everyone wants to know everything we’ve been up to. And I think the best way for us to do it is for you to dish for a little bit. And then I’ll dish for a little bit about everything we did and we’ll try and keep it short and sweet. So for those of you who are tuning in and you want the deep down info, know that we’ll probably be able to share posts in our show notes and stuff, but you can also always go check our Instagram accounts because I’m sure we both shared stuff there. So why don’t you kick us off, Tamara, with a look at your summer travels?
[00:01:12.130] – Speaker 2
No. I can’t believe this is the first time we’re actually talking. Our listeners probably think it’s just the first time we were recording, but it’s the first time we’re actually talking since, I don’t know, like, early June, and we normally talk.
[00:01:24.150] – Kim Tate
It’s a change.
[00:01:25.650] – Speaker 2
I’m honestly as excited to hear about your trips as maybe the listeners are, because all I saw were what you’ve shared on social media, so I can’t wait to hear how things really went. But, yeah, I feel like mine is not nearly as exciting as your summer was. I don’t know, in terms of I don’t know, I guess it did go to other times and such, but whenever you put yourself in there, it’s obviously like a little bit more out there in terms of dream trips kind of thing. But, yeah, I mean, our summer started off kind of quiet. We bring Hannah to Maine for her summer job and then Glenn and I did a little getaway to Nantucket, and I will say it is as beautiful as people have talked about. So I feel like a lot of people know about Nantucket because it’s like they would read books. Who is it like Ellen Hill and Hill and Brand Hillbrand?
[00:02:17.200] – Kim Tate
I don’t know.
[00:02:18.010] – Speaker 2
I’m sure people that love that often know.
[00:02:19.940] – Kim Tate
Exactly.
[00:02:22.290] – Speaker 2
And people really like to go there. So all I will say is, oh, my God, it is so expensive. I knew that going in because that’s the reason we’ve lived in New England for 27 years and have never gone, because there’s always, like, a three night minimum to stay in the summertime and places are really expensive, but we’re like, you know what? Let’s just do this as like, a nice little romantic getaway for us. But we don’t have to fly anywhere because this summer, we’re trying not to fly very much because it seemed really chaotic, everything that was going on. And so it was so convenient. Just we drove, like, half hour, 45 minutes. We took an hour and a half ferry. We got there. We were there for 4 July weekend. But it was crazy how much we spent on food. I understand that it’s an island and you have to bring most things in and all of that, but wow, it was crazy expensive.
[00:03:13.620] – Kim Tate
And that’s a lot for you guys, because I know you guys travel a lot and you’re used to eating at nice places. So for you to say that, it’s definitely like, oh, wow.
[00:03:24.390] – Speaker 2
I will say we did have a fair amount of pooling, so that didn’t help. It was probably better if you go, like, have your wine before you go to dinner, that kind of thing. But yeah, there was, I don’t know, like $200 launch. It was just crazy. Anyway, I’ll stop going on about that, but we had a really lovely time. We had borrowed bikes and we biked out to different areas. We took the little shuttle bus to the beach. One day. We saw seals. We saw a closed beach. Because they’re seals. That means they’re sharks. It was like a shark in the back. So we didn’t do much swimming, but we did enjoy just, like, walking around town. There’s such great boutiques. It’s just historic. It’s beautiful. There’s, like, hydrangeas everywhere. And it’s just a really nice definitely makes a great romantic getaway. I know people that go for family trips as well and rent a beach house for the week, but it was easy to do is like a car free stay in town, walk everywhere, take public transportation or bikes. And I have an article about it on Your Time to fly with, like, a three day itinerary for anyone that wants to take a look at that.
[00:04:35.540] – Speaker 2
But we had a really nice time.
[00:04:36.910] – Kim Tate
Awesome.
[00:04:37.540] – Speaker 2
And we just tried to forget about how much we’re spending.
[00:04:40.200] – Kim Tate
Well, it works. Well, that is one benefit of kids going off to college, like, oh, two people now it’s not three adults you have to pay for any more.
[00:04:50.270] – Speaker 2
Yeah. So then after that, I got home. I was home for, like, I don’t know, two days. And then I went to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in Canada, and I drove up there. And all I can say is, coming from New England, it was really pleasant to drive to New Brunswick. It took me about gosh, no, I can’t remember, but I’m thinking about six and a half hours to get to the New Brunswick border from where I live in Rhode Island. So if you live in Boston, it’s only like a five hour drive or so. Five to six hour drive. And when you’re driving, once you get through kind of the more congested part of the Northeast, when you’re further out in Maine, you’re going 85, there’s no traffic. It’s just, like the easiest drive you have that around Seattle, but probably like, driving down to Oregon. I don’t know how bad it is on yeah. I feel like everywhere we go, it’s like there’s just so much traffic in the season. So to get to a point where you can just drive without having to be like these people, all of that, it was really nice.
[00:05:59.290] – Speaker 2
So to do it as a road trip really worked well. I feel like it was a great family destination because there’s so much to do. I feel like it’s really underrated because I hear a lot of people talk about Nova Scotia, a lot of people talk about Prince Edward Island. But I feel like they kind of skip over to Brunswick. Like, maybe they fly to those places and aren’t really thinking about New Brunswick. But there is so much, like, adventure. There’s really nice beaches, like, beautiful beaches with warm water, like, water that’s as warmer, warmer than where I am here. And like, Cape Cod and all these places that are famous for their beaches. And it was so affordable. So I went from really expensive to really affordable.
[00:06:37.690] – Kim Tate
Wow, that’s awesome. I think you’re right. Sometimes people it feels like Nova Scotia is small and Pei is small. And I think people typically think of those as like, oh, easy to do, and they don’t have a lot of planning involved, whereas New Brunswunswick is quite a bit larger. And maybe they’re overwhelmed, like, well, where do we go? What cities do we start? Maybe that’s affected tourism. I don’t know. But I agree. I think it’s great to know that it’s so affordable.
[00:07:01.920] – Speaker 2
Yeah, like I said, this one hotel, it’s called Hotel Chevyac, and it was like, Chevyc is this one beach area. So it wasn’t like, on the beach, but it was close to the beach. It was a nice I would say it looks kind of like a Courtyard Marriott or maybe like a Marriott kind of property. But it was independent, Lee owned, so it was nice. Had a restaurant, had a pool, you know, kind of all the amenities you’re looking for. And it was 150 Canadian enough, super cheap in July. Yeah. So this is like, what, 130 or $140. I can’t stay at, like, a really terrible in the middle of nowhere hotel for less than $250 around. So to me, I was amazed by that. And the food was affordable and delicious, so much like lobster and mussels. And if you love seafood, it’s all so fresh and amazing and just, like, really fun adventures. You have the Bay of Bundy, which has the famous tide changes. But I did rappelling off the cliffs. I was supposed to go kayaking, but that was postponed because of wind. But there’s ziplining there’s just, like, beautiful scenic drives.
[00:08:16.610] – Speaker 2
There’s great beaches. Like I mentioned, I even did wine tasting because now there’s like, a wine industry in New Brunswick, and there’s really interesting things. Like, I did this ballet by the ocean, which they basically perform a ballet being served. That would be funny. That would be a comedy show.
[00:08:37.900] – Kim Tate
I’m like, well, that would be an adventure.
[00:08:40.470] – Speaker 2
Yeah, but it was like, being served. You’re served this fresh, local five course meal while watching ballet, like in an outdoor setting. Just beautiful. Really fun. Like, a lot of really fun things. I definitely focused more on the southern side of New Brunswick. And so I have a blog post about, like, a road trip. Itinerary there. And then just some other kind of things to do and stuff. So you can check that out. But I would definitely recommend New Brunswick as a family travel destination for little kids and for teens because I feel like there was definitely that mix that would apply to them.
[00:09:16.240] – Kim Tate
Yeah, that’s awesome. Sounds like a good yeah.
[00:09:19.200] – Speaker 2
And then from there, it was so close to just go across the bridge to Prince Edward Island. And like you said, Prince Edward Rhode Island is small enough that you can kind of see a lot. I only spent three days, so I only kind of did maybe half the island, but it was still kind of everything that I expected. I think I’ve talked to you about it for a long time because you had loved when you went there. When you went there.
[00:09:43.040] – Kim Tate
Yeah, we didn’t have the girls yet.
[00:09:44.900] – Speaker 2
Yeah. So it was really cute to see all the family is doing all the Anna Green things, too, because I feel like Anne with an E, brought back this whole new generation of people that love Anna Green Gables.
[00:09:57.850] – Kim Tate
That’s probably true. Yeah. Because it was not even that busy when I was my daughter.
[00:10:02.670] – Speaker 2
Yeah, my kid watched it. She liked it. She would have gone with me if she was around. And I also learned that apparently it’s huge in Japan, Anna Green Gables. It’s like part of their curriculum in school.
[00:10:15.020] – Kim Tate
Funny.
[00:10:15.720] – Speaker 2
And so people love Anna Green Gables. And so tons of people come to Pei because of that, which is not necessarily right now, because of all the covered restrictions with travel. But it was really surprising to me that’s, like a huge source of their tourism. So I feel like I thought people were going to be like, oh, Anne Green Gables, it’s so overdone. They’re like, no, anne Green Gables is huge for us. It really is a big boost to their tourism.
[00:10:44.010] – Kim Tate
But it’s funny how there’s when media can make such an impact on certain areas. Right. Kind of like the Forks area, olympic National Park, Forks, nobody would ever go there in their life. But all of a sudden, Twilight came around, and everyone, if they’re coming to the Seattle area, about going over to Forks because of Twilight. So it’s funny how media can have that influence on destinations. And I mean, Lord of the Rings, what they did in New Zealand and then even looking at yeah, exactly. Well, I’m thinking of, like, now Belfast, the way Ireland is jumping on the whole Game of Thrones stuff. Yeah, all that. Pretty cool.
[00:11:22.320] – Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s true.
[00:11:25.120] – Kim Tate
It’s good.
[00:11:25.640] – Speaker 2
I mean, there’s so much to do around that as well. Like, I took a carriage ride, I saw the musical. I visited different historic sites, so there’s plenty to do around Anna Green Gables, but then there’s just beautiful, beautiful scenery and scenery. I did this other thing that was really cool, though. I signed up for a tongue and chuck thing. So it’s basically you go to someone’s home and they rate on a river and they teach you how to use these big tongs, almost like big salad forks to pull oysters off of the rivers. Like half saltwater, half freshwater. And then right there on the dock, like, you shock the oysters. So you learn all about oyster farming and oysters and then you just eat as many as you want. It was just, like a really fun, cool thing for people that care about where their food comes from and understanding sustainable practices and just, like, what it’s like to be a fisherman, that kind of thing. It was really interesting.
[00:12:29.480] – Kim Tate
Cool.
[00:12:30.850] – Speaker 2
I was, like, kind of having those connections with my food. But yeah, so that was pi. And then I drove home. So that was a really good trip. It was a nice road trip. I got a little bit lonely on that because it was all for a couple of weeks. It was definitely like, oh, I wish somebody was here for this part, that kind of thing. But it was good I came back. And then my next trip was with a friend, which was good because I went back to Maine, I think a couple of weeks later, I went back to Maine and did a mean windjammer cruise, which is very different from any kind of cruise. So when you think cruise, you think of, like, big cruise ship. And then we’ve talked about on the podcast, like, small cruises and river cruises. River cruises, yeah. Like, different things. So this is basically some of them are historic schooners, but they’re all schooners. So they’re wooden sailboats that all go from a couple of towns in Maine, either Rockland or Camden. So on, like, the mid coast of Maine, they spend a few days sailing inside of the bay.
[00:13:31.430] – Speaker 2
And there’s a lot of different islands, so you kind of usually will be inside of land. There’s a lot of lighthouses. You go and past little towns and you’ll pull up to different coves for the night to anchor. And one day we stopped at an island, like, kind of a deserted island, and they pulled up and we rode ashore and did a lobster bake on the beach, which is, like, so classic New England and fun. So it’s a very different kind of cruise, but I wrote an article about it because it’s really important that people have the right expectations when you go because it’s definitely better, I would say, for the kind of adventure travel when you shared.
[00:14:11.720] – Kim Tate
It struck me as kind of the type where if you’re interested in sailing but you have no like. You’re not ever going to really own a sailboat. Or if you’re really interested in what that culture is of living on a boat or being that seems like it’s more fitting. As opposed to if you’re going for just a real. Like. I want to just sit and eat and coast along. Seemed a little more that type.
[00:14:32.960] – Speaker 2
Yeah. And I would say for anyone that is comfortable camping, it’s better than if you’re not.
[00:14:40.360] – Kim Tate
Yeah. Okay, good to know.
[00:14:41.390] – Speaker 2
Because the rooms themselves, the cabins are very small, very rustic, and unfortunately, when we were there, it was during a major heat wave. And they usually in that part of Maine, just don’t get that kind of heat, especially out on the water. And so it was stifling, like just really stifling. The first couple of days, I kept telling my friend because we actually slept on deck, like the first night because we just couldn’t handle it in the room. And I kept saying, like, I promise you in two days we’ll be wearing sweatshirts. And sure enough, a couple of days later, we have sweatshirts on and we’ll blanket wrapped around us at night. But that’s something to keep in mind. And then it’s a shared bathroom. And not only a shared bathroom, but it’s rustic. Yeah, it’s a marine bathroom.
[00:15:36.830] – Kim Tate
Okay, got you.
[00:15:37.840] – Speaker 2
Basically there is a toilet and there’s a sink in your room. And you can go up on deck to where the bathroom is and there’s a toilet and the other one has a toilet and a shower, but the shower is like, you know, the sink, the hose that comes out of your sink. So you hold the little noses down and spray yourself. That’s the shower. So by the end of it, people are looking a little no one’s shaved. Everyone’s been wearing the same clothes for a few days because I did not pack as late as I should have. But yeah, there’s like, no room to store things. So it’s an adventure. It’s definitely an adventure. The food is great. The vibe of it is great, if that’s what you’re looking for. You definitely spend a lot of time just chatting with the other people that are on board, which tend to be like a little bit older. Like, there was one family with a team there, but there’s no WiFi, there’s limited just cell phone coverage as well. So it’s definitely like, get off the grid, try selling, meet other people, have a good time, like really see the New England coast, but not your typical cruise situation.
[00:16:52.190] – Kim Tate
Good that you made sure everyone understood because there’s some people who are that sounds perfect to them, but other people are like, oh, yeah, that’s not what I want to do then.
[00:17:00.060] – Speaker 2
Exactly. It just has right expectations. Yeah. And then, well, my summer then got to, I guess, the most important travel of all, which was just dropping Hannah off in Arizona at college. So I know you are about to do this and as this comes out, it’s probably after you’ve dropped off, you’ve dropped off. But it’s a big moment. I feel it’s one of those things where you go through in this life cycle that we’re going through that when you get to that point you’re like no one else. Does that make sense to say when, you know, like everyone else that’s ever gone through this has all these same feelings?
[00:17:36.740] – Kim Tate
Well, I have to say, even just you and I talking recently, I have a new appreciation for the fact that we get to drive down with all of her supplies. I forgot. Yeah, because you guys flew almost all the way across the country to move her in. So it was a whole new logistical thing. I’m sure she was glad to have an awesome planner and logistic person like you on her side because I’m sure there are some parents out there and some kids who are moving into, oh, we’ve got a sheet and one towel and I guess I’ll get everything else at the local Target or Fred Meyer or Walmart or whatever.
[00:18:10.430] – Speaker 2
Yeah, we had no choice. It was very much like, I need to get this organized for her because she came back from her summer job three days before we were we had to fly out. So we really it was just like a quick turnaround. Do all her laundry, pack her up. She spent one day sleeping, one day seeing friends and then one day doing appointments and stuff and then we’re off. So it was definitely like a logistical challenge.
[00:18:42.390] – Kim Tate
Sorry, go ahead.
[00:18:45.630] – Speaker 2
I was just going to say once we got there, we moved her in and that was kind of crazy. I feel like we saw every Walmart and Target within the entire Tucson area. Like, oh, we still need this. Because the thing about moving into a college town where there’s 40,000 kids that are moving in and you can only order so many things ahead of time to pick up. And even some of the things that we ordered, like on Bed, Bath and beyond, when we got there, they didn’t actually have it even though we ordered it like a month before. And Target doesn’t let you order that far ahead. You can only order like a day or so ahead. So you’re kind of left with going and picking over what’s already been sent over. And we didn’t move in the first day, so it was definitely like, okay, we still need this. Where can we find it? And then let’s drive to that Walmart and that Target yeah, that’s what I.
[00:19:37.130] – Kim Tate
Was going to say that I thought you were going to bring up, because I was like and you got to experience like the only time you’ll have rain issues in Arizona’s, monsoon season. So that’s an even tougher moving thing you had to deal with.
[00:19:50.490] – Speaker 2
Although I will say it was probably better that we got soaked when we moved in versus it being like a hundred.
[00:19:56.040] – Kim Tate
Yeah, that is true. The heat, I don’t know. I’m assuming in Arizona they have air conditioning in their dorms, that’s one thing. And there’s no air conditioning at the dorms at Oregon State. So Lizzy will hopefully it looks like the temps are finally going down around here and hopefully the forest fires will clear off so that they can open windows because you can’t have the windows open. So it’s kind of kind of tough right now, but hopefully it’ll clear off.
[00:20:22.650] – Speaker 2
Yeah. We actually FaceTimed with her yesterday and she had a sweatshirt on and I was like, what? You have a sweatshirt on? And she’s like, Well, I’m in my dorm room. It’s cold in here.
[00:20:31.770] – Kim Tate
I hate that about hot weather climates. We just experienced that. Like in Florida, 100 degrees outside and then you go into things like you got to carry along a sweatshirt with you to go into a restaurant. After you go theme parking for 6 hours, you have to carry a sweatshirt the whole time because then when you go in the restaurants restaurants, you’re going to freeze to death.
[00:20:52.770] – Speaker 2
Florida’s a crazy. Whenever we visit my in laws, I’m always like, can we just open the window?
[00:21:00.510] – Kim Tate
Do you need it at 65?
[00:21:03.210] – Speaker 2
Right, exactly. Yeah. So that was an investor. We didn’t see a little bit of Tucson because we dropped her off, moved her, and then she was busy for a couple of days and we just stuck around because we thought there were going to be some more family things, important parent things. And the parent things that were there were actually cheesy. We really need to be there. But we saw a little bit more Tucson. We had a couple more meals with her and then flew home and then two days later in the UK, but in between I was able to get a seat.
[00:21:34.190] – Kim Tate
Oh, no, that was a lot of fun.
[00:21:36.310] – Speaker 2
I was literally like, oh my God, I have to get on the plane and how many hours? And then I have to walk how many miles?
[00:21:44.020] – Kim Tate
Yeah, that’s the biggest trip I’m sure people want to hear about. So you should wrap us up with that one.
[00:21:47.900] – Speaker 2
Yeah, but hey, it wasn’t COVID.
[00:21:49.630] – Kim Tate
Yeah.
[00:21:53.690] – Speaker 2
I feel like I’m still wrapping my head around how to talk about this journey that I had. So for those of you that don’t remember me talking about it on our previous episodes, I did a walking holiday in northern England along Hadrian’s Wallpath, which is an ancient Roman wall that was built by Emperor Hadrian. And now I don’t remember the actual year, but a long time ago, basically to protect Britannia, like the Roman Empire, part of it from the north, which was basically Scotland. So there’s ruins of this wall and it runs pretty much from east to west of the country in the northern part of England. So I flew into London, I took a train up to Carlyle, and then I started my walk the following day. And I worked with a company called Celtic Trails and they helped arrange things that like bed and breakfast and ends all along the trail, as well as luggage transfers. So I know I had one picture that I showed where I had my big pack for the day and someone’s like, did you have to carry all your stuff? And another time I showed my giant piece of luggage versus like, the tiny other things that other people carried.
[00:23:07.370] – Speaker 2
Not carried, but no, I did not roll suitcase along behind me. Like the whole point of me where I was like, I don’t have to pack in a tiny little bag. I can actually have clean clothes every day because they were moving my luggage from place to place each morning. I just had to have it downstairs by 09:00 a.m.. And then when I got to the place at the end of the day, it was there waiting for me. And it could only be £40 or £44 when I flew, that’s what it was. But then I had to move some things around, like I had my computer and things like that. Then I had to switch stuff around, so it ended up being overweight. But luckily I brought like a little foldable, like, tote bag, duffel bag, so I was able to separate it out and then they just charged me. It was something like, I think it was like £6 a day to move maybe eight. Yeah. So it’s totally reasonable in terms of.
[00:24:06.480] – Kim Tate
Versus $100 a day overweight charge or something like that.
[00:24:10.180] – Speaker 2
Yeah. So it was about I think my shortest day was about 8 miles and my longest day was supposed to be about twelve and a half. But it was always longer than it was supposed to be because I was taking little detours off path to either find a bathroom or something to eat or go see something from a sightseeing perspective because I didn’t want to walk. I wanted to kind of see and experience the countryside along the way. So probably my biggest day was probably.
[00:24:40.570] – Kim Tate
Around 14 miles and it was hilly, you said. And then, yeah, I have questions about this all, but yeah, it was eight days, right?
[00:24:49.580] – Speaker 2
Yeah, eight days of walking. So it was nine nights. Eight days of walking. And starting off, it was kind of hard. I mean, starting off, it was actually pretty flat. It was the middle section that was hilly. So I would say some people go and they only do the highlights which is the middle section, which is the prettiest. But if I went in there unprepared and I was just started off doing that, it would have been really hard. So having those couple of days to ease me into it I felt was good because one thing I did the summer is I always walk a lot and I did some extra walks. I made sure I could walk 9 miles and I’m like, well if I can do nine, I can do 20 miles. Okay, but what I wasn’t thinking about was walking with something on the phone.
[00:25:30.080] – Kim Tate
Right? Yeah.
[00:25:31.590] – Speaker 2
Because even though it’s not like I’m not backpacking and I kept thinking to myself our friend Carolyn and her son Kean and their backpacking trip on the John, your trail. And then they’re carrying stuff like really tall mountains and crossing rivers and all of this stuff and if they can do that, giving myself a little pep talk along the way. But even still carrying you had to carry enough water, rain gear. I had my garmin like GPS and SOS thing, I had my phone, a charger, snacks first, just all that kind of stuff that you need if you’re going to be out for 6 hours. And it was heavy, like not crazy heavy, but enough that my back was bothering me a lot the first couple of days. And then once I got through that I could just feel myself getting stronger all along the way. And yeah, it was a really good feeling. I will happily answer all of your questions because maybe that will help me talk about it more. But from a journey perspective, I will just say that it was really empowering and really fulfilling because I did do this on my own.
[00:26:41.780] – Speaker 2
It was not part of a group trip. There was no God.
[00:26:45.060] – Kim Tate
That’s what I was going to ask. How did you know where to walk? And then when you said you took off beats to go look or to go find a bathroom or eat. So did they give you a map of how to follow something or did you have an electronic GPS guide or how did you know where to go every day?
[00:27:04.770] – Speaker 2
Yes, I didn’t always but I should have. So here’s the thing, the company, the walking tour company gave me a guidebook which basically has a description of a little bit turn by turn but it’s also with a lot of like flowery language and for those that I don’t know, I can’t even describe it but the way it would say you’re up.
[00:27:26.290] – Kim Tate
Into the trees and see if you see the scarlet. I always pick on birders after you.
[00:27:33.970] – Speaker 2
Pass the Hampstead Farm house. I’m like how do I know who owns this house versus that house? But the thing that really got me turned around one time is it was like go through the style and then make a half left or head. Half left. And I’m like, what is half left? 45 degrees, I’m assuming, after you go through the dingle. So there was a guidebook that came with a map, but the map was pretty useless. You could also download some kind of electronic map, like order maps, which you really need to be good at reading to follow. I did not do that. Pretty much the trail is fairly well marked, so it’s not blazed the way that like, a hiking trail would be. But there are sign posts at different points along the way. And there’s also this little acorn which is used for national trails. So generally it could be like, okay, there’s the sign, I’m heading in that direction. But it wasn’t like, you’re just on this path, you’re on a path. I’ll give an example one day. I start off and I’m like, okay, this is my twelve and a half mile day.
[00:28:44.960] – Speaker 2
I’m starting off great. I’ve got like, happy music in my head and I’m just walking along and the path points down this country lane, like a farm lane. And I start heading down and then I get to the end and it’s like a T. And I’m like, there’s no sign. That’s weird. It doesn’t tell me which way to go. I’m like, well, this way to the right looks a little bit more traveled, so let me go that way, and I go that way. And then it kind of gets into like a little bit overgrown path and I’m like, taking out my sticks and beating my way through. And I finally get to a point where it’s like, private property, do not enter. And I’m like, well, that was wrong. So I go back to the team, then I go the other way. And that didn’t work out. I’m like, Where am I supposed to go? So I start heading back to the very beginning, and I’m almost to the very part the beginning of this lane where I started, where I see like, off to the left. There’s a little gate in the pasture wall and a little tiny sign.
[00:29:35.900] – Speaker 2
And I was supposed to go through that gate and then into that pasture, but I was just like, oh, here’s a late, I’m going to follow it. So you need to stay very alert. People ask me, did you listen to podcasts or audiobooks? And I’m like, I started off that way, but I found that I really couldn’t. I really needed to stay extremely present in what I was doing, which might be good. And it wasn’t like I was even lost in my thoughts. I kind of worried I’m going to be sad and missing Hannah or whatever, but I was so focused on where do I go, when’s the next bathroom? Like those kind of things, how many more miles do I have? And so every now and then I would stop and pull out the book and kind of make sure it seemed like I was on track, and I would be very happy whenever I saw, like, a sign. And I knew parts of it could be like 3 miles straight, easily marked, no problem. And other times, you’re just like, you’re turning into this pasture and that pasture. And all I will say is I walked through a lot.
[00:30:34.410] – Speaker 2
Yes, I walked through so many past so many cows and so many sheep in the very first day. I had stopped at a pub towards the end of the day to have some lunch, use the bathroom, and I met these walkers that were going the other way. And I was like, oh, just so you know, up ahead there’s a lot of sheep. So it took me, like, a lot longer than I thought because I was trying to walk around, like, all the poop, and they were like, oh, there’s a lot of that. Eventually you’re going to just walk in.
[00:31:02.920] – Kim Tate
It might do it.
[00:31:03.960] – Speaker 2
I was like, okay. So I will say I pretty much tried to avoid it, and I washed my shoes very well anyway, so yeah, that’s how you found your way. There were a couple of times where I couldn’t figure out, based on the signs, where to go, and one time I ended up having to loop back around on a road. You’re never too far from a road you can find. You’re not like, in the middle of the woods, but you just may not find the path. And sometimes you really don’t want to be on the road very long because they’re narrow and there’s no sides, there’s no shoulder.
[00:31:40.260] – Kim Tate
Right?
[00:31:40.560] – Speaker 2
Really? And then other times people ask, did I feel safe? And I pretty much always felt safe. The only time I didn’t feel safe was when I had to walk past. Some of them really gave me desk layers, and I’m like, okay, I’m just going to walk. And they would start mooing, and I’m like, I’m just going to walk all the way over this way and loop around. The sheep were no problem. They were just, like, either ignore you or run out away like scared cats or something. The cows, sometimes they just kind of glare at you, and you’re like, I see you, you see me. I’m taking the long route.
[00:32:17.950] – Kim Tate
I just think it’s awesome and such a just very inspiring and aspirational I think, for a lot of especially women, I think. And I think you choosing that after you sent Hannah off is just awesome. And I could see that it’s a really good way to kind of get your head on your shoulders again and feel empowered about yourself and remember who you are as an individual and as a woman. And I think it’s awesome. Congratulations.
[00:32:46.410] – Speaker 2
Thank you. That’s exactly how I felt. It was definitely about that. I am strong and I am independent, and I’m able to you know, being a mom is not all that I am. And like those kind of things, and to feel myself, like, getting stronger, figuring it out, I had to figure out some public transportation and just everything. And I think, yes, you can go and do it with other people, but for me, doing it on my own meant a lot, and I felt really good about that. And I wasn’t lonely, I was too busy.
[00:33:19.960] – Kim Tate
And what time did you start every morning? What time are you done? Normally, I know it varied by mileage.
[00:33:25.140] – Speaker 2
But approximately, pretty much I started about 930. So I would have breakfast, they would pick up my bag and I would either walk to my starting place on the trail if my inner bed and breakfast was right on the trail, or sometimes it was a little bit off. And so there was either a transfer, like a taxi set up, or the people, the place where I was staying would provide transportation back to where I left off the bank the night before. And then I generally finished around somewhere between three and five, depending on how the day went and how many stops of things I did. Like I would stop at a cathedral or a castle and stop for lunch and all that. Yeah, it was not good to stop too early in the day because once you sit down, it’s like really hard to then back on. When you get back up, you don’t want to be like, oh, I have eight more months.
[00:34:23.790] – Kim Tate
Cool.
[00:34:24.990] – Speaker 2
Yeah. So that was it. That was my summer. And yours was so exciting as well. I really hate as much as we can into this.
[00:34:35.050] – Kim Tate
Yeah, I’ll kick off. I mean, mostly my summer started with a Mediterranean cruise with Costa Cruise Line. And I had never cruised with them before, so it’s kind of fun to get an experience. They are an Italian owned cruise line, so very European and a little bit different. They’re also part of the I believe they’re part of Holland America and Carnival Corp. I think it’s Carnival Corp. Hopefully I didn’t get that wrong. Owned company. So one of many, and they had this brand new ship called the Tuscana, which they were launching, and I was invited as a media member on there. So it was a media sailing, but not just media sailing, there was normal people on it as well. And one thing, a couple of things I would say about Costa. So Costa is supposed to be a very approachable, budget friendly cruise line. And so you can definitely upgrade for different dining and things like that. But they start with very affordable plans. And then one thing that I found really interesting is they pick up and drop off at almost all of the ports, or at least a few of the Mediterranean ports.
[00:35:40.030] – Kim Tate
So there’s some people who, like, I got on in Rome, but there were some people who were getting on in Barcelona or Savona or these other places. It’s kind of weird. So they sell the same ship on different sailings. So you might get confused because you’re like, wait, how can they be selling that same ship? So it was interesting. So you would go to breakfast.
[00:36:01.470] – Speaker 2
So is it like it’s a continuous loop and people are getting on a different places, but you started and ended correct.
[00:36:08.700] – Kim Tate
And everyone I don’t think you can do like a three day between I don’t think it works like that. I think that it’s a one week loop every time.
[00:36:18.580] – Speaker 2
Was that disruptive, though? Because I find the beginning of cruises varied. When you have to go do well.
[00:36:25.240] – Kim Tate
You don’t have to do that anymore now with the muster station. Well, you do, but you watch the muster station drill, like on the app or on the TV, and then you just go and have your card swiped at the muster station. You no longer have to sit because of covet, which I think is one of the best COVID restrictions they got, that they kept and got rid of the old everyone get together at the muster station for a 20 minutes drill. Now it’s just like, okay, everyone has to watch it, and then you have to come swipe in and say that you’ve watched it, which is nice.
[00:36:56.450] – Speaker 2
Got it. But you do have to a lot.
[00:36:59.620] – Kim Tate
Of announcements every time for buffet, for the breakfast, we would go to the buffet and it’s like people are there with all their bags and stuff that they’re about ready to walk off with, and so it’s just awkward with that. So I would say it was a little awkward. And I don’t know if that’s a Mediterranean cruise thing that other cruise lines might do as well because it really maximizes selling potential if you think about it. They can fill the ship up a lot easier if you have more flexibility with where people get on and off. But yeah, it is something that was interesting. And then the other thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was that they do allow smoking because it’s a European cruise ship and so people can smoke on their balconies. And so if you’re on your own balcony and you’re out there and the people below us were just like chain smokers their whole family. So it’s like every time we try to go out on our balcony, there was like smoke coming and around us a lot, and then you’d want to go eat outside at breakfast or something and there was people smoking out there and there’s supposed to be smoking sections, but nobody follows it and nobody enforces it.
[00:37:57.850] – Kim Tate
So that’s just something to keep in mind if you’re sensitive to smoke that with European cruise lines, it’s not like the US. Where you only have the one little area and one dock and it’s enforced pretty strongly.
[00:38:09.510] – Speaker 2
Did you get a sense of if it was like a lot of Europeans on the cruise versus Americans?
[00:38:16.140] – Kim Tate
I would say definitely a lot of Europeans. For sure.
[00:38:20.070] – Speaker 2
And were all the announcements still in English?
[00:38:21.640] – Kim Tate
Yeah. This was Italian and English.
[00:38:24.810] – Speaker 2
Okay. So kind of like being on an airplane. They’ll do the local language as well.
[00:38:31.060] – Kim Tate
And then when we were in Barcelona, they switched they were doing it in Spanish as well. And Barcelona is not one of their regular. They do Barcelona orbiza, I think. Does that sound right? I’m trying to remember. They switched some out, so depending on the season. But otherwise, the ship is beautiful. They have some fun things. I thought the food was interesting and kind of nice to be a part of lots of seafood. So it was just a kind of a cool experience to have something totally different than what you’re used to with an American cruise ship. But otherwise so tell me where you went.
[00:39:06.970] – Speaker 2
I feel like I know you went to Rome.
[00:39:08.530] – Kim Tate
Rome was awesome.
[00:39:09.340] – Speaker 2
And then I don’t know where else.
[00:39:11.730] – Kim Tate
I have to say that for all the people that follow me, I kind of took summer off a little bit because a lot of my stuff wasn’t too much work stuff. Although this one was a work one and I shared on social. But I also tried to be really good about using my summer to get a little bit of recharge for myself. So, anyways, I’m just trying to find myself again and relax. We started in Rome. We had an amazing, like, one full day in Rome. We flew in and then we had the next full day, and then the day after that was when we got on the ship. And Rome, we toured around like, we literally walked around all of Rome in one day. And it was like 40 Celsius, so it was hot, but we did it. And it was awesome to just see all the sites. We didn’t go into anything beyond we did like, a morning tour of the Vatican. I think it was a morning tour of the Vatican one day because before we went and got on the cruise ship because that was the only way that it would work, or no, I take that back.
[00:40:14.050] – Kim Tate
I think we did an evening tour of the Vatican. I can’t remember now. Isn’t that bad? I’ve traveled too much. But anyways, that was the only one that we actually went into. Otherwise we just saw calcium from the yeah, exactly. We just walked by everything. And I thought that was awesome. We put in like 11 miles, but for us, it was kind of perfect. And we just did it on our own and got food, and it was good. And so once we got on the.
[00:40:36.460] – Speaker 2
Ship, I did go with a friend.
[00:40:38.470] – Kim Tate
Yeah, with a friend. And brought her along to kind of help get pictures of me and help.
[00:40:44.240] – Speaker 2
Do some and it was your first time in Rome. Was it her?
[00:40:50.720] – Kim Tate
She had been in Rome many years ago, but it was her first time ever cruising. First experience with cruises, going with it. Yeah.
[00:41:00.570] – Speaker 2
I’m sure it was interesting for you guys to come and compare notes because you’re very much like, well, on this brand or the ship do this, you have expectations. And for her, it’s brand new. So it’s kind of always interesting to see someone’s point of view when they haven’t had an experience.
[00:41:15.970] – Kim Tate
Yeah, exactly. But so I think that it was good for her and it didn’t turn her off of cruising. Like, she’s eager to try another cruise line and try something different. And I think the biggest thing was just getting the little ports of call. We learned something really important, and I’ll share that in a second. But you were asking where we all went, so we definitely we did Rome, we did Barcelona. We also did Marseille, Savona and Valencia. And then we also did one of my favorite stops, which is Naples. And we actually did a tour to Capri. And what we did was we booked through the ship. And so it was a little more expensive, but I definitely see how you could do it yourself completely. But we got off the ship and they went and bought us ferry tickets. And you take these kind of high speed ferries from Naples over to Capri and you get off there. And then we did two things on Capri, the first thing we did was we went first of all, we just kind of wandered around until we had to meet for our boat tour. And we did a boat tour around the whole island, which a lot of people do.
[00:42:15.500] – Kim Tate
It’s really popular and it’s absolutely gorgeous and I highly, highly recommend it. And even with me, with motion sickness, I had my dramamine and my band, and I had no issues whatsoever. So the biggest problem was the ferry because it was enclosed and I couldn’t see.
[00:42:31.140] – Speaker 2
Yeah, I’ve taken the ferry out.
[00:42:33.010] – Kim Tate
Now on the ferry back, it was an open air ferry, and so I was able to see out the top. So it’s two different types of ferry boats based on the line. So that would be the only thing I’d say is that one was really brutal because it was closed off. So I was definitely glad I had my band on, like, my electric, my relief band. So we headed over and then we did the boat around, the tour boat around the island. And then we went up on a what’s her brother called again? Funicular. Thank you. And we went up to the top and got to see the view. And we had a Caprese sandwich and did a little bit of shopping and then came back down and went back across.
[00:43:10.950] – Speaker 2
I wish I had known you are going to be there because my in laws were there because they spend like, usually June there. I would have totally had them yeah, that would be something.
[00:43:20.430] – Kim Tate
I really loved it. I think that was my favorite. That was definitely the highlight for that trip. For us, I would say one of the lowlights was just that we learned because we booked, because it was her first time and she really wanted to do a short excursion at every port. So I was like, well, let’s just do it. Yeah, exactly. But we did a lot of walking tour ones that were supposed to be like the way and it’s tricky because they sell it a certain way, like, oh, it’s a walking tour of chocolate tasting, but essentially you end up in these groups of people. And I think most of the time it was around twelve to 16 people, so not too terribly bad. But one group we were on, I feel like it was maybe close to 20 ish people, and it was just annoying. It was the people that are with you. If there’s any annoying ones of those, it’s annoying. It’s hard to get photos. It’s hard to really hear everything that’s being said. And then you’re just walking in the heat. And this is when there was a hot it’s like a heat wave in Europe.
[00:44:20.520] – Speaker 2
Yeah, you went during that time. I feel like the last probably five years between like late June and early July or mid July, europe has always been having this terrible weeds.
[00:44:32.090] – Kim Tate
And when you’re in the cities that are just like buildings and concrete and stuff, it’s just like radiates the heat. So that was the only thing that was a negative for us. So I think going into it, I’ve learned that I would never pay for a walking tour like that. I think I would look and book with a private tour company, like for a semi private or private.
[00:44:53.340] – Speaker 2
Yeah.
[00:44:53.830] – Kim Tate
And just arrange with them, say, hey, we’re coming in ports, this and this, and see if they can do it during those time frames and just call it good.
[00:45:00.460] – Speaker 2
And some of those places offer like, port transfers for the well.
[00:45:05.380] – Kim Tate
And that’s one of the other big things for Rome that most people probably don’t know. The cruise port is not in Rome, it’s in Vegas, and it’s an hour away, so you can take a train and stuff, but it just takes a lot of extra time. So if you are using Rome as a port of call, I liked the fact that we went in and out of Rome because it allowed us to see Rome and then make our way over for the cruise and not stress so much about using a cruise stop to try and go that 1 hour into the city in 1 hour.
[00:45:38.530] – Speaker 2
I’ve had friends that are like, oh, I’m taking a cruise in Italy and we’re going to Rome. We’re going to Florence. I’m like all the country.
[00:45:48.530] – Kim Tate
Yeah. So anyway, so that was kind of it. So we had a good experience.
[00:45:52.420] – Speaker 2
What about barcelona. Did you start interrupting you? But I’m like, I want to hear.
[00:45:56.020] – Kim Tate
What you thought about that one. We did an Ebike tour, which is a lot of fun as well. And we just mainly biked around and saw certain areas. And again, it was like kind of a group tour. So it was cool because you get to see and get a feel for the city and get a taste of it. But I don’t feel like I walked around and really felt much. But we saw the old city and it was so funny because we laughed. There’s a big famous church that’s under renovation. It’s like sponsored by Samsung or something. It’s like sponsoring the renovation. There’s a big Samsung phone banner on the side of it and it was really funny. I’m like, Well, I guess that’s one way to get your old churches renovated. And so we went to the old city area and then we moved into that famous big street where all the ritzy shopping is. I can’t remember what it’s called now. And we saw two of the gowdy homes that he designed and then we went over to, of course, the main Lafamilia and Segrata or whatever it is. I’m like, I move that around.
[00:47:00.210] – Kim Tate
And we just went south from the outside. We could not go in because, again, that’s the kind of trip we booked. And so that’s the one thing about cruises, is that they give you a taste where you kind of get a glimpse and a feel for the city. Especially if you do something that’s like a walking tour or a bike tour. I would say look and make sure you know what the maximum number of people are. And anything more than like six, I would avoid. It’s just crazy.
[00:47:24.950] – Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s just hard because anything more than that, walking through a city which is already busy, tourist, you can’t stay close enough to hear, and otherwise you have one of those little phone things.
[00:47:36.850] – Kim Tate
Which is more annoying, especially hot and stuff. But I did like Spanish speaking countries because I was like when we were in Barcelona and Valencia, I was like, oh, I was able. And we stopped for tapas once and I got a sangria and we had some tortilla and I was like, oh, this is right up my alley. I love this.
[00:47:55.050] – Speaker 2
Yeah. Do you feel like how long were the days? Like, how much time did you have to explore? Like, when could you leave the boat and when did you need to get.
[00:48:04.050] – Kim Tate
It was actually pretty good. I’m trying to remember now. I feel like it was pretty like that’s the one thing. So it’s pretty much like, I don’t know, ten to five ish right around there. So it was a good chunk of time. Like? Definitely the Naples one. We had plenty of time, which was really useful. And I don’t think it was rushed at all. The biggest thing I have to say about that. We kind of and this is what Lizzie experienced because Lizzie went on a Mediterranean cruise with her cousins right afterwards, is that you’re at a port of call every day. And so there’s not any when you take a Caribbean cruise, those at sea days where you can sleep in, you relax, you can do what you want, just have more of a lazy day. There’s no break up like that. So when you’re on these ships, it’s like every day you’re at a port of call. So every night you have to think about the fact that.
[00:48:54.390] – Speaker 2
Okay.
[00:48:54.580] – Kim Tate
We’ve got to get up in the morning and go get breakfast. And then we got to get off the ship and be at our cruise meeting point at this time. I don’t know. That was the only thing I was going to say. But otherwise I never felt rushed. Mostly because we booked shore excursions for every port. So it wasn’t like we had to manage the logistics ourselves. So everything we chose was in that time frame. But I would say it’s a very generous time in the ports.
[00:49:20.930] – Speaker 2
And did Lizzie like her first time?
[00:49:24.390] – Kim Tate
Yeah, actually it was she was in England when she was England, but otherwise it was her first time in Europe. I think that’s right.
[00:49:36.170] – Speaker 2
She loved it.
[00:49:37.230] – Kim Tate
Absolutely loved it. And her only complaint was that it’s just a port of call every time, so she wants to go back. And then she actually went over early because of flight issues. Her cousins did not get there when they were supposed to, so she had to check into her own hotel and stay on her own that we helped her book. But she loved being able to use her Spanish and she felt even though she speaks Central American Spanish versus Espanol Spanish, she was able to get around and she felt it was very empowering for her. And she really liked Barcelona, went back and see more of that because she didn’t really do anything beyond stay in the hotel and then ride a taxi to the cruise port.
[00:50:15.530] – Speaker 2
And she went she did Norwegian.
[00:50:17.590] – Kim Tate
Yes.
[00:50:18.890] – Speaker 2
Okay. And that was in and out of Arcelona.
[00:50:21.710] – Kim Tate
Yes.
[00:50:22.590] – Speaker 2
And then didn’t she end up she went to Paris.
[00:50:24.510] – Kim Tate
Yeah. So they came in from Barcelona and then they took the train up to Paris and they loved it. Again, it was really empowering for her and her and her cousins, they travel really well together and they knew exactly what they were doing.
[00:50:36.630] – Speaker 2
I mean, to travel independently is like yeah, young adults.
[00:50:40.700] – Kim Tate
It’s exciting.
[00:50:42.240] – Speaker 2
Definitely, I would imagine.
[00:50:43.330] – Kim Tate
Yeah. Well, her two cousins had been to Paris both before because they’re French immersion from Canada, so they’ve done an exchange over in France in Paris, and so they were able to help a little bit because they kind of had a feel for it already. But yeah, they had a fabulous time and she was legally able to drink when she was on the cruise ship and over there. So she had her first little feel for feeling like an adult and getting to have glass of wine or cocktail or whatever. So technically she’s only allowed to have beer and wine, but I think she had a cocktail too.
[00:51:19.190] – Speaker 2
Anyway, well, here I am, like asking you personal questions. I’m like, yeah, I want to hear I know, sorry. But that’s just because as you guys have heard, we haven’t had chance to catch up. So I’m getting here for the first time too. But it sounds like I’m very happy that she had a good trip, especially because that was a big step, very.
[00:51:38.730] – Kim Tate
Special and it was awesome. So she loved it. And they want to do more. They want to go again next year, so we’ll see. Not necessarily Mediterranean, just but they want to go travel again together somewhere. I know, yeah, she’s already she’s open to either she’ll go with me somewhere again too. She likes to travel.
[00:51:57.240] – Speaker 2
That’s where the brides come in.
[00:51:59.390] – Kim Tate
Yeah. So we got back from that and then my next big trip was Uganda, which was kind of a big one.
[00:52:09.030] – Speaker 2
Tell people how this came about. Like you went with friends, like travel bloggers.
[00:52:13.620] – Kim Tate
Yeah, one of our friends, our mutual friends put out a call saying, hey, I want to go to Uganda, does anyone want to go with me? And then two of our other friends that we know chimed in and so then they wrangled me in to be the fourth and we planned just a friend’s trip. We’re all travel writers and so it was Eric from Travel Babo, then Carolyn, who you brought up recently from no back home, and then Lindsay who is with carpet our way. And so the four of us ended up all meeting over in Tabe, Uganda. And from there we started our little adventure and it was a quick little trip. I mean, traveling over there takes most of the time, but then once they are, we are only I think we did seven nights, six days or seven days, six nights, I can’t remember now, I’d have to look at the numbers. But basically we flew into the air and then immediately got onto kind of these little prop planes, which was probably my most terrifying things. And we headed into Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is one of the big national parks up there.
[00:53:15.880] – Kim Tate
And we did a few different things. The big reason we were going was to be able to go to Wendy National Park, which was where the mountain gorillas are, and we wanted to go gorilla tracking. But before that we ended up getting this great experience. We went on a river boat. They just called it a boat ride. We didn’t know what that experience was going to be, it was just a boat ride on a channel boat ride. And it turned out to be like. The river cruise times ten. It was just epic. Yeah. In real life. So funny. I mean, just elephants all over the place, hippos all over the place like crocodiles, all these migraine birds, lots of pelicans and it was just, I mean, so many elephants. It was crazy. And that was the one cool thing I will say about those little planes that we had to fly to get from the main airport to these more remote regions is you’re flying pretty low and you’re looking out and you can just see anytime you see water, you look and there’s just elephants and hippopotamuses all over the place and you can see them out the window.
[00:54:23.220] – Speaker 2
Yeah, I remember seeing some of the pictures from you guys.
[00:54:27.090] – Kim Tate
Yeah, huge hurts. Unbelievable. So many. And so that’s really cool. Now, Queen Elizabeth National Park doesn’t have any rhinos. So that’s one thing that we didn’t see any of those and they don’t have a lot of, I don’t know some of the other stuff. I’m trying to think of all the different big five, but no cheetahs. I don’t think they had cheetahs. So we did go on to do a lion drive once and for the tree climbing lions, they do have the tree climbing ones, but it was a bust. We didn’t see any. It’s not the best. I recently saw one of our other travel blogging people that is over in Tanzania and saw 8 million tree climbing lines and I was like, that was what I wanted. But we did come back after that and had another truly epic experience, was called a sundowner. And so they bring us to this right near where we stayed, which was this kind of like sustainable place. I’m trying to blinking on the name now, so eventually I’ll get my blog post up and I can share it with everyone. But we stayed at this place and they brought us to Sundowner, which is near it and it’s kind of a cliff they brought us to like a little bit.
[00:55:36.640] – Kim Tate
Yeah, kind of a cliff overlooking this massive valley. And we pull up and we get out and they’ve got drinks and little snacks and everything for us and all these chairs set up and we look and there are at least 100 elephants out in the valley and they’re all migrating. He said he thinks it’s probably about four families, family units and they’re all migrating away from like okay, they’ve been down at the river and now they’re going moving their way back to where they’ll go hunker down for the night and it was just epic. And so here we are having drinks with friends at sunset, eating some snacks and watching tons of elephants, including lots of babies. It’s amazing. It was epic. Yeah. The experience is just one of those things in my mind right now. I can picture it so clearly and vividly and the emotions we all had and the lighting was just perfect. And it was amazing. So that was epic. Now, when it was sunset, it was fine because right as soon as the sun went down, they’re like, okay, time to go, time to go. And we’re like, oh, can we just take it?
[00:56:42.240] – Kim Tate
No, we got to go, got to go now. And they were saying that the elephants will just come right up, so they have to get everyone gone because the elephants will eventually make their way up and walk through there. So we did that and that was just great. And so then we made our way to Bundy National Forest, which is where the whole gorilla thing was taking place. And so this was booked. So our friend Eric booked the trip through the Uganda Safari Company is who he ended up using, and they’re more of a luxury safari company. So we had nice, really nice hotels and accommodations for Africa. It was beautiful. We loved everything.
[00:57:18.650] – Speaker 2
So the whole trip was this one.
[00:57:20.640] – Kim Tate
Company, we just said, here’s how much time we have. This is what we’re interested in. And they put together everything. They put together where we stayed, they put together the transfers, the drivers, all that, and so everything went to them. And then we tipped people along the way. So it was all paid in advance. And it’s pricey, but not as crazy as you would think. Actually, Uganda, I think, is still really wants tourism. And it’s much more affordable than if you did the same thing in probably Tanzania or South Africa.
[00:57:53.770] – Speaker 2
Let me ask about that because I feel like in those places it’s $10,000 a person. No, it’s way less luxury.
[00:58:00.490] – Kim Tate
Way sorry. Way yeah.
[00:58:03.110] – Speaker 2
Good. Okay.
[00:58:04.540] – Kim Tate
So I’m just saying, if people are interested in safari, look at the pricing for this, for the Uganda Safari Company and just figure out what it looks like for you, because I was pleasantly surprised by the pricing. So it’s definitely they want tourism and everything we did was just epic and amazing. So if you really care about, like, giraffes or you really care about certain animals, make sure you tell them when you’re arranging it because you have to go up to this. There’s another really, the largest park. We didn’t go to the largest national park. Queen Elizabeth is the second largest. So the other one that’s the largest is where they have, like, giraffes and stuff. So it depends what your priorities are, but they can work it all out. Infrastructure is pretty bad. I mean, driving, like, we took that little, I don’t know, 50 minutes hour flight to get to Queen Elizabeth, but it’s like 8 hours to drive because there’s just not good roads. So that’s just one thing to keep in mind, is that you’ll have to have those. But they arranged all those internal flights for us as well. Through internal flights.
[00:59:03.910] – Speaker 2
There are kind of like buses, right?
[00:59:06.310] – Kim Tate
Yeah, we took off and landed to let people off and pick up other people and you take off again. It’s like little jumpers. Yeah, it’s really funny. At one point there was a really bad when we left, I was terrified. It was too windy. Like, the pilot couldn’t land and he had to swing around and come and land again. And then he couldn’t get all nine of us. There was nine people on that flight. He was like, I’m going to take this first set of five. So he flew them 25 minutes, dropped them off at that landing strip, came back, got us, flew us to that landing strip and put us all on the plane and took off to go to our final and talk to the final destination. Because it’s just, I guess, where we’re at, it’s a mountain area and it’s known for high winds. But anyways, we all made it and it was fine.
[00:59:46.240] – Speaker 2
Yeah.
[00:59:49.930] – Kim Tate
It was a very emotional time for me.
[00:59:54.130] – Speaker 2
So I’m saying if you don’t like turbulence, it would be a bit of.
[00:59:57.450] – Kim Tate
A challenge, I guess, if you don’t like turbulence, if you’re scared of small flights, then you might want to look at like, South Africa or something where you can just drive around. But if you are put all that together and yeah, you can get yourself through it. Like you said, they use it like buses. It’s a very traditional way of traveling around there. And if you can avoid the mountain areas, it’s pretty easy and safe. It’s the mountains where the winds are that caused the problems. But our pilots were all really good.
[01:00:26.190] – Speaker 2
At the mountain girl.
[01:00:27.040] – Kim Tate
Yeah, you have to get the mountain girls. We stayed at the Clouds Lodge and it was just epic. So you don’t find out right away what group you’re going to be assigned again. I wrote this post, but I’ve had so many things since then, so I haven’t finished the post. But there are like three main groups. There’s Kiringo Christmas. And another one. I can’t remember what it was called. And in those groups there’s also different family units sometimes. Oh, that’s wrong. Those are the families. Anyways, I’m trying to remember it. There’s different sectors and then there’s different families in those sectors. So it depends where you’re at, which one you get. So we were in Kiringo National Forest, that’s part of the Bundy, and we were going to go to one of those families and we got assigned the Christmas family, who actually is the head of Christmas, and he was born on Christmas Day, hence the name. So we hiked down to that group. We found out that morning our hotel took us right to the Kiringo Organization Station or whatever, where everyone heads off from is right there by the Clouds Lodge. So it’s really considered a really high end lodge.
[01:01:38.660] – Kim Tate
And we took off from there. They drove us in a little forerunner over to the place and they told us our group and we set out. And they only give eight permits per day, per family group. So the country is only giving for Karengo. There are three families, so there’s 24, is that right? 24 permits a day. 24 people a day can go. So it just shows you. I felt so honored. Do you know what I mean? They’re trying to do it well. They’re trying to control it. And these are habituated family groups. And so they always have scientists going in to monitor these and trying to spend time with the gorillas. So they get used to humans, so they can become habituated. So these three families have become habituated, which means that they’re used to humans. So they’re not scared by us. They want to attack. They always can. They’re wild animals. But that’s the whole concept of this. So it felt very special, a very special thing to be able to do.
[01:02:43.750] – Speaker 2
Yeah. It seems like just kind of magical from everything that you guys should.
[01:02:47.400] – Kim Tate
Yeah. So we ended up hiking down because we’re in this cloud. So get your idea of we’re way up high and we have to go hike down this big valley to go into this tree valley area. And that’s where they kind of were at. And they send out trackers every day. The trackers kind of know where the families are, and they mostly stay around, but who knows? They can move way far away and stuff. And so we end up doing this, like, kind of crazy hike down. It seems pretty easy at first. Like we’re just on the path and there’s little kids, like, bringing some have like, a bucket with a book in it and others are going to get water, and they go down there to get water and walk all the way back. And it’s just crazy. It’s just what they use. There’s not a lot of infrastructure in Uganda still, and there’s no running water still and things like that. So there are laws about how each hotel, like 30% of the revenue from hotels go to the local community to help them fund running water and infrastructure and things to help provide tourism, I feel like is doing something good there.
[01:03:50.850] – Kim Tate
And one of the things that you do when you get to the office to get ready to start your truck, there’s these porters that come and they want to get a job, and they separate to each group, like eight people to come to each group, and they’re like, Hire me, hire me. And you can hire them. And the minimum you have to pay them is $20. It’s not even arranged, but you’re supposed to pay them $20. So you say, yeah, okay, I’ll hire you. And you give them your bag, and they carry your bag the whole way, and they help pull you and push you up down all these hills. And they pull back, like all the brush and shrubbery that you have to walk through and they help point stuff to tell you to be careful. And then when you get to the gorillas, they take all your bag and stuff, and you just keep, like, your camera. And they are just amazing. And they said they get the chance about once a month to be able to be a porter because there’s a waitlist. And so they’re looking at even getting paid $20 US.
[01:04:45.580] – Kim Tate
Dollars for one month at a time. And I wish I’d had more cash because I was like, oh, I’m going to pay my person 40. But at this point, I wish I would have given him $100 because it was the most unbelievable help, and it made the experience great. And I know that that money went straight to him and is going straight to his family. I just feel like tourism money is being spent well there right now. So that’s one of the reasons that I really fell in love with it. So highly recommend it. So we get down there and they’re bush wacking their way through, and then all of a sudden, we were with the gorillas, this gorilla family, and they’re all in the bush. And we were told before, it used to be that you had to be within 7 meters, but because of COVID, we had to wear masks because of the gorillas. And then because of covet, you have to stay 10 meters away, but you’re in the middle of a jungle, and they clear. You like this little standing section that’s smaller than most people. It’s like a half bath powder room.
[01:05:44.620] – Kim Tate
And you’re standing around, and they’re cleaning it, and the girls are just right there, and you’re not supposed to go towards them, but of course, once they find them and the only thing is there’s just trees everywhere. So getting clean pictures is, like, hard and really experiencing. So we would all be, like, frustrated. We’d start feeling like each of us were frustrated. Like, why is that leaf? And there was tons of bugs right around them, like little flies. So all the pictures have the flies. Okay, put the camera down and just experience this moment of unbelievableness that you are right here next to a silverback gorilla and getting to see him just pick you just watch. They just pull the leaves and strip them with their teeth, and then they’d eat away at the little they just loved eating the reeds of the young trees or something. I mean, they just went through it. And it’s funny, you get 1 hour with them. Once you find them and get to them, you get 1 hour, and then that’s the limit. But it’s funny. It’s like they’re all eating around. And they must have decided that because they know the timing.
[01:06:45.950] – Kim Tate
Because it seemed like the family moved around that one section. And you’d see. Like. There was Moms with a baby on her chest. And she would walk right by us. Like. Not scared of us at all as long as we were just quiet and fine and walked right by with the baby to go over here to this other section to start getting food there. And then there are these juveniles that would move around and they acted a little more like, I don’t know, I’m thinking like ten or twelve year old boys, playful running around and they were having a fun, they were having a fun time in the silverback. They said that there was a wild family group a little ways off and the trackers had kind of pushed them away because they were making this group a little antsy. And so you could see the Silver round would make some calls, sometimes not at us. He was like kind of doing some stuff. But it’s funny because some of the guys, they would say like, oh, he’s asking how you’re doing? He’s asking they feel like they can talk to them. They would make these grunt noises to the gorillas and they would think the gorillas were talking back to them and they would tell us, he’s asking how you’re doing?
[01:07:45.210] – Kim Tate
And it was just kind of funny, but I was just going to say.
[01:07:49.500] – Speaker 2
It was their concern about safety because you think about silverback gorillas, I feel like I’ve heard that they could be aggressive.
[01:07:56.240] – Kim Tate
They are, they’re totally aggressive and that’s why I think they work on these habituations and you’re supposed to be careful, like don’t make eye contact. Of course they didn’t tell us any of that. We heard that from another group later on like, oh yeah, we learned that you’re supposed to stay still if they move towards you and don’t make eye contact. We’re like, our group didn’t tell us this. What happened?
[01:08:16.870] – Speaker 2
Was there someone there?
[01:08:18.330] – Kim Tate
Yeah, they had guns. There’s two people with guns. So one leads in the front and one leads in the back. And then when we were with the girls as well, they were off a little bit further away so that the gorillas didn’t see them, I guess, but they were in the line site. But then there was the two guys that were cleaning the brush with had machetes and so they were always kind of closest to the gorillas. Does that make sense? They would step to the side so you can take pictures, but they were always the closest one. But I think the habituation like when you think about it, these gorillas, if they’re seeing eight people a day come down here and do this for an hour, they’re probably pretty used to it at this point. So as long as nobody acts like an idiot. Well, even though we’re falling in because you’re not on this nice empty, like you’re balancing on a read that got cut down and your foot goes in. Like Caroline lost her shoe at one point because her foot got stuck in a hole and it’s not ideal. So you’re making noise and you’re kind of walking around, but it was amazing, it was epic.
[01:09:24.260] – Kim Tate
So I’ve talked a lot, but it was.
[01:09:28.610] – Speaker 2
I’m sure, something that very few people have experienced and so it’s really great to hear about it. You mentioned that Uganda doesn’t have running water and stuff, but that it was also like a luxury type of safari. So what kind of or company, I should say, what were the accommodations like?
[01:09:48.400] – Kim Tate
I don’t know. We had running water at most of the resorts we stayed at least. So I don’t understand how they’re able to get it. But the communities aren’t the processes in place by having these hotels. I think they draw the line or they work with. I’m guessing they have cisterns or something that they use to help carry the water because we were able to take showers and all that and have running water at every place we stayed. The one place we did stay when we tried to look for the lions, I think is Etosha, if I remember Etosha, something like that. They had like flushing toilets, but to take a shower, it was a wild shower. I can’t remember camp shower. So you told them, hey, I want a shower, and they would bring hot water and they’d fill up this big jug outside the edge of your tent cause it was kind of, it was definitely glamping. So you have toilet inside and I mean kind of glamping like what we did at safari west, but even nicer, like hard doors, kind of similar, I guess. So the shower system was just hooked through that.
[01:10:53.730] – Kim Tate
So you could only take a hot shower with the water they provided and it would only go so far, but it was quite a lot. So it was not a problem, it.
[01:11:02.920] – Speaker 2
Wasn’T just like dumping water? No, it was not.
[01:11:05.060] – Kim Tate
No, I took a full on shower. Yeah, nothing else really. To think, I mean, everywhere we stayed it was luxury and the clouds lodge that we stayed at just had the most you had a private butler for your stay there and we’d come in and we’d be like, we’re hungry, we fix us some food and he’d be like, yeah, sit down. And he’d just bring us food anytime we wanted it and drinks anytime he wanted it. Definitely high end and really nice. But yeah, we had water there, so I don’t know, I’m guessing that’s part of how if they build these hotels, then they help put in the infrastructure that will then help eventually get water to teach the communities how to get water going as well. I don’t know.
[01:11:51.590] – Speaker 2
Interesting. And did you feel safe, like flying in and throughout your stay, were there any concerns that way? And I feel like that’s one thing people think about when it comes to some of the lesser developments.
[01:12:07.260] – Kim Tate
Yeah. So with Uganda, we didn’t have any issues. I felt completely safe and especially even one where on the safari and you’re out in these rural communities, there’s like seeing tourists there brought so much joy to a lot of the local communities. They were so happy to see us. And kids are waving, and I think it’s just an exciting thing to see Western travelers there. They’re very excited about it as well. And Tabe, I think they said Kenya is one of their highest tourist countries, is from Kenya, and there has been some concerns with entray for safety. But we did a little walking tour in Inte when we came back because we all had different flight times. Like, we couldn’t get out that same day after the safari the next morning. So we had one extra day.
[01:12:52.040] – Speaker 2
Sure.
[01:12:52.440] – Kim Tate
So in antabay, they had a little bit of a tour and then we did a sunset little boat cruise. That was truly a sunset boat cruise. Nothing else other than just drinking and watching. But I felt totally fine and safe there. I think it’s just that use common sense, but especially with having a tour guide and having had everything arranged for you, it was great. And I already was just so happy to see us. I mean, so many people when we were leaving, they were saying, oh, will you be ambassadors for Uganda? Tell all your friends when you go home to come to Uganda. And they were just so happy to see tourism there. So I think that it seems like from the tourism aspect of people who are in tourism and then probably from government aspect, they want to make sure that tourists are safe because it obviously has a big impact for them.
[01:13:46.340] – Speaker 2
Yeah, and you had to take some additional vaccines and did you have to take malaria?
[01:13:51.510] – Kim Tate
Yeah, so I don’t do well with the malaria pills. They give me headaches. So I ended up doing a doxycycline, which you can do, but you just have to do it a lot longer. But then I had some side effects with that and so I ended up stopping because there was no mosquitoes. We all laughed. I wore a bug spray, but it just was not mosquitoes were not an issue. The one time I got bit was at our first hotel. We were eating dinner out on their patio at night and it was kind of called Elephant Planes Lodge. There was no elephants to be seen, though, but it was kind of marshy, I think. And that was the one time that I got a bite and it was at the very beginning, but everything else. And we wore pants. I wore pants and long sleeve tops almost the whole time and then used bug spray. But once I got back, I stopped taking it. But technically you should keep taking it. And then our friends all took malaria meds. But yeah, you had to have yellow fever vaccine and you had to be able to show your yellow fever card.
[01:14:51.570] – Kim Tate
So that’s the one that’s kind of trickier and it’s I don’t know what they call it. It’s not a required vaccine for normal life, so health insurance doesn’t cover it. So I think it’s about a $200 vaccine to get and then you had to get a visa as well to.
[01:15:08.700] – Speaker 2
Be able to go some additional things to think about. You can’t really plan a lot, but.
[01:15:15.840] – Kim Tate
Otherwise I would say it was extremely easy. And working with the Safari company, of course, made it that way. But a few things like there’s big delay on getting on the flight to get out of to start our whole trip, which was a big pain in the butt because we just had hours doing nothing at the airport. Yes, exactly. And we were ready to get it done and get settled in our hotel. And so that was the only frustrating part where you had to just have a little freedom. Not freedom, a little patience to be roll with whatever was happening, but otherwise and it was just amazing. I mean, you just drive and you’d see elephants all over the place. And we saw this amazing, like not baboons are they baboons? Baboon family. Trying to think of what other like, you know, from the Lion King rafiki with the blue what are those ones called? Blue faces. They were baboons like what we saw. But I was getting confused with that other one that I can’t remember. But anyways well, we are way long. We’re at an hour and 20 minutes. So I had two other quick things.
[01:16:21.850] – Kim Tate
We did go on a Holland America Alaskan cruise, which is amazing and really beautiful. I can see why Holland America, they’ve been cruising in Alaska for over 75 years and they have some great relationships and stuff. We did a salmon fishing trip charter thing and we did some really beautiful we saw Men in Hawk Glacier. We rented a jeep and drove ourselves around Juneau and it was pretty epic. And Holland America has this amazing BBC, like live entertainment. They have an orchestra, so they play a BBC movie, basically. It’s like these little shorts of wildlife and they have a live orchestra of like four members that are playing the soundtrack to it and epic. So that was cool about holland america. Plus, Holland America still does free room service. And I got room service every single morning. Two times I got a coffee. I got like coffee at seven in the morning while Mia was still sleeping. And then I had our breakfast come for both of us at nine. It was so good. And so I felt so spoiled.
[01:17:23.200] – Speaker 2
You’ve done what, three or four Alaska?
[01:17:29.110] – Kim Tate
Well, yeah, this one is three. We did like a little day trip on an Alaskan cruise ship on the Bliss, but we only went to Victoria and came back because it was a media test preview or whatever.
[01:17:41.000] – Speaker 2
But yeah, who is the one that you did? Just a couple of years ago, princess.
[01:17:48.130] – Kim Tate
Princess old ship. And it was a chartered Japanese company cruise. So I don’t feel like I can truly say what Princess experience is like because it was not a traditional Princess cruise.
[01:17:58.980] – Speaker 2
Yeah.
[01:17:59.420] – Kim Tate
So that was a little different so far.
[01:18:01.790] – Speaker 2
Would you put Holland?
[01:18:03.260] – Kim Tate
I think it’s for different things. Like, the Holland ships are definitely smaller and they have some different sight lines. That kind of bother me. If you’re the type that likes to just go sit on the like, Norwegian has those amazing decks where you can sit and just look out and relax and lounge. And Holland didn’t have that. But Holland everything about the food and the service and just they have primary they get primary spots for Glacier Bay. So if you really want to go into Glacier Bay, they know exactly what they’re doing there. They get primary peer spots at a lot of the towns because their ships fit there. Whereas we saw, like, a celebrity ship and they were tendered in Juneau, I think. So you saw the tender boats running back and forth. So I think those things matter. But from an experience standpoint, the room service was awesome. The food was great. I didn’t see too many of the shows and entertainment positive. Yeah, it was good. I think you really have to look at the ships and what’s important to you and also look at if you’re comparing it to, say, a Norwegian or celebrity or something like that, you really have to look at the tendering and what the ports of call are and how they get into those ports if they have to tender at those ports.
[01:19:17.510] – Kim Tate
Because tendering to me, is one of the biggest wastes of time on a cruise ship because it’s just logistical a nightmare and takes time away from your time in the port.
[01:19:27.730] – Speaker 2
Yeah. And I would say my complaint about an Alaskan cruise and generally the one that I did was that time in port is already short. So it’s like, if I had to wait for a tender yeah. I would not be happy.
[01:19:39.650] – Kim Tate
Yeah. But I was pleasantly very happy with it. And I would say there’s no reason you shouldn’t choose Holland if you’re happy. If you look at the ship and you’re happy with the ship, they definitely know Alaska. They have some really nice entertainment around wildlife, and they have this amazing story of, like, how Holland America got started. And it was unbelievable. I got goosebumps, and I was actually emotional at one point. It was just beautiful. So it kind of made me fall in love with the line, just seeing that. And then they have another one that the guy actually couldn’t do the presentation, but they normally do this amazing like, this is Alaska towards the beginning that’s supposed to really make you fall in love with Alaska. So they have some really good entertainment and education on board that I think that other. Cruise ships might not have dialed in quite as well.
[01:20:24.930] – Speaker 2
Yeah, really similar to that, people that go on Alaskan cruise or want to experience Alaska, they’re not going there just to cruise. It’s not like the Caribbean where you’re just going because some people would be happy not leaving this stuff.
[01:20:38.530] – Kim Tate
Yeah. And then our final trip this year, we are way long. So thanks for everyone who’s still listening. Our final trip this year was that we went to Orlando. That was the trip Lizzie picked for her grand trip. And so we took her sister with us, and we went to Disney World for four days. And then we also went to Universal for two days, three nights, and we just had an amazing time. I splurged, and I actually got us a great deal. I used a thing that I’m going to have an article that I’m actually just finishing up this week about how we saved so much money on our Disney World trip because I rented Vacation Club Points, actually. And so we were able to stay at one of the deluxe resorts that was on the monorail at Magic Kingdom for not cheap, but for cheaper than you would ever pay for that. So that was kind of a real perk that we got. And then we worked with Universal and we actually stayed at one of their onsite hotels, which is huge if you want to ride the two new rides, which is the Hagrid’s Motorbike and the Velocity Coaster.
[01:21:42.590] – Kim Tate
They launched those two rides this summer. I think Hagrid might be a little older, but it’s huge because you get into the parking hour early. And we learned some tips on that, which I’m going to be writing up. But staying on site at Universal, I think is a real benefit. We finally also bought the wand, which I think you’ve done with Hannah. And it was so funny because we were ready to leave for the day. We’re like, oh, we’re tired. We’re ready to leave. And we kind of exited the park. And we’re at the Universal store because Mia had not gotten a souvenir yet from the trip. Lizzie got, like, a necklace at Disney World, but Mia still hadn’t gotten anything. She’s like, oh, I just really want a wand. And the Universal store at CityWalks or the Universal shopping district, not in the parks, is probably the best thing, best place you can go if you want to buy a wand, go there first thing. Because they have all the wands on display, and they have a person working there showing you and talking. They’re able to talk about all of them. And they even have a Fantastic Beasts wand set.
[01:22:40.780] – Kim Tate
But yeah, so she ended up choosing her Miami Granger’s wand. And we were ready to leave, but she’s like, well, we never got to use it, but I’m fine with that. But then she’s like, I really wish we could use it. I’m like, well, let’s just go into the parks and use it. And Lizzie’s feet were hurting, but she was like, fine, I’ll go, but I get to navigate. And so she took the math and told me, and they had such a blast. And then we ended up going all the way back over to the other park, too, so she could do those ones as well. And that was a real yeah. I always thought it was going to take so much time, but having two days in the parks really paid off. Especially because August in Orlando is disgusting. Can I just say that?
[01:23:18.470] – Speaker 2
Yeah. I was going to say, wow, you spent a week in Orlando in August how many times?
[01:23:25.150] – Kim Tate
Every day. And so that was one of the things, like, having more time was so beneficial because we were like, okay, the rain is going to start here. We started monitoring it. We’re like, we have to be out of the park back at the hotel by this time. And then maybe it’ll roll off, maybe it won’t. But I also packed in advance. I bought cheap plastic ponchos, which Mia yelled at me.
[01:23:42.680] – Speaker 2
She said, Single use, those are so needed.
[01:23:44.570] – Kim Tate
It’s not cool. And put a wet like, I’m not going to carry a bunch of wet ponchos and try and mess with folding it every day and stuff. So I was going to look because I’m like, there must be a better reusable poncho with a clip pouch or something that you could just clip on the outside of your bag. But anyways, the ponchos saved us. I also bought hair nets, like cheapo hair nets. And we put those around our shoes. They did not come quite as handy. They didn’t work quite as well because they tore and ripped. But I think if you got a higher quality, like, hair net thing, I think they’re called hairnet shower caps. I’m like, what am I thinking of? Not hair nets, shower caps. They actually were useful as long as you don’t slip. The cheaper ones are easier because you still can get some traction. But they kept your shoes from getting.
[01:24:30.140] – Speaker 2
Glen laughed at me when I came back from my walking trip, and I was unpacking and I pulled out my hiking boots and I had around them, and he was like, what? And I was like, well, just in case.
[01:24:38.480] – Kim Tate
Yeah. Yeah, those little shower caps come in handy. You can buy them on. I think I got like a 25 pack on Amazon or 50 pack on Amazon or something. But yeah, so I would say the weather was brutal. So you have to be willing to go. If you spend a little more time there, going back at two or three is not a big deal. And then you just rope drop, get to the park early in the morning, do the stuff you want to do, and then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing at the hotel or pool and get a nice dinner. So it worked out well for us.
[01:25:07.960] – Speaker 2
Which hotel did you stay at?
[01:25:09.100] – Kim Tate
You stated the Adventura, which is the new one.
[01:25:11.960] – Speaker 2
The newer one, yeah.
[01:25:12.980] – Kim Tate
And they upgraded us to a we had the Volcano Bay City line, water View. Yeah. And it worked out well. And we walked it in the morning. The first day, we learned that we did not leave early enough. And so then the next day, we left a lot earlier, and it helped us go straight to Hagrid’s Motorbike. And normally this ride has about between 120 to 160 minutes wait during the day, and they walked on it with about a ten minute wait, most of us just walking through the lane, through the lines. So it’s huge. So having that extra hour and then being early at your extra hour is huge.
[01:25:51.110] – Speaker 2
Yeah.
[01:25:51.610] – Kim Tate
Anyway, we had a great time and going to be sharing about that pretty soon. I have so many blog posts in my mind. All this stuff still needs to get written, published.
[01:26:01.130] – Speaker 2
So, guys, when we’re not publishing very many podcasts, this is why.
[01:26:04.870] – Kim Tate
Because we need to learn exactly.
[01:26:07.850] – Speaker 2
Stay tuned for all of those. What we can do is share some of what we publish them, maybe share them on Instagram stories. Yeah.
[01:26:17.790] – Kim Tate
So make sure you’re following us on Instagram. Tamara is at we three travel I’m at Stuff Suitcase. And then you can also give Vacation Mainlands to follow. And we’ll be sharing there, too.
[01:26:28.260] – Speaker 2
So thank you for everyone that stuck around and for those that stuck with staying subscribed, even though we were quiet over the summer. We appreciate it. Hopefully you enjoyed this update, even though it was a lot of information.
[01:26:42.020] – Kim Tate
Maybe hope everyone’s like listening to it in parts. I think this makes up for all the old ones we’ve missed. So you can listen to this over four parts?
[01:26:50.800] – Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. Take your time with it. All right, well, we’ll talk to you soon.
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