The fourth city in our summer in Spain journey was Nerja, a small seaside town on the “Costa del Sol”. Nerja is near the larger city of Malaga. We arrived in the late afternoon and left in the morning, so it was a quick visit. After five days of the heat in the cities, we wanted to take a dip in the Mediterranean. I picked Nerja based on photos I…
Travel
Grenada – Summer in Spain Part 3
Part three of our Summer in Spain journey brought us out of the Castille region into the Andalusia region of Spain. This area is famous for its rich history (Flamenco, bullfighting (eek), its hot summer weather and cold Sangria (yum). Grenada which some call the “Moorish Jewel” of Spain is a must see. Andalusia is also home to its capital Seville (which I will get to in a later post),…
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Travel
Madrid – Summer in Spain Part 1
I recently posted the introduction to our summer in Spain. If you haven’t read it, you might want to start there. Madrid was the first stop on our Spain adventure. We flew from San Diego through Dallas and landed pretty early in the morning. I like arriving in Europe in the morning when possible. It really helps to get on the new timezone and assists with jetlag. The first day…
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Travel
10 Things I Love About Spain
This blog post is my first foray back into blogging since we got back from our five weeks in Spain this summer. Apologies! with the chaos of school starting, working full time its been hard to write. But, I do have so much fun content to share about recent travels. I thought I would start with 10 of my favorite things about Spain. Wine If you get sticker shock at…
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Travel
2018 – Imagine & Go Recap – Favorite Travel Experiences and Locations
Another year has gone by, can you believe it? This one seemed to go particularly quickly. I feel like I just wrote up last year’s year in review post! But here’s the recap of our favorite travel experiences of 2018! 2018 was a great year for our family. After spending a lot of 2017 at Disneyland with annual passes, (you can read about tips for Disney annual passes here), we…
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Travel
Summer in Bend, Oregon — River, Brews and Lakes
“Can we please move to Bend?” I asked my husband after we spent five days in Oregon’s summer/winter playground of a city, this past summer. (Unfortunately there is no surfing except for river surfing! so the answer was ‘no’). Bend is spectacular. Not only is it beautiful, but it has something for everyone — river activities, fishing, hiking, breweries, great food, and more, and that’s just in the summer. This…
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Travel
10 Tips and Musings from an American in Paris
Ah Paris, so beautiful, historical, and so filled with buttery pastry, savory cheeses, wine and rich foods. Recently my husband and I were able to go to Paris for four days following a conference I had in London. It was my husband’s first time in Paris so we wanted to see all the main sights, but also wanted to try and get off the beaten path a bit. There are…
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Tips & Q&As
13 Tips to Making a Road Trip A Success
Road trip tips!! You guys! We spent SEVEN weeks on the road this summer. I started planning this trip last spring/winter and built an itinerary from San Diego, up the coast with stops in Big Sur, Santa Cruz and Petaluma in California. Then up the Oregon coast to Brookings, and Yachats and then on to Portland (the furthest North we got). After Portland we went to Bend, Oregon and then…
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Travel
Beautiful Sayulita, Mexico
Several years ago a co-worker told me about Sayulita, Mexico and he raved about the beaches, the downtown, and how great it was for families. Its been on my travel bucket list since then. Then fortuitously, last summer we connected with another home exchange family from Sayulita and agreed to a home swap. After a week in Sayulita I can definitely say it lives up the hype. It’s beautiful, safe,…
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Travel
Is a Home Exchange Right for You? Find Out in This Q&A
If you have ever wondered about doing a home exchange this post is for you! We have officially made it to the year point as Home Exchangers. In 2017 I signed us up for HomeExchange.com. My husband was not really on board, but I slowly got him excited about the idea (mostly the money saving part). So far we have done two home exchanges: one in Sayulita, Mexico and one…
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