We took a Lyft over to Willis Tower, which I didn’t know what it was until my husband said they renamed it from the Sears Tower. It is the third tallest building in the world. You have to go down two escalators to get to the entrance. There is a lovely eating area as you walk into the building, which was just opening when we … Continue reading Chicago: Willis (Sears) Tower and Lincoln Park Conservatory and Zoo

I visited Chicago a couple of weeks ago. There is a quick nonstop flight from Tampa and we arrived around noon. My husband used points from his credit card so we could stay at the Hyatt Regency, which is a perfect location. We could walk to a lot of different places easily, but it was not overly crowded (except when a conference started at our … Continue reading Chicago: Day 1 Architecture and Pizza

Yesterday we thought it was going to rain in the afternoon so we decided to try and summit Haleakala driving. The picture above is the volcano. As you can see there are some clouds sitting on the summit. Haleakala formed about 75% of Maui. Its peak is at 10.023 feet. In Hawaiian, Haleakala means “house of the sun”, which is what they named the general … Continue reading Maui: Haleakala National Park

We flew to Maui this morning on Hawaiian Airlines. The flight was only $39 and it took less than an hour. Our hotel was not going to be ready until 4, so my husband planned for us to take this road around a section of the island. I didn’t find out until this evening that we drove the very dangerous Kahekili Highway. Even though it … Continue reading Maui: Kahekili Highway

It is my opinion that if you go to Kauai, you need to make sure you have enough money to take a helicopter ride. My friend Tom describes Kauai this way, “Think of Kauai as a head and the Napoli Coast is the jaunty beret.” You can only see the Napoli Coast from flying over it. There are trails that you can hike, but they … Continue reading Kauai: Helicopter ride and North

We arrived on Friday around 1pm. We grabbed something to eat from one of the many food trucks on the island (Taco Libre, which had a tasty quesadilla) and headed to the south side. Our first stop was Poipu Beach. It is one of the most popular beaches on the island. We didn’t realize that it also has green turtles and monk seals that like … Continue reading Kauai: South and West

The Winchester Mystery House is a place that I have been wanting to visit. I don’t remember where I first heard about it, probably some ghost hunting show, but i did watch the movie Winchester (starring Helen Mirren) which was creepy and fascinating. The only totally true part of the movie is that Sarah Winchester built this complicated house. Sarah came from New Haven, CT … Continue reading Winchester Mystery House

Our last tour was also with Frank the Tank. We chose the Megatour because we were able to do a bunch of different activities in one day. We were lucky that other people signed up for the tour. There were six of us and everyone was very nice, so it made for a lovely day. The other four people were from Canada! Our tour guide, … Continue reading Costa Rica: Rincon de La Vieja Megatour

This trip was reserved through the hotel and it only cost us $80 because we used our time share money on it. We saw the most animals on this trip, but it was my least favorite due to the condition of our transportation and the fact that one of the women was throwing up for the whole ride back. We also stopped at Cortez Waterfalls … Continue reading Costa Rica: Excursion to Palo Verde River

We booked two tours with Frank the Tank before we left for Costa Rica. It was a good thing we thought ahead because he didn’t have much space available for when we were there. The tour guide picks you up at the hotel reception area (or in our hotel, right outside the gate). There were about ten people from our resort on this tour. We … Continue reading Costa Rica: Excursion to Rio Celeste, Sloths, and Cortez Waterfalls