We were excited to visit Rainbow Springs, a 22 acre nature park in Rotorua, New Zealand in mid February. It is home to New Zealand’s largest and most successful kiwi conservation center, where they have released over 1,000 kiwi into the wild since 1995. Upon arriving, we booked a Kiwi Encounter, which was a special tour that took us through their conservation center to show us the impressive...

One should not visit New Zealand without planning a visit to the famed Glowworm Caves of Waitomo! We met up with our friends, the Pearce’s, who are staying 3 months on the South Island, but had come up North for a passport renewal. We met in Hamilton and then drove to Waitomo in the center of the North Island. This is our 4th country we have met the Pearce’s in, and our kids always have such a great...

We prepped for months for our newest adventure. That is…we prepped everything at home for our departure. We made mental (and electronic lists) of what to pack (and still missed a handful of things we had to order on Amazon and ship to us in transit), got the car and house cleaned, we prepared the kids’ school items for travel, and even cleared out the fridge and freezer. What we didn’t do...

On a recent jaunt to Orlando, I was willing to consider any park in the Orlando area to take my family of 7. Should we go to Disney? Universal Studios? Islands of Adventure? Legoland? I would guess that hundreds of thousands of other individuals are facing the same decisions each day as they plan and prepare for their vacations. The truth is that none of those parks really hold much appeal to me. It’s...

After enjoying our stroll along the Ruess River waterfront and the famous Chapel Bridge, we decided to head further into the city to see what it was like. As always, I admired the amazing murals and traditional hanging signs. I also oohed and aahed at the treats through the windows, but unlike our trip to France, we did not stop to taste these goodies! Lucerne is surrounded by the “Musegg Wall”, which...

No visit to Switzerland is complete without a scenic tour around Lake Lucerne. Jared wanted to drive the circumference of the entire lake, and we also stopped for a nice walk through the city of Lucerene. We were immediately drawn to the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), which is an eye-catching landmark that crosses diagonally over the Reuss River. The bridge was originally built in the 14th century as part...

When we wandered into Bern, Switzerland, we had one goal: Go see a movie at the cinema. Imagine our surprise when we learned that adult tickets for the movies were nearly $20 USD each, and kid’s tickets were nearly as much! Add into that some popcorn…and we were looking a $60+ for our small family to visit the movie theater. Um, no thank you. Instead…we took a short sightseeing tour...

What trip to Switzerland would be complete without embarking on a summit in the Bernese Alps? Since we weren’t up for the 5+ hour hike, we did it the easy way–albeit, the much more expensive way. After paying a hefty $187 fee (which was at a huge student discount, thanks to the sympathetic sales clerk who offered it to our family!), we jumped on a cable car transit system that began in...

(I just came across this story I wrote for a college English class 12 years ago.  Jared and I had just married in the Spring, and had honeymooned to Alaska for summer jobs. Apparently still in the honeymoon stage, I let him drag me on an unexpected adventure! Photos follow the story…) “Stop! There’s one right there!” “Where?” “Right there! See it? Slow down!! Shhhhh! Oh, I hate...

We crossed the border into Switzerland for the first time, and immediately noticed a huge increase in costs. Everything comes at least double the price—literally. While so much of Europe has switched to the Euro, Switzerland has refused to give up his high-value currency—and I don’t blame them. If you want to see a comparison of US costs vs the Swiss Franc exchange rate, check out this website. We were...

Jared kept us going through the Alsace Region of France…this time to Kayserberg and then Colmar. I don’t remember anything specific about Kayserberg…so I’m assuming these were all drive-by photos 🙂 I’m assuming this is where my photos switch from Kayserberg to Colmar…but how is one to be absolutely certain more than 2 1/2 years later when trying to catch up on blogging? In Colmar I would...

Next up in Alsace, France, we drove to Riquewihr—which is noted as one of the most beautiful villages in France (we agree). It’s 7 miles away from the popular city of Colmar, and supposedly looks, more or less, like it did back in the 16th century. Riquewihr was one of the few towns in the area not badly damaged during WWII-so it’s a beautiful place to experience some preserved history. The town is...