the turquoise trail

Hawaii; the big island I like to think of the big island of Hawaii as the rural island; it's raw, far less developed & has lots of wide open space (relative, of course.. you can still drive across the island in less than 2 hours..).  This is the island to come to if you like getting off the beaten track and nature is more your thing!  Some of my favourite things from a week on Hawaii.. {hiking} Kaumana Caves Park I did very little hiking during my stay on the big island.. the hiking I did do was mainly short sight-seeing type hikes.  Unfortunately, the Waipio Valley was closed due to a dengue fever outbreak, but I hear it has great hiking!  Kaumana Caves Park is just outside of Hilo and has a lava tube that you can follow for at least 1km!  It's really neat to see.. I'd recommend taking a light & coming back through the lava tube - the surface trail isn't well maintained or marked.  Green Sand beach is on the southern part of the island and...

Week 5: My favourite part. .. Hands down: whale watching.. Amazing!  Miles ... 901 Day 26: Pasadena, NL to Badger, NL 122 miles Got up around 8 this morning to have breakfast with a couple of very happy kids!  After breakfast, we got ready to head to church.  After church, we were invited out for lunch.. & what a spread! There were at least 5 different kinds of meat, and I didn't even count the vegetables.. It was delicious and I *obviously* ate way too much. After lunch, we made our way back to Pasadena where we figured out our plans for the night. It looked as if the rain would hold off, so I found a campground two hours down the road for the night. We got our things packed up, said a huge thank you & good bye, and hit the road east again! We didn't leave until about 5, and after a quick stop for gas, we headed towards Badger.  We got to the camp ground shortly after 7, to an already lit fire! After getting things set up, we had some dinner and...

I have to admit that I am definitely buying into the call of the mountains.. they are pretty tough to resist. I recently spent a few days exploring Banff, Lake Louise & Fernie with a friend, and it was absolutely incredible.  Seeing as there isn't too much snow this year, it was more of a sightseeing trip than anything. Here are some of the highlights..  {Lake Minnewanka} So gorgeous.  This view actually makes me speechless.  Something I found really interesting about this lake is that it develops bubbles in the ice which you can see as you are walking!  Nature is awesome. Lake Minnewanka {Wildlife} On our way to Lake Minnewanka, we were lucky enough to see a massive herd of elk!  It was my first time seeing elk outside of a zoo, so I was pretty excited.   Not very much further down the road, we also saw some mountain goats!  They were quite drawn to the salt on my cars tires, so we got really up close and personal with ...

{Wednesday October 8th} We got up around 7a for breakfast at 8a again this morning. We were served a delicious pancake breakfast with fresh fruit at our table overlooking St Finans Bay.  We left the B & B shortly before 9a, and headed around the southern part of the Ring of Kerry. We passed by Muckross House again, and decided to see if the timing for a tour would be any better today.  Ring of Kerry Sights It was, so we had a quick look around the gift shop and then began our guided tour of the house at 12p.  The house was built in 1847. We started our tour in the Victorian-era Dining room. The elaborate drapes were a gift from Queen Victoria when she visited in 1861, along with a large hand-carved, commissioned head board. The dining room table measures 6m x 2m.  All chandeliers in the house are Irish Waterford crystal, and many of tables and desks are traditional Killarney inlay furniture; they have very intricate designs inlaid in diff...

{Tuesday October 7} We got up around 7a this morning to get ready and have breakfast at 8a. The lady of the house here is very nice and offered us quite a selection of breakfast options. I had an apple and pear green tea (delish!), strawberry peach yogurt, and Irish soda bread with black currant jam.  We left our bed and breakfast around 9a to frosty window's and a chilly 4 degrees, and headed toward Mizen Head. We saw lots of rugged landscape, cows, and the end of the rainbow! We arrived shortly after 10a; the signal station and lookout points didn't open until 10:30a, so we walked down the road and through a field to admire the coastline. Thankfully it had warmed up to 12 and was quite nice for a walk.  Mizen Head When it opened, we bought our tickets and headed towards the signal house. We saw a couple lookouts and crossed the bridge which was extremely high. The shoreline was very steep, tall cliffs around the point and up the surrounding coastline. ...