Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts

02 February 2014

Our Best Stays, Family Style

February 02, 2014 0
Emma, and Kelly, my fellow England bloggers invited me to participate in their link up about our most memorable night's sleep.  It's difficult to narrow it down to one, so I'll share a few.

Being a family of 5 and finding places to stay while traveling can be a lengthy process.  Surprisingly though, I enjoy the challenge of finding that perfect place that's nice, inexpensive and convenient.  

Most hotels don't work for us.  Then you have the challenge of finding a holiday rental that will allow you to rent for shorter than a week.

It might take some time, but we always manage to find something.

Here are a few of my favorite stays.

Altea, Spain - September 2010


 Look at that view!!  This was such an amazing last minute score.  All you can see was water!  Out on the balcony you can see the small street and short beach area and hear the waves lapping on the rocks.  Being a rocky beach keeps the numbers down, which we like.

I actually enjoyed waking up early before the rest of the family to capture these sunrises.


Benalmadena, Spain - June 2011




We didn't have an ocean view, but the pool view was pretty!


Benalmadena is located about 25 minutes south of Malaga.  We fell in love with the quieter beaches when we'd visited this area before on our crazy quick trip.



Brighton, England - April 2012


We stayed in a lovely little cottage on a twitten.




Homer, Alaska - September 2012


We stayed in the Land's End Hotel located at the end of the Homer Spit.  A place I grew up going every summer to camp and deep sea fish for halibut.  I always dreamed of staying in this hotel as a kid.


Fort William, Scotland - August 2013
Dalchreggan Guest House


It's easier to find a B&B in the UK that holds a family  We had a nice large room.  The down side, it's extremely awkward and embarrassing if your kid decides to have a fit!  Yeah, that happened!

And one that I think will go down in history for us and that we would return to time and again would be our lovely stay on the border of Lahich in Liscannor, Ireland at Rannagh View.


This gorgeous house was so spacious and beautiful and had great views.  We were in awe of how nice it was.  The owner was so nice and the wife had fresh baked scones for us.



Aww, the view!


And that's our best stays, family style.

Where has been your best stay on your travels?


08 October 2013

Travel Tuesday: Homer, Alaska

It's now been one year since Jerry and I, along with my parents, took the kids to see where I grew up in Alaska.  This is a repost of our trip last year and updated a bit for Travel Tuesday with Bonnie at A Compass Rose.


When planning our Alaska trip, we all agreed we could not go leave Homer out.  It was a must!!!

Homer has one of the most interesting structures of land.  The Homer Spit!


The spit is a peninsula of land built up over time from sand, silt gravel and coal deposited by the currents of Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay.  It was reduced by over 200 acres after the 1964 earthquake.  

As the sign states below, it is the Halibut Fishing capital of the world and what took us on annual summer excursions to Homer for our yearly catch of halibut!


As a kid, tromping around from our camping spot located near the end of the spit, I always dreamed of staying at the Land's End Resort.


Because it was already off season, I got to fulfill that dream.  Funny how it wasn't quite as exciting as I pictured it when I was 12!  Ha!  However, the view was phenomenal!!


We took lots of walks along the beach.




The boat harbor is quite a site!

We decided we couldn't leave Homer without some halibut!  Jerry and my dad took a half day trip out on the Irish and caught their limit.




Watching daddy and grandpa go out on the boat!


Jerry took some great shots while they were out on the water.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  One of the only ones we had!


Some people eat herring as a delicacy, we see it as bait!!  Ha!


 The polls are all ready to go!


The currents can be strong.  These weights keep the line on the bottom of the ocean floor where the halibut forage for food.


A good sailor and fisherman needs their instruments!


They saw this upturned boat in the water.  There had been lots of junk in the water, logs, seaweed and such.  We heard some of it had traveled this way due to the tsunami in Japan!



Mount Iliamna, one of Alaska's volcanos.

Illiamna volcano

Look at this sea otter munching on a crab!  

Sea Otter Fishing

The catch!! 


We saw so much wildlife just in Homer!!  Like this young eagle.


And this bald eagle!

Alaskan Wildlife 9

We saw lots of starfish.




A graveyard of ships.


Glaciers.


Farmland with a view.....



The Seafarer's Memorial,


And gorgeous sunsets are just a few of the beauties you can see around Homer.


Alaskan Landscapes 15

And don't forget to stop by the original Alaska Wild Berry Products for souvenirs, reindeer sausage, jams and more!


Have you ever been to Alaska or want to go?

Deeper

  Deeper - adj. 1. extending or situated relatively far down from a surface: a deep pool. It's been a long time since I've ...