If you ever find yourself in Omaha, Nebraska on a Sunday...

Stop in to Caniglia's Venice Inn and order their special. 

As a preface, Caniglia's Venice Inn is one of several restaurants that have been around Omaha for decades. My family has been going to it for over a half of a century. I personally didn't get to experience it until sometime in the last few years. But this past Sunday I had what I would consider a holy experience in regards to the food they served. 

Caniglia's is known for their steaks, and, as a matter of fact, they recently were declared the winners of the best steak in an episode of The Travel Channel's Food Wars show against Piccolo Pete's. So I was excited this weekend to try some of their world famous beef. 

Now, Nebraska beef alone can be a holy experience for people who have never had it before. I've lived all over the country and have never had anything that comes close to being as tender and flavorful. 

To say Caniglia's Sunday Special is a feast would be an understatement. It truly is a meal fit for a king. I strongly recommend fasting beforehand, otherwise there is no hope you'll make it through the first course. 

The meal included the following:

• Salad Bar 
• Bread Rolls
• Two pieces of Toasted Ravioli
• Vegetable Beef Soup
• Prime Rib (9 oz.) w/ Horseradish and au jus
• Baked Potato w/ Sour Cream
• Side of Mostaccioli
• Spumoni Ice Cream

I couldn't make it through everything, but I tried to hit as much of it as I could. I'm going to go through this piece by piece, because there are some important things to note. 

The salad bar at Caniglia's is fantastic. And it's not because it's a super impressive spread of all sorts of fixings. It's because it's basic, with one key twist: their signature Sweet Italian Dressing. It's to die for. Honestly, it really has become my favorite dressing. If you live in the Nebraska area, some of the Hy-Vee's in Omaha carry it as well as The Saucy Cook in Lincoln. Try it. I have yet to find someone who doesn't love it.

My aunt got me turned on to the toasted ravioli appetizer.And it lived up to the expectations she set for it. It's basically ravioli stuffed with ground beef, breaded and then toasted. It comes with a side of marinara sauce. It's rich, almost to the point of being decadent, so the 2-piece limit for this meal was key. Even though it leaves your mouth watering for more, your stomach will be happy you stuck with two. 

You know when you go to your average Italian restaurant and they have a soup that they bring out and wherever you go it always seems to taste the same? You won't find that here. Their beef vegetable soup is extremely flavorful. It comes in a small cup-sized bowl, which is the perfect size. It's got a unique blend of garlic and Italian seasonings mixed with the ground beef and vegetables. If I could have a mini bowl of this before every meal, I think I'd be a very happy person.

The Prime Rib. Oh, good lord, the prime rib. So tender, so juicy, so SO flavorful. It literally was a melt in your mouth experience. And the horseradish sauce that they bring with it is perfectly blended so it is perfectly balanced between not enough perkiness and too much perkiness. It's just divine. there is no other word for it.

The poor baked potato. I'm sad to say that it was the major sacrifice from my meal. I had about two bites of it before I decided that I needed to focus my efforts on the steak. It was good, but a bit over-sized for that type of meal. Especially considering there was already a side of Mostaccioli. 

Speaking of Mostaccioli. If you've never had it, it's basically penne pasta in a marinara sauce. And it has got to be about the best marinara sauce I have ever tasted. Honestly, it looks as basic as Ragu in appearance, but the flavor in that sauce is amazing. I mean, it's like Italy left a stamp on your tongue. The garlic, the oregano, the basil. Bellissima!!

That just leaves to Spumoni. I haven't had spumoni in at least a decade. And after having one bite of the Spumoni at Caniglia's it was well worth the wait. For some reason I associate spumoni with my grandma's apartment. I think I must have had it there several times, but I can't think of a specific instance, but taking one bite-full of the spumoni kind of summoned up that feeling of when your grandma sets a bowl of ice cream down in front of you when you are a little kid, and you just love every minute of it. The anticipation as she scoops it from the container, the clinks of the spoon into the bowl, and watching the ice cream melt around the edges before consuming it.

And, in a whole, that is the kind of feeling the restaurant gives off. A meal you'd expect your grandmother to make as opposed to something you get out in a restaurant. 

So, if you find yourself in Omaha, Nebraska anytime soon, head over to Caniglia's Venice Inn. I promise you it will be worth the trip.

Connected

Okay. I need to preface this with some info. I actually wrote and published this entire post before and godaddy then deleted it. Which was seriously my favorite thing on the planet (not). So now, I am going to have to re-write the whole thing again.

The irony of this situation was that my post was on the additional ways you could keep in touch with me in the event that this blog prevents me from posting future blogs (as has been the issue the past week or so). I've been having some technical problems arise, ones that godaddy is giving very little explanation or apology for when I submitted a question/complaint. Whatever. As it stands now, when my site is up for renewal, I will be taking my business elsewhere.

But I digress...

Here are a few other ways you can connect with me:

TWITTER

I will confess, I know very little about what I am supposed to be doing or how to use Twitter. But I am trying. So come and find me @msadventravel. 

FACEBOOK

I am obsessed with facebook. I will admit to being a total facebook stalker. But I promise I am not the kind of facebook stalker that prints things out from your profile and pastes them to a master web board on my wall.  I use facebook to let people know when I have added a post or to share a random link. It's just an easy way to stay connected. So come and check out my facebook page Miss Adventurous Travel. 

TUMBLR

I have been trying to figure out tumbler for years. From what I understand of it, it's like a strange hybrid of Twitter, Facebook, and a Blog. But for me it's just an easy place that I can share cool links with people. So I will post interesting travel articles and videos that I find on the interwebs on my Tumblr site. So come check it out!

Okay, I have successfully given you three additional ways to stay in touch. And I promise I won't go so long without posting again. So long as stupid godaddy stops with the insane blockage of my blogging. 

Passport

I must apologize again, my wonderful followers...time has slipped away again this evening. I decided to start waking up at 4:45 a.m. to go work out at the gym in hopes that it would free up some time in the evenings for me to write. But, alas, tonight it didn't. I had to get the place cleaned up since my brother is coming into town! Hopefully we'll make it over to my favorite bar in town, The Starlite Lounge, while he is here. Expect a full write-up about that place!

I decided I'd write a brief post today about my relationship with my passport. 

When I lived in Oregon, I traveled up to Canada very often to visit my good friends and the guy I was dating at the time (who is now a good friend). I was generally stressed out all the time during this period of my life, and I started to carry my passport with me wherever I went, figuring that if I finally had a psychotic break I could just run away and flee the country. And I still do that when I am stressed. It's kind of my security blanket. I just realized that tonight actually, when I found it in a purse that I haven't used in awhile. I pulled it out of the pocket, brushed off the dust and just flipped through it and felt comforted. Not by the stamps on there (I only have one actual stamp...of the many times I went to Canada, they only stamped it once)...but rather by the empty pages waiting to be filled. The United Kingdom will go in there next. But what comes after that? Italy? Greece? Germany? Ghana? Costa Rica? Japan? New Zealand? Thailand? There are just so many options. 

I feel the same way about an empty journal when I first buy it. I like to sit with it and flip through it like a page-turning novel, anticipating the words I will write in them.

Here's the difference though. I usually never fill the pages of the journals I buy. I let them sit on the shelves, afraid that what I write in them is unworthy. I let them sit in that anticipation and never follow up.

My passport will be different. Frosted with stamps of all different colors, shapes, sizes and languages. 

Like my journals, it will never contain the words to my stories (that's what this blog is for, after all) but it will contain stories by association.

It will be the proof that I lived, and lived well...never surrendering to the social norm. 

What will your passport say about you?

WWOOF

As I have previously mentioned, while I am traveling in Scotland I will be volunteering through an organization called WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms).

WWOOF is a network organization that brings together organic farmers and those willing to work on organic farms all around the world. People who are willing to put in a few hours of work each day are welcomed by the farmers by providing them with a place to stay as well as meals. The idea behind this is to not only provide the local farmers with super cheap labor in the almost 100 countries with WWOOF organizations, but also to teach the traveling helpers a thing or two about sustainable farming and the reward of living off the land.

Farms can range from dairy farms to orchards, vineyards, olive groves, and things as crazy as goat farms. So there is a wide variety of work that you can do.

Work usually consists of 5 hours a day. In exchange, you get free meals (almost all places), a place to sleep (caravan, guest house, room in the host's house, even sometimes an apartment), and weekends off! And most places you go to, the food you eat will have eat (and often help prepare) will have a lot of produce from the farm that you are working on. 

In order to become a member of WWOOF, you must purchase a WWOOF membership for the country that you are traveling to. They can range from $20 - $50, depending on the country. But it is well worth it for the money you save on travel. For my Scotland trip alone I am saving over $2,000!

I first found out about this organization about 5 years ago. Since then, I have always wanted to participate in it. I think the draw of this organization to me can be broken down in the following points:

• This is quite possibly the cheapest way to travel. All accommodations and food are taken care of by the host. Literally all you would have to pay for is transportation and any extra things you buy in your free time when you can explore.
• This approach puts you directly in with locals and truly gives you a local experience in whatever country you are in.
• In addition, there will be other WWOOFers from all over the world that will be there working with you. It's like a mini United Nations. 
• There’s got to be something satisfying about putting in some hard labor on the land, and then being able to partake in the product of that work whether it be consuming home-grown organic veggies, fruits, dairy, meat, honey, olive oil, and, yes, even wine.
• I’m not going to lie…the main kind of WWOOFing I lust after is centered around working on vineyards in Italy. I'll get there someday! Scotland awaits first, though! 

Now, I must admit, the mental image of me working hard labor on a farm kind of gives me the giggles. I mean it’s not going to be all Paris Hilton & Nicole Ritchie in “The Simple LIfe” or anything, I’m a much fiercer laborer than that. But still, strange things seem to happen to me wherever I go (hence the Miss Adventurous title). Which both terrifies me and thrills me. I truly believe it is going to be a great experience. 

Reb Stevenson, a Canadian travel writer and reporter (who is seriously one of my favorite travel people) made a great video from her experience WWOOFing. Check it out:

A brief post...

Sorry, I am running out of time after going over to a friend's house for a grill out. 

Which reminded me, trips that are only a few miles from your door to a friend's house are still trips and are always enjoyable.

Janae...your husband makes a mean gouda stuffed hamburger! I'm going to have dreams about that for a long time. 

Sorry for the super brief, hardly-a-post blog tonight. I promise tomorrow's post will be longer. Perhaps even painfully longer. Okay, okay...it'll just be plain old longer!

To Haggis or not to Haggis? That is the question.

Whether 'tis nobler, in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous cuisine....

Okay, let me preface this by saying that almost the entirety of my knowledge of Haggis, perhaps Scotland's most notorious meal, comes entirely from Mike Myers' movie "So I Married an Axe Murderer. 

Observe....

Here's where I am torn about trying it while I am in Scotland. All knowledge that I do have of Haggis leads me to believe that it is the most repugnant meal imaginable. But, I kind of have this personal policy...a binding contract with myself that I must try everything once. It's silly, I know...but still, I feel like this forces me to try new things and push me out of my comfort zone. And Haggis is definitely outside my comfort zone.

By now, some of you might be wondering what Haggis is. A Wikipedia post on Haggis describes it as the following:

"Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours." 

Now, if that doesn't sound like something from your worst nightmares, I don't know what would. 

Larousse Gastronomique described it as the following:

"Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour"

I could get on board with the savory flavor, but the "nutty texture" is doing nothing to pique my culinary interests.

Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet, wrote a famous poem called "Address to a Haggis," which is now used as the basis for a Burns Supper where a Haggis is walked out with bag pipes blazing, and someone recites Burns' "Address to a Haggis," which literally involves them speaking directly to the Haggis. It's actually quite entertaining. Here is a video...believe me, you want to make it at least to the part where the Haggis is cut. 

When I first watched the part where he squeezed out the haggis, I may or may not have retched.

But regardless, I still feel like I should try it. It's part of the experience.  I may have to down a dozen or so glasses of scotch before I can bring myself to take that first bite, but I'm going to do it, damnit! Maybe....possibly...no yes, I will do it. I think.  I think this is going to have to be an in-the-moment type decision. Which usually ends with me going through with something insane. So...you can go ahead and look forward to the post where three months from now where I take one bite of haggis and throw up all over the table! It'll be a great story, I'm sure!

For now, I am leaving you with a picture of haggis. Because I'm kind of a jerk like that. 

My Doomsday Travel List

CNN recently posted an article on their top picks for places to travel to in the event that the world was coming to an end. I loved it so much, I decided to steal the idea and come up with my own list of top countries I'd like to visit before doomsday! So here it is:

5. Costa Rica

I remember in Spanish class doing a project on Costa Rica and all the many things it had to offer. Ever since then I have wanted to travel there! I'm not sure yet in what capacity I will travel there...go the luxury route or something more simplistic like WWOOFing, but I will make it there one day!

4.) Greece. 

I think Hollywood has given me an unrealistic perception of Greece, in particular the beautiful islands like Santorini. But from what I have heard of people who have traveled there, it is well worth the journey! Though I probably shouldn't plan on finding a handsome Grecian to fall in love with instantly...  My reasons for going to Greece go beyond my undying love for gyros and souvlaki. It's the rich culture that I love! If I had the chance to WWOOF on an olive grove there I would jump on the opportunity in a heartbeat!

3.) Italy

What can I say? I've been in love with Italy since I was a little girl. It might have had something to do with the movie "Only You" but I can neither confirm nor deny that. Every Italian person I have ever met has been a character, and I LOVE characters. The exuberant culture and the beyond delicious cuisine has drawn me to this country for years. I took a year of Italian in college and just loved the way the words rolled off your tongue singing. It is the most beautiful language I have ever heard or spoken. When I do finally travel here, I will be WWOOFing on a vineyard! It'll be great because you'll get to stay with the local people there and eat meals with them, which, when I think of a quintessential Italian evening, it involves a table full of Italians eating amazing food. 

2.) Germany

The Motherland. Pretty much all of my family came over from Germany in the early 1900s. And because we're a hearty breed, we settled in the hearty Midwest. But I have always, always, always wanted to go back there and visit some of the places where my family lived. Like Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. My ancestors had a dairy farm there. When I do finally go to Germany, I would love to spend some time tracking down some distant relatives. But I'd also like to spend a good deal of time just traveling around, seeing things like Schwarzwald (the Black Forest), all the tudor-style houses my heart could desire, and finding the most delicious dish of spatzle the country has to offer.

  

But my #1 choice for doomsday travel would have to be:

1.) New Zealand

I love everything about this place. The scenery, the fun adventure activities, the Maori culture, the coasts, and most importantly, the accent!  I honestly don't know what draws me to this place the most. They are a country that loves environment and are on a mission to become the first carbon neutral country in the world. I love their progressive approach to environmental issues. New Zealand is kind of like a mecca for wandering, adventurous souls. I mean, who DOESN'T want to go here? And one day I will travel there and hike the trail to Mordor...oh wait, did I just say that out loud? 

The good thing is that The Rapture didn't happen! So I'll actually get to go to these places! Hooray!!

Where would you go if you knew the world was ending?? 

My Favorite Travel Moment (So Far...)

Okay, so I feel like this is going to be a weird moment to choose as a favorite travel moment. Just bare with me though.

I recently spent a particularly fantastic two weeks in Hawaii’i, traveling around from Oahu to Maui. It quite literally was the best, most thrilling vacation I have ever had, and truly what sparked this travel blog and furthered my need to travel to new places..  There are so many wonderful moments I could pick from that would be spectacularly wonderful…swimming with dolphins, cage diving with sharks, getting photographed with 5 parrots on my head and shoulders, swimming under a waterfall…the list goes on. But none of those are my favorite travel moment.

My favorite moment…the moment that honestly caused me to have this ethereal shift between the life I had struggled to accept and the life I so desperately wanted to lead. No, it wasn’t sailing on a catamaran at sunset, scuba diving at Molokini Crater, or getting rescued by a merry band of surfer dudes (though that was arguably a close second).

It happened on my airplane as I was waiting for the plane to depart from Hawaii.

It was dark out and I plopped into my seat, defeated. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to go back. I was, however, thankful for the fact that nobody was sitting in the seat next to me in the cramped row of my plane. And as I relaxed into the seat, I stared out the window.

A Hawaiian man in his mid- to late-twenties was loading luggage onto the plane, a strenuous and, I imagine, monotonous job. But this particular man, he was dancing up a storm between hauling the suitcases from the carts onto the loading belt. His dance moves were Polynesian mixed with hip-hop, and everything he did was animated and done with a gigantic grin on his face. As I stared at him out the window, a giant smiled formed on my face. He spun around and stuck his landing perfectly, letting out an excited “woo!” and I laughed.

The Shaka

The light still on in the cabin of the plane, he glanced up at me and realized he had an audience. And then a giant grin spanned his face and he raised his hand and pointed directly at me and then flashed me the Shaka, which is a multi-purpose Hawaiian hand gesture that can mean “hello,” “goodbye,” “alright,” “cool,” or “take care.” It’s kind of an all-encompassing gesture of the aloha spirit that makes Hawaii so wonderful.

I smile back to him, trying to emote from 20 feet above him through a tiny window just how much I enjoyed his presence there that night. And, in what would literally be my final communication with someone on Hawaii for that trip, I flashed him the Shaka in return and he smiled, laughed, and began dancing again. I laughed to myself and leaned back in my seat, content with the perfect end-cap to the perfect vacation.

That airport employee probably has no idea how much his gesture affected me. How much it ignited the longing to communicate with people from other walks of life. And how with one simple hand gesture, this stranger completed my trip in the most perfect way possible.

My travel buddy, Laura (far left,) and I (far right) with some Canadians we met biking down Haleakala on Maui. Rain gear is not my best look...

The joy of air travel!

For starters, I don't mean the subject of this blog post in a sarcastic way. I actually really do love air travel! Just not the airport part of it. I mean, who wants to pay $5 for a bottle of water? 

I've always loved airplanes. I remember the first time I got to ride on an airplane. I was 8 and my family decided to ditch the station wagon road trips we usually took every summer to head down to Disney World in Florida. In a weird twist, I remember being more excited about traveling on the plane than actually going to Disney World (in retrospect, this might have been because I fear all things of mascot nature...if I can't see your face an eyes pal, you are Enemy #1). 

I distinctly remember standing at the airport gate with my nosed pressed to the window eying the plane and all the crew members working to get the current passengers off the plane and to and get it ready for us to board. Of course, I had no idea what all was happening back then, but I was taking all the visuals in. 

I got momentarily distracted by the steam appearing and disappearing from the window with each breath I took, and when I finally refocused my eyes down to the tarmac below, I saw a man in a sharp suit, his head adorned with a navy and gold trimmed pilot's hat. I pulled both my my hands up and pressed intently against the window, as if by applying force to the window I would be able to get a closer look. 

After a few moments, the pilot turned back towards the building and looked up at the window. He saw me there, smiled at me and gave me a friendly wave. I jerked back from the window.

"He can see me??"  surprisingly, that thought hadn't occurred to me. But I quickly sprung back, smiled and waved enthusiastically through the oily nose prints that graced the surface of the window. I then immediately sprung up to tell my parents about it. 

Awhile later, as we boarded, and crossed the threshold of the plane the pilot was standing there getting ready to go into the cockpit. But he saw me and stopped himself. 

"Hey! You're the girl who waved at me from the window, aren't you?" He smiled. I nodded, trying to contain my excitement. THE PILOT KNOWS ME!!

"I'm Mike, what's your name?" He said to me.

I'm sure I responded with "Saywah," back in the days before my speech impediment was corrected and I still couldn't pronounce the letter "R". 

He then invited my brother, Matt, and I into the cockpit so that we could see how everything operated. He even let us turn the engine on! And when it was finally time to head on out, we clamored back to our seats to tell everyone else about it. And as the pilot got on the intercom to greet the passengers and brief them on the flight details, he gave a shout out to Matt and I and announced us as special guests on the plane. 

I'm not going to lie, I thought I was pretty damn cool to be friends with the pilot. 

I've never been an uneasy traveler. My dad works in aviation, so whenever I'd feel a bump or a hear a strange noise, I'd look over at my dad and deduce from his lack of reaction that everything was normal. Besides, I think I get caught up in the magic of it too much.

I almost always get the window seat on any trip, I'm like a little kid--even still! I love watching he world shrink and expand again from my tiny airplane window with each departure and arrival. I love the rolly poly feeling in your stomach when the plane finally speeds up to take off, and the assuring bump and rumble of the landing. It still feels me with wonder that I can step foot on the plan on one side of the country and, a few hours later, I exit on the other side of the country. 

Last October, on a flight from Oahu to Maui in Hawaii, my best friend Laura and I were sitting in our seats trying not to drool on ourselves from having to wake up at 2 a.m. to catch a flight, and as the plane lifted into the clouds, a little kid who was sitting behind us exclaimed:

"LOOK, DADDY!! WE'RE ENTERING COTTON CANDY LAND!!"

I laughed for at least 45 minutes about that because it was so adorable and so sweet and innocently true. 

Now, when the planes enter the layer of clouds, I think of that kid and smile. Our shared enthusiasm might not show on the surface for me anymore, but it simmers beneath the surface.

It's set!

First off...I apologize that this post is, again, going to be short for today. I've spent most of the evening making apple dumplings for a work function tomorrow, so I haven't had a chance to sit down until now, and it's only temporary until the buzzer goes off! I also had some technical difficulty logging into the site tonight, I was having a moment of panic that I wouldn't even be able to post at all! Sheesh. 

Anyway!

I bought my ticket to Scotland this evening!!! Woo hoo! I'm so excited (though less so for the giant hole in my checking account where money used to lie) but it will be so worth it! I can't believe I'm finally going to get to go abroad. I've been to Canada before, but that's the only other country I've made it too. So this is going to be really an amazing experience for me.

It is going to be a LOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG flight though! The longest leg of it (from Minneapolis to Amsterdam) is over 9 hours! I'm totally going to have cabin fever! I can't decide if an aisle seat or a window seat would be better! So many choices! Now I have to book my ticket on the crazy boat, a one-night stay at a hotel in Aberdeen, and a one-night stay at a hotel in Edinburgh...and that is the extent of the expenses for my trip! That and a bottle of Scotch to bring home for my "I Heart Scotch, Scotchy, Scotch" brother, Matt. 

Okay. I have two more minutes on the buzzer, so I have to make this brief. I'm going to leave you with a random photo I took several years ago. For absolutely no reason other than to dress this post up a bit more. 

The Shetland Islands

Okay so I don't have a lot of time to post tonight, so I thought I would share with you a three-part video that I found on YouTube about the Shetland Islands. I'm sure you all are going to get sick of me talking about them. But I'm fascinated by them...after going through my life never hearing about the islands, it's been so amazing to learn about them and see their beauty...even though there are pretty much no trees on the islands, the super green pastured land looks amazing! Plus, there are some cool kind of pre-historic/viking ruins on the islands that look super interesting, too! I can't wait to take my Nikon there and just go to town with photos!

So here are the videos, in case you have never heard about the islands either!

One if by land, two if by sea!

My trip to Scotland this fall should be epic for many reasons. But the most exciting of which is the wide-variety of transportation that I will be having to use in order to get over to the remote Shetland Islands. On the way back:

• Plane from Lerwick to Aberdeen
• Bus from Ferry Terminal to Train Station
• Train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh
• Bus from Train Station to Hotel
• Taxi/Bus from Hotel to Airport
• Plane from Edinburgh back to the states
• Car ride from Airport to my home

 

It seriously will be a miracle if I don't get lost! For real. I am not very public transportation savvy...but I also hate sticking out like an idiot tourist, so this is going to be interesting! 

 

There are two things I am looking forward to the most. 

 

The first is the train ride from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. I have never used a train as a means of transportation before, and there is something incredibly romantic and fantastic about taking a train across the Scottish countryside. My camera and I are going to have fun on that trip!

 

The second thing I am looking forward to* is the boat ride from Aberdeen to Lerwick on the mainland of Shetland Island. I've taken ferries from mainland British Columbia to Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands dozens of times, but I have never spent the night on a boat! I'll have my own cabin on the 

Bus from Hillswick to LerwickNorthlink Ferries. Complete with a window and wi-fi access! So you will likely see a blog post from me during this voyage!  The Ferry ride will last about 15 hours from start to finish, and the boat has restaurants, bars, stores to shop at, and even a cinema on board! So much excitement! I am pretty sure after the exhausting travel that I will be doing the two days prior, I will be passed out in my cabin. And maybe that's a good thing.

I realized something today that is kind of terrifying. About 6 months ago I saw a video that had gone semi-viral on youtube about a passenger boat that had gotten into some rough waters. At the time, I didn't even pay attention to where it was. Probably because the boat was headed to a location I had never heard of at the time. Anyone out there want to take a guess as to what that location is? Yup, that's right. It was headed to Shetland. I'm including the video below to show you how terrifying this is. I'm pretty sure i'm going to need to bring a helmet and some elbow and knee pads for protection! 

 

As it stands right now, I will be using the following transportation in this order:

 

On the way there:

• Car to Airport
• Plane to Aberdeen Airport
• Taxi from Airport to Hotel
• Walk from Hotel to Ferry Terminal
• Ferry overnight to Lerwick
• Bus from Lerwick to Hillswick

 

A great vacation rental in Kailua, Hawaii

When I went to Hawaii back in September/October of 2010 (FYI, you will be hearing a lot about this trip in the coming posts because there were so many great things from that trip!) my friend Laura (my BFF from High School) and I decided to go a different route than to just stay at high priced hotels and resorts. 


I was given the task of finding a place for us to stay both on Oahu and later on Maui. And I had SO much fun finding the places! There were so many to choose from, which was intimidating at first, but later it became a fun game to find out the absolute perfect place for us to stay. 


I think we both agreed that after the first few days in the crazy tourist area of Waikiki, we were eager to get out of the city a little bit and settled on a wonderful place in Kailua, about 30 minutes outside of Honolulu. 


I found the vacation rental via Home Away, which lets owners rent out their property to travelers such as myself. 


We chose the cottage in Kailua because it was a central location for us to access Honolulu as well as the North Shore, while still being near to a beach (about 3 minutes away). Neither Laura or I had ever used any vacation rental place like Home Away or VRBO, so we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into. To our amazement we arrived to a room with this view:









It pretty much blew all my expectations for the place. It was perfect. The property was gated off and you just felt totally safe. Most nights/days we didn't even lock the doors! And I'm a paranoid person, so that's saying something about how nice and remote the area is. 


The owner, Elizabeth, was so wonderful and hospitable. She even had a welcome basket with food and fresh fruit, and some drinks in the refrigerator. 


On one of the days, Laura had gone off to scuba dive (I am freaked out by the idea of scuba diving...) and I got a chance to sit down with Elizabeth, who was roughly my parent's age, and heard about her childhood growing up in Kailua (her parent's built the house there). 
 It was so interesting listening to her talk about how things were back in the days there. I had been telling her how Laura and I had gone to the Waimea Falls and she was talking about how she used to play there as a kid and that Awapuhi plants used to line the banks there and how they would break off the plants with their giant blooms and hit each other over the heads with them. The plan would foam up and produce a really nice shampoo for their heads. I remember using Awapuhi shampoo as a kid. I love hearing stories like that. 


The place just got more beautiful every moment we spent there. But due to a tight schedule, we didn't really get  to spend much time there. But the views that we did get to see there were amazing!










One of my favorite moments of the entire time we stayed there though was one night when we came back from having dinner with my good friend Jaq. It started pouring out right around the time that we got back to the place late at night. And we decided to jump in the pool. There are few things in life as wonderful as being in a pool, or lake, or ocean when it is raining out. If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it. 


So, if you ever find yourself headed to Kailua, Hawaii (on Oahu) be sure to check out this cottage that is available via HomeAway! You will leave filled with the Aloha Spirit!

Scotland 2011

Everyone knows I love to travel. But most people are extremely surprised to learn that I have never been abroad.

While I have been to all but about 5 states, and have done quite a bit of travel in British Columbia, Canada...I have never ventured farther than that! Hawai'i, although a US state, was about as close to an international experience as I've gotten with all the cultural wonders that a person could want there! 


After I got back from Hawai'i, it seriously reignited my travel passion...albeit after about a 2-month post-vacation depression. But when I finally snapped out of that, everything made sense!


So, now I am planning my first major trip to Europe for a near 3-week stay in Scotland. More specifically, the Shetland Islands! 


In case you don't know where the Shetland Islands are (I certainly didn't until I happened upon them by chance) you can see on the map below:





View Larger Map 


They are located about 200 miles north of Aberdeen, Scotland. 


I'm using an organization called WWOOF, or Worldwide Workers on Organic Farms. WWOOF is a organization that pairs you with local people in other countries where you can volunteer to work on their organic farms in exchange for a place to stay and food to eat. It makes traveling ridiculously cheap, all you have to pay for is transportation there!


I am going to be staying at the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary in Hillswick. I could not be more excited about it! They rescue and help nurse back to health injured sealife from the island. And when I am going to be there, it will be the most active time, so I will get to help out with the rescues! And I will get to stay at a place that is this beautiful:





The Shetland Islands are actually quite a fascinating place, with a good amount of viking and Norwegian history. The Shetland Islands didn't even become part of the U.K. until the 18th Century, so remnants of the Old Norse language still exist there and is referred to as Norn. You should listen to what the Shetland dialect sounds like here:









I love the accent! 


It is going to be an amazing experience, too, because I am doing this trip solo! That's right...I'm traveling to another country all on my own! I'm kind of thrilled with the idea of it. Plus, the cool part is, I will get to meet other WWOOFers from around the world who will be there at the same time!


I will be posting more about this throughout the next few months...so I will keep this to a generalization for now. 


So, if you'll excuse me, I have to go sleep so I can dream of men in kilts and the sound of bagpipes.

The Art of Misadventure - Sea Kayaking to the Mokulua Islands

*****This was taken from a speech I gave for SpeechCraft a few weeks ago. I enjoyed writing it so much that it was kind of the spark for this blog to me! Enjoy!*****
The Art of the Misadventure 
I can still remember the first time I had a misadventure. 

I was 5. My family and I had gone to Colorado for vacation like we did every year back then. My parents had decided that it would be an awesome idea for all of us (my three brothers and I) to hike up a mountain and back.

The only problem was, somewhere along the way we lost the trail. As dusk approached, my parents were desperately trying to figure out what to do. With no cell phones and absolutely no one else around, there wasn't much to do but keep walking. But throughout all of it, I wasn't scared...as a matter of fact, I felt there was absolutely nothing to worry about because I was packin' a ziploc bag full of gummy bears in my purple "My Little Pony" backpack. And I knew this secret weapon could make everything be okay. 

That was probably a lie...I’m sure I was terrified. I vaguely remember my three older brothers trying to scare me in regards to the overpopulation of snakes that they said existed in the woods and come out at night. But I’m sure the gummy bears brought some comfort. 

Eventually we did make it out of the mountain...but we landed on the wrong side of it and my dad had to hitchhike to the opposite side of the mountain to get the car. 

It was the first of many misadventures that would follow. 

I had a series of crazy misadventures in my youth, but it was the misadventures that I've gone on with Laura, my best friend from high school, that have provided the most epic stories. 

There was the road trip across country with massive sunburns driving in my old volvo with no air conditioning. Then later on that trip getting stuck in a mud puddle on a dirt road miles away from anywhere in Wyoming. And then there was the time that Laura and I went on a trip to Colorado to go whitewater rafting. But before that could happen I wound up in the hospital for almost a week having emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. 

But my favorite misadventure I've ever had with her was when we went sea kayaking in Hawaii just outside of Kailua on Oahu. 

Picture this: You're in one of the most beautiful places on earth, on one of the more remote beaches in on Oahu, you'll be kayaking between Kailua beach and Lanikai beach, which run parallel to the two mini islands a mile or so off the coast, called the Mokulua Islands, or The Twin Islands. It's paradise. 


Laura and I as we set out for our adventure...so hopeful...so unaware...

Now, sea kayaking sounds awesome in theory, and I had always wanted to try it. But the peaceful, serene atmosphere I had always imagined quickly crumbled before my eyes. We ended up getting a two-person kayak so that if I ended up getting carried out to sea, Laura would come with me. It was a wise decision, because I'm pretty sure I'd be floating somewhere in the middle of the pacific right now if we hadn't. 

The first thing I learned was that sea kayaks are hard to get in. We capsized no less than 3 times while trying to set off on our adventure. Once we finally got the hang of it and set off, it was amazing. The views couldn't be beat and the water couldn't be bluer. 

After kayaking around for awhile, Laura decides that we are what the rafting guides considered "experts" and that we should kayak out to the Mokulua islands which had been labeled for "EXPERT KAYAKERS ONLY" 

I spent a good deal of time trying to talk her out of it, pleading that her 1 prior sea kayak experience, and my current 45 minutes of experience did not make us experts. But, alas, she didn't listen. In retrospect, I probably should have ducked and rolled outta the boat and swam ashore. But I didn't. 

As we approached the island giant waves wrapped around it and crashed together in the middle of the beach. There was no good way of landing on the island, and eventually a wave took us down. 

Drenched, but alive, we washed ashore. And amazingly so did all of our gear. 

But more troublesome than our arrival on the island was the thought of departing as we watched these giant waves crashing together. 

Luckily for us, after several attempts to get in the kayak, and a near drowning, a merry band of surfer dudes came to our rescue and helped us get off the island. We then later capsized halfway between the island and the mainland shore. And again were rescued when a kayak tour guide saw us in distress. He managed to pull Laura up on to the raft and then made several attempts to get me on the boat without tipping it over again. I finally flopped onto the back of the kayak and thanked the guy and told him I was just going to lie there on my stomach for awhile while a string of kayakers on the tour passed by and I smiled and waved while they pointed and laughed. "Nothin' to see here folks..." 

We made it back to land finally, and in a final act of defiance, the kayak whipped around and tripped me, causing me to fall back into the ocean, once more. I got pretty angry over that part...mostly because it hurt my shin like you would not believe! Turns out, there’s a right way to get out of a kayak...and then there’s a wrong way. Guess which one I took? 

But the thing that ties all these stories together is the fact that during all of them, I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situations I get myself into. You can choose to get mad about things not going the way you planned, or you can laugh and realize you may not have ended up where you planned, but you ended up going on an adventure you never expected. And if there are surfer dudes there to rescue, it just makes it all that much more awesome! 

Non-Verbal Promis

Okay. Let's pretend for a second like this is a formal contract from me to you (all two of you).

I, Sara Sawatzki, do hereby promise unto you (readers of Miss Adventurous Travel) that I shall post no less than 1 post a day on this blog for the first 30 days starting the 12th day of May 2011. In addition, I promise to not write a post for the sake of writing a post to cover the day's obligation. I will henceforth write only the most entertaining and head-scratchingly weird travel stories I can muster up. When I run out of travel storyies I shall go out into the world to find new adventures to write about. 

This is my promise to you.



Signed:                 Sara Marie                           Date:   May 13, 2011 As witnessed by:           Sara's often-procrastinating alter ego "Stella"         
P.S. This post doesn't count as a post....in case you were wondering.