Our Travels and Adventures
Here is a list of our travels and adventures in chronological order, starting with the most recent. Click on the link of any adventure to see more details, photos, and highlights.
2025
July 2025
Wyoming Mountain Biking
Salt Lake City
Grand Tetons
My daughter (Micaela) and her fiancee (David) wanted some help moving from their apartment in Salt Lake City to a larger townhome. I took this opportunity to load up Bessie for a solo trip and do some long-desired mountain biking in Wyoming and hiking in the Grand Tetons. In total this was a 13-day trip (including 4 days in Salt Lake City) and 3517 miles.
April 2025
Venice, the Adriatic & Greece on the Viking Saturn
We originally booked this cruise in 2024. Viking overbooked the cabins. They offered us a free upgrade to a junior suite if we delayed the trip for a year. We happily accepted the offer. The cruise started in Venice. It made stops in Croatia (Split and Dubrovnik), Montenegro (Kotor), and Greece (Corfu and Olympia). It ended in Athens, Greece where we took a couple extra days to explore. This was a special trip for Deb, to visit Croatia, her mom’s homeland.
2024
November 2024
Edinburgh, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland
Deb needed to visit University of Edinburgh, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University for work. Mike took the opportunity to tag along and we managed two fun weekends exploring the cities of Edinburgh and Dublin. Here are some of of our highlights:
Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Rolay Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Park and hike to Aurther’s Seat, Hollyrood Palace, Craigmillar Castle, Leith Port
Dublin: Trinity College and Book of Kells, National Botanical Garden, National Gallery of Ireland, Temple Bar, Guinness Brewery, Jameson Distillery.
Click to view more Edinburgh & Dublin
October 2024
Superior National Forest in Minnesota
This was our inaugural trip with the new van. We drove up to the south side of the Boundary Waters. We stayed at Hungry Jack Lodge & Campground, just a short walk to the Caribou Rock Trailhead. Caribou Rock Trail is a 7-8 mile out and back with awesome views of the surrounding lakes and waterfalls. It was a fairly strenuous hike that took us all morning to do. Near the turn-around spot we saw a few paddlers portaging their canoes between the lakes. No easy task given the steep and rocky terrain. I would love to do this hike again some day during peak fall colors.
Click to view more Superior National Forest
August 2024
Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor, Maine
This was my first post-retirement family vacation … free from work email, texts, cell phone and laptop … truly unplugged! We spent a full week exploring Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island. It was definitely peak tourist time in Bar Harbor, but with a little planning it was easy to find amazing hikes and adventures away from the crowds while still enjoying the busy shopping and dining options in town when we wanted. We stayed at a vacation rental in Otter Creek, just minutes from town but very quiet and remote.
Time 2 Xplore 