Back in 1989, RT and I celebrated our 20th anniversary, and we decided to celebrate the occasion by spending a week in Hawaii.  Since RT had traveled so much with his job, he had saved enough frequent flier points to completely pay for our round-trip plane fare.  We left the kids with family, and we were on our way to Honolulu. 

I had dreamed of going to Hawaii every since I had read James Michener’s book Hawaii when I was younger.  Seeing the places I had read about was almost magical to me.  There are so many things to do in Honolulu and so many things to see.  The first thing that struck me was the abundance of flowers.  Everything was in bloom and looking beautiful.  Then there were the rainbows.  Rainbows were plentiful - especially in the afternoons after a quick refreshing rain shower.

We hiked up Diamond Head to see the incredible views.  What a wonderful place to be!  We swam in the crystal clear water, snorkeled offshore, shopped at the International Market, visited Pearl Harbor and toured the Arizona Memorial.  We learned about Hawaiian culture by visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center.  RT’s father lived in Hawaii as a child, and we were able to see some of the areas that he had told RT about. 

Someday we intend to go back to Hawaii.  It is an unbelievably beautiful place.  You can call Trusted Tours & Attractions to plan a wide variety of individual, romantic, or family vacation ideas.  They have tours that will take you to the Big Island to explore Volcanoes National Park and the Thurston Lava Tube.    I think I could spend a month or more in Honolulu without seeing all the wonderful sights and attractions.

As some of you may know, my sister is currently in Germany for a couple weeks.  While there, her Army son will be marrying his German fiance.  She has already written on her blog about the wonderful time they’re having there - all the activities that are going on and the beautiful sights they’ve seen and the sites they’ve visited.

I am a bit jealous that she is traveling in a part of the world that I’ve always wanted to visit.  Ever since I saw “Heidi” as a child and then later ”The Sound of Music” when I was in high school or college (can’t remember which ), I’ve longed to visit Austria, Germany and all the beautiful and scenic places I saw in those favorite movies.

Just imagine gazing at the magestic mountains of the Bavarian Alps, seeing the Schonbrunn palace in Vienna, or visiting the Brandenburge gates in Berlin.  The great thing now is that you can do so much of the planning for those once-in-a-lifetime trips via the internet.  You can find wien hotels, hotels in berlin, hotels in muenchen, and hotels in deutschland.  You can follow links to find activities and sites of interest in all the places you long to travel.

A few years ago I made a trip with some friends along the Georgia coast and into Florida. One of the most beautiful places we visited was Amelia Island, Florida. Talk about heaven on earth - white sandy beaches, big oak trees, and a 50-block historic district in Fernandina Beach. Within those fifty block are many of the original structures dating back to the late 19th century. It includes many Victorian-style cottages and mansions. My friends and I enjoyed strolling along Centre Street that is packed with a wide variety of shops, art galleries and restaurants. There are also many lovely bed and breakfast inns in the historic district.

Now I’ve found a Lodging Special that gives you a third night free when you book two nights at one of Amelia Island’s hotels or bed and breakfast inns.  The deal is good through February 29, 2008.  That gives me a little over two months to get RT to help me plan our Amelia Island get-away.

So I’ve started preparing for the trip.  First of all, I read up on the history of Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach and discovered that it is the only city in the United States to have been under the domain of eight different national flags.  What eight nations could those flags represent?  I plan on visiting the Amelia Island Museum of History on RT’s and my trip there to learn more about the island’s varied and vibrant history.  There are also lots of activities.  Fort Clinch has six miles of hiking and biking trails, and there’s fishing, golf courses, bird-watching, sailing and beach combing.  Conde’ Nast readers voted it one of the top ten beaches in the America.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the island again and enjoying a relaxing three nights for the price of two.

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Savannah. I remember as a child, riding the train with my Girl Scout troop to visit the home of Juliet Lowe, the founder of Girl Scouting. Then a few years ago, I visited Savannah again with one of my friends. We visited the downtown shops on River Street (LOVED the pecan pralines at River Street Sweets), ate some of the best barbeque in the world and took some long walks along the river.  Then, just a couple weeks ago, RT had to be in Savannah on business.  I wanted SO badly to go with him! Doggone having to work!

If I ever get the chance to visit Savannah again, I’d like to take a tour. I especially think a Civil War Walk would be fascinating.  I would love to see the homes of some of the most famous Civil War generals and to learn more about Savannah’s role in the Civil War.  Besides a Civil War tour, I’d love to take a tour of Savannah’s famous haunted houses.  Cool, huh?

I was checking out Trusted Tours and Attractions and found that by subscribing to their free e-newsletter I would automatically be entered to win 4 free tickets to tours in a city of my choice.  So I’m entering so that the next time I can join RT on one of his business trips, I’ll be able to take advantage of tours in that area.  The e-newsletter offer ends Friday, December 14th, 2007.

Trusted Tours has a long list of cities with available tours, including San Diego and Key West.

The past year RT and I have stayed pretty close to home so we could oversee the building of our house.  Although our house is like our own little oasis in the world, we both want to do some traveling after we’ve recuperated from the past year.  One place we’ve always wanted to visit is Italy.  I was looking at the city guide for Florence, Italy to find out  more about the city.  I don’t want to visit the typical touristy places.  I’d love to go to Florence and spend a few weeks just traveling on backroads and visiting small towns and learning about the local culture.   The city guide link a particularly good link because it includes link to all kinds of information about Florence, Italy - including blog posts about it.

Then I looked at the International Hotel Guide which finds flights in addition to hotels.  Our trip seems reasonable, and we hope to make it sometime in the next two years.  And from this link, you can find guides to over 500 cities around the world.