FROM LAWRENCE, WITH LOVE

As the year draws to a close, I always like to take a few moments to reflect on all my experiences over the past 12 months. As with most years, 2017 will be remembered as a year of curve balls and unexpected surprises, but what would life be without occasional surprises and detours? Here’s my 2017 Year in Review. . . Overlooking Honolulu Work I just passed the two-year mark at the University of Kansas at the Center for Public Partnerships and Research, managing the Institute

My First Airbnb Experience For someone from the Midwest, my experience with Airbnb started out pretty spectacularly. My parents, husband, and an extended family member were traveling to Barcelona to board a Mediterranean cruise and we needed a place to stay for a couple of days. We wanted someplace that was pretty close to the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus route so that we could do that one of the days we were there and close to the top tourist attraction in all of Spain, the Sagrada Fa

Booking your first cruise can be incredibly overwhelming.  There are SO many options.  You have to choose a cruise line, a destination, a cabin, a dining time. . . the list keeps going.  There is so much to know and so many decisions to be made.  Below, I’ll try to help with some recommendations, from my 13 years of cruising experience. Q: Which cruise line/ship should I choose? This answer will depend on a few factors: Do you want lots of activities to do on-board while the

Day 1 means that we get to have our first look at the Liberty of the Seas.  This will be the largest ship that we’ve ever sailed on and I’m very much looking forward to exploring it’s offerings when we’re able to board. Before leaving the hotel, be sure to have a carry-on packed.  Typically, my carry-on consists of prescription medications, a swimming suit (if you’d like to swim when you get on the ship) and a change of clothes for that evening’s dinner (in case your luggage

On the first travel day, all 23 of us will be travelling to Ft. Lauderdale from various locations across the country. We’re hoping for good weather as we travel at the end of January since we’ll all be escaping the horrible mid-US winter. Most of us have flights on Delta in the mid-morning leaving from Kansas City. Others are flying in from Denver. We’re looking for a good place to have dinner in Ft. Lauderdale that evening, so if you have any suggestions, please let me

So, it’s been quite a while since anything was posted to the BLOG.  Hopefully, that will change since I have a new iPad and will have easier access to blogging going forward.  I thought it would be appropriate to start the blog posting back up again by writing a series of posts about our upcoming cruise to Jamaica and Haiti.  How appropriate, right?  My last big series of postings ended with posts about our honeymoon cruise, so why not start back up with the cruise we’re taki

#HollandAmerica #Oranjestad #HAL #Wanderlust #Travel #Aruba #Cruise

#HollandAmerica #Curacao #HAL #Wanderlust #Travel #Cruise

#HollandAmerica #HAL #Wanderlust #Bonaire #Travel #Cruise

#HollandAmerica #HAL #Wanderlust #DominicanRepublic #Travel #Samana #Cruise

Day 4 will bring us to our first independent island – Turks & Caicos.  I don’t know much about Turks & Caicos, but hopefully, I’ll learn more as we get to explore this island. The cruise center in Grand Turk offers a Flowrider Experience.  You know. . . the surf simulator that’s on the aft end of some of the larger Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships.  This one is different because it’s on land and available for anyone visiting the island, not just cruise ship passengers.  Through o

Day 3 of our Honeymoon will take us to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.  This is the island that’s owned by the Carnival Corporation and is shared by the ships that are owned by Carnival (Carnival, Holland America, Costa, etc).  We’ll have to tender in to the island since there isn’t a dock available. Half Moon Cay offers tons of amenities and lots of beach availability to just lounge and relax.  We’re not sure what we will be doing in Half Moon Cay and as with the rest of the Honeymo

Day 2 of our Honeymoon will bring us boarding the Holland America ms Noordam for our 10-night cruise.  We’ve been looking forward to this cruise since we got home from our last one.  It will be a new experience because we’ve sailed on both Royal Caribbean and Carnival before, but never Holland America. #Noordam #HollandAmerica #HAL #Wanderlust #Travel #Cruise

We’ll be taking off bright and early the Monday after the wedding and heading for sunny Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  We’ve been to Ft. Lauderdale together before and decided to book a less expensive hotel near the airport this time since we would only be there for one night.  We got a great deal through Expedia for about $200 per person, including both round-trip airfare and hotel for one night. We don’t have great plans for Ft. Lauderdale this trip, but we’ll probably find a nice re

Unfortunately, our amazing cruise had to come to an end. . . Here’s the menu for our last night on the ship: For an appetizer, I had the Chicken Fettuccini.  It was wonderful. I also tried the crab cake and I wasn’t a huge fan of it. My main course was the jumbo panko crusted shrimp.  I LOVE shrimp.  You might have noticed how many times I ordered them on this cruise. Before dinner, some of my family and our travel agent brought Josh some Indian food because they got to meet

Unfortunately, we didn’t really do anything exciting in St. Kitts.  By this time, we were pretty tired and decided to spend some time shopping in the complex right where we docked. Like all of the other islands, the views in St. Kitts were beautiful as well. This is the shopping center.  I believe that it was a fairly new build and they definitely had a neat variety of shops to look around in.  Josh and I even ended up going into a convenience store/internet cafe to check up

Here’s the menu: I love how the fried shrimp is listed as "Fried Shrimps".  Apparently, the menu author isn’t a native English speaker. Josh had the chicken tenders marinated in Thai spices.  In my experience with Thai food, I know that I need to be careful when I order a Thai dish because sometimes, they are crazy spicy.  This dish was in the mid-range of spiciness.  It didn’t kill me, but it wasn’t Sunday at Grandma’s house either. I ordered the fried shrimps.  They were de

We had big plans in Antigua.  We were touring with Gordon of www.tourguidegordon.com and it was well worth the wait.  Gordon was actually our guide in our van and he did an amazing job of showing us all about his home.  When we docked in Antigua, the Norwegian Dawn was in port with us. One of our first stops in Antigua was an old Fort.  There was an adorable puppy at the Fort and it seemed like he didn’t really have a home.  We were all to scared to touch him, but he sure was

Again, no menu photos. For starters on day 4, I had the Corn Chowder and the Cream of Broccoli Soup, which were both very good. Josh has the escargot, which he always enjoys. He also had fried oysters. I don’t remember why I don’t have photos of both our main courses this night, but I did get a photo of the shrimp dish that we shared in addition to our normal main course.  Neither of us thought it was amazing. I got an artsy shot of the table since there wasn’t anyone

Day 4 of the cruise was the best day BY FAR!  I had been looking forward to visiting St. Lucia since I first saw the photos of the Pitons on Google Earth when we first booked the cruise.  I couldn’t wait to see those gorgeous mountains come into view backed by the Caribbean Sea.  I knew it would be a moment of the cruise that I would never forget. When we were talking about the next day’s activities the night before at dinner, Ashleigh mentioned that she and James and her mom