Author: Julie Moore

Journey to Alpine Christmas Markets

December 2024 saw us embark on our third adventure to visit European Christmas Markets.  We joined Insight Vacations Alpine Christmas Markets tour visiting Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France.  Some of the cities we were experiencing for a second time (first time in Summer 2017 on an Uniworld Cruise Castles Along the Rhine) while others were inaugural visits.

We met some wonderful people from Australia and the US.  Ate some tasty local specialties.  Learned about Christmas traditions in the countries we toured.  Visited beautiful historical cities.  Overall, a spectacular adventure!

Our journey is now live on the website.  Check it out!

Maui celebration

In July of 2015 we took a trip to the island of Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago. We spent a week there with James’ parents and sister’s family. The occasion was to celebrate (belatedly) his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. The island was beautiful and we had a great time with family. Check out the more detailed review on our website: https://happilyweroam.website/jaunts/2015_Maui

A Weekend in St Louis

We spent the last weekend in September 2024 in St Louis, MO.  We planned this trip in January to coincide with a concert at Busch Stadium.  Unfortunately, we did not attend the concert because it was postponed from Friday night to Sunday night (due to weather).  We made the best of the weekend even though we didn’t experience everything we intended.

What we did enjoy:

  • Car rolling 60,000 miles as we started our journey SE
  • Walking around the Outlet Mall in Chesterfield, MO
  • Checking out the area around Busch Stadium
  • Visiting The Puzzle Warehouse
  • Listening to the history of the Frank Lloyd Wright Kraus House in Ebsworth Park
  • Brunch at a local Bakery & walking around the Farmer’s Market
  • Browsing the aisles of IKEA
  • Seeing the magnificent Gateway Arch & parks near the Mississippi River
  • Intriguing Burlesque show

The best laid plans – as they say. 

We are getting ready for our next Jaunt within the next week.  Tune in to see where the planes take us. 😊

Find more details and photos here: St. Louis 2024

2012 Joyrides Published

James posted Reiman Gardens & Kansas City Joyrides.  Always fun and interesting to look back through pictures taken during vacations.  We knew this process would take time, effort, and dedication.  We are making progress….  Just think of this as the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.  🙂  We have learned it is much easier to take notes while on each vacation so when we return home, only small edits to the text are needed before narrowing down the photos to post. 

We have 2 vacations planned for 2024.  The first is in a couple months and the other is at the end of the year.  We also have a long weekend planned for Fall to see a concert.  Not sharing the destinations!  You will have to come back to find out where we “roamed”. 

Sending Love & Light!

Our Christmas Card theme this year is “Sending Love & Light”.  We felt this was appropriate since we included a selfie with the Eiffel Tower lit up. 

Wishing our family & friends a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and any other holiday you may celebrate!

Bonjour – Merci – Au Revior:  3 simple words made our trip to France amazing!

A trip we had planned to take in 2020 finally happened in June 2023.  We spent 2 weeks (re)visiting sites in Paris, meeting new people on our Insight Tour to Normandy & the Loire Valley, and ending with 2 “magical” days at Disneyland Paris.

In 2003 we had the opportunity to visit Paris, France for a week (it was our first international trip).  James worked for part of the week and Julie enjoyed the sites with a few other spouses.  Fast forward, 20 years later, and we visited some of the same sites and areas we experienced the first time.  The difference between these 2 adventures – we are older and a bit braver with our willingness to seek out our own excursions.  This trip we experienced both ends of the spectrum with both self-guided and pre-planned travel.

On our own:  Visited several Paris sites, figured out how to take the train to and from Vernon (Giverny) to see Claude Monet’s house and gardens, rode the Metro across the city several times including a trip to Versailles (we never accidently went the wrong direction!), and rode the RER to Disneyland Paris toting our suitcases.

On the tour:  Coach ride to several well known sites North and West of Paris.  Rouen, Omaha Beach, Mont-St-Michel, Chateau de Chenonceau, and Chartres to name a few.  Without the coach tour, we probably would not have seen the beautiful country side or learned about the history of this area.

The website now includes this trip, our daily activities, and a smattering of pictures. 

Apprécier (Enjoy)!

On a Mission (or 5) to visit the Alamo

We wanted to take a short vacation before June.  We decided on San Antonio!  James had never been there and Julie visited 30 years ago with her college friends when they drove to South Padre Island one Spring Break.

We booked our flights intending to leave early evening with arrival in San Antonio around midnight thinking this would give us 4 full days to explore.  Well, like the last time we flew out of DSM, best laid plans…..  Our original flight was canceled and we were rebooked on flights the following morning.  We arrived in San Antonio around 12:30p the following day which still gave us plenty of time to visit the River Walk and a few other attractions outside of downtown.

Check out the San Antonio Jaunts page to read about the rest of our adventure!

James also added 3 “Joyride” pages from 2008.  Take a look!

T S Lloyd-Weber?  Andrew Eliot?

CATS – 27 years apart at the Des Moines Civic Center

While cleaning out a box of mementos I came across a Playbill from a production of CATS at the Des Moines Civic Center we attended in January 1996.  Ironically (?) we attended CATS at the Des Moines Civic Center a couple weekends ago.  The performances were -almost- 27 years apart to the day.

As a lover of felines, I enjoy the performances of CATS as the actors get in to character and are able to depict the nuances of the species.

We enjoy live theater as it transports us to places with engaging stories and complex characters.  Experiencing these opportunities is almost as fun as visiting the actual locations to immerse oneself in the culture and history.

Global Entry – RENEWAL SUCCESS!  Only 9 months in the making…..

We started the process to renew our Global Entry application at the end of February 2022.  We both submitted our application and paid the fee on 2/26/2022.  Julie received a notification she was conditionally approved on 2/28/2022 (2 days!).  It took James another 4 months before he received his notification of a conditionally approved application (6/25/2022 – we were on our way back from Scotland!!).  If we had reviewed our email while in the Washington Dulles airport we may have been able to finish the interview process 5 months ago as we came through customs.  Julie would occasionally login to the Global Entry website to see if she could find available interview times at the Des Moines Airport; but there never seemed to be openings (either in person or via video).  We had decided we would try the interview upon entry option the next time we flew internationally.  In the meantime, we would keep looking (we didn’t want to drive to International Falls, MN or any other far reaching location to have a 10 minute interview).

Earlier in November, we visited our chiropractor and we always swap travel stories with he and his wife.  They had recently returned from Portugal and told us about their adventure.  We found out they had recently applied for Global Entry (their first application) and were able to obtain interviews in Des Moines.  We asked them how they were able to accomplish this feat since we struggled to find an appointment.  Our chiropractor said the Customs Agent in Des Moines randomly adds interview slots toward the end of the month for 3 months out.  So on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Julie logged in to the Global Entry site and clicked on Des Moines to see if there any openings for February or later.  Lo and behold (after rubbing her eyes and double checking the calendar date said 2022) Julie was able to schedule interviews for 11/27/2022!

3 hours after our in person interviews with a very nice customs agent, we received the notifications our applications were fully approved!

Now . . . what visually extraordinary location should we explore since we have Global Entry for another 5 years?

“The Music of the Night” will soon play its last note (on Broadway).

Sad to hear “The Phantom of the Opera” will be closing on Broadway in February 2023 after 35 years of performances.  This is one of my top 5 favorite plays.  I have seen it twice on Broadway.  The last time James & I saw Phantom, in New York, was in 2018 to celebrate my birthday.  We had a great time and, of course, I sang along!  Bravo, Bravo, Bravissimo to a fantastic show!

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