Two Months of RV Travel

For the months of May and June we plan to hook up the travel trailer (Annie) and hit the road. Our plan is to explore the entire East coast.

Here is our route as of right now. I had to break it into two maps as Google Maps would only allow so many stops... It's like they don't realize people may want to track A LOT of routes, as in a vacation that has many stops. I know we aren't the first to come up with this idea.

Here is Route 1 from Ocala, FL to the Portland/Boothbay Harbor, ME area.

Here is part 2 of our trip from Portland/Boothbay Harbor, ME back to Ocala, FL.

We plan to see several friends along the way. If you are on our route, let us know!!

Day of Relaxation at an All-Inclusive Resort

Photo courtesy of Linda

Every now and then it's nice to escape the ever day priorities and head to a local all-inclusive resort. With high season just now starting you can get good deals on hotels before it begins, so we did just that... Our friends, Paul & Linda, invited us to join them for a night at El Dorado Seaside Suites for a day of relaxing with great food and drinks.

After dropping Kevin & Jessica off at the ferry in Playa Del Carmen, we headed to the resort and checked in. The resort is BEAUTIFUL and they have some of the best food in the area. 

We were able to get a beach Bali bed as our room wasn't ready - all that means is laying in the warm sun while sipping cocktails to the relaxing beach sounds. Honestly, it's pure joy!

Keith taking a nap

We get laughed at when we post photos from resorts as people say we already live a vacation life, why do we need another vacation. Living in Mexico is nice but just like anyone we have errands to run, bills to pay, laundry to fold... So yeah. sometimes it's nice to get away from the norm and just do nothing.

Our little vacay consisted of eating, drinking, lounging, eating and then drinking more... It was delightful and not keto at all. Totally worth it!

Thanks Paul and Linda for the invite - as always, it was fabulous hanging out with you two! I am still dreaming about that dinner... #delish

Buying a Home in Lake Ozark, Missouri

Keith and I have been looking to find a home in the US ever since we left. We loved Seattle but it was too expensive for us to keep a home there and retire. We have been watch the Netflix show Ozark and they mentioned Lake Ozark has more coastline than California. That intrigued me.

I have been doing a ton of research on rentals in the area and how they perform and it seems, even though seasonal, they have a high % of rentals that perform rather well. We went to visit the area and REALLY liked it. The people are seriously some of the nicest I have ever met... and I'm originally from the South! Plus, we could afford a nice condo right on the lake, which is what we were hoping for.

So, after much searching, we found a condo we liked, made an offer and we closed on November 2nd.

We flew up for the closing and started on the place before the ink was dry. Keith had to fly back to Seattle to help his mother with a few things so I was left, with my father, to paint, decorate and get the place in order. We pretty much got everything done, except for a few things we plan to do in January.

Our plan for this place to to do the reverse snowbird so we can enjoy both locations. Plus we will be renting our Mexico place and the Lake Ozark home on Airbnb. Are you looking for a vacation?

Right now only our Mexico penthouse is listed on Airbnb as we are still working on the Lake Ozark condo. We do have a facebook page for both as well with lots of pictures and information. Check out La Casa Morada (Mexico) and the Blue Cat Condo (Lake Ozark).

If you watch the show Ozark you should understand the name and the decor... 

Check out our listings, share them with your friends/family, rent a few nights... We'd love to have you!

Back From Our Cruise & Back on Keto

Our European Cruise was AWESOME

Look at us looking all cute in France

We thoroughly enjoyed our 12 nights at sea with our friends the Chillihead Beach Bums! With this being their first cruise we were excited to show them all a cruise has to offer.

Our trip began in Barcelona where we boarded our boat. Once we set sail, our first stop was Nice, France. We explored the French Riviera and Monaco - talk about money!! I have never seen such large yachts! #lifegoals
I had no idea Monaco was it's own country, so I learned something new. Did you know that?

Pisa/Florence, Italy was our next stop. We took the day to see the leaning tower of Pisa, of course! Surprise, surprise, it was leaning. 

Rome was next and we decided to do an all day tour of Rome and the Vatican. Keith was just in awe of Vatican City as he grew up Catholic. Our tour was a skip the line tour and it was by far worth the extra money as those lines are LONG. As morbid as this is, the most interesting thing to me was seeing the dead priests they have laying inside the temple. It was so interesting seeing how they have preserved the bodies to honor them. 

The Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast is beautiful and was next on our stops. I have been there before so I was excited to go back. We did a tour of the whole coast which was great as we were able to see so many cities versus just staying in one. Ravello is still one of my favorites as it is such a cute town with a spectacular view. The roads are long and winding but we managed to snake our way through the hills and enjoy a lovely lunch with wine. 

Croatia was our least favorite stop as we weren't sure what to expect - I had heard it was beautiful but we just didn't see it there. Split is a very touristy area and we just didn't really see it for what the rest of Croatia probably possesses. We did a tour of the area but after it was over we headed back to the ship for lunch. We just weren't feeling it.

St. Marks Basilica

Venice was the one stop we all were looking forward to. The ship stayed overnight so we spent two days there instead of the typical 1. We did a ton of walking all up and down the streets. The best tour we did was a food and wine tour that took us to obscure places tourists wouldn't have visited. We loved it! Venice really is a great city to just get lost in - you can find so many cool buildings and streets. Keith and I really want to go back there for at least a week next time. The food we found for dinner was ok but I think we would have rather stayed up till the wee hours of the night and gone to a more local stop, but we were all starving by 5pm... Seems the locals eat more around 10pm. Next time! The next day Keith and I ventured off on our own for a local walking tour of hidden places - our tour guide was amazing and we found ourselves still finding more hidden places to eat and shop. If you haven't been, go! It's a city worth visiting!

Montenegro was our last stop and it was probably our biggest surprise. We didn't know what to expect as none of us had really ever heard of it before. It was amazing! We took a boat tour where we swam and ate and just enjoyed the very salty water of the Adriatic Sea. Floating was so easy but it was chilly. The views were amazing! We did venture into the town for a bit for some gelato and cocktails. It started poring on us so we eventually made our way back to the boat. It was a great day!

As always, Royal Caribbean was a spectacular way to travel and they never disappoint. The crew we interacted with was amazing and took great care of us. Keith and I ended up booking 2 more cruises for 2019 and 2020. Looking forward to those trips.

Keto on a Cruise - Can We Do It?

We leave for a 12 night cruise in a few days and are planning to stay Keto while traveling. It might be a bit tough as Italy has many stops along the way... Oh the pizza...

We did call ahead and request no carbs/sugar free meals. They were more than willing to accommodate our dietary needs. We learned about this on the last Royal Caribbean cruise we took with some friends. Our friend Dawn has some strict dietary needs and they went out of their way to make sure she had the food she needed and wanted. We were really impressed by their willing to go out of their way. Honestly, I am a huge fan of Royal Caribbean. This will be my 6th cruise with them. This is just one of the many reasons why I love them!

If you know me, then you know I am not a fan of Princess/Carnival - especially after our last fiasco that happened in January... We won't ever cruise with them again. They just don't have the level of customer appreciation that RC has.

We are hoping to book another cruise on Royal Caribbean during this trip but we aren't sure where yet. Maybe we will try Fiji again... Where would you go?

We'll post about our trip once we get back. Wish us luck!!

Our Lost Vacation

Keith & I had a dream vacation scheduled to be happening right now, but sadly, due to a missed connection due to Delta delaying us, we missed it.

Right now we should be headed into New Calcedonia before heading to the Fiji islands with Princess Cruises.

It all happened on January 9th when we went to the Orlando airport headed to LA to then catch a flight to Australia for our cruise that left on January 11th (the day we would have arrived). The pilot on the flight to LA decided to wait for two passengers, which then delayed our flight by 30 minutes. Once we arrived to LA, there was a plane at our gate so we had to wait another 10 for them to move. We only had 50 minutes between flights so now we are 40 minutes late. We were told over the loud speaker to head to our gate - there were 7 of us. We raced to the gate only to find out the plane decided to leave 5 minutes early (EARLY!!!), thus we all missed it. They offered to send us the next day but we would have missed our ship so it wouldn't work for us. The ship was at sea for several days so flying to Australia and then off to the next port would have resulted in hotel stays waiting to leave, thus missing 3 days of the cruise. Not something we wanted to do. Plus, it wasn't offered to us. They didn't know what to do with us so they sent us home. Due to the late hour, Princess wasn't open for us to even discuss options - their emergency number for delayed travel has business hours, which we were 8 hours outside of...

We have been fighting with Delta to cover the expense of the cruise as Princess won't cover it, although we are begging them to roll it over into another cruise if possible. We are still waiting on that. Delta told us to file a complaint. I have filed two. I was then told I should hear in 30 days... I have never bought travel insurance as I have never had an issue like this. Our flight was scheduled by Delta directly and they were aware of the cruise times and date when I worked with them on the phone to schedule our flights.

So, as it stands we are now hoping to re-coup the expense from Delta and it's feeling like a battle we will loose. Loosing almost $6,000 isn't an option I am ok with. Will I get travel insurance going forward, yes. But I refuse to let this be a $6,000 lesson. 

If you want to see how our battle is going, here is where it's currently raging. Feel free to leave a comment if you agree this is BS - we need all the support we can get and it only helps Delta pay attention. 

We Officially Moved to Mexico

Sorry, we aren't all that great at updating this page... We are trying..

We officially made the move to Mexico on November 5th and were there for 5 weeks working on our visas, getting furniture, making friends, exploring and just enjoying our time there.

We managed to get our place almost fully furnished thanks to some great sales, especially Buen Fin. We hired a company to screen in our main deck so we can turn that into our "dining area" and free up some space in our condo. We comissioned a few items for the condo, like more cabinets, wine rack, shelving and a bar to be built but those items aren't completed yet. Keith was most excited to furnish our top deck, just in time for our first pizza party with 20 of our neighbors!! 

The people here have been amazing and we have met so many great friends - we feel very thankful to be doing this. To say we are in love with our new home is an understatement. 

At the end of the 5 weeks we had to fly back to the US where we spent the holidays with family, went on a cruise to the Caribbean (that Keith won last year) and are now preparing for another cruise to Fiji.

Currently we are still in FL, where it is ridiculously cold! We are very fortunate to have so many great travels ahead of us but we are very excited to finally get to cross Fiji off our travel list. It's funny really... We are heading to this amazing part of the world that we have both wanted to go to yet we are anxious to get back to Mexico. We miss it terribly!! It feels silly to complain but the reality is we are so in love with our new home that it makes all these other places pale in comparison... Nevertheless, we are thanful for the opportunities given to us and will go and enjoy ourselves.

Mexico, we miss you. We will see you at the end of January... Just in time for me to turn 41.

18 Days & Counting...

It's insane, but we only have 18 days until we leave our home in WA and start this new adventure. 

We plan to start our U.S. Tour on the 9th and stop in atleast 21 states (over 5,000 miles) to see friends and family before the big move to Mexico on Dec 28th.

If you'd like to follow us on the tour, check out this link.

Stay tuned for updates - we plan to blog more so we will have a record of our adventure.

-Tarah & Keith