My Fab Fifties Life

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Here We Go Again – The Grand Adventure

Circumnavigate the Globe

January 10, 2025

Laureen

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Location: Westward

Time to go. After a wonderful (but wet) two and a half months back in the USA with family and friends it’s now time for us to continue year nine of the Grand Adventure. We have enjoyed our time back “home” but we are looking forward to warmer climates, returning to some favorite places as well as some brand new adventures. So for all of you who have been asking, let me tell you – Here We go – The Grand Adventure.

Circumnavigate the Globe

I don’t think this has ever happened before, but this itinerary has us traveling westbound the entire time. Starting in Seattle January 16 and circling the earth returning to Seattle May 4th. Our westward journey has us visiting seven countries (three brand new to us) over the next four months. Our itinerary is below…I hope you will follow along. Here we Go – The Grand Adventure.

Maui

Returning to Maui, one of our favorite places in the world, we will spend three weeks relaxing and soaking up the sun in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii USA. We have visited Maui many times, so this time we will focus on golf and hiking. We don’t plan to do much of anything as far as touristy sites. We just love the beauty of Maui, despite how expensive it can be.

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

A new to us destination, we are looking forward to a week at a resort on the island of Rarotonga. We loved our visit a few years ago to French Polynesia and we thought this time we would try another South Pacific location. It’s very easy to get from Hawaii to the Cook Island, and also easy to continue on from there to our next destination of Australia.

Melbourne, Australia

We fell in love with Melbourne last year

This will be our third visit to Australia, one of our favorite countries in the world. It is a huge and diverse place and our previous experiences have been very positive. This time, we will spend an entire month in the city of Melbourne with a couple road a trips planned from there. It will be summer in Australia – and likely hot – but we are ready to enjoy a longer stay in this beautiful city, the largest city in Australia.

Singapore

Singapore is a international hub, and we have passed through this beautiful city/state twice before. This time we only have two quick nights, but it’s enough to see a couple of sites and eat some of the amazing food before our flight to…

Bhutan

Long on my dreaming of places, I am absolutely thrilled to finally be visiting the unique and beautiful country of Bhutan. It’s taken us a while to get to this destination…partly due to it’s remote location and also due to how expensive it can be. But we are ready to tick this long awaited destination off of our wish-list with a private nine day tour.

Bordeaux, France

We love France but the region of Bordeaux has eluded us on all our previous visits. This time we have rented an Airbnb for an entire month and look forward to getting to know this region well…and of course drink some wine along the way. When we leave Bordeaux we plan to take a train to Paris, with several days along the way in Lyon, Dijon and then finally…

Luxembourg

When I look at a map of Western Europe and where I have been there is a little tiny hole…that hole is Luxembourg. Time to tick that one off too. Luxembourg City looks so beautiful, my kind of fairy tale European destination and we have the time so lets see it. Compact and easy to maneuver, it will be a great way to end our trip. But first a stop in the City of Lights.

Paris

Of course we can’t leave France without a couple of days in the beautiful city of Paris. Spring in Paris…what’s not to love? We look forward to visiting the newly reopened Notre Dame, visiting our friends, and of course…eating!! Then we catch a flight from CDG back to Seattle, completing circumnavigating the globe. Westward!

Thanks for reading my post Here We Go – The Grand Adventure. And thanks for all your continued interest in our travel adventures. I am looking forward to this itinerary which offers a lot of relaxation and adventure too. Longer stays than last year’s travel and I like that. Perfect. But, it’s likely I will not have a travel post every Friday…but I will post as often as I can. Meanwhile DO NOT MISS our annual Travel Awards blog post for 2024. You can read it on Friday January 24th. It’s an annual favorite and a must read.

Here we go – The Grand Adventure continues. Buckle up!

We love it when you comment, pin and share our blog posts. Thank you so much! See last week’s post Top Travel Blog Posts of 2024 here.

All photos in today’s post from Canva

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The Stans

Well not surprisingly you really loved all my posts about the Stans. But I was surprised that these entries ranked near the top for the entire year. Turkmenistan Ashgabat & Beyond, Unbelievable Uzbekistan, Tiny Tajikistan, Incredible Kazakhstan and Wild & Wonderful Kyrgyzstan all peaked your interest – ranking very high for 2024. Click on the links if you want to read these again or for the very first time.

Europe

My readers also enjoyed the three posts I wrote about the Caucasus region; Yerevan Armenia, Tbilisi Georgia and your most favorite of these Baku Azerbaijan . This is a fascinating area in eastern Europe and I hope my experiences opened your eyes to a wonderful collection of destinations.

Additionally three more posts from the Travel Europe category ranked very high this past year; One Day in Bratislava Slovakia, Athens for First Timers and Two Days in Bologna Italy – my most read blog post for 2024. All three cities were surprising to us and places I would surely return to.

Click on any of the links to read them again or for the very first time.

Australia

We love Australia and are heading back for our third visit soon, and one of our favorite places was the sweet town of Hobart on the Tasmania island. You all enjoyed reading about that too, Hobart Tasmania The Most Surprising Town in Australia. I would go back to Hobart for an another visit, and would stay even longer.

Pacific Northwest

Our summer in the Pacific Northwest usually provides me wonderful material for blog posts, and this year you really loved Tracking Trolls in the Pacific Northwest – this post was so popular! If you haven’t seen the trolls yet…check out the link.

The Bird King, by Thomas Dambo, Vashon Island Washington State

There you have it, the Top Travel Blog Posts of 2024. My blog has taken on a life of its own over the years, thanks to all the loyal readers. I’m glad our travel life (and book reviews too) give you entertainment, inspiration and educate you about this big beautiful world. I hope you will continue to follow us. Coming up next week our itinerary for our next adventures and don’t miss our Annual Travel Awards blog that will drop January 24th.

See last week’s post about Wild & Wonderful Kyrgyzstan and come back next week for our upcoming travel itinerary 2025.

Happy New Year my friends.

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Here We Go Again The Grand Adventure Part Nine

The Grand Adventure Part Nine

September 13, 2024

Laureen

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Well, it’s hard to believe we have been in the USA already for four months. I really tried to keep this summer quieter. More open. Free. Ha! Well, I guess I’ll try again next summer. But I have no regrets. We had wonderful time with our adult children, our moms and our friends. What a blessing it is to spend summers in the Pacific Northwest. And now, here we go again – the Grand Adventure Part Nine.

What’s Next?

We are making some changes to how we travel and to how we share this all with you. Crazy to think we are starting YEAR NINE of The Grand Adventure. Amazing how much we have experienced over the years. And we are not done yet. We will finish off 2024 with a seven week trip in the region known as the Caucasus and the Central Asian countries often referred to as The Stans. We will be on the go from September 15th – November 1st and then return to our home here in Washington State for the winter holidays.

Some changes though – I plan to write fewer blogs and instead share more videos and reels, in keeping with the changing audience. I’ll still have blogs but not every Friday, and particularly on this intense itinerary not as frequent. See more about this below.

The Caucasus countries are Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In spring of 2020 we were supposed to travel by train through these countries as well as visit Ukraine. Well of course Covid put a stop to all of that.

The first three weeks of our seven week itinerary has us spending a week in each of these countries, staying in the capital cities of Yerevan, T’bilisi and Baku and enjoying the cities and day trips from each home base. I am really excited to see this unique region of the world.

Intrepid

After the Caucasus we will once again join Intrepid Travel for a group tour of Five Stans; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

This is our second time using Intrepid Travel. As you know it’s rare we travel by tour, and even more rare that we do a group tour. But we had such a positive experience with Intrepid on our eleven day tour of Bolivia we are confident and excited to do it again.

This time however we will be traveling for 24 days. It’s a very long tour, we cover a lot of territory and five countries. Fingers crossed it all goes as planned. Lots of moving parts! I remain optimistic.

Dubai

On our way back to the USA we will spend a couple of days in Dubai, relaxing and enjoying this beautiful city. We have been here before, and we look forward to seeing a bit more. Then it’s back to the USA for the holiday season before departing again mid January.

Lots of Planning

This seven week trip has included a great deal of detail oriented planning and we feel we are ready. We are excited to explore new places to us – nine countries in seven weeks.

I will not be blogging while I’m on the move. Instead I will be focusing on daily videos, reels, YouTube and posts on our Instagram , Threads and Facebook pages. I’m looking forward to sharing in this format instead of blogging but will do in-depth blog posts when I return. Click the links and follow along – . Here we Go Again the Grand Adventure Part Nine! And by the way – if you have been following us on Twitter X we have left that platform so join us on one of our other options.

Be sure to read last week’s post Travel Wardrobe – Seven Weeks and Nine Countries and you might also like this older post How to Prepare for a Long Haul Flight.

We love it when you share and comment on our blog posts. We can’t wait for you to follow along on this exciting next adventure. Here We Go Again – The Grand Adventure Part Nine. Thank you!!

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How to Prepare For a Long Flight

Seattle to Shanghai

September 10, 2024

Laureen

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Location: Seattle Washington USA

Even after all the flights I have taken, I still don’t enjoy it. And our flight to Shanghai is 13 hours – one of the longest we have had. We will fly from Seattle to Shanghai non-stop on Delta Airlines. How to prepare for a long flight? With all the flights I’ve taken, I have a system.

I don’t like taking sleeping pills, because I am just too drowsy throughout the following days, so I have developed a a long-flight preparation plan. Even when the flight is not 13 hours (most of our flights are 3-6 hours) I practice the following flight preparation plan:

Two-Three days before;

No alcohol and no spicy foods. Eat healthy, low sodium and easy to digest foods.

Drink lots of water

Exercise

Moisturize my skin

One day before;

Make sure my carry-on is well organized and includes the following; passport, earplugs, headphones, eyemask, water bottle, Ibuprofen, motion sickness medicine, chapstick, moisturizer, neck support, wet wipes, toothbrush and toothpaste

Exercise

Get a good night’s sleep – limit late day screen time

Do all of the above from two-days before

Day of Flight;

All of the above

Get up as early as I can but limit caffeine

Drink a lot of water in the hours before boarding

Moisturize

Set my watch to the destination time

Dress in non-binding clothes including shoes and socks or be sure to pack a pair of socks. Wear a sweater that can be easily put on and off and used as a blanket.

I never wear my contacts on the flight. I always wear my glasses.

Greet my flight attendant and be kind to them. Not only do they deserve it they might be more inclined to help if I need something during the flight.

After I board;

Organize my space before take off so I know where my things are including earplugs, water, headphones, neck pillow etc. I also use wet wipes or sanitizer and wipe down my tray table and armrests as soon as I sit down.

I like to support my feet and either do that with an inflatable foot rest or my backpack.

Take two ibuprofen with water

Look at my watch and visualize the place I’m going and the time of day it is there…see myself there.

Find a meditation station on the in-flight audio or iTunes and begin listening to the calming voice and music.

If I want to eat before sleeping, I choose a light, non-spicy meal and have a non-caffeinated non-alcoholic drink. I never drink wine because it dries me out.

After the meal I go to the toilet, moisturize in the bathroom, brush my teeth and use my chapstick too.

Back at my seat I settle in. Get cozy and warm. Check my watch and think about what time it is where I’m going. Find my meditation music and sit back. Clear my mind of everything or think about fun things I want to do when I arrive. Think about my breathing – like in yoga breath deep from the belly. Relax my jaw. Relax my shoulders. Think about restful sleep.

If I wake up, I drink water. I take a walk to stretch. I take more ibuprofen. I moisturize and use chapstick. Then I settle back in again with the restful music.

This is my best advice for long haul flights. Sometimes I watch a movie if I’m having trouble falling asleep. I never sleep soundly, but I do arrive relaxed and not too disheveled. On arrival I always try to stay awake until a normal bedtime for my destination. Luckily for us, we arrive in Shanghai in the early evening. We should be able to go to bed and hopefully wake up ready to go on our first full-day in China.

I have purchased some compression socks to try this flight. This is the first time I have done that but I know many people swear by them. So I’ll give it a try.

I welcome your suggestions for making a long flight tolerable. Please comment below. If you like our blog, please pin and share. Thanks!

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At Home -- Inspire

A Magical Transformation of my Laundry Room

August 16, 2024

Laureen

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Location: At Home, USA

My husband and I are many things; happily married, parents to great kids, active outdoors people, travel gurus and do-it-yourselfers. To name a few. And each summer we tackle some kind of do-it-yourself project around our house when we are home from our travels. This year we did a magical transformation of my laundry room.

We purchased a small home five years ago (sight unseen), after not owning a home for a little more than three years. We absolutely love this house, and it is a perfect place to come home to and enjoy our summers in the Pacific Northwest. It’s also easy to lock and walk away when we do our extended long term travel. Our first year we did aesthetic updates to the 1990’s space in the kitchen, living, dining, and master bedroom. See our blog post about that project here. Year two we gutted and did a beautiful new master bathroom See our blog post about that amazing transformation here. Year three we spent most the summer working in the yard. Last year we painted all the interior doors, added some accent wall color and some chair rail. And this summer we did a magical transformation of my laundry room, adding significant storage and fabulous color!

A Magical Transformation of my Laundry Room

Hubs and I have a great system when it comes to both travel planning AND house projects. I’m the vision and he is the braun. That’s not to say I don’t do any labor, but on this small laundry room, it was hard to have two people in the room at one time, so he did the majority of the labor.

Here is what the space looked like before we started. It was definitely functional, but the weird tiny closet was a waste, the cabinets were not what I like and I knew we could do better.

Here are a few of the images I had saved to Pinterest. These were my inspiration and helped me build my vision for this space. When you see the after photos, you can tell me how you think I did on achieving my vision.

I like this countertop and colored cabinets

I like a stackable washer and dryer and love the rug

Let’s Make It Happen

This project took three months because we had lots of other fun stuff going on this summer, and we made sure fun was our priority. It also took six weeks to get the cabinets. While we waited on the cabinets (which are by KraftMaid and we ordered from Home Depot), we did all the prep – starting with tear out, including removing the tiny closet which opened the space up and created lots more options.

Getting old cabinets out and doing wall repair

Paint

Next we painted a sunny yellow on the walls and then added a ship-lap ceiling and wall detail with a ledge for a decorative look. The ledge includes hooks which we will use for lots of things as we come in and out of our garage into the laundry room. The white ceiling and crown molding helps make the space seem bigger and taller!

Washer Dryer

Next step was moving the dryer vent and then installing the new stack able washer and dryer. This was a big job and my husband knocked it out of the park. It wasn’t easy though and involved cutting a hole in the floor and crawling around in the crawl space under our house. He removed the vinyl woodlook floor we installed five years ago while doing this work…but was able to reinstall it all when he was done.

Cabinets

FINALLY the cabinets arrived and holy cow they were heavy. We managed – but barely. Sheesh. They turned out great. I love the color, which looks more gray in these photos than it actually is . The color is called Serenity and it is a blue green. Adding the toe kick, trim and baseboards finishes everything nicely.

Many important details I wanted like this

Finishes

We chose a butcher block counter top because I love the look. We added a light taupe stain and sealed it with polyurethane before installing this beautiful Kohler and VERY heavy cast iron sink and tall faucet. Unfortunately the first sink arrived with a big chip, but Home Depot got us another one very quickly. While we waited Arne added another outlet on the wall near the sink…I think that will be useful.

I did this little silhouette stencil on this big wall to soften the bright yellow a bit before Arne added the tile back splash. Truthfully I don’t love the stencil…but gonna leave it for now. I might paint over it down the road. We used just simple subway tile with a grout color that ties in the the butcher block, floor and door color. Added the drawer pulls – we were able to reuse the ones we had on the old cabinets but had to purchase a few more to finish it off.

Time for the Final Touches

Let me get at it! My favorite part. Hanging art, adding some plants and lots of eye candy. Love this new rug that ties all the colors together. It’s gonna take some time to figure out where everything is gonna live in this huge space, but I’m excited to bring things in that I have been storing in the garage and move other things in that are too tightly packed into my kitchen. This added storage is a real game changer for a small house and I am absolutely thrilled with how it has turned out.

This is perfect. I ordered it on Etsy from www.mrwatsondesign.etsy.com I love it.

Remember?

Here is the before;

And here is the after;

My step stool is accessible both from the kitchen and the laundry room

Success

Another successful do-it-yourself project complete – a magical transformation of my laundry room. What’s our next project? Well other than cleaning and reorganizing the garage, I think we might be done. At least for a few years.

I hope we have inspired you to tackle a do-it- yourself project. Not only does it save lots of money, it also can be very rewarding with a great sense of accomplishment. We spent about $ 15,000 on this project – $12,000 on the cabinets. We could have spent less on the cabinets, but chose to invest in high quality to fulfill our storage needs. This transformation would have cost about $40,000 or more if we had not done it on our own. Thanks for reading my post A Magical Transformation of my Laundry Room. See last week’s post My Favorite Hike in Washington State.

I’m always grateful for your comments and shares. Thank you.

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Become a World Traveler -- Inspire

My Favorite Wildlife Encounters Around the World

June 21, 2024

Laureen

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I’ve been truly blessed with some astonishing wildlife encounters over the past eight years in our world travels. This past year has been particularly memorable, and I thought it would be good time to pull together a post about My Favorite Wildlife Encounters Around the World. I hope you enjoy it.

My Favorite Wildlife Encounters Around the World

When we started the Grand Adventure Travel Life, I didn’t really set out to discover incredible wildlife. It quickly became apparent however, that fascinating, new-to-us wildlife was going to be a big part of our travels. Wildlife in the jungles, forests and savannas. Birds in the air. Fish and mammals in the sea. Even insects, reptiles and crustaceans became a new fascination for these old folks – always ready to learn something new.

Elephant Family Etosha National Park Namibia

The wildlife encounters listed below are by no means the only ones…but they are some of my favorites. Some of these moments simply took my breath away. Gave me pause. Held me in rapture at nature in all her glory.

Australia

Australia. Oh my God. The land of never ending surprises. Of course there are kangaroos, wallabies and koala. There are also immense collections of bird life, reptiles and bugs. There are so many animals in the wild, and in fact it’s astonishing how many kangaroo get hit by cars. Australia blew our mind – and we are planning to return for our third visit in 2025.

Mama Roo and Joey, Booderee National Park, Australia

Namibia

When we first started talking about Namibia, I wasn’t even sure where it was (just north of South Africa). Our ten day tour in Namibia is still one of our favorite travel experiences. The elephant image below, is in my mind, the best photo I ever took. It was easy though…so much beauty everywhere we turned.

Sunset Elephant, Etosha National Park Namibia

Uganda

To celebrate my 60th birthday we splurged on a Mountain Gorilla Trek in Uganda. Life changing. If you can make this happen once in your life, do it.

Philippines

I’ve told this story before about how when I was a child we had a picture book with a tarsier on the glossy cover. I was terrified of that animal. Seeing it in the wild in Philippines was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Tiny and harmless, I love these animals so much. We also had one of our best snorkel days in the Philippines…swimming with millions of sardines.

Snorkleing at Ningaloo Reef Panglao Philippines

Madagascar

Our most recent wildlife adventure was a ten-day private tour in Madagascar. I was mostly looking forward to seeing the baobab trees, and was hoping we would see a few lemurs. Oh my goodness. Lemurs and so much more. It was an absolute joy and I am so glad we did this tour.

Fascinating chameleons all over Madagascar

Botswana

Botswana was a quick visit while also visiting Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe. But our brief visit afforded us some fabulous wild life encounters including lots of hippopotamus in the Zambezi River.

Curious giraffe, Chobi National Park Botswana

The hippopotamus is one of the most dangerous animals in the world

Papua New Guinea

I did not take this photo (Thank you Canva), but seeing the Bird of Paradise in Papua New Guinea was a dream come true. In fact, we saw several different species of Bird of Paradise, as well as multiple other very special and beautiful birds. Astounding.

Sri Lanka

We loved our visit to Sri Lanka, a country many people overlook. We started our three week visit with a six day tour, that included a visit to Yala National Park. Yala is home to a giant population of Asian Elephants. It was the most elephants in one place I had ever seen. We also had a wonderful up close and personal encounter with a beautiful and camouflaged leopard.

Asian elephant, Yala National Park Sri Lanka

Borneo/Malaysia

I had always wanted to see the Orangutans, and so when we decided to spend a couple of months in Malaysia, I began to research how to spend a few days on the island of Borneo and visit the Sepilok Reserve. We did this four day visit without a tour guide, it was very easy to do. We loved the Sepilok Forest Edge Lodge and the fact we could walk to the Orangatan Reserve. AND seeing the incredible Proboscis Monkeys was an added bonus!

This orangutan just mosied past me on the walkway!

Funny looking and beautiful too – Proboscis Monkey

Costa Rica

Our three week visit to Costa Rica with our dear friends was one of the most memorable trips we have made. Not only did we get to see sloths for the first time, the turtles and bird life was spectacular.

Honduras

We spent six weeks on the island of Roatan Honduras and I would definitely go back. There are several reserves set up on the island to protect and conserve remaining wildlife. I think our favorite moments though were spotting beautiful Red Macaws right near our condo and the giant and docile iguana

The biggest iguana I have ever seen, Roatan Honduras

Iceland

We came for the scenery and the midnight sun, and we were not disappointed. Wildlife was a bonus and our favorite things were the wild reindeer and the beautiful puffins. I did not take this puffin photo (Thank you Canva), we were not this close, but Iceland did not disappoint and I encourage everyone to visit that incredible country.

New Zealand

We loved our seven week visit to New Zealand, although we loved it mostly for the beauty, scenery and hiking. We did not encounter much wildlife on this trip, but at the very end of our visit we stumbled on a biologist tagging Kiwi birds. Kiwi are incredibly shy and are rarely seen by visitors or locals. So to be able to meet this beautiful bird before she was released back into the brush was very special.

Galapagos/Ecuador

Although this trip was before we launched the Grand Adventure, our week touring the Galapagos Islands for my fiftieth birthday is one of our favorite memories of our travel life. Teeming with fascinating animals and bird life, it’s a memorable and once in a lifetime destination. Just go.

Galapagos land Iguana – he smiled at me!

Male Frigate bird showing off, Galapagos

USA

Of course, since I am an American, I have had many opportunities to see wildlife in my own big country. Montana is a favorite, Hawaii too, New England as well as my own great state of Washington where I spend my summers.

Monk Seals are also protected in Hawaii – stay clear

Young Grizzly, Glacier National Park Montana

There is More

There is more…but I think these I’ve listed here remain some of my all time favorites. And I’m not done yet…we have lots more travel in our future, as we explore and show reverence to Mother Nature and the fascinating wildlife of our planet.

My Favorite Wildlife Encounters Around the World

Nature teaches us so much about the fragility of our world, and careful, sustainable travel provides so many opportunities to understand nature better. I have been so incredibly blessed to have had so many amazing up close and personal wildlife experiences – My Favorite Wildlife Encounters Around the World.

See last week’s post A Day Trip to Bratislava Slovakia.

We love it when you comment, pin, and share our blog posts. Thanks and talk to you again soon.

NOTE : With this blog post I end year eight of our Grand Adventure. I will be taking several weeks, possibly a couple months, off from posting new blog material. We have fall travel planned, I’ll be back before that, but in the meantime, I want to be present here in the USA with my family. Thanks for your continued support – I’ll be back…

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Sicily Sensory Journey

March 22, 2024

Laureen

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Location: Sicily Italy

Sicily. Sensory overload. A journey of the senses bursting with color, taste and joy. I couldn’t bring myself to write another itinerary post. I really wanted to share more deeply about this island; a vast, diverse, astounding scene with overpowering pull. Come with me on a Sicily Sensory Journey.

Where Am I

We spent three weeks in Western Sicily. In February. Western Sicily is less traveled than other parts of the island and February is a very low tourism month. I recommend both for this reason. Our senses were treated to a wonderful self guided tour, and we nearly had the place to ourselves. I can’t image trying to enjoy this place in July with thousands of other people. February and March were perfect for a Sicily Sensory Journey.

Sights and Colors

Green is not what I was expecting. But in February green is the color. Green, blue and gold. Come August the island will be brown and dangerously dry. In fact in the past few years climate change has increased the frequency of devastating wildfires. But in February and March it’s lush. The mountains look like they are blanketed in green velvet. The fields are full of glossy green trees laden with yellow lemons and oranges. Silvery green olive trees cover miles and miles of the island. The Mediterranean sea tempts you with it’s turquoise shimmer, but it’s too chilly this time of year. Enjoy watching it crash into the gray and white rocky coast.

Golden ruins from ancient civilizations create a contrast to all the green…the surprising history of this island going back thousands of years is still present and accessible in dozens of preserved ruins, medieval towns, and ancient settlements. Most all of it built from local alabaster limestone aged to flaxen by sun, rain, wind and years. The stories it holds in its depths fire the imagination.

In the shops, a rainbow of colorful Sicilian ceramics, popular with visitors and locals, shout out in motifs of fruit, vegetables and ancient faces amidst a riot of primary colors.

As February melted into March we were rewarded with wildflowers of every hue; orange, yellow, purple, pink and blue. Their little heads bobbing in the wind in a joyful dance of spring, as if saying welcome. Welcome to our Sicily Sensory Journey.

Sounds

Italian drivers are, in a word, insane. But in February traffic is low and I can only imagine how the sound of vehicles in the summer changes the ambiance. Our little Airbnb near the Northwest corner of Sicily sat over looking the sea on a dirt road at the end of a bluff. Most days we didn’t hear or see another human. Just nature; wind, rain, birds. Occasionally a dog barking off in the distance. The sound of silence. A treat for the senses, when we live our lives in such busy and noisy times.

Sicily was a lovely place to search out birds, as we walked the peaceful trails and unpopulated towns. From lying in bed in our cozy cottage bedroom to standing on top of windswept mountains we listened to new-to-us birdsong, a part of this little piece of paradise called western Sicily.

Tastes and Smells

Close your eyes and breath deep. The smells of Sicily might startle you; fishmonger aroma is surprisingly fresh and salty; any beach, of course smells of the sea but also of something sparkling and clean. The ancient sites smell of earth and secrets. And of course the agriculture smells of citrus, artichoke, new sprung grasses and something deep and peppery. Sicily Sensory Journey. Makes you smile.

Of course there is the food and the wine – this is not Italy…it’s Sicily and it’s not exactly the same. Yes you will indulge in pasta and pizza. Sicilian food is always made with the freshest and most in-season ingredients, sourced close to the plate. Home cooks and chefs alike are resolute in their commitment to local and seasonal components. All the many tastes of Sicily are changing with the calendar, creating a sensory dance on your pallet. During our visit we fell hard for the local and seasonal sardines, tuna and squid. We ate olives and citrus everyday. We reveled in local ingredients like pistachio, ricotta, tomatoes and fresh-made pasta from local wheat. Food and culture are so closely entwined in Sicily, and a major ingredient of the Sicily Sensory Journey.

Sicily Sensory Journey

It’s easy to find hundreds of blog posts and travel articles about what you should do and see when you visit Sicily. And you should absolutely visit Sicily. I know I will visit again. For your planning purposes, let’s consider instead of a whirlwind tour, a slow travel, off-season and sensory tour. It’s the perfect place to find yourself – away from the hustle and bustle, stress and chaos of the world we live in. The colors, the sounds, the smells, and of course the tastes of Sicily. Unforgettable.

Come for the history, beauty and food. But come for a Sicily Sensory Journey.

See last week’s post Tasting Sicily – Surprising and Delicious.

Thank you for reading my post Sicily Sensory Journey. I hope you will continue to follow us as we travel next to Rome, Spain and Greece. Grazie.

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Follow us as we inspire you to live your best life now. We find inspiration in our Retired Midlife through travel and learning new cultures, writing and reading! What inspires you? I am a retired Grey Goddess on the Go, here to empower and inspire you through your Fabulous middle years! We write regular travel posts and book reviews and have been sharing this blog for 12 years!! Join our club and be fabulous too! You can find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Threads. My Fab Fifties Life!

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Circumnavigate the Globe

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