A - Z Blogging Challenge 04.23.2026

Hey, gals!!  I am sitting in my nice clean house that I have worked on all day to get this way.  Don't you love it when your house is clean?  I feel like I can breathe so much better when the furniture is dusted, the carpets are vacuumed and the floors are mopped.  Years ago, we had a wonderful cleaning lady who made our house smell like spring every time she visited.  Now days we say our house smells like Liliana has visited when we have cleaned it ourselves.  Enjoying just sitting here in my recliner with the windows open, the ceiling fans on and the scent of purple Fabuloso wafting through the air.

I am back for yet another edition of the A - Z Blogging Challenge.  Glory be, we are finally to the 20th letter of the alphabet with only 6 more posts to go.  Do you know which is the 20th letter of the alphabet?  Most days I have to count them out on my fingers but today I am too tired from housecleaning to do that.  So I asked Google.  The 20th letter of the alphabet is T.  And T is for...

T is for Travel

Before I met and married PC, I wasn't much of a traveler.  Probably because I was always semi-poor.  And poor is a subjective term.  I have never been POOR but I have always had to watch every penny and budget for things, and have always worked in some capacity since I was 16 years old.  That's a long, old time!!

So, travel before PC was mainly going home to Tennessee to see my parents. Not really vacation-type travel.  But I was always thankful to have help with the girls for a short time and to just be 'home.'  

Since PC and I began dating, we have done some traveling around the U.S. together.  Often to Ohio and Tennessee.  Early on we went to Key West, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona, California, Washington State, Las Vegas and on a grand tour of many of the Civil War battlefields commencing with Gettysburg and concluding with Shiloh.  

For our honeymoon in 2009, a year after we were married, we went to France.  The highlight for both of us was Normandy and beach combing in Nice.  

In July 2013, we went to Cancun.  Oh, my, Heaven on Earth.  We stayed in an all-adult, all-inclusive resort, Excellence Playa Mujeres.  I had never seen such beauty or been so spoiled.  

A year later we celebrated my retirement in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. At another all-inclusive Excellence property.  Breathtaking.

In 2017, PC had to work in Germany for a month or so.  In the middle of his time there, I flew over to visit for a week.  What a trip.  So much history.  Dachau.  Nuremburg.  Beautiful Berchtesgaden.

We have enjoyed a half-dozen beach vacations with the kids to Galveston and South Padre Island, Texas.

Most Recent Travel

In the last year, we have enjoyed 2 wonderful trips.  Our first cruise in April to Alaska.  Had always dreamed of going on a cruise and this was a trip of a lifetime.  I felt similarly pampered on Holland America's Westerdam as I had at the all-inclusive beach resorts.  Kept figuratively pinching myself.  How in the world was I on a cruise ship in the middle of the incredible natural beauty of our 50th state.

And a month later, a trip to Creede, Colorado which had been a favorite vacation spot for my parents, sister, brother and me.  

It was a delightful 5 days rekindling old memories and making new ones.  Feeling the presence of our parents at every turn.

Upcoming Travels

For about 6 months now, we have been dreaming about and anticipating our upcoming trip to London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland.  And now the trip is upon us.  I always get a little anxious before a big trip but feel so fortunate to be going!  I am blessed to be traveling with my bestest bud, my PC.  We are so both healthy, thank God, and should be able to take on all these cities have to offer with great energy and enthusiasm.  Thankful to be able to explore the cultures of both countries, the food, the history and the natural beauty.  

But if this trip is like the others we have so enjoyed, we will be thankful for the opportunity to travel and experience England and Scotland, but will be very happy to return home.  There is no place like home.  And it is my safe place.  My happiest place on Earth.

Your Turn

What adventures do you have coming up in the near future?  Big plans for the summer?  Looking forward to something special at Christmas?  We will be going to Pensacola, Florida in July with the girls and their families to make some more beachy memories.  I am so very blessed and so very grateful for these opportunities...which was my word for letter O in this post, here.

Debating about taking my laptop or Chromebook or neither for this trip.  Anticipate having very little time to write but would never ever ever be able to write on my phone if the opportunity arose.  

Off to bed.  As has been the case with many of these A - Z posts, this one is being published just under the wire.  Wishing you a peaceful Friday.

Hugs and kisses,