Lofoten Islands 2019

This July we vacationed with my cousin and her husband in Iceland and Norway. After a few days in Iceland, we headed to Norway, specifically to the Lofoten Islands, located way up North inside the Arctic Circle. The weather is surprisingly mild thanks to the near by Gulfstream. A fun, adventurous place, Lofoten is beautiful. Think picturesque fishing cabins over the water, mountains rising from the sea and endless daylight.

It took all day Saturday to get us there. We grabbed some dinner nearby the EVE airport. Surprisingly good considering our limited options. We had about a three hour drive to our Air BNB but the ride was a beautiful taste of the impressive vistas that awaited us.

People can wild camp in Norway anywhere as long as it is a certain number of feet from a house. So always be aware of your surroundings and people crossing roads etc. It was high tourist season but I do not feel like it was unbearably crowded.

We stopped at a grocery to grab a few essentials and all the gummy candy we wanted. Almost every grocery store has a by weight candy section with the most interesting gummies. Alyssa loved the fizzy bottles and I loved the strawberry dream and sour fruit by the foot. Reliving our childhood we also got candy necklaces. Another overseas favorite is to try different flavor potato chips. I think my favorite basically translates to a hint of wild garlic.

We tucked onto our cabin for the night.

Sunday, we headed into Henningsvaer. We wandered around the shops and town. We walked to the lighthouse after grabbing lunch at a cafe. So good we ate here three times. Get the shrimp sandwich, the garlic aoli makes it. Ryan and I were worn out so we stayed tucked in the Air BNB while Alyssa and Ian went for a hike. Ian made fish tacos for dinner, one of my favorite meals.

The next day our on private chef, Ian made eggs and yummy breakfast potatoes. We celebrated my very merry unbirthday with snorkeling the Arctic Circle. We wore drysuits which proved difficult to actually swim while wearing. It was beautiful. Kelp, a lobster, fish, a starfish, some crabs and jellies. After we grabbed a shrimp sandwich and headed to meander the islands.

The longest Viking long house was found in the area. The Viking museum was interesting and I highly recommend it! The museum has artifacts from the area and informational videos about the culture. They have built a replica of the long house as well as marked the archeological site of the original. We were able to grab the last ride of the day on the Viking ship replica. Pizza was the dinner of choice. Because the sun never sets it makes eating tricky. We adventured well into the night and you feel like the shops should still be open but they close at normal clock time not sun time.

Alyssa and Ian went to chase the midnight sun, luckily they came back to get us. The Midnight sun was beautiful. There really are not words to describe it.

Tuesday, we meandered around the islands more. Stopping at a few beaches, glass art shop, and had fish burgers for dinner. Lofoten Gardsysteri was a farm selling cheeses and sausage. We snacked on the cheeses throughout the day. We are always on the look out for unique souvenirs. Glasshytta was just the place. Handmade glass art from Lofoten.

We explored villages throughout the islands. They are picturesque and charming. Rambergstranda is a beach we stopped at, as well as Sagsanden Beach. One thing I love about Norway is the abundance of roadside wash closets, very convenient.

We stopped at Nusfjord, a typically fishing village. You can rent the cabins here to stay in. Walked around the fishing village and then hiked up the hill above the parking lot for the view.

We had Anita’s for dinner. Delicious fish burgers with a view. They also have food items including Gardsysteri cheese if looking for some gifts

A is the end of the road, literally. We walked around the village wishing we had more days to explore the museums. Wondered out to the point where we could see Vaeroy Island across the water.

On the way back home, while driving on a cliff above the ocean, Alyssa spotted a black fin. Ian and I also spotted one after she saw it. We finally after traveling through two tunnels and discussing with our husbands about whether they would still be there, we found a turn around point. I spotted a baby fin on our way back by. We parked at a pull off and ran like crazy fools down the side of the road at 1130 pm. We watched a pod of Ocras feed for about 45 minutes. We followed them up the coast line past our car and kept thinking is this really happening. Ocras are not seen in Norway during the summer months but somehow we got lucky. What an incredible once in a lifetime experience. That one wont be easily topped.

We stopped to chase the sun on the way home. It was a spectacular one.

Our final full day we took a boat tour to Trollfjorden. Along the way we saw a few Sea Eagles, the export spot for the dried cod, a salmon farm, beautiful blue and turquoise waters. Afterwards we got ice cream. From Lofoten Links and we hiked, Gimsoy, near our sunset spot. It appeared easy but like most things in the area it required some scrambling upward. Ian made us fish tacos again for dinner.

On Thursday morning Alyssa and I took an early morning polar plunge in Rorvikstranda. It was chilly but I think what I was imagining before we did it was worse. Based on Google we guestimate the water was around 52 degrees and the air 54 degrees. Alyssa and Ian drove us to the ferry. We began our travels home, going through Iceland to spend the night before heading back to America the next day.

We love Iceland, if you missed my blog post on the first portion of our trip take a look. Lofoten was beautiful and I highly recommend it.

Have you been to Iceland or Norway? What is on your ultimate destination list? I can not wait to visit Germany around Christmas.

Happy Travels and Safe Adventures!

September 3, 2019 0

Fabulous Friday 2019, XXXV

Happy for real football weekend! I am so excited.

Last weekend, Ryan’s parents came to visit. We spent some time together strolling the streets of Beaufort and driving around to scope out different house areas.

The three of us climbed the Lighthouse at sunrise. We left Mr Night Owl at home. A rainy but beautiful one.

We had a few nest inventories this week. Im sad it will be over before we know it.

Im trying to make a list of what we will pack for hurricanes. Obviously we can not take everything. I want to put the stuff we do want to take into easily grab-able boxes. I figured the things we take for a tropical storm will be less and different from what we take for a higher category. Any ideas or advice? Always the important documents. Maybe always the yearly photo albums. Maybe higher category the Christmas ornaments. I have some sentimental family stuff too. NEED. A. PLAN. AND. A. LIST.

Thursday, I had a football tailgate kickoff party with my little cousins. Ill post more details on our graze board. I posted the Team Spirit Cookie Dough Bites on Tuesday.

Lindsay Letter’s is a creator I have been following for years. Her daughter has a traumatic brain injury. I have been following and praying for sweet Eva Love. But mainly my point in saying this was to commend the other women in the Instagram business community who have lifted them up by using their social media platforms to raise awareness and money. It is simply beautiful and a great reminder of how much we need each other in life. We were not made to live life alone and seeing women raise each other up and support each other is inspiring.

New nails! So ready for football!

Ryan and I started making Ryan a homemade, DIY version of these. Anyone do anything similar? Have tips or inspiration to share?

Happy Weekend!

Lovies.

xoxoxo

August 30, 2019 0

Team Spirit Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Football season is here! I have been dreaming of my favorite snacks to celebrate football Saturdays. I will be sharing a few of my tried and true favorites soon. For now I dreamed up these edible cookie dough bites.

You can customize these in so many ways. Different color sprinkles, differnt types of sprinkles, change your flavor of edible dough.

My favorite edible dough is chocolate chip. I chopped some milk chocolate waffers I had from the Chocolate Tree. I used my Pampered Chef chopper to chop the chocolate waffers. I prefer to do some rough chops and then turn some of it to chocolate dust. You can use mini chips or regular sized, dark, white or milk. The sky is the limit.

I originally thought one bite cookie dough bites for some pop in your mouth goodness but then I decided a two bite ball would give the best sprinkles to cookie dough ratio.

Recipe:

2 sticks if butter slightly melted
1 TBSP vanilla extract
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/4 cups of plain flour
3 TBSP milk or water
1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Melt butter in microwave to about 50% melted. If you melt it all the way just let it cool a bit before you add to recipe. Add vanilla to melted butter. Pro tip add your flavoring or vanilla extract (this one linked is my favorite) to your butter/fat before the flour, it is what carries your flavor throughout thr dough. Add brown and white sugar. Mix with hand mixer or stand mixer. Add flour, mix well. Mix in milk or water. Fold chocolate chips.

Roll into bite sized balls. Here is where the team spirit in, cover in sprinkles of your choice. I feel like jimmies are the perfect not to hard option and they come in a variety of team colors.

PS: To truly make edible cookie dough safe you are supposed to bake the flour for 5-7 minutes at 350 degrees to kill off any bacteria. But I didn’t I like to live life on the wild side.

Wilton has some great variety packs on Amazon. Sweetapolia is my favorite sprinkle shop.

Place on plate or in storage container single layer. Refrigerate for two hours. If you get really impatient you can pop in the freezer for a while.

You can double the batch, place cookie dough in freezer for up to a few months. You can freeze the cookie dough before rolling into balls and coating with sprinkles or the completed Team Spirit Balls also freeze well. Just make sure to freeze the balls in a single layer before tossing into a larger container together, less stick together that way.

I hope these help you celebrate football season! I will be adding them to our rotation and graze boards.

Go Teams!

August 27, 2019 0

Fabulous Friday 2019, XXXIV

Happy weekend! It has been a packed week over here. Em spent the week with us before school starts back.

We made stepping stones at Hunting Island. If you are visiting the area check the website for available programs and events. HI offers a few craft activities. I can’t wait to try more crafts.

Nails of the week. Color Street Mint To Be and Raise Your Voice.

Em met her first baby turtle this week and a few more. It was so fun to share that experience with her.

I am unsure why in 2019 are we still having animal poaching problems. Poor Green Sea Turtles.

We visited the South Carolina aquarium, Charles Towne Landing and Trader Joe’s with our friend Kaitlyn. While at the aquarium we were able to visit Banazi the turtle rescued on Hunting Island. She is recovering from the shark attack and they anticipate being able to release her.

We made edible cookie dough and I might have created a cookie dough monster.

I bought Em a matching Simplified Planner this year. I wrote love notes, positive affirmations and such throughout. I hope she is able to use it. We talked this summer about listing happy things when you are sad, thinking about a good memory, deep breaths, and listing things you are thankful to have. I personally feel like people in general often forget kids have to be taught coping skills to navigate life. You are not just born knowing. As well as how to name your emotions, feel them and talk through them. I hope it better equips her for life and its inevitable hard times.

I have been diving into the Enneagram more this summer. I found an interesting article on the best types of rest.

A new Kate Spade and Minnie Mouse collection. I need the ring!

Happy Weekend!

Lovies.

xoxoxo

August 23, 2019 0

Fabulous Friday 2019, XXXIII

Its the weekend! Most likely the kids are back in school and routines are falling into place. Don’t you just love routine?

Last weekend we went to visit our friends in Tampa. We strolled along the Bay, played board games and visited Ybor City.

We visited the museum there. It was so interesting. Immigrants came from Cuba, Sicily and Jews from all over. Its so interesting to see how they all brought there different cultures. For example, the Cuban sandwich! German pickles and mustard. Swiss cheese. Italian salami. Cuban ham and pork.

It was fascinating to learn about the cigar factory. Basically it seemed like a mini city. The factory owned the houses surrounding. The workers eventually could own the houses. There were clubs for that provided things from entertainment to medical care. Those clubs are still operational in some capacity today.

We ate at Big Ray’s. Visited a cheese and wine bar. And had a great time visiting.

We made a short pitstop on the way home. I mean it was practically on the way home.

Speaking of. This lady is #momgoals.

I had a couple of nights of nest inventories. The sky was showing off all around.

This is legit. Ready for some college football. RTR.

I made a quick trip to Alabama to visit family and scoop up this girl. We are ready for a few days of turtle adventures before school starts. She also said she would help me clean out the pantry! She had planned and decorated a birthday party for me since she was not with me on my birthday.

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors released their new album Dragons today. Go check it out!

Enjoy your weekend!

Lovies.

xoxoxo

August 16, 2019 0

Fabulous Friday 2019, XXXII

Happy Weekend!

It has been a busy week around here. We had a few nest inventories with hatching season really gearing up. Praying for some and some babies when Em comes back to visit.

We had dinner and went to a nest inventory with my Uncle, Aunt and cousin who were visiting Fripp from Ohio. It was good to catch up.

There was a beautiful double rainbow during some of the inventories.

I had a hummingbird visit my feeder. I can not believe it. I have had the feeder up since April and finally in August I get one! I hope it comes back and brings friends.

I found a cute platter for football weekends. Its on sale. Im gearing up for a football kickoff party with my younger cousins.

Ryan and I paid $150 for a martial test and got a free gazebo out of the deal. Ha! Seriously it took both of us working over two hours to get this done. Now I want one of those zero gravity chairs to go in it.

I finished season 2 of Mrs. Maisel. It took me a bit to get into it for some reason but I totally am excited about Season 3 soon.

Someone I follow on Instagram posted she put out free flowers from her garden. Our street is quiet so I put together some bunches and took them down to the water front park.

I keep forgetting to do the weekly “happy”, memory, or celebration. But I guess these post highlight alot. Id say dinner with family and my hummingbird visitor.

Savor your Weekend no matter if it holds a break or work.

Lovies.

xoxoxo

August 9, 2019 0

Memorial Weekend in Maine

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Maine celebrating my sister before she headed to Dallas for residency. So fun for most of us to be together with some more family from my mom’s side.

Our most laughable memory is breaking the dock while doing some self timer pictures. This one is perfectly timed. I have a magnet on our fridge and laugh hysterically at it on a regular basis. I am sure Uncle Steve did not find it as funny and honestly in the moment we all thought we were falling into the water. My thought was I am on the back row, all these other humans are going to fall on top of me!!

The weekend was filled with delicious food that Aunt Molly made, loon calls, boat rides and fun. We discussed our Love Languages, read, and had good conversations. So nice just to relax and spend time with the ones you love.

We visited the LLBean mothership. I also grabbed a micro-puff on major sale from the Patagonia outlet.

My favorite were the lighthouses. We visited Portland Head Light and Two Lights State Park. The lighthouses however are not in the state park but basically a neighborhood. We had lobster rolls for lunch at Lobster Shack.

We also “helped” with the restoration of the Rita.

If you have never heard Loon calls then google them. They sound very cool. Their hoot means where are you, are you ok, are you close by. We hooted at each other alot. I am sure Uncle Steve and Aunt Molly soon regretted their choice to teach us.

They spent their time, energy and money on a classic lobster dinner for us. As well as so much other delicious food. Homemade bread, anyone?

We sunset cruised, snoozed cruised, boozed cruised and Loon cruised. Paddle boarding, water skiing, and sailing. We also played games and participated in a polar plunge. That water was cold. I had a hard time moving my arms and legs, but pier pressure will get you.

Uncle Steve planned a surprise firework show for Claire. We all knew about it and kept a great secret because she was clueless that is was exactly for her!

We had a delightful time and enjoyed spending time with family. Thanks Uncle Steve and Aunt Molly for welcoming all of us loons into your home. I can tell yall have created a beautiful, warm, welcoming space. We all can not wait to come back. We are so glad we got to see Angie too!

August 6, 2019 0

Fabulous Friday, XXXI

Happy August? While I am super pumped about football season, I can not believe how fast this year has gone.

We went to Mimi and Shark’s beach house last weekend. Had fun playing with cousins and nest sitting and cupcakes of course.

Tuesday’s turtle walk produced no nest in our zone but a beautiful sunrise and shrimp boat close by.

I made some double batches of white chicken enchiladas. I adapted a few recipes so I will post here one day. But my point today is a friendly reminder that you can shred chicken with your stand mixer or hand mixer. It took about three minutes to do six pounds. You can use a hand mixer for a lighter job or if you want a chunkier shred. The stand mixer can get it semi fine which I like. Of course it also might do a chunkier shred if I did not put six pounds it all at once.

Scarlett and Gold launched some cute football gear this week. I may or may not have ordered three shirts too many. I did order myself one semi neutral shirt for moments where I find myself behind enemy lines with humans that I love slightly more than football.

I documented our Iceland trip this week. Norway portion is coming soon, along with all of our pictures.

We hope our friends come visit us in South Carolina. We have two spare queen beds. But we probably will request Party Dip and Conecuh Cajun Sausage if you come from Alabama. Wal-Mart stocks plain Conecuh but not Ry’s favorite.

If you are on Instagram will you follow @huntingislandsc. I am managing it for the volunteer group Friends of Hunting Island, which is also the group that does the sea turtle conservation. Even if you are not local it will hopefully help us raise awareness and help our state park and turtles. Slowly learning about Instagram algorithms, any tips you know I am a willing learner.

Happy Weekend!

Lovies.

xoxoxo

August 2, 2019 0

Iceland 2019

Iceland will always hold a special place in my heart. We honeymooned there in 2013 and I credit it for starting our love of travel. It is dramatic, majestic and beautiful.

We recently spent just a few days there with our adventure pals, my cousin and her husband.

I am going to do a run down of what we did and then in the next few weeks I will post all of our pictures in one big gallery post.

We flew in Wednesday morning to the KEF airport. Alyssa and Ian arrived before us. We showered at their hotel which was a blissful surprise after a full day of airplanes and airports.

We headed into town. We of course stopped by the Christmas shops. We picked up a yule lad ornament and a picture of all the yule lads. Ornaments are the thing we always get on trips.

Ryan stopped in the Red Cross store to look for homemade wool things. We had great success here six years ago. Not so much this time. Could have been the time of year or influx of tourist. Six years ago travel to Iceland was unheard of but now it is definitely the trendy place.

We grabbed a few hot dogs for a lunch/snack before our tours. We did the Puffin and a Whale watching tour. The puffin are adorable. They mate for life and return to the same place they were born for breeding season. Afterwards they float out to sea and live a solitary life until next breeding season. An introvert’s dream.

Our whale watching tour proved eventful with quite a few Minke Whales, Harbor Porpoises, and White Beaked dolphins. I love the way the dolphins show off for the boat.

We grabbed some lobster soup from Saegreifinn to warm our sea wind and rain bodies. Pretty tasty.

Our Air BnB had a beautiful view. Ian made us spaghetti for dinner. We filled the hot tub up. The water in Iceland is very hot or very cold. I managed to get too hot for everyone including my hot lava water loving self. After a quick dip, Ryan and I hit the bed. Alyssa and Ian visited our nay-bors.

Thursday after an omelet breakfast, we hit the Golden Circle. Visiting Geysir, Gullfoss, and Thingvellir. We walked around on the North American tectonic plate and to Oxararfoss enjoying the views.

We visited a church. Complete with an underground tunnel leading to and from the church to the near by old village, currently being excavated.

We had lunch at Fredhemir. Which is a greenhouse restaurant which grows tomatoes. The specialty is tomato soup and homemade bread. ALL dishes are have tomatoes, even the desserts and the water pitchers had tomatoes in them. We dined on the soup and and bread. The cucumber salad to top the bread was delicious. They use hot spring water to regulate the temperature of the greenhouse and it call can be controlled remotely via the Internet. A lovely well run, thought out and designed space. This had us thinking what other fruits or veggies could you use this concep with? Our top picks cucumbers and strawberries.

We continued onward to Kerid crater. We hiked around the top. Took some accidentally silly pictures before heading to Secret Lagoon. A delightful hot springs. We relaxed for a bit before heading home to get ready for tomorrow’s adventures.

Friday, Ian made us toad in the hole for breakfast. We ventured toward Jokulsarlon. Ryan and I missed this stop on our honeymoon because we ran out of daylight. I am so glad we made the four hour drive trip. Extraordinary does not even cover it. Gatorade Glacier Freeze, right? We took a boat ride. Tasted 1000 year old ice. They have food trucks there so we had more lobster soup and rolls.

The lagoon empties into the Atlantic. When the tide goes out the icebergs float to sea. They quickly breakdown and are washed up on the black sand beach as polished ice aka Diamond beach. Another truly amazing sight.

We headed back towards our Air B& B with many planned stops along the way.

We grabbed dinner in Vik before venturing onto the black sand beach. I had the most disappointing spicy Asian noodles ever. Ha! Ryan and I recreated some pictures from our anniversary. We drive up behind the beautiful church for some good views of the town and ocean.

Afterwards it was on to waterfall land! Driving along Route 1 in Southern Iceland you can see many waterfalls while you are just driving.

Fjaðrárgljúfur is a beautiful canyon not too far off the main highway. You can walk to the top overlook to get a better view. The bridge crossing the stream also provides a great view. There are hikes to do inside tbe canyon but we did not.

We paused at a few and my favorite one you can walk behind.

Skogafoss is right off the highway. An easy flat walk. Impressive. You can walk up some stairs to the top. Ryan and I did on our 1st trip but honestly the impressive view is down looking up.

Seljalandsfoss is my favorite. It can also be seen from the main highway but the real treat is walking behind it. It does require a little scrambling on rocks and take care as the rocks are wet from waterfall spray. I wore my rain jacket and rain pants but also flip-flops so the scrambling is not terrible. Were the flip flops a poor choice on my part yes. Also, we entered to the right walked behind the falls and exited to the left as you are facing the falls. The right side is much easier should you want to double back and exit that way. There are public bathrooms here and a food truck. You can also continue down a trail to the left of the falls to see some other waterfalls a short distance away.

Svartifoss is surrounded by basalt columns and the inspiration for the church design in Reykjavik. The hike is a gradual incline. There are a few waterfalls along the way. Again bathrooms and places to eat near parking. Ryan and I noticed this growth due to the increased tourism. Most places had no wash closets and certainly no food six years ago.

Stjornarfoss is again right off the highway close to a camp ground. We saw some cute sheep frolicking in the area here.

Systrafoss is located in what looks like an enchanted fairy forest. It rivals for my favorite simply because of the surrounding rock and vegetation.

We finally headed to our AirBnB to pack and ready ourselves for a day of travel on Saturday as we headed into the Arctic Circle to visit the Lofoten Islands.

July 30, 2019 1

Fabulous Friday, XXX

Happy Weekend!

I know it has been silent over here. Stomach problems had me benched at the beginning of July then we were on our Iceland/Norway trip. More on that later.

My little patch of sunshine in thriving.

This week I have slowly unpacked us from our trip.

The ultimate highlight of the week was being the excavator in a nest inventory. Holy, lovely, magical. * I did not actually kiss the turtle or bring it too close to my face.