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Summer 2026 Graduation Celebration: Edinburgh, London, Disneyland Paris, Paris - Day 2 Edinburgh

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We had a leisurely morning so we could sleep in and have some rest. Emmaline and I had reserved a time at 11 AM to make Harris Tweed handbags at Islander UK. This was something she was really excited to do and I decided to join in. Roger did not make a handbag so he stayed back at the hotel and arranged to meet up with us later. We took the bus and first made a stop at the Ba Ba Sheep store to see the sheep (and some Highland cow) merchandise. She got a little keyring to hang on her bag.  The bag making was actually really fun. You pick a base then a top and straps and they show you how to put it all together while giving you information about Harris Tweet, tartans and Scottish Isles. The guy who led the class was super funny and we had a lot of fun. And at the end we had cute bags. Classes book out so if you're ever going to Edinburgh, you do have to book in advance. They have multiple locations throughout the city so if one location is booked up, which happened to us, try another...
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Summer 2026 Graduation Celebration: Edinburgh, London, Disneyland Paris, Paris - Day 1 Travel to Edinburgh

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 May 27 and 28 - travel to Edinburgh  We didn’t have the smoothest travel to Europe. When originally booking our tickets, we had multiple options to get to Edinburgh and one of those was the direct flight from Austin to Heathrow that runs every day. However, Heathrow is not super fun so we decided to book Austin to Philadelphia and then Philadelphia to Edinburgh. We had a pretty lengthy connection in Philadelphia so I wasn’t too concerned. We got to the airport around 10:30 AM for our 12:15 PM flight and while waiting for our flight, got a notification that it was delayed until 2 PM and the new time would put us in past the departure time for our flight to Edinburgh. So I got in the insane line at the gate and while waiting I called American. The phone agent left us on the same (delayed) flight to Philadelphia and then rebooked us on a flight from Philadelphia to Heathrow and then connecting to Edinburgh. Great. Exactly what we tried to avoid, but there weren’t really any othe...
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Journey with Summer

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Welcome! In my life I have taken many journeys and I have many more to come! On this blog you'll find a repository of all my trip reports from various vacations as well as race reports from a range of different running, triathlon and open water swim races, my cancer journey, my fitness journey, and other musings and thoughts as I navigate this journey of life! This post contains an index (and links to) all the travel and race reports on this blog. For other topics, you can search or click a tag from any entry to see all entries tagged with that topic. Enjoy and happy travels!
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4-night Disney Destiny Maiden Voyage - Day 5 At Sea

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 I was determined to hit the gym on our last day on the ship. I got up at 6:50 and made my way to the gym, which is smaller than I’d like. I had checked it out on the first day and noted that there weren’t any Peloton bikes, but then when I walked in the door, there were two bikes! I could have sworn they weren’t there on embarkation day. Maybe they were still getting them sorted or maybe I just didn't see them. Both were occupied, but I knew the person on one of them and she said she was just finishing her cool down so I warmed up by practicing a little BODYCOMBAT while I waited.  As I finished my practice, a guy came over and said, “Are you a BODYCOMBAT instructor?” This was a first! I said that I was and he said he taught BODYPUMP and I told him I did too! We chatted for a few minutes and then it was my turn on the Peloton and I found a 45 min ride with Christine that looked good and knocked out a solid ride.  I got back to the room and had some of the room service bre...
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4-night Disney Destiny Maiden Voyage - Day 4 Castaway Cay

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We were up early, around 7 AM so that we could meet up with the rest of the Storybook crew to head to the island to enjoy the Cabana they were able to secure and we each pitched in on the cost. It was my first time ever being at a Cabana so I was excited to try it out. We went up to breakfast at Marceline and then met up in the atrium at 8:30 to head off the ship together.  We arrived at Cabana 14 at about 9 AM and enjoyed some relaxing time there. The beach is really peaceful on that section of the island and it was nice to be able to relax in the shade. Heather and I both agreed that we preferred lunch on the ship so we returned just before lunchtime.  We went up to Marceline for lunch and then Heather decided to return to the island to take some additional photos. I took the opportunity to check out the Aqua Mouse slide which didn’t really have any wait time. After I was done sliding, I hung out on the deck and watched a bit of The Princess and the Frog before returning to ...
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4-night Disney Destiny Maiden Voyage - Day 3 Lookout Cay

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We woke up early. Me, because I was in the wrong time zone. I considered going for a workout, but we had planned to take the nature trail and there’s a long walk down the pier from the ship so I decided that was my workout and I would just skip the gym. We had originally wanted to do a sit down breakfast but we were sitting in the room hungry and ready to go at 7:30 AM so we just went up to Marceline instead because it was open, and sit down wouldn’t open for another 30 minutes.  We returned to the room and finished readying ourselves for the day. I wanted to meet Maleficent at 9:15 so we got in line around 9:05 which was already far, far too late. As long as you were in the line by 9:30, you got to meet her. By 10:45 I was finally meeting her. It was a long wait, but I made friends with the folks in front and behind me and Heather contented herself with taking some photos around a less-busy ship. Maleficent was a fabulous meet and well worth the wait. However, if I had it to do ov...
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4-night Disney Destiny Maiden Voyage - Days 1 and 2 Travel and Embarkation

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Travel to Fort Lauderdale and Embarkation Back in July, my friend Heather asked me if I might like to go with her on the maiden voyage of the Disney Destiny in November. It had never even crossed my mind to go on a maiden voyage, but it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity so I said yes, paid my half of the fare and booked my flights. And so it was that I found myself flying solo to Miami to meet up with her in Fort Lauderdale to embark on a unique voyage.  My flights were uneventful and when I arrived in Miami I jumped onto the Tri Rail to make my way to Fort Lauderdale. The timing of my flight out just worked better for me to travel to Miami. Once in Fort Lauderdale, I grabbed a Lyft to the hotel and met up with Heather and some of the other folks that work at her travel agency (and some of the friends they had brought along with them as well) for dinner. After dinner, we went to our room and organized our belongings for embarkation the following morning. We woke up and t...
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