Lara and Jason Hamwey

The Traveling Hams

Lara and Jason Hamwey

This travel diary marks our first anniversary and off we go on our second honeymoon (10/20/07) to Costa Rica. We are avid travelers and have a list that could wrap around the world with the number of places we want to go. We hope that for those of our friends who have not been to our upcoming destinations that our travel diary will help you to visit to, or maybe even inspire a vacation. For those who been to our destinations before we hope it reminds you of your own happy adventures.

So off we go again on another adventure. We had such positive feedback from our honeymoon journals that we just had to do this again. If you just get the notion to go away after reading our entries then our job will be done, there are so many amazing places to visit both in our own countries and on other continents, life is too short not to keep checking out new stuff.

Enjoy and we look forward to sharing our memories with you.

Day 5 – Is that the wind or am I just not getting anywhere?

North America » United States » Florida » Venice April 12th 2013

The Traveling Hams

Today we are dragging a little, the goals of our vacation was to 1. Get away from work and home to de-stress 2. Bike new trails and take advantage of our bikes 3. To discover aspects of FL that are not typically visited when a family goes on vacation. I think we have done a good job of hitting all three goals, we have eaten only at local places, hit local and state parks, and more importantly we have ridden our bikes every day and so far have covered 30 miles of trails. We are surprised that we are not sore, but rather a little fatigued but we will not allow a day “off” because the vacation was suppose to be about biking so our commitment was to bike every day and we are going to ... read more

Day 4 - Things go a little flat.

North America » United States » Florida » Bradenton April 11th 2013

The Traveling Hams

How the time is flying but there are so many trails left to ride! The plan for the day was to visit a local donut shop, ride at Robinson’s Preserve and then hit some more of the antique malls and the Prime Outlets. Arrival to the donut shop revealed a hole in the wall with no seating, just the aroma of fresh good looking donuts. We grabbed a mixed dozen and asked the handy dandy GPS for a near by Starbucks, where we took over one of their outdoor tables and dug in. In the glazed category, Gold Star Donuts put Krispy Kreme to shame, however their jelly filling left myself, a jelly fan, hanging out to dry. The benefit was we got two breakfasts out of this trip, saving half of the donuts for Day ... read more

Day 3 – It might be easier to jump off the bridge!

North America » United States » Florida » Sarasota April 10th 2013

The Traveling Hams

Wednesday we planned an ambitious day. From our encounters with locals, we were told it was possible to bike to Lido Beach from where we were staying. We had driven it and I personally was a little nervous but willing to challenge myself. We wanted to make sure we got a good breakfast, so we stopped by the Toasted Mango Café. We opted to sit outside which was an experience of its own. We were sat next to a couple who decided it was completely appropriate to decide to skype with their daughter while they ate and have her on speaker phone as well, so pretty much we were all part of that conversation. It was so ridiculous all we could do was laugh. With a good breakfast to fuel us up we headed for the ... read more

Day 2 – Should we stay or should we go?

North America » United States » Florida » Ellenton April 9th 2013

The Traveling Hams

I am convinced Sarasota has some voodoo magic going on. The original plan was that Tuesday would be out last full day here and Wednesday morning we would check out and head Northeast. However it just seems from breakfast on there was this pull to make us stay. We biked to The Breakfast House which is in the middle of the Historic Sarasota District which we came to learn in the last year or so has been emerging into a new destination area with little art galleries and consignment shops and restaurants revitalizing the neighborhood. Breakfast was good but the staff were excellent, so warm and friendly and eager to share tips on where to go for the best experiences and where to go for the best fish at affordable prices. This warm local welcome was ... read more

Day 1- Snakes, Heat and Ice Cream

North America » United States » Florida » Sarasota April 8th 2013

The Traveling Hams

Day 1 of our road trip was a little rougher than we excepted. The goal had been to arrive at the Fakahatchee Preserve mid morning, bike and then walk the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk right at lunch time so that we could go to Sanibel for lunch and then head up to Sarasota. But we had unexpected traffic on US41/SW 8thStreet so we didn’t get to Fakahatchee till 11. This meant we were biking the area at the highest heat of the day and we paid for it. The great thing is we hit our goal and did 9 miles. The first two miles of the park is scrub/open plains with lots of sawgrass. The path was littered with these interesting black and red grasshoppers that we tried our best not to run over. The remaining ... read more

Our first Florida based Road Trip

North America » United States » Florida » Miami April 8th 2013

2013roadtrip

The Traveling Hams

We have always spoken about it, but never done, a Florida only road trip. A window of time has opened up so we are grabbing a few days to take our bikes and our car and explore trails and open road all over Florida to get a different perspective to the typical touristy stuff. Thanks to multiple resources, we have found some really neat, different, some of them weird, tips of things to check out and we are looking forward to creating a better connection with our home state of 14 years. We are hoping by bringing our bikes we will get an intimate perspective of the areas we pass through. OUr goal is to ride every day and mix that activity in with local activities. So off we go, we know where we are staying ... read more

The Journey Home from Savannah, GA

North America » United States » Georgia » Savannah May 17th 2010

The Traveling Hams

We woke up early on Monday so that we could get as much time in the city center as possible. After reading reviews on line we went to B.Mitchells for breakfast, the location close to the river and white chocolate banana bread french toast lured us in and was worth the visit. The staff brought a table outside for us and a bowl of water for Lola. We had read that Savannah was a dog friendly town but it is an understatement, they love dogs and so many people stopped to play with Lola, she just ate up the attention. After breakfast we went down to the river in search for the candy store River Street Candy Store to pick up a few treats for the folks in Miami. Then we headed to Lady and Sons, ... read more

Saying Good Bye to the Smokey Mountains

North America » United States » Tennessee » Great Smoky Mountains Parkway May 15th 2010

The Traveling Hams

Can't believe it was our last full day in Gatlinburgh. We headed into the Main Street area to check out the Art festival. It was small but cute and honestly it was hot so we didn't need a reason to stand outside for an extended period of time. We had a short list of places to hit for our last stint of shopping. I had to get another chocolate caramel apple, it was like heaven the first time and the second was just as good! We walked around and it was amazing the difference in crowd from Thursday night to Sat, obviously Gatlinburg is a popular weekend getaway. I overheard one of the store owners who said that once Memorial Weekend came the place would be a mad house, thank god we got there early! We ... read more

Conquering the Mountain Trails with child and dog

North America » United States » Tennessee » Great Smoky Mountains Parkway May 14th 2010

The Traveling Hams

Day 2 in Gatlinburg, we woke up ready to conquer the Smokey Mountains. There are two trails within the park that are dog friendly and more than likely city folk friendly Off we went, backpacks filled with water, trail mix, I think we had more camera equipment than anything. At first the trail hugged an access road which we found disappointing but we were able to go down side trails that got us right up to the rivers edge. Jay discovered his own walking stick, making him the mountain man extraordinaire for the day! The trail hugged a river for 2 miles, we got to see a lot of fallen trees that have over time become homes to little new trees, moss and small furry creatures. The river itself is low at the moment and as ... read more

Exploring Arts, Crafts and anything Sweet!

North America » United States » Tennessee » Great Smoky Mountains Parkway May 13th 2010

The Traveling Hams

Word of wisdom - cured bacon that does not need to be refrigerated is super salty, not just scary! We have planned our breakfasts at home so that we can relax in the mornings. Our first morning in TN, we made crepes and Jay’s road trap bacon in addition to a food store bacon because quite frankly we had no faith in the bacon Jay bought from Abbott Farms stand in South Carolina. Let’s just say we are keeping an eye out for some collard greens to cook and add this cured bacon to because it was so salty there pretty much isn’t anything else to make with it! Our frist day in TN we planned on touring the 8 mile loop of the Arts and Crafts Community. http://www.gatlinburgcrafts.com/ A neat concept where you find a ... read more

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