After our long winter hibernation, we are definitely ready for our first “big trip” of the year! We’ve peppered in a few day trips since new year’s, but really haven’t gone anywhere overnight, much less for a real vacay, so that makes us even more excited for this trip especially. Every year we try to do one or two nice, extended vacations mixed in with several shorter weekend getaways and plenty of local day trips. But this year, we decided it was time to go big or go home, and we’re off to Europe for a 10 day multi-country tour!

Faux Germany! We loved Helen, GA so much we decided we needed to see the real deal!

When we first decided we wanted to go to Europe this year, we decided we would prefer to spend time in multiple places rather than just staying in one city. Don’t get us wrong, there are definitely perks to picking one spot and exploring in depth, but we wanted to really hit several highlights on this trip and then we can decide what we want to see more of the next time we travel. So to see the most spots, we had a couple of options: do it ourselves, or go with a tour company.

We initially wanted to do everything ourselves. This is what we always do state-side, and we love that we can bypass the “must do” but highly overrated tourist traps in favor of things that are more off the beaten path but that appeal more to us. We have seen so many cool things by using the Rand McNally TripMaker, which has a road-trip feature that lets you search for unique things that are within a certain radius of your trip route. And let’s face it, Europe has so many amazing castles that are just as good as the ones on the tourist trail, and so many more hiking trails that will take you to an even better vantage point than the one you see in the guidebooks. So this really seemed like the better way for us. Except, we only speak English, and the lesser known sites are more likely to attract(and therefore employ) only native speakers. And then there were the transportation options. Renting a car seemed like a good idea, but most cities have amazing public transportation. Except, we’re from Alabama, where public transportation practically doesn’t exist, so we’re completely unfamiliar with how they operate, even if all the signage is in English! And don’t even get us started on being nervous about having to figure out how to cross the borders to a different country, since we definitely wanted to visit Germany and either Switzerland or Austria and possibly Italy.

So, somewhat reluctantly, we started looking into getting a group tour. Yes, we would have to sacrifice on seeing less well known gems, and we would inevitably be in crowded, touristy places most of the trip, but it seemed for what we wanted this was going to be the better choice. A lot of the tour companies we found were less than desirable. Cheaper options packed 50+ into a huge caravan and basically abandoned you for a few hours at each site to figure it out yourself, and more expensive options, well, let’s just say we’re pretty sure we’re never gonna be in the pay-grade to afford those. In true Goldilocks fashion though, Chris found a trip that combines a somewhat small group size with guided tour services, while still leaving a little bit of free time for you to decide what local attractions you’d like to explore that aren’t on the official agenda. And, this company has a Germany-Switzerland-Austria package that met both of our must-dos! Since we both wanted one very specific, non-negotiable “gotta have it”, this really limited our options, but somehow this company had both, was affordable, and seemed catered to DINK’s and empty nesters, rather than some companies that appeal more to students, families with small kids, or the, well, more mature age set.

With the itinerary set by the tour company, we’re mostly done with the trip planning. There will be a few days that we have to ourselves to explore, and we’ve got a nice list of those from when when we were trying to decide if we really wanted to go the tour bus route, so really all that was left is to pack. Because we rarely fly, our luggage for most of our trips is really only limited by the size of our car, however, we usually don’t pack much. The only difference is that for flying, our trusty, soft-side duffel and tote style bags just won’t cut it. Angie has really nice luggage from when she was younger, and we usually take the carry-on size case as our main checked bag. Yup. carry-on size bag. For all our luggage.

Our luggage for a normal week long trip. All of it. For both of us. We pack light!

We prefer to pack light on trips, mostly just so there’s not as much we have to transport from point A to point B. Even when a rental has parking near the door, which is rare, we really hate having to take multiple trips just to get out the million things that someone decided they couldn’t vacation without. So we stick to the basics. We tend to shy away from too many gizmos and “travel essentials” that you never use, but for such a long flight we will bring travel pillows and sleep masks. Also in our carry-on we’ll have our tech and camera gear. And of course we have essentials like a power converter, and we’re bringing small bottles of our go-to OTC’s (We know they will have those available at shops in town, but because of the tour schedule we don’t know when we would be able to access local markets).

As for our main luggage, we always carry the same small overnight bag of travel size shampoos and soaps, and our minimal beauty/haircare products. It helps that both of us air-dry and don’t heat style our hair (Angie will occasionally straighten hers, but often foregoes this on vacation in favor of more casual waves). But our biggest “pack light” secret? Angie plans her outfits to mix-and-match on an app so she knows exactly what to pack. (Chris does the same, but really, you don’t need an app to tell you every shirt you own matches with every pair of pants you own.) Women’s clothing is more complicated, so the app is really helpful in determining not just what to pack, but to see a visual dressing room of how each outfit will look. On this trip, Angie has a total of less than 20 items, which includes accessories like belts and sunglasses, and four pairs of shoes, and a possible 16 different looks! It’s our most “Type-A+” trip prep for sure, but when we see other people lugging around more bags for one person than we have combined, it’s certainly worth the time!

No tacky-tourist tee’s here! Angie’s got packing down to a science!

It’s been one year since our epic eclipse road trip, but since we weren’t really blogging at the time, we never really wrote up our experience aside from sharing a few photos on our personal social media. Plus we really gained some excellent travel tips from the trip that apply to a lot of types of travel that we’d love to share!

Even though Angie remembers making a pinhole solar viewer in grade school, neither of us had ever seen a total eclipse, so we decided to plan our annual fall vacation around it. We usually take a “big trip” sometime around our wedding anniversary each year, so Aug 21 fell right into the time of year that we come out of summer hibernation. (We tend to limit travel during the summer because we hate crowds, and since we mostly travel in the southeast us, it’s so hot that the outdoors are no fun anyway. So since we aren’t limited by school schedules, we usually wait until class is back in session to take our trips. )

With our days off approved, we set to work deciding where to go to view the eclipse. Again, we hate crowds, so for a once in a lifetime event within driving distance of most of the continental US, finding a locale that would give us a great view with minimal crowds was, challenging, to say the least. We were also wanting to make a full week of the trip, but again, feared eclipse tourism would mean a lot of people doing exactly the same thing. So we decided a road trip with multiple stops would be our best bet. We could go somewhere for the eclipse, then keep travelling somewhere else that wouldn’t be affected by eclipse tourists. Angie stumbled on what would turn out to be the absolute perfect option for us for the actual eclipse. A private viewing party at the highest point in Georgia, Brasstown bald. A private ticket event seemed like a great way to help mitigate the crowd situation, we expected a lot of people, but our ticket guaranteed parking and an unobstructed view, so we figured that would at the very least help to ease the anxiety of being where everyone else in the US was headed.

What a great view, eclipse day or not!

We also settled on Brasstown Bald because it is in an area of the state that isn’t usually a touristy destination, unless you like to hike. And lucky for us, we love the outdoors, so Blairseville, GA seemed like a great place to visit for a few days and do some hiking before the eclipse. We knew other people would probably do the same, but with outdoor destinations and lots of hiking trails, it usually takes a huge influx of people to start feeling crowded. Our speculation turned out right, and although it was probably busier than usual, we went on several hikes and never felt like it was tourist city. Even though the weather was looking kind of iffy, we were starting to feel pretty good about our choice for eclipse day.

We had a little private picnic granola bar breakfast before heading to the tower.

Wanting to avoid the crowds as best we could, we arrived early in the day at Brasstown (really, we aren’t anti-social, we just know what makes us happiest, and plan accordingly so our vacations are as stress free as possible lol!). We had never been, so we also wanted to enjoy the park for its normal purpose as the highest point in the state, with 360 degree vistas on the observation deck. And getting there early meant we got to pick out the perfect spot for the eclipse itself. Then we waited. We had packed to make a day of it with snacks and books, but we were grateful for an overcast day, since the spot we chose was exposed to the sun. We noticed more people arriving, but it didn’t seem like what we expected…As it turned out, even though the event was sold out, the planners decided to close attendance so it wouldn’t be too crowded.What?! We could not believe our luck. It was perfect. The park is very large, but only a limited number can be on the observation deck, so they only sold enough tickets that most people could be on the platform if they chose. But a lot of eclipse viewers wanted to bring chairs, so they sat around the building below us or in the parking area. Which meant our spots were, considering, much less crowded than what we had anticipated! Huge score for the introverts!

The observation platform, lots of people, but still plenty of space!

Since the spot was an official NASA viewing location there was an emcee letting everyone know facts about the eclipse and somewhere there was a t.v. broadcasting other locations as the eclipse made its way across the country, but all we could see were clouds in the hour leading up to totality…then, like some kind of heavenly miracle, the countdown clock hit zero and the clouds magically cleared. No joke. I’m sure seeing the eclipse anywhere in the path of totality was amazing, but to have the clouds literally part just in time for the sun to disappear was an incredibly moving moment. Words really cannot describe it, no wonder our ancestors gave so much reverence to solar eclipses… We have to say it was definitely worth the trip, definitely worth spending the extra for a private viewing party, and definitely worth the research to find the perfect way for introverted travelers to enjoy an event with the masses.

Once in a lifetime. Truly breathtaking!

Whenever we take the dog on a trip with us, we try to find things that we can do with her, and since we’re outdoorsy, that usually means a nice little day hike! Unfortunately, Angie recently injured her knee so we tried to find some easier walks to prevent further damage. But luckily for us we found 2 great trails in our recent trip! We were staying in Helen, GA, and there was an awesome waterfall there, and then on our way back home we stopped at a nearby state park to make the drive a bit more bearable.

Chris has his serious face on, but Tifa was loving the trail!

Our first stop Saturday morning was Anna Ruby Falls. Before we could get on the trail, we had to figure out the parking payment situation. As it turns out, the falls are in Federal land, but the road to get there is through a State park(Unicoi State park). We are totally guilty of being cashless millenials, so we only had cash to pay one parking fee, whoops. Luckily Unicoi State park only charges if you’re going to park there, so since we were just driving through we were o.k. The trail was already crowded, so we were glad we were up relatively early! We’re not huge crowd people, but the dog positively hates crowds, but the paved path was wide so it never felt like a shuffle or like we were in the way of those travelling the opposite way. And as much as she hates the people involved with crowds, the dog loves the smells, so she was very content with the trip up to the falls.

Such a gorgeous view, and from this platform you could see the upper falls as well

The recent rainfall made the view so spectacular, it’s a huge set of waterfalls and the extra water really made the upper falls more noticeable as well. The cascading falls were so elegant and really looked like something from a painting thanks to the added volume as well. We both love a good hike, but Angie likes waterfalls more than scenic views, so this was well worth the crowds. But with lots of people waiting, we didn’t want to spend too much time on the boardwalk viewing platforms, so it was off to let the dog rest at our cabin while we enjoyed the town.

Our second little walk was on our trip back home. When we take road trips we like to break up the day by stopping if there’s a nearby park or attraction, so even though we were only driving 4 hours total we thought a little detour was in order. Sweetwater Creek State Park was only about 15 minutes off our planned route, and seemed like there were a few easy trails to the main draw of the park, an old textile mill.

Angie packed “cute shoes” in her backpack so we could get a nice photo…for reals…

This trail wasn’t paved, but was still mostly flat and pretty wide, its clearly one of the more trafficked trails in the park, though there are a lot more we’ll definitely be back to explore. The mill is tragically gorgeous, old architecture is always so fascinating to us, but like so much of the south the mill was destroyed during the Civil War. To protect it from further damage there’s a big fence around the whole thing which takes away from the view, but is totally understandable given the trash and graffiti we found littering the area. (Which is anther reason we prefer longer, more backcountry hikes, but that’s anther story) Chris loves history, so it was great to be on a hike in the woods and basically come upon this seemingly abandoned, forgotten piece of the past.

No wonder the dog hates water, she knows the snakes are out there!

We were also pleased to see there was access to the stream nearby, so we had to relax a bit by the water before we went back. We chose a little eddy a bit further away from the other people and were quite content until we saw we weren’t alone. On the rock in front of us, a massive water snake was sunbathing as well, so we figured our was time to leave the water and get back on the road home.

Depending on who you ask, Angie either has the blessing or the curse of a birthday that falls right near a holiday. On the plus side, it’s super easy to get away as a lot of times there’s a long weekend either including or right after her birthday. But, on the down side, that’s when EVERYONE seems to travel, and we’re certainly no fans of crowded tourist attractions. Though we do like seeing those “big ticket” places, we’d rather see them when they aren’t terribly crowded. But for Angie’s birthday, we still like to getaway, but try to find something that’s a bit less crowded. And with the 4th of July holiday falling mid-week, we thought the weekend before the 4th this year would be busy, but not terrible. So we set off to find a fun “touristy” trip that was still a little less traveled, and settled on a little place that’s been on both our bucket-lists for a while: Helen, GA. It’s a charming little southern town that’s modeled after a German village. The whole town! It’s like being in the German pavilion at EPCOT, except much, much larger, and much more Southern!

Everything about this town was just, well, cute. The gardens were perfectly manicured, the shops staff were all so kind and welcoming, and the general atmosphere was so incredible that it’s no wonder people flock to this place! We just enjoyed walking through the town square and checking out all the little shops, and even stumbled on a cute little puppet show being put on in what appeared to be a little city stage for local performers to showcase their talents. It was less crowded since it was Friday, and some of the stores had already closed for the day since it was getting later in the afternoon, but it was so nice to just see all the stores and the architecture of the town. So many little villages like this are overrun with tourist-trap like attractions (we’re looking at you, Gatlinburg) but it was so nice to see that Helen is filled with mostly small-shop/independent businesses. There were charming bakeries, souvenir shops, even a toy maker!

(also worth mentioning, the city is electric car friendly, and had a charge-station for our Volt! It’s only a block from town, and while it seemed expensive at $4/charge, once you factor in that all cars pay $2 to park there, it’s really quite a bargain)

How cute are these little cobblestone streets? 

And of course, there were so many options for food! We stopped into the Cafe at Hofer’s bakery for breakfast, and even though there was quite a bit of a line to get a table, we decided to trust the masses (and the internet reviews) and we were seated within about half an hour. Angie got what turned out to be a ham& cheese on toast (the menu described it more as cheese toast with ham, but we’re definitely not complaining about the massive portion of ham that came on the soft homemade bakery bread!) and Chris got a personal favorite, though not strictly authentic, biscuits with gravy, again on the bakery’s homemade biscuits. Well worth the wait!

For dinner we again trusted the internet and decided to try out a place called Bodensee, which was only a little walk from the town center, and since the town is very pedestrian friendly it wasn’t an issue at all. As we’ve mentioned before, we often split meals so we can try more things, so we decided to get an appetizer and one entree, and we still had leftovers! The sampler plate was amazing, including garlic sausage,  knockwurst, and a massive Pork Chop. Chris was also happy to have sauerkraut, it was on his “must eat” list for the weekend! We split the entree and still had leftovers, so lunch the next day was taken care of as well!

We love a good meal when traveling, it’s one of our favorite parts of visiting a new place! 

While we didn’t take the dog on most of our in town adventures, we did have her for the weekend (for the non-city parts of our trip, as with many mountain town Helen has great outdoor activities!). We noticed when we were doing our research there was a mini-golf place that advertised itself as “dog friendly” so we decided it would be a fun side adventure, if in fact they really did let dogs on the course. Come to find out, they did! It was a surprising highlight of our trip, being able to bring the dog and laugh at each other’s inability to play mini-golf very well!

The dog was so excited she got to come along to play putt-putt!! 

The course was so well designed, without any of the “gimmicky” things that most tourist town mini-golf places usually feature. No silly dinosaurs, volcanoes, or sharks here, just plain but challenging mini-golf holes, set in a gorgeous and well landscaped location. Honestly, the place was so gorgeous, they could have just call it a garden tour and we would have paid just to see the flowering beds and trees that were interspersed between the holes, it was so pretty! We probably haven’t played mini-golf in 5 of 6 years because, well, they just seem like they take away from the local atmosphere, but this one fit right in with the German, relaxed theming of the town, plus it’s always fun to bring the dog! There was quite a bit of shade on the course thanks to the mature landscaping, and on a hot summer afternoon that was definitely welcome!

How much cuter could this mini-golf course be? So relaxing!

We had such a great time over our short little weekend that we decided we can’t really cross Helen off our bucket lists just yet, we still want to go back! Still, we made the most of the day and a half we were there, and really enjoyed every bit of our trip. The town has an amazing Oktoberfest, which seems a little too crowded for our tastes, but might be worth it if we could get friends together for a group trip. Or maybe a romantic winter get-a-way when there is snow in the forecast? We got just enough of a taste to know that this is certainly a trip worth repeating!

Since Chris got to show off his favorite weekend toy (Sunday Drives in the Celica) we thought it only fair to also showcase our much more practical, daily driver car as well. While the Celica is a great project car, and fun for showing off, its manual transmission and lack of cruise control don’t exactly make it ideal for road trips. So for most of our getaways, we rely on the Chevy Volt instead. We’ve had it for just about a year, and we are totally sold on the eco electric/hybrid. We should also mention this is our primary daily driver, but that’s really boring. I mean, yes, we can get to work and back using just batttery, and that is really amazing, but, we prefer to not talk about the monotony that is our current 9-5 life. Once we get into vacation mode, whether it’s for the weekend or a longer trip, we’re most likely packing into the volt and headed off to some fun adventure.

Our road trip included a drive down a VERY curvy road.. Angie was not happy. Chris was not happy he was driving the electric Volt and not his sports car.

Our first real test for the Volt was last year, when we actually planned our trip partly around taking the Volt for a maiden (to us) voyage… Yup, we’re cheap, so we bought used, but the car was well cared for, so it really feels like a new-new car. We decided, since we had taken off for our vacation to coincide with the eclipse, that we should plan a good old fashioned road trip, staying for a night or two then moving on to the next destination. Around 800 miles and we only had to fill up twice (The gas tank is only 7 gallons, so that makes our lack of fill-ups more impressive) We calculated the mileage at the end of the trip and I think it worked out to about 60mpg? Not bad at all!

We drove. All. Over. It was awesome!

We’re also HUGE fans of using the Volt for our Disney trips. Not only does it make excellent gas mileage, but when we go to park we are able to take advantage of the absolute best perk, pretty much ever, of EV (electric vehicle) parking. It does cost to charge, but the rates are really reasonable (it costs us about $3-4 for a full charge). And yes, that’s in addition to Disney parking rates, but as annual passholders we do not have to pay for theme park parking, so for a few bucks we get amazing parking! So far we’ve only taken advantage of the parking at Animal Kingdom and EPCOT, but we understand that the EV parking has been extended to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios also, so we can’t wait to use that on our next trip!

Amazing perk of electric cars? Seriously prime Disney parking!

While we originally bought the Volt to be our daily driver car to cheaply travel back and forth to work, we absolutely love using it for trips. Even for day trips it’s a great advantage over a regular gas engine car, especially if we can find a charging point. While we rarely find those in Alabama, we’ve noticed more and more popping up, and for a couple who are rarely “early adaptors” it’s fun and exciting when we get to see the tech changing around us.

When it comes to our vehicles, we have an admittedly odd couple…While our primary car is the electric, eco-conscious Volt, our Sunday Driver/fun car is a turbo swapped 6th gen ’99 Celica. It’s definitely not environmentally friendly, quiet, or modern, but for us (read: Chris), it’s an amazing little sleeper that is such a joy to drive.

It’s Chris’s pride, and Angie indulges him with weekend drives whenever we don’t have plans too far away from home. Chis is especially proud of the car since he put the motor in himself. It’s a 4th gen 3sgte with full bolt-ons a reworked 50mm ct15b turbo with a full 3in exhaust, among a few other things under the hood. Simply put, it’s a very fast engine, on a very light frame, and it’s totally different than anything you can get from a dealership. At least, not in a US dealership. This motor didn’t come standard in the States, though it would have been stock with the car in its native Japan (you could get the motor on the st205 gt-four Celica or the Caldina in the US).

Big kid in a candy store… He’s been waiting to do this a LONG time.

Once he was finished (editor’s note: the car is never “finished”, but for now we’re telling Angie it is -Chris) we took it to a local dyno tuner when they had a blood drive/charity day. For a discounted fee you could pull your car a few times to test what it has under the hood. And of course, show out to the other car owners around you. Although it was one of the few imports, it was still putting down some impressive numbers next to the other cars there considering power to weight. As it was sold, the “3sgte” had around 260 horsepower, but the final tally at the dyno was just over 330, so all that work certainly didn’t go to waste! (335whp @2550 lbs or so) and considering it’s a 20 year old car, it was definitely impressive enough to turn a few heads from the mostly domestic/muscle car crew that had amassed at the event.

Ultimately, the Celica is not practical, but that’s what a Sunday Driver should be. Something to forget the cares of the week and speed off into the countryside (minding local speed limits, of course). Plus the labor of love doing everything yourself just makes it so much better than just some shiny new sports car, there is a real pride in knowing all that hard work went into making a gorgeous and fast ride that is one of a kind and all your own.