Scotland is, without a doubt, one of my favorite places in the world. There is something incredibly wonderful and comfy about the entire country. To me, it feels like home. I will have to talk about so many of the lovely spots that I had the chance to visit while doing research for my masters thesis, but today, I will talk about just one amazing place. The Ring of Brodgar in the Orkney Islands.
I have always thought that sunrises were more magical than sunsets. Don’t get me wrong, sunsets are beautiful. I just find sunrises even more so. Sunrises give me an optimism and hopefulness that I don’t find anywhere else. They offer the promise of a new day and all the endless possibilities that accompany it. Sunrises on vacation, when you know that you don’t have to go to work, are the best.
That’s why when we visited Acadia National Park, we knew that we had to see the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on all the east coast United States.
When the plane touched down, my husband and I found ourselves in a Tolkien-esque environment, with jaw dropping cliff faces, blue ocean all around us, and the sun shining bright. It was our first time visiting the Faroe Islands, this gorgeous group of islands in the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland. The Faroes are populated with fishermen, captains, the most lovely, down to earth, salty people, and sheep. We had one of the best travel experiences of our lives here.
If you are ever visiting Charleston, South Carolina, I highly recommend taking a short 30 minute detour to visit the formidable Angel Oak Tree. It is a magnificent Live Oak Tree whose limbs sprawl out wide and long reaching every which way. It looks like the Tree of Life with its overarching presence. I’ve mentioned before my love for old, giant trees (see my post about the Kvilleken Oak tree). This tree is one of the most beautiful that I’ve ever seen. It is humbling and awe inspiring to be around.
Two places very near and dear to my heart are Clermont and Olana; two historic homes and estates located in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York that are now protected State parks. Both places have contributed greatly to local and national history, and in very different ways. We recently visited and hiked around Clermont and I must say that in June, it may be one of my favorite settings in the world.
It’s no secret that I absolutely love trees. So when I stumbled upon the Monumental Trees website, it changed my world and led me to the Kvilleken Oak tree; a truly gem of a tree located in the heart of Sweden.