travel blog – WamiesWorld

our day date to a super old house

Published on February 11, 2019 by Jamie Shugart3 Comments

About a week or so ago, Will took me on a fantastic day date to a place I had been dying to visit. I’m a sucker for dates and romance. This one just tugged at my heart strings and was a perfect morning spent reflecting on history, how people used to live, and the things we take for granted now. Like freezers, freedom, and air conditioning in the south.

The 1897 Poe House is located near downtown Fayetteville. No, it was not owned by the poet, but by a prominent family that made and sold bricks. In fact, much of the foundation of this home is made out of bricks made by Mr. Poe, although the deeds to everything they owned, including the company were in his wife’s name, per the prenup.

The Poe’s apparently ordered this home out of a Sears catalog, which was not uncommon. Everything was sent to a local carpenter who built it for them.

We got to tour pretty much everything in the home and our tour guide explained how North Carolina had obtained the property, how much it cost to restore it, and what things the Poe’s daughter had renovated and converted from what it was originally. It was interesting to see how a well off family lived, with their ice box, grocers delivering goods, cook and maids, and two stair cases.

Actual dishes that the Poe family owned.

I’m super into this dating thing. If you couldn’t tell.

Until next time,

Jamie out

San Diego, Zoos, and Dolphins

Published on October 22, 2018 by Jamie Shugart1 Comment

Being out in Arizona has been an absolute blast. We have been able to explore so many different places! Over Columbus Day weekend we had the opportunity to visit Will’s brother and his family in San Diego for a few days.

Friday

We left pretty early in the morning, making sure to get in a good breakfast, and of course running into more of our dinosaur friends on the road. If there’s one thing I’m going to miss about the desert, it’s how many dinosaurs there are hanging around.

Lunch was, obviously, a very satisfying stop at In-N-Out. I’m already internally crying about the east coast not having my animal style burger fix.

We got to the Shugart house in late afternoon and had a fantastic evening catching up with John, Kristina, and our nieces. The boys burned things, we ate Mexican food, and our hearts were happy.

Saturday

We indulged in the traditional Shugart breakfast the following morning. I love my cheesy eggs, fancy bacon, and delicious waffles, but this girl canNOT get enough potatoes. They’re so good! Will is also hardcore into potatoes for breakfast so our marriage was basically a match made in heaven.

SeaWorld

Some of you may not know this, but I actually used to live in San Diego. For almost five years I called southern California home and I lived right across the bay from SeaWorld San Diego for some time. I could almost see their evening fireworks display every night during the summer from my back patio.

Despite being so close, I never visited while I lived there, so taking the opportunity while we were in town was top of the list. Having now visited, I highly recommend going to SeaWorld if you have the opportunity. It is the best aquarium you have ever been to on steroids.

The Sea Lions were great. You could buy fish to feed them and the birds would always swoop in to try and steal them.

I have always seen pictures and videos of these cool underwater walkways at aquariums but have never been in one before! It was so cool! Even though I am usually terrified of sharks, it was just so awesome that I wasn’t afraid at all.

We saw several types of sharks just sitting still on the bottom. I didn’t know they could do that! Apparently certain species of sharks can keep water moving through their gills by a pumping motion of their pharynx, so they don’t have to keep moving.

After we saw the sharks, we went to the Dolphin Encounter show.

I’m not super into splash zones or walking around in sopping wet clothes, so Will was a champ and let me hide behind him when the dolphins soaked us. Besides that it was an excellent show. It was fun to see the relationship between the dolphins and trainers. There was even a big whale that took part in the show, and its personality was so cute. It reminded me of a giant golden retriever.

Next up we rode some rides. The one on the left is the first rollercoaster Will and I have been on together! I had plenty of anxiety leading up to it while we were waiting in line because we didn’t put our phones in the available lockers. Anyone else with anxiety get super stressed about the small things sometimes? Will saved the day with his pockets, and despite lots of screaming on my part, it was a seriously excellent rollercoaster.

I bowed out on the Atlantis ride, though, because I was a little cold and didn’t feel like getting wet again.

I hung out with my niece as everyone else took turns riding. We made sure to stand outside the splash zone while we watched everyone come down, and then went to look at the fishies and sting rays for a while.

My five year old niece took the photo on the right. She’ll be a photographer in no time.

As the afternoon turned into evening, and the unnaturally chilly San Diego day seeped into our bones, we stopped by a Starbucks for coffees and hot chocolates to warm up while we waiting in line for our next adventure.

Confession time: Will’s fave from Starbucks is the caramel frappe. He claims this is the best one he had ever had. Way to go, SeaWorld Starbucks.

Their Orca show has, apparently, changed a lot. It is now primarily an educational show where they teach you all about the different kinds of Killer Whales and absolutely no one gets in the water with them.

After the show, we went down below to watch the Orcas swim for a little while.

Will and I have taken to getting magnets for every state we have been through, or for significant places we have visited. We also like getting Christmas ornaments, but in SeaWorld we opted for the Orca fridge magnet. They are seriously majestic animals.

I can’t pick a favorite thing we did in SeaWorld because it was all really good. I definitely recommend a visit the next time you’re in San Diego.

When we left the park, we grabbed some dinner and then went back to John and Kristina’s.

Sunday

On Sunday morning we went to church, where they had coffee and donuts available beforehand. That’s my kind of church!

Afterwards, we went out for brunch to Broken Yolk with the Shugarts and Kristina’s family. You can never have too much breakfast food.

San Diego Zoo

Okay, if you think me never going to SeaWorld while I lived in San Diego is bad, listen to this. Will had never been to a zoo before. In his life. Ever.

When we heard that we knew that we absolutely needed to visit one of the best zoos in the world—the San Diego Zoo.

And don’t worry—I definitely changed into good walking shoes before we went in the park.

It was so COOL to get to share that moment with Will. His first time seeing rhinos, giraffes, elephants, lions, gorillas, etc. He even broke out his phone to take his own pictures and video, which does not happen very often, folks.

The gorilla was so cute! A woman played a gorilla video on her phone and it just sat there and watched the whole thing.

We power walked through Africa, the arctic, stopped for some ice cream, and ended at the orangutans, which were my favorites of the day. Will’s favorite was the gorilla.

After a few hours in the zoo, Will and I took off for a little while so that I could show him all of my old stomping grounds. We drove up to north county and I showed him a few places I lived, worked, and shopped for groceries, before we headed back south to Pacific Beach. We drove by my old townhouse and then parked and ran to the beach just in time to watch the last rays of light from the sunset. It was such a special moment to be able to share with him.

Still feeling all grateful and mushy, we stopped at a restaurant called Fat Fish by the pier to get dinner. It was super delicious and special.

Monday

We had a great and relaxing morning with the family before we got back on the road. We stopped a few hours into our drive to spend a some time with the sand dunes. Will had never seen sand dunes before! Yet another cool moment to share with him! They were pretty big, and super white. It doesn’t take greenery or oceans for something to be beautiful.

We had a fantastic trip and whirlwind weekend with the family. There is so much to do in San Diego, it actually became overwhelming for me at one point because I realized that there is so much I want to share with Will. I’m so grateful that we had this time with family and with San Diego before we head back to the east coast. It did a lot of good for my soul.

Have you ever been to San Diego? What was your favorite part? The food is pretty high on my list! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a like and don’t forget to join the family by hitting that subscribe button if you haven’t already.

Until next time,
Jamie out

the road home & the craziest lightning storm ever

Published on August 3, 2018 by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

And just like that, 5 Days of Blogging week has come to an end! I hope you’ve all enjoyed it! It’s been very exciting for me, personally. I’ve been itching to blog again for a while now, and finally getting back at it has been a dream.

Starting next week, I will be committing to post once a week, so keep an eye out for something new every Monday! Until then, please enjoy these wonderful desert landscapes.

The most beautiful desert drive I have ever experienced.

After an overnight road trip and a whirlwind reunion (click here to read that blog post), we loaded up our little Ford Fiesta and drove off into the Utah desert. Will grew up surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscapes most of us only dream about. Naturally, our first stop for photos at a look out was maybe only an hour after we left his mom’s house.

Personally, it’s my dream to see the Grand Canyon. Well… not just SEE it, but hike it, and explore it, and photograph it, and kayak through it. I want to be a proper adventurer through the Grand Canyon. And friends, it is going to happen at some point during these next few months. I can feel it in my bones.

As we left Utah and headed for Arizona, the desert forest and mountains rose around us. It smelled like camping. Like that southern California, Sierra Nevadas kind of camping. With the pine trees of the desert, not the pine trees of the Carolinas. They have reddish bark and are spread out with little to no bracken and brush to surround them. They remind me of the red woods of northern California, or the dryness of Spooner Lake in Nevada.

We passed by the northern rim of the Grand Canyon and we resisted. We watched a tour bus full of people pull into a restaurant. We saw 4Runners with dogs and hikers, with kayaks on their racks. And we didn’t go the 45 minutes out of our way to glimpse it.

We did, however, stop several more times within the next couple hours because the views were. just. stunning.

We rounded this corner and the trees went away, and the desert rocks and brush rose around us, and then there were these views of red rock and desert plains that went off into the distance. I’ll tell ya, I have lived in super green places like Oregon and British Columbia and North Carolina, where you think that this must be the definition of beautiful. But the desert is something else. I’ve never seen so many shades of orange, and red, and yellow, and brown. It is breathtaking.

At this point in the drive, we decided that we needed to stop stopping everywhere. Because we could have stopped every single mile, the landscape was just that incredible. It didn’t help that just a few miles later we drove over a canyon and a river.

I could have stared at this river for ages. We had barely made it into Arizona at this point and still had to drive almost all the way to Mexico. So we took a few quick shots, and then reluctantly got back on the road.

As we neared Tucson later that evening, we encountered a crazy storm. It was so exciting! The wind picked up and rocked the car. It whipped the sand and created great clouds along the ground. The skies got dark and in the distance we watched the most amazing lightning storm we’ve ever seen as it grew nearer and nearer.

It eventually turned into a torrential downpour and the flash flooding was real.

We passed through the storm and made it home after about ten hours of driving, grateful for an amazing weekend, a road trip for the books, and ready to crash and sleep immediately.

—

If you enjoyed blogging week and those lighting pictures, please give this post a like and leave me a comment to let me know what you want to see next! Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already and I’ll talk to you on Monday!

Until next time,

Jamie out