Take 12 Trips: halfway through 2016

Well this year is evaporating fast. It’s halfway through 2016 and that means I’m half-way through the Take 12 trips challenge.

It’s my third year trying the challenge, dreamed up by Clare at Need Another Holiday – after a successful first and second attempt, we got off to a good start to 2016 as well with a string of days out and short breaks in the UK. But it was all gearing up to these three months with two of our big trips.

The big question now is, will we manage to keep up our travels once she starts school later this year? There’s two months of summer (well, sort of summer) to enjoy first though!

The biggest holiday not just this year but of her life so far was my long-awaited trip to Burma in April, something I feel like I’ve been planning forever.

It really was as amazing as I’d hoped – hopefully these photos will convince you, if it isn’t already on your list. If so, I’ve also created a list of planning tips for Burma to help you on your way.

Starting in Yangon, we took it easy, getting over the jetlag and getting used to the heat, before heading over to the temples of Bagan and then the stunning Inle Lake, where I was reminded of one of my biggest travel lessons when it comes to travelling with kids.

There are still a couple of posts to come on colonial Pyin Oo Lwin and the stunning Ngapali Beach, along with implementing lots of great advice from my first blogging conference of the year, Traverse, in Cardiff.

Between visiting Cardiff castle and taking a high speed sea safari around the bay I caught up with a few family travel bloggers.

We arrived back from Burma in early May and after a planned trip to Paris fell through, spent our time enjoying a bit more of the UK again.

After years living in the capital, we finally made it to the Horniman Museum in south-east London, somewhere I’d visit a lot more if it didn’t take so long to get across the city.

And a fun London museum visit just for me, to the astonishing Sunken Cities exhibition at the British Museum all about Egypt’s lost worlds – absolutely incredible.

And lastly, a chance to meet some (more) lemurs and plenty of other furry encounters, including a very curious giraffe, at Woburn Safari Park. Minnie is already dying to go back.

Then June brought our second big trip of the year: for once a family holiday with Mr MummyTravels (DaddyTravels?!) coming along too as I’d promised him a road trip in America, two things designed to make him happy.

We were taking just over a week to drive along part of the Pacific Coast Highway (aka Highway 1) – nowhere near as long as I’d have liked to spend, but then again I always say that.

Starting in San Francisco, we had a few days to explore the city, then along the coast towards Monterey and Carmel, via Santa Cruz and then down past Big Sur as far as Pismo Beach. I could very happily have kept going towards Los Angeles… or spent twice as long (three times?) taking our time along the route.

In the end, I had to restrain myself from stopping at every viewpoint and letting Minnie play on every deserted cove, otherwise  we’d never have got anywhere.

Needless to say, I have a LOT of posts to come from there. I think I need to spend July at home writing! 

In fact, I need to spend July recovering as June also saw me celebrating a BIG birthday (the one with the ‘4’ in) and heading to my second blogging conference of 2016 at BML16 in east London where I was talking on the Travel panel and a finalist in the family travel at the Brilliance in Blogging awards.

Which… I won! Talk about reaching the midpoint on a high (we won’t dwell on the referendum vote here).

So what next? Honestly, I feel I’ve spent so long planning Burma and California, as well as all the other bits of everyday life (which included starting a new part-time job in June) and thinking about primary schools, that my diary is pretty empty.

Another sunshine trip to Cyprus has been postponed (for now…) and I have a couple of mini trips and days out planned in the UK, but nothing else for now.

What do you reckon? What should be on my list – suggestions on a postcard (or in the comments).

 

Main image courtesy of Depositphotos. All other images copyright MummyTravels.

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