Sage Sheep Adventures

We spent a month in Europe – first in Switzerland and then on a Holland America cruise of the Baltics with my mom.

Switzerland is becoming more and more vegan – with one of our favorite restaurants – always being full of people.  The lawmakers are even working on outlawing factory farming.

We walked through the country-side often walking 10 miles in a day.  When you travel at this slower pace, you see the quaint farms, goats frolicking, cows with cow bells ringing through the valleys, eat at farmer-run cafes tucked in the fields, see nesting African storks, and really see the country.

One of our favorite places to eat in Switzerland is at a grocery store cafe – Migros.  It is a buffet with a seating area – typically on the top floor o the building with amazing views.  Many locals stop in here for their lunch.

In Bern, we climbed to the top of a church tower to see the amazing views looking out over the city.

Jessica got a souvenir of a lightning bug in Estonia.  It was a beauty shop with tattoos performed in the back room.  The tattoo artist / hair stylist used an old bar of deodorant to transfer the design onto her skin.  The shop owner’s husband was an intimidating bald headed former Russian boxer who was coloring a lady’s hair during the tattoo adventure.

We spent a month in Thailand in a less known city called Chon Buri.  Not many people spoke English but they were so kind!  We walked everywhere and tried local restaurants and food market stands. We got our hair done and went to yoga class. 

The hair stylist took our photos at the end of our appointment – we were so surprised that it seemed to have an “asian” filter to make us look more asian – lightening our skin and slanting our eyes!  You can compare the in-shop photos to the after photo with our own camera. 

In yoga class, there was so much giggling going on, you would not know it was a yoga class if you just heard it from the outside.  After a period of doing classical yoga poses, we did group poses – which was so much fun!

We noticed so many ways of life that were different from what we do in the US – the meat in the grocery store is just out in open piles – you choose it and put it a bag yourself – much like we do with fruit.

You take your shoes off before going in small shops.

People take a ride on pick-up trucks converted into “buses” that honk at you to “Ask” if you would like a ride.  They did this to me often while I was out running – because apparently people don’t really jog there normally.  They couldn’t seem to understand why I would waste my energy in the stifling heat.

Monkey Mountain / Khao Sam Muk – On top of a hill there is a troop of wild monkeys that people feed.  The monkeys run wild – jumping on cars and stealing what they admire.  There are beautiful views from this high vantage point.

Every chance we get, we take in a small side trip or go on a local adventure.

 If we are near a beach, we take an hour to go listen to the waves and feel the sun and sand.  Even if the day is not perfect, it is always worth throwing on a jacket and adventuring out.

We run in different races – including the iconic Peachtree on July 4th in Atlanta.

We volunteered at the Olympic Trials in Atlanta.

We go kayaking with Meetup groups.

 We talk to homeless people to learn their stories.

We volunteer.

We make art.

We hang with our pups.

 We help our neighbors.

 We take classes.

We belong to a book club.

We ride our bikes around to explore the area.

We go to free yoga in Forsyth park (thank you Collins Quarter!)