Helping Refugees- Summer Fun Items

May 26, 2016

Check out this segment on Utah’s Fresh Living Show (KUTV) I need your help!  I am often asked how someone can help children in need from other countries.  There are many incredible humanitarian trips available to places all over the world which will allow you to assist in many different ways.  However, not everyone can afford to go overseas to do good.  I want you to know that there are many children right near your hometown who could use your assistance. These are children with their families who have gone through tremendous struggles and fought many battles to arrive here.  They are refugees. The definition of a refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.  In my home state Utah, there are over 60,000 refugees alone.  I have had the wonderful opportunity to be able to spend time with some of these families, and I must say that it has been life changing.  I was first introduced to helping the refugees a few years ago from my History teacher in High School, Don Ward.  This man spends most of his days helping and serving refugees from all over the world.  He is such an example and inspiration for me.  Around two years ago I met Amy Dott who works with serverefugees.org and I knew our friendship was meant to be.  She is incredible and has a passion for service.  I am grateful and excited for the opportunity she has given me to work with serverefugees.org.   A few weeks ago I was traveling around the country of Armenia.  When I arrived there, I spent a few moments imagining myself as a refugee and thought what would it be like to enter a foreign country with my family…

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Kyrgyzstan Countryside – Silk Road Travels 3

January 23, 2016

Driving through the Kyrgyzstan countryside from Bishkek to Lake Issyk-Kul was a bumpy but pretty ride.  I was able to visit many small markets filled with delicious fruit and other goodies the local people sell along the roadside.  It was refreshing to see markets filled with food, clothing, a few toys and other necessities for local life.  I didn’t find the typical souvenirs that are found at local markets in other countries as there weren’t any tourists around to buy them.  The people were so kind whenever we stopped to grab a few snacks for the drive.  Throughout the country, most women cover their hair with scarves.  It wasn’t necessarily worn because of religion, but mainly because of modesty.  They were proud of their little market stands and extremely proud of their children and wanted to show them off to me.  Many times I was asked by the parents when they saw I had a camera if I would take a photo of their child.  They loved looking at the image after on my camera screen.  The country is filled with smiles all around. From the side of the road, you will see what looks like tiny cities of old houses.  They are actual ancestral cemeteries of the dead filled with ornate domes and small minarets.  Depending on your financial standing when someone died these beautiful memorials were built.  Being a nomadic people who spent most of their time traveling only the very noble and richest had these mud mausoleums built.  However, during Russian control, they began to mark everyone’s graves.  These cemeteries are overgrown with weeds and are run down by the elements are there is no maintenance done for the dead.  After the body is buried relatives will visit the body for up to 40 days.  After the 40th day, they…

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Kyrgyzstan Burana Tower – Silk Road Travels 2

January 20, 2016

Today we left Bishkek and began our drive out to Lake Issyk-kul.  Along the way, we made a stop at Burana Tower.  The tower is an 11th Century minaret that was once 45 meters high and is now only 24.6 meters tall due to an earthquake that happened in the 15th century.  Minarets are built next to Mosques as a tall tower that is used to call the people to prayer.  The area now is an open air museum site and small archeological museum with items dating from the 6th-10th centuries.  Unfortunately, the museum is small as during Soviet Union control many artifacts throughout all of these countries were removed and taken back to Russia. There are very steep steps to get to the top of the tower.  It was dark and tricky to climb to the upper part of Burana Tower, but amazing to see the view and think about the people who once lived there being called to prayer.  There once was a large city here during the Silk Road times. There is a traditional fable story from Burana Tower about a King and his daughter. She was cursed at birth by a witch that she would die before her eighteenth birthday.  The King did not want this to happen, so he imprisoned her in the tower to keep her safe.  As she grew up, she also became very beautiful.  On her eighteenth birthday, her father came to her and brought her a plate of grapes to celebrate her being alive.  However, as she was taking the fruit a spider fell off the plate, bit her, and she died.  The story was one of the first of many I was told over in Central Asia.  I will say that most of the stories I heard did not have happy…

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Kyrgyzstan Bishkek- Silk Road Travels 1

January 19, 2016

New countries to visit, new adventures to be had, new people to meet and new cultures to experience.  I just finished following the silk road through Central Asia.  Although the silk road did begin in Xian, China, most of the route is running directly through Central Asia to India or Italy.  I spent a few days in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and then I boarded a private train for the rest of the adventure.  Because of the many amazing sites that are part of the silk road, there will be many posts for this adventure. Until recently before this journey was planned I honestly didn’t know much about Kyrgyzstan (or any of the other countries on my trip).  I didn’t know where it was, and I especially didn’t know how to spell it or pronounce it.  Glad to say that I finally know all three.  We flew from Salt Lake City, Utah (my hometown) to Amsterdam.  The reason I mention this flight is as we were flying to Amsterdam our plane flew right through the Aurora Borealis.  I don’t have any pictures as they wouldn’t take out of my plane window, but it was phenomenal.   Green lights streaked across the sky surrounding our plane.  We watched the changing sky for about 30 minutes until it was out of sight.  A spectacular beginning to this adventure.  Our next flight took us to Almaty, Kazakhstan where we landed at 2 am.  We went straight to the hotel and got in a few hours of sleep. The next morning we drove to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (which is the capital).  Almaty is at the bottom of Kazakhstan near Kyrgyzstan, so it was around a 4-hour drive, and some extra time going through the border checkpoint.  The drive was pleasant (although some places the roads were…

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New Years Eve – Crazy and Fun Traditions

January 1, 2016

Check out my segment on Utah’s Fresh Living Show (KUTV) I always have fun celebrating New Years Eve.  I especially love celebrating it with my little crew and some of our favorite families.  And of course, we love to get a little crazy, well as crazy as you can with a lot of little kids and only drinking sparkling Martinelli’s (as no one drinks alcohol).  But we do have fun.  This year we headed up to our cabin in Mount Pleasant.  Being out in the middle of nowhere is fabulous because we could make as much noise as we wanted.   Did you know that making loud noise and fireworks on New Years Eve has been around since ancient times?  It was the belief that loud noises and fireworks or fire would help get rid of evil spirits and help usher in a year of luck.  So for all of you who banged those pots and pans, blew some horns, and ran around with sparklers, your year should be good as the evil spirits are gone and good luck is on its way! Here are 10 of my favorite ways (not in any particular order) that New Years Eve is celebrated.  I love each of these ways of celebrating because most of these ways are really crazy and fun (or funny).  While others are very meaningful.  Japan.  Weeks are spent preparing for the New Years Celebration.  Many special food dishes are prepared that represent having a long life or a good  New Year.  Houses and shops are cleaned out, and the entrances are decorated with pine and bamboo decorations.  One of my favorite things that they do in Japan (something I feel everyone should do) is forgive all of their families and friends for any misunderstandings for arguments.  At midnight, they ring bells 108 times.  This is to…

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Gift an Adventure for Christmas

December 3, 2015

Check out my segment on Utah’s Fresh Living Show (KUTV) Having a difficult time deciding what to give to Christmas for someone special?  I believe the best present you could do is give them a memory that will last a lifetime. Recently I just saw this quote, and I loved it. Ok, so I do admit that I love Diamonds, but in reality most material things do not last.  I am usually not reminiscing about that perfume I got for Christmas 10 years ago.  Yes, it was fantastic smelling, and it served its purpose, but I didn’t ponder or dream about it.  However, I will always remember the weekend excursions to get away or a particular cruise or the trip I took with my friends or family. With Christmas coming up, I thought I would give a few fun travel ideas as well as how to give it to that special someone.  I have done all of these trips, and they are all wonderful.  I understand that not everyone can take time off work to do a long journey. But a great Christmas gift is even taking a weekend and staying in a hotel somewhere.  I love to go downtown with my husband for one or two nights and just relax and explore.  It is a break in the routine, and honestly I feel that when you escape the routine it is the best time to bond.  I am also doing a giveaway right now for a gift certificate for $200 towards a trip through my company Fun For Less Tours.  All you need to do is follow my blog, follow my Instagram (secretsofatraveler) and leave your email with a comment.  Tag your friends for more entries!  But for now, let’s begin with a few different ways to travel. Family trip I know my…

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National Parks- Every Kid in a Park

October 27, 2015

Check out my segment on Utah’s Fresh Living Show (KUTV) We live in a beautiful world filled with amazing national parks, forests, mountains and other sites.  Did you know that just in the United States alone there are over 400 national parks and most people can reach a park within a 2-hour drive by car?  I love living in Utah because I don’t need to drive far to see something amazing.  However, this year I am hoping to see even more sites in the United States because of a new program regarding fourth graders. Three cheers for my son Martin, who is in fourth grade!  Recently the White House and the Federal Land Management launched a new initiative called Every Kid in a Park.  If you have a fourth grader in your family, I hope you are ready to go exploring!   First I would like to say that regardless if you have a fourth grader or not, taking your kids out in Nature is always a fabulous idea.  Between school, homework, piano, structured sports and other indoor activities I am always looking for ways to get them outside.  Regardless if it is a day trip or a weekend vacation I feel we always come back happier and fulfilled by being outdoors.  Their natural curiosities are awakened; electronics are turned off, and we spend time talking and laughing.  I feel it is a necessity to bring our children to nature.  Even if they complain because their Minecraft game might need to be put on hold.   A fun item I have found for my kids is their own passport for the National Parks.  I highly recommend getting these for you and your family.  They have a regular National Park passport for $8.95 and a Kids National Park passport for $6.95 that you can purchase…

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Traveling with Littles

September 28, 2015
Secrets of a Traveler - Traveling with Littles

Are we there yet?  If any of you have heard this phrase it could be that you are undertaking an adventure with children.  Unfortunately for us, this question usually happens when our travels have just begun and we still have many hours to go.  With four children who have been on what seemed never-ending plane and car rides, we have learned a few lessons along the way to make traveling a little easier for everyone. A quick background on our family and our enthusiasm for traveling.  I started a travel company Fun For Less Tours with my family in the year 2000.  As of now I have been to over 100 countries and it has been an incredible experience.  I love meeting new people, seeing new cultures, learning history and glimpsing in person this beautiful world. I grew up traveling with my parents and siblings.  I had a passion to explore the world and of course when my husband Josh and I started our family we wanted to make sure we could continue traveling.  Our children are ages 12, 9, 7 and 2.  As of now my oldest has already traveled with us to over 50 countries starting when he was a baby.  With each new addition, we continued traveling and learned many ways to make it work with our crazy insane family.  Here are some of the things we have picked up along the way. I always recommend that when you travel with kids you have a sense of humor.  I love exploring the world with my children, but I know that most things can and will happen.  If at all possible begin traveling when your children are small.  If they grow up with long car and plane rides it is easier for them as they are more used…

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what I read…coming soon!

September 28, 2015

Love reading about history and cultures of the world? I will soon have lists of my favorite books for the different countries I visit.   Have a recommendation?  Please send me the information.  Always looking for amazing books!

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About Me

September 28, 2015
Secrets of a Traveler

Hi!  My name is Jamie and I guess you could say that I am very passionate about traveling.  Growing up my family spent many days exploring together.  My greatest childhood memories are the times we were exploring this beautiful world.  My parents, siblings and myself decided that it would be wonderful if we could continue traveling and do this for a living.  In the year 2000 we began our travel company called Fun For Less Tours.  It has been an incredible experience to continue touring and having the opportunity to meet so many beautiful people.  As of now I have already traveled to over 100 countries.  I have been lucky because my husband Josh decided to work with our travel company which allows us to travel together.  He is actually the awesome man who is behind our web design of our travel company (including this blog!) and is also our designated sherpa for our family.  We have four little ones who keep us on our toes at all times. My oldest who is 12 has already been to over 50 countries.  My other children are 9, 7 and 2.  As soon as they came into our family we introduced them to planes, trains and automobiles.  My greatest joy is watching them experience something for the first time in a new land.  I am hoping that these will be the memories that they will always hold on to.  I am not a professional photography or writer.  So know that there will be mistakes.  But I have a passion for traveling and would love to share my experiences with you.

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