Join us as we share our retirement adventures
Our travel philosophy
We are the Cajun Explorers and we’re new to blogging but wanted a way to bring along our friends and family as we discover beautiful places to visit. We’re also excited to share our travel tips with you along the way.
We seek out budget friendly travel that provides for fun adventures and great experiences. Since we fly the world on “stand by” airline tickets, we only travel with carry-on luggage and never check a bag. So, we have to be creative with our packing. Finally, all of the photos that I have taken to upload to our site were taken with my iPhone and not a digital camera.
Join us as we embark on our journey.
Tommy & Danny
Recent Blog Posts
- A One Week Getaway to Melbourne Australia
After returning the rental car from our Grand Pacific Drive road trip, we flew to Melbourne, Australia for a week. It’s a quick flight, just over an hour. We checked into our 40th floor apartment in a downtown high rise. What an incredible view from our balcony! Arcades and Laneways Melbourne’s laneways are small, tucked away alleys. The arcades are covered shopping plazas. They boast… Read more: A One Week Getaway to Melbourne Australia - Costco food court Australia and the special menu optionsWe love shopping at Costco, especially when traveling. Recently, we visited several Costco food court Australia locations. We wanted to discover if there are any regional food court menu options and products in the store. While traveling, we always search for unique items not available in Texas. You just never know what you’ll find. I’ve already posted on our visits to Costco Canada, Costco France… Read more: Costco food court Australia and the special menu options
- Australia’s Grand Pacific Drive in a 10 Day Road TripThere are 87 scenic coastal miles in Australia’s Grand Pacific Drive in New South Wales (NSW). You can certainly drive it nonstop. But, you wouldn’t really see much while behind the wheel. Although I won’t be the one driving. I’ll be chauffeured by my wonderful husband, like “driving Miss Daisy”. I planned many stops along the way to explore each area and travel beyond the… Read more: Australia’s Grand Pacific Drive in a 10 Day Road Trip
- A One Week Exploration Of Spectacular Sydney AustraliaSaying goodbye to the Crown Princess and “G’day Mate” to Sydney Australia Our arrival in Sydney by cruise ship gave us a unique view of the city, Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The captain delayed our arrival until 7:00 a.m., so we would have daylight to enjoy the view. Our escort into the harbor is a special celebration that includes water canons and skiers because… Read more: A One Week Exploration Of Spectacular Sydney Australia
- Costco food court Honolulu and the special menu optionsAll of our friends know we love shopping at Costco, especially when traveling. Recently we stopped at the Costco food court in Honolulu, Hawaii while on our South Pacific Cruise. While planning our trips both in the US and in other countries, we always search for local product options not available in Texas. You just never know what you’ll find. I have previously posted on… Read more: Costco food court Honolulu and the special menu options
- Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific—3 (New Zealand)Welcome to part three and the final post of our 31 day South Pacific cruise. We left Tahiti and we are now sailing 5 days toward New Zealand. Here are the links if you missed the first two posts: Amazing 31-day South Pacific Cruise to Australia—1 (Hawaii) and Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific—2 (French Polynesia). On Sunday, October 13th, the 20th day of… Read more: Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific—3 (New Zealand)
- Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific—2 (French Polynesia)Welcome to part two of our 31 day South Pacific cruise. We will visit Moorea and Papeete, Tahiti in French Polynesia. Click here to read my Part 1 post covering Hawaii. It’s another 5 relaxing days at sea before we arrive at our first stop in Moorea. French Polynesia is a territory of France, so we’ll be able to use our French speaking skills while… Read more: Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific—2 (French Polynesia)
- Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific to Australia—1 (Hawaii)We arrived early to board the Crown Princess for our South Pacific cruise and were on the ship within 30 minutes. Great job Princess! I’ll share just a few Crown Princess facts: capacity is 3,080 guests and there are 1,200 crew. Although this is an older ship built in 2006, it was completely refurbished in 2018. There are 14 dining and restaurant options, 8 bars,… Read more: Amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific to Australia—1 (Hawaii)
- Exploring Hearst Castle and the Beautiful Paso Robles VineyardsWe are celebrating my 65th birthday with a 65 day vacation adventure. I know, it’s not a coincidence with the matching numbers. We’re both retired now and since I planned the details for this trip, then why not travel for 65 days? Exploring Hearst Castle and the beautiful Paso Robles vineyards will kick off our trip. I’ll share more details later about the rest of… Read more: Exploring Hearst Castle and the Beautiful Paso Robles Vineyards
- A beautiful wedding weekend in Scottsdale, ArizonaWe enjoyed a wonderful weekend of fun and cooler weather in Scottsdale, Arizona on a trip with our friends Cary, Tom and Autumn. Danny & I had never visited Scottsdale before. So, it was time for a new adventure. First stop, a party at the groom’s house. For our Houston friends and football fans, you may recognize the groom, Greg Mancz. Greg played football with… Read more: A beautiful wedding weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona
- Fun New Year’s Eve Cruise on Harmony of the Seas
We celebrated the arrival of 2024 with a one-week New Year’s Eve cruise on Harmony of the Seas. There were 10 of us who departed Galveston, Texas to visit Costa Maya, Roatán and Cozumel. This is our first time to cruise from the port of Galveston and we are excited to set sail. Before our trip, I noticed that we had a total of 3… Read more: Fun New Year’s Eve Cruise on Harmony of the Seas - Parades, Music and Fun at the 80th annual Sugar Cane Festival in New Iberia, LA
Last weekend we drove to my hometown of New Iberia to attend the 80th annual Sugar Cane Festival (and to celebrate my birthday too 😉). It’s probably been 25 years since we’ve been to this festival and who doesn’t like small town Cajun fun? Our usual first stop each time we head back home is to visit one of our favorite drive thru daiquiri shops.… Read more: Parades, Music and Fun at the 80th annual Sugar Cane Festival in New Iberia, LA - Stress free roadtrip to Oklahoma City and Wichita FallsSeptember has arrived and it’s time for my birthday get away. We enjoyed our amazing adventure in France this year, but now we’re looking forward to a relaxing and stress free roadtrip closer to home. So, we decided to drive up to Oklahoma and visit friends we haven’t seen in a few years. I am not a fan of long roadtrips as they stress me… Read more: Stress free roadtrip to Oklahoma City and Wichita Falls
- The 3 best flea markets for antiquing in Paris-2023 update
I originally published this post in 2022 based on our pre-COVID visit to what I think are the 3 best Paris flea markets for antiquing. I promised to update the information and photos below from our recent 2023 vacation. After visiting all three flea markets, I’m happy to say that these are still tops in my opinion. My favorite past time when traveling is antiquing.… Read more: The 3 best flea markets for antiquing in Paris-2023 update - Costco France food court and the special menu optionsThe Costco France food court has a few menu items that we don’t have in the US. We just returned from France in June 2023, after spending almost three months vacationing there. Our typical routine at home is a weekly shopping trip to Costco. Of course sometimes, Danny makes more than one trip a week. I guess you can say we’re avid fans. A favorite… Read more: Costco France food court and the special menu options
- Car-2-Europe experience for vacation in France. How to find the cheapest price (Results-Part 2)
This post is the update to our original post Car Rental vs Lease Part 1. Part 1 outlined how the Car-2-Europe short-term lease program saved us $1,000-$1,600 off the cost of a 45-day car rental to drive around Europe. Part 2 shares our Car-2-Europe experience with Auto Europe and the results of the process involved with leasing. I originally booked our lease several months before… Read more: Car-2-Europe experience for vacation in France. How to find the cheapest price (Results-Part 2) - A Summer in France: Paris, Week 4–Our First Bucket ListWelcome to chapter 16 of our travel adventures— A Summer in France: Paris, Week 4. This is the final post in our Summer in France series. We are flying home tomorrow. Air Balloon Flight Since we arrived in Paris, I’ve been trying to take Danny aboard the Balloon de Paris. It’s the world’s largest balloon, according to their website. The balloon is also an airborne… Read more: A Summer in France: Paris, Week 4–Our First Bucket List
- A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3–Our First Bucket ListThanks for coming back to read our travel adventures— A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3. We kicked off the weekend going to flea markets. I’ve posted before about my 3 best flea markets for antiquing in Paris. So I wanted to visit post-Covid to see if they’ve changed. Marché aux puces de la Porte de Vanves I’m happy to say the Puces de Vanves… Read more: A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3–Our First Bucket List
- A Summer in France: Paris, Week 2—Our First Bucket ListThanks for joining us again for chapter 14 of A Summer in France: Paris, Week 2. This is part two of our month in Paris, the final leg of our journey. This week is another busy week of fun with Tom & Cary in town. We’ve created a routine enjoying the sites all day and cooking dinner in our apartment in the evenings. A stroll… Read more: A Summer in France: Paris, Week 2—Our First Bucket List
- A Summer in France: Paris, Week 1—Our First Bucket ListThanks for joining us again for chapter 13 of A Summer in France: Paris, Week 1. This is part one of our month in Paris, the final leg of our journey. The weekend before we arrived in Paris, we spent with our friends Valerie, Laurent and Maxine again. I hadn’t realized how tired we were and that we needed a break from our travels. It… Read more: A Summer in France: Paris, Week 1—Our First Bucket List
- A Summer in France: Provence Villages—Our First Bucket list ContinuesWelcome to chapter 12–A Summer in France: Provence Villages. In my last post, we stayed in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to use as a base to explore several towns and villages in Provence. If you’re not familiar with the Provence-Alpes-Côté-d’Azur area of southern France, here’s a map to highlight where it is. We were able to visit several villages during our week: Apt, Bonnieux, Ménerbes, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and a… Read more: A Summer in France: Provence Villages—Our First Bucket list Continues
- A Summer in France: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue — Our First Bucket List ContinuesA Summer in France: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is chapter 11 of our trip. This small town is famous for its many antique shops and hosts antique markets on Sundays which takes over the entire town center. If you’ve parked inside the old center, there’s no getting in or out that day. This is probably the largest antiques area in France outside of Paris. There are over 300 permanent antique… Read more: A Summer in France: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue — Our First Bucket List Continues
- A Summer in France: Montpellier—Our First Bucket List Continues
This is chapter 10 of Summer in France: Montpellier. We arrived from Barcelona a couple of days ago, but our first stop was Les Grands Buffets that I recently posted about. So, we’ve now had some time to recover and can resume our sightseeing. Montpellier is the seventh largest city in France with a city population of about 300,000. Students comprise one fourth of its… Read more: A Summer in France: Montpellier—Our First Bucket List Continues - A Summer In France: Les Grands Buffets — A Spectacular FeastWelcome to chapter 9, Summer In France: Les Grands Buffets. This is a special post about our experience at an all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet in Narbonne, France called Les Grands Buffets. We enjoy most buffet restaurants back home, but they are very rare in France. Even more rare is one that advertises as gourmet, upscale, elegant fine dining and with a dress code. So, of course… Read more: A Summer In France: Les Grands Buffets — A Spectacular Feast
View our Travel Blog to read all of our posts.
Who are the Cajun Explorers?
To learn more about us and our story, check out our About Us page
