Hike Your City with Kamino

Even when you live in a place like I do you still get bored every once in a while. You can only go to the same places so many times.  As much as I love the beach, it can get boring. There are sometimes I don't even want to go to the beach. I am just not in the mood. I guess I am spoiled when I get to go to the beach any time I want. I am always looking for fun things to do in my area. I learned about a new app called Kamino. It is a really neat travel app that creates what they call hikes. A hike is just different things to do in your city or the city you are visiting. I want to explore hidden gems. 

The unique thing about Kamino is you can create your own hike and share it with others. If I were to create a hike for my town I would make it my favorite things hike. I would start off at Johns Pass for shopping and lunch at Hooters. Johns Pass is a neat little fishing village. You can also go on boat rides, go fishing or even parasail. I would then go to Fort Desoto for some time at a gorgeous beach. It is the most beautiful place in Florida. It is a must see. They even have a dog beach. The picture in my header is Fort Desoto. After the beach, I would send you to The Florida Winery for free wine tastings and a tour. The Florida Winery makes their wines on site and they are citrus based so they are delicious. You will probably be hungry again so off to my favorite restaurant Leverocks for dinner. Everything on the menu is delicious. They have an amazing lobster bisque. The Gulf Coast Lobster Tails are always amazing. Save some room for dessert for some Peanut Butter Pie. I think that would be an amazing Fourth of July weekend hike.  

There is also a Fourth of July hike that another member created. It is a food and drinking hike. I am not a big drinker but I really love to eat.  It would be fun to see what other people come up with.  I love to travel. We recently went to Orlando and sometimes going to theme parks are annoying. I want to explore hidden gems.  It would also be fun to plan out a trip for a friend or have them experience your same trip. Who needs travel agents anymore? With Kamino, you can find interesting things to do. It's like you have the local’s opinion of the best things to do without knowing one. 

Here is more information from the developer:

Features of Kamino:

- Hikes on the fly: Find awesome new spots wherever you are.

- Expert recommendations: Get insights from travel experts and local gurus on the best hikes in town.

- Local treasures and hidden gems: Discover what you may have missed in your own backyard.

- GPS-guided hikes: Never get lost! Our built-in GPS system will always get you to your destination.

- Hikes tailored to your interests: Find out if a hike is dog-friendly, good for kids, or great for a night out with friends.

- Recommendations: Add your own as you go or when you get to your final destination.

- Create your own hikes: Share your favorite places with friends, family, and your community!

The best part of this app is it's free! I love Kamino and I look forward to planning new hikes based on other's recommendations and building hikes locally and on vacation. 

For more information please visit the Kamino website. 

You can find Kamino in iTunes for free.

The Butterball Cookbook Plus App Review

If you know me, you know how important food is to me. I love to eat. A lot of my memories have food associated with the memory. One of my favorite meals is smoked sausage and fried potatoes.  It reminds me of my grandparents. My Grandma Rose always made smoked sausage and fried potatoes for my Grandpa and my uncles when they would come over for lunch. The smell of fried potatoes and smoked sausage, transports me to my Grandma’s kitchen. My mom also made this meal for me a lot when I was growing up. I had the opportunity to try out some Butterball Turkey Dinner Sausage. I had never tried turkey sausage before. I was excited to see how it fared to what I was used to. Butterball also has a free app called Butterball Cookbook Plus. It has all kinds of recipes. There are so many good ones. I think the Pizza Turn Overs sound amazing. I also thought the Mini Spinach and Turkey Bacon Quiches sound really good.  Here is more information about the app:

Butterball ® Cookbook Plus is only FREE for a limited time so make sure you snag this app while you can!

Butterball ® Cookbook Plus also features in-app purchases for additional themed recipe packs including how to prepare gluten-free meals for more delicious recipe ideas.

Voice Commands: Advanced recipe instructions, using simple voice commands. I love this because I can know the recipe hands free. 

My Recipe Box: Bookmark your favorite recipes from within the app and add recipes from your personal collection.  I love the recipe box, the most. I can find all the recipes I want to try without having to write them down.

Network with Friends and Family: Share what you're cooking with friends and family via email and Facebook I love sharing recipes with friends and family via Social Media.

Kitchen Tools: Access to multiple timers, substitution lists, and measurement conversion charts are tools everyone in the kitchen needs. 

Never forget an item again with the Shopping List. Tag ingredients directly from a recipe and add them your shopping list. Print or email your list. Talk about convenient. 

I had thought about trying the Classic Smoked Sausage Mac and Cheese, but I decided that since I have wanted Dinner Sausage and fried potatoes, I would test the Turkey Sausage as is. I am so glad I did. It was really delicious. One thing I noticed was it isn’t as fatty as beef smoked sausage. There wasn’t a ton of grease in the bottom of the pan. I think that is great. Sometimes when I eat smoked sausage I feel kind of greasy inside.  I feel that it is a great alternative for Beef Dinner Sausage. I did notice a slight difference in taste, which is to be expected. It was really good. I even enjoyed the leftovers for lunch today.  I will definitely try out the other recipes and let you all know what I think.

 Like the Butterball on Facebook

Follow Butterball on Twitter

For more information please Visit the Butterball website

The Butterball Cookbook Plus App is available for free on iTunes.

Son of the Sun and Wizard Lizard App Review

Noah is a very smart and compassionate little boy. I am always teaching him about doing the right thing. I teach him to be kind to others. I teach him to forgive those who have hurt his feelings. I teach him these things every day. Sometimes I feel like I am a broken record.  There are times that I wonder if I start to sound like the grown up from the Charlie Brown specials. I get really excited when I give Noah something that teaches him something. If there is a moral, than it is such an added bonus. He is the typical seven year old that likes Star Wars or Pokemon and other stuff that doesn’t really have any educational value. Noah had, I love Reading day at school, in November. Everyone was allowed to dress up as their favorite character in a book. Noah wanted to dress up as Darth Vader, because he was him for Halloween. I said no. Noah reads a lot of non-fiction books about fish, sea life and space. I surely didn’t want to send him to school as a mackerel or the International Space Station. I would love to get him more interested in fiction books that teach him a lesson.

Noah also loves technology. I strive to find him apps that teach him things that aren’t purely educational. Noah loves to read and loves interactive story books. He has so many books that when we go on a trip, bringing tons of books is not an option. I have traveled with many books in a suitcase or a carry on. It’s not fun. Thankfully, there are ebooks and Interactive apps. I love trying them out with Noah. We had the chance to try out SON of the SUN and WIZARD LIZARD. Son of the Sun is about little a sunbeam who was sent by his Father Sun to explore the Universe. The pictures and graphics are breathtakingly gorgeous. Noah loves to play along with characters. I also use Son of the Sun as a starting point to open up conversations about forgiveness. After we played the first time, I asked Noah what he thought about forgiving others. I asked him, if he understands what forgiveness is. I explained that once an apology is given, and you accept. You can no longer bring it up. It’s not something that can be used against someone later.  We both love Son of the Sun.
SON of the SUN and WIZARD LIZARD is the first story in the series.  The first book is telling about sunbeam’s adventures on the North Pole. The main theme of this story is forgiveness. Forgiveness is so important. Saying I am sorry and really being able to forgive a friend is really important. 

More from the Developer:

This beautifully drawn storybook will enchant kids of all ages while teaching an important lesson: the value of forgiveness. Instead of the traditional hero vs. villain story, Son of the Sun teaches kids that sometimes people make mistakes, but can change for the better.
Son of the Sun combines an engaging storyline with unique interactive elements to encourage kids to explore every element on-screen.
Feed your child’s curiosity by encouraging them to roam around Son of the Sun’s intuitive landscapes, while they discover hidden objects, encounter interactive characters, create music, and put together puzzles, all while enjoying an amazing story!
Allow Son of the Sun’s narrator to guide your child through the journey, or let your child read on their own so they can improve their skills.
Features
- 20 interactive slides
- 150+ animations and interactions
- 30+ minutes of unique musical arrangements
- 200+ enchanting sounds
- 15 lovable characters
- Fun puzzles with three different levels of difficulty

Son of the Sun has helped me open up dialog to talk about forgiveness with my son in a fun and interactive way.

Son of the Sun is available on iTunes. It is compatible with iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air and iPad mini.

GreatCall Urgent Care App Review

We all get sick sometimes. I don’t always know if it is serious enough to go to the doctor or not. Sometimes you just don’t feel good.  As a mom, it is hard to know if your child has just a virus or if it’s an infection. It seems to usually happen at night or during holidays, when no one is open.  Of course if it were serious, I would go to the emergency room, but most cases it’s a tummy ache or a sore throat or something that doesn’t need a hospital. I would also feel guilty about going and taking up their precious time when it wasn’t serious. I learned about an app called GreatCall Urgent Care. It will put you in touch with a nurse for advice. It reminds me of that Ask a Nurse service they had in the 90’s. They used to play the commercials for it all the time.  I remember watching the ads at my Grandma Rose’s house with my cousin Dan.

GreatCall Urgent Care is really easy to use. I haven’t had to use the phone service yet and hopefully never will. It is great to have just in case. How many times have you gone back and forth on whether or not you need to go to the doctor? I have done it before, mostly for myself.  One of them being when I fell down the stairs and bruised my tailbone really badly. I love that it also has a medical dictionary, Google is great but can be unreliable.  I also like the symptom checker because I can see what possible health problem I have.

Here is more information from the developer:

The free GreatCall Urgent Care app allows you to:

• Have one-touch access to a live nurse for advice 24/7, who can escalate the call to a board-certified physician if needed
• Get health-related assessments, general health information, diagnosis or even a prescription
• Have access to an easy-to-understand medical dictionary
• Research your symptoms with the medical symptom checker tool.

It’s particularly convenient to use this tool when:

• You simply don’t have time to run to the doctor,
• You need medical advice when your physician or Urgent Care is closed or unavailable
• You don’t feel totally comfortable discussing your symptoms in person with your normal doctor
• You want to save money. (The app is free, and calls are only $3.99. Much less expensive than a doctor’s bill or co-pay!)
• You have a quick on-set of symptoms
• Etc.

For more information please visit GreatCall Urgent Care

GreatCall Urgent Care App is available in the iTunes and Google Play Store.