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We finally made it to New England! This had been a much anticipate trip, and we had an incredible time. When I planned this vacation, I researched when to visit for the best chance for peak leaf change, and it paid off with gorgeous drives through the White Mountains. Matthew was getting over a respiratory illness as we started our vacation, and Whitney started feeling sick within the first couple of days, but both were troopers, and it didn't disrupt our plans too much. Day 1: Boston We flew into Boston, early on a Wednesday, landing around 10am. I booked a room close to Boston Common at The Revere Hotel Boston Common, and check-in wasn't until 4pm. So, we rented our car and went to visit a few historical sites prior to going into downtown Boston. Our first stop was Minute Man National Historic Park in Lincoln, MA. We detoured into the town for lunch at Town Meeting Bistro in Lexington before going to the site. This restaurant is located inside the Inn at Hastings Park. I am not a seafood fan, but Matthew had clam chowder which he said was incredible, and the rest of the food was good as well. It was a little fancier than we expected, but I would recommend it as a decent place to eat. After lunch, we made our way to the Minute Man National Historic Park Visitor Center. We parked and walked a path to reach the building and explored the small display areas and found a map of the park. Our objective was to see the actual Minute Man Statue and after looking at the trails realized it would be quite the walk to reach it. The ranger on site gave us an address to map our drive to the statue. I was surprised that it wasn't in the Historic Park, but in the town. This site is where the American Revolution began, and it is incredible to realize the first "skirmish", as the signs state, happened on the same grounds we were standing on. Our next destination was to Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. They offer tours of the house, but they weren't open when we visited so we walked the grounds and garden and then headed to stop three, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, the birthplace of John F Kennedy. Again, it was closed so we snapped a picture and moved on. The last stop before we drove into Boston was the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. This looked to be a really cool tour, but again was closed so we just walked where we could and took a few pictures from outside. We parked at the hotel ramp for $42/night, which was on the cheaper side for parking in Boston. We checked into our room and Whitney decided to stay back and do homework, while Matthew and I walked the Public Garden and Boston Common. Whitney is the pickiest eater to ever exist, so I checked out menus of restaurants in the area and found a place with grilled cheese. I called her and she met us in the lobby of our hotel, and we walked to the Back Deck for dinner. Once we were seated and looked at the menus, we saw that there was no grilled cheese option and were told they only offer it for lunch. So, Whitney didn't eat, and Matthew and I both ordered the Andouille Mac & Cheese. It was good, but the portions were very small for the price we paid. I had a Snicker Sundae for dessert, which they put walnuts in instead of peanuts, but it was still good, and Matthew ordered a Boston Cream Pie which was delicious. After we ate, we tried to find something for Whitney, but she was stubborn and insisted she wasn't hungry, so we went back to our room and to bed. Day 2: Boston Thursday morning, we woke up much later than normal, likely because of the time change. We got up around 8am, and my girlfriend Kim, who lives about an hour outside of Boston, was meeting us at 9am. We got ready, and after Kim arrived walked to The Friendly Toast for breakfast. Once we were fueled for the day we walked toward the start of The Freedom Trail. There was light rain on and off in the morning, but not enough to completely ruin our day. We stopped by Cheers, snapped a picture of the iconic sign and visited the gift shop. Then we made our way to the first stop of The Freedom Trail, walking through Boston Common. Our goal was to complete the entire trail, which isn't terribly far of a walk, but Kim was a little less optimistic than we were. The trail itself is only around 2.5 miles. I had a map printed out and was worried we would lose our way, but there is a red brick trail the entire way, which made it so much easier than I expected. We didn't start at the "starting point" marker but walked through Boston Common to The Massachusetts State House. Many of the sites had tours you could join to walk through the buildings, but we chose not to do so, other than the cemeteries where you could walk through for free, instead just admiring the buildings. Our next stop was Park Street Church, followed by the Granary Burial Ground and Kings Chapel. We walked through the burial grounds. Then we got a little confused. We saw the Old State House, and Old South Meeting House, but couldn't find the Old Corner Bookstore. We did find a placard on the sidewalk marking the Freedom Trail, but no sign anywhere for the bookstore. We found a Chipotle where it appeared it should be. We later asked someone at Faneuil Hall, and they said that it is now a Chipotle, so not sure if it is or not, but we count that as good enough! We found the Boston Massacre site and then made our way to Faneil Hall and Quincy Market. Here we stopped for a while, walking through quickly then finding restrooms, and we sat for a bit while Whitney had ice cream. After we felt adequately rested, we made our way back on the trail to the Paul Rever House, Paul Revere Mall and Old North Church. The last stop before we crossed the Charlestown Bridge was Copp's Hill Burying Ground, which has the narrowest house I've ever seen right across the street. The walk across the bridge was pretty cool, with decent views of the Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge and the Charles River. We were getting tired by this time, but we only had two more stops. The area across the bridge was much hillier than in downtown, so that did make it a little less enjoyable walking, and the last two sites weren't very close to each other. I felt they were the best sites to see on the trail, so I am glad we decided to cross the bridge. If we weren't going to finish the trail, those would have been the ones we would have skipped. We chose to go to the Bunker Hill Monument first. I had no idea how large this monument was going to be, and it was incredible to see up close. You can climb to the top of it up 295 steps on a spiral staircase. Had we started our walk here, we likely would have climbed to the top, but my legs weren't feeling it at this point. Kim promised to go back sometime and head to the top, so we will see if she makes good on her word. The last stop on the Freedom Trail was the USS Constitution. We didn't walk through the visitor center, but we did walk through the ship, which is free to tour. Matthew and I visited the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge when we were there, and we were surprised how different the two ships are. The USS Constitution is the oldest war ship still afloat. It was built and launched in 1797. There were several Navy Officers on board answering questions. When you go below deck, the ceilings are extremely low, and Matthew had to walk hunched over so he didn't hit his head. We completed the Freedom Trail! And we were tired and hungry, so we walked back across the bridge to the North End to find an Italian restaurant for an early dinner. The North End is unofficially known as Boston's "Little Italy" and has so many restaurants to choose from. After browsing menus, we decided on Beneventos. It was still early for dinner, but we skipped lunch, and eating early meant we were the only party in the restaurant. The food was excellent, service was ok, but they did forget to put Matthew's meal in, so he had to wait for his well after the rest of us had our food. When we finished eating, we walked down the block to Bova's Bakery for some dessert. We bought a variety of specialty cannoli and made our way back to our hotel, swinging by the African American National Historical Site on the way. We walked through Boston Common and saw the Embrace Memorial on our walk through. Kim broke off and went to her car, and we went to our hotel room. It started pouring as soon as we were back, so the timing worked out well. The skyline looked eerie with the rain shadowing the tops of buildings. As I said, The Freedom Tail is only 2.5 miles, but our fitness apps logged over 10 miles walked this day, which is a lot for our sedentary bodies. We went to bed early after the long day. Day 3: Salem, MA and Portland, ME We woke up fairly early and started our drive north. We stopped at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, and walked through the buildings, before finding breakfast. Saugus Iron Works is a reconstruction of the first successful iron works in the United States. Next, we went to Salem. We didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit since we were so close, but we didn't plan to spend a lot of time here. Salem was pretty packed and I'm guessing not even a fraction of as busy as it gets closer to Halloween. We found a place to park and walked to the house of Seven Gables and then to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Then we walked to Essex Street and enjoyed people watching and checking out a few shops. We managed to find a few souvenirs, snapped some pictures with Pennywise, located the Bewitched Statue and then had lunch at The Tavern. We walked to the Witch Trials Memorial and saw the gravestones of executed "witches" and their judges. While in Salem, I realized that I didn't have my credit card. I typically use only credit cards while on vacation, so I don't have to worry about my bank account being compromised. I did have several other cards with me just in case, but the one I had planned to use for the trip was missing. I went back and forth on if I should just call it in and cancel it. I ended up calling the restaurant from the night before in Boston, and they confirmed I had left it. So, we detoured back to Boston to pick it up before driving north to Portland, ME. We actually stayed in Scarborough, just outside of Portland at the Residence Inn. The hotel wasn't fancy but was clean, and we had a room with a bedroom and a pull-out couch, so Whitney had some privacy. Once we were checked in, we went into Portland for dinner. Portland is a really cute city. We went to the Old Port Area as a recommendation from the hotel staff and ate at Rosies Restaurant & Pub. We sat outside and enjoyed the fall weather. Our food was good and when we finished, we walked to Beal's Old Fashioned Ice Cream and we each got a cone. We walked down by the harbor enjoying the fresh air while we finished our ice cream before going back to our hotel for the night. Day 4: Bar Harbor We got up relatively early again with a decent drive planned for the day. We started our day at Tandem Coffee Roosters for breakfast and a latte. We were actually here before they opened, so we had to wait for around 15 minutes. They had unique breakfast items which we enjoyed very much, and the coffee hit the spot. We drove Hwy 1 the entire day and saw several cute little coastal towns on our drive. Our first stop was at the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in New Harbor, ME. They do allow tours inside to the top of the lighthouse, but we were too early and didn't want to wait the hour and a half. We did walk through their museum and the grounds and enjoyed walking on the rocky shoreline. We stopped for at Moody's Diner for lunch. It is a cute diner, packed with customers and the food was good. The rest of our drive was uneventful. We saw a ton of porcupine roadkill on our drive, and all through Maine. This wasn't something we expected, it was like racoons back home. We enjoyed watching for leaves that were just starting to turn, cute coastal towns and the occasional peak of the ocean. We stopped to admire The Fort Knox State Historic Site bridge, but didn't go to the actual site. I booked a cabin for two nights at Bar Harbor Cottages. We absolutely loved our cabin. It had a small kitchenette area, a little living area, two bedrooms and a bathroom, and a screened in porch. It was small, but nice. Check in was a breeze, we didn't even have to see anyone, they called and gave us the instructions earlier that day. There wasn't any access to the water from our cabin, but we could see the ocean across the street right outside our front door. After we unloaded our bags, we drove into the town of Bar Harbor. This was an extremely busy area and a very walkable town. You have to pay for parking everywhere here, but they do have kiosks pretty frequently along the sidewalks, so it is fairly easy to do. We were on a mission here to find souvenirs, so we went into quite a few shops looking for Bar Harbor, Acadia or Maine gear. Then we walked to Agamont Park and watched sailboats and enjoyed the ocean views. We grabbed a quick dinner at Langosta, a Mexican restaurant with amazing burrito bowls, then back to our cabin for an early night. Day 5: Acadia National Park Our morning started at 4:30am so we could watch sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. This is supposed to be the first place to see the sunris e in the United States, but I have found other sites in Maine that also claim to be the first to see the sun rise, so I'm not completely sure. Regardless, we wanted the experience. You have to reserve a vehicle pass to drive the Cadillac Summit Rd, in addition to paying the park pass. They only issue so many vehicle passes and we were lucky enough to get one for sunrise. The drive up to Cadillac Mountain was in the dark, but we did see a couple of deer. Once you park you basically follow the crowd to find a place to sit and wait for sunrise. We were pretty early so we were able to find a nice place on the rocks and set up our camera. It was chilly as we waited but once the sky started to light up, it was worth it. We stayed until the sun was completely above the horizon and the color changes as it rose was mesmerizing. The plan for the day was to drive through Acadia National Park, but Whitney was cold and tired and wanted to nap a while first. She wasn't feeling the best, so Matthew and I dropped her back off at our cabin and we went to breakfast at The Looking Glass. This restaurant has phenomenal views of the ocean, and the food and service were good as well. We drove to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. It was all closed up, but we were able to walk up to the lighthouse and snap a few pictures and we saw a couple of sealions just off shore swimming in the ocean! After we saw the actual lighthouse, we walked a trail that led to a rock cliff area where we could walk out and sit and enjoy the ocean for a bit, then we went back to collect Whitney. We decided to drive Park Loop Road and see what we could find to do. We started at Hulls Cove Visitor Center. You have to walk up quite a few steps to reach the actual building and there really isn't much there. We left the visitor center and just started driving. We pulled off at a few scenic pull offs and then turned into Jordan Pond. There was absolutely no parking here, so we just drove through and back onto Park Loop Road. We found a parking area with trails, so we decided to walk it. It was the Bubble Rock Trail. This was a nice hike, with some pretty steep areas as you walk to the summit. The trail markers are a little hard to follow and we never actually made it to the Bubble Rock but found amazing views of Jordan Pond as well as a few areas where the colors were peeking out in the leaves. We continued to drive and ended up completing the loop without seeing much. Whitney did not want to walk any more trails, and the park was so incredibly busy, we decided to drive a bit outside of the loop and stopped to walk a couple beaches as we made our way back to Bar Harbor. We parked and walked Bar Harbor again and bought a few more souvenirs and then had dinner at the Thirsty Whale. When we got back to our car, we had a parking ticket! We looked at the ticket and our parking receipt and saw that we literally got a ticket as we were walking to a kiosk to pay! I was super annoyed and since it was Sunday, we had to wait until the morning to figure out what to do about it. We went back to our cabin and relaxed a while before going to bed. Day 6: Gorham, New Hampshire Monday morning, we packed up our stuff and drove into Bar Harbor for coffee and to fight a parking ticket. Whitney stayed back at the cabin so she could get ready, but we were at the Municipal Building before they opened at 8am. Once we were there, we were told that they can take a payment, but we couldn't fight the ticket there. They did direct us on how to file a dispute online. It was actually really easy, and my ticket was dismissed within a couple of hours. We found coffee and then went back to pick Whitney up and start the next leg of our journey. Once we checked out, we started toward our first stop, The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Stephen King's former home, in Bangor, ME. The house itself is incredible. You can't actually go on the grounds, but it is a Victorian mansion with wrought-iron fence and gate around it. There are spiders and bats on the actual gate. Our next stop was The Sunday River Bridge in Newry, ME. We got out and walked in the covered bridge and admired the river for a bit, then went to our hotel in Gorham, NH. We stayed at The Top Notch Inn in Gorham, and as soon as we checked in, we ran back out the door. We realized that the Mt. Washington Auto Road stops letting vehicle in at 4pm, which changed from 5pm on the day we visited. We arrived at the gates at 3:50pm, with strict instructions that we had to be on our way back down no later than 4:45, and if we didn't make it down before the gates closed there would be a $50 fee to open them. The drive up was a little sketchy in places but overall, not terrible. It was 6 miles to the summit, and it did take us a good 20 minutes or so to reach the top. Once we arrived the views were magical. There was decent cloud coverage when we first got to the top, that changed to full blankets of clouds right before we left making it impossible to see anything at all in certain directions. You could see different mountainous hills in the distance, and the leaves were much closer to peak here than they had been in Maine. We enjoyed the views for a while, then walked through a gift shop before making our way back down the mountain. The way down was pretty intense. There are pull offs all over to cool your brakes and you are supposed to put your vehicle in low gear. We did put it in low gear, but it didn't help slow us down at all, and when we pulled off a couple of times the brakes were literally smoking. When we finally made it to the bottom, the check engine light was on in our rental, luckily it did go off a few days later. Day 7: Kancamagus Highway and Stowe, VT We were taking the scenic route today. The leaves were gorgeous, with bright red, orange and yellow popping though the greens. We were on high alert looking for Moose, with Moose Crossing signs prominent, but we weren't lucky enough to see any on our trip. We started our day with breakfast at Sweet Maple Cafe in Conway, NH. This was a really cute cafe, and the food and coffee were excellent. Our hope for New Hampshire and Vermont was to see gorgeous leaf colors and we were not disappointed. The Kancamagus Highway is a highly recommended drive during the fall foliage change and it is clear as to why. The highway runs from Conway to Lincoln along the Swift River, with many pull offs to walk trails and enjoy the scenery. I do not know what the individual pull offs are called, but we did stop at several. The first stop was at the Lower Falls area. We walked on rocks along and over the river and enjoyed the amazing colors. The rocks here were low enough you could walk pretty far into the river. I believe the next pull off was the Rocky Gorge. We climbed on the rocks and walked across a trail bridge. As we continued, we found the Upper Falls area, where Matthew and I walked a short trail to see the waterfall. Whitney was feeling pretty sick, and was exhausted, so she chose to stay in the car for this trail. We continued on the highway absorbing the beauty of the colorful hills and stopped again at a few overlooks as we made our way to Lincoln. Once in Lincoln, we decided to check out Franconia Notch State Park. We pulled into a lot and found many trailheads, but with Whitney not feeling well, decided to drive to Old Man of the Mountain, rather than doing multiple trails. We pulled into the New England Ski Museum parking area and found a souvenir store that we explored for a few minutes, and then drove down to the Old Man of the Mountains parking lot. Again, Whitney decided not to join us, but Matthew and I walked this easy, paved trail with lovely views of the hills around us, a lake and found the rocky protrusion that is where Old Man of the Mountains profile could be seen. Over time, weather impact had caused the formation to collapse, so we were disappointed to not actually see anything, but the walk itself was still really pretty. We then started toward our hotel, the Commodores Inn in Stowe, VT. The drive was all backroad highways and an absolutely incredible drive. Once we got into Stowe it was crazy with how many cars and people were enjoying this tiny mountain town. We didn't actually spend time in the town, but I do wish I would have booked more time here. If we ever go back, we will stay at least two nights and explore Stowe more thoroughly. We checked into our hotel and then we drove to The Ben and Jerry's Factory. We saw 3 bear cubs on the side of the road on the drive! We weren't able to do a tour of the factory because they had sold out of tickets, but we walked the flavor graveyard and enjoyed some ice cream. We skipped lunch this day, so we were all pretty hungry once we finished at Ben and Jerry's. Because Stowe was so busy we went to Waterbury Village Historic District, and had dinner at McGillicuddy's Pub. Day 8: Lenox, MA We let ourselves sleep in a little this day but were still on the road by 9am. We stopped to see Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park first. We walked into the visitor center first, and bought some souvenirs, then walked up to the Rockefeller House. Whitney isn't a fan of museums, but I do think walking the museum and touring the farm would have been fun. There are trails that will take you to lookout points where you can see Woodstock below, but because Whitney was still not feeling well, we didn't take any trails, but instead just walked the areas right by the parking lot and then drove to Woodstock. Woodstock is another cute little mountain town, with various shops and a covered bridge. We found some Vermont souvenirs at the General Store and walked the streets enjoying the small town. We stopped at Mass MoCA next. This is a really cool complex. There are several buildings, and it looks like it was converted from old warehouses or something. I read that they have great food here, so we planned to have lunch and walk through the museum. Our food was terrible! It was bland and heavy, and we didn't feel great after eating. We decided not to walk through the museum because Whitney was not feeling it, so we admired everything from outside and then drove to Lenox. Lenox is a town in Western Massachusetts in the Berkshires area. We stayed at the Yankee. You can access your rooms from inside like a typical hotel, but they also have doors that lead straight outside which was a nice feature, but we did manage to lock ourselves out within the first 10 minutes. The rooms were large and comfortable. Whitney decided to nap while Matthew and I drove to Old Lenox. We walked the town looking at old mansions converted to B&Bs and resorts, and then drove to The Mount. The Mount itself was closed, but the grounds stay open until sunset, so we walked the property and saw the mansion. There are all kinds of quirky sculptures along the yard as you walk to the house. Day 9: Mystic, CT, Newport, RI and Cape Cod This was our longest drive of our vacation. We visited Connecticut and Rhode Island on our way to Cape Cod. I didn't do the best job of researching what to do in Connecticut, so our only plan was to have lunch at Mystic Pizza. I wanted to just see what we found, but I find it really hard to explore without having a plan, and this stop proved it. We arrived just after they opened, and we had an enjoyable meal here. The restaurant is filled with pictures of celebrities and a lot of memorabilia from the movie Mystic Pizza. After lunch we walked for a while, then had ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, before leaving Mystic. We had hoped to drive the coast a bit and find a gift shop to buy a magnet of Connecticut but ended up in Rhode Island faster than expected. So, Matthew wanted to buy a magnet online, but I didn't think that counted, so we routed ourselves back to Connecticut and found a small town and bought a pretty lame magnet to represent Connecticut. Our only plan for Rhode Island was to walk the Cliff Walk Trail. Whitney was still feeling pretty awful, so she was not overly thrilled about the walk. We parked at Easton's Beach and walked the first part of the trail, seeing the Chanler and Forty Steps, and great views of the ocean and cliffs. There was a detour at Forty Steps, and we walked around the block to start the next section, and Whitney had had enough by the time we reached Vinland Estate, so we turned around and went back to our car. As we were driving out of Newport, we saw a car museum, and Whitney said she wanted to go, so we pulled off and walked through the museum. There were 7 areas with classic cars, new cars, foreign and domestic. The museum is the owner's personal collection, and it is incredible how many he owns. We enjoyed this unexpected stop quite a bit. The drive from Newport to Cape Cod was fairly quick. We made one more stop in New Bedford to see the New Bedford Whaling Historic Site, which was closed. We stayed in Truro, just before you reach Provincetown, and I had no idea how far that is down the cape. When we crossed the bridge to Cape Cod, we still had almost two hours to get to our cabin. We found a rest area just off the highway to use the bathroom. We stayed at Truro Cabins and had another cute little 2-bedroom cabin for the next two nights. The check in here was very similar to Bar Harbor, where we received a code for the keys and just let ourselves in. The resort had a community deck with BBQ grills and a walkway down to the beach. We dropped our stuff and drove into Provincetown to find dinner. We were here in the off-season, so most of the restaurants closed earlier than normal. We realized this when we walked to a restaurant we had looked up, to find their hours weren't updated online, and they were closed when we arrived. We found a bar/restaurant called The Squealing Pig that was open, and we ate here. It was after 8pm, and Provincetown after dark is pretty wild. Many groups of men dressed very risqué and overly sexualized. It wasn't exactly our scene, but during the day it is much more family friendly. By the time we finished eating it was late, and we had a long day, so we went back to our cabin and to bed. Day 10: Provincetown Whitney was exhausted and sick, so she had no desire to wake up and explore with Matthew and me. She stayed in bed while Matthew and I went in search of breakfast. Parking in Provincetown is horrible. The roads are narrow and packed, and there are very limited public parking lots. We went to Liz's Cafe, which has a parking lot adjoined, but you can't actually park there as it is owned by the gym across the street. It sounds like there is some friction between the restaurant and the gym over this. We had to move our car but were able to find parking on a side street luckily. We had coffee and breakfast, and the staff here was great, and the food was excellent. Next, we drove to Pilgrim Monument. We found a public parking area a block from the elevator to the monument. When we walked up, we saw that they were not open until 10am, so we walked down toward the Warf to kill about 45 minutes. We found a huge parking area at the Warf, which alleviated that as a concern later in the day. There are a bunch of little stands on the dock, but only about half were open. There were whale watching tours and we considered going on one, but they only had 2 tours, one at 10am and one at 2pm. The 2pm was sold out, and we wouldn't have had time to get Whitney before the 10am, so we just walked the area and people watched and saw the interesting art choices around the city. We walked back to Pilgrim Monument and rode the incline elevator up to the monument. Our tickets gave us access to walk up to the top of the monument, the museum and to the elevator for the day. We were the first visitors of the day, so Matthew and I had the luxury of walking up to the top of the monument without anyone around to worry about. The climb up with intense, but it was ramps with a step up at each corner, so not as bad as just steps. The sights from the top were worth the climb. We went to the museum to get our sticker for making it to the top and started to walk through. There was no airflow, and it was hot and stuffy, so we bought some water and a magnet and skipped the museum. We decided to head back to our cabin and check on Whitney. She was still sleeping when we got there, but she got up and Matthew and I walked down to the beach to relax while she got ready. The beach here was quiet, with sandy shoreline as far as you can see. You could look out and see the lighthouse at the very tip of Provincetown, and the city as well. The water was very cold and there was a ton of seaweed in the water and on the shoreline. The sun was shining, and we enjoyed sitting and listening to the waves for an hour. Once Whitney was ready, we went back to Provincetown and parked at the Warf. We walked the docks again and went into the Shark Museum. The museum was very educational and a quick walk through. After, we walked the streets and found shops to purchase souvenirs. Then we went to have a late lunch/early dinner at The Mayflower. Matthew finally got a full lobster here, and Whitney and I also enjoyed a great meal. We went back to our cabin after we ate so we could watch the sunset on the beach. We still had a couple of hours, but we grabbed chairs and went to sit on the beach. It was much cooler as the sun crept lower in the sky, so Whitney didn't last long, and we went in the cabin to warm up and then back out once. When the sun finally made its way toward the horizon the colors in the sky were the best I've ever seen. Bright yellows and pink completely illuminated the clouds. We watched seagulls splashing on the shore, dropping shellfish and digging out the meat within. It was an incredible evening. Once it was dark, we went back to the cabin and finished packing our stuff for our flight out the next day. Then Matthew and Whitney decided they were hungry again, so we went back to Provincetown and to the Grilled Cheese Gallery for a sandwich. This is a quirky diner with a unicorn theme, and every kind of grilled cheese you can imagine. Whitney stuck with the classic, I had a Cowgirl Grilled Cheese which had chicken and macaroni on it, and Matthew had the Cowboy with brisket and macaroni. All of the sandwiches came with a small cup of tomato soup, and we ordered fries to share. It was really good, and the staff here was great. Day 11: Airport We left our cabin at 7:30am, to drive to the airport. We had a 2.5-hour drive and an 11:40 flight, plus we had to drop our car off at the rental center and a quick stop for coffee. Once we exited the cape, it was quick. We had a late breakfast at the airport, and our vacation was officially over. We added 6 new states, and a hundred new memories Day 1: Boston Minute Man National Historic Park Town Meeting Bistro Minute Man Statue Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site The Revere Hotel Boston Common Public Garden Boston Common The Back Deck Day 2: Boston The Friendly Toast Cheers Boston Common The Freedom Trail Beneventos Bova's Bakery Day 3: Salem, MA and Portland, ME Saugus Iron Works Salem The Residence Inn Old Port Portland, ME Rosie's Restaurant & Pub Beal's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Day 4: Bar Harbor Tandem Coffee Roosters Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Moody's Diner Fort Knox State Historic Site bridge Bar Harbor Cottages Bar Harbor Agamont Park Langosta Day 5: Acadia National Park Cadillac Mountain Summit The Looking Glass Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse Bass Harbor Head Hulls Cove Visitor Center Park Loop Road Bubble Rock Rail Jordon Pond Bar Harbor Thirsty Whale Day 6: Gorham, New Hampshire Bar Harbor Municipal Building The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation Sunday River Bridge The Top Notch Inn Mt. Washington Auto Road Mt. Washington Summit Day 7: Stowe, VT Sweet Maple Cafe Kancamagus Highway Franconia Notch Old Man of the Mountains Commodores Inn The Ben and Jerry's Factory Waterbury Village Historic District McGillicuddy's Pub Day 8: Lenox, MA Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park Woodstock, VT Mass MoCA The Yankee Old Lenox The Mount Day 9: Cape Cod Mystic, CT Mystic Pizza Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream Newport, RI Cliff Walk Trail Newport Car Museum New Bedford New Bedford Whaling Historic Site Cape Cod Truro Cabins Provincetown The Squealing Pig Day 10: Cape Cod Provincetown Liz's Cafe Pilgrim Monument Provincetown Warf The Shark Museum The Mayflower Grilled Cheese Factory Day 11: Travel Day

Michigan is the furthest trip we've taken with our camper. I booked a campsite at J.W. Wells State Park, just across the Wisconsin border in the Upper Peninsula. Most of the trip was camping but we did take the time to venture out a couple of times. When I booked this, I knew Michigan was in the eastern time zone. I didn't realize that where we stayed was actually in the central time zone. This did make it a little difficult because the places we visited were different time zones, which meant earlier wake up times, but we managed through it. My original plan was to visit Pictured Rocks on Monday and Sault Ste. Marie Thursday. After seeing a ton of positive reviews of Mackinac Island we scrapped Sault Ste. Marie and visited the island instead. JW. Wells State Park is not the type of campground we generally visit. I like very wooded camping with as much privacy as possible, and it is very open with campsites right on top of each other. The site I booked was on the last loop at the end of the campground, with woods behind us, so we were more secluded than most sites and we ended up really enjoying our site. We were further from the lake than we would like to have been, but none of the sites had easy lake access anyway so it wasn't that big of a deal. There were restrooms and showers in the middle of the campground, a couple of playgrounds and an area with horseshoes. We left on a Saturday and were completely packed and ready to head out by 6am. It took us just under 7 hours to drive to the campground, filling up on gas on our way out and stopping once more along the way. This was the weekend before July 4th so the campground was packed, but cleared out considerably after the 4th. Once we were done unhooking our camper and setting up camp (and moving the camper two times to get it positioned right and level), we went straight to the beach. It was close to 2pm and the sun was hot. We were sweaty and ready for a rinse in the lake! We could have walked to the beach, but since we were pretty far back in the campground we drove. The parking area for the beach is huge and there are multiple paths through the woods from the parking lot to the water. We were on Green Bay (which Matthew continued to remind me and insist that we weren't technically on Lake Michigan). The beach area was really amazing. It was all sand as far as you could see and a nice sandy bottom when in the lake. There was an actual beach area with buoys defining the area. Bathrooms, picnic tables and volleyball nets were set just behind the beach area. We set up our towels just down from the beach area. The water was extremely shallow, and you could walk out forever and be able to touch. Matthew walked out and fished for a while, and Whitney and I alternated between tanning and dipping in to cool off in the water. After the beach we went to the campground office and bought firewood. Firewood tends to be what we spend the most money on while camping, but if you bought 3 bundles it was only $5 each here. Back at camp we started a fire, cooked some hotdogs and relaxed. We went to bed early after a long travel day and early start. Our second day was another relaxing day. We hung out at our site until we were hot enough to hit the beach and we brought kayaks with us this time. Dragging the kayaks was kind of a pain due to the fact that we drove and walked the path from the parking lot, but it was fun to take them out. Matthew was able to fish a little from the kayak, but with how shallow the water was so far out it wasn't great fishing. We did drive up the road to Ceder River State Harbor so Matthew could fish off the dock, but he didn't have any luck here either. Every day the campground had activities planned. Nature walks, educational classes, etc. They were all geared towards little kids so we didn't partake in anything, but on Sunday the kids did a bike parade where they decorated their bikes with flags and streamers for the 4th of July. A firetruck led the way as they biked though the campground and it was the cutest thing. Monday, we got up early and left camp at 8am to head to Munising. I had booked a Pictured Rocks boat cruise for 2pm. Munising is a 2-hour drive from J.W. Wells State Park, and we lost an hour with the time change. It is a super cute little town. We walked around and visited a few gift shops and ate lunch. Then we had ice cream at Miner's Pasties and Ice Cream. The ice cream was delicious, but we had no idea what a pastie was before we came here. Since we had just had lunch we decided we would come back after our cruise to try one. The boat cruise was spectacular. I would have loved to spend a day exploring the trails around Pictured Rocks or doing the kayak tour, but with how long the drive was we figured the cruise was the best way to enjoy this area with limited time. And we saw the most amazing rocky coastline we could have imagined. We booked the Spray Falls Cruise with Pictured Rock Cruises. The first thing we saw was the Grand Island as we pulled away from Munising and out of the South Bay into Lake Superior. Grand Island is over 13,000 acres and is a National Recreation Area. There are two natural lakes on the island. Our captain said that most of the cabins/houses on the island do not have electricity, and even less have running water, so this is definitely a more primitive area to visit. I'm going to do my best to recap our tour and remember all of the names of the sites that were pointed out. First was Miners Castle Rock, a beautiful rock formation resembling a Castle. This is one of the few areas along Pictured Rocks Lakeshore where you can easily access it by land so there were quite a few people assembled on the viewing platform as we went by. The next section was gorgeous. We saw cliffs with all the beautiful colors dripping down like they were running into the water. The cliffs are sandstone, and over time the water and wind have created caves. The colors that we saw are caused by different minerals transported within groundwater seeping out of cracks in the rock and deposited as stains on the sandstone. Reds and oranges are from iron, the blues and green are caused by copper, brown and black by manganese and the white is limonite. The Caves of all Colors have a gruesome story attached. Apparently Native American's believed them to be a place of execution by early Indigenous Tribes, with the vermillion coloring thought to be the blood of victims within the caves. Lover's Leap is a beautiful arch. The water surrounding this formation is a lovely green/blue where it is only approximately 3 feet deep (so the captain made sure to tell us leaping from Lover's Leap is a very bad idea), then moving into a darker blue as it gets deeper further from the arch. Rainbow Cave is another lovely backdrop against water resembling the Caribbean beaches. The cave has all the wonderful colors dripping from the sandstone. This is the largest cave along the Pictured Rocks shoreline and a favorite for kayakers. Indian Head Rock is a formation resembling the profile of a Native American Chief. Next is Grand Portal. This is the highest rock formation along Pictured Rocks, reaching over 200 feet high. At one time you could take a small boat through the archway here but a rock collapsing 25 years ago blocked the passageway. Battleship Rock was one of the coolest things we saw on our cruise. The rock itself resembles a battleship sitting on the water. As our captain moved our boat past Battleship Rock, Battleship Row slowly came into view, revealing several rock formations jetting out into the water mimicking a line of battleships. Flower Vase Rock and Indian Drum came next. Two very distinct formations that perfectly resemble that of their names. As we came to Chapel Cove our captain steered and positioned our boat right into the cove. There were only a few feet on either side of our cruise boat before the giant cliffs began. Chapel beach is next to the cove and it was filled with people enjoying the beautiful day. When I researched Pictured Rocks, this was the destination I had considered visiting by land. There is a trailhead where you can park and walk 3 miles to the beach. From there you can continue on a loop for a total of 10 miles, or you can walk the 3 miles back. The loop will take you along the cliffs and from what I read it is the best way to see the actual cliffs by land. Chapel Rock is a wonderous formation with a tree growing directly on top of it. The tree cannot sustain itself atop the rock, so the roots suspend across to the main land area behind Chapel Rock. At one time there was an arch supporting the roots, but this has fallen and now the roots suspend across the vacant space. Spray Falls was the furthest destination on our cruise. This is the only waterfall that continuously flows all summer long. There are many other waterfalls along the lakeshore which flow abundantly in the late winter and early spring when the snow melts, but dry up during the summer. On our way back to Munising we saw the Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse. The lighthouse is on private property and was built in the 1860s. The lighthouse is made of wood and has been restored over the years. It was only operational until the early 1900s. As soon as we stepped off the boat Whitney went to wade in Lake Superior. After our cruise we went back to Miners Pasties and Ice Cream. We wanted to try these amazing meat and veggie pockets. When we ordered they only had the Yooper Pastie available, but assured us that was the best one anyway. Whitney ate another ice cream cone and we sat and enjoyed our dinner. The Yooper Pastie was really good, filled with pork, beef, potatoes, rutabaga, onion and carrots. All this goodness is wrapped in a flaky crust and you can pick it up and eat it like a sandwich. It was delicious. As we left Munising to head back to our campground we stopped at the Wagner Falls Scenic Site. This is a very short walk to view a waterfall. Tuesday was July 4th. We had planned to find a spot close to the campground to drive and see fireworks. As we looked at the weather for the next few days, we decided to move our daytrip to Mackinac Island to Wednesday from Thursday to avoid the rain coming Thursday. Mackinac Island was a 3-hour drive from J.W. Wells State Park plus an hour lost with time change, so we planned to be on the road by 6am. Whitney was ok with skipping fireworks, so we stayed at the camp all day. The beach was great this day, with temps in the 80s and nothing but sun. We spent most of our time at the beach, going back to camp to eat and then back to the beach. We floated, kayaked and laid on the beach tanning. That evening we played horseshoes, had a fire, ate our first s'mores of the trip, showered and went to bed early. Wednesday, we woke up at 5am to get ready to go to Mackinac Island. We drove the 3 hours along Highway 2 to St. Ignace to catch our ferry. It started to rain approximately 30 minutes into our drive. And by rain, I mean downpour. Sheets of rain, lines of traffic, limited visibility. Some lightning and thunder. We arrived at St. Ignace just after 10am ready to take the 10:30 ferry to the island. The schedule usually has a ferry leaving every 30 minutes, but on this day, there was a bridge tour, so we had to wait until 10:50. The rain started to subside right around the time we left, which was a relief. We moved our island visit to avoid the rain and didn't want to be drenched all day. I booked our ferry and a carriage ride through Mackinac Ferry (Star Line). The ferry ride to the island was approximately 20 minutes. As we approached the island you could see adorable houses lining the cliffs along the water's edge. The sky was still cloudy and hazy so we couldn't see the Mackinac Bridge. Once we got off the ferry, we went straight to the Mackinac Island Carriage Tours. I wasn't sure if we had to reserve a time or not, as the tickets I purchased in advance were not for a specified date or time. After checking in we went straight into a line and boarded a carriage tour. The carriage was pulled by two horses. We started down main street which is an adorable area with all kinds of shops and restaurants. It is very touristy and a little crowded, but the fact that there are no cars somehow adds to the charm. Out of the main street area we headed up the hill and approached the Grand Hotel. This hotel was built in only 93 days in the late 1880s. It is magnificent and has a very old-world charm. Our guides taught us a lot on this tour. Mackinac Island was the 2nd National Park in the United States, with the 1st being Yellowstone. The park was upkept by the soldiers at Fort Mackinac and when the military decided to close the fort, the State of Michigan stepped in to take care of the park. This is why it became a Michigan State Park after it was originally a National Park. There are no cars allowed on the island. The only transportation is by horse, bike or on foot. Ambulance and Fire is the only exception to this. Even the police officers patrol on bike. The speed limit here is 25mph. If you go faster than 25mph on a bike or horse, you will be fined $100. They have only 1 doctor on the island. They have 5 veterinarians on the island. Horses greatly outnumber the permanent residents on the island. In the winter they have special shoes with spikes for the horses, resembling that of ice cleats you wear over boots. They salt their streets with a horse drawn salt spreader. The horses work 1/2 days and then get a full 24 hours off. The guides on our tour are required to take care of their horses as well as lead the tours. They bathe, brush, bridle, etc. their horses each day. A lot of the workers on the island are college students. Most of the employers provide housing to their workers so they aren't dependent on ferry schedules. Their days begin before the ferry starts running in a lot of cases. The cemetery here is very unique. It is separated by religious denomination. It has multiple sections for religion as well as one section for military service. In order to be buried on the island you have to own land there. Our tour started on Main Street as I said, and once we reached the horse stables, we changed to a larger carriage. At the horse stables there was a guest center with restrooms, a few shops, donuts, Wings of Mackinac-a butterfly house you can walk through (which we skipped) and a place where you can build your own knife as a souvenir (also skipped). We boarded a new carriage pulled by 3 horses this time, which can seat up to 35 people. This is where we started touring more of the state park and learning more about the history of the island including where we saw the Mackinac Island Cemetery. We also stopped at Arch Rock. Our guide on this part dropped some off at Fort Mackinac and the rest of us off at the Governor's Residence where we could walk back down to Main Street. We walked to the Grand Hotel once we were off the carriage. It cost $10 to enter if you aren't staying at the hotel. We walked through and viewed all of the historic public areas and walked on the grand porch. I had planned to have lunch at the Grand Hotel but the buffet was the only thing serving anything besides bar appetizers, and the cost was $75 each, so we just walked through and then headed back to Main Street for food. The Gate House was the first restaurant we saw on our walk back down the hill, and this restaurant is actually a part of the Grand Hotel. Matthew and I enjoyed a burger and Whitney had a grilled cheese. After eating we walked Main Street. We went into a bunch of gift shops and purchased some souvenirs, Whitney got some ice cream, and we bought fudge from one of the many fudge shops on the island. Once we were done, we went to catch the ferry back to St. Ignace. The sky was clearer on the way back, so we did see decent views of the bridge from Lake Huron. After our afternoon on the Island, we drove across the Mackinac Bridge to find a good spot to get pictures. Plus, we now get to say we crossed the longest suspension bridge in the United States. Just across the bridge on the main-land of Michigan is Mackinaw City. I don't understand the same pronunciation and different spelling of the city and island, but I looked it up and it is definitely a different spelling. We stopped at Alexander Henry Park and walked to the shore of Lake Huron. Here we had fabulous views of the bridge even through a hazy sky, and got to step into the lake for awhile. Once we were done we started our drive back to our camp. I stopped at a rest area on our way back so that we could step into the water and officially step into 3 great lakes on this trip (since Green Bay didn't count in Matthew's opinion). We got back just after 7pm and sat by the fire and read until we were tired enough to go to bed. Thursday and Friday were spent relaxing at the campground. We kayaked, laid at the beach, enjoyed sitting by the fire, watched a couple of movies in the evening and played card games. We also went back to the harbor to fish again. We all got sunburned throughout the week. I finished 3 books on this trip, which is rare for any of our vacations to allow enough time to just sit and unwind, but it was such a needed relief. Friday morning we set our alarms for 4:30 so we could watch the sun rise. The sunrise at this time was 5:08am. Friday evening we burned our remaining wood and had s'mores again. We packed up everything we had outside of the camper before going to bed this evening. The only thing we had to worry about packing was inside the camper and our kayaks. Saturday morning we woke to rain, so our decision to pack up the night before made our morning a lot more pleasant. We had our coffee and then secured everything inside the camper. We were hooked up and pulling out around 8am Saturday morning to start our drive home. One quick stop at the dump station and to drop our garbage in the trash containers and we were on our way home. This was a wonderful week in Michigan. A nice mix of exploring and relaxing, with plenty of sunshine and beach time.

We took our much-anticipated camping road trip from Minnesota to Niagara Falls. Staying in Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. When planning this trip, we knew we would have several long drives, so we stayed 2 nights in 3 of the locations to break it up a bit. Matthew, Whitney and I drove in the truck pulling the camper and Galytea and Ben followed behind us in the Terrain. We were packed and ready to hit the road at 7am on Friday morning. I had originally planned to stop for a night in Wisconsin and drive further into Indiana or Ohio for our second night, but Matthew thought we should just go and get closer to New York, so the first leg was calculated at 7 hours of driving not counting stops. Traffic in Chicago added around 3 hours to our drive, so with gas and bathroom stops, plus traffic delays we drove for 11 hours day 1. This is definitely more than we want to drive in one day, we were all exhausted by the time we arrived. The wind on this vacation was also a factor. Pulling our travel trailer is already a little anxiety inducing, but adding windy conditions makes it worse. There wasn't anything severe, just enough to make it uncomfortable to pull. I booked us a campsite at Michigan City Campground in Michigan City, IN. We've already been to Indiana, so this stop was just to sleep. The campground was a nice typical RV campground. It had full hookups, pull through sites, a pool, basketball court, and a general store. We made a quick dinner and played a few card games before going to bed. Saturday morning, we were up and on the road again by 9am. The drive was mapped to take just over 6 hours, and we made it in about 8 hours. We were also crossing into the eastern time zone, so we arrived right around 6pm. We stayed at Lake Erie State Park for two nights. This campground was nice as well but lacked privacy. The campground overlooks Lake Erie, but the lake isn't accessible from any of the sites. You can walk down to a small beach area easily. The campground has showers and restrooms, electric hookups, several playgrounds, disc golf and of course the lake. When we arrived, we set up and made a quick dinner. Then we walked to the lake to dip our toes into our fourth Great Lake (for Whitney and myself). After, we showered and played games before going to bed. Sunday was our Niagara Falls day. We wanted to be there when they light up the falls, so we opted to leave a little later, close to 10am. Ben didn't get his passport in time for this trip, so Galytea and Ben drove to Niagara Falls, NY, stopping in Buffalo for brunch and a state park along the way. Matthew, Whitney and I cut up to Canada to see the falls from that side, which we'd heard has better views. Customs took us awhile to get through, but it wasn't terrible. We went straight to Niagara Falls and it was chaos. The Canada side is what Matthew calls Vegas for kids. The streets are lined people and tourist activities. We didn't stop to walk these streets, but instead found parking relatively close to the falls. You have to walk downhill quite a bit to reach the falls viewing areas, and we walked through a wooded area that was nice and shaded. Once we reached the viewing area, we were able to see the falls perfectly! While the views were amazing as expected, you are pretty far away. We did sit and admire them for a while and snapped a few pictures, then walked back up the hill to find lunch. Our parking was right outside the Skylon Tower, so we went inside to use the restroom, and shopped at their gift shops. We checked out the menu for the restaurant here, but Whitney wouldn't have eaten anything on the menu, and it was pretty expensive. Since we were going to eat quick and then go meet up with Ben and Gal, we wanted something close and easy. We walked to an IHOP at a hotel a block from our parking area. When we arrived, we were told that it wasn't open to the public, so I found another spot that was only another block up. We ate at Shoeless Joe's Sports Grill. The food was good, the service was ok. After lunch we walked back to our car and crossed over the Rainbow Bridge back into New York. Parking isn't cheap here, but you do only pay once and can reenter any of the State Park parking lots, which we took advantage of several times as we drove to different areas. We met Gal and Ben on Goat Island and decided to do the Cave of the Winds attraction first. You have to purchase tickets at the gate, you can't do in advanced, but when I bought them, we only had a 20-minute wait to enter. By this time of the day, it was hot, and we were all sweaty, starting to sunburn and a little miserable. While we waited, we walked in the park to find the Niagara Falls State Park sign and get a picture, and then we went back to the Cave of the Winds entrance and were able to walk right in a few minutes early. You take an elevator down 175 feet to the series of decks where you walk basically right under the Bridal Veil Fall. They issue ponchos, but we were still soaked. You are sprayed with water from the fall as you walk, and some of the decks have water rushing at your feet. This was an experience I am glad I didn't miss. You can feel and hear the power of the falls up close and personal, and it cooled us down nicely as we were soaked from the spray. After Cave of the Wind, we drove to the Maid of the Mist area. I pre-purchased tickets for this ride, but there are no times assigned, you can go whenever it is running during the season. Once we made our way to the entrance we saw the line, which was likely an hour wait. With the sun beating on us and our skin already pretty pink, we decided to drive north to hit up Lake Ontario and come back later. It was around 5pm at this time, and we had to be back before 8pm to get on the Maid of the Mist. Fort Niagara State Park was approximately a 30-minute drive north of Niagara Falls. It was much cooler here. We walked on a really nice beach and stepped foot in our fifth and final Great Lake, Lake Ontario. You could see Toronto skyline across the lake here. We didn't stay long before heading back to Niagara Falls. We did detour to get Whitney McDonald's, as she hadn't eaten all day. Once back to the Niagara Falls State Park, we walked back to Maid of the Mist and the line was completely gone! Not only were we able to walk right in, but the boat was almost empty making it extremely easy to find good viewing areas as the boat moved along and turned by the falls. We got on the boat around 6:30pm, and the crew said earlier in the day they had almost 600 people on at a time. The decision to leave and come back definitely paid off. They issue ponchos as you board Maid of the Mist, and you do get wet as they turn the boat around at the bottom of Horseshoe Falls, but the ponchos did keep us dry this time. It wasn't as intense as Cave of the Winds, but definitely worth doing. We saw a double rainbow over Bridal Veil Falls, and you get right up under Horseshoe. When the boat docked, we drove back to Goat Island and parked. We walked to the Horseshoe Falls viewing deck so we could see the falls once they light up. It was just before 8pm, and the lights were supposed to go on at 8:30pm. We sat waiting until 9:30pm, only to realize that the lights shine from the Canada side onto the falls, there aren't actually lights behind the falls. So, we couldn't see anything at all. Maybe if we had waited until later when it was darker it would have been like you see in pictures, but we were tired and done with the Falls. My guess is you have to see it from the Canada side to get the full effect anyway. We got back to camp after 11pm, with a detour for gas that was not anything I'd like to remember. It was basically straight to bed after a long day. Monday morning we woke up and made a bigger breakfast. Checkout was 11am, and we couldn't check in at our next destination until 3pm. The drive was 3 hours, so we had an hour we had to kill on the way. On this drive, I missed a turn. We were on a back highway, and the road jogged left and I went straight. GPS rerouted and I ended up on a one car width, curvy, hilly dirt road. It was scary enough pulling the camper on the road, but we came up on a utility truck that was laying gravel. Luckily where we met the other vehicle the road was slightly wider, and the side he was on was flat enough he could pull off a little and we were able to pass. The shoulder on our side went straight down so we would have been stuck. Eventually we made it back onto our route the rest of the way without incident. The roads became very hilly which was slightly nerve-wracking with the trailer. I am used to driving on flat ground and with the hills and the wind the camper definitely handled differently. As we approached Racoon Creek State Park there was a 10mph double curve uphill, and my truck did struggle a little. Coming down when we left was worse though! I booked the next two nights at Racoon Creek State Park Campground. This campground was very secluded with huge sites. We were on the end of a loop, just before the bathrooms, so we only had neighbors on one side, and behind us was all woods. The campground is spread out with 5 separate loops of campsites. There was no one at the entrance the entire time we were here, and the visitor center was not part of the campground. The campground has showers and restrooms, electric sites, and we were able to fill our water tank with potable water. I refused to use the showers because they weren't the cleanest, and I don't want to shower with bugs or spiders, but Matthew did and said they were fine. Our goal for Pennsylvania was to just relax a bit. It was hot, around 98 degrees, and we were tired from our travels and day at Niagara. When we arrived, we set up badminton, had a fire and relaxed at our campsite. The site had plenty of trees and a slight breeze so it was tolerable outside even with the heat, but the humidity certainly affected us when we played badminton. We drove to the boat launch, which is privately owned, and purchased firewood and campground sticker. Just as we were leaving the wind picked up and a storm moved in. It didn't start raining until we made it back to our site, so we did have time to put chairs and everything away before they were soaked. We spent the evening playing games. Tuesday was beach day! We went to the lake within the park and spent several hours just lounging. We laid in the sun and cooled off in the water, enjoyed some ice cream and passed most of our day. After returning to the campsite we played more badminton, sat by a fire, and relaxed. Matthew and I drove to the Wildflower Reserve and walked an uninspiring trail to a lookout that had views of basically nothing but trees. It was still nice to get out and it was an easy, shaded trail. Afterward we went to the visitor center, then back to camp. We spent the rest of the evening around the fire, playing badminton and playing games. We had a racoon visit our site, watched lightning bugs and enjoyed the lazy evening. Wednesday, we had a longer drive as we made our way to Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio. This was not my favorite drive. It was super hilly winding roads, and it was all backroad highways. We stayed at Top O' the Caves Campground right within the park. The Campground was nice, but the sites were small. They had electric and water hookups, and we didn't have neighbors on either side of us, so it wasn't too bad with our smaller site. The campground also has a laundromat, an arcade room, showers, and a general store. It was hot here too with temps in the mid 90s. Once we set up camp, we ate quick and then went to Ash Cave Trail. This is an easy trail with most of it being handicap accessible. At the end of the paved trail there is a series of steps that you can climb for gorgeous views. The trail is only a 1/2 mile and is in and back out. After Ash Cave we walked Cedar Falls Trail. This is also a 1/2-mile one way trail, but a little more strenuous than Ash Cave Trail. It wasn't very difficult, but you are walking on a dirt path with tree roots, rocks and elevation changes. Our vacation was in June, so the falls weren't flowing, but you could see where water does run off when it rains. Once we finished Cedar Falls Trail, we went back to our camp. It was pretty warm and humid, and we all went to shower. After we were clean, we ate and then checked out the arcade. We played pool, air hockey and other arcade games, spent a bunch of money playing for tickets that you can turn in for cheap toys, and enjoyed the evening. As soon as it started to get dark, we drove to John Glenn Astronomy Park. This is supposed to be a perfect place to view the stars and you can see the Milkyway clearly here with little light pollution. Unfortunately, the moon was almost full, so the sky didn't get very dark, but it was still a really cool place. Thursday morning Matthew and I started our day at the visitor's center, then to Conkle's Hollow Reserve and walked Conkle's Hollow Trail while the kids slept in. We walked the Gorge Trail, which was another handicap accessible trail and 3/4 miles. It was cool in the gorge, and nicely shaded with trees lining the path and large cliffs on either side. It was a nice walk and once the pavement ended you could walk a short dirt trail to a cave and beautiful rock formations. After our walk we went back to get the kids and then drove to Old Man's Cave. This trail starts at the visitor center and is a 1-mile loop trail. This isn't a difficult hike but does have areas that are elevated and many stairs. It is a beautiful walk with several bridges, water, and rock formations. Here there was a small trickle of water, but waterfalls were dry. Once we finished Old Man's Cave Trail, we went to the visitor center. We purchased souvenirs and read the walls lined with facts about the park. When we left the visitor center, we decided to stop at John Glenn Astronomy Park again so we could see it in the daylight before starting another hike. We were all hot and a little tired after our hiking so decided to go back to Conkle's Hollow so the kids could walk that trail, knowing it is easy and shaded. Then we went to our campsite to eat lunch. I had a headache and laid down for an hour, and when I woke up, Matthew was determined to hike Whispering Cave Trail. I had tried to talk everyone out of this trail because it was rated "difficult" and my legs and feet were swelling from the heat and humidity paired with all the walking. I relented and we drove to the Lodge to start the trail, Whitney staying behind, and Ben reluctantly joining us. This trail is only 1/2 a mile but has significant elevation changes, steep inclines, stairs and several narrow sections on a dirt trail. It started pretty elevated, so it wasn't as cool or shaded as the other trails we had walked. The hike was pretty, and the cave was fun to see. By the time we completed the trail, we all agreed we were done. We returned to camp and showered, made s'mores and had dinner. Then played cards until we went to bed. Friday was another long drive, as we made our way to Champaign, IL. Interstate 70 in Indiana was the worst road we traveled on with the camper. It is super uneven with a ton of patch work, paired with the wind it kept us going much slower than we otherwise could've. We had to detour due to a car fire closing all lanes of the highway. We stayed at D&W Lake RV Campground. The campground was a typical RV park with pull through sites, full hookups and a shower house. It was clean and well-kept, and the owners were very friendly. We had no plans for Illinois. We hung out at camp, played badminton, enjoyed a fire and played cards. It was a nice relaxing, no agenda evening. Saturday, we left camp around 10am and started our drive home. There were storms in the forecast at several points in our 9-hour drive, but we missed most of them and only saw some short patches of rain. This vacation exceeded expectations. Niagara Falls and Hocking Hills were both incredible experiences. I am unsure if we will alter our future camping road trip, as the wind, lack of ability to explore along driving routes and uncertainty with backroads made the long distances less enjoyable.

While we didn't add a new state on this trip, it was still really fun to have the time to explore New Orleans. This was our second visit to the city, but the first time we stayed in Mississippi, and only visited New Orleans for two half days. The first of those days was the day we landed, and we basically ate and drove to our hotel in Mississippi. The second day ended up rainy and cold. We spent the morning and early afternoon walking in the rain before heading to Baton Rouge for the evening. So, when my son's vacation request was to go back it didn't take too much persuading. We booked a long weekend, leaving Wednesday morning and coming home Saturday afternoon. This time the weather was perfect staying in the upper 70s to lower 80s the entire time and the sky was clear and rain free. Our flight landed around 1pm on Wednesday. I rented a car and drove to find our hotel (which was actually an apartment) but because we arrived early, we couldn't check in right away. We went to the French Quarter and walked by the River near Jackson Square. We found lunch at Landry's Seafood House. After lunch we went to check into our hotel. We stayed at Sonder The Schaeffer. It is located on Rampart and Canal, so outside of the craziness of French Quarter, but only by about a block or so. We had a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment which was plenty of room for the three of us. The room was clean and comfortable. None of the bedrooms had windows which did creep us out a little, but we got used to it. I would definitely stay here again. Once we checked into the room, Isaac was tired. He stayed back while Matthew and I went out to explore. We walked aimlessly admiring buildings and dipping in and out of stores. Thursday morning, we woke up and walked to breakfast at The Ruby Slipper. We ate at this restaurant in Mobile on our visit in 2022 (Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on that trip), and it was Isaac's favorite so we figured we would try it again. It certainly didn't disappoint, and the service was the best of any restaurant we dined at this trip. After breakfast we began our drive to Lafitte for our scheduled air boat ride. I really wanted to do this when we visited Mississippi in 2022, but we were late in the season, and they weren't operating when we tried to book one. I reserved a tour at noon with Airboat Adventures. It was about a 30-minute drive from New Orleans, and we had hoped to find a place to explore in the area while we waited for our tour to begin. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot in the immediate area. We did pull over by a levy where we were told there was a walking path, which turned out to be more of ruts from vehicles driving which ended at around 1/4 mile at some concrete barriers. We walked and admired the stagnant water filled with debris and climbed over the barriers following what we decided would serve as a trail for a short walk along a swamp. I'm glad we did this walk because it was the only glimpse we had of what I imagined a Louisiana swamp to be. Green marshy water, trees and moss growing out of the water as far as you can see. We didn't see any wildlife of the walk, but it was a stunning view of endless swampland. After our walk we checked in for our airboat tour. We scanned the small gift shop area finding a magnet to add to our collection, then waited on the deck for our boat to board. We were on a larger airboat that seated 32 people and it was almost full. Smaller boats are able to go deeper into the bayou, but I don't think that any from this tour really did. We saw plenty of alligators even though a cold snap just passed so the guide said they are less active. Even though we weren't able to navigate through narrow passages under overhanging snake filled trees like you see in movies, we did see really amazing foliage, moss filled trees, turtles and gators. It was really enjoyable way to spend our afternoon. Once our tour ended, we drove back to New Orleans, stopping for lunch on the way at Creole BLEU Cafe. The food was ok, I wouldn't call it great, but the service was good and the restaurant itself was cute. When we returned Isaac needed a nap, so he went back to our apartment. Matthew and I went out to explore more of the French Quarter. We found ourselves enjoying watching eccentric people and viewing eclectic buildings. We decided to head back toward our apartment to wake Isaac up but wanted to check out a cemetery on our way. We were able to find one you could only visit it if you had a reservation with a tour guide, so we started walking back to our apartment. On the way, just a few blocks from where we were staying, we found Louis Armstrong Park. We chose to walk through quick and loved it. This park has all kinds of statues, flowers and a bridge overlooking a little lazy river filled with ducks. We were almost done exploring Louis Armstrong Park when Isaac called saying he was hungry. So, we went back to the apartment, and he joined us as we headed back to the French Quarter. We walked all the way down to Jackson Square and stopped for frog legs and beignets at Bon's New Orleans Street Food. Isaac decided that he wasn't quite hungry enough for dinner yet, but wanted to snack a bit. After our snacks we walked along the riverfront watching the sun set and admiring St. Louis Cathedral. Then we walked over to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and more beignets. We didn't realize that it was cash only at the Cafe, but luckily their prices are very reasonable, and we had enough cash on hand to cover it. Somehow Isaac was still hungry at this point, so we went to Muriel's for dinner. Matthew and I weren't overly hungry, so we ordered light, but still managed to eat until we were stuffed. The food here was excellent. After our bellies were full, we called it a night. Walking several blocks back to our apartment, past Bourbon Street taking in the vibe and watching people as we went. The next morning, we were Baton Rouge bound. We had tickets for the LSU vs Vanderbilt baseball game for 7pm and planned to spend the day in the city. On the way we stopped at small BBQ restaurant called Wayne Jacobs Smokehouse in LaPlace. The brisket was fabulous, and Isaac got some BBQ sauce to bring home with him. Our first stop in Baton Rouge was the USS KIDD Veterans Museum. This is located on the Mississippi River, and has a nice park area, several planes and memorials outside and a large museum you can walk through, before boarding the USS KIDD to tour the ship. We really enjoyed this entire area and spent quite a bit of time walking through everything. After our time at the museum, we decided we would drive around and just see the city, looking mostly for old homes and different architecture. We enjoyed doing this for most of the rest of the day, then went to see the Louisiana State Capital building. We ate dinner at Cocha. This restaurant celebrates locally sourced food with global influence. Their menu is small, and the flavors are huge. This may have been the best food we had our entire trip. After dinner we were rushing to the main event: the LSU game at Alex Box Stadium. This is the reason we visited Louisiana. Isaac doesn't love the vacations I plan because they are pretty busy. To ensure he doesn't feel completely left out missing most of our family trips, I let him pick something he would enjoy, and his choice was to go back to see a game. Last time we were here we saw LSU Football beat Alabama in the final regular game of the season. This year he chose to watch baseball. Unfortunately, we didn't see LSU win this time. The weather was perfect and we had fun regardless. Saturday we were flying home, but our flight was late afternoon, so we had time to enjoy the morning in New Orleans. We had breakfast at Cafe Maspero and then walked. We had to vacate our parking spot by 11am, so we drove down closer to the river and parked there. After about an hour of walking we decided we had seen everything we needed to see and opted to drive north and see some plantation homes before heading to the airport. We didn't have time to do full tours so we just drove and viewed from outside. As usual I wish we would have had one more day to explore outside of the city. I would have loved to walk through the plantation homes and seen a little more of rural Louisiana. Our flight was at 4pm, so we made our way to the airport to return home. Day 1: Sonder The Schaeffer French Quarter Landry's Seafood House Jackson Square Day 2: The Ruby Slipper Airboat Adventures, Lafitte Louis Armstrong Park Bon's New Orleans Street Food Cafe Du Monde Muriel's Day 3: Baton Rouge USS KIDD Veterans Museum Cocha's Alex Box Stadium, LSU Game Day 4: Cafe Maspero French Quarter Oak Alley Plantation St. Joseph Plantation

Our trip to Charlotte was an add on vacation. Our last adventure (other than a camping weekend or trip to visit family) was in July of 2023, and our next big road trip isn't until June of 2024. That is much too long for me between experiences, so we decided to add a long weekend. When choosing Charlotte, we wanted to visit a new state, and Charlotte is recommended for a nice city to spend a weekend in. Since we visited in February the weather was mild to chilly, and with Minnesota having an unusually warm winter we didn't get the warmup we'd hoped for visiting a southern state. My first impression of Charlotte was that it felt safe and is extremely clean. We saw signs saying "what's with Charlotte's rats" and looked it up learning that it is one of the country's rattiest cities, which honestly surprised us because we didn't see or smell the usual trash you see in other cities. We didn't see any rats luckily! Another thing that was a little unusual was that it wasn't very busy. When we walked the city, it never felt crowded. I know that it isn't the warm time of year, but you see more people walking in sub-zero downtown Minneapolis than we did when the temps were in the mid 50s. I booked our trip to leave on Thursday and return home on Monday, over President's Day weekend. After booking, I found out that I had to be in Chicago for work Thursday and Friday, so Matthew and Whitney went to Charlotte Thursday, and I flew out to meet them Friday evening after my meetings. We stayed at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown. The hotel is very nice, and we were on the 21st floor so had a decent view of the Charlotte Skyline. Our bed could have used an upgrade but other than that it was a really nice stay. It is located right downtown so walking to various attractions was a breeze. We did rent a car as well and they have parking onsite for an additional charge. On Thursday, when Matthew and Whitney arrived, they checked into the hotel and explored the area around the hotel. They visited the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts & Culture, which Whitney really enjoyed. They also found smoothies, some hot chicken and visited the Green. When I arrived on Friday, my flight didn't land until after 7:00pm and I was exhausted after having meetings all day and then traveling. They picked me up and we went to the hotel. Whitney stayed in the room doing homework while Matthew walked me around to show me a few blocks close to the hotel on our way to CVS to buy some deodorant and Q-Tips before we went to bed. Saturday, we woke up early and I was ready to start exploring. We started by searching for coffee only to find that the coffee shop next to our hotel in the Wells Fargo building isn't open on weekends. After a quick search we also learned that the coffee shops in the area didn't open before 8am. I ended up getting a cup of coffee at our hotel restaurant which was ok but not great. Whitney wanted a smoothie from Smoothie King (we fell in love with their smoothies when we went to Louisiana), but the one by us was also closed on weekends. We walked to Am é lie's for coffee which is a short walk up the block from our hotel, then to Famous Toastery for breakfast. The food was good and the servers very friendly. I purchased a CLT pass for the weekend, which included admission to several museums and the Carolina Raptor Center. Our plan for Saturday was to visit museums and walk the downtown area of Charlotte. We started at the Museum of Illusions. This was a blast but was the busiest place we encountered the entire weekend. After we had our fill of brain teasers, we went to the Nascar Hall of Fame. None of us are Nascar fans but heard that this is a must do in Charlotte, and we were glad we went. It was a fun experience pretending to broadcast a race, driving a simulated race, learning the history of how the sport began. Next, we went to the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. This was not our type of museum. The art was mostly paintings that weren't overly inspiring, and hardly anything on display. We walked through in less than 10 minutes. The Mint Museum was the last included in our pass. Actually, there are two Mint Museums, both of which we had admission tickets to. We visited the one in uptown, leaving the other for Sunday. This museum was where Whitney decided she hates museums. I thought it was pretty cool. By the time we finished at the Mint Museum, it was late afternoon. Whitney wanted a nap and Matthew and I were ready to sit and relax a bit. We headed back to our hotel, crossing through The Green on our way. The Green is a park located right in the middle of downtown Charlotte and is the most charming park I've ever seen. It has stacks of books at the entrance with "pages" placed to look like they've blown around the park. If I lived close, I would spend warm days reading in this park. Once we got back to the hotel, we rested for a bit then hopped in the car and drove to Dilworth. We found a Smoothie King that was open and walked through a gift shop. When researching what to do in Charlotte, I found a list of neighborhoods on the Charlotte's Got a Lot page (where I bought my city pass from), and I envisioned it to be similar to Seattle, where we could drive to the neighborhood and walk around enjoying the neighborhood culture. We did not find that here. We'd drive to neighborhoods, find houses and maybe a few businesses, but not a nice grouping of shops or anything like that. After the gift shop, we drove to Freedom Park where Matthew and I walked for a bit and Whitney waited in the car. This is a nice park with trails, a creek, a lake, playground, basketball court, volleyball court, baseball fields, and likely more that I missed. It was a little cold and windy, but the short walk was wonderful. Once we were done at Freedom Park we went back to the hotel, where Whitney decided she wasn't hungry and stayed in the Hotel Room while Matthew and I went to the Coastal Kitchen and Bar, the restaurant within the Hilton. Our food was good but expensive for what it was. During the time we ate, Whitney decided she was in fact hungry and I DoorDashed her McDonald's since she wouldn't eat anything from the restaurant. After dinner we called it a night and went to bed. Sunday Matthew walked up to Starbucks to get us coffee and we got croissants and a burrito from Am é lie's. Then we drove to the Carolina Raptor Center. We really enjoyed walking through this center, reading about and seeing the different birds. When we finished at the center we drove to Davidson and Cornelius. Both were said to be charming little lake towns, and both underwhelmed us. Davidson had a cute main street, but when we actually walked it there wasn't a lot to do. I am sure it is a much different experience during the summer when you can enjoy the lake, but we ended up driving back into the city after this. The next plan was to visit NoDa, but again we drove the area and didn't find anything walkable to just explore. Since we didn't plan anything out of the city area and it was already late afternoon by this time, we didn't really know what to do. We ended up driving to South End where there is a mall and found Roots Cafe to eat a late lunch. Our food was excellent. The mall area was a typical mall, so not anything we needed to do on vacation, though Whitney did talk me into stopping at Sophora to get a couple items. We decided to go to the second Mint Museum on Randolph after lunch. Whitney reluctantly joined us as a bribe for buying her makeup. This was my favorite museum. The displays were unique and super fun to look at. The one issue here was that the lady at the front desk insisted that my pass was just a discount and wanted me to pay for admission, even though my pass included the cost. Eventually she let us in but I am pretty sure she was tired of arguing with me and didn't actually believe that I had admission passes. After the museum we drove back to the hotel and walked to Romare Bearden Park where we found gorgeous views of the city. We walked a bit and stopped for coffee before heading back to the hotel for the night. Whitney and I were still full from our lunch so Matthew ordered a burger from the Coastal Kitchen, and Whitney and I each had a dessert. Monday was our travel home day. We went to Starbucks again because the coffee place in the Wells Fargo building wasn't open again, likely due to President's Day. Then we grabbed a smoothie from Smoothie King for breakfast. We didn't leave the hotel until around 10:30am, and our flight was at 3:30pm. We drove to see St. Patrick's Cathedral. You weren't allowed to visit inside the church, so we just snapped a picture from the street. We drove to Noble Smoke and had phenomenal BBQ. This was a recommended BBQ restaurant, and it did not disappoint. I had the brisket sandwich, Matthew had brisket and pork and we shared Hush Puppies, Brussels Sprouts and Slaw. Whitney had a grilled cheese. After lunch we went to the airport. If I planned this again, I would have planned one day in the city and one to drive out further and find another location in North Carolina to enjoy. We will be back to the state in a few years to enjoy the coast.

This was our first big, multi state camping trip. We stayed in 6 states, adding 5 new states visited to our list. Planning a camping trip with multiple stops is not easy. You have to balance a lot of different things like travel time between stops, check in times at campgrounds, activities in each area. I tried to limit our drive time to 7 hours, and pick campgrounds that offer at least electricity, full hookups when possible. We learned that a road trip camping vacation is much different than setting up in one place for a week. I planned out meals for each day, yet we came back with a lot of leftover food. There was a heat wave that hit the country while we were gone, bringing temperatures to around 100 degrees everywhere we went, and the humidity levels were in the 90s. There was a lot of road construction, and traffic affected our drives considerably, especially between Indiana and Kentucky. There is an app that shows the best RV routes, which we may consider using next time. We are at the mercy of Google Maps, and when it detours you to save time, you often end up on sketchy roads with no shoulder, pulling a 30' trailer and causing a train of cars to form behind you. Not ideal, but luckily, we didn't get detoured anywhere with a low bridge. We worked Friday, and hit the road late afternoon, leaving around 3:30pm. Our first stop was at William G. Lunney Lake Farm County Park in Madison, WI. We arrived here just after 8:30. We visit Wisconsin often, so we didn't plan anything in the area, and camped here just as a break in driving on our way to the next destination. The campground itself was nice, very much a typical RV park with little privacy. Our site was a pull through, and each site has a picnic table and fire ring, plus electric hookups. We didn't even fully unhook here, so we slept and left after breakfast the next morning. Saturday, we stayed at Lakeshore RV Resort and Campground in Portage, IN. Our drive here was just under 4 hours, but with traffic and construction through the Chicago area, it took us just over 4 hours. We arrived around 1:30pm, and check in time wasn't until 3. Luckily this campground allows you to check in early for a fee of $5/hour. This was not our favorite campground. When booking, I did plan on staying at RV campgrounds for more amenities and easier stops, knowing we were just here to sleep, even though I prefer more wooded camping. This one however was beyond a typical pull in RV camp. There was a mix of permanent campers and trailers, and a handful of daily campers here. The place was packed, and set up relatively well, but maneuvering in here was difficult pulling a camper. The resort has a private lake, which allows you to fish without a license, a couple pools, game rooms, laundry, showers and restrooms sprinkled throughout, and full hookups. Our site was on the end, right next to the main road, which helped when we parked because we just drove through the grass from the road and didn't have to back in around trees, fire hydrants and other vehicles. We had full hook ups here, but the concrete pad where we parked was cracked and sinking, and the site in general was extremely uneven, so we didn't hook up the sewer. Even with leveling our camper and lifting up one side quite a bit, we were lower than the sewer hookup. We chose to just use the dump station when we left. After we got everything set up and leveled, we had a quick lunch and headed out to Indiana Dunes National Park. It was extremely hot out, and this park was packed. So much so that parking lots were closed and marked full. Traffic was insane. We found a pull off area with 15-minute parking and walked down to the beach in this area. The water was gorgeous bright blue/green. The beach was busy and we regretted not bringing our bathing suits with to enjoy the water. After walking and admiring the lake for a few minutes, we went back to the car and routed ourselves to the visitor center, which we never made it to, but did find signs for the Indiana Dunes State Park along the way. The road into the entrance here was backed up so far it took us over an hour to get in. The cost was $12 for nonresidents, and you had access for the day. There were park rangers waving you through a roundabout just past the pay booth, and we blindly followed to a large beach parking area. There was a pretty massive dune just off the parking lot that people were climbing and gliding down and a beach as far as you could see. There were tents, grills, chairs and tables set up everywhere. Music blasting all around and just a fun party vibe, but family friendly with lots of kids. We walked the beach for a few minutes and went to a large building to check out what was here. There was a general store, restaurant and a lifeguard station, nothing of interest to us at the moment. Next, we went back to the roundabout and the ranger frantically waving vehicles into the beach parking and asked if we could go the other way. He confirmed that we could which brought us to a much quieter area of the park. Here there was a campground, visitor center (which closed at 4 so we couldn't go in) and the 3 Dune Challenge trailhead. When I researched what to do here this was one of the main things that came up, so we had always planned to do the challenge. The challenge is not easy. I don't regret doing it, but if I would have known how hard it would be I might have decided to skip it. On the inside I feel like I am active and 20 years old. In reality, I am 42 and sit most of my life. I love the experience, but my body hates me afterward. The trail is only 1.5 miles, but it is up and down 3 separate dunes and 552 vertical feet of climbing. Somehow, we looked at the map upside down, so thought we were starting at one Dune but actually going the complete opposite way. By the time we reached the first dune, I thought we were on our second, but the markers on the top of each clued us into our mistake pretty quickly. The first dune is Mt. Jackson, reaching 176' with a 31-degree slope angle. When we reached Mt. Jackson, I was sure it was the second dune and almost cried when we saw it wasn't. I started to convince myself it must be the last dune if it wasn't the second, because we already climbed two. Climbing in sand is a specific kind of torture. It takes forever as you step and slide backward. My calves burned so bad it felt like they were splitting open. We rested for a few minutes at the top and got some pictures of the views here, then walked on. The second dune was Mt. Holden sitting at 184' with a slope angle of 32 degrees. This one was hardest on me. My calves were screaming, my heart was racing, the sun blazing on us had me sweating and my head was throbbing. I tried walking slowly but every step hurt my calves so bad the speed was irrelevant. I tried walking with my feet sideways pointing out (like a crab walk maybe?), attempted walking sideways, and backwards. Walking backwards relieved the burning of my calves but I felt like I wasn't moving up the dune at all. About halfway up I dropped to all 4 and just crawled up the dune. Pathetic I know, and other than the video my daughter so kindly recorded, no one had to know, but I feel no shame. This was hard, and I'm ok admitting how much of a baby I was on this trail. When we finally reached the top of this dune, the views were amazing. You could see the lake here. I sat contemplating how I was going to get through the last half of the trail. We rested, took in the views and I decided that I was going to take a cut through trail back to the visitor center and Matthew and Whitney could continue on and meet me at the truck when they were done. Of course, they refused that suggestion saying they would cut across with me, and I felt guilted into completing the entire trail. My stubbornness fueled me and when I began to climb the next sand hill I walked at a slow steady pace and made it up without incident. This hill was not the next dune, but it was still steep and difficult. The trail became easier, because it was a stretch of mild inclines and declines in elevation. Finally, we came to stairs. I can't express the relief I felt when those stairs came into view. Mt. Tom is 192 feet of elevation and around 100 steps, which are difficult after walking the trail, but much easier than the sand. There is a platform at the top of the dune where you can see the lake again, and there are signs explaining the history of the dunes. From here you can take a trail to the beach or continue on the trail to go to the campground and back to the visitor center. If we had bathing suits, I would have gone to the beach to rinse off the sand and sweat I accumulated on this short but tedious trail, but since we didn't, we continued on and went back to our vehicle. After we completed the challenge, I will admit that I am glad I finished it. It was not easy, but I didn't quit even when I thought I might not be able to continue. I wish the visitor center was open because you can get souvenirs, but we did go online and order from their official website, so we will have something to show for our efforts. After we completed the 3 Dune Challenge, we were done in the Indiana Dune's Parks so we headed back to our campsite and had dinner. We showered, played games and watched a movie, then to bed. On Sunday morning we hooked up our camper and started our drive to Kentucky. This was the worst drive of our trip. We estimated it would take us around 5 1/2 hours, but it ended up taking us over 7 hours. The traffic was awful with a lot of congestion as well as construction pretty consistently along our route. We were staying two nights at Cave Country RV Campground in Cave City, KY. We had a cave tour booked for Monday, so Sunday was mostly just a travel day. We arrived at our campground right around 4pm. This resort had pull through sites, full hook ups, fire pits and picnic tables. At the main building there are showers and restrooms, a pool and a game room. It was a decent place to stay with the only complaint being that the sewer hook ups for our neighbors were pretty close to our fire pit. With how hot it was we only had a fire to cook hotdogs for lunch, and there were no issues, it was just knowing that their tank was emptying so close to us. Something that was consistent at most of the campgrounds we stayed is there are not cooking grates on the fire rings. This surprised us as we usually cook some of our meals over the fire when camping. I assume it is because we mostly stayed at RV resorts and not the traditional campgrounds that we are used to. The heat on this trip had us cooking quick meals and we rarely had a fire at all so it ended up not being an issue, but it was something we will keep in mind for future trip planning. Sunday evening, we had dinner, showered, played a few games, watched some movies and went to bed. This was our typical evening on this trip. Normally when camping we like to sit around a fire and relax outside in the evening, but the A/C was very much welcomed this time. Monday morning, we had breakfast and left camp at 7:30am. We decided that we wanted to visit Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park before our cave tour. The visitor center here opened at 9am, and it was a 40-minute drive from our campsite. There is a time zone change which is what enabled us to squeeze this in, arriving at 9:15am EST 8:15am CST. We started at the visitor center. We had around 45 minutes to explore here so we purchased a few souvenirs and then walked to the monument, which was the highlight of the park. There is a replica of the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born within the monument. The monument itself is beautiful so we took a few pictures from the steps leading up to it. There are several cabins and an historic inn located on the property, which we admired from afar as we walked back to our vehicle as we left. There is a lot more in the area that we would have liked to visit if we had more time. Next, we went to Mammoth Cave National Park. Our tour was booked for 10:30am. I had wanted to do the Niagara Falls Tour, but it wasn't offered because of some maintenance being done in this cave. The one I booked was actually not part of Mammoth Cave and I didn't realize when I booked it so was a little disappointed, but it was still an awesome cave to see. Our tour was called the Wondering Woods Tour. We took a short bus ride from the visitor center to this cave. Mammoth Cave is a cold, dry cave. The Wondering Woods Cave is a cold, wet cave. This means we saw a beautiful display of stalagmites and stalactites. The ranger did a nice job of talking about the cave, the history of the cave and cave systems in Mammoth Cave National Park, the history of the park itself and the ecosystem. When we got back to the visitor center, we had to walk across a pad with soapy water to clean our shoes. This is to help stop the spread of White-Nose Syndrome, which is a fungus that affects bats and is actually fatal for them. It doesn't affect humans or most other creatures but is extremely dangerous for bats. White-Nose Syndrome is confirmed to be present at Mammoth Cave. I remember hearing of the risk to bats when we visited Lava Beds National Monument, but there we had to fill out a questionnaire and they talked about how to ensure you don't spread the fungus. We didn't have to do this at Mammoth Cave which is interesting with how much busier it is, but may be because Lava Beds does not have White-Nose Syndrome present, so they are more cautious to ensure it doesn't spread there. I had several trails planned for our afternoon. I can't emphasize enough how hot and miserable the weather was for us on this trip. It was over 100 degrees this day and humid. I had 3 trails planned, but we decided we would just pick one to do, which was located just behind the visitor center. The trail was only 1/2 mile long, and it was a very easy walk on a paved walkway initially, then a gravel trail. The walk there was all downhill, so anticipating the walk back up was constantly in my head. When we arrived at the point of interest on the trail, Sunset Point, it was closed off for maintenance. So, we didn't see anything cool here, and we opted to walk back up to the visitor center and head out rather than add to our uphill walk back. On our way back to our camper we stopped at several little souvenir shops, some pretty creepy actually like what you'd see in a horror movie, none had anything that we wanted to purchase. It was still early when we got back to camp. We had lunch and then Whitney decided to stay at the camper and enjoy the air conditioning while Matthew and I went out in search of Kentucky souvenirs and to visit Fort Williams Civil War Battlefield in Glasgow. Glasgow was a 20-minute drive from our campground. We followed GPS to the battlefield and found what looked like a typical cemetery. There were old areas and new, but we didn't see anything signifying that it was a historical battlefield. We drove around to find souvenir shops and we didn't have any luck! I have a tradition of getting a magnet and coffee mug everywhere we travel. I like to get one of the state or cities we visit, plus at least a magnet from any tourist attractions we chose to do. We also add a sticker to our camper to document our travels, usually of the campground if we can find one but sometimes of the state or city instead if there isn't a specific campground sticker available. This trip proved hard to find anything. Kentucky being the hardest. After driving to Glasgow and not finding any shops we headed back toward Cave City. We stopped at Crystal Cave on our way back, still looking to see if we could find any fun Kentucky souvenirs. We didn't tour the cave but did walk around and snap a few pictures of the quirky items here, like aliens and animals. The souvenirs here were all Crystal Cave, nothing of just Kentucky, so we walked around and then left. We stopped at a travel center to fuel up and did find a magnet here, so we were satisfied enough to give up and go back to camp for the night. Once again, we played games, watched movies, ate dinner and went to bed. The next morning, we stayed until checkout at 11. Our drive this day was less than 2 hours, and check in time wasn't until 3pm at our next stop. We had breakfast burritos and took our time packing up. Traffic wasn't as bad leaving Kentucky, but road construction was still present. I tried calling our campground to see if we could check in early but didn't reach anyone, so we crossed our fingers and just went. Pulling a camper, it is hard to know where you can pull off and explore so we didn't want to risk getting in a sticky situation. I booked a site at Anderson Road Campground in Nashville, TN for Tuesday and Wednesday night. The campground is literally right in a residential area, next to condos that overlook the lake. When we arrived at the guard shack at the entrance, there was no one there and the sign showed that they are not on site on Tuesdays. Lucky us, as we were 2 hours early and no one was there to tell us we couldn't set up early! The sites here were actually really nice. Even though there are residential properties just on the other side of a fence, all around us was wooded and we had nice views of J Percy Priest Reservoir. The site itself had electric and water hookups (which was a nice surprise because when I booked it only showed electric), a picnic table, a fire ring with a cooking grate, and a charcoal grill. There is a boat launch, a shower and restroom house and a dump station. There were sites that appeared to be host sites, but we never saw a host or anywhere to buy ice or wood. It was still ridiculously hot, so we set up camp, and started a fire to grill hotdogs with the plan to cool off in the lake after lunch. While Matthew started the fire, I inflated a couple of floaties for Whitney and me to use. The fire took forever to start, likely due to the humidity, or possibly the lack of effort we put forth in the heat. Regardless, Whitney and I went swimming while we waited for the wood to burn enough to cook over. The lake, or reservoir, was rocky and the water was warm. Warm enough that Matthew wouldn't go in. It wasn't the cool refreshing relief we had hoped for, but still nice to rinse off and it did cool you off slightly. We floated for a while and had a family of ducks join us before we got out of the water. After we ate, we sat outside under our canopy and just relaxed. It was a nice low-key afternoon. For dinner this night we made cavatappi with pine nuts and asparagus. One of my favorite meals, to celebrate the fact that it was Matthew and my 3-year anniversary. The sunset here was really pretty. Whitney walked down to the water and fed the ducks, and we enjoyed the beautiful sky. The next day we headed into Nashville. We booked a hop on hop off tour with Old Town Trolleys, which is my favorite way to see a city. I had been to Nashville before this, but Matthew and Whitney had never been. We started our tour at the 10th stop, which was the Belmont Mansion. I chose this location so we weren't in downtown and with the assumption parking would be easier, which it was relatively easy so I will say I was right. The Belmont Mansion was gorgeous, and the Belmont University grounds were as well. After wandering for a bit, we hopped on our trolley. The trolleys here are set up perfectly for sightseeing. They have stadium seating so you can see from anywhere you end up sitting. The tour has 13 stops where you can choose to get off or you can keep riding. With the heat advisory, the breeze while riding on the trolley was a really nice relief. We rode the trolley until stop 13, where we got off at the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Bridgestone Arena is across the street as well as the Walk of Fame Park. We strolled for a while and then walked to Broadway. It was extremely hot and muggy, and Whitney couldn't go into the bars even with the time of day because she isn't 21. Both Matthew and Whitney were a little irritable with the heat, so neither of them had any opinion of what they'd like to do. We stopped for ice cream for Whitney and then went into the National Museum of African American Music. We had planned to walk through the museum, but it would have cost almost $100 for the three of us, so we looked at the gift shop and then left. Just across the street was stop #2 for the trolley tour at the back side of the Ryman Auditorium. We waited here and got back on the trolley since no one had anything they wanted to do in the area. We rode the trolley taking pictures of the different areas of Nashville and listening to the guide talk about the history and celebrities that frequented the streets. We got off again at stop 5, The Farmers' Market. Here we walked over to the Tennessee State Museum. This museum is free and is really interesting to walk through, plus it was very well air conditioned. There are several exhibits here that flow into the next, which is set up in a way that you are walking through the history of Tennessee. Starting with the First Peoples exhibit, walking through the Civil War, Industrial Era, Great Depression, etc. It was a really fun museum to walk through. Next, we walked to the Farmers' Market and went into the restaurant area. Here Matthew tried Nashville Hot Chicken from Lilly's Hot Chicken and I had a beef crepe and a dessert crepe. After lunch, we hopped back on the trolley. We hopped back off at stop 7 Marathon Motor Works, walked through a gift shop and then right back on a trolley that was waiting at the curb when we got out. We stayed on the trolley until we reach stop 10 again, where we got off and went to our truck. It wasn't very late by the time we finished our Nashville tour, so we drove to the Grand Ole Opry. At the Opry we took a few pictures of the historic area but decided against walking over to the hotel. The hotel is magnificent to see, which I have on a previous trip, but it is also a bit of a walk, and everyone was too hot. We went back to our campground after we saw the Opry and enjoyed a relaxing evening. We did sit outside for a while, under the canopy of the camper, and then played games and watched movies. Thursday morning, we left around 9am and started our drive to Missouri. I had a campsite booked at Hawn State Park in New Offenburg, MO and it took us around 6 hours to get here. This was a nice campground, and we were surprised to find you don't need a state park pass to visit anywhere in Missouri. The campground had electric hookups, a shower and restroom building, and the hosts sold firewood and ice. The sites were large with some shade, fire rings with grates and picnic tables. Just behind our site there was a trail to the amphitheater which we walk, and I sang to Whitney and Matthew while they laughed at me and took video. We decided to eat and then shower before we went to St. Louis. I had a 6:40pm reservation to take the tram to the top of the arch at Gateway Arch National Park. The traffic in St. Louis was crazy because there was a Cardinals game at the same time we were going to the park. The park itself is set behind an industrial area with really awesome graffiti work along the route. Being up close to the arch is pretty spectacular. I've seen it in the past from a distance but being right under it was a whole different experience. We took pictures from outside, then rushed to get to the tram entrance. Going up in the tram is interesting. You are in a small pod that seats 5 people very close to each other, and it is not a smooth ride. Whitney was pretty anxious going up but it is a quick 4 minute ride so not terrible. You have around 10 minutes once you get out at the top. The views from here are incredible. You get amazing skyline scenes on one side and the river on the other. We could see into the Cardinal's stadium and the game that was in progress. Once our tour was done, we had 15 minutes to visit the gift shop and buy some goodies. Since we hadn't had the best luck with souvenirs so far, we purchased shirts, a magnet and coffee mug here. Whitney also got a bracelet, which is what she buys wherever she can on our vacations. Then we walked back down to our vehicle, snapping a few more pictures on our way. The Gateway Arch National Park is about 40 minutes from where we camped, and after the long day of driving, I was exhausted on our way back. We had a few snacks, played a game and then crashed. We planned to leave early the next day for Iowa, our longest drive of the trip. We did not leave early Friday morning. It was around 8:30 before we pulled out of our campsite. Our estimated drive this day was 6 hours, plus stops for gas and restroom. We arrived at the Waterloo KOA right around 4pm. The KOA had a lake, showers and restrooms, a gas station with convenience store which also sold hot food to order (like burgers and hotdogs, cheese curds, etc.). The staff was not happy to be working is the vibe we got. They were not friendly and borderline rude. Our site had full hookups, a fire ring and picnic table. The temperature was over 100 and we were under a thunderstorm watch. After setting up we tried to cool down in the camper, which took forever for the A/C to take the humidity out of the air. Because we were so hot and miserable, we opted to order dinner from the store on site. About an hour after we were set up, the thunderstorm watch turned into a thunderstorm warning, with a brief blip of a tornado warning as well. The sky was gray and ominous, heightening our anxiety levels. Luckily, it did pass relatively quickly with only scary clouds and some rain, thunder and lightning. After the rain stopped, we walked around the campground admiring the amazing sky and sunset snapping a few pictures. We spent the rest of the evening playing games and watching movies. Saturday morning, we were heading home. We had around a 4-hour drive and slept in a little, leaving around 10am. We decided we would stop at a travel plaza on the way home to have breakfast so did add some time to our trip. We were home before 4pm. This was a great trip and pretty smooth considering it was the first camping road trip I had planned. We did discuss planning our vacations in the spring and fall vs right in the heart of summer. The heat wave we endured the entire trip made exploring less appealing, but overall, we had a wonderful adventure. Day 1: Camp at William G. Lunney Lake Farm County Park in Madison, WI. Day 2: Camp at Lakeshore RV Resort in Portage, IN Indiana Dunes National Park Indiana Dunes State Park 3 Dune Challenge Day 3: Camp at Cave Country RV Campground in Cave City, KY Day 4: Camp at Cave Country RV Campground in Cave City, KY Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park Mammoth Cave National Park Day 5: Camp at Anderson Road Campground in Nashville, TN Day 6: Camp at Anderson Road Campground in Nashville, TN Hop on/Hop off Trolley Nashville Grand Ole Opry Day 7: Camp at Hawn State Park Campground in New Offenburg, MO Gateway Arch National Park Day 8: Camp at Waterloo KOA in Waterloo, IA

August 2022 – Kauai Hawaii Destinations: Kapa’a Hanalei Napali Coast Smith’s Garden Breakaway Fishing Tours Lihue Waimea Canyon State Park Koke’e State Park Poipu Kauai Coffee Koloa My aunt and uncle own a timeshare on Kauai Island, HI. They’ve mentioned many times that if we ever want to use it for a week, to let them know and we can pay the management fee and it is ours. When planning a family vacation for the year, we discussed where we should go, prompting me to reach out to them. They had already booked their weeks, but let me buy one of them, meaning we were going to Hawaii in 2022! Our vacation was the very end of August, so perfect before kids started back at school. Hawaii had always been a dream, but one I didn’t imagine to actually happen. Since we decided to go for it, we went big. I knew this was likely the only time we’d go, or at least the only time we’d all go, so we went all out. Our goal was to see the entire Island in a week, and we came extremely close. I booked 4 excursions for this trip. Deep Sea Fishing, Napali Coast Tour and Snorkeling, a Luau, and an ATV tour. All were exceptional and allowed us to really experience the island and see so much of it. There was definitely sea sickness involved in the fishing excursion, but we did catch two 50-pound yellow tuna! Matthew decided cruises were not in our future, and like Vegas we can say we experienced a fishing excursion and never have to do it again. Much of our time was spent just exploring different areas of the island. We enjoyed traveling to the canyons and the views of the park. Our favorite beach spot was in the north. I saw every sunrise on this trip, and each was beautiful. This is a rainy island, but we only had two days where rain affected us, and we were still able to enjoy the days. Day 1: we literally arrived, drove to our condo, checked in, walked to see where the ocean was in comparison to where we were, and went to bed. We stayed on the east side of the island in the town of Kapa’a at Pono Kai Resort. The resort itself is older, but very nice, and our condo was right on the beach. This isn’t the type of resort that has everything on site. There isn’t a restaurant or shopping. It does have a pool though, nice accommodations and a lovely courtyard. We were warned but still surprised to see all the chickens. They are everywhere and roam freely. From what we learned on excursions throughout the week, hurricanes throughout the years had destroyed chicken coups freeing these birds. Kauai does not have any natural predators that would hunt the chickens, so they’ve thrived throughout the years. Day 2: we started by shopping for food. Our plan was to eat as much as possible at the condo, rather than eating out. However, I would not recommend this plan unless the plan is to relax at your resort. There is so much to do, and you don’t get around very quickly on the island. We ended up throwing a lot of food away because it was too hard to go back to the condo for meals. After shopping and breakfast we headed north to explore. We stopped and saw the Kilauea Lighthouse in Kilauea, and went swimming at Anini Beach. This beach was extremely calm. Too calm in fact for the kids, as they wanted to enjoy bouncing in some waves. We didn’t stay long, and continued further to the north, ending up at Hanalei Beach. This was our favorite beach, and we spent a lot of time here enjoying the crashing waves. There is also a cave across from the beach parking that we were able to walk in and explore. We went to the town of Hanalei and walked through some shops and had lunch. Day 3: was our first excursion – our ATV tour at Kipu Ranch Adventures. This was a ton of fun. We did get dirty! This tour takes you through a cattle ranch, and you end up with amazing views of both mountains and the coast. They do a nice job of highlighting the history of both the island and the ranch, and point out several areas that you can recognize in movies. After our tour we mapped our way to a couple of waterfalls, which could be seen right from a parking lot, but from a distance. Then back to the resort for dinner and relaxing by the pool. We were all pretty tired already. Being 5 hours behind our home time zone is hard to adjust to, and had an early excursion the next day. Day 4: was a NaPali Coast tour. This tour was located at Port Allen Pier in Eleele, on the south part of the island. The crew on the boat was really good. The views of the jagged rocky coast on this tour were fantastic. The catamaran we were on was nice, but Matthew did start to feel nauseous after awhile. The rest of us weren’t phased. We saw dolphins and sea turtles while on the tour, both coming right up to our boat. We stopped to snorkel, which I was not a fan of. I envisioned thousands of bright colorful fish, and plants and reef. There were fish, but mostly just right around the boat, and the floor of the ocean where we were was just black lava rock. I also really struggled with having my face in the water and breathing through the snorkel. I’m not sure why but it made me panic. Our boat had a waterslide which we used during this time, and we floated and swam for awhile. Our trip back to the pier was really rough. The waves splashed well over the sides of the boat, drenching us. That evening we enjoyed dinner at Taps and Hops Eatery in Kapa'a. We were pleasantly surprised with how good the food was here. Day 5 – We had no excursions planned on this day. We decided to explore the south part of the island. We started at Poipu Beach, which was by far the busiest beach we’d encountered. It was a nice beach area, with a boulder breakwater that keeps the area very calm. Even with the breakwater, there were some waves large enough they broke over the wall of rock into the protected areas. It was rocky as you entered the water, so a little hard on our feet. We saw a sea turtle swimming right through the swimming area and a sea lion both swimming and sunning on the sand. We stayed for awhile here, then went to the town of Koloa for some shopping and lunch. After lunch we made our way to the Waimea Canyon – known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. There is a vehicle fee to visit this area, but one pass allows access to Waimea Canyon State Park, as well as Koke’e State Park. We didn’t do any trails on our trip through the parks, sticking to the lookout points. The views of the gorge were so spectacular, pictures can’t do justice to the beauty. The weather we encountered was the first time rain really affected us, with a steady drizzle that would subside and then start again. With the rain, we did have a cloud coverage that would temporarily block our views but waiting just a few minutes allowed them to pass and expose the magnificent images of the canyon. Koke’e Valley was the final lookout, which was the most obstructed by cloud coverage. But when they cleared, we had rainbows accenting the beautiful valley, with rocky landscapes, lush green growth and the coast of the pacific all wrapped into a gorgeous package for us to enjoy. Day 6 – Deep Sea Fishing and Luau. Our day started very early. We were at the Small Boat Harbor in Lihue before sunrise to meet captain Jeff. I opted to book a private 4 hour charter, as the price was actually less this way, and we had the entire experience to ourselves. We do not fish. This was booked just for the experience of it. Traveling out of the harbor to our destination was pretty cool. The water wasn’t terribly rough at first, and we sat at the back looking out to the island watching the sun rise. Once we were out of the harbor, the waves were much more intense, and our boat was small. Matthew was feeling queasy pretty quickly. We had lines out to troll on the way to a buoy which is where we would stop. Once we arrived at the buoy and Captain Jeff stopped the boat, the waves were real. The boat rocked and pitched side to side and moving about was extremely difficult. He switched out our lines and almost instantly one took off. I had the pleasure of learning how to fish at this moment. I would reel in the line until the fish pulled, then let the line go. This cycle went on for what seemed like forever. Twice the fish pulled and swam off, meaning the cycle started all over. My arm was numb from reeling, the boat was pitching. The adrenalin rush of fighting with this fish kept me from noticing the fact that everyone else in my party was sick, two were throwing up. On the second attempt to get the fish in the boat, Captain Jeff pulled out a hook. I would reel as the boat went down with a wave, and hold when we’d go back up. He had the hook, could just barely see the fish below the surface and it took off again. I felt like crying. I was exhausted, both arms numb – one from reeling, the other from holding onto my reel to stabilize myself. I looked around hoping to pass it over in defeat and have someone else finish. And no one could. They were all sick. So I had no choice but to finish this. After what felt like hours, but may have been as little as 10 minutes or as much as 30, I honestly have no clue, the fish was at the surface and Jeff was able to hook it and get it into the boat. It was huge! A 50 pound yellow tuna! Something that none of us realized when we booked the trip is the fish is gutted right on the boat. Apparently Tuna meat is “sensitive” and he had to do this and get it on ice quickly to preserve the quality of the meat. As I sat down after catching my fish, the nausea overwhelmed me. The adrenalin no longer there, I was sick. I joined the others and started throwing up almost instantly, as our captain is gutting the fish I just caught, blood covering the floor of the boat. At this point Captain Jeff asked what we wanted to do. This experience was supposed to be fun and we were all miserable. He would take us back in if we wanted or we could continue. The kids decided they wanted to catch something, so we continued. Our captain walked around dumping puke buckets while we continued to fish. He was an absolute saint. A line went out pretty quickly after he put the rest back in the water. Charlee took this one, and it was a smaller fish (though still bigger than anything I’ve caught on a lake) and she was able to reel it in pretty quickly. Another line went out shortly after, and this was another fighter. Whitney did most of the reeling, but at one point switched off with Gal for a few moments to rest her arm. This was another 50 pound yellow tuna! After the 3rd fish, we were done. The ride back to the harbor was much easier than the way out. It was calmer and we were traveling faster, so the waves didn’t seem as rough. As soon as the boat started moving again, my nausea subsided. Matthew on the other hand was still a mess. Once we docked, our captain took out our fish again so we could get more pictures. This was awesome for him to do, as you can imagine it wasn’t very easy on the boat to hold up these huge fish and get a decent picture. We opted not to take any meat back with us, we just wanted to go. We were very grateful for the excursion but will never do it again. The captain was great, catching fish was exciting, we just can’t handle the nausea and subsequent vomiting associated with being on the open water like that. We decided to head back to our condo and took naps. We had our luau later this evening, and even though once we were off the boat our nausea subsided, we were exhausted and felt gross. That evening we dressed up and went to Smith Family Garden Luau. This was our favorite excursion booked. When we arrived, we were brought to sprawling gardens, where you can either ride a tram or walk on your own. They sell feed for the chickens and peacocks roaming around, so we opted to walk and feed birds on our way forgoing the tram. The gardens were lush with so many different plants, flowers and trees. We had so much fun walking through and took hundreds of pictures in this beautiful paradise. Before dinner, they have a ceremony around lifting the pig out of the ground. It was hard to hear, but we got the gist of it. The food was buffet style, and the options were endless. During dinner there was hula dancing and the emcee was entertaining, telling jokes, explaining hula dance and singing. After dinner the show began. We walked to the outdoor theater and watched a show that had dancing, fire, lights. It was really fun and they did a good job of explaining the history and where each style of dance originated. Day 7 – relax. Our trip was packed full of many adventures, and this was our last full day on the island. We had no agenda. We decided we wanted to relax at the beach and take it easy. We headed north again, to our favorite beach Hanalei Beach. We laid on the beach and bounced in the waves. Skipped rocks, got knocked over by waves. At one point it started to rain, and we went into the town of Hanalei to eat and did a little more shopping while we waiting for the rain to pass. After lunch we went back to beach and remained here until sunset. It was the perfect relaxing day. We remained until the colors lit up the sky then headed back to our hotel. I will note that as we were driving, reds and pinks streaked the sky behind us so I wish we would have waited a little longer before heading back to our condo for the night. Day 8 – our flight home wasn’t until after 9pm this night. We spent the day really just driving and looking for anything we may have missed. We stopped at the Poipu Beach again, visited Kauai Coffee, and just explored by car. My aunt and uncle who own the timeshare we used were flying in this day to start their vacation. We were able to meet up for lunch at Duke's Canoe in Lihue, their favorite restaurant. After lunch we were beat, as were they. They headed to get settled into the condo, we went to the airport. Our week in paradise had come to an end. Itinerary summary: Day 1 - Arrived on island and settled into hotel Day 2 - Explore north end of island - Hanalei, Hanalei Beach, Anini Beach, Kilauea Lighthouse Day 3 - Kipu Ranch Adventures ATV Tour Day 4 - Napali Coast Tour Day 5 - Poipu Beach, Waimea Canyon State Park, Koke'e State Park, Koloa Day 6 - Breakaway Fishing Tours, Smith Family Garden Luau Day 7 - Back to favorite Hanalei Beach and town of Hanalei Day 8 - Kauai Coffee and Lihue Another picture on our map!

Once I had my heart set on visiting all 50 states I had to put a plan together. I am the type that likes to know what to expect. To have control over the outcome. But how exactly do you visit 50 states? At first it was overwhelming. However, once I started putting together a game plan, I couldn't stop. To start, I downloaded a blank map of the United States, and dropped it into PowerPoint. That may seem like a weird program to use but I know it and it's comfortable for me. Once I had my map, I placed a star into the states we've already visited. If you read the backstory you'll know that any state we've travel to since Matthew and I started dating in 2018 counted as a state visited. All vacations prior were obsolete in our plan. After realizing we had 8 states checked off our list, my map looked pitifully empty. 8 states. Out of 50. That is 42 states that I had to group together and plan to visit. My goal was to have everything done by 2029. That is 11 total years to see each state, but 2021 we didn't travel so it can be done in 10 years. My next step was to add in the states that I already had booked for 2022. Once that was done I looked at what we could realistically complete on a camping road trip within 10 days. After I had my camping states identified, it was much easier to see what states could be grouped together. I started by doing those that looked relatively easy to get through. For example, the upper northeast has many small states that are easily traveled between. Once I had a tentative plan, I went online and researched. I looked at a lot of blogs. Looked up must sees in every state. And started mapping it out in google maps. How long would it take? How many nights would I need to stay? It was a process but eventually I had every state outlined (and as you can see color coded). Now is where the fun really began. After I had my outline and mapped out what year we will visit each state, I started planning each trip. When I made each plan I spent a ton of time reading through reviews, vacation blogs, and tried really hard to ensure we were truly going to be able to experience the states we visited. The plans I am showing are not actually going to be our exact trips. When booking hotels and campgrounds, I've already found it difficult to book exactly where I had expected. Challenges with what is available depending on the time of year we go is also a factor. 2022 Completed Trips: Georgia - I didn't have individual trip slides when I took this trip but you can read about it here See our Hawaii vacation here See this vacation by clicking the link below 2023 Planned Trips: March - Washington, Oregon, California Destinations: Seattle · Chihuly Garden · Kelly Park · Olympic Sculpture Park · Waterfront Park · Pikes Place Market · Underground Streets Olympic National Park · Port Angeles · Hurricane Ridge · Lake Crescent · Sol Duc Falls · Hoh Rainforest · Ruby Beach · Kalaloch Coast Astoria · Cape Disappointment · Goonies House · Oregon Film Museum · Flavel House Museum · Lower Columbia Bowl Oregon Coast · Cannon Beach · 3 Capes Scenic route · Otter Crest & Devils Punchbowl · Heceta Head & Sea Lion Caves · Oregon Dunes Crescent City · Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor · Jedediah Redwoods State Park · Prairie Creek Trail Lava Beds National Monument Crater Lake Mt. Ranier · Reflection Lake · Nisqually Vista Trail · Myrtle Falls · Ruby Falls · Narada Falls · Christine Falls · Crystal Mountain Gondola · Tipsoo Lake · Sunrise Point I will start by admitting that I learned that I have to research weather a little better prior to booking my vacations. I booked this vacation for March during spring break. Being from Minnesota, I guess I just assume that everywhere else is warmer than here in March. After looking at details for places we planned to visit, we realized several key factors. 1. March is still very much winter. This is obvious at home, but I didn’t realize that it would affect us on a coastal trip. 2. Mountains are snowy. Duh right? Who would’ve guessed that the snow hangs on until July though? 3. Snow chains are required in the National Parks through May. Because we are flying there and then renting a car, we will have to purchase these somewhere prior to entering Olympic National Park 4. Crater Lake receives an average of 43 feet of snow a year, and the roads around the lake do not open until June or July 5. Mt. Ranier has limited roads open into the park in Winter, and even those that open are limited to weekends (luckily the day we will be at Ranier is a weekend) All of these fun facts are part of the experience, and just pivoted my planning slightly. I ordered snow shoes, snow pants, and good snow boots. Yes, being from Minnesota I did already own snow gear but I don’t do a ton of outdoor hiking in the winter, so I invested in extra warm waterproof clothing. My niece, Matthew and I will be going on this trip, so I ordered these items for all three of us. We have to get in shape for more hiking, in snowshoes and less access via car. The fact that a lot of areas will not be open during this time of the year helped me narrow down our destinations considerably, which honestly was a blessing. The only places that I had to alter are the Olympic National Park, Crater Lake and Mt. Ranier. We do still plan to do most of what we would have in Olympic National Park, but we will do less hiking at Lake Crescent and Hurricane Ridge, and hopefully spend more time at Hoh Rainforest. Crater Lake is basically all on foot now. You can still drive to the park, and see the lake from the visitor center, but the roads that go around the lake are completely closed. Our plan is to drive in to the park and snowshoe a short 1.4 mile one way to a lookout. Mt. Ranier destinations are all tentative, but we hope to see as much as possible in Longmire and Paradise, and potentially join a ranger led snowshoe tour. Knowing that snow is still a major factor in all three of these destinations, we will have to be flexible and let the weather dictate those parts of our journey. That looks crazy right? Who plans a vacation with that many itineraries? Again, these are guides. The times were entered so I was able to map and make sure I was being realistic in what I hope to be able to do at each place. We very well may miss some of our planned points of interest, and that is ok. I look forward to seeing how my plans work out or if I need to change my approach. See how our Pacific Northwest Vacation turned out! July Camping – Michigan Upper Peninsula Destinations: Pictured Rocks Sault Ste. Marie Castle Rock The plan for Michigan is to mostly just enjoy the lake and camping. We will be going the week of July 4th, which means we will find somewhere to watch fireworks that evening. I booked a campground at Wells State Park, just barely across the Wisconsin/Michigan border in the UP on Lake Michigan. We will for sure visit the Pictured Rocks for a day, which is where I had originally hoped to find a campground that would work for this trip. I also tentatively planned a full day outing to head to Sault Ste. Marie on the far eastern side of the peninsula. ***Click below to see how our Michigan Vacation turned out! July Camping- Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa Destinations: Dane County – Wisconsin Dunes National Park - Indiana Mammoth Caves - Kentucky J. Percy Priest Lake - Tennessee Hawn State Park – Missouri Waterloo KOA - Iowa This will be our very first multistate, thousand mile road trip with our camper. Planning a multiple destination camping trip is much harder than a trip to a state staying in hotels and renting a car. 1. Many campgrounds have a minimum of 2 night stays. This doesn’t work when you are stopping to camp on your way to your next destination. Wisconsin was my most difficult place to find a campground, and we were close to just scrapping the stop and driving straight to Indiana (which would have been a full day of just driving) 2. Campgrounds in each state vary on release times for reservations. Some allow you to book a year in advance, some 6 months, some far less. There are campgrounds with first come first serve only option, and that will not work for my sanity for a trip like this. 3. Amenities vary greatly, and each website is laid out differently, so making sure our camper length will work, they have amenities we will need, etc. takes much more time to determine than a hotel would. 4. Driving times are a bigger consideration. Driving and exploring in a car is vastly different than exploring while pulling a 30ft trailer. Planning this trip had to include arriving at the campground, then allowing time to explore the areas and visiting our desired destination. We didn’t plan anything on route between destinations. See how we did on our first camping road trip by clicking below! Future Trips: Now I wasn't kidding when I said I have every state tentatively mapped out. And I am going to post the rest below. I obviously don't have the same detail as those I've already had to book. Hopefully this guide that I've spent countless hours putting together is helpful to someone other than myself. It feels a waste to spend so much time obsessing over my plans not to share it. Each slide has tentative destinations and the drive time between stops listed. Check out how our trip turned out!

My daughter turned 13 in April of 2022. For her birthday I planned a mother-daughter trip to Savannah, GA. I was pretty worried about this trip. Bringing a teenager to a city that is filled with history, walking and culture was nerve wracking for me. I wasn’t sure if she’d enjoy this type of vacation and I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy a teenager that was not having fun. We both ended up having a blast here. I booked a room at the River Street Inn. I heard mixed reviews about the hotel, but it was absolutely gorgeous, and the location was perfect. We could ride the elevator to the main entrance on Bay Street, or all the way down to River Street. Complaints online said it was loud, but the noise on River Street didn't bother us at all, and the views looking over the river from our window were worth it. I purchased the City Pass and we spent our first day on the hop on-hop off trolley. This was the best decision I could’ve made. I didn’t rent a car for this vacation, so this was an excellent way to hear about the city and experience all of the different places throughout the day. We had so much fun walking through cemeteries, touring old houses, hearing about the history of the city, visiting the marketplace and walking along River Street. We took a sunset river cruise which was a highlight of our trip for sure. There was music, snacks and fruity drinks. Seeing the city and all the little towns along the river was well worth the cost of the cruise. When we docked, there was a guy playing the trumpet on the street as we walked off. Songs like the Gilligan's Island Theme Song, the Titanic Theme song. It made those waiting to depart the ship laugh and he even played happy birthday for my daughter. The next day we walked. We walked to the park, walked to restaurants, walked to get ice cream. The hop on-hop off certainly helped us know where we wanted to visit, which was a blessing since we were now on foot. We did attempt to use the free transit throughout the town, but even doing that, there was a lot of walking. We visited Forsyth Park, which was very pretty. There were vendors set up along the path. We lounged in the grass. One thing to note about walking through Savannah is there are different squares, which are like little parks all over the city. In most of these squares there are groups of homeless, so we didn't cross through many. We tried to stick to busier sidewalks. That evening we did a ghost trolley tour, which was not even slightly spooky, but still fun. On our last full day in Georgia we caught an UBER to Tybee Island. The beach was fun, and it was nice to find the sun, though we did get sunburned. We had a decent lunch at a restaurant right on the beach (decent meaning food was pretty good, but the service was horrible and the staff pretty rude), and enjoyed swimming and walking on the pier. We found a couple of sharks teeth on the beach. There was a riptide warning while we were there, but we did still risk swimming for awhile. Something I wasn't prepared for, UBER will bring you to Tybee Island, but they fail to tell you they will not bring you back to Savannah. There are no UBER drivers in the Tybee Island area. I attempted to call a taxi and they wanted payment up front. When I asked how I would be guaranteed they would pick me up, he hung up on me. We were lucky enough to flag down a cab that had just dropped a guest off at a hotel, and was heading back to Savannah. The cost wasn't much different than what I had paid for the UBER. We didn't have a super early flight home, but by our final day we were both exhausted, and our skin was pretty red from our beach day. We hung out on River Street for awhile, had breakfast, and stayed pretty close to our hotel which was holding our bags. We had to check out of our room so we lost our key card access to the elevator. Once we walked up the hill from River Street we were done. We did put a lock on the bridge by our hotel as a farewell to this beautiful city. Day 1: Hop on-Hop of Trolly and Sunset River Cruise Day 2 - Forsyth Park, River Street, Ghost Trolly Tour Day 3: Tybee Island Day 4: Fly home **our original declaration was that any state we visit after 2018 counts. Matthew did not come on this trip obviously, since it was a mother-daughter vacation. This will be the only state that the two of us won’t visit together. Therefor, we may have to plan a long weekend in GA at some point over the next few years so he can see Georgia, or add it to our 2026 trip to North and South Carolina.

Visiting all fifty states was not something I dreamt about growing up. In fact, with the exception of a handful of places, I didn’t really dream of traveling at all. My family vacations when I was young consisted of several weeks of camping at the same campground every year. And I loved it. I continue the tradition to this day, camping at Two Lakes Campground in Drummond, WI. Though instead of two trips of two weeks each, I generally spend about five days here each summer. Sometime in the late 1980s I think, possibly early 1990s, we spent Christmas in Florida with my snowbird grandparents. We drove from Minnesota to Panama City Beach; my parents, myself, my sister and brother. I vaguely remember this trip, but do recall riding the waves in on the beach, having burning eyes from salt water, being the only ones brave enough to swim in the ocean in December, spending evenings at the pool, playing mini golf right up the road from my grandparents condo, and collecting seashells with my grandmother. We also went to Disney World and Sea World. This is the only time I remember leaving Minnesota other than family visits or camping in Wisconsin, and one camping trip to South Dakota with my aunt and uncle - what I didn’t appreciate nearly enough being a moody teenager at the time. That is until I was 19 years old. My very first time on an airplane. My mom and I went to Pennsylvania for a church retreat. While there I also took a tour of Washington DC. Also at 19, I took several girls road trips to Canada. Legal drinking age was 19 and at this time passports were not required. In 2002 my sister and I decided to visit our parents who were traveling for work and currently staying in New Jersey. We were young and this was a great opportunity to take a vacation, with the only expense being gas. We drove straight through from Minnesota to New Jersey, not stopping to sleep at all. My niece was 2 during this trip so imagine how adventurous this was at the time. It took us approximately 25 hours, of which I am pretty sure I drove 22. We stayed in New Jersey one night in the extended stay that my parents were in. Then they moved to Queens, NY which is where we stayed for the duration of the trip. We did the typical tourist attractions; spent time in Manhattan, attempted to ride the subway (though we ended up getting off somewhere and taking a cab back to our hotel), and visited Ground Zero. We went and saw the Statue of Liberty and shopped in Brooklyn. Neither of us were 21 yet, so we did the PG version of a trip to New York City with our parents. In 2004 I took my brother, sister, roommate and niece to Sarasota, FL, again to visit my parents while they were there for work. This time they were in a townhome and this time we took a plane. Again we experienced normal tourist activities. Beaches, the Myakka State Park, Busch Gardens, local bars – we ranged in age from 21 to 24 at this time. That sums up my traveling when I was young. Very limited, and I didn’t know what I was missing. September 2012 I took a girls trip to visit a friend that moved to Massachusetts. There were 4 of us that flew from Minnesota, so 5 women total, all friends since middle school. On this trip we visited Boston and went ziplining in New Hampshire. In February of 2014 I was in a wedding. Not just any wedding, but a destination wedding in Riviera Maya, Mexico. We stayed at an adult only gourmet inclusive resort. It was absolutely amazing, and that is when I decided that not only would I continue to travel, but I wanted my kids to experience more than just where they live. Which reminds me I forgot to mention that I welcomed my son into this world in December of 2006, and my daughter in April of 2009. In September of 2009 I married their father. In 2013 we separated, tried several times to work it out, eventually divorced, and he moved to Colorado. Ok, so back to my travel. In 2015 I went back to Mexico to another resort in Riviera Maya. 2016 I was blessed enough to take my kids to visit family in Oceanside, CA. 2017 we went back to California, but visited the San Francisco area and drove down the coast. In 2018 my daughter and I visited Colorado to spend time with my son, who at this time was living with his dad. We also took another trip to Florida – my daughter, niece and nephews, sister-in-law and brother. As I mentioned I wanted to travel. I wanted to see what is outside of Minnesota and Wisconsin. I took another trip in 2018 with my sister-in-law to rural GA, and spent a night in Atlanta. I know I flew through all of that, but it is because the point of this starts in September of 2018. This is when my husband and I started dating. On July 24th, 2018 I closed on my house. I had finally climbed back from my divorce and was purchasing a home again, completely on my own. My daughter and I moved into a newly constructed, 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom split level house in the town of North Branch. The same town that I graduated high school from, and couldn’t wait to leave. As mentioned earlier, my ex-husband moved to Colorado, so I figured being back closer to family was best, and the home prices are significantly lower than closer to the Twin Cities. September 16, 2018 I started dating my husband. We were friends in high school, though never anything more. We started flirting over face book messenger, met for drinks and a Viking’s-Packers game at a local bar, and the rest is history. 2019 was a busy year for us. My husband (then boyfriend) Matthew took his very first plane ride in February. We went to Arizona with two friends. While here we also road tripped to Las Vegas to watch my step daughter in a volleyball tournament. The weather was terrible. Anyone traveling from the Midwest in February understands how much you crave sun and warmth. That is not what we encountered. The highest temperatures we saw were 50 degrees, and this was the day we flew home. It even snowed while we were in Arizona and again in Vegas! Even with the cold we had an amazing vacation. We stopped and saw the Hoover Dam, walked the strip in Vegas, went on the High Roller. We aren’t big gamblers, so we didn’t spend a ton of money in casinos, but did play a handful of slot machines. It was cold and windy so we had to bounce between walking outside on the strip and warming up in a casino. We get to say we went to Vegas, but it wasn’t either of our favorite trip, and we don’t care to ever return. Arizona was gorgeous. Both Matthew and I had already been here. Myself for work, and Matthew visiting the same friends. Sedona was absolutely breathtaking. If I go back I will plan a couple of days in this area. We drove up to the town of Jerome and enjoyed this little mountain town, but they were closing the town completely shortly after we were there with snow coming in. Due to snow we weren’t able to visit the Grand Canyon. Over Easter Weekend, Matthew, Galytea, Whitney and I took a waterfall trip up the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. This was an awesome weekend experience, though some areas were still snow covered, the waterfalls were full with the melting snow. In August we took a long weekend and went to Colorado to visit my son. We were able to watch him at football practice and enjoyed a day exploring the area right around Denver. It was a quick trip and we drove the 16 hours from Minnesota. Both Matthew and I had already visited Colorado prior to 2018, so we have experienced the magnificence of the Rocky Mountains, even if it isn't part of our combined story. In October 2019 we took a family trip with all three of our kids to Sarasota. We rented a house with a pool and about 3 miles from the beach. We definitely explored on this trip. We visited the Myakka State Park and every beach we could drive to in a reasonable time. We found sharks teeth at Venice Beach, enjoyed the white sands of Siesta Keys Beach, shopped at Lido Beach, and walked through the jungle of the state park. Matthew and I were married July 25, 2020. The significance of this date in relation to the pandemic lockdowns and how it affected our travel is obvious. We had a venue booked in Minneapolis and were going all out. The big expensive dress, open bar, photo booths, 3 entre menu, full 10 hour photography/video package. This wedding was going to be fun! Unfortunately, weddings weren’t allowed because of the COVID crisis. We ended up having a small ceremony at Matthew’s sister’s house, with only immediate family due to space constraints. Our honeymoon was booked for a week on the Maine Coast, a state Matthew has always wanted to visit. Because Maine had some of the strictest shutdown rules in the country we cancelled our honeymoon and looked at places we could visit that were still open. One state that didn’t close down was Wyoming and it was within driving distance through South Dakota, also wide open. I will admit, Yellowstone National Park was not on my bucket list. Had the pandemic not hit I’m not sure we ever would have gone. But I LOVED this park. It was breathtaking, there was so much there to see. We saw all of the major attractions, plus several animals, spending two days in the park. Along the way we drove through Needles State Park, stopped at Mt. Rushmore, visited the Badlands and Black Hills. Now is as good of time as any to mention that I am a total nerd. On our drive through South Dakota we couldn’t miss Wall Drug and The Corn Palace. Nerds. Maybe it is the fact that I am now in my 40s but this trip made me realize that I wanted to see the parks and landscape of this country, not just beaches and cities. The Pandemic made travel interesting. Though I was never personally worried about traveling, I was worried about travel interruption. So, not scared of the virus, definitely scared of being stuck in an unknown place. We didn’t travel much after our honeymoon. We did however buy a camper that year, and went on several camping trips. For our one year anniversary we took a trip to Riviera Maya. That trip was so incredible, but has nothing to do with the story of my 10 year plan for 50 states. That is the only vacation with the exception of camping trips that we took in 2021. That brings us to 2022. The year that I put my travel plans to PowerPoint. Again, I already admitted that I am a nerd, so no judgement. I am a chronic planner. When I get something in my head, I have to lay it all out and see how it comes together. Early in 2022, I can’t recall exactly when, I saw one of those cheesy travel maps. The kind that you put a picture in for each state you visit. So of course I had to buy it. And by buying it, I had to figure out a way to fill that map. And so the PowerPoint was born. The map may be cheesy, but it's also completely amazing and I love it. It's super easy to upload pictures and they send you a sticker that you add to your map. If you are a little nerdy also, I recommend it. When I say PowerPoint, I mean a full on, color coded, 10 year plan to visit all 50 states. When I bought the map, I thought it was a cute fun way for us to highlight our travels. But I didn’t want a giant map with pictures and a bunch of blank spaces. This meant we HAD to go to all 50 states. I know that many people talk about visiting every state. And many others think it is a waste of time, as there are so many other places outside of the United States to visit. I was on a mission though. Now, keep in mind, we are not young. I already talked about the fact that I barely even traveled when I was young. In 2022 I am 41 and Matthew is 44. Our kids are 13, 15, and 20. We decided that any states we visited since we’ve been together – so since 2018, would count as states visited for our map. Our first trip out of state together was in 2019, so that is when it really begins. So, all of those places I mentioned earlier, as well as all of the places Matthew had been were obsolete. The trips we took in 2019 and 2020 counted toward our 50 state plan, and 2021 was a big zero for new states visited. If you are keeping track those states included are Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Wyoming and of course Minnesota. That is 8 states. And we need 50 states. And we are already in our 40s. So we need to visit a lot of states each year. I realize that 41 is still plenty young to travel. But if we need to visit 42 states, we can’t visit one a year. We have to figure out how to capitalize when we go, but still have enough time to enjoy our vacations. I sat down and tentatively grouped states together, and surprisingly I put a plan together that I think could work. My plan includes us flying to certain destinations, renting a car and road tripping through several states. Additionally we will complete 4 long camping trips that include multiple states. I will say that planning a road trip from Minnesota isn’t that great. There are many states around us that are pass through states. Or at least the parts of neighboring states close to us. This may make some angry, but in my opinion it is true. Camping in those states is a perfect way to visit, and not feel like we are spending too much time to get less appealing states picture on our map. In order for a state to count, we have to do one of two things. Either stay the night in the state - regardless of any other activities. Or, if we don't stay the night, we have to do something touristy. So, driving through Nebraska and only stopping for gas would not count. We also do have to take a picture for my map - obviously. My plan allows for us to complete all 50 states by 2029. That is 11 years total with starting in 2019, but 2021 we didn't travel, so this can be done in 10 years. I’ve already tentatively mapped out every trip with what cities we will stay in, where we will visit, and what year we will go. Each vacation will be busy for sure, though I did factor in drive time and time allotments for sightseeing. The vacation plan is a guide, not a set schedule. I’ve listed out how I plan to achieve all the states and tentative timelines to determine if it is realistic. But if we miss a destination I had hoped to see, then we miss a destination, as long as we don’t skip any states. Planning is ever evolving. To get started I simply looked up the can’t miss destinations in each state. That helped me figure out what states I could group together. Then I looked at sample itineraries in destinations within our trip. For example, I knew we were going to visit Olympic National Park while in Washington. I knew we would basically have one full day. So I viewed many itineraries that others had posted online and picked out what I knew I didn’t want to miss. I then estimated what time we would need at each location to make sure I was planning a realistic day or if I needed to pull anything off our destination list. Having a plan is so important to me, I like things laid out. Being flexible is also critical. Every itinerary that I’ve put together is a guide, fully knowing that we may miss out on something. I take vacations to enjoy my time and different places across the country. Being too stringent on timelines and destinations is a great way to ruin a vacation because nothing ever goes perfectly. Our luck with weather is a great reminder of this. Let the adventures continue!

I was worried I may have over planned this trip. I was determined to get 3 states in and still see everything the area had to offer. Every time I researched I found more that I didn't want to miss. I mentioned in The Plan post, this trip had to be altered several times. March is apparently still the heart of winter in the mountain regions of the Pacific Northwest and those areas that don't see snow, see rain more often than not. To prepare for our trip we purchased winter weather gear such as snow pants, gloves, snowshoes and boots. Rain gear including boots, jackets and pants. We bought an America the Beautiful park pass - which we used at 4 sites on this trip and will use again later this year when we take our camping road trip. I also picked up items recommended by travel bloggers such as a headlamp for the Lava Bed's National Monument caves, flashlights, battery packs and binoculars. We flew from Minneapolis to Seattle on Friday March 10th. Our flight was originally scheduled to arrive late afternoon, but the airline changed the schedule about a month prior to us leaving, which meant us arriving later. The benefit of this is I didn't burn a vacation day for our travel day, the downside is we had less time to see anything on day one. I am not the best traveler and flying wipes me out. So, having a low key arrival with very little to do after we land is not the worst idea. This trip included myself, Matthew and my niece Alexis who lives in Seattle. Day 1: Travel Day We arrived in Seattle and picked up our rental car. I used points from my credit card and reserved an Equinox through Fox Rentals. I realize they try to upsell you every time, but in this case, I took the bait and changed to a Toyota 4Runner, and also added the full coverage insurance. Since we were driving into the mountains with unknown weather conditions, I decided the extra cost was worth it, and I am glad for the last minute change. We did not pack light for this trip so we definitely benefitted from the extra room. Once we had our vehicle we went to grab Lexi's bags from her apartment. This made it easier to meet up with her and leave our car in the lot Saturday. We then checked in at our hotel, The State Inn, which was located downtown right by Pike's Place Market. The hotel was nice and had great views of the Ferris Wheel and Pike's Place. There was a restaurant right on site called Ben Paris, which has the most amazing butternut squash risotto. We basically ate and went to bed. Day 2: Seattle We started our day by walking to Biscuit Bitch for breakfast, however the line was down the sidewalk, so we ate at Bocca Cafe right down the block. Our food and service here were great. We had a 10am timeslot to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass, so after breakfast we walked toward this area. We were early which gave us plenty of time to walk and see other attractions in the area such as The Space Needle and MoPOP, attractions that we chose not to go into on this trip. The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibits were stunning. We really enjoyed all of the different sculptures and because of the time of year we were here it wasn't overly crowded. After we had our fill of abstract glass artwork, we walked to Kerry Park. I read in another blog that this walk was a little difficult but well worth it for the views. I would say this walk about killed us. It was extremely steep uphill walking, both sidewalks and stairs. The views were definitely beautiful with both the skyline and the bay in view, but if I could plan it again, I would drive to the park. After Kerry Park, and a little time to rest, we walked back down the hill and through the Sculpture Park on our way to the Waterfront. This was a nice walk, though downhill is also difficult to navigate. We walked along looking at shops and the different piers. Next, we decided to check out the gum wall. It was pretty gross. We snapped a couple pictures and walked up to Pike's Place Market. We spent awhile here just walking through and looking at everything the vendors had set out for sale. We grabbed lunch but I don't remember what the restaurant was called, all I cared about was finding a place that had tables to sit down at and eat. By this time we were tired and our legs were pissed at us. Lexi was planning to meet up with us relatively soon, and we had a tour booked for 5pm at Bill Spiedels Underground Tours. We sat down and people watched, while listening to street performers for awhile. Once Lexi found us, she suggested we go to a park, which we drove to. Bhy-Krach Park is one of her favorites, and the view is absolutely gorgeous. After, we drove to see Seattle Pacific University, where Lexi went to college. Our last stop in Seattle was an underground street tour. It was entertaining and really interesting. There were some definite political points made in the narration, but that aside, it was a great way to hear the history of Seattle and how they built and rebuilt the city. After the tour we left Seattle and drove to Sequim, WA, grabbing fast food on the way. We stayed at the Olympic View Inn in Sequim so we would be closer to the park in the morning and not have too long of a drive from Seattle. The hotel was clean but run down and there is no one at the lobby after 9pm. We arrived late so they ended up leaving the keys hidden for us. Day 3: Olympic National Park We had breakfast at the Oak Table Cafe, which was a super cute restaurant with great breakfast. After we ate, we headed in the wrong direction for about 30 miles, then figured it out and made our way to the Olympic National Park. When we arrived at the visitor center we didn't have snow chains yet which were needed to go to Hurricane Ridge. They have cameras set up so you can see the view from the top, and it was a cloudy drizzly day, so you couldn't see much of anything. Due to our unexpected detour in the morning and getting a later start than planned, paired with the limited views from the top, we chose to skip Hurricane Ridge rather than go back to Port Angeles to buy chains. Our first stop into the park was Lake Crescent. This lake is huge and crystal clear. We could see reflections perfectly in the water and the rocky bottom many feet out from shore. We decided to walk the trail to Marymere Falls which was approximately 2 miles total there and back. It was not a difficult trail but I wouldn't call it super easy either. Partly due to the fact that our legs were still burning from the previous day in Seattle, and the last stretch was pretty steep walking to view the falls. The walk itself was really pretty and the falls were fun to see. After Marymere Falls we tried to see Sol Duk Falls but the road was closed so we continued on to Forks. Forks was a big letdown. I don't know why, but I expected a cute little mountain town with shops and cafes. We found a rundown town with two souvenir shops that were very cliche, and a Chinese Restaurant that reminded me of reheated mall food. Our last stop of the day was The Hoh Rainforest. At this time it started raining pretty steadily so we threw on our rain gear and walked two trails - the Spruce Nature Trail and the Hall of Mosses. The Spruce Nature Trail is slightly longer, so we chose to do this one first in case we couldn't do both. At this point I found a walking stick and was walking like I was 50 years older than I am. The trail was level and an easy walk. It was gorgeous with trees draped in moss and ferns blanketing the ground everywhere you look, with some snow sprinkled here and there. Part of the trail loops by the Hoh River, which was more like a creek at this time, but I can imagine it looks much different as more snow melts. The trail of Mosses is less than a mile, but more strenuous than the Spruce Nature Trail. Again, I wouldn't say it is difficult, but being as sore as we were it felt like we were climbing a wall. This trail was also beautiful with huge trees, bright green moss and ferns everywhere. You felt like you were walking through an enchanted forest with all the foliage draped around you. The pictures we were able to take don't capture half of the wonder you feel seeing this area in person. By the end of day 3 we were sore, cold and a little tired. I failed to mention that this was day one of day light savings, paired with the 2 hour time difference our bodies were a little out of whack. We stayed at the Kalaloch Lodge in an adorable cabin looking out to the Pacific Ocean. It was raining, but the view here would have been hard to beat on a clear day. Our cabin had two king beds - with almost two rooms, but no door separating - a bathroom, kitchen and a wood burning stove with a bundle of wood for us to burn. We ordered takeout from the restaurant at the lodge - which was expensive and not the best we had on this trip - and ate at our kitchen table next to a real wood burning fire. The only complaint we had here was the water never got hot. It got warm but not for long, and with 3 of us craving a hot shower after a cold rainy day it was a little bit of a letdown. Day 4: Cape Disappointment and Astoria We left the Kalaloch Lodge and drove down the coast of Washington, stopping at Our Place Restaurant in Ocean Shore for breakfast. We went to Cape Disappointment but didn't spend a ton of time here, walking a trail and viewing the lighthouse. After Cape Disappointment we crossed the Astoria-Megler Bridge and entered Astoria. I booked a room at the Astoria Riverwalk Inn. This was Lexi's favorite room on the trip. The rooms overlooked the marina, with balconies that actually hung over the water. None of our accommodations were fancy, but it was clean, cute and reasonably priced enough that I got two rooms, so Lexi got a little break from us. My only complaint was that the bed was extremely hard. It was a memory foam bed so maybe it is something you have to get used to, but I was pretty sore the next morning, and not the same sore that I had been from all the walking. Being in our 40s, obviously we decided to see the Goonies Movie points of interest. It's funny both of us seeing this moving many times, it was hard to remember what happened at each spot until we physically saw them. We found the actual Goonies House, The Oregon Film Museum (the jail), Flavel House and the Lower Columbus Bowl. We also found Sea Lions down by a dock and sat admiring them for awhile. We finished our day with dinner at Astoria Brewery, which had great food, enjoyed a couple beers and purchased really nice sweatshirts and some local beer to bring home as souvenirs. Day 5: The Oregon Coast This was an incredible day. The weather was warming up a little for us and the rain had stopped. Our first stop on our drive was Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rocks. The town here was so cute with little shops and beautiful houses lining the hills surrounding the beach. Haystack Rocks was really cool to see in person and we saw many more jagged rocks spiking out of the ocean throughout our day. We decided to make a stop at Tillamook Creamery. This is a popular brand for yogurt and cheese in the area from what we learned. The creamery was really interesting to visit. They have viewing rooms that overlook the entire process of making cheese, as well as free samples of cheese. We purchased some socks for our girls and cheese and crackers. The cheese and crackers seemed like a good idea, but road tripping with cheese that you don't plan to eat immediately turned out to be a waste of money and we tossed it all out having no way to keep it cold. Along our route through Oregon we stopped at The Devil's Punchbowl and Thor's Well before stopping for lunch in the town of Newport. We ate at Mo's Seafood and Chowder, then stopped in at several of the shops in the town. Next we hit up Haceta Head Lighthouse and bought a ticket to the Sea Lion Caves. Going into the caves was easy. You take an elevator down 200 feet and walk right up to the sea lion viewing area. These are wild sea lions they aren't caged. The smell of fish is overwhelming when you are down here but you also get a great view of the Haceta Lighthouse from this area. Our last stop on our drive was to the Oregon Dunes. By this time we were basically recovered from our two days of hiking but walking up these dunes was not easy. It wasn't far up but extremely steep and walking through sand makes it that much harder. The views were nice but we had no desire to walk any more dunes. Luckily going down was easier and you could basically ski down the sand! We ended our day by eating at the Wheelhouse in Bandon, OR and stayed at the Bandon Inn. The Inn was nice with large rooms, comfortable beds and the staff was great. Day 6: The Redwood National Forest After fueling up we stopped for Breakfast at Double D's Cafe, then drove to California. We only had around 2 hours of driving before we reached Jedidiah State Park. We started by walking the Simpson-Reed Trail. I was overwhelmed with how beautiful this area is. It doesn't matter if you are driving or walking trails, pictures can't properly capture the magnificence of this forest. The trees are enormous and grow right on top of fallen trees of the past. Ferns and shrubs line the entire ground. We had planned to go to Fern Canyon and Golden Bluffs beach, but as we drove to the area we soon realized that roads were closed off and we couldn't access the trails. We stopped at Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center and the ranger was so courteous as he helped us find alternatives to do. I wasn't sure if this was normal closures because of the time of the year or due to recent weather events in the area. He did confirm that many areas of the park were closed because of the rain and snow they had gotten recently. He recommended we go to the Prairie Creek Visitor Center, where you could access trails to The Big Tree, one of the trails we had attempted to find but couldn't due to the direction we were traveling apparently, where the access was closed. We took the Karl Knapp trail which was lined with many "big trees" on our way to "The Big Tree". This trail was so secluded and beautiful to walk. It crossed several bridges over the river, and even though it was nearly 60 degrees the day we visited, we only saw a handful of others during our walk. On our way back to the Visitor Center we took Prairie Creek Foothill Trail. This night we stayed at The Lighthouse Inn in Crescent City. I do not recommend this hotel. I actually don't recommend Crescent City as a city to stay in at all (I think I would try Hiouchi if I ever return to the Redwoods). The staff at the hotel did not seem especially happy to talk to guests. Both when we checked in and when we checked out they barely acknowledged us. The first thing said to us when we arrived at the counter was "I highly recommend you take everything out of your vehicle and lock it". So that made us feel extra safe. The room itself was very large, with a separate bedroom. The decor of the entire hotel was almost creepy, with lots of doll houses, old worn wallpaper and carpet. The beds were in need of upgrading. You could feel every spring. When Matthew went to buy a drink from the lobby the attendant was packing a bowl and making a video of himself playing with a switch blade. Super weird to be doing at work in front of customers. Day 7: Lava Beds National Monument We left Crescent City around 9am, so we would have a few hours to visit the park. It was just over 4 hours to get to the park and we wanted to make sure we were there before 3, because the visitor center closed at 4. We stopped for breakfast at The Historic Hiouchi Cafe, on a scenic road that was like driving through a tree canopy the entire time. The food here was really good, and they had an extremely sassy waitress, who made us laugh when she called us chicken shits for declining mimosas and bloody marys. As we were wrapping up our breakfast I got a call from the hotel and Lexi had forgotten her glasses. So we had to drive back and grab them, which meant we lost about 30 minutes. We had to stop for bathroom breaks and fuel, as well as lunch, but we did make it to the Lava Beds National Monument around 3pm. The checkpoint was closed, so you had to go to the visitor center to get cave passes and check in. That was approximately 25 minutes into the park. When we arrived it looked closed, so we started to search for information on what we could do at the outdoor kiosks and bulletin boards. We saw a couple of cars and ranger trucks on our way, but very few people around at all, and no one from what it looked like at the center. Luckily, they were still open for another 30 minutes, which we finally realized when we peeked into the window on the door, so we did get our cave passes. We chose to do the easiest cave Mushpot Cave, which was right by the visitor center. This cave had lights lining a walkway, making it an easy first cave. There was some ice getting to the cave but overall it was easy and really fun to walk through. There were some low spots where you had to crouch, but nothing that we weren't able to handle. Next we attempted to do Skull Cave which we were told is a fan favorite ice cave. We started the trek down the path and soon realized it was extremely icy and difficult to navigate. Parts of the trail were packed down snow and others glare ice. There was a railing for part of the trail but it was really low so hard to use to support. Once we reached the entrance of the cave it was almost complete ice and steps down into the cave. This is where we called it quits and decided to skip the cave. We stopped at a few lookout points and admired the fields of lava rock. We also saw a group of mule deer on the side of the road. After a few lookouts we drove to Petroglyph Point. This is a huge rock formation with actual indigenous petroglyph carvings. There is also a ton of vandalism so it is kind of difficult to know what is real, but the park does a decent job of marking the actual authentic carvings. When we were done at the park we drove to Klamath Falls, OR to eat dinner. We found an Italian restaurant and it had decent food. Then we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy snow chains and drove to our hotel The Eagle Crater Lake Inn. This was by far the worst hotel we stayed in. It wasn't dirty, but very run down. The doors had no lock on them, only the electronic keycard locks. The beds weren't comfortable and you could hear rodents in the walls. There were weird notes posted all over in the room with warnings about being charged for literally everything. If towels were dirty, a list of prices for breaking items (listed separately, like so much for the TV, so much for the lamps, etc.). They had a TV and advertise cable but the only option was pay-per-view. On pay-per-view there was a handful of movies to choose from, a handful of porn, and a handful of sports options. We ended up watching Netflix on our phones. Day 8: Crater Lake Crater Lake gets a lot of snow. Over 40 feet each year in fact. Crater Lake had received a lot of steady snow in the weeks leading up to our vacation. So much snow that the access road was closed down for almost a month. The day we planned to visit was the first day it opened and the weather was perfect. A bright sun shining in the sky, temperatures around 50 degrees, and 3 very happy travelers experiencing this amazing park because they lucked out on the day they showed up. There was so much snow around the lake that the visitor center was almost covered. They have a snow tunnel so you can access the building from the parking lot and walk up stairs to the gift shop and information desk. We snowshoed up on the top of these giant snowbanks, and had amazing views of the lake. We could have continued on trails to different lookout points, but we were actually very warm and enjoyed seeing the lake from the areas just by the visitor center. In the summers you can drive all the way around the entire lake, but I am not sure that I would have changed a thing. Viewing the water surrounded by snow was magical. The pictures almost look like we have a backdrop which is testament to how amazing this was in person. Once we had our fill of Crater Lake we drove to Salem, where we spent the night at a Holiday Inn. This isn't a fancy hotel chain but was a nice break from some of the 2 star motels we had encountered. While none of our accommodations were terrible (some were definitely borderline terrible), this night felt a little better. The staff was wonderful and the hotel was clean and comfortable, and not outdated or rundown. We had dinner at Gilgamesh Brewing. The food was ok here but the service could have been better. It was a nice establishment overall and had a great atmosphere. Day 9: Mt. Ranier We decided to get up early and head to Mt. Ranier. Our plan was to be on the road by 7am, and we were close, leaving the hotel around 7:30. When I planned this vacation I had assumed we would need Saturday and Sunday to explore Ranier. This was before I realized that very little of Mt. Ranier National Park is open in March. By leaving early, we hoped to be able to explore the areas that we could and then leave early to Seattle the next morning. We arrived at the park around 11:30. The road to Longmire is open year round, but the road to Paradise only opens on weekends in winter. This beautiful March day drew a lot of people to Paradise. The parking lot at the Paradise Visitor Center was packed. There is a trail that appeared to be straight up the mountain right at the parking area and we all agreed that wasn't likely going to end well for our group. Since we weren't exactly sure what we would be able to do, we started by going into the visitor center and asking for advice on easy snowshoe trails. The ranger let us know that there is a trail that starts at a second parking area with a short walk on a sidewalk to access. The trail is relatively flat and has great views of the mountain. They also have ranger led snowshoe groups, but we just missed a group, so we opted to do this trail on our own. Even wearing only a sweatshirt and foregoing hat and gloves, we were warm very quickly. The temps were close to 50 degrees and the sun was shining bright. The trail was not strenuous but it did have enough up and down hills that we felt our legs burning again. The views of the mountains were amazing. After our snowshoeing trail was completed, we went to find lunch. Along the road on the way down, we stopped to view a waterfall, and frozen falls down the side of cliffs. This is right off the main road, with no trail required, and I believe it is Christine Falls, but I am not 100% sure on this. We found the National Park Inn in Longmire and stopped for lunch. The restaurant here was so fun. The waitress had the most amazing laugh and was so wonderful. She literally did a little hop/skip each time she walked away from our table. Our food was great, and around the restaurant there were different pictures of the Longmire family with the history of the inn written by each photo. When we finished lunch we decided to head back to Seattle. We had planned to stay at an inn just outside the park, but with nothing else open to explore we were done at Ranier. Lexi was eager to get back home so she could sleep in her own bed and was likely tired of hanging out with her old aunt and uncle, and I was ok staying in modern accommodations again. I booked a night at the Mariott on Alaskan Way. Once we dropped Lexi off, Matthew and I checked into our hotel, then walked the boardwalk to Premier Meat Pies for dinner. Our Meat Pies were so good. I had never heard of this restaurant but we both loved our dinner and the staff was really great. We enjoyed our evening watching the sunset over Elliott Bay, looking at the Ferris Wheel lit up bright, and just walking the piers. Day 10: Seattle We had a redeye flight booked for 12:30am Monday. Because we stayed in Seattle our last night, we now had all day to explore more of the city. We chose to sleep in and wait to leave until as close to 11 as possible. We walked to Cafe Opla, which was right across the parking lot of our hotel, for breakfast and coffee. Their caramel mocha latte was such a needed treat. Our breakfast was good as well. Our first destination after we fueled ourselves with coffee and food was the Japanese Garden. This was something I had wanted to do when I planned the trip, but we didn't have enough time our first day, so I was excited to add it to our last day. We were just a little too early to see everything in bloom. There were some really pretty flowers, but most of the plants had buds just begging to open up, not quite ready. It was still a beautiful garden, and after we walked the trails in the arboretum. Next up was Gas Works Park. This was a really interesting park with outstanding views of the city. Because it was a gorgeous sunny day in March in Seattle, the park was pretty busy, especially by the playground area. There was what appeared to be a school band playing under one of the pavilions. We walked for a bit enjoying the scenery then headed to Alki Beach. At Alki Beach we walked the shoreline. This is a nice area on the west side of Seattle and again was pretty busy with the weather being so nice. We ate lunch at El Chupacarra, which was decent Mexican food, and the atmosphere was pretty fun. We decided to continue walking, just enjoying looking at the different houses and shops lining the road. Matthew really wanted to ride the scooters that they have laying out everywhere, so we finally decided to go for it for our last little stretch of our walk and then back to our car. However, this was not as easy as you would assume. First of all, in order to ride the scooters you have to download an app so you can pay. Secondly, we assumed you could leave the scooters wherever you wanted, as you see them literally laying everywhere. This is not actually the case though. We got to our vehicle, and parked the scooters to the side of the sidewalk and attempted to end our rides on the app. It would not let us because we weren't at an approved parking spot. So, we ended up having to ride the scooters to the approved parking area, which was forever away, and ended up not saving us any time. At this point the skies were cloudy and a few sprinkles fell, so we were also cold. The actual riding of the scooters was fun, especially for Matthew, so I'm glad we did it, but at the time I was irritated walking 1/2 a mile back to our car after parking them. Next up was Lincoln Park and Driftwood Sculptures Trail. This was a decent park which had trails that went down to the shoreline. The Driftwood Sculptures Trail did not have actual Driftwood Sculptures which I assumed they would, but it did have a shoreline completely filled with driftwood and a few that looked like they were made into forts or something. It was a nice walk, though going back up from the shoreline was a workout for our already abused legs. At this point we weren't really sure what to do. It was close to 6pm and we still had several hours before we had to be to the airport. We weren't overly ambitious after the week of adventures we had. Lexi mentioned Fremont as a good place to go so I looked online for what to do in the Fremont neighborhood. We decided to drive and see the Troll Bridge, then find a place to eat dinner. The Toll Bridge is located on a regular street. The giant sculpture of a troll is just right under the overpass bridge. It is something you wouldn't expect to see and we wouldn't have if we didn't seek it out. We found a Tai restaurant but when we arrived it was closed. We walked up the block and were lucky enough to find another Tai restaurant - Jai Thai - and had a delicious meal. After dinner we went to the airport, our incredible vacation concluded. Day One: Travel Day Ben Paris State Hotel Day Two: Seattle Chihuly Garden and Glass Kerry Park Sculpture Garden Waterfront Pike Place Market Bhy-Krach Park Bill Speidels Underground Tour Olympic View Inn-Sequim Day Three: Olympic National Park Lake Crescent Marymere Falls Forks Hoh Rainforest Kalaloch Lodge Day Four: Astoria Cape Disappointment Goonies House Flavel House Oregon Film Museum Lower Columbus Bowl Astoria Pier 11 Brewery Astoria Riverwalk Inn Day Five: Oregon Coast Cannon Beach - Haystack Rocks Tillamook Creamery Devils Punchbowl Thor's Well Newport - Mo's Seafood & Chowder Sea Lion Caves Haceta Head Lighthouse Oregon Dunes Bandon Inn The Wheelhouse Day Six: Redwood National Forest Simpson-Reed Trail Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center Prairie Creek Visitor Center Karl Knapp Trail The Big Tree Wayside Prairie Creek Foothill Trail Loop The Lighthouse Inn Day Seven: Lava Beds National Monument Historic Hiouchi Cafe Mushpot Cave Skull Cave Devil's Homestead Petroglyph Point Eagle Crater Lake Inn Day Eight: Crater Lake/Salem Crater Lake National Park Gilgamesh Brewing Salem Holiday Inn Day Nine: Mt. Ranier/Seattle Mt. Ranier National Park Paradise Visitor Center Christine Falls National Park Inn Seattle Marriot Premier Meat Pies Day Ten: Seattle Cafe Opla Japanese Botanical Gardens Arboretum Gas Works Park Alki Beach El Chupacarra Lincoln Park Driftwood Sculpture Trail Troll Bridge Jai Thai

For my son’s 16th birthday, we took a trip to Louisiana. He desperately wanted to attend an LSU football game, and I was able to plan our trip so we were at the last home game of the season. I did not over plan this trip, because I wanted it to be his. Though I did set up our days so we could visit 3 states. This was a long weekend, flying in on a Thursday and home Sunday. We flew into New Orleans and spent some time in the French Quarter, eating lunch and walking the streets for a short time. We tried frog legs, and my son had catfish. The food was excellent and the service was great. We then drove to Biloxi, MS where our hotel for the long weekend was. The next day we headed east to Mobile, AL, where we had breakfast at a cute little restaurant called The Ruby Slipper Cafe – excellent choice - and walked around the city. We were surprised by how vacant the streets were. There were hardly any cars driving around at all, and almost no one on the sidewalks. We enjoyed walking and shopped at a few of the stores. We then drove around to look at some of the old antebellum style houses in the city. We found a park and walked Gator Boardwalk, but didn’t see any alligators. That evening, back in Biloxi we walked on the pier for a bit, and saw the sunset over the beach. We had dinner at the restaurant in our hotel - The Sapphire Supper Club. It was a 40s theme, with live music and so much fun. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was great. Even my teenager enjoyed this evening. Saturday we went to New Orleans and walked through the city. Per our usual luck, this day was cold and raining, approximately 40 degrees. We stopped in many shops and enjoyed just seeing the old eclectic buildings. We had lunch at one of the top rated fried chicken restaurants in the city- Willie Mae’s Scotch House. Which meant a very long wait in the rain. They called us before many others that were standing there before us, so we may have taken another Matthew’s table. After lunch we drove and looked at more of the architecture and old houses, then headed to Baton Rouge for the game. As I said, it is about 40 degrees and raining, and the game was at 7:10. Parking for an LSU game is a joke. If you ever visit plan to walk a long way! LSU had already solidified their seat in playoffs, so the game didn’t actually mean anything. They were the 5th rated team, playing ABU. The stadium was packed and we were sitting around a lot of ABU fans. LSU won easily, and due to the weather and the obvious win, the stadium emptied out pretty significantly at half time. Since this was the main event for my son’s birthday trip, we stayed until he had had enough, which was with around 5 minutes left of the game. We missed the fireworks in the stadium, but had we waited our feet may have been too numb to walk back to our car, so I consider ourselves lucky. Sunday we flew home. We had an afternoon flight, so had planned to eat lunch in New Orleans before dropping our car off and heading to the airport. However, not being familiar with the area our first attempt led us to a neighborhood we were not comfortable exploring. Second attempt landed us at what appeared to be a great choice, with a fun atmosphere and reservations needed or a hour and a half wait for a table. Due to the time it took to find out we weren’t eating at these two we ended up going to the airport, having lunch there. Itinerary: Day 1 - Arrive in New Orleans, have lunch and drive to Biloxi, MS Day 2 - Explore Mobile Alabama, sunset at pier in Biloxi, dinner at hotel Day 3 - Visit New Orleans, Attend LSU Game Day 4 - Fly home