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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