Bobby and I spent a remarkable nine days visiting Ireland seven years ago when we hiked the Kerry Way. The breathtaking landscape, the warm nature of the people, and the rich cultural history had us choosing Ireland again, this time for our children’s first international vacation. We spent two weeks visiting Ireland and chose to spend the majority of our time on the Dingle Peninsula. We found a charming home, perfectly situated just 7 km (about 4 miles) from the town of Dingle. The home had stunning mountain and ocean views with sheep and cattle acting as our nearest neighbors…
5 Family Friendly Winter Getaways
If you are like us and find the seemingly endless winters of the midwest too much to bear for six months out of the year, you need to get away to some place warm. We have found that, while winter weather even in the more temperate climates can be fickle it’s a great time to hike some of our nations most popular trails without the heavy summer traffic. Arches National Park The landscape in Utah is truly remarkable and having the opportunity to view the iconic arches through a haze of snow is an irreplaceable experience. We found ourselves traveling…
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
This was it! The primary reason for taking this trip along the southern shore of Lake Superior was finally upon us! We had already visited the Apostle Islands and the Porcupine Mountains, now it was time for Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore! Just googling this area and perusing the breathtaking photos while planning our trip had us drooling with anticipation and excitement! We couldn’t wait to get there and see all the beauty this unique area has to offer. We had allowed ourselves three nights and two full days to explore the area before returning home from our week and…
Madeline Island
When planning our next road trip we decided to approach it very differently than we did our winter road trip to the southwest. At that time we were determined to get away from the cold weather as quickly as possible, and had, somehow, managed to squeeze 4,000 miles into just two weeks of travel. We wanted a slower, easier pace for our Spring trip. Another consideration was that we wouldn’t be alone, my parents would be joining us. They purchased a small Jay Feather hybrid camper around the same time we bought our Lance. So, we weren’t just planning a trip…
White Sands National Monument
We had spent four nights at the Carlsbad KOA and we were more then ready to set off to a new part of New Mexico. We continued our journey westward a further 144 miles with our destination being Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, located just south of Alamogordo, NM. The days drive proved to be a short one, yet challenging with a mountain pass through Lincoln National Forest. We were pleased to be able to stop and explore the charming alpine town of Cloudcroft along the way. The town’s main street is bustling with cute shops and several restaurant options. We…
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
I had read of Carlsbed Caverns in Nevada Barr’s mystery novel, Blind Descent. Her descriptions of the caverns intrigued me and had me dreaming of visiting there someday. As we were planning a two week road trip to the southwest, so as to escape the frigid Minnesota winter temperatures, I knew Carlsbad Cavern National Park had to be on our “Must-See” list. Driving while hauling our newly purchased Lance 1575 travel trailer along with traveling with a rambunctious toddle meant that our daily progress wasn’t nearly as fast as we had planned. We were a day behind schedule right off…
Acadia National Park
We spent a lot of time in Acadia National Park during our week long stay in Maine. It’s difficult for me to write about and it was difficult for Bobby to develop our pictures. But, we feel we must write about everything that happened to us while we were there. The week began with amazing, beautiful family moments in the park. We were filled with joy and anticipation at everything the next year of our lives would bring us. We had planned a special photo shoot that would announce the coming arrival of our next baby. Halfway through our trip tragedy struck…
Whistler – Blackcomb Lake
We were vacationing for a week in Squamish, British Columbia and decided that a day trip to Whistler (a short 45 minute drive away) would be really fun! We had been to Whistler once before back in November of 2013. We had found out we were pregnant with Jack less then a week before we were set to leave. That vacation was to be a long weekend of snowboarding with friends, being newly pregnant, and not a very talented snowboarder, I was advised by my midwives not to participate. So, my last trip to Whistler was spent in a lovely…
Twisp River Suites
We had headed to the North Cascades for a beautiful day hike at Blue Lake and were looking for a place to stay for the night. Without an infant in tow, and the numerous stops along the way that that brings with it, the hike would have been a 3 hour drive from our home in Seattle to the trailhead. The drive ended up taking us 5 hours. We had packed overnight bags and headed to the nearby town of Winthrop, about 32 miles from the trailhead, hoping to find a place to stay for the night. As soon as we got…
Santa Monica, CA
It was time to plan one last vacation before baby comes in July! Due to our busy spring schedule we decided to plan a winter getaway earlier in the pregnancy. We left cold and rainy Seattle behind and flew south to Los Angeles. We found a great deal on airfare using our favorite go-to trip planning site, Trip Advisor. Finding a hotel proved to be a little more difficult and we ended up spending quite a bit more then we normally do. We decided to throw caution to the wind and live it up one last time, booking ourselves into…