It’s been a long, weird, stressful summer for us, as for most people. But as is usually the way with such things, some good things came out of it, and one of those good things was that we finally spent some time exploring the very northeasternmost corner of Georgia (a replacement trip for our planned […]
A Smoky Mountain Pandemic: Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Townsend, TN
Right now we’re supposed to be at Wayne County Fairgrounds outside of Detroit, spending our last night in Michigan before starting to head south. Back when we finally decided to cancel our big Michigan trip after weeks of going back and forth, we immediately booked a couple of shorter trips closer to home to give […]
Bakewell and the Peak District: Exploring England with Kids and Teens
travel dates: June 13-16, 2019 At some point or another in the planning stage of our England trip, we considered just about everywhere in the country as a potential third stop after London and Bath. We eventually landed on Bakewell in the Peak District through some combination of intention, luck, and randomness. We wanted something […]
A Day in Kejimkujik National Park: Exploring Nova Scotia with Kids
Travel date: June 28, 2018 People mostly think of the coasts when they think of visiting Nova Scotia: the Bay of Fundy to the north, the port city of Halifax to the south, the winding, scenic drive along the shore on Cape Breton. And truth be told, we spend most of our three Nova Scotia […]
A Day in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia with Kids
I can’t remember exactly how the little town of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, right on the Bay of Fundy, made it onto our Atlantic Canada itinerary, but I’m glad it did. We loved the town, and it served as a perfect introduction to Nova Scotia for us. We spent three nights here, so we had two […]
A Day in Vermont: Quechee Gorge and Vermont’s Only National Park
Travel date: June 16, 2018 We left off with our extended family scattered all over New England: Dave, his mom, and the younger kids were still on Cape Cod, and Ari, Dave’s dad, and I were in western Mass visiting Amherst and Williams colleges. But we were all reunited in Quechee, Vermont, where we made […]
Lassen Volcanic National Park: Hey, What Do You Know? Even MORE Volcanoes!
Travel dates: July 1, 2017 The party line on Lassen Volcanic National Park is that it’s a hidden gem–an amazing but underappreciated spot where one can go to soak up natural wonders while escaping the crowds. Lassen Peak itself is a huge plug dome volcano which erupted most recently in 1915. The park is one […]
Believe the Hype: Crater Lake is Really, Really Blue
Travel date: June 28, 2017 At Crater Lake National Park, in very late June, we encountered the most snow any of us had ever seen in one place in our lives. We were looking forward to doing a boat tour of Crater Lake. Maybe hiking Wizard Island, the small island in the middle of the […]
Two Days in the Tetons: Visiting Grand Teton National Park
Travel dates: June 21-23, 2017 I think a lot of people view a visit to Grand Teton National Park the same way we did: as something you really might as well do when you’re already so close, visiting Yellowstone. And then, like us, they get there and realize that, not only is Grand Teton a beautiful, […]
Things to Do with Kids in and around Gainesville, GA
travel dates: October 6-9, 2017 As I mentioned in my campground review of Don Carter State Park, some bad weather cut our trip to the Gainesville area down to one full day from a planned two, so we didn’t get to everything on our list. But we did fit a good bit into our one day […]