2024 was a big year of transitions for us, as August left for college, Ari left for grad school (after a year back home working post-college graduation) and we went down to only three people at home full time. Travel-wise, we had only two kids on the big summer trip with us most of the time. This made the game we play at the end of every year, where we all make lists of our top 10 travel memories and then try to guess whose list is whose a little…different. Everyone had wildly different lists, so the guessing part was mostly a joke this year. But that’s okay! Change is FINE! I’m FINE!
Anyway. Usually I do a kind of composite list for this post of things that made it onto multiple lists. This year I’m mostly just giving you MY list. Although I was surprised at how much overlap there still was. Ari spent a lot of time in Colorado visiting his girlfriend, Abby, early in the year, before just moving all the way there to start school in August. And Milo spent the summer playing clarinet in summer programs all over the place: Colorado, San Francisco, and New York. But we managed to fit in some travel all together, too.
At any rate, here’s my list! This year it’s in no particular order. Well, actually, it’s pretty much chronological. Also I added an eleventh and twelfth thing because I had trouble narrowing down.
1. Doing every attraction at Disney World
This was Abe’s goal for his 11th birthday trip in January, and we did it! Well, everything that was open while we were there anyway. It was a really fun trip, which perhaps I’ll get back to blogging about at some point. You can read about the first few days here and here and here.
2. 25th Anniversary Disney Trip
That’s right–after a five year break from Disney World, Dave and I went twice in one year! Our first trip without kids (big kids took care of the house/pets/Abe for us so we could go–thanks, kids!), and it was really fun, so here it is on the list!
3. Solar Eclipse in Evansville, Indiana
Everyone except Milo made it to Evansville for the eclipse in April (Milo saw it from another spot with friends from school). The eclipse was great, and Evansville (which we picked somewhat randomly because it was one of the closest cities to us that would have totality) turned out to be a cute, fun town, complete with a cat cafe!
4. Fireworks over Niagara Falls
Moving ahead to our summer Canadian cities trip…fireworks over the falls was really cool to see, and it was good to finally be able to check out things from the Canadian side.
5. Boldt Castle
I went back and forth on including this one over other things we did in the Kingston, Ontario area (this was actually back across the border in New York)–but ultimately it was a really fun day at a place with an interesting history, so it earned this spot, even though I’m a little weary of how many tourist attractions are “giant house that rich guy decided to build.” Much more about this in an upcoming blog post.
6. Rideau Chapel in National Gallery, Ottawa
This is a little more granular than my usual list entries: it’s a single exhibit inside the National Gallery in Ottawa…but it really is cool enough to deserve it. My friend Shana told me about it before our trip and encouraged me to seek it out, and I’m very glad. They’ve moved an entire chapel here and reconstructed it inside the museum, and speakers set all around the room play music (each speaker plays a different part). The whole museum is definitely worth seeing, but this particular exhibit is incredible. Ottawa was another stop where I had trouble narrowing down what should go on the list, though!
7. Pointe-à-Callière: Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History
Pointe-à-Callière is one of my favorite museums of all time. It’s built over the ruins of the old city, and on the basement level you actually get to walk around in the excavated remains of the city and read about/see how it changed over the years. The picture above is August and Abe walking through an old sewer.
8. Quebec City Walking Tour
Yet another stop where I had trouble picking out just one highlight…but we really enjoyed doing this walking tour and getting more local insight on the city as well as a ton of information about its history.
9. Emily Dickinson’s House in Amherst, MA
We stopped by Amherst, MA on our way home from Canada as a preview before dropping August off there to start school at Amherst College the next month. It was more or less on the way, and we figured move in day was going to be too hectic to leave much time for seeing the city…like Emily Dickinson’s house! I love a good writer’s house!
10. National Cathedral, Washington, DC
We splurged on a behind the scenes tour of the National Cathedral in DC and were very glad we did; the whole thing is stunning, but it was especially cool to be able to get up close and personal with stained glass and gargoyles and whatnot. It made us all want to rewatch that episode of the West Wing where President Bartlet puts a cigarette out on the floor of the cathedral (but we would never do that ourselves!)
11. Colorado Trip to see Ari and Abby
Very quick but fun trip to the Denver area…we’re looking forward to seeing a lot more of Colorado (and of Ari and Abby) this summer.
12. SNOW in New Hampshire
I LOVE snow! So it was very exciting when it snowed all day on Thanksgiving when we were in New Hampshire visiting Dave’s parents for Thanksgiving. We made a big snowman! There’s a good chance we’ll get snow here in Georgia later this week, too: YAY SNOW!!!
So that wraps up 2024, which means it’s time to look forward to 2025!
We actually already have one trip in the books: we went to Dollywood for a quick trip just after New Year’s:
AND we bought season passes for me, Dave, and Abe (which made sense for complicated reasons involving the included bring-a-friend passes), so we’re hoping they’ll be a good bit of Dollywood in our year. We have a spring break trip to the Smokies planned in April, for a start.
We have at least two Nashville trips coming up as well, to see Milo’s assorted performances.
Our big summer trip is also adult-kid focused; we’re planning on spending much of the summer in eastern Colorado visiting Ari. The trip will start with a couple of days in St. Louis and then an entire week in Kansas City so that Dave can do AP grading and earn some money to pay for the trip. This will leave me and whichever kids are along (Milo and August’s summer plans are still up in the air) with a LOT of time to explore the KC area, so feel free to hit me with suggestions!
Then on to Colorado, where we’ll spend a few days in Colorado Springs, then in Estes Park to see Rocky Mountain National Park, then Fort Collins, and then we’ll finish off our Colorado time with two weeks in Denver before heading home (with a stop in Topeka to see a few things). This will be a much slower paced trip than our usual, and I’m looking forward to really getting to know some of these cities.
In the fall, Dave has a shiny new fall break this year for the first time, and it coincides with family weekend at Amherst, so we’re hoping to get up there for that and also to visit Dave’s parents at their new place outside of Boston.
And beyond that? Who knows? Dave and I both have 50th birthdays coming up this year, and I’d love to do something exciting for those, but exactly what depends on budget and scheduling restrictions. I’d like to get better about getting the trailer out for some long weekends, but that’s always very tricky with kid activities (even with just one kid at home!)
Thanks to everyone who’s followed along this year!
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