Read more about the article Big Bend National Park, TX Itinerary
Between Alpine and Terlingua

Big Bend National Park, TX Itinerary

After reading Texas Monthly for years, I’ve always wanted to visit Big Bend National Park in Texas. But it is hard to get to – and that may be the appeal for many. In fact, its one of the least visited of the National Parks.

Big Bend is located far west Texas – the part that’s under New Mexico. The park offers a place to hike, bike, fish, camp, whatever you want and it’s absolutely beautiful. But it’s 653 miles from Houston where we go to visit family. We chose to add a few days after Christmas and make the drive from Houston.

We found a reasonable room at Terlingua Ranch Lodge. Although Terlingua sits three miles from one of the park entrances, the ranch was about 30 minutes north of the park.  That seems far, but in reality it was one of the closer places to stay as Alpine is an hour and a half (83 miles) and Marfa is 2 hours from the park. (more…)

Read more about the article Europe Itinerary – 14 Days and 8 Countries

Europe Itinerary – 14 Days and 8 Countries

When my husband suggested we go to Europe with our children, I thought he was out of his mind. As we looked more into European travel, it really wasn’t that crazy of an idea after all. In fact, it was one of our best family trips.

We created a very ambitious itinerary and I’m happy to say we did it all! The cruise encompassed days 4-11. Click on the links for detailed posts & pics. (more…)

Read more about the article Boston & Maine Itinerary (Including Acadia National Park)

Boston & Maine Itinerary (Including Acadia National Park)

This is the trip that started it all for our family. My spouse and I had enjoyed travelling, but with the birth of our children we did a lot of trips to visit family and an annual trip to the beach. We decided it was time for the four of us to go on a true vacation.

There are many styles of travel. In my family (and maybe because I grew up in a city of about 150,000) we tended to take city trips – New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, Montreal. On these vacations, I wasn’t allowed to do things I could do at home – like see a movie. We pounded the pavement to see everything there was to see – museums, walking around, eating local cuisines — definitely no sleeping in or hanging out.

Other people like to go to one place – maybe for an entire week. These trips are meant for relaxation, but after a while I tend to get bored. It was time to do the type of vacation I had grown up doing and to show our children the world. It was fun, exhilarating and now we’ve tried to incorporate at least one trip like this per year. This was our itinerary from June 2011. (more…)

Read more about the article West Virginia (and parts of Virginia) Itinerary

West Virginia (and parts of Virginia) Itinerary

West Virginia is one of the prettiest states. It’s very similar to Arkansas in the fact that the beauty is being outside. There’s no one place to visit in West Virginia as the population is very spread out. The largest city is Charleston with a population of only 51,000 people. We made Beckley, population 15,000, our home base for this Columbus Day weekend trip. To really see the state, prepare to drive around — a lot! But the real beauty is found on the scenic winding roads through coal towns. If you’ve never been, put West Virginia on your bucket list! Please click on the individual links for more pictures and details of the sites we visited.

Itinerary for a Weekend in West Virgina 

click here for map

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