Arkansas, Oklahoma & Texas Itinerary
A trip itinerary to Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas hitting state parks in Arkansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Houston.
Chicago, Wisconsin & Michigan Itinerary
During the summer of 2014, we created a driving trip to Chicago, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan about two weeks before the trip. Why a driving trip and why those states?
Let me back up. We had flown for the Boston/Maine trip and the Seattle/Vancouver trip, but had driven for the Washington DC/Shenandoah NP trip. The cost differential between flying and driving was significant enough that we wanted to drive somewhere again. But where should we go? I looked at our map of the US and drew a circle around places within 12 hours from home. Chicago was one of the cities that had popped up.
Since I was missing Wisconsin and Michigan from my visited states list, I wanted to incorporate those as well. A brochure I ordered from Wisconsin highlighted beautiful lighthouses in Door County. From there, we realized we weren’t far from the Upper Peninsula and could swing around and see Mackinac Island. (more…)
Washington DC & Virginia Itinerary (Including Shenandoah National Park)
In 2013, our vacation plans called for a week-long trip to Washington DC and Virginia as soon as school ended in May. In retrospect, we should have waited a few days. After picking up our kids directly from school on their last day, we stopped in Charlotte to have dinner with some friends and then drove as far as Durham, NC that night. Colonial Williamsburg was crowded when we arrived around 11:30 the next day (which also happened to be the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend). By the time we got to DC on Sunday afternoon, everyone was tired and cranky. We learned a very valuable lesson – give our kids at least a day or two to unwind from the school year before going on a week-long trip! (more…)
Louisville, St. Louis & Memphis Itinerary
It was spring break and we had nowhere to go. At that time, my elementary school-age children were in two different schools with two different spring breaks. Thing 2 wanted to go somewhere for just a few days. We got out the Atlas. She wanted to go to Arkansas. I wanted to go to Missouri. We ended up doing a really fun trip to Mammoth Cave NP, Louisville, St. Louis and driving through northwestern Arkansas to Memphis – all in four days.
Thursday
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