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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Read more about the article Quebec City, Montreal and Adirondacks Itinerary
The Chateau Frontenac Hotel

Quebec City, Montreal and Adirondacks Itinerary

I love Canada and after several years of trying to arrange a trip to Quebec, it finally panned out. We even had a bit of extra time to go down into the Adirondacks (Lake Placid) and Vermont. Here’s the Quebec-City, Montreal and Adirondacks Itinerary for five days during the summer.

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Read more about the article Colorado & Utah (Including Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Rocky Mountain National Parks) Itinerary

Colorado & Utah (Including Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Rocky Mountain National Parks) Itinerary

I wanted to go somewhere that didn’t look just like home. For several years I had been researching the Grand Canyon, but flights were expensive. After talking to a friend who did a 2-week tour of the national parks, we came up with this 5-day itinerary. The focus was on the three Utah parks – Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef and we made Moab our base. The nearest airports are Salt Lake City and Denver. Since Denver was significantly less expensive and we’d get to explore some of Colorado, we chose that route. It sounds like a lot, but it worked and was the perfect amount of time. One more day and everyone would be getting cranky. Here’s our Utah and Colorado itinerary. Be sure to click on the hyper-links for detailed posts on each place. (more…)