Read more about the article Washington DC & Virginia Itinerary (Including Shenandoah National Park)

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…)

Read more about the article Bathhouse Row – Hot Springs National Park
The restored Fordyce on BathhouseRow

Bathhouse Row – Hot Springs National Park

My husband thought I was nuts – completely nuts. We were visiting my hometown of Shreveport, La. when I said, “Instead of going straight back to Atlanta, we could go up through Arkansas, over to Tennessee, spend the night in Memphis and then get back to Atlanta tomorrow night.” Within a few hours, we found ourselves in Hot Springs where I had vacationed as a child.

Things had changed since those trips in the 1970’s. Well,  not everything had changed, especially not the Arlington Hotel. This historic hotel has looked the same since 1924 and will continue to do so until a natural disaster comes along. I fondly recall walking with my parents across the street from the Arlington into the Hot Springs National Park at dusk. It was the first time I had ever seen fireflies, which we called lightning bugs. (more…)

Read more about the article 24 Hours in Kentucky – Mammoth Cave National Park & Louisville

24 Hours in Kentucky – Mammoth Cave National Park & Louisville

We started our Mother-Daughter trip by first going up to Louisville, KY. Since we were literally planning this trip two days beforehand, we had little time for extensive tourist research. I also have to say up front that I can’t find about half of the pictures we took.

We did notice Mammoth Cave National Park was on the way so we booked tickets for a guided cave tour. Again, I wanted to go there, but not actually go in a cave. Thing 2 convinced me otherwise. We bought our tickets online for the 1:00 Historic Cave Tour. The next morning we left Atlanta around 6 am so we’d get there about an hour before the tour began.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Gathering with the group outside the visitor center, the park rangers explained that parts of the tour could be claustrophobic. In actuality, it really wasn’t claustrophobic at all. They went into detail that there would be a few tight squeezes, but it was well-lit inside. Thing 2 and I stayed near the front of the 40 or so people. The other guide was trained to get people out of there if they had any problems. (more…)