Our Honda

Thank you, Honda CRV, for all the road trips over the years! Here's to many more years together!

Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Austin, Four Corners, Big Bend, San Antonio, Guadalupe, Florida Everglades, Miami, Key West, Kansas City, Wallingford, Faribault, Twin Cities, Cape Cod, Boston, Amenia, NYC, Syracuse, Lake George, Maine, Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, St. Louis, New Orleans, Santa Fe, Moab, Denver, Nebraska, Kansas, Louisville, Savannah... not too mention just back and forth, around the corner, and down the street over and over again....

Summer Travels

Well, Matt and I have been feeling kind of cranky because we don't have any exotic destinations planned for this summer. We didn't take any trips over the holidays in 2008, but we did take a big trip to Hawaii in March. That should satisfy most normal people, but I always want more adventure. Alas, there will be no super adventure this summer.

Instead, we are spending time with family and friends. I'm pretty frank with everyone: I don't believe visiting family is the same as vacation. But this year, I spent nearly a year away from the east coast, and I've missed it.

First we are DRIVING with TWO DOGS to Massachusetts and Connecticut to see my family. Driving with the pooches will surely provide some interesting tales to tell, and if it doesn't, all the creatures great and small at my mom's house (3 cats and 3 dogs with my sister and me in town) will surely inspire.

Then (after DRIVING back to Minnesota with TWO DOGS), we are flying to Walt Disney World in Orlando to see Matt's mom and family. Matt's cousin planned the trip and asked for all of us to consider joining her and her family. Now, I haven't been to Disney World since I was 12, and while I am definitely intrigued, I am always a little unsure of traveling in large groups. But, my long simmering desire to return to Journey to Imagination, the Land of Tomorrow, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and the Mexican restaurant at Epcot (as well as see family, of course) won out! I'll be stepping on that light-up floor piano and making hand shapes in that needle table before you know it. I have some Disney nostalgia, and seeing how things have or have not changed since the 80s will be fascinating, I'm sure. I'm curious if Land of Tomorrow (or Tomorrow Land?) has changed...

And finally, we are heading out to Portland to see some dear friends who have just recently had a baby! Hopefully, some of my other college compatriots will join us. I've never been to Oregon, but I am thrilled to see D.Baby and knock another state off my list.

So, the summer isn't poised to be full of exotic adventures, and we will definitely be staying state side, but as I write this out, I feel a little guilty for whining and a lot more grateful for the time we'll have to get away from school for a little while, be home, and see the people we miss so much.

Memories of Road Trips Past: An Homage to the United States

~ falling in love with a guitar player outside Cafe du Monde and a tour guide named Thom at Fallingwater ~ the knife stabbed into the table in the grocery on Grande Isle ~ Alfredo, with his catfish on a leash on the Rio Grande ~ those biscuits in Texas ~ being surrounded by bison in South Dakota ~ frozen ice at Niagara Falls ~ a room with no clock, no windows, no lock in Pennsylvania ~ a collapsed bridge detour that led to Hog Trough Liquors, Arkansas ~ the Spiral Staircase Store, Maine ~ spending Spring Break indoors ~ the red road ~ abandoned hot springs ~ lonely national parks with Senior Ranger Programs ~ sneaking pictures of signs, with eyes peering out from behind the curtain ~ local fabric stores ~ burros in the car window ~ watching Babel in bed instead of gambling ~ bathtubs and boats after a hurricane ~ the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway, closed 20 miles in ~ sunsets in the badlands ~ hiking to an oasis in Joshua Tree ~ ice cream-offs ~ peanut butter chocolate shakes at Sonic ~ stepping on seal bones in Newfoundland ~ perfect stones ~ driving across northern Maine with no gas ~ searching for moose ~ Matt on a horse named Panther ~ rafting between the US and Mexico ~ coffee in Moab ~ walking a ridge in Utah ~ fearing mountains lions called javalinas ~ Hannah, the little girl who swept the camp and cared for her big sister ~ the French Creole family ~ getting spooked and ditching camp in Perdido Bay ~ masa ~ bookstores and bagels in Savannah ~ Miss South Carolina walking the wall in Charleston ~ Innervisions ~ trivial pursuit ~ inevitable snow on Colorado highways ~ that fried chicken sandwich in Memphis ~ never stopping at Graceland ~ Black Mesa Winery ~ hail in Canyonlands, Utah~ Cadillac Ranch and the giant cross ~ spying mountain goats ~ taking an egg up the Arch ~ HaHa Cemetary ~ risking the storms at Green Gardens, Gros Morne National Park ~ Petites ~ the floral b & b ~ abandoning the tiniest car ever ~ spotting the Stanley Cup in D.C. ~ mooning a nonexistent crater, reminiscent of the Alhambra ~ sidewinders by the car ~ traffic in Arkansas ~ ~ falling in love over a bottle of wine that you could keep in Maine ~

Road Trip - July 2008

This Saturday Matt and I depart on another one of our road trips! Our plan is to leave Faribault and head to Kentucky, with a stop perhaps in Chicago to see the Pipers. In Kentucky, we will meet up with our good friend Nate, a corn-holing, disc-throwing, beer-drinking Michigander. We've got our eyes on a few bourbon distilleries, a few wineries, a famous bat museum (but rumor has it the bat making will be closed down during our stay), maybe a mammoth cave or two, and a stop at the Louisville Bats, the AAA team for the Cincinnati Reds.

From Kentucky, Matt and I will leave Nate behind to his quiet midwestern summer plans of beer and brats and head on to Atlanta for a taste of Classic Coca Cola and other liquid confections.

From there, our plan is to drive on to the perfect July destination.... Florida... where we will explore the Everglades, visit family, drive the Keys, indulge in Miami (Little Havana, Art Deco, and people watching), and maybe stop at Disney World. From Miami, we leave for the Bahamas for a few days to snorkel and sunbath and collect Matt some new currency.

Then we'll keep driving north to see our families in my beloved northeast. I'm sure each of these stops will provide excellent fodder for blogging, just as our trips have in the past.