I've been reading a lot of travel blogs lately (am I late to this or have they particularly exploded recently?). I'm not well-traveled, but I'd like to improve that. But I will never be a traveler of the sort on these blogs. I'm a homebody, I burn out easily, and I'm not usually ever all that interested in one thing (rather extreme and also, boring, imo), so I'd prefer travel as a part of my life not THE focus. And I'm afraid I would start to quickly not see it as exciting and interesting; I'd rather keep it a bit rare and special (that is a theme with me; if I read or watch something to many times I can almost hate it). Anyway. I thought I'd highlight some of my and my family's travel experience. I will be in Florida soon!
My mom's family took road trips all over the days when she was growing up. My grandparents have taken many trips all over the U.S. in their retirement. They've visited Canada and Israel as well, and my grandmother visited Switzerland. My Dad's family moved from Texas to our current (my and my Mom's family's) state, but I don't know if they ever traveled again. I was born in Michigan as my Dad worked there for several years after college, and then we moved back. Dad's job has taken him all over the world, but he isn't adventurous. Even though we were home-schooled, he didn't take any of us with him overseas. We have, however, traveled with him domestically. Travelgirl has traveled to the Caribbean, Central American, and Oceania (she lived there for several months). I have my passport but haven't used it yet. I hope to use it within the year at least once.
We (as a family) stayed in the South and Midwest until the end of 2006. Florida is where everyone goes around here. Or the Smokies. I have visited a few less than half the states, but I haven't explored all the ones we visited. Sometimes we went with Dad to boring places and stayed in a hotel and swam. I'll only mention states in which we visited an interesting place.
Arizona. We visited the Grand Canyon. And driving through the state and seeing the landscape is an experience.
California. I've been twice. We visited San Francisco and Monterey Bay area in January of 2007 with Dad on a work trip. We visited the San Francisco Bay in a boat, the Sourdough Factory, Muir Woods, Point Reyes, Monterey bay aquarium, a winery, and various seashores. Then we visited San Diego in May of 2016 during our epic two-week road trip. We visited the zoo, La Jolla Cove, and the beaches. I think Mission Beach the prettiest I've been to.
Colorado. We drove through here on the way back. Colorado is another one of those states which driving through is an experience.
Florida. My parents took me to Disney and Sea World as a tiny child. I barely remember it. We've visited the Gulf at least three times, once to St. George Island.
Georgia. Visited Jekyll Island. The Island is gorgeous but the water brackish. We saw two turtles released to the ocean.
Illinois. Chicago once. Chicago area later to visit friends. We ate Chicago style pizza that time.
Kentucky. Mammoth Cave.
Michigan. Holland.
Missouri. St. Louis twice.
New Mexico. Beautiful, another of those driving experience states. We visited Albuquerque.
Tennessee. We visited Chattanooga. We've been to the Smokies three times.
Texas. Dad's family is from there but we aren't close to his side, so we've only made one family trip to see his grandfather on his ranch. We drove through (another experience) North Texas and visited friends in the Fort Worth area during our grand trip. We also stopped at Palo Duro Canyon.
Utah. So beautiful. An epic drive, but we also visited Zion and Arches.
Virginia. Williamsburg twice, and Monticello once.
Labels: Travel