So much travel, and life, has happened...

Sorry (to our few followers) for the long delay between posts. Between 4 more trips (2 major, and 2 minor), I've switched jobs 3 times between 2 companies (being at one company twice). Heidi and the kids also made multiple trips to Truckee, while I saved up my PTO for all these trips.

Our 2 major trips consisted of 2 trips to Hawaii; one in 2013 (that lasted 10 days) to Maui (without our kids) for our 20th anniversary, and again in 2017 (that lasted 3 weeks) to Oahu/Hawai'i/Maui (for a week each) with the whole family.

The 2013 Maui trip cost us a total of $700 (cash and rewards miles); including airfare, rental car, 2 different accommodations (one small hotel and one high-rise hotel), a snorkel dive at Molokini, a couple movies and LOTS of eating out. The 2017 3-Island tour cost about 3 times the price (also cash and rewards miles) but included pretty much the same amount of activity for everyone. You gotta love not having any debts beyond our mortgage.

The 2 minor trips consisted a 10 day long trip to Disneyland and Yosemite, and a week long road trip up the California coast to Fort Bragg. Each of those trips were pretty low cost too, especially the Disneyland/Yosemite trip since we were able to stay with friends right outside Yosemite.

As for my job changes; from USWired (until Q3 2014), to Orchard Supply Hardware (until Q3 2015), to Central California Alliance for Health (until Q2 2018), and back to Orchard Supply Hardware (which officially closed its doors for good in December 2018). Crazy times. I met lots of great people and made some real friends but the time to move on from each came to pass.

I'll be posting a new blog post for each trip (which will be on the long side), with some pictures as well. After those, I'll also be sharing about our upcoming UK trip in a couple months. If I don't find time to share our adventures when we're there, I'll be sure to post some blog posts afterwards. Thanks!

One year later... from Bob

Was it worth it? Would I do it again? 
YES!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes.


Did you do everything you wanted?
Are you serious??!?
How could anyone do everything they wanted, when visiting over 30 states, in 7 weeks??? No, I didn't... and I'm sad.


Will you do something similar again?
YES! And not soon enough!
Maybe due north; up through Washington and Oregon, into Canada (ala Vancouver, British Columbia) and possibly all the way to Alaska.


What did you do that you (Bob) want to do again?
Visit Massachusetts and Washington DC more.
Both were the highlights of the trip for me. Wow. Boston was so epic, not only totally beautiful but in the sheer volume of history and east coast culture. DC was fabulous for the amount of history, monuments and science too.


What would you do differently next time?
Go for longer. Much longer.
And have our US passports with us. We simply didn't have time to get those as well as get everything else together and planned. But heading into Canada at Niagara Falls (basically, to Toronto) would have been very cool.


Where did you not get to go that you wish you could have gone?
Further into the North East.
The most north east we got was about the line between Boston and Albany. Getting into Vermont and New Hampshire would have been very cool. And getting all the way to Montreal, or over to Nova Scotia, would have been epic.


Would you recommend others to do this as well?
YES!
It was a huge bonding experience for our entire family and a huge learning experience. Not only about far-away parts of our current country, but about the founding of our country and the history still possible to physically see with our own eyes.

The Farm at Walnut Creek, Ohio

A giant "Corn Box", like a sand box, but file with, you guessed it, corn!

Beautiful fall colors, such a picturesque place.

Feeding the very friendly goats. All the farm animals (the working ones) were heritage breeds.

This section of the "Farm" is really a small zoo, with lots of exotic birds, monkeys, a Kangaroo and Ring-Tailed Lemurs.

More corn box, I can't seem to reorient these photos easily in blogger.

Sorghum coming in from the fields.

Saying farewell to Uncle Stan and Aunt Judy. Thanks for having us!!!!

The drive through portion of the "farm" with lots of herd animals.

What a beautiful place.

Sorry little critter, we gave all our feed away already.

These Ring-Tailed Lemurs really did sir yoga style sunning themselves.

Plymouth, Massachusets

Plymouth, Massachusets. Home of the Mayflower replica, Plymouth Rock, and the old Colony Cemetery.

Plymouth Rock, the 1620 was carved a hundred years later.

Very neat stone steps down to the beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Funky crab on a Plymouth beach

Getting "thrown into the sea" by daddy

Headstones of ancestors Dr. Frances LeBaron and Mary LeBaron at the old Plymouth Colony cemetery.

The "Mayflower" (not the real one, but a replica), bummed we didn't take the tour.

Thornton W. Burgess

The Thornton W. Burgess historical property in Sandwich, Massachusets

The Old Briar Patch plaque

The Jam Kitchen at the Thornton W. Burgess Historical property in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
We bought some really nummy jam.

Thornton W. Burgess library

Pretty bridge through the garden.

Walking through what used to be the Briar Patch, now grown tall with trees.

"The Smiling Pool" featured in many of the Burgess children's stories

Plymouth Plantation, Massachusets

Plymouth Plantation - a replica village with wonderful reenactors.

An epic wood pile at Plymouth Plantation

Plymouth Plantation 

Native hut at Plymouth Plantation

Native descendants reenacting

Wonderful reenactors at Plymouth Plantation

Checking out the native huts

Observations #1 - Driving

We've been gone for almost 6 weeks now and we've seen a lot of cool stuff.

We've driven from California, up through Nevada, Utah and Wyoming to South Dakota. Then down across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, the bottom half of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, to the very bottom of Virginia. We then, over the course of 10 days, went north along the eastern coast, through Washington DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island to Massachusetts. From there we went west across New York to the Canadian border and then down around Lake Erie, through Pennsylvania (again) to the top of Ohio. From there we went south through Kentucky (again) and Tennessee before heading further west to Arkansas. From there we went northwest through Kansas and into Colorado; where we are at the writing of this post.

After almost 7,000 miles I can confidently say one thing...

Drivers east of Nevada are insane.

Speed limits? Ignored.
By semis, families towing trailers and cars alike. On more than one occasion, while I was doing 70MPH (5MPH over the 65MPH speed limit) in the middle lane, I was being passed on the right by a car doing about 80MPH and on the left by a semi doing 85MPH.

Stop lights or stop signs? Optional.
On one sightseeing tour bus in Boston, for which we were only on half the total circuit, the bus driver ran *at least* 10 stop lights... blatantly.

Other traffic laws? Only when needed.
The same bus driver in Boston had no problem with consuming 2 lanes as needed, even if cars were already in that lane. I saw dozens and dozens of drivers with their cell phone plastered to their ears for miles and miles, while passing posted fines for using a cell phone without a hands-free device.


Driving etiquette? Meh. Who needs it.
I saw dozens of drivers across the USA making right hand turns from the left lane; sometimes to exit the freeway at 20MPH over the posted speed limit. Or tailgate me until I pull over, pass me just to cut me off and then slow down to 5-10MPH *slower* than the posted speed limit.

Even driving in San Francisco and Los Angeles is less stressful
than driving in the mid-west or on the east coast.

I truly hope that I don't need to drive in any other states for a while after this trip. I'm not sure my nerves can take much more.