Year in Review - 2016

From a nearly missed flight to Miami, a family outing to the Kentucky Derby, followed by a week long trip out west to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary, a long weekend down in NC were we got to visit some SC friends, followed by my Keep Collective Annual Training which was down in Charlotte, NC (sorry I did not blog about that - it was a whirl-wind trip),  then a trip to Napa, CA to visit our first nephew.  That was not the end of it - then we road tripped down to Virginia Beach, and we closed the year with a trip with my sister to New Orleans!

We had a great time on all of our trips in 2016 and are looking forward to another year of amazing trips for 2017!

Our tentative travel plans for 2017 include trips to: San Diego and Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Las Vegas (Keep Collective Annual Training), Northern MI/MN/WI (Isle Royale!), and possibly Colorado.

New Orleans - November 2016 - Day 3 & 4

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Mardi Gras Tree - Tulane University

Again we ventured out early, this time we drove to the area that we were exploring – the Garden District.  Our first stop was the Tulane University to check out the Mardi Gras tree – a tree that is loaded down with Mardi Gras beads – quite a sight! Next we headed to the coffee shop, Still Perkin’, which was near where we were going to take part in another Free Tours by Foot tour. We had a little time to kill so we walked around the neighborhood prior to the start of the tour.  Originally, we had planned to take the streetcar, but my sister had really wanted to do a swamp tour and the time frame of the tour would have made getting back to get the car tight so we drove, which worked out okay since there was a decent amount of parking available in the Garden District.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

Our tour guide for the Garden District Tour was Denver Mullican. The tour started with a visit to the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, which just happens to be the oldest of the seven municipal, city-operated cemeteries in New Orleans. The cemetery is a non-segregated, non-denominational cemetery, with immigrants from over 25 different countries. The cemetery was first planned back in 1832. There are about 500 sealed wall vaults along the exterior of the cemetery. The wall vaults were very important. A body had to lay in rest for a year and one day before being moved. Once a coffin or casket is placed into the tomb (or wall vault) it is sealed with brick and mortar for the minimum one year and one day. After the time period has ended the tomb may be re-used, but removing the seal, separating the human remains from what is left of the casket and then replacing the remains back into the tomb (either pushed to the rear of the vault or placed in the bottom). The casket is disposed of and the next body can be interned.  There are 1,100 family tombs and more than 7000 people buried in the single city block of the Lafayette Cemetery No 1. We also learned a bit about French law – lawyers with a law degree in the state of LA can only practice in the state of LA, those with degrees from other states are also not allowed to practice in LA. Finding who owns a tomb is a long tedious process since there are so many splits in the family tree. This is often the reason why the tombs become in disrepair. We spend about an hour of the two hour tour in the cemetery – it was very interesting! After the cemetery we walked around the neighborhood, where our guide pointed out some celebrity houses – Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Nicholas Cage’s old house, the home there Eli and Payton Manning grew up and parents still live.

Manning House

We grabbed lunch nearby at the VooDoo BBQ & Grill. It was tasty, it is a local chain place.  Then we headed to the Cajun Encounters for the Honey Island Swamp tour we had scheduled. If you drive to the swamp tours are $29 for adults and $19 for kids under 12, there is an AAA discount available and there were also $5 coupons in the visitor guide books. They offer pick up from New Orleans, but those are substantially more expensive. The boats they use carry 22 people.  It was cloudy outside so there was not much wildlife other than birds. My sister really had her hopes set on seeing an alligator. 

Cajun Encounters Tour

Cajun Encounters is pretty close to the Mississippi state line was we drove across so now we can say we visited the state – looked pretty much the same as Louisiana. J

Once arriving back to the rental house, we headed back out to Frenchman Street for some more music.  We ended up going back to The Maison. The first band (Royal Street Winding Boys) that was on we liked but then the next one (Leah Rucker) we did not really like.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Baton Rouge Capitol

My sister had to get an early start on the day since she wanted to drive back to her home in MO before dark.  She dropped us off at the airport, where we picked up a rental for the day.  We have been visiting a lot of capitol buildings (we are now up to 22!) so we headed up to Baton Rouge to see Louisiana’s. The capitol building was really tall (34 floors), the 7^th tallest building in Louisiana and the tallest capitol in the United States. The capitol has been in a few places before being at its current location. There was a park next to the complex that included an old armory building. On the other side of the complex,  were some barrack buildings. There really was not a lot to do in Baton Rouge – a lot of museums were closed on Mondays. The old state capitol building is not too far from the new one and we were able to view behind a fence.

Heading back to New Orleans, we stopped for lunch at a place called John Michael’s Good Eats in Geismar. They have a very large menu. I had the chicken fajita wrap and it was very tasty. We still had some time so we drove to the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center – park of the Jean Lafitte NPS. There were a lot of displays to look at and a few video options available. 

Before we knew it, it was time to return the rental car and fly back home. The flight home was not overbooked; however, once we landed we couldn’t find one of the suitcases. We had to file a missing bag. The airline delivered the bag the next day before noon.

New Orleans - November 2016 - Day 2

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Louis Armstrong Park

We got an early start on the day, heading to Café Du Monde (Café of the World) to try the beignets. The café has been around since 1862!  The beignets (French doughnuts) are smothered in powdered sugar so eating them is a bit of a challenge. They were pretty good. I did awesome and didn’t get any powder on myself, my sister on the other hand got powder all over her pants! Luckily it wiped off!

Andrew Jackson - Jackson Square

After our morning treat, we walked around the French Quarter area and headed to the Louis Armstrong Park. They were setting up for the Treme Creole Gumbo Festival, but nothing was happening when we were there and we never got a chance to head out there later in the day.  The park is pretty, with bridges, sculptures, fountains and gardens. Back in the day, the park was home to Congo Square, which was a place that slaves gathered on Sundays to sing, play drums, sell homemade goods and socialize.

The Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve French Quarter Visitor Center opened at 9am, so we checked that out. There were some displays of local culture to view at the French Quarter visitor center.

St. Louis Cathedral - Jackson Square

We had arranged to take a walking tour of the French Quarter, which met in Jackson Square. Jackson Square adeptly had a statue of Andrew Jackson on horseback. St. Louis Cathedral is located in the square. The Cathedral is the oldest Cathedral in North America – founded in 1720! We opted to try the Free Tours by Foot (you tip them as to what you think the tour was worth – other companies often charge about $20). Our guide was Kathy Harrell.  There were a lot of tours to pick from, many of them offered at more than once per day.  The tour seemed very popular, as ours was pretty much full (1 space left).  I would suggest booking your tour a few days in advance. The guide will email you the details about where to meet and other miscellaneous information.  Our tour started with a background on the local history and then we proceeded to walk around the French Quarter, learning about additional facts as we went. The tour lasted about two hours. The guide gave us all sorts of recommendations, we selected our lunch based on one of them – Nepolean’s. They are well known for the Pimm – a gin based drink.  The food was just okay, but Mike and my sister liked the Pimm’s. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes for a table. While we were waiting for the table we went down the street to Leah’s Pralines. Leah’s Pralines has been a main stay in New Orleans since 1944. There were a lot of different samples. We brought some Bacon Pecan Brittle for our dad – I am sure he will love it!

Colorful Houses in New Orleans

The New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park Visitor Center is under construction so there is a temporary visitor center set up at the Old Mint.  The Old Mint itself had a nice display on the main floor of the building – lots of pretty old coins. The second floor of the building is set up with the Jazz stuff.

We had been out for quite a while and decided to go back to the house for a rest before venturing back out for dinner. We decided to try some pizza for dinner, so we headed to a place called Mona Lisa. Very cute little place - Mona Lisa’s everywhere you looked. The pizza was good, as was the garlic bread. The place was quite busy, we had a 20 minute wait, but by the time we left the line was much longer.  We wondered over to Bourbon Street, but it was pretty busy and we decided just to head back to Frenchman Street before heading back to the house.

New Orleans - November 2106 - Day 1

Friday, November 11, 2016

Time for another adventure!  This adventure took us down to New Orleans! We  booked our flight a few months in advance - $206 for Delta tickets! My sister joined us for the trip, but she ended up driving from SE Missouri since the flight options for her were about double what we paid. It worked out well with her driving since she could pick us up from the airport and we had our own transportation to our out of the city outings – plantation and swamp tour.

We were very worried that we were not going to make our flight because it was overbooked and we did not pay the extra money to select a seat when booking. When we arrived at the gate, they were offering $600 to take a different flight. The other flight options would not really work well since we were only going to be visiting New Orleans for a short time and my sister was already more than half way to the airport to pick us up.  The flight time kept getting closer and people still were not interested in bumping their flight. At the very end, they ended up offering $1000, lunch and dinner food vouchers and a hotel stay to get people to take a different flight. Luckily , they had enough volunteers and we were able to get on the flight as planned, but boy oh boy, just think of all the trips we could have made with that big of a travel voucher!

The flight was smooth and arrived about 20 minutes early. Prior to landing, Delta provided all passengers a chocolate truffle in honor of Veterans Day.

Oak Alley Plantation

Once my sister picked us up, we headed to the Oak Alley Plantation. It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport. There was a large parking lot (free parking). Ticket price for adults was $22. There was an AAA discount available. Oak Alley was built in the 1830’s, a time when sugar was king. Oak Alley was restored in 1925 and placed in a trust when that owner passed away. The most impressive part of the site are the double row of giant live oak trees, which form the 800 foot long alley that leads from the road to the front of the house. The trees were planted before the home was constructed. Many things have been filmed at Oak Alley – the movie Interview with a Vampire, the soap opera Days of our Live, Beyonce music video for Déjà Vu, and many commercials. We had lunch while at plantation.

Chalmette Battlefield

After leaving the plantation, we headed to the Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery – part of the Jean Lafitte NPS (read more about below). The site was quite small and did not have a ton to see or do.  There was a medium size display area inside of the visitor center.  We did learn about how the War of 1812 effected the area. It was the last great battle of the War of 1812. The fighting took place in January of 1815, technically the treaty ending the war was signed late in 1814. General Andrew Jackson hastily assembled an army that was able to defeat the British forces which largely outnumbered them. Jackson was hesitant to accept the help of Jean Lafitte (a known pirate who ran a smuggling and privateering enterprise of the nearby Barataria Bay). British Lieutenant General Pakenham had hoped to attack in foggy conditions, but the sun cleared the fog and made the British army easy targets. Jackson’s army lost about 100 men and the British Army about 2000, including 3 generals and 7 colonels.  The fighting lasted only about 30 minutes.

Next we checked in at the rental house. We waited too long to book a hotel, plus hotels were going to charge $35-$45 to park overnight so renting a house that provided free parking was a good option.  The house we stayed at was on Elysian Fields. The location was nice – not far to walk to the French Quarter area. The house was a shotgun style home – long and narrow. It was quite a mix-match of style. The place was not the cleanest – the surfaces were dirty and dusty. The bedding and towels were clean and the trash cans were empty but that was about it. Considering you get charged a cleaning fee, I would expect the place to be much cleaner.

Once we were all unpacked, we headed out in search of food and music.  Frenchmen Street was the closest most popular area we were near. We decided on The Maison. The food was good and reasonably priced. The band (Dinosaurchestra) was also entertaining. After we left the restaurant, we walked around Frenchman Street – the Frenchmen Art Market was open. Lots of really neat art. My sister got a really cute key holder. (please send me a picture to use)

Virginia Beach - October 2016 - Days 4 & 5

October 2, 2016 (Sunday)

Cape Henry Lighthouse

We headed to Fort Story to check out the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse. The lighthouse is on an active military base so you will have to get your vehicle searched, which is not nearly as bad as it sounds. It takes only a few minutes. There are actually two lighthouses, the oldest one was built in 1772. In 1878, it was found to be unsafe due to cracking on the walls and the wooden staircase being soaked in oil from the lantern.  The new Cape Henry Lighthouse was completed in 1881 and was built in cast iron – it is not open to the public. The Old Cape Henry Lighthouse was the first federal constructed project under the Constitution. There is a fee for climbing the lighthouse – cost varies – with AAA it was $7. Once to the top you are rewarded with beautiful ocean views (it was quite warm up at the top).

While at Fort Story, we visited the Cape Henry Memorial, which is a part of the Colonial National Historical Park. Cape Henry first landed in America on April 26, 1607 and then on May 13, 1607 the Jamestown settlement was established. The site is comprised of a Memorial Cross. There is a nice boardwalk which provides lovely ocean views! We were able to view some dolphins and a submarine!

After a quick lunch, we headed out to the Virginia Beach boardwalk to check out more art booths and some music. It was a bit rainy, but we did not melt.

One of my sister’s friends lives in the Virginia Beach, so we were able to meet up with her and her family for dinner.  After dinner, they took us on a tour of some of the local military bases – so neat seeing the ships up close!

October 3, 2016 (Monday)

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

It was time to head back in the direction of home. We stopped to visit the George Washington Birthplace National Monument (no fee).   First stop was the visitor center where they had many displays and a video.  The site was established in the 17^th century by Englishman, John Washington (George Washington’s great-grandfather), as a colonial plantation. George Washington was born on the site on February 22, 1732. We took the guided tour, which got us into the house that is on-site. It should be noted that the home that is there is not at all related to George Washington.  The home that Washington was born in was destroyed in a fire in 1779. The grounds are very pretty.

Cannon at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania NMP

One last NPS site to visit on the way home - Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. There are four different battlefield sites to visit. We visited two of them. There was a video to watch at the visitor center and driving tours to take at the different sites. Not a lot to see, but interesting.

Continuing toward home, we stopped to eat at a place called Angus & Ale in Berkeley Springs, WV. It was okay just okay. There was not a lot of food options around that were open.

With one last night on the road and we stopped at the Holiday Inn Express in Cranberry Township, PA.  It was probably one of the worse Holiday Inn Expresses that we have ever stayed at. 

Virginia Beach - October 2016 - Day 3

October 1, 2016 (Saturday)

It started out as a very rainy morning.  We stopped by the grocery store to get some lunch food before heading north up the Atlantic coast. We took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which was quite unique. The Bridge Tunnel is 23 miles long! It is one of only ten bridge-tunnel systems in the world. Taking the Bridge Tunnel saves motorist 95 mile and about 1 ½ hours!

Since it was rainy, we just happened to be driving by the NASA missile launch facility visitor center – Wallops Flight Facility is the official name.  Wallops is NASA’s principal facility for management and implementation of suborbital research programs. It was free to go in and check out the exhibits.  We spent maybe 30 minutes to an hour there. 

Wild horse at Assateague Island National Seashore

Lighthouse at  Assateague Island National Seashore

Continuing north, we finally reached our first planned destination for the day – Assateague Island National Seashore – Toms Cove Visitor Center in Chincoteague Island, VA.  There is a $5 entrance fee – or free with pass. There were a ton of mosquitoes in the area.  Lucky for us, the rain pretty much stopped by the time we finished a quick lunch in the truck. On the drive to the visitor center, we did not see any wild horses, but on the way out we saw quite a few! The visitor center was relatively small with just a few displays (mostly aquatic life) and a book store area.  There was a guided walk that was about to start, but we opted not to go on it since we wanted to get to the other portion of the park (about an hour farther north).

Sunset from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Assateague Island National Seashore has a second visitor center in Maryland. There is an $8 entrance fee – or free with pass. We saw lots of wild horses at the Maryland location! We headed to the visitor center first. This visitor center was a lot larger and had more displays and the short video was worth the watch.  We visited the lighthouse, which provided lovely views.

After we got back to Virginia Beach, we had a quick meal at the hotel and then headed out to the boardwalk. It was a total coincidence that the Neptune Festival was going on during our visit. There were art exhibitors, beach volleyball tournaments, fireworks and a sand castle building contest. The fireworks lasted probably about 20 minutes and were okay.

Virginia Beach - September 2016 - Day 1 & 2

September 29, 2016 (Thursday)

After getting home from work, we headed out for another adventure – this time our ultimate destination was Virginia Beach.  We stopped along the Ohio turnpike for some dinner and made it just outside of Pittsburgh for the night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in North Huntingdon, PA.  The room was fine, nothing overly fancy, but the weird thing was that there wasn’t a bathtub, just a shower.

September 30, 2016 (Friday)

Harpers Ferry NHP

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  There is a $10 entrance fee to enter the park.  Once you park there is a small visitor center, restrooms and a bus stop.  The bus ride is free and takes you to the Park area.  The ride is short and there is an auto recording that tells you a little about Harper’s Ferry. The town is very charming.  Many of the buildings are open for viewing. Some of the buildings just have display, but some also have videos. One of the buildings has flood levels recorded, which is kind of interesting. Harper’s Ferry is probably best known for John Brown’s raid on the Armory in 1959 and the role in the American Civil War. John Brown was an abolitionist that led a group of 21 men on the raid of the arsenal. His intention of the raid was to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. The raid was short lived and did not result in the outcome that Brown had intended.  In the end, Brown was tried for treason against the State of Virginia and was convicted and hung. The raid was a catalyst for the Civil War. Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times during the Civil War.

I had done a lot of research on ways to get around the DC traffic – per TripAdvisor recommendations we opted to pin Winchester, VA has a waypoint in our GPS.  The drive was nice and traffic really only got backed up when we were trying to get onto the road that we had been avoiding (I-95) We stopped in Richmond, VA for dinner.  Mike had heard about the GWARbar (as in GWAR the metal band) and suggested eating there. The reviews were good, so we checked it out. The menu was interesting and the food was good. Service was just okay. 

Finally, we ended our night at our Virginia Beach location – Ocean Beach Club.  The place was right on the beach, we did not have an ocean view.  The room really needed the paint freshened up and the carpet could have used a good cleaning also.

Napa, CA - September 2016 - Days 3, 4 & 5

September 5, 2016 (Monday)

Kule Loklo - Coast Miwok Indian Village

Family outing!  We visited Point Reyes NS, our first stop within the park being the Bear Valley Visitor Center where we watched the introduction film and checked out the displays.  We also hiked to the Kule Loklo recreated Coast Miwok Indian Village. It was a short walk that provided a few nice views.

Heading to the Lighthouse from the Bear Valley Visitor Center is about a 45-minute drive. The drive provided lovely cattle ranch views as well as ocean views. Once we finally arrived to the lighthouse, the parking was out-of-control. The parking lot is quite small and additional parking is along the side of the road. Luckily, we were able to find a space near the parking lot along the side of the road. We had our picnic lunch along the roadside on some rocks before heading to the lighthouse viewing area.  The hike down to the lighthouse is 308 steps.  The lighthouse itself was not too impressive.  The cool part was that we saw a whale!  Once done visiting the lighthouse, we headed to the Drakes Bay Beach.  We wondered the beach, enjoying some sand castles; built in the previous day sandcastle building contest.

Baby Muir with a sand sculpture

Drakes Bay Beach

Leaving the park, we stopped at Point Reyes Station for some ice cream before heading back to the hotel. We had dinner near our hotel at the Hilo Hawaiian BBQ. I was excited – since while we were in HI, I had the Kalua Pork with Cabbage pretty much every day.

September 6, 2016 (Tuesday)

Muir Woods

After checking out of the hotel, we dropping Mike’s parents off to spend the day with the baby. Mike and I headed to Muir Woods NM.  Muir Woods was quite busy in the parking lot areas.  We were able to find a space after maybe 10 minutes of driving around. After a quick lunch at the on-site café, we ventured out on the trails. We opted to check out the Hillside Trail. It was an easy hike.  The site was a lot drier/duster than when we had previously visited.

Our next stop, the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front NHP. The plan was to visit the SS Red Oak Ship.  It was supposed to be open, but we arrived to find it was closed for a few days since work was being done in the area leading to the ship.  Maybe the third try will be the charm…  We visited the Education Center and watched the film about the Port Chicago Disaster. Port Chicago Naval Magazine is on our list of places yet to visit – they have limited hours and require clearance to gain access to the active military base site.

Jill, a friend I used to work with, met up with us for dinner at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza on College Street in Oakland. The pizza was pretty good. For dessert, we went to Smitten Ice Cream, which was also yummy.

Our trip was wrapping up, we headed back towards Sacramento, meeting Mike’s parents near Fairfield.  We stayed at the Best Western Sandman Motel in Sacramento – total dive.

September 7, 2016 (Wednesday)

We had a 6:40am flight back to Flint with a short layover in Minneapolis. After landing in Flint, we headed home, but not before stopping in Clarkston for some of the best BBQ ever at the Union Woodshop.

Napa, CA - September 2016 - Days 1 & 2

September 3, 2016 (Saturday)

Deciding to be adventurous this time, we flew out of Flint. Flying to Sacramento involves a layover regardless of flying out of Detroit or Flint. The Flint flight had times that worked for us and was $40 less!

Our flight was bright and early – 6AM!  To avoid waking up quite so early, we spent the night at the Best Western on Hill Road in Flint. The hotel was very nice, but we were on the freeway side of the building – very loud!  Flying out of Flint was way easier than flying out of Detroit. Parking was super close and the security lines were pretty much non-existent.

Our layover was in Atlanta and we had more than enough time to grab some breakfast before hopping on our flight to Sacramento. Both of our flights were smooth sailing!

 Using an online travel site to book a car, we got a $91.13 deal thru Hertz for a full size car. Hertz only had a Jetta available - we were supposed to get an Altima. We ended up having to get a larger vehicle – I feel like we got stuck paying more because of this. In the future, we will deal directly with the rental company and not use a 3^rd party.  Another negative was that we had to wait 30 minutes for an available vehicle which made us change our afternoon plans.

We ended up heading to the Jelly Belly Factory Tour. The tour had changed since our last visit. It was self-guided! The only disadvantage, during this visit was that the factory was closed for the weekend.

Mike’s parents were along with us on our travel adventure since the main purpose of the trip was to visit our nephew, Muir, who was born back in June.

We had hoped to rent a house during our trip, but nothing was close to where our family members live, so we ended up staying at the Holiday Inn Express in American Canyon.  The hotel was great and the area around it was nice too – lots of restaurants and shopping.

After checking in and unloading our luggage, we headed to Napa to visit the baby! We had a homemade dinner at my sister-in-law’s mom’s house.

September 4, 2016 (Sunday)

We met up with family at the Oxbow Public Market.  While there we got some yummy cupcakes at one of the little stores inside.  Since we were there we also took a stroll along the Napa River.

Heading north, we had brunch at a place called Sam’s Social Club in Calistoga. The food was okay and was mostly priced between $15-$20.  I had the cheeseburger and fries.  The fries were good; the burger was just okay.  The décor was really nice and the surrounding outdoor area was also enjoyable.  After we were done eating, we walked thru town before heading to Sterling Vineyards.  The plan was to go on the Gondola ride – once we arrived there was no parking and the mile was very long.  We ditched the plan for the Gondola ride and went to the Bale Grist Mill.  The tour was $5 a person. The tour group we were on was very large and it was hard to see some things. The guide was very informative and was quite passionate about the mill.

**I was unable to find my photos from these days! - Sorry!

North Carolina - July 2016 - Day 4 & 5

July 3, 2016 (Sunday)

Whiteside Mountain View

Another early morning – this time we went to Whiteside Mountain to take a hike.  The hike was quite nice and offered great views. We opted to start the hike going up the stairs, which turned out to be the right choice. The return trip was a nice downward slope. When we arrived the parking lot was quite full, but when we left there were National Forest Staff turning people away. There is a $2 fee, or you can display the National Park pass.

Whitewater Falls

Next we were off to a waterfall – Whitewater Falls. The waterfall is 411 feet high, making it the tallest in the eastern part of the US. There was plenty of parking available.  There is a $2 fee, or you can display the National Park pass. The falls were a short walk from the parking lot.

Mice on Main

Falls Park on the Reedy

After leaving the waterfall, we headed to Greenville, SC to meet up with our SC friends!  We met at the Falls Park on the Reedy. After walking around the gardens and falls we headed to Main Street.  The city has a cute installment called “Mice on Main” (located between the Westin Poinsettia Hotel and Hyatt Regency).  We found five of the nine mice that are hidden about (we did not walk all the way to the end, if we had we probably would have found all of the mice). Per recommendation, we had dinner at Tupelo Honey. Dinner service was slow. We arrived at 4:15 and did not get out of there until 5:45. They messed up two of the orders, but they did remove one of the two from the bill.

After dinner we headed back to Sapphire for the night.

July 4, 2016 (Monday)

Glen Falls

We headed out early for our last day of vacation – destinations near Highlands. Our first stop was Glen Falls. There are three different viewing levels, each with an 80 foot falls. The trail is 1.4 miles one way; the first falls is about 15 minutes into the hike. The trail was moderate. The parking area was not overly full during our visit.

Nearby we visited Bridal Veil Falls. These falls were 150 feet tall, but overall the falls were not very impressive during our visit.

Just down the road from Bridal Veil Falls is Dry Falls. Dry Falls was quite pretty and definitely worth a visit. There is a large parking area.

Heading back towards Sapphire, we searched for the Hurricane Falls. We were not able to find the spot along the road to view the falls, but were able to find the approximate location of the fall.  The road was recently reconstructed – possibly the pull off area was eliminated.

Before our last stop for the trip, we went to check out Toxaway Falls.  You must park to see the falls. We drove by and determined even if we did stop the view would be less than stellar.

Dry Falls

Rainbow Falls

Our last stop for the trip – Gorges State Park. There was no fee for entering the park. The visitor center was very nice – lots of interesting displays. We hiked to Rainbow Falls (150 feet tall) – the parking area was a little crazy but the trail was not overly packed.  The trail is considered strenuous and is 3 miles round trip (lots of ups and downs).  Many people opt to swim around the falls area.  Just past Rainbow Falls is Turtleback Falls. Turtleback falls is a great natural waterslide and very popular! Rainbow Falls is 125-feet high and is known as one of the most beautiful falls in North Carolina.

Turtleback Falls

We stopped in Knoxville for dinner. We selected Stock & Barrel, which was ranked #3 of restaurants in Knoxville.  There was a parking deck right around the corner from the restaurant. Burgers and Bourbon are their name to fame. The burger and bourbon choices are very numerous. We ordered the fried pickles, the steakhouse burger and the Elvis burger. The Elvis burger is what you expect - Peanut Butter, Fried Bananas and Bacon.

North Carolina - July 2016 - Day 3

July 2, 2016 (Saturday)

Goat at Carl Sandburg National Historical Site

The day started with a stop by the Carl Sandburg National Historical Site.  The site is a bit of a hike from the parking lot.  Carl Sandburg was most famous for his writings about Abraham Lincoln and poetry. Sandburg won the Pulitzer Prize for History for his Lincoln writings.  The home, known as Connemara, is currently in the middle of major renovations, but home tours were available for $5. There are also two videos available – we watched both, but honestly they were not really that great. The fun part of the site are the dairy goats! Carl’s wife Lilian was quite famous for her prize-winning goats. We spent about two hours at the site.

Cowpens National Battlefield

Next stop was the Cowpens National Battlefield.  There were a lot of extra activities going on due to the 4^th of July holiday. There were weapons firing demonstrations, ranger-guided battlefield walks, and the reading of the Declaration of Independence. At the visitor center, we watched the fiber optic presentation (shown on demand). The other video available is played on the hour and it did not really work well with our timing.  After the video, we hiking the American Revolution War Battlefield.

We stopped at Strawberry Hill for some tasty homemade ice cream – I tried the strawberry and peach flavors. Yum! The portions are quite large.

Biltmore Estate

Biltmore Estate

We  were lucky to nab the last tour (4:30) of the day at Biltmore Estate. We arrive around 3:30 so we could check out some of the gardens before our tour.  The place is very pretty! Biltmore Estate was completed in 1895 and was a family home built for George W. Vanderbilt.  The home took six years to build – the footings are 26 feet deep!  The estate is the largest privately owned house in the US – 178,926 square feet of floor space! The estate property is very large – 8000 acres! The estate was opened to the public in 1930 in response to requests to increase tourism during the Depression and to generate income to preserve the massive estate. The tours are self-guided – you are given a booklet when you get your tickets that has a descriptions of the rooms, or for $11 you can rent a hand held unit that tells you about the rooms. We just followed along with the guide book.  Photography is not allowed in the home – but a ton of people were snapping away without being scolded. Being the rule follower that I am I did not take photos. It took us about an hour to make it thru the home. Often there are special displays – during our visit it was “Fashionable Romance – Wedding Gowns in Film”. After the tour, we headed back out to check out the gardens some more – Mike really wanted to go to the pond. We spent about three hours at the Biltmore Estate.

North Carolina - July 2016 - Day 1 & 2

June 30, 2016 (Thursday)

Hooray – another vacay! This trip took us to Sapphire, NC.  The area has a bunch of waterfalls and beautiful gorges. We left after work and made it to Richmond, KY. We stayed at the Best Western (using a $50 off award we had received from the out west trip). The hotel was nice – great breakfast spread!

July 1, 2016 (Friday)

Cumberland Gap NHP - hiking

After a quick breakfast, we were back on the road. We attempted to join the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Hensley Settlement Tour (represents 20^th century Appalachia).  We had called the previous day, but the tour was full and we got on standby. Needless to say, everyone showed up and we were not able to take the tour.  We could have taken the Gap Cave Tour, but we had done that during our last visit to the park so decided to skip it. The Cave tour is $8 ($4 with select passes) and lasts about 2 hours.  We did not recall the Settlement Tour being available during our last visit. The Settlement Tour is 3.5 to 4 hours long and is $10/adult ($5 with select passes).  We checked out the visitor center and watched one of the two videos that were showing. The staff at the front desk recommended some trails for us to hike – Object Lesson Road Trail to the Tri-State Trail. Once to the top of Tri-State Peak, you can stand in three states at once – Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. We also drove up to the Pinnacle Overlook for some lovely views.

Great Smokey Mountains - Oconaluftee

Next stop – The Great Smoky Mountains!  On our previous trip we stayed on the TN side of the park, this time we checked out the NC side. The visitor center, Oconaluftee, was a new building since we last had visited the NC side back in 2008.  Besides just checking out the visitor center area, we also visited the Mingus Mill.

Mingo Falls

Just outside of the Smoky Mountains, there is a nice waterfall – Mingo Falls. It is a bit of a hike to the falls (lots of stairs). The parking area is a little small, but there seemed to be a steady flow of people leaving when we arrived.

Lastly, we headed to our Sapphire destination – Fairway Forest. The accommodations were okay – they could definitely use some updating.

We had dinner at Mica’s – which is rated as the best restaurant around. It was just okay, nothing too crazy with the menu.

Out West 2016 - Day 9

June 4, 2016 (Saturday)

The day started with a visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa. We checked out the museum but did not take the Masters Hotel tour. The Ingalls Family lived there in 1876-1877. The Masters Hotel is the only childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder that remains on its original site. The hotel tour was $8 for adults.

Effigy Mounds National Monument

Our last National Park site, for this trip was the Effigy Mounds National Monument, located in Northeast Iowa. We watched the video and learned about the reason why the monument was created.  There are over 200 American Indian mounds located in the area of the National Monument. The interesting aspect is that some of the mounds are shaped as animals – bears and birds being the most popular. The history behind the mounts is very much unknown; however, archeologist believe that the mounds delineated territories of choice gathering and hunting grounds. The visitor center also has some displays that are interesting.

Madison Capital Building

One last state capitol to visit, the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison. The capitol campus was very nice. There was a lot of people activity in the area.  The current Capitol building is the third one since Wisconsin became a state in 1848. The building is the tallest building in Madison and was constructed between 1906 and 1917 for $7.25 million. Interesting fact: the exterior dome in the largest granite dome in the world! Another interesting tidbit is that per state law any building within a one-mile radius of the capitol must not be taller than the base of the columns surrounding and supporting its dome.

Summary: We drove a lot of miles and gas cost us between $2.16 - $2.44/gallon. Our total gas cost was $443.37.

Out West 2016 - Day 8

June 3, 2016 (Friday)

Mississippi River & Rec Area - Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock

Rainy day…well at least it was not an all-day rain. Our first stop for the day was the Mississippi River and Recreation Area – Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock. There were a few displays on the viewing floor. The person at the top was very talkative and told us all about the area surrounding the lock.

Minnehaha Waterfall

Upon recommendation, we headed to the Coldwater Spring portion of the recreation area. It was quite rainy at that point so we did not hike out on the trail, but we had our lunch there. The Coldwater Spring is at the very end of the Minnehaha Park. The Park is not very well labeled and we did not find a map.  Eventually, we were able to find the Minnehaha Waterfall. The waterfall was really nice, as was the park in that area.

Near the park was a local ice cream place that my cousin that lives in St. Paul recommended – Grand Ole Creamery. The portions were HUGE – a double is four scoops!  It was excellent ice cream!

The Cathedral of St. Paul

Continuing our quest to visit capitol buildings, St. Paul, the capitol of Minnesota was our next target. The capitol is under major preservation work through 2017. The capitol was constructed in 1905 and was designed by Cass Gibert, this is the first comprehensive preservation since original construction. There are 20 memorials in the capitol grounds – it was too rainy for us to explore.

St. Paul Capital Building

Leaving the capitol area, we got some amazing views of Cathedral Hall. The Cathedral of St Paul sits on the highest point of the city and is the third largest church in North America.

We spent the afternoon visiting my cousin and her family. It was a nice break from being on the road and of course it was great to get a chance to visit! For dinner we had some carry out fried chicken, fries and coleslaw – it was good (I’m not a fried chicken fan)!

Heading south from St. Paul, we stayed at the Comfort Inn in Rochester, MN for the night. 

Out West 2016 - Day 7

June 2, 2016 (Thursday)

Theodore Roosevelt - Maltese Cross Cabin

We headed back to the Theodore Roosevelt South Unit and got there when they opened. We watched the 17-minute video (just okay), checked out the museum displays (they were just okay) and looked at the Maltese Cross Cabin, Roosevelt’s first ranch cabin that was relocated next to the visitor center. From there we headed back east to the Theodore Roosevelt Painted Canyon Visitor Center. There was not a ton to see there, but I got my passport book stamped.

Knife River Indians National Historic Site

Our next destination was the Knife River Indians National Historic Site. We learned all about the Hidatsa people (15-minute orientation video) and got to look at artifacts that have been recovered from the village sites. Just outside of the visitor center was the Village Trail that leads to some of the village sites.  Quite honestly, the trail is pretty hot without much shade. I would recommend checking out the full scale reconstructed Earthlodge, which is right near the visitor center and not walk the rest of the way. There were some way signs to read, but not much else to see if you opt to walk the rest of the trail. If you do want to check out the rest of the trail you will see the remains of the Awatixa Xi’e Village (Lower Hidatsa Site) and Awatixsa Village (Sakakawea Site). The remains are basically grass fields.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

Near the Knife River area are some other sites – Fort Mandan and Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (Washburn) to name a few. We stopped by the Lewis and Clark location, but did not think it was worth the cost to visit the museum with the time we had available. The outdoor sculptures were neat.

Bismarck Capital Building

We took a drive to the state capitol of North Dakota – Bismarck.  Traffic was pretty heavy in the area and the capitol was the ugliest one we have ever seen! It is a 21 story building, which is said to be art deco style. It is the tallest building in the state of North Dakota and is known as the Skyscraper on the Prairie. In 2012, there was a slight debacle when Minnesota’s house majority leader (Matt Dean) called the building “embarrassing” saying that it looks like a State Farm Insurance office building. The North Dakota governor, Jack Dalrymple responded that those that don’t appreciate it know nothing about architecture. [1][2] Dean’s comments came while arguing for Minnesota to pay to fix its own capitol. [3] The original capitol building burned on December 28, 1930.

1.     "North Dakota bridles at neighbor's Capitol insult".  Associated Press. April 20, 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.

2.        "Gov. Dalrymple fires back after Minn. lawmaker calls Capitol embarrassing". Retrieved 20 April 2012.

3.         "N.D. Capitol called 'embarrassing' as vote fails to fix Minnesota's". Retrieved 19 April 2012.

 Continuing east we stopped for dinner at the Spitfire Bar and Grill in West Fargo, ND. It was very good! After dinner, we drove a few hours farther and stayed at the Best Western in Alexandria, MN. There was a very good breakfast there. 

Out West 2016 - Day 6

June 1, 2016 (Wednesday)

Jewel Cave National Monument

Jewel Cave National Monument is the third longest cave with 180 miles of passageways. Tickets for cave tours are available first-come, first-serve basis. We got there before it opened, since it was obvious from prior first-come, first-serve we needed to be there to get early tickets.  My parents did not want to take a lot of stairs so we just went on the Discovery Talk Tour – which was free with the yearly National Park Pass, or $4/adult. The Discovery talk was about 20 minutes long and provided an overview of the natural and cultural histories in one cave room. It was an easy up and down in the elevator. The Scenic Tour (moderately strenuous) is the popular tour and is $12/adult and lasts an hour and 20 minutes. In the summer months, a Historic Lantern Tour is also available – it sounds awesome if you want a good adventure! The cave temperature is 49 degrees year-round.

Devil's Postpile National Monument

Trekking into Wyoming, we stopped to check out Devils Tower National Monument. This was our westerly most destination for the trip. The visitor center did not have much to see. There is a nice hiking trail around the monument. We were lucky and able to see some climbers (they were only part way up the 867-foot-tall tower – it takes 4 to 6 hours to climb to the top). The site is really unique – it is very weird to be driving along in the Black Hills and then see the huge rock piles sticking out of the ground. The site is considered to be Sacred to the Lakota and many other tribes that have connection to the area. The rock columns found at this park are very similar to what we saw at Devil’s Postpile National Monument in California, the main difference is that the size at Devils Tower are much larger.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Painted Canyon. The site offers an excellent overlook of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Once we made it to Medora, we had dinner at the Little Missouri Saloon and Dinning. It was the most happening place in town – busy with great food!

After dinner, we took the 36-mile driving loop at the Theodore Roosevelt South Unit.  The loop took us about 1.5 to 2 hours to drive. There was not a lot of traffic in the evening. We saw a lot of wildlife: horses, deer, prong, bison, and prairie dogs.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Heritage Hotel & Suites in Dickenson, ND. It by far had the worse breakfast of the trip. We would have stayed closer to the Theodore Roosevelt Park, but the reasonable priced hotels did not have very good reviews.