In October, I had 5 work-related trips that we did our best to turn into fun. One was to Portland, Maine, so I hit my 43rd U.S. National Park–Acadia ! We started in Myrtle Beach, flew to Phoenix, then drove to Jekyll Island, GA, and then flew to Baha Mar […]
For our 16th anniversary, we crashed joined in on our neighbors’ annual vacation destination and experienced our first adults-only, all inclusive, resort at the Excellence Playa Mujeres, and I’ve already booked it again for next November! We visited our country’s newest National Park, New River Gorge, biked the Pisgah National […]
We pushed through a port-o-john door covered in stickers, walked past the urinals, and entered the hidden bar behind Bodega Taqueria for what I’d thought would be a quiet speakeasy like the ones we’ve visited in Denver, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Rome, Paris, Kyoto, Boston, New York, Chicago, and San […]
Right before December concluded, we flew down to St. Thomas, exited the American Airlines 737, walked a few paces across the tarmac, showed some locals our negative Covid test results on my wife’s phone, and entered the Cyril E. King airport. We’d escaped the continental United States for the first […]
I have a National Parks bucket list, and hiking The Narrows and Angels Landing at Zion National Park have been near the top of said list for at least as long as there’s been an Instagram. We concluded our tour of the Utah National Parks with visiting my most anticipated […]
I’ve had some amazing experiences at the 33 U.S. National Parks I’ve visited: rock climbing in Yosemite, biking through snow above the Grand Canyon, paddling under snakes at Congaree, hearing a ceremonial flute serenade at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. At Bryce Canyon, however, I had 2 experiences that rival […]
We awoke at Capitol Reef, Utah’s least visited of its 5 national parks, and had a lousy breakfast at Pioneer Kitchen before going by the visitor center for junior ranger workbooks and hiking the 2.25-miles-each-way Grand Wash trail in the bottom of a canyon with 800′ sandstone walls. It was […]
*Thanks to Hanes for sponsoring this post* Colorado has 4 distinctly awesome national parks. I saw 3/4 of them in 1987 when my folks drove my brother and me from Nashville in a two-toned ’83 Suburban, and I’ve wanted to go back with my own family and explore the diverse […]
We woke up early (and cold) in our tent on Friday, April 6. It was my 9th soloversary (I like to remember the anniversary of quitting my job and starting my own law firm; it’s also my late maternal grandfather’s birthday), and we had a very difficult-to-book ranger-led canoe trip […]
We arrived at historic Jamestown as soon as it opened on Thursday morning, exploring the glasshouse and fort buildings before going to the archaearium and visitor center (taking in a 360-degree film there–best NPS movie theater I’ve seen!), where I added a cancellation to my NPS passport book. The guide […]