Today was the last day of our New England trip. We left Boothbay Harbor early to ensure we would be able to fit in a stop in Salem to visit some of the witch related attractions. There definitely was not enough time spent here in Maine to fully appreciate it all. In all, we were probably only in the state less than 24 hours! Before leaving, we stopped by the harbor to take a few photos but the bone chilling cold of the morning forced the stop to be a rather quick one. Driving down the Maine turnpike and into New [View Full Entry]

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Going to bed last night we thought it just might get cold enough for a chance of snow. Still we were quite surprised when we looked out our hotel window to a fresh blanket of snow. Since we had a lot of ground to cover today, we had another early start to our drive. Snow flurries were still falling when we hit the road around 7am. Not having ever driven while the snow was falling, I was a little nervous about taking the wheel. Shea had some experience while she lived in South Dakota so she took the first driving shift. [View Full Entry]

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With a long travel day ahead of us, we set out early in the morning for our drive across Massachusetts and into Vermont. Up until today, we really had not seen much of the changing fall colors. The drive through Massachusetts changed all that once we started driving through the western part of the state. Closer to the coast, most of the trees along the highway had still not changed colors. As we drove further inland, this started to change. Once we hit western Massachusetts; bright yellows, golden oranges, and deep reds became the norm. While driving along Massachusetts Route 2 [View Full Entry]

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This morning we left Boston and headed off to Cape Cod. First stop this morning was the coastal town of Plymouth which is where the Pilgrims landed back in 1620. Once we secured parking for our car, we got out to do a little exploration of the area. Our first goal was to locate the Plymouth Rock, an important symbol in American History. The location of the rock was quite obvious from the moment we arrived. Along the shore, there was this structure that looked like a miniature version of the Lincoln Memorial. We all immediately knew that this is where [View Full Entry]

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It was a drizzly morning today as we made our way over to Penn Station to catch our Amtrak train to Boston. It was only a 4 hour trip and we were excited to get out of New York and start exploring Boston. The first half was rather uneventful as we crossed through various small towns in Connecticut. The train didn't seem to be going as quickly as I thought it should and every now and then, it would completely stop for a few minutes. One of the stops seemed to be lasting for quite a while. I looked out the [View Full Entry]

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Our flight to New York was a red-eye from LAX to JFK on the new airline, Virgin America. Since I had been impressed on my two flights with Virgin Atlantic, I thought this new airline must be just as great. Immediately after a full days work; Shea, Kevin, and I headed straight to the airport to catch our 9:25pm flight. Kevin's sister, Wendy, drove us to the Van Nuys Flyaway where we would catch a shuttle bus to LAX. The check in at Virgin America was the quickest and most stress-free check-in I had ever experienced. The ticket counters were brightly [View Full Entry]

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Initially, this long weekend trip to Zion was supposed to be with a group of friends. Since none of them were able to make it, I changed it to a family camping weekend. My mom, sister, and her boyfriend all came along. For my mom, this would be her first camping experience. It will be quite interesting to see how well she deals with it. I picked up our rental car for the weekend; a Chevy HHD, on Friday after work. After packing up all our camping supplies, food, and personal belongings, there was barely enough room for the 4 of [View Full Entry]

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Having a rental car for the past few days while my car was in the shop has definitely inspired me to take a mini road-trip. I had thought about a long weekend in San Francisco but settled on a quick day trip up the central coast to the Cambria area. Always up for a spontaneous adventure, Shea was more then happy to tag along. We left home in my rented Toyota Yaris at the reasonable hour of 7am for the 3 hour drive. First stop was Goleta where we stocked up on snacks and picked up breakfast before continuing the rest [View Full Entry]

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These days, my getaways have been relegated to day trips to nearby destinations close enough for a day trip. The economic realities of the day have all but put an end to the usual 2 week European trips that I have been used to since 2000. For the past few weeks, I've had a burning need to get away but when my pocketbook was consulted, any possible ideas were quickly dashed. So at the very last minute I decided that a day trip to a nearby national park was in order. Along with Kevin, we both chose to go for an [View Full Entry]

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This morning was our last morning here in Zion. With nothing really planned today, we just slept in and took our time dismantling our campsite. Prior to leaving, we decided to do one last hike. Since we didn't want to get a late start on the road, we picked a rather easy trail. We picked Weeping Rock Trail which is a very short trail making it quite a popular trail. The trail wasn't very steep however 2 days of relatively strenuous hiking had caught up to us. This trail was nothing compared to The Virgin Narrows and Angel's Landing. However, we [View Full Entry]

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