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North Dakota

Our last and final state, North Dakota! This time, our rising 8th grader wrote a report about our trip and some concluding thoughts: In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt stepped foot in what was in the future known as Theodore Roosevelt Park. He felt himself drawn again and again to the park —and for good reason that is. Flying to North Dakota as our last state in this too long journey did not disappoint. From the food to huge blocks of sedimentary rocks and bison, I know everyone was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of North Dakota. This stay in North Dakota with the national park along with other attractions really did grab our attention. Chelita Restaurant As soon as we landed and got the rental car, my family knew we had one goal and one goal only in North Dakota—visit the national park we all know TR raved on and on about. However, our hunger and thirst got to the better of us. We ended up stopping at a local El Salvadorian restaurant off the side of the road. The family business's f...
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New Hampshire

The boys took a trip to Boston to visit family and drove to Maine and New Hampshire. Since I (mom) wasn't there, our rising 6th grader wrote about their time at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. Here's his unedited writing: 😊  I am going to tell you about New Hampshire. We did a long drive from Maine to New Hampshire. It was crowded, but we found a spot to park and went to the beach. We were playing around until we saw a massive fish!!!! It was so cool and we tried to catch it multiple times, but we always failed. We decided to go catch the crabs near the rocks. It was a really long journey there, and the formation of the beach was different then normal beaches. We finally arrived at the rocks and saw a lot of crabs. We caught several crabs and then had to go home.  With cousins 😍 With Grandma 😍
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Maine

The boys took a trip to Boston to visit family and drove to Maine and New Hampshire. Since I (mom) wasn't there, our rising 6th grader wrote about their time in Maine. Here's his unedited writing: 😊  I am going to tell you all about my trip to Maine. From Boston we drove to Maine, and while we were driving we went to the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge with our cousins. The second we got there, our cousins screamed “ deer”! My brother and I turned our heads and saw a deer! It ran away after that. We started walking around for an hour until we saw our car.  We decided to go to a place called Heaven Swamp Park. We got there, but our cousins got lost, so we went by ourselves. We walked out of the car and after 5 minutes we left, because the smell there was so bad!!!!! There was dead seaweed and dead birds everywhere!!  We immediately left to go to the beach. However, on the way we found a famous store called The Landing Store, known for their lobster rolls. We ate the lobster...
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South Dakota

After returning from an amazing time in Australia, I have to say that I wasn't super excited about visiting Sioux Falls, SD. But, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was. Our first stop was  Porter Sculpture Park in Montrose, about 30 minutes from Sioux Falls Airport. Admission was only $10 since both boys are under 12 years old and free, otherwise, it's $5 for kids 13-17 years of age. It was interesting, definitely creative and worth visiting, but a lot of sculptures were also a bit dark & creepy - Tim Burton style. Nothing that gave my boys nightmares but dark enough for them to say that the sculptures weren't really for kids. We then drove to Super Saturday Fishing at the  Outdoor Campus - Sioux Falls . What a wonderful free program to learn the basics of fishing! It was so well organized with all of the equipment provided plus sunscreen, mosquito spray, water, ice pops, and there were plenty of volunteers to show us how to fish and where ...
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West Virginia

After a hiatus where we prioritized international travel, we’re back at it and hope to complete our last 5 states this summer. First up, West Virginia! We flew into Pittsburgh, PA since it’s much closer to Grand Vue Park in Moundsville, WV than flying into the state capital, Charleston. It was only a bit over an hour drive. For lunch, we stopped by Nana’s Pizza and Pie to try West Virginia’s official state food - pepperoni rolls. Per Food Network, pepperoni rolls were “created in West Virginia by Italian immigrants needing a hearty, delicious and, most importantly, non-perishable lunch to take underground while working the coal mines.” Perhaps I had low expectations imagining a Hot Pocket of some sort, but these pepperoni rolls were not that. Freshly made to order in 15 minutes, the handmade dough was my favorite part but the tasty tomato dipping sauce was a close second.  We also enjoyed the loaded fries - oven baked and covered in cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, crispy bacon, ...
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Oregon

We spent a day in Portland, Oregon eating yummy food and exploring  Washington Park , a one of a kind park with a rose garden of over 10,000 roses, 2,300 species of trees including majestic redwood trees, hiking and play areas with 410 acres to explore, archery range, and several memorials including the Holocaust Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans, and Lewis and Clark Memorial. Our first stop was  Doe Donuts , a vegan donut and ice cream shop! After seeing Phil eat 6 different donuts from here on Somebody Feed Phil season 5 , we had to try them! We got: Portland Fog (organic earl grey glaze, fresh whip made of soy and coconut, fair trade vanilla bean) - this was my personal fav! Maple Bacon (maple glaze, housemade coconut bacon) Maple Corn Fritter (fresh yellow corn inside, maple glaze, sweet corn crumble) Salted Vanilla Bean (organic vanilla glaze, vanilla bean sea salt) Lemon Snowball (lemon mousse, vanilla bean glaze, sweetened coconut) They were delicious, and y...
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