Traveling 50 States with Kids

We went to Pittsburgh, PA to check out the Carnegie Science Center . This is another ASTC Passport Museum , so all 5 of us got in for free (check out my Wisconsin blog post for more info).  There was definitely something for everyone, including mommy who got to play air hockey with a robot at Roboworld. Our youngest enjoyed seeing all the different robots including this basketball throwing bot.  Our middle son really likes animals and insects so he enjoyed seeing this huge, baby grasshopper which we’re told can grow up to 6” and can also projectile vomit toxins.  Eastern Lubber Grasshopper At the Guitar exhibit, the kids got to play on an analog synthesizer for the first time. At Highmark Sportsworks (in a separate building but also a part of general admission at the Carnegie Science Center), our oldest went on You-Yo several times and eventually touched the top! Mom and dad also had a turn and struggled a bit. 😅 The Highmark Sportsworks wasn’t too big but we spent...

A day trip to America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin! In our readings, we learned that Wisconsin is the #1 cheese producing state in the US. So our first priority was to try some cheese. First stop,  Milwaukee Public Market where we tried cheese curds (for the first time) and cheese fries from West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shoppe . Between lunch, drinks, and desserts, we ended up purchasing something from 5 different vendors.  Here’s what my kids thought of cheese curds:  And our desserts! + coffee for mommy from Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co . Funfetti Cookie Sandwich $4.50 from  C. Adam's Bakery Baby Key Lime Pie $3.50 and Strawberry & Lemon and Oreo Cake Bites $2.50 from  C. Adam's Bakery Slushie $2.50 from Kehr's Candies We thought it would be cool to ride the free streetcar which stops by the Milwaukee Public Market, but didn’t feel like waiting around for it, so instead we walked about 20 minutes to the Milwaukee Public Museum . 💸Cost Saving Tip: Even better...

We visited the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California during spring break April 2022. It's been ranked among the top 10 zoos in North America . It was definitely one of our favorites. What I loved about the zoo was how spacious it was, especially compared to the small living quarters of the animals in our hometown zoo, Zoo Atlanta. The animals at the Living Desert Zoo just looked really happy. :)  💸One cost saving tip for families is to buy an annual family zoo membership at your local zoo. First, zoo memberships are tax deductible. Second, most zoos and some aquariums participate in the AZA Reciprocal Admissions Program , meaning if you take your local zoo membership card to other zoos and aquariums throughout the United States, you'll receive a 50% to 100% discount on tickets there. So with our Zoo Atlanta membership , we were able to get a 50% discount for 2 adults and 2 kids (and paid for 1 kid's ticket at full price) at th...

Our summer goal is to travel to the remaining 50 states where we have not travelled to yet. So today, I sat down to take an account of all the states we've been to where at least 2 of our kids were present. We've been to 14 states: Washington, Phoenix, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, Alaska, Massachusetts, Florida, California, Utah, Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas, and Indiana. At a later date, I hope to write about and post pictures from each of these states. But as the last day of school is this Wednesday, we'll start planning our travels to the remaining 36 states.  On the car ride home from school, I asked our kids to guess how many flights we've taken as a family, a total counting each one of us separately and a roundtrip flight would count as 2 flights. Our daughter, the oldest, guessed first at 2,000 flights. Then our middle child, who is completing 3rd grade, guessed 8. 😶  I confirmed if he really thought we had only taken 8 flights, and he confirmed. So I asked him to...

It was a weekend mommy + boys trip to Anchorage, Alaska! We went the last full weekend in April 2022 while it was spring. We've heard that snow starts melting in April as winter is ending and spring usually only lasts a few weeks. The weather was chilly in the mornings, mid to high 30s °F, but up to high 50s °F in the afternoon. The boys wore a fleece and t-shirt most of the time. We also heard that it's possible to see the Northern Lights through the end of April, but we didn't get to see it. By the time we landed, got to our hotel, and ate dinner, it was past 8 pm local time or midnight Atlanta time (4 hour time difference). It was still daylight outside and didn't get dark until closer to 9:30 pm. I read that while it's possible to see the Northern Lights as soon as it's dark enough, the best time to view is closer to midnight. We were pretty wiped out from the traveling and time difference, so we slept right through the best time. Our Uber driver did mentio...