Hooray! It’s time to get some sun and take relaxation and self-care to a new level! We’ve partnered up with Yoga Multimedia to share an exciting experience of travel, yoga and making new friends. Follow along with this travel journal as one of us Dads (Rob) takes some time away to regroup and try a […]
The USA has several cities that are known around the world as being iconic or embodiment of America. We think of New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. We haven’t all gotten to to each of the cities as a family, but finally I got to do Chicago solo… and I wish I would’ve had […]
Train travel is so common around the world, but here in the United States most of us always opt to fly places. We just did our first family train travel with Amtrak and it was pretty cool. We don’t do many trips in the northern USA in the fall or winter because driving is a […]
Do you ever know that there’s a place you want to visit but you’re not sure where to begin or what’s attainable in one trip? Well, that’s a problem we face a lot. We expect that we can experience the majority of a place but then don’t understand the actual layout of the area and […]
It’s been two years since we first fell in love with the Golden Isles of Georgia. Our first experience was on St Simons Island when we visited the King and Prince Resort. From the food to the Spanish moss, we were hooked. And now we’ve gotten to explore another of the Golden Isles: Jekyll Island. […]
It’s rare that we ask anybody else to share anything via our website, but we’ve made some new friends in the online travel community that we think are pretty awesome. Jackie and Daryl are two adventurous ladies that we stumbled across on Instagram and we really wanted to share them and their unique perspectives with […]
Enough people have asked us about Blue Spring State Park after seeing the pictures we’ve posted on Instagram and such that we just have to write about it and share our tips. Florida has over 1000 natural springs and they’re all a little different. Some are in high traffic areas like on the Crystal River […]
Most random place I’ve visited in a long while: Mobile, Alabama. When I first found out that I got to go I was neutral in my excitement. And then I started researching; and then I got there; and then I fell in love. Mobile, Alabama’s theme for the city is “Born to Celebrate” and really, […]
It’s no secret that we love the weekends. I mean, who doesn’t? With or without the kids we try to break away to a new city or visit one of our old favs whenever possible, and we’ve partnered with Hampton by Hilton to share some of what we think are the best destinations to be […]
We’ve shared all kinds of non-beach things to do in Florida because we just love how different Florida’s nature is from that of our local Pacific Northwest, but we certainly love the beaches too. From the edge of the Everglades to the start of the Panhandle, the Florida Gulf Coast beaches are beautiful and each […]
By now you know that we’re head over heals in love with Florida (#LoveFL). St Augustine caught us with its charm and history. The Everglades stole our hearts with the gators and one-of-kind landscape. Rainbow Springs left us speechless with its crystal clear water and endless fun. St Pete Beach and Fort De Soto are […]
We love to find places that everybody talks about but nobody knows the cool stuff you can do there. One such place is Palm Springs, California. I mean, everybody goes there for a nice weekend or a relaxing vacation, but besides golf, gay bars and swimming pools, what is there? The ACTUAL Palm Springs!! Agua […]
We are so fortunate! We’ve gotten to visit St Augustine and Florida’s Historic Coast a few times now and each time we love it more and more. On this most recent visit we got to spend a lot more time exploring the nature of the area and we’ve got some awesome ideas for outdoor activities […]
Most of what we share is National Park-centric, but we’re going to stray just a bit to share one of the most shockingly beautiful sights we’ve ever seen. Rainbow Springs State Park in Dunnellon, Florida is the type of place you’ve seen in fantasy movies or whimsical paintings. Seriously pretty beyond pretty. And it’s so […]
Bucket list item: Everglades National Park. Done. Can’t wait to go back. Must explore more. The end. Just kidding, we have much more to say. So, the Everglades is the coolest area and we’ve never been anyplace else like it. Everglades National Park and the surrounding area will leave you saying wow and itching to […]
Our new favorite way to explore the USA: in an Escape Campervan. Recently we completed an incredible family road trip up Florida’s Gulf Coast. We visited four different National Park sites and saw more wildlife than we expected, and did it all from the comfort of our campervan. We were a little hesitant to go […]
Since the first time we visited Florida as a family we’ve wanted to see more and more of the Sunshine State. Florida offers a variety of family road trip options ranging from beach vacation, island hopping in the Keys, to exploring the one-of-a-kind nature on the Gulf Coast. We just completed an epic Florida Gulf […]
California. That California life is so awesome with all that nature and sunshine. What better way to experience it than by doing a California coast road trip? We’re going to start at the northern border, but reverse our plan and you’ll have just as amazing of a time. So you’ve just crossed the border from […]
There’s no doubt that the West Coast of the USA is an awesome place full of diverse people, sights and nature. The cities of the West Coast are really progressive and each gives a totally different experience. We’re going to share with you how you can get the full West Coast road trip experience from […]
If you’ve ever gone traveling with us then you know we like to have fun, we like to go to bed early, and we love when we find awesome free things to do. We know lots of the cool fun free things to do at home because we do so much local travel but free […]
Can you think of anything that is more Southern California than visiting the Santa Monica Pier? I don’t think we could name a single thing. Well, maybe a day in San Diego on the Beach surfing… But no, the Pier. Even though a day at the Santa Monica Pier seems like the most touristy and […]
More often than not we find ourselves visiting places we’ve been 10,000 times. We don’t live far from Port Townsend, Washington and that’s where a lot of our family is so we are there quite often. We love Port Townsend, as most Pacific Northwest residents do, and it’s our duty to share just why and […]
It’s been awhile since we’ve shared any details about accommodations while we travel. Well, we’ve stayed someplace now that we must share: Domaine Madeleine in Port Angeles, Washington is the most awesome and perfect bed and breakfast that we have visited. It’s the Olympic Peninsula BNB that puts others to shame. Well, we need to stay […]
It’s been a while since we were in Italy, but we had some amazing adventures. We loved Venice and its canals, and getting completely soaked when a monsoon hit. Florence was awesome despite being there during the week that EVERY museum closed for maintenance. And then Pisa was such a whirlwind that we could only […]
Once upon a time, Chris and I took a trip to Portland, Oregon and hated it. We left early even. Everything was closed, the city was dirty and we were bored. Well, my opinion has completely changed. Every year my BFF Jon and I take a boys trip and head someplace fun for a weekend […]
Among frequent travelers, and especially in the travel blog community there is a weird tension about “traveler vs tourist” and it’s really funny and irritating. It’s typically approached in a condescending way and despite we not caring where we fall into the array we still make the effort to be sure to fall into “traveler”… […]
China was such a mystery before I started to actually explore it. I had a bunch or perceptions of what I’d find and it wasn’t like that at all… until we went to the imperial garden in Xi’an. The Tang Lotus Garden, aka Tang Paradise, is near the amazing Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and was […]
You know we love our hiking, right? We do it almost everywhere we go, and in all types of weather and environment. This year has seen some really fun hikes from lighthouse hunting to trekking through the snow in the spring, and now I can add hiking Huashan in the Shaanxi province of China. Huashan […]
Growing up in America you don’t really learn about China. You hear that it’s a Communist country far away, that the people live in desolate poverty and that the pollution is so bad that you must wear a smog mask at all times. While aspects of these things are true, it’s totally not the case […]
Something we can’t wait to mix into family travel is river rafting. I’ve rafted plenty of rivers, from the Wenatchee in Leavenworth, Washington to Six Mile in Hope, Alaska, the Kenai and the Flathead: all kinds of rivers. And I’ve kayaked. I love kayaking and the challenge it sometimes gives. It’s rare though that we […]
There are a few places that I’d love to experience with my family, meaning that I’ve gotten to see them and do incredible things on my own, but they haven’t been able to join me. Among those places are the Alaskan tundra, the cenotes of the Yucatan and the jungles of Jamaica. The waterfalls of […]
There’s this small window in being a parent when it seems okay to do really cool things without your kids. Examples include dinner in a Michelin star restaurant, getting a tattoo when you’re traveling for work, swimming with sea turtles in the Caribbean… So, I did two of these things on my last solo travel […]
Growing up in Washington with family in both northern and southern California, the West Coast road trip was guaranteed at least once per year… if not three times. This meant though that we got to experience everything: lighthouses and coastlines, hiking in the mountains or rides in Disneyland. Such an array. Now, being parents, we […]
We’re a family travel blog through and through… except when one of us has to travel for work or something. I had the amazing opportunity to tour the Caribbean aboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas and had an awesome time. The trip was totally unplanned so only I could go, but I was welcomed and […]
Once upon a time we wrote this great article about why you shouldn’t write off a destination and basically said that you should always give a place a second chance or even just go experience it for the first time despite what others have said. Anacortes, Washington is one of those places. There are so […]
If you know me (Rob, Hi!) you know that I use the word “magical” in 50% of my sentences… and so does Oliver… because he’s my mini-me. Blame it on working for Disney or just watching a bit too much Harry Potter, but I love the word. I’m going to use it again: The Oregon […]
I went to Crescent City, California once when I was a kid. I just remember being told that in 1964 a tsunami (tidal wave) crashed into the town… and then I was terrified of visiting Crescent City or any place on the coast. Well, I’m a grown up now and Chris and I have been […]
It’s been a long while since we’ve visited St Louis and we haven’t taken the kids before, but we’re always looking for new places to explore. When we think of St Louis the two things that come to mind are the Gateway Arch (#FindYourPark) and the Cardinals (because baseball, you know?). What else is awesome […]
While we typically just do our own thing and plot out sights we want to see, every now and then we’ll do a tour. National Parks are so easy to explore on your own, especially when you’re planning on hiking a bunch, but when we were in California, we opted to do the Yosemite Valley […]
Everybody seems to have an opinion about overrated sights and places to visit. Roadside attractions are totally cliched to stop at, but why not stop? Viewpoints on highways that have pull-outs are usually there because the view is incredible. Why wouldn’t you want to stop at a vista like that’s “like woah”? Tunnel View in […]
2 dads traveling the globe with their 2 sons, teaching them the value of culture and education, experiencing the outdoors, and giving the kids a broad world view.
