One of the most popular places or topics we cover is Olympic National Park. We’ve created so many articles and shared so much because it’s a dream destination for so many. It’s practically our backyard, so allow us to guide you and help you have an incredible time exploring. What began as Olympus National Monument […]
When you visit the Puget Sound area or more specifically the Olympic Peninsula, you’re bound to want to make a gazillion stops. We could tell you that every stop is awesome and worth your time, but we like to direct you to just the best stops. Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park is one […]
We’ve got another great, easy hike with kids to share! Our favorite hikes take us places with sweeping views and unusual sights, but we also love huge trees. The Hoh Rainforest is at the top of our list of hikes in the Pacific Northwest with kids, but let’s go ahead and add the Grove of […]
The Pacific Northwest is a dream destination for so many. Sure, we have our rain and grey skies, but we also have incredible mountains, beaches and forests. Olympic National Park is the perfect spot to experience all of those things, and the west side in the Kalaloch area is really an ideal home base. Camping […]
Unless you grew up in the Pacific Northwest you probably think right away of tropical destinations when you hear the term “rainforest.” We actually have several protected, temperate rainforests here in Washington State. Exploring the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park is our favorite with the kids and we bring a lot of out-of-town guests […]
When we’re not lounging on a Florida beach in the hot sun or gallivanting the globe, we love to hike locally. Local, to us, is anything within a few hours’ drive of Seattle. One of our favorite local activities is hiking in Olympic National Park. It’s such an interesting place, with beaches, lowland rainforests, snow-capped […]
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 […]
There are days or weeks when we are just worn out; sometimes it’s from traveling a ton and sometimes it’s just because life can be a lot to deal with. That’s why we always try to relax on our weekends and get a good recharge. We’ve partnered up with Hampton by Hilton to both help […]
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 love our hikes. Winter, summer, whenever. We also love visiting beaches. Have you ever done beach hiking? Beach hiking is an awesome challenge because it is so different than hiking on a hard rock trail. The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is a perfect place to experience beach hiking as well as have some fun […]
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 […]
Since we’ve determined Indonesia as our #1 priority on our Asian destination bucket list, we’ve started digging into the country a whole lot more and are getting pretty excited about what we’re finding. From nature to food, hiking to getting under the water, we’re going to have an amazing time doing family travel in Indonesia. […]
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 […]
We’re going to do a stereotypical and highly ridiculous thing. A lot of writers will tell you about the “only sight you need to see in…” or the “absolute most perfect…” and we try not to do that. Ever. Tell you what though, we are going to tell you about the best most worthwhile hike […]
I’m sure we all have memories, either recent or from childhood, that are grossly inaccurate. A great example is when you can recall a great hike and it’s been years and you think taking your kids on it will be a blast… and then you realize that it’s a hike along cliffs and above churning […]
Going off the beaten path is something so many travelers strive for. You know that we’re usually traveling with kids, so we try to experience the less-crowded areas of the world when we can so they can see what the earth is actually like. When you ask somebody if it’s quiet in Yosemite National Park […]
We grew up in a great period in film history, where there were movies like the Land Before Time, Ferngully and, from even before we were born, The Gnome-Mobile. On our way to California’s North Coast and the Redwoods, the boys got to watch The Gnome Mobile in the car and they loved it!! If […]
When you live on the coast you get accustomed to certain maritime things. You know, like hearing fog horns, continually sweeping up sand in your house, having lighthouses in half of your family photos. We love lighthouses, but then you probably already knew that. While we were touring the Northern California coast we got to […]
Being a dad is the coolest thing ever. You get to teach your kids about bugs and cooking and building things and art and hiking and so much more. While our youngest is still in the toddler stage and not about to voluntarily hike on his own, our oldest, Oliver, is quite the trailblazer… 80% […]
You know when you’re excited for sweeping views, spring flowers, newborn baby animals and getting your first tan of the year? That’s where we were at prior to driving into Kings Canyon National Park. As we drove up into the hills from Fresno, California we felt the temperature drop, but it was still sunny. We […]
Traveling with kids is always fun…and a challenge. We love to visit National Parks and typically do so in the summer when the hiking is good and the sun will be shining. We were invited to California to experience Sequoia National Park with kids and jumped at the chance. This was a great opportunity for […]
Even though we love going to Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park is one of our favorite spots in the state of Washington. One of the things we love about Mount Rainier is that you can enjoy the North or the South Side and have very different experiences. On the north side there are […]
There are few things that we’re just suckers for: lighthouses, bathrobes, and waterfalls. When you’re heading to the mountains to go hiking, you can only count on getting one of those boxes checked off, and it’s waterfalls. Mt Rainier National Park is an easy day trip or multi-day camping destination for any type of traveler, […]
Want to have an awesome day hiking Cape Flattery? Where? Oh, I see. You’ve never head of Cape Flattery. Well, let us enlighten you about one of the most beautiful places in all of the Pacific Northwest. About four hours, maybe a little more, from Seattle is the Makah Indian Reservation. If you watch the […]
Having already gone on an amazing hike to Bullhead Lake earlier in the day, we were all pretty tired after dinner. We cleaned up camp and decided just to take one more jaunt, a short one. We put the tiny man in a hiking pack and headed off into the woods in Glacier National Park. […]
We still haven’t visited Switzerland. It’s been on our list for some time and somehow we haven’t gone. We have been to the Rockies in the USA though, and I think that’s sated us. True, the Rocky Mountains don’t have the quaint villages, but they do have the beautifully jagged mountains, the pristine lakes, the Swiss-style […]
Previously, we told the story of being stuck in just one portion of Glacier National Park (blog post here). The great thing about being “stranded” in Many Glacier was the ample opportunities to hike. The Many Glacier Valley is very unique in that it’s the crossroads for several small rivers and streams, which just happen to […]
We always make big plans. BIG. ALWAYS. I mean, we plan out where we’ll hike, sights we’ll see, maybe where we’ll dine. We will craft an itinerary and stick to it comfortably. This keeps us low stress and with all of our resources in place. If you recall from our post about the forest fires we […]
“The best laid plans of man…” I hate that phrase. It is so heavy with impossibility. But it’s true. Recently, we wrote an article about traveling in Europe and that by the time we got to Venice we were tired of being foiled at every turn, so we just had to go with the flow […]
We were fortunate to get to take the kids to Glacier National Park this summer. Due to forest fires, most of the Park was closed, but we still had a great time in the Many Glacier and East Glacier areas. So, due to the restrictions we faced, here’s our abridged guide to Glacier National Park. It’s amazing […]
If you’ve got kids or share your life with another adult, you know that getting “hangry” is a very real and present danger. If you don’t know what “hangry” is, it’s the morph from being hungry to being angry/irritable. Three of the four in our family suffer from this. Solution: picnicking. Knowing the best picnic […]
In addition to geysers, the exciting thing about going to Yellowstone National Park is the wildlife. There are the standard deer and chipmunks that you’d expect to see, but there is so much more. The bison were a real hit with our family… but then so were the bears just outside of our car […]
Almost anyone in the world can tell you that Yellowstone National Park in the USA is the place you go to see geysers. Only the actual experience of being there will make you understand how amazing it is. True: there are millions of people in the Park throughout the summer, but that doesn’t mean that […]
Once you’ve conquered the road trip that is driving to Wyoming from wherever you actually start, you’ll have more planning…and more driving to do. I’m lucky because I love to drive. I used to be a driver-guide for a cruise company in Alaska even; that’s how much I love it. Other people, not so much. […]
One of our favorite movies of all time is Maverick, starring Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson. I don’t know if it’s the humor, the ridiculous story or what, but if nothing else, there’s a lot to be said of the scenery. Deserts, prairies, cliffs, buttes, winding rivers. It’s amazing. If you’ve ever been to eastern Washington, […]
We have migrated our camping list extras into a post instead of a page. We made this list because after you’ve camped with a child, you can walk away from the experience able to say “Next time, I will definitely bring…”…hence calling them camping list extras. Here is our list of take-aways / surprising things […]
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.
