Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
Last spring B, C and I were thinking about where we could go in the fall for a quick, affordable vacation. After looking through Google Flights and seeing where we could get from Boise on the cheap, we narrowed it down to two options: Aruba …
After finishing grad school in 2008, I still wasn’t ready to face the real world and get a grown-up job. Instead, I decided to cash in some skymiles and head down south to Peru with a pilot friend, L, with whom I had worked over …
Let’s talk about road trips. I know they are not for everyone and some people go stir crazy if they are stuck in a car too long. But I love them. If done right, a road trip is one of the best ways to see and explore a particular destination. Our road trip through the South was amazing. Below, we share our 10-state, 12-day itinerary as well as highlights and recommendations and from our time on the road.
A couple of years ago, as part of our quest to see all 50 states, R and I planned a pretty epic road trip down south. Our individual travels had taken us to a few Southern states, but we both had several left to check off our list. By making one big loop through the South, R determined that we could both check off our missing Southern states while having a grand old time and seeing a good chunk of this country of ours. We knew it would be ambitious and exhausting since we had a limited amount of time. But we were more than up for the challenge.
Good planning and preparation is critical to a well-executed road trip in my opinion (see which websites I prefer to use for planning a trip). We decided that the person who had never been to a particular state would get to pick out the main activity. That seemed like a good way to prioritize since we did not have time to see and do everything. We also factored in bucket-list items—the more random the better. R is always on a quest to see our National Parks so naturally, those made the list as well. Once we had our general list compiled, we roughly mapped out how long it would take us to get from point A to B to C and so on. Then we bought our plane tickets.
We settled on October for a couple of reasons: one, there was a concert in San Antonio we wanted to attend; two, fall is a great time to travel because the weather tends to be nice; and three, since kids are in school, you do not have to deal with as many people in touristy areas. We had our dates and we had our route. The only thing left to do was anticipate the adventure.
We flew into Oklahoma City on a beautiful fall day. Neither of us had been to Oklahoma City before and honestly, my expectations were low. However, the city surprised me and I ended up enjoying it very much. After picking up our rental car (a Mazda 3 with Missouri plates that we named Mo), we headed to Cattlemen’s Steakhouse at the Stockyards for some steak (obviously). We had to wait since this place is super popular but let me tell you, it delivered.
After dinner, we enjoyed some time downtown. We wanted to see the Wormy Dog Saloon, a place many of the bands we like play at. It was not very impressive but the historic Bricktown area is cool as is the little riverwalk. The real gem however, was the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. It is powerful to see this at night and although it breaks your heart, it is one of the more impressive memorials I have been to. I would recommend a visit. The other thing we did in Oklahoma City was visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. It too is well done and worth a visit.
We left Oklahoma City and headed south to Texas. Both of us have spent time in Texas so the state was not new to us. However, the traffic was especially bad on this trip. After talking with quite a few different locals, it sounds like bad traffic is the norm in and around the Hill Country—which is unfortunate. It was, hands down, the worst traffic we experienced on our entire road trip. Ugh.
We made it to San Antonio eventually and spent a couple of days enjoying all the city has to offer. Our first stop was John T. Floore’s Country Store. We planned this trip so that we could attend a two-night, live taping of the Randy Rogers Band. Have we mentioned our love of live music? It is shadowed only by our love of travel. Combining the two is pretty much nirvana. So in between rocking out at Floore’s, we walked the Riverwalk, ate TexMex and visited the Alamo. R’s family happened to be in town so we also had the chance to catch up with them. Our time in San Antonio was fun and relaxing, which was important since we had to battle more traffic getting out of Texas. Sheesh.
From Texas, we headed east to New Orleans. I had visited New Orleans a couple of times before but this was R’s first time so she got to pick the adventures. First up was a vampire and ghost tour. Although it had potential, it was a little on the boring side. Luckily, there were beignets and people watching on Bourbon Street to make up for it.
The next morning, we actually got out of the city to take a Cajun swamp tour. This ended up being a highlight of the state. The country is so different down there and a swamp tour is a great way to experience it. Our funny guide led a small group of us through the bayou while showing us plenty of critters—both on and off the boat! So. Many. Alligators. A swamp tour really is worth taking if you get the chance.
From Louisiana, we kept heading east. The Gulf Shore in Mississippi was a delightful surprise. The beaches were gorgeous! As we drove along the white sands and clear blue waters, we just had to stop and put our toes in the water. The most amazing part was how empty the beaches were. I imagine it is a different story in the summertime so score one for fall travel. We stopped at the Gulf Islands National Seashore to learn a little bit about this beautiful part of the world. The only downside was that the visitor’s center was not open so R wasn’t able to get a stamp in her National Parks Passport.
Once we got to Alabama, we headed away from the coast and moved inland. The landscape changed and I saw my first cotton field. In fact, it took us a minute to figure out was we were looking at! Of course, once we did, we had to stop and get a picture. I am sure the locals were rolling their eyes at us. That night we enjoyed a lovely sunset through the Alabama pines (thank you Jason Isbell) and had dinner at Bubba’s BBQ. Nobody does BBQ like the South.
Our first stop in Georgia was Andersonville, a National Historic Site. It was a confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final twelve months of the American Civil War. It is super depressing, so brace yourself if you decide to visit.
Luckily, the next stop on our route was much more pleasant. Savannah was one of the places I was really looking forward to visiting on our road trip through the South. I had high expectations and thankfully, this Southern town delivered. We walked the old streets, shopped in unique boutiques, ate fresh crawfish and shrimp at Bernie’s on the river and tried rolled sandwiches for the first time. The weather was perfect and our hotel was a great retro number called the Thunderbird. My only regret is that we did not get to spend more time here.
From Savannah, we headed to the Fort Pulaski National Monument. It is out on the coastal marshlands so the views are hard to beat. We attempted to walk to the lighthouse, but that did not pan out. However, we still enjoyed a nice, albeit hot, nature walk. Back on the road, we stopped at a convenience store for snacks. R thought the boiled peanuts sounded like a good idea. They were not and we decided the South can keep that particular snack.
Since I had never been to South Carolina before, I got to pick out the main event. After some research, I decided on something very random: God’s Acre Healing Springs. The old springs are famous for their healing powers so we made a quick stop to fill up our water bottles. I am not sure if they healed me, but the water sure tasted good. This place was not the easiest to find, but it meant we stayed off the beaten path and really got into the heart of South Carolina.
After spending the night in Greenville, South Carolina, we crossed the border into western North Carolina. Ashville was our destination and it was here that we did some serious shopping. I highly recommend Screendoor and the Tobacco Barn. I enjoyed Ashville, but it felt a little more pretentious than the other cities we had visited (no offense to anyone who lives or loves it there). It happened to be Halloween while we were in Ashville so we did our best to dress up and hit the town. We found a bar with live music and great people watching.
From Ashville we headed into the Smokey Mountains (a must-see on a road trip through the South). Here is where the timing of our trip turned impeccable. The leaves were changing but the weather was perfect—blues skies and warm temperatures. The views we had were just like all of the photos we had seen of the Smoky Mountains and it was glorious. There turned out to be quite a few cars on the road, but they all seemed to be going the opposite direction of us so we had no complaints.
Once we crossed the state border into Tennessee, we headed towards Pigeon Forge. The town itself is not really worth talking about. In fact, it is downright tacky. But we were there for one purpose only: to visit Dollywood. Dollywood has been on my bucket list for many years. Thankfully, R was up for a visit. I am pretty sure she was just humoring me but boy, did we have a good time!
The park is very well done. I happen to be a Dolly fan, but even if you are not, there are plenty of rides and activities to keep you entertained. We could not have asked for better weather and the lines for the rides were practically nonexistent. Dollywood ended up being a highlight of the trip for me and I would strongly recommend you visit if you are in the area.
A short drive later found us in Knoxville—which was another city that surprised us. I did not have any expectations so I was pleasantly surprised by what it had to offer. We did some shopping, got some dinner and enjoyed a nice walk around their active downtown.
Instead of heading directly west towards Nashville, we headed back down south to the top of Alabama. Our first stop was the Unclaimed Baggage Center. I was really looking forward to visiting this weird and wonderful store. However, our timing was bad and we arrived on their busiest day of the year—the day ski clothes come out (although I have no idea why ski clothes are so popular in a place that has very little skiing). R and I did not need new ski clothes so we did our best to browse amongst all the people. But we were overwhelmed real fast and soon found ourselves back on the road to continue our road trip through the South. It was unfortunate. Luckily, we had plenty of adventures left on our list.
Up next was Muscle Shoals, a worthy stop for any music lover. We had lunch and stopped at a record store where I picked up a Jason Isbell record because, well, duh.
The adventures continued back in Tennessee with a stop at Shiloh National Military Park (my favorite of all the civil war sights we visited) before we rolled in Memphis. Phew! As if all of these activities were not enough for one day, we decided a concert was in order. We headed to the Minglewood (highly recommend this venue) to enjoy two of our favorite bands: American Aquarium and Turnpike Troubadours. The crowd was pretty stellar and the whole experience made for a memorable night.
The next day found us exploring Memphis. We strolled Beale Street, rode the trolley, visited the Civil Rights Museum and ate tasty BBQ at Central BBQ. We also stopped by Graceland and payed our respects to the King. Memphis, although a little on the touristy side, is a pretty cool city and has a lot to see. It also appears to be reshaping itself and I see good things for it in the future.
From Memphis, we took a leisurely route south through part of Mississippi before crossing over into Arkansas. By this time, we were pretty exhausted and all that time on the road was taking its toll. Thankfully, our plans for Arkansas were very relaxed. We met up with R’s cousin in Pine Bluff. He and his wife put us up for the night and fed us. It was one of the best meals I had on the trip and the time spent relaxing and catching up was very much appreciated. After an easy night, we made our way back to Oklahoma City to return Mo and catch our flight back home.
10 states, 12 days and 3,544 miles later, we have a whole heap of new experiences and memories. We ate Southern foods whenever we could, stuck to country roads and kept our eyes peeled for critters we do not have in Idaho (critters like possums, turtles and armadillos). We know there is still so much more to see and do in the South, but we got a good taste and now know where to focus when we go back. (In fact, R was able to go back to New Orleans and take in all of the things she missed the first time.)
A road trip is never a bad idea (unless it is in the middle of a snowstorm but I will save that story for another time). It is especially a good idea if you want to get off the beaten path and see how the locals live. Our road trip through the South may have been fast and furious, but it was filled with memorable experiences and it was a great way to see and explore a beautiful part of this country.
As a proud Boisean, I am pleased to share my list of top ten things to do in Boise, Idaho. One of the first things I do when researching a place I’m going to visit is to try and find some must sees for that …
In the Part 1 of this discussion on Alaska, we recommended some places to visit if you are fortunate enough to visit this beautiful state. This post will talk about some fun Alaska experiences and adventures to have. In no particular order, here are a …
During the summers before and after I went to grad school, I spent the four months working at a helicopter company located next to Denali National Park in Alaska. It was glorious. I love Alaska; next to Idaho it is probably my favorite state. In addition to being an excellent way to escape real world responsibilities for a while, the job provided me a perfect opportunity to get out and explore the wonders this wonderful place has to offer.
If you are planning on heading up to the Final Frontier, here are some suggestions of cute Alaskan towns to visit. (Note: Part 2 of this post will discuss experiences and adventures to have.) One caveat to this list is that Alaska is huge. Like if you divided the entire continental U.S. in fifths, Alaska would be one of the fifths. So of course this list isn’t all inclusive; instead it gives a few suggestions for places to go in the area (roughly) around Denali National Park (DNP).
Okay, this isn’t actually a town. But just north of the DNP entrance is a strange conglomeration of hotels, restaurants and businesses that cater to the visitors that flood this place each summer. The makeshift town doesn’t have anything particular to recommend it, except that it is the basecamp for exploring the area. And towns are few and far between in this neck of the woods. The nearest town to Denali is Healy, population of about 1,000. Definitely not big enough to support the 550,000 visitors that came to Denali in 2015. When you visit the park, you can either camp or stay in one of the hotels in town. The important thing is that you get there somehow, because this park is truly spectacular. This “town” is where I spent most of my days and I recommend the Salmon Bake, the restaurant/bar where us quasi-locals would go hang out.
Denali is about a four-hour drive north of Anchorage and two hours south of Fairbanks.
Fairbanks is the closest big town to Denali. That’s about the only reason to visit this place…it is the fastest way to get to the Park. That sounds harsh; it’s not a bad little town and is home to the University of Alaska: Fairbanks so there is a pretty good population of students milling around. But when you compare Fairbanks to other areas, there’s really not a lot of reason to stay put once you land at the airport. I know two people from Idaho who now call Fairbanks home. The reason is they are both in the medical profession and you can get paid a wicked lot of money if you agree to live in Fairbanks. That right there tells me it can’t be the most desirable town around…
Fairbanks is in the center of the state. It is about a six hour drive north of Anchorage.
If this town was a person, it would be the uber-cool-without-even-trying kid in high school who girls want to date and boys want to be. Talkeetna is the stepping-off stone for hikers loco enough to want to summit Denali–that is to say it is chock-full of badasses most of the summer. It is also in a beautiful area (not tough to do in AK) and is small enough to be charming and friendly. I spent a rainy weekend there by myself in a tent and the town was cute enough to make it a delightful experience (if rain+tent+solo don’t seem super appealing). There is an interesting mix of outdoor activity and cool art and handcrafts around Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is about two hours north of Anchorage and two hours south of Denali.
Yep, there is a North Pole in Alaska. This town is kitschy, but kind of fun. The streetlights are permanently wrapped in red and white material so they look like candy canes and Santa is EVERYWHERE. Each year the town receives hundreds of thousands of letters from little tykes who want to tell Santa their heart’s desire. North Pole is definitely not a destination you should work to get to, but if you happen to be in the area you should swing through and get a picture next to Santa Claus Lane street sign or the North Pole post office.
North Pole is a suburb of Fairbanks, about 15 miles southeast.
The population of Wiseman is 14. And let me tell you friend, those 14 are hearty folk. Wiseman is a collection of houses along the Dalton highway (the one that is sometimes in that ice trucker TV show) and one of the last stops before you hit the top of Alaska. My friend and I visited Wiseman via a small plane from Fairbanks and were shown around by one of the 14 residents. Fascinating facts about this guy and life in Wiseman: 1) he was a subsistence hunter, meaning he hunted so that he could survive; 2) it was so cold in Wiseman that he didn’t need a refrigerator. He had a door in his floor where he kept his food. He had to insulate this area so it didn’t get too cold; and 3) online dating was alive and well, even in Wiseman. He had the internet (go figure) and had convinced a nice lady to come live with him (she was due to arrive a few weeks after we were there).
Wiseman is a seven hour drive north of Fairbanks. Alternatively, we flew a 1.5 hour flight to Coldfoot and drove the rest of the way.
Juneau might be the capital, but Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska. It has almost 300,000 people (about half of the state’s population). It is not particularly cosmopolitan, but you wouldn’t really expect it to be since it is Alaska. Anchorage is the place where the thousands of cruise shippers dock after their float up from Seattle. There are two military bases around Anchorage–Uncle Sam uses these to give the side eye to North Korea and Russia. Anchorage stays fairly light in the winter (compared to Fairbanks) but winters would still be pretty rough. I had a friend who was a pilot at the helicopter company who grew up and lived in Anchorage during the off season. She had a nice path behind her house that people could run on during the summer that stayed covered with snow during the winter that she would cross country ski on during the winter months.
Anchorage is a 3.5 hour flight from Seattle.
This town is named after William Seward. You know, the guy who pulled a fast one on the Russians and ended up with a kick-butt state. Seward is on the Kenai peninsula, a finger that is attached to mainland AK. The town only has about 3,000 residents, but this number swells during the summer. My favorite thing about Seward is that it is the home to the Kenai Fjords National Park. We took a little boat out to see the gorgeous greens fjords contrasting with the gorgeous blue of the glaciers bobbing around. Also in this area is the enormous Harding icefield (300 miles of glacier). You can go hike through it and be awed by its vastness. Just don’t make a wrong turn and get lost.
Seward is a 2.5 hours drive south of Anchorage.
Homer is on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula from Seward and is a booming metropolis of 5,000 residents and millions of fish. During the summer months, lots of locals and tourists pull up huge halibut from the ocean. In fact, little ol’ Homer is known as the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World. When you walk down the boardwalk along the water you’ll see lots of fishing operations with their huge halibut hanging on hooks. I’m not a fish lover, but these guys are pretty tasty. I was introduced to a delicacy called ‘halibut chunks’ during my time in AK. I typically avoid food that has the word ‘chunks’ in the title, but in this case I did well to forget my rule and enjoy.
Homer is four-hour drive from Anchorage.
The town of Whittier is perched on the edge of the Prince William Sound, about 60 miles south of Anchorage. It has not always been easy to get there; in 2000, a giant tunnel opened up that connected it. Previous to that, you couldn’t drive there, just go on a boat or train. (When I say giant tunnel, I mean it. it is the longest tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles and if you get claustrophobic, prepare yourself for a rough ride.) Once you emerge from the mountain, Smaug-style, you get to see the sound. It is pretty. Pretty enough that lots of cruise ships make Whittier a port of call. We took a nice little boat tour and watched some glaciers calve and seals swim. But….I think Whittier is creepy. There are two big tower buildings in Whittier that were constructed in the 50s; one of which has now been abandoned and the other one looks like it should be abandoned and houses the majority of Whittier’s residents. It just seems weird to me that a whole town lives in one apartment complex. I imagine all kinds of shady things happening there.
Whittier is about 1.5 hour drive southeast of Anchorage.
There are lots more towns I wish I would have been able to explore, like Kodiak or Bettles (near Gates of the Arctic National Park) and I fully plan on taking a cruise through the inside passage to check out Juneau. Hopefully that will be Part 3 of this post. (Fingers crossed.)
Taking the train across Canada was a dream come true for me. I do not remember when I first learned that it is possible to ride a train across Canada, but I was young and it remained a dream of mine for many years. After …
The Pendleton Round-Up has been on my bucket list for years and I have finally checked it off! I am going to tell you all about it, but first, let’s talk for a minute about bucket lists. Now you may not be quite as obsessed …
As has been mentioned a time or two, I’m a bit of a fan of National Parks. Likewise, B and I are big fans of getting away for short weekend trips. These two likes came together last weekend when we ventured northwest to the North Cascades National Park in Washington. Read on to learn what we did and how much it cost to enjoy the beautiful ‘Alps of America.’
We had several reasons, in addition to the two previously mentioned, for wanting to visit this park. In 2015, the North Cascades National Park attracted 27,000 visitors. Compare that to the 10 million visitors to the Great Smoky National Park, and you can see why we wanted to explore somewhere very few (by comparison) others have. The next reason we wanted to visit has to due with that comparison with the Alps. We figured anything that looks remotely like the Alps is probably worth seeing and boy howdy, were we impressed. Lastly, for being so infrequently visited, North Cascades is pretty easy to get to this time of year and, for us, conveniently located just one state over.
North Cascades National Park has a north unit and a southern unit, and these are combined with the Ross Lake National Recreational Area to form the North Cascades National Complex. This complex is in the northern center of the state and the edge of the park forms the border with Canada. The Park Complex is not an island in the middle of nothing, though, it is surrounded by Wilderness or Forest areas. Basically, everything in this whole region is mountainous, covered with trees and or glaciers, and gorgeous.
We had a few options to get to the park; the two that made the most sense were to drive east from Seattle or west from Spokane. Since we only had two days for this trip and I’m sick of flying through Sea-Tac, we opted to fly into Spokane and head west, young man. Luckily, Southwest has a direct flight from B-town up to Spokane that left in the evening (meaning we didn’t have to miss any work). The Southwest flight was a very reasonable $56.98 and took one hour, which with the time zone change meant we landed at the same time we took off. Go figure. The cheapest flight back in the evening was on Alaska for $61.10.
Advice: look around different websites like Expedia and Google Flights to see if you can get good deals for flights. However, it also helps to know what airlines fly direct to what cities from your hometown. Spokane is a pretty small airport, so we knew we’d probably have the best luck with Alaska and Southwest. You should be able to find out the direct flights to your airport by looking at the airport’s website. This is especially useful when you have a compressed amount of time for a trip and the flight schedule is more important than cost. Round trip for our jaunt to Washington: $118.08.
Once we arrived in Spokane, we picked up our rental car that we would be spending a lot of time during the next few days. I will typically check a few of the conglomerate websites like Expedia and Orbitz to see what the going rate is for rental cars, but then I’ll do a search on Hotwire. I would say four out of five times the Hotwire price beats the others. We opted for the midsize Nissan Sentra for our weekend for $70.66. We did a lot of driving over the next few days and our fuel costs were $42.00. Given the hill situation and my passing cars as we rushed to the airport on Sunday, I feel like the Sentra did a very good job for us on fuel efficiency.
In Spokane we stayed at the Red Lion River Inn, a very nice place for the amount of time we stayed there. This was another Hotwire purchase and it put us back $68.00. We’ve talked about how choosing hotels on Hotwire can be a bit of a crapshoot because you can’t really control certain things. In this situation, we made sure to get two beds, but because the Red Lion has a restaurant in it, the $68.00 didn’t include a complimentary breakfast. Luckily we found a great co-op and got some yummy eats for the road.
Advice: local co-op markets can have a lot of really good stuff; much more than just food. They typically try to promote the ‘buy local’ spirit in other areas and I’ve purchased many a cute jewelry items from co-op markets.
Our lodging the second night was a much bigger struggle for me to find. There’s really not a lot of options in these parts; what few inns there were in the small towns in the middle of the Cascades didn’t have any vacancies. I looked on all the youzh websites and came up dry, except for a single wide trailer listed on Airbnb for $100. Beggars can’t be choosers, so we went ahead and reserved it. The only other option would have been to backtrack to where we came from or drive an hour past the park, neither of which sounded appealing.
The main reason for wanting to take this trip is so we could get out and explore this beautiful area. I did some heavy research into moderate day hikes and came up with a highly recommended Maple/Heather Trail Loop. This trail is in the Okanogan National Forest, adjacent to the Northern Cascades Park. I found a really great website for Washington Trails at www.wta.org. If ever I plan to hike in Washington again, I’ll definitely head to that site as a first step. Here’s what they say about our trail: “If ever there was a hike to satisfy all a hiker’s desires, this one comes as close as any. A loop hike with many fabulous changing faces throughout the seasons, Heather-Maple Pass features ridgelines blanketed in wildflowers in summer, lakes ringed with golden larches in fall, and before the highway closes for the season, a dramatic place to experience early winter’s snows.”
We seemed to have chosen just about the perfect time of year to do this hike because we saw a little of everything: the last of the wildflowers were in bloom, the trees were beginning to turn colors and in the distance we could see white from glaciers. The Cascade Highway does close when the snow makes it impassable, so it would be a gamble to wait until the fall colors were fully turning, but I can just imagine how incredible this trail would be then. Might be worth a second trip someday.
The loop was about 7.5 miles and had 2,000 feet elevation change. Once we were high on the ridge line, B commented that it was much better she didn’t realize we were going all the way up to where we were when we parked the car and looked up. I agreed. Speaking of the parking lot, we were able to use my National Park pass to waive the trail use fee because this hike was on National land; just another reason to get an annual parks pass. Along the hike we saw many chipmunks, a kamikaze bird, and tons of other hikers. But wait, you might be thinking, how can that be if nobody visits this place? Well, it turns out loads of people visit this area, but only a few actually go into the park. So we aren’t quite as unique and cool as I was thinking we would be. That’s about how it usually turns out.
On Sunday we went to the Visitor’s Center so I could get a stamp in my National Parks Passport Book (obvs.) and check out the offerings for sale. Typically visitor’s centers have a lot of the same swag, but the North Cascades National Park VC went above and beyond the call of duty. Maybe it is the proximity to the cool artists in Seattle? I’m not sure but B and I both bought some very cool, non-standard VC stuff. Afterwards, we went on a quick two mile loop down to the Skagit River and marveled at the old growth trees that were impressively tall. At this point we had to book it back to Spokane to catch our flight (frowny face).
All in all, North Cascades National Park is a great way to get out and explore nature at its best. Here’s how we came out in the end:
Flight: 118.08 +
Car: 112.66/2 +
Lodging: 168/2 =
Total: $258.41
Sure it cost more than that because we had to buy food and cute stuff, but I’m not adding that in here because I would have to do that at home too. Food prices were a little more than Boise, but comparable to the Seattle area. Overall, it was a pretty cheap way to see a really beautiful place.
Weekend trips are the bomb. They do make Mondays a little rougher than normal (especially if you land at the airport and immediately go downtown to see Will Hogue perform like we did) but they are well worth it to get away. The North Cascades National Park and the Maple/Heather Trail Loop make an excellent destination for a quick weekend trip. The mountains are calling…….
Last weekend I was feeling a bit nostalgic so I watched Roman Holiday on Netflix. In this movie, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck spend a whirlwind day doing all the things Audrey wanted to do in the Eternal City. It made me think about my …