Five Years of Blogging & Ten Years of Road Trips!

This week marks 5 years since we started this family travel blog. We started road tripping in summer 2012, so it’s a double celebration of 10 years of road tripping and 5 years of sharing our adventures on our little corner of the ‘web.

We’re proud to share that we’ve gained a LOT of followers and readers over the past two years (since we last did a Google analytics deep drive) and we thought this week would be a perfect time to share a blog recap. Note: At the start of 2022 we transferred our blog to a WordPress host and some of the photo displays are off- we’ve been working diligently to fix the layouts, but it takes time.

Our most popular National Parks posts:

See our full list of National Park Service sites posts here.

Our most popular City Guide posts:

See our full list of 35+ City Guides here.

Our most popular attraction posts:

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We hope you’ll keep following along on our adventures- we’d love to share our tips and recommendations. Please follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter for the full scoop!

New England based, part high school English teacher, part non profit founder, part road tripper who LOVES hopping in the family SUV to explore America. Our bucket list includes National Parks, MLB stadiums, presidential libraries, and eating wherever the locals eat!

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    New York State Capitol Building

    Albany, New York, located just two hours north of famed New York City, was established by the Dutch in the early 1660s. I recently did some research for family centered activities in the area, as my family drives past Albany a few times a year on our way to visit close friends in Utica, New York. On a recent trip, we stopped to explore the New York State Capitol building, at the top of the State Street hill. The “current” Albany State Capitol took over 20 years to build, post Civil War. The building has gone through many phases of of restoration, as recently as the early 2000s.

    Tours of the Capitol are offered four times a day during the week and twice on Saturday. Tours are free, but reservations are highly recommended (go here), as they are usually limited to 25 people and quickly fill up. Tours are very different during the week, when everything is in session and the entire building is bustling with elected officials. If you prefer a calmer experience, the weekend tour is a safer bet, but you’ll miss the chance to possible see elected governmental officials.

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    Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts

    The city of Lowell, Massachusetts, located just 30 miles north of Boston, was built as a factory city (because of its location next to the Merrimack River and Pawtucket Falls) and became synonymous with the American Industrial Revolution. Named for Francis Cabot Lowell, who is partially credited for creating the power loom, city locals began funding and building water-powered mills in the area in the early 1800s. By 1880 Lowell had over 100 mill buildings, 18 textile corporations, 2 machine shops, and a booming population (it was the second largest city in Massachusetts in the mid 1800s), employing over 10,000 workers in the mills. 

    However, newer technological advances in more northern cotton mills took away from the businesses in Lowell and production started to decline. By the 1950s, all of the original mills and most of the textile companies closed and the buildings fell into disrepair until local citizens and businesses worked together to form the Lowell Heritage State Park in 1974. Four years later, Congress designated the space as Lowell National Historical Park and the park has continued to expand its historical exhibits, research, tours and programs for the public.

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    Playing “I Spy” at the Vermont State Capitol

    Vermont, the 14th state in the union, chose Montpelier as the state capital because of its central location and accessibility to the nearby Winooski River. The first State House, a traditional wooden meetinghouse, was open from 1808-1835, and then moved and expanded to a nearby, larger space from 1836-1856, until a fire destroyed most of the State House in January of 1857. The third, and current, State House was completed in 1859, built in an Italian Renaissance revival style, with all features made from masonry and cast iron; only the dome (57 feet high and covered in gold leaf) is made of wood. (Even the doors and staircase railing were painted to look like mahogany!)

    The Vermont Senate Chamber, which has 30 members, is the oldest senate chamber in America that is still actively used and still has all of the original furniture and lighting from 1859 (except for two filing cabinets and a computer). The 150 member House Chamber is the largest room in the State House. Vermont legislators have no private offices at the State House; they conduct business at their chamber desks or in groups in large committee rooms on the first floor. And unlike most state Capitols, there is no rotunda inside the Vermont State House, the dome is an exterior ornament. 

    Hubbard Park, located behind the State House, is home to walking trails, a fitness trail, an interpretive trail, a 54 foot stone tower, and picnic shelters. The State House complex welcomes visitors all year and encourages exploration of its grounds.

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    10 Things Every Kid Should Do at Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA

    On our first massive (almost) cross country trip in 2012, we stopped in Hershey, Pennsylvania for lunch. My daughter still has a Hershey kiss pillow that she purchased on that trip. We only had a couple of hours for lunch but vowed to return and spend some time in the chocolate capital of America! We made good on that promise this spring break.

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    National Park Guide: Arches National Park in Utah

    Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, one of the most popular National Parks in America with two million visitors each year, is home to over 2,000 cataloged arches formed by erosion and weathering over the past 65 million years. Learn more about how the arches were formed here. Today, the park covers over 76, 000 acres and, in addition to the arches, is home to almost 500 species of plants, almost 200 species of birds, 50 species of mammals, 21 species of reptiles, and 6 species of fish (yes- fish!)

    We visited in June of 2021, during the still on going COVID pandemic, and there were some restrictions, mainly with the Visitor’s Center and programs. We highly recommend visiting early in the morning (being inside the park by 6am early), spending the morning hiking, and then leaving the park for lunch and a rest during peak afternoon sun. Later afternoon and evening will provide cooler temperatures and smaller crowds. Be careful to stay away from cactus and yucca plants, both of which are prevalent throughout the park. Both plants have sharp tips that can poke and easily puncture skin.

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    Naumkeag in the Berkshires

    The summer home of attorney Joseph Choate, his wife Caroline, and their five children in the late 1800s, Naumkeag is the perfect representation of a country estate of the Gilded Age. The estate is named after the Algonquin word (meaning “good fishing spot”) used for Salem, Massachusetts where the Choat family originally lived.

    The original gardens included two terraces, a topiary garden, and an arborvitae alley. A farm, greenhouse, orchards, and vegetable gardens provided much of the food for the family. The family also enjoyed hiking, swimming, and horseback riding on many of the 48 acres of the estate, which is located in Stockbridge in western Massachusetts. The Choate’s daughter, Mabel, inherited the property and spent significant time creating many additional gardens. She deeded it to the Trustees of the Conservation upon her death in 1958 and the 44 room estate was turned into a museum opened to the public in 1960.

11 Comments

  1. Two great milestones, congrats! You’ve definitely visited some amazing places, excited to check out more of your guides!

    Reply

  2. Looks like you’ve had lots of great travels as a family! This is a great way to round up all of those adventures and it seems you all have been quite busy the last few years. Congratulations on your 5 year Blogiversary.

    Reply

  3. Congratulations on 5 years of blogging! It’s been so fun following your adventures, and I can’t wait to see where you’re headed next!

    Reply

  4. It really looks like you had a lot of fun with you family.
    I wish you another 100 years of traveling discovering the world with them.

    Reply

  6. Congratulations! I’m sure the last 10 years of road trips have been so rewarding to your family and especially your kids. There is no better educator than travel. Looking forward to following you for another 10 years of road trips and 5 more years of blogging.

    Reply

  8. Congratulations on these impressive milestones! I love this fun post to celebrate the occasion! I can’t wait to see what the next 5 years has in store!

    Reply

  9. What an amazing milestone! I loved seeing how your children grew over the years 🙂 Wishing you 10 more years of road trips, fun, and new memories.

    Reply

  11. Professional, inspiring, comprehensive, and most enjoyable. Congrats on a job well done! You have been a huge help to SO many others and I trust your contributions over the next five years will grow exponentially….

    Reply

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