• Heading to Maryland
    Travel

    Philly to National Harbor – Headed to Maryland

    June 26, 2018 - By 

    After spending the morning in Philly, we headed towards Baltimore, MD, but we had a couple planned stops along the way. One of our goals during our commute from Boston to D.C. was to drive through as many states as we could and see as many capitols as we could. Here’s the route we took. As you can see in the map above, we went a little bit out of the way to hit the Delaware capital, Dover. This is William V. Roth, Jr. Bridge in Delaware going over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal that we passed along the way.…

  • 24 hours in Philly
    Travel

    24 hours in Philly

    June 12, 2018 - By 

    Today’s post covers my trip from Montville, NJ to Philadelphia, PA; our 2nd day of exploring from Boston down to DC. If you missed my first post from this trip, you can read about our day in Boston here: Day in Boston. First thing was first. We got up and drove from our hotel in Mahwah, NJ to Montville, NJ which wasn’t too far. The significance of stopping in Montville was to go see where Rob’s grandparents lived back when he was a toddler. This is their house now: Then we thought it would be good to have breakfast at…

  • Day In Boston
    Travel

    Day in Boston

    May 17, 2018 - By 

    Back in April, Rob had a conference in DC. Well we always like to extend it out so he can have a little vacation before he’s at work at the conference. Well, we got a crazy idea to start our trip in Boston. Being that Rob is a huge baseball fan, he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see the Red Sox. It worked out for us to fly into Boston and spend a little less than 24 hours there before venturing towards the DC area. We flew into Boston Logan International Airport late Friday night, got to our hotel…

  • Spring Training Trip :: Twins ~ Red Sox ~ Braves
    Travel

    Spring Training 2018

    April 2, 2018 - By 

    Earlier this month we ventured back down to Florida for another Spring Training trip. This year we went to 3 parks; two of which we have not been to. Here’s a quick rundown of each place and tons of pics! We left Auburn after work on Friday and got to Rob’s Gramma’s house in Spring Hill, FL. We popped out of bed to visit and make an early exit to head to our first game in Fort Myers. Once we got to For Myers, we went by the hotel and could not check in yet. We went over to the…

  • Atlanta Trip Report - Read about a short stay in Downtown Atlanta.
    Travel

    Atlanta | Trip Report

    November 15, 2017 - By 

    A couple weeks ago, Rob went to Atlanta for a conference and I decided to come along and do fun stuff while he works. You may remember he’s been to this conference in Atlanta a few years ago, but it was in Midtown. However, this year they did the conference in downtown Atlanta. We stayed at the swanky Marriott Marquis Atlanta. I always remember this hotel for the really cool view as you look up or down from the 42nd floor. Apparently, a couple scenes from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 were…

  • Travel

    Totality {Eclipse Weekend}

    September 10, 2017 - By 

    In August, we got to experience something that not many never people get to see; a Total Solar Eclipse. We decided to make a weekend of it and head to North Georgia to a location where we were in the line of totality. We shared a VRBO cabin with Rob’s sister and her family. Saturday we drove up to North Georgia. After dropping our stuff off at the cabin, we drove around to scout out some places to watch the eclipse, ate dinner, and visited Rob’s old stomping grounds at Young Harris College. We also went to a planetarium show…

  • Life

    West Coast Trip:Day 13

    June 17, 2017 - By 

    Day 13 of our West Coast trip was the day we were headed home. Our flight didn’t leave till later in the afternoon, which gave us time to do something. When Rob lived out in Portland, his favorite place to shop was Fred Meyer. Fred Meyer is similar to a Walmart, but way better. It is truly a one stop shop. From furniture to groceries to name brand clothing it has it all. After having breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we headed over to Fred Meyer so the kids could see what an awesome store it was and…

  • Travel

    West Coast Trip:Day 12

    June 10, 2017 - By 

    As I mentioned before since our days were so long (in a good way) but since we covered so much ground and so many amazingly beautiful places my daily travel posts aren’t including as much detail and as many pictures as I’d like. I want to write individual posts on many of the spots on this trip in more detail with more pictures. One day when I’m caught up, I’ll go back and share more. Today’s post covers our last full day of our west coast trip. We slept later that day than any other day on trip, which was…

  • Day Exploring Mount St. Helens
    Travel

    West Coast Trip:Day Trip to Mount St. Helens

    June 3, 2017 - By 

    On July 4th we rose early to make our way to Windy Ridge Viewpoint at Mount St. Helens. I can’t tell you how hopeful I was that we’d be able to see this mysterious mountain that I’ve visited twice, but only seen for short spurts from a far and saw for literally 30 seconds last time we were at Johnston observatory. The other times we’ve been to Mount St. Helens we weren’t able to get to Windy Ridge because the road was always still closed. (Map) The day started off quite overcast in Portland as it usually always does, but…

  • Driving from Newport, Oregon to Portland? Here's somethings you should stop at see on the way!
    Travel

    West Coast Trip:Newport to Portland

    May 2, 2017 - By 

    Continuing with our family adventures on the West Coast as we leave Newport and head to Portland, Oregon. 1st stop was the Yaquina Bay and Yaquina Head Lighthouses. Such a beautiful lighthouse and natural area. It was quite foggy that morning, which made for some cool pictures. 2nd stop was the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. We found this be a beautiful campus with lots of cool buildings, old and new. We also went to OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, which has free to get in. They just ask for donations. I highly recommend this if you’re…

  • Travel

    Spring Training Trip 2017

    March 22, 2017 - By 

    In recent years, my family has traveled down to Florida to stay with Rob’s Gramma and enjoy some baseball during Spring Training. This year was no exception. It’s always interesting to visit new spring training ballparks as they are all different for better or worse. Wednesday, we left after work and drove to Rob’s Gramma’s house in Spring Hill, Fl. We got there in the middle of the night and went straight to sleep. The next morning we visited a bit and then got on the road to Sarasota. We checked into the hotel (Ramanda). This hotel is located on…

  • Carnival Paradise {5 Day Western} Christmas Cruise
    Travel

    Carnival Paradise {5 Day Western} Christmas Cruise

    January 14, 2017 - By 

    Embarkation Day We spent the weekend before Christmas in Spring Hill, FL visiting with Rob’s Gramma, Grampa, Mom, and others. We celebrated Gramma McMahon’s birthday that Sunday. Then, on Monday we loaded up and headed down to the Tampa Cruise port. We always arrive at the port around 11am. Even though the cruise documents say you start checking in at 1pm that’s not true. Here’s everyone walking from the long-term garage to the cruise port and then Drew and Caitlyn after we checked in and were waiting for our group to be called so we could board the Carnival Paradise.…

  • Day in San Francisco
    Travel

    West Coast Trip:Day 4

    November 16, 2016 - By 

    The 4th day on our exciting and jam-packed West Coast trip started off with a ride on cable car down to Fisherman’s Wharf. We had a fairly early ticket reservation for the ferry over to Alcatraz, so we got up early enough to catch a cable car and get some breakfast and walk around down at the wharf. We ended up just grabbing McDonald’s. Although, the bread at Boudin’s looked and smelled amazing. They weren’t open yet. Mural down at the Wharf when we got off the cable car. Love the sunflare from the morning sun.

  • West Coast Trip - Day 3 - Travel along as we leave Yosemite to Cupertino (Apple HQ), Stanford U, Painted Ladies, and more.
    Travel

    West Coast Trip:Day 3

    October 22, 2016 - By 

    If you missed my 1st couple of posts about our West Coast Trip, you should check those out first. – Day 1 – Day 2 – So on Day 3 of our West Coast Trip we woke up in our tent in Yosemite’s Half Dome Village. I woke up a little chili and actually quite sore from the hike the day before, but the brisk fresh air was welcoming. We got dressed and jumped in the car. We wanted to stop and check out Yosemite Falls on our way out of the park. We took a short hike to the…

  • West Coast Trip - Day 2 - Yosemite Day
    Travel

    West Coast Trip:Yosemite Day

    October 5, 2016 - By 

    If you missed my post from Day 1 of our West Coast Trip you can find it here. Here’s our jam packed day #2! I woke up totally discombobulated from very little sleep, but we still managed to be out of the hotel by 6:30 am. We were eager to get to Yosemite and begin our Yosemite Day before the crowds since we were there during the summer; peak season. The week before we were there President Obama and his family were at Yosemite. We had read that he had donuts from Donuts a Go Go down the street from…

  • Travel

    West Coast Trip:Day 1

    August 6, 2016 - By 

    The day we left for Cali we got up, did a few things around the house, and headed to Atlanta to pick up Rob’s brother who would then drive us to the airport. We made a stop for lunch at Fire Dragon. Once we got to the airport everything went smoothly. Curbside check in was closed, so we went inside to find a line, but it went fairly quickly. The line for security seemed crowded, but it also went pretty fast. The kids really enjoyed riding the moving sidewalks. Since we had lots of time to kill we went to…

  • Travel

    Cruising Days at Sea

    July 10, 2016 - By 

    To wrap up the last 3 days of our Journey cruise, we were looking forward to 3 relaxing days at sea as we departed the Caribbean after leaving St. Maarten and headed to Maryland. The first day at sea Rob experienced his first ever bought of sea sickness. He stayed in bed most of the day and found some relief with the medication I got from him at the customer service desk on board. This picture doesn’t do the waves justice. The waves continued to hit our window throughout the day. The first day at sea was Throwback day with…

  • Travel

    Driving around St. Kitts

    June 10, 2016 - By 

    Here’s another epic post from our Cruise. Be ready for picture overload! Today we got up before the alarm went off. We were coming in simultaneously with a P&O cruise ship. We got dressed and went down to Mermaid Grill for breakfast buffet, then went down to our cabin and packed for the day. We were ready to go before they made the all clear announcement. We went down to get off the ship but since the Jewel of the Seas cruise ship was just then docking we had to wait for it to dock. Once we were cleared we…

  • Spring Break 2016
    Travel

    Spring Break 2016

    April 16, 2016 - By 

    Over Spring Break, we headed down to Rob’s grandmother’s house in Spring Hill, Florida for a few days. It was a 2 fold trip; partly to visit family and partly to see some spring training games sing Rob’s grandparents live in close proximity to many of the spring training venues. After the game in Clearwater, we stopped at the beach for a little while. The boys brought along the soccer ball and played because the water was pretty cold. It was a beautiful sunset though. Rob’s uncle Mike, recently joined the country band Soul Circus Cowboys as their bass player.…

  • Travel

    Dominica Highlights

    March 29, 2016 - By 

    Dominica (doh-muh-NEE-ka) is known as the Nature Island. We eagerly woke up before the alarm…again. Did our normal routine of going to the dining room for breakfast. I had the same thing I had the day before, but Rob switched it up a bit and ordered French toast. We got off the ship and loaded the bus for our tour called Dominica’s Favorites. Our guide was amazing. Throughout the day he impressed upon us that Dominica is the nature island where they eat healthy and use all natural remedies for medicines when necessary. We saw this rainbow as we made…