Category: The 50 States

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Louisiana

You Must Eat Beignets in New Orleans – Louisiana

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Its cliche. I know. Everyone says the one thing you have to do in New Orleans, LA is eat beignets. So we did and it was soooo worth it!

When We Visited: November 2013

Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 3

Where We Stayed: New Orleans KOA

New Orleans is not the most kid friendly city – or so everyone told us. Having been there before on a photography retreat with other adults I knew there were places we definitely did not want to take our kids (Bourbon Street), but there’s also plenty of beauty and culture for kids to enjoy as well.

Our stay was a quick one. We had plans to be in Texas by Christmas and time was running short. The KOA was pleasant, the staff was nice, and we were close enough to downtown. Sam worked while I took the kids into the Children’s Museum (which was excellent). That evening we spent downtown all together and our first stop was Cafe Du Monde in the French Market for their famous beignets.

Cara fell asleep on the drive there and it was a bit difficult to wake her up. Unfortunately, once she was awake the beignets didn’t really appeal to her so she mostly ate powdered sugar by the spoonful.

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As a coffee shop, all Cafe Du Monde serves is coffee, hot chocolate, and beignets. Pretty simple menu. You just have to decide how many you want. We ended up with 6 orders and a couple of hot chocolates to share.

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While there are plenty of other things to also do in the French Quarter, this was probably our favorite! These beignets are definitely worth the hype and the price tag so make sure to stop in!

Categories
National Parks Utah

Astronomy Festival at Bryce Canyon National Park – Utah

The Annual Astronomy Festival at Bryce Canyon National Park is definitely worth a visit! Look through dozens of telecopes to see some of the brightest stars in the darkest skies in the United States!

Earlier this year during our planning phases, we had a conversation with my parents in which we discussed the possibility of attending the Astronomy Festival at Bryce Canyon the last week of June. My dad has been a member of the Salt Lake Astronomy Society (SLAS) for as long as I can remember and many of our camping trips included my dad pulling out his telescope and showing us the stars and telling stories. SLAS partners with Bryce Canyon to bring in volunteers and their telescopes for this free event for the public, and my dad goes to help out every couple of years. Every night during the weekend, the parking lot fills up with volunteer astronomers and their telescopes and anyone can come look at the stars. We attended the festival back in 2008 when Rachel wasn’t quite yet a year old so we were pretty excited hat my parents invited us to go back with them. This trip also became the milestone for us leaving the house in Utah permanently.

When We Visited: Late June 2014
Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 4
Favorite Part: Night Sky Viewing & Hiking Into the Valley

Although the festival ran Thur-Sat we picked only one night for the kids to stay up late (it wasn’t even really dark until about 10pm) to look through the telescopes. The kids had fun helping grandpa set up his telescope, and I enjoyed watching my dad do his thing. It was so fun to watch his whole countenance light up and get excited when he talked to visitors. Cara only lasted about 30 minutes, but the older two kids really enjoyed it and stayed up almost until 11:30pm. We saw Saturn, star clusters, nebulae, listened to the Dark Ranger’s constellation stories, and viewed what is now my favorite constellation: The Stargate.

In addition to the night sky viewing, the Astronomy Festival also included some solar viewing (looking at the sun through a special telescope), rocket launching, a planet walk, and other ranger talks in the evenings. We didn’t participate much in this due to either the length (the planet walk was an hour) or the time (after the kids should have been in bed). We were honestly also still recovering from selling everything and moving out and were just plain tired.

In addition to the Astronomy Festival, there is plenty to do in Bryce Canyon! We found a few shorter hikes that we all really enjoyed doing together.  Definitely hike down in as the views are incredible and its really not that difficult. We hiked the Queen’s Loop up through Wall Street with the kids and back along the rim for a total of about 3.5 miles. Just bring plenty of water as it really does get HOT down there. Hiking down the Navajo Loop to see the arch is also a quick and easy trek and we spontaneously decided to do that one without even any water (we were location scouting for star photos later that night). Bristlecone Pine Loop near the end of the park is also a beautiful hike especially in the evening.

The Astronomy Festival is a great time to visit Bryce Canyon National Park. With some of the darkest skies in the nation, you can really SEE the stars. Even without a telescope. Sam and I managed to sneak out a few nights as hike down in for some night sky photography as well. I never knew the Milky Way was so bright or had so many colors. Its definitely worth seeing!

Just for fun I thought I’d post the time lapse of the event that one of the volunteers set up and put together. I love watching the Milky Way rise up over the horizon!

Categories
California National Parks

John Muir National Historic Site in the Bay Area, California

Visit the John Muir National Historic Site to learn more about this amazing man who helped preserve our National Parks!
After visiting the Muir Woods last time we were in the Bay Area, I knew I wanted to visit the site that John Muir called home. About 30 minutes outside the downtown area, I was surprised at this oasis tucked in off a busy road.

When We Visited: July 2014
Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 4
How long: We spent about an hour and a half and my kids felt super rushed. Its quite a peaceful places and there are plenty of picnic tables!

Our deal was they had to earn a Jr. Ranger badge this week in order to skip school completely while we were out camping with the cousins. I thought I would have more complaining, but the kids actually seemed to really enjoy visiting this Historic Site.

It helps that John Muir had a pretty cool house.

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We spent quite a bit of time exploring the house. The Jr. Ranger Book has a scavenger hunt to find objects in the house, plus Rachel and Andrew enjoyed climbing up to the bell tower (Cara had a panic attack at the top and almost refused to climb down the steep stairs!).

My favorite was John Muir’s “Scribble Room”. It seemed to be his private sanctuary and a room where he could pen his thoughts without reservation. Muir spent quite a bit of his early life wandering the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and quite a bit of his later life writing about them to sway public opinion in favor of preserving these beautiful places.

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The National Park Service was officially created two years after his death, but was influenced largely by Muir and his constant advocacy for preserving natural wilderness areas.

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One voice really can make a difference. As we visit many of these National Parks during our travels, I’m grateful for those who saw beauty and strive to preserve it so that others may enjoy as well!

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Categories
Utah

Visiting the Discovery Gateway Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah

Why Salt Lake City's Discovery Gateway Children's Museum is Worth a Visit Just recently I had the opportunity to visit the Discovery Gateway Museum in Salt Lake City, UT with my kids. We had a blast! Although the museum is not the biggest we’ve been to (and we’ve been to quite a few) it kept our attention spans, and I feel like my kids learned a thing or two. Definitely requirements as museum visits are typically considered “school” for the day. We started in the Beehive ball house – which Cara especially loved. Moving the balls around, putting them through the air tubes, watching them roll back down keeps the kids buzzing around like little worker bees. Discovery Gateway Utah_02 Discovery Gateway Utah_23 They also have a room that combines water play as well as pretend play. Cara was super cute at the cash register, and Rachel did a great job grocery shopping and then loading all her groceries into the kitchen at “home”. I even got in on the action and delivered some mail! Discovery Gateway Utah_08Discovery Gateway Utah_14 Upstairs they have a communication station where you can send messages back and forth on a pulley: Discovery Gateway Utah_17 A Storytelling area: Discovery Gateway Utah_24 And you can even forecast the weather! Discovery Gateway Utah_25 My favorite recent edition, however, is the new Emergency Center outside on the plaza. While they’ve had the Life Flight Helicopter for some time, they’ve added in an emergency room. My kids were able to “stabilize” their patient during the flight to the hospital, and then wheel him in for x-rays and even surgery. We had lunch out here, and then the kids played for at least an hour. It was fantastic! Discovery Gateway Utah_20 I feel like the Gateway Discovery Museum does a great job of keeping their exhibits exciting for kids! They also currently had a Bob the Builder rotating exhibit which we didn’t have enough time to thoroughly explore. This museum is also a participant on the Salt Lake City Connect Pass, which is a great way to get out and explore the city for less money. Visit the Gateway Museum in the morning, stop by the Lion House Pantry for lunch, and hit up the Hogle Zoo in the evening when the weather cools off! I definitely recommend spending a few hours here if you are in the area!

Categories
Nevada Video

Wandering Update: Jess Almost Has a Heart Attack in the Ruby Mountains – Nevada

Wandering Update - Jess Almost Has a Heart Attack in the Ruby Mountains. Watch our video of the descent down out of the mountains!
Last week we spent 2 nights at Angel Lake high in the Ruby Mountains. It was beautiful and surprising given that generally our excursions across Nevada on I-80 are done as quickly as possible due to the lack of scenery. The Ruby Mountains, however, are definitely not lacking in scenery. Located south of Wells, foraging into these hills is definitely worth the time and effort if you can manage it. The only downside to this beautiful place is the drive up there. Located at nearly 8500 feet elevation, the road to get there is windy, twisty, and there are seriously NO guardrails. I really almost had a heart attack. Once we got to to the top (and were all still in one piece) I spent some of the next two days dreading the drive back down. I had visions of our brakes giving out and us careening over the edge to our deaths. Luckily, no such thing happened, and the trip down was pretty uneventful. Lucky for you, we made a video of our descent. Check it out!   The kids mention in the video that one of their favorite things was to hike to the waterfall. We also spent an afternoon swimming in the fairly frigid (yet quite refreshing) Angel Lake. Someday maybe we’ll even add a fishing pole to our arsenal of gear and catch us some dinner while we are at it. Angel Lake_06 Angel Lake_22 Angel Lake_32 As you can see the scenery is quite breathtaking. My kids (and Sam!) were fairly impressed with my impromptu hike to the top of the waterfall as well. I’m pretty sure Andrew was just jealous as scrambling into dangerous places is one of his favorite past times. We definitely enjoyed this trip and look forward to the next time we get to visit this amazing places!