Category: Airstream Meetups

Categories
Airstream Meetups Minnesota

Traveling Meetups in Minneapolis

We’ve had an intense social streak this last month! I feel like we’ve met some amazing people the last couple of weeks and turned Instagram friends into real life friends. One of my favorite parts of traveling is meeting like-minded people and Minneapolis gave us a huge dose of this!

Over a period of about 4 weeks in and around the Minneapolis, MN area we had multiple meetups with various combinations of friends. My favorite part was that we almost always seemed to DO something or get out and explore somewhere. Definitely my favorite way to hang out.

Explored Elm Creek Park Reserve with @NationalParkMommy

A travel lover friend from Instagram, Jen has been a huge help in finding cool places to go near Minneapolis. Her husband works for an airline, so they will occasionally just up and go on an adventure with their two boys. We met up at Elm Creek Park Reserve on the northwest side of Minneapolis for an afternoon. The kids played at the amazing park, and we toured the Nature Center and went on a walk (I can’t even bring myself to call it hike – even though that was the original plan!).

IMG_20150701_172919

Got Eaten by Mosquitoes with @BoldAdventure @HerBoldAdventure – The Key Family

Mike & JorDanee were sprinting across I90 to get out west and slowed down just long enough for us to drive a couple of hours south to Myre – Big Island State Park. We grilled pizza, celebrated Mike’s birthday with a cake that JorDanee made, chatted about traveling, life, the universe and being parents on the road. I’m super impressed they are traveling with two small kids (their oldest was already in bed when I smapped these photos!) and totally making it work.


Played Hard at Lebanon Hills with @LivingOurDash – The Dykstra Family

After escaping the mosquitoes in Myre – Big Island we came back north to Lebanon Hills Regional Park to meet up with Leesa, Matt and their two boys. Their kids are about the same ages as ours, and instantly they were all out playing in the trees in a fort they had discovered. I swear I didn’t see our kids for the next three days! We stayed up late playing games (the adults), and the kids played so hard they went to bed exhausted every night. The Dykstra’s were headed west after meeting up with us, so we look forward to seeing them again when we head back out that direction!

11720687_10206143759687461_385880866_n

Earned the Mississippi River Jr. Ranger Badge with @LivingOurDash & @rumblestripramblings

I knew the Jr. Ranger Badge needed to be one of our school days, and it was fun to have friends along. While it turned out to be my least favorite book and location to date (just really boring) at least we had friends along for the ride! Meg & Tim from Rumblestripramblings are currently gutting and renovating their Airstream. They’d love to travel full time in the future, but those plans are still a ways out. Elise (their youngest) and Cara totally hit it off from the get go!

IMG_20150709_114521-01

Sunday Dinner with @TheEcoTravelers & @Jason_Cohen/@JenCCohen

Jason & Jen were dashing into Minneapolis for the weekend and asked if we’d be around so we set up a dinner at Lake Elmo Regional Park for a Sunday afternoon. Since more is merrier, we also messaged Travis & Jenna from The EcoTravelers and they were able to join us as well! Our kids’ biggest disappointment was that there were no other kids coming (guess what? Mom & Dad can have friends too!) so they hung out in the trailer and watched a movie while the 6 of us sweated in the insane humidity outside.

Screenshot_2015-07-21-15-31-28

Lake Elmo Regional Park Family Night with @nationalparkmommy, @rumblestripramblings, & @artofeverydaylife

True story – when we were parked near the entrance booth at Lake Elmo Park Reserve to register and check in, we had someone tap us on the shoulder and introduce herself as an Airstream owner and *almost* full time traveler (I really love it when that happens!). Krysti and I got to chatting and immediately we invited her & her family over for a dinner that Meg from rumblestripramblings and I had been planning. Last minute I also managed to get a hold of Jen & Aaron from NationalParkMommy and we ended up with a huge party of adults and kids. We swam, we ate, the kids played at the park, we slack lined (its harder than it looks!) and generally just had a great time!

IMG_20150714_193620

Although the combination of family and friends in such a short time was a little overwhelming, I’m so grateful to all the amazing people we were able to meet. How fun to make new friends, and hopefully we’ll get to see some of these guys down the road!

Categories
Airstream Meetups California National Parks

A Little TOO Social Sometimes? Meet up in the Mojave National Preserve

Mojave_28
When I think of a nomad, wandering existence it can appear to be pretty lonely. Constantly in new places, no neighborhood friends to see everyday, and a new church congregation every week.

We’ve found, however, that sometimes just the opposite is true. Life can get a little TOO social sometimes. With many full-time families and couples on the road or preparing to hit the road, there are myriads of opportunities for social engagements.

Add the weather into account, and we have realized that during the winter most everyone is in southern California, Arizona, or Florida and chances are we’ll run into a few (or a lot) of travelers.

Recently, we had a rather fun meet-up in Mojave Desert National Preserve with 4 other families. Its fun how traveling with one other family (we’d been hanging out with the ADVODNA crew for at least a week already) can snowball into a large potluck with hoards of children running around like crazies. It’s fantastic!

We met up with David & Bridget from @journeywithhappiness:

Mojave_27

Amber & Todd from @campytrails:

Mojave_25

Jason & his girls from @ramblingfamily (the approved non-Airstream interloper – his wife and eldest daughter were in Texas for work & orthodontist appts):

Mojave_24

and, of course, Dave & Ann from @advodna_dave / @advodna_ann

Mojave_26

The other nice thing about meeting up with other traveling families is they all know we aren’t on vacation. Most everyone works, kids have nap time, other kids have to do school work. People are generally laid back, no stress, and don’t need to hang out every second of every day. We generally all did our own thing in the evenings, but one night we decided to get together for a campfire and potluck dinner. We even put the kids to bed and had some adult time around the campfire afterwards as well!

Mojave_30

Another fun thing to do in Mojave National Preserve is hiking! Surprisingly, there are some great trails in the area both near Hole in the Wall Campground and elsewhere in the park. The kids and I left early one morning to drive the 40 minutes to the Teutonia Peak Trail. The trail is flat for about a mile and then climbs about 700 ft up into the hills for a great view of the park. I was pretty impressed with my kids, and even more impressed with myself for taking them while Sam worked!

Mojave_19

Near the Hole in the Wall Visitor Center
there’s also the Rings Loops Trail that we hiked one afternoon as a group. The trail circles the base of one of the buttes, and then climbs out of a canyon using these rings bolted into the side of the rock. With 3 dogs and a few small kids we had a good time getting everyone up and over but we made it!

Mojave_05

Mojave_15

We had also heard rumors that the Kelso Depot (main visitor center), as well as the Kelso Dunes were worth a visit, but they were too far from our campground to reasonable drive in. Mostly, we just enjoyed relaxing, talking with friends, and enjoying the amazing desert sunsets. Before we all headed our separate ways, David pulled out his drone and let Sam take his hand at creating a “dronie” video. Check it out!

This park suprised us with its beauty and wide variety of activities. It is definitely worth a visit (or two) if you are in the area!

Categories
Airstream Meetups

Airstream Meet Up with Brad, Joan, & Archie

Brad and Joan_02

We spent quite a bit of time in the Pacific Northwest this fall, and even stayed twice at Valley of the Rogue State Park which is located between Medford and Grants Pass, OR. As we were coming south from Washington, we received an email from Brad who graciously invited us to come meet them and even park in their driveway in Grants Pass if our schedule allowed. Not really knowing who they were, we settled for dinner on a Saturday evening just to make sure they weren’t crazy people.

We should have just moved in from the beginning. We LOVED our time with them, and the kids especially loved their puppy, Archie.

Brad and Joan are Airstream owners who split their time between their beautiful 5 acre lot in Grants Pass, and their cabin in Idaho for the summer. They take the occasional trip south during the winter as well, and any other time they can get away.

Brad and Joan_01

After dinner the first night, we settled back in the Airstream for a few more days, and then moved over to their property for one more afternoon and evening of awesome company before heading farther south.

Isn’t their property gorgeous? I told Joan this might just be my dream house and lot, and Brad offered us a great deal to sell it to us on the spot as they’d love to downsize and move closer to family. Not quite ready for that, but a girl can dream of the future, right?

Brad and Joan_09

View from the wrap around porch overlooking the shop & our Airstreams. Don’t they look so cozy next to each other?

Brad and Joan_10

We did a homemade pizza night and Joan had the kids working some magic in the kitchen while I was told to go relax. Not a bad deal.

Brad and Joan_12

Before we left the following morning, the kids and I helped Joan tag trees for removal all over their property. These Manzanita bushes burn easily, so they wanted to thin them out and reduce the fire hazard. The kids had fun and Cara even managed to learn to tie them on by herself!

Brad and Joan_16

Brad & Joan were gracious, amazing hosts and we can’t wait to see them again. We had so much fun swapping stories and are hoping that we can meet up with them again this summer in Idaho if we can make that work with our other plans.

Yet again, we are finding that the people we meet while traveling make it the best of experiences. We only hope that we add to others lives as much as they add to ours as we area able to meet and visit and share stories and create new ones.

Categories
Airstream Meetups

Meeting ASoloJourner

One of the exciting parts of taking the ferry to Port Townsend was meeting a fellow traveler. We had been following the adventures of Kerri (ASoloJournerer on Instagram) since the beginning of our travels. She travels with her dog Byron in her Airstream named Calypso. She spent a good deal of the summer up in Washington, and was hanging around Port Townsend as its one of her favorite spots.

Meeting fellow travelers is always interesting. Most of us don’t take selfies that often, and being a solo traveler, we rarely saw a picture of Kerri before meeting in person. We really should teach Byron to take a few more pictures. Not that it mattered – we were instant friends with plenty to talk about.

One evening we were in the mood for some good fish and chips and Googled up a local dive of a restaurant called Sea J’s Cafe, and Kerri was awesome enough to join us on our little adventure. We were a little skeptical, but it turned out to be absolutely fabulous! We sampled some fish & chips, the hamburgers, and the pumpkin milkshake was one of the best I’ve ever had!

Ferry Crossing_13

Our kids instantly adored her, and she was awesome with them. After meeting her, our kids immediately set about making some bracelets on their rainbow looms as gifts, which she accepted quite graciously.

Ferry Crossing_12

Luckily for us, we met up with Kerri again at Cape Disappointment after our paths crossed a bit later as we both traveled down the Washington and Oregon coastline. Thanks again for being so great!

Categories
Airstream Meetups Oregon

Vaux’s Swift Birds & RovingRiveted in Portland, Oregon

During our time in Portland, several local friends recommended that we visit Chapman Elementary School and watch the birds. This seemed both unique and local, which are two of the best reasons for us to try something during our travels.

‘The Birds’ turned out to be Vaux’s Swifts, a variety of bird that roosts at night inside hollow trees. Over the years, the tall and hollow chimney at Chapman Elementary School became a popular roosting spot for these particular birds. Each evening in the fall, thousands of birds swarm and eventually enter the chimney to roost for the night.

Swift Birds Portland_18

We began the evening down the street from Chapman Elementary at Stepping Stone Cafe, famous for some seriously large pancakes. We fed the entire family of a stack of pancakes and chicken fried steak, and then walked up the hill to the school. We arrived early, which provided us ample time to experience the pre-show activity. The grassy slope at the side of the school grounds is prime for cardboard sledding, and sledding there was. Our kids quickly jumped in and had plenty of fun. The boxes began to wear out as the evening continued, which was just as well as the hill became quite crowded as the bird-watching group grew in size.

Swift Birds Portland_04

As a bonus, we were met by the RovingRiveted crew, local weekend Airstreamers who drove up to join us. We had almost met a few days before in their neighborhood. We were invited to dinner by a family from church, and we parked in the neighborhood. Susy was alerted by a friend that we were in town, and ran down the street to say hello JUST as we were pulling out. Some communication via Instagram led to Susy, James, and their son, Ethan, meeting up with us for the event. Ethan jumped right into the sledding fray as we talked and swapped Airstream travel stories.

Swift Birds Portland_26

As the evening progressed, the hill filled with watchers and the bird activity amplified. It is a little difficult to describe the movement of the birds as they prepare to enter the chimney. It might be best described as a bird-nado, the flying birds forming a cloud that moved and swirled and twisted and moved around the sky. As the storm of birds passed by the chimney, a stream of birds would drive down to find a roosting spot. The stream would eventually break, and the birds would swirl and flow away and then back again for another round.

Swift Birds Portland_23

Most of the people there to watch stayed seated and patient till the last of the birds entered the chimney. Applause broke out in the crowd, and people began to leave.

Watching the birds was a unique and education experience, and we loved the evening. We are grateful to the RovingRiveted crew that drove up to spend some time with us after a near-meet in their own neighborhood!

Swift Birds Portland_16