Exploring history, our theme for the week, can provide fascinating adventures my family and I found, whether it’s in your own backyard or as you travel around the country.  My love of history stems from my parents’ interest in our country and the world. 
 When we took family trips, Mother and Father enjoyed stopping at forts, old settlements, historic homes and parks.
When Jim I’ve traveled with our daughter, we’d read historic markers and learn about the countryside we traversed.  These stops made nice breaks in sometimes lengthy drives.  Some of them included:

Following portions of the Oregon Trail
Visiting Living History Farms in …read more

When our daughter was young, we followed our trips on a United States map as we traveled.  (There were no GPS maps at that time!)  At home, we pinned the places we visited.  It was fun to see all the states and areas we visited, hiked, camped, explored, and climbed mountains.
Perhaps that helped to reinforce our memories, so that 40 years later, we still talk about those ventures across and up and down our country, traveling from our New Hampshire home as far west as Idaho.  These trips were for pleasure and business, and incorporated research for my travel writing …read more

My grandparents bought a boat not long before they retired, and every time we visited them we loaded up and cruised to Catalina Island. I’m not sure why my Grandpa decided to sell the boat, but when he did, they purchased an RV. As a kid I loved traveling in that big thing, playing cards on the compact dining table and sleeping on an actual bed while my Grandpa drove endless miles to god-knows-where.
When we made our first cross-country venture with our son, who was 18 months old at the time, I actually looked in to renting an RV. I …read more