October 17, 2025 • 36 mins
Episode 197: Explore America — 250 Places to Go in 2026 with Erin GiffordRelease Date: October 2025 Hosts: Rob & Traci Jones Guest: Erin Gifford — Travel Writer & Creator of Explore America: 250 Places to Go in 2026Episode Overview America turns 250 years old in 2026, and what better way to celebrate than by hitting the open road? From legendary landmarks like Mount Rushmore and The Alamo to wonderfully weird stops like Lucy the Elephant in New Jersey, Rob and Traci are joined by travel writer Erin Gifford to explore the first 25 destinations featured in her brand-new guide, Explore America: 250 Places to Go in 2026. In this inspiring, laughter-filled conversation, Erin shares her family’s cross-country road trips, her favorite historic and quirky spots, and how parents can make travel educational and fun for kids of all ages.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Rob’s Upcoming Book Rob’s debut book, The Family Vacationer: A Parent’s Guide to Meaningful Travel, releases November 11, 2025! Stay tuned for preorder information coming soon.Big News — Episode 200 Celebration! Join Rob and Traci for a live recording of our 200th episode in Orlando on December 15, 2025! More details and ticket information coming soon at thefamilyvacationer.live and on Instagram @thefamilyvacationer. Episode Quote “Even if you think your kids aren’t paying attention, they’ll remember those road trip moments — the views, the laughs, the ice cream stops. That’s the magic of family travel.” — Erin GiffordResources & Links Mentioned
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
- How Erin’s 7½-week family road trip across the U.S. sparked her mission to see all 50 states (Hawaii is next!)
- Why 2026’s America 250 celebration is the perfect reason to plan a once-in-a-lifetime family trip
- Erin’s favorite kid-friendly destinations — from mermaids in Florida to buffalo safaris in South Dakota
- Tips for keeping kids engaged on long road trips
- How to balance “learning stops” like The Alamo or Gettysburg with pure fun like Wall Drug or Weeki Wachee Springs
- Her “Must-Do Checklist” method for stress-free trip planning
- The value of documenting family trips — and how a simple photo book can keep memories alive for years
Rob’s Upcoming Book Rob’s debut book, The Family Vacationer: A Parent’s Guide to Meaningful Travel, releases November 11, 2025! Stay tuned for preorder information coming soon.Big News — Episode 200 Celebration! Join Rob and Traci for a live recording of our 200th episode in Orlando on December 15, 2025! More details and ticket information coming soon at thefamilyvacationer.live and on Instagram @thefamilyvacationer. Episode Quote “Even if you think your kids aren’t paying attention, they’ll remember those road trip moments — the views, the laughs, the ice cream stops. That’s the magic of family travel.” — Erin GiffordResources & Links Mentioned
- Explore America: 250 Places to Go in 2026 — 250Places.com
- GoHikeVirginia.com — Erin’s hiking and outdoor adventure site
- National Park Junior Ranger Program — nps.gov/kids
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial — nps.gov/moru
- Weeki Wachee Springs State Park — weekiwachee.com
- Pima Air & Space Museum — pimaair.org
- Website: thefamilyvacationer.live
- Instagram: @thefamilyvacationer
- Facebook: The Family Vacationer Podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
America turns two hundred and fifty and twenty twenty six,
and what better way to celebrate than by hitting the
road to explore some of the country's most iconic, surprising,
and just plain fun places.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
From national treasures like Mount Rushmore and the Alamo to
roadside oddities like Lucy the Elephant. Today, we're talking with
travel writer Aaron Gifford about her brand new guide, Explore
America two hundred and fifty Places to Go in twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We've got family travel inspiration, road trip ideas, and a
few quirky surprises you won't want to miss. Episode one
ninety seven starts right now.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Welcome to The Family Vacationer with Robin.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Tracy, your go to podcast for families on the moon.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hey, friends, welcome back to The Family Vacationer Episode one
ninety seven.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm Rob and I'm Tracy. Thanks for he's joining us
for episode one seven. We've got a really fun one today,
especially if you're already dreaming about travel plans for America's
two one hundred and fiftieth birthday in twenty and twenty six.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We're talking with Aaron Gifford, a travel writer who's been
to almost every state in the US. Hawaii is the
last one on our list. Erin has written for The
Washington Post, Afar, and the Saturday Evening Posts, and she
runs go Hike Virginia dot com, a great resource for
anyone who loves trails and family hikes.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Her latest project is Explore America two hundred and fifty
Places to Go in twenty twenty six, a massive guide
packed with history, nature, culture and roads side fun. The
preview features twenty five incredible spots and we can't wait
to dive in.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Erin, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Hey, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I'm so excited to talk to you guys today about
traveling the US, road tripping all those things.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And for listeners who might not know you yet, can
you share a little bit about your background and what
first sparked your passion for exploring all fifty states.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Absolutely so. I've been writing about travel for a long time.
I actually used to have a family travel website called
kid Ventures, where I kind of documented the travels with
my kids. I've got four kids, and we did our
first really big road trip in twenty fifteen where we
just did a cross country journey for seven and a
half weeks, and before that we had done a couple
(02:36):
of like week long, two week long, so that was
our big trip, and then kind of after that, I
just thought, you know, this is amazing.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
We've got to just keep going.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
And you know, we couldn't see it all, of course,
in seven and a half weeks, but after that we
would do kind of three week road trips every summer
just to kind of continue exposing my kids to kind
of beautiful parks and historic sites and quirky attractions.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
It was just so much fun.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
And to be honest, it was easier kind of reflecting
now because my kids are now sixteen, eighteen, twenty twenty two,
it was way easier to do it when they were younger,
you know, ten plus years ago, because now, you know,
they're all kind of doing their own things. They want
to work, they want to they're in college, they got
all the things going on. So I'm so thankful that,
you know, even with the challenges of you know, taking
(03:20):
a minivan across country with four kids, it was just
it was the best thing ever. You know, at the time,
I think they were probably kind of five going on six, seven,
nine and eleven, and for most of it, so my husband,
he couldn't take off, you know, seven and a half weeks,
of course, but he took off two weeks, but it
was still just me for five and a half weeks,
(03:42):
just kind of getting them there and getting them back.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Wow. Did you get a medal for that or any
sort of I know you would think I did. Well.
You've written for some major publications, but it's for America
to fifty Places to Go, two hundred fifty Places to
Go and twenty twenty six. It feels like a real
passion project. What inspired you other than just you know,
(04:06):
the country turn in two fifty, what inspired you to
create this guide?
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Yeah, exactly, that's a great question.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Well, you know, I live in Virginia, and of course
I feel like maybe America two fifty is started to
bubble up a little bit earlier here, because you know,
we've got Virginia's Historic Triangle, Williamsburg, Jamestown, We've gotten Mount Berna,
We've got so many superhistorical sites related to presidents and
government and that kind of thing. So it started to
bubble up early, and so I was kind of reflecting
(04:33):
on that as well as again, I've just been so
many places with my kids and kind of both and
on my own as well, because I have also done
half marathon actually in forty eight states so far.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Wow, I've done a.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Lot of exploration on my own to forty eight states
so far, and you know, it's just been a lot
of fun just just seeing so many different things. I
just know there's so you know, much beauty and history
and culture out there. I would just love for people
to kind of get out and hit the road and
check it out for themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So you're saving Hawaii for last in January of twenty
twenty six? Was that intentional? And what are you most
excited about the experience there?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, I to your point, Yeah, I've never been
to Hawaii and so this is going to be my
fiftieth state. And to be honest, you know what, the
thing I'm most excited about is not actually, of course,
Hawaii is beautiful. Everyone wants to go to Hawaii. There's
a lot of things, you know, the National parks, You've
got beautiful sun horizies. But to be honest, the thing
I'm most excited about is that my parents are coming
with me.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
But that's just going to be I think.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
We're just really special to be able to celebrate this,
you know, milestone for myself. It's been thirteen years that
I've been doing half marathons in the different states, So
I think that'll be really fun.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
But again, I'll be in Hawaii, on the Big.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Island and on Maui for about eight days, So of
course I'm excited to see what's there.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
But you know, it'll be fun just to be with
my family, I think.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So our daughter got married in April and her and
her new husband so their honeymoon to Hawaii and they
had a fantastic time.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Oh I love that. I'm excited.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Then she had a whole plan for every day, like
everything that they were going to do, all the things
she wanted to see. They made a plan and they
had a really, really good time.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
That's perfect. Now I'm excited. It seems like a destination
you can't go wrong.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I hope.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. We we covered we did a show on Hawaii
in general, and then we're like, there's so much information,
so we did one on each of the individual tourist islands.
And yeah, it's one of our most popular set of shows.
Just I think everybody wants to go. It's it's one
of my four states I've yet to get to. I've
(06:44):
got Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, even though I drove through Vermont,
I don't count it. Yeah, boots on the ground kind
of thing. And then Montana. Montana's okay, got to get
those last four.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Right, it's two bad a kind of so spread out too.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
It's not like, you know, North Dakota, South Dakota kind
of get a ton of ones.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, if it was, if it was the New England States,
that'd be easy because you can actually go in those
in like five minutes because they're so bad to go here.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But I've only been to like four or five states,
so it's kind of bad for me because he doesn't
want to go back to anywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Also true, that is not true to all the states
that she just disparaged. That is not true. We want
to visit you. We want to visit you. There are
some places I would like to visit more than others.
But but yeah, we would love to get out there.
Good job, Tracy. Let's talk about this milestone year, America's
two hundred and fiftieth birthdays coming up fast. How did
(07:42):
that shape your vision for this project.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Yeah, that's a great question, you know, just because you
know it's coming up.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
I think when people think of America to fifty, I
think people naturally think about kind of Independence Hall, They
think about the White House, they think about Jamestown, you know,
they think about those those cities and destinations that you know,
our founding fathers played major roles. And but you know,
there's so many other places to explore, and it's you know,
the Alamo mount Rushmore. Of course, these are all very
(08:12):
historic places. But again, you know Yellowstone, the Space Needle
in Seattle, it kind of even you know, quirky places
like the jelly Belly factory in Wisconsin, like.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
At the Spam Museum in the Midwest.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I mean, there's just so many places that people, you know,
jelly belly just feels very American.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Spam for better or worse, it just feels very American.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Yeah, lots of kind of fun, quirky places that are
uniquely and quintessentially American that you can go check out
and then are just so much fun to check out too.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, I mean, the two hundred and fiftieth to me,
it is a good time to celebrate the history of
the country, but it's also a time to celebrate who
we are now. I think of like the Experienced Music
Project in Seattle, and I went to one of the
one of my favorite museums I've ever been to is
the National D Day Museum in New Orleans. And I
(09:07):
tell this story all the time, but we were right
behind a family and leading the pack was a World
War Two survivor, and so he was telling stories having
been at D Day, and so that made it just
it was amazing. I mean I was like, by the
end of it, I'm crying. I'm part of the family
(09:27):
going to the reunion next year. I mean, it was
it was something else. But I mean that's kind of
tough the top. You can't really expect that for every
museum you go to. But all that to say, I
think the two hundred and fiftieth is a really good
opportunity to celebrate who we are now, for better, for worse.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, exactly, I totally agree, because I mean, so much
has happened over those.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Two hundred and fifty years. You know, it's not just
the signing the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
You know, there's just so many other things that have
happened in this span of time.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
What do you hope that families take away from celebrating
the anniversary through travel.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Yeah, I just hope that, you know, families just take
this opportunity to give their kids these experiences to see, you.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Know, outside of their own backyard. Backyard is great.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I love exploring my own backyard too, but it's great
just to see, you know, what this country has to offer,
you know, and if you can get in the car
and you can go to different places and again kind
of take in history and culture and beauty.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
And the good thing about so many of these places
now is.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
That they have opportunities for kids to learn and enjoy.
Like a great example of course, is the Junior Ranger
activity guides. I mean, those make so many of our
historic sites and national parks fun. And there's so many
places that offer kind of kids specific audio tours, kids
specific tours, areas of the museum that are just right
(10:51):
for kids, just to make it fun, you know, so
the kids aren't like, oh, I don't want to go
to this. There's just something really fun for them to
kind of get them engaged.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
And that's what I love about. You know, so many
places that you can visit now.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So with taking your kids for seven weeks, you had
to it felt like there was value in traveling with
your kids, Like what, what did you notice that they
took out of that trip?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Oh, that's that's It's funny you say that, because you know,
when I got home from the trip, I think I
kind of broke down because it was just so hard
or some parts of it were so challenging with four kids.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
But you know, even I didn't really have expectations going
into the trip.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But it is kind of fun to ask them now
or to talk about things now, about things that they remember.
You know, what was your favorite part about this trip
from ten years ago? You know, And sometimes it's you know,
things that are unexpected, like when they say, you know,
say that they do not like hiking.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Let's bring that up right away.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
You know, when they come back and they say it
was a hike that they enjoyed or a viewpoint that
they enjoyed, it's kind of fun for me just to
be like, oh, wow, you were you were actually engaged,
because I will tell you I do remember we were
at the Grand Canyon. This might have been our second
visit to the Grand Canyon, and I just was like,
you at least just look out at the Grand Canyon,
(12:09):
and you know, we were at this one of the
most beautiful places in the country.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
But you know, you think back on it, and you.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Know, you talk to them now, and you know, even
if at the time it seemed like they weren't taking
it in maybe as much as I wanted them to,
they did. They are definitely, you know, thankful and grateful
for these experiences, and they remember them. You know, even
if you think your kids aren't going to remember them,
they'll remember them, you know, in positive ways too, mostly
positive ways.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well, the first twenty five destinations that you previewed, it's
really eclectic. It's a great mix. But how did you
decide which ones, which stops you wanted to highlight first?
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Oh yeah, well I'm going to I hope I can
remember these right. I had a mix. It was about
five different categories.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I think one was kind of historic sites, one was
kind of natural beauty, one was kind of roadside America.
You know, just to let families and people who take
this book just realize, like there's a lot of really
cool places that fall into lots of different categories that
are you know, maybe you don't are unexpected or maybe
(13:13):
you've never heard of before. I like, to be honest,
the wiki Watchy State Park. I think with the with
the Mermaids in Florida, a lot of people don't know
about that, and it's just this really fun, nostalgia inducing
kind of show where you've got these you know, women
with mermaid tales, they look like mermaids and they just
do this really fun mermaid show and I just think, Wow,
(13:36):
that's a really cool place. And it's also you know,
Florida is really known for their natural springs.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
A lot of people don't know that. A lot of
people think of Florida.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
They think of Disney, they think of Universal, they think
of Miami and the beaches. They don't think a lot
about these natural springs that are completely gorgeous. And you know,
you and weiki watching springs. This is one of those areas.
And there's a lot of other springs that you know,
I just hope people you know, learn about and they
go and check it out for themselves. So it's fun
(14:05):
with the mermaids, but then it's also natural beauty with
the springs, so it's kind of a great mix.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I love that the guide includes everything. The historic landmarks
are quirky roadside attractions. Why was it important to show
both the serious and the playful sides of America.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
I'd like to give people just kind of mix, like
if they're planning their own trips. Like for me, when
we did our seven and a half week trip road trip,
it was really important to me to kind of keep
my kids engaged, you know. And so for example, I'll
give you an example. We went to San Antonio, Okay,
so I really wanted to see the Alamo. That's got
a lot of history. It's the Alamo, you know. But
(14:46):
while we were there, we also we didn't like the
the riverwalk boat crews because that was something I thought
they would enjoy. We went to Sea World San Antonio
because that was something that is kind of very kid
specific a kid friends. So I really wanted to incorporate
a mix of you know, historic sites where the kids
are going to learn something, You're going to learn something,
(15:07):
but then also some sites that are kind of fun
and quirky and unexpected that might be super engaging for
your kids. So you can kind of cobble together your
own road trip that includes kind of a mix of
different things to kind of keep everybody interested and involved
and engaged.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
Engage is really the biggest.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Thing I was in my let's see, early twenties when
I went to the Alamo. What did your What did
your kids think of the Alamo?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I think they.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Really enjoyed it, But I will say I really enjoyed
learning about the history, and it was you know, again,
I've never been there. To be honest, one of the reasons,
I am embarrassed to admit this, but one of the
reasons I did want to go is because of Pee
Wee's Big Adventure and Pee Wee Pee Wee going to
the Alamo.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
So I really wanted to go.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
But I will say I think one of the things
that my kids took away from it and then I
took away from it, is that is actually if you
go to the album, well, I was surprised across the
street from the Alamo. It's like if you've been, it's
all like the Ripley's Mirror Maze. It's like Ripley's Auditorium.
So I was kind of surprised, but at the same time,
I thought, you know what, this is great.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
We're going to go to the Alamo.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
We're going to do the historic stuff, and then we're
going to go across the streets and the mirror mase
because my kids are going to be excited to see
the mirror mase, even if they're not as excited to
see the Alamo. Again, this was the wild It was
kind of a fun mix.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
It was a fun day.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I was surprised at how small the Alamo is. I mean,
you think, just because of you know, the how important
it is in history, and I don't know, I don't
know what I was expecting, but we got there and
I was like, oh, okay, uh, that's really small.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I was surprised that it's kind of like like right
on a main street too, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
It wasn't kind of.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Outside of town. It was just sort of right there.
It's right on the river, you know, right across the
street from the river. So I think that was something
that surprised me. Was kind at the location that it
was so kind of centrally located and really like on
a little plot of land practically like there were buildings
on you know, all around it.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I love the must do checklist. How did that idea
come about?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
I think because again I've got four kids, and really
for me, if I'm going to take them somewhere or
even call myself, and especially in this time when our
attention spans are shook so short, I just think, just
give me the highlights, Just tell me, just tell.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Me what I have to see.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
And maybe you'll see one of these five things and
you'll think, hey, I want to investigate that further. I
want to go dig deeper into this. Well, then you
can go do that, but for right now, I'm going
to say these are the five things. Like, for a
great example is Mount Rushmore. I say, you need to
go to the sculptor's studio and listen to the ranger talk.
You need to go to the lighting ceremony in the evening.
(17:54):
You need to go walk on the Presidential trail. You
need to get Thomas Jefferson's original vanilla iis from recipe
some thing a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Don't know about.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
But these are just kind of quick, quick hit things
that if you're going to go, you don't need to
do a lot of studying, a lot of reading.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Up.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Here's the things that I think you are gonna find cool.
I've been to Mount Rushmore three times. I can verify
again these are great, you know, great things that you're
gonna love, your kid's gonna love. I mean, really, you
sit outside the cafeteria and you can just sit there
with your ice cream. You've got this beautiful open patio
and you're literally looking at Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
It's right there. Even if you just did that, that
would be a win for the day.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Just get the get hit the vanilla ice cream, sit
on the patio, look at Mount Rushmore. It's a perfect,
perfect morning.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, let's talk family travel. Which of these first twenty
five destinations are especially fun and memorable for kids?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
You know. One of the destinations, and this kind of
goes back to what I was talking about with San
Antonio having the Alamo and having SeaWorld is Wall South Dakota.
So you've got Wall Drug which is this very quirky
it's kind of like BUCkies. It's big, it's quirky. It's
got you know, five cent coffee, it's got maple donuts,
(19:09):
it's got cool things to take pictures with, you know,
total roadside attraction. And then literally across the highway is
Badlands National Park, So you can go there. You can
check off that National park that you've been there. If
you've got a passport and passport to the parks, you
can get your passport stamped.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
You can go on a short hike.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
They've got lots of very short hikes at Badlands National Park.
It's just I think that's super, super easy, super family
friendly again, fun donuts, hiking, short hikes, beautiful views.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I think that kind of makes it a win for
family travel.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So I actually think South Dakota I pardon me, I
cannot remember the highway that goes directly across South Dakota.
But it's one of my favorite road trips, to be honest,
because on the West, you've got dead Wood, which is
known for kind of you know, wild West Saloons outlaw history,
and then you kind of go to Rapid City and
you've got Mount Rushmore and you've got Custer State Park
of the Buffalo's and then you keep going and you
(20:09):
got Wall Drug and Batlans National Park, and you just
keep going east and you get to Sue Falls and
you've got these beautiful waterfalls, and it's just it's a
great trip, and it's got so much for its family, singles, couples, young, old,
it's a great growthrop.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I think South Dakota in and of itself is underrated.
I love, I love South Dakota.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Totally agree for parents who.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Are like have a family like mine, Like I'm the
history buff in the family. If I want to mix
learning into anything, I've got to sneak it in, and
that includes with my wife. But for parents, she wants
to she wants to mix learning with adventure. What historic
sites really bring history to life for younger travelers or
(20:54):
the travel history impaired amongst you?
Speaker 5 (20:58):
No, I totally get it you.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
One of my favorite places I was there a couple
of years ago is the Pima Air and Space Museum
in Tucson, And I love this because history comes to
life and you can actually see history out there, meaning
you can see former Air Force one airplanes. It's not
a picture, it's not an artifact, it's not a painting.
It's the real thing.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
You can get out there, you can touch it, you
can pose with it, you can look at it.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
I mean, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
I mean because everybody know, you know, you've seen the
airplane on TV a million times, you know about it,
but it's actually right there, you know, and you can
see lots of jumbo liners, real life airplanes, kind of
anything where you can see real life history, you know,
that's kind of those are kind of my favorite sites.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Another one I thought about was.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
The National Corvette Museum in Kentucky because you go there.
I mean, the Corvette is like America's sports car. You know,
everybody knows about a Corvette. And you can go there
and you can just see and touch and pose with,
you know, corvettes through the air.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
They've got a simulator.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
You know, no matter how old you are, you can
get into a simulator and.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Feel what it feels like to drive into corvette.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I mean that's really cool. You know, when it's when
it's kind of multi sensory. I think that's what makes
it really special, and that's what gets people really engaged.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
You know, it's not just reading placards.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's you know, walking around to these full size, you know,
engaging exhibits and things.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, reading reading the placards. That's where I lose them,
so lose myself.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Sometimes I can do it for a little while because
I'll be really interested, and then after a while I just, oh,
I can't do it anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Every place should have the headphones where they read to you.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Yes, yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Well, out of all the places that you visited, what
destination or destinations most surprise you or exceeded your expectations.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Oh, that's a great question. You know.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
One of the dust one of the places I went
to is actually the Si Person Museum, which sounds kind
of strange, but it's in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's one
of two purse museums in the world. And to be upfront,
I'm not a purse person. My mother in law has
hundreds of purses. Me I have one, maybe two. But
what I enjoyed about this is that it really was
(23:17):
kind of how purses defined kind of women's evolving style.
They're evolving social roles, you know, it's kind of how
it kind of told the story of women through purses.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And I don't know why. I just found that to
be so interesting.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
And so they had kind of through the decades, the purses,
the styles, the social roles of women.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Through the ages.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
So I think that was really interesting. It was very
I mean, it's just this small little museum in Little Rock, Arkansas,
and I just found it fascinating. You know, I really
wanted to read all the placards of them. At that
point you can see all the purses, so that was cool.
Another place that I really enjoyed that yeah, I guess
kind of surprised me was the neon music in Las Vegas.
(24:01):
I've been there three times now and it is just
fascinating to see and hear about. And they've got this
wonderful guided tour to just learn about the history of
these neon signs that lit up Las Vegas Boulevard. It's
just it's fascinating to learn about kind of the rat
pack and really going back like decades of Las Vegas history,
(24:22):
and they Hayday and it's amazing to see kind of
either old signs and then also kind of the restored
signs that glow again. So they also have this really cool,
I think a separate experience there. I can't remember what
it's called, but it's it's kind of like a three
D experience where they have reanimated certain signs. So if
they can't restore them and bring the neon back to life,
(24:45):
they have actually reanimated them. So you go into this
kind of theater area that's outside and you can just
see the all of the neon signs kind of acting
the way they did when they were new. It's really
really quite amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So you also run go hike Virginia Dot com and
write hiking guides. How does that love of hiking shape
the way you explore and write about the US?
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Yeah, I definitely when I go to different places, whether
by myself or with my kids, I try and get
a hiking you.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Know, because I feel like everywhere you go in the US,
it's different geology, different ecology, different trees, different landscapes, and
I think it's just so amazing to be able to
just explore and get to know a new area through
the landscape. That was really something I remember when I
was driving west, just kind of seeing the landscape evolve
(25:42):
as I drove, you know, drove through you know, Alabama, Misissippi,
just getting to Texas and it's a totally different landscape
than it is from Virginia and you know where I
live where you know, lots of big trees and mountains,
and then you get to Texas and it's very dry
and tumble weeds and it's a whole different scene, you know.
(26:02):
So and so anyway, so I feel like that is
the same way I feel about hiking, and also just
kind of seeing, like I said, different trees, Like I
was just in New Mexico and I was on this
hike outside of Albuquerque, and there were all these aspen
trees that were just starting to turn yellow for fall.
And we don't have aspen trees in Virginia, you.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Know, Arizona. Arizona is one of the more interesting states
that we visited, just because you know, you go to Tucson,
it's a desert. You go to you know, uh, Phoenix
and Scottsdale and it's it's urban, and then you go
up you go to Sedona, and then you by the
time that you get to Flagstaff, it's just completely different.
(26:55):
So yeah, I yeah, it's such an interesting state to visit.
But all right, if a family wants to plan one
big twenty twenty six road trip to celebrate America's two
hundred and fiftieth and you could plan it for them,
what would the dream itinerary look like?
Speaker 5 (27:16):
See, that's a tough one.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
But I really I'm kind of biased, of course, because
I live about half an hour from Washington, d C. Okay,
so I feel like you've got to get some of
that in there. You know, Washington, D C. To the capital,
take a tour there. So the laws are made, We've
got the Supreme Court, we've got the White House. You
got to check out something here. Then I would probably
go north. Yeah, of course, hit Independence Hall where the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed, and then
(27:40):
you've got kind of you know, modern history back then
history from seventeen seventy six. But then also I would
kind of stick around Pennsylvania because you can go west.
You can hit Falling Water, which is kind of you know,
the most well known architectural marvel of Frankloyd. Right, You've
(28:00):
got the Andy Warholm Music Museum in Pittsburgh, no famous
famous artists, known for pop art. Gettysburg also in Pennsylvania,
where Lincoln read the Gettysburg Address. You kind of can
keep going north in that area. Mark Twain Museum in
I believe, Connecticut, one of the most famous authors of
our time. There's even a Pez Visitor Center up there,
(28:22):
so if you like Pez candy, there's some stuff up
there that's pretty fun too. So I really I think
if you stuck around DC, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, kind of doing
that mid Atlantic northeast, I think you could hit a
lot of cool places again, famous artists, famous architects, famous authors,
famous battlefields, and then kind of getting that Independence.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Hall and.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Washington monument, capital building. Kind of getting all that in.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
So wrapping it up, can you share a personal travel
moment that really captures why you love exploring America?
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Okay, personal travel moment. Really, I think just for me,
it wasn't so much as the travel. It was after
I went on our big road trip. I actually took
the time this is the one time I've ever done this,
and I made a photo album. I went on like
snapfish and I made this photo album and added little
captions to it. And I feel like that is I've
(29:21):
loved that so much because it's not like your phone
where you take I mean literally, I've got thirty thousand
photos on my phone, you know, when do I look
at them?
Speaker 5 (29:29):
But just to have this printed book, it's like this
big coffee table book, you know, and just to kind
of flip through and I added, you know, little captions
to it and kind of reliving all those memories. I
would say, even though that's.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Not a particular moment like from the trip, I really
feel like I relive lots of little moments from the
trip because I had taken the time to kind of
go through and create this table, this coffee table book
of all the different moments when we were on that trip.
So that'll always be really special to me. I mean,
even though seven and a half weeks on the road
(30:01):
and different hotels, different campgrounds, different places to go was challenging.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
I mean, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
I'm so glad that we, you know, were fortunate enough
to be able to take the time to do that.
I mean, kind of like rewinding back from that, I
had actually I was working, and I had actually been
laid off in November, right, and so I was thinking,
I don't know what I want to do next.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
It was one of those.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Things where I didn't want to quit my job, but
I didn't know what I wanted to do next. And
I knew I wanted to travel, and you know, I
I talked to my husband. I said, well, what would
you think if I took the kids on a cross
country road trip?
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Like, would you be okay with He's like, I was like,
would you think he goes, well, I'd miss you guys.
I was like, Okay, that's not it. That's not a
big augh reason not to go. We'll call you from
the road.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
It was perfect though, too, because I mean, imagine if
I had been laid off in July, there would be
not enough time to plan such an adventure. But because
I was laid off in November, I had enough time
to think about it and then plan.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
It all out. So it really it worked out so perfectly.
You know.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
So for the next you know, five six months, I
started planning this trip. You know, I didn't spend every
single day planning the trip, but you know, I kind
of hunted around look for ideas, and then you know,
by the time the kids were out of school in June,
we just you know, hit the road and it was
it was pretty amazing.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
So I'm glad we had that opportunity.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
And then, like I said, the next couple of summers,
we did three weeks where we did one where we
flew to Denver and we kind of explored Colorado, Wyoming,
South Dakota. We did another trip where we started in
Los Angeles and went from Los Angeles up to Seattle,
incorporating kind of the Amtrak Coastal Starlight train journey from
LA up to Oregon, I think, And so that was fun.
(31:47):
It It kind of worked out well too with the pandemic,
because I felt like by the time twenty nineteen, we
did a two week Lake, Michigan road trip, and after
that I was kind of thinking, I think we've done
it all. But then twenty twenty came and we wouldn't
have been able to go anywhere anyway.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
So and then that was when I started hiking.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
And I've lived in Virginia almost my whole life, but
I had never really explored my home state. I don't
know if you guys are like that where you live,
but you know, it was pretty amazing just to you know.
Of course, a lot of bad things came out of
the pandemic, but the good part was that I really
got to see what my home state was about. You know,
imagine living here forty plus years and not even exploring
(32:24):
so many places.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
So so that was fun just to see the home state.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
It's funny you mentioned the coffee table book. We've talked
about this before, you know, when I was growing up,
and this shows my age. But you had film, and
so you had a certain number of pictures that you
could take, and you knew probably half of them there
was going to be a finger on the lens, or
it's going to be blurry, or if you were lucky,
(32:50):
you got you know, half of whatever the film was
and so back then it was well, what's picture worthy?
And now you know, we have so much, we have
the a to take so many pictures. Oh yeah, Now
it's like, well, what do you do with all those
pictures once you have them. It's funny you mentioned the
coffee table book, because that's one of the things that
we've talked about, you know, doing coming back from a trip,
(33:12):
just to be able to have those memories somewhere, because
like my mother, for example, was very bad about doing
photo albums. I think we have. I think we have
maybe three for my entire childhood. She just oh yeah,
she just didn't. It just wasn't hurt thing. So but
you know, to come back and do one of those
coffee table books, I mean that's that's pretty interesting. So
I think that will help you relive, you know, as
(33:33):
you've mentioned, relived the trip over and over again.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Oh yeah, I mean I'm definitely glad I did it.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
I mean, there's no way I'm going to go back
and do it for any of the other trips that
were you know, three weeks in length, but you know,
seven and a half weeks felt like, you know, I
had enough material there too to turn into a photo book,
and I'm very similar to your own mother.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
I mean, that's really the only scrap book I have.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
I think when my first child was born, I maybe
tried it because I think my next or neighbor have.
My oldest is twenty two, and back then, I can't
even remember what it was called, but scrap booking was
very big, with all those ribbons and sers and all
kinds of things, and I I think I made one
page because I went to one of those parties where
you can make a scrap book, and you know, that
was it. So I'm glad that you know, snapfoot, Snapfish
(34:18):
and Shutterfly came along and you know, make it easy
to just kind of drop photos in.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Well, before we wrap up, where can listeners find the
Explore America preview and follow along for all the updates
on the full gad that's coming in November.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Yeah, sure, thanks for asking. It's it's simple.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
It's just two five zero places dot com two hundred
and fifty places dot com and you can sign up
and you enter your email and right away you will
get the sneak peak of two hundred of sorry of
twenty five, and then when the full book is out,
you'll be alerted to its availability and that will be
free as well well.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Oh my god, thank you guys so much. This is
so fun.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I love talking about us travel and just you know,
helping you know, listeners and people find new ways to explore,
new places to go.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
We can't wait to get our hands on the full
version of Explore America two hundred and fifty Places to
Go in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Absolutely, and for our listeners. Keep an eye out for
my upcoming book, The Family Vacationer, A parent's Guide to
meaningful travel. It's releasing November eleventh. Preorder details are coming
very soon.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Mark your calendars. We're celebrating episode two hundred with a
live recording in Orlando on December fifteenth, twenty twenty five.
Details and ticket info will be available soon on our
website and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Remember, folks, keep your passports and your hearts open.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Safe travels. Everyone got it.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Beach praices and hotel spaces. I'm using the park rids
and water slides, mountain ranges and seasonal changes. I'm here
to serve. I'm the Family Vacationers.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I've got skin full on other beach preces and hotel spaces.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Amusing the park rats and water slides, mountain ranges and
seasonal changes. I'm here to serve. I'm the family vacationers.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah,
America turns two hundred and fifty and twenty twenty six,
and what better way to celebrate than by hitting the
road to explore some of the country's most iconic, surprising,
and just plain fun places.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
From national treasures like Mount Rushmore and the Alamo to
roadside oddities like Lucy the Elephant. Today, we're talking with
travel writer Aaron Gifford about her brand new guide, Explore
America two hundred and fifty Places to Go in twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We've got family travel inspiration, road trip ideas, and a
few quirky surprises you won't want to miss. Episode one
ninety seven starts right now.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Welcome to The Family Vacationer with Robin.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Tracy, your go to podcast for families on the moon.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hey, friends, welcome back to The Family Vacationer Episode one
ninety seven.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm Rob and I'm Tracy. Thanks for he's joining us
for episode one seven. We've got a really fun one today,
especially if you're already dreaming about travel plans for America's
two one hundred and fiftieth birthday in twenty and twenty six.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We're talking with Aaron Gifford, a travel writer who's been
to almost every state in the US. Hawaii is the
last one on our list. Erin has written for The
Washington Post, Afar, and the Saturday Evening Posts, and she
runs go Hike Virginia dot com, a great resource for
anyone who loves trails and family hikes.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Her latest project is Explore America two hundred and fifty
Places to Go in twenty twenty six, a massive guide
packed with history, nature, culture and roads side fun. The
preview features twenty five incredible spots and we can't wait
to dive in.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Erin, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Hey, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I'm so excited to talk to you guys today about
traveling the US, road tripping all those things.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And for listeners who might not know you yet, can
you share a little bit about your background and what
first sparked your passion for exploring all fifty states.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Absolutely so. I've been writing about travel for a long time.
I actually used to have a family travel website called
kid Ventures, where I kind of documented the travels with
my kids. I've got four kids, and we did our
first really big road trip in twenty fifteen where we
just did a cross country journey for seven and a
half weeks, and before that we had done a couple
(02:36):
of like week long, two week long, so that was
our big trip, and then kind of after that, I
just thought, you know, this is amazing.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
We've got to just keep going.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
And you know, we couldn't see it all, of course,
in seven and a half weeks, but after that we
would do kind of three week road trips every summer
just to kind of continue exposing my kids to kind
of beautiful parks and historic sites and quirky attractions.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
It was just so much fun.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
And to be honest, it was easier kind of reflecting
now because my kids are now sixteen, eighteen, twenty twenty two,
it was way easier to do it when they were younger,
you know, ten plus years ago, because now, you know,
they're all kind of doing their own things. They want
to work, they want to they're in college, they got
all the things going on. So I'm so thankful that,
you know, even with the challenges of you know, taking
(03:20):
a minivan across country with four kids, it was just
it was the best thing ever. You know, at the time,
I think they were probably kind of five going on six, seven,
nine and eleven, and for most of it, so my husband,
he couldn't take off, you know, seven and a half weeks,
of course, but he took off two weeks, but it
was still just me for five and a half weeks,
(03:42):
just kind of getting them there and getting them back.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Wow. Did you get a medal for that or any
sort of I know you would think I did. Well.
You've written for some major publications, but it's for America
to fifty Places to Go, two hundred fifty Places to
Go and twenty twenty six. It feels like a real
passion project. What inspired you other than just you know,
(04:06):
the country turn in two fifty, what inspired you to
create this guide?
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Yeah, exactly, that's a great question.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Well, you know, I live in Virginia, and of course
I feel like maybe America two fifty is started to
bubble up a little bit earlier here, because you know,
we've got Virginia's Historic Triangle, Williamsburg, Jamestown, We've gotten Mount Berna,
We've got so many superhistorical sites related to presidents and
government and that kind of thing. So it started to
bubble up early, and so I was kind of reflecting
(04:33):
on that as well as again, I've just been so
many places with my kids and kind of both and
on my own as well, because I have also done
half marathon actually in forty eight states so far.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Wow, I've done a.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Lot of exploration on my own to forty eight states
so far, and you know, it's just been a lot
of fun just just seeing so many different things. I
just know there's so you know, much beauty and history
and culture out there. I would just love for people
to kind of get out and hit the road and
check it out for themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So you're saving Hawaii for last in January of twenty
twenty six? Was that intentional? And what are you most
excited about the experience there?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, I to your point, Yeah, I've never been
to Hawaii and so this is going to be my
fiftieth state. And to be honest, you know what, the
thing I'm most excited about is not actually, of course,
Hawaii is beautiful. Everyone wants to go to Hawaii. There's
a lot of things, you know, the National parks, You've
got beautiful sun horizies. But to be honest, the thing
I'm most excited about is that my parents are coming
with me.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
But that's just going to be I think.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
We're just really special to be able to celebrate this,
you know, milestone for myself. It's been thirteen years that
I've been doing half marathons in the different states, So
I think that'll be really fun.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
But again, I'll be in Hawaii, on the Big.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Island and on Maui for about eight days, So of
course I'm excited to see what's there.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
But you know, it'll be fun just to be with
my family, I think.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So our daughter got married in April and her and
her new husband so their honeymoon to Hawaii and they
had a fantastic time.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Oh I love that. I'm excited.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Then she had a whole plan for every day, like
everything that they were going to do, all the things
she wanted to see. They made a plan and they
had a really, really good time.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
That's perfect. Now I'm excited. It seems like a destination
you can't go wrong.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I hope.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. We we covered we did a show on Hawaii
in general, and then we're like, there's so much information,
so we did one on each of the individual tourist islands.
And yeah, it's one of our most popular set of shows.
Just I think everybody wants to go. It's it's one
of my four states I've yet to get to. I've
(06:44):
got Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, even though I drove through Vermont,
I don't count it. Yeah, boots on the ground kind
of thing. And then Montana. Montana's okay, got to get
those last four.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Right, it's two bad a kind of so spread out too.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
It's not like, you know, North Dakota, South Dakota kind
of get a ton of ones.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, if it was, if it was the New England States,
that'd be easy because you can actually go in those
in like five minutes because they're so bad to go here.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But I've only been to like four or five states,
so it's kind of bad for me because he doesn't
want to go back to anywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Also true, that is not true to all the states
that she just disparaged. That is not true. We want
to visit you. We want to visit you. There are
some places I would like to visit more than others.
But but yeah, we would love to get out there.
Good job, Tracy. Let's talk about this milestone year, America's
two hundred and fiftieth birthdays coming up fast. How did
(07:42):
that shape your vision for this project.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Yeah, that's a great question, you know, just because you
know it's coming up.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
I think when people think of America to fifty, I
think people naturally think about kind of Independence Hall, They
think about the White House, they think about Jamestown, you know,
they think about those those cities and destinations that you know,
our founding fathers played major roles. And but you know,
there's so many other places to explore, and it's you know,
the Alamo mount Rushmore. Of course, these are all very
(08:12):
historic places. But again, you know Yellowstone, the Space Needle
in Seattle, it kind of even you know, quirky places
like the jelly Belly factory in Wisconsin, like.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
At the Spam Museum in the Midwest.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I mean, there's just so many places that people, you know,
jelly belly just feels very American.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Spam for better or worse, it just feels very American.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Yeah, lots of kind of fun, quirky places that are
uniquely and quintessentially American that you can go check out
and then are just so much fun to check out too.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, I mean, the two hundred and fiftieth to me,
it is a good time to celebrate the history of
the country, but it's also a time to celebrate who
we are now. I think of like the Experienced Music
Project in Seattle, and I went to one of the
one of my favorite museums I've ever been to is
the National D Day Museum in New Orleans. And I
(09:07):
tell this story all the time, but we were right
behind a family and leading the pack was a World
War Two survivor, and so he was telling stories having
been at D Day, and so that made it just
it was amazing. I mean I was like, by the
end of it, I'm crying. I'm part of the family
(09:27):
going to the reunion next year. I mean, it was
it was something else. But I mean that's kind of
tough the top. You can't really expect that for every
museum you go to. But all that to say, I
think the two hundred and fiftieth is a really good
opportunity to celebrate who we are now, for better, for worse.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, exactly, I totally agree, because I mean, so much
has happened over those.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Two hundred and fifty years. You know, it's not just
the signing the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
You know, there's just so many other things that have
happened in this span of time.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
What do you hope that families take away from celebrating
the anniversary through travel.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Yeah, I just hope that, you know, families just take
this opportunity to give their kids these experiences to see, you.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Know, outside of their own backyard. Backyard is great.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I love exploring my own backyard too, but it's great
just to see, you know, what this country has to offer,
you know, and if you can get in the car
and you can go to different places and again kind
of take in history and culture and beauty.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
And the good thing about so many of these places
now is.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
That they have opportunities for kids to learn and enjoy.
Like a great example of course, is the Junior Ranger
activity guides. I mean, those make so many of our
historic sites and national parks fun. And there's so many
places that offer kind of kids specific audio tours, kids
specific tours, areas of the museum that are just right
(10:51):
for kids, just to make it fun, you know, so
the kids aren't like, oh, I don't want to go
to this. There's just something really fun for them to
kind of get them engaged.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
And that's what I love about. You know, so many
places that you can visit now.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So with taking your kids for seven weeks, you had
to it felt like there was value in traveling with
your kids, Like what, what did you notice that they
took out of that trip?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Oh, that's that's It's funny you say that, because you know,
when I got home from the trip, I think I
kind of broke down because it was just so hard
or some parts of it were so challenging with four kids.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
But you know, even I didn't really have expectations going
into the trip.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But it is kind of fun to ask them now
or to talk about things now, about things that they remember.
You know, what was your favorite part about this trip
from ten years ago? You know, And sometimes it's you know,
things that are unexpected, like when they say, you know,
say that they do not like hiking.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Let's bring that up right away.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
You know, when they come back and they say it
was a hike that they enjoyed or a viewpoint that
they enjoyed, it's kind of fun for me just to
be like, oh, wow, you were you were actually engaged,
because I will tell you I do remember we were
at the Grand Canyon. This might have been our second
visit to the Grand Canyon, and I just was like,
you at least just look out at the Grand Canyon,
(12:09):
and you know, we were at this one of the
most beautiful places in the country.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
But you know, you think back on it, and you.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Know, you talk to them now, and you know, even
if at the time it seemed like they weren't taking
it in maybe as much as I wanted them to,
they did. They are definitely, you know, thankful and grateful
for these experiences, and they remember them. You know, even
if you think your kids aren't going to remember them,
they'll remember them, you know, in positive ways too, mostly
positive ways.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well, the first twenty five destinations that you previewed, it's
really eclectic. It's a great mix. But how did you
decide which ones, which stops you wanted to highlight first?
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Oh yeah, well I'm going to I hope I can
remember these right. I had a mix. It was about
five different categories.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I think one was kind of historic sites, one was
kind of natural beauty, one was kind of roadside America.
You know, just to let families and people who take
this book just realize, like there's a lot of really
cool places that fall into lots of different categories that
are you know, maybe you don't are unexpected or maybe
(13:13):
you've never heard of before. I like, to be honest,
the wiki Watchy State Park. I think with the with
the Mermaids in Florida, a lot of people don't know
about that, and it's just this really fun, nostalgia inducing
kind of show where you've got these you know, women
with mermaid tales, they look like mermaids and they just
do this really fun mermaid show and I just think, Wow,
(13:36):
that's a really cool place. And it's also you know,
Florida is really known for their natural springs.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
A lot of people don't know that. A lot of
people think of Florida.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
They think of Disney, they think of Universal, they think
of Miami and the beaches. They don't think a lot
about these natural springs that are completely gorgeous. And you know,
you and weiki watching springs. This is one of those areas.
And there's a lot of other springs that you know,
I just hope people you know, learn about and they
go and check it out for themselves. So it's fun
(14:05):
with the mermaids, but then it's also natural beauty with
the springs, so it's kind of a great mix.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I love that the guide includes everything. The historic landmarks
are quirky roadside attractions. Why was it important to show
both the serious and the playful sides of America.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
I'd like to give people just kind of mix, like
if they're planning their own trips. Like for me, when
we did our seven and a half week trip road trip,
it was really important to me to kind of keep
my kids engaged, you know. And so for example, I'll
give you an example. We went to San Antonio, Okay,
so I really wanted to see the Alamo. That's got
a lot of history. It's the Alamo, you know. But
(14:46):
while we were there, we also we didn't like the
the riverwalk boat crews because that was something I thought
they would enjoy. We went to Sea World San Antonio
because that was something that is kind of very kid
specific a kid friends. So I really wanted to incorporate
a mix of you know, historic sites where the kids
are going to learn something, You're going to learn something,
(15:07):
but then also some sites that are kind of fun
and quirky and unexpected that might be super engaging for
your kids. So you can kind of cobble together your
own road trip that includes kind of a mix of
different things to kind of keep everybody interested and involved
and engaged.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
Engage is really the biggest.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Thing I was in my let's see, early twenties when
I went to the Alamo. What did your What did
your kids think of the Alamo?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I think they.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Really enjoyed it, But I will say I really enjoyed
learning about the history, and it was you know, again,
I've never been there. To be honest, one of the reasons,
I am embarrassed to admit this, but one of the
reasons I did want to go is because of Pee
Wee's Big Adventure and Pee Wee Pee Wee going to
the Alamo.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
So I really wanted to go.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
But I will say I think one of the things
that my kids took away from it and then I
took away from it, is that is actually if you
go to the album, well, I was surprised across the
street from the Alamo. It's like if you've been, it's
all like the Ripley's Mirror Maze. It's like Ripley's Auditorium.
So I was kind of surprised, but at the same time,
I thought, you know what, this is great.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
We're going to go to the Alamo.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
We're going to do the historic stuff, and then we're
going to go across the streets and the mirror mase
because my kids are going to be excited to see
the mirror mase, even if they're not as excited to
see the Alamo. Again, this was the wild It was
kind of a fun mix.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
It was a fun day.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I was surprised at how small the Alamo is. I mean,
you think, just because of you know, the how important
it is in history, and I don't know, I don't
know what I was expecting, but we got there and
I was like, oh, okay, uh, that's really small.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I was surprised that it's kind of like like right
on a main street too, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
It wasn't kind of.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Outside of town. It was just sort of right there.
It's right on the river, you know, right across the
street from the river. So I think that was something
that surprised me. Was kind at the location that it
was so kind of centrally located and really like on
a little plot of land practically like there were buildings
on you know, all around it.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I love the must do checklist. How did that idea
come about?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
I think because again I've got four kids, and really
for me, if I'm going to take them somewhere or
even call myself, and especially in this time when our
attention spans are shook so short, I just think, just
give me the highlights, Just tell me, just tell.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Me what I have to see.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
And maybe you'll see one of these five things and
you'll think, hey, I want to investigate that further. I
want to go dig deeper into this. Well, then you
can go do that, but for right now, I'm going
to say these are the five things. Like, for a
great example is Mount Rushmore. I say, you need to
go to the sculptor's studio and listen to the ranger talk.
You need to go to the lighting ceremony in the evening.
(17:54):
You need to go walk on the Presidential trail. You
need to get Thomas Jefferson's original vanilla iis from recipe
some thing a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Don't know about.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
But these are just kind of quick, quick hit things
that if you're going to go, you don't need to
do a lot of studying, a lot of reading.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Up.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Here's the things that I think you are gonna find cool.
I've been to Mount Rushmore three times. I can verify
again these are great, you know, great things that you're
gonna love, your kid's gonna love. I mean, really, you
sit outside the cafeteria and you can just sit there
with your ice cream. You've got this beautiful open patio
and you're literally looking at Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
It's right there. Even if you just did that, that
would be a win for the day.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Just get the get hit the vanilla ice cream, sit
on the patio, look at Mount Rushmore. It's a perfect,
perfect morning.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, let's talk family travel. Which of these first twenty
five destinations are especially fun and memorable for kids?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
You know. One of the destinations, and this kind of
goes back to what I was talking about with San
Antonio having the Alamo and having SeaWorld is Wall South Dakota.
So you've got Wall Drug which is this very quirky
it's kind of like BUCkies. It's big, it's quirky. It's
got you know, five cent coffee, it's got maple donuts,
(19:09):
it's got cool things to take pictures with, you know,
total roadside attraction. And then literally across the highway is
Badlands National Park, So you can go there. You can
check off that National park that you've been there. If
you've got a passport and passport to the parks, you
can get your passport stamped.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
You can go on a short hike.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
They've got lots of very short hikes at Badlands National Park.
It's just I think that's super, super easy, super family
friendly again, fun donuts, hiking, short hikes, beautiful views.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I think that kind of makes it a win for
family travel.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So I actually think South Dakota I pardon me, I
cannot remember the highway that goes directly across South Dakota.
But it's one of my favorite road trips, to be honest,
because on the West, you've got dead Wood, which is
known for kind of you know, wild West Saloons outlaw history,
and then you kind of go to Rapid City and
you've got Mount Rushmore and you've got Custer State Park
of the Buffalo's and then you keep going and you
(20:09):
got Wall Drug and Batlans National Park, and you just
keep going east and you get to Sue Falls and
you've got these beautiful waterfalls, and it's just it's a
great trip, and it's got so much for its family, singles, couples, young, old,
it's a great growthrop.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I think South Dakota in and of itself is underrated.
I love, I love South Dakota.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Totally agree for parents who.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Are like have a family like mine, Like I'm the
history buff in the family. If I want to mix
learning into anything, I've got to sneak it in, and
that includes with my wife. But for parents, she wants
to she wants to mix learning with adventure. What historic
sites really bring history to life for younger travelers or
(20:54):
the travel history impaired amongst you?
Speaker 5 (20:58):
No, I totally get it you.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
One of my favorite places I was there a couple
of years ago is the Pima Air and Space Museum
in Tucson, And I love this because history comes to
life and you can actually see history out there, meaning
you can see former Air Force one airplanes. It's not
a picture, it's not an artifact, it's not a painting.
It's the real thing.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
You can get out there, you can touch it, you
can pose with it, you can look at it.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
I mean, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
I mean because everybody know, you know, you've seen the
airplane on TV a million times, you know about it,
but it's actually right there, you know, and you can
see lots of jumbo liners, real life airplanes, kind of
anything where you can see real life history, you know,
that's kind of those are kind of my favorite sites.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Another one I thought about was.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
The National Corvette Museum in Kentucky because you go there.
I mean, the Corvette is like America's sports car. You know,
everybody knows about a Corvette. And you can go there
and you can just see and touch and pose with,
you know, corvettes through the air.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
They've got a simulator.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
You know, no matter how old you are, you can
get into a simulator and.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Feel what it feels like to drive into corvette.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I mean that's really cool. You know, when it's when
it's kind of multi sensory. I think that's what makes
it really special, and that's what gets people really engaged.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
You know, it's not just reading placards.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's you know, walking around to these full size, you know,
engaging exhibits and things.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, reading reading the placards. That's where I lose them,
so lose myself.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Sometimes I can do it for a little while because
I'll be really interested, and then after a while I just, oh,
I can't do it anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Every place should have the headphones where they read to you.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Yes, yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Well, out of all the places that you visited, what
destination or destinations most surprise you or exceeded your expectations.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Oh, that's a great question. You know.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
One of the dust one of the places I went
to is actually the Si Person Museum, which sounds kind
of strange, but it's in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's one
of two purse museums in the world. And to be upfront,
I'm not a purse person. My mother in law has
hundreds of purses. Me I have one, maybe two. But
what I enjoyed about this is that it really was
(23:17):
kind of how purses defined kind of women's evolving style.
They're evolving social roles, you know, it's kind of how
it kind of told the story of women through purses.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And I don't know why. I just found that to
be so interesting.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
And so they had kind of through the decades, the purses,
the styles, the social roles of women.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Through the ages.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
So I think that was really interesting. It was very
I mean, it's just this small little museum in Little Rock, Arkansas,
and I just found it fascinating. You know, I really
wanted to read all the placards of them. At that
point you can see all the purses, so that was cool.
Another place that I really enjoyed that yeah, I guess
kind of surprised me was the neon music in Las Vegas.
(24:01):
I've been there three times now and it is just
fascinating to see and hear about. And they've got this
wonderful guided tour to just learn about the history of
these neon signs that lit up Las Vegas Boulevard. It's
just it's fascinating to learn about kind of the rat
pack and really going back like decades of Las Vegas history,
(24:22):
and they Hayday and it's amazing to see kind of
either old signs and then also kind of the restored
signs that glow again. So they also have this really cool,
I think a separate experience there. I can't remember what
it's called, but it's it's kind of like a three
D experience where they have reanimated certain signs. So if
they can't restore them and bring the neon back to life,
(24:45):
they have actually reanimated them. So you go into this
kind of theater area that's outside and you can just
see the all of the neon signs kind of acting
the way they did when they were new. It's really
really quite amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So you also run go hike Virginia Dot com and
write hiking guides. How does that love of hiking shape
the way you explore and write about the US?
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Yeah, I definitely when I go to different places, whether
by myself or with my kids, I try and get
a hiking you.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Know, because I feel like everywhere you go in the US,
it's different geology, different ecology, different trees, different landscapes, and
I think it's just so amazing to be able to
just explore and get to know a new area through
the landscape. That was really something I remember when I
was driving west, just kind of seeing the landscape evolve
(25:42):
as I drove, you know, drove through you know, Alabama, Misissippi,
just getting to Texas and it's a totally different landscape
than it is from Virginia and you know where I
live where you know, lots of big trees and mountains,
and then you get to Texas and it's very dry
and tumble weeds and it's a whole different scene, you know.
(26:02):
So and so anyway, so I feel like that is
the same way I feel about hiking, and also just
kind of seeing, like I said, different trees, Like I
was just in New Mexico and I was on this
hike outside of Albuquerque, and there were all these aspen
trees that were just starting to turn yellow for fall.
And we don't have aspen trees in Virginia, you.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Know, Arizona. Arizona is one of the more interesting states
that we visited, just because you know, you go to Tucson,
it's a desert. You go to you know, uh, Phoenix
and Scottsdale and it's it's urban, and then you go
up you go to Sedona, and then you by the
time that you get to Flagstaff, it's just completely different.
(26:55):
So yeah, I yeah, it's such an interesting state to visit.
But all right, if a family wants to plan one
big twenty twenty six road trip to celebrate America's two
hundred and fiftieth and you could plan it for them,
what would the dream itinerary look like?
Speaker 5 (27:16):
See, that's a tough one.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
But I really I'm kind of biased, of course, because
I live about half an hour from Washington, d C. Okay,
so I feel like you've got to get some of
that in there. You know, Washington, D C. To the capital,
take a tour there. So the laws are made, We've
got the Supreme Court, we've got the White House. You
got to check out something here. Then I would probably
go north. Yeah, of course, hit Independence Hall where the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed, and then
(27:40):
you've got kind of you know, modern history back then
history from seventeen seventy six. But then also I would
kind of stick around Pennsylvania because you can go west.
You can hit Falling Water, which is kind of you know,
the most well known architectural marvel of Frankloyd. Right, You've
(28:00):
got the Andy Warholm Music Museum in Pittsburgh, no famous
famous artists, known for pop art. Gettysburg also in Pennsylvania,
where Lincoln read the Gettysburg Address. You kind of can
keep going north in that area. Mark Twain Museum in
I believe, Connecticut, one of the most famous authors of
our time. There's even a Pez Visitor Center up there,
(28:22):
so if you like Pez candy, there's some stuff up
there that's pretty fun too. So I really I think
if you stuck around DC, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, kind of doing
that mid Atlantic northeast, I think you could hit a
lot of cool places again, famous artists, famous architects, famous authors,
famous battlefields, and then kind of getting that Independence.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Hall and.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Washington monument, capital building. Kind of getting all that in.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
So wrapping it up, can you share a personal travel
moment that really captures why you love exploring America?
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Okay, personal travel moment. Really, I think just for me,
it wasn't so much as the travel. It was after
I went on our big road trip. I actually took
the time this is the one time I've ever done this,
and I made a photo album. I went on like
snapfish and I made this photo album and added little
captions to it. And I feel like that is I've
(29:21):
loved that so much because it's not like your phone
where you take I mean literally, I've got thirty thousand
photos on my phone, you know, when do I look
at them?
Speaker 5 (29:29):
But just to have this printed book, it's like this
big coffee table book, you know, and just to kind
of flip through and I added, you know, little captions
to it and kind of reliving all those memories. I
would say, even though that's.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Not a particular moment like from the trip, I really
feel like I relive lots of little moments from the
trip because I had taken the time to kind of
go through and create this table, this coffee table book
of all the different moments when we were on that trip.
So that'll always be really special to me. I mean,
even though seven and a half weeks on the road
(30:01):
and different hotels, different campgrounds, different places to go was challenging.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
I mean, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
I'm so glad that we, you know, were fortunate enough
to be able to take the time to do that.
I mean, kind of like rewinding back from that, I
had actually I was working, and I had actually been
laid off in November, right, and so I was thinking,
I don't know what I want to do next.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
It was one of those.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Things where I didn't want to quit my job, but
I didn't know what I wanted to do next. And
I knew I wanted to travel, and you know, I
I talked to my husband. I said, well, what would
you think if I took the kids on a cross
country road trip?
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Like, would you be okay with He's like, I was like,
would you think he goes, well, I'd miss you guys.
I was like, Okay, that's not it. That's not a
big augh reason not to go. We'll call you from
the road.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
It was perfect though, too, because I mean, imagine if
I had been laid off in July, there would be
not enough time to plan such an adventure. But because
I was laid off in November, I had enough time
to think about it and then plan.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
It all out. So it really it worked out so perfectly.
You know.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
So for the next you know, five six months, I
started planning this trip. You know, I didn't spend every
single day planning the trip, but you know, I kind
of hunted around look for ideas, and then you know,
by the time the kids were out of school in June,
we just you know, hit the road and it was
it was pretty amazing.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
So I'm glad we had that opportunity.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
And then, like I said, the next couple of summers,
we did three weeks where we did one where we
flew to Denver and we kind of explored Colorado, Wyoming,
South Dakota. We did another trip where we started in
Los Angeles and went from Los Angeles up to Seattle,
incorporating kind of the Amtrak Coastal Starlight train journey from
LA up to Oregon, I think, And so that was fun.
(31:47):
It It kind of worked out well too with the pandemic,
because I felt like by the time twenty nineteen, we
did a two week Lake, Michigan road trip, and after
that I was kind of thinking, I think we've done
it all. But then twenty twenty came and we wouldn't
have been able to go anywhere anyway.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
So and then that was when I started hiking.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
And I've lived in Virginia almost my whole life, but
I had never really explored my home state. I don't
know if you guys are like that where you live,
but you know, it was pretty amazing just to you know.
Of course, a lot of bad things came out of
the pandemic, but the good part was that I really
got to see what my home state was about. You know,
imagine living here forty plus years and not even exploring
(32:24):
so many places.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
So so that was fun just to see the home state.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
It's funny you mentioned the coffee table book. We've talked
about this before, you know, when I was growing up,
and this shows my age. But you had film, and
so you had a certain number of pictures that you
could take, and you knew probably half of them there
was going to be a finger on the lens, or
it's going to be blurry, or if you were lucky,
(32:50):
you got you know, half of whatever the film was
and so back then it was well, what's picture worthy?
And now you know, we have so much, we have
the a to take so many pictures. Oh yeah, Now
it's like, well, what do you do with all those
pictures once you have them. It's funny you mentioned the
coffee table book, because that's one of the things that
we've talked about, you know, doing coming back from a trip,
(33:12):
just to be able to have those memories somewhere, because
like my mother, for example, was very bad about doing
photo albums. I think we have. I think we have
maybe three for my entire childhood. She just oh yeah,
she just didn't. It just wasn't hurt thing. So but
you know, to come back and do one of those
coffee table books, I mean that's that's pretty interesting. So
I think that will help you relive, you know, as
(33:33):
you've mentioned, relived the trip over and over again.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Oh yeah, I mean I'm definitely glad I did it.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
I mean, there's no way I'm going to go back
and do it for any of the other trips that
were you know, three weeks in length, but you know,
seven and a half weeks felt like, you know, I
had enough material there too to turn into a photo book,
and I'm very similar to your own mother.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
I mean, that's really the only scrap book I have.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
I think when my first child was born, I maybe
tried it because I think my next or neighbor have.
My oldest is twenty two, and back then, I can't
even remember what it was called, but scrap booking was
very big, with all those ribbons and sers and all
kinds of things, and I I think I made one
page because I went to one of those parties where
you can make a scrap book, and you know, that
was it. So I'm glad that you know, snapfoot, Snapfish
(34:18):
and Shutterfly came along and you know, make it easy
to just kind of drop photos in.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Well, before we wrap up, where can listeners find the
Explore America preview and follow along for all the updates
on the full gad that's coming in November.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Yeah, sure, thanks for asking. It's it's simple.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
It's just two five zero places dot com two hundred
and fifty places dot com and you can sign up
and you enter your email and right away you will
get the sneak peak of two hundred of sorry of
twenty five, and then when the full book is out,
you'll be alerted to its availability and that will be
free as well well.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Oh my god, thank you guys so much. This is
so fun.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I love talking about us travel and just you know,
helping you know, listeners and people find new ways to explore,
new places to go.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
We can't wait to get our hands on the full
version of Explore America two hundred and fifty Places to
Go in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Absolutely, and for our listeners. Keep an eye out for
my upcoming book, The Family Vacationer, A parent's Guide to
meaningful travel. It's releasing November eleventh. Preorder details are coming
very soon.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Mark your calendars. We're celebrating episode two hundred with a
live recording in Orlando on December fifteenth, twenty twenty five.
Details and ticket info will be available soon on our
website and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Remember, folks, keep your passports and your hearts open.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Safe travels. Everyone got it.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Beach praices and hotel spaces. I'm using the park rids
and water slides, mountain ranges and seasonal changes. I'm here
to serve. I'm the Family Vacationers.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I've got skin full on other beach preces and hotel spaces.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Amusing the park rats and water slides, mountain ranges and
seasonal changes. I'm here to serve. I'm the family vacationers.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah,
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