As we near the end of another year, I can’t help but look back and think how lucky we are. When Chris and I got married a decade ago, one of the things we dreamed about was lots of travel. We did that for a few years before kids, but once they arrived, it just seemed too hard. There wasn’t enough money, time, or patience so seeing the world was put on the back burner as we handled debt and diapers.
Eventually we saw the end of that (*happy dance*) and we decided we’d probably never have enough money in the bank or enough time, but we were missing out on a dream we still had and our kids were growing a lot faster than we had planned.
So we hit the road and we’ve been going ever since. The catch-22 about traveling is the more you do it, the more you want. We plan our next trip while on a different one. We dream about our next school holiday while still enjoying the current one.
Traveling is addictive.
2016 was full of adventures; here are our seven favorite places we visited this year:
Montana
Can I put a whole state as a favorite stop? Of course I can, it’s my list. Everything about Montana was breathtaking. Even the endless highways and moments of fear as we quickly ran through our gas tank. Pictures and movies try to capture the openness and endless skies, but it truly is something you need to see for yourself. It will leave you speechless.
Mammoth Cave National Park
Apparently, I never wrote about our trip to Kentucky in July. Bummer. Maybe I’ll do it this spring and encourage you to go. Mammoth Cave was amazing, even for someone who realllllly can’t handle tight spaces. There were a few tense moments, but overall, it was overwhelmingly amazing. What made this trip stand out the most is that it was the first solo trip we took in our camper. It was a dry run to make sure we could set it up and survive on the road by ourselves. It was a raging success.
New York City
How can a trip without kids not make the list? I mean, I love those boogers, but five days without them was magical.
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
This was a once-in-a-lifetime stop for us on our summer road trip. We spent days there and still felt like we were just beginning when it was time to leave. I really hope we can get back there again, I’d love to make it an at least twice-in-a-lifetime stop.
St. Louis, Missouri
This made the list last year too, but St. Louis is such a great city that we had to go back, and I had to put it on the list again. The City Museum alone wins for us, but their food and free museums will put it on the list every single year we go there.
I feel like we traveled less this year than in years past, but purchasing and updating Betsy Ross took a lot of our travel budget. No regrets though. And I can’t wait to see where 2017 takes us.
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