Traveling 50 States with Kids

We spent a day in Portland, Oregon eating yummy food and exploring  Washington Park , a one of a kind park with a rose garden of over 10,000 roses, 2,300 species of trees including majestic redwood trees, hiking and play areas with 410 acres to explore, archery range, and several memorials including the Holocaust Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans, and Lewis and Clark Memorial. Our first stop was  Doe Donuts , a vegan donut and ice cream shop! After seeing Phil eat 6 different donuts from here on Somebody Feed Phil season 5 , we had to try them! We got: Portland Fog (organic earl grey glaze, fresh whip made of soy and coconut, fair trade vanilla bean) - this was my personal fav! Maple Bacon (maple glaze, housemade coconut bacon) Maple Corn Fritter (fresh yellow corn inside, maple glaze, sweet corn crumble) Salted Vanilla Bean (organic vanilla glaze, vanilla bean sea salt) Lemon Snowball (lemon mousse, vanilla bean glaze, sweetened coconut) They were delicious, and y...

Our kids have always wanted to visit a cave since their  Octonauts lovin' days. What better cave to visit than  Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. There are many different park tours , but we bought the Historic Tour  ($20 for adults, $15 for kids ages 6 to 12, and free for kids 5 and under). We've been stalking tickets for weeks now as we're usually last minute travelers and don't like to purchase tickets in advance, but the Historic Tour tickets on a Saturday always sold out (usually 2 to 3 days in advance) so we did purchase them on Wednesday.   After a short introduction and talk on safety from our tour guide, we  descended into the cave. What surprised me was how quickly we could feel the change in temperature, it was as if an air conditioning unit was blowing cold air at us. While we didn't immediately need our light jackets, the further into the cave we got, the colder it got eventually to around 54°F (compared to 82°F abo...

We crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge and drove to Hagley Museum in Wilmington (an ASTC museum ). The Hagley grounds includes the first Du Pont family home in America and the original Du Pont Company powder mills. Walking the grounds, I was just taken aback at how lush and serene it was. It reminded me of the original Anne of Green Gables setting.  We came on a good day where the free activity was fishing on the Brandywine Creek. They provided bamboo fishing poles and bait. We all fished and after about an hour, we caught 2 fishes as a family. Afterwards, we toured the Du Pont family home and office and learned about generations of the family and about their business. There were other tours available but it was nearing closing hours. I would have loved to stay another 2 to 3 hours just enjoying the grounds, the beauty, and the lush greenery.

We flew into Philly and drove to New Jersey and Delaware. We visited the Riverview Beach Park in Pennsville, NJ, a picturesque park next to the Delaware River with views of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The kids got some energy out on the playground before we strolled around the park and along the river.  We found some kind of beetle! 

We flew into Chicago to see the Field Museum and try some Chicago style hot dogs. It was a rainy day and we only had one umbrella, so we ran from the parking deck to the museum. Our shoes were a bit soaked but for the kids, running through the rain added to the fun. Before entering the museum, we stopped by Kim & Carlo's Chicago Style Hot Dog Stand  and picked up a beef Chicago style hot dog, turkey Chicago style hot dog, and hot dogs with only onions, relish, and ketchup. I don’t usually eat hot dogs (except occasionally at Costco) but this would definitely be my choice in how to dress up a hot dog. Our daughter liked all of the toppings as well but took out a few of the  pepperoncinis . Our boys didn’t really like the onions and relish and took them out. We ate our hot dogs at the Explorer Cafe in the Field Museum. The Field Museum is one of the largest natural history museums in the world. I was surprised to see that basic admission was covered through our ASTC members...