Chiang Rai, home of the long-neck Karen tribe, part of the infamous golden triangle of opium, and known for it's kitschy White Temple; there were so many reasons we wanted to visit this northernmost province of Thailand.   Located just 3 hours north of Chiang Mai by bus, this alluring town was a hop, skip and a jump away from us, so we decided to make it a weekend trip.  I happened to read that there was a hot-air balloon festival going on in Chiang Rai the weekend after Valentine's Day so we booked our trip for that weekend.  We used 12Go.Asia for our bus tickets and spent a little extra for the VIP bus since it had a bathroom which we figured may come in handy on the 3 hour commute.  Turns out, I was the only one who ended up using this 'VIP' bathroom.  This experience now holds top ranks on my list of most wild bathroom moments.  The stall was the size of a coffin (if I'm being generous).  The back of the bus, coupled with the rickety roads of Northern Thailand made me feel like a crash-test dummy.  It was pretty amazing that I managed to land even one drop of pee in the actual toilet itself.  To make matters funnier, the door wouldn't lock shut.  I had to hold it closed while trying to maintain my aim and squat just high enough so that not one inch of my sweet cheeks touched that wizzed on seat.  All the while being thrown ferociously about the stall.  All I have to say is, thank god I didn't have to help Quinn use this bathroom!

It's not really our M.O. to stay in super fancy hotels, especially during this year of travel. Not sure what got into us this weekend but we decided to stay in the fanciest hotel we could find in Chiang Rai, which was totally unnecessary.  Maybe it was that Valentine's Day love flowing through the air, or the excitement of our first weekend get-a-way since being in Thailand.  Or maybe we were just overly excited to find a 5 star hotel, balcony suite for $140/night, including a stupendous breakfast buffet.  Where we're from, the prices for a room at a resort like this would have been around $500-$600/night.  So we went for it, and it was fantastic! The hotel that I speak of is called, The Riverie by Katathani.  It overlooks the Mae Kok River and offers a great view of what's known as the Big Buddha which sits on the hilltop above Chiang Rai.  We had a balcony suite overlooking the river and hotel pool.  Quinn was super excited because the pool had a small play area with a waterslide.  Jamie and I were super excited because the pool had a pool bar!  If you're in Chiang Rai and are looking for something boujee, The Riverie is a great place to stay.

Now, for all of the wild things we got up to in Chiang Rai!

The Chiang Rai Balloon Fiesta:

Thailand loves a good festival and this one was no exception. The Balloon Fiesta is an annual event in Chiang Rai and it's a pretty big deal.  It's a 5 day festival of hot-air balloon madness.  Balloon pilots from all over the world come to participate in competitions and festivities. We were lucky enough to catch the last night of the festivities.  We felt like we had stumbled into the Thai Coachella.  Hot-air balloons, lasers, musical performances of all kinds, beer gardens, food stall heaven and loads of great merchandise for purchase.  This place was like night market meets rave.

The drive was nearly 40 minutes from our hotel to the Singha Park where the festival was being held.  Followed by a 30 minute trek from where our Grab driver (Thailand's version of Uber) had to drop us off due to the amount of traffic.  This was definitely not the easiest place to get to, but definitely worth the journey. It's said that tourists come from all over for this event but we didn't feel that way at all.  We actually loved the true local feel that this festival had.  The majority of the crowd appeared to us to be Thai locals.  It sort of felt like the whole town of Chiang Rai was in attendance.  Our suspicions regarding this were validated the next day when 3 separate employees working at our hotel informed us that they had spotted us at the Balloon Fiesta the night before.

If you are visiting Chiang Rai in February, this festival must not be missed!

On our Grab ride home from the festival we met Noom. Noom was so great and offered to be our driver the following day for our visits to the temples.  Noom picked us up at 9:30 a.m. and chauffeured us around all day.  The perk to having Noom as our driver was that he spoke English relatively well and was very enthusiastic about teaching us Thai. So we basically got a tour guide and language teacher all in one!  I've managed to retain one phrase from our day's worth of lessons.  That phrase is sawadi ton chaw, which means good morning.  I've been told by some locals that my accent is very good when pronouncing this, and I owe that all to Noom!

Wat Rong Khun (White Temple)

Going to Chiang Rai and not visiting the White Temple is like going to New York City and not visiting the Statue of Liberty. It has to be done!  This was the first place Noom took us. What a trip this temple is!  As expected it's brimming with tourists in search of the best selfie they could take in very calculated poses.  The next best thing to seeing the White Temple is watching all the tourist take selfies, it's pretty entertaining. All jokes aside, there are tons of great photos to be taken here.

It's definitely like no other temple we've seen.  It's described as an art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple and that's because it's designed completely by a local artist from Chiang Rai.  Chalermchai Kositpipat decided to restore the formerly dilapidated temple funding the project with all of his own money.  Talk about a labor of love!  It feels like a mix between a Buddhist temple and a museum of pop-culture.  It's offbeat, innovative, ingenious, kitschy, breathtaking, and just a wee-bit terrifying. The details of the temple and everything that surround it are INSANE!

My favorite part was the silver heart-shaped wish leaves hanging from the ceilings of walkways and prayer trees.  You can purchase these leaves for 30 baht ($1 US), write wishes or messages on the leaves and hang them on the prayer trees. Quinn really wanted to write all of our names on our wish leaf.  The leaves are eventually relocated to a permanent spot making them a fixture for life at the White Temple.  The glimmer of these leaves hanging all around is dazzling!

Guys...you gotta go to the White Temple sometime in your life!

Wat Huay Pla Kong (Big Buddha)

Next we headed off to the Big Buddha. Which later I found out is not really Buddha at all, but instead the goddess of Mercy, known as Bodhisattva.  Makes sense its called Big Buddha, it is a lot easier to say than Bodhisattva.  A Bodhisattva in the Buddist faith, is one who has reached enlightenment.

This Bodhisattva stands 23 stories tall. You can take an elevator up to the top of her if you so choose.  The 23rd floor is a tiny circular landing point.  Not as tiny as the bus bathroom but preeeety small.  There are ornate carving on the walls and gorgeous statues everywhere but the real gift is the view.  That's if you are into views out of the slits of Bodhisattva's eyes which have no barriers or screens attached to them.  Im not!  It was all I could do to get myself to shove my selfie stick out one small window in the back which did have safety bars over it.  I got a brief video before racing back to the elevator to get out of there.  The space is small, there's lots of people up there, and I am not the biggest fan of heights, but hey...I'm one step close to enlightenment after that experience.  The boys loved it!  

There's also a pretty sweet pagoda, called Long Son Pagoda to check out next to Big Buddha.  And to top it all off, there are two small food stalls that serve free lunch....you heard me FREE!

Long-Tail Boat Along the Mae-Kok River:

Now for our favorite part of the weekend, a simple ride down the Mae Kok River in a long-tail boat.  Nothing screams, "Im in fucking South East Asia" like riding in a long-tail boat.  These are canoe shaped boats with canopies. The 'tail' is actually the front of the boat which stretches out into a long, elegant point.  They are used primarily to transport people down rivers.  They are iconic in Thailand and they are chic.

Our hotel offered boat rides to visit the elephant camps or to go visit one of the hill tribes.  After weeks of research, we already had our elephant situation figured out so we weren't interested in a visit this weekend.  As far as visiting the hill tribes,  initially we were really keen on going to visit one of the northern Thailand tribes. The Karen tribe who are best recognized as wearing the gold rings stretched around their necks were at the peak of our interest.  Upon looking into where and how to visit these tribes, I read about them being exploited by the tour operators due to the growing popularity among visitors.  Some say that very little money from the tours go back to the villages who really need it. The term "human zoo" is thrown around to illustrate how these people are trapped in their villages and exploited for purposes of tourism.  

Look, there is a lot of debate over this.  Most certainly some of these hill tribes are also benefiting from the money of tourist buying their merchandise or staying in home-stays in their villages.  Article after article will tell you to do your research to find the best way to visit these tribes and most definitely there is an ethical way to do so.  At the end of the day, I just didn't want to do any more research.  The way I see it, sometimes when you have to spend hours researching the ethicality of something it's easier to just strike it off of your list.

Instead, we opted for a simple ride up and down the Mae Kok River at sunset.  The evening was picturesque as the sun set over the mountain tops.  Many families were out enjoying the sunset hour with dinner on the river.  Kids were playing and men were fishing.  The excitement of everyone we passed along the way was infectious and we found ourselves exuberantly waiving back and yelling hi!  It was peaceful, the sky was golden, it was a perfect night.  And then, Jamie had to pee.  He used sign-language to explain to the driver of our boat that he had to pee.  Meanwhile, I'm laughing, thinking he's shit out of luck.  And then, our driver (who spoke zero English prior) pulls the boat over to the hillside and says, "Thailand toilet" with a laugh!  Off Jamie went to go piss in the most scenic Thailand toilet he has ever used, on the hillside of the Mae Kok River.  We all had a good laugh over this.

Wat Rong Suea Ten (Blue Temple)

Last but not least, the Blue Temple.  You've seen one temple, you've seen them all right?  Nope...not until you've seen the Blue Temple.  The blue-ness of this place is gripping.  I won't bore you with any facts about the Blue Temple (honestly, I don't really know any).  The photos speak for themselves.  Let's just put it this way, even the monks were taking photos!

And that folks, concludes one fantastic weekend trip to Chiang Rai, Thailand.  We came, we raved, we templed, we boated (in a long-tail boat!), we had ourselves a couple of memorable pees, one on a bus and one on a river bank.  What more could you ask for in a weekend?

Big thanks to those of you who continue to read our blog.

A cooking class in Thailand...dream come true!  This was on the top of our bucket-list of things we wanted to do while in Thailand.  But as per usual, with activities popular among tourists, there are so many to choose from.  Which is the BEST??  So off to the internet I went, in search of the perfect cooking class for the Wagabonds.  

There are literally tons of cooking classes to choose from in Chiang Mai.  While I'm sure many of them are great, we were looking for one that would be good for children and adults alike.  I read about Sammy's Organic Thai Cooking School and I knew right away that this was the place for us.

Sammy's cooking school is located about 20 minutes outside of the city on his third generation family farm.  We loved the fact that we got to travel outside of the city to a farm where we would be using organic ingredients grown fresh on-site.  I had also read that Sammy's was a good place for kids and that they were free to run around and explore the grounds should they lose interest in the cooking class along the way (which almost never happens, right?!).

We were picked up promptly at 8 a.m. and taken to the center of town where we met up with the rest of our group. Our first stop was an outdoor market which has been around for more than 100 years.  Sammy has been coming to this market since he was a kid.  You could tell that this was a real locals market as we were the only tourists to be seen.  Sammy walked us through the market and educated us on the likes of Thai chilies, the best brand of coconut milk, and the difference between sticky rice and jasmine rice.  It was very educational.  

We instantly loved Sammy.  He is adorable and absolutely hilarious, finding every opportunity to slip in a subtle joke where he could.  He's smiley and has a real infectious and playful personality which kept us laughing all day long.

After the market we headed to Sammy's farm.  The farm is nestled within acres of rice paddies and surrounded by lush green hills.  The main cooking area is an open-air kitchen equipped with several stations of individual burners.  Next to the cooking stations is a long-wooden table.  At each place setting was a small round cutting board, pestle and mortar, an apron and a hand cloth.  

We spent the first 30 minutes having coffee and exploring the grounds.  The kitchen area is surrounded by several bamboo decks furnished with floor cushions and hammocks.  The decks over-look fish ponds surrounded by coconut palm trees.  There are a couple bridges which span the length of the ponds and the property is filled with pots brimming with fresh herbs, plants, fruit trees and vegetables.  Sammy is super proud his farm, as he should be, this place is paradise!  

Sammy went on to pick fresh ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, citronella, kafir lime leaves and coconuts.  Explaining to us the flavors and aroma of each and how they are all integral ingredients to Thai cooking.  He cracked opened a variety of coconuts and gave us a lesson in making fresh coconut milk using a hand-made wooden coconut grater that has been in his family for more than 50 years.  As he grated away he reminded us of the most important technique, "keep smiling".  Sammy went on to tell us that as a kid he took a saw to the heirloom after being tasked with grating one too many coconuts.  Albeit an unsuccessful attempt to destroy this device, the grater did indeed have the scar to show for it!  

Time to cook!  We were given a list of Thai classics to choose from.  Curry: Red (also called jungle curry), yellow or green with chicken.  Soup: Hot and sour prawn soup, coconut chicken soup or Thai vegetable hot soup.  Stir Fried: Minced chicken with holy basil, chicken with cashew nut or the classic Pad Thai noodle with chicken.  For a vegetarian option, tofu or vegetables could be substituted for chicken in any of the dishes. For dessert, the infamous mango-sticky rice!

The first thing we all prepared was the curry paste of our choosing.  We did this by use of a hand pestle and mortar.  This was probably the hardest part of the cooking process as it took a ton of elbow grease to pound all of the ingredients into a creamy paste.  You could smell the aroma of fresh curry as we all pounded away at our mortars and of course...'kept smiling'!

After we were finished with our curry paste, Sammy's wife took over, walking us step by step through the cooking process of all the dishes.  There is no need to commit all of these steps or ingredients to memory because at the end of the day you will receive a copy of Sammy's cookbook with all the recipes included.

Here are some of our results.

The last hour of the day was spent lounging around in hammocks, relaxing or napping.  What better way to spend an hour after stuffing your face with the most delicious home-made lunch? For those of you who have kids that don't relax in the middle of the day, they are welcome to do what our son did, run around and explore the farm.

If you are looking for a great, kid-friendly cooking experience in Chiang Mai, Sammy's farm is your place!

Y'all, I am not a country girl.  Don't let my generous use of the term y'all fool you.  I am half Texan by marriage, so technically I'm qualified to use this term.  However, I am a city girl through and through.  I love the city, love the convenience, love the hustle, love the grit, love it all.  I feel comfortable in a city.  I like people around, I like to be somewhere my screams can be heard.  So the next few days through some serious country towns and desolate roads were challenging for me, definitely out of my comfort zone.  Don't get me wrong, I love nature, love hiking and seeing historical sights like Mount Rushmore, I just want it to be close to a city.  You will notice as more blog posts go up, most of our destinations from here on out are in larger U.S. cities (this was by design).

Let me qualify what I mean by "challenging".  First off, something many people don't know about me is that I do not enjoy long road trips.  High-speed, open roads actually cause me a fair share of anxiety.  Spending 4 months driving around the United States, I of course anticipated this being an issue for me.  Do things that make you uncomfortable "they" say.  It's good for you, right?  Get out of your comfort zone "they" say.  Who "they" are, I will never know, but if "they" say it, then it must be true.  That being said, we spent the next 3 and half days on some very fast moving, windy, open roads which were riddled with semi-trucks wizzing by, mostly in areas which had no Internet or phone services (my nightmare).  With the assistance of only 1 Xanex over the course of 3 days, I did it and survived!  "They" should be very proud of me.

We left Salt Lake City on a Wednesday and headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming as our half way stopping point.  The drive was...you guessed it...long, fast and nerve-wracking (for me).  There was however, a cool Lincoln Monument along the Lincoln Highway no less.  America loves Lincoln and so do we, so naturally we stopped to snap a photo.

 We arrived at the Historic Planes Hotel in Cheyenne around 4 p.m.  We pulled into the downtown area hungry but excited to stay in this old-timey hotel.  We hadn't splurged on a hotel thus far in our trip and we were happy to finally be staying at a cute historical one.  Upon arriving, we realized there was no visible parking area for the hotel which concerned us, but we figured we must be missing something.  Jamie checked in and 30 minutes later came out with a concerned look on his face, "Yep, no parking here, street parking only".  This is kind of an issue for us since we have a year's worth of belongings in our car, including Jamie's work computer.  Oh well, we decided we would haul all of our belongings into the hotel just to be safe, even if we were just staying over-night.  We loaded all of our luggage and computers onto the luggage cart and entered the hotel. (Have you seen the Pace Picante commercial where the cowboys call out their friend for showing up with an imposter salsa?  Upon finding out it was made in NYC and not San Antonio, they all scream in unison, "New York City??!!"  These were the voices I heard in my head as we walked through the entrance of this hotel with our iMac and abundance of luggage). I walked in and was immediately smashed in the face by the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke, like casino level cigarette smoke!  "Alright", (not so optimistically trying to be optimistic at this point), "certainly the rooms can't be this bad".  A fact I never confirmed to be true since we never made it up to our room.  

This hotel had one very charming, extremely small (I'm being generous), historic elevator.  So charming in fact that once our luggage cart was loaded, there was no room for any of our bodies!  At this point Jamie removed the cart from the elevator and we weighed out our options.

Option 1: Send the luggage up the elevator on its own and run up 5 flights of stairs in hopes to catch it right when the doors open.

Option 2: Carry all of our luggage up 5 flights of stairs.  This was early on in our travels and we still had way to0 many belongings (we have since sized down considerably).  

Option 3: Cancel our reservation and find another place to stay.

Option 3 was agreed upon within 15 seconds of our discussion.  I walked up to the front desk and asked if it was too late to cancel and still receive a full refund.  "Have you been to the room?", the guy asked. "No, we can't fit our luggage in the elevator" (which he was fully aware of since he had been sitting there the whole time watching our struggle). "Then yeah", he said.  Then yeah, may have been the most polite response we got out of this guy and also our signal that we could be refunded and get the hell out of there.

The next hour was a shit show of calls to Hotels.com.  They had to call the front desk of the hotel to confirm we were no longer checking in, the front desk was picking up the phone and hanging up on them.  This happened several times in a row.  How's that for a country-western middle finger?  Some other uncomfortable stuff happened during that hour, including the fine gentleman at the front desk pronouncing our last name as Fagner instead of Wagner.  I'm going to stop right there as by now you're probably getting the picture.  

We got out of that place and headed to dinner.  We found another hotel room which was pricey but ended up being fantastic. We downed 4 overpriced drinks (2 each) and went to sleep.  Shout out to Little America Cheyenne for saving our hides that night.  They had free parking too!  Also a shout out to Hotels.com for giving us a $75 voucher for our hassles.

We were up, car-packed, snacks ready and on the road by 7 a.m. the next morning heading off on our drive to Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore.  I held my breathe for much of the drive until we arrived at the sign welcoming us to Black Hills National Park.

We made it to Custer State Park by noon and headed down Needles Highway to check out this home on the range where the buffalos roam and the deer and antelopes play.  Thanks to a travel family that we met on Instagram, I was given some valuable tips for exploring this area.

Custer State Park

Per the pro-tips we were given, we took Needles Highway Drive. What a sight!  The views of the spire-shaped rocks from here are phenomenal.  Next, we drove through a space about the width of our car called Needles Eye Tunnel and along the beginning of the highway.  This was my favorite part of Custer Park.  It is so beautiful through here with views of the cathedral spires at every turn.  There are tons of places to hike along this road.  We decided to do the Cathedral Spires Trail which is 1.6 miles, involves some mild rock climbing but is otherwise very kid-friendly.

The Wildlife Loop

After our hike we continued along the highway to the visitor center.  It's here that a park ranger informed us: A buffalo is capable of crushing a small SUV in seconds but otherwise it's perfectly safe to drive by them at close range.  In spite of his encouraging words we took our chances and headed down the Wildlife Loop in hopes of seeing some buffalos charging, I mean roaming.  

There was not as much wildlife as we had hoped for on the Wildlife Loop that day. The highlight was the pack of adorable burros who came straight into our car windows looking for snacks.  We were't sure if we were supposed to feed these guys and we certainly didn't have snacks appropriate for a burro, so we refrained from offering them our road snacks.  That didn't seem to stop other tourists as we noticed one over-indulgent burro walking around with a Cheez-It on it's back.  As we continued down the road we did see a herd of buffalo off to the side of the road lying in the grass.  They weren't particularly close to the road but close enough to get a decent view of them, especially through binoculars kindly loaned to us by some other buffalo watching tourists.  We did end up seeing one lone buffalo crossing the road a little ways up and praise be, he did not charge, nor crush our car!  

Iron Mountain Road

Next, we took Iron Mountain Road towards Keystone, the town we were staying in that evening.  What an incredible drive!  Honestly, for someone who is not a fan of driving, take my advice on this one and drive this road.  This is definitely the most amazing stretch of road that I have ever been on and a truly unforgettable experience.  Iron Mountain Road is 17 miles long and filled with curves, switchbacks, wooden bridges (called pigtail bridges) and very narrow granite tunnels.  A couple of these tunnels were built specifically so that when passing through you get a little peak of Mt. Rushmore.  Other than a lookout point at the beginning of the road these tunnels are the only glimpse you get along the way showcasing the mountain sculpture.  This road is designed to be driven very slow in order to take in the sights and smells of your surroundings. Driven slowly (the speed limit is 35 miles per hour) and making a couple stops along the way, this drive will take you about 45 minutes to complete.  If you don't do anything else in Custer State Park, do this drive.  It's magical and was the highlight of our day!

Keystone, South Dakota

We arrived in the quaint, little town of Keystone, South Dakota around 5 p.m. that evening.  This is an old mining village which has been transformed into a small resort town catering to the thousands of tourists passing through each year to check out the monuments.  Unless you are hanging out at the Red Garter Saloon (which looks exactly like a scene out of Deadwood) this town is a bit snoozy.  There are a few somewhat overpriced restaurants along the strip but nothing too amazing. We stayed at the Baymont Hotel which had a bunk bed in our room. So, in Quinn's opinion this was the BEST place we have ever stayed in!  Hey, as long as he's happy, we're happy.  We were exhausted from our long day and went to bed early that night.

Mount Rushmore

The next morning we got up very early, hit up the free breakfast at our hotel and headed right over to Mt. Rushmore at 7:30 in the morning to beat the crowds.  It was slightly raining that morning but by the time we got there it had subsided and we were blessed by the most amazing view of Mt. Rushmore with a rainbow shooting out over the top . The monument opens up at 8 a.m. officially but you are welcome to show up anytime and I highly recommend doing so.  We spent the next hour and a half walking around the base and hiking the Presidential Trail.  This trail has about 422 steps and takes you up close and personal to the sculpture.  In all honesty, I really did not expect to enjoy this experience as much as I did.  The sculpture of the President's faces is truly magnificent and the grounds on which it resides is absolutely breathtaking.  We saw tons of chipmunks and squirrels along our hike, including a red squirrel (which from our home studies we learned are very rare in North America).  Getting there before the crowds and having the trail all to ourselves was the best decision we could have made.  This whole morning is engraved in my memory forever!  

After our hike we headed over to the Sculpture Studio which is located right at the base of the trail.  Here you can sit in on a short presentation about the sculpture and how it came to be. Very much worth the time.  

Mount Rushmore definitely exceeded all of our expectations and we highly recommend visiting this place sometime in your life.

We headed out of Keystone after our morning at Mt. Rushmore and ended up in Rapid City, South Dakota at a place called Harriet & Oak for lunch. Daaaang, what an unexpected treat this place was.  Harriet & Oak is a little cafe and and coffee roaster in downtown Rapid City.  They have amazing coffee drinks, beer, wine and a variety of scratch-made food with vegan and Paleo options to choose from.  It's super hip and even has an old fashion VW bus smack in the middle of the cafe that you can sit in.

After lunch we high-tailed and white knuckled it through the middle of the country as we headed east towards our next stop, Minnesota.

My favorite thing about Idaho was the Thousand Springs Scenic byway. We took this route on our way from Boise to Salt Lake City and it was absolutely spectacular.  The highway begins at Interstate 84 near Bliss and follows U.S. 30 southeast through Twin Falls.  The route gets its name from the thousands of springs which run through Snake River Canyon. Many springs and waterfalls are visible from the byway and there are plenty of turn-offs where you can snap great shots of some waterfalls.  On the side of the road in Bliss, where the highway begins, there is a map of the stops along the way.  The view from here isn't so bad either.

If you find yourself on this route, I highly suggest taking a small detour to check out the Perrine Bridge and the Twin Falls Visitor Center which sits just off to the side of the bridge.  This center is a nice stop with unique Idaho treats, souvenirs, and coffee.  The Perrine Bridge stretches across the Snake River and stands at 486 ft. tall.  Because of it's height it is popular with base jumpers.  If you get lucky you will catch a few of these insane humans diving off the ledge of the bridge.  There were several jumpers the day we were there and we stood there and watched them for about 30 minutes. I was having small heart attacks as we watched each one plunge to their near death.  It was difficult enough for me to stand close to the edge of the look-out point to take a decent picture with my fear of heights.  Jumping off this bridge is inconceivable to me, but loads of fun to watch others do!

From there, we headed back to highway 30 toward Shoshone Falls.  Shoshone Falls has been called the Niagara Falls of the west.  I was skeptical about this grandiose title as I have not seen any gorge greater than Niagara Falls.  But WOW, did these falls impress!  The water levels were low in mid-September when we were there but it was still magnificent.  The view of Snake River from this look-out is also incredible.  We decided that we will definitely come back here on another family vacation, rent kayaks and paddle down the Snake River.  This drive is a must if you are vacationing through southern Idaho.

"Welcome to Utah", the state line sign we never saw as we crossed over the Idaho/Utah border.  We did however see a large pick up truck carrying a GIANT buck head (yes, just the head).  Shortly followed by another large pick up with "Go Hunt" on their Utah license plate.  These clues along with the fact that Joe Rogan's podcast taught me that Utah is a great place to hunt, helped me conclude that we must be in Utah! Until we regained service and confirmed this through nav of course.

There's not much to dislike about Salt Lake City.  It's extremely clean, easy to navigate and they have a really great foodie scene.  There are some inconveniences around the consumption/buying of alcohol, but it's not like we came here looking for an all-nighter.  We also stayed in one of our most favorite Airbnb's in Salt Lake City. Check out this place if you are ever visiting and want a large, extremely clean, super hip spot to rest your head. It's also walking distance to a really great street of food and shops.

Here's how we spent a Sunday in Salt Lake City:

Ate breakfast at Pig and a Jelly Jar.  Holy pig was this place amazing.  It's southern style scratch cooking at it's finest.  It's everything you want and need in a brunch.  So good in fact that we found ourselves back here for dinner the same evening.

Toured the State Capitol Building.  You really have to go and visit this building.  We have been to several capitol buildings, before and after this visit and this one is a real charmer.    

Took a hike up Ensign Peak Trail.  This is perfect to go do right after visiting the Capitol building because it is literally right behind it.  It's less than a mile to hike all the way to the top and provides some dynamic city views.  It's a great way to get a birds eye view of the city as well as a peak at the Great Salt Lake and it's definitely easy enough for the kids to hike.

Walked around Temple Square.  After our hike we headed over to visit Temple Square.  This is a 35 acre area where the Mormon Temple, tabernacle, assembly hall and visitor center is located.  The temple is not open to the public, but it's definitely worth taking a walk through the square to snap some photos of this magnificent granite structure from the outside.  There's also a very cool pond named the reflection pond located outside of the temple.  This is an infinite pond with no edges.  No matter which way you take a photo, if there is someone standing on the other-side of the pond, it looks like they are wading in the water.  I had several people comment on this when I posted the below photo on social media.

After Temple Square we headed to the downtown area for some shopping.  One thing to note about Salt Lake is that virtually all businesses are closed on Sundays.  After walking a few blocks we discovered this fact. That being said, we did find a little pizza spot which was open.  Quinn ordered some pizza and Jamie and I just wanted to grab a beer since it was about 80 degrees out that day.  WARNING: It is strictly forbidden to order alcohol in Salt Lake City unless you are also ordering food! How considerate of Utah to make sure one is properly fed enough to consume alcohol responsibly.  The cashier was kind enough to allow us to order two beers after I ordered a salad along with Quinn's pizza.  

We ended the Sunday the same way we had started, by eating at the good ol' Pig and Jelly Jar.  Partly because it was so good for breakfast, but mostly because it was one of the only places open for dinner on a Sunday and it was close to our place.  

Quinn and I spent the week working on school stuff and taking some field trips.  

Here are a few great outings to do with kids in Salt Lake City:

Natural History Museum of Utah:  This place is has an incredible dinosaur exhibit. Kids can dig for fossils and put together puzzles of dinosaur bones.  There is a lot to see in the museum but plenty to do with kids which is why we liked it so much.  

Salt Lake City Public Library:  Homeschooling while on the road means that we don't have the luxury of traveling with a lot of supplies especially books.  We check out a library or two in every city we visit.  The main branch in Salt Lake City was spectacular!  We actually ended up here on accident looking for a free art class for kids and shortly after arriving discovered we were at the wrong brach.  If your'e into libraries this one in Salt Lake is great!  The children's area is amazing and there are shops and a cafe on the bottom floor.

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum:  We came here for a class they were having on fossils.  Since exploring dinosaurs and fossils the day before at the Natural History Museum I thought this would be a great follow up lesson on fossils.  This place had so much more to offer.  Our favorite being the "Saving Lives" exhibit, featuring a real helicopter where kids can practice life flight rescue missions.  There is also a mock emergency room where kids can dress up like doctors and nurses, take x-ray's and follow computer instructions on performing a surgery.  We spent over 4 hours in this museum.  

I cannot end this post without mentioning Chip Cookies.  This was the best cookie I have ever tried IN MY LIFE!  My dad is notorious for using this phrase very liberally, but I mean it whole-heartedly when I say, this was THE BEST DAMN COOKIE EVER!

We were only in Salt Lake City for 4 nights and 3 full days and I feel like we explored some of the best of it.  This was just a "stop-off" city for us on our way to Mount Rushmore, so we really were not expecting a whole lot. But Salt Lake, you were a pleasant surprise!

We left Portland a couple days early to visit family in Bend.  My cousin and her family have lived in Bend for 15 years.  We have visited them before, so we already knew that we loved this place.  The drive from Portland to Bend is picturesque.  The road passes through miles of bedrock which you can tell were carved from flaming hot lava flow millions of years ago creating giant gorges and plateaus of colorful rocks.  The Deschutes River flows through the valley at the base of these rocks making the landscape much more soft and peaceful amidst the sharpe-edged, splintery rock formations.  Unfortunately I didn't stop along the way to take any pictures.  We had gotten a late start that day and were anxious to get there.  You will just have to take my word for it, it was gorgeous.

Bend is the epitome of outdoorsy.  Everywhere you look folks are cruising around in Columbia and Patagonia gear with bikes, kayaks and paddle boards strapped to the top of their Subarus.  We started our Saturday off early, throwing on our Columbia and Patagonia knock-offs and hitting the trails along the Deschutes River for a run with a local tour guide, our cousin Morgan. Rather than go into a long description about the beauty of these trails, just take a look for yourself.

After the trails we threw the paddle boards on the car and headed down to the Deschutes for Jamie and I's first ever paddle board experience.  We hit the river, stood up immediately and began paddling upstream for the next hour.  What a nice workout.  It's the best combination of a leg, core and arm workouts while still being completely relaxing.  We loved it.  

At this point we were really starting to feel like true Bend locals with a run and a paddle in the books by 2 p.m.  Morgan explained that many Bend residents will congregate in the evenings boasting about the line up of outdoor activities they had completed that day.  We pondered what we could do to make this day into a trifecta of outdoorsy events which we could brag about at our get together later that evening. We landed on the boys going to the brewery and arcade and the girls jumping in the sauna for a steam.  That's about as close to a Bend trifecta as the Wagabonds were capable of.

The rest of the night was filled with food, drinks and wonderful company, followed by a wild ride on the Matlock's golf cart equipped with off-roading wheels.  We made frequent stops to gaze at the stars in amazement.  You could literally see every single constellation and then some in the night sky.

The next morning we said our good-byes over the best damn breakfast east of the Deschutes River.  If you are in Bend, the McKay Cottage Restaurant is a must.  Get whatever is on the menu, it's all fantastic.  But whatever you do, get a side of the Lemon-Ricotta pancakes for the table to share, you will not regret it (well, you might just a little when you're too full to drive to Boise right away, but get them anyways).  

We came, we ran, we paddled, we brewed, we steamed, we partied, we stargazed and we stuffed our faces.  Bend, you did not disappoint.  Matlock family, thank you and we love you!

Boise

Ok, if I'm being 100% honest we were a little underwhelmed with Boise when we first arrived.  It didn't help that we got here at nearly 11 p.m. after getting a late start out of Bend (no thanks to those Lemon-Ricotta pancakes) and checked into an underground basement apartment, which felt more like a bunker.  Not to mention, settling for Burger King out of pure necessity, since nothing else was open at that hour.  None of these things make for a great start.  Also, coming from a house in Portland that was arguably better than our rental back home, this was a hard transition.  I also may have been a hard sell on anywhere at this point coming from Portland since it is one of my most favorite cities.  In any case, all we needed was a good night's sleep and a reset.

We arrived the night before Labor Day and woke up Monday morning with high hopes for Boise.  My plan was to go float the river on an inner tube, but Jamie wanted to explore the city instead.  I should have been a little more pushy about floating the river because we later found out that the last day of the season to float the river is Labor Day....aaaaand we missed it (you may be sensing the tiniest bit of resentment over this mistake...but I digress).  The town of Boise was like a ghost town on Labor Day...understandably, well, because it was Labor Day and everyone was probably floating the river (my last dig, I swear).  It was actually refreshing to see so many businesses closed on the one day we are supposed to be honoring our country's laborers.  The OC and LA area rarely shut down for anything.

Fast forward, one week in, and we are feeling different about this cute, under-stated, little city.  We couldn't have chosen a better part of town to stay.  Boise's North End is a historic district filled with turn-of-the-century style homes and tree lined streets which have a charm reminiscent of the south. The tree dense neighborhoods are home to families of squirrels which can be seen scurrying about, chasing one another and eating acorns at all times of the day.  They very well may be a nuisance to the residents but Quinn and I were thoroughly entertained by them everyday.  They also still do milk deliveries in this neighborhood which I thought was a thing of the Norman Rockwell past.  We loved walking the streets of Boise's North End.

The main recreational area here is Camelback park.  A sprawling green belt backed up to a hill scape that looks like a camel's hump.  The park has enormous stone steps which takes you to the top of the hill where you can see breathtaking views of downtown.  The back end of the park is filled with miles of trails.  This park was wonderful and served as my gym for our two week stay.

The downtown area of North End is known as Hyde Park and was perfect walking distance from our place.  There were some pretty wonderful places to eat and shop in Hyde Park.  We loved  G. Willikers Toy Store (I mean how good is that name?) and right next door to G. Willikers is an old-timey candy store and soda fountain called Goody's (how Norman Rockwell is that?).  As far as restaurants go, you can get your pizza fix at North End Pizza and if you have a hankering for a burger, 13th Street Pub and Grill is your go to.  There are two great coffee houses in Hyde Park.  One is called Java and the other one is Hyde Perk.  Both are great for different reasons but one thing they had in common was their friendly staff.  They even had little picture cards of the staff on-duty which serves as small introductions of the employees working that day.  I've never seen something like this before, and I liked it.

Downtown Boise has a lot to offer. Turns out it's home to the largest population of Basque outside of Spain....who knew?!  When in Boise you have to make your way down to the Basque block and grab yourself some tapas or traditional sandwiches.

We loved Bar Gernika! The food is reasonably priced, the Spanish wines were great and the croquettes were like crunchy balls of creamy delicious, something or other (they're good, I promise!) .

If you're a donut fan (and if you're not, we may not be able to be friends) Guru Donuts is a must.  Every Tuesday at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. they have Tasty Tales Storytime.  A 20 minute story time session put on by Rediscovered Bookshop, a great book store located across the street from Guru Donuts.  

For the more savory breakfast types, Even Stevens makes a fantastic breakfast burrito fixed with tater tots and a fried egg.  

I also have to mention another little gem of a place that I discovered on accident while waiting for my tires to be replaced called Txikiteo (pronounced, Chee-kee-tay-0).  This place has breakfast, lunch and dinner and is also a wine bar serving a modern take on Basque cuisine.  I loved the breakfast, loved the coffee (it wasn't late enough in the day for me to try the wine, otherwise I would have had more than one glass for sure) and the staff was extremely friendly.  I really wish I had more time to visit this place because I feel like I would quickly become a regular.  

Last and not necessarily least, I have to mention Westside Drive-In. Guy Fieri has been here, so it has to be good right? It was here that we discovered an Idaho staple known as steak fingers.  These are chicken fried pieces of steak, like chicken fried steak, only the size of your finger instead of the size of your head like they do it in the south.  Jamie's most favorite guilty pleasure is chicken fried steak.  He will order it anywhere it shows itself on a menu (and then report that it wasn't really that good after finishing it, EVERY SINGLE TIME... but that's a different discussion).  How were they you ask??  I thought they were pretty good actually.  Mainly because the steak was good quality meat unlike every other southern version I have tried where the steak itself is shoe leather quality at best.  How did Jamie feel about it? You guessed it, "they weren't really that good", surprise!!

If you find yourself in downtown Boise be sure to take a stroll down Freak Alley, a block of the downtown area filled with street art from local artists.  It is the largest outdoor mural gallery in the Northwest.  It's very cool and we found ourselves drawn to it more than once.

Homeschooling started for us the week we arrived in Boise so we decided to visit some educational spots.  We loved the Boise State Capital building.  The employees were super friendly and gave Quinn and I a tour of the main vault in the State Treasury office. Be sure to ring the bell out front, but beware, it's extremely loud.

We also had a great time at the Idaho Botanical Garden.  Bring a lunch and a blanket and sit down in the middle of the Japanese gardens under the big oak tree. It's beautiful and there are some squirrels that live there which will keep you entertained!

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves in Boise. It's booming right now and is apparently the fastest growing city in America at the moment.  I have a feeling this city is going to go through some major changes over the next 10 years as people continue to migrate here.  Like Portland, the Boise natives are not too fond of the Californians since they seem to be the fastest growing population of people taking over their city.  So if you're from California you may have some fitting in to do.  Start with being way nicer than your typical Californian, say hi to people as they pass by and engage in chit chat (but avoid letting them know where you are from right away).

While trying to figure out what I wanted to focus on first when writing a blog about Portland, I stumbled across this video.  Go ahead and give it a watch before reading on...it's exactly 5 minutes long and very relevant, I promise.

Ok ok, I get it.  The same thing has happened in my hometown of Southern California and now it's over priced and over crowded.  It's true, people are migrating in masses to Portland from other cities, but that's because it is pretty awesome.  If you want it to stop, stop being so awesome Portland.  However, the video doesn't lie, the restaurant they reference, Screen Door which is right by our place, truly has that many people waiting in line to get in everyday, weekdays included.

Have we been pronouncing Couch St., Cowch St. instead of Cooch St.?  Yes, guilty as charged.  But c'mon Portland, why ya gotta call it that?  Luckily, a friend of mine who's a local informed us early on about the correct pronunciation (correct or not, I still don't want to say the word Cooch).  

Yesterday was the first rainy day here all month and as luck would have it, I watched this video before heading out for the day, saving Quinn and I the embarrassment of using our umbrella.....phew!

As you can see, there may be a little resistance to folks like us from California being here and bragging about how nice it is.  But it's not just us outsiders who have a tendency to brag about how amazing Portland is, it's the residents as well.  It also may be a little bit of Fred Armisan's fault, with Portlandia.  That being said, let me proceed with telling all of my 10 to 15 readers about how amazing Portland is (calm down Portlanders, we will be out of your space by the end of August).  

Where do I begin?  If you like coffee, beer, wine, amazing food, cute shops, gorgeous trees, waterfalls, lush green landscapes, and incredible parks, there's a chance you will like it here.  If you don't like any of those things you should probably stop reading right now and go look up a blog on Death Valley (I hear it's gorgeous this time of the year).  

Let's start with the name.  The name was actually stolen from Portland, Maine.  In fact the city's name was decided by a coin toss. The two founders of the city, Asa Lovejoy and Frances Pettygrove could not agree on a name so they decided to have a coin toss and whoever won would name the city after their own hometown. Frances won. Had Asa won, Portland would now be called Boston.  Let's think about that for a second y'all.  Speaking of y'all, they also stole the slogan, "Keep Portland Weird" from Austin's "Keep Austin Weird" trademark. Fair enough, Portland actually reminds me a lot of Austin (minus the trees).  

I love Portland because it's impressive without trying too hard to be impressive.  The city is split by the Willamette River which divides the west side of town from the east side and is connected by several very individual bridges.  In fact, none of the bridges bear any resemblance to one another which gives the city a very eclectic flare.

There are several cute neighborhoods, all unique and charming in their own way.  I could spend days wandering through all the neighborhoods looking at the quirky architecture of the houses and untamed gardens. Coming from Orange County, CA, where most of the neighborhoods are carbon-copies of one another with little-to-no unique charm and the yards are perfectly groomed and maintained, Portland is 180 degrees opposite (in the most delightful way).  I couldn't be more enamored with it's charisma.  From our Airbnb we can walk pretty much anywhere we need to.  There are coffee shops, fantastic restaurants, markets, breweries, gift shops, and farmers markets all within a 3-5 minute walk.  I have also noticed that there is art painted on the actual street in some neighborhoods.  Many of which are colorful stars or flowers like this one on our street.  Super peaceful to stand on, until a car blasts through of course.

If you're in Portland you must visit the popular neighborhoods like downtown Pearl District, Nob Hill, Division, Alberta, and the Hawthorne districts, to name a few.  You could eat and shop yourself into an oblivion all day in any one of these areas. But I want to give a shout out to our little neighborhood on the Northeast end of town called Montavilla, which even several locals are unfamiliar with. Montavilla is in the process of being gentrified and you could literally see where the line divides in certain areas. It sits amidst major thoroughfare streets like East Burnside St. and SE 82nd Ave. which makes it easily accessible to anywhere in the city.  The main drag on SE Stark Street is home to the Montavilla Farmers Market and the Academy Theatre.  This theatre has become our Tuesday night tradition.  You can't beat the $4 admission and buy one get one free Tuesday nights.  Not to mention the snacks are $2-$3 each and they serve wine, beer and food from surrounding restaurants.  Regal and AMC could take a few pointers from this theater.  Academy is the way all theaters should be.

Since being here I have visited several coffee shops, including the famous Stumptown but my favorite so far is Bipartisan Cafe on SE Stark St. in our hood.  This place serves Coava coffee, has the best bagel sandwiches, homemade pies and interesting memorabilia featuring presidents, politicians, and clips of major political or historical events.  Every visit is a history lesson for Quinn with him asking me who all of the presidents and politicians on the walls are.  It has couches to lounge on and legos for kids to play with, it's everything I want it to be. Other standouts on this drag are The Observatory for dinner and Heartbreaker Neighborhood Kitchen for small batch handmade ice creams with flavors like Honey Lavender and Salted Butterscotch.

Portland is also known as "Beertown" because there are more microbreweries per capita than any other city in the world.  Jamie is sold on this city for this fact alone.  The breweries are everywhere and many of them are family friendly.  Such as Threshold, located just a few blocks from our place. This place is equipped with games  for the whole family to play and a kids section with a giant chalkboard and toys. The beer was delicious as well.  

My favorite beer was a from a brewery in the little town of Mount Hood.  The brewery is called pFriem and their hazy guava IPA was all that. So much so, that I had to take a portrait photo of it.

If you are visiting Portland I highly recommend a day trip to Mount Hood.  It's located right on Hood River a little over an hour from Portland and there are tons of great lunch spots, shops and breweries as well the Waterfront Park for kids, with a super cool rock wall to climb. We also spent a whole day in this area driving around what is called the Hood River Valley Fruit Loop.  The drive is spectacular, providing views of Mt. Hood that you can't see anywhere else.  Along the way there are several wineries, fruit, vegetable and flower stands.  The Apple Valley Country Store is a must.  Serving everything and anything berry related included huckleberry and marionberry milkshakes, jams, jellies and the best damn oatmeal chocolate chip cookie ever to hit your mouth.  This is also where I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said, "This is what I do, I drink and I know things" so clearly it attracts fantastic folks (shame on me for not getting a photo of this shirt).

Can we talk about the trees for a moment?   The trees are hands down my most favorite thing about Portland, or I should say about the Pacific Northwest in general.  I just cannot get enough of them.  They are magnificent and they are everywhere.  They canopy the streets like lush green archways.  They tower over the parks and playgrounds creating a wonderful, cool shade on a hot summer day.  They make me feel more alive just being around them.  For me, they are better than any ocean view.

If you have kids, Portland is great for them as well.  There are so many parks and playgrounds to explore.  Many of them nestled underneath magnificent trees which is probably why I enjoy the parks so much.  Quinn loves playgrounds and we have been trying to explore a few new ones every week.  Tucked within the Pearl District is a fantastic fountain called Jamison Square where kids can play on hot summer days and then afterwards adults can shop the streets of Pearl district.  In the summertime there is a program called Free Lunch + Play.  It "provides summer meals and drop-in outdoor activities at 27 neighborhood parks citywide."  How cool is that?  

While here, you must make a stop at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).  You don't have to be a kid to enjoy this place, but especially if you have kids, this place is a must.  We spent 5 hours exploring the exhibits and saw a movie in the Planetarium.  During our visit they had the most fascinating Prenatal Development exhibit.  This exhibit features 24 real, miscarried embryos and fetuses who's bodies were donated to be preserved for science.  It highlights the various stages of development from 28 days to 36 weeks and it's done amazingly well.  Both of us were fascinated with this exhibit as well as everything else this place had to offer.

And then there is the much talked about Japanese Gardens which one local told us not to bother spending money on.  In my opinion, they could not have been more wrong.  This garden is exceptional!  I do not regret spending the money to get in (and Quinn was free which was a perk!).

Approximately 25 miles out of the hustle, bustle of the city there are the most extraordinary waterfalls.  You could make a full day out of seeing many of these cascades or you could just casually go at the end of your work day and have a picnic, which is what we did one night.  If I lived here, I would most likely make an early morning ritual out of a hiking these falls at least once a week.  

Did I make you want to move to Portland?  If so, just remember my notes from earlier.  Don't be ridiculous and use an umbrella if it's raining and get comfortable saying "Cooch" St. when referencing Couch St.  Also, don't drive like a California idiot, people move a lot slower on the roads of Portland and you will be a dead give-away if you're speeding around like a maniac.  By the way, I have not heard a single horn honk since I have been here (I hate horn honkers).  The drivers are super polite, so much so that it's not uncommon for someone to stop in the middle of the street and let you go even when they have the right of way (ok, maybe that's a little too polite, but you get what I'm saying).  So slow down and enjoy the scenery, there's a lot of it to enjoy.

This is just a sample of all the things we were up to in the city of roses, and I gotta say, it really did turn our crush of Portland into a more "serious" relationship. We all really enjoyed our time here. From the beer to the coffee, the food and the trees (oh the trees!), we really couldn't get enough and can't wait to come back.

Bye for now Portland!

The official first stop of our road trip was in Ashland. What a cute and quaint little town this is.  Ashland is off of the I-5 approximately 16 miles from the California border.  It's about 5 hours north of San Francisco and 5 hours south of Portland.  This made for great mid-way stop to Portland from Tracy, CA. Ashland's claim to fame is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  The festival brings in thousands of tourist each year looking to attend a variety of plays.  Because of this there is actually a great selection of upscale restaurants, shops and galleries to visit in the town which makes Ashland even more appealing.  We only spent 2 nights, 1 and half days in Ashland so we didn't get to see nearly as much of it as I would have liked to.  I could have easily hiked and eaten around this town for another few days.

Our first evening in Ashland was spent at a delicious little Indian restaurant downtown called Masala.  This was Quinn's first experience with Indian food and while some of it was too spicy for him he enjoyed a lot of it, especially the mango lassi which he gulped down.  Jamie and I on the other hand, we enjoyed every bite of it.

After dinner we checked into the Ashland Hills Hotel and Suites. What a pleasant little surprise this place was.  It's got a cool retro vibe with mid-century modern decor.  Located about 3 miles from the downtown area, its tucked into a little valley which has stunning panoramic views of the surrounding mountains.

Cafe Luna & Mercantile is a hip little restaurant and bar located right beside the hotel lobby.  It's super family friendly with an adorable gift shop and a photo booth out front, which Quinn and I had some fun in.  We had dinner and drinks here our second night in Ashland.

They serve free breakfast in the morning in the upstairs lounge.  After breakfast Quinn and I walked around, exploring the hotel for about an hour while Jamie went to work on the balcony outside of the cafe, stunning mountain views included.  Not the worst view to have while working.

While I would have loved to go see a play at the Shakespeare festival there was nothing age appropriate for Quinn this afternoon so we decided to go to Garfield Park to burn off some energy.  As long as Quinn can run around, climb things, hang around on some monkey-bars and slide down a few slides as least once a day, he's pretty much good for anything else after that (this kid has energy for days!).  After the park we headed to Science Works, a hands-on museum with several interactive exhibits, and spent a few hours there.

One of the projects we are having Quinn work on while traveling is a travel journal.  The goal is to do a drawing and small writing assignment on every city we visit.  He was anxious to get started on his first journal page so we headed back to the hotel after the museum so he could get to work on his Ashland page.

Jamie took the next day off of work to enjoy a little taste of Ashland before leaving to drive to Portland.  Before heading out of town we went to visit Lithia Park.  Lithia Park is the Golden Gate Park of Ashland and in fact was designed by the same landscape architect, John McLauren.  Fun fact: The name comes from a water spring discovered at Emigrant Creek.  When analyzed the water contained the second-highest concentration of Lithium in any natural spring (first being a spring in Saratoga, NY).  The mineral Lithium is presumably good for you.  Honestly, other than it being a psychotropic drug used as a mood stabilizer, I had no idea about Lithium as a mineral....

via GIPHY

In any case, the small amount of this park that we were able to explore was beautiful.  Kind of like walking into a fairy garden with tons a shaded walkways amidst a forest of trees.  There are several charming bridges which cross over a creek that kids can play in, as well as several playgrounds.  I could have spent all day here, but we had to hit the road to get to our next home in Portland.

We really enjoyed Ashland and there's easily enough to explore for a handful of days. If you get the chance, we'd definitely recommend stopping for a bit, checking out a play or two and having dinner at one of the several fantastic restaurants.  

We decided now's our chance to purge the amount of stuff we have accumulated over the last 9 years.  We didn't have that much stuff anyways....or so we thought.  That's the myth most of us would like to believe, but seriously we really thought we had our material items relatively under control until we started going through it all!

We decided it best to chisel away at this project every weekend for 3 months leading up to leaving, tackling one part of the house at at time.  The garage, kitchen, closets, living room, linen closets, creating donate piles, to-keep piles, to-sell piles, give away piles and trash.

A month before we left we had a garage sale. The community coincidentally decided to have a community garage sale the same weekend which worked out perfectly and provided free advertising.  This was way more successful than we anticipated. We sold so much stuff that we had to ask some buyers if they could pick up items a week after, mainly our dining table, so we had somewhere to eat as we had company coming into town for a couple of days. We also sold a handful of things on Facebook Marketplace. We found that outdoor furniture and kid's toys tend to move pretty quickly there. Between the garage sale and selling online, most of our big items were gone! I wrangled with some sellers remorse after this, but that has since passed.

For the items we decided to keep, (lots of memorabilia, clothes, kitchen items, towels, sheets, living room furniture & beds) my advice is to really contemplate each item & Marie Kondo all of it. Ask yourself if it truly "sparks joy" and then ask that same question again. If it sparks true joy, keep it! In all honesty, we didn't have the time to ask this about every item we wanted to keep, so if there was a reasonable amount of doubt, we kept it.  

Randomly, a few weeks prior, I had heard about a company called Clutter, a true godsend.  They come, pack everything up, take it away to storage and deliver it to us whenever we need it again! Between the cost of renting a Uhaul (twice), hiring a couple of guys (twice), and all the packing supplies, it worked out to be a little more than what we had originally budgeted for just a storage unit...Hallelujah! Jamie actually called them 3 separate times just to confirm that their services were legit because he thought it was too good to be true.  Assuming we get all of our stuff back in a year in one piece, this company is amazing!  We were also able to have them store Evan's items and have them delivered to his new apartment when he moves in August.

The Plan

The very first idea of this whole trip was to take the cost of living in Southern California (our rent and bills) and use it to pay for an Airbnb for a month-at-a-time in cities we loved. We wanted to spend a decent amount of time in each city in order to get a real feel for what it would be like to live there.

Airbnb provides great discounts for stays of 30 days or more and since Jamie is going to be working, we thought it would be best to not bounce around too much. (Pro Tip: Book an Airbnb for 31+ days and the Occupancy & Tourist Fees drop-off)

We also wanted to take this opportunity to visit with family that lived in distant cities who we don't get to see often. (Jamie's parents in Texas & Aimee's brother and family in NY) We were hoping to spend the last half of 2019 road-tripping North America and then hop overseas for 6 months.

Those were the basic guidelines we went into this with. Seemed easy enough right? Once we sat down and actually started planning the route things changed a bit.  

The Initial Plan

• August: Portland, OR
• September: New York (Upstate and Brooklyn)
• October: Montreal, QC
• November: Austin, TX
• December: Orange County, CA

We would spend Thanksgiving with Jamie's family in Texas and Christmas back in Orange County our friends and family there.  We got Portland booked, but trying to figure out getting from Portland to New York became the challenge. Since Jamie is working we are trying to limit travel days to the weekends. Also, the thought of having to persevere a road trip of longer than 5-6 hours with a 5-year-old sounded daunting. Honestly, more than 5 hours in a car for me seems daunting as well.  We decided to break the trip up, spend 1-2 weeks in different cities and see more sights along the way.  

The Current Plan

• August: Tracy, CA (3 nights); Ashland, OR (2 nights); Portland, OR
• September: Boise, ID (2 weeks); Salt Lake City, UT (4 nights); Cheyenne, WY (1 night); Mount Rushmore, SD (1 night); Minneapolis, MN (1 week)
• October: Chicago, IL (one week); Cleveland, OH (1 night); Rochester, NY (1 week); Brooklyn, NY (2 weeks); Fredericksburg, VA (3 nights)
• November: Nashville, TN (1 to 2 weeks); Dallas, TX (1 night); Austin/San Antonio, TX (1-2 weeks)
• December: Dana Point, CA

September and October we're hopping around quite a bit, but otherwise we are staying for at least a week in each destination. At this point most of our accommodations in the U.S. are booked and we are currently working on the oversees leg of the trip for next year. Initial thinking is Thailand January 2020 and Europe March 2020.

Almost There

So here we are. A road trip of the U.S. plotted out with accommodations and travel arrangements secured. With our bags packed, it's time to hit the road! It's very surreal to be embarking on a journey that was but a couple of "what if" conversations so many years ago. While the details are proving to be quite different than what we originally planned, it's all happening!  We've sold, donated, stored, planned and packed... time to hit the road!

Jamie:  Chief Operating Officer of the Wagabonds.  The brains (and money) behind this small operation.  Mr. Wagabond is the man that makes this whole journey possible, tirelessly working his day job while we're on the road.

Aimee: Reformed corporate HR professional turned homeschooling (wanna-be) hippie mom extraordinaire.

Evan:  Extremely talented 18-year-old artist who will not be traveling with us because he will be attending the Laguna College of Art and Design this fall.  Expect a guest appearance or two in this blog along the way as we are hopeful he will come visit us at some point.

Quinn:  Super cute and funny 5-year-old.  Loves hanging with mom and dad still and is most excited to visit New York.

THE IDEA

Our idea of traveling actually started many years ago.  Our oldest son Evan was in middle school at the time and we didn’t have a Quinn yet.  We always talked about traveling for an extended amount of time but didn’t know exactly how to make it all work.  

One of our early decisions was to not buy a house in our home town (Orange County, California) and to continue renting.  This made sense to us as we didn’t want to be burdened with mortgage payments, home repairs and trying to sell a house when we were finally ready to travel.  Don’t get me wrong, we both second guessed ourselves quite a few times over the years, but we had a wonderful landlord who never raised our rent in a neighborhood we really liked, so we stayed the course.

Before we had Quinn, we discussed the idea of homeschooling.  We realized it would be very difficult to pull Evan out of middle school, away from his friends and dad to travel for a year.  I was also not super confident in my abilities to homeschool a middle schooler who was learning subjects like algebra which I completely erased from memory the instant I (barely) passed with a C my freshman year.  We decided that our travel year would have to take place once Evan finished high school.  

There was a nominal bit of planning around this, but our Quinn was born 5 years ago in 2013.  The timing actually fell perfectly into our plan; Evan would be 18 and graduating high school when Quinn turns 5 and starts kindergarten.  I was confident enough that I could homeschool a kindergartener. We tried to convince Evan to postpone college for one year and join us on our travels but he ultimately decided to continue on with college. He's been focused on this path the last couple of years and is ready to get started. We are so proud of him!

So this all sounds well and good, but how do you afford something like this?

Jamie is a software developer and fortunately the tech industry is very accustomed to remote work. Most of his career has been spent as a remote freelancer and is a big reason we've bounced this idea around for so long. If he can do what he does from our house, why couldn't he do it from a different house? He totally could!

A year and a half ago he took an opportunity at a company in Irvine called Kajabi. While they have remote employees, we were a little unsure if they were going to be ok with something like this. Luckily he talked with them earlier this year and they were not only ok with it, but encouraging! This is when we knew that our long discussed plans were actually going to happen. This was our green light!

As for my job, we had always planned that I would take the year off so that I could focus on homeschooling and the family. And that is exactly what I did, but not without a proper farewell from some of the best co-workers ever.  

So here we are, all the big pieces have fallen in place.
✅Evan graduated high school
✅The lease ends in July
✅Jamie got the 👍🏼 to work remote for the year
✅ Aimee quit her job

Now it's just a matter of getting a plan together...