USA

Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park

Beyond Mount Rushmore: Southwestern South Dakota

The area west and south of Rapid City is home to several national and state parks as well as the famous and frequently photographed Mount Rushmore. While Mount Rushmore draws a huge number of visitors every year, visiting this area and skipping the rest of the region would be like swinging through Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and visiting nothing else. The park areas around Mount Rushmore include large tracts of land where Bison roam freely, one of the largest caves in the world, unique geological landscapes not found anywhere else in the world, and fun cultural and historical attractions.

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Chicago
Chicago as seen from the Sears Tower

Chicago For Kids

The first stop on our summer road trip was Chicago, and it didn't disappoint. Since we were traveling with our three year old daughter, we wanted to make sure that we provided plenty of entertainment for her instead of just dragging her around to the major sights that most grown-ups would want to visit.

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Mesa Arch
Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park

Canyons and Cliff Dwellings: A Sampling of the Southwest

The Southwestern United States is a grand palette of history, culture, and natural wonders as brilliant as the reds, oranges, and golds of the dramatic landscape itself. Thisis a sampling, an itinerary from a trip of my own, of locations in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Integrated throughout are tips on cutting costs as well as lodging and dining recommendations along the way.

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Epcot, Disney World, Orlando, USA, Spaceship Earth
Spaceship Earth at Epcot, Disney World, Orlando, USA

How much planning does it take to visit Disney World?

It's the quintessential trip for a young family, almost a writ of passage. For us, it was one of those things before we had kids that we'd sworn we'd never do. Kind of like our plans to feed our child an organic unprocessed diet, provide her with only educational toys, and of course, no screen time. But here we were, driving down to Florida, our child staring at her tablet and munching on a fruit bar as we headed down I-95 to the happiest place on earth.

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Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Life on the Road: Wyoming & Yellowstone

From Devils Tower we drove west across much of Wyoming, seeing nothing but fields. Fields, fields, fields, some hay bales, an endless stretch of road, and more fields. What I did not realize was that we were also rising, approaching small mountains on the horizon. It wasn’t until we were up on the mountain’s side that I realized how high we had risen. So high that we could see the line of haze where the atmosphere of the great big sky touched the vast green fields of earth below. This was a god’s point of view, and we could not help but stop for a few moments to take in the view.

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