Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, West Branch, Iowa

Tonight we're staying near West Liberty, Iowa, in a very affordable Econolodge surrounded by nothing but cornfields. This afternoon, we visited the Herbert Hoover National Historic site, in West Branch,Iowa, the town where President Hoover was born and where he lived until he was 9. Above is the two room cottage where Hoover was born and lived with his parents and his brother and sister. President Hoover and his wife are also buried there; above is a photo of the gravesite. In addition to the Hoover cottage, there are also a collection of historic homes, the schoolhouse Hoover attended and the Friends Meetinghouse where he worshiped, along with a reconstruction of his father's blacksmith shop. Also on site is the presidential library and museum.

I think it is really interesting where Presidents' choose to be buried and where they build their libraries. Hoover left here when he was 9 and never lived here again, but chose this spot for his library and burial site. He must have had great affection for his hometown; the town, in turn, is very proud of its President.

Indiana Amish Country

We're taking I-80 out to Colorado and trying to find interesting places to stay along the route. Yesterday, we spent the morning in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. (Photo Above) This is one of the 10 most visited national parks in the U.S and a lovely place to spend a few hours or a couple of days. There are a number of trails and walking paths, including a towpath along the Cuyahoga River, once part of the Ohio-Erie Canal System. There is also a scenic railroad, some historic sites, and a really pretty small town nearby, Peninsula, Ohio. If we have time, we'll spend a couple of days here on the way home.

We stayed the night in Indiana Amish Country, in a town called Shipshewana. Like Lancaster County, this is a big tourist area, for the same reasons Lancaster is popular. We had a very nice Amish-style dinner at the Blue Gate restaurant, which was a welcome break from road food.

Camp Tweedale, Oxford, PA

We dropped off Grace & Lucy yesterday for five nights at Girl Scout Camp Tweedale. This is Lucy's first year at sleepaway camp! (Grace's 5th). With the girls enjoying themselves at camp, it gives us a few days to pack up and prepare for our trip.

Spring Break 2010: St Augustine, Florida

As a dry run for this Summer's roadtrip, we drove down to Florida where we spent a week at Mike's sister's house outside of Jacksonville. We took it easy driving, spending two nights along the road each way, which still gave us five nights in Florida.

Saint Augustine is a fabulous vacation spot. It really emphasizes its Spanish colonial roots, with a lot of tourist attractions with that theme. We visited the Castillo de San Marcos, a large fort (and national monument) in town, went to a living history museum, toured some historic sites (everything is a first here: first schoolhouse, first church, etc). We went to some roadside attractions for Irene ( Alligator Farm, Ponce De Leon Fountain of Youth), went to the original Ripley's Believe It or Not for Grace & Lucy (and took the Ghost Tour later) and, for Mike, hit some beautiful beaches and state parks.

Overall, it was a very satisfying family vacation.

Above is a picture of Grace & Lucy at the Fountain of Youth, Grace at the Castillo, and Lucy wrestling an alligator (stuffed).

Christmas Vacation

Our first trip of the year was to Lake Placid, New York. The Adirondacks is a family favorite of ours; we weren't able to get there last Summer because of our big road trip, so we came up for Christmas week to get our Adirondack "fix". We rented a cabin at another old favorite, the Wilderness Inn II, which is a cabin cluster and fun restaurant/bar in Wilmington, NY. This family-owned resort is headed by a former NYC Rockette who, though now in her 90s, still greets guests in the restaurant.

We had perfect weather, lots of snow, though not too cold, and the kids were able to go tubing, sledding (and dogsledding), make snowmen, and go cross country skiing.

Some Early Planning For Next Summer

Last Summer, we were lucky enough to go on a summer-long cross country road trip. The trip was so wonderful, we decided to try to get in one more summer-long trip before returning to "normal life" (you know, the land of two week vacations).

Our first road trip had been unscripted: we knew we wanted to go to certain parts of the country: California Redwoods, Glacier Park, Grand Canyon and so on, but, other than sketching out a rough route, we made no other plans, no advance reservations or anything. While this spontaneity had some limitations ( we had a hard time finding a place to stay in some of the more big ticket destinations), it also let us get a nice snapshot of a great many wonderful places all around America.

This year will be a bit different: we will be revisiting a couple of places we really enjoyed from the last trip, and we will also visit a few new ones. With fewer places on the itinerary, we will be spending more time at the places we do visit. We will also be doing some more advance planning for some of the more popular destinations. (For example, we know we want to stay a full week inside Yellowstone National Park and Yellowstone starts booking more than a year in advance).

So here's the rough agenda for next Summer:

We will visit for a second time:

• Grand Teton National Park
• Yellowstone National Park
• The northwoods of Wisconsin

And, we hope to see for the first time:

• Rocky Mountain National Park
• Dinsaur Monument & the Flaming Gorge area of Utah
• Little Bighorn Battlefield
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota)
• Northern Minnesota
  

We 've already started ordering brochures and catalogues and, inthe case of Yellowstone, just made our reservations.