Friday, August 14, 2009

Summer Geography

Some of you will be intrigued by where we drove, what states we visited, what highways we took (I'm looking at you, Andy).

We went a total of 6050 miles (roughly). We rolled through TX, OK, MO, IL, WI, IN, OH, PA, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, MD, WV, VA, TN, and AK. 19 total states. We spent significant time on interstates 45, 44, 55, 39, 90, 80, 76, 78, 95, 93, 81, 40, and 30.

We actually stayed the night in 11 different places. Muskogee, St. Louis, Madison, Northbrook, Pittsburgh, Plainfield, Boston, Beach Haven, Lodi, Abingdon, Memphis.

Here's a little map of the adventure:


View Summer Trip 2009 in a larger map








What I did on summer vacation...

Despite appearances, I haven't completely forgotten about this blog. There was a bunch of stuff going on this spring and summer so I wasn't posting as much. Then the great Vollrath family trek occurred, starting July 1st and ending August 9th.

So to catch the world up on our lives, let's get a rundown of our 40 day trip all over the U.S.

On our trip:
- We ate the best BBQ baked beans ever in Muskogee, OK
- We visited the Magic House children's museum in St. Louis
- We got to play with 4 cats at Aunt Siggy's house
- Kirstin got to take lots of Claritin (see above)
- Grandma made lots of hot chocolate with little marshmallows
- Abby went down her first solo water-slide (which was a pitch black tube, no less)
- Maddie got to decorate Great-grandma's birthday cake
- We had to replace our car battery
- We got to play with Dryden's massive Lego collection
- We went to a Brewers game with Andy and his son Scott
- I found out that Derek Gau - a guy I went to HS with - lives almost next door to Andy and Heather outside Chicago
- We got to play with Greta, Wyatt, Max, and Gavin at the McVerry's house in Pittsburgh
- We got to swim in Eck's pool and eat pizza
- We got to attend a pig roast in Pittsburgh (140 pounds of pork!)
- We stayed in the hotel in Boston and ate dinner in bed
- Kir, Abby, and Maddie got to hand out with Karen, Kira, and Owen in Boston
- Kir, Abby, and Maddie got to visit great-grandma on the Cape
- I got to nod off repeatedly during conference sessions
- We drove up to Manchester and saw Eric, Wendy, Nolan, and Carly (with guest appearance by some of the Pease family)
- We spent a week with GG in New Jersey
- We got to visit Flax (uh, Mamlet) in NYC
- We went in a castle, played on a playground, and rode the carousel in Central Park
- Abby and Maddie got to see where Eloise lives in the Plaza
- Abby and Maddie rode their first roller coaster at Sesame Place along with Matt
- Maddie got her picture with Zoe
- Abby went down like a million water slides
- We ate lobster for Kirstin's birthday (and Abby took down most of a claw)
- Maddie fell out of bed and may have mildly concussed herself
- Abby started going off by herself to read books (where'd she pick up that habit?)
- Maddie played about 8000 games of Candy Land
- We got to go to the beach every day we were on the shore
- We found a giant sand crab, thousands of little clams, and a jellyfish
- Kirstin got tan and I took a couple waves to the face trying to body surf in rough water
- Kir and I went up to the Seneca Lake wine region in NY for our anniversary
- We ended up with over a case of wine in the car (how'd that happen?)
- We saw a hot-air balloon festival in Virginia
- I ate BBQ spaghetti in Memphis (and seriously, why has no one told me about this before?)
- We got a flat tire north of Longview, TX and got to hang out at Wal-mart on the last day of our trip
- We found out our upstairs AC was broken when we got home
- We were incredibly happy to have our own stuff and all of our toys around us again.

It was a great trip (but the kind that almost requires another vacation to recover from).  If you let us breeze through your house on the trip, thanks. If you didn't, beware. We will be planning next year's trip before long.