New York City

Our First NYC Trip For some bizarre reason, we decided we needed to make our first family trip to New York City over the Thanksgiving weekend. I mean, it sounds great in theory. We get to witness the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the holiday shopping season is just getting started, and The City is all […]

Read More »

Annapolis, MD

  Smart Family Travel Tips: Traveling Annapolis, Maryland   Annapolis, Maryland is a water-lover’s dream town and a great place to bring the kiddos! Known as the “Sailing Capital of the World,” Annapolis is home to the U.S. Naval Academy, the United States Sailboat Show, and the historic Maryland State House. Annapolis served as the capital […]

Read More »

Washington D.C.

Smart Family Travel tips for travelling our nation’s capital Beautiful monuments, incredible museums, and more history than many western cities will ever be able to claim to await the traveler to the Washington DC area. This city is known the world over as the seat of power of the United States but most Americans come to see the sites […]

Read More »

Hiking the Appalachian Trail

A Smart Family Traveler’s Guide to hiking near Roanoke, VA. The Appalachian Trail, or “AT” as it is known to frequent visitors, is a 2190 mile trek through the Appalachian Mountains. Stretching across portions of 14 states from Georgia to Maine, the trail passes right by Roanoke, VA. We were fortunate enough to live just […]

Read More »

Turks and Caicos – The First Time

In 2014, to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we treated ourselves to a Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Pride. It was a lot of fun and we saw and experienced some beautiful sites during our port calls. We absolutely fell in love with the warm crystal clear waters and the white sandy beaches of Turks and […]

Read More »

Pop Evil @ Amos Southend

We’ve made the trek to Charlotte several times to visit the small venue known as Amos’ Southend. Situated just outside the downtown business district, Amos features bands from many different eras and spotlights local entertainment. We’ve been here 3 times to see Firehouse but this time around, we went down to see one of the […]

Read More »

Seven Summits of Roanoke – Poor Mountain

We tackled Poor Mountain on a brisk Friday morning with essentially no one else around. This was, by far, my favorite hike of the 3 we’ve hit thus far. We met one other person along the trail and heard a family somewhere off in the distance but given the tight and twisty nature of this […]

Read More »

Seven Summits of Roanoke – Read Mountain

Read Mountain is located in the Roanoke River Valley just a little north of the city of Roanoke. The 1.9 mile hike to the top gives the hiker some great views of the Roanoke Valley and surrounding area from a lookout point named Buzzard’s Rocks. From this point you can see the northeast portion of […]

Read More »

Seven Summits of Roanoke – Mill Mountain

Roanoke bills itself as the “Only City with a Mountain Within Its Limits” so it makes sense to start the Seven Summits of Roanoke program by hiking up Mill Mountain. Mill Mountain is completely within the city limits of the Roanoke and is home to the Roanoke Star, Mill Mountain Zoo, and Mill Mountain Park.  […]

Read More »

New England RV Tour

The Smart Family Travel Guide to renting an RV & roaming through New England. “Let’s go visit New England in the fall” is one of those bucket-list items that everyone has claimed and for good reason! After the first frost, the dense forests and rolling hills are ablaze in vibrant colors and it really is […]

Read More »

Freizeitland Geiselwind

In August 2006, we took a day trip to a small amusement park called Freizeitland Geiselwind. Lying at the edge of the Steigerwald Nature Park, Freizeitland is one of the most popular destinations in South Germany. It lies right beside the autobahn that runs between Wuerzburg and Nurnberg. It was a favorite destination for Cindi […]

Read More »

Volksmarches: Rauenburg

The pictures in this gallery were taken at the Rauenburg volksmarch. The town of Rauenburg was just a few miles from our house and gave us a chance to wander through the vineyards in the area.  

Read More »

Volksmarches: Oberasbach

The pictures in this gallery were taken at the Oberasbach volksmarch. This was the furthest we traveled to attend a volksmarch. Oberasbach is a small village right outside Nurnberg and Dwayne used to go on training exercises in this area when he was stationed in Ansbach with 6/43 ADA. The old training area is a […]

Read More »

Volksmarches: Heidelberg

The pictures in this gallery were taken at the Heidelberg volksmarch. This event was sponsored annually for 38 years by the Heidelberg International Wandering Club  and was an absolute MUST for most Americans stationed in Germany. Sadly, the final volksmarch was held in 2012 as the US Forces in Europe are leaving Heidelberg and relocating […]

Read More »

Volksmarches: Gemuenden-Felda

The pictures in this gallery were taken at the Gemuenden-Felda volksmarch. This small village, north of Frankfurt, is far away from any American installations. The people we met there were especially receptive to meeting us as they hadn’t had an American presence in that area in quite a long time.

Read More »

Volksmarches: Biberach

The pictures in this gallery were taken at the Biberach volksmarch outside the city of Heilbronn. This march was mostly through the sugar beet fields surrounding this beautiful area.

Read More »

The Bavarian Alps

  We took a trip to the Bavarian Alps in October of 2006. These photos were all captured when we visited King Ludwig’s castles at Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, and Linderhof. Several of the photos were also taken in the charming village of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Read More »