• Maryland - National Parks

    Monocacy and More

    July 14, 2024 - By 

    After a little time back at our hotel to recover from our Appalachian Trail adventures, we took a short drive to the Monocacy National Battlefield. When we had first been creating our itinerary for this trip and I mentioned this battlefield to my history nerd husband, he was perplexed. He had never heard of this battle, and was surprised that there was one this far north so late in the Civil War. While this battle may not get the fame and attention of others such as Gettysburg and Antietam, it is actually known as “The Battle that Saved Washington, DC.”…

  • National Parks - West Virginia

    The Appalachian Trail and Harpers Ferry National Historic Park

    July 11, 2024 - By 

    On Monday we got up and on the road early, because we needed to complete a particular mission before the heat of the day descended upon us. That mission: to cross off the longest-standing item on my personal bucket list – hike the Appalachian Trail. Now let’s not get too excited yet. The hike was a modest one at best. A total of two miles, half of it on the A.T., and the other along the Shenandoah River. But if you know me, then you know. You know I’m old and fat and out of shape. You know that I…

  • Maryland - Other Travels

    Covered Bridges & Sweet Treats

    July 9, 2024 - By 

    After leaving Antietam we went back to our hotel to recover from the heat for a little bit, and then decided to head back out and do some exploring around the area that didn’t involve National Park sites. I had been wandering around Google for things to do in the Frederick, MD area and discovered there was a little covered bridges driving tour. I love a covered bridge, so we plugged the first one into Maps and were off. First up on the tour was the Utica Mills Covered Bridge. It was originally constructed in 1843, but was reconstructed and…

  • Maryland - National Parks

    Antietam National Battlefield

    July 8, 2024 - By 

    After leaving Gettysburg, we hopped over to Antietam National Battlefield. It was our first time visiting, and we found it to be much more our speed; smaller, quieter, less people-y. We started at the newly-renovated Visitor Center. It’s small but has a nice little store and the usual friendly staff. We got there in time to be a part of an interesting talk with Ranger Olivia not about the battle itself, but about perceptions and interpretations of this bloodiest day. We learned that the six upside-down cannons around the battlefield indicate where a general was killed or mortally wounded, and…

  • National Parks - Pennsylvania

    Gettysburg National Military Park

    July 7, 2024 - By 

    It was another beautiful yet brutally hot day for the second day of our trip. We got up bright and early and made our way to Gettysburg National Military Park. Now I’m going to be honest, we didn’t spend a lot of time here because we’ve been here a couple of times before and didn’t feel the need to explore the exhibits again. It was a quick pop into the park store for souvenirs, some stamps in our passport, and then part of the driving tour. So this post will mostly just be a photo dump. Of course we had…

  • National Parks - Pennsylvania

    Steamtown National Historic Site

    July 6, 2024 - By 

    Today was the first day of our NY-PA-MD-WV whirlwind tour of ten-ish National Parks units. We left home and hit the road first thing this morning, and we made sure Buddy the Bison was actually in the car this time (we forgot him on our trip to Seneca Falls a couple of weeks ago). Yes, you can expect a pre-trip selfie of us on all of our trips. It’s just something we’ve always done. I guess Buddy gets to join the selfies from now on. We made it to Steamtown National Historic Site in pretty good time. It was a…

  • National Parks - New York

    Harriet Tubman National Historical Park

    July 3, 2024 - By 

    I’m such a bad blogger. Here we are, almost two weeks later, and I’m finally getting around to posting about the second half of our Day of Badass Women.🤦‍♀️ After leaving the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, we had a quick picnic lunch on the shores of Cayuga Lake, watched people fishing, and saw some cute dogs. And then we were off to Auburn, NY to check out the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park. This site encompasses two buildings situated next to each other. The Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church and its parsonage underwent recent renovations, and had actually had…

  • National Parks - New York

    Fort Stanwix National Monument

    June 17, 2024 - By 

    My husband and I are crazy. I mean, he’s mostly sane, it’s really just me that’s crazy. But he has put up with me and my nutso ideas for almost forty years, so that’s really on him at this point. But I digress. The latest crazy thing that we have decided to do is to visit all 63 of the National Parks. Which, you know, cool! We’ll be empty nesters soon and we’ll need to do something with our time. But then that kinda morphed into visiting all of the National Parks and all of the other sites in the…

  • Other Travels

    Lake Ontario Lighthouses: Sodus, NY

    June 18, 2023 - By 

    After our trip to Maine and the lovely lighthouses we saw there, Vance and I started thinking about the lighthouses closer to home. I think we kind of take them for granted, seeing as we live so close to Lake Ontario and they’re kind of just there? I mean, we find ourselves in Oswego a lot, and the West Pierhead Lighthouse is something we see all the time, and we never think about how special it is to live so close to such a piece of history. So, in search of a family activity for the summer, we decided to…

  • Other Travels

    A Maine Getaway

    June 15, 2023 - By 

    Last month the hubs and I took a trip to Maine to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. It’s a place we’ve been before and have enjoyed, so it seemed perfect for a long weekend getaway. And I always insist on a quick car selfie before we depart on a trip. This trip was a big deal for me, because it was the first time I had left New York State since before Covid. In fact, I had not been more than a ninety-minute drive from my house since December of 2019. As much as I really didn’t enjoy our years…