We are so excited! A few weeks ago, we started talking… Dreaming… Wouldn’t it be great to take some epic road trip some where this summer? It’s perfect timing for us. Kids are out of school and we are not tied down to any thing during this time. When else would we have this opportunity?
Growing up, my family went on a lot of road trips. My family was not rich but my parents worked hard and often took us on road trips during the summer. We would be gone for about ten days and drove, what seemed like, forever. Every town we stopped in, my dad would search for Chinatown or at the very least, a Chinese restaurant for dinner. My dad never took a liking to western food. To him, bad Chinese food was still better than western food. I remember once in San Francisco, we got stuck on Market Street not being able to turn left anywhere as my dad furiously tried to follow the map to Chinatown. But I think my most vivid memory is of mom cooking in the motel room. She had packed some rice, napa cabbage and whole-chicken-in-a-can to cook in our rice cooker. Yes, we travelled with our rice cooker and yes, it was a whole chicken, bones and all, stuffed in a huge can of broth. Ingenious really.
We have decided to take the plunge and spend four to five weeks driving through the western United States, camping along the way. This in of itself is huge for us. We’re not campers. I camped a bit as a kid and we’ve gone on a couple of car camping trips over the years as adults (totalling three nights all together). We are total camping noobs. Might have to look for whole-chicken-in-a-can. I wonder if they still exist.
As we started planning, the first place that came to mind was the Grand Canyon. However, after talking to a fellow Instagrammer, the Grand Canyon is apparently as “hot as hell” in the summer. Hmm… Maybe not such a great idea. But we still want to head towards southern Utah to some amazing national parks there.
Tentatively, our itinerary includes:
- Yosemite – Mono Lake, CA
- Zion and Bryce National Parks, UT
- Grand Canyon, AZ (maybe?)
- Las Vegas, NV
- So Cal
- San Francisco, CA
- Oregon coastline (sand dunes, Devil’s Punchbowl, Cannon Beach)
- Olympia National Park, WA
What’s on your “must-see” list? What are some of your childhood road trip memories?
Grand Canyon is really awesome even in the heat. Just don’t hike down to the bottom.
Hoping we can see it. The kids are probably still too young to hike all the way down anyway.
I’ve been to most of the US including Alaska and Hawaii. But there is one area I’ve never been to and it’s where you’re traveling. I wish I could join you! Soak it up while you can…and if you need to deviate from your plan, come to D.C.!
We should totally meet up, Rob! Come join us! Is it sort of a half way point? You know you wanna! Or let’s meet in Vegas.
Sounds like a great trip. I spent 4 months in Utah and I would love to take the kids there someday too. You have to hit Arches National Park and you can camp there too. Grand Canyon might be a little dangerous for the little ones. There are some areas with railings at the South Rim, but there are no railings at the West Rim.
Good to hear from you, Myrna! I remember when you spent time there. So long ago. We will definitely look into Arches. We don’t plan to go down into the Grand Canyon but would love to see it. Thanks for the suggestions! Hope you are well!