our last day in st. louis was a saturday, so derek was able to join us as we crammed in as much as we possibly could. (he took a lot of days off for the big things, but usually had to work while we did the smaller monuments and such). we started off with a […]
national parks
gateway arch *cough* national park *cough*
the lidboms are adamantly opposed to the gateway arch’s recent upgrade to national park status. we think its a national monument at best. but that didn’t stop us from planning a visit while we were passing through st. louis. the museum and visitor center is pretty impressive. and like a fortress. we had to go […]
brown v. board of education.
after our little stop in lincoln nebraska, we were headed to just outside kansas city, missouri next. the commute was only a few hours, so i stuffed in as much as i could on our travel day. so, after our morning at the quilt museum, the kiddos and i hit the road, with a plan […]
homestead national monument
after rocky mountain national park, we stayed a few days in denver, catching up on laundry, groceries, and visiting a few friends. and then we started the long trek back home. originally, we had planned to take our time getting home, with several longer stops through the midwest, but as covid picked up, especially in […]
rocky mountain national park.day six. last hurrah hike.
whelp. it’s our last day in rocky mountain national park. and RMNP is our last epic spot on the summer road trip. the rest of the trip would be decidedly less hike oriented. so, i was determined to have one last hurrah, and for all those same reasons, anna was game to join me. after […]
rocky mountain national park.days four and five. low key. hike free.
our big planned rocky mountain national park event with the grandlidboms was a drive along some of trail ridge road, aka: the highway to the sky. the road crosses (winds) through the park, maxing out at 12,186′ elevation, with breathtaking views in every direction. we fired up one of the guided tour apps and piled […]
rocky mountain national park.day three. sky pond solo hike.
with two solid kid hiking days in the books, and the grandlidboms in town, it was the perfect day for me to ditch everyone and tackle a longer, harder, and maybe way more awesome, solo hike. i woke up early and went outside to get some water for coffee and discovered we had some friendly […]
rocky mountain national park.day two. emerald lake.
i wasn’t kidding. after our 5.6 or so mile hike to mills lake on our first day, we turned around and hit the trails again on day two. the grandlidboms were set to arrive that night for a couple of days, so i wanted to cram in all the things i could before they were […]
rocky mountain national park.day one. mills lake hike.
when we came off the road in 2019, one of our regrets was that we never made it to rocky mountain national park. it was the one big park out west that we missed, but when we were in denver (in may 2017) there was a giant snow storm and most if it was closed. […]
fort laramie and the wyoming capitol.
whilst in torrington, we also made two wyoming based field trips. we were a little over an hour from cheyenne, so i figured we could kill a day by driving out to the capitol building. this was before i realized we would pass through cheyenne on our next travel day. oops. anyhow. we made the […]