8209 miles of total fun (most of the time hahahahaha)!

Day 1 August 22:  Hendersonville, spent one night to cut down on drive to Nashville

Quality Inn & Suites Hendersonville – Flat Rock

We drove to Graceland and toured ELVIS. Fantastic

Day 2 August 23: Nashville

Comfort Inn Downtown Nashville – Music City Center

We walked downtown, waited in a super long line for hot chicken with Hattie Bs. It was OK. We saw live music at Acme Feed and Seed, checked out Tootsies. 

Day 3 August 24: Tulsa OK

The Campbell Hotel. 2636 East 11th Street. Tulsa OK 674104

This was our first stop on Route 66. Very cool iconic hotel. We drove to the downtown and we were very scared. It was very desolate and a lot of homeless.

Day 4 August 25: Tucumcari NM

The Roadrunner Lodge, 1023 E Route 66 Blvd, Tucumcari NM

We loved this cool iconic hotel. The town was desolate and only one restaurant open on a Sunday, Kix on 66. It was delicious  SW food.

We hiked an easy hike at the Boca Negra Canyon then toured the Petrified Forrest and did a small hike there as well called the Blue Mesa Trail. 

We stopped at the Meteor Crater too, super cool, all of this on Aug 26th before we checked in in Winslow AZ

Day 5 August 26: Winslow AZ

La Posada 303 E 2nd St Winslow AZ 860487

Very cool hotel. We walked up to the four corners of the song Take it Easy. We ate at a very authentic SW restaurant.

Day 6 August 27: Grand Canyon AZ

Mastic Lodge in the park. We went on a mule ride on the rim of the Grand Canyon before we checked in. The next day we woke up and did a three mile hike on Bright Angel Trail. This is the trail that people go on rim to rim. We turned around at 1.6 miles or so at the first bathroom station. It was very hot by the time we finished. Luckily we started early.

Day 7 August 28: Las Vegas

Best Western Plus Casino Royale–Center Strip

Quick stop to see the Hoover Dam. Amazing!

Our hotel was NOT the Bellagio or the Caesar Palace but it sufficed for our first trip to LV. It was next to the Venetian, where we had the best falafel salad. We walked to the Bellagio and the Caesar Palace, saw the fountain, had free drinks at our hotel and won $10.65 on the slots. 

Days 8, 9, 10, 11 August 29-September 2 Mammoth Lakes, CA

Snowcreek 880 Par Court, Unit #880, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546, we had a 3 bedroom condo, super nice with the boys and Emily and Mia and Wolfe. We fished the first morning on Owens River and it was freezing. NO fish. Just cows. We hiked Mammoth Lake Trail on Day two 8.4 miles up the ski mountain, Skelton Lake Trail the first day, and we hiked Sherwin Lakes pass the third day.

Days 12 – 18 Sept 2 – 9

Manhattan Beach Jarrett’s 30

Day 19 September 9: Cedar City Utah

La Quinta by Wyndham in Cedar City

Before we arrived we stopped at Kolob Canyon, drove it then did a small hike where we could see what we were told was the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

Days 21- 25 September 10-14: Island Park ID

Anglers Lodge

Our hotel was on the famous blue ribbon Henry Fork of the Snake River. We did not catch any fish. We met up with Enrique and Dawn Fernandes on day 2 and fished on the famous fire hole river in Yellowstone. We saw Bison, Elk. Day two we went back into Yellowstone and did the painted pot basin and Old Faithful, saw a few wild bison. We fished the Madison River the third day and saw four moose total in the evening back in IP. A mama and two babies and a solo mama.

Day 26, 27, 28 September 14-17 East side of Glacier National Park

Many Glacier hotel two nights and Red Eagle Motel the third night

Oh how glorious. Grizzly bear signs scared us immediately. It was freezing wind and rain upon arrival and thank goodness it calmed down. We hiked to Ptarmigan Falls the first day, boat tour lake Josephine, hiked to Grinnel Lake and saw a huge male moose who was chomping on tree leaves. Our second day was the best hike ever Grinnel Glacier Hike. Hard hike to the grinner Glacier lake. We left for Red eagle after this hike. We did the going to the sun bus to Logan Pass after checking out. Very boring. Visited the trail head for Highland (where a grizzly attacked a young man that day at the Grinnel Glacier Lake overlook part of the trail). We drove to the west side on Going to the Sun road and it was way more phenomenal than the bus tour. Wildlife total: one moose, one deer, ptarmigan, black mama bear and two cubs in a distance when we drove to west side, herd of long horn sheep in our hotel grounds, mountain goat through the monocular. 

Day 29,30 31 September 17, 18, 19 West side of Glacier National Park

VRBO in West Glacier, cabin in the woods on the north fork of the flathead river.

We drove to Whitefish to check out the ski area, bought groceries and got to grill food there three nights. Paige fished, we hiked the Avalanche Lake and another small hike the second day followed by a beautiful kayaking tirp on Lake Macdonald. Blessed with sunny weather.

Day 32 September 20 Hardin MT

Homestead Inn and Suites 201 14th Street West, Hardin, MT 59034 drove through Bozeman

Drove to the site of the Little Big Horn but not open. Crazy Horse for pics, did not go in, then Mt Rushmore before Grandpa Joe’s Place. We did the short President hike. Beautiful place.

Badlands National Park was amazing. Three wild bison at the entrance. Many many prairie dogs, bison in the distance, long horn sheep, deer, rattle snake sign but did not see any!

Day 33 September 21 Grandpa Joe’s Place 915 SD HWY 248 Kadoka SD

Day 34 September 22 Sleep Inn 485 Madison Avenue North, North Liberty, Iowa

Day 35 September 23 Chillicothe Ohio

Day 36 September 24 HOME

Elvis fun Graceland Memphis TN

Paige wanted to get back to skiing and I had a ton of United miles. I thought they would go a lot longer if we planned it all at once bumping from resort to resort. Of course I added some LA time to hang out with the boys.

We started in Solitude Utah. We flew into Salt Lake City and spent one night at the airport hotel. We save hundreds of dollars booking our car downtown (savings hint), then we headed up to Solitude.

I haven’t been in skis in 6 years so I’m a wimp and took it easy. Paige hurt his knee on a last minute trip, just prior to this one, with his college buds in CO, so he was in no rush to ski hard. We skied a couple of day at Solitude once we got settled into our Airbnb Spring Eagle West. We had the forecast of an incoming storm so we drove down to Costco in Sandy the day before the snow storm to buy some snow shoes and made it out to one of the amazing snow shoe trails as soon as we got back. We got a little lost and panicked since the snow started and it was getting dark, but we managed to figure out where we were going and made it back ok. We snowshoed the next day in the amazing snow storm, which lasted the entire day. (Friday Feb 7). I did not ski again until Sunday but we snow shoed every day on the really cool trails that Solitude has.

I rate myself a 4/10 as a skier, most definitely a fair weather skier. I rate myself a 10+/10 as a snow shoer. It is the most amazingly beautiful way to burn calories, especially in a wild snow storm. We made fresh tracks in the very cool Solitude marked trails. It is worth a trip to Solitude just to walk on the trails through the mountains. I only skied a little bit but I am happy I got back on skis after a long hiatus. The hot tub at our condo was very nice too!

Our next stop was Manhattan Beach. We stayed with Jarrett since Taran was traveling. We got some heavy rain the first couple of days. Most of the time we walked Wolfe on the strand, ate dinner with Jarrett and Nicky and Mia. We even got to hang out with Harriett and Jake at our favorite lunch spot in Hermosa, Martha’s. Our weekend was spent in Venice Beach in a super nice studio apartment that we booked on booking.com called Su Casa. It is about a mile away from Nicky’s apartment but it is it right on the strand and we walked to the Santa Monica Pier Sunday and Monday morning, enjoying the volleyball action while sipping coffee. We hung out with Nicky and Mia at lot, finally got to see Taran and Emily on Sunday, met up again with Harriett and Jake and Amanda at the famous Erewhon, iced chai at Menoti’s coffee shop, walked on the Venice canals, and had lunch with Anna and Steve (Mia’s parents) on Monday before we headed to the airport hotel. How can I forget to mention that we finally got to the end of Route 66 at the Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. We had a quick dinner with Taran, Jarrett and Emily Monday night, repacked with some clean laundry, then Taran dropped us off at our airport hotel ready for our next adventure. Banff here we come!

Jarrett accompanied us to our next stop, Calgary! It was -6 F on our arrival at 11 a.m. Lucky for us we missed most of the Polar Vortex and were told it was at least 30 degrees warmer than the previous few weeks. On our way to Sunshine Mountain, we stopped at the Ginger Beef Bistro House, an Asian restaurant to have the famous Calgary ginger beef typical dish, We ordered a ton of food and managed to eat all of it, simply delicious.

We arrived at the base of Sunshine Mountain at 4 p.m. Note to self; always read the details of a reservation! The only way to get to our lodge (Sunshine Mountain Lodge) is the gondola which closes at 5. Thank goodness we had an hour to spare. They helped bring our skis up to the top, but we managed to carry the rest of our bags. This was actually one of the coolest places that we have stayed at any ski resort. We were forced to dine in the lodge restaurants but we found our favorite, Trappers, and by the end, I critiqued the menu for the head waitress since we tried pretty much all of it during our six day stay. Our room was tiny and big enough for me and Paige but since Jarrett ended up joining us, we were a little squished (he slept on a trundle bed not under our bed lol) and the room had a ton of storage. We made the most of it and were fine.

We LOVED Sunshine Mountain. Paige and Jarrett skied way more than me. Jarrett coaxed Paige back to the blacks and got him over his knee intimidation. Jarrett then managed to get me out there even for a few rounds a day. I did get to the gym a few times and the hot tub was quite amazing.

We made it down to Lake Louise on Friday (February 21) since they keep the gondola open til 10 p.m. on Fridays.

Lake Louise was frozen over and we could walk across the entire lake. It was simply beautiful. Jarrett and Paige brought their skis and took one run at the Lake Louise ski resort. We stopped at the town of Banff on the way back up to Sunshine and walked around the town. It is very nice with lots of shops. We contemplated buying some Arc’teryx since we could have saved 30% with the strength of our dollar in Canada but we passed this time. All in all, Banff is a 10/10 and we would all go back, especially to Sunshine Mountain Lodge. We got some majorly needed snow on the second to last day. Their 8 foot base which never melts was skied off especially at the top, so the snow was fun to ski on. We got to use our snowshoes once and walked to the top of Wawa lift for some good exercise. No marked snowshoe trails here, but still beautiful.

Next stop Reno. We parted ways with Jarrett at the airport in Calgary on Feb 24th. Jarrett flew home to LA and we arrived in Reno 8 p.m. rented a car and drove to our place in Palisades (only about 50 mins). We stayed at the Olympic Village Resort which had a minute shuttle to the village, but we walked most of the time.

We loved Palisades very much. Luckily they had some big snow dumps because the weather was very warm and melting fast. The freeze at night made it slick first thing in the morning so after asking several skiers for reports, we took the first day off. We got a quick bite then met Harriett’s famous friend Barbara, who was hanging out with her dog Jasper and working from home a at friend’s cabin under the Tram. Barbara is super sweet and gave us numerous local tips for the area. After our meeting, we took the Tram up to the Olympic center for an amazing view, quick 10 minute museum tour, then back down. We drove over to the lake (Tahoe), walked a little on the lake trail, made it to the grocery store (tired of restaurants), then back to our place after a long day.

We skied the next three days in 50 degree weather and enjoyed the sunshine. We mostly stayed on the Alpine Mountain side via the base to base lift. We also walked a trail along the Truckee River which was absolutely gorgeous.

It was finally time to head home after we skied a half day on Friday the 28th. After a quick stop for lunch in Truckee (and an ice cream) in the historic downtown, we drove back to Reno, dropped our car off and stayed in an airport hotel across the street from the airport for a 645 a.m flight to LAX then EWR then ILM. All went well until our ILM flight was delayed 2 hours. We were happy to be home at 2:30 a.m.

Our epic IKON ski trip was quite a fun adventure. No favorites, we loved it all! Thank you United for all of the free flights and great service!!!!

Our three boys came home to Wilmington to help me celebrate my milestone 60th. Oma (Paige’s mom) died unexpectedly in March. We all drove up to Macungie, PA to bury Oma, the boys flew home from Philadelphia, and Paige and I continued north before we headed back to Wilmington.

Paige wanted to stay at his old ski mountain, Doe Mountain, which is now called Bear Creek Mountain Resort. We also hit all of Oma’s favorite restaurants and honored her for the four days that we were there. Paige was very happy to have his three sons with him for the entire weekend. Oma is smiling in heaven, her burial day is her beloved daughter, Pier’s, birthday. This could not have been planned any better.

Bear Creek was a super nice place to be in the summer. We enjoyed hiking up the mountain and sitting by the pool. We even got to meet up with Paige’s old ski buddy, Mike. We drove to a great pizza place in Emmaus and even got to see the old Pennebacker foundary which partially burned down decades ago. Some of it remains and we think maybe ppl are living there which spooked these four Pennebackers when they visited in the dark and imagined seeing ppl or at least their hoodies hanging up by the door.

We went to the Little Lehigh Valley River and three our fly rods in but nothing was caught except rocks, but it was still fun. The boys flew home via ABE to Philadelphia to LAX. The first leg was actually a bus to Philly which we were all shocked by… read the fine print people!

Paige and I continued our trip to Sanford NY and stayed in a cute cabin on the West Branch of the Delaware River. We actually had a float boat and Paige managed to catch a few fish, me NOTHING. Then we just fished alone in the river. Again, I had no luck, Paige was the big winner.

We really enjoyed his place so much and would go back. It is just across the PA border.

Next stop Lake Placid. We stayed on Mirror Lake and really enjoyed the nearby hiking. Our morning exercise was a paddle boat across the lake, followed by an afternoon hike. The town was also very cool, lots of fun shops and great restaurants. We visited the Olympic Center and the town we hiked in was called Wilmington!

We headed to the Finger Lakes next and met up with Harriett and Jake for a long weekend. We did get to fish some but no luck for biting fish but the river was beautiful. We made it to a winery for a delicious lunch and a tasting but most of our fun was catching up with good friends.

Our next adventure brought us to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Paige had a fantastic time here once before with Dave and Steve but we could not book the same place. Although we stayed by the river, it was quite a heat wave and the fish were just not biting. I actually caught a few (finally) and of course Paige always catches fish but again, it was really hot and not a great time to fish.

We headed home a few days early with one quick stop in Altoona. I got to see Renee, Lisa and Scott, get some Meadows custard, then we started our journey back to NC super late, stopped for the night in WV.

Great times starting out with birthday fun, Oma’s weekend in Emmaus, fishing and visiting many places tha tI have never seen before. America the beautiful!

Birthday fun at Nicole and Dylan’s house