Road Trippin' in the USA

With summer on the horizon, we've talked it over and decided we're going to go ahead and follow through with our East Coast Road Trip this July!  Out of necessity -- for both time and money constraints -- I've had to edit things down from my original plans, but the end result is still going to be pretty dang awesome.  And I can hardly wait!  

The following major Pit Stops will be part of our trek back east:

• Acadia National Park, Maine (our endpoint before turning back)
• Boston
• Gettysburg
• Niagara Falls
• Palmyra
• Ben & Jerry's factory tour
• NYC
• A Crayola Experience
• Hershey Chocolate World
• Washington, D.C.

The vast majority of my Spring Break week was devoted to figuring out our exact itinerary, complete with daily travel routes, estimated times of departure and arrival, and all the fun stuff we wanted to squeeze in along the way.  {And there's a LOT of fun stuff squeezed in there.}  While trying to decide what to edit down (the original plan included a stop at another national park and finished our trip with a few days in Virginia Beach), I had everybody name their top 3 destinations that they were REALLY looking forward to.  The results were as follows:  Ethan -- Acadia National Park, NYC, and D.C.; Grace -- going into Canada for Niagara Falls, Maid of the Mist (at Niagara Falls), and Acadia National Park; Sophie -- Maid of the Mist, Crayola Experience, and Hershey Chocolate World; Jane -- Maid of the Mist, the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, and Crayola Experience; Alex -- Crayola Experience, Hershey Chocolate World, and the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.; Scott -- Niagara Falls, Palmyra, and Acadia National Park; and ME -- Palmyra, Acadia National Park, and D.C. 

Whew!  It already feels like a whirlwind and we haven't even left yet!  Hahaha.  I'm really excited about continuing this newfound "tradition" of roadtripping across the United States and being able to explore all the beauty and cool attractions that surround us.  I'm working really hard to make fetch happen with my plan to hit up every state in the country before the kids start to leave home.  Hahaha.  I figure that gives us only another 4 or 5 summers to make the magic happen, so we've got to get cracking!  {Although, perhaps the big ticket places like Alaska and Hawaii will have to wait until everyone is much older and we've been able to save up enough money to get everyone out there.}   ;)   Long live the summer road trip!