We spent 37 days in an RV, traveling 7000+ miles this summer.
These are the absolute favorite places we visited!
Our first real stop on vacation, and a place we plan to return to...
...Kiptopeke State Park was amazing. We didn't know what to expect, but having a beach in Virginia largely to ourselves was not it! The first evening we rolled in, we were almost the only people there. The following days we had beach neighbors, but we also had plenty of space and it never felt crowded. That was a huge win, because I hate crazy populated beaches, with everyone kicking sand at each other.
The campsite was probably my favorite one of the whole trip too - ours was shaded, had trees for our hammock, and the shower house was always taken care of. There was a loop for the kids to bike around. We didn't even take advantage of the boardwalk, the bird viewing areas, or the kids program while we were there. Like I said, we'd love to return to this spot as it wasn't too far, and was so perfect for us.
Ok, yes, these were in different states...
...and I probably should not count them as one "place". But the two caves do overlap in my mind a bit, and they were both huge highlights of the trip.
Sean's dream was to take them to Mammoth Cave and we were so glad we got to go on two different tours. The first was pretty chill, self guided and HUGE rooms (as seen in this photo above. The second was INTENSE. They spent most of the pre-caving instruction time trying to convince you not to go. Don't go if you can't do stairs, don't go if you have a health condition, don't go if you are claustrophobic, don't go if you think you might be claustrophobic.... I was very close to canceling my ticket... I am not so much afraid of tight spaces (though they are not my favorite) as I am afraid of situations in which there is no way out. These tours are 100+ people. We are going in single file with people ahead of us and behind, and once we start the tour, YOU CANNOT LEAVE until the end. I did end up going and did not regret it, but the first 20 minutes were spent praying and trying to convince myself this could be fun. Haha! It worked! It was called the Drips and Domes tour and it was amazing. If I had another opportunity I think I would do the historical tour, since whenever they talked about the people that used to use the cave, it was so interesting!
Weeks later, we went to Wind Cave. The experience was pretty similar once you were down in there, although they had different formations (box work) and Wind Cave had nearly no historical use outside of the last 100 years! The visitor center here was really awesome, and we learned all about black footed ferrets which were declared extinct and then discovered years later and brought back from a population of 18! That was fascinating and our 3rd kiddo really became interested in the little guys and so that was a huge highlight for him.
The other bonus was traveling in the summer - both caving days happened to be on really hot days, so the escape from the heat was great. All in all, we'd return to either of these spots if we were nearby.
We got lucky.
Everyone we told we were visiting the badlands had somethings to say - "it's beautiful but...". Mostly weather related.... severe thunderstorms or terrible heat. We were so fortunate that it was overcast, cooler and only had one thunderstorm blow in while we were there. The bad part for us was not getting to see all the nighttime glory of the clear skies. They had an incredible 9pm program where they would share some information about the park, and get you ready for stargazing.
But during the day, it was glorious. It's like a giant playground made of hardened clay. The kids LOVED it. We also visited the fossil center, which inspired my youngest to dig for fossils the rest of the time (we didn't find any). Our kids also made campsite friends at this one, which was a big highlight for them. I feel so thankful that our time there was better than we hoped for, AND beautiful AND fun!
I cannot explain this place.
Just wikepedia it. It's indescribable. It was like, they made Discovery Zone the size of a 3-floor department store for in-shape and artistic adults and then let the kids go there anyway. We were there for 8 hours and I do not think we explored the whole place (though my third child got pretty close!) We had to write our phone numbers on our younger kids arms so they could have someone from the front desk call us when we couldn't find each other. We had a meeting place, but they'd get so turned around in the mazes of caves, halls, rooms and "what floor am I on??" that they could never find it. It was absolutely a kids dream and 3 of our 4 kids said it was the best place we went. I would even say it could be it's own travel destination. Super unique,
It lived up to the hype!
We were in awe the whole time. Views, changing terrain, animals, volcanic activities - it had it all. I will be doing a Yellowstone post!
Honorable mentions go to the whole state of Colorado, Lake Minnetonka and the Laura Ingalls Homestead.
I might do a separate post on the Laura Ingall's Homestead because I have so many photos!
