Category: Trips We’ve Taken

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Washington D.C. in the Spring: Cherry Blossoms at Their Peak

We’ve been traveling quite a bit. We met up with my sister in Washington D.C. who flew in from Nashville for a couple of days.  Our family took the opportunity to see some sites while my sister was working. We had to check out the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin: On our walks we saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial (from afar, the kids didn’t have the energy to...

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Minerals — Our Hands Activities, Seeing the BIGGEST Diamond in the World and more!

We finished up our close look at the three types of rocks and moved on to minerals. Last summer I bought a couple extra bags to pan for rocks and minerals when we were at an amusement park.  I saved it just for this unit and the kids loved it!!  It was a bit chilly out, so we had to use a big plastic bin in the bathroom rather than...

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Beautiful Glass Art Exhibit, Hiking, Making a Long Trip Longer, Skiing

Sometimes it’s enough to get the bags packed and the kids ready; the snack food and water tucked into the car… but there’s not always a big plan when we head off… just a vague notion of where we have to go and who we plan to see. We definitely keep our eyes open for fun activities along the way. That’s how we wound up going into the Smokies, visiting...

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An Amazing Nature Center (Nashville, TN)

While we were on our road trip we had the opportunity to visit an amazing Nature Center in Nashville, TN with my Sis and her (homeschooling) kids.  It had everything from taxidermy animals to look at, nature drawers to explore, microscopes, bird watching and identification, creative play with puppets, puzzles, costumes, blocks and more.  I wish we had a place like this near us!!   There was a full size...

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Aquarium of the Smokies (Gatlinburg, TN)

We spent an amazing afternoon at the Aquarium of the Smokies.  It was really fabulous. There were all different kinds of displays from the Tropical Rain Forest, penguin display, sting ray bay, underwater sea life, whale skeletons, a coral reef, and much more. I’ll try not to overwhelm you with pictures–just putting together a few collages, but it was such a great day it’s been hard whittling down the pictures!!   The...

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Road Trip to the Smoky Mountains

One of the fabulous things about being homeschoolers is that we can travel when it suits us.  We often homeschool when other kids are not in school (for example, we often start back to school in early August and don’t take the same breaks, holidays or snow days that other kids in traditional schools take). Then, when the opportunity arises we head off for a family holiday. We actually got...

Traveling, Celebrating, Eating, Enjoying! 0

Traveling, Celebrating, Eating, Enjoying!

Happy Holidays! There are estimates that nearly 93.3 million people will travel this holiday season, with nearly 84.4 million people traveling more than 50 miles. I think my friend, M, and her two kids might get the prize for the longest travel plans — 10,000+ miles from the east coast, USA here over to Victoria, Australia.  We, on the other hand, did a short 4 hour trip to see Grandma...

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Hands On Experiences at Colonial Williamsburg

Over the course of the week we met families from Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio and New York who had come Colonial Williamsburg for the homeschool experience.  During homeschool week they had lots (and lots) of children’s activities.  Every activity we went to was absolutely terrific and educational.  Here are some of the things we attended during the week: We did both the normal orientation walk as well...

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Homeschool Week at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

  We’ve heard wonderful things about the homeschool programs in Colonial Williamsburg  in some of the yahoo groups. For two weeks in September, there are programs especially for homeschoolers. They offered discount tickets for homeschoolers and their families and have lots of programs and experiences geared specifically for kids.   This year we decided to go with some close friends of ours to check things out. You can spend lots...

The Mansion with 32 Secret Doors!! 0

The Mansion with 32 Secret Doors!!

Have you ever dreamed of visiting an almost magical hotel with secret doors hidden everywhere and art, antiques and nick-nacks of every shape, size and description? It has over 20,000 books and 15,000 pieces of art. It’s a mansion that just begs for exploration — and that’s what our family did spending more nearly five hours exploring every nook and cranny trying to find some of the 32 hidden doors...

The Tourist Town of Branson, Missouri 4

The Tourist Town of Branson, Missouri

My in-laws happen to live right near Branson, Missouri.  It’s quite a tourist destination… there are shows of every description… magic shows, country shows, dancing, live music, the Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, Chinese Acrobats, the art of Kung Fu, blues, the Brady Bunch, a tribute to the Eagles, gospel music and on and on and on. Driving down the main thoroughfare there are fun places everywhere. It is a great...

Camping, Hiking and the Legend of Petit Jean 0

Camping, Hiking and the Legend of Petit Jean

I’ve always been an avid camper and backpacker.  I’ve backpacked a number of stretches of the Appalachian Trail and backpacked for nearly a month in the Wind River Range in Wyoming.  Hubby and I hiked quite a bit in the Outback in central Australia, did the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair overland trek in Tasmania, Australia and even had the opportunity to hike along the Annapurna Trail in Nepal.  All that’s great, but...

Plantation Agriculture Museum, Arkansas 0

Plantation Agriculture Museum, Arkansas

We actually stumbled across this museum, but what a FABULOUS place to visit.  Just had to shout that out, it was *that* good! From the time Arkansas became a state in 1836 to the mid 1940s cotton production was common in the Arkansas River lowlands.  Men, women and children could be seen picking and stuffing cotton into long sacks in the fall. Tractors were not used for the preparation, planting,...