Acadia National Park, ME

We visited Acadia National Park in July as one of the anchor stops along our 2-week trip around New England. Maine was everything we thought it would be, and more! And Acadia National Park was beyond beautiful. Let me tell you about the 4 days we spent in Acadia National Park.

2 Weeks in New England

We try to take a couple of larger trips per year, and early July is a great time to do it work-wise. Ever since we went to Alaska last July, we’ve loved the idea of traveling somewhere cooler during those hottest of weeks in the summer. So this year, we decided to go north, but this time, to the east instead of the west, to New England.

Sedona, AZ

You know when you have high expectations for a trip, and then when you actually get there, it doesn’t quite live up?

You know when the EXACT OPPOSITE of that happens, and it somehow manages to EXCEED your already high expectations? That was Sedona for me!

Why Sedona?

It was New Year’s Eve 2021. Kristin, Amanda, and Leann were all together for the holiday so I Facetimed them, and I said, guys, in 2022, we have to do a trip. We’ve been best friends for going on a decade, but these days we live scattered around a little bit, so it’s rare we are all together at the same time.

So the next day (after the champagne fog wore off), I texted them along with Katie some ideas for our trip, and it was pretty clear that Sedona was the best choice for our trip. This was the perfect spot for a girls trip: beautiful views, some of the country’s best spas, unique spiritual experiences, plus most of us had never been to the Southwest before.

So off we went, planning our long weekend in Sedona.

Kauai, HI

Have you ever heard someone say, “touristy things are touristy for a reason”? The more I travel, the more I have found – as much as we might not like to think it – it’s true.

I’ve never been one to purposely eschew the popular things just because they are popular — but I think there is a little bit in all of us that thinks that we’ll be the ones to have a unique take on things, to see things differently than others do. With our Kauai vacation, we ended up doing a lot of “popular” things to do, and you know what? It was the absolute perfect vacation. So I have to agree with the phrase: we were full-on tourists in Kauai doing the most typical Kauaian vacation you could do, and — it was absolutely FANTASTIC.

Waimea Canyon, Kauai, HI

The island of Kauai is home to “The Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. With views rivaling the Grand Canyon in Arizona, of course this made its way onto our Kauai itinerary.

History of the Canyon

Waimea Canyon is known as “the Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. Mount Waiʻaleʻale, the huge mountain on Kauai, is one of the wettest place on earth, some years having more rainfall than anywhere else on the planet. Well, that crazy rainfall has to go somewhere, and over the centuries, it slowly carved out the Waimea Canyon that we see today. The canyon itself is bright red, which is caused by the iron in the earth literally rusting. The sweeping canyon views, coupled with bright red soil, is certainly a sight to behold.

In order to enjoy this trip to the fullest, we downloaded the Shaka Guide App, an GPS-based audio tour guide app, and took off on their Waimea Canyon tour.

Kalalau Trail, Kauai, HI

Before planning our trip to Hawaii, never having been there before, I imagined what it would be like. I had a picture in my mind, a mash-up of various Instagram pictures I had seen of the state: A hiking trail found on a tall cliff overlooking the tropical green trees below, ground damp from a recent rain shower, with the bright blue ocean in view off to one side. As it turns out, the Kalalau Trail gave me that exact feeling I imagined when I thought about visiting Hawaii.

Maui, HI

I have a confession… Hawaii had never been very high on my bucket list.

I KNOW, I KNOW, how could that be possible?

Let me try to explain… I definitely thought Hawaii would be great, but I thought of it as just being similar to other tropical islands or areas. I’ve been to Jamaica, Antigua, Fiji, and Mexico for some tropical trips, so I was kind of thinking, will Hawaii really be that different?

Well, long story short: Mitcher is the one who picked Hawaii for our trip in 2021. And I’m 100% eating my words, because Hawaii was definitely nothing like anywhere else I’d been before, and far exceeded my expectations.

Road to Hana, Maui, HI

On my first ever trip to Hawaii, the Road to Hana is the very first thing we did. And I’m still reeling from it, because I can’t imagine a better way to get introduced to Hawaii.

Road to Hana – what is it?

This Road to Hana trip is part of a larger vacation Mitcher and I took to Hawaii (more posts to come soon!). But let’s dive in to this all-day road trip experience.

So many friends recommended the Road to Hana on Maui. When someone describes it to you, it’s a bit hard to imagine, but in essence, it’s a road trip around the east coast of Maui, with places to stop and see along the way. Ok, sounds nice, but I admit, I didn’t understand what made it special until I did it. The best way to really explain what it’s like is to just show the pictures.

Alaska Road Trip

Fair warning… this post is gonna be a long one.

I think that’s fitting, though, because this was a long vacation! Mitcher and I spent 2 whole weeks doing a summer road trip around Alaska.

What type of Alaskan vacation should we do?

That was the question I asked myself when I first started to plan. Most people’s first visit to Alaska is on a cruise ship, and I’ve never heard anyone say a single bad thing about an Alaskan cruise. I looked into doing a cruise, but given we’ve still got that pesky pandemic flying around, we decided to go another direction.

So, road trip it is!

Denali National Park, AK

When I was planning our trip to Alaska, I went back and forth on whether to include Denali on our itinerary. It was a big time commitment since it’s so far away from any major city or town. But when discussing with Mitcher, he felt pretty strongly that we should do it, so we added it.g

And boy — are we glad we did!

Our visit to Denali National Park was the first thing we did in Alaska, and it was a really great introduction to America’s 49th state. The main reason people go to Denali National Park is because of the mountain. Denali Mountain, previously known as Mount McKinley, is the third tallest mountain in the world. Though many people visit the park to view the mountain, there are also the very adventurous folks who attempt to climb it. And the word “attempt” is quite important here. Of the approximately 1,000 people who register to climb the mountain each year, less than 50% are successful in reaching the summit.