DiscoverAmerica.com

The LA Times Travel blog announced the launch of a new website today: DiscoverAmerica.com.

I, for one, am extremely excited about this blog, as there are so many parts of our awesome country that I've never seen. The site gathers information from all sorts of sources - travel guides, Google, etc and puts them all in one place. Then, each page has information on attractions & activities, hotels, itineraries, brochures, articles, and even where to shop and eat, too.

There's also my favorite feature - an interactive map that tells you all sorts of things. You can measure distances between different locations, randomly pick a spot to check into, and even has links to book your trip. Also, it includes all the US territories as well!

Such an amazing resource for anyone who wants to travel around America, I am SO glad that this site exists.

East Coast Road Trip: The Recap

I just realized I never got around to posting on this site about my East Coast road trip! We had a fabulous time and saw so much of the East Coast, it was fabulous.

Me at Chatham Manor in Virginia

We really packed in as much as possible!

East Coast 10 Day Road Trip: Photo Recap

I finally got it together and sorted through my thousand photos, and picked one from most of the places we visited! Without further ado, our East Coast adventure!

Here's a recap of our itinerary:

Day 1: Arrive in Boston, Freedom Trail tour, Sam Adams Brewery tour
Day 2: Boston, half day trip by train to Salem
Day 3: Boston, pick up rental car, drive to Providence RI, then to Waterford CT
Day 4: Waterford, CT, more wandering
Day 5: Drive to Philadelphia, by way of Amish country
Day 6: Philadelphia, drive to Fredericksburg, VA
Day 7 - 9: Fredericksburg, PA for our friend's wedding!
Day 10: Drive to DC, drop off rental car, explore DC

Boston, MA

East Coast Road Trip: Itinerary

As our East Coast road trip rapidly approaches (we leave a week from tomorrow!!!), I realized that I haven't written about it in a while. We finalized our itinerary a few weeks ago, when we used Priceline to book our hotel in Boston. Since we got such a great deal on our hotel in CT, we decided to spend two nights there instead of one. This unfortunately means that we had to change up our previously planned itinerary, and to cut one night in Boston, plus our proposed trip to P-Town, but is saving us about $150 on the hotel.

We decided to leave most of the trip open ended. We don't want to have too many concrete plans, because we want to explore and see random things. But there are several things we want to hit up for sure, so I'm listing them on here!

Thursday 10/9: Red eye flight from LA to Boston
Friday 10/10: Arrive in Boston, Freedom Trail tour, Sam Adams Brewery tour
Saturday 10/11: Boston, with a possible morning trip to Salem
Sunday 10/12: Boston, pick up rental car, drive to Providence RI, then to Waterford CT
Monday 10/13: Waterford, not sure what else!
Tuesday 10/14: Drive to Philadelphia, by way of Amish country
Wednesday 10/15: Philadelphia, drive to Fredericksburg, VA
Thursday 10/16: Fredericksburg, with a possible jaunt to DC
Friday 10/17: Fredericksburg, help Ashleigh with wedding favors, rehearsal dinner
Saturday 10/18: Fredericksburg, Ashleigh's WEDDING!
Sunday 10/19: Drive to DC, drop off rental car
Monday 10/20: Early morning flight from Dulles to LA

Whew! I'm super excited for this trip, but man. I just realized just how much we're packing in! I think I'm most excited for the wedding, and to see all of the fall foliage. I hope we're there at the right time for some awesome photo ops!

2008 & 2009 Travel Plans

I am very ambitious with my 2008 & 2009 travel plans, after going on very few trips (by my standards) in 2007. I have resolved to spend more time traveling, since I don't currently have kids or a mortgage or a car payment. All of these things are bound to catch up with me soon, so I feel that I need to take advantage of this year and next year to get some travel fixes in! My plan? One big trip and a handful of smaller trips this year, and 1-3 big trips next year.

2008 Already Traveled:
- Mayercraft Carrier cruise to Grand Bahama, Bahamas
- Central/Northern CA road trip to Morro Bay, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Francisco

2008 Planned And Booked Travel:
- Work conference in Dana Point
- East Coast road trip to Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Virginia and Washington DC

2008 Planned, But Not Yet Booked Travel:
- "Break from CA" trip to Portland
- BF's work conference in San Francisco

2009 Planned And Booked Travel:
- Mayercraft Carrier cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

2009 Planned, But Not Yet Booked Travel:
- Europe: Austria & Italy, or Ireland