Traveling Buddies

Many of our adventures have been shared with another family. We first met 6 years ago when our older boys were just in kindergarten and they were placed on the same U6 soccer team. We came to find out that our families had many things in common, including enjoying visiting our national parks. The kids earned their first Jr. Ranger badges together at the Santa Monica Mountains NRA and have been hooked ever since. The moms love getting their passport stamps. And the dads... well, they're great about humoring the rest of us in our obsessions!

I calculated how far we've traveled in our trips together and the number I came up with was....

7100+ miles

Wow! That includes our first trip together to visit Manzanar NHS (during the annual pilgrimage of former internees) and Death Valley NP...

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes - Death Valley NP
April 2008

...as well as the air miles we covered flying out to Washington DC this past fall. Her brother graciously hosted all 8 of us at his home during our week-long visit!

Washington DC - October 2010

But that total doesn't even begin to count the number of miles we've covered on foot! We've hoofed it through redwood groves at Muir Woods NM (where they only gave out a Jr. Ranger *sticker* - boo!), squeezed through talus caves at Pinnacles NM, scrambled over big rocks at Joshua Tree NP, and explored the paths of our nation's capital. 

Together we've also endured seasickness to visit Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands NP, put aside a fear of heights to ride the gondola to the top of Mammoth Mountain, froze on a bumpy, open-air truck tour in Canyon de Chelly NM, and survived driving through a blinding sandstorm on I-40 in Northern AZ.

Even after all of that, they're still game to go with us as far as Yellowstone NP this summer! We're really blessed to count them among our friends. I know it's not the easiest thing to travel with other people, especially with me and my "what else can we fit in" scheduling. Trying to balance out what everyone wants to do can be tricky. But it's been great for the boys to have other kids their age along and more than that, we have enjoyed ourselves, too!

Who knows what will happen on this trip? Stay tuned to find out!