Ancient Ruins

What do you do when Christmas break is approaching, you have a Best Western free hotel night voucher about to expire, and you're itching to get away? If you're me (and last time I checked, I am), then you look at a map to see where the closest national park units are that you haven't been to yet *AND* you price hotels for the most expensive place to cash in the voucher. That narrowed down the choices to...

Viva Las Vegas

Earlier this year we paid a visit to Antique Archaeology (American Pickers) in Iowa. While we've been to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (Pawn Stars) on a previous trip through Vegas, we completed our History Channel trifecta on Friday morning with a side trip to Rick's Restorations, the location for the show, American Restoration.

SA Review - Update

Now that the andrenaline junkies have been to 6 theme parks (7 if you count LEGOLAND, but that's really only kiddie rides) and have gotten a broader perspective, they wanted to revise some of their previous ratings of Saiki-delic Awesomeness.

Here is our highly unscientific and totally biased list of the Top 10 15 best rides (so far)...

1.  Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA - 10

Jelly Beans and John Muir

Yesterday our friends mentioned that they were planning to visit the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield today, so we hopped on their good idea and headed up there first thing this morning after breakfast and checking out.

More Flags, More Fun!

Q:  How do you get two kids to happily agree to hop in the van for a 6-hour drive?  

A: By promising to feed their adrenaline addiction with a visit to yet another theme park!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Rosie the Riveter

It doesn't take much to convince me to get back on the road somewhere... anywhere will do! So a few weeks ago when J saw the promotional email from Best Western (stay 3 nights, get 1 free) and figured out that after our Massachusetts trip we only needed one more stay to get the free night (yep, he's my son!)... let's just say that I wasted no time getting online to check out hotel locations. And when I found one in Vallejo next to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, the rest of the family was totally on board for a quick trip up to the East Bay!   

The added bonus is that there are 4 national park units in that area which we haven't visited yet. Unfortunately, Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was not open to the public because the military had active operations on the base, and Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site only had limited hours due to the sequester. But we could still visit the other two, so Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in Richmond, CA was our first stop.