Austin is one of the cities we were most looking forward to visiting on our trip. We had heard really good things, and of course it’s home to Franklin BBQ, and that had Billy really excited. We had a pretty long drive from Crystal Beach, and we added to the length by throwing in a stop at the Houston IKEA.
Crystal Beach is on the Bolivar Peninsula, which is northeast of Galveston. We actually had to take a ferry to get there, but it was really fun, and free! You just drive onto the boat, and then you can get out if you want while it’s taking you across. The seagulls know what’s up and they’re all over it.
We were really ready for some warmer temps, and also ready for some sand! We wanted to head to New Orleans next, but it was too long of a drive for one day so we decided to break it up with a week at the beach 🙂
Helllllo Cincinnati!
We wanted to make it to Niagara Falls, which was too far for one day of travel, and the weather was playing along nicely, so we stopped for the week at the halfway point in Kingston, Ontario.
Sunday we decided to take a day trip to Canada. My desire was to hit Lubec, Maine, the eastern most point of the U.S., and also to see Campobello International Park, FDR’s summer home. Billy’s desire was to test out the internet in Canada with our new T-Mobile service (we already have AT&T and Verizon but they weren’t ideal for an extended stay in Canada). The kids were really curious about crossing the border.
We’d like to interrupt our regular programming and give a shout out to the zip tie. We’d like to thank the person who invented them. And maybe hug them for a little while.
After Hershey Park, we were ready to be on the road again.
We didn’t plan it, but we found ourselves smack in the middle of Amish country. Horses and buggies! Amazing butter! And good grief, the ice cream!
It was a relatively quick drive from New Market to Salem, and we were grateful (especially the birthday-boy bus driver). Dixie Caverns was smack in the middle between the shop where we had to get the hitch work done and my brother’s house, fifteen minutes away from each. It could not have been more convenient. (I will add that the location is about all it had going for it, the creep factor was high.) To add to the awesomeness, my parents drove down for part of the weekend.
