I grew up going skiing in Vermont every February and was lucky enough to go skiing in Colorado and Utah a few times in my young adulthood. Living in the south, our skiing options are nowhere near as impressive. We’ve taken the kids to various ski resorts in North Carolina and West Virginia but felt like they were ready for the next step. We started looking at options out west for a President’s Day weekend trip and decided on Keystone, CO. Keystone boasts three mountain peaks with a combined 130 trails. Located an hour and a half from Denver at …

For a variety of reasons, we haven’t flown from NC to NJ to visit family since the pandemic started. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t visited! It just means that we’ve driven. A lot. We normally like to break up the drive but are starting to run out of midway points of interest. Charlottesville was one of the last remaining places on our idea list of stops so we headed there for an overnight on our drive back to NC after Christmas. We decided to leave NJ early enough to visit Monticello that afternoon. The historic site has several ticket …

My youngest loves all things related to animals and really enjoyed his first horseback riding experience at Cedar Creek Stables in Lake Lure, NC. Last summer he had really wanted to ride horses while we were on our annual trip to Hilton Head, but the stables were closed due to the pandemic. So we were thrilled to find that Lawton Stables was open again this summer. We didn’t have any other takers on this adventure among the siblings and cousins so we made it a mom-son outing. At $75 per person, it was a little pricey so I was happy …

This was our 8th summer visiting Hilton Head Island with my extended family, and although the majority of our annual visit is spent relaxing together at the beach or by the pool, we usually try to do an outing or two while we are there. It had been at least 5 years since we had gone on a boat ride so we decided to do a sunset dolphin cruise. There are many options for dolphin cruises leaving from various points around the island. We narrowed it down to a private sunset cruise and ultimately booked with Dolphin & Nature Tours. …

I have long wanted to take the kids to Colonial Williamsburg. When I was looking for a mid-way stopping point on our way home from our annual summer road trip to NJ, I felt like we had covered almost everything on both the mountain route and the I-95 / I-85 route. So even though Williamsburg was off the path a bit, I figured we could stay two nights to make the stop worthwhile. Despite horrendous traffic, we made it in time to go on the Haunted Williamsburg tour our first night. We had a full day to explore Colonial Williamsburg …

There are several ghost tours available in the Williamsburg area, but we decided to go with the official tour run through Colonial Williamsburg. They have exclusive access to the buildings and restricted outdoor spaces, and their storytellers are costumed, adding an authentic period feel to their stories. Their tour is also kid friendly for ages 8 and up. Two tours are offered nightly, one at 7pm and one at 8:30pm. Tickets cost $19 for adults and $12 for kids. Since our kids are older, we went with the later time, hoping the darkness would add to the spooky ambiance. We …

I have mixed emotions about our stop along the Gulf Coast in Florida. When we first conceived the idea of going to Florida for spring break, we were just thinking of going to the Gulf Coast. I had never been there and heard that the beaches were fantastic, and there was a certain appeal to a relaxing vacation after the year it had been. But I really wanted to go to the Everglades and my husband was interested in the Keys too and we had always wanted to go to Saint Augustine. So hey, why not just go all those …

When we decided on a last minute spring break trip to Florida, my original thought was to spend a week on the Gulf Coast. We had never been before and I had always wanted to check out the beaches there. I had heard lots of great things about Sanibel in the past so I zeroed in on that area. We were pretty late to be planning and we were also doing a weird mid-week, Wednesday to Tuesday trip because of my work schedule. So it was pretty much impossible to find a place to rent for that whole time. That …

Our last stop in the Everglades was a tram ride in Shark Valley. The Shark River Slough is a freshwater marsh on the northern end of the Everglades, roughly 50 miles from where we started at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center. There is a 15 mile loop road through the slough’s valley that you can explore on foot, bike or tram. We pre-booked our tram tickets for the last tour of the day at 4:00 and headed there after our airboat tour. There was some tiredness and general lack of interest amongst the group by this point and we …