The National Park System in the United States is the country's greatest treasure. With 58 national parks, and numerous national monuments, seashores, memorials, and other designated protected areas, you will never run out of amazing adventures in the United States. All in all there are over 400 places for you to explore within the national park system. We often get asked what was our favorite National Park. Each park has its own unique characteristics, making it very difficult to compare one to the other, and to choose a favorite. Of course, it is also going to be different for every person. Some of our favorites are some of the most underrated parks within the system.

If we were told we could choose to only visit 10 national parks again in our lifetime, these are the ones that we would choose:

Yosemite National Park 
Arches National Park 
Sequoia/ Kings Canyon National Park 
Grand Teton National Park 
Northern Cascades National Park 
Acadia National Park 
Saguaro National Park 
Rocky Mountain National Park 
Smoky Mountains National Park
Denali National Park

We will follow up with a BLOG on each of these parks and let you know why we have chosen these as our Top 10.

​When you think of Napa, you probably think of wineries. Not us! After learning that the Jelly Belly Factory is in near Napa, we will never think of Napa the same again!

We've never been huge fans of Jelly Beans,  but Jelly Belly isn't an ordinary jelly bean, is it? The 100+ flavors, most made from juices and purees makes Jelly Belly the gourmet king of beans. 

We started our day in Napa by visiting the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, California, just minutes from Napa. The factory offers a wine and chocolate pairing that we highly recommend. For $20 you get to try 6 wines from 6 local wineries as well as 6 different chocolates paired perfectly with these wines. You also get a Jelly Belly souvenir wine glass. 

​If that isn't enough value, they also have cards for free or buy one get one wine tastings at the wineries that you tried as well as to the olive oil and vinegar company next door. That is a huge value considering most wineries in Napa charge $20-$35 for tastings. Now you have six more wineries you go explore at a fraction of the cost!

Before you head out to explore those wineries, don't forget to take your free tour of the factory to see how Jelly Bellies are made. Do you know that it takes 7-14 days to make a Jelly Belly There is some fun Jelly Belly artwork throughout the factory and at the end you get a free bag of Jelly Bellies plus you can sample other flavors including the nasty Bamboozle flavors that have become an Internet sensation. Don't miss the Jelly Belly Gallery filled with sculptures and wall art made of Jelly Bellies!

After we completed our tour we decided to head to the V Sattui winery for lunch at their Italian Deli. This winery is very scenic and romantic, and has a beautiful outdoor space with picnic tables for you to eat your lunch and drink your wine from their Deli.  

Moab, an amazing wonderland on most Traveler's Bucket Lists, and for good reason. Moab is home to both Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. A mecca for those that love the outdoors, Moab has so much to offer. Two of the "must see" places that should be on your Travel Bucket List is Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse State Park.

Canyonlands has three sections of the park. The Needles,  Island in the Sky, and the Maze. The Maze is backcountry and only accessible via hiking and/or four wheel drive. The Needles entrance is about an hour South of Moab and Island in the Sky entrance is just about 30 north of downtown Moab. Many people skip the Needles and only visit the Island in the Sky because it is closer to Moab. We actually preferred the more dramatic scenery of Needles section over the Island in the Sky. Both parks have twenty minute drives in, but the Needles greets you with large red rock formations where Island has more of a prairie feel to it. 

In the Needles,  we hiked 3 of the shorter trails in the park. The Roadside Ruins, the Pothole Communities, and Cave Spring, The Roadside Ruins trail was a bit of a bust. There were no fifty cent interpretive maps at the beginning of the trail, so short of a couple of small formations, we had no idea what we were supposed to be looking for at each stop. The Pothole Communities is a trail mostly on slackrock that has potholes that contain entire ecosystems. Regardless of the signs at the beginning explaining this, many people still walk and allow their children to play in the sand in the potholes, which was quite sad and frustrating for us. Actions like this have been a common occurrence on this trip, but that's for another Blog. There are some great views of the mountains,  mesas, and the Needles formations from this hike. Cave Spring has similar views,  but features a large rock overhang and cave that was used by cowboys and even has cowboy hand prints embedded in the rock. This trail has a couple of ladders and a slight climb on slickrock to get to the views, but is fairly easy and a must do. 

There are several more trails here ranging from 2 miles to 22 miles if you are looking to explore some more.  There are developed campgrounds as well as BLM campgrounds. We are lucky enough to find a perfect site in the BLM “Superbowl” campground.  It had a nice fire ring with grill, picnic table, and a pit toilet, and an amazing view of the two twin mountains with spires atop. For $5/night or $2.50 with an access card, it's a terrific deal. The sunset from here will take your breath away. The trees and the mountains had an amazing golden glow to them. ​

​Just a couple hours north of the Grand Canyon lies the city of Page, Arizona which encompasses the Lake Powell and Glen Canyon National Recreation areas. The drive to page had many remarkable views along the way. As you arrive in page you begin to see large power lines along the road. This area is also home to the Glen Canyon Dam which is a major hydroelectric power source for this region of Arizona and Utah.

Coming into page we didn’t have lodging set up yet. While we ate lunch, I found one Campground that had a reservation available for the next few days so we booked that. Many of the campgrounds here are first come first serve so we had a list  of  places to  check for openings. The first place we stopped was at Lone Rock Campground which is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This area is maintained by BLM and dispersed camping is available right on the beach of Lake Powell. The camping here is $7 per night for seniors or people with access passes, and $14 regular price. As we drove down, the dirt road gets a little rough, but even with our low clearance we were able to make it with no issues at all. We found our spot on the beach right across from the huge Rock known as Lone Rock. The campsite does have restrooms available, but no showers or electric. The sunset was one of the most beautiful we’ve seen so far on this trip. Keep in mind, this campground is about a mile into Utah so the time zone changes. Most activities you will do here will be in Arizona, so make sure you plan accordingly. Phones often get confused in this are so we suggest keeping your vehicle clock on Arizona time. Fortunately, the Navajo tour companies seem to use Arizona time to avoid confusion even though their reservation is on a whole other time zone!

​The Grand Canyon, the only one of the seven natural wonders of the world that can be found in the United States. After seeing so many amazing Canyons and red rock formations these last few months, we were a little worried that we would be underwhelmed when we got to see the Grand Canyon. Upon entering the park, the lines are very long. Once you enter, the first stop is usually the visitor center which has limited parking considering the number of people that are there to visit. Visiting in March, the park was definitely not as busy as we heard it could be, but also the temperatures were fairly mild. At night, temperatures were in the 20s so if you intend on camping, make sure you pack enough to stay warm and bring your patience to deal with the crowds. Once you find parking, you can relax and enjoy the park. Like most parks, we would recommend going in early to avoid the lines. 

The south rim of the canyon is the most visited section of the canyon. You are able to rent bikes to ride the road along the rim, there is a walkway you can walk, or you can shuttle from one point to another. We opted to walk to The Village, which is where the lodge and restaurant are located. It’s about a 7 mile walk from The Visitor Center and fairly easy and accessible. Near the visitor center, we saw several elk, and they we’ll come up pretty close to the walkway where people are. As you turn the corner  and get your first glimpse of the canyon , it is anything but underwhelming.  Though the formations were quite similar to what we had been seeing, the sheer size of the canyon is remarkable. There are several points along the way that you can stop and take in different views of the canyon. It's a nice walk so take your time and stop off for pictures and to take in the views at each point.  Once in the village, definitely stop at the El Tolvar Restaurant. There may be a long wait since it’s the only restaurant and a train stops there for lunch as well, but it was worth the wait. The lunch menu has a small variety of options including some vegetarian options. We tried the Navajo Fry Bread Taco and the Prime Rib Sandwich and both were excellent. Make sure you save room for dessert as well because they have several options to satisfy your sweet tooth!

Sedona has branded itself as the “most beautiful place in the world”. Well, I don’t know about that, but the Red Rocks that are the backdrop of Sedona certainly make your mouth wide open in awe. It is springtime in Sedona and we found a nice campsite in Cottonwood, called Thousand Trails, just about 30 minutes from Sedona. Hotel prices can get quite expensive, but we did manage to find a place to camp for $19/night, with electric. There was also a pool, hot tub, and a lodge here with several activities you can participate in. We have not come across any rattlesnakes, tarantulas, or scorpions here in the desert, but you can hear the coyotes all night and the birds first thing every morning. If any of these things worry you, then camping in the desert might not be a good option for you. Of course, we had some concerns, but with so many other campers here, and learning more about the bugs and snakes here from Scott and Pat at the Albuquerque Bio Park, many of those concerns were put to rest and we slept quite well in the frigid desert nights. If you are going to camp, bring a good sleeping bag and an air mattress to get off the ground. It does hit the high 30s and low 40s here…..brrrr!

This area has so much to offer. There are several State Parks, the Coconino National Forest, the Red Rocks, a Ghost Town, Pueblo Ruins, and of course Downtown Sedona.
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Downtown Sedona is a great place if you like to shop in expensive stores, have a nice meal out at a higher end restaurant, or like to be harassed as you walk down the street. It appears that most of the downtown area was bought out by Diamond International. If you have ever been on a cruise just about anywhere, you know what this means…..sell, sell, sell. Lots of high-end shops including jewelry shops, and people on every corner trying to offer you deals on activities if you listen to their timeshare spiel. It’s a shame because as you enter Sedona from the south, the amazing mountains are the first thing you see, and then there are cute local shops revolved around crystals, yoga, metaphysical wellness, etc. It was a really fun and quirky vibe until we got to the newer area. We did walk around downtown to see the various statues based on Western movies, and we stopped off for lunch, but other than that, we spent most of our time hiking among the beautiful red rocks.

One of the most popular hikes is Cathedral Rock. This formation sets itself apart because it is one of the five main vortices in the area. Unfortunately, parking is very limited at many of the trailheads, so after several attempts, we finally found parking elsewhere and decided to hike Bell Rock, which is also known for its strong vortex. The hike was only a couple of miles with a mild to moderate incline, depending on how far you go up. We opted to climb about half way up. The climb to the top gets more strenuous and involves rock scaling. Unfortunately, neither of us felt the vortex energy, however, how could anyone be in a bad mood with such amazing views??? When we finished Bell Rock, we did climb to the top of Baby Bell, which was a moderate hike involving some climbing. From here you can see almost all of the major formations in the area.
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Sedona has so much to offer people who love the outdoors. The scenery is breathtaking, and the vibe still has that new age feeling to it, outside of the new downtown. I don’t know how much power the vortices have on people, but the nature there is truly healing. This was bucket list stop for us, and I hope we inspire you to add it to your list as well. 

Living in Florida for over a decade, visiting the Panhandle has been something we have been meaning to do. The Santa Rosa beach area has plenty of parks and campgrounds to chose from. We camped at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. There are plenty of trails to get some exercise, including paved portions open for biking. We hiked the trail to Campbell and Morris Lakes, which are Coastal Dune Lakes, a rare type of lake formed by sand dunes. They can only be found in Madagascar, New Zealand, Australia, and here in the Panhandle. The hike out only took about 30 minutes to Campbell, and then another 30 to Morris on both a paved trail, and then a sandy trail. Be aware that the trails are nature trails, which means you may see some wildlife like the Pygmy Rattlesnake I almost stepped on, and the alligator we saw swimming in Morris Lake. I definitely recommend bringing or finding a walking stick to hit on the ground in front of you as you walk. 

Of course we headed out and about to check out the surrounding areas. We explored the areas around Destin, Seaside, Panama City, and Pensacola. Each of these stops had things that set them apart from the others. 

Seaside is about 15 mins East of the Santa Rosa area on 30A. It has a cute Central Square that was all decked out for the holidays. There were lovely shops and restaurants and a row of Airstream Food Trucks serving up a variety of tasty treats. We split a platter at Barefoot BBQ, which was delicious, and then spent the rest of the day at the beach. The sunsets here are simply breathtaking. Later in the week we enjoyed Paella and some wonderful wine with new friends at 45 Central. They only make it a couple of times a week so make sure you check ahead of time! This new planned community really became our favorite place in the Panhandle.

Destin is a newer city with a great waterfront area filled with shops and restaurants. If you are looking for a more high end destination on the Panhandle, Destin is a great location for you. If you continue towards Pensacola, you will come across miles and miles of beautiful sand dunes. This entire area is very picturesque. 

Panama City seems to be geared more towards the Spring Break crowd, though there is a newer section that was filled with chain restaurants, bars, and shops. The rest of the area is filled with novelty stores and the tourist trap area similar to International Drive in Orlando with wax museums and mini golf courses. 

Pensacola is a military town that has a great historic area to stroll around. Many of the buildings are similar to those in the French Quarter, built with bricks and iron works. There are a few small, but nice parks, and public art pieces throughout the area. The Veterans Memorial Park has some magnificent statues and memorials, including a replica of D.C.'s Vietnam Wall. Of course there are tributes to the Blue Angels all throughout the city.

One thing that all of these places have in common is miles and miles of gorgeous beaches, with sugar sand and sparkling clear water, all a part of the National Gulf Seashore. It is some of the coolest, softest, and whitest sand we have ever seen and the water explains why they call this the Emerald Coast. 

We often hear how lucky we are to not have to work and to just travel full-time, but the truth is, travel is a lot of work. We started our journey around the world 6 months ago, and we have quickly learned that this isn't going to be all play, no work.

Currently, we are traveling around the United States in a small van that we built to live out of, not in. Most of our nights are spent camping, staying with friends, or in hotels. We usually spend an average of 2-3 nights in most places, with some of our bucket list stops averaging 5-6 nights. This means, that we usually spend a few hours driving to our new location, then we have to set up camp or pack our bags to bring up to the hotel room. We then have time to catch up on our Journals, eat dinner, check in on things back home, and then plan the next couple of days in that location. This means researching our "To Do/To See" lists and coordinating how long each activity takes along with drive time and proximity to other activities. We generally like to be out exploring about 6 hours each day, though many are much longer than that. We also research our followers suggestions and any suggestions we've received from locals, and see if they are a good fit for us. Sometimes we get so many great suggestions that we end up extending our stay. Toni is in charge of looking up the festivals in the area to see if there is anything fun and unusual going on that we may want to add to our agenda. Sometimes the planning can take hours. We also have to consider hours and days places are open, traffic concerns, weather, and other things that may impact our time there. You would be surprised how often major attractions will be closed on Mondays, throwing a wrench into the entire plan! Now that the schedule is complete, we can get some sleep!

The next morning starts with breakfast, and hopefully a workout. With all of the delicious local eats we find, we have to find a good balance, which is a challenge in itself (which is a BLOG for another time)! We then get on the road to go explore for the day. While we are exploring, we are taking hundreds of pictures throughout the day, both for our memories, and to share with our followers. During lunch we usually take a few minutes to post about our day to keep our followers engaged. After dinner, it's back to camp or our room to journal about our day. We both keep separate journals so we can keep our separate perspectives of each stop. I spend about an hour reviewing all of the pictures of the day, making sure they made it to the cloud, and then choosing ones to share with our followers. After that, I respond to our followers comments, and then spend some time supporting some of their pages with likes and comments. I then check my emails, log our financials, and address any concerns with our business back home. Some nights we get to relax a bit before hitting the sack.

Each day is pretty much the same, until we get to our last day at a location. That evening is spent scouring the Internet for our next "home", and the best deal we can find on it. This means searching camping options, Air B&B, hotels, and our latest option, house/pet sitting options. We have to take into location the cost and the location, along with things like parking. When we stay in cities, parking, if not included,can be quite expensive and also can be difficult to find. Many garages don't have the clearance that we need, even for our small van! There are so many little details involved in the logistics of traveling full-time, so much more that we could have imagined. Thankfully we started in the U.S. so we can work out our schedule and figure out all of these little details. Once we start the International part of our trip, I'm sure it will bring many other logistical headaches that we will have to learn to deal with. In the meantime, we are happy with how smooth the trip has been, and how much we have learned about travel.

Our last day at a location means it's time to pack up, break down camp, load the van, and hit the road, starting the whole process over again! We try to schedule "down days" to catch up on our website, write some reviews, BLOG, and business projects, but just like at home, when you take one thing off of the "To Do" list, 3 more things are added. This is one of the reasons that keeping up with our BLOG has been so difficult...we are still working, a lot! Travel is a wonderful experience and we are truly lucky to be in a position to take this adventure, but make no mistake, if you are planning to travel full-time, be prepared to work! 

New Orleans has always been on our bucket list for a long weekend, but not for Mardi Gras. We arrived in New Orleans the first week of December, and the city is decked out in red bows, garland, Christmas Trees and lights. The decorations along with the iron works throughout the city, make you feel like you've stepped into a Dicken's Christmas Story, without the snow (UPDATE: It's snowing in New Orleans today!). Walking around this historic city just seems magical this time of the year.

Yeah, I know, Mardi Gras looks like an amazing party, but if a huge mass of very drunk people behaving badly isn't your scene, then consider New Orleans around Christmastime (Note: There are family friendly parades all through Carnivale, including on Mardi Gras). If that is your scene, the good news is that there is always a party going on down Bourbon Street. There are plenty of opportunities to partake in the festivities and if you enjoy people watching, there are plenty of partying people to watch every single night! Worried that you are missing out on the parade? Plan your trip around the annual Christmas Parade that runs down Canal Street. No, it's not as large as the Mardi Gras parade, but there were a lot of floats and people throwing beads, stuffed animals, cups, candy, and all of the traditional Mardi Gras swag! If it's not enough floats for you, head to Mardi Gras World and check out where the floats, as well as other sculptures for Disney and other parks and casinos are made. The tour shows you how these floats are made and not only will you see some old props, but you will get a preview of the floats and props they are working on for the next Mardi Gras! Did you know that they start celebrating the first week in January and there is at least one parade every single day until Mardi Gras!
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Continuing our trek south for the winter, our next stop after Cleveland was Cincinnati. En route, we stopped by the Ohio Reformatory, which is the famous prison from the movie Shawshank Redemption, and has been featured in other films as well.  Usually you are able to tour this architecturally beautiful prison, however, they are currently decorated to the max for Halloween and are only open at night for their Blood Prison event...a haunting experience. Since horror isn't really our thing, we decide to just admire the prison from the road. If you are a big Shawshank fan, there is a local tour you can do to see several of the scenes from the movie. 

We continue south and change our route to take us through Dayton. Dayton is famous for aviation and there are several points of interests dedicated to the Wright Brothers, who were from Dayton. We only stopped by one park, which ended up being named after them, but was really a poorly maintained Veteran's Memorial Park. There was a good view of the river and the city from that point, but the park was quite disappointing. 

A hidden Gem near Cincinnati, in Loveland, is the Castle La Roche. Upon arriving, we meet some of "Knights of the Golden Trail". They are working on the castle and cannot seem to get the aerial lift they rented started. Nicole, having a lot of experience working with lifts in our window cleaning business, decides to take a look. After only a few minutes, it's up and running. It will go up and down, but it still won't move forward and back. She spent an hour troubleshooting it with the Knights, but was unable to get it to move and suggests they call the rental company because it needs repair. We begin our self-guided tour of the castle. The castle isn't massive in size or fancy, but the story behind it is awesome. To summarize, Harry D. Andrews built the castle over the course of 51 years, by himself! He used stones that he collected from river that runs through the property. He worked on it until he died at the age of 91. He had no heirs, so when he was younger, he knighted several boys from the Sunday School that he taught. He called them them the Knights of the Golden Trail because they had to agree to live by the 10 commandments, and they had to agree to help maintain the castle and share it with others. He created a 501C and left the property to them, and they continue to run it today. People can be knighted by volunteering their time. Nicole was almost knighted for her help with the lift, and though she wasn't, they all said that we were, by far, the most helpful visitors they have EVER had! The full story of Harry and this castle is pretty impressive and you can read it HERE if you want to learn more.

Another hidden gem we stopped at was the Lucky Cat Museum. If you've ever seen those fat cats waving their paw up, that is a Chinese Lucky Cat. This museum is located in the Essex Art Studio and is a personal collection of Lucky Cats figurines as well as a variety of other Lucky Cat items. The studio is free, though a small donation to look around is always a great gesture. We spoke to the owner of the collection and learned about how she came to own so many and where she gets them from. One rare slot machine that she had always wanted was found in the basement of someone's house and went up for sale, right in Cincinnati! Talk about lucky!!! The museum only takes about 15-30 minutes to walk through, but it's unique and some of the items are interactive, like the coin boxes and slot machines. Toni loves the lucky cat so this museum was a great find for us. 

We did swing by the famous Findlay Market, which is listed on the National Registry for Historic Places, and is Ohio's oldest continuous market. It was later in the day, but many of the vendors must have closed up early so we did strike out there, but we made up for it by trying some local favorites. We went to Skyline Chili, which has a unique flavor that has made it a staple in Cincinnati for decades. There is much debate about whether theirs is the best or Gold Star Chili, which we didn't get to try. You will have to try them both and decide for yourself! There is no debating that Graeter's Ice Cream is another great staple here. They are known for their Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, which Nicole tried, but they offer several flavors, including seasonal flavors like the Stout & Chocolate Pretzel that Toni tried. Both were outstanding, and the chocolate chips are really small chunks of their dark chocolate, which were absolutely divine!

We had heard some great things about the Cincinnati zoo, and we had some extra time, so we decided to check it out. We love animals and enjoy spending time at zoos. (Money Saving Travel Tip: Most zoos offer affordable memberships that give you reciprocity at other zoos. Often it's 50% or 100% off at other zoos!) The zoo is pretty large and has a wide variety of animals. It was a Trick or Treat day there so we saw lots of kids and even some parents dressed up, and many of the animals were given pumpkins. We saw several animals, mostly small mammals, that we haven't seen before, so it was fun to learn about them. We saw an Andean Bear with his head in his pumpkin, getting every last seed out of it. They also have Sigfried and Roy's White Tigers there and 3 Bengal cubs as well...all were beautiful! Fiona, the baby hippo, has taken the Internet by storm. We were able to get a glimpse of her while she out as well. Overall, we feel that the Cincinnati Zoo is worth visiting. Make sure you plan on at least 4 hours so you can see it all!

Cincinnati sits along the Ohio River and has a beautiful green area near the river. The Bengal's and Red's stadiums are right by the river as well, making that area a great place to explore. There are 3 bridges near the river front park, and all bridges lead to Kentucky. The John A Roebling Suspension Bridge is a stunning blue bridge that connects with Covington, KY. We were able to walk across the bridge to Kentucky in about 15 minutes. There are wonderful views of Cincinnati from the bridge and it is definitely worth the walk. The park has porch swings all along it, as well as fun activities for kids and adults alike. Play a giant pipe piano by walking on keys, hop aboard a flying pig, play on the playground or in the fountains, or just walk along the river and enjoy the views. There is an indoor carousel, and thanks to Marcy, who we met on the bridge, you can take the street car and/or trolley around and get a good feel of the city, which we did. Of course there are plenty of places to eat and shop in the area as well. We walked to Fountain Square where they are currently building a skating rink for more winter entertainment in the city. 

Overall, we were very impressed with Cincinnati, and to be honest, quite surprised. Most people probably don't think of Cincinnati when they think of cities to explore, and we honestly thought we would have a hard time finding enough to do. There is plenty to do there to fill a long weekend getaway, and the River Front area is nice place for a romantic walk. You can even hop a cruise down the river on a paddle boat! The Queen City has plenty to offer travel enthusiasts!