Get some inspiration for your next adventure by browsing our favorite spots. We focus on natural, outdoor spaces like National Parks and recreation areas because they cost less and keep us moving.
Yesterday, the gorgeous seaside views grew distant as we said goodbye to the South Coast and headed inland to experience the eucalypt forests of Western Australia. From our Airbnb in Albany, it took about an hour and a half to drive across some hilly farmland…
For our wedding anniversary this year, we decided to keep it simple. Instead of taking one of our typical months-long road trips, we just drove an hour and a half north into Georgia to visit a little patch of Google Maps greenery that we’ve had…
Last year, we planned to go to as many Canadian National Parks as possible on a summer road trip — and failed miserably. Strict COVID testing requirements combined with an overwhelmed healthcare system at the Montana-Alberta border stopped us dead in our tracks, diverting most…
Driving the highways in West Virginia, you don’t really notice just how high up you are in the Appalachian Mountains until you cross a bridge and can’t see all the way down. That’s when you realize its nickname — the Mountain State — makes a…
For years, we made the uneventful, 2.5-hour drive from Gainesville to Tampa. And for years, about an hour into that drive, we’ve been stumped by a curious overpass just south of Ocala on Interstate 75. If you’ve ever looked up as you’ve neared exit 341,…
Wyoming is best known for Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, and Devil's Tower, but there are a few other outdoor attractions that offer some pretty unique experiences off the beaten path. On a recent drive through north central Wyoming, we discovered three of them…
Just southwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, lies a unique combination of outdoor splendor. Looking for massive herds of bison? Active prairie dog colonies? Rock-studded lakes? Jagged hills reaching toward the heavens? We experienced all this and more during our trip to Custer State Park.…
Before this week, we'd barely done any autumn traveling at all. With Steven's history as a high school teacher and private tutor, fall semester has always been a time that we've focused on buckling down, working hard, and banking money. But all that past saving…
While we were living on the Big Island of Hawai’i, some family came to visit us. They flew to O’ahu for a week, and we met them there for part of their stay. (They also ended up island-hopping to the Big Island to check out…
Tucked away off of Florida’s A1A highway on the quiet outskirts of Palm Coast is a hidden gem: Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. We discovered it recently as part of our quest to see more of our own backyard. Less than two hours from our…
As we were shutting the door on one chapter of our lives — college — we were opening another without fully realizing it. Our graduation ceremonies were held the first weekend in May of 2012. The following Monday, we buckled into our 2005 Honda Civic…
Yes, you read that headline correctly. You can find Class III Whitewater rapids in Florida. Most rivers in the Sunshine State are calm enough to float casually down them in an inner tube (beverage of choice in hand). But when the water levels of the…
You know the feeling when your alarm goes off and you dread what’s coming next? Whatever your responsibilities are today, you know the feeling. You’ve felt it before an exam, before a review at the office, maybe even every day before you go into work.…
We spent most of 2019 living out of a tiny camper van in order to visit and photograph every National Park in the United States before turning 30. As we traveled, we evaluated each park against all the previous ones, forming this master list one…
Life is ever-changing. We’ve always engineered our living expenses to be ultra-low, and when you combine super low expenses with full-time, middle-class jobs, an explosion of wealth is inevitable. But as we close in on the finish line of financial independence, spending large amounts of…
When we achieved our goal to visit every National Park in the United States in 2019, there were 61 of them. But just last month, long after we’d already arrived back home, a 62nd was added to the list. This would have irked us a…
We were rounding the third base of our trip as we made our way through Canada to Maine, and we were excited to visit the eastern part of the country we left behind six months before. Our plan seemed perfect -- we had plenty of…
Our drive from Lassen Volcanic National Park to Yellowstone would be at least 14 hours without including any stops, and it would take us right through the heart of Nevada. That sounds pretty exciting until you realize that “the heart of Nevada” is a dusty…
I was both nervous and excited as we packed ourselves into the smallest plane I’d ever seen. It would be the first of many flights we’d have to take to visit the eight National Parks in Alaska. But we felt confident that if we could…
The Pacific Northwest is one of the most captivating parts of the country, the way it’s shrouded and shaped by perpetual fog, rainfall, and aspiration. We came here expecting to be dazzled, and it did not disappoint. It felt like returning home -- both because…
Somehow, winter was still going strong, but so was our spirit. We were two months into our vacation, and we weren't even halfway through the parks yet. But from what we'd seen so far — underground caverns, raging oceans, curious trees, and sculpted rockface —…
In a split second, my stomach leapt into my throat as we landed hard in a pothole — KA-DUNK! I looked over at Lauren, whose mouth was agape, then grinned and flashed her a thumbs up. We both burst into laughter as we cursed the…
When we came back from our tropical trip to the National Parks in Hawai'i and American Samoa, we came face to face with a bitter winter. The inescapable cold was something we -- born and bred Floridians -- were unfamiliar with and not at all…
We left Florida bright eyed and ready for our latest adventure — visiting every US National Park on a seven-month, cross-country road trip. The route we planned would take us west first along the southern border through Texas to California, avoiding the cold, January weather.…
