Blaine Voyage

Welcome! We are an American family of four. On June 28, 2017, we embarked on a year-long round-the-world adventure.

We used this blog to chronicle our preparations and now we use it to share our adventures. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you.

So far our adventures have included:

• Hyde Park/Rhinebeck, NY (lunch at the Culinary Institute of America, and lots of FDR/Eleanor Roosevelt related stuff, plus a visit to a little Vanderbilt Mansion)
• Conway, MA including a day in the Amherst/Northampton area, and a day in the Lenox area at Tanglewood (we got a little drenched but enjoyed seeing Natalie Merchant’s show there) and the Norman Rockwell Museum
• Meriden, CT (a day exploring around my alma mater, Wesleyan University, and Fourth of July visiting with cousins in West Milford, CT)
• Mystic Aquarium and Mystic Seaport bracketed on either side of our two night stay in the Newport, RI area (also spent time exploring the Newport, RI mansions and Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, which is the oldest standing synagogue in the USA)
• Plimoth Plantation and Minuteman National Historic Park (along with brunch with our friends Debbie, Dave, Julia, and Caroline) in the Boston area
• Salem, Massachusetts for all things Salem Witch Trial related (Elizabeth’s peers at school are reading The Crucible this year)
• Bangor, Maine (visited my haunts at and around UMaine, where I did my M.A.T. degree)
• Acadia National Park (3 nights of camping and 3 days of exploring)
• Falmouth, Maine (a week at a cottage on a lake and exploring the Portland area, the Maine sea coast, the Sebago Lakes region, checking out Seeds of Peace International Camp, and visiting friends in the Oxford Hills region)
• Highgate Springs, VT (Tyler Place Family Resort)
• Colchester, VT (visiting my brother and his family)
• Albany, NY (Mike went into the office, and the kids and I enjoyed some WiFi time at Starbucks after a few weeks of limited service in Maine and Vermont)
• Cooperstown, NY for the National Baseball Hall of Fame
• Seneca Falls, NY for the Women’s Rights National Historic Park
• Niagara Falls, ONT for a couple of days of all things touristy and lunch with old friends from Tyler Place (who live in Toronto)
• London, Ontario for surprisingly good barbecue
• Ann Arbor, Michigan for dinner with an old friend of mine and her family, checking out Ann Arbor’s fairy doors, and watching the kids get a kick out of typing on an old school typewriter at a local bookstore
• Shipshewana, Indiana for the Menne-Hof education center about all things Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite, and horse powered ice cream
• Chicago, Illinois for five days of tourism, unwinding a bit at our AirBnB, and time with our special friends Candy, Kennedy, and Parker and with our special Chicago cousins
• A quick overnight in the Quad Cities, including a quick stop at Candy, Jared, Kennedy, and Parker’s house
• The Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa
• Exploring the Old Market and the Durham Museum (especially the very cool “Top Secret” temporary exhibit about spy craft) in Omaha, Nebraska
• A very boring overnight at a hotel in Sioux City, Iowa, which seemed like a desolate place, at least on a Sunday night
• the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD
• Badlands National Park (including dinner at the Wagon Wheel Bar in Interior, SD (population 67)) due to crazy thunderstorms that made our decision to camp in the Badlands area one of the sketchier decisions of our trip to date
• Minuteman Missile National Historic Site on our way to Rapid City, SD before heading to Mt. Rushmore
• Yellowstone National Park
• Glacier National Park
• Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon
• A zigzag through California
• Vegas, Baby…
• the southwestern National Parks including the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, and Petrified Forest
• Little Rock, Memphis, Vicksburg, and Jackson, Mississippi
• Louisiana and New Orleans
• Clearwater Marine Aquarium to visit Winter the Dolphin
• The coastal southern US from Florida up through Charleston, SC and to Williamsburg, Monticello, and Washington, DC
• back to New Jersey to vote for Chris Christie’s replacement, followed by Elizabeth’s Bat Mitzvah and Thanksgiving
• Hawaii (our first flight on our way to the international portion of our adventures)

The International Adventures…

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• Israel
• Europe and the UK

We look forward to sharing our journey with you.

— Sarah, Mike, Elizabeth, and Julie