50 States!

I wanted to visit all 7 continents by age 30 (and I did it!)
My (newer) goal is all 50 states by age 40 (working on it!) 

I've now been to 48 of the 50 states and this is my attempt at trying to put the states in the order in which I visited them. This might not be entirely accurate, but it's gotta be close! 

Sadly some of my first 16 states never got a blog post. Was blogging even a thing 30 years ago?? I will try and remedy that soon... 

1. Ohio (born and raised!)
   See blog here feat. Cuyahoga
   See blog here feat. Cedar Point
   
   
2. Kentucky 
   See blog here feat. Red River Gorge
   
   
3. Indiana 
   See latest blog here feat. Indiana Dunes
   
   
4. Michigan 
   No blog, but when I was little I went to Flint (Lake Fenton) for snow tubing and water tubing. If anyone has any suggestions on THE BEST of Michigan, let me know and I'll do a re-do trip and blog! 
   
   
5. Tennessee 
   No blog, but I've spent quite a lot of time in Nashville and then I've also been to Memphis, Gatlinburg, Chattanooga. I will do a blog at some point! 
   
   
6. Florida 
   No blog, but I think I've only ever been to Disney and Universal. (And visiting my grandparents in Ruskin) 
   
   
7. Virginia 
   No blog, but when I was little I went to colonial Williamsburg. If anyone has any suggestions on THE BEST of Virginia, let me know and I'll do a re-do trip and blog! 
   
   
8. Alabama 
   No blog, but I've only ever been to Huntsville where I took part in Space Camp. If anyone has any suggestions on THE BEST of Alabama, let me know and I'll do a re-do trip and blog! 
   
   
9. New York (2002, 2023, 2025)
   See blogs here and here and here from 2023 trip in NYC. And another one here from 2025. 
   
   
10. Wyoming (2002)
    No blog, but visited Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. 
    
    
11. California  (2003)
    No blog, but when I was younger. I went to Los Angeles and San Francisco.  I will do a blog at some point!
    
    
12. Illinois (2004, 2016)
    See more recent blog here feat. Chicago
    
    
13. Pennsylvania (circa 2004)
    No blog, but visited Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Shanksville
    
    
14. Alaska (2006)
    No blog, but visited Ketchikan, Sitka, Fairbanks, Anchorage,
    
    
15. Hawaii (2007)
    No blog, but visited Maui, Kauai, Big Island, Oahu 
    
    
16. Wisconsin (2010)
    No blog, but visited Wisconsin Dells.
    
    
17. Minnesota (2012)
    No blog, but went tubing on the lake and visited Mall of America. 
    
    
18. Nevada (2014)
    No blog, but visited Las Vegas
    
    
19. Arizona (2014)
    No blog, but visited the Grand Canyon and Hoover dam
    
    
20. Missouri (2016)
    See blog here feat. St. Louis
    
    
21. West Virginia (2020)
    See blog here feat. ACE adventure Park
    
    
22. Montana (2021)
    See blog here feat. Glacier National Park
    
    
23. Georgia (2021)
    See blog here feat. Atlanta, Senoia,  Lookout Mountain
    
    
24. New Mexico (2022)
    See blog here feat. Albuquerque, Santa Fe 
    
    
25. North Carolina (2022)
    See blog here feat. Asheville
    
    
26. South Carolina (2022)
    See blog here feat. Hilton Head
    
    
27. Oklahoma (2022)
    See blog here feat. Oklahoma City
    
    
28. Texas (2022)
    See blog here feat. Dallas, San Antonio 
    
    
29. North Dakota (2023)
    See blog here feat. Theodore Roosevelt National Park
    
    
30. South Dakota (2023)
    See blog here feat. Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Badlands
    
    
31. Massachusetts (2023)
    See blog here feat. Salem, Plymouth, Boston
    
    
32. Connecticut (2023)
    See blog here
    
    
33. Rhode Island (2023)
    See blog here feat. Newport Cliff walk 
    
    
34. Maryland (2024)
    See blog here and here feat. Baltimore and Ocean City
    
    
35. Delaware (2024)
    See blog here feat. Rehoboth Beach
    
    
36. Maine (2024)
    See blog here feat. Acadia National Park, Baxter State Park
    
    
37. New Hampshire (2024)
    See blog here
    
    
38. Vermont (2024)
    See blog here
    
    
39. New Jersey (2025)
    See blog here feat. Six Flags
    
    
40. Utah (2025)
    See blog here and here feat. all 5 national parks
    
    
41. Colorado (2025)
    See blog here feat. Glenwood Springs
    
    
42. Kansas (2025)
    See blog here feat. Wichita and Wamego
    
    
43. Nebraska (2025)
    See blog here feat. Lincoln and Omaha
    
    
44. Iowa (2025)
    See blog here feat. Des Moines
    
    
45. Mississippi (2026)
    See blog here feat. Jackson and Biloxi
    
    
46. Louisiana (2026)
    See blog here feat. Slidell and New Orleans
    
    
47. Idaho (2026)
    See blog here and here feat. Twin Falls 
    
    
48. Arkansas (2026)
    See blog here and here feat. Hot Springs & Little Rock
    
    BONUS: Washington D.C. See blog here and here 

Arkansas pt 2

Day 3:

As we did research for Hot Springs we found a popular breakfast spot called The Pancake Shop. We had to try it out, of course, and, thankfully, it wasn’t too crowded. I thought it was just okay, but it’s apparently really popular. 

After that we did the West Mountain Scenic Drive (which wasn’t anything special) and started a hike, but didn’t make it too far due to weather and lack of interest. 

We debated on whether or not to go the next stop, but curiosity got the best of us so we went to Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo.  You can hold baby gators and feed donkeys, goats, and emus. They have other animals there as well. As with any kind of animal attraction I’m always a little hesitant. I don’t want the animals to be neglected or abused or held in captivity for human entertainment. I talked to a couple people that worked there and they talked about how many of the gators were rescues and they get veterinary care and three meals a day. Still not sure whether I would recommend it or not, but I did love interacting with the animals !

Next stop: Entergy park is a 30 acre park on Lake Hamilton with lots of walking trails, playgrounds, places to fish, and more. It was a super nice park and we spent a lot of time walking around on the trails. 

We worked up an appetite and ate at Purple Cow which was a fun and nostalgic diner famous for their purple shakes. (It’s a vanilla shake colored purple) It was really good! 

We really didn’t need 3 full days in Hot Springs-2 days is plenty. Hot Springs does have an amusement park which I thought about going to, but they only have 4 thrill rides and I already know Ohio has the best amusement parks in the country. (Biased, I know) 

For dinner, we ate at my favorite restaurant of the trip, Rolando's. We had the sweetest waitress named Zoey! Since we had leftover food, we packed it up and gave it to a homeless man on the street. She even gave us a little extra to give away since she enjoys serving the homeless too!

PSA: when you travel and you have leftover food, ask for to go boxes and give it to any homeless people you see.  We don’t typically have that opportunity back home, but traveling in other cities or countries its a great opportunity to help out and not let the food go to waste !

Day 4:

We drove to Little Rock and our first stop was 

Little Rock Central High School national historic site. They have a visitors center and museum. It commemorates the 1957 desegregation when the “Little Rock Nine” integrated the all-white school. The school is still an active high school and was named one of the prettiest high schools in America. The museum was very well done and would highly recommend it if in Little Rock! 

We ate at Problem Child for lunch which reminded me of Jets Pizza. Then went hiking at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. We did the coachwhip trail and arboretum trails. We really enjoyed the park and afterwards we stopped at Swig (!) which you might remember from my Idaho trip. 

Big Dam Bridge was our last stop of the day. It’s actually the longest bridge in North America built specifically for pedestrians and cyclists. It’s 90 feet above the river and we could see the locks down below which was kind of cool.

We had a tiny home Airbnb which was pretty unique so we had a nice evening hanging out there. 

Day 5:

Our last day in Arkansas! 

We started our day at Old Mill. Old Mill is a famous 1933 faux-bois replica of an 1800’s water mill. It’s known for its appearance in Gone With the Wind. It was so pretty and really nice to walk around!

We ate lunch at Black Bear Diner which was funny since I just ate there a couple weeks ago in Idaho! 

Favorite parts of the trip: the bathhouse museum, Little Rock central high museum, and old mill! 

2 states to go… stayed tuned !

State 48: Arkansas

Day 1: Kelli and I made it to Arkansas! We flew into Little Rock and drove an hour-ish to Hot Springs. Since it was around lunchtime when we got there, we stopped at Delucas pizza. It was a decent meal, but nothing special. 

We then went to Garvan Woodland Gardens. It was pretty, but it was like most other botanical gardens. They did have Anthony Chapel though which was made of glass and wood. Great place to have a wedding!

Anthony Chapel

Garvan Gardens

More from the gardens 

Gardens 

Peacock at the gardens !

We decided on a German restaurant for dinner - Steinhaus Keller and then had to get dessert from Fat Bottomed Girls Cupcake Shoppe. It was delicious! You can also add ice cream to your cupcake which we did, but I think it was better without the ice cream! 

Vanilla bottom with chocolate top and chocolate ice cream!

It was a long day for the both of us- Kelli woke up at 3am and I woke up at  3:50am for our 6am flight. After dessert we walked back to our Airbnb and went to bed! 

Day 2

We started out our morning with Lake Catherine State Park. We hiked the Falls Branch Trail and saw a “waterfall” which was actually pretty small. It was a nice hike overall. 

Part of the hike

Waterfall

Big boulders 

We decided to drive to Hot Springs Village (30 min away), but when we got there we were told it was invite only! I guess it’s a golf course/country club/ private houses/ restaurants. So that was a wasted trip, but oh well.  

Got back into town and ate lunch at the Superior Bathhouse Brewery. It’s unique because it’s located in a historic bathhouse within Hot Springs National Park.  It’s the only brewery in a U.S. national park and the only one in the world to brew  with 100% natural thermal spring water. 

We then walked the Grand Promenade which is a historic, half-mile brick-paved walking trail in Hot Springs National Park. It runs behind Bathhouse Row and offers views of the thermal springs. We had actually started on this path yesterday, but didn’t see anything exciting so we got back down. I guess we needed to go just a bit further to see the springs.  It was slightly underwhelming. 

Bathhouse row 

Quapaw Baths- still operational 

Buckstaff Bathhouse - still operational 

Hot springs 

Hot springs 

The “green boxes” in Hot Springs are secure, locked covers installed by the National Park Service over most of the area's 47 thermal springs. They protect the natural, mineral-rich spring water from contamination, regulate pressure, and prevent the public from accessing dangerously hot water

We stopped in at Fordyce Bathhouse visitor center and museum. It’s free admission and self-guided tours!  The signage around the museum was interesting and we learned a lot! It was also cool seeing the inside of what the bathhouse would have looked like back in the day. 

Once we were done there we got in the car and drove up Hot Springs mountain to get to the Mountain Tower.  The tower is 216 feet and has an observation deck and a museum.

Arkansas (specifically Hot Springs) has been a little underwhelming. It definitely isnt the worst state, but it might make my list of the bottom 10 states. Some stuff (like the bathhouse museum) was interesting, but not enough that I would come to Arkansas for it.   I’ve learned some cool things though and gotten a lot of steps in AND got to hang out with one of my besties… so no complaints there! 

Stay tuned for the rest of our Arkansas journey! 

Idaho pt 2

After a good rest we were ready to begin our first full day in Idaho!

Number one priority (aside from the potato ice cream) was Shoshone Falls, nicknamed the “Niagara of the west.” It’s 212 feet tall which means it’s taller than Niagara Falls!  This surprised me because I thought it was pretty small when we were there. Then again, we viewed it from above and weren’t able to get super close to it. I also think parts of it were too dry so we didn’t see all the water flowing. (I’m probably still comparing all the falls in Iceland and Norway too.) 

We also stopped at Dierkes Lake which wasn’t too impressive. The water was cold so we didn’t even try to go for a swim. 

Next on our list was the Twin Falls Visitor Center which is on the rim of the Snake River Canyon. We could see (and walk) across the 486-ft tall Perrine Bridge and got to see some base jumpers! Evel Knievel also attempted to jump across the canyon in 1974 with a steam powered rocket. 

We ate at Black Bear Diner for lunch which had the biggest pancakes ever (!!) before heading to Ritter Island. Ritter is part of the Thousand Springs state park (same as Malad). There’s the historic Minnie Miller dairy farm and cascading falls. The historic houses on the island are even available for rent which was interesting. What was even more interesting/unusual was the hydroelectric plant which sat adjacent to the park. Not quite what I was expecting. 

Since we were close, we also scouted out Niagra Springs which was part of the same state park. It was a little confusing and we weren’t sure exactly what we were looking for, but it is what it is. 

Our last activity of the day was with AWOL at centennial park waterfront. Two of us did the tandem kayak and I did the stand up paddleboard. 

We ate at the cove of twin falls for dinner and the food was decent, but we waited a really long time for the waitress to come with the check. (And Meghan never got her drink she ordered!) 

Next and final day we went to Craters of the Moon National Monument. It’s a surreal volcanic landscape of lava flows, cinder cones, and lava tubes.  There’s a scenic loop road which we drove and did a few small hikes. I even went and explored a small cave. Dewdrop cave is a lava tube formed by flowing lava. 

Dinner was at Elevation 468 and had beautiful views! 

That’s all for Idaho! Stay tuned for Arkansas …coming soon!