Our Summer Travels have taken us to Vermont where we're visiting our friends with a maple farm. But, just an hour south of their home in a town called Waterbury is a strip of road called Enticement Alley. All around this area you're sure to find lots of tasty treats. Let's go for a visit!
It's time for another yummy taste test!
I sometimes get asked where I come up with my different taste test ideas. Taste test ideas can come from pretty much anywhere. Friends, advertisements, or just walking down the aisles of the grocery store. This particular one came as a result of NOT being able to find something that I was always used to buying.
Every once in a while, I like to make a night-time snack of garlic cheddar biscuits. I'm used to seeing the $1 bag of Betty Crocker drop biscuit mix, but for some reason, couldn't find it in the grocery store. Instead I was seeing this new Pillsbury bag. And then another more expensive option of Red Lobster biscuits. Hmm.
Today is another travel day and this time we're going some place really special! Way back in our first year of RVing in New Hampshire, we met Jake and Pauline Couture. I was still new to driving the RV and the campsite we were visiting was very wooded. I was having a hard time getting the RV backed into the campsite and Jake offered to help out. I was very thankful and baked them a fresh loaf of bread to say thank you. They then invited us to come visit them at their maple farm and dairy in Northern Vermont. It's one of our favorite memories of RVing.
Well, wouldn't you know it, we're traveling in the North East and we saw that they are part of the Harvest Host program, where RVers can come park on their property. Let's go visit the Coutures!
Today is another travel day and it's time to head further into New York up to Lake George! Just a 5 hour travel day, so nothing too exciting.
Continuing on with the 2nd half of my birthday trip where we all visited Canada!
Today is a special day! It's my birthday and we're celebrating by doing something special! Time to visit a whole nother country! (I did a quick write-up of this previously, but this is the extended version).
It's just a day until my birthday, and the kids were wondering what I might like as a gift for it. Hmm. Well, as we drove to our RV site, I noticed the exit also pointed to a Six Flags park nearby. I do like roller coasters... So, the night before, I signed myself, Ian, and Alli up for a monthly membership to Six Flags! For just $8 a month (minimum 12 months), we can visit ANY Six Flags Park! Looks like if you go to a more popular Six Flags (New Jersey for instance), it's $10/mo.
This summer trip just got a little more interesting!
It's another travel day today as we head further east and move on to our next destination for the summer. Can you tell where it is?
If you search for "Cinnamon Toast Crunch" on this site, you'll find dozens of different CTC products that we've tried. Well Cinnamon Toast Crunch isn't done innovating and yet again we're getting to try something new!
Today we get to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch Waffle Cereal!
We've done a lot of traveling over the last 2 months, flying to Colorado, California, and Washington, but now that we're back in Michigan, it's time to grab the RV and finish up our long 2024 Summer Trip.
It's time to celebrate Ian and Alli's half birthday! Theresa and I like to do this every year whenever we're nearby a lot of family and friends. We're celebrating a little bit late this year (for it to be exactly a half birthday, but whatever). And since we're near a Chuck E Cheese, why not head there to celebrate!
Ask anyone what the roller coaster capital of the world is and you'll get one consistent answer. Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio!
Colorado, it's been fun, but it's time to jump on a plane and head back to Michigan! We've got a lot more summer traveling to do!
It's time for another taste test! Today we're trying AriZona Fruit Snack Gummies! We've previously tried a whole bunch of their different AriZona Tea drinks, but didn't care for any of them too much. Let's see if these gummies can do better!
Today we're going to try all 10 flavors of Toostie Roll Frooties chewy candies!
Please don't confuse these with Tootsie Roll Fruit Chews, it's something totally different. The kids actually did a Tootsie Roll Fruit Chews taste test back in 2020 when they found all the flavors in their Halloween candy bags. The flavors for that were Cherry, Orange, Lemon, Lime, Vanilla, and Chocolate.
But Tootsie Rolls Frooties are something completely different!
Starbursts are pretty high up there when it comes to our favorite candies. And there's so many different things that try to capture that amazing Starburst flavor. We have certainly tried a lot of them. From Starburst Yogurt, Starburst Gum, Starburst Gelatin, Starburst Fruit By The Foot, Starburst Strawberry Sorbet Bars, Starburst Powdered Drink Mix, Freeze-Dried Starbursts, another Starburst Gelatin, Starburst Airs and Starburst Gummies, and even Starburst Cotton Candy. I'm surprised they haven't attempted a Starburst Cereal yet.
Today we get to try yet another entry into the Starburst flavor universe. From the Talking Rain Beverage Company, now we have Sparkling Ice Starburst sparkling water!
While visiting Colorado, Gram wanted to do something really special with the kids. A tea party!
You know, I didn't used to like hard pretzels. Those hard, overly dry, mostly tasteless, alternative to chips. But all that changed when I tried my first Dots Pretzel. Whoa! These are different! They aren't hard at all. Plus they've got a delicious seasoning to them! These I like!
Well, luckily for me, not only do they have the regular Original flavor, but there's 3 others too! We got together with our friends Alfredo, Nicole, and Jacob to try all of them and give our thoughts! Nicole had asked if we could do a savory taste test instead of a sweet one, like we usually do and this sounded perfect!
Any time I have a Mountain Dew taste test, I like to try it with my brother Patrick who just loves all things Mountain Dew. Today we have 3 different flavors to sample.
It's been a really fun time in Washington visiting my brother and his family, but now it's time to start heading Eastward. When T was looking for flights to get back to Michigan, the best thing she found had us connecting in Denver. Well, if we're going to be in Colorado, why not just spend a few more days with family there before heading on to Michigan?
It's Summer-Time and it's the year of the Summer Olympics! We love watching all the different Olympics sports and we cheer loud when we see the Red White and Blue of the United States! Our favorites are Beach Volleyball, Gymnastics, but we've found some new interesting sports too, like Bouldering and Speed Climbing!
Also this summer, right around July 4th, Mountain Dew came out with 3 new flavors that are colored Red, White, and Blue. Sounds like something any red-blooded American should be drinking while watching the Olympics to me!
Visiting my brother and his family in Washington this summer. Washington is has such beautiful forests and mountains. There's great hiking and my brother found a really fun one for us!
Time to continue our travel, this time to Washington to visit my brother Jon, his wife Jess, and their family!
Jumping ahead just a little bit in our summer travels to July. We're in Buffalo New York to see Niagara Falls! And it's my birthday! To celebrate, we're headed over to the Canadian side! I'll have a more detailed write-up later, but wanted to get this one out.
Time for our next stop on the trip! San Francisco!
When Theresa was looking at flights up to Washington from San Diego, there was nothing direct. They all had at least 2 legs. In her research, the Hyatt at the San Francisco airport is supposed to have an excellent Club Lounge. The flight times worked out really well for us too, so off to San Francisco we flew!
It's been 2 weeks of keeping ourselves very busy in Southern California with the Pasadena Chalk Festival, visiting friends, playing volleyball, and everything else. Now it's time to relax for a few days and take it a little bit slower. Theresa had the perfect option. A Hyatt hotel on the waterfront in San Diego! And the best part of it, they have a lounge!
Last year, we visited Japan for a few weeks seeing lots of amazing things. When T asked Alli what her favorite part of everything was, she was told "The hotel lounge with all the free food!" Well we don't have to travel international for that. We can do that right here!
The kids really like Pokemon. Theresa and I like Disney. We thought it would be fun to do a chalk mural mashup of what it might look like if the characters from Pokemon visited Disneyland!
This was our mural for the 2024 Pasadena Chalk Festival held June 22 and 23 at the Pasadena Convention Center.
I had two different cameras running time-lapse photos during the chalk festival, and this video is the result of 9792 photos taken across 2 different days. I normally try to set up so there's no shadows in the shot, but it was a losing battle this year. A light pole (that I used to hold my time-lapse cameras) was throwing a shadow right from the get-go. And so you'll see shadows, umbrellas, bumped cameras, and everything else in the timelapse. Enjoy!
Well it's time to leave Colorado and head to the sunny state of California! Dad dropped us off at the airport and away we went!
The 2024 Pasadena Chalk Festival is mostly about the chalk on the ground, but did you know there's a way to take home some artwork too? All the artists are requested to provide a 1'x1' painting for the Lightbringer Project to auction off to raise money to support the different programs they have throughout the year. See if you can match the chalk artist with their painting!
I have to start with this painting by my friend Charlotte. She posted a couple pictures while she was working on it, and it was just stunning to see.
The Pasadena Chalk Festival was a blast, and we were just one of hundreds of other artists drawing murals. Here's a page showcasing many of them. Very picture heavy post this time with minimal commenting from me.
Ruston's first year chalking alone turned out great!
Our friend Jamie Leake always does something humorous. He said this was inspired by conversations with his son.
Time to continue our summer adventure and fly to Colorado! We're leaving the RV in Michigan and traveling the next couple months by plane! When we looked at the cost of fuel and campgrounds, it made more sense to fly and rent a car/hotel once we arrived.
When we last left off from our 2024 Summer road trip, we had just left the Sauerbeck Drive-In Movie Theater where we stayed the night and were driving to Michigan. Now we're in Michigan with family for the next couple weeks!
The first opportunity she could, Grammy made her famous chicken nuggets for the kids.
Time for Day 2 of our Pasadena Chalk Festival Adventure!
It's Day 1 of the Pasadena Chalk Festival and we're all super excited to be drawing together as a family!
When we were trying to decide what to do, the kids deferred to me, saying "you always do Disney, so we should do something you like. Like Hercules." While I do love Hercules, I think we should do something that we all like. We thought on it a little more, and I don't know who it was that ultimately suggested the Pokemon and Disney collaboration, but when we heard it, we knew it was a great idea!
What would it be like if the Pokemon gang went to Disneyland and all dressed up! We started imagining what characters would go, which costumes each would wear, and all sorts of fun idea. Some haven't been implemented in the final design, but we'll see what kind of time we have when we're done.
"What about hidden Mickey Dittos! We'll call them Middos!"
"We could have Rayquaza dressed as Tinker Bell and flying over the castle!"
Whew! Some wild ideas, but let's start on Day 1.
It's the day before the Pasadena Chalk Festival, and we've got nothing to do until later tonight! Our day is our own!
To start our day, we made our way to the Colorado Street Bridge.
It's almost time for the 2024 Pasadena Chalk Festival! It's coming up this weekend, but on Thursday there's a couple important things going on. We've got to pick our spot and later tonight is the artists dinner! Sweet!
Come out to the Pasadena Chalk Festival this weekend to see us and hundreds of other artists! We’re going to do a mural with a combination of Disney and Pokémon! Pikachu is just going to be a small part of it! There’s lots of characters planned!
All the artists are asked to donate a 1’x1’ painting to be auctioned off to benefit the Lightbringer Project.
It's Father's Day and I sure am lucky to be the dad of these two awesome kids. They certainly make life a lot of fun! They both made me cards to celebrate my special day!
Happy Father's Day! We're currently in Colorado which means I get to spend Father's Day with my Dad! And one of his favorite things to do happens to be hiking the Manitou Incline. Let's go!
