PadawanOfHappiness

I am not saying that Arizona is a hole in the ground but it has a few famous ones, so that is what I nicknamed this vacation.  The ones we saw were: Meteor Crater Sunset Crater Montezuma Well The Grand Canyon The one we almost saw was lava river cave tube, technically it is open year round, but in the spring and summer months you can use a forest service road to drive to it and then you have about a 3/4 mile hike.  If the road is closed it is a 4 1/2 mile hike, it was in our plan to see at the end of April, but the road was still closed.  As we drove past the closed road we did see some random small piles of snow in Flagstaff.  I think it would have been cool (pun intended) since the cave stays between 32-44 degrees year round.  Sunset Crater, Montezuma Castle, and the Grand Canyon are all part of the National Parks system and they accept the America the Beautiful Annual Pass .  If you are going to multiple National Parks look up the individual fees, it m...

These tips are not specific to any one trip, but I have found them very helpful for family car trips.  Some of these tips I no longer use but were very helpful when the little Padawans were younger so I included them. Packing lists, they are a must, the level of detail and how cute you want to make it is up to you.  At the moment I do put down the number of shirts, shorts, underwear etc.  Each person uses it to pack their own bag, when they were younger I would review their bags before we left.  I no longer need to check it they have the system down.  You can save these so you only have to make minor edits for each vacation. One edit I made for this trip that I plan to keep is listing what goes in their duffel bag (this is what they use as their carry on, or in the car what they keep with them) and what goes in the big suitcase. Pack in clear plastic tote bins.  It is easier to see what you have as well as they are more easily stacked so you can pack a lot ...

After I gave up on the books and maps I decided to try online once again.   Back to AAA I go and let me just tell you,  I absolutely HATE the AAA website, it had me crying (ok not quite but it was seriously vexing me).  There are a lot of issues with the login handshakes as I went to the online trip tik builder etc. My mission for this online recon, was to find out about transportation, Niagara Falls attractions are largely in a State Park on the NY side, so I am sure there is some parking available but where, how much, and was it worth it or should we walk were questions to be answered.  Secondly, what was the public transportation that was available and I do love those sightseeing buses that allow you to hop on and off, was that available? I tried some more keyword combinations and finally found a site that had a lot of what I was looking for, how I didn't find this site in my original search is beyond me.  Niagara Falls USA it seems to have the ...