With most of the world still closed down with Covid and summer fast upon us I sat down at my computer looking for our next great adventure. Once again I asked Marriott where are you going to take me?
Marriott answered in a big way. Why not drive across the beautiful land of the USA. This has always been on my bucket list and what a perfect opportunity to take advantage. So I plotted out a course from Florida all the out West and back. Drove through 22 states, stayed in 21 cities, stopped at many places and cities in between to visit historic sights or check out crazy things, for a total of 35 days and over 10,000 miles. My challenge was to only stay at Marriott brand hotels. Which we accomplished minus 4 stops. Two stops, Whitefish Montana, and Bend Oregon we stayed with friends and family. Grand Canyon we glamped ( more on that later) and while in Vegas we had to stay at Paris ( my daughter’s favorite city). I have to say Marriotts are located just about anywhere you want to be.
I loaded up the kiddos into a rented SUV, with plenty of snacks, drinks, pillows and blankets. Husband is going to fly to Montana and meet up with us for the pasific northwest portion. Things I packed for: rolls of quarters for laundry, baskets in the car for snacks, Yeti cooler for drinks and ice, large laundry bag for dirty clothes, a basket with handles for clean clothes, beach towels, a basket with compartments to store cleaning wipes, tissues, hand santizer, bag of masks, sissors, pens, paper, etc… extra phone chargers, flashlight and paper towels.
Our first stop was Atlanta at The Ritz for the night ( spoiled the kids the first night). Then off through Alabama, Mississippi to Memphis Tennesse. Along the way we stopped in Tupelo home of Elvis and walked around what used to be his childhood home and church. Very interesting stop. Stayed at the Westin Memphis and it rained the entire time, so we drove by Graceland, had fun looking at all the people standing around in the rain for a glimpse of I am not sure, it seemed like a bunch of hype more than anything. The Tupelo expeience was enough Elvis for one trip. We grabbed amazing bar-b-que to go for dinner and called it a day. Next day we set off through Arkansas on our way to Oklahoma City. I can tell you there is not much between Tennesse and Oklahoma. In fact it is amazing to me how much farm land makes up our country. We stayed the night at a Renaissance with a great little Italian restaurant around the corner.
One of the things I asked the kids to do was pick interesting place to stop on our way. Or if we saw something that looked fun we would stop and see it! One of those places was the upside Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo Texas. We stopped bought spray paint and went to the muddy pit of old upside down cadilliacs and painted our names on them. Thank goodness we had paper towels and beach towels. What a fun messy adventure.
Our stayat the Sheraton in Albuquerque was awesome. Albuquerque was such a quaint town with great history and amazing food. Green chili’s on everything! The next day we drove to Sedona. One of my favorite places in the US. I was so excited to introduce my kiddos to a place I love. I had planned for us to hike, however it was extremely hot and most hiking trails were closed. We were able to go to the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is built in the red rocks. It is breath taking beautiful. If you have the opportunity to go jump on it. Next was glamping at the Grand Canyon… Oooh I get so excited just thinking about how amazing this experience was. We stayed at Under Canvas. We had a tent with a large king bed, a twin bed, two chairs in a sitting area with woodburning stove, our own private bathroom and our own porch on the front. When I say this place is magical it really is. The staff go out of their way to make you feel welcomed. When you arrive they greet you open armed and hand you an aluminum water bottle so that you can refill while you are staying there at anytime. The property offers many places to hike, yoga in the morning, hamocks and chairs to relax in all over the property (looking out at the sunset over the mountains was my favorite part) and offer excursions in the park for an additional fee. They have a huge canvas tent that offers water, tea, coffe and hot chocolate all day, has board games, lounge areas and a cantina to buy snacks. At night everyone gathers round the big ass firepit and has dinner at multiple picnic tables, while a band is playing. You are forced ( in a wonderful way) to mingle with other campers. Then after dinner unlimited smore’s with a variety of cookies and chocolates to choose from. The best part of this stay was my kids we unplugged from their phones, ipads the whole time! Under Canvas has many locations in the US at all the Natioanl Parks and I am already looking to see when I can plan another visit. The Grand Canyon was beautiful beyond words. The upper crest was open but a large part of the park was closed. The weather out west was brutly hot and dry. Fire warnings were posted everywhere. The Native American tribal lands were also closed due to Covid restrictions, so we were not able to explore as mush as I was hoping.
Our next stop was the very chill city of Moab. We stayed at a brand new Element by Marriott which was great hotel. Our room was large with a kitchenette, sitting room with work space and two queen beds. The laundry facility was big and clean. The pool overlooked the red rock mountains. One day we went white water rafting ( had an amazing guide who was very funny and informative). We walked around the main streetand found great local restaurants. We were supposed to hike but with te extremely hot and dry weather, trails were closed. We throughly loved Moab and my kids would like to go back and spend more time there.
Salt Lake City was our next stop. My father n law used to live in Salt Lake so this place was one that was familar and felt good to be back at. My father n law passed away when my oldest was six months old, so my kiddos never got to meet this amazing man. I used our time here to show them all the places that their dad and I would go when we visited. The Marriott Downtown Salt Lake is in a great location to be able to walk to most of the city. From here we went to Idaho Falls. We loved walking around and seeing all the falls and found a great Asian restaurant. Our Hotel SpringHill Suites was perfect for walking along the river and discovering this cute town.
On our way to Montana we stopped at Yellowstone Natioanl Park to see the Old Faithfull and other smaller gysers and hot springs. I can tell you Yellowstone in the summer is more crowded than Walt Disney World. We were feeling overwhelmed by the large crowds and decide to cut our trip short. I think if the bison could have escaped they would have made a run for it!
We finally landed in WhiteFish Montana where we meet up with my husband and got to spend a week with friends enjoying one of the most beautiful spots in America. We went white water rafting and horseback riding in Glacier National Park, ate huckleberry everything, played golf, swam, went boating on the WhiteFish lake, hiked and ate delicious fresh food at some amazing restaurants. One benefit of the summertime, is that the sun doesn’t set until 10:30ish. So lots of daylight to play in!
Next we landed in Spokane, Washington and stayed at the Davenport Grand Autograph Collection. I absouletly loved this hotel. It was a refurbished old hotel with big rooms. We had a room with two kingsize beds. It was centrally located to everything in downtown by walking. There is tons to do in this town, plus a really gigantic red flyer wagon that you can climb up one end and slided down the handle. The town is very family friendly and residents are quick to talk about all the great attractions the city has to offer and where the best places are to eat.
Off to Hood River in Oregon. with a few winery stops on the way. What a blast we had in this crazy, chill little town full of young families and all sorts of outdoor exepriences ( even more vineyards). The weather was perfect. From Hood we traveled to Bend. Oh, how I loved Bend. The gas stations are full service. I really enjoyed sitting in my car while someone else attended to the gas pumping. This town is full of wonderful surprises. Craft breweries, craft coffee bars, excellent restaurants and markets, tubing on a river that runs straight through town, E-bike anywhere you want to go and the friendliest residents. Outside of town is a natioanl park with lava tubes that you can walk through and a huge lake in a crater. Our week here went too fast. I can see why people are moving here at warp speed.
Part II continues tomorrow!