Travel Agent

Ian with most of the employees at Joyful Petcare

Years ago, the earliest I would begin planning a vacation would be about one year in advance. Once I had the goal for our family to visit all fifty states, I started sketching out possible future vacations much farther in advance. In 2021, we had our longest vacation (25 days), and I tweaked the plans for that vacation many times over a few years. A month ago, I only had planned out two more trips for the future - one to four of the eastern provinces of Canada for August 2026 and a short trip to Quebec that I was thinking we'd take in August 2027. Over the past month, I've sketched out some more trips to possibly take in the coming years. If these trips actually happen, we will have visited all ten Canadian provinces and visited at least one National Park site in all fifty states. At the moment, the kids have only been to Ontario, and we've been to an NPS site in forty-five states (plus DC) so far. If we visit the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin, City of Rocks in Idaho, Little River Canyon in Alabama, Lake Mead in Nevada, and Indiana Dunes National Park, we will achieve the goal of visiting an NPS site in all fifty states. These plans also include almost all of the national park sites that caught my attention while I was listening to the Dear Bob and Sue books. I *think* the only two national parks that aren't included in these plans that I had hoped we could visit together sometime are Big Bend in Texas and Glacier in Montana. I went to Glacier with my family decades ago, but I don't think I've ever been to Big Bend.

I think that for most members of our family, a ten-day vacation is the ideal length. With that in mind, I have come up with several vacations, five of which are about ten days long. These are listed in no particular order, as I'm not even sure which of these we might go on next year. Ian and Paul's first choice includes Michigan. Nadia's first choice is Western Canada, and Oliver's first choice includes Utah. If there's a chance Nadia will join us for a vacation next summer, I'll probably have to wait longer than usual to plan the trip, as I need a better idea of what she'll be doing next summer. For quite a few years we've been going on a trip in May, and many times we've gone on another one in August or September. If we end up picking Michigan and Western Canada for our trips next year, I don't think we would go in May because the insects are really bad in the Upper Peninsula in May and June, and some of the lakes are still frozen in British Columbia and Alberta. Time will tell. Ian's request for several years has been to go to Japan in 2028. I'm still not sure about that.

Years ago, I used to take the kids on about 80 field trips a year. That number has drastically decreased for a variety of reasons such as having more weekly commitments (co-op, art at MCS, piano lessons), there are more programs available for elementary students than high schoolers, the naturalist at R.B. Winter state park retired, and we've now visited many different sites in Pennsylvania. That doesn't mean we've been to every possible field trip site in the state. The Harley Davidson tour has been closed in York ever since COVID. I keep hoping that one will reopen as my students enjoyed going there decades ago. I didn't take the kids prior to 2020 because I was waiting for Oliver to be old enough to participate in the tour. Two state parks have been on the back on my mind - Kinzua and Sinnemahoning. I could have made it a goal to visit every state park in Pennsylvania, but I've not done that. I think I've only taken the kids to seven state parks (Black Moshannan, Bald Eagle, R.B. Winter, Ricketts Glen, Nescopeck, Milton, and Leonard Harrison). Not counting places we will visit on vacation, I only have four field trips planned so far for the 2026-27 school year - Army Expo in Carlisle on September 12, Elk Country Visitor Center on September 24, Kinzua Bridge State Park on September 25, and seeing a performance of Treasure Island in Lewisburg on October 11. I am particularly excited about hopefully seeing the herd of wild elk during mating season. I booked one night at an Airbnb so that we could go to a viewing area at dusk one night and at dawn the next morning. That is something I've wanted to do for quite a few years, and I'm happy I finally made a reservation (which greatly increases the odds it will actually take place). 

Ian, Ben, John, Randy, Julia, Leila, and Nadia in an individual round

1. Western Canada - Granville Island, Stanley Park, Vancouver Aquarium. Capilano Suspension Bridge, Butchart Gardens, Pacific Rim National Park, Wild Pacific Trail, Cathedral Grove, Peak 2 Peak Gondola, Banff Gondola, Yoho National Park, Columbia Icefields Skywalk, Mistaya Canyon, Emerald Lake, Moraine Lake, Abraham Lake, Maligne Lake, Peyto Lake, and Lake Louise- flying and renting a vehicle

2. Michigan - Sleeping Bear Dunes, Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Picture Rocks, Apostle Islands, Perry's Victory (OH), Milwaukee, Chicago, and Indiana Dunes (if we wanted to visit Isle Royale National Park, this would be the trip to do it, but I'm leaning against including it at the moment) - driving in our vehicle

3. South Dakota/Saskatchewan/Manitoba - Hy-Wire Zipline, Tunnels of Moose Jaw, Stone Hall Castle, Mount Rushmore (again), Crazy Horse, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park, Minuteman Missile, Badlands (again), and Falls Park  - flying and renting a vehicle

4. Quebec (less than a week) - Watkins Glen, Women's Rights, Harriet Tubman, Parliament buildings in Ottowa, Byward Market, Canadian War Museum, Rideau Canal, white water rafting and zipline tour in Quebec, La Citadelle, Plains of Abraham, Terrass Dufferin, Montmorency Falls, Montreal Botanical Garden, Saint Joseph's Oratory, Mount Royal Park, Notre Dame Basilica, Utica Zoo, and Fort Stanwix - driving in our car 

5. California - Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks - flying and renting a vehicle

6. Utah - Las Vegas, Death Valley National Park, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Valley of Fire State Park, Grand Staircase Escalante, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, and City of Rocks National Reserve - flying and renting a vehicle with 4WD

7. If the Nationals for Bible quizzing are held in South Carolina in 2027 or 2028, I'd like to visit these places either before or after the quizzing - Billy Graham Library, Biltmore Estate, Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, and Little River Canyon National Preserve - driving in our car