Our History
As a child, Megan would often take family vacations to national parks across the country. Ryan, on the other hand, usually stayed a bit more local, taking short weekend excursions within his home state of Maryland. When they met in college, Ryan had only been on a plane once, and that was part of a high school extracurricular trip. In their junior year of college, they both had an amazing opportunity to study abroad at a university in Australia. At one point in their semester away from home, Ryan was asked about the United States: What is the Grand Canyon like? Is it windy in Chicago? Do they really eat crayfish in Louisiana? Although he had a chance to travel throughout the land down under, Ryan had no real experience in his own country. Thus, he and Megan set a goal of visiting all 50 states before having kids. After getting married in 2006, they completed this goal with a cruise to Alaska with their entire immediate family in 2009.
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In 2011, Alex was born, and a new goal was set: To bring him along for all the adventures, and yes, re-do the quest to visit all 50 states with their son. About halfway through the journey, Katie was born in 2014, and, of course, the counter was reset to zero. With a lot of flights, hotels, and many miles on rental cars (plus a ton of patience from everyone involved), the family of four completed the journey to 50 in 2020 with a final stop in West Virginia. But the adventures still continue!
How We Do It
One of the most common questions we get asked is: How do you do it? Or, in another sense, how can you afford to do this? Don't you have career, educational, and financial obligations? Well, yes. However, with the right amount of prioritization and a lot of luck, patience, and flexibility, we've been blessed to be able to travel as much as we do! When it comes to work, Megan and Ryan both have full-time jobs that offer enough flexibility to take off a few weeks during the year (or at least several long weekends). And both kids are enrolled in full-time elementary school, but there are enough teacher professional days and federal holidays that bump up against weekends that allow for a few trips during the school year. As for cost, we have built up enough points through past travels and credit card offers that we've never had to pay for any flights for the kids. We are also highly cognizant of what constitutes a "good deal", and most of our travel is based upon value - not so much where we want to go. We also prioritize spending on travel, so designer clothes, nice furniture, and fancy meals are not part of our lifestyle. Once we reach our destination, most of our entertainment is free, typically through programs like the national park annual pass and the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) passport program. In other words, we set a goal for ourselves and made it happen! Don't let anything stop you!
Our Bucket List
This is a list of the travel-related goals that we have in the coming years. Once these are finished, who knows; perhaps we'll expand to other countries and continents!
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Visit all 50 states in the United States (COMPLETE): A "visit" requires touching feet to soil and participating in some activity within the state.
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Visit all 50 state capitols: A "visit" requires physically entering the capitol building and getting a stamp from the visitor center. This has proved a bit more difficult in a post-COVID world!
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Visit all 5 US territories: A "visit" requires touching feet to soil and participating in some activity within American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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Visit all 423 national park sites: A "visit" requires entering the boundary of the park or its affiliated site(s) and acquiring a national park passport stamp (except Hohokam Pima National Monument).
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