The Disastrous Conclusion of our West Coast National Parks Trip (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents the FINAL installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Those of you who are long time readers may remember that, on our first day out on this West Coast National Parks trip, the transmission on our GMC Sierra failed, necessitating the purchase of a new 2017 truck over the phone with our local dealer and a quick trip back home to drop off the old truck (still under warranty!) and pick up the new one.  Luckily, we were just one day from home and this grand fiasco cost us only two days out of our five and a half week trip.  Well, go big or go home.  Why not bookend the trip with equally disastrous catastrophes to make it especially memorable?

The M&M Trip - Minnesota and Michigan

This is the first post in a series documenting a two week trip to the states of Minnesota and Michigan back in the summer of 2015.  Alan had already escaped the workforce, but I was still working full time, so we had to be content with an expedition that would fit within my two weeks of vacation.  Our son Ryan was working full time and had aged out of traveling with us on a regular basis.  Our daughter, Kyra, was 16 and out of school on summer vacation, so she joined us on a whirlwind tour of these two states.

How do you pick a vacation destination?  Do you follow a tradition that has been in your family for generations and go to a beloved cabin in the mountains or cottage by the sea?  Do you have a prioritized list of future vacation spots and just go down the list in order?  Do you base vacations on the location of family members or friends you wish to visit across the country or around the globe?  Do you tape a map to the wall and throw a dart at it?