All 50 States

All,

I have a goal in my life to visit all 50 states at least once. It seems to be a family goal...one that my dad reached about 2 years ago when we traveled to his 50th state: North Dakota. When we moved out here, we kind of took the long way around just to go to North Dakota.

I have been to 41 of the states. I'm still missing 9...but I have Hawaii and Alaska. I hear those are one of the hardest to get, although North Dakota seems to be hard to. Good thing I have all 3 of those. I have been to every state west of the Mississippi and now a whole lot of them east of the river too. I'm sure you want to know but I thought I'd make a list of all the states and how I remember going to them. The ones in capital letters I don't have yet.

ALABAMA
Alaska: Honeymoon
Arizona: Trip to visit Sarah, a friend, in high school when she moved there. It was 119 degrees...we cooked an egg on the sidewalk!
ARKANSAS
California: Been there many times but the earliest I remember is my grandpa driving us out there to visit Great Aunt Dorothy and her house with a pool.
Colorado: Born there!
Connecticut: Family trip to New York and Boston...we drove all over getting states and postcards.
Delaware: See last post.
Florida: I think I was about 8 years old and we went to Disneyworld. Andrew and I flew on the plan by ourselves and met Dad at the airport. Our hotel had a great pool with water slides and Dad did a belly dance at the Moroccan Cafe.
Georgia: Layover on our way to England
Hawaii: My senior trip. We went on a cruise...it was great!
Idaho: I spent 2 years of college in this state. Not many people like it...I love it!
Illinois: Drive through to move out here.
Indiana: Ditto.
IOWA
Kansas: Drove through to get to Mt. Rushmore when Andrew and I were small. Lots of bugs in the car.
Kentucky: Layover coming back from England.
LOUISIANA
Maine: Drive to when we were visiting Boston. We only spent a few minutes in the state but I would love to see more.
Maryland: Area of current residence, hence the name of this blog.
Massachusetts: Trip to Boston where we toured the harbor, got to pretend to throw tea into the sea. Fun.
Michigan: Detour to Michigan when we were driving out here. Everyone wanted to see it so we cut across the bottom instead of just going across Indiana and Ohio.
Minnesota: Drive through to get out here. Very muggy.
MISSISSIPPI
Missouri: I'm not sure where I got Missouri but my list says I have it so...
Montana: Yellowstone National Park. Need I say more?
Nebraska: The other state we drove through to get to Mt. Rushmore when we were small. Again, lots of bugs.
Nevada: I have been to this state many times...driving through to California or visiting Las Vegas.
New Hampshire: We drove through this state for about 30 seconds on our way to see Maine.
New Jersey: This is where our hotel was when we went to New York for the first time.
New Mexico: We drove through this state to get to Texas to spend Thanksgiving with Uncle Dave and Aunt Shelly when I was about 8 or 9. I lost a tooth at their house.
New York: A trip there with my family. We saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway.
NORTH CAROLINA
North Dakota: See above paragraph.
Ohio: Drove through to get here.
Oklahoma: I believe we drove through this state on our way home from Texas to visit family...am I right?
Oregon: Grandpa took us through Oregon on our way to British Columbia, Canada. I went with Nana, Aunt Lisa and Caitlin. A fun trip!
Pennsylvania: Drove through it while we visited New York, on our way out here, and Juice and I visited friends Tanya and Derek when they lived in Hershey.
Rhode Island: We have a lot of drive through states...this happens to be one of them.
SOUTH CAROLINA
South Dakota: Our first trip to Mt. Rushmore when Andrew and I were little. Our second trip to Mt. Rushmore when we drove out here.
TENNESSEE
Texas: Visit to Dave and Shelly Parker
Utah: Lived there for 8 years...I think.
VERMONT
Virginia: Lived there for 8 months.
Washington: First visit was to Uncle Vernon on our way to British Columbia. He had a beautiful appaloosa horse that he let me ride.
West Virginia: We went there for our anniversary trip last year. And we took Mom and Dad there to see the leaves when they came last year as well. Great syrup!
Wisconsin: We stayed a night there with my friend Amy and her husband Shane on our trip out here. We had a great time!
Wyoming: Flat, boring and hot. Enough said.

I have a plan to go to the southern states when we move back west in a few years. Juice has been to 25 states (way to go Juice!) and little Butterfly has been to 3 (born in Virginia, lives in Maryland, now been to Delaware).

So Andrew...how many do you have? ;)

Until next time,
Safire