Before our world tour I get to drive cross country with my daughter! 2 Weeks from NJ to CA! Follow our adventures here!
First Stop Richmond, VA
Stayed at the Linden Row Inn in downtown. Very cute, old building. Super good service, very friendly staff. Dinner was at Tarrant’s Cafe Downtown. Wonderful She Crab Soup! Middle of a heat wave so didn’t get to walk around too much. Stopped at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, very interesting history of his life and a few cool artifacts, like a piece of his hair and his engagement ring! Also, lots of theories on his death! Strange but interesting place, very pretty courtyard area. Then stopped at St. John’s Church, the site of Patrick Henry’s famous speech, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!” A great place to stop on July 4th! Celebrations unfortunately, were cancelled due to extreme heat and potential thunderstorms.
Second Stop Charleston, SC
Charleston, SC was a beautiful stop from the famous Rainbow Row to White Point Garden the architecture was amazing. We also enjoyed walking around the City Market with many wonderful artisan stalls to shop (some inside with A/C!), highly recommend coming to visit anytime EXCEPT summer. The heat and humidity were not conducive to walking and it’s a very walkable town! We stayed at the very lovely Indigo Inn – highly recommend, a lovely happy hour, cookies and milk before bed and a light breakfast are all included! We had a very good dinner at Church and Union Charleston which is in a converted historic church on Market St. the building/atmosphere is beautiful!
A Quick Stop in Savannah, GA
A quick stop in Savannah, GA for lunch and a little walk around. The Cathedral was amazing! The trees with the hanging moss are amazing to see. Was also fun to revisit The Pirate House for lunch! A place we used to go when I was a kid! Only slightly changed – great place to bring kids!
Third Stop Atlanta, GA
Just a quick overnight in Atlanta, no time to see anything, had to get out before the World Cup game traffic!
Jackson, MS
Jackson, MS probably not a place I’d go again. We drove by the capital and passed the Medgar Evers house on the way out. City was mostly empty and felt a little run down although our hotel was very nice and the people were lovely. Best part of the stop was visiting family that we hadn’t seen in a while! Had a fabulous dinner at Cock of the Walk in Ridgeland, MS. Tried fried catfish, fried chicken, fried pickles, hushpuppies, fabulous coleslaw, pot-o-greens (turnip) and skillet bread (corn bread).
New Orleans, LA
Two fabulous days in New Orleans!
Day 1
Fabulous hotel – Hotel Mazarin, highly recommended. Had lunch at the Vampire Apothecary Restaurant and Bar – great atmosphere, ok food, cool cocktail. Walked around the French Quarter – amazing art galleries. Then Preservation Hall for an amazing New Orleans Jazz concert! Spectacular dinner at Curio Bistro, shrimp & grits to die for!
Day 2
Swamp tour in the morning, walked around seeing the sights then a lunch of shrimp Po-Boys and chargrilled oysters at Royal House Oyster Bar. Amazing! Snack at Cafe Du Monde, had to have beignets! Dinner of Seafood Gumbo and Blackened Gulf Redfish at 3rd Block Depot.
On our way to Shreveport, LA we had to see where Ryleigh’s favorite condiment is made! Avery Island!
Quick overnight in Shreveport then off to Abilene, TX
Abilene Texas, the storybook capital of America – who knew? A small park had a bunch of statues from Dr. Seuss books, including my favorite – Green Eggs & Ham! A very quiet but potentially cute town looks like they are adding in a bunch of new stores downtown and fixing up a cute old movie theatre.
Roswell, NM
Ah Roswell, what to say? It was an experience! From the UFO shaped McDonald’s to the International UFO Museum and then the UFO Spacewalk, Roswell is all about the aliens! We did get to do a virtual reality of landing on the moon as well! Also drove out to see Bottomless Lakes State Park which was beautiful. Afterwards we stopped at a nice “earth-bound” dinner at Farley’s for some tex-mex and pizza!
The Journey to Tucson, AZ
We had a lot of fun driving to Tucson. First, we stopped at a pistachio farm, had to pick up a bag of extra hot pistachios! Then we stopped at White Sands National Park – very cool, different landscape to explore. After that we hit Tombstone, I remember this being an interesting place to visit the first time I went there so wanted to show Ry but like many other places this trip it was slightly run down and not many people around. not sure if this just isn’t the time to visit the south & southwest but lots of closed businesses in many of the towns we have passed. Very sad.
Tucson, AZ
Tucson was a very cool city with a lot to do. Started out with a great breakfast at First Watch. We didn’t have much time to explore but were able to stop at Saguaro National Park for a very HOT walk! Ended the day with a good dinner at North Italia!
Los Angeles, CA
Last driving day! Off to LA to meet Zach! Long drive with not much between Tucson and LA.
WE MADE IT! East coast to West coast in just under 2 weeks! Now we will fly back tomorrow taking only about 6 hours and get some much-needed rest in GRB! Next adventure will be in Acadia National Park – check back in a couple of weeks!
traveling with J&D 