Itinerary

Where Have We Been?

Where Are We Going?

How much fun would a trip around the states be if we knew exactly where we were going? So we don't. But we do have a basic framework..

	Left on June 26th from Huntington Bay, New York
	Arrived in Seattle on July 16th to meet up with Carol (Mark's wife), Ann (Paul's wife) and daughter Maddy
	On July 30th, Carol, Ann and Maddy caught their flights home Los Angeles
	Paul and Jackson flew home from Albuquerque on August 4th. Mark's brother Gene flew into Albuquerque on the same day to join the excursion
	The Cronins pulled into Ocean City on August 12th for Paddy and Jamie to join their cousins at the beach, with Mark making it home to Long Island later that day

Along the way, we visited Cooperstown, Niagara Falls, Cleveland, Cedar Point Park, Chicago, Minneapolis, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Seattle, Portland, the Redwood Forests, San Francisco, Disneyland Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Amarillo, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Shenandoah National Park....

Want more detail? Here's our complete itinerary...

Day	Date	Stopover	Points of Interest
1	Tuesday, June 26	Cooperstown, NY	Hall of Fame, Ommegang Brewery, swimming at Beaver Valley Campground
2	Wednesday, June 27	Niagara Falls	Frog pond, beaver pond, the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, Niagara Falls (Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, movie, plenty of walking)
3	Thursday, June 28	Cleveland	Niagara Falls: swimming in the hotel pool, Cave Behind the Falls) visit Tom and Sharon in Cleveland, tour Cleveland, hang out at the Flats
4	Friday, June 29	Cleveland	More with Tom and Sharon, Cedar Point park and the Indians-Royals game at Jacobs Field
5	Saturday, June 30	Chicago	Nice talk with Sharon, swim in the hotel pool, walk Chicago, great dinner at Dick's Last Resort, fireworks on the water
6	Sunday, July 1	Chicago	Taste of Chicago, Shed Aquarium, Planetarium, Swimming, blues in the park, Gino's Pizza
7	Monday, July 2	Chicago	Coin shop, long bicycle trip (35 miles), Wrigley Field, Museum of Science and Industry, DisneyQuest, Navy Pier
8	Tuesday, July 3	Minneapolis	Chicago Museum of Natural History, Art Institute of Chicago, the Fermilab particle accelerator, crossing the Mississippi as we arrive in Minneapolis
9	Wednesday, July 4	Minneapolis	Hotel swim, Mall of America, Walker Sculpture Garden, Raptor Center Demonstration, Fourth of July Street Fair and Fireworks, late night dessert at the Loon Cafe
10	Thursday, July 5	Badlands National Park	Drove 526 miles from Minneapolis to Badlands National Park, stops for breakfast at Emma Krumbee's in Belle Plain, Mn., and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D.
11	Friday, July 6	Badlands National Park	Hiking the badlands, visiting Wall Drug, tracking prairie dogs, bison, mule deer, rattlesnakes, prong-horned antelope, camping out
12	Saturday, July 7	Mount Rushmore	Great lighting in the Badlands, more hiking in the Badlands, prairie dogs, drive through the Black Hills, visit Mount Rushmore, hotel pool
13	Sunday, July 8	Deadwood, S.D.	Mount Rushmore caves, visit Custer State Park, watch bison herds, antelope, prairie dogs, wild burros, examine forest fire damage, Crazy Horse memorial, hotel swim, dine in Deadwood
14	Monday, July 9	Cody, Wyoming	Leave Deadwood, S.D., tour Big Horn National Forest, View Shell Falls, arrive in Cody, group workout and run, swim and good Mexican dinner
15	Tuesday, July 10	Yellowstone	Tour the Lamar Valley, spot our first bear, bison, osprey, elk, see the Tower Falls, catch a ranger presentation
16	Wednesday, July 11	Yellowstone	Six mile hike up Mt. Washburn, toured the Mud Volcano area and traipsed around the north end of Lake Yellowstone, saw more bears and ended he night with another Ranger presentation
17	Thursday, July 12	Yellowstone	Hiked five miles along the Wapati Trail and the south Rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, again toured the Mud Volcano area, many wildlife sightings, a Ranger presentation and middle of the night star gazing
18	Friday, July 13	Yellowstone	Hiked three miles around Lake Yellowstone, hiked the West Thumb Thermal Area, hiked the Old Faithful Geyser area, a Ranger presentation, more star gazing
19	Saturday, July 14	Idaho Falls	Hiked towards the Mammoth Springs Beaver Ponds, then hiked the Mammoth Springs area, toured the northwest part of the park, dinner at a Drive In in Ashton, Idaho, swimming in the hotel pool
20	Sunday, July 15	Idaho Falls	The Blazer broke down so we swam in the pool, went to Craters on the Moon National Monument, visited the first nuclear power plant and went to the movies
21	Monday, July 16	Seattle	Drive from Idaho Falls to Seattle to meet Annie, Maddy and Carol. 800 miles in 11 hours. A terrific experience
22	Tuesday, July 17	Seattle	Pike Street Market, Mariner's game at SafeCo field, running along the waterfront, Pike Brew Pub, big dinner, walking the City
23	Wednesday, July 18	Seattle	More Pike Street Market, bike rides, the government locks, the Science Center, the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, the Pyramid Ale House
24	Thursday, July 19	Portland	Pike Street Market, Chittenden Locks, Mount Saint Helens, Portland Hotel swim, dinner with Paul and Ann's friends
25	Friday, July 20	Portland	Big breakfast at the hotel, hiking in the near tropical forest above the City, wandering Powell's books checking out the Sand Castle building contest in Pioneer Square, the Portland Building by Michael Graves, wandering the City streets, Paul and Ann and children went off to friends for dinner, the Cronin gang wondered the streets, visited the Bridgeport Brew Pub and we're ready to head out for dinner
26	Saturday, July 21	Reedsport, Oregon	Portland Open Market, drive the Oregon Coast, lunch in New Port, scale the peak at Cape Perpetua, visit the sea lion caves, hike to the beach at the Dunes for sunset, wind up at Ray's Pizzeria for late night dinner in Reedsport
27	Sunday, July 22	Eureka, California	Drive the rest of the Oregon Coast, then drive through the Redwood forests and hike the trails (about a 3 mile hike that took 2 hours), spot some Elk, then drive to Eureka for a swim, a run and a great dinner
28	Monday, July 23	San Francisco	The two families split up this morning in Eureka. The Niles drove to Forest Knolls to stay with Megan, a friend of Ann's. The Cronins toured some more redwoods, this time in Humboldt State ark, then spent the balance of the day driving California 1 along the coast, stopping for lunch in Mendocino. Now it's off to our first night in SF.
29	Tuesday, July 24	San Francisco	Walk along the waterfront, explore the Exploratorium, wander the Marina District, roam Haight-Ashbury, walk back to the hotel via the Civic District, shopping district, financial district, Chinatown, City Light Books, and North Beach. The Niles family went to the Mint, found it closed, then hit Chinatown for dinner, walked around Fisherman's Pier then back to Megan's.
30	Wednesday, July 25	San Francisco	The Cronins spent the day on a bicycle trip along the waterfront and coast, around Golden Gate Park and then across Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito with a ferry ride back. We had dinner at a French Bistro, then a trolley ride back for a late night dessert and after dinner drink. The Niles were headed for the national seashore with Megan.
31	Thursday, July 26	San Francisco	The Cronins wandered the City again, up through North Beach, and into the Financial District for great dim sum at Yank Sing, then over to Yerba Buena Gardens and the Museum of Modern Art and a trip to the Metreon (an "urban entertainment center"), back along the Embarcadero and a stop at Pier 39 for a peek at the sea lions, followed by dinner at a seafood restaurant. The Niles clan went hiking north of the City (we'll get more details later).
32	Friday, July 27	San Simeon	Last minute good-byes to San Francisco: The Niles visited the Tea Gardens, the Cronins drove the crooked street and toured the Fillmore and Haight districts, then we both drove Route 1 to Monterey for an extended stop at the Monterey Aquarium (very cool), followed by lunch and a drive down Route 1 past Big Sur to San Simeon.
33	Saturday, July 28	Anaheim	Drove from San Simeon (spotted the wild zebras) to Anaheim, then went to Disneyland from 6 p.m. till closing at midnight. Hit all the rides we wanted, including Space Mountain, Star Tours, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, It's a Small World, the Matterhorn, Indian Jones, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, and the Haunted House. Finished with a 1 a.m. dinner at Denny's
34	Sunday, July 29	Anaheim	California Adventure by 10:30: Soaring Over California, Grizzly Rapids, Malibu Boomer, Jumping Jellyfish, 3-d Muppets, California Screamin', lunch at House of Blues, then back to Disneyland to re-ride the favorites, including multiple trips on Splash Mountain and running past the security guard for the last ride on Space Mountain
35	Monday, July 30	Las Vegas at the MGM Grand	After a big breakfast and shopping at Downtown Disney, we bid farewell to Carol, Ann and Maddy who left from LAX. We spent three hours at a PEP Boys while the car received some preventive maintenance, then drove to Vegas. We spent the night at the MGM Grand, checking out the strip, eating at the ESPN Zone in the New York, New York Hotel
36	Tuesday, July 31	Kingman, Arizona	We walked the strip, checkout the sights, rode the roller coaster, put some money on the Red Sox, Yankees, Giants and Jets to win titles, then drove out to Lake Mead and took at tour of the Hoover Dam, before driving across more of the desert and stopping in Kingman on Route 66.
37	Wednesday, August 1	Grand Canyon	Drove to the Grand Canyon, walked part of the South Rim, hiked down into the canyon, caught a Ranger Show on Tall Tales of the Canyon and ate more national park cafeteria food.
38	Thursday, August 2	Grand Canyon	More hiking and touring the Grand Canyon along the Canyon Rim, a beautiful sunset and a big steak dinner in town.
39	Friday, August 3	Albuquerque	Last tour of the Grand Canyon, drove through Flagstaff, stopped at Meteor Crater, lunch in Winslow, Arizona, then onto the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, winding up in Albuquerque.
40	Saturday, August 4	Amarillo	Picked up Gene from the airport, dropped Jackson and Paul off at the airport, then headed East for the last surge homeward. Stopped in Tucumcari and at the Cadillac Ranch before pulling into Amarillo where we wound up the night with a swim and a big barbecue feed.
41	Sunday, August 5	Van Buren, Arkansas	A stop at the Helium Memorial opened the day before our big drive, stopped at Groom, Tx to visit the largest Cross in the western hemisphere, a life size stations of the cross and odd copy of the Shroud of Turin, pulled into Elk City, OK for a tour of the Route 66 Museum before making a drive into Arkansas where we found a hotel in Van Buren. We spent a brief bit of time in Van Buren and Fort Smith.
42	Monday, August 6	Memphis	Drive to Little Rock, checked out the Riverside park, the Food Mart, a neat pub - The Flying Saucer - and the Old State House Museum complete with the Spence Brothers' Diary Exhibit and the Bill Clinton Exhibit. Then drove to Memphis. We walked around the Beale Street area, dining on good ribs and listening to music.
43	Tuesday, August 7	Memphis	Spent the morning and early afternoon at Graceland, then caught lunch at Elvis' Restaurant on Beale Street. Spent the rest of the afternoon at the Center for Southern Folklore (including the very cool Elvis Impersonator Shrine and the Johnny Cash artwork that we brought home), then onto the Museum of Rock and Soul. We had dinner at the Rendezvous, best ribs of the trip
44	Wednesday, August 8	Nashville	We started in Memphis at the National Civil Rights Museum, followed by lunch, then a tour of the Gibson Guitar Factory and a drive over to Sun Records. We didn't leave until 4:30, when we drove to Nashville, ate dinner and walked around the "District."
45	Thursday, August 9	Nashville	Spent the day walking the City, checking out honky tonks and Ernest Tubb's Record Store plus a lengthy visit at the Country Music Hall of Fame, which included a live performance by the songwriter Buzz Cason plus a pedal steel demo by Opry musician Bob Kramer. We spent the evening at a riverside concert with Stoic Oak and Robert Earl Keen, very cool.
46	Friday, August 10	Blacksburg, Va.	Mark went for a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, long time home to the Grand Old Opry, while the others swam. We then drove to Blacksburg, Va. covering the rest of Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.
47	Saturday, August 11	Baltimore	We spent the day in Shenandoah National Park, taking two moderate hikes, one up to a peak, the second down to Dark Hollow Falls. We then had dinner with Greg, Mark's brother, in Reston, Virginia, before dropping Gene off at the BWI parking lot and bedding down for our last night on the road in a hotel in White Marsh, Maryland.
48	Sunday, August 12	Ocean City, N.J. and Long Island	Delivered Paddy and Jamie to Ocean City with their grandparents (Carol's folks) around 1 p.m. picked up Carol for the drive home, arrived home at Huntington Bay around 7:30 p.m.