State Summit Streak

I recently learned that a distant family member has accomplished a pretty cool thing - reach the highest point in all 50 states. We're going to try it, too, and off to a good start. We've already done 3 states in the last month. I'm not sure I'll get to all of the other 47 in my lifetime but I'm going to try.

Our first state was Georgia -

Brasstown Bald - June 5, 2010.

We tackled the next two states last week on our 'TNC' vacation.

The first half of the vacation was spent in North Carolina. We left early in the morning and made our way to Mount Mitchell, the highest point in NC and "the highest point east of the Mississippi River". It was about a 5 hour drive and a lot of it was on a long, winding mountain road... which got Addison carsick for the first time. We heard a strange sound coming from the backseat, Michele turned to see what it was to find Addison in mid-hurl. She quickly reached her hands out to catch as much of the, you know, but it still got on her dress, blanket and carseat.

We pulled over to clean up as much as we could:

We also spent a day of the trip hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail known as the Roan Highlands. It was beautiful, challenging and fun. Addison has taken to hiking better than Sullivan. He isn't old enough yet to grasp the effect hiking and being in the mountains has on the rest of our family, he just thinks it's a really long walk.


The second half of the vacation was spent in Tennessee where we trekked to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Volunteer State.

Clingman's Dome

There are lots of pictures from our trip HERE.


We won't be able to keep up the pace of three states per month but maybe a couple each year and we can plan to do several during one trip. In a decade or so, I will have hopefully conditioned myself and the kids enough to attempt the really big ones like Mt. Hood & Mt. McKinley - yikes.


The summer is going pretty well. It's been great having Michele off to watch the kids during the day so I can have more time. She goes back to school in a couple of weeks - full time! Michele had been working part-time for the last few years but this year Addison is going to preschool a couple days a week and we're going to hire a nanny to come a few hours a day to help watch the kids so I can start working on things that have been put off for too long.

Finally, Sullivan will turn 2 years old on Saturday, the 10th. The little guy is talking a lot and getting bigger, he and Addison are wearing the same size shoes.

That's all for now, hope everyone is having a great summer.