Trip Summary

OK, I have been a slacker on blogging.  Adjusting to regular life was a challenge.  We came back to ridiculously hot temperatures, flower beds that were out of control, a filthy car, an empty refrigerator, swim team, end of school madness, etc.  And, Dave and I are trying to get the most out of his last few days of freedom.  We've had a couple dates, played a little tennis, and did some minor projects.  I'm pretty much just not worrying about getting back on track until Dave goes back to work and school ends.  Then, we can get back to some kind of normalcy.  Right now, I'm just taking it day by day and trying to enjoy things without worrying about tomorrow.

But, that means very little gets done, including the blog.  All 3 of the older kids did a presentation in class about their trip.  Rachel needed to talk about science and social studies so the teachers could grade in those subjects.  Alex and Zack just needed to do something informative.  We spent all weekend working on these projects.  I had the kids put together some charts and numbers about our trip for the class.  These are all interesting, so I'll share here.

First, the map of where we went...

Here are some slides from the presentations:

This slides shows which states we spent the night in.  We just counted that way for an easy way to figure it out.  We hit Ohio both on the way out and the way in.  It was definitely one of the favorite states - a visit with good friends and Cedar Point.  How can you go wrong?

We kept track of where we ate everywhere along the trip.  I counted sandwiches in the car at the National Parks as homemade, even though it hardly seems homemade since we bought it in the morning and then threw them together standing beside the car.  But, that seemed the best category.  I think it kind of threw off our statistics, though.

Of the fast food places we ate at, here are the ones that we ate at more than once.  McDonald's was a big winner due both to it's prevalence and it's breakfast variety.  Chick-fil-A was affected by the lack of restaurants nationwide.  We searched for one often, only to be disappointed.  I really looked forward to eating out on this trip, but I have to say that so many times we were forced to eat somewhere sub-par only because there were no other choices.

Based on asking the whole family, I would say the top places were Ape Cave, Cedar Point, and the parks in Utah.  People ask me, but I can't really pick.  I loved it all.  It was full of so many different things to do.  If you ever get the chance, I totally recommend this kind of trip.