A Labor Day Weekend Look Back: Summer Filled with Travel for The Vacation Gals

This summer has been a whirlwind of wonderful travel for all three of The Vacation Gals — and honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Whether we’re vacationing with friends, our spouses, each other (!) or our kids, we love to explore new places and enjoy new experiences all over the United States and beyond.

Outside the wine cave at Failla Wines in St. Helena.

Here’s a look back at where we went from Memorial Day to Labor Day this year:

May ended with a bang for ColoradoGal Kara with Memorial Day Weekend trip to Napa Valley. In tow were here husband and two other couples. They ate, drank, and ate and drank their way through several great area restaurants (Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and Bottega were highlights) and scenic wineries. They rented a house in Napa and hired a driver for behind the wheel of their rental van — both economical and convenient moves. Sometimes it’s just so fabulous to leave the kids behind and reconnect with your significant other — and good friends.

Kara barely had time to unpack and repack before hopping on a plane with her family in June to Minneapolis for the start of their crazy with a capital C mystery road trip through the United States. The brainchild of the clever folks at Country Inns & Suites and their marketing partners, the 1K Country Adventure took the Williams family — and two other families — from Minnesota to Texas, through seven states total, in 7 days. And Kara blogged about their adventures all along the way!

Mother Nature in all her splendor on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

June also brought Kara’s annual trip back East, to Lake Winnipesaukee, for plenty of swimming, kayaking, boat rides, and fun at the local mini golf courses, batting cages and boardwalk arcades in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Soon after arriving, she promptly dropped her kids with their Grammie to hop on a plane and meet up with SoCalGal Jen (and a couple other travel bloggers) at the TBEX conference in New York City. We both absolutely loved meeting so many of our online friends in person, and all of The Vacation Gals look forward to attending TBEX 11 in Vancouver next June.

Awesome Alaska excursion: a helicopter landing on a glacier. Once in lifetime experience!

While Kara and Jen were in the big city, TwinCitiesGal Beth was finishing up her stupendous trip with Princess Cruises as a #FollowMeAtSea participant. Beth and a handful of other travel bloggers Tweeted their way through a cruise-tour; that is, they spent four days on land, exploring the interior of Alaska, and then hopped on a cruise ship to sail through Alaska’s Inside Passage. Beth calls this a trip of a lifetime; her pictures sure are phenomenal.

Not to be outdone by Beth, Jen and her husband went on their own trip to Alaska’s Inside Passage in July. But instead of a large cruise ship, they went on a much smaller ship — one from Fantasy Cruises that holds only 32 passengers and a nine-person crew. On such an intimate vessel, you can really get up close and personal with Alaska’s amazing wildlife and natural wonders, as Jen’s videos of brown bears, whales and calving glaciers can attest!

Rooting for the home team, the California Angels.

Meanwhile, in mid-July, Kara and her family spent a phenomenal long weekend in Colorado Springs, Colorado at her beloved luxury resort, The Broadmoor. They experienced many of Colorado Springs’ great attractions for families, including the Cave of the Winds, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, and slightly further afield the Royal Gorge Bridge. Jen was also a “tourist in her own backyard,” taking her daughters to Disneyland and to a Major League Baseball game, all part of a fabulous package from the Hyatt Regency Orange County.

Right at the tail end of July, Jen flew to Seattle to meet up with not only the Family Truckster, piloted by two HomeAway “Truckies,” but also to see some of our travel-blogging friends in the pretty Emerald City. She had a ball getting the inside scoop on favorite local attractions and eateries.

August brought a trip to Salt Lake City for Kara, to attend the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, to cover new products for Practical Travel Gear. She also took her family to Vail so her kids could participate in the first-annual Vail Kids’ Adventure Race. And rounding out her family’s August adventures: Alaska! Yep, all three of The Vacation Gals enjoyed cruises in Southeast Alaska this summer. Kara, her husband, her two children and her mother and mother-in-law all cruised the Inside Passage with Holland America Line. Combined with a short stay in Seattle and a night in Vancouver, this was a vacation they’ll never forget.

Maid of the Mist and Niagara Falls.

No stranger to road trips, Beth packed up her family to drive from their Minnesota home to New York City toward the end of August (alas, they missed Jen and her family, who were also in New York City, by just one day). Along the way, and on their return, the Blairs visited Buffalo, Lake Placid, Niagara Falls, and Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Whew, it’s exhausting  just reading about all of our travels this summer! And it’s not over yet: this weekend Kara and her crew are driving a couple of hours to the ski resort mountain town of Breckenridge, to ride the awesome new Alpine Coaster at the Peak 8 Fun Park and to check out the brand-new slopeside lodging One Ski Hill Place.

Of course, the end of summer doesn’t mark the end of our travels. Destinations on our calendars include North Carolina, Florida and Utah, just to name a few spots we’re heading to later this month. We also regularly visit resorts and roadside attractions in our own backyards of Southern California, the Colorado Rockies and the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

As we note on our About Us page, we truly walk the walk in regard to travel, especially when it comes to vacationing with our own families. And we sure look forward to sharing more of our firsthand adventures with you. Thanks for being such enthusiastic readers and supporters of The Vacation Gals.