The 1824 built Airbnb house pictured above (with Murray and the girls in the foreground setting out for a day exploring), is where we stayed in Chester, Vermont. Such a classic American beauty! I’ve always wanted to stay in a grand house like this (and yes, we had it all to ourselves). One of the highlights of the house was playing hide and seek with the kids. The house had a basement (very foreign to us in Australia), and two separate attics accessed through trapdoors and hidden staircases. Something I’ve only ever read about in Famous Five novels!
Airbnb is often a good option for our larger family, being more affordable than the two motel or hotel rooms we usually need. This was definitely the case when we were travelling in Europe, but not so much in the States as their rules allowed for us all to bunk down in the one cheap motel room (usually including breakfast). The rooms usually had two double beds and a pull out sofa bed for us all to share. We just got away with this due to the ages of our children at the time, but as they grow older, it won’t be quite as feasible. Another great thing about Airbnb is that apart from the space to spread out, and the chance to cook for yourself, it enables you to experience living like a local.
By the time we got to Chester we were a little road weary after covering some big distances in a relatively short period of time. We made the decision to park up the car and spend the day relaxing by watching a movie at the house and by exploring the cute little town of Chester on foot. There was some amazing architecture (as pictured above) to gawk at. Walking downtown from our house was a lot of fun, however our outing coincided with torrential rain. In spite of that, we were undeterred and walked about for half a day becoming completely drenched. Water was sloshing out of our shoes with every step! I’m sure the locals thought we were kind of mad and the shopkeepers probably didn’t appreciate the little puddles we left on their floors. It took several days to dry out all our shoes afterwards and I did have a niggling thought that maybe I was an irresponsible parent when my seven year old was splashed by a passing truck and fell over in a huge puddle as we were running along the pavement! Nevertheless we continued!
We found a great little “made from scratch” restaurant downtown and had a lovely lunch. The owner was kind enough to gift us with some jars of produce made by local farmers that we were able to bring home as souvenirs. There was a huge antique mall (with very reasonable prices) to browse through, as well as a pie shop where we bought a huge apple pie to eat after dinner at our Airbnb house. I’d been dying to try one of the pies the Americans are famous for and it didn’t disappoint!
There’s an interesting graveyard to poke around right in the centre of town, with some graves from the civil war and a public tomb built in 1850. This was for use when the ground was frozen solid in winter, and you had to wait for the big thaw to be buried!
It was nice to take a break from driving long distances, even if just for the day. All too soon we were back on the road again, heading this time for Maine. Before we left Vermont we made a quick pit stop at a nearby village for a maple creemee – a delicious soft serve ice cream made with locally farmed maple syrup. It was totally delectable and is something the kids still speak reverently about or try to recreate by mixing up maple syrup with their ice cream!
Do you have any fond food travel memories? Do you prefer Airbnb or hotels/motels when you travel?
This amazing natural phenomenon was not high on our list of must sees, but since it is so famous and we were going right past we included it on our itinerary. The falls are incredible and very beautiful, but equally as amazing is the fact that huge high-rise buildings are built almost literally around the edges of the falls. Most of our waterfalls in Australia are tucked away in remote and reasonably inaccessible national parks, so to visit here with all its urban infrastructure was quite eye-opening. We chose to stay on the Canadian side as the views of the falls are better and it was fun to visit another country, even if for only one day!
This is the breathtaking view from our hotel, which we booked solely for the views. The reviews of all the affordable hotels with fall views were disappointing, mainly due to being constantly crowded with huge queues for the elevators and the included breakfast. This was certainly our experience, but it was a small price to pay for the luxury of being able to see the falls from your bed! They are spectacularly lit up with fireworks every night at 10pm throughout the summer.
It’s unanimous! The whole family agreed that visiting this island in Lake Huron, Michigan (which is so big, it’s like an inland sea), was the highlight of our trip. I was inspired to visit here by reading a post on Mackinac Island by 
There is an eight mile circuit road around the island which is incredibly fun to cycle. The weather was quite overcast and rainy on the days we visited, but even this did nothing to dampen our enjoyment. The girls and I completed two circuits, we loved it so much! There are also very intriguing roads going off through the heavily wooded interior of the island. The boys went off exploring here on a mission to find the skull cave in the afternoon. There is nothing quite like the freedom of riding a bike with the wind in your hair (something we’ve largely lost in Australia due to our draconian bicycle helmet laws). Heck, you don’t even need to wear a helmet to ride a motorcycle in the US!
It was a dream come true to visit Mount Rushmore and it did not disappoint. I was amazed by the scale of it and the likeness to the four presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln). The Americans have a real reverence for their past presidents that is both touching and quite foreign to us as Australians. I was also inspired by the vision and nerve to take on a project like this and succeed.
We also visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is still a work in progress and when finished will depict the Sioux leader on his horse pointing to the horizon saying “My lands are where my dead lay buried”. The memorial is a moving tribute to the Native Americans’ dreams and plans for their land and their country prior to colonisation. Dreams which now will be difficult to realise.
As we were driving through the Black Hills a very loud flash flood warning sounded on all of our devices simultaneously and was repeated at five minute intervals. It was so loud it sounded like it was coming from a loudspeaker! This was very alarming as we had no idea how we should react to the warning. Should we stop the car or keep driving and where would we go? Not knowing what else to do we kept driving, except when the hail became so heavy we had to pull over!
The hail was so heavy and fell so fast that it looked like snow lying around everywhere. We were very glad we didn’t wash away in our car and managed to get back to our base in Rapid City safely!
After leaving Kansas City we headed northwest en route to Mount Rushmore. When my husband and I compiled our “must see” lists before deciding on our itinerary for the trip, Mount Rushmore came out on top.
Our last stop for the day was Wall Drug. When I first heard the name, I was really puzzled. What was this place – somewhere you could see drugs stashed in a wall, as some kind of peculiar and offbeat tourist attraction? It turns out that Wall is the name of the town and Drug is short for drug store (what we would call a chemist in Australia). Who would have known? Anyway, Wall Drug came well recommended by the guide books and did not disappoint. It was actually one of my husband’s favourite places on the whole trip. It’s a bizarre collection of outlandish and somewhat tacky, larger than life entertainment as well as a large shopping mall with a western theme. Somehow, it all works to create an enjoyable and fascinating experience. It’s also a good place to buy cowboy boots and other souvenirs.
Since arriving back home my kids have been inspired to read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Did you grow up reading the Little House books? Who was your favourite character?
