Galveston Railroad Museum, Galveston, Texas

Located in the former Sante Fe Union Station is the Galveston Railroad Museum with rail cars from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are opulent private cars, passenger cars, mail cars and of course, the caboose. Inside the museum building are the artifacts of the golden age of rail. In the depot you can imagine the conversation among the life-like ghosts of travelers past while they wait for the train.

Ocean Star Drilling Museum, Galveston, Texas

The Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum. The retired jackup drilling rig has a video about the offshore industry and features three floors of models and interactive displays illustrating the story of offshore oil and gas from seismic technology to exploration platforms, actual drill bits and remotely operated vehicles (ROV) as well as videos and exhibits explain drilling, geology, seismic, well servicing and production.

Kemah Boardwalk, Houston, Texas

Located just 20 miles from downtown Houston, the Kemah Boardwalk has become the perfect family getaway. There are festivals and concerts; you can watch the shrimp boats, sailboats and pleasure craft as they cruise through the channel. It is home to many different restaurants as well as amusements for children and adults. Boardwalk Bullet is the coolest coaster on the coast - 96' tall wooden roller coaster; 92-foot vertical drop; travels at speeds of more than 50 mph (it was not running when we were there, but I doubt if we would have rode it anyway). Ellie really enjoyed riding the Merry-go-round and train. It is only a few miles away from our son's house in Clear Lake, so it was a perfect spot to spend the afternoon.

Stone Mountain, Georgia

We have been at our house in Stone Mountain, Georgia for a couple of weeks now.  The girls have really enjoyed their freedom and our walks around the lake.  It is so nice not having them on a leash when walking them and they get to run and get some good exercise.  The only thing better would have been me not having a sprained ankle as I had to walk gingerly around the sticks and pine cones that lay all over the ground.  We walked around Harry's lake every morning and evening while the ducks swam around the lake following us.  Sometimes Jemima would join us and even walked the rail to get to the island as the boards are no longer there to walk to the island. 

Kentucky Bourbon Trail ~ May to December 2012

We enjoyed traveling to the different bourbon distilleries in Kentucky on our way to Minnesota and while we were in Kentucky working for Amazon. Our first stop was Bardstown in May where we visited Heaven Hill. We should have stopped at Jim Beam as it was next on the trail north, but for some reason we just did not stop. Bardstown was a great little town to visit and I would have liked to go again just to walk around the town. We did not finish the trail until we were on our way back to Kentucky where we stopped at Woodford Reserve in Versailles. Drove this small winding road towing the trailer - Jim was not happy about that and did not enjoy it at all. To top it off, there was no parking for RV's and we had to maneuver our way into a parking lot, only to miss the last tour of the day.