Wait. Don't you live in Minnesota?
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Yep. It's true, this one fails our "never been there" test, but we've actually explored a really small percentage of our home state together. We both traveled around a decent amount when we were young with our families, but we haven't even been to Duluth together yet. I've actually been kind of avoiding Duluth because I went there after graduating college for a long weekend by myself and it was bo-ring! I've been told by everyone and their mother (and MY mother) that it's actually really fun and pretty so I think I just need to check it out again with another human being.
We'd also like to get farther up north and try dog sledding. Brandon has been dying to experience it ever since reading Winterdance and I almost surprised him with it one year for our anniversary and then I decided I didn't want to be freezing so we went to South Carolina and Georgia instead. I'm slowing warming up to the idea of bundling up, though, so it's back on the list.
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It's kind of amazing to me that we've never been to North Dakota as a couple. I mean, it's not exactly the most alluring destination, but it's right there!
We've done a lot of traveling this year. After our anniversary trip to the south, our road trip to see the Great American Eclipse, and our trip to visit my dad in Florida, I'm a little wary of gearing up for a big trip again. Usually a big part of the fun for me is the planning and, as we head into the holidays and come off of several trips this year, I think it might end up being more stressful than enjoyable.
That being said, we have really loved doing some sort of travel over our anniversary so even though I don't necessarily want to plan a multi-state trip for January, a fun, long weekend to a nearby state could be just the ticket.
I've done a little research so far and there's a surprising amount of places I'd be interested in seeing in North Dakota and I wouldn't be surprised if, like it's sister South Dakota, it blew my socks off!
Brandon and I have both been in Michigan at the same time and place, but it was before we were married and it was kind of an awful time for both of us so I'm looking forward to creating some new, good memories there as a couple.
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While we're usually go-go-go on our travels, reserving a cabin in the winter with a fireplace in a beautiful, remote location does sound wonderfully romantic and relaxing. The hardest decisions all day would be choosing between Netflix and a good book, and which one of us was going to get up to get the snacks this time. Sounds nice, huh?
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With the long drive time, it's a little more of an ambitious destination for a long weekend, though, and I've read that Michigan winters are only second worst to Minnesota. My favorite winter outdoor activity is going inside where it's warm so it would probably be a strictly indoor trip. Well, unless I can use the next three months to psych myself up for some sledding or something.
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A couple of weeks ago we were about to put money down on plans to travel to Memphis for a conference in early April when we discovered that the conference wasn't what we were expecting after all. By that time, though, we had already done quite of bit of research into what we wanted to see while we were in Tennessee and the neighboring state of Arkansas. We had also been tentatively planning on postponing our customary anniversary trip in January (or just doing something smaller) to make it work in April. As I mentioned above, we've been busy in 2017 checking five states off our list so, conference or no conference, the idea of holding off on a big trip sounded pretty attractive (which is when you know you're getting burnt out since we are usually all about exploring something new).
Even though we were starting to get excited about seeing these two states and adjusting to the idea of waiting until a little further into the year to do a bigger trip, it would have meant that we would be out of town for Easter and it would have lead right up to a really busy time at work for me. Not going to the conference will allow us to pick the time that works best for us and it will also free us up to have more time to explore (which might even mean hitting Missouri and/or Kentucky too!).
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All of that is to say that we have a great trip semi-planned to Arkansas and Tennessee. If we don't move forward with those plans sometime in the spring we'll be back to the drawing board. Stay tuned for updates!
Possible plans for Spring 2018...
In the running for January 2018...
