Cates on Vacation

Friday: Frisco to Amarillo and Dinner at The Big Texan We hit the road from Frisco, TX to Amarillo — about a 6-hour drive. Took a lunch break somewhere along the way at Brickhouse Brew in Witchita Falls. It was okay. After checking in at the Hyatt Hotel, we met up with friends for dinner at The Big Texan Steak Ranch at 8 p.m. This iconic spot is famous for its wild west vibe and the crazy 72-ounce steak challenge. No one in our group tried the challenge, but it was a fun, touristy experience the kids enjoyed too. Definitely a Texas must-see! After a big day on the road, we called it a night. Saturday: From Texas Canyons to Colorado Caves We kicked off the day with breakfast at the Hyatt in Amarillo before hitting the road for the next leg of our trip. First stop: Palo Duro Canyon Just about 30 minutes from Amarillo, we opted for a drive-through since the hiking trails were closed due to rain the day before. While we missed out on hiking, the views did not disappoint. Known as the “Gran...

 About this Trip We took this trip for Spring Break 2025—two adults and two kids, ages 9 and 13. Overall, there wasn’t a lot of advanced planning involved beyond booking our flights, accommodations, and a rental car. We did lock in our fishing expedition a couple of weeks ahead, and if you’re planning to visit Waiʻānapanapa State Park during your drive on the Road to Hana, I’d recommend reserving your spot at least a day or two in advance. If catching the sunrise at the summit of Haleakalā is on your list, be sure to reserve that well ahead of time—like months in advance. I’d also suggest booking a luau early since, while there are plenty of options, they tend to fill up quickly. Everything else we did was super easy to book, often the day of or just a day or two before. (Oh, and we ended up skipping the sunrise at Haleakalā this time around. Next trip!) Stay & Flight We flew Southwest Airlines from Dallas on a 4-hour flight to OAK, where we had a quick connection before head...

About this Trip Eric and I flew direct to and from Boston on American Airlines. We stayed in a really cute and convenient Airbnb in the North End. After arriving, we got reloadable Charlie Cards for the "T" to make traveling around the city easy. Back Bay streets are in alphabetical order: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth. So are South Boston streets: A, B, C, D. Boston's top attractions are concentrated in several areas. The North End is rich in history and Italian culture, while Back Bay boasts stunning architecture and upscale shopping. Visitors can explore the natural beauty of Boston Common and the Charles River, visit prestigious universities like Harvard and MIT, or enjoy entertainment at the Prudential Center, TD Garden, and Fenway Park.   Day 1 For a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, we stopped at Modern Pastry on Hanover Street for cannolis—definitely worth it. After that, we spent some time wandering through Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden, checking...

Northern New Mexico (May 2024) About this Trip We took this trip right after school got out in late May. We flew Southwest Airlines into Albuquerque and stayed at a friend's casita. Since most of the activities we did were free, this was a pretty inexpensive getaway. I did purchase the Meow Wolf and Sandia peak tickets in advance, but not a lot of other advanced planning was needed.

 About this Trip We took this trip to see our California cousins over the winter break. We flew out early on New Year's Day and caught a direct flight on Southwest Airlines. Palm Springs has a TON of AirBnb and Boutique hotel options. Ours was really cute and included a pool + hot tub, a popcorn machine, a cotton candy maker, and a pool table. The kids loved it. We didn't plan very much in advance, but we should have bought our tickets to the Palm Springs tram in advance. During peak times, they sell only a limited number of tickets in advance and it was fully sold out when we went. Palm Springs Aerial Tram We were excited to ride the Palm Spring Aerial Tram . We drove up to the parking area and then took a shuttle bus up to the ticketing office. The line was out the door and, after asking a few questions, we determined that it would probably take about three hours of waiting to (maybe) get on a tram and probably another two hour wait to get back down. We didn't have that k...

About this Trip We took this road trip for Spring Break 2024 with our kids 12 and 8. Our focus was to see three national parks: Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, and Guadelupe Mountains. This was a lot of fun, and did not require advance planning outside of general logistics except: 1. Get the Carlsbad reservations in advance. 2. If you want to do the peak or Devil's Summit at Guadelupe Mountains on Spring Break, start very early in the day or there will be nowhere to park.

  About This Trip This trip involved us and our friends (4 adults, 4 kids) flying on Southwest Airlines into Milwaukee and out of Chicago. We rented a van to to accomodate our ambitious itinerary. We stayed in Door County for two nights (very nice AirBnb), Milwaukee for two nights (a really crowded Embassy Suites), and Chicago for one night. Hindsight: I would have really liked another day in Door County and could have skipped Chicago (since that's a trip all on its own, it's no place for a van, and we didn't allow enough time there). We had a great time driving along the coast of Lake Michigan though and visited places we wouldn't have otherwise.  Day 1  We arrived in MKE and drove directly to Door County. This made for a long travel day, but we wanted to be at the northernmost point of our journey and then make our way back down. Since the first day was so long, we didn't do very much in Door County on our first day except check into our  amazing AirBnb  and s...

  About this Trip We found a cheap flight on Southwest Airlines from Dallas to San Jose over a four-day school holiday with the kids. Dallas had a "heat dome summer" which is about as fun as it sounds and lasted what felt like an eternity. We thought that going to Northern California in October would be nice and cool. Ironically, it was one of the hottest weekends on record in California at 91 degrees and Dallas cooled down to a beautiful 70 degrees. All fine of course; Texans can handle heat. Our big motivator to go to San Jose was to tour the Winchester Mystery House, but San Jose is also a great home base if you want to travel into Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Francisco, or other popular surrounding areas.  We rented a Tesla for two of our 5 days on this trip and took Ubers on the days we stayed in San Jose. In hindsight, I would have liked a car the whole time. Not many places in San Jose were walkable and parking wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  We stayed at the...