Mareu Life: Phil & Bailey On The Road

Ewing Park was kind of blowing my mind with it’s fallness yesterday. 

My favorite shots so far.

We get this question all the time. we should probably print out business cards with our schedule on them so we don’t have to repeat ourselves!

Looking at the big picture, our schedule has been shaped by weddings we’re attending this year and next year. 

When we first started planning this trip, we knew we would be hitting the road on August 1 as our lease ended July 31. I also knew we would need to be in Kansas City on October 3rd as one of my best college friends was getting married!. 

Initially, from August 1 until October 3rd we could travel to Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and back to KC. This is just laughable now. Phil knew we would need to stay longer at each stop and I’m glad I listened to him. There’s no way we would have covered so many miles in 9 weeks. 

We knew we wanted to go north in August/September to avoid the late summer heat of the lower midwest (I am not a nice person 90+ degrees + 90% humidity.) I have family in Iowa and Phil has family in Minnesota so that set our course for Des Moines, Minneapolis, Duluth and Grand Marais. After getting our things in order at Clinton Lake and finally leaving Lawrence, we spent a week in Des Moines, a week just north of Minneapolis, a week in Duluth and once we arrived in Grand Marais, decided another week was a must. 

We headed back south mid-September spending just under a week in Ham Lake in Minneapolis area, about 10 days in Des Moines again and headed to Kansas City where we stayed in the middle of Merriam, about a mile from Ikea!

At the beginning of October, I spent a few days getting ready to get my friend Becca married!

We then headed to central Kansas to spend time with Phil’s family. Once we leave the midwest (in late November) we won’t see family for  6+ months (unless they meet us on the road somewhere! wink;)wink) so it has been nice getting some time in with both our families in Des Moines, IA and Bushton, KS. 

We are back in Lawrence now (because October in this area is beautiful!) and have Phil’s cousin’s wedding in Minneapolis the weekend of the 6th (which is also my birthday!) Don’t worry: we will be staying in a hotel, not the camper, while in Minnesota. 

We’ll come back down to KC and I’ll fly to visit my friend Michelle in Florida the 11th through 17th. Phil will hang out in KC/Lawrence area. 

After taking care of final things, we’ll head to Phil’s mom’s house in Central Kansas and that will be our jumping off spot! (Like the pioneers leaving Independence on the Oregon Trail!)

We’ll be traveling through New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. We’ll be in Seattle by May 28th for our friends’ wedding!

I will then likely fly to Iowa that week so I can attend my cousin’s wedding in Iowa the NEXT weekend. I will fly back to Seattle and Phil and I will likely plan on spending the summer months (through at least August) in the mountains. 

And then? Your guess is as good as ours. 

Do you have recommendations for things to do, see, eat, drink in NM, AZ, CA, OR or WA? LET US HEAR ‘EM!