Trains, Planes, and Automobiles...

..is the theme of our recent adventure across the southeast. Many people have asked how we came up with such a trip...and to be honest, it was quite simple. We had a list of things we wanted to do and we just connected the dots. Jason and I have never ridden on a train before. Therefore, we've been anxious to take a train ride somewhere/anywhere! We have also had a love affair with Asheville, NC. We've read so much about it and have been wanting to go ideally when the fall foliage is at it's best. I grew up visiting the mountains of NC and have always enjoyed hiking those mountains and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. A few weeks ago, we also got inspired by Jon Stewart to attend the Rally To Restore Sanity. I wasn't sold on going to a rally in Washington DC with two small children, but Jason insisted it would be fun. With that being a goal, and some of our other lingering desires, we set aside 10 days to make the best of our experience. We seriously started talking about it late one night, and by 1am in the morning, we had made 90% of our reservations. We first thought we were going to rent an RV to get to our destinations (Asheville and DC). But after time, we decided a train ride could perfectly fit into this plan, therefore knocking it off our bucket list! However, a train there and back, we thought, may have been too much. So, we decided on a one-way train ride as close to Asheville as possible. We also had to consider our pets. So, to make the trip work, we needed help from our family back in LA. Jason's parents willingly helped us by watching our pets. However, this meant we needed to start our great adventure, not from Pensacola, but from Covington, LA so we could drop the pets off first. So, the train was scheduled from Slidell, LA to Greenville, SC. We figured we would rent a car from Greenville and drive to Asheville, stopping along the way wherever our hearts desired. We allowed ourselves one full day, two night in Asheville. From Asheville, we planned to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway for as long as we could take the slow speeds and twisty roads, working our way to Virginia. We didn't book a hotel for that night because we didn't know where our drive would bring us by the time we were ready to get out of the car (we figured somewhere near Roanoke though). The next day would lead us to the Washington DC area. We planned to return the car on that day...so anything that couldn't be accessed by the Metro, would be visited that day before turning in the car. The last 4 days of the trip we planned on depending solely on the Metro...so we had to find a reasonably priced hotel on or near a Metro station. At first we thought we'd rent a car and drive the WHOLE way back to Pensacola...but then we realized we'd be without our car we brought to Louisiana...and without our pets. Luckily we found very good airfare on Southwest from BWI to MSY (New Orleans). The next few weeks were spent filling in as many blanks as possible. We also read stories to the boys about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and Lincoln Memorial. I printed out coloring pages of the monuments around DC for the boys to color on the train. Who knew learning could be SO FUN! :) As I get organized with the pictures, I'll post on the blog about our trip!