Welcome to a new series where I recap our visits to all 50 states! I recently completed my 50th state and thought it would be fun to look back at my time spent in each of them, including when I visited and what I did there! Today’s post will cover Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, and California.
Alabama
I started by searching my blog for Alabama, since I knew I talked about our brief trip through Alabama at some point! We drove from Florida back to Kansas in 2013. Here is the post about it! We had planned to stop at a museum, but we were there during lunch time and it was closed. We also saw the bus stop where Rosa Parks boarded the bus on the day she would not give up her seat.
I believe this was my only time in Alabama. Zachary was more recently there on his Civil Rights Trip to spots in the U.S. South.
Since I searched my blog for Alabama, I found that I have read multiple books that take place there (at least partially)! Here they are, if you are interested:
Alaska
Alaska may be the one of the hardest states to get to, so we went early – in 2002 we took a cruise of the Inside Passage, from north to south. We flew into Anchorage and took a train to the start of the cruise. It was beautiful. I blogged about it here but the pictures are watermarked by photobucket…I ended up paying $5 to rescue the photos I had stored there previously and found 1000 images I didn’t know I had – wow! Unfortunately, the Alaska photos are pretty small!
This was our one trip to Alaska. Here are some books that take place in Alaska:
Arizona
Arizona is likely the first state I visited as a baby, as my grandmother lived there. We traveled there a few times as I was growing up, and I remember my trip there in first grade. My teacher showed me where Arizona touches Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, and I wanted to go there ever since! I visited my grandmother with Dave when we were dating, after we were married with my brother, and with each of my kids as babies.
With Gabbie (2nd picture is in Sedona)
When Zachary was a baby and another trip when the kids were 4 and 2
When Simon was a baby
While my grandmother lived in Scottsdale, we also have been to Tuscon and the Grand Canyon. We were most recently in Arizona in 2019 when we drove from Vegas to Utah.
And I got to go to the place where the four states touch!
Books that take place in Arizona:
Arkansas
The first time I was in Arkansas was in 2011. We went to Branson, which is in Missouri, and we drove just across the border so I could say I’d been there. But in 2018 we took a trip to Bentonville, AR, which was our official visit there, since we stayed overnight! There are some fun museums to visit in Bentonville including the Crystal Bridges Art Museum, the Walmart Museum, and the Amazeum.
We may have driven in Arkansas other times but this was our only actual trip there! Here is a book that takes place at least partially in Arkansas:
California
My first time in California was during college, when Dave and I went to visit my grandmother and also drove from there to San Diego and L.A. In 2006, Dave, Gabbie, and I drove from San Francisco to San Diego. We went to Palm Springs and Disneyland in 2009. All of us besides Zachary went to San Diego in 2017 – Zachary was at camp. And just last month, we went to San Francisco again. I don’t think I have pictures from that first trip, but you can read about the one when Gabbie was a year old here.
And of course, our recent trip can be found here! There are tons of books set in California…let’s see if I can find a few!
So, have you been to any of these 5 states?