Visiting one’s backyard can be provide an afternoon of fun for little or no money. After celebrating my father’s 80th birthday in Rome, GA, we spent a couple of hours walking around town. Rome is built where the Etowah and the Oostanaula rivers meet forming the Coosa River. It is also built on seven hills which inspired the settlers to name it Rome. While still a small city (36,000+ in 2017), Rome has a number of historical places to visit, a cute downtown area and nicely developed area to walk by the river and hosts Berry College which has a beautiful campus. I will share pictures of the campus on…

The last activity on our weekend in Alabama was an outing on the lake. My husband’s uncle owns a pontoon boat and usually takes us on the lake at least once. The littlest pretended to drive while we were still at the dock. And my oldest got to drive for quite a while, slowy than faster as well as make turns. He really enjoyed himself. Once we leave the dock the 3 youngest always wear their life vests which makes them and us feel much more comfortable about letting them walk on the boat. Here, my 8 year old is pretending to be a tour guide. All the boys always…

A couple weekends ago, we spent a long weekend in Alabama. As per usual, I had some outings in mind and one of them was Noccalula Falls. This waterfall cascades over 90 feets into a ravine. There is a 9 foot stature of  Cherokee Princess Noccalula at the top of the falls who according to legend plunged to her death instead of marrying someone whom her father wanted her to marry. Now, Alabama has been in a state of drought for the past couple of months so the sight we were expecting of a beautiful waterfall was not what we saw. To say we were disappointed is an understatement. If…

I keep an ongoing travel bucket list that I tweak as the time passes. This bucket list allows me to make plans financially and helps me budget for trips and vacations. I usually plan the following year’s vacations and then keep in mind larger abroad trips that we want to take. Today I am sharing my long  and short term bucket lists and where we plan to vacation this year and next. Short term travel plans I typically map out our vacations about a year in advance if they are within the United States. With  the children’s school schedule in mind, I am able to plan some time away so…

While visiting my college friend in Missouri, we decided to take our boys to Kansas City which is only half an hour from her house. Wanted to be thrifty, we decided to visit Kaleidoscope and Crown Center Mall. Kaleidoscope Hallmark Kaleidoscope is a place where children can be creative with art. Children use materials from Hallmark manufacturing to create their art. As certain things run out, the materials are replaced them with other materials. The materials often to a season or holiday. During our visit, the center was celebrating Kaleidoscope 50th anniversary so children were able to make birthday hats among other things. The center is free and distribute tickets…

On our way to visit my friends in Missouri and Kansas City, we decided to stop for a sleepover in St. Louis. It is about an 8 hour drive from Atlanta and we wanted to explore what the city has to offer. A week or so before we left, my friend informed me that the zoo was free as well as the botanical gardens and a number of museums so we decided to visit the zoo this time. We enjoyed our time in St. Louis so much that we are planning our spring break there next year. I wasn’t sure what to expect in a free zoo but oh boy…

What a nice way to spend time with friends! Last week, one of my friends invited the boys and I to join her and her daughters at the Atlanta Zoo. I have had a yearly membership off and on over the years. As the zoo has made improvements the family membership has increased in price from around $99 to now $139 (2 adults and 4 children ages 3-17). Distance and busy schedules does not make it worth our while anymore to be members but thankfully my friend had just renewed her membership so we were able to accompany her for free on this outing. The weather turned out perfect for…

Last week, we visited a friend of mine and combined our visit with a hike at Tallulah Gorge. The gorge is about an hour from her house (and would have been 3 hours from mine) so we spent the night there before going to the gorge. We first spent a few minutes in the visitor center where there were some displays with taxidermed animals that are local to the area. We received a map from one of the rangers with directions to the different overlooks to see the fall and decided to walk the loop from the North rim across the suspension bridge to the South rim then across the…

A few weeks ago, my sister in law invited us to spend a long weekend  with her family in the Blue Ridge mountains just a little ways from Blue Ridge, GA. She rented a cabin on the river which we accessed by a bumpy dirt road a couple miles long. The location was perfect and restful. Free Fun One of the things that I enjoy about a short vacation in the mountains is that it can be fairly inexpensive as far as activities go. Yes, if you choose to go horseback riding, ziplining, paddle boarding the cost will add up. But you can still have fun without paying for different…