We started a little early today but since we aren’t adjusted to Hawaii time, a 6am wake up time is still doable time for us. We have a day of snorkeling at Molokini Crater and Turtle Arches planned, so we woke without too much grumbling. We are headed to Wailuka, about a 30 minute drive down the coast of Maui. The boys were amazed by the different regions that seemed to be squeezed into Maui – Mountains (from dormant volcanos) on one side of the street, gorgeous ocean views on the other side with tree lined streets in the middle

We arrived at the Pac Whale Foundation, checked in and were ready to go when our crew gathered for briefing and loaded the boat. We chose this tour because everyone on board has a college degree, masters or PhD in Marine Biology so there was a little education sprinkled into the trip 🤣As we headed out, the waves were not terrible and it was really cool to see these land masses just rising out of the ocean. We also learned that Hawaii is made up of over 137 islands all scattered along the Pacific in a chain. I suppose there is a minimum size the land must reach to be qualified as an island? So far, my seasick guys were doing okay. We had breakfast on the boat of fruit and pasteries along with juice and coffee, so we were looking good…

We arrived at Molokini Crater and the boys were off and snorkeling. We tried a few pictures with our underwater camera in the pouch but they were blurry at best… you do get to see one good picture of Mike and a great picture of someone’s arm 🤣 I was a little disappointed and Leo told me we would just laugh and remember that we tried ♥️

I also realized that I did not get one picture of us all together… I have individuals so guess we can make a collage 🤦🏻‍♀️

The snorkeling was amazing. The water was so clear you see 100 feet to the bottom. All different colors of schools of fish and coral reef. I don’t think even the best camera would be able to capture how beatiful it was. As we got back on the boat and headed to the second snorkle location, my seasick guys were starting to feel the ocean a little more than they wanted. We had hoped that being in constant site of land would stave off any motion sickness, but that wasn’t the case. Thankfully, when they were in the water, it was okay. So they pressed on and made it through.

One of the funniest parts of the day was meeting the Kerrigan Family. Initially when we sat down, another family sat nearby and of course, we started talking… turns out they were from NC. And then turned out they were from Greensboro and then turns out that we have SO MANY mutual friends! It was crazy! We had a great time getting to know them and even exchanged info to keep in touch.

The captain took off part of railing on the top of boat to let folks jump off and you know two boys who were absolutely not going to miss this!

We had lunch on the boat, but Mike and Leo decided that would be a bad idea for them, so once we were back on dry land, we decided to find some food trucks. Hawaii is famous for its food trucks, so off we went… found them! Barbecue, Traditional Hawaiian, Burgers, Mexican, you name it and it was in the rectangle of food trucks all circled up with covered picnic tables in the center.

We explored Kihei a bit, and then decided to head back to the hotel and just relax for the rest of the day. We learned 2 things today, seasickness will get 2 of my guys no matter if land is in sight, and 2 hours of snorkeling is exhausting!

Bellies full, we decided to spend the rest of the day at the pool… and feed our new addiction of fruity frozen drinks…

Since we have committed the day to laziness, we decided to sit and watch the Hawaiian sunset, and it did not disappoint…

Not a bad way to end the day ♥️

We may have been exhausted yesterday but this is pretty great view to wake up to…

One the requests that the boys had on this trip was beach days… just some days to sit on the beach with nothing to do and no agenda. (Yea, becuase that’s what I excel at on vacation 🤦🏻‍♀️) But it was an honest request so here we go, a vacation day with literally nothing planned UGH!

As someone who is not a natural early riser, I love the first few days in new time zone. Today, we woke up at 12pm to our bodies but 6am Hawaii Time🍍. Mike and I went in search of coffee and felt like we had to resort all to ourselves at first.

Well all to ourselves, except for the “influencer” who was on the beach at 6am with her camera and equipment decked out in a red bikini and captain’s hat. We weren’t sure what she was supposed to be “influencing” but she spent 20 minutes posing and doing a captain’s salute over and over and over… which of course led to my “inluencer” photo shoot on the beach 🤣

After our photoshoot 😉 we headed over to Starbucks and couldn’t understand why everyone was in workout gear, until we remembered that it was 6:45am on a Saturday and only the crazy workout people were awake this early… normal time adjusted people were asleep!

Coffee in hand, we got the boys stirring and headed to breakfast, with some photo ops on the way.

Finally we headed out to the pool, which presented its own issues. In 2021, Hawaii passed the Hawaii Act 104 which now requires that people only use reef-safe sunscreen. Normal sunscreens effect the coral reef causing coral bleaching, which then effects the millions of fish who depend on the reef. So non-aerosol reef safe sunscreen it is. But here’s the fun part, these two have been raised on spray sunscreen. It seems like a small thing, but watching them rub the old fashioned white suncreen in and cracking themselves up made me giggle 🤣

Then it was time to break in the snorkel equipment that we all got in our Easter Baskets… they’ll be experts by the end of the day! 🐠

Mike and I kept everything held down on shore

The sand here is so different. It feels like extremely soft modeling clay. Thankfully, some child left their sand buckets on the beach and these two spent 45 minutes on a sand castle… cue the flashback 🥹

From the beach we could see folks jumping off Black Rock Point and cliff jumping was HIGH on the boys’ list of Maui Must Do’s. So we grabbed lunch at the hotel and off we went…

Michael and Leo climbed these lava rocks like spider monkeys. I tried to use an old camera in a waterproof pouch to grab some underwater pictures… while fight the current, without flippers and without my googles… so the pictures turned out exactly as you would expect🤣

Unlike like my spider childen, I climbed like a 52 year old with a bum hip and leg 🤪 BUT I jumped off a cliff in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and I was going to do it in Ka’anapali Beach in Maui too.

Slighting different jumping styles🤣

We posted back up in our little spot for a little more beach time before we headed to the pool for fruity drinks and even more downtime… (seriously getting a Clark Griswold twitch)

We decided we really wanted to have fresh fish for dinner and what’s fresher than sushi 😉. Online one of the best restaurants nearby was MISO PHAT (pause to laugh at the name… and even funnier… their boat is called the SHISO PHAT 🤣🤣). Without mentioning the name of the restaurant, we asked our waitress at lunch where is the best sushi? She said “Miso Phat”. Gotta be a sign, because that is coolest name ever! So off we went.

In our travels, we have learned to never judge a restaurant until you have had the food… so didn’t bother me that it was in a strip mall that was the bottom floor of some apartments… so people aren’t coming for the location. It didn’t bother me when the lady up front didn’t say hello or welcome, just a terse “if you’re eating in, put your name in the iPad”… so people aren’t coming here for her sparkling personality. And it didn’t bother me when the sign on the door said “BYOB Liquor Store next door”… I mean that’s just saving on a liquor license 🤣

What did catch my eye was that Guy Fieri visited here with Dine In Diners and Dives! So it has to be good… and it was! 2 out of 4 said it was best sushi of their life, 1 said great sushi and one said I like Kabuto better 🤦🏻‍♀️

Between the snorkeling, cliff jumping, the sun, and the jet lag, the Browns are back in their room and in PJs by 9:30. Thankfully, tomorrow has a few agenda items!

Finally!  We are back on the road for another road trip… and this one will take us not only across the country but across an ocean.  We are flying out of Charlotte, then to Los Angeles and then onto Hawaii.  State #49! This is the farthest any of us have traveled, so we are packing our patience for this whole day full of travel.

We made it to Charlotte with plenty of time to spare, grabbed lunch and found our gate… time for pictures!

Off we go for Leg 1 of our Quest… because it is no longer a vacation, its a quest, a quest for fun 🤪.   So glad we paid a little more for the extra leg room, especially for growing man-child boys!

One of the cool things about flying literally across the country is seeing the different topography … from the green pastures changing into divided parcels of farmland, then shifting into sandy deserts and then to mountains.  Finally, it all became the metropolis of Los Angeles that went on and on…

Five hours and the whole continental US later, Leg 1 of the journey was complete!  Hello LA!

Sure looks different now ♥️

We had a 2 hour layover at LAX, which seems like a long time but when you factor in a terminal change and the sheer size of LAX, it was about perfect.  Bellies and hearts full after getting a text and pics from sweet Charlotte Stewart about the fur babies, we were headed onto the second even longer leg of the journey from LA to Maui… a 6 hour flight and with the time change, we will arrive on Maui at 8:30pm (which is 2:30am EST) 🤪

BUT nothing happened until we completed the State of Hawaii Dept of Agriculture Plants and Animals Declaration Form. Basically, we had to fill out a form stating that we were not bringing any pets, animals, plants, fruits or vegetables on the islands. I am assuming this is due to the islands’ ecosystems, but whatever the reason, we attested and declared ✅

We said goodbye to the last land that we would see for the next six hours and off we went over the Pacific Ocean. (Cannot spend a lot of time thinking of the fact that we are flying over water and ONLY water for the next six hours)

Six hours and some amazing views and sunset later, we landed on the island of Maui!

Still smiling, although not quite as chipper 🤪

One trolley ride later, and we have rental car and headed to Ka’anapali to check into hotel.

So 22 hours since we woke up in NC, we are putting our heads to bed in Hawaii. That is awesome! Now, just need about 8 hours of sleep, and we’ll be all set for a full day on the beach

Final stop on the SEC Tour: the University of South Carolina.

We couldn’t get into the general campus tour but instead did a tour of Darla Moore School of Business, the Engineering school and a self-guided tour through the campus

The school is named for Darla Moore, a graduate of USC who ran Chemical Bank and then took over Mesa, Inc. (oil & gas) when T. Boone Pickens ran it into the ground. She and Condelesa Rice were the first two women admitted to Augusta National. She made a humongous donation to the school, and left them with this statement:

The business school was really impressive, and the student guides did a good job showing us around… after they got warmed up.

We finished at the business school and headed back to main campus, and the Horseshoe (like the quad at most schools). At the visitors center, we checked in and met with a guide to map out our self-tour before heading over to the engineering school. We also got to see what the smallest dorm size looks like at USC (still pretty good size).

The boys aren’t really interested in typical engineering but some of the civil and industrial engineering seemed pretty cool – especially the labs! It was like a big kid playground!

We headed back to checkout the student union and food court (and of course, the student store)

A picture with Cocky finalized the tour.

Back in the car, and headed home…

Four universities.

Four states.

Four nights.

And four tired Browns.

We know how precious these trips are now more than ever. Not going to miss a moment! ♥️

SEC Stop number #3, and the one Michael has been most anticipating… the University of Georgia

The campus is big but not nearly as spread out as Alabama. There’s a much more homey feel than some of other schools we’ve visited. We decided that if UNC and NC State had a baby, it would be UGA. Athens was like Chapel Hill in that the whole town is centered around the university, and like Raleigh in the mix of new and old buildings and grounds.

We met our guides and hopped on our tour bus to cover south and east campus, then walked near (but not under) the Arch to walk through North Campus. You do NOT walk under the Arch until you are a senior! (It was crazy, we watched every single student walk around the Arch). The campus is beautiful – lots of outdoor space and plenty of historical spots and stories.

We, of course, had to check out the rec center, and end up having a muscle-up dip contest🤣

UGA absolutely made you feel welcome and our tour guides were great, especially addressing out-of-state issues/financial aid and tuition. Our guide, Olivia, was a senior from Texas and had some great advice for the boys about getting involving and connecting socially and academically at a big university. (Mike and I both said we wish we had those suggestions when we went to school). Then we ended our tour with a big shout: Go Dawgs! Not surprisingly, it was Michael’s favorite tour.

We checked out the dining hall, and picked up our traditional shirt, and off we went for our last stop, Columbia, South Carolina and the University of South Carolina. After we checked into the hotel (and getting a suite upgrade for being understanding and polite when they originally didn’t have the room we booked), we headed out for Mexican dinner.

We found a small Mexican restaurant online with great reviews, so off we went. We got a little concerned when we got close because the neighborhood was a bit questionable BUT we saw lots of families going in and out so we gave it a chance. Holy Moly, so glad we did! It was amazing!!! So if you’re near Columbia, definitely worth the drive!

Up and going in the morning for the last tour of our trip. Even more thankful for this time with my people.

Here we go with SEC #2, the University of Alabama.

Oh. My. Word. This is by far the prettiest campus we have seen so far. Everything was larger and bigger than really necessary, but it all fit together like a movie set. The welcome center (formally a hospital) was redone in 2008 and was now available for rental/receptions.

The campus is ginormous – so large that we had to board a bus to cover the campus with 3 stops along the way. First stop was the student rec center… imagine the largest/nicest gym you’ve ever seen (in real life or tv/movies), then add multiple basketball courts, 25 yd lap pool, workout studios, classes and running/walking track. It was just crazy!

At Stop 2, we headed off to see a model dorm room. Let me just say, dorms have changed quite a bit in the 30 years since I was in college…

This all-female dorm is right across from sorority row and Bryant-Denny Stadium… bet this is a prime spot on game day. But these sorority and fraternity houses were insane! Seems like everywhere else you live in life is going to be a downgrade after this.

Our last stop was into the heart of the campus, library and student center. Everything on the campus was so clean and manicured. I don’t think we saw one piece of trash ANYWHERE.

Both boys were impressed but both said they didn’t see themselves going here. (Whew! Because I don’t think I could leave them 9 hours away from home). They said it was just too fancy for them.

We checked out a few more stops on our own, and of course, had to get a t-shirt (it’s our college tour tradition). And then we hit the road for our next visit. As we drove, I started researching a local spot for lunch. I kept finding articles on J&J’s Grocery and Deli in Bessemer, Alabama. Since we don’t have anywhere to be until tomorrow morning, off we went to find it.

Don’t let the outside fool you, this place was AWESOME! Michael said it was the best cheeseburger he has ever had in his whole life! Leo said the same thing about the onion rings, and the chili cheese dogs were fantastic! When they found out we were first-timers, they yelled, honked a horn and rang a cow bell. We sat across from a sweet couple who lived 10 miles from J&J’s and came here once a month for the last 30 years. When we asked how long J&J had been here, he said he moved there in 1968 and it had been there a while before then. So glad we took time to find this place!

Bellies WAY too full, we headed to our next stop: Georgia! We checked into our hotel – loved the coathanger hooks (little bulldogs), and then headed out for dinner. The hotel clerk recommended a local pizza place, Stoner’s Pizza, within walking distance, so off we went. We loved all the bulldogs around town.

Great pizza followed by a stop off at Insomnia Cookies for a sweet treat.

Thankfully, we don’t have the early tour in the morning, so we can sleep in a bit before we head into Dawg territory and visit number 3.

Off we go, SEC #1: the University of Tennessee

What we have learned most about college tours is that your tour guide makes all the difference. As a proud NC State grad, I wanted our tour to be awesome… it was awful because the tour guides were awful. On the other hand, the UNC tour guides were advertising and marketing majors and did everything they could to sell you on Carolina and it worked. We absolutely lucked out today because every contact we had with UT makes me think these folks actually bleed orange 🧡

UT has become a big draw for out of state students. In fact, on our tour of 100+ people, no one was from Tennessee! Our guides, Hanna and Kyle, were so much fun, and the University itself is gorgeous. Think of the UNC Chapel Hill campus spread out over some hills and in a bigger city.

Both boys loved the campus and tour, and if it were a bit closer, I imagine this may be close to the top of their college choices. (Secretly, it makes my mama’s heart happy that NC schools are still top choices). But for now, it’s on to Tuscaloosa…

What Brown trip would be complete without a random stop… leave it to mom!

Mayfield Dairy Farms in Athens, Tennessee was voted World’s Best Ice Cream in 1981 by Time magazine. So an $8 factory tour sounded perfect and provided some awesome pictures 🤣🍦🥛

And nothing screams factory tour like hairnets 🤣

The tour was really cool – think Laverne & Shirley in the brewery with milk instead of beer. But no photos and videos allowed inside so you’ll just have to trust us. You do however get a free ice cream at the end of the tour, so that’s a 5-star rating from the Browns 😁

Back on the road and headed to Tuscaloosa…

A couple of hours later, we are in the land of Roll Tide. We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed to the cutest downtown, with a very familiar Main Street name.

We ate at Mugshot – a cool pub downtown with the theme that you wear and photograph yourself in your Mugshot t-shirt all around the world – send it in and try to make it onto the walls. Good “bar food” and great atmosphere. Loving these meals, conversations and laughter as boys get older.

Thankful for Central Standard Time since we’ve got an 8:15 am tour of University of Alabama.

No new states this time around. Instead we are off on a four state SEC College Tour.

First things first – BIG day for Leo. SIXTEEN years old and licensed to drive per the most joyless DMV on the face of the earth!

Car loaded, puppies to Abbots and off we go… First stop: Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the University of Tennessee 🧡🍊

Our tour is tomorrow morning. So we spent the evening celebrating the Big 16 🎂 at The Chophouse. It was fantastic, and quite frankly the biggest onion rings ever seen.

Great food is always a good way to give off Spring Break!

Up bright and early at 6am. Up in time to have breakfast at hotel, get last minute packing done and on the 7:20 shuttle to airport for our 9:15 flight. We were up, had breakfast and back to room to brush teeth when we got the email…

Okay, no worries. We can just relax for a bit… then they changed again but at least it was in the right direction

So we missed the 8:40 shuttle but caught the 9am shuttle. The driver liked to pack the bags himself so that took a minute but we unloaded at airport at 9:05 and walked just to a hot mess! The self bag drop took 10-15 minutes and then security had ONE LINE open… on a Saturday… in July… at LaGuardia! We waited for a bit, and then decided it would be worth joining “Clear” it basically an ID verification service at airport that you pay for a subscription to and get to skip a lot of the line. So we did a family plan and got to security. Then one of Leo’s crocs fell out of the bin and got stuck in the screening machine. Finally the TSA agent used a long hook to get it and we took off…

Made it to the gate with 9 minutes to spare

Thank you Jesus for watching over us and getting us here safe and on the plane. 😀

Trip statistics:

Total miles traveled:2,134

States covered: 8

Mom’s cafe supplies:

2 loaves of bread

3 1/2# Turkey

1 1/2# roast beef

1# ham

1# cheddar

1# Swiss

1 head of lettuce

2 cases of water

Not to mention the cookies, chips, oranges, diet mt dews, Lipton teas and other goodies.

We met some really nice folks from all other the United States, collected some cool ornaments for our travel tree and made more memories than we can count. Just 2 more states to go 🇺🇸

We did it! We made it into Connecticut (#48) and have now covered the entire continental United States! FLAG

We have met several folks from Connecticut over this trip and when we asked “what’s something we shouldn’t miss in Connecticut?” Every. Single. Person said “get some pizza in New Haven!” So, we started looking for the best pizza in New Haven. We turned into the “Little Italy” part of New Haven, and at 11:45am, there was already a line outside of Sally’s pizza, so clearly we were in the right place. One place online had over 1,500 reviews and all were 5 stars. You have to go check out a place like that – so we were off to Zeneli’s

Back in 2016, when we did our first multi-state trip, we were in San Diego and the hotel shuttle driver sent us to a local pizzeria, Luigi’s, for dinner. Since then, every pizza is compared to Luigi’s. Some came close but Luigi’s has always been the best…

Until today! Today, we have a new greatest pizza champion: Zeneli’s!

Zeneli’s has a origin story. It is owned by 4 brothers who were originally from Albania, then moved to Naples and then to the US. Each brother has a special skill set: the entrepreneur, the dairy farmer, the cheese maker and the baker. We started with the meatball appetizers, and then ordered 3 different pizzas to share. They were each delicious, and I found a new favorite drink.

Since we are in Little Italy of New Haven, we decided to go across the street to Libby’s Italian Pastry Show for a little something sweet to finish off this perfect meal.

Bellies full, we decided to explore New Haven a bit. New Haven is really pretty city, about half the size of Greensboro. And about 15,000 of those are students at Yale. Since we visited Harvard, we had to check out Yale too. I told the boys they could mark them off their list of school to visit. Michael said: “Yea, because they were on our college visit list. “(Where does he get that smart mouth? 🤪)

The fastest route back to NYC today was I-95, but traffic was slow moving, so we detoured onto US Highways, and of course, found a cool stop from RoadSideAmerica.com. How about the largest Bronze Gorilla in the world?

We headed on to New York and crossed over the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and got one last look at New York.

We made it to the hotel and Mike and I headed to return the rental car while boys went to gym for one more run this week. (After we stretched out for a while 😉)

We had dinner at the hotel, and then came back to get everything backed up and ready to head home. Not a crazy early flight, but LaGuardia in the summer may be crazy, so we want to get there early.

We have had such a great time but we are all ready to head home. We are ready to be at home and especially to see our puppies. ♥️

No matter how much fun we have, there’s no place like home ♥️