East Coast Road Trip: New York to Florida & Spread the Kindness Link Up On the Edge #822

It took me all week but I finally sifted through the 700 plus photos I took during our 10 day east coast road trip. So this post will be loaded with pictures from 12 different states and Washington, D.C. including 5 war memorials, 3 museums, 3 giant trolls, and a wedding. We spent more time in some states while others we simply just passed through.

As I was sorting through the photos, an immense sadness passed over me. Not because the trip was bad…it was an amazingly wonderful trip. I became sad because travel posts like this one are the very ones that my dear friend Patrick loved the most and I missed him and his lovely comments. May he rest in peace with dear Dolly.

Let me begin with an explanation of how this immense road trip came to be. For the previous 5 summers, our big vacation had been 4 days and 3 nights of rural camping at the Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The summer of 2026 would have been our 6th consecutive year attending this wonderful family-friendly festival, but some time in the early spring we received word that the festival was retiring with 2025 being its last season. This left us with no summer plans at all. And then, as if it was driven by some kind of divine influence, we received an invitation to a wedding in Florida.

Logan, a very dear Army friend of ours, was getting married on August 15 deep in the Florida panhandle. Logan had deployed with Jeff back in 2015. He was a young soldier, about 23 years old, from Michigan, stationed in northern New York with no family or friends nearby, about to embark on his first deployment. Jeff was an old soldier, preparing for what would be the very last deployment of his military career. Jeff had an instant connection with Logan and quickly became his mentor while I took over as Logan’s “substitute mom” in a place far away from his own mother. He was always welcome in our house for a homemade meal and my kids treated him like an uncle. I remember him piggy backing both boys at the same time all around my house and back yard. The three of them would end up in a pile of giggles with Logan trying to catch his breath. A family-oriented man, Logan was missing his sister’s children in Michigan and my children were great substitutes! And then, in 2019, Logan left New York to finish his military career elsewhere. We didn’t know when our paths would cross again, but I knew that they eventually would.

So when the save-the-date invitation arrived, we immediately said, “Heck, yes, let’s make this our whole summer vacation!”

Since our children have only ever been to 4 states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Vermont), we decided this was the perfect opportunity to see more of our country’s beautiful landscapes. Also, my kids have never seen the ocean so we made sure that happened as well. Then we set about to convincing my mother-in-law to join us, which she did and we’re are so glad she did!

We began our journey in the early afternoon of Monday, August 10. There are no photos for this first day as we only traveled from our home in New York to my mother-in-law’s house in Pennsylvania. We met up with my father-in-law for dinner on Monday evening and then visited with some friends Monday night. We delivered all of our dinner leftovers to them since they would do us no good hotel hopping down the coast.

Tuesday, August 11: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C.

On Tuesday morning, we were on the road by 7:30 a.m. We had lunch plans at Founding Farmers in Tysons Corner, Virginia, with Jeff’s “heterosexual life mate” (a.k.a. BFF) Adam and his sweet mom Jackie, who generously treated us all. The food was so, so good. Actually, the food everywhere we ate was amazing so I might just mention restaurants and leave it at that because I can’t really remember what I ate in each food establishment.

After lunch, Jackie headed home and the rest of us headed into Washington, D.C. to check out our nation’s capital.

Our favorite part in D.C. was the National Military Monument that was created for America’s 250th birthday this year. The memorial honors all military veterans and contains over 41 million names of current and previous service members. We looked up all of our family members including my father, Jeff’s father and grandparents, and Adam’s father. Jeff’s name was also on there, but Adam’s was not. He had his added so it should appear now. We totally hogged the line for these pictures!

Wednesday, August 12: North Carolina

On Wednesday morning, we were back on the road by 7:30 a.m. to make it to Charlotte, North Carolina, for a late lunch with my friend Kristen and her son. Kristen and I were besties in high school but lost touch after graduation. We haven’t seen each other since 1992 and it seriously was like no time had passed at all. We talked nonstop for hours and totally forgot to take any photos of us together.

On our way to Charlotte, we made a quick stop in High Point, North Carolina, to visit one of Thomas Dambo’s trolls, Little Sally.

Kristen’s house was less than an hour from Little Sally so we headed straight there after our troll visit. Then we went to Optimist Hall for a delicious lunch. After lunch, I went back to Kristen’s house with her so we could catch up some more on the last 35 years. Jeff, his mom, and the boys drove around Charlotte, saw the Carolina Panthers stadium, and visited the Museum of Illusions before picking me up to head back to our hotel for the night.

Thursday, August 12: South Carolina, Georgia, Florida

We only stopped at the welcome center in South Carolina and then kept driving until we reached Georgia. But somewhere in South Carolina, as we were in the middle of playing the alphabet game, we saw a Buc-ee’s billboard similar to this one and it made my day!

We spent the day in Savannah where we visited the Webb Military Museum, had a fantastic lunch at the Broken Keel, and then did a little shopping along the river. The car thermometer reached 100 degrees this day but some passing thunderstorms cooled us off a bit.

The Webb Military Museum was a super cool experience. It’s one man’s collection of military artifacts from the American Civil War through Desert Storm. Leann was working in the museum the day we visited and she made our experience even more delightful. She lost her husband some years ago in a military training accident but found healing through working in the museum. They even have her husband’s gear on display. It was such a wonderful visit and Leann was just as fascinating as the museum and its artifacts!

We all bought some souvenirs in Savannah. Ralph bought an authentic World War II helmet from the museum, Archie got himself a silver cross ring, Jeff and Gramma bought some tee shirts, and I found a light blue sun hat and the cutest necklace ever.

After exploring Savannah for the afternoon, we got back in the car and headed to Jacksonville, Florida, to drop off my mother-in-law at her friend Nancy’s house for the weekend.

Nancy and my mother-in-law have been friends since high school and when Nancy moved to Florida with her grandson a few years ago, they weren’t sure if they would see each other again. Visiting Nancy was our selling point to get Gramma on the road with us! Hahaha. So we dropped her off at Nancy’s on Thursday night and headed to our hotel in Jacksonville. Then we were on the road around 9:00 a.m. the next morning to traverse the Florida panhandle and get to our hotel in Niceville. Meanwhile, Gramma and Nancy were enjoying the beach, the pool, and catching up with each other.

Friday, August 14-Saturday, August 15: Florida

We arrived in Niceville in the early afternoon, got settled into our hotel, and then drove to Destin to do some school shopping at the Destin Commons. We had lunch and crazy milkshakes at the Gulf Coast Burger Co. before taking a drive along the beach so the kids could see the ocean. It was super hot, we were very tired, and the beach was uncomfortably crowded so we just did a drive by but the view of the ocean was perfect! I picked up another souvenir at the Bass Pro Shop in Destin Commons…an adorable new wind chime.

Saturday was Logan’s wedding. The church ceremony was from 1:00-2:00 p.m. and the reception started at 6:00 p.m. So we had a few hours in between the two events. Here we are leaving for the church. It was a small intimate Catholic mass and it was beautiful. All the guests were wearing shades of blue as requested by the bride and groom.

My mini outfit shoot because you know I like to take lots of pictures of my outfits!

In between the church and the reception, I had an unexpected reunion. My dear blogging friend Monica moved to Florida a few years ago and when she saw on Facebook that we were in Niceville, she immediately messaged me. As it turns out, she lives just a few blocks from the church where the wedding ceremony was held and she was attending a birthday party with her daughter at a park that was 1.5 miles from our hotel. So after the ceremony, Jeff dropped me off at the park before taking the kids back to the hotel to relax for a few hours. It was so amazing catching up with Monica and meeting her adorable daughter!

Jeff picked me up at 4:00 when the party ended and I was in desperate need of shower. Standing in that hot Florida sun in my wedding clothes left me soaked straight through. Fortunately, I had already planned a different outfit for the reception.

The reception was just as lovely as the ceremony with lots of delicious homemade foods. The kids decided that piggy back rides were in order on this special day…except Archie reversed the roles and got Logan on his back instead!

Sunday, August 16-Monday, August 17: Tennessee

Sunday was a day spent primarily driving. We were up and on the road early heading back to Jacksonville to pick up Gramma. Then began our journey to our hotel near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Gramma and I met cardboard Dolly in the Tennessee Welcome Center and I’m so glad that we took some pictures. RIP Dolly.

On our journey from Florida to Tennessee, we crossed the time zone multiple times which left me really confused!

Our hotel was less than 2 hours from Nashville, so we had a lazy morning on Monday before getting on the road around 9:30 a.m. First stop in Nashville was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. I took an incredible amount of photos here as I simply could not get enough of all the fabulous cowboy boots on display! But my favorite exhibit was the Dolly Parton one…and I saw it just one week before she passed. We were in Nashville the day after Hayden Panettiere died which did cast a bit of a sadness cloud over the city. I imagine Nashville is even sadder this week.

After we finished our tour of the museum, we headed to the Omni Hotel for lunch at Barlines, which had the best fried Brussel sprouts I have ever eaten. After lunch, I picked up a new coffee mug in the hotel gift shop. It brought me unequivocal joy the first week that I drank my coffee from it. Now my coffee joy is tinged with sadness but I will always cherish this cup. Dolly would have made a magnificent president, but she had too many other important things to do, I’m afraid.

Archie wanted to see the site where the Christmas morning suicide bombing happened in 2020 at 166 Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville. It was just a few blocks from the museum so we did a quick drive by on our way out of town.

The drive was a short one to our hotel just north of Nashville where we settled in for the evening before another long driving day on Tuesday. There was a Boot Barn conveniently located about a mile from our hotel and I really wanted to bring home a pair of new boots from the south. So Jeff dropped me and Archie off to do some shopping while he, Ralph, and Gramma went to get some ice cream. Archie found a new pair of work pants and I got these gorgeous hand tooled boots for myself.

Tuesday, August 18: Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania

On our way through Kentucky, we stopped to see 2 more of Thomas Dambo’s trolls at the Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Clermont. There are actually 3 trolls located at this site but we didn’t have time to hike to the third one. So we visited the 2 that were quick and easy to reach. There was a pond filled with fish and turtles that caught our attention for some time. Until Archie fell in the mud and needed to change his clothes in the car.

After our little troll visit, we drove another hour north to La Grange, Kentucky, where we had the best lunch complete with Kentucky Bacon Pie for dessert at the One Nineteen West Main Restaurant. It was such a cute and friendly town with amazing service and fabulous food! After lunch, we continued our journey through Ohio and West Virginia before reaching our hotel on the east side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We arrived in Pennsylvania as it was getting dark. When we came through the tunnel at night into the city of Pittsburgh, it was such a stunning cityscape with all the lights glimmering on the rivers. My children actually both gasped, “WOWWW,” as the glowing city emerged before our eyes. We just drove through and made a plan to take a long weekend in the future to explore Pittsburgh.

Wednesday, August 19: New York

We were awake early and on the road by 7:30 a.m. for the final leg of our road trip. On our way through Pennsylvania, we decided to stop at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. However, less than a mile from the memorial, Archie spotted a sign for the Post-9/11 U.S. Armed Forces Memorial at Patriot Park so we stopped there first. It was a very moving memorial to the soldiers who fought the war on terror…my husband was one of those soldiers and he was able to look up some of his fallen comrades in their memorial database. It was pretty emotional. But not nearly as emotional as the Flight 93 Memorial. That one took my breath away and nearly sent me into a full blown panic attack. Photography was prohibited in the memorial so the only photos I have are from the Patriot Park Memorial and the Tower of Voices for those lives lost on Flight 93. You can see the crash sight in the distance (near the large rock in the photo of the field below) but only family members of the deceased are permitted to walk out to the site.

We left the memorials in a somber state but very glad that we visited them and finished the drive to my mother-in-law’s house. We bid her adieu and finished the journey back home.

Every time we drive to Pennsylvania, we stop at the New York Welcome Center on our way home. Since we live in New York, we’ve never taken photos there so I insisted we needed them to complete our collage of state welcome signs. My children were being highly uncooperative at this point so as punishment, I’m sharing all the goofy photos from our entrance into New York.

We arrived home late in the afternoon on Wednesday which was an entire day earlier than we had initially planned. We thought we had planned our trip through Thursday, August 20, but we completely missed a day! But that’s okay because we were all ready to be home. Thursday morning, Ralph started football and I started laundry and now the chaos of back-to-school is upon us. First day is Thursday. Go get ’em, kids!

Before I end this giant post, I have to bring your attention to the brilliant driving genius that is my husband! He drove every single mile of this 3,838 mile journey. No speeding tickets, no accidents, not much traffic except through some big cities, and the weather was cooperative except for the heat. We did get a parking ticket in Georgia. But I appealed it, lost the appeal, and then paid it. But if that’s my only complaint after 10 days in a car with my bickering teenagers, then I’d say it was a remarkably wonderful vacation! Now we have the road trip bug and are planning our next one through the New England states.

I hope you all are enjoying these last days of summer.