Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

I'm grateful to have been many places and on many adventures in my 40 something years but this one? This one knocked it out of the park. Zooey (8) and I went on a 4 night, 5 day whitewater rafting Mommy/Daughter adventure with Western River Expeditions ( Action Whitewater Adventures led the whitewater rafting trip). This trip represented a ton of firsts for us : our first post COVID flights, our first long trip away from Oliver (3), our first multi-day wilderness expedition, our first whitewater rafting. And I'll admit for a few minutes during the foggy morning ride on the small plane that brought us from Boise to the tiny town of Salmon, Idaho there was a second where I wondered "did I make a mistake?". But I did not. In fact, I made an excellent excellent choice:) Z was SO excited to be on a plane again! There were many things that made this trip wonderful - the rafting, the time with Z, the amazing beauty surrounding us, the being 100% outside for 5 days straight ...

Garden of the Gods I'm not sure that we would have discovered the beauty of Shawnee National Forest were it not for COVID. As we searched for areas within a day's drive of our home in Northern Illinois, a national forest only 6 hours away seemed perfect! And indeed it was. We've since taken 2 trips down to Shawnee- one in the Fall (October 2020) and one in the spring (April 2021). Here are my tips to help you have a great trip to Illinois' only national forest!  Garden of the Gods First of all the Shawnee region is HUGE. It expands across the entire southern portion of Illinois between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. We've only hit the tip of the iceberg of fun areas to explore around Shawnee. I'd highly recommend getting a good map because you could easily underestimate the space between locations. ( https://southernmostillinois.com is a good place to start). You can also upload the MUVMs if you are an Avenza user. The visitors' centers were closed due to...