We entered Badlands National Park after sunset. There was just enough moonlight to vaguely make out the dark and ominous formations looming over us as we drove to one of the park’s campgrounds to set up for the night. After a brief encounter with a porcupine, we were down for the night, then packed up … Read more →

Smack-dab in the middle of the island of Montreal is a 233 meter (764 feet) hill named Mont Royal. The city itself actually takes its name from the landmark – it was spelled Mont Réal in Middle French. In 1876, after citizens had been outraged by large-scale tree cutting on its slopes, Parc du Mont-Royal … Read more →

Location: Coastal Maine, USA Nearest City: Bar Harbor, a 5,000+ person town sandwiched between the park and Frenchman Bay near the park’s main entrance. Founded: 1919 (as Lafayette National Park; renamed to Acadia in 1929). Area: Over 47,000 acres (73 square miles). Hours and Seasons: The park is accessible around the clock and is technically … Read more →

Four miles as the crow flies (or around seventy minutes in a car) from the crowds and hubbub of Bar Harbor and the Mount Desert Isle section of Acadia National Park lies the tranquil Schoodic Peninsula. Home to both our lodging for the week in the town of Winter Harbor (population 988) and a less … Read more →

Here are some highlights from our seven day stay in New Orleans. This is by no means a definitive guide. Look for a slideshow of our best pictures from the week soon. City Park Situated in north-central New Orleans is City Park, one and a half times larger than New York’s Central Park and shaped … Read more →

Welp, we are off. With much fanfare, we walked out the door of a completely empty house two days ago and got in a vehicle holding everything we own, pups included. We finished packing and cleaning, took a few pictures, then pulled out of the driveway like we have thousands of time before. As we … Read more →

This morning we had a 9:30 date with the doctor to get immunizations for typhoid fever (endemic to all of Central and South America) and yellow fever (endemic to tropical rainforest areas of South America). While needle jabs are not usually the greatest way to start your morning, the time slot meant Brie didn’t have to … Read more →

Maybe your computer just crashed and all your iTunes music went with it. Maybe a friend of yours has that amazing new One Direction album on his iPod and you wish you could have a copy. Maybe, like us Vangabonds, you recently stumbled upon an old iPod that had music on it from a computer … Read more →

On July 18th, the United States Department of State issued a worldwide travel caution to U.S. citizens. While I find it quite preposterous to make an all-encompassing statement to induce fear of travel to the entire world (my feelings on this travel caution could fill a blog post by themselves, but I will refrain), the … Read more →