WELCOME TO MILE MARKER MEMORIES
A Lot Can Happen Between Mile Markers.
Hi, I’m Laurel and I’m so glad you’re here.
I started Mile Marker Memories years ago because I’ve always loved traveling, but if I’m being completely truthful, I might love planning the trip almost as much as taking it.
I’m the person who wants to know where we should stay, which neighborhood we should explore, where we absolutely need a reservation, which restaurant is actually worth one of our precious vacation meals, where to stop along the drive, and whether that place everyone is posting about is really worth rearranging the itinerary for.
I will happily spend hours researching a trip down to the tiniest detail. Just ask my friends and family about my shared Notes.
Packing for that trip, however, is another story.
Somehow, despite all these years of traveling, I am still terrible at packing. It stresses me out every single time. I will plan a multi-city itinerary down to the hour without blinking and then completely unravel over what shoes to put in a suitcase. We all have our strengths.
But once I’ve researched all of that, mapped it out, made the reservations and figured out how to fit it all together, it seems a shame not to share it.
That’s how Mile Marker Memories began.
Then life happened.
For years, this blog followed our family adventures- road trips, national parks, weekends away and bigger vacations with our kids. And then, somewhere along the way, life changed.
The blog got quiet. But I never stopped traveling.
I never stopped saving restaurants I wanted to try, researching hotels, mapping out road trips, hunting down great food and cocktails, or creating itineraries with probably far more detail than any reasonable person needs.
And I definitely never stopped believing that some of the best memories are made when you get out of your everyday life and go somewhere new.
Now, my life looks different than it did when I first started Mile Marker Memories. I’m a single mom, my kids are older, I have a career I love, and travel doesn’t always look like the family vacations I originally wrote about here.
Sometimes I’m traveling with my kids. Sometimes it’s a girls’ trip or a weekend getaway. Sometimes I want hiking boots and a national park, and sometimes I want a beautiful hotel, an incredible dinner and a really good cocktail.
Preferably, I can figure out a way to have all of the above. And that’s exactly what I want Mile Marker Memories to be this time around.
Travel well. Eat well. Make it memorable.
This isn’t a blog about checking destinations off a list. It’s about making the most of the time we actually have to travel.
I want to share the itineraries I wish someone had handed me before a trip. I’m focused on the places worth going out of your way for, the restaurants worth using a vacation meal on, the hotels I’d actually stay at again, the road-trip stops you shouldn’t drive past, and all those little details that can turn a good trip into a really memorable one.
You’ll still find the family adventures and national parks that started this blog. But you’ll also find weekend getaways, trips with older kids, great hotels, road trips, restaurants, cocktail bars and very detailed itineraries designed to help you spend less time researching and more time enjoying wherever you’re going.
Because life doesn’t always follow the itinerary we planned. Mine certainly didn’t.
But there are still so many places to go, meals to share, roads to drive and memories to make along the way.
A lot can happen between mile markers.
I’m excited to see where the next ones take us.
