2017 (Kellisa's First 18 Years)

Kellisa Keeps Her Side  and Reaches 18 

After moving across the country in 2016 and finishing our quest to hike in all 50 states, 2017 was still a year filled with many adventures  and fun times.

 

The year started out with some of Kellisa's hiking adventures featured in the new book, families on foot. We also went to Yosemite National Park for the first time, and the girls enjoyed Disney on Ice in Sacramento. Our family vacation for the year was a week in the Pacific Northwest where we visited several national parks and hiked with a large group of wheelchairs. Kellisa really enjoyed not being the only one in a chair on a trail.

 

Great American Eclipse- Metal Wall Art

We decided to take our best photograph from the Great America Eclipse and have it turned into a metal piece of artwork that we could hang in our house to always remind us of our special weekend spent together witnessing totality in Weiser, ID. Of course, this picture doesn't do the rare event justice, but we will always cherish this moment we were fortunate enough to capture in a picture.

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Great American Eclipse

August 21, 2017

Weiser, Idaho 

The road to Weiser, Idaho to witness the Great American Eclipse was a lot longer than the 1,144 miles we drove round trip. By the time (early 2017) we realized that we lived a day's drive from totality, all the hotels were booked. We considered hotels close to totality, but gridlock was predicted on all the roads leading to totality for the 24 hours before the event. We didn't want to risk being stuck on the road close to the path.

The next plan was to book a campsite somewhere in Oregon in totality, but these were also completely booked. Since hotels that were only close started at $500 a night with a 3 night eclipse minimum, I booked a campsite as close as I could and we would just have to hope and plan to leave in the middle of the night to reach the path in time. With a campsite in our back pocket, I frequently checked hotel websites hoping for a cancelation somewhere in the path. I even looked at airfare to farther places, still in the path, but every flight was completely sold out. People would be traveling from around the world to witness this amazing event.