Trips I'd like to take in 2010

One of my favorite things to do is to plan trips. I think it's a stress reliever for me, a mental escape of sorts. Last year I posted this entry on the trips I'd like to take, and I actually took three out of nine, not too bad for a pretty sucky year.

So here are the imaginary parameters for my imaginary trips; they have to be in a realistic price range and within driveable distance if I'm going with the family. This makes the trips actually possible in real life, so if a situation arises where I need a place to go, and quickly, I already have a plan all mapped out, and I've probably already researched the things that I want to do there. (This actually happened last year on spring break, we had to cancel our San Antonio/Beach trip and substitute Big Bend National Park. Big Bend turned out to be one of the best family vacations we've ever had.)

1. Cincinnati, Ohio to visit my parents in their new house. This is a carryover from my list last year since we never got to it. On the plus side, I'm much closer now than I was in Texas.

2. Mammoth Cave National Park, KY. This can be accomplished on our "way" to Cinci. Also, conveniently, our friends in Nashville are only an hour and a half from here, so maybe we'll make this a regional tour.

3. Gulf Islands National Seashore, FL. The cold weather does this to me. I've also been looking at Jekyll Island, GA, but I think I need the gulf. Yes, the gulf is necessary in my life right now.

4. NOLA. Another carryover from my list last year...and probably the year before. I definitely won't be making it for Mardi Gras this year, but I'll get back there one day, I'm sure.

5. Virgin Islands National Park. This is the only one that is actually on the calendar. As in, I'm actually going, in the fall, with no kids. It's a camping trip. With no kids.

6. Washington, DC. We lived in the DC area when the kids were babies, but now that they are a little older, I think it would be a fun trip to take with them. I'd really like to have a chance to walk through the Smithsonian without pushing a double stroller.

7. Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This one is really Tommy's request. He has been asking to go for about a year now. I can see this one actually happening as soon as the weather gets warm enough, especially since it's only about 150 miles away.

Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone are both still on my long-term list; not likely to happen this year, but still something I want to do in the next few years. I had grand plans to drive to RMNP this summer, but that was when we thought we would be living in Texas. So that one is on the shelf for now.

So there's my imaginary plan for the year. Am I missing anything good? Want to come along on any of them?