The Frugal Traveler

This was a 4 day trip during the July 4th long weekend. Just over 3 hours from Ann Arbor, Cuyahoga Valley national park  (CVNP) has a lot to offer for a biking enthusiast. The meandering cuyahoga river on one side, the remnants of the Ohio-Erie canal on the other, and greenery all around makes it perfect for a biking trip during a cool summer day. We started off on Thursday July 3rd from Ann Arbor around 9 AM and reached the Peninsula Depot Visitor Center . After a quick lunch, we rented out bikes at the Century Cycles , visible from the visitor center. Bike rental costs about $9/hour, so we decided to bike for 3 hours. After packing our bags we headed north from Peninsula depot on the towpath trail.   Towpath Trail - CVNP Remains of a Lock - used to raise or lower boats in the canal Cuyahoga River Lilies and black eyed susan flowers along the towpath trail After biking for about 7 miles, we decided to head back. CVNP has a scenic railroad . Fo...

Tulip Festival at Holland, MI typically takes place between 1st and 2nd weeks of May. Holland is about 2.5 hrs West of Ann Arbor and is near the shores of Lake Michigan. We had previously been to Holland in August (see, Holland, MI - Summer 2013 ) and really wanted to attend the Tulip time festival this year. Unfortunately, we heard from people who visited Holland at the start of this year's festival that Tulips weren't in full bloom yet. So, we chose the last day of the Festival, which was this past weekend, to visit Holland. Some of the main attractions in Holland, MI are the Dutch Village, Windmill Island and the Tulip gardens. This was a day trip. We left Ann Arbor early in the morning and it took us longer than we anticipated due to construction along I-96. Our first stop was the Nelis' Dutch Village. Niels' Dutch village is a theme park built to replicate the life style in a typical village in Netherlands in 1800's. During this tulip time festival, almos...

This trip was a great success thanks to all the friends and family who hosted us. It was a cold Christmas eve morning when we left Ann Arbor and headed to Washington DC. This was our first stop during the 10 day trip. The plan was to spend Christmas in DC and New Year in New York and a few days in between at Boston. Day-1: After reaching DC, we decided to spend the evening at the Museum of Natural History. It closes at 5:30 PM, so we had about 2-3 hrs. Having been there multiple times, I knew fully well that this was not enough. So, we decided to tour the dinosaurs and precious stones (geology, minerals etc) exhibits. I was surprised to see that long before the UM undergrads and grads, dinosaurs roamed the area where now Univ. of Michigan stands, Go Blue! Go Pre-historic Blue! With the T-Rex and the gems We don't know how the 3hrs went! We left the museum around 5:30 and decided to explore the monuments in the National mall. The sunset behind the Washington monument...