2024 is going to be an interesting year for us, mainly due to the fact we are moving back “home” to New York.
Dave was offered the incredible opportunity to teach undergraduate physics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. We are both from NY originally, and we always joked that it would take an act of congress for us to return. But when Dave was given the choice between three different assignments, the one in New York was just too good to pass up. So sometime in the spring of 2024, we will be moving to West Point, New York.
PCS years make it tricky to plan any big vacations. There’s just so much that goes into a cross-country move — and the military tends to procrastinate on providing the pesky little details like…when we need to pack up our house and move to a new state.
So like I said, it will be a bit interesting. We’d love to get a big, overseas vacation in the books — but that will depend solely on when we have to move. And since we don’t have our move timeline yet, we’ve decided to just focus on saying goodbye to some of our favorite places in Ohio and Kentucky, then exploring our new home in New York and the surrounding states.
Hocking Hills, Ohio
Hocking Hills quickly became one of our favorite places in Ohio. We’ve hiked most of the trails in the state park, stayed in elaborate treehouses, swam behind waterfalls, gone on fall foliage train rides, and will be spending Christmas in a geodome there. For Dave’s graduation, we are going to go back with our friends Kyle and Angelle and stay in the incredible cave house at Dunlap Hollow. I think it will be the perfect graduation trip for Dave — a weekend away to our favorite place, with some of our favorite people, in the coolest luxury cave of all time.
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston was not originally on my travel bucket list, mainly just because I never thought about it. But it’s barely four hours from West Point, so I figured it could be a good option for a weekend getaway. As I researched activities, hotels, and dining, I got more and more excited. There is some really cool stuff to do in Boston. I’d love to use some of our reward nights to stay at The Liberty Hotel, and I have a list of activities a mile long. We’d love to explore the Harborwalk and go on a tour of Harvard. It would be so cool to go whale watching and on a sunset dinner cruise. Several museums and gardens caught our interest, and we’d definitely want to take the ferry to the Boston Harbor Islands, and probably sneak over to Salem as well. We’d also 100% stuff ourselves with fresh seafood and authentic Italian.
Newport and Block Island, Rhode Island
I was a bridesmaid in a wedding in Newport — the wedding was right during the peak of the Covid shutdown though, so Newport was more or less closed for business. However, the things I was able to experience there were awesome, and I decided I’d try to get back for a visit after things returned to normal. I’d love to go back and stay in an oceanfront hotel (or maybe splurge on a place like The Chanler). We’d hang out at Bowan’s Wharf, tour some mansions like The Breakers, hike out to lighthouses, and go on wine tastings and sunset cruises. It’s also just a short ferry ride to Block Island, which is somewhere I have a lot of fond memories from as a child. It’s always been in the back of my mind to return for a visit, so I’m very happy we’ll have that opportunity. I’d love to spend a few days on the island, exploring the Mohegan Bluffs and laying out on the beach.
Bar Harbor, Maine
This one would probably be a flight rather than a drive, but it’s still high on my list. My mom and I went on a New England and Nova Scotia cruise for our birthdays, and I really loved our stops in Maine. When I went with my mom, we went to Portland and Kennebunkport. I’d love to go back with Dave and explore further north — and I figure Bar Harbor has to be the #1 destination in Maine for a reason! Military members and dependents get free annual passes to all US National Parks, so we’d definitely put that to good use and spend a lot of time hiking in the Acadia National Park. My lighthouse obsession would certainly take is to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. We’d drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain, check out Mount Desert Island, cross the sandbar onto Bar Island. We’d also obviously eat lobster rolls every dang day.
Other States and Cities
I’ve lived away from NY for so long, I kind of forgot how easy it is to get around to so many different places. And being in the Hudson Valley will make it especially convenient. We will be living just about an hour outside NYC, and Saratoga Springs, the Poconos, Connecticut, and New Jersey are all under two hours away. Plus we’ll only be about a 3-hour drive from our respective hometowns. The Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod are about 5 hours away — and if we didn’t feel like driving for that long, we could always just hop a quick flight out of JFK or LaGuardia.
I know we probably won’t be able to hit every single place and activity on the list in 2024, but fortunately, we will have three years in New York. We’ll have a ton of chances to explore some truly amazing places, and I feel really good about the travel opportunities we will have while living there.
Lydia Pert 