We love traveling as a family, and one of our goals is for Fiona, Colin, and Heath to visit all 50 U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces. We keep track of not only which states and provinces they’ve visited but also when each of them visited each state and province for the first time. Now you can, too, with redesigned TravelTrackers for Fiona, Colin, and Heath.
Each TravelTracker map now includes Canada in addition to the United States so we can highlight provinces visited. Below each map you’ll find a chart listing the date each state or province was visited for the first time.
U.S. states may have two dates listed. The first, on the left, show when a state was properly visited for the first time — as in, the first time Fiona, Colin, or Heath actually set foot in the state. The second, in the right column, shows when Fiona, Colin, or Heath may have simply passed through — as in, while riding on a train or bus or during a layover at an airport — a state without stopping in it or really visiting it.
Sometimes this distinction, of course, may be a bit fine. For example, we count Colin’s first visit to Massachusetts as taking place on 13 August 2015. We were actually on our way to Portland, Maine, and from there on our way to Canada’s Maritime provinces. Trains traveling to Boston from the south along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor all terminate at South Station. To continue north on the Downeaster to New Hampshire and Maine, passengers have to get off at Back Bay Station and then take the T’s Orange Line to North Station. Because our transfer actually involved leaving the station and getting out into the city — even if it was mostly just to ride the subway — we count it as a visit.
On the other hand, the Downeaster, which we then boarded to continue to Portland, Maine, passed through New Hampshire. Though it stopped at Dover, Durham, and Exeter, New Hampshire, we never got off the train, so as of now we say that Colin has only ever passed through New Hampshire.
Now, once Fiona, Colin, and Heath have been to all 50 states and 10 provinces, maybe we’ll add each country’s territories, too. And as they get older, we’ll have to add a tracker for the countries they visit, too.
Dialann 