The Ten Most-Visited States in the US

I covered the ten least-visited states in the US, so I wanted to take a look at the most-visited states. I thought finding data about the most-visited states would be easy, but it turns out that it is not so straightforward. A quick Google search reveals dozens of lists of the most-visited states that are completely different from one another. Huh? This baffled me at first.

After a closer look, I discovered subtle differences between the lists: some record international travelers only, some differentiate between lengths of stays (e.g., a single trip that lasts 5 nights 'counts' as five visits instead of one), some don't count visitors from within that own state, and some rank the states by amount of money spent vs. number of travelers spending that money. I even found one list that ranked the most-visited states based on surveys asking people where they like to vacation! It is clear that some tourism-based companies are motivated to get their state onto a most-visited list by tinkering with the data until it says what they want it to say. Obviously, there's no motivation to appear on a least-visited list, so finding accurate data is much easier.

In the end, I went with this list by the World Atlas. Before reading on, care to guess which states made the Top Ten?

Source

10. Hawaii

We love Hawaii! I'm not surprised it made the Top Ten, despite being so far from most of the US (although we're actually closer to Hawaii than we are to New England). We've traveled to Hawaii twice since Trevor was born and loved every minute. You can find all my recommendations listed by island here. 

9. Georgia

We haven't traveled to Georgia yet, but we can't wait to visit! Besides the Capitol, there are at least a dozen must-see places in Atlanta (MLK Jr. National Historic Park, National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Carter Presidential Library, World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Ponce City Market, and so much more). 

8. Arizona

There is so much to do and see in Arizona! I've loved all of my visits there. You can read all about my favorite places to go in the Phoenix area. 

7. South Carolina

I wouldn't have expected South Carolina to appear so high on the most-visited list, but that's probably because I've never been there and don't know everything it has to offer! I can't wait to visit and check it all out. 

6. Virginia

Virginia has the distinction of being the only state that all three deRosiers have visited, but never with each other! I hope to fix that with a family trip someday. In the meantime, you can read my recommendations from my own travels in Virginia. 

5. New York

I expected New York to rank higher than #5 on the most-visited list. There is so much to see and do! I haven't spent time outside of New York City, so even though I love it there, I'm hoping to tour the rest of the state someday.  

4. Texas

We absolutely loved our Austin trip in 2018! But it's a huge state. There's a whole lot more of Texas that we need to explore in the future. 

3. Nevada

I'm sure that Las Vegas is the primary reason that Nevada ranks #3, although Lake Tahoe and Reno certainly draw people as well. If you're looking for somewhere else in Nevada to visit, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the state capital, Carson City.  

2. Florida

Disney World is the most-visited theme park in the world, so it's not surprising that Florida would rank so high. There's so much else to see in Florida, including fabulous beach towns along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. I've never been to the Panhandle though, and hope to make it someday. 

1. California

Did you guess that California is #1? I knew it! The Golden State has it all, no matter what you want to see. I love it here and am not surprised that people from all around the world flock to see everything that California has to offer. 

Faux Food Crafts

I've added a new category to my Fun with Food page. It's all the crafts I've made that look like food but aren't.

Head over to the Faux Food Crafts page and tell me what food is missing that I should make. I have a bunch of sketches and ideas, but I'd love your input. Thanks!

Pandemic Scouting

COVID-19 has had an effect on pretty much every aspect of our lives, including Scouting. Trevor's troop hasn't met in person since early March and it doesn't look like we'll be getting together anytime soon. The Scouts now meet weekly via Zoom, and their monthly campouts have turned into 'camp-ins.' I made this layout to document what Pandemic Scouting looks like in the deRosier house: 

Pandemic Scouting (affiliate link)

Steve bought a new family tent online recently, so we set it up for the first time in the backyard for Trevor's first camp-in. It is laughably huge. Our family of three could do aerobics in that tent with plenty of space for others to join us. That's it in the top two photos. The other two photos show Trevor in a Scout Zoom meeting and us roasting marshmallows over our gas stove. We're doing our best to make sure Trevor continues to have a great experience in Scouting. 

You might not have noticed my absolute favorite part of the layout. If you look carefully, you can see that I dotted the i in Scouting with a tiny little campfire sticker. It makes me smile. 

Tissue Paper Stained Glass

I put my huge stash of crumpled tissue paper I've rescued from gifts to good use and made faux stained glass. You can't even tell that the tissue paper wasn't pristine! This is how it looks flat on the table...

... and this is how it looks in the window with the evening sun shining through. Affiliate links below. 

Tissue Paper Stained Glass

Materials:

• black construction paper
• clear contact paper
• paper trimmer
• tissue paper
• scissors

Steps: 

Cut a piece of clear contact paper that is twice the size of a piece of black construction paper. Set it aside. 

Use the trimmer to cut out the center of the black construction paper, leaving a frame. Cut the center portion into strips. 

Peel the lining off half of the contact paper and place the construction paper frame on the sticky side. 

Arrange the black strips on the frame, pressing down to secure them in position. 

Trim off the overhanging black strips. Then cut pieces of tissue paper to fit into each of the empty spaces. I found that the easiest way was to cut a piece that was slightly too large, smooth it onto the contact paper, then use the scissors to cut away any excess. 

Continue until you've filled all the spaces. Remove the liner from the other half of the contact paper and fold it over. Smooth everything, then trim off any excess contact paper. Hang your artwork in the window and enjoy!

Iowa's American Gothic House

With this watercolored house drawing inspired by Iowa, I only have six states remaining to meet my goal of at least two crafts per state. Do you recognize this house? Have any clue why it represents Iowa?

Here's a hint: 

• Grant Wood, who was born in Anamosa, Iowa in 1891 and died in Iowa City, Iowa in 1942, made this house famous. 

Now do you recognize it? Maybe another hint: 

• Wood painted two people standing in front of that house. He used his dentist and his sister as models. Do they seem familiar?

(Source)

In case you didn't guess, this is the house that appears in the background of Wood's famous American Gothic painting, first exhibited in 1930. The house still stands in Eldon, Iowa and offers tours and a free visitor center.

(Source)

I thought it would be neat to make a painting of just the house, without Wood's iconic farm couple. I chose this photo as a reference, then used a ballpoint pen and a ruler to draw the house on watercolor paper. 

If you are saying, "I could never draw that!" I assure you that you are wrong. You CAN draw it, but it takes a lot of patience. I did most of the basic shape in pencil, then I switched over to ballpoint pen because I wasn't being patient. I should have done it all in pencil first, then traced. If you look carefully, you'll see that I made mistakes in pen that I could have fixed if I'd been using a pencil. For example, the front porch roof has the trim of the upper story of the house going through it. The roof line on the right is not quite parallel to the other side of the roof, so I added an extra line. There are other mistakes, too. 

The key to success is to draw what you see. Do not draw what you think a house looks like. Do not draw what you think you see. Look at the drawing and choose a single line. Place your ruler on the paper and draw a line that matches the line you see. Repeat this a hundred times and you'll have the house. Start with the basic shapes and finish with the details. The trickiest part for me was dealing with the roof line of the porch. The lines don't go where my head thinks they should, so I had to force myself to draw what I saw and not what I wanted or expected to see. 

Once I finished the pen drawing, I grabbed my Koi watercolor set (affiliate link). 

I love how portable this kit is. I painted right at my computer (with my drawing on a clipboard) so that I could match all the shadows in the inspiration photo. Again, paint what you actually see, not what you expect to see. It felt weird having the shadows cover only parts of the front of the house, but it ends up looking right if you copy what is there. 

Overall, I'm happy with how my painting turned out. It was a fun challenge and I learned a lot about Grant Wood and his paintings along the way.