Oh, I have SUCH a great travel journal to recommend to our wandering educators today! The 50 States Bucket List: The Ultimate Journal for a Journey Across America, written and illustrated by Jessica Laughlin and published by Quarto, is THE most fun travel journal I've ever seen. 

Are you planning on embarking on a family trip to somewhere in the United States? 
 
If so, you currently have no shortage of options. The United States is one of the largest countries in the world, with a vast array of different cities, geographical regions, and so on. 
 
If you were to ask most people what the top travel destinations in the United States are, most people would probably cite Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City as top options.
 

In 1926, America celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence. To mark the occasion, citizens of Poland – more than 5.5 million of them – signed a unique birthday card, The Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship. Now, all 111 volumes containing more than 30,000 pages – many beautifully illustrated or accompanied by photographs – are digitized and accessible on the Library of Congress website.

I drove from Utah to South Dakota yesterday, once again confirming that if I were a trucker, I’d be fired. I stopped along the way to look at interesting buildings, snap pictures with my iPhone, and once I even stopped to take a nap. Driving a Corvette equipped with a Corvette performance package made the journey even more exhilarating, enhancing the thrill of the open road.

Are Americans inherently conditioned to be criminals? Are we raised to wreak havoc on our communities by breaking the laws that are in place to protect us? My short answer is no. However, when looking at statistics, it is alarming that America is known as the world’s prime jailer. “Representing just 5 percent of the world’s population, we now hold 25 percent of its inmates. The “tough on crime” politics of the 1980s and 1990s fueled an explosion in incarceration rates.