US Travel Pin Display Board

When we travel, Steve buys a lapel pin at every single location that sells one. As you can imagine, his collection is pretty big. He stores them on a framed corkboard that hangs in his office. 

These are just the pins from the United States. He has a separate (much smaller) collection for travels outside the US. We recently reorganized the pins so that they are grouped by region. We placed the pins on the board in the same location as their geographical location in the US. So you'll find Alaska in the upper left corner, Maine in the upper right, Florida in the lower right, and Hawaii in the lower left. It's not perfect, but if you're looking for a specific pin, you know where to start looking. 

Here are some pins from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas. They represent a lot of good memories, like our visits to Icy Strait Point, the Idaho Potato Museum, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Powell's Books.

I love that the pins are little pieces of artwork. Some even have moving parts. You can move the elevator up the arch leg of the St. Louis Arch, and the rocket from The Perot moves too. 

It's so cool to look at the pins and see all the places we've been. Since the New England trip was just a few months ago, those are fresh in my mind. But we visited Geppi's Entertainment Museum and Living History Farms during separate trips in 2017. 

Steve's board is about as full as it can get. Since we have no intention to stop traveling, not to mention all of his non-US pins no longer have a home, it's time to get a new cork board. I had no idea there are so many options! Aren't those hexagon boards fun? I like that you can theoretically keep tiling them together until you have as many as you need.