License Plate Photo Game

If you have taken a road trip in the United States you probably have heard of and played the license plate game. Every car in the US has a license plate with the name of the state where the car is licensed and a unique combination of numbers/letters and a motto. Some are prettier than others according to the kids.

Now in the digital age there are apps for tracking, but back int he day, most people just printed out a list of the states and you made a check mark on the ones you find. But as we spent a month in New England last summer, our 8 & 10 year olds were keen on taking photos of all the different plates to see if they could get all 50. And being a typical 10 year old boy, about 5 days into our trip, he deleted ALL the photos on his sisters camera wiping out all photos. GRRR!!! Anyway, we of course, we knew it would be a huge challenge, but it was a fun thing to do as we went around the various states and did our touristy things. As we were visiting Cape Cod and Maine – both huge vacation areas in the summer, I was sure we’d see some cool ones. And we did – Wyoming, Washington State, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado to name some.

Not bad that we got 34 plus some bonus ones.

The 50 States and the District of Columbia (HAVE THE ONES IN GREEN)

Alabama Hawaii Michigan North Carolina Utah
Alaska Idaho Minnesota North Dakota Vermont
Arizona Illinois Mississippi    Ohio Virginia
Arkansas Indiana Missouri    Oklahoma   Washington
California Iowa Montana Oregon West Virginia
Colorado Kansas Nebraska    Pennsylvania   Wisconsin
Connecticut Kentucky Nevada   Rhode Island Wyoming
Delaware Louisiana New Hampshire  South Carolina
District of Columbia Maine New Jersey South Dakota
Georgia Maryland New Mexico Tennessee
Florida Massachusetts New York Texas

Alaska and Hawaii are the most difficult and we didn’t find them. But my sister sent me a photo of Alaska on her recent move from Maine to South Carolina – so we can’t take credit for that super unique find!

alaska

We consider these two, a US Government & Consul, to be bonus ones.

Consul US Government

But the most super cool one which we’d never expect to get was MEXICO!

What I like most about the license plate game is that not only is it fun for the kids and easy to play. It is also educational, because as the person plays, they learn the names of all the states that make up the United States of America. And while our kids are half American, they spent more of their lives living abroad, so this helps with their knowledge and geography of the USA.

I mentioned we were in Maine for some of our trip, so of course, we’d get some Canadian plates too including New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Nova Scotia.

Not sure when our next trip back to the US will be but we’ll certainly be on the look out for the remaining plates.

Alabama Hawaii New York
Arkansas Indiana North Dakota

Connecticut Iowa Ohio
Delaware Louisiana Oregon
Georgia Montana South Dakota

Florida Nebraska

If we’re in Orlando, I bet we’d find the rest of the plates super fast.

After I look at the list another time, how is it possible that after spending a month in New England, how didn’t we get a photo of a NEW YORK or CONNECTICUT plate?? Probably on the photos my 10 year old friend “accidentally” deleted after pushing tons of buttons when he shouldn’t have 🙂

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The 50 States and the District of Columbia (HAVE THE ONES IN GREEN)

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