My wife and I planned a trip a few months back to visit her family in northern Nevada and California to not only visit but to conduct genealogy research. The trip was wonderful and very productive in learning information about the maternal side. 

My wife’s family lived in the Auburn and Newcastle, CA area since the days of the gold rush, circa 1850. We visited a cemetery, interviewed an Uncle (tape recorded) and received a DNA sample from him for AncestryDNA, he is the only living close relative to my wife’s deceased mother. We gathered new artifacts, pictures, newspaper articles from over a 100 yrs ago and had fun doing it. So a very successful trip.