Hey there! Nothing like a good road trip to make you appreciate being back home. We just finished what was, for us, the mother of all road trips. We haven't really done a whole lot of long distance travel with the kids but we had the opportunity to visit family and friends as well as to check out some pretty awesome spots on our recent road trip. We visited Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens and were pleasantly surprised at how much our kiddos enjoyed it all. You can read more about it and get some tips on visitiing some of the different spots in this week's issue.
The car travel itself felt like a major mom victory. I was really nervous about the trip and had visions of either hour after hour of crying and are-we-there-yets or some sort of National Lampoon style one-after-another-folly. We really worked to set ourselves up for success as much as possible. This mainly included a good amount of snacks, but it also included some hot finds from the Dollar Store, the Target Dollar Section, our DVD library, and that stash of toys that I was glad I put back in the closet so that I could bring it out "like new" again in the car. (At home, I try to rotate toys in and out and when they come back into circulation it's like getting a new toy!)
I picked up some activity and coloring books, clipboards, small cars/trucks/toys, and similar basic entertainment that was inexpensive, and packed them all into a travel backpack. I also threw in some of our stash of coloring books, wipe off boards, Leap Reader/Tag books and other portable entertainment. I didn't even need all of the stash, but I had it ready. They mostly wanted to eat! For that, I stocked up on snack bars, raisins, pretzels you name it, and a bunch of cups and baggies for distribution.
It was all fairly smooth. We even juggled car seats around and had an adult in the middle row (aka the food giver-outer) which helped immensely. We tried to break up our drive with different visits or stops, but I was amazed how long we coud go in the car without a major meltdown by any of the involved parties. By the end, while we were ready to sleep in our own beds, no one wanted it to end, and we felt like a whole new type of vacation had opened up for us. We no longer feared the open road with kids on board (unless it was an open road with no snacks) and it started me thinking of what nearby hot spots we could hit next!
If you have a road trip in your future, I hope it is as awesome an experience as ours was. I will definitely be thinking of more good tips for our next adventure, so if you've got any, pass 'em along! For now, it's great to be home in Chester County!
