Tips for Trips with Toddlers

In the past 2 years, we've taken 2 different summer road trips. In 2007, we spent two weeks driving around Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and then driving down the East Coast back to Florida. The kids were 2 & 4. Last summer (2008), we took a 3-week road trip out to the Grand Canyon. (You can read about it in reverse here, if you're interested.), and the kids were now 3 and 5.

Our survival was due to really good planning. I can subdivide the planning into three main categories:

Pacing
For each trip, we only had one crazy 12-hours-in-one-day-drive, as that's how long it takes to reach the family in Tennessee. This only worked because we were staying at my in-laws house, and we did not have to drive anywhere else for a couple of days, so we had time to recover.

If you plan on driving every day or every other day, plan to be on the road only about 6 hours a day - possibly 8 if you're having a particularly good day, but that's really pushing it. Remember, you are on vacation so that everyone can relax and enjoy themselves.

As far as WHEN in the day to travel, I found that we could get rather far if we immediately left when everyone woke up - it would take a while for the kids to eat breakfast in the car. That's a little exhausing, however, and not good if you are on a long vacation.

Next option - leave after breakfast, and get a few hours in before lunch. I found that it was much easier for the kids to entertain themselves (and/or each other) early in the day so they were fresh, but after they had some food and a little running around under their belts. And if we got on the road a little later than that, they would last a couple hours after lunch without whining as well.

We were usually not on the road for more than 2-2.5 hours at a time. After that, someone had to use the bathroom, or we were just wiggly.

Activities (in the car)
When I packed the car, I put a big box of books (that they helped pick out), magna doodles, coloring books (new from the dollar storel) and crayons in between the kids. I also packed 2 small bags of little plastic figurine toys & cars - they did all sorts of role playing in the back seat with those!

I kept some other things separate. Up front with me I had a bag containing things like markers, blank paper & rolls of stickers (the stickers got everywhere, but the kids had so much fun with them that I didn't mind). I had 2 magnetic books that came out when when we'd been on the road for 2 weeks already.

If I'm not reading, I like to do things like sudoukus or word searches. This past trip, both kids liked to do word searches as well - the dollar store always has puzzle books. For them, it involved mostly just looking for certain letters on the page, but they pretended they were just like Mommy.

We do have a DVD player, and we splurged a little bit on one that has 2 monitors, and can even play two movies simultaneously (though we haven't needed that feature yet!). However, in an attempt to a) encourage our children to use their imaginations & entertain themselves, and b) preserve our sanity in the midst of late-afternoon crankiness, it was not allowed to come out until well after lunch. Many times, it was incredibly helpful as we tried to do that last push in order to reach that day's destination before dinner.

Activities (on the road)
In the US, the first rest stop when you cross a state line usually features a welcome center. We stopped at lots of those - the bathrooms were generally nicer, and since it's a welcome center, it's a tourist spot. They have all sorts of maps & brochures to help people plan your visit - we'd always let the kids pick out a couple and then they could read them in the car, draw on them, and it was nice for them to have something new to look at. Sometimes they even had coloring pages especially for kids!

Food
Make sure you have plenty of snacks - and a good variety of stuff as well. It doesn't always need to be crackers - things like raisins & dried fruits travel very well & are a bit healthier. I found some tasty granola bars that had yogurt on top - dairy & grains! Carrots, little grape/cherry tomatos & celery (if yours will eat it - mine won't!) will travel for a while without refrigeration. I also brought those individual servings of fruit (don't forget the plastic spoons!).

Pack your food into a cooler, but make sure you figure out if you will regular access to ice, as that will affect the food you can bring. Remember - most places do have grocery stores if need be.

Keep in mind that if you are doing very large distances in a single day, your children will NOT be interested in sitting down at a rest stop & eating lunch. And really, who could blame them? Personally, I was always willing to let them run around the rest area & burn off energy - they could always eat in the car when we were on the road again, and that would keep them occupied for a while.

We discovered that stopping at a McDonalds with an indoor playground was a great option (I favored indoor so we would be in the AC as we were traveling out in the desert). Dh would buy a drink, we'd have our peanut butter sandwiches, and the kids would run all over the playground. Most McD's also have water, so we could refill drink bottles, etc. I'd make a sandwich for the kids to eat once we got back in the car.

Conclusion
In the end, the best tip I have is to remember to enjoy yourself. Remember that you have a general plan in mind, but it's okay to rearrange things. And that will happen when you are traveling with small children. Remembr to take lots of pictures!!

(Check out Antique Mommy's carnival for more travel tips!)

Animal Kingdom

Haven't blogged about a theme park recently, so figured it was a good time to dig into the vaults and talk about this one.

Disney's Animal Kingdom opened back in April 1998. I'm not exactly sure when, but I was able to go with my family sometime that fall. My sister & I were excited because her leg was broken (stress fracture), so she had to rent a wheelchair & that allowed us all sorts of helpful privileges. (What can I say? We're weird.)

In all fairness, the first year of any park is sketchy as they work out all the kinks.... blah, blah, blah. None of us liked it, and I'd never been back since.

Over the last couple of years I've had quite a few people tell me that the place is so much better now; I'd probably really like it if I went back..... so we decided to use our final day of our 3-days passes to go there.

Quite honestly, my opinion hasn't changed. It's not that it's a bad park - there are lots of really good things about it. Let's start there.

The Good
* Everest - the newest roller coaster. Disney is not in the business of building thrill coasters, and this is definitely not a heart-stopper. BUT, there is an awful lot of creativity here that is just a lot of fun to experience. Be sure to either Fast-Pass it, or get in the single rider line. Otherwise you will be looking at a 40 minute wait on a good day. (I think we saw 90 minutes at one point.)

* The Boneyard - the playground for the kids. The ground is that fake bouncy stuff, and there are lots of slides and fun things for the kids to climb & run around on. There is only one entrance/exit, and it is manned by a Disney cast member. (I still wish they would tag the kids & parents though. Just because a child is leaving with AN adult doesn't necessarily mean they are leaving with THEIR adult. Sigh. What a world.)

And there are fossil "excavations" you can climb on. Bird was rather fond of this one. She kept yelling "Giddyup horsey!!" (Dinosaurs are kind of lost on her.)



* Finding Nemo: The Musical - We all enjoyed this - even the kids who still haven't seen the movie. It's a very fun mix of puppets & songs & actors, and it pretty much does the entire movie. Neither child liked the sharks, but other than that they really enjoyed it.

Make sure you try and get in a little sooner than 10 minutes before curtain. We got split up (Bug & I were parking the stroller) and were almost cut off in line. It kind of felt like waiting in line for a lifeboat on the Titanic. Except that we eventually got in. Cast Members are exceptionally good at packing this theater to capacity.

* Rafiki's Planet Watch - I think this is the younger kids/hands-on version of the Kilimanjaro safari, but it is enjoyable for all ages.

First off, you get to ride a train! (Bug was swooning, if it is possible for a three-year-old boy to swoon.) I found it kind of amusing that the seats were actually benches, all facing the loading platform. It did make loading/unloading easier though.



Secondly, there is a LOT you can do there. This was a scavenger hunt at the Discovery Station (There are 6 of these throughout the entire park; they all have different stuff for kids to try), and they both enjoyed looking for bugs & woodland creatures.


You can brush goats & sheep. Bird really liked this; Bug was rather hesitant to go anywhere near the real animals!


There's also a giant conservation center where you can "hear" the rain forest, "talk" to some ecological heros, see some of the veterinary work (if you're there early), and talk to all kinds of knowledgeable experts.

You can also see some Disney characters, if you are there at the right time. We got to see Rafiki and Jiminy Cricket.

Which brings me to my next point:

* Character Greetings
Overall, I've noticed in the last few years that Disney is working really hard to make many characters available at ALL the parks - not just the Magic Kingdom. Depending on who it is & the time of year, it can still take a bit of planning & quick-footedness in order to see the ones you truly love, but far more do-able than it was when I was a kid.

There are many places in AK where you can love on the characters. In addition to Rafiki & Jiminy, we also saw Baloo & King Louie (Jungle Book) somewhere in Asia, Pooh/Tigger/Eeyore were at the Character Landing (though we didn't stop there - we've seen them in EPCOT), and we happened upon Pluto & Goofy in Dinoland.

THEN, there are 4 permanent huts in Camp Minnie-Mickey where you can see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. These were the shortest lines I'd ever seen at any park - 45 minutes, and we'd been through all 4 of them. Bug was asleep for all of them, so we'd just had pics of Bird, and maybe Husband or I in there (Disney is incredibly tolerant, and within reason you can take as many pictures as you want). These pathways are shaded, have fans so it doesn't get too hot, and have calm, quiet music piped in.

Mickey is Bug's favorite, though, and we didn't want to miss this opportunity. We actually had a fresh Mickey (he'd switched out a couple families earlier) who was delighted to take a photo with the sleeping Bug.



Believe it or not, we actually went back later around 5pm (after Bug had woken up & we'd eaten dinner) to see Mickey again. The lines were even shorter!! Got a nice family photo too.

* Jammin' Jungle Parade

Usually, we're too busy to watch a parade. But we happened upon the parade route about 10 minutes before it was due to start - and we managed to find a nice shady place up front to sit as well. It was your typical parade - lots of floats, music, and dancers. Bird had a ball watching everything; we woke Bug up, and he was chipper by the end of it.


* Festival of the Lion King - We had an early dinner (hey, no lines at 4:45!!), saw Mickey, Donald and Goofy again (Bug was awake), and then got in line for the 6pm show. The line for this is outside, so plenty of time for the kids to jump around & work off some extra energy.

The show itself is PHENOMENAL!! We all really enjoyed it. No scary parts to speak of.


After we left the Lion King, it was only about 6:30. Since the park closed at 8pm, we were kind of surprised to see a mass exodus of folks leaving the park. I have no idea why.... maybe they were park hopping to another park for dinner, fireworks (they don't do those at AK out of respect for the animals), later hours??? Who knows.

It did mean, however, that the kids did not have to wait to ride the Triceratops ride (think Dumbo's flying elephants or Aladdin's flying carpets). Twice, while Husband & I took turns riding Dinosaur - which was down to a 20 minute (posted, but really maybe 5-10 minute) wait.

* Dinosaur - a fantastic ride!! It is not a simulator. You won't want to do it if you have back problems, etc., but this is easily one of the best things in AK.

The Not-So-Good

* This park has shorter hours than the others, out of respect for the animals. It sort of doesn't matter, though, cause you will have done just about everything possible with those fewer hours. Less bang for your buck though.

* You still pay $11 for parking.

* Animal Kingdom is NOT very stroller friendly. Florida is naturally flat, but those Imagineers made it all nice & bumpy so it feels like the jungle safari you've always wanted to take. Personally, if I'm pushing 100 pounds worth of kids/stroller/baggage, I like the flatness! Oh well. It was my cardio for the day.

* The pathways are rather narrow. Very cute, and creates a nice ambiance, but I really don't need to feel penned in by people all day long.

* To further complicate the walkways, there are all sorts of groups that periodically appear to play music, tell stories, or other fun things. They are all very well done & fun to watch, but then you have both the performers & the audience taking up valuable walkway space.

* We ended up buying the family photo with Mickey. They have all sorts of fun things you can do, like add the date & Mickey's autograph, and it was a rather nice photo. (The photographer had taken one with my camera, but just looking at the LCD screen I was worried about the quality.). Now, these guys have really good cameras, but I think they skimp a little too much on the printing. This is Disney World - I expect high Kodak quality (especially considering the prices!), but instead got what looked like a mid-range photo printer - a little hazy.

Stuff We Didn't Do
* Kilimanjaro Safari - The Fast Passes go quickly, and we just didn't manage to get one. The standby line was always over 70 minutes (as if! with 2 young kids?!), and this closes early - before sunset.

* It's Hard to be a Bug (3D movie) - very fun (I did see it oh so many years ago), but not for kids.

* Kali River Rapids - you are guaranteed to get soaked, and we didn't want to be.

The Bottom Line
Go to Animal Kingdom if you are looking for the Complete Disney Experience. Or if you have park hopping privileges. Or if you have just had no luck with the Character Greetings. Otherwise, I think you get more for your money at Sea World or Busch Gardens.

So Long, Summer

Tomorrow is the first day of school. Even though I've been back to work for 2 weeks now, it still feels like today is the real end of summer. It went so quickly that I kind of wonder if it actually happened. Thank heavens for digital cameras and my twitchy shutter finger.

So what did we do all summer?

We swam.

We went to storytime at the library.

We climbed some really weird contraptions.

We went to the beach.

We played at normal playgrounds. (There is nothing more fun than when they make each other laugh.)

We visited with friends who feel like family.

We tried to fly kites. Turns out that you really do need wind for that.

We visited the land of Make Believe.

We visited actual family. (Not the dogs! The dogs belonged to the family member!)

We helped protect Middle Earth and defeated the goblins from Mordor.

And,

We pondered the peace and quiet that surrounds a misty summer morning before the world really wakes up.

I am so thankful for all the time we were able to spend together, and pray that the memories will stick with me for an awfully long time.

So long summer. It's been fun but we will miss you!!

Six Flags Over Georgia

I've been so consumed with the AC that I haven't chronicled any of our vacation yet!! And since I am not going to be scrapbooking this anytime soon, I better start journaling now.

Our first day out, we drove to Atlanta to visit my oldest and dearest friend. (I link cause I love, though she does not update often.) We've known each other since 7th grade. (wow! almost 17 years now!). She has 2 boys, J7 and N5. (now I'm getting creative; the nickname is their initial and their age, though N is almost 6).

Anyhow, she homeschools her boys, and they were involved in some reading program that allowed them to earn tickets to Six Flags Over Georgia (SFOG). The boys did so much reading, in fact, that all 8 of us got to go for free!! (well, 7 of us. Bug is still free cause of his age.) Yay for us!!

(seriously, what is up with the parentheticals today?!)

Anyhow, I think a bulleted list will work well here.

The Good

• The weather that day was very overcast, and they were predicting rain. This had 2 benefits for us: it really wasn't that hot, and it scared most people away. I don't think we waited more than 20 minutes for anything, and we walked onto quite a few things.
• There are the typical photographers at the entrance to the park, and they were kind enough to take a group with my camera as well as theirs.
• Good - Lots of roller coasters!! Even better - Marian & her husband do not like roller coasters. So they would watch the kids on occasion so Husband & I could ride them all - together!!
• I got to experience a standing and a flying horizontally coaster for the first time. All I can say about Superman is WOW!!!
• Their new coaster (Goliath) was absolutely amazing. What I found particularly scary is that you only have a glorified lap bar for this ride - no shoulder harnesses here! And yet the trip was extremely smooth & fun.
• There was a neat kiddle land (Bugs Bunny World) that had all sorts of age appropriate things for our kids, like airplane rides, cars, boats, etc. Bug was too short for most of it though he did have a great time in the carrot patch.


• Also in Bugs Bunny land, we were floored when Bird actually went on this:



• There were tons of characters all over the place, and they were out so much it was really easy to get to them and take pictures. In the case of Porky, he snuck up on us & jumped into a pic I was taking of all 4 kids!


• 


• They have these misters all over the place - easy way to cool off.



• They also have a mini water park in the back with all sorts of stuff to cool you off. (included in ticket!)

The Bad

• Parking is $15. This is more than any theme park in Florida. And you are stuck there unless one member is dropping you off & not staying with you at the park. (There are gypsy lots & roads nearby, but this is not a great neighborhood, so they are never recommended)
• You get nothing for your parking price. The lot is big, but there is no transportation to the front gate.
• They are not kidding when they say that NO OUTSIDE FOOD is allowed into the park. I was allowed to bring in milk for Bug (thank heavens everyone's sandwiches were in that cooler!), but they did ask me to throw away the snacks I'd packed into another bag.
• The food you can buy there is typical - overpriced and lousy, as we discovered at dinnertime. I think our family spent about $30 at dinner for some burgers, fries, and drinks. (and we only bought 3 dinners!)

Anyhow, I will leave you with this particularly endearing photo of Bird on the carousel. She kept yelling "no Mom! Don't take my picture! You need to get on your own horse!"

We're Back!!

We made it!! It was questionable at times, but a wonderful trip overall! Hoping to be up & about my favorite Internet (and real life!) haunts soon.

I have lots of blogging material for the upcoming days, but here's the jist of our trip in numbers:

15 - days of vacation
45 - hours of driving during this vacation
9 - different US states that we drove through
34 - different US state licence plates that we saw (+ 2 from Canada!)
6 - different locations that we slept in
24 - hours that we watched TV in the car (I want to hide Elmo in Grouchland, Cinderella, and Annie for a while!)
7 - hours that Husband or I was squished between the carseats as we drove my mother in law for one segment of the trip

4 - eyes that were infected with pinkeye
3 - different walk-in clinics (in 3 different states, no less) that we had to go to in order to treat the pinkeye (and the subsequent ear infection & tonsillitis!)
2 - family members who will never eat dried apricots again now knowing that they are AKA "colon blow"
2 - parents who came down with some nasty cold/virus (but at least it was on different weeks. I think? that might be a plus)

5 - cuddly loveys that we had to keep track of in so many different places
23 - hours we spent at various theme parks (more to come on that!)
17 - family members who gathered for a 4th of July cookout
2 - different friends we got to visit with (one of whom we got to meet for the first time!)
6 - playgrounds that we found to help the kids run out of energy

0 - nights that either child got to sleep on time (I think 9pm was an early night. ouch.)

1 - highly touted Holiday Inn Express cinnamon roll that I finally got to try. (very tasty)
16 - oz of M&Ms I consumed during the trip
2 - free slurpees for the kids (lasts all month!)

3000 - miles driven (more or less - time to get the oil changed again!)
782 - pictures taken (and that doesn't include the ones I deleted straight away!)

Anyhow, I must get back to unpacking!!

Universal Adventures

Truth be told, I had no plans to take my children to Universal Studios before they were 10. Preferably older - like actual teenagers. At this stage in life, we are at a Sea World pace - nice & relaxed, with shows, a couple of rides (including a GREAT roller coaster) lots of animals, and a huge children's playground. Not to mention the best part - it's free for teachers, we had a pass for Husband, and then his office had a great deal so we could get a pass for Bird. (i am extraordinarily cheap!)

Anyways, this year Universal had a special deal for teachers - a free 1-day, 2-park pass for the teacher, and a discounted pass for family members. So we decided to go before the time ran out. We picked a Wednesday because it is June after all - prime tourist season - so at least the locals probably wouldn't be there too.

We started off our adventure at E.T. (Even if I haven't been here in many years, I still know enough to go to the back of the park first! 5-10 minute wait early in the morning is much better than the 30-60 minutes you will wait in the afternoon)

They are still celebrating the 20th anniversary, so the ad posters are all still up, in all sorts of different languages. We tried to explain to the kids what we were going to see, but I don't think they got too much from the poster!

In the end, Bug really liked the 'bikes' and all the wonderful creatures, but Bird was not super impressed.

We then went on Jaws & Earthquake. I'd like to say that my children weren't traumatized, but that wouldn't be entirely true. Now, to be fair, Bug never really saw the shark on Jaws; the only part that really freaked him out was when they blow up the oil platform & everything is on fire. Fortunately, the driver was a little slow and it was cleaned up before we moved on; seeing that & hearing mommy explain that calmed him down fairly quickly. Same principles worked on Earthquake - which is broken into 3 parts, and only the last one is the potentially scary one. (Bird was okay on both rides, by the way. Not thrilled, but she did enjoy herself).

After a quick lunch (you should bring your own if you don't want to sell your children in order to eat!), we went to the Beetlejuice show. I was extrememly disappointed here - I remembered it from years past - lots of singing, dancing, and great music. My main issue is that the park maps NEVER mention the PG-13 rating!! (although it is there on the website that I didn't check ahead of time because i've been there before!! grrr....). And wow... this newer version is full of sexual innuendos, and all the curse words are left in the songs. Personally.... I still liked the show, but I would never have brought my 2 & 4 year old with me. I'm just thankful that all of it was over their heads.

At this point we needed some time to run around, so Husband & I decided to split up. He took the kids to the Kid Zone (a fantastic place that the kids didn't want to leave - pack bathing suits!!) while I went through the single rider line at the Mummy and the Men in Black rides. (if you ever decide to go - combine Parent Swap with Single Rider line & go through them so much faster!!). The Mummy is one of my new favorites - it was AMAZING!!! Husband went on it after I got to the playground, and he loved it too.

At this point, the kids were wearing out and it was HOT, so we took about an hour to walk our way over to Islands of Adventure. (Bug was sleeping - most people could probably do it in 10 minutes). The main kiddie stuff here is in Suessland, but since it was mid-afternoon, the lines (except for the carousel) were all long. So we left this area for another and in our quest we did run into this fountain:

The fountain is run by a remote DJ who pretends he is the stone idol in the middle of the fountain who likes to squirt kids. Lots of water to cool everyone off!!!

It's also right outside the Sinbad stunt show (great stunts, lousy story - horrible writing!), which just happened to be doing its final show when the daily thunderstorm hit.

By now, the day was kind of over for us, even though the park was still open for a couple more hours. We'd done everything that we'd really wanted to do, and we were all tired & hungry. There were a few things that we didn't do, and if I was a visitor, I would have been sad that I missed them (though I would have made sure to ride all the roller coasters!!!)

Overall though.... a wonderful summer day!!! (Even if we don't get back for another 10 years!!