Nothing to see here: just a girl and her midliners making a vacation binder full of budget estimates, itineraries and park maps. Raise your hand if you are a binder kind of girl? Page dividers? Multicolored midliners for further clarification? Spreadsheets??? Oh baby, right?
On a related note: Who here has been to Universal Studios in Florida with the fam? Share your best tips and experiences in the comments section!
I owe a major thank you to the friend who said, “Oh if you are driving through Southern Illinois, make sure you stop in Metropolis.”
You mean like Superman, Metropolis? Like that’s a real place?
She assured me it was quite real and gave me the skinny that I’m going to give you now. Metropolis Illinois is a small town in southern Illinois that loves its Superman Legacy. They even have a 15-foot bronze statue of him in the middle of Superman Square. Seriously. They also have a Supermuseum and gift shop.
According to roadsideamerica.com,
“The Chamber of commerce used to givefree packets of Kryptonite to children — until lawyers from DC Comics read about it on this website and made the town stop (Metropolis failed to submit the “Kryptonite” for approval by DC, and the chunks presented a choking hazard for children anyway).”
Previous: Bowling Green KY
Next: St Louis MO
Did you think I was done recapping our summer road trip? Believe it or not, there are still more stories to tell! We got busy last month with the start of a new school year and that whole me getting a job thing, but I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you guys about one of the coolest places we went this summer: The Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Initially we’d planned to see Mammoth Cave while we were in Bowling Green but it turns out that the tickets to the Mammoth Cave tours sell out FAST! I did a little research and came across this gem of an alternative. The Lost River cave was conveniently located, reasonably priced and even better: not sold out yet!
I was fascinated with the history of the Lost River Cave which boasts the tale of the blue hole, disappearing Civil War soldiers, Jesse James’ hiding place and the cave’s night club past life. I got a lot of story ideas out of this trip, not to mention a ton of exercise!
After a 20 minute leisurely hike along the property, we came to the entrance of the cave where we took a boat tour through the cave – parts of the cave ceiling are so low that you have to really duck as you go by which sounds intimidating but the guide does a good job of preparing you for it and the boat is moving pretty slow to give you time.
The tour guide was funny and informative and had a lot of great stories to tell. The cave was beautiful (and nice and cool – awesome on a hot July day). Afterwards we hiked some more to the butterfly habitat which was beautiful and probably one of BB’s favorite parts of the morning – and just one of many family friendly activities they have to offer in addition to the cave tour. We couldn’t resist pressing some pennies up near their gift shop where they also had treasure mining activities and an Outdoor Classroom to learn more about nature.
So whether you are a hiking enthusiast, science geek, butterfly lover, spelunker, tree hugger, eager tourist or just looking for something fun to do with the family on your next visit to Bowling Green, I highly recommend the Lost River Cave.
Previous: Ruskin FL
Next: Metropolis IL
We only had about four hours to spend exploring Washington D.C. and we were traveling by foot the entire time. According to my pedometer, we put in over 10,000 steps in D.C. mostly just walking the National Mall. We fully intend to come back to D.C. and stay for a weekend at least so that we can do it right because there is so much we didn’t get to see. That said, we had a great time.
Map it: If you are planning a trip to D.C. I recommend looking over a map of the area, especially the National Mall, and figure out what you and your family want to see most. We walked the mall and saw the Washington Monument, The World War II Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and everything in between.
We also briefly visited the Smithsonian Castle and even more briefly walked through The Natural History Museum (sadly just as a way to cut across the street and be in air conditioning for a few minutes). If we’d had more time, I would have spent the whole day exploring all the different Smithsonian Museums which are all FREE!
Pro tip: If you don’t have all day, I recommend hitting the Smithsonian Castle which has lots of mini exhibits from all the other museums, giving you a taste of all the museums in a fraction of the time.
The kids were such troopers that day, keeping up with us as we eagerly walked the mall to see all the different memorials. Dan and MM were really impressed with the Washington Monument – Dan was marveling at how the bricks on the monument are actually a slightly different color almost halfway up as they ran out of money building it and had to regroup. My favorite thing was definitely the Lincoln Memorial which I’d looked forward to finally seeing after the first day of our trip. I think BB most liked the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, not that she understood the importance of it. She honestly just liked the pretty reflections.
The in between moments:
Aside from all the big exciting things we saw, here were some of our smaller moments and memories of Washington DC.
1. We parked outside of the city and took a train into D.C. The hardest part of this process was trying to find the ideal train station to park at. Most of the cities around D.C. are quite urban and the first one we went to was both difficult to navigate and kindaaa sketchy. Another reason to just get a hotel in D.C. proper next time?
2. By the time we walked the length of the National Mall and got to the Lincoln Memorial, BB was absolutely exhausted and not happy about the crowds either. She needed a time out before we continued walking and I was worried that we’d pressed our luck walking the whole way. Luckily she perked up and we all made it back to the train station in one piece! Bring water bottles and stay hydrated or consider getting tickets for one of those tour buses.
3. There was a random piece of fencing in the reflecting pool and ducks were hanging out around it. While I marveled at how absolutely normal the city was with all the same amounts of construction, disarray and litter that you’d find in any major city, BB simply thought it was a bridge that she should walk on so she could go say hi to the ducks. She was very disappointed when I refused!
4. After leaving the Vietnam Memorial, we kept walking to see the White House. We were coming from behind but had been hopeful for a good view. This was about as good as the view got. If we’d had any semblance of energy at all, we might have tried to walk around and see the front but we were low on energy and time and had to settle for this view and keep walking for the train station.
5. Most of our pictures on this trip obviously were of the kids but MM did offer to take this picture of Dan and I so that we could be in a picture, too. I think it came out really good!
It was a long day with a lot of walking and a few moments of disappointment – mostly when we realized how little we’d actually have time to see, but we enjoyed our afternoon in D.C. and can’t wait to go back and see everything else!
Previous: Amish Country PA
Next: KOA Campgrounds
While we were in Pennsylvania indulging in all things chocolate and roller coasters, we had to stop by Kitchen Kettle Village in Lancaster AKA Amish Country. Dan’s parents have been doing this Hershey Trip for years and Amish Country is always a required stop.
1. Have lunch (or dinner) at the Plain and Fancy or the Bird-in-Hand. Assuming you can handle a communal meal filled with more delicious foods than you can possibly eat.
2. Go to Kitchen Kettle Village and stock up on jams and preserves and whoopie pies and any other foodstuffs or knick knacks that make your heart sing. There are plenty. You should have enough jelly to last you a year when you leave or you aren’t doing it right.
3. Take nostalgic pictures of your kids at Kitchen Kettle Village so that after several years you can make collages that make your ovaries swoon.
Previous: Hershey PA
Next: Washington D.C.
After driving through Ohio and New York and spending a week in Massachusetts, most people would consider that an awesome family vacation. We would call that JUST THE BEGINNING. Having seen most of our friends and family and eaten at all of the places that make it feel like home, we packed up and left for Hershey, Pennsylvania at the bright and absurdly early time of 4AM.
Things we learned:
Eventually we got to Pennsylvania and found ourselves at the Hershey Hotel’s Woodside Cottages AKA the swankiest, most luxurious hotel I’ve ever stayed in. My amazing in laws booked a cottage for all of us so that we could have our own hotel rooms but all be together and have the added bonus of privacy and pampering. These cottages are amazing and probably every trip to Hershey from here on out is going to be slightly disappointing in comparison.
So how was Hershey?
Both amazing and less than amazing depending on the minute. On the one hand, the kids got to go on a lot of rides, my husband had a nostalgic-filled week sharing the fun of Hershey with his parents, siblings and the three of us. We got to see everything, including spending a day in a rented cabana where we could enjoy the water park and / or relax depending on our preferences. We played ski-ball which always makes me happy. I took a bunch of pictures of the kids posed with things or riding rides. I walked a LOT which meant lots of extra exercise to counteract all the calories consumed in the Land of Chocolate.
Less than stellar things which occasionally made me grumpy:
Stellar things that more than made up for the grumpiness:
Things Learned:
Previous: Massachusetts
Next: Amish Country
Snagged this meme from Jen @ Our Daily Big Top – I’m pretty sure it has a couple of different questions making this sort of like brand new and not me killing time when I could be doing anything more productive…
8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:
8 Things I Did Yesterday:
8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
8 Shows I Watch:
8 Favorite Fruits:
8 Places I’d Like To Travel To:
8 Places I’ve Lived:
Your turn.
Missed the first installment? Click here!
We left Ohio at 9am Thursday morning, planning to have a nice easy day on the road and arrive in Wisconsin nice and early. For the most part, all that happened, but we were very happy we’d left so early when we got to Chicago, IL and their brutal traffic. I have no idea if the traffic we endured was normal or if there was a special event or accident happening, but it was pretty much stand still for what at least felt like hours. Luckily we also had the switch from Eastern to Central time to save us another hour off the trip.
That morning my dad and Dan switched cars, as one car has no AC and it was getting pretty hot – so I spent Thursday traveling with MM and my dad instead of Dan and MM – it was nice being able to spend a little quality time with my dad during the trip. We drove through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois that day before arriving in Wisconsin at a little after 4pm central time (5pm eastern).
We decided to drive to the apartment and fill out our paperwork / get our keys that night, rather than waiting for the morning. We got to go and see the actual apartment for the first time that night, which was pretty cool – it has a beautiful kitchen, at least compared to our old apartment and we were pretty pleased with what we saw, except for the rather musty smelling storage units in the basement. After checking out our new home, we got pizza at a little place right across from the apartment complex, which was delicious. There is also a chinese restaurant right next door to the pizza place, which is nice – having both things so close by and in easy walking distance. I also love that the apartment is right on a little suburban street, it makes taking family walks much easier having fairly slow streets with plenty of sidewalk and lots of area to explore. Right up the street is a hub of grocery stores, more restaurants, banks, preschools and more. I love how close by everything is.
We spent the night in a hotel paid for by Dream Company before meeting the moving company at the new apartment the next morning.
After having leftover pizza for breakfast, we headed to the new apartment to meet the moving company.
Dan picked up milk and donuts at the local grocery store (Copps – anybody heard of them?) to snack on during the move in. There is no Dunkin Donuts in Madison which is very strange, but not necessarily a bad thing – I couldn’t find any other similar “donut places” either. But there are plenty of coffee shops nearby and the donuts from Copps were delicious so on the few rare occasions where we might want them, we will be fine. Honestly we just don’t eat donuts very often.
Moving in seemed to take just as long as moving out – the movers worked for about four hours getting everything off the truck and inside – I was amazed at how much stuff we had, yet again – and got a little worried that everything wouldn’t fit, but our new place has lots of closet storage, etc. to make up for slightly smaller rooms and in the end, things fit perfectly fine. We had lunch at the pizza place again, ordering subs this time, which were fine but nowhere near as good as their pizza. That night we raided our dry food supply in the pantry and made spaghetti with a jar of bruschetta topping to stand in for spaghetti sauce. Definitely interesting. We definitely needed to go grocery shopping.
to be continued…
*update*
Ready for the third and final installment? Click here!
This is the first of three installments which will chronicle our trip from Massachusetts to Wisconsin. There will be pictures and hopefully some stories of interest but I apologize if it gets a little boring – feel free to skip these posts or just skim through the pictures – I totally wouldn’t blame you. 😛
Last Tuesday morning we planned to leave for our little trip to Wisconsin shortly after the moving company, who was due to arrive at our apartment for loading at 8am. We showed up about 30 minutes before that with MM to get things ready. Dan’s parents came over to say goodbye one last time, as did my bestie Ange @ Red Knows How with her two girls. Here’s a cute picture of the three kids in our apartment for one last time.
The moving company called shortly after that to tell us they were having problems with their truck and would be an hour late. When they showed up, they were driving a Budget Rental Truck which must mean they were having pretty big problems. I am guessing that the Fates decided to give them the rest of our potential car problems, because after all the issues my car had before our trip, it was smooth sailing the whole way to Wisconsin, car-wise.
Anyway, at 9am they started loading and it ended up taking way longer than either Dan or I had anticipated. They were far more thorough and meticulous than I’d even imagined possible which is clearly a good thing, but they didn’t finish until shortly after 1pm – at which point we grabbed some lunch and headed back to my dad’s house to finish loading our vehicles and leave. I’d assumed we’d be on the road that morning, maybe around 10am – 11 at the latest. Instead we left around 2:30pm – but seeing as the moving company was only one hour late and despite being thorough, they were very efficient – I never saw them lingering, they worked hard the whole four hours – I don’t see how we could possibly have left much earlier than 1pm even if they’d been on time.
So at 2:30 pm we left home for our new home.
Our first stop was at a hotel in Batavia, New York that night. We were lucky and had good traffic – that morning and afternoon our home town was a mess of construction, traffic jams and emergency vehicles but the trip to New York was largely uneventful. It was definitely a relief to leave that traffic behind and I’m hoping the roads in Wisconsin are kinder to us than old New England cities planned around cow paths and ignorance. < / Rant. >
We had dinner at some fancy little dive in New York – I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was like a slightly expensive Steak House kind of place, but more generic than that and not really worth the money. After eating far more dinner than any of us needed we were too full to take advantage of what looked like a really decent dessert menu that I’d failed to notice on the way in – which was kind of sad – I vowed that night to always leave room for any potential desserts on the rest of the trip.
MM did a lot of jumping from car to car that first night, preferring to sit with his grandpa most of the time. In the peace and quiet time that MM’s preference bought us, Dan and I were able to get in some quality time talking about everything from religion and beliefs, what made good marriages work and others fail and a billion other things that I don’t think I could possibly re-conjure here in an eloquent way. It wasn’t even necessarily a new conversation for us, we talk about these things a lot, but it was nice. And meanwhile MM and his grandpa were having some fun conversations of their own. My dad apparently used the drive to try to get MM excited about his new home, by making up cute “songs” about how we were moving to Wisconsin and that in Wisconsin MM would be getting a NEW BED ROOM, Daddy would be getting a NEW JOB and Mommy would be getting a NEW BABY. And with the help of some repetition and silliness, anytime you asked MM what mommy, daddy or himself would be getting in Wisconsin, he’d be able to tell you that. I was so impressed with my dad’s genius – another reminder about how wonderful grandparents can be. I’ve been trying for weeks to get MM ready for this move, but in that one car ride I think my dad made WAY more progress than I had thus far. It was amazing.
That night we arrived at our hotel at 11pm, exhausted but happy, and pretty much went straight to bed.
Wednesday morning we left our hotel and drove an hour northwest to see Niagara Falls. I’d done a bit of research and managed to find plenty of things to do and see for free in the state park overlooking the falls. Of course, the price of parking there is $10 per car and we had two – so it was really $20 but we didn’t spend any other money there so I was pretty proud. Dan and I both took lots of pictures and it was beautiful. MM loved being able to run around a bit and stretch his legs. I, on the other hand, felt more pregnant than ever most of the trip – it was a lot of walking and I might have over done it a bit. Still, it was definitely an experience that I’m glad to have had.
That night we stopped at Wauseon, Ohio where we had dinner at this great little restaurant called Smith’s Restaurant & Catering. After a nice dinner (I had the chicken parmesan) we all indulged in their dessert menu which was just awesome – with a wide variety of pies, cheesecake and ice cream, we were all able to have something different. I had a tollhouse pie, something I’ve never had before and for some reason never guessed what it would be – basically this is the perfect pie for me, the cookie lover, in that it’s kind of like taking the ingredients of chocolate chip cookies and turning it into a pie – I fully intend to learn to make this myself as it was delicious. If we ever do this road trip again, I want to stop in Wauseon again just so we can go back to Smith’s Restaurant.
That night we were able to get to bed at much more reasonable hour, after watching the American Idol finale (congrats to Kris Allen!).
to be continued…
*update*
For the second installment, click here.
For the third and final installment, click here.
