Foto Friday: Road to Disney World

Happy Foto Friday

I’m participating again with Candid Carrie and her Friday Foto Finish Fiesta (you can see who else is playing by visiting her blog). It’s been two weeks since our vacation, but I’m still thinking about it.

Crossed into Pennsylvania

...and then into West Virginia...

...then North Carolina...

...and South Carolina...

...then through Georgia...

...finally Florida

Road to Disney World: one van, two adults, three kids, four movies, six bathroom breaks, eight US states (New York state and Virginia are missing from the sign tour), twenty hours in the van, twenty-four juice boxes and assorted snacks.

All this makes for a long car ride, but it’s worth it for a week in Disney World.

Foto Friday: Ready for Disney

Happy Foto Friday

I’m participating again in Candid Carrie’s Friday Foto Finish Fiesta (visit her blog to see who else is joining in). We’re heading to DisneyWorld shortly and the kids are ready:

M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E here we come.

Ready for Disney: All three of my kids are excited. When they’re playing together in the backyard they’re pretending to they’re on the rides. They sit and tell stories about past trips (this would be our fourth visit). My youngest daughter wakes every morning and asks if we leave today for DisneyWorld. She can’t wait to meet Cinderella and the other princesses or eat dinner with Winnie the Pooh. Well the wait is almost over. And to be honest, I’m just as excited as the kids.

(Oh and no that’s not dirt on my son’s face. The day I took the picture my son had a party at camp and they had some face painting.  He’s a pirate)

Highway or the skyway?

road trip anyone?

Not too long ago, Canadian Family magazine tweeted the question about road trips or flying this summer. That topic and the nice weather means family vacations are just around the corner. And when it comes to our family vacations, nothing beats a road trip, especially when we make our annual end of summer drive to Florida.

We’ve done the flying thing and the driving thing and although I’m a fan of air travel, I much prefer traveling by car with the family. Why?

Less Stress

Anyone who’s ever flown knows the experience: rush to the airport; lines to check bags, check tickets, check security; waiting in the lounge for the plane to arrive, on the airplane for plane to leave or land; kids with little attention span and squirmy pants; mediocer food if any; more lines at the other airport to get off the plane, get luggage, get rental car/taxi. Phew.

Driving allows you to move at your pace, not that of the airline, though you many have to wait at a boarder crossing depending on where you’re travelling. If a diaper change delays you from leaving or you sleep through the alarm, no worries. Leave when you’re ready.

More Control

You’re on the plane and you realize you forgot your child’s favourite book at home. You can see it in your mind, sitting on the hall bench waiting for you to grab on your way out the door. You can’t go back or stop and get another one. On the plane you’re stuck eating plane food (if they offer food). You’re not required to stay seated for the whole plane ride, but what are you going to do, go hang out beside the bathrooms?

When driving you can easily make a pit-stop for forgotten items. You can bring your own food (try doing that on an airplane now) or you can stop to eat. You can pull over to stretch your legs or let the kids run around and burn off some energy.  Ultimately you can control your trip instead of your trip controlling you.

Happier Kids

My kids like to fly, they like getting on the plane and looking out the window. But this enthusiasm usually only lasts for about 30 minutes. Sometimes my kids are asking if we’re there yet and the plane hasn’t even left the ground yet.

Yes, some airlines offer activity packs and music stations to entertain the kids, but how can that compare to seeing the future birth place of Captain Kirk or eating at King Kong Burger or visiting the original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Driving gives you the freedom to stop at historic sites and not so historic sites (if you’re traveling through the USA, the site Roadside America is worth the visit). The trip becomes part of the experience, not just a means of getting there.

Cost Effective

Unless you have kids under two, you have to pay for a seat for everyone. And the more kids you have in your family, the more it will cost.

Driving is the same cost no matter how many people in your vehicle. Even with the added accommodation, meals and fuel, it can still work out to be less than flying (depending on where you’re travelling).

These are all good reasons for driving versus flying for your next vacation. But the biggest reason is the experience, the memories. Why wait until you get to the hotel to start your vacation. When you drive, your vacation can start when you pull out of the driveway.

However you travel, have a great one.

Foto Friday: Constructing Flowers

Happy Foto Friday

It’s Friday and once again I’m participating in Candid Carrie’s Friday Foto Finish Fiesta (you can see other snappy happy participants here). The nice weather has me thinking of vacation, long weekends, and road trips. Which brings me to this week’s foto.

Construction Flowers in West Virginia

Construction Flowers: Last summer, on a drive south to Florida, we passed through West Virginia. We passed this great outdoor art exhibit at an intersection on the highway (just caught it as we were driving so I’m not sure exactly where it is). There was a whole garden made out of construction and city and street signs. What a great idea for reusing old signage and brightening up a dull highway drive.

GPS-ing to grandma’s house

I’ve been driving the van for about a week now and I think I’m starting to like it. I could say it doesn’t drive as nice as the JEEP, but maybe just saying it drives different will sufice. It just takes getting use to. Where the van can’t be beat is in the storage and accessibility, especially with kids.

So yesterday was the real test. Since we’re in march break, I decided to take the kids up to visit their grandma, about three hours north of the big city. This is the longest drive yet on the van. And it’s on a long drive where those many gadgets come in handy.

The backseat entertainment system stopped any unnecessary ‘are we there yet‘. We have all the kids movies loaded on an iPod which makes using the entertainment system even easier, just a push of a button and no need to fumble through the DVD travel case to find a movie.

 The cruise control, once I figured out with a little trial and error enroute, made for a smoother drive. I never understand people who don’t use their cruise control when doing highway driving. You’re body will thank you for it, as will your gas tank.

These are two of my favourite features and I would really miss them on the drive. But I have to say my ‘can’t-live-without-it’ feature would have to be my GPS. 

The GPS is great for multi-taskers like me. I just enter my destination, push a button and presto, up pops turn-by-turn directions. And since I don’t have to concentrate so much on where I’m going, where the next turn is, I can think of other things. On this drive up to grandmas I was able to think about the story I’m working on and where I could improve it. Sometimes I would listen to the movie the kids were watching, listening to the dialog and words used.

And if I happen to miss a direction, no problem, the system updates almost instantly with a revised route. I love my GPS. I think I would be lost without it, literally.