Surprise Roadtrip

I've mentioned before that I love to travel with my family.  Roadtrips tend to be our most frequent form of travel.   (You can read about a couple of them here and here.)  Even as newlyweds, the Bionic Man and I used to jump in the car and see how far we could get before it was time to turn around and head back to school.

Since we've had children, the Bionic Man and I don't get into spontaneous roadtrips like we used to.  Generally, we spend months preparing for our roadtrips:  researching routes and destinations, planning stops and activities, putting together detailed itineraries, making reservations.  Often, we depart for vacation with a thick binder that maps out all the details of our trip.

Our 2011 summer trips weren't going to be any different.  We'd been planning a family trip to see our Connecticut friends and East coast sites for weeks.  And Bionic Man had been prepping daily for a special backpacking adventure in Utah's Uintah mountain wilderness.

All that changed when we got the news that Bionic Man's grandmother had passed away.  We made a last-minute decision to change all our vacation plans for the summer.  Within 48 hours we were packed and on the road.

Lazy Summer?

I'm back!  Back to blogging, that is.  This summer has been full of surprises (mostly good) and opportunities.  I'll have to tell you all about it over the next few days.  Here's a picture preview:

I have a couple of good excuses for neglecting my blog.  First of all, school's out.  That means my kids are home during the day.  Guess what?  I love that.  And I've tried to stay off the computer as much as possible during our few days of summer vacation.

Second excuse?  My writing jobs.  If I'm going to spend time on the computer this summer, I might as well get paid for it.  So, the paid blogging gets priority.  Sorry.  By the way, did I tell you I have a new gig?  This July, I started writing for Infarrantly Creative.  I'm writing the weekly Five Ways column.  (Check out my latest, here.)  I'm still writing for The CSI Project, and my task list has grown there.  Admittedly, free-lance writing was easier and more fun when my children were at school.  Lately, it seems I'm putting in some late nights after they've gone to bed.  Oh well, we only have one Summer of 2011 to enjoy together.

Budget Travel: Details on the Trip to Florida, Part 2

Like I said yesterday, if you aren't interested in thrifty vacations, feel free to skip this one!  This is my second post about

A Trip to Holland's Trip to Florida on a Budget

Yesterday, I told you how lots of planning and some creative thinking help us to keep our travel costs down.  Today, I'm going to tell you about how we find ways to save on expenses that occur during the vacation, like travel, activities, and souvenirs.

It's important to consider the daily expense of food when you plan a vacation.  For any trip we take, one of the ways we cut down on food expenses is to bring a lot of food with us.  It is simply less expensive to buy food at the bargain prices you are used to finding at your favorite close-to-home store.  It's also a time-saver to bring things along.  We usually bring a large bin of non-perishable items with us, as well as a cooler of perishable foods.  Even if the hotel room doesn't come equipped with a kitchenette, we find that keeping a cooler of food in our room  filled with ice from the machine down the hall works well.

 

Budget Travel: Details on the Trip to Florida, Part 1

So, as you know, we enjoyed a lovely spring break roadtrip to Florida, last week.  It's always hard to rejoin real life after a great vacation, but I'm almost there.  (And no, for anyone who needs an update, I haven't found my wedding/anniversary/this-is-the-ring-that-says-I'm-married band yet.  And, as long as I'm following up on things, Hunter the Dog did see the vet, and he is now recovering nicely.)

Perhaps because it's hard to leave a good vacation behind, I'm reliving it this week on the ole' blog.  Cheap therapy is one of the reasons I blog, remember?  I'll warn you that this is a wordy one, so if you're not interested in the money-saving details of our recent trip, feel free to move on!  Monday you got the vacation recovery post, Wednesday you got the oh-man-that-was-fun post, and today you're getting.....

A Trip to Holland's Trip to Florida on a Budget

First, I have some 'splainin to do.  (Say that like Ricki Ricardo from I Love Lucy.)

The Bionic Man and I really, really like to travel.  We've made it a priority to try to see as many different places as we can, since we've been married.  And, we've made it a priority to take our children along with us to most of those places.  It does cost money to travel.  While we aren't financial brainiacs, we have made travel a priority in our budget.  

How do we do that?

The Cure for the Common Cold

As I mentioned the other day, I discovered the cure for the common cold on a beach in Destin, Florida, last week.  We spent most of our spring break there, and it was sooooo nice to get away from the Midwestern chill for a few days.  

Here are some of the pics from our trip.  I didn't take along my shiny, new camera for this trip, because I was a little nervous about sand and water.  Instead, Bionic Man brought along his trusty (NOT!  SO NOT!) waterproof camera.  You know how I feel about that camera.  I let Bionic Man take most of the pictures, this time, because of my grudge with his camera.  So, enjoy these pics in all of their blue-date-in-the-corner glory.  And remember, Bionic Man mostly takes pictures of feats of engineering and nature, so any humans included are lucky to be there.

Speaking of feats of engineering, our first stop was at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Lost and Found

Lost: simple, thick wedding/anniversary band.  Given to me on our 10th wedding anniversary by the Bionic Man.  It is tungsten, which means it is shiny, almost black, and extremely cool.  Tungsten is the strongest metal known to man, which means it doesn't scratch.  Perfect anniversary gift.  Discovered it was missing at a rest stop in Franklin, Tennessee.  Don't remember taking it off.  (I never take it off!)  I'm distraught.  Praying I will find it in my luggage.

Found:  the sweater I didn't think I had packed.  In the luggage.  There is hope for the ring, isn't there?

Lost:  the horrible chest cold I had when we left on our spring break vacation.  It is almost completely gone, poof!

Found:  the cure for the common cold!  The medicinal properties of lying on a beach have not been sufficiently studied.  I tell you, all it took was a day lying in the warm sun on a Florida beach for me to feel like a new woman.  Stuffy nose and cough, gone.  {snaps fingers}  Like that!  Next time I get sick, I'm ditching the Mucinex and going to the beach, instead.

Meet Me in St. Louis: the Details

Our recent trip to St. Louis was one of our easiest and least expensive family vacations ever.  Considering how close we live to St. Louis (it's about a 4 hour drive), I've been surprised at how few of my local friends and neighbors have ever taken the opportunity to enjoy it.  I don't think I've ever visited a city that had so many free activities for families.

This is what we chose to do on this trip, and how much it cost:

Day 1: The City Museum $12 admission +$6 additional admission to aquarium.  We were there from open to close.

Day 2: The St. Lou Zoo FREE admission to the main zoo.  Some activities (children's zoo & petting area, the carousel, etc.) had an additional cost, but were free for the first hour the zoo was open.  We made sure we got there early, and fit in all those activities while they were free.

Day 3: The Saint Louis Science Center  FREE admission to the main museum.  Some activities within the museum do have an additional charge.  This time, we skipped those.   

*Hotel: Springhill Inn & Suites  FREE, included breakfast buffet, swimming pool, and fitness room.  Our room had two queen beds and a sitting area with a full-size couch bed, along with a kitchen sink, microwave, and small fridge/freezer.
*Generally, when we do a non-camping vacation like this, we cash in our Marriott Rewards and stay at Marriotts.  The Bionic Man's company allows him to use points he earns during business travel with hotel or airfare programs for personal travel.  He usually has enough points from business travel to allow us to stay for free at the lower-grade Marriotts (i.e., Fairfield Inns or other Marriott hotels that aren't in high-end locations) several times a year.  If you have a husband who has to travel, I recommend that you look into doing something similar.  We've stayed in Marriotts all over the country, and I haven't yet stayed in a Marriott that wasn't clean to the point of being pristine.  They have free breakfasts with lots of healthy choices, too.

Food: I brought a lot of finger foods and sandwich fixings with us.  Since breakfast was included in our hotel stay, we made sure everyone filled up in the morning.  We picked up frozen meals for dinners at a grocery store, and ate them in our hotel room.  One night, we went to an Italian restaurant for Superkid's birthday dinner.  Because we arrived early to each of our daily activities, we could park very near the entrances, and just went out to grab lunch items that we kept in a cooler in our car. 

We planned this trip around our children's fall break from school.  We left on a Wednesday, when the Bionic Man got home from work, and returned on a Saturday evening.  The weather was perfect: warm enough to be able to enjoy the outdoors, cool enough that it was pleasant.  It didn't seem like the kids in St. Louis had fall break at the same time we did, judging by the lack of crowds.  I've found, over the years, that some of our best family vacations have been quick little trips like this one that we manage to fit in during the workweek, rather than on a weekend.  It just makes such a huge difference in our level of enjoyment when we don't have to fight the crowds.

Guess which song I could not get out of my head during this trip?

Meet Me in St. Louis

I told you a little bit already about our recent trip to St. Louis, Missouri...and what I wore while we were there {sheepish grin}.  Everyone knows about the Gateway Arch, there, but since we saw that recently on one of our cross-country drives to Utah, we skipped it this time.  There were so many great options of what to do in St. Lou, we had to choose the things that we wanted to do the most, this time.  If I were to plan this trip knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done the City Museum first.  The kids had so much fun there that everything afterwards was a let down--including the zoo, which has earned the rank of America's #1 Zoo--and about an hour into each successive day, they would ask if they could go back to the City Museum.

Since the City Museum was by far the highlight of our trip, and words just can't describe that place, here is the photo tour.  (Sorry about the big blue date, I too lazy to edit all of these photos.)

We'll begin with the museum's exterior.  This is what you see when you approach the entrance:

The City Museum was designed by artist/entrepreneur Bob Cassilly, who basically took an old, downtown shoe factory and transformed it into an amazing place for children and adults to play--using architectural salvage, old pieces of construction equipment, and junk.  Let me tell you, this place is wild.

We went up to the roof, first, and enjoyed the morning sunshine and the fact that we were the only people up there.

 Yes, they made that bus look like it is going to drive off of the 12 story building!

 Justone and Endeavor climbing up the inside of a water tower.

 Endeavor chickened out, but Justone kept climbing.....

....all the way to the top, where he could mess around in this cage thing suspended on the ceiling.

The view from the ferris wheel--which, incidentally, was the fastest spinning ferris wheel I've ever encountered.

Notice how I don't have many pictures of Justone?  It's because he was too busy having the time of his life to stop and pose for pictures.  This place was like a boy's dreamscape.

So, yes, this isn't exactly a place were they worry about law suits.  You pretty much participate at your own risk.  But I didn't find anything to be too extreme--we've definitely taken our kids to recreate in higher-risk locations (hello, Mt. Timpanogas).   This sign was at the top of a 10 story spiral slide.

The Bionic Man heroically tried the slide first.  And climbed all the way back up to tell the children how much fun it had been. 

At the bottom of the slides, you enter an absolutely amazing world of man-made caves and tunnels.  Unfortunately, the realistic lighting made it really hard to take pictures.  But trust me, the caves were awesome.  We spent hours exploring.

 Then, still inside the museum, we went on a train ride, visited the circus and an aquarium,

played in a skate park without skates,

 and climbed up into trees and down out of the belly of a whale.

 Then we went back outside for more fun and climbing and huge slides.

Honestly, this place defies description.  You just have to visit, someday.  And when you do, let us know so that we can meet you there!

A Few Things I want to Share

1.  You know how I said I was completely swamped?  I'm still swamped.  The much needed TLC my house needs?  Haven't been able to give it yet, not even scratch the surface.  Why am I telling you this, instead of doing something about it?  Probably because misery loves company.  And I'm behind anyway.  And I'm very practiced in the art of procrastination.

2.  Just to confess and relieve my guilty conscious, despite everything I need to get done around my house, I managaed to find time yesterday to finish my book club book, North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell.  It's a book best read when the house is quiet (that Victorian dialogue requires undivided attention), but I loved it.  Mrs. Gaskell is a new favorite; I love her books even more than I love the BBC movie adaptations of her books.  If you don't have time for a difficult read, go find these adaptions:  North and South, Wives and Daughters, and Cranford.  (I found them for you, here.)  Watch them with tissues! 

3.  Somehow--don't ask me how, mostly it involves long stories you won't be interested in--I have myself scheduled to do the following over the next three days:  plan and host a cub scout pack meeting at my house, chaparone the fourth grade field trip, and single-handedly throw the first grade fall party. How and why I have myself signed up for all these things remains a mystery, even to me.

4.  Last week our schools had fall break.  The Bionic Man took time off from work, and we took the children on a surprise trip to St. Louis.  I packed in secret so they wouldn't suspect a thing, and the Bionic Man went into great detail about all the jobs he had for them to do during fall break.  They were thrilled to find themselves in St. Louis, instead.  Have you ever surprised your family this way?  I don't know if we'll ever get away with it again, but it was certainly fun to pull off.  I'll go into more detail on our trip another day, because there are great times to be had in St. Louis: it is a fantastically family-friendly city, with many free or low-cost activities.  Our children said that this place was better than Disney World. 

5.  Umm....did you catch that?  My children said something was better than Disney World?  That is the most incredible recommendation EVER, considering that we were sent to Disney World for Superkid's Make a Wish trip.  At Disney World, those children did not wait in a single line, got front row seating at every show, and special attention from everyone they encountered--from Tinkerbell to Buzz Lightyear.  If my children say something is more fun than Disney World, you'd better find out quick what it is.  In this case, it was also cheaper than Disney World.

6.  Remind me to tell you about our Make a Wish trip, sometime.  We are forever indebted to the Wish Foundation.  They really do know how to make wishes come true.

7.  And, while we are on the topic of good things.....Superkid did see a neurologist last week, and we definitely got some effective help, there.  The neurologist knew of a non-habit forming antihistamine that has proven to be really helpful for young children who suffer from migraines.  I'm so grateful!  We've had a week free of migraines since Superkid started taking it, despite all the migraine triggers that are par for the course with family vacations (motion of the car, late nights, change in diet, etc.).  That is HUGE!  I am thrilled.

8.  I made beef and vegetable soup last night, with whole wheat sourdough bread.  I even made a pumpkin-gingerbread pie for dessert.  I felt completely heroic, considering I also had bread rising on the countertop, had made all the phone calls I needed to, loaded the dishwasher, gone grocery shopping, survived a tornado (there is a trampoline on a garage roof just down the street), AND finished reading my book club book!  Apparently, I'm accomplished, but lacking in humility.  Lest you think me a paragon of domestic capability (that Victorian dialogue sucks me in every time) I shall inform you that there is a pile of unfolded laundry in my bedroom soon to be listed as the highest point of elevation in Indiana, and the pie was a mix I found at Aldi.

9.  I hereby promise to share my recipe for whole wheat sourdough bread with you very soon, because--guess what?--you can make it in your bread machine and you don't need to use a sourdough starter.  

10.  Superkid's official birthday was on Saturday.  She's 7 now.  Wow.  Today, while I was straightening up around the house, I found a little birthday card addressed to her.  It had been handmade by one of the children in her Sunday school class.  The outside of the card read, "Happy Birthday Superkid!" and was decorated with colorful balloons, party hats, and a cake.  Opening the card, I found a very detailed drawing inside: a hillside covered with flowers, and two stick figures.  It looked like there was a doorway into the hillside, with a big rock next to it.  The little artist who had drawn this picture had carefully labeled everything.  An arrow pointing to the flowers said "flowers".  An arrow pointing to the stick girl said, "Superkid".  Another arrow pointed to the stick man, "Jesus." And a fourth arrow identified the hill as "tombstone."  There were instructions: "Color it."  The very best part?  Next to the large letters that spelled "Happy Birthday Superkid" was the speech bubble coming from Jesus.  He was saying, "COME FORTH Superkid!"  Not to lesson the sweet, child-like faith of the little artist, but I had a good laugh over that one.  Isn't that the perfect birthday card?  Hallmark, take note!  Forget all the over the hill business, I say we go with, "You may be another year older, but you've got resurrection to look forward to.  Happy Birthday!"

11.  A friend stopped by with her little boy yesterday for a short visit.  Hunter the dog looked extremely disappointed when they departed.  I felt so sorry for him that, as our friends walked down the sidewalk, I lifted Hunter's paw up so that he could "wave" to them.  In the middle of helping my dog wave bye-bye, I realized that I was helping my dog wave bye-bye.  It's not like Hunter is some kind of little pomeranian....the dog weighs 50 lbs.....and I'm waving his paw?  It was a shocking moment.  I've become one of those people, apparently, who treats their dog more like a child than a dog.  Luckily, I don't know how to knit, so you don't have to worry about seeing me and the dog wearing matching sweaters. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go sew Hunter's Halloween costume. 

How to Have a Family Reunion

You may have noticed I've been rehashing the events of our summertime road trip for the week.  The last day of our time in Utah was spent at the Kitchen Family Reunion.  The Kitchens are one side of the Bionic Man's family, and boy-oh-boy do they know how to reunite!

This is the first Kitchen reunion the Bionic Man and I have been able to attend in thirteen years.  The last reunion I went to was also my first.  I went along as the Bionic Man's girlfriend, and had so much fun that I decided I should marry into the family.  I think it is pretty impressive to be able to throw reunions that actually bring people into the family, not scare them off!

So, when we were able to attend this year, I took notes.  Happily, I am willing to share some of the things I learned.

1.  Location, location, location.  Don't stress about it.   Find a place that is close the majority of attendees that will fit the size of the crowd.  In this case, it is the church gym nearby Grandpa Kitchen's home.  The reunions used to be in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard, but that became hard on them as they grew older.  The church is free, air-conditioned, and has plenty of space and restrooms.  Everyone had a good time, despite the lack of a lake or roller coaster or resort.  The attendees packed a lot of fun into a few hours, which eliminated the need for planning sleeping arrangements and multiple meals.

2.  Plan Activities.  Despite the lack of lakes, roller coasters, or resort, there was plenty of fun to be had.  Much planning had obviously gone into creating activities for a wide variety of age groups.  There were activity stations set up around the gym that children and adults could participate in to earn "Kitchen Bucks."  (The bucks could be used later on at the auction.)  These activities included brain teasers, crafts, service projects (like tying baby blankets for needy families, here),

and just plain old fashioned fun.  One of the most popular game stations was this one, where kids could use shaving cream and craft sticks to give each other a "shave".

3.  Share family history.  It didn't take a long speech or slide show to offer a taste of family history.  There were several display tables set up so that we could take a look at pieces of our history.  Old family videos were playing continuously on a nearby television, so we could stop and enjoy those, too.

4.  Celebrate your family heritage.  One of my favorite things about this reunion was the way the entire Kitchen clan chose to celebrate the life of their matriarch, Grandma Kitchen.  Grandma died last spring, so this was the first reunion without her.  Instead of speaking of her in subdued voices, the Kitchens had fun remembering Grandma.  The aunts brought in all of Grandmas old clothes and wigs, including some of the things her daughters had worn that had been in storage at her house.

Anyone could have fun trying them on and posing for pictures.  Here are three of the granddaughters, dressed as Grandma at different stages of her life.  Everyone had a good laugh and enjoyed seeing how much they looked like Grandma.

Grandpa had also brought Grandma's stuffed animal collection to the reunion.  Each animal had a tag with a number on it, and the grandchildren and great grandchildren got to draw numbers and get their very own stuffed animal from the collection to take home with them.  You can imagine what a hit that was.

 

5.  Make and Keep Traditions.  The Kitchens have found a fun and memorable tradition for their family reunions.  Everyone who attends brings along a few things from their homes that they are ready to part with.  Grandpa had a number of things from his home, keepsake items that he was ready for others to enjoy.  These items were all "sold" for the Kitchen Bucks that we earned participating in the games and activities earlier in the day.  The miscellaneous items were sold at the Kitchen Store, and the big-ticket items were sold at an auction.  Let me tell you, the auction was hilarious.  Only fake money was involved, and all that could be earned right there at the reunion, via participation.

My children thought this was absolutely marvelous.  They were ready to buy out the store.  The Bionic Man and I had to keep trying to sneak things back into the store, because we really didn't have that much room to carry junk treasures back across the country with us.  I got into some trouble at the store, myself, when I saw several of boxes of vintage fabric and sewing patterns, like this one.

The Bionic Man would not let me take home a box of fabric.  So I just took half a box.  See those cute prints on top?  Anyone have any ideas for what I can make?

6.  Enjoy Being a Family.  It was delightful to catch up with the Bionic Man's aunts and uncles and cousins.  The activities were well planned, but there was plenty of time to visit and enjoy one another, too.  There is a wonderful spirit about the Kitchen Family.  I think it is so beautiful to see the good fruits born of seeds sown many years ago by a young couple who chose to be firm in their faith and family.  I am grateful to have joined the Kitchen Clan by marriage, and look forward to many more reunions.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Part 2

Fun with Family

Because I tend to get too busy having fun, and forget to take pictures, we don't have photographic records of spending time with all of our cousins and family members.  We let Aunt Kris handle that on the Bionic side of the family, and on my side of the family....well....we have lots of happy memories stored in our brains.  My side of the family is genetically incapable of remembering to take pictures at family events.  But the few good ones I got, I'm posting.

One of the things we love to do when we visit out west is make a trip or two to Uncle Boyd and Aunt Lena's farm.  This is the view from Boyd and Lena's front porch.

 They have horses, which my girls just love.

Better yet, they have an Aunt Lena who lets them ride those horses.  Aunt Lena trains and sells horses, and she's very good at that.  She's also good at helping kids learn to ride.  

Besides horses, Aunt Lena and Uncle Boyd have boys.  Four of 'em.  Justone likes them more than he likes the horses.

When you are a boy with no brothers who lives in the 'burbs, it is very, very, very exciting to visit your cousins who live in the country, because they introduce you to things like sand surfin'.

Justone was in heaven.

We like to visit our cousins that live in the city, too.  They don't have horses, but they do have Ikea.

 We had lots of fun at Ikea with them, and luckily didn't lose anyone for more than 15 minutes.

I've noticed over the last few years that Poppy and Grandma are quite wiley when it comes to avoiding photographs.  So I made a point of getting a few of them before we left.  Here's a fun one with Poppy and a couple cousins.

And some cute ones with Grandma, too.

Since our little Lily is buried in Utah, near where my parents live, we make several trips to the cemetery during our summertime visits.  My children love to put flowers and special rocks on Lily's grave, and explore the cemetery.  They consider it a vacation highlight when the sprinklers are on near Lily's headstone when we stop by, and they get to run through the sprinklers at the cemetery.  (The cemetery is not exactly a place of quiet contemplation when we are there.)  I realized I didn't have pictures of Lily's headstone, so I took some this time.

(The strange stripe on it is me trying to practice internet safety.  Thanks for understanding.)

The Bionic Man and I tried to take advantage of free and frequent babysitting while we were there.

Ha, ha, ha!  I just read that again and thought I should make a clarification.  We like to take advantage of the free and frequent babysitting we can get while we are in Utah visiting family, NOT while we are at the cemetery.  That would be a great story, though.  

By the way, if any of you thought that view from my brother's farm looks familiar, there is a good reason.  Here it is again:

 Now take a look at this:

And this:

Then go vote for Pedro

because prolly the awesomest  thing about Preston, Idaho (other than being the place where my brother and his family live) is that it was the location for Napoleon Dynamite.  (I threw that in just for Sarah, who will appreciate it.)

Hey, Napoleon. What did you do last summer again?
I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines! 

Did you shoot any?
Yes, like 50 of 'em! They kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that?