Roadtrip Recap

We got to Times Square at 11:30 pm Friday night and it was nuts. There were people wearing nothing but paint, people wearing costumes, what seemed like 300 motorcycles decked out with neon lights, and a construction barricade in front of the Marriott entrance. Mac and I’ve been to New York many times, but when you go with your kids, you see things you’ve never seen before…Aside from a little public nudity (Ford doesn’t like clothes either these days, so he felt right at home), this trip was the most awesome thing our family’s ever done together. We came home with no regrets and lots of good memories. My friends have been asking if it was horrible traveling that long with everyone in tow, but honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how well our kids adapted to the gypsy life. If only we’d bought a go-pro to film it all. 

Driving into Time's Square at 11:00 pm

MC didn't know much about American Girls, but she was still excited to see the store!

Taking a picnic break in Central Park. They loved the "freedom."

Our first stop was Tuesday, August 5th in Charlotte, NC.  Mac spent the week working with Lowe’s (the kids and I played with friends). At the end of the week, we moved on to Washington DC and saw all the obvious attractions. Monday morning, we made our way up HWY 1 to West Chester, PA and Mac worked most of the week at QVC while we did some damage at the King of Prussia mall, took a field trip to Philly, etc…Thursday, we headed over to NJ for dinner with friends, followed by a late night cannon-ball (pun intended) into the heart of Manhattan, NY. A total of 1600 miles, 11 days, 25 Starbucks stops, five hotels, and a BFF’s house…and we hit our trip’s midpoint. 

We were on the road for up to eight hours at a time, with two to four day breaks in between, so we took great lengths to keep ourselves from going mad.  We stopped along the way and played at nice looking playgrounds, made a couple of Target runs to replenish snacks and coloring books (we had an iPad, but no DVD player). There were a few ‘chinese red light’ drills (except they were more like pull over on the side of a country road, get out, run across the grass, touch the corn, run back to the car, and buckle up again); and I don’t feel bad about letting Ford take off his clothes to streak around Duke’s campus for 20 minutes. I mean, a boy’s gotta do what a boy’s gotta do! 

98% of the time everybody was happy, but we had some issues too. Moms, you know the feeling. You want your kids to act like sweet girls and boys, not wild animals, right? I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure mine remember their good manners in public. However, sometimes they just couldn't remember anything from mommy's etiquette bootcamp. 

Our friends are kind of a big deal in the food world. So, when we went to dinner at their house, I wanted to make sure the kids were on their best behavior. That went well. The second we got there, Ford stripped…all but naked and MC made it clear that she only likes her dog and not anyone else’s. They continued their streak by eating NOTHING- No watermelon, no chicken, no veggies, not even Marge's special mac n’ cheese. I thought we were grateful southern boys and girls who “get what we get and don’t pitch a fit!!!” Needless to say, I was mortified. Watching Marge scrape her perfectly baked cheesy pasta out of her beautiful little Le Creuset dishes, into the trash, made me want to jump in a sewer and suffer for a while. Thank goodness Beeland was obsessed with David and he was obsessed with her, so it wasn’t so bad when she insisted on baptism by dog bowl water! Wow. 

It’s good to be surrounded by friends who are gracious, understanding, supportive, and who love our kids so well…even if they are a bunch of toddlers. I learned so much about myself and about our family on this trip. We were a good team the last two weeks. I fell in love with the four of them all over and call me crazy, but I’d do it again in a ’New York second.’ (Just give me six months, several massages, a few dozen bottles of wine, and several date nights, sans children.) 

We could not have done this trip without a few major players… Marriott, for their awesome service and for literally being an extension of our family; BOB strollers, for allowing us to get around easily with our sturdy single jogger (yes it can take three kids at the same time, 14 days in a row), and GMC for their awesome, comfortable, and roomy 2015 Yukon XL…the features kind of blew my mind. 

Over the next few posts, I’ll be sharing some tips for traveling with multiple kids (from our mistakes) as well as ideas on pit-stops, do’s/don’ts, where to eat, how to get around a big city, etc…