Travel Tips

Archive for the ‘Travel Tips’ Category

Over the River and Through the Woods

November 23rd, 2008 by bsmith | 3 Comments | Filed in Road Trips, Travel Tips, Uncategorized

This week we have a treat…my dear friend Joanne Smith has provided a guest blog. Joanne was my first internet friend. We “met” on a Parent Center board during the 72 hours that I was on bed rest when I was pregnant with my son Justin. Looking back, I’m very grateful for that little episode. It gave me the chance to meet Joanne who has been a faithful friend and mommy mentor for almost ten years!
Joanne lives in Montana now, and I have asked her to contribute some blogs to give my blog a more nationwide perspective. This week she has a great tip for surviving long distance car trips.

It’s the holidays and many of us will take our kids home to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. From my home in the corner of Northwest Montana, everywhere is a long way to go and it’s also expensive to get there. We rarely fly as a family because individual tickets cost well over $300 and require at least one layover. The Amtrak stops nearby but spending 12-16 hours overnight sitting up on the train with two kids isn’t exactly my idea of a good time either and to upgrade to a family room costs as much as the flight and in that case I’d take the shorter flight over the train in a heartbeat.

This is why we travel by car more often than not. My brother lives in central Oregon and my husband has an aunt that lives in the Tri City area of Washington, so when we make the trip to Oregon for the holidays we can spend the night at almost exactly the halfway point for free. In the car, we let the kids watch DVD’s on our computer, listen to their MP3 players and play their handheld video games too, but their favorite thing to do is listen to a book on tape. That’s right; you read that correctly, we listen to kid’s books on tape. From Harry Potter, to an Alaskan adventure we’re going to be in the car for 24 hours over 4 days going and coming, so why not listen to an adventure? The book is always better than the movie and it doesn’t take much time to convince your kids that’s true either. I’ll never forget stopping for gas and my son asking if we had to turn the car off because he was more interested in listening to the story than stopping for a snack, taking a bathroom break and stretching his legs.

Before you pack up, head to your local library and find a great book or two to share. Or, if you’re like me, save some time by hitting the library internet catalog and reserving a few.

Once you arrive at your destination, especially if you’re in the middle of a chapter or book when you arrive, Don’t be surprised to find your kids asking when you’re leaving or going to the store, anything to get back in the car to finish the story. So enjoy a holiday trip to visit family and get your own family caught up in a good book in the process.

Thanks Joanne! Have a safe trip this Thanksgiving. We look forward to reading about your next adventure.

For those of you who may be in the San Diego area over the holidays, please think about purchasing my Unauthorized Legoland Guidebook. You can choose from a light slim volume that can accompany you on your Legoland Adventure or an affordable e-book version. Just click on the link on the main page for ordering info.

Happy Trails,

Bridget

God Watches Over Us When We are Away From Home

November 17th, 2008 by bsmith | 1 Comment | Filed in Travel Tips, Uncategorized

Sometimes, reflections on family travel come from an unexpected source! My little ones are doing a great preschool program at church and this week they were studying Daniel. The theme was “God Watches Over Us When We Are Away From Home”. As my four year old and I discussed her “homework” she pointed out to me that travel can be scary. It is hard to sleep in a strange bed in a dark place. It was comforting to her to be reminded by her teacher that God is with her, even when she is away from home.

This discussion got me thinking about the presence of God in our family vacations. Our family tries to be devout. We say grace before meals and attend church on Sundays, but when we head off on vacation sometimes these devotions start to slip. Yet, as Destiny reminded me, perhaps these are the moments when our family needs God the most.

You may be on the road on Sunday and the thought of preschoolers at a Saturday evening mass or service makes your toes curl. I am a big fan of visiting churches with preschoolers when no one is there! We sneak into church, look at the statues and windows, talk about Jesus and God, and say at least one little prayer.

Perhaps you can find a church with lively music or a rich history that your older child will appreciated. We are lucky here in California to have missions throughout the state. When the kids are older I am looking forward to attending mass in most of them. Not only are they beautiful, but they give us rich insight into our historical past.

If visiting friends or family ask around for the more kid friendly churches in town. Even with the best of intentions you may not make it through the whole mass or service (I have needed to walk out when I was by myself with two unruly toddlers). Still, you have showed your children that you value being with God and are willing to make the effort to be at church.

My husband’s family has a sweet tradition where they start out major road trips with a guardian angel prayer. In the future, I plan to be more intentional about including prayer throughout our vacation day: remembering to say grace in a restaurant, praying to St. Anthony when we are lost (which is often), and thanking God for the beauty and wonder of our journey at the end of the day.

Destiny and Jared’s church school material recommended bringing a Bible on vacation to remind your child that God is with them when they are away from home. I think this is a great idea, and also think that a smaller religious symbol, a cross, small statue, or holy medal might do the trick and be easier to carry.

My final thought on this is that God really does watch over us when we are away from home. Continuing to have a relationship him while we travel can really enrich our experience. Most of my international traveling was done as a teenager and young adult. As a teenager I spent the summer in Venezuela. My family may have been Catholic, but they never went to church. I was somewhat isolated where I lived and didn’t go out and find a mass to attend. I was lonely and missed that spiritual connection during my time away. The next time I went abroad as a college student I purposely requested a family who actively attended church. Going to church in a foreign country and learning the mass responses in a foreign language enriched my experience beyond measure. There were times that were tough. I missed my fiance. My grades weren’t the greatest. I was ready to give up. What kept me going was lots of prayer and a dose of daily mass now and again. A friend of mine who studied church history and I visited different churches throughout Santiago, Chile. I loved seeing the differences in the physical buildings and the cultures of the church community. A visit to a peaceful Franciscan Monastary is also a treasured memory.

So as you begin your next family adventure, share with your child that God watches over them when they are away from home. Try to find some spiritual moments in the midst of all that fun. Your adventure will be richer for it.

Happy Trails,

Bridget

Tags: Catholic, Catholic travel, church, faith, Family Travel, parenting

Don’t Forget Your Shoes!

September 13th, 2008 by bsmith | 4 Comments | Filed in Travel Tips

: The Unauthorized Guide to Legoland California

Look closely at the gorgeous picture of my family with the panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean in the background. Did you notice something unusual? Yes, sheepishly I admit that my husband Ken showed up to take this very important picture without his shoes! In our haste to rendezvous with our photographer Brian Stringfellow and take a great picture before the sun set, Ken had hustled the kids in the car and driven half way across town before noticing that he had forgotten his shoes.

Call our family products of this laid back Southern California lifestyle, but this is not the first time this has happened. Once we made it all the way to the San Diego Wild Animal Park before discovering that we had only packed one shoe for our toddler, Jared! Luckily we found an extra pair of big sister’s sandals in the car that somehow fit Jared’s chubby feet. Thank goodness two year old boys think that wearing someone else’s pink flower sandals is cool.

The point of this little story, is that one of the keys to family travel is being prepared. If you are kind enough to purchase my newly released publication The Unauthorized Legoland Guidebook, be sure to check out the What to Bring section. This will save you from purchasing $14 beach towels and $3 bottles of water! Next time I stop by Legoland, I’ll have to see whether the Big Shop sells shoes. I’ll let you know what I find out.

What’s the funniest thing that you have ever forgotten to bring on vacation?

Happy Trails,

Bridget