By Train or By Mule...

I have to admit...I've been pretty busy lately and planning for our cross country road trip has kind of fallen off my radar. Time to get back to it!

image via Grand Canyon Railway

One stop I did research a bit is the Grand Canyon. We won't have a lot of time there (just one day), so I really do have to be strategic about itinerary. Otherwise we'll probably spend 10% of our time at scenic overlooks and 90% wandering around gift shops and looking for somewhere to eat lunch.

From what I've read, the South Rim seems like our best bet for limited time. While it will definitely be crowded with summer tourists - we'll fit right in! I actually don't mind the idea of being part of a crowd. We'll need someone to take a family picture of us. And it would be good to have other people around if one of my kids falls in.

The night before, I think we definitely have to stay at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ.

image via Wigwam Motel

This does not require explanation. I have kids...we'll be driving by a motel with rooms shaped like wigwams... DONE. This is a great option for a "cheap" hotel stay at $56/night for one queen bed and $62 for two doubles. But really, you had me at "wigwam."

Then we'll have one full day for the Grand Canyon. If we decide to stay in Williams, AZ (60 miles south of the South Rim), we COULD take a train via the Grand Canyon Railway.

image via mygrandcanyonpark.com

This is pretty pricey...even the cheap seats aren't in the budget for us. But I have to at least dream-plan for it, as Oliver has been obsessed with trains since he was two and decided that Thomas and Friends was no longer terrifying.

If you are inclined to splurge... The cost varies depending on class. The Pullman Car sounds like the best deal to me. It's the lowest price (round trip: $65 for adults and $29 for kids) and you get to ride in a refurbished 1923 Harriman style coach car. The cars "feature seats that flip so families can face each other, and windows that open to let in that good ol’ country air. A Passenger Service Attendant is available to share the train’s history with passengers, and help plan a fantastic Grand Canyon stay. Western entertainers are also on board to serenade passengers along the way to and from the canyon." I couldn't find anything about how many Pullman cars there are. Since you have to purchase tickets for specific days and there is only one departure and return train each day (see below), I would guess that those tickets sell out. The question is...how far in advance? There are six different ticket options, the most expensive is $219 per person (no lower price for kids). Full details are on the Train Rates page.

A one-way ride lasts about two hours and 15 minutes. The train departs Williams at 9:30 a.m. The return train leaves the Grand Canyon at 3:30. So a day trip involving the train would only allow you about four hours to explore. If we were able to take the train, I would consider staying overnight and then coming back the following morning. (Don't you love how I just spent half this post on something we probably can't afford? Time to start checking Groupon...)

And can we talk about how The Grand Canyon Railway's website is THETRAIN.COM? How did they do that?? Must have bought their domain around the time Jenny set up her jennifer@gmail.com account.

Moving on... However we get to the Grand Canyon - what SHALL we do there?

As I mentioned, I think we'll stick with the South Rim, tourist invasion notwithstanding. The view is the whole point of the trip, so I'd like to spend as much time as possible on that. In looking up "day hikes", I found a number of websites, all offering similar lists. This is great since I don't want to scroll through hundreds of options - but if you want the longest "short list" of South Rim trails, I suggest this one.

We are definitely looking for an easy one. We don't have a lot of time and we want to do a lot during the few days we're in Arizona. I do not need kids crying about blisters as I drag them through Sedona. We may just stick with "Rim Trail" hiking. It's a paved trail that runs along the South Rim for 13 miles. And there are shuttle stops along it, so we wouldn't have to gauge how far we've walked and when we should turn back.

Not very adventurous...but there will be tons of hiking opportunities in Oregon; and we'll be there for almost a week. This day trip to the Grand Canyon is more of a photo-op jaunt than anything else.

But if we DO decide to add some hoopla... We could do a three-hour Canyon Vistas Mule Ride!

image via Xanterra Parks & Resorts

I know - I said there was no way I would be riding mules (actually, I said "donkeys" - after some research and an e-mail from my Dad, I stand corrected)... Now that I'm 100% committed to drinking the American tourist Kool-Aid though, I think that mules sound like a hoot. They also sound expensive (approximately $135 per person), so this may be filed with the train under "That Would Have Been Fun."

If we were to saddle up some mules... It looks Xanterra is the only company that offers mules rides for the the area we plan to visit. And I've done at least two Google searches - so this must be true (clearly, I am kidding - feel free to correct me in a comment). Grand Canyon National Park Lodges (part of Xanterra Parks & Resorts) does a four-mile, three-hour mule ride (two-hours in the saddle) along a new East Rim Trail. Departure is five miles east of Grand Canyon Village, so I assume people who took the train up would have to catch a shuttle bus. The site says that "wranglers will stop six times along the trail to provide interpretive information about the geologic formations, human history, fire ecology and more." The mules depart at 8:00 a.m., making this an option only for tourists staying nearby (or very early risers). Even if we did budget for mule rides, I'm not sure we could swing it time-wise.

Why all of the sudden interest in mules? My Dad sent me this:

"Attached is a photo of your Grandmother (Olive) and her 3 children (including me!) going down the Grand Canyon  to stay overnight at Phantom Ranch on the Colorado River in 1956. As you can see, we rode sure-footed mules (not donkeys). Interestingly, the man who owns the zebras I've had my photos taken on, trains the mules that they now use. (My mother is second from the bottom. I'm in the first pith helmet up the line, Uncle Dick is in the second pith helmet with Uncle Burke just before him.)

Our two and a half month road trip took us to most of the places you have mentioned. My longevity on the planet has taken me to all the others on your list. We, too, did not camp. And at most of the places, we stayed with relatives or college friends of my mother's.

What you are doing this summer and hopefully in the summers to come is a priceless gift for Oliver, George and Eleanor. I know... because I was that 13 year old boy in the pith helmet."

Then I wiped a tear and cried, "I want to ride a donkey-I-mean-mule!"

I don't know if we'll ride a train or mules or neither - but I am pretty excited to repeat family history in some small way. If Grandma Olive drove three kids across the country, so can I!

As always - I would LOVE to hear your personal experiences in travel. Feel free to comment or e-mail me at kate@mamadontcamp.com with tips, links, advice and anything else that you think would be helpful!

The City (Winter Edition)

One of my favorite cities - really, my favorite city (shhhh! don't tell DC!) - is New York City. 

I spent a lot of time there while growing up, and there was no question of where I wanted to go to college. I moved back to DC after graduation, but I never missed an opportunity to go up to stay with friends. Even today, I would move there in a minute (a New York minute!) if that was in the least bit practical for my family (which it is not).

Here are two thoughts (of many) that I have about New York City. First - people who live there or in the surrounding areas refer to it as "The City." People in New Jersey don't go to New York to see a show, the go to The City. People in Long Island don't go to New York City to meet a friend for dinner, they go to The City. It's like there are millions of cities all over the world, but New York City is THE city.

Second - New Yorkers are not rude or mean or unpleasant in any way. Or at least no more so than people in other cities. If someone is super rude to you when you ask for directions, they are not real New Yorkers. They are people from other places who moved to The City. Born and raised New Yorkers are some of the friendliest most helpful people I have ever met. Especially when it comes to telling you about their city. A perfect example of this would be the many times that my subway train was re-routed and I had to figure out how to get from somewhere like the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side for my weekend brunch shift. I only had to spend a minute or two examining the subway map (which to the uninitiated, looks something like a map of the vascular system of a human arm) before someone would ask me if I needed help. I would sometimes attract a crowd of New Yorkers competing for who could give me the best directions. And they could never just say "take this train to that stop, and then transfer to this train." They'd be all, "you COULD blah blah blah OR you could blah blah blah, but your BEST BET is to blah blah blah." This was somewhat problematic since I would inevitably just get all of the directions confused. Why couldn't they just tell the best bet!? Confusing or not, I love me some friendly option-giving New Yorkers!

But back to the point of this post (yes I have one!). For a while now I've been dreaming of taking my kids to The City. Sure - it wouldn't be anything like the long lunches, shopping and bar hopping of yore. But one of my favorite things to do in NYC is absolutely kid friendly. I wanted to take them to see all of the holiday decorations. The gigantic tree and ice skaters in Rockefeller Center...the window displays a few blocks away at Saks Fifth Avenue...the smell of roasting chestnuts... They would love it!

Luckily, I have family that lives just outside NYC in NJ. So we could easily plan a day trip while visiting them. Long story short (yes - I can do that sometimes), our day in The City wasn't quite what I had hoped. I forgot how crowded all of those places with holiday decorations can get. Probably because it's much easier to zip through crowds as a single person than as a mother with three children in tow. For the most part, it was a lot of getting crushed in crowds – but I still loved it! And my kids found their OWN favorite thing to do there. Here is a recap in haphazard iPhone pictures:

The kids got to take their very first train ride!

We could see the tree at Rockefeller Center if we stood on our tippy toes and the ice skaters if we peeked through gaps in the crowd.

We even got a family picture (thank you friendly New Yorkers!).  Of course two of us are rocking the double chin look big time and the only scenery behind us appears to be a the draped private area of a statue...but we’re ALL in the picture!

We tried to look at the holiday windows at Saks, but it was a bust. I remembered magical fantasy displays with moving figures and some kind of narrative that unfolds as you view each window. This year it was white evening gowns and crystals. Pretty - but the kids were bored. We should have made a stop at Macy's as we headed uptown from Penn Station. I heard later that they had a Peanuts-related theme. Here are a couple of images I found on www.newyork.com to show you what we saw (and should have seen):

Saks Fifth Avenue: I would have enjoyed this on my own...
but no child stands in line to look at fake Snow Queen banquet tables. 

Macy's: Dammit.

I actually found some images of Saks' holiday windows in 2005 (the last time I saw them - 10 YEARS ago). Can't include them since Getty sues for that kind of thing, but if you are interested (and you should be because they are SO much better than 2015), click HERE.

Takeaway: Saks doesn't have the same holiday window budget these days. Bummer.

At this point I was desperate for my children to find SOMETHING they the loved in NYC. So obviously I made them walk a mile to Central Park. And I will tell you right now that all of that "we're tired" and "can we stop and rest" and "my feet are bleeding" that kids pull on their parents is complete BS. Because the minute my whiners saw the Central Park rocks, they were running.

Looks like I didn't take any action shots of the climbing. I think I was too busy spotting them (or trying to). They could have climbed for hours more, but we had dinner plans in NJ. Once we pried them off the rocks, we looked for a subway to take us back down to Penn Station. This was another bust, as the random station we picked had only one subway fare machine and it wasn't accepting credit cards. And since we are complacent people (or sadistic parents - depending on if you ask my children) Chris and I just kept walking.

This ended up taking us through Times Square where we ran into the Naked Cowboy. I didn't even realize he was behind me. Chris made me stop so he could take a picture.

Then we got a great view of the Empire State Building. Again - Chris made us pose (I think he took more pictures of me with the kids that day than he has during our entire life together as parents!)

Look at how bedraggled poor Eleanor was! It was a long day... AND so much fun that we decided to go back in January! Well, I decided to go back in January. Chris was going to be away on a 10-day business trip.

The kids had a four-day weekend and we had a little more time to stay. So we actually had two outings. The first of which was a visit to the Liberty Science Center...

Wow! Fish! So exciting – almost like we’re at Petco or something.
And nope - no idea what is going on with George's hair...

This turtle was 100 times better at posing for photos than my children.

Eleanor was the only one to get all the way across the rock wall on the first try.

More science stuff!

“Oliver – take off your hood!” “George – put on your coat!” “Eleanor – stop acting so grumpy!”
No one ever listens to me…but this one was pretty cute.
(In Eleanor’s defense – she claimed to have a cracker in her mouth and couldn’t smile. I’ll take it.)

Another highlight was seeing tanks of gigantic fish from the Jurassic age that apparently still live in the Hudson River. Okay - I made up that Jurassic part. But as far as I'm concerned, those were dino-fish. Also - remind me to never fall into the Hudson River. 

My kids said that their favorite thing was The Touch Tunnel, a big, box-like structure that you enter on one end and exit on the other. You basically crawl through a meandering tunnel, in absolute darkness, trying to feel your way out. Oh - and there are infra-red cameras that take pictures of you while you're in there. You can download these to your phone. Handy if you're into social media sharing... #FunInTheTouchTunnel #OnlySoundsDirty #GoodCleanFunExceptForAllOfTheGerms.The line wasn't too long (which was lucky since my Aunt Jan said it's usually packed). But there was just enough time for Oliver to turn to some girls behind us and say, "hi girls, want me to buy you some flowers?" Just a little mashup of the stuff he learns in his social skills group and the cartoons he watches on TV. Never a dull moment with that kid. 

Eleanor was mortified of course, but that didn't last long since she was starting to get nervous about being in the pitch dark. She begged me to accompany her, which I only did because she seemed so scared. As a card carrying "not fun" parent, I would typically say no to crawling on my hands and knees through...well, anything really. Five minutes later when we exited the structure, George was jumping up and down, exclaiming over how awesome it was and asking me what I thought. I didn't want to harsh his buzz, so I stayed neutral, "well - it wasn't my favorite thing I've ever done..." And no - I decided not to download the infra-red picture of my butt.

The last thing we did at the Liberty Science Center was the Titanic Exhibit. This was both fascinating and haunting (I have no pictures of this since cameras were not allowed). The kids were getting museum'd out at this point, so we didn't linger over the displays as much as I would have liked. But they LOVED how we each got a "boarding pass" that gave us a name, class and background story. At the end of the exhibit, we got to look ourselves up on the survivor lists to see if any of us went down with the ship. I am sorry to say that Oliver didn't make it. 

The next day, we went back to The City. Unfortunately, this was also a day that it was supposed to be freezing cold. So we did some extra bundling and decided to drive in. The plan was to grab lunch, go to the Natural History Museum to see dinosaur bones and then hang out in Central Park for an hour or two (or until we turned into icicles - whichever happened first).

Since this post is now ridiculously long, I will keep the rest "pictorial" with brief captions (i.e. copied straight from Facebook):

Night at the Museum star sighting. You can’t walk 10 feet in NYC without bumping into a celebrity….

Dinosaurs!

MORE dinosaurs! Travel tip: when you go to a museum, specifically to see dinosaur bones, make sure to see everything else first so that by the time you get to the bones, everyone is over it and wants to leave.

"No really, Mom – can we leave now?" Also - I think George is giving me the finger. 

We found the bridge where the pigeon lady lived in Home Alone 2!
It doesn’t get any more glamorous than this.

Pigeon lady bridge take 2.

Race to the rocks! George got there first (see tiny figure at the top).

There is no such thing as too many rocks to climb…

She NEVER poses for me anymore (willingly)! Central Park brings out the best in us I guess.
Also – where the fuck are we?!

Right before we realized we were on the wrong side of Central Park... Pretty bridge though!

It’s getting darker (and colder) and it’s really time to leave the park.
It will probably be a 20 minute walk across…so obviously time to wrestle and give piggy back rides.

 
We will definitely go back in the summer to do more touristy stuff. Perhaps even a double-decker bus ride. 

On the drive home, I asked the kids if it was safe to say that New York was one of our favorite cities. Ever practical, Eleanor pointed out that they've never actually been to any other cities (DC doesn't count since it's "home"). "Mom - it's our ONLY city." Unintentionally spoken like a true New Yorker. Now we ALL love The City!

Extreme Touristing (A Winter Tour of DC Landmarks)

Back in December, when DC was enjoying tropical temperatures, I saw a deal for tickets to ride one of those double-decker sightseeing buses. Every time my kids spot one rolling down the street, the "can we, can we?" begging ensues. So when I saw the City Sights deal, I thought, "SOLD."

The only catch was, the tickets would expire at the end of February. Time of year didn't seem like an issue, as we've always done okay in the cold as long as we're bundled up. And we had several weekends and school holidays to choose from. But then there was snow - a lot of snow. And a few birthday parties... And Saturdays were out since Oliver has a weekly appointment we can't miss... And suddenly it was mid-February and there were exactly TWO DAYS we could possibly make it into the city for this tour: yesterday and today. The weather forecast was for arctic cold yesterday and snow today. So we did the tour yesterday.

We are crazy.

I only bought four tickets since I thought there was a chance we would be doing this on a weekday when Chris had to work. So he stayed inside where it was warm, and did lazy Sunday stuff like a normal person.

The City Sights kiosk is located in Union Station which, with its history and beautiful architecture, is a sight seeing stop, itself. George was particularly impressed by all of the 14 karat gold leafing on the ceiling (there was talk of "climbing up" for a better view...) 

image source
(here is a better one I'd have used if I didn't fear being sued...)

As an aside, I lived in walking distance of Union Station when I was a teenager (and the year after college when I couldn't afford my own place) and was around for its big re-opening in 1988. It was like having a neighborhood mini-mall and my friend Jenny and I ate many a slice of pizza at the food court after school. The restaurants and shops may have changed, but I always have that nostalgic feeling of "mine" when I'm in Union Station...

Back to our wintery jaunt... When we finally found the kiosk, the City Sights staff were super friendly and helpful. The lady who was processing our tickets said that two kept coming up as 48-hour passes even though we only paid for 24-hour. So she changed the other two to 48-hour as well, in case we wanted to come back the following day (epilogue: no fucking way...but STILL - so nice!) The guy at the kiosk chatted with George about thunder snow, suggested that Oliver (ten feet away, inspecting some scaffolding) was figuring out how get up to the ceiling to check out the gold leaf (told us there was over 70 lbs. in all!) and listened to the twins' non-sequitor anecdotes about school. Then they told us we had about 10 minutes to grab some hot cocoa before the next bus departed.

While waiting for beverages at Starbucks, we had a little excitement. One of the baristas asked me to get Oliver away from the window. Before I could even begin to imagine what he was doing, she explained sotto voce, that people were outside engaging in behavior that "children should NOT see." As she banged on the window ("Hey! We've got kids in here!") I explained that there were people doing something inappropriate and we should stay away from the window. Eleanor whispered to me that she thought she knew what they were doing: "probably smoking." George thought they were pulling down their pants. I said we didn't need to know specifics. Oliver told me he was sorry. I said he wasn't responsible for other people pulling down their pants. As long as his stay up, I'm happy. And as all of this transpired, I just kept thinking, "I'M HOME!"

When we arrived at the corner for bus pick up, the City Sights rep told us we JUST missed the bus (pointed to it disappearing into the distance). But the next bus didn't come for another 45 minutes, so he called the one we missed and then walked us to the spot where it would loop back around (about two blocks away). We bumped into a couple of other City Sights staffers and they joined our group (we had a full escort!). Two minutes later, we were on the bus (squabbling over who wanted to sit where of course) and ready to see the sights!

And who should be our tour guide, but our friend from the kiosk, Derek (that's his name). He was great! Friendly, funny AND he made the otherwise dry material (sorry, U.S. History buffs) interesting.

Here are some highlights (get ready for some world class photography...):

Look at all that scaffolding on the Capitol dome!

Look at all that ice on the Capitol reflecting pool!

Remember when we first got on the bus and weren't covered in icicles yet? SO FUN!

Totally! Let's do this every weekend!

We're having so much fun that we took a selfie with sun beams! #nofilter

Not sure why I took pictures of the National Museum of the American Indian - but it is a cool building. I'm embarrassed to say that the last time I was there, Oliver was six months old and I don't remember much about it. But I DO remember that the flush in the family restroom echoed so loudly on the tile, that my generally easy-going baby screamed for a solid 20 minutes (and only stopped being terrified of public bathroom flushes a year or two ago). Derek told us that a few years ago The New York Times named the museum restaurant, Mitsitam the best food on the National Mall. I vaguely remember going there for lunch - but as the mother of a six month old, it's doubtful that I actually ate anything. Derek also told us that the menu included items such snake soup.

"Do they make soup out of the snake's venom?"

George had comments for pretty much everything Derek told us, and after a half hour of this, was offered the opportunity to run the tour.

G smiled for a photo op - but in the end, he politely declined.

Oliver was starting to feel the cold and asked me to sit next to him.
I made him pay with a selfie.

Someone asked about the Webster School as we passed it. Derek explained that it was a masonry school built in 1881 and it was named after Daniel Webster - not Webster from the TV show. Between all of the foreign tourists and my children, I may have been the only one on the bus who laughed.

Also - how about this photo journalistic tour of DC? I'm thinking coffee table book...

This is Derek! He's the best. Make sure to get on the City Sights bus when he's running the tour.
Behind him is the FBI building.

I tried to get a picture of Ford's Theater - but my fingers were starting to go numb at this point of the tour and it was more like "ord's Theater." One new thing I learned was where John Wilkes Booth made his getaway. Derek pointed out the alley (a few doors down from J. Crew).

Here is a picture of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.
And my finger.

I titled this one Still Life with Washington Monument and Frozen Tourists. See - they're frozen, so they're still. Get it?!

Then my phone shut down, which is weird since the battery wasn't close to dying... I can only conclude that it got too cold and said, "yeah - time to go back in your pocket, Kate. I'm out." I was having trouble bending my fingers by now, so who knows if I could have taken pictures anyway.

It was hard to enjoy the rest of the tour as we slowly turned into ice cubes - but I really would love to go back for that loop around the Tidal Basin (where my brain went numb). If you'd like to check out the "Monuments and Landmarks Loop" we did, here is the route with a map.

I had planned to get a picture of the bus (ideally with us in front of it) but by the time we got back to Union Station, I was close to tears over not being able to feel my body and the kids weren't in much better shape. And of course, my phone was dead. But here is an artist's rendering:

Eleanor Hood (b. 2006)

The Bus Tour, 2016

While I don't typically feel comfortable doing a blind interpretation...I believe the yellow surf board-looking thing in front of the bus is the Washington Monument.

A few hours later when we all started to regain use of our limbs again, we agreed that it was a great tour. We highly recommend City Sights! Just not when it's 20 degrees outside.

The Road Ahead

As promised - here is the general route we plan to take this summer on THE TRIP.

It would be great if I could include a cool visual of a map with everything all plotted out...possibly with whimsical graphics to indicate landmarks we'll visit and activities we'll try (like a little donkey saddled up for a ride down to the Grand Canyon - so cute!) Sadly, my level (lack) of training or talent for that kind of design would involve a taking a picture of a paper map with some Crayola marker notations. So no fun graphics here.

Instead - here is a picture of what we will be avoiding on this journey to the West coast...

That was taken in the middle of the night when we arrived back in DC after visiting my parents in Klamath Falls, OR. It was only after 45 minutes of waiting for our bag that we discovered it was tossed into a big pile of luggage several carousels away. While we waited, Oliver had to touch every suitcase that passed, George said, "no, no, no..." as he identified each suitcase as "not ours," and Eleanor practiced her pirouettes. SO MANY fun travel memories...

Back to this trip though... The timing will be mid-ish July through mid-ish August, but this depends on when family will be available to see us. Here is the current list of stops I have in mind:

Memphis
My brother and sister in law (and her parents whom I LOVE) live in Memphis. I have only been there once, a couple of years ago for their wedding. As it usually goes with travel for weddings, we didn't have time for sightseeing. All that my kids will remember of that trip was the gorgeous house where the event took place. As soon as we pulled out to drive home, George said "Mom! I liked that house. I wish I lived there." A little defensive, I pointed out that, "OUR house is full of fun...and full of love." George wasn't buying what I was selling. "Mmmmm...no. That house was more fun." Eleanor concurred. "Yeah - it had a pool." Thus began their tradition of visiting other houses and then telling me how much better they are than ours. We will spend a couple of days seeing Memphis. Chris will hopefully meet us there. And in case you don't know how far Memphis is from the DC area, we will definitely be stopping for the night on the way there.

Oklahoma
This will be our "drive through" state and I was thinking we could make a stop somewhere to see a rodeo. OBVIOUSLY - as anyone who looks at me will immediately think, "rodeo." But even if that wasn't the case... I think my kids would love it. [I should point out here that I've viewed pretty much everything I've planned thus far through the lens of my children and what THEY would find interesting/fun/exciting. If this was MY personal trip across the country, it would ideally involve five star hotels and spa treatments.] I discovered that this won't exactly be rodeo season, but I did find one amateur rodeo taking place July 20-24.

Santa Fe
No family here, I just thought it would be a good stop because SANTA FE! Seriously - I've never visited Santa Fe before and it's been on my list since long before kids were in the picture. So many ideas about things we can do there...but (like Oklahoma) this is new territory for me and suggestions are welcome!

Grand Canyon
I have never been to the Grand Canyon. And it was one of my favorite Brady Bunch episodes. We won't follow in their fictional footsteps and ride donkeys down into the canyon (I was totally kidding about that even being a remote possibility for me!), but I'm sure there are other experiences to be had. I think we'd have to stay two nights. I also found a motel on our route to the Grand Canyon with rooms shaped like wigwams. WIGWAMS. This is where I show signs of drinking the mom-of-three Kool Aid, as I can't think of any other time in my life that sleeping in a fake wigwam sounded even a little bit appealing. CAN'T WAIT!
*2/25/16 Correction: People ride mules, not donkeys. This was news to me.

Sedona
I have been to Sedona. Chris grew up in Phoenix and I've visited many times. Once my inlaws planned a day trip to Sedona and it was beautiful. We did a pretty easy hike (from what I remember) so I'm sure I can figure something out that a not-very-athletic woman and three children could do together. This would be a drive through stop on the way to Phoenix.

Phoenix
This would just be a one night stop (unless my Mother in Law wants us to be there longer). Depending on when we hit town, I figured we meet up with the grandparents for a meal and then crash for the night. The following day we'd head out to San Diego (hopefully my MIL will come with us to keep me company). Of course, said grandparents may be in California then (they split their time between Phoenix and San Diego now), so we may not even see them in Phoenix. Also - I have discussed NONE of this with them yet.

San Diego
No idea who will be where and where we will be laying our heads at night (impose on family or spare them our chaos by booking a hotel...we shall see). But we plan to spend four days there. First two for tourist stuff that the kids want to do (Lego Land, Sea World) and then two days on the beach. Chris will fly in to meet us for the last two days, as he is not so interested in the tourism. There are a number of family members (plus some good friends!) we want to see there. Again - this may all be news to them.

And here is where things get hazy...
The next definite stop will be Klamath Falls to see my parents. But in driving up the coast, we want to have a quick "just the five of us" family vacation. San Francisco? Vinyards? Ideas? I actually told Chris that he could decide what we do, but I'm happy to pass along your suggestions.

Klamath Falls
Not only do my parents live there, but a good friend and her son JUST moved back to that part of Oregon. Last summer we did a driving tour of Crater Lake, but I'd love to go back and do some trails. We also drove down to CA to see lava beds with friends of my parents and their grandchildren. Another spot I wouldn't mind revisiting. Mainly I just want to spend time with Mom and Dad. Chris will probably leave us after a few days (back to the daily grind for him!) We'll probably be there about five days.

And here is where things get hazier...
Idaho...Wyoming...South Dakota... I have never been to this part of the country. I'd like to visit Mount Rushmore, but have done very little research on this stretch. I've heard Grand Teton is nice? Yeah - I've got nothing. HALP.

Chicago
I've been twice and loved it. But I didn't actually do sightseeing. This should be easy to research (I'm much better at researching cities), but I'm already exhausted just writing about this. Please feel free to do my work for me.

Cleveland
Another family-related stop. Chris' cousin and his wife live there. The last time we visited was well over five years ago for their wedding. We've never met their children! Chris will fly in and then drive the rest of the way home with us. It's only a 5-6 hour drive - which will feel like NOTHING after a month on the road. OH HI James and Alana! We're going to be in Cleveland at some point in August. You heard it here first!

Do you live somewhere within our trajectory? Insider tips please! And yes, friends - I will do everything I can to see you. And you are SO SWEET to offer your home as a place for us to stay...but I would think long and hard about that offer...

....long and hard.

[I am giving up on that sign-off thing I was trying to do in my first two posts. "kisses -Kate" is just never going to be me...]

I Forgot to Tell You Why...

This obligatory post image is from a wildly outdated map in my boys' bedroom.

Now that I've outed myself and my plans for THE TRIP (still feeling very all caps about it), I guess I can't back out... Actually, when I first started mentioning my idea to people, I would even say, "I'm telling everyone, so I have to do it." Because, it's a big time commitment from planning through execution, and there are SO many reasons not to do it (the aforementioned time commitment...being away from our dog for so long...the fact that Oliver has anxiety about "trips"...). But now I'm locked in!

Right?

Anyway - It occurred to me that I forgot to mention why I decided to do a (mostly) solo parenting cross country trip with my children. In case you were wondering (or not - since I'm going to tell you anyway) - here is where the whole idea started. I want to visit my parents, and they live really fucking far away (more swearing! I'm now a potty mouth blogger!)

While I currently live almost exactly where I grew up, my parents skipped town for Key West the year after Chris and I got married. They didn't retire, but opened a home furnishings shop as a means of financing their life "in paradise." About 10 years later, when - for a number of reasons - they had to retire, they had to move. Paradise is expensive, yo. And Mom said they hardly ever used the pool anymore... SO they moved across the country to Klamath Falls, Oregon. Obviously.

I won't drone on about why they moved to a tiny town so far away (even though I really want to, because droning on is MY JAM). Let's just say that it was a combination of low cost of living + proximity to a Coveny family vacation home they love ("Coveny family", as in my dad's side of the family - my parents did not randomly decide to purchase a vacation home in Oregon while living in Key West).

So back to this whole WHY thing. Last summer my Dad was generous enough to fly the kids and me out for a visit. I'd like to make this an annual trip, but the expense of four (or five is Chris comes too) plane tickets to Oregon is not exactly feasible for us at the moment. Now, I know that driving cross country can be just as expensive with all of the hotel stays, etc. but I still have a lot of hotel points left from years of conference planning. So I can at least knock "lodging" off the list of expenditures. And between the two of us, Chris and I have enough airline miles to fly him in for a couple of stops that he wouldn't want to miss. AND since we won't have to deal with airfare months in advance, we'll have a little time to save up for all of the other expenses.

Okay - reality check. We will probably end up spending just as much on this trip as we would have on airfare. BUT we'll get four times as much trip with 4+ weeks of travel involved. So it's like a BARGAIN! Stay tuned for my frugaltravelingmamawhodoesntcamp.com blog...

Of course, once I came up with this idea, I had to talk to Chris about it. I worried that he would shut it down since we'd be away from him for weeks. He's an extrovert and goes a little stir crazy when he's left alone for too long... But he surprised me by being supportive of the idea - and even enthusiastic about the experience that our kids would have. Yay! And it helped that he would be able to join us for parts of the trip without committing to a month in the car with his family.

As for the reactions I got from others... They ranged from "OMG - you HAVE to do it!" to "better you than me." So now with everyone on board and rough itineraries being sketched out, all that was left to do for this idea was start blogging the shit out of it!

And actually planning it... Which I am doing and will be writing about shortly. And the first thing I'll be posting is the route we plan to take. It's definitely limited a bit by the stops we'll make to see family. But in between those stops are states I have never been to before, and your comments and e-mails are going to play a large role in how I map out our time there. I far prefer to word of mouth information gathering to online research, so don't hold back! Like I said in my last post, everything goes into an idea file. If I can't use your suggestions this time around - I will definitely keep them in mind for the future. If we survive the summer that is...

*
-Kate

*See the end of my last post. Still looking for the right sign off.

Raison D'Etre

You would think that after years of blogging, writing and general online frolicking, I would be able to just whip up a first post here without any angst. But no - it's like I've traveled back to 2008 when I started my first blog, and I feel like I have to make an opening statement...my raison d'être (on the upside, eight years later, I don't have any angst over whether I should add a link to "raison d'être").

So maybe that's the way to go: my raison d'être. My reason for being HERE on a new website is that I'm planning a trip. A big cross-country trip with my kids that will take most of the summer and most likely all of the hotel points I amassed in my previous life as a conference planner (notice the title of this blog...there will be no camping).

I need a place to keep notes and research. As much as I love me a good spreadsheet (and no - that's not a joke - I really do), this seems a bit more fun. AND I'll have somewhere to post updates throughout the trip so everyone (my parents and maybe a few friends) can follow along with the traveling chaos. 

It's taking all of my will power to not segue into long winded descriptions of our personal brand of chaos, linking to past blog posts as a means of creating an anecdotal context. I mean - 2008 me would be ALL OVER that. But one of my goals for this new site is to reel it in a bit and just get to the point (mind you, I rarely meet goals I set for myself, so I'm really just aiming for "good enough").

Four paragraphs later (good enough!)...I'm now getting to the point. This site is going to be about my experiences with travel. Since I have three kids (currently 9-10 years old), most of this (like the rest of my life) will revolve around them. Here is a brief introduction to them (because 2008 me will explode if I don't throw in a little anecdotal context):

Oliver

Oliver is my oldest. He turns 11 in a couple of months and is the main culprit in our family when it comes to bizarre public spectacles. At age two he was diagnosed as PDD-NOS (which I always translate as, "there is something wrong with your child - but we don't know what it is"). Several years later, we had his diagnosis changed to Autism.

One of the absolute BEST things about Oliver's autism is that he gives zero fucks about what other people think (hey - I guess there will be swearing on this blog!). Well - it's not that he doesn't care...he just thinks he's super as is, and can't imagine why anyone else wouldn't agree. This allows him to really "be himself" wherever he goes without any insecurity or inhibitions. This also means that while at Safeway, I may find him kneeling on the shelf of a self check out station, explaining to a perplexed stranger who doesn't speak English that there is a squirrel running around the store. It's true - there was a squirrel running around the store (welcome to my neighborhood!) but climbing up a shelf next to some guy as he's trying to scan this cans of Hormel chili just isn't something the average 10 year old boy does.

Since I too, have learned to not really care what other people think, I find his unpredictable behavior endlessly entertaining and post the shit out of it on Facebook. Hey - your 10 year old may have just made honor roll for the third year running, but MINE just had me paged at Target for the third visit running.

George

George is one of my twins who are nine years old. He probably gets quoted to the most on Facebook because he feels the need to verbally express 90% of what goes on in his head without thinking it through first. Just the other night he blurted, "hey Dad! Spanish is written in English! It just says different things." Now, because I'm his mother, and I speak fluent George, I knew exactly what he meant (that Spanish and English are written with the same alphabet). But I'm not always available to be his interpreter.

His enthusiasm for his own ideas often takes a hard left turn into crazy town. As an example, here is a conversation we had on Christmas morning:

George: Mom – what if you got a baby for Christmas?

Me: I don’t think it works that way, George. I'd have to be pregnant for a while first.

George: Okay – what if you were, but then during the night, Santa gave you surgery?

This is how George's brain works. And the only time I'm ever not interested in what's going on in there is when it has something to do with Minecraft.

Eleanor

George's twin, Eleanor is by far the most "normal" child in our house. But her maturity also makes for some very "honest" observations. If I ever forget for a few minutes that our house smells like our dog, she is happy to remind me. And she's always available to weigh in (pun intended) on my fitness efforts.

Once while she was "keeping me company" as I did an exercise video, instructor  Jillian Michaels assured, “if you stay with this, you’ll REALLY start to see results." Eleanor skeptically wrinkled her little nose at me and asked, "do you think you’re seeing results?” The answer of course, was "NO" but STILL. I do want to interject here that I NEVER talk about being dissatisfied with my appearance to or around my daughter. When I found out she was a girl, one of my first thoughts was, "well, I guess I can't complain about feeling fat anymore..." I always keep the focus on wanting to be healthy and strong.

But hey - we're girls. And she's going to catch me examining my face in the mirror now and again. Once when I was experiencing acute internal despair over how impossible it was to camouflage an unsightly patch of adult acne on my chin, she said, "don't worry mom - it's not that noticeable." I told her that it was nice of her to say so, but that one pimple was pretty impossible to cover up. Surprised, she exclaimed, "OH - I thought you were looking at the big lines on your forehead." If I was ever going to be a vain person - Eleanor keeps be grounded.

So that gives you a little peek into the personalities of my cast of characters. My husband Chris will be with us at times too - but those three are my constant sidekicks. Right now, THEY are my raison d'être. And all (very reasonable) trepidation aside, I can't wait to do this trip with them!

Back to THE TRIP - please comment (or e-mail me at kate@mamadontcamp.com) with any road trip suggestions, advice, links... I have a basic itinerary mapped out - but this blog is my idea file. Anything I can't use now, I'll keep in mind for the future!

[*]
-Kate

*I feel like I should have a little sign off catch phrase, but can't think of anything..."xoxo" seems a little familiar for a public blog..."Best" is how I end business e-mails..."Cheers!" is too British (FYI - in case you didn't know, I'm not British)... Feel free to offer suggestions for that too.