My family summer vacations in the 1960's were regularly and thoughtfully scheduled by mostly my dad. There were always suggestions thrown out from us kids but not sure they made much difference as my folks planned that year's destination to go to the part of the country where we hadn't been yet. We tent-camped so of course we had to get to the scheduled campsite with time to get the tent pitched, the air mattresses blown up and the car unloaded. I don't think we ever stayed in one place more than 2 nights....too much yet to see.
My three siblings and I saw the U.S. up close and personal for 3 weeks each summer and some days we were all together in the station wagon for several hours while traveling to the next place. We sang songs, read comic and other books, played games, or took naps to pass the time (with many a whine thrown in, siblings that we were). While we saw all the sites one would expect to see on a vacation (yep, we made it to Disneyland in California), I think we enjoyed the days where we stayed at the campsite (which was normally near or at a national park) the most, climbing on rocks, swimming in a lake, boating, riding horses, and at night, sitting around a campfire with the park ranger telling us all about the animals, environment, etc., of where we were.
Wherever you go, perhaps allow some time for unscheduled play time, out in nature where the girls entertain *themselves rather than something entertaining *them. My dad may have planned vacations like the engineer he was, but he also was smart enough to know we all needed some time of rest and relaxation together as a family. They truly were the best times of my childhood.
Take the kids on a Disney cruise! If you plan right you can get affordable fare (if you book through Costco and have and executive card there you get a ton of Costco money when you book trips. All the free food the kids can eat with movies, shows, games and Princesses (for the younger girls!)!! No huge lines and tons to do. Think about it for next year!! 😉
My kids took their first airplane ride when they were 2 1/2 and 5. It was two weeks after 9/11 (one week after air travel was allowed again). They loved it! The airline staff loved to see that we trusted them to fly. I was just glad not to be in a car with two little kids for 9 hours. They’ve also flown to California (twice) and Alaska. The key is to insure they have something to do on the plane.
Great vacation choices - but I can’t believe you missed the fact that Disney World has a whole Star Wars section!!! That’s worth going to and skipping the princesses.
For me the perfect vacation always consisted of having: a) little to travel & b) lotta time to read or play games on PC/Xbox, as well as seeing my grandparents. So during covid I was the happiest vacationer on Earth. But even if we do travel sometimes, I'm always designated by parents with the task to research sites and entertainments in the area we're going to, and by that I have at least minimal influence on where we end spending time. I think your planning is perfect - I'd think similarly. As for keeping your idea in secret, no worries - I'll be silent as the grave ;).
On our last vacation as a family of four I commissioned my son to come up with things to do and places to go in Portland, OR. The internet is a wonderful thing, he found some museums that my extended family(Portland lifers) had never heard of. Did you know that Portland has a 3D museum? Awesome. Right downtown is the world's best donut shop, Voodoo Donuts. There is always a line down the street and around the corner, even in the middle of the night! Just up the street, taking a full city block, is the world's biggest used book store, Powell's. It's a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon. You rarely hear screaming unless you tell your child or spouse that they have to buy the book/s they want with their own money.
Staying with family took care of hotel costs, although I did end up breaking my brother's new digital thermostat so left him cash to replace it. If we had stayed another 24 hours I think my son and daughter could have fixed it, but my brother was anxious for us to leave...
We went to all the usual museums(free or low cost) in the city and the Oregon Zoo. The zoo walk is downhill, visiting all the animals at the zoo is wonderful until you're done and have to hike all the way back up out of the canyon when you are exhausted!
My son found a couple of gardens besides the famous Rose Garden and most of us had a great time using real cameras, taking pics and talking f-stops. I get bored easily so thought it might be time for a nap. I wasn't allowed to take a nap as someone(that means me) needed to be available to hold a lens while they were being changed or clean a lens or carry a camera bag...
Most of the things we did, except picture taking, were child friendly with hands on exhibits. A day on the coast blew the whines out of our heads and there was all the salt water taffy you could eat.
You might want to reconsider driving to the West Coast or flying, just stay away from So Calif. All the entertainment is expensive especially Disneyland! It may be smaller than Disney World but the bored, tired children still scream.
My wife doesn't want us to have any pets for the time being so that we can be free to travel as much as we want without having to lodge the animals someplace. She doesn't like it when I point out that we've done very little traveling in comparison to when we did have managerie and traveled all the time.
It took my adorable husband ages to understood that I was NOT going to drive from Fairbanks Alaska to southern Indiana with four kids, the youngest was 5. Can you even imagine driving 4,000 or so miles with four kids from 5-11, and then back home? Shudder. I took the vacation reins and planned a vacation to Hawaii. For nearly 6 months we played airplane in the living room. I made fake tickets, arranged our dining room chairs like the inside of the plane. They would pack their backpacks with a few toys, a snuggle item and those tiny wee sacks of chips. They practiced finding their seats, putting their pack under the chair in front of them and then watched a cartoon while I served their favorite thing ever, soda. When the big day came our youngest was terrified and clung to his dad like a limpet. But when we entered the plane, both the little guys brightened up and said, it’s just like our living room. And they were happy clams after that.
When our kids were young, every summer vacay was spent visiting DH family in NY. About 4-8 hours drive, depending on driver and amount of construction 🚧 on NJTP (always there) Funny how we managed to return home when the road apparently is one way (from here to there) Still in all, we managed to enjoy ourselves. Then we quit going there as the kids got bigger. Now we are making the same one-way trek with grandkids in tow. 🤓
Great place to go is into Kentucky to Cumberland Gap State Park—the home of Mammoth Cave. We went so many times as kids it’s like a second home.☺️ There are lots of things to do in the area. You can stay in a cabin, which is 🎶Aw-some🎶 or there is a hotel. (Your youngest may want to be in second grade but we went when my brother was 5 or 6.) It was our fav place to vacation, and not too far over the border. Look it up! Going thru the cave is So Cool!⛰
This is a friendly reminder for you to tell us about how you pulled a hamstring while yawning.
My family summer vacations in the 1960's were regularly and thoughtfully scheduled by mostly my dad. There were always suggestions thrown out from us kids but not sure they made much difference as my folks planned that year's destination to go to the part of the country where we hadn't been yet. We tent-camped so of course we had to get to the scheduled campsite with time to get the tent pitched, the air mattresses blown up and the car unloaded. I don't think we ever stayed in one place more than 2 nights....too much yet to see.
My three siblings and I saw the U.S. up close and personal for 3 weeks each summer and some days we were all together in the station wagon for several hours while traveling to the next place. We sang songs, read comic and other books, played games, or took naps to pass the time (with many a whine thrown in, siblings that we were). While we saw all the sites one would expect to see on a vacation (yep, we made it to Disneyland in California), I think we enjoyed the days where we stayed at the campsite (which was normally near or at a national park) the most, climbing on rocks, swimming in a lake, boating, riding horses, and at night, sitting around a campfire with the park ranger telling us all about the animals, environment, etc., of where we were.
Wherever you go, perhaps allow some time for unscheduled play time, out in nature where the girls entertain *themselves rather than something entertaining *them. My dad may have planned vacations like the engineer he was, but he also was smart enough to know we all needed some time of rest and relaxation together as a family. They truly were the best times of my childhood.
This is such a smart vacation!
Take the kids on a Disney cruise! If you plan right you can get affordable fare (if you book through Costco and have and executive card there you get a ton of Costco money when you book trips. All the free food the kids can eat with movies, shows, games and Princesses (for the younger girls!)!! No huge lines and tons to do. Think about it for next year!! 😉
An idea for next year. Salem, MA. Beaches, both sheltered and on the ocean. Really good pizza. The best ice cream in the country (https://www.wcvb.com/article/best-ice-cream-flavor-in-nation-made-at-massachusetts-based-holy-cow-ice-cream-cafe/42731486.) And to top it off, witches. Real, historical, fictional. And it's only 800 miles away.
This was hilarious! Has to be top 10 funniest posts. Also so accurate about vacation planning
My kids took their first airplane ride when they were 2 1/2 and 5. It was two weeks after 9/11 (one week after air travel was allowed again). They loved it! The airline staff loved to see that we trusted them to fly. I was just glad not to be in a car with two little kids for 9 hours. They’ve also flown to California (twice) and Alaska. The key is to insure they have something to do on the plane.
Great vacation choices - but I can’t believe you missed the fact that Disney World has a whole Star Wars section!!! That’s worth going to and skipping the princesses.
For me the perfect vacation always consisted of having: a) little to travel & b) lotta time to read or play games on PC/Xbox, as well as seeing my grandparents. So during covid I was the happiest vacationer on Earth. But even if we do travel sometimes, I'm always designated by parents with the task to research sites and entertainments in the area we're going to, and by that I have at least minimal influence on where we end spending time. I think your planning is perfect - I'd think similarly. As for keeping your idea in secret, no worries - I'll be silent as the grave ;).
On our last vacation as a family of four I commissioned my son to come up with things to do and places to go in Portland, OR. The internet is a wonderful thing, he found some museums that my extended family(Portland lifers) had never heard of. Did you know that Portland has a 3D museum? Awesome. Right downtown is the world's best donut shop, Voodoo Donuts. There is always a line down the street and around the corner, even in the middle of the night! Just up the street, taking a full city block, is the world's biggest used book store, Powell's. It's a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon. You rarely hear screaming unless you tell your child or spouse that they have to buy the book/s they want with their own money.
Staying with family took care of hotel costs, although I did end up breaking my brother's new digital thermostat so left him cash to replace it. If we had stayed another 24 hours I think my son and daughter could have fixed it, but my brother was anxious for us to leave...
We went to all the usual museums(free or low cost) in the city and the Oregon Zoo. The zoo walk is downhill, visiting all the animals at the zoo is wonderful until you're done and have to hike all the way back up out of the canyon when you are exhausted!
My son found a couple of gardens besides the famous Rose Garden and most of us had a great time using real cameras, taking pics and talking f-stops. I get bored easily so thought it might be time for a nap. I wasn't allowed to take a nap as someone(that means me) needed to be available to hold a lens while they were being changed or clean a lens or carry a camera bag...
Most of the things we did, except picture taking, were child friendly with hands on exhibits. A day on the coast blew the whines out of our heads and there was all the salt water taffy you could eat.
You might want to reconsider driving to the West Coast or flying, just stay away from So Calif. All the entertainment is expensive especially Disneyland! It may be smaller than Disney World but the bored, tired children still scream.
Wait... You mean there are modes other than nightmare mode? 🤔 Why didn't anyone ever tell us that? 😆
My wife doesn't want us to have any pets for the time being so that we can be free to travel as much as we want without having to lodge the animals someplace. She doesn't like it when I point out that we've done very little traveling in comparison to when we did have managerie and traveled all the time.
It took my adorable husband ages to understood that I was NOT going to drive from Fairbanks Alaska to southern Indiana with four kids, the youngest was 5. Can you even imagine driving 4,000 or so miles with four kids from 5-11, and then back home? Shudder. I took the vacation reins and planned a vacation to Hawaii. For nearly 6 months we played airplane in the living room. I made fake tickets, arranged our dining room chairs like the inside of the plane. They would pack their backpacks with a few toys, a snuggle item and those tiny wee sacks of chips. They practiced finding their seats, putting their pack under the chair in front of them and then watched a cartoon while I served their favorite thing ever, soda. When the big day came our youngest was terrified and clung to his dad like a limpet. But when we entered the plane, both the little guys brightened up and said, it’s just like our living room. And they were happy clams after that.
When our kids were young, every summer vacay was spent visiting DH family in NY. About 4-8 hours drive, depending on driver and amount of construction 🚧 on NJTP (always there) Funny how we managed to return home when the road apparently is one way (from here to there) Still in all, we managed to enjoy ourselves. Then we quit going there as the kids got bigger. Now we are making the same one-way trek with grandkids in tow. 🤓
I just want to say that you forgot to factor in recovery time. I always need a vacation after a vacation! Have fun!
Great place to go is into Kentucky to Cumberland Gap State Park—the home of Mammoth Cave. We went so many times as kids it’s like a second home.☺️ There are lots of things to do in the area. You can stay in a cabin, which is 🎶Aw-some🎶 or there is a hotel. (Your youngest may want to be in second grade but we went when my brother was 5 or 6.) It was our fav place to vacation, and not too far over the border. Look it up! Going thru the cave is So Cool!⛰