Thanks to Lucia from Dim Sum, Bagels and Crawfish for introducing me to Pit Stops for Kids. This is a great site that is busy building up its database! It has already helped us out! The concept of Pit Stops for Kids is to share tried and true kid friendly pit stops. The site is extremely informative-information on each stop includes cost, which interstate it is located, website, bathrooms, food and other tips. We are roadtripping right now and I found one of our pit stops on the site. We stopped at the Mayfield Dairy for a brief bathroom break and if I hadn’t read about it here, I would never have known about it! Today, my submission about the Afred B. Maclay Gardens State Park is located here. You can read the full post on my blog here. Do you have a review of your own? Submit it here!
When we were in Jacksonville a few weeks ago, we tracked down a few of the turtles that have been placed around the city. These huge turtles are part of a fundraising program that helped to benefit Child Guidance Center. These colorful turtles are painted by artists and are absolutely beautiful. When we are traveling, my kids are always excited to come across large statues. When we are in a city that has a program like this, they are especially excited. We turn spotting the statues into a scavenger hunt. We have found turtles in Jacksonville, pelicans in Pensacola, bears in Berlin, cows in Garmisch, and fish in New Orleans.
These statues make for a great scavenger hunt for the kids. Locate a map of the statues online or visit the local visitor center and ask where you can find a map of the statue locations. Use the map to check off the statues that you find while you are exploring the city. The kids will have a great time spotting the statues. If there is a statue located in front of a museum you are headed to, tell the children that you will see a statue soon so they can keep their eyes open. For example, when we were headed to the turtle pictured here, I told my small children that we were going to spot a giant turtle. They had so much fun looking around and trying to guess where it was going to be!
Have you seen sets of statues like this? Tell us about them!
Be sure to stop by DeliciousBaby to see other Photo Friday participants!
Meg at Backpack to Buggy just celebrated her one year blogging anniversary. I always appreciate it when bloggers talk about their statistics, their successes, and even their weaknesses. It makes them real people, not just a tourism board. Backpack to Buggy posted an article on her blogging anniversary where she discussed where she has come from and where she would like her blog to go. Some of my favorite posts:
Chicago-Hot town Summer in the City - I love the pictures in this post. There are some beautiful pictures of the amazing architecture in Chicago.
Five Budget Travel Experiences from Your TV - I am thrilled that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is on this list as an “ultimate family road trip”
Travel in a Time of Epidemic - A great take on the fact that sometimes it is okay to put your paranoia on the backburner.
When my husband and I traveled before we had kids, we dreamed of finding the great pastry shop tucked in a corner on a quiet little street. We dreamed of a great wine bar in the middle of the bustling city. We dreamed of a quiet afternoon at an art museum. Having kids hasn’t stopped us from dreaming of and finding these things but we have also added parks and nature walks to our itinerary. Every time one of our kids spots a playground or a city park, they shout out loud with glee. Our travel itinerary often looks the same with each trip. We love to get an early start and spend the morning at the place of our choosing whether it be an aquarium, manor home, a museum, a factory tour, etc. with the kids while they are in a happy mood. I am not going to lie-you will often hear me bribing my children with a visit to a “cool new park” to get us through the rest of the exhibit. Then we eat lunch and head for a park. Many times we go to the park and have a picnic. The kids love the picnic and I love saving the money that we would have spent on a restaurant! It also helps us avoid the stress of making sure our children behave in a restaurant. The kids love to check out the new parks and are so funny when they compare them to the parks we have at home.
Finding a park to head to is a great way to have your kids let off some steam and explore other parts of the cities you visit. On this road trip, we are in Virginia Beach dropping my sister off in her new house. We had to get the kids out of the house (four under the age of 7) so that she could get some unpacking done. I did a little Internet search for city parks and recreation and found Mount Trashmore, an awesomely huge city park that was created by compacting layers of solid waste and clean soil. The kids loved hiking up the hill and rolling down the hill.
How can you find parks when you travel? We found Mt. Trashmore listed on both Trekaroo and Visit Virginia. Debbie, at Delicious Baby, has a great way of finding playgrounds when she travels by using Google Satellite.
Head over to Mother of All Trips to see what everyone else is dreaming of!
Do you remember that movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell? The one where he keeps waking up each morning just to repeat the same day over and over again? I make the drive from Pensacola to Jacksonville, Florida two or three times a year and every time I make the drive I feel like I am in my own personal Groundhog Day movie.
For awhile you are driving on a two lane Interstate 10 and you can see the cars driving the opposite direction.
Then your two lanes separate from the other two lanes. These trees are especially important to pay attention to because you will almost always see a highway patrol car behind them!
Then the road opens back up again so that you are driving next to the lanes. Again. And then it splits. Again.
Then you might see a bridge.
The road splits. Again.
You do drive over the Historic Suwanee River. I especially like the music notes on the sign!
Even the exits look the same.
Exit 142
Exit 192
Exit 241
If it is summertime, be prepared for weather that could probably be classified as a hurricane.
But if you wait it out, you will get a beautiful sky.
Travel around the world this week with other posts for Photo Friday, hosted at DeliciousBaby.
Posted in Sharing on August 4, 2009
A few weeks back, while I was in the middle of moving over to this site I got a note saying that I had received the One Lovely Blog award from Amy over at The Q Family Adventures. I must admit that in the craziness of my school year ending, moving this blog (to which I have so much to do to clean it up and I know you are tired of reading about the move…just shut up and do it already…I know, I know!), and starting my city blog, I didn’t really get it until I saw the same award on someone else’s site. So first of all, a big thanks to Amy at The Q Family Adventures. The directions for the One Lovely Blog award are as follows:
How to pay it forward if you have received one:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog, together with the name of the person who has granted the award and link back.
2) Then pass the award to 15 other blogs that you enjoy.
3) Remember to contact the blogger to let them know about the award
Since I usually use Tuesday for Travel Blogger Tuesday, I decided it was fitting to post this on a Tuesday! In place of Travel Blogger Tuesday for this week, here are 15 travel bloggers that I want to share with you (in no particular order):
Here are a few that I have recently added to my Google Reader:
Canada’s Adventure Couple- I am really enjoying reading about their journey as they try to build a bigger and better blog for themselves. Since this is what I am trying to do right now, I feel like I have been benefiting from their advice and their honesty in their trial and error posts.
La Vie en China?- I first found her blog when I linked into an article about what you bring home from your trips. Her articles are so varied that you can find something for everyone. We have the same books sitting on our bookshelves right now too!
Velvet Escape – I love the article about the Ubiquitous Fridge Magnet - My fridge has so many magnets from our travels that we could probably change the magnetic north pole!
Family Travel Guide- Sheila is doing a weekly series where she is taking input about family-friendly activities in each of the 50 states from Twitter and Facebook. I can’t wait until she gets to Florida!
Our World School – This mama is taking her kids on a round the world adventure. I love that she has the kids blogging with her!
The Road Forks – This couple is from my neck of the woods and is about to embark on a Round the World Trip. Until I can go on my own in a few years, I will live vicariously through their adventures!
It’s A Small World After All - Another family planning a round the world trip. They are still in the planning stages so follow them to see how they get ready!
Here are some of the blogs that have been in my reader forever:
The Q Family - Amy writes about her adventures all over with her family. I especially love her train oriented posts…our sons would get along famously if they ever met!
Atlanta with Kid - Amy writes about all the great activities that you can explore in Atlanta with your children. I have been writing a bunch of them down so that our next trip to Atlanta is fun-filled!
Kids Go West - Carolina blogs mostly about activities on the West Coast and every time I log onto her blog it makes me homesick for California!
Keeps Me Smiling - This mommy is a founder of My Busy Kits. These great kits can keep your kids busy for hours! I have been enjoying Lorraine’s recent articles about what she has learned about her blog and her family recently.
Family Adventure Guide - This is the LegoLand Queen! This mama loves to travel with her kids and shares great family photos.
Mother of All Trips - A great role model in the blogging world and a pretty hip mama! She has been so helpful to me as I work on this blog and I love reading about her road trips!
Travel Savvy Mom - The blog always has the coolest kid friendly ideas on it. Books about travel, listening to audiobooks, iphone apps – you name it and you can probably find it here!
The Rocket Scientist’s Guide to Raising Kids - This blog is a little bit travel, a little bit mom, a little bit wife. I have especially loved reading about this family’s reunion with their husband/daddy as he returned from overseas.
There are so many more blogs that I read and bloggers I admire. I could go on all day! I will continue to showcase them in my Travel Blogger Tuesday series. I can’t wait to keep sharing them with you! In the meantime, do you have a travel blog or someone to recommend for Travel Blogger Tuesday? Leave me a comment or send me an email!
