MidAtlantic fun: Mommy and Ted’s excellent adventure

It has hit me recently that I’m about to leave one important phase of my life and enter another. In two short weeks, Teddy will be finishing up his preschool year. Next fall he will be starting full-day kindergarten at the same school Tommy attends. That’s right: The two of them will get on the bus at the same time in the morning and will be gone until close to 4 p.m. five days a week. (Cue gleeful dance.)

Obviously having two school-age children is a game changer when it comes to family travel, especially on the daytrip side. From now on our outings will be confined to weekends and holidays. We won’t be able to take advantage of preschool programs at museums or the midweek lack of crowds. The spontaneity I’ve enjoyed for the last eight years will have to be replaced with some more careful planning. Despite my joy at the prospect of uninterrupted hours to do things like complete Teddy’s baby book and finally get all the photos on my blog updated, I’d be lying if I didn’t say this made me a little sad.

But before any of us start to mourn, there’s some happy news thanks to a three-week gap between the end of school and the start of any summer activities. I plan to take full advantage of those precious 21 days (some of which Tommy will have off too) to go on a daytrip frenzy. Beaches! Museums! Hikes! Farmers Markets! I’m hoping to have enough daytrip fun to carry us through that adjustment period in the fall when Teddy will have to put on a uniform and a backpack every day.

And since I don’t want to be the only one enjoying all this daytrip fun I want to share an awesome MidAtlantic contest that’s especially great for any and all of you with little ones (or big ones) who like trains. You may not be aware, but Strasburg, Pennsylvania is a great place to visit to get your train on – it’s the home of the Strasburg Railroad, the Choo Choo Barn, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and the National Toy Train Museum. Between these four attractions, you can look at trains, ride trains, play with trains…you get the idea. And through May 31 you can win a chance to visit all four, simply by sharing why you’d like to visit. Strasburg is an easy drive from Delaware, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, and makes a great day trip.

So there you have it: Lots of MidAtlantic posts to look forward to, and a chance to win your own daytrip adventure. Bodacious dude!

(Oh, and please do tell me in the comments if there’s any place you’re especially interested in seeing a post about – I’m open to just about anything that’s a reasonable distance from northern Delaware.)

Speaking of free stuff, contests, and family travel, I wanted to let you know about a great sweepstakes that’s going on courtesy of the San Antonio Vacation Experience (SAVE). There are 12 chances to win weekend packages to stay in San Antonio and visit local attractions. I’ll be giving mine away next week (details to come soon!) but wanted to let you know that the two latest giveaways are hosted at NYCity Mama and TravelingMom. A list of all contest partners and offers can be found here.