For many, many years (over a decade in fact) I wore Elizabeth Arden’s Fifth Avenue perfume. It was my signature scent, and I loved not only how it smelled but the fact that it came in an elegant, heavy glass bottle. I loved it so much that I hated leaving it behind when I traveled, but it didn’t come in a size that was small enough to carry on once the TSA instituted its liquids ban and I was always leery about packing it in case it spilled. But for some reason, on our family trip to Los Angeles in 2010, I decided to throw caution to the wind and after wrapping a nearly full bottle in a plastic bag, I shoved it into a huge green duffle that was otherwise full of the toys, shoes, clothes, and the boys’ booster seats for the car.

Well, in case you’re wondering, a good way to dictate a perfume change and to destroy an otherwise perfectly usable piece of luggage is to spill close to four ounces of perfume all over it. It coated everything and the scent dogged us for the rest of the trip; by the end of it even I had determined that I could never again wear anything that smelled remotely like it.

If only I had the Travalo refillable perfume spray bottle.

It’s rare for me to be this enthusiastic about a piece of travel gear. I’m not really a “gadget” girl and I don’t tend to purchase things just for traveling – why do that when plastic bags from the grocery store are so handy? But I love everything about this product from its sleek aesthetic – it fits beautifully in the palm of my hand – to the fact that it takes about five seconds to fill with perfume from my full-sized bottle.

It holds 50 to 65 sprays, is 98 percent recyclable, spill- and shatterproof, and TSA approved for carry-on bags. And it even comes in black for the dude in your life who likes to travel with his cologne but doesn’t want to look too girly.

So cute! So easy to use! And this way I’ll never have to switch perfumes again! And in case you’re wondering, I’ve switched to Sugar Lychee by Fresh without looking back once. In fact, if I need to smell Fifth Avenue, I can pull out that duffle bag, which still reeks of it. The Travalo will definitely find a permanent place in my purse as well as coming along with me on every trip I take, especially now that I am committed to traveling as often as possible with only carry-on bags.

Travalo has generously given me one of their spray bottles to give to a reader – and yes, you want one of these babies. Even better, if you enter the drawing on my site, you’ll automatically be entered to win a grand prize of a $400 flight voucher that can take you and your Travalo anywhere you want to go.

To enter to win both a Travalo of your own and the grand prize of the flight voucher, please leave a comment indicating your dream destination where you’d like to take your Travalo – someplace fabulous, where you can be sure to smell as delicious as the sights you’re taking in. This contest will close on Friday, October 21 at 11:59 EST. I will draw a winner for the Travalo over that weekend; see details about the grand prize drawing below.

So tell me: What fabulous destination are you dreaming of visiting?

Disclosure: Travalo sent me a free perfume spray bottle to review and is providing the prizes for this contest. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Rules and conditions

• Contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only.
• Contest closes on Friday, October 21 at 11:59 EST.
• Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post. Duplicate comments and anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid.
• I will disqualify any entries that I believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology.
• Employees, partners and vendors of The Mother of All Trips and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter.
• I will share all entry emails with C.Fox Communications, which will pull one grand prize winner from all entries and share winner’s name with all participating blogs by 10:00am (EST) on Wednesday, October 26. Winning email will be pulled at random and duplicate emails will be removed prior to determining a winner. C.Fox Communications will notify the grand prize winner directly by 12:00pm (EST) on Thursday, October 27.
• Travel voucher will be sent directly to winner by C.Fox Communications within three (3) weeks of notification of winning status.

I drew from the eligible entries for this contest and Trevor is the winner. He likes to bring drinks and a portable DVD player when he hits the road. Thanks to everyone who entered and to Intel for sponsoring this giveaway.

It’s almost August and I’m hitting the road – but not before I give away a mini Toshiba Mini Netbook to one lucky reader! Isn’t it cute? It’s got a generous keyboard, 1GB of memory and a 250 GB hard drive, but it only weighs 2.9 pounds – perfect to slip into your own or your child’s backpack.

This giveaway is generously sponsored by Intel as part of its Travel Photo Challenge, where you can enter to win a $25,000 custom vacation for four. Just share a favorite travel photo and fill out the entry form before August 14. You’ll also automatically be entered to win a Netbook (so I guess you could say I’m offering you two chances to win one). Intel is offering other perks too; for example, the first 25 people who convince a friend to download AppUp win a $25 gift card. At the AppUp blog, you’ll find tips on finding and using apps as well as which ones work best for family travel.

The first step in entering the Travel Photo Challenge is to download Intel AppUp, which allows users find apps to use right on your Netbook or other PC. Each app is tested and approved by a real human to make sure it meets Intel’s guidelines and is virus free. AppUp is easy to use, with clear categories and the prices for each app indicated right up front. Categories include things like Games, Education, Entertainment, Health, and Staff Picks. What I really like though is that you have 24 hours to try out an app before deciding if you want to purchase it.

On Thursday we leave for a month of travel, and the boys and I will be exploring AppUp together before we go and while we’re on the road to find some fun things to keep them occupied during the several long car rides we have in store. It will also be nice for me to have a computer that’s small enough to use comfortably in the car (hello blog updates!) and who knows – maybe I’ll find some apps I like to use as well. I’ll be sure to share our discoveries. For example, one that I’ve already downloaded and think will be a hit with both boys is the US State Finder – we love to play geography games while we’re traveling.

Here’s how to enter to win a Toshiba Mini Netbook from The Mother of All Trips:

Leave a comment with your favorite road trip tip below – anything to do that makes getting from here to there easier. I’m hoping to get some great suggestions that I can share at the end of this giveaway.

I’ll offer an extra entry for each of the following actions as well:

Subscribe to The Mother of All Trips via rss or email and then let me know you’ve done so.

“Like” The Mother of All Trips on Facebook – then come back here and leave a comment telling me you did so. (And if you already subscribe or “like” me just say so in your comment and I’ll count that too.)

Mention this giveaway on Twitter (you can use the button at the top of this post, or if you prefer to write it yourself, just makes sure you include @motherofalltrip)

This contest is open until 5 p.m. EST on Friday, July 22. See below for rules. And if you like this giveaway and want to share it with your friends, just click the “Like” button at the top of the post.

Many thanks to Intel, who sponsored this giveaway and also sent me a Mini Netbook of my own to try out while we’re on the road this summer and beyond. I’ll be reporting back on how we use it in planes and automobiles. (I’ve got no plans to take a train, but maybe I can work that in….)

Rules
Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post (except as outlined above where the comment is related to an extra entry). Duplicate comments and anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid (email addresses are never public and I don’t share them with sponsors). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A sweepstakes winner’s failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered such sweepstakes winner’s forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. Employees, partners and vendors of The Mother of All Trips and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. When applicable, the winner may be required to execute and return within five business days an Affidavit of Eligibility and a Liability and Publicity Release to be eligible for the prize or an alternate winner will be selected. All prizes will be awarded. No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that The Mother of All Trips reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize.

There comes a time in the life of every blogger when they are forced to reveal something about themselves that they’ve never done publicly. I’m no exception. So here it is:

Hi, my name is Mara, and I am a heavy packer.

For years the fact that I had small children masked this sad fact. That enormous duffle bag we hauled with us and of course had to check was full of toys, booster seats, and diapers but it also held numerous pairs of my shoes and full-sized bottles of shampoo. The photo that leads this post is from our trip to Paris two years ago. We were there for two weeks and as you can see, we needed a Sherpa. Whose fault was this? Try as I might to blame them, it was not those innocent children, oh no. It was me.

But I’m happy to report that as of this summer I am a changed woman. In spite of my love of hair product and shoes, in July of 2010 my family managed to travel for two weeks in England without checking a single bag. And I’m going to share how we did it.

(Those of you with infants and toddlers may want to read this so that you know what you have to look forward to. I’m not going to tell you that you have to try to travel light because that would be pure hypocrisy. However, if you are someone who does carry-on luggage with little ones, I’d love to hear how you do it in the comments.)

Here are my top tips for traveling with non-stroller-or-car-seat-bound children without checking bags:

Remember when you are flying that each of the kids gets one backpack, one carry-on suitcase, and one baggie for toiletries. You’ve purchased a ticket for those children and they get to bring just as much luggage as you do. Even for a product junkie like myself, that’s usually enough room to store what I need, especially since we can all use the same shampoo and soap. And don’t feel like you have to segregate each person’s clothes into his or her “own” suitcase – kids’ clothes are smaller and take up less room. That leaves all the more space in their bags for those cute sandals you can’t live without. Or, depending on how you roll, a pair of sneakers for your early morning runs.

Make sure you have the right suitcases. Before this summer, I can’t remember the last time I bought luggage. We got a set of bags as a wedding gift and had been using those same suitcases – heavy, large, and coming apart at the seams – for all of our travel. Then it finally dawned on me that this travel gig thing was pretty permanent with us and I went to a discount store (Marshall’s and T.J. Maxx are good resources for luggage) and bought small, lightweight, wheeled bags for each of us. That’s right: Each boy got his own suitcase and for the most part was responsible for handling his own luggage during the trip.

The one I got for Teddy is perfect not only because it is purple, but because the wheels move in all directions whether or not you are using the handle. He could (and did) easily push the bag through airports and train stations.

Invest in travel sizes. I’d always used my love of perfume and my specific brand of shampoo as a reason to pack an entire bag just for toiletries. Then I discovered that Lo! My scent comes in a travel size! (With a cool little roller top so it doesn’t spill no less). And at the drug store they sell small bottles that you can fill from your larger ones! I also hunted down products I’d never use at home, like those all-in-one face wipes for cleaning off makeup and dirt – they aren’t liquid and don’t have to go into the baggies like a bottle of face wash would. Did it cost me some money up front? Yes. But I didn’t use all of the stuff up on a two-week trip and am discovering that some of those small bottles will stretch quite far. And if there’s a product that you use in bulk – in our case, contact solution – buy a larger bottle once you get to your location. At least until they change those restrictions to something bigger than 3.4 ounces per bottle.

Oh, and for the love of Pete, keep those baggies all together and under your control so that you can easily toss them into the bin at the security check. You don’t want to rely on your five-year-old to do it.

Leave some of the clothes and toys at home. Make careful piles of everything you think your family will need to wear. Then remove at least one top and one bottom from everyone’s pile – yes, even your own. You probably don’t need quite as much as you thought you did. Have the children do the same with the toys and books for their backpacks. Promise them they’ll be having so much fun they won’t need a ton of stuff to do – and then surprise them with the occasional coloring book and box of crayons that you purchase while you’re on the road.

Wear your heaviest clothes and shoes on the plane. It was literally 100 degrees Fahrenheit the day we left for England in July, but I made the boys put on their sweatpants and hoodies for the flight. And I’ve been known to wear three or four tops on my body as a way to transport more clothing. Clothing you remove can serve as blankets or pillows on long flights. And if you’re like me, you’re always cold on planes anyway.

Plan your trip so that you can do laundry. Make sure you have access to a washing machine (and if you’re lucky, a drier – in Europe, much to my amazement, they are often the same appliance) at some point during your trip. You can do this by renting an apartment with laundry facilities, which is my favorite approach. You can also stay in a hotel that has a laundry service or scope out the laundromats in your neighborhood, although you will then of course need to add the cost to your budget. And if you’ve got friends in a foreign city who are hosting you or showing you the local sites, don’t be embarrassed or afraid to ask them if you can use their washing machine. You’d do it for them, right?

Use the postal service. Finally, if you are going somewhere domestically for more than a week, will be staying in the same place, and have a need for gear like hiking boots or more toys than will fit in your kids’ backpacks, consider shipping a box ahead of you using the postal service. You’re likely to pay less than you would for your baggage and you don’t have the hassle of waiting at the airport. You can also insure the contents, not a service offered by most airlines to my knowledge.

So there you have it: I’m officially a reformed heavy packer. And the best part is, I really don’t feel like I’ve had to compromise – I just pack smarter. In fact, I was fortunate enough at a conference I attended this past weekend to be singled out for my fashion sense on camera despite the fact that I had packed only a small suitcase for four days (another open secret: I loves me my clothes). Which has me thinking that I may need to write a post about looking good on the road, even when traveling with kids. What do you think?

The day before we leave on a long trip, I always have a moment when I don’t think I’m actually going to get it all done.  Today is no exception. I haven’t yet started packing (although frankly, I’ve packed us up so many times that I could do it with one hand tied behind my back). I still have to type up instructions for the friend whose son will be taking care of my garden. The mail and papers have been stopped, but I forgot to take the car in for an oil change yesterday and so have to take time out to do so this afternoon. I need to e-mail our itinerary to friends and family. And did I mention that Tommy’s last Little League game, which was rained out, got rescheduled for this evening?

Of course, I will get it all done. I always do, usually more efficiently than I expected to. And as you can tell from the photo above, I have done the single most critically important task, which is assembling the in-the-car supplies for the kids.

My favorite part of any trip we take is that Zen moment when we pull out of the driveway. At that point there’s nothing more for me to do. What’s been forgotten has been forgotten; what will die in my garden will die; and if there’s a light left on or a piece of food left out on the counter, well, that’s just how it goes. Our trip lies before us waiting to happen. And usually it takes the children at least ten minutes before they ask for a snack or how long we will be in the car.

Tomorrow we hit the road for what I’ve dubbed Slowcation 2009.  We will be spending the night in Ohio, with a planned arrival in southern Wisconsin late on Friday afternoon. I will be blogging from the road, keeping track of how much money we are spending and how many miles we cover per day going a maximum speed of 60 mph.

In case you’re wondering, the supplies above, which will be invaluable since we have no DVD or portable video-game player, cost me 60 dollars. We also spent 30 dollars making a CD on iTunes and checked a bunch of books out of the library. I’m yet to purchase our snacks, but I’m thinking I’ll manage to get us on the road for around 100 bucks. Not bad when you consider that we’ll be driving 850 miles over the next two days!

I’ve always been a list-maker, but having kids kicked that up to a whole new level, especially when we travel. From the very first trip we took with Tommy when he was six weeks old, I made very careful lists in of exactly what we needed to bring – bottles and blankets and binkies and nightlights and extra diapers. My diaper bag was a black backpack that was great for traveling and from our very first trip it was always my job to plan and execute all of the packing (Matt’s job has always been to make what I pack fit in our little car). I prided myself on how well-organized it was and on how I always had a clean change of clothes, wipes, extra sippy cups, and lots of books and toys in its well-stocked compartments.

I definitely still endorse list making and careful packing as a tactic when you travel with kids, especially babies and toddlers who require a lot of gear, and especially if you’re going away for a long time. When I was packing for our trip to Arizona this week I made a quick list to ensure that we didn’t forget Teddy’s nebulizer, meds, and all-important Lovey Bear.

But I realized something important on this trip. My boys are now 4 and almost 7, old enough to know what they’d like to read and play with and what things might be most critical to amuse them on the plane. So they packed their own backpacks. The Easter Bunny may have magically provided some perfect new toys and travel games that gave them great ideas, but each of them came up with their own critical items like extra chapter books about Ben Franklin and a collection of small plastic dinosaurs.

The title of this post may be a bit misleading, because I’m not actually advocating that the kids get the final say about everything that goes into the suitcase. And obviously it only applies for those of you who have kids like mine who are past the toddler stage. But involving your children in the packing process not only helps get them excited for the trip, it gives them some ownership and makes them willing and eager to carry some of the load when you are schlepping through the airport.

And it’s also a way to give your children some independence and control over their own experience – and begins setting the stage for when they can actually pack (and even take trips) on their own. You’d be surprised what your kids are capable of. Maybe next time we’re traveling I’ll teach Tommy the virtues of writing a pre-packing list.

Monday dreaming will return next week at it usually scheduled time. And I probably won’t do much live blogging on this trip – I plan to just relax a little and enjoy my vacation. I’ve got other posts scheduled throughout the week though, so please come back. And I will definitely be sharing the whole scoop on Arizona when we return.

I’m really not all that into travel gear. You might even call me somewhat antigear. After lots of traveling with infants, toddlers, and now school-age kids, I’ve come to realize that there really aren’t that many things you need to have a successful trip. Not that we travel in a way that I would call light, but our bulk tends to be books, toys, and shoes not special containers or gadgets that are supposed to make things “simpler”.

Lately though I’ve been thinking about our car, which is small, and all of the stuff in the backseat. This tends to be an overwhelming pile of books, papers, crayons, plastic snack cups, and who knows what else. And I’ve been thinking about a multi-day driving trip to Wisconsin with two bickering children. And I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s time to invest in a piece of gear that might help to contain things a little bit. I’m contemplating a purchase like the Tuffo Family Car Organizer. Think of all those cute little compartments filled so neatly with markers and magazines! And the blissfully happy children who can immediately locate everything their hearts desire!

Or at least no stuff on the floor, maybe?

Or at the very least not an overwhelming tide of childhood randomness sliding in between the two front seats whenever the brakes are applied?

(It does occur to me that perhaps a future post about the absolute essentials that I carried with us for 13 months might be a good idea. Stay tuned).

• A big bag of wooden blocks
• Another big bag full of wooden train track and trains
• Four puzzles
• Three board games
• Baseball gloves and balls
• A big stack of activity/coloring books, markers, glue, scissors
• A set of dinosaur magnets
• A bag of plastic animals
• A set of K’nex
• Toy cars and trucks
• Whatever other miscellany I’m forgetting

I’ll let you guess where I’m going with this – a place that contradicts what I said yesterday a bit, but hey this is my blog – Tip #3: Your kids don’t need a lot of toys while you are on vacation. Really.

It rained nearly every day we were there, so you would think that all of our toys would have gotten loads of use. But let me tell you, most of it languished underfoot in the very small house we were inhabiting, cluttering the floor and getting in everyone’s way. We did play catch a bit, and the track did get set up on the floor, but the boys mostly wanted to go down by the pond and catch amphibious life or cuddle up with books that we checked out of the local library. (And here’s a freebie tip: we used my dad’s library card, but did you know that most places will let you get a temporary one? It saves a lot of space not having to bring many books.) Oh, and we were a bit more lenient about how much TV we let them watch, but not that much.

Here’s what we needed for three weeks of fun: markers and paper, a bucket, two spades, two nets, a couple of balls, five dice and some Yahtzee scorecards. The house already had some large pillows and extra blankets for making forts, another major source of amusement. I’m really going to try and read this post before we go up to Vermont for Thanksgiving and let each child fill one backpack with toys.

But do you suppose that means I have to limit myself to one pair of shoes?

If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll visit the others in this series:

What I learned on my summer vacation #1

What I learned on my summer vacation #2

What I learned on my summer vacation #4

What I learned on my summer vacation #5

So here’s Tip #1: Snacks are good

This may seem like a funny tip, and perhaps it’s not one that you need. I mean surely, you bring snacks along when you go places with your children. And yes, surely, if you are like all “good” 21^st-century parents you know that these snacks should be healthy. Fruits, cut-up veggies, maybe the occasional whole-grain bagel. And yes again, these things are always in the bag that is tucked under my feet along with reusable bottles of ice water. I pass the test.

But, I ask you, before hitting the road with your family, do you also make a special trip to the grocery store to pick up a shopping cart full of delights? Are your children allowed things they would never, ever get under normal circumstances? Say, for instance, Pop Tarts? Or gummy worms? Or, if you prefer to choose from the savory column, beef jerky? I can answer a proud yes to all of the above.

I will always remember the trip my mother took me and my sister Sheila on to an island off the coast of Maine when I was eleven. We stayed right on the beach, collected jar after jar of beach glass, picked wild blueberries, and swam in rock quarries with water so pure and clear that I could see down at least fifteen feet to the bottom. But you know what really stands out in my mind? Grape soda. Ruffled potato chips. And a big box of Chips Ahoy. All foods that we never, ever had at home.

What I’m trying to get at here is that on a long trip, when you will be in the car a lot, sharing close living quarters, and encountering an unexpected “Closed” sign or rain when there is supposed to be sun, snacks work. And they work in a lot of different ways: to pass the time, to make up for disappointments, as a bribe for good behavior.

(Yes, I did just use the word bribe.)

I know, food is not supposed to be a tool in one’s parenting box. It’s supposed to nourish, not nurture. But I’ll come right out and say it here: for me there’s nothing like the excitement of handing out lollypops as we speed up the New Jersey turnpike. Snacks are part of what defines a vacation for my family, a sense that we have left home and are going somewhere special, that the normal rules have been suspended a bit. Perhaps for your family it might be something else, but I find that a few cans of soda do the trick admirably.

Of course, now that we are home, we’ve hidden the leftover bag of gummy stuff (spiders, sharks, root beer bottles, and peaches included) way up in the top cupboard where it will only come down in emergency situations like perhaps long waits at the doctor’s office. It’s back to school, back to reality!

(Please note that this post was written while the author was under the influence of some leftover chocolate-coated pretzels.)

If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll visit the others in this series:

What I learned on my summer vacation #2

What I learned on my summer vacation #3

What I learned on my summer vacation #4

What I learned on my summer vacation #5

Today we embarked on an entirely different trip than our recent one to Paris: our annual three-week sojourn in Vermont where my father and stepmother live. We have done this every summer since Tommy was born save the year he was two, when we had just returned from our 13 months on the road and were in no mood to go anywhere for a while.

Unlike our trip to France, which was all new territory for the boys, this trip is full of traditions. Per usual, the excitement started early in the week when I packed a few boxes and shipped them ahead. A few days before we left, I filled a grocery bag with treats such as sour-cream-and-cheddar potato chips and licorice and a stack of new books for the kids. The past few times we’ve done this drive Matt has made a CD of great 1950s hits–Elvis, Chuck Barry, etc.–to listen to in the car. This time it was my turn and I stayed up late on Friday night searching iTunes. And then suddenly it was the day before departure, with its annual scurry to pack and buy sunblock and get haircuts and mow the lawn and get the bike rack on the car, which, since it happens only rarely, is always a challenge.

In the past I’ve always made lots of packing lists, but after our trip to Paris, I just didn’t feel like it somehow, so I didn’t. The boys are getting older and for the first time we are traveling free of almost all baby gear – no diapers, wipes, swimmies, or potty or booster seats. Matt did make the clutch decision to bring the stroller, although I’m still not sure how he fit it in the trunk – after years of family road trips he’s gotten to be kind of a magician with that space. We left the backpack carrier, so Teddy is going to have to do some hiking.

The picture above is what the car ultimately looked like, pretty much as it always looks when we leave on this trip. Simplification didn’t really help much, but I felt psychically lighter, as if it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I forgot something. Of course, at some point Teddy’s legs are going to reach the ground and we’re going to lose that valuable space behind the passenger seat, but I suppose we can address that problem when the time comes.

I’m pretty old school when it comes to road trips. I don’t believe in videos or electronic games and am very happy that the children successfully amuse themselves as I did when I was young: with books and coloring and songs and looking out the window and of course, because they are after all human children, bickering and poking and angling for more snacks. I’m not sure my CD, full of Motown songs, was such a hit, although I was certainly happy listening to “Stop in the Name of Love.” When the New Jersey Turnpike got too boring, I read them a chapter of Runaway Ralph, pausing so that we could admire the George Washington Bridge and try to glimpse Manhattan through the haze of heat and pollution, just like we always do. We stopped for lunch in Danbury, Connecticut at Rosie Tomorrow’s, “our” restaurant ever since we discovered it one day when we were caught in a traffic jam a few years ago. The boys love this place, which is full of old fairground artifacts and an electric train that circles above the bar, around and around the piano player who is there at Sunday brunch playing a jaunty if disjointed mix of Chopin and Cole Porter. They serve you too much food her, not bad but not especially good, but the French fries are curly and there is a fortune teller in a booth like in the movie Big. It’s always a winner.

To make the drive more manageable, we stop in Northampton, Massachusetts and spend a night or two before going on to Vermont. We always stay in the same hotel, and as the years have passed, we can mark Tommy’s growth using the small indoor pool. The first time he couldn’t stand even in the shallowest part and had to be carried around; now he can jump in one end and swim to the other without assistance, which he was doing ten minutes after arrived. And after swimming, as we always do, we staggered out to dinner and the boys almost fell asleep in their food much to my irritation (will I ever learn?). Then there was, as there always is, the giggly excitement of getting them settled into bed, both on a the fold-out couch (for the first time this year Teddy isn’t in a Pack ‘n Play) and the one, two, three reprimands to settle down. In the morning, they knew, there would be a first breakfast of Fruit Loops at the hotel followed by a dip in the pool and then The Backyardigans and a second breakfast at our favorite restaurant Sylvester’s. Always the same, our own set of traditions for the boys to tell their children about some day. A journey into the familiar, just as important in their childhood as visiting the unknown.

Just a quick thought before we leave: How did the early pioneers make it across the continent (or the ocean) with their children but no plastic bags?