One thing the first part of our road trip has been full of is family, and the boys reveled in all the attention from uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins. As the youngest members of our immediate extended family, they are the stars of the show, and all that love makes the long hours in the car worth it.

Here the boys are at the zoo in Madison with their Uncle Tim. It’s hard to tell who’s having the most fun, isn’t it? For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby – hope you’ll visit and tour the other pictures as well.

We’re midway through our Slowcation and after a lovely, long, slow visit in Wisconsin that was capped off with 50^th-anniversary festivities for Matt’s parents (congratulations Dave and Joyce!) we’re hitting the road again (and trying to stay at 60 miles an hour – you’d be surprised how challenging that is, especially in the Midwest). Our agenda includes a drive to Kansas City, where we’ll stay with friends for a few days before heading to Saint Louis to do the same. Then it will be home via Bardstown, Kentucky where we will celebrate the 4^th of July with what is reputedly the best fried chicken in the country as well as a musical about Stephen Foster, that most American of composers.

Here are the vital numbers from the first ten days of our road trip – I hope they are both illuminating and entertaining:

Miles traveled in our car: 988

Tanks of gas: 4

Nights in a hotel: 1

Hugs and kisses from aunts: dozens

Loads of laundry: 4

Orders of French fries: 5, including 1 order of cheese fries

Times swimming: 6

Baseball games: 1

Brats: 0 (I know! Can you believe it?)

Beers on the University of Wisconsin Union Terrace: 2

New t-shirts: 5 (they were as follows: two UW shirts, two Brewers shirts, one Henry Vilas zoo shirt)

Boxes of crayons melted in the car: 1

Steaks: 1 (but it was enormous)

Episodes of Dora and Sponge Bob, games on the Wii, card games, dart games, and games of Life: countless

New car stereos: 1

New camera chargers (Yep, I sure did forget mine!): 1

Bottles of children’s Benadryl: 1

I’m not sure what my Internet access will be like for the next week. If I can, I’ll live blog, but if not, I’ll catch you all up once I’m home. Either way, I’ve got some posts scheduled to publish including a great guest post about how to find accomodations in Europe when traveling with your kids. So I hope you’ll stop by!

The picture at the top of this post was taken on the University of Wisconsin Union Terrace, one of the more relaxing spots in the world. If you’re interested in reading about some of the other things we did in Wisconsin, please see these posts:

Wild turkeys and tame tigers: A (mostly free) day out in Madison

Pioneer history at the Milton House

Take me out to the ballgame!!!

Today, please welcome my guest blogger: My son Tommy. He wanted to write about our visit to Miller Park. Unfortunately the Brewers lost to the Twins 6-4, but as you’ll be able to tell from this post, we had a great time!

Yesterday, we went to Miller Park!!! And got high seats in back of home plate!!! We saw the ”Prince” hit a out of the park HOME RUN!!!

When the Brew Crew gets a HOME RUN Bernie Brewer zips down the slide (I got to see him 3 times!!!!!!!!!!)

My mom got CHEESE FRIES!!! (And she liked them!!!!!!!!!!) I got the WORLD’S BIGGEST COKE.

And I played catch at …THE END!!!

Tommy has requested the chance to write a blog post of his own about going to the Brewers game, and so I will defer to his wishes and permit him to do so over the next couple of days. All I’ll say here is that Tommy informed us as we got out of the car that he was “in disguise.” When asked to explain, he said that by wearing a Brewers hat and a Wisconsin Badgers t-shirt no one would know that his true loyalties lie with the Phillies.

I think maybe he has a future as a spy. What do you think?

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby – hope you’ll visit and tour the other pictures as well.

One of the things I wanted to make sure we did on our visit to southern Wisconsin, where Matt grew up and where the boys can locate much of the family history, was to go to some of the local museums. I liked the idea that Tommy would be able to connect his family history with the larger national narratives that he has learned about in school. I’m happy to report that we had a very successful visit to the Milton House, which actually turned out to be a small gem of a museum that the locals have every reason to be proud of.

The Milton House is the oldest grout, or cement, building in America, and it was made entirely with local materials. Hexagonal in shape, it was constructed as an inn in 1844 by John Goodrich, who was also the founder of the eponymous town where it stands. Goodrich was a generous man who gave a portion of the land he had purchased to serve as a town green, a large and lovely park across the street. He also donated land for a post office, a cemetery, a public school, and a church; for Goodrich was a devout seventh-day Baptist. This means the Milton House was a “temperance inn” where alcohol and tobacco were not allowed. It also meant that Goodrich was an abolitionist. In fact, the Milton House was part of the Underground Railroad and Sojourner Truth was a personal friend of the family and once stayed in the inn as a guest. Attached to the inn is a long rectangular block that housed shops and apartments, what is referred to in the museum’s materials as one of the earliest “malls” in America.

Our tour of the museum was led by a young man named Austin who is only a sophomore in high school. Although he couldn’t answer all of our questions, he did a great job and clearly had a strong sense of both piety for and pride in the museum. The approach he took on the tour was great for a kid Tommy’s age because in almost every room he would pick up an object and ask us to guess what it was. Often we were unable to and so he would have to explain that it was a hair curler or a chicken catcher (which not only caught the chickens but broke their necks cleanly) or some other everyday object that people from the 19^th century would have recognized instantly. And in many of the rooms, we could walk right up to the furniture and other artifacts, which meant that even Teddy got a good view.

We started our tour in a room that had been set up as the general store, which was exciting for Tommy since his great, great, great grandfather once ran this shop. Like all the rooms in the museum, it had been well-stocked with interesting objects from the 1800s, including a large pickle barrel and boxes that once held patent medicines. We then saw the entire downstairs of the inn, including the men’s and women’s waiting rooms and the small dining area, where we were all a little grossed out to learn that the reason guests wanted to be first at the table was because the dishes weren’t washed until everyone had eaten. (The toothpicks were used communally as well.) Upstairs we saw a small guest room and had the tightening of the bed strings and the straw inside the mattress shown to us, as well as the chamber pot, which the boys were shocked to learn would have been emptied right out the window. The rest of the rooms here are set up to house different collections of artifacts – a seamstress shop, an artist’s studio, a room full of Civil War weaponry and gear, another containing toys and items from a school room. Here there were pictures of a number of local one-room schoolhouses, including the one that Matt’s mother attended as a young girl, which really tickled the boys.

The most memorable part of the tour was in the basement. Since the inn was on the Underground Railroad, there is a tunnel between it and the cabin that was the Goodrich family’s original home and actually served as the original inn as well. We were all able to walk upright through it, although Austin pointed out that when the escaping slaves used it, the ceiling was only about three feet high and the floor was mud instead of cement. But the tunnel was still dank and dark and gave a very good sense of what it would have been like to hide in there. We emerged in the tiny cabin, where Austin showed us how a trap door covered by a rug would have hidden the tunnel from view. Tommy was very impressed by this and when we bought him a book about slavery and the abolitionist movement in the small gift shop, he immediately started reading it.

I was really impressed with the Milton House. It’s a small museum owned by a local historical society, but they’ve worked hard to make sure that visitors leave with a sense of the importance of the place. Our tour lasted over an hour and the kids were fascinated throughout. And although Milton is a small town, it’s easy enough to get to. The museum is about a five-minute drive from I-90 and could easily be fit into a road trip to Madison, Minneapolis, or Chicago. During the summer it’s open every day; after Labor Day appointments are necessary to get a tour.

This is one of those museums that really makes an impression. That night as we were driving to dinner Tommy asked, with evident concern in his voice, if there are still places in the world where slavery exists. I wish we could have told him a resounding no.

Normally when we go to Madison, Wisconsin, we head right downtown where hang out on State Street, the Union Terrace, or at the Children’s Museum. But on this visit, the boys had requested a nature walk (Tommy) and a zoo visit (Teddy). Surprisingly enough, we were able to accommodate both of them and have a great time in the bargain.

We started our day at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. Along for the hike were Matt’s sister Becky, brother Mark, and nephew Barry. We arrived at the Visitor’s Center shortly after it opened at 9:30 and were given excellent suggestions and a map by the friendly volunteer working behind the counter. The arboretum has more than20 miles of trails (many of which are open for cross country skiing in the winter) and we had our choice of a variety of different ecosystems to explore. We decided to head where there was shade, as it was already a hot day, and walked into the Gallistel Woods, a large oak forest that has been underplanted with sugar maple, basswood, and beech. It was buggy but pleasant under the canopy of trees. While Teddy hunted for worms and bugs, Tommy regaled his uncle with the plot lines of every Scooby Doo cartoon he’s ever seen. On the return trip, we also walked out onto a boardwalk through a wetland where we hunted frogs and admired the wild iris. We also saw several wild turkeys wandering around (although “wild” seems a misnomer, since they let us walk right up to them). Although at one point we hike up slight slope, which was actually an 800-year-old Native American burial mound, the trail was generally flat and easy for both of the boys.

I know we’ll be returning to this beautiful place as there are many other things to see at the arboretum, including a native plant garden, which is really a series of eleven gardens representing different plant communities of southern Wisconsin; a children’s garden; a demonstration garden; and varous forests, wetlands, and savannas. Many of the trails are open for cross country skiing in the winter. You can also go on a guided tour.

After a yummy lunch at a nearby restaurant called Pasqual’s (more about that in a separate post later) where Becky’s husband and stepdaughter joined us, we headed to the Henry Vilas Zoo.

This is a wonderful zoo to visit with young children because, as you can tell from the photos, the enclosures are set up to give visitors a great view of the animals. Although it was quite hot and humid, the shade from the many trees made it as pleasant as was possible. We saw lions, tigers, and a polar bear (who was wisely avoiding the sun and peeked out at us from inside his cool cave). The boys also fed some goats and gawked at an ostrich who was chewing on her fence like she was trying to make a break for it.

The zoo’s newest feature is the Children’s Zoo, which contains a huge play structure, train, and the Conservation Carousel (which of course my boys had to ride).

This zoo is clean and nicely landscaped and best of all, admission is completely free. If you don’t feel like paying 75 cents for goat feed, a dollar to ride the carousel, or 51 cents for a souvenir penny, you can get out of there without spending a nickel. And it’s in the middle of a lovely park, right on the shores of Lake Wingra (the arboretum is on the opposing shore, which is why these two outings make for a great day trip).

Since there was no fee for the arboretum, we could have gone on this entire outing for the cost of the gas it took us to get there.

Full disclosure on this post: Matt planned this entire successful outing. I wouldn’t want him to think that I wasn’t giving him credit!

I’ve never talked much on this blog about money or budgets, but with the economy being in the state it’s in, and with everyone talking and writing about staying home this summer, I’m feeling the need to do so. Not because it’s trendy but because I realize that anything I can do to show families the value of travel – and how to do it less expensively – will help keep more of them traveling, which is of course one of the goals of this blog.

Which also means it’s true confession time: Part of why I don’t talk about budgets is that I don’t usually have one.

Now mind you, this isn’t because I’m fabulously rich. I certainly SHOULD have a budget. And before we leave home I’m usually more frugal – I can find a discount plane fare or a good hotel rate. It’s just that once we’re actually on the road I don’t do so well. My brain tends to do this funny thing when I travel, what I like to call going into vacation mode. You know how they say that if no one sees you eat that big dish of ice cream right before bed the calories don’t count? Well I’m kind of like that about travel budgeting: I’m on vacation, so any money I spend is from a Monopoly game. It’s vacation money! Not real money!

This does not mean we stay in luxury hotels or throw money away on 4-star meals that the kids don’t eat. But I’m not one to pass up a chance to spend big bucks on local honey at a farmer’s market or a cool t-shirt at the science museum, to say nothing of a wonderful lunch for all four of us at some great bakery. And then there’s the daily helping of artisanal ice cream and a nice bottle of wine for Matt and I to enjoy once we’ve piled the kids into bed….And before you know it, any semblance of a budget is out the window.

But I am resolved that our road trip at the beginning of this summer will be different. I’m actually going to keep track of what we spend. I might even think about setting a daily budget and trying to stick to it. We’re also going to save money by staying with family and friends and I’m going to see what I can do to keep all expenses at a minimum. I will of course share any insights or tips I come up with here.

And most importantly of all: Matt and I have decided that our entire road trip, which as you can see below will be fairly extensive and will cover several thousand miles, will be conducted at speeds of under 60 miles per hour. That’s right – we’re going to save money (and the environment in our own modest way) by slowing down. Maybe I’ll even get real math-y and try to figure out just how many gallons of gas (and how much money) we’ll save overall by doing this.

I’ll have more details next week about just where we’ll be going on this trip (which will be taking place at the end of June) and what sights I hope for us to see, but our path will roughly be this:

1. Drive across PA, OH, IN, and IL to reach southern WI
2. A nice long visit with family in Wisconsin
3. Drive from Wisconsin to Kansas City to see friends
4. Kansas City to Saint Louis (hopefully to see more friends)
5. Travel home from Saint Louis – somehow. I haven’t decided if we want to take the more northerly or southerly route. It will depend on what we decide we want to see.

All of this seen going at a maximum of 60 mph and blogged about exhaustively of course! If any of you have suggestions for things we shouldn’t miss that lie roughly in the geographic region we’ll be covering, I’d love to hear them.

Photo used courtesy of visual.dichotomy.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written about daytrip adventures here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been having my share of them. When we were in Wisconsin over the holidays we spent a great day at the Madison Children’s Museum where the boys got to create a cityscape with some of the coolest blocks I’ve ever seen;

Then it was across the street to the Wisconsin State Capitol building where with our family friend Dom, they raced up the steps to the rotunda to see the official state Christmas tree in all its glory (the restored rotunda alone would be worth the trip during off-season).

I posted early in December that for the first time since I started this blog, my family was going to go four or five weeks without any travel by any member. I talked in what I hope were poetic terms about the journey of Advent and how I planned to take pleasure in the quiet of home to reflect on where I’d been this year and where I was headed in the next.

Well this ain’t a travel blog for nothing. Last week Matt’s sister Becky called to say that she, her husband Tim, and her son Mitch would not be able to come out to Delaware for Christmas as planned. And so we decided that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without them and that we would just have to go to Wisconsin. We’re flying out on the 26^th.

Of course part of why I wrote about the joys of staying home for Christmas was to offset the abounding horror stories about traveling at this time of year. It’s also easy to find tons of tips about how to avoid (or at least mitigate) holiday travel disasters. I’m not much of one for offering practical advice in the face of acts of God, but I really think there are four important things to bear in mind:

1. Breathe often and deeply
2. Assume the worst ______ (fill in the blank: weather, traffic, lines at security, health of your children)
3. Hope for the best
4. Remember what is truly most essential

This last item can be defined differently for all of us of course. To define it for myself, I turn as I often do to what I learned from a year of traveling with a one-year-old. That year we spent Christmas in Wisconsin. It came at a very difficult point in our trip when we had been on the road for six months without spending more than 8 weeks in one place. Matt and I were both exhausted and uncertain about what was coming next and although we had generally found the whole adventure to be a worthwhile undertaking, we were also wondering if we had the heart and stomach for six more months away from home:

The prairie night was cold, a deep and penetrating cold, like being trapped in an icicle set next to a fan inside an enormous freezer. Matt’s father Dave, his mother Joyce, Tommy, Matt, and I stood in the parking lot of Rotary Gardens in Janesveille, admiring the entrance to their Christmas light display: A red and green steam engine with wheels of circling white lights.

I started to cry as the round and friendly denizens of Janesville helloed each other. I cried because such moments are rare and precious things and without our willingness to travel, I would have missed it altogether. I cried because part of me didn’t want to be there. And I cried because everyone seemed so at home, even me.

It is possible that our trip to Wisconsin will have no delays, no bad weather, and no lines. But in the event that our journey is more problematic, I plan to remember exactly what is gained by traveling at the holidays.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Tommy, taken during our year on the road with him. He is just a little more halfway between one and two, we were just about halfway done with our traveling, and both Matt and I were feeling a bit bewildered and exhausted since for the preceding six months we had not spent more than eight weeks in one spot.

All was forgotten on this day when we rode the Santa Train at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom Wisconsin (another middle point – halfway across the United States). Tommy simply couldn’t believe that we were riding a “shoo-shoo” and that there were other “shoo-shoos” in the yard. “Wow!” he cried each time the whistle blew then he would point excitedly at a muddy cow pasture or a level crossing. He had to make sure we weren’t missing one frozen piece of prairie grass (although he had very little use for Santa Claus, who was jolly enough, but still scared him).

Watching the pleasure on his face, I realized that I had rarely in my life felt so proud or fully in the moment. To have a child capable of such attention and enthusiasm was my dream. I had been worried that at an hour, the ride would be too long for him, but he was happy the entire time. And looking at the smiling faces of Matt’s sister, brother-in-law, and their son and daughter, all of them as pleased as I was, I realized how many of these small but significant moments I could mark in Tommy’s development not just by how old he was, but by where we were during our yearlong adventure.

Never would I wonder to myself when he started walking, because I would see him running across the playground in Boston. I knew that he climbed stairs for the first time by himself in London and ate ice cream with his own little spoon in Florence. And here he was, on the Santa train, singing “Jingle Bells” lustily and almost on key. There was no need to measure out Tommy’s life with coffee spoons. Already, at 19 months, we had a rich backdrop for each small milestone, a specific location to attach to each change. Life on the road with a toddler wasn’t always fun or even interesting. But it was distinct. It was memorable.

This picture is for Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Please stop by there and check out the other wonderful posts. And while you’re strolling around the Internet, visit the Passports with Purpose page. For a ten dollar donation to Heifer International, you can be registered to win a Flip video camera or other great prizes.