Driving 8 States

Car journeys are like plane flights, you just have to be organised.

Our road trip started in Newark, New York, then onto Stroudsburg to drop Molly at gymnastics camp, up to Boston, down to Washington DC, Fayettville, Savannah, and finally finishing in Orlando. We had left ourselves 5 days to cover the 1500 km. We were looking forward to seeing the country side even tho it was mostly highway. Were we looking forward to many hours sitting in the car with the girls, well not really. But I figure its all about being organised. Pack the car with the basics. Food, water, music, a movie and some car games.

Lily listening to her own tunes. Oh how we love to listen to her singing..

Lily listening to her own tunes. Oh how we love to listen to her singing

I kept a supply of Disney themed treats for our final drive to Orlando

First stop, Wal Mart to stock up on some healthy snacks, picnic essentials and some treats. We used the highway rest stops, to refuel ourselves and let the girls run around. They are nothing like the ones you find on the NZ road side. These are security watched, they have covered picnic tables areas, vending machines and loads of parking. Lily was so excited at how clean and fresh the public toilets were and even more excited to find no stand up toilets.
We made sure that all electronics were charged just incase of melt downs or the unexpected delay on the highway, usually we try to only give the girls one movie per trip. It's great for them to actually look out the window, but they do read, colour, play with little toys and lets not forget annoy each other.
In the glove box I have car bingo which I found on Pinterest and number plate bingo if it all turns to custard. A map of your route is also good, then the kids can follow the trip and mark off where they are and how far to go. There are so many ideas on the net for keeping the rugs rats entertained.
My piece of advice - My family love music and they love it loud. They sing, they tap and bang things. I admit I hate it loud and I hate the tapping, it makes me my feel really grumpy. So I use ear plugs. It doesn't completely block out the noise but it dulls it and makes us all happier. I have also been known to use them just to dull out the constant talking from the back seat.

5 flights, 8 States, 8 hotels and 30 hours of driving

Part 1

We travelled from NYC to Boston to Orlando with lots of cities inbetween. I got to visit the sights of NYC, Milton got his seafood fix in Boston, Molly got her dream of attending IGC gymnastics camp in Stroudsburg and Lily got to see all the princesses at Disney world, Orlando. We had a great trip but it was filled with flights, stop overs, different cities, lots of driving hours and hot, busy theme parks. Our girls are great to travel with, but like all kids they do melt down at times, as do we.
The question is how do we plan to prevent these meltdowns.
By being prepared.
Ever since the girls were babies we have travelled. Short fights or car journeys, to visit friends and family in different parts of the country. Milton often laughed at me for having towels, extras bottles of water and a change of clothes in the car. But for those who have travelled the road from Wanganui to Taupo over the Para Paras you will know the need. Its like always packing some sort of pain relieve for children, as who wants to be going out into the middle of the night, in a strange city to find medicine for a screaming child.
Always be prepared.
There are a lot of travel blogs and blogs covering this topic, I'm not claiming to be an expert when traveling with children but these are some of the things that have helped us and made the journeys enjoyable.

Part one - flights

We don't have many choices about what time we fly from Tbilisi, as most of the flights leave at 4 am. So by the time we board the plane the girls are already wanting food. No matter what time you fly have a good supply of snacks. It always seems to take forever for the meals to arrive, and when they do, if there is nothing on it the kids will eat, god help you. Your own snacks are also great for stopovers as airport food can be expensive and sometimes hard to find.
Always leave home with every electronic device charged and filled with kids apps, games and movies. We have been caught out on a couple on shorter flights with no in flight entertainment. Not much fun. The girls also like to listen to audio books.
Both the girls have there own bag for the plane. I have tried a small soft wheelie bag and small back backs but they like the wheelie bags the best. They hate to carry what they call heavy backpacks. My thought, what ever it is, make sure it is small enough for them to carry and also important that it fits under the seat as I for one hate getting up and down getting things out of the overhead lockers.
I fill the girls bags with stickers, pencils, pens, a magazine, cards and doodle books. To make it easy to keep everything together while girls are in their seats, I pack everything into a packing cell found at Kathmundu. I also use these in our luggage, great for keeping everything together.
On overseas trips the girls also have a journal that we make before we leave filled with activities to be completed on the trip. Title pages, flags, maps are good things to complete on the flight.

Always pack a light change of clothes for the kids and yourself. You never know when an accident might happen and you don't want to be sitting in it for the rest of the flight.
Miltons tip for the adults. If you find you get some sort of cold or flu after flying, try having a tomato juice followed by water every time the drinks trolley comes past. He swears by it.

Screaming Girls

I think the highlight of our visit to NYC for the girls was the Taylor Swift concert at the Met Life Stadium.

We got there extremely early forgetting from our own younger days, that there are always opening acts. The girls waited patiently for 4 hours before the main act came on, and boy did those girls scream and sing their hearts out for the entire time. Lily had a wee nap in the middle (not sure how she managed that).

Girls waiting very patiently

Giant plate of nachos for dinner and this wasn't even a large serving.

It was a great first concert for the girls. Taylor rocked some very cool but casual outfits, even bare feet.

Worst Flight Ever

Right up there with sitting beside some one with no idea about personal hygiene, is sitting beside someone who needs to use the sick bag.
After waking at 1am to catch our flight to Frankfurt, our stop over to NYC, I decided that I wasn't just feeling rotten because I was lacking in sleep but I was just feeling rotten. Not a problem, it will just be a case of Tbilisi Belly, nothing that lasts for to long.......... Little did I know that it would be me using the sick bag, while sitting between two strangers. Bloody great.
And that's how my flight to the US began. 13 hours later we landed at JFK airport and I was still clutching my sick bag.

NYC the city that doesn't sleep. We had 3 days to visit the sights, not a lot of time so we did the very touristy thing and took the open top bus, which gave us a good look at all the areas of the city from Harlem to Soho.

We took the ferry to see the great Statue of Liberty and took in the sites of the city from the top of the Empire State Building.

We watched street performers in Central Park and visited Times Square at midnight

We walked 5th avenue, Madison and Broadway (didn't see Carrie Bradshaw). We ate bagels and hotdogs on the street while people watching.
We all enjoyed NYC but next time we will need to stay a little longer maybe a quick trip without the rug rats.