One Word At A Time: Adventure
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 7:00AM MAD21 By Ginny (MAD21)
If I were to choose a few words to describe my family, one of them would surely be adventurous. We love to go on adventures. Yes, we have also chosen that word to describe an everyday occurrence in hopes that by changing a certain child's perspective about it might make them more motivated to participate, but really, we do love them. One of our most favorite ways to add adventure to a road trip is that we don't usually have a map or a time line.
We have two different kinds of trips we like to take. One has a specific location as our destination, the other is "just pick a direction."
We have been on several trips over the years where we had a specific destination. Like the summer before we had my first daughter we decided we wanted to go to Maine. I had never been there and it had been since childhood since my husband had gone. We drove all the way up the coast staying off main roads until we ended up in Bar Harbor looking out over the water toward Nova Scotia. On the way home we did the same thing, driving the loooong way home through: New Hampshire, where we drove up Mt. Washington... never again! And we got to see "The Old Man of the Mountain" the year before face collapsed the following year; Vermont, where we found the home of the artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens; New York; and Pennsylvania. We saw a ton of things we wouldn't have seen if we'd stayed on the main highways following a map.
If it's a day trip, it's usually "pick a direction." We try to go on different roads than we've used before, and we just drive until we find something interesting. We have found some really great playgrounds, museums, and many other things going on these trips.
Traveling this way is so relaxing, believe it or not. No one is fretting over a time line or taking a wrong turn. And by staying off the main roads and highways, you get a better feel for the local areas and find some fun and sometimes crazy things. Once we found a HUGE statue of the Jolly Green Giant because we turned down a road to go to a Walmart in Minnesota.
Something else we try to do on these road trips is that we try not to eat at chain restaurants. We try to find a local favorite and eat there. Two ways to find them... you can either ask someone where the good local places are, or just look at the cars in the parking lot. Look for lots of cars that have local license plates. We found a place on our trip to Maine that is still to this day one of our most favorite places we've ever eaten.
Another benefit of traveling without a specific plan is that by doing so, you can really make it fit with most budgets. You should decide in advance how much money you can spend during your trip and make decisions accordingly. And leave the GPS in the glove compartment (until you need to find your way home!).
You've heard the phrase, "Life is about the journey, not the destination." For us, adding this adventure to the journey makes it almost more fun than the destination.
This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
Be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Adventure.
Adventure, Family Life, Kids, One Word At A Time, Travel in One Word At A Time
Reader Comments (4)
I never get to take trips like these. Mine always have a destination and a strict outline. Sometimes, I get back and I need a second vacation to get over the exhaustion of the first.
That sounds like a lovely idea. Just drive. My husband has off next week. I think I'll suggest it to him.
Stress free vacation. Adventures for sure! And I like your idea about selecting a local restaurant with lots of cars in the parking lot.
DS-- You and the SG should totally try this. Just take an overnight/weekend trip. Pick a direction and drive. You'll not regret it.
Helen-- You totally should. I want to hear all about it!
Thanks to you, too, Hazel. Love that you visit our blog so often :o)