Philly Here We Come

My husband and I decided that we needed to get away for a few days and I've been telling him that I would really like to go to Philadelphia. Philadelphia has some great museums there I'd love to see, so off to Philly we went. Philly is a 3 hour drive from where we live and this would be our first road trip with Callen.  Callen is pretty good in the car most of the time and when he does get upset it's nothing that a soother and my terrible singing can't fix (I don't know why my terrible singing calms my boys down in the car when they are mad but it really does work).  However, 3 hours in a car is a long time and Callen was only 3 days into his new head gear so I was a bit worried.  Tavish on the other hand is no rookie at road trips and while we had not been on one for awhile I know he travels well.

As our travel plans evolved we decided to do a Saturday-Monday road trip instead of our traditional Friday-Sunday plans.  This worked out great for us because Tavish was sick on Friday and this also meant we could leave early Saturday morning and not have to worry about any rush hour traffic.  We left around six and with only one stop for breakfast and pee break we arrived at our destination at 9:30.  Here are a few of my tips for an easy road trip without a DVD player (I'm not against these but I only plan on using ours for an extreme emergency)

Toddler and Older

•  snacks - pack all of your kids favorite snacks and keep them close by.  You don't want your snacks packed in a hard to reach spot.  Also you want easy to clean snacks, I'm a fan of raisins, fruit leather, granola bars, and animal crackers.  I try not to get anything messy or sticky.
• toys and books - pack lots of different toys and books and have them either accessible to you or your child.  Again you don't want to be digging around for new toys when they get bored of what they have. 
• have a special road trip toy or game - something that you only use when on long road trip.  We have a tag/tag jr. (review to come later) which Tavish can use when he's in the car for more than an hour.  This way it's a special treat and won't get bored of it after 5 minutes
• bring great music - have a variety of music that  you and your kids both like.  To me there is nothing worse than having to listen to the same terrible CD over and over again
• books on tape or pod casts - these are great for older children and even adults.  Listening to a good story/book can make a trip go by much faster.  My husband and I are huge fans of the Vinyl Cafe pod cast and it's kid friendly too
• tell stories - my 3 year old love stories and he love ones that I tell.  I tell my own version of choose your own story and he love it.  I really need to record one as they get pretty silly.

Babies - Traveling with your baby can be really easy or really tricky depending on the age of your baby and their temperament.  I have a very easy baby when it comes to traveling so my tips may or may not work for you 

• start off happy - make sure all the immediate needs are met: food, clean diaper, comfortable.  I try to make sure that I top up any feeding and have a fresh diaper before I start, this way I know if my baby is crying it's not because he needs a basic need met.
• entertainment - babies usually like something to look at besides the back of the car seat.  Mirrors work great as it allows you to look at your baby and they can also be entertained by themselves.  I also put in a few soft toys to keep him entertained
• be prepared - be prepared for anything and have extra's of everything.  Make sure you have a second or third soother on hand and with easy access if you need one.  Bring extra clothes, diapers, and wipes just in case you need a change of clothes.  
• plastic bags - bring some, you never know if you'll have a blow out that requires a clean up
• stop when you need to - you'll need to stop more often with a baby then you would on your own so plan for these stops
• sing - when you can't stop and your baby is cranky just sing.  I don't think it matters how terrible or good your voice is, the sound of your voice can be soothing or at least it makes you feel like your doing something until you can pull over.

Keeping these things in mind we had an easy trip to Philly and we were ready to being sight seeing.  First stop was the Please Touch Museum...

Air and Space yet again.

Can you tell that the Air and Space Museum in Dulles is one of our favorite museums?  This was Callen's fourth trip and at the time he was not even three months old.  As always we had a great trip, we took in an IMAX - Legends of Flight and my dad and I even rode on the spinning simulator (lots of fun aside from the fact my glasses fell off and it took about 20 minutes to find them).  For the most part though the museum has not really changed much in the other 3+ times that we had gone (read here) but I did get a tip from another mom blog about how to take better pictures in this giant museum.  I alway use my flash (I'm a very beginner photographer) and for the most part did not know any better so when I read on the Snot, Tots, and Espresso Shots blog that the flash washed out the pictures, I decided on this trip to go flashless and these were my results:

 We enjoyed the IMAX (which was a great place to feed Callen)

 Tavish loves the little computers

 Callen just hanging out

 McDonalds came though with a great toy

  And in my opinion photos much better than my last trip.

National Archives

Every time I go into D.C. I find myself in the movies.  D.C. is the backdrop to so many movies and T.V. show your almost guaranteed to find yourself on the set of a movie you know.  Our second stop of the D.C. day with my parents took us to the set of National Treasure.  Okay not really but we were in the National Archives which is featured in the show.  Even if you have never seen the movie I'm sure most people know that the Declaration of Independence is on display in the Archives, making it a popular D.C. stop.

Having previously been to the Archives and having Callen in the stroller (getting up to see the Declaration of Independence there are 3 or so stares making it not very stroller friendly), I viewed the Maga Carta while my parents at the Declaration and Other documents. The Maga Carta is a facinating peace of history in which the Declaration is based on (I think, I'm a biologist not a history major). In addition to the Declaration and Maga Carta there is also a gallery which has an exhibit on Discovering the Civil War: Consequences.  This exhibit does a good job of showing how the Archives are used to find new information on the Civil War.  It was very educational but not that stimulating (if that makes sense).

While the National Archives are interesting and have lots of cool historical documents this is not the most toddler/baby friendly stop in D.C. Unless you are a history buff or are kidless then I'd skip the Archives and head to the American History, Natural History, or Air and Space Museums as they are much more fun for little kids.