Some of my favorite childhood memories are from road trips with my family, and then daylong trips with my dad after he became a quadriplegic and was unable to travel on his own (or for very long). To me, a road trip represents freedom from the day-to-day and a chance to see what else is out there, even if you are still relatively close to home. After all, the only real requirement for a road trip is the road.
Yesterday we took a nice Sunday drive up the coast of California, because why not, and these are some of the things I will remember:
- Announcing that the “El Camino Real” game is now, officially, a non-contact game. EL Camino Real is a game we play in the car by finding and counting the El Camino Real markers along the 101 freeway. Lately, it has become sort of a punch buggy thing in our backseat, emphasis on “punch.” So far the boys have counted 86 and 84, respectively, in one trip (no kids were injured during the playing of that game).
- Introducing the kids to new/old music and listening to them pick up the lyrics (Zane) and the melody (Atticus) immediately, then singing along with the radio.
- Listening to them collaborate in the backseat about some YouTube video they want to create, or talk about some level they just beat in Minecraft. Atticus told us all about the new things they learned in chemistry. We played Candy Land at lunch and a travel game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos (both games are also non-contact, now).
In short, I love a road trip because it gives us all a break from the daily and mundane things of life. If we would have stayed home the boys probably would have had fun playing Minecraft with their friends, not that there is anything wrong with that, but instead, we got a chance to reconnect as a family. These are the things they are going to remember. We all will.
This summer we have a pretty big road trip planned, and we cannot wait. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted!
