Off to Atlanta!

Hazel and I work together on a puzzle

Now that my birthday weeks are finally over, it is time for a road trip!  My Great-Great Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Sam are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary in Atlanta, so we decided to drive down to help them celebrate and visit Bubbe.  I don't know how long 70 years is, but I'm told it's a long time. Apparently FDR was president when Sylva and Sam got married.  I know the letters F, D and R, so that impresses me.

We were all pretty excited about another road trip.  Mom and Dad always give us lots of fun things to do in the car and we stop at all kinds of exciting places.  So, we could all hardly sleep Monday night knowing we were leaving first thing in the morning.  Mom and Dad packed a TON of really good, healthy food, so we snacked constantly and all ate very healthy the entire trip.  We didn't have to stop to buy junk food once.

When we got into the car Tuesday morning, Dad had another surprise waiting for us.  There were little TV screens in front of Hazel's and my seats.  Mom had put some fun cartoons on them, like Corduruy, Curious George, Olivia, and How do Dinosaurs?  We were immediately mesmerized for the first hour or so of the trip.  After the first hour, I moved on to my workbook, and eventually my iPod.  Hazel alternated between the movies, her iPod, and coloring.  Turner was content to just nap and quietly sit.

Turner putting things in and out of a bucket

After about four hours or so, we made our first stop in Tyler, Texas.  Why Tyler, Texas, you might ask.  Here's why - the Tyler Children's Museum!  Yes, once again, we are getting maximal usage out of our Austin Children Musuem's reciprocal membership.  This is actually the 11th Children's Musuem we've been to on this trip.  Mom and Dad weren't sure how good a children's museum in Tyler, Texas, would be, but it did have great reviews on Trip Advisor. 

It turns out all of those reviews were right on.  When we first got there, Dad was immediately impressed with the dinosaur display at the front.  We had a nice lunch that Mom made, and then proceeded to explore and play in the musuem.  They had a toddler place for Turner that he could crawl around in.  That was great, since he had been stuck in the car for so long.  There were lots of toys for him to take in and out of buckets, and walls for him to hold on to practice standing, which he's getting better and better at. We think he'll be walking soon.

Meanwhile, Hazel and I found all kinds of fun stuff.  We found a 3D puzzle with pieces that looked like parts of the human body - bones, muscles, organs.  Hazel and I teamed up to put it together.  We also saw a real lizard, some fish, and even a live bunny!  We walked through an elaborate cave that spooked Hazel because it was long and dark.  We climbed on a giant boat and played with various gravity games that involved dropping golf balls down different roller-coster-like slides and watching where they ended up.


Our favorite thing though was just a simple mat at the bottom of a climbing wall.  We had been cooped up in the car for a while, so running around felt great.  Dad took a video of us being kind of crazy.  After a few hours, we were exhausted, so we climbed back in the car and fell asleep.  By the time we woke up, we were almost to our next big stop - our hotel for the night.

Turner goes grocery shopping in Mississippi

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Clinton, Mississippi.  This turned out to be a great idea.  The hotel had an indoor pool, and was right next to the Mississippi Children's Musuem and LeFleur's Bluff State Park. The room also had a fridge, so we had an easy way to store all of our great food.  We got to the hotel pretty late, so we took a quick bath to calm us all down, and all fell asleep relatively quickly. 

In the morning, we woke up and had a quick breakfast.  Then we all went swimming in the indoor pool.  It was pretty fun.  Dad played with us for a little bit, but then went and sat in the hot tub.  We weren't allowed in there.  After another quick bath, we were back on the road - for about 20 minutes.  Just long enough to get to the Mississippi Children's Museum. 

Hazel and I remembered this place from our visit last year.  We couldn't wait to get inside!  It was a lot more crowded than last year - apparently, it has really caught on with the local population now.  There were still lots of fun things for us to do.  I played with the car and built a house.  Hazel found a huge playscape shaped like the human digestive track and crawled around the tunnels.  I climbed in that structure too, but went the opposite way and met Hazel half way through.  It was pretty funny. 

Then, Turner, Hazel, and I found a grocery area with pretend fruit and played there together.  Turner practiced standing more.  Eventually he got tired of standing and Dad took him to a different room where he could crawl around.  While Dad was there, he talked to a really nice employee who worked at the musuem and Dad mentioned that we have visited 11 children's musuems.  The guy was surprised to hear that we thought the Mississippi musuem was one of the best.

After a few hours, we went across the parking lot to the park and had a nice lunch.  When we were finished we climbed back in the car for the rest of our trip.  Mom and Dad were pretty impressed at how well we behaved the whole time.  All of us were good sports and good listeners.  Wednesday night, we got into Atlanta and arrived at Bubbe's house.  We were sure happy to see her.

I'll tell you all about our visit in our next post.  We'll post pictures from our trip in a future blog post.