2014 Road Trip Part 1 - Kentucky

For the past month or so, I've secretly been helping Dad plan a summer road-trip. Mom and Dad got me a road atlas and I've been using it to look at different routes we could take to visit Grandma, Grandpa, Bubbe, and the rest of our family in PA and Atlanta.

Finally, a few weeks ago, it was time to leave. We got up super early in the morning - it was still dark outside - and all climbed in the car. Hazel, Turner, and I were all still in our jammies.

Dinner on Route 66

Our first stop was Dallas, where we went to the new Dallas Children's Museum. Outside there were giant frogs for us to climb on and a little stream for us to splash around in. Inside, there was standard children's museum fare - a small grocery store, a sandbox, and a climbing area. After we played for a while, we went back outside and had lunch by the frogs and stream. It was a great way to break up the drive.

After Dallas, we drove up to Oklahoma. This was exciting because none of us had ever been to Oklahoma before. We drove on old route 66 (which reminded us of a great kids poem we know, "Highwire 66," which is about some people in a circus) and stopped at a fun place for dinner. We finally arrived at our hotel for the night. The hotel was a bit disappointing (the pool was too cold to swim in, the breakfast food had ants all over it), but fortunately, we were only there a short time before moving on.

Lunch under the Gateway Arch

The next morning we got up super early again and headed east to Missouri. We had a picnic lunch underneath the Gateway Arch in St Louis, which was pretty neat. After quick drives through Illinois and Indiana, we finally arrived in Louisville, Kentucky to visit our friend Bowman and his parents Mike and Tabby (and their dogs Zoey and Oscar).

We spent a few days in Kentucky. After catching up on some sleep, we grabbed a delicious breakfast at a restaurant where we could sit outside and drove to Lexington, Kentucky. Our first stop was the Kentucky Horse Park where we took pony rides. We all really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it started to rain before we could do anything else at the horse park, and it rained too hard for us to do a campus tour of University of Kentucky. So, we headed back to Louisville for the night. We all agreed that we were ready for a day of no driving.

The next day we spent the entire day in Louisville. We went to a really fun splash pad right on the Ohio river. After that, we decided to walk across the Ohio River into Indiana on a giant bridge. Dad and Mike rented a fun bike and we rode and walked up the bridge ramp. By the time we got to the top, Dad and Mike were pooped, so Mom and I drove the bike on the flat part of the bridge. We went all the way across and all the way back. By the time we were done, it was time to head back for naps and dinner.

A really fun thing we did at Bowman's house was catching fireflies. There were lots of them around, and Hazel was really good at catching them. Mike even gave her a jar for her to put them in.

During our time at the house, we all had a blast playing with Bowman. He is almost 2 years old, and it was like having a new little brother. He was really good at sharing toys with us.

One other neat thing that happened just before our trip was that Turner finally potty-trained. He was so excited to start wearing underwear. For night-time and the long car-rides, he still wears pull-ups just in case, but when we stopped, he got out and went potty along with the rest of us. We are all very proud of Turner.

After a couple of days in Kentucky, it was finally time to continue our road-trip. We left super early in the morning again and headed up through Ohio, West Virginia, and on to Pennsylvania. We made good time and stopped for lunch in Pennsylvania. Dad gave us a choice of going to a children's museum in Pittsburgh or driving for another 4 hours to get to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. We surprised him and Mom by choosing to keep driving!

So we headed down the Pennsylvania Turnpike (much to my delight) and got to Grandma and Grandpa's in time for dinner!