A week and a half ago our little family traveled north to Norwalk, Connecticut. It was a dual-purpose trip serving as both an anniversary getaway to celebrate six years of marriage, and as a meetup location for my wife. She writes for a blog called Daily Mom and this gave her a chance to meet some of the other writers nearby.
The trip we routed would take about 3 1/2 hours non-stop. Anyone who has traveled with a toddler knows to plan for a longer trip than you think – potty breaks and boredom are the two main factors. So we made a few stops along the way to try and keep our daughter’s meltdowns at bay.
The first stop was spontaneous as we passed a flee market. Since it was our anniversary and this trip was in lieu of actual gifts, my wife had a great idea. We each had $5 to spend in 15 minutes to find a gift for each other. I found a cool old flexible flyer sled that I haggled my way down to the $5 price point. She found a pretty cool mug that our daughter helped pick out. It was a lot of fun and one of my favorite parts of the trip.
Our next stop was for lunch at Panera Bread, during which Cece decided to feed the birds instead of eating, and a short walk to stretch our legs, and let the little one get rid of some pent-up energy. On the road again and running out of cash thanks to not planning for toll roads. Luckily we had just enough to pay the $13 to cross the George Washington Bridge.
As navigator who chose the route, I made the mistake of not avoiding any roads within 10 miles of Manhattan. We stayed on I-95 the whole time and it was a weekend, but we still hit a ton of traffic. But once we got through that, the highways and roads in Connecticut are some of the prettiest I’ve ever driven on, especially in Autumn.
When we arrived at the hotel it was about 6 1/2 hours after we left, effectively doubling our travel time with the number of stops we made. After some time in the pool and dinner it was back to the room to start getting ready for bed. This was the first hotel room that our daughter slept on a bed instead of a pack-n-play, and she did a lot better than I expected.
The next day was fun at the Maritime Aquarium. We met up with my wife’s friends and their kids and had a blast. We got to see a lot of cool things including a shark dive and a seal show. They also had “touch tanks” where the kids could touch sharks, sting rays, and jellyfish. Celia was excited about it until we got up to it and she refused to put her hand in the water. On the other hand, I loved touching the sea creatures because it’s something you don’t get to experience a lot.
On the ride home we made the executive decision to turn on a movie so we could actually get home at a reasonable time. This time it only took us about 4 hours to drive straight home. It was a great weekend and a fun way to celebrate our marriage and little family.
Dan Hauk 