What's your adventure?

[JennifersLost]

Dh and I have been having conversations lately. He hates road-trips - just wants to get there as fast as he can. I love road trips. So do the kids.

I've been telling him I'm not ready to be done with them yet. He keeps dreaming about the things we'll do when the kids are grown up. That freaks me out. I want to still have adventures now.

So, he's begun to see the light. I think next year may be our "adventure" year. But what to do?

Just a longer trip than normal across country seeing the sights?

What would you do? Where would you go? I have four kids who will then be...16, 14, 12 and 7.5. We won't have tons of money, but we'll have some. We'll have all the time in the world.

Give me some great ideas! :auto: (I've been wanting to use that one)

[Hausunterricht]

I love road trips, too. I think planning it out before hand is nice. Do some research, check out google maps, do a state by state check of really neat festivals, farmers markets, outdoor markets, pack well. Camp some and occasionally stay at a hotel so you can feel clean and take a good shower.

We really want to do some kind of train trip this summer. We were thinking of taking one from Seattle to Portland. It's not far but my boys are younger and they really want to go on a train.

[percytruffle]

I'd rent a camper and get one of those passes that gets you into all the national parks. Then, I'd head out the door with a map or gps and come back about 6 months later!

[Tutor]

I love road trips. Dh hates them. The kids and I will be taking a two week road trip to visit family and friends in September, and I am looking forward to it. I love planning ahead to find parks to have picnics in and to let the kids run around.

Friends of ours do a month long road trip every summer. They plan a loop that will take them a month to places they'd like to see. We would like to do that sometime, but can't afford it right now. We'd also like to hike the entire AT over a few summers when the kids are older, so we are starting to plan overnight hikes with the kids to practice. We can't wait.

[Antonia]

My friend just took her 14yo son from CT to the Grand Canyon and back in a jeep. They took about six weeks to see all the sights between here and there and hike the canyon. She said it was a great bonding experience. I went "out west" with my friend when we were both twenty. We took her car and saw everything between NY and CA. We were gone two months, and it was one of the great experiences of my life. I'd love to do that with my kids someday. Then we'll go backpack across Europe!

[Doran]

What would you do? Where would you go? I have four kids who will then be...16, 14, 12 and 7.5. We won't have tons of money, but we'll have some. We'll have all the time in the world.


I admit that I haven't checked out all the finer points of this kind of adventure, but my head tells me that I want to do a home exchange. Maybe for six months, if I could. I'd swap places with someone -- maybe starting out in Ireland so that we could tackle just the adventure part without having to also tackle the language part. The whole family would go (joyfully...which may not really be the case with teens who will miss their friends) and spend enough time IN ONE PLACE to get to know the people and surrounding neighborhood.

I like to travel, but I'm much better "fed" by spending time getting to know one place than I am hopping from place to place. Place hopping tends to wear me out. With a home exchange, we'd still have a home base, and we'd travel out from there, but come back to the base.

All things considered, I think it'd be the least expensive way for us to see another country. Now, the likelihood of dh getting two weeks off from his business, let alone six months...???...that's a different hurdle altogether. Sigh.

Doran

[Lisawa]

We love road trips!

My husband is constantly talking baout things we will do when the kids are gone.... I cant stand the thought! lol We are so different... but I bet my tune will change when the little peeps are gone!

We love long road trips, but only if we can stop and see things. The coastal drives and camping are our favorites. Lots to see and do.... Beaches are great! We are surfing boogie boarding family....

This year we are making plans for a long road trip in late summer early fall... the upper States... not sure, but we hope....

I would love to be able to travel out of the country! That would be the best!

[strider]

For me it would be Europe.

I have always been obsessed with the British Isles, but am also curious to see Switzerland again (my father's native land) or France or Italy.

I would pack 3 days of clothes (laundromats are a good thing) and take trains/buses. Traveling light is the best.

[Mrs Mungo]

A true adventure for me would be to go on an archaeological dig. Almost anywhere. That would be awesome.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Well, we took the kids and went to the Philippines for 3 weeks for a mission/sight-seeing/family reunion trip!

More common adventure: we went to Michigan last summer to see my family. For the first time, I asked my sister to actually plan some adventurous outings for us. Our favorites: renting bicycles and going bicycling along a local bike trail. Renting one dune buggy and taking turns dune buggy riding on the dunes by Lake Michigan (pretty expensive but by renting only one dune buggy and taking turns it was ok).

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I love the idea of a big road trip!!!

I have no ideas for you, just this:

Seize the day!!!! Enjoy! Have a wonderful and adventurous time!!

[Tracey in TX]

"Europe" vote here!
Either summer 2009 or 2010 we want to spend 2-3 wks backpacking (ok, euro-railing) through much of Western Europe. Like a pp stated, pack one backpack for the duration--travel light--and enjoy :):auto:

If this doesn't work, drive cross country and have a major sight at least every other day. Yosemite, Hoover Dam, LA, etc... Or spend a little time and a lot of money in Chicago.

[littlefamily]

I live for a good travel adventure! We take one every year. This year is Newfoundland and Labrador.

We go with the cousins and we have a list where everyone picked one place they would like to go or something they would like to do (i.e. whale watching). From that master list, we vote which place to visit for the year. We plan what we will do when we get to the destination, but we don't plan our journey to the destination. We stop at interesting sights along the way and sometimes that is as fun as the destination...

If you want to do it on the cheap - rent a camper. Get a trailer you can tow (if you have a car designed for that) because it is so much easier to leave the camper and explore than trying to drive an RV - ask me how I know..... Stay at state parks instead of commercial campgrounds (they are generally cheaper and far more interesting). National Parks are great, but for the big ones you do need to plan ahead especially in the summer and if you are camping.

And my last and most important piece of advice - pack plenty of car snacks!

[WTMindy]

has been going on for the last 4 years. We decided to set foot in all 50 states, and so far we have 38. This June we'll get 7 more and we are going region by region driving trips throughout the US. It has been the greatest thing we have done as a family. My dh plans everything and involves the kids and he makes them itineraries and maps, etc... We usually fly to a region and rent a car. This June we will drive from here (WA state) and go down through Utah and hit New Mexico, up through Colorado, pick up Nebrasa, the Dakotas and back home. We'll see lots of National Parks on this trip.

When we are done with the 50 states, we'll probably do some of them again, and we have plans to go to Italy and Greece in 4 years when we do our 3rd history rotation of Ancients.

[Angela in TN]

I'd go almost anywhere! I love watching the travel channel and would love to go to the Potato festival which they featured once. They have fresh french fries on a conveyor belt, can you imagine?!! :tongue_smilie:

But really my current travel fantasy is to go to Prince Edwards Island and live as if I'm Anne of Green Gables. I don't think the boys will go for it though. It's always fun to dream!

[Stacia]

A true adventure for me would be to go on an archaeological dig. Almost anywhere. That would be awesome.

Oh! Oh! Me too! Indiana Jones, here I come! :D

Hey, have you ever checked out these sites about finding digs/volunteering at digs?

http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10015

http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/AEdescr.html (They went on a trip last year trying to find evidence of Amelia Earhart in the South Pacific. If I would have had $50k laying around to buy my place on a bunk, I would have!)

The kids & I lucked out a few years ago when visiting Mt. Vernon's Gristmill -- we got to watch archaeologists excavating George Washington's Distillery. It was so cool that we hung around for a few hours. The archaeologists were great, explained things to the kids, let them hold an iron bar they had excavated, & so on. My dd may be hooked. After all, what better profession can you find than being outside, digging in the dirt all day? LOL.

[Amy loves Bud]

Oh, my. I had this all planned out for last August. Then I had a baby in July and it just didn't seem like such a great idea. But I've still got the itinerary and we're probably going to go in 2010. Here's the itinerary I planned:

The Trip (http://amylovesbud.blogspot.com/2006/10/trip.html)