Monday, July 28, 2008

First family road trip. . .

A week ago we were in Chicago—our first family trip (NOTE: all the links below are pictures). The trip was originally supposed to be to Denver. . . a 15 hour drive. We decided that the 5 hours to Chicago was a better move. Even with the closer destination it took us 7 hours to get there. We left at 6 a.m. so he might sleep for a couple hours on the way. . . he didn't. So we stopped three times.

The first stop was to feed him breakfast. We stopped at a rest stop and laid out a blanket and sat him down and fed him. Then he crawled around a little. The second time we just let him crawl around. The third time was for lunch for us and him and we stopped at a Burger King. . . there was no crawling around there.

So immediately we went to Shed Aquarium. Our little adventurer was mostly more interested in the other people than the fish. It was a bit of a mistake taking him straight to an attraction before the hotel, but it worked out OK. He liked the hotel room. He made himself at home.

We spent our second day to the Art Institute and Millennium Park. We found out there was a concert in the park at the Frank Ghery concert shell (see above) so that night we walked back and ate sandwiches in the park and listened to music.

The last day we took a trolley tour of Chicago which included Navy Pier. We also walked the Miracle Mile.

We walked a lot, and Chicago is not very stroller friendly. Revolving doors and strollers don't mix and almost every store/building has nothing but a revolving door. But it was cool walking through the city together.

There were a lot of things I would have done differently, but it was a great trip. The little monkey did better than we could have expected being away from home, sleeping in a strange place, and going for long periods without solid napping.

Anybody else going on trips? What some advice on traveling with a baby? Let me know I might have some good advice.

5 comments:

Sarah said...

Looks like you guys had fun. We took the kids to Chicago last fall (first trip with 4 kids)- definitely a "working" vacation so I know how you feel! BTW you may already have something like this, but if not, these are great for walking trips where strollers don't work well: http://www.ergobabycarriers.com/babycarriers/item/BC6G/

caramama said...

Sounds like a good time. Parker is SO adorable!!

I'm Not Skippy said...

We had the baby harness, but didn't use it. we probably should have.

on holy ground said...

we travel with the girls a bunch. my only advice is to go with an open mind and a loose agenda. :)

most hotels will provide a baby bed. you can rent strollers, too, if you do it in advance.

blow pops/tootsie pops are good for airplane takeoffs and landings, if the child is no longer nursing or taking a bottle. (i bf both girls and honestly, i found the tootsie pops easier than trying to wrangle one kid while the other was attached to me!)

Desiree Blake said...

Your sons adorable