#WestCoastSwing2021

Get ready for an onslaught of posts about this summer's epic road trip! To kick things off, and hopefully build anticipation for the recaps, I thought I'd start with my top 10 favorite moments from the trip plus my top 10 best tips and tricks for road tripping with kids.

In no particular order, my favorite memories were...

1.) Watching the kids frolic on Cannon Beach our first night there while waiting for dinner.

Tip 1: Eat first thing whenever you make a stop. Hanger puts a damper on any fun. Trust me. Hahaha.

2.) Listening to the beautiful strains of the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack while driving through the "Avenue of Giants" in the Redwoods.

Tip 2: Download/movies/shows/whatever onto devices that kids can watch during long stretches of driving. For us grown-ups, Scott downloaded a bunch of true crime podcasts to entertain him while driving, and I listened to several audiobooks.

3.) Listening to all the kids join in blasting out the In The Heights soundtrack while driving home from the airport (after midnight) at the end of our trip.

Tip 3: Having playlists of music at the ready is also a good idea. It's rare that everyone loves the same thing, but every now and then we find a real bop that everyone can get on board with. And this year's bop was In The Heights. Hahaha.

Even Isaac knows almost every word of the opening song. Also, I think Ethan and Sophie watched the movie 6 times over the course of all our driving.

4.) Driving along the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway.

Tip 4: Keep driving distances short -- we've found that 4 hours is about our max before kids start unraveling at the edges. As a result, I try to plan at least a "mini-stop" every four hours or so to get everyone out of the car and at least stretch their legs. This trip in particular was nice because most of the time we only had to drive 2 or 3 hours between destinations.

5.) Listening with Alex to the recorded guide on our Big Bus Tour in San Francisco.

Tip 5: Whenever I'm planning road trips, I search Pinterest for ideas of what to do with kids/families in the different areas we'll be visiting. An important corollary is to not pack TOO much into any one stop/place -- it becomes overwhelming and over-stimulating and the kids are over it very quickly.

6.) Hiking up to the Heceta Head Lighthouse and seeing the stunning views all around.

Tip 6: I like to do the actual planning of our routes on tripmaker.randmcnally.com -- I like knowing roughly how long it will take to get to each pit stop, and there's also a feature on the site that lets you search along the route to find other noteworthy or interesting things to see/do along the way. (I usually set the search parameter to a 5 mile radius around the route.)

7.) Admiring the trees of the Pacific Northwest. (Seriously -- the tree-lined streets in Seattle have my whole heart.)

Tip 7: Before each trip, I like to do lots of research and plan everything down to the very last detail -- keeping the entire trip's itinerary in a binder for quick reference -- BUT, this (oddly) allows me to be a lot more flexible than if I have NO plan at all. And, if there's anything I've learned over the last several years' worth of road trips, being flexible is crucial. Just because I've found a million "fun" things to do in an area doesn't mean we need to do them all. {Or any of them in some cases.}

8.) Exploring Haystack Rock at low tide early in the morning of our last day in Cannon Beach.

Tip 8: When planning "fun" things to do on our road trips, I try to find a good mix of activities -- nature stuff, museums/educational stuff, site-seeing stuff, amusement type stuff, etc. Doing too much of any one kind of thing starts to get monotonous and ultimately not very fun.

9.) Seeing how much fun everyone had at Universal Studios on our last full day of the road trip.

Tip 9: Having a "grand finale" for the trip leaves everyone on a high and much more likely to look back on the trip as a whole and think it was ALL awesome. 😉 Hahahaha.

10.) Watching the kids frolic on Ventura Beach on a much-needed "rest day" towards the end of the trip.

Tip 10: It may take some trial and error, but finding a sweet spot for the length of the trip makes all the difference in the world. This year's trip was 11 days and it was perfect. On the two road trips we've taken out to Utah, our trips were closer to a solid 2 weeks each, but with those we made a lot fewer stops and then stayed put for about a week visiting with family once we were out there. Two weeks of stopping in a new place every night or two is way too exhausting.