14Jan 08
Family Friendly Vacationing
posted by
Late Friday evening, our van rumbled to a stop in our driveway after being absent for almost 8 days in New Englands fine countryside. Traveling for an extended period of time can be either a joyous occasion or trying 
experience. What makes your trips memorable? We would love to hear your ideas. Here are a few things we have done that make these times together extra special.
As far as logistics are concerned, each person takes responsibility for having a small bag/container for small items that will be used during the trip. This keeps unpacking of the trunk to a minimum and reduces clutter. On this last trip, Kenan printed out a fill in the blank meal 
schedule. This greatly aided planning what food to bring. Large plastic containers have become a necessity on every trip due to their stack ability and high capacity.
Dad has always made the trips extra profitable by bringing along quality cds/tapes. We would recommend the following: The Pilgrims Progress from Vision Forum Ministries, The Best of the 2006 Entrepreneurial Bootcamp, Your Story Hour (while we havent heard them all, almost every story has been God honoring with an excellent lesson), the History of the World by Vision Forum and more!
In between naps, giggles, cds, sights and more, there is always room for a good game or two. Some great family games for in the car include: Mindtrap, Taboo, Bible Baseball (we have a wonderful list of questions that we could send your way), Dad created scavenger hunts, I Spy, the car alphabet game (a race to see who can find all the letters of the alphabet in order using signs, license plates, and more outside the car), license plate game, and some downloadable activities.
When we take periodic rest stops, different ones are assigned specific tasks ranging from checking the air pressure to inspecting the oil level to cleaning windows and filling the car with gas. And of course, there is 
generally a minute or two for tossing a football or looking at postcards.
These simple activities have helped make family vacations memorable, exciting, and an event we look forward to!
Thank you for posting! We have done many road trips over the years. I would have to second the use of teaching/preaching CD’s. What an excellent use of time! One trip we took was to Boston for Jason’s work. We listened to the Faith and Freedom tours from Vision Forum about the area we were going to visit. It really made a big difference when we arrived at our sight seeing destination. The biggest advantage we had was being able to speak intelligently to the role players at Plymouth Plantation. We talked to several people and one lady we talked to for over an hour! It was fascinating! We had gained much knowledge by listening to the CD’s on the way up there and so we were able to hold our own with the role players. It is one of my most memorable trips.
I would love to have a copy of your Bible Baseball questions!
Where all did you visit? Have a blessed week!
Mrs. Southerland
One thing that made this last trip extra memorable was learning a song as a family and then taking periodic 15 minute sections to meditate on Scripture. Those 2 activities, in my mind, made our traveling time the most profitable.
I must say that the trip up to new England was exciting and most memorable. My! Princess sure looks interresting
.
The time in the car is definitly a highlight of every vacation! I really enjoyed the time of singing we did all together this time.