This was our first family vacation that didn’t directly have to do with the military or visiting family that we’ve ever taken.  We stayed in a condo on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana.  We live in central Kentucky, so we faced about an 11-hour drive to get there and we decided to break it into a 2-day trip.  We packed a SERIOUS LOT of vacation into the days we were gone.

The boys are 6 and 5, and there is only so much cooped up in the van they can take at a time.  So, when we stop, we stop.

We left the house after lunch on Thursday – probably about 2.  This is a picture I found on Kaylee’s Instagram of the van in our driveway right before we left.  She labeled the van, “The Swaggin Wagon”:

Kaylee is 16 and has a newly acquired learner’s permit, so she drove a good portion of the way.

When we reached the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky, we stopped at Kentucky Down Under, which is a zoo that contains just animals from Australia.  I’m not a huge fan of zoos, but the animals were moderately free in this one, so I tolerated it.

We made it to Huntsville  Alabama the first night and spent the night in a Doubletree Suites that was crazily decorated – like a cross between 60’s hallucinogens and 21st century tween.  Kaylee loved it, Gregg and I just kept finding things to be amazed by it.  It was fun.

The next morning, we went to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.  The kids had a BLAST and Jeb is now convinced he wants to be in the Air Force.  We spent hours there, looking through as much as we could.  Honestly, we could have spent a couple of days there.

We left at lunch time and ate in a seriously good Mexican restaurant in Huntsville – where the food served was fresh and whole, then got back on the road.  It rained the entire drive, and Kaylee and Gregg switched drivers while I read A Melody for James out loud.  On skimming a galley proof we ordered, I discovered a typo (“and” for “an” — a common mistake I make) and decided to read the entire book out loud.  Every time we were in the car, I read.

We stopped at a Popeyes Chicken for dinner and ate in the van.  It was a long day and we made it to our condo around 10PM on Friday night.  We’d been traveling for about 44 hours.  In no time, we had the kids and bags unloaded and everyone in bed.

Hallee

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