July 2013–Family Road Trip (Part 1)

Every summer we like to do a big road trip with our family. 

A few years ago we did a baseball road trip, but there were still some stadiums that we had missed, so we decided to plan another one.  We figured out which cities and stadiums we wanted to visit, and then coordinated with the baseball schedules to make sure we were there on the right days.  Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio was also part of our plan (we’ve been wanting to go there for a few years), and once we decided to go that far north, we decided we may as well drive up to Toronto and do a baseball game there, and then see Niagara Falls and spend some time in New York.  We spent months planning out every last detail (I think for us the planning is almost as fun as the actual trip).

It turned into our biggest road trip yet.  In 12 days we drove through 18 states, plus crossed the border into Canada, and visited lots of cities:  Branson, MO, St. Louis, MO, Toronto, Canada, Niagara Falls, Palmyra, NY, Cleveland, OH, Pittsburgh, PA, Baltimore, MD, Washington, DC, Richmond, VA, and Atlanta, GA.

Here’s what our route looked like:

And here are the first six days:

Day 1:  Branson, Missouri

We left Texas on the 4th of July, and drove to Branson, Missouri.  Our first activity was the Titanic museum.  We each got a ticket with a real Titanic passenger’s name on it, and then we went through the museum and learned all about the Titanic’s journey.  Then at the end, we found our name on a big list up on a wall showing who survived and who didn’t.  For some reason Cynthia thought this was super cool.  She didn’t care about anything else in the museum, but she kept asking me, “when am I going to find out if I’m dead or not?”                                       


Then we met up with my sister and her family who had driven from Oklahoma to meet us.  We ate dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant, and then drove around and found a good spot to watch some fireworks shows.

Cousins in their red, white, and blue (we are patriotic, even while on road trips):                            


Eating popcorn and watching fireworks.

Most of the hotels we stayed in had cribs available for Cynthia, but when they didn’t, we made do with what we had (in Branson it was 2 chairs scooted together):

Day 2:  St. Louis, Missouri

The next day we packed up and made the short drive to St. Louis, where we ate at Bogart’s Smokehouse for lunch.  Here’s Ollie in front of the restaurant – you can see the line going all the way out the building and down the street.  We all agreed it was pretty fantastic barbeque.                                              


Happy eaters:                                                                                                                 


There was a farmer’s market near Bogart’s that we had walked through on our way.  My kids were in awe at all the fresh fruit on display.  After lunch we walked back through and bought some blueberries to take with us to the zoo.  I think I’ve mentioned before that someday I really want to live downtown somewhere near a market because I just like markets so much.  Daniel knows this about me, and makes a tiny bit of fun of me whenever we see a market because he knows I’ll want to walk through it, but really I think he likes them as much as I do.                                                                 


Here we are at the St. Louis Zoo.  When we were looking for activities to do in St. Louis (we knew we would have a few hours after lunch before the baseball game the boys were going to), we decided on the zoo because we like zoos, but also because it’s free, so we wouldn’t feel like we wasted money if we didn’t spend a lot of time there.  After we told the kids about the plan (this was still a few months before our trip), Henry seemed extra excited about going to the zoo.  He kept talking to me about how excited he was, and I wasn’t exactly sure why he thought it was going to be the highlight of the trip.  Then one day he said to me, “So, Mom – you know how the zoo in St. Louis is free?  Does that mean that all the animals are just running around and we can just do whatever we want with them?  Like we can try to catch them and ride on them?”  So I realized he had been interpreting “free” to mean that the animals were literally free and on the loose, and also it was “free” in the sense that there were no rules and we were allowed to run around and be wild and crazy and maybe even bring animals home with us.  That explained his excitement.                                                     


Here they are enjoying the animals, even though they were not free and running around for us to catch or ride:


After the zoo we headed downtown to where our hotel was.  We checked in and then walked down the street to the Gateway Arch.  Because it was 4th of July weekend, there was some sort of airshow going on with airplanes and helicopters doing crazy flying stunts through and around the arch.  It was funny, because while we were still at lunch at Bogart’s and didn’t know about the airshow, Oliver looked up and saw an airplane in the distance.  Then he started yelling about how it was about to crash – we all looked and saw it in a nosedive heading straight down toward the ground.  It was pretty alarming; we really did think it was crashing.  Finally it pulled up at the last minute and we realized it was some sort of stunt.  And then later when we got to the arch and saw there was a show going on it all made sense. 

A few years ago on one of our road trips we all went up inside the arch, but Cindy wasn’t born yet, and Henry didn’t really remember it.  This time the plan was for me to take the younger four up inside while Daniel took Tristan and Oliver to the Cardinals game.  Because most of the baseball games on the trip were late at night, and it’s really hard to keep the littles entertained for a 3-hour baseball game plus 2 hours of batting practice beforehand, we had decided that for most of the games we would just have Daniel take Tristan and Oliver, while the rest of us would hang out at the hotel and go swimming and watch movies.  It worked out perfectly for all of us. 


There was a fire truck in the street spraying water just for fun.  Henry and Cindy were the first ones in, and after a little hesitation, Rachel joined them.  Lizza was worried that if her clothes got all wet she wouldn’t be comfortable when we went up in the arch later, so she decided not to.                                  


Spontaneous moments like this on trips make me happy.

At this point Daniel, Tristan, and Oliver left to go to the baseball game, and I stayed with the younger four.  We sat in front of the arch and dried off a bit and watched the airshow.                        


Henry and Cindy drying off on the warm sidewalk:                     


When we were about to walk over to the arch to get in line to go up to the top, Lizza realized that she might regret not playing in the water.  I asked if maybe she’d like to take off her shoes and just run over real quick to stick her hands and feet in, but not get too wet.  She was happy with that plan.                              



If you look at the top of the arch you can see the teeny tiny windows that we looked out of when we went up inside:

Getting ready to board.  Rachel was freezing in her wet clothes:                                                         


Inside the little tram:                                                             


630 feet up:                  


Looking down on St. Louis:

The Mississippi River:                                                            


Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play:

Daniel and the boys were there, looking back up at the arch:

Tristan and Oliver were so excited about all the baseball games.  They cared a lot more this year than they have in the past, because we’ve been playing fantasy baseball together (Daniel, me, Tristan, and Oliver), and we each have our own team with players we’ve drafted.  Daniel had thought that if they played fantasy baseball it would help them learn the players and know a lot more about the teams, and he was right.  They loved being able to see “their” players in person. 


Meanwhile, after the arch the younger kids and I walked back to the hotel and had a wonderful dinner of cookies (bought from a street vendor outside our hotel) and applesauce.  The kids thought it was such an adventure. 


Then it was time for some evening swimming.  There was a great view of the arch right outside the window.




After swimming I put the kids to bed and later Daniel and the boys got back and after that we ordered some pizza.  I tried to save time by going to pick it up, but because of the airshow, traffic was crazy and it took me an hour to get our pizza. 

Day 3:  Toronto, Canada

The next day we woke up early (there was not a lot of sleeping in on this trip), and drove all day to get to Toronto.

Crossing the border was kind of exciting (for those who have wondered, we did not need passports for our kids – just their birth certificates):                   


The kids went right to bed when we got to our hotel. 


Day 4:  Toronto, Lake Ontario, Niagara Falls

The next morning after breakfast in our hotel (always one of the favorite parts of these trips for our kids), we drove into downtown Toronto.  We parked the car and then walked down to Lake Ontario.

We got tickets to go on a ferry ride out to Centre Island.

Here are the kids on the ferry, with Toronto in the background:

Playing around on Centre Island:                                           


Not sure what Henry is doing with his face here:                       


Then we took the ferry back to Toronto, and walked up to the Rogers Centre for the Blue Jays game.  The whole family went to this one.  Cynthia fell asleep in her stroller before we even got there, and I had hopes that she would stay asleep for the whole game.  Ha!                                                                                 


She didn’t.  She and Henry spent a lot of time playing on my kindle.  Everyone else had fun watching the game. 


After the game we drove to Niagara Falls.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  I’ve always wanted to go to Niagara Falls, and it was even better than I’d imagined.

The kids at the brink of Horseshoe Falls (on the Canadian side):                            


I guess I should have known this from the Superman movie, but I didn’t realize how close to the brink you could stand.  Close enough to make me nervous.  I always get worried that I’m going to throw something over for no reason. 


Tristan actually did throw something over – his tooth that he had pulled a few days earlier and saved just so he could toss it over the falls.  We are awful at the whole tooth fairy thing at our house, so our kids come up with creative things to do with their teeth.                                                                                  



We had told the kids that we were going to go on one of the Maid of the Mist boats that go right up to the base of the falls, so they were super excited when we looked down and saw what we would be doing.

Looking across at the American Falls:

Down on the Maid of the Mist boat with our fancy blue raincoats:


The boat went right up to the base of Horseshoe Falls.  It was so windy and crazy and wet:

I risked taking my camera out from under my raincoat to get a short video clip.  I had to stand far back from the side because there was so much water blowing all around.  I love that you can hear Henry yelling, “Oh my gosh, Dad!!”  He was in heaven.

More pictures in front of the falls:                                          


We walked back to our car and then drove across the border into New York.  We were staying in Palmyra that night, so we still had a few hours of driving to do.  Our plan had been to grab some fast food somewhere on the way for dinner, but we didn’t even make it out of Niagara Falls, NY before we saw a tiny little Indian restaurant that looked really good.  So we stopped and had a big dinner and then continued on our way to Palmyra.

Day 5:  Palmyra, Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Cleveland, OH

The next morning we ate breakfast at our hotel, packed up, and then headed over to the Sacred Grove, which was right by our hotel.  It was really neat to be able to see it in person. 



Afterward we went on a short tour of the area and saw some of the original Smith family homes.  We got to see the bedroom where Moroni visited Joseph Smith, and touch the actual fireplace bricks where Joseph hid the plates at one point. 



The E.B. Grandin print shop, where the Book of Mormon was first published:

Up on top of Hill Cumorah:                                                    


I wonder how much Cynthia will remember of this trip.  She’s probably going to make us do it all again someday.


We then left New York and headed toward Cleveland, Ohio, where we spent the next two nights.  We stopped in Kirtland on the way to see the Kirtland Temple:                                   


When we got to Cleveland, we dropped off Daniel and the boys at Progressive Field for the Indians baseball game (whenever I say “the boys”, and not just on this blog, but in real life, too, that just means Tristan and Oliver.  I guess at some point it will need to mean Henry, too, but not yet).  The stadium was right by our hotel, which was convenient. 


What wasn’t convenient was all the rain!  It had started pouring on us the day before when we were leaving the Blue Jays game, and it felt like that storm followed us for the rest of the trip.  The Indians game was delayed and they covered the field.  We were pretty worried that the game was going to be canceled.  The kids and I were looking out our hotel window and saw tons of people leaving the game.  Daniel and the boys were patient and waited the storm out, but the game was delayed a few hours, and they didn’t get back to the hotel till really late.

While the guys were still waiting for their game to start, we were back at the hotel having some swimming fun:




Daniel and the boys finally got back to the hotel around 11:30.  They quickly showered and ate some dinner (microwave pizza and gross hot pockets from the hotel snack area) and then went to bed. 

Day 6:  Cedar Point Amusement Park

I think our day at Cedar Point was the most anticipated part of our trip for many members of the family.  I don’t have many pictures because we didn’t take our camera with us (I didn’t want to be carrying it around all day or taking it on roller coasters).  We do have a few pictures that Daniel took with his phone.

Here are Rachel and I in line for Top Thrill Dragster.  Watch the video for that, and maybe you will be able to imagine how nervous we were (very nervous).  I closed my eyes the whole 17 seconds.                                      


After Top Thrill Dragster, which ended up being a pretty neat ride, the day kind of fell apart for me.  I noticed that my cellphone, which I had put in my pocket right before the ride, wasn’t in my pocket anymore.  And then I remembered that when the ride ended, the lady behind us said she had noticed something flying past her in the air.  At the time I didn’t think anything of it, because I was assuming my phone was still safely in my pocket.  After I had searched through my purse a hundred times and asked the ride attendants a hundred times, it started to sink in that it was really gone.  I felt so devastated and panicked.  Of all days to lose my phone!  Daniel and I had split up, with him taking Tristan and Oliver so they could use their fast passes and go on all the big rides, and me staying with the younger kids.  Without my phone we had no way of getting in touch or knowing where to meet. 

I borrowed a stranger’s phone to call Daniel and tell him the bad news.  Then I checked in at the lost and found office and filled out a form.  They said all sorts of stuff falls out on that ride, and every night they go around and collect it all and then mail it out. 

Anyway, because of the lost phone incident, I kind of have mixed feelings and memories of Cedar Point.  But for some of the kids, it was their favorite part of the trip, so I should give it the credit it deserves. 

The awesome things:

- Lots of amazing and crazy roller coaster rides.  We worked out a great system for making the most of our time.  Daniel and the boys would go on the big ones.  I would take Henry and Cindy to the little kid areas while Rachel and Lizza would go on kind of big rides nearby (they were very brave).  Then Daniel would come watch Lizza, Henry, and Cindy while Rachel and I would go on big ones, and Tristan and Oliver would go off and do more big ones nearby.  This whole time we were communicating with each other by me calling Daniel using someone else’s phone. 

- I really liked conquering the big rides with Rachel.  We were good partners - we were both scared to death, but we gave each other courage.  We loved this one.  The only big one we didn’t get a chance to go on was Millennium Force.  I think that one was Daniel and the boys’ favorite.  But when I watch the video for it, I’m not sure if I’m sad we missed it. 

- The children areas were also awesome.  Lots of little rides and carousels and bumper cars that they could go on over and over again with no lines.  Which was another great thing – it really wasn’t crowded at all.  They were in heaven.

- The two souvenir “free refills all day” cups we bought.  I think they were each $10, and that might have been the best $20 we ever spent.  It was super hot for most of the day, and we just kept filling those things up all day long. 

- Although there were two giant rainstorms while we were there, we were able to find cover and wait them out and then continue going on rides.

The not so awesome things:

- The two giant rainstorms.  It really could have been worse, though.  By the time they hit, it was late in the afternoon and we had all mostly been on the rides we wanted to go on.  But we did have to take cover during the rain and then wait for the rides to start back up again.

- My phone being gone.  I just couldn’t stop thinking about it and regretting it. 

Here are 3 pictures from Cedar Point:                           


We left Cedar Point a little after nine, and drove drove straight to an awesome grilled cheese sandwich restaurant in Cleveland called Melt.  It was a pretty late dinner, and the kids were so worn out.  Cindy and Henry slept through the whole thing. 


After dinner we made it back to our hotel and got everyone to bed.  That was the end of day 6, and we were halfway through our trip.  The next morning while we were on our way to Pittsburgh, I called the lost and found office at Cedar Point and they said they had found my phone and were shipping it home to Texas, which was exciting.*

*But not too exciting, because I was a little suspicious that it might not work anymore after falling from a big roller coaster and then sitting through 2 rainstorms.  And I was right – when we got home the next week I went straight to the mailbox, where I found a little package from Cedar Point.  It included the front part of my phone with the screen shattered and no back or battery.  So I threw it away and went to get a new phone.  Oh, well.  Cedar Point, we still love you.