First and most important is to not look at a long, long drives as a long, long drive. Instead, labeling and thinking of it as a fun "road trip" can help to change your view of it and hopefully make it a little more enjoyable. Simple I know, but for most it makes a difference! Its all mental!
To start off our "road trip", we decided to pack a dinner picnic and go to the beach just over 2 hours into our drive.
Benefits to our picnic beach time:
- helped us use up the rest of our food we had from our place and save a little bit of money
- allowed us to have one last fun experience in Florida before leaving (we went to a Jacksonville beach right on the edge of the border, one we had never experienced before!)
- allowed us all to get some fresh air after a long day (packing for me and classes for Matt)
- allowed Hannah and chance to use up energy, and tire herself out before what we hoped would be a long nighttime sleep in the car
- allowed myself to wake up from the experience to be ready to drive!
- allowed Hannah a chance to collect shells for the very first time!
As you can see she loved it!
Truth be told, we ended up eating our dinner in the car. We left Orlando a little later than planned which meant Hannah was getting really hungry before we got to the beach. Which actually could have been better because we got to eat and then focus on the beach once we got there!
Truth be told, at one point I did question our idea as being a little crazy when we realized had no place to wash off and Hannahs bum was extremely sandy afterwards. This lead to a makeshift bath/shower with water bottles on the sidewalk. Not ideal, but in the end she loved it and it added to the experience so I wouldn't change a thing!
It was only the beginning to our fun adventure!
Haha I like you 'truth' be told parts.. reminds me of certain Dorey family adventures that didn't always go as planned!
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