BIG Summer Adventure Ideas…. that we’re probably not going to do this year!

Remember back on Monday when I shared with you 10 Ways to Make This The Best Summer with Your Family EVER!… I talked about planning something BIG this summer? Well, I totally believe in that. But sometimes, you need to tone it down a little. To prove my point, I thought I’d share with you a few BIG ideas that I had…. that we are probably not going to do this year!

The “Dream Trip”

I always have big dreams floating around in my head…. and one of those big dreams is to pack the kids up in the Mommy bus and head out West for a month. I want to show them the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and the California Redwoods. All in one trip. And to keep the costs down….

I thought we would sleep in a tent. Like nearly every night. Moving from campground to campground- setting up camp, spending the night, breaking down camp, and then moving on to the next exciting location (which will probably be about 500 miles away). Think of all of the amazing things we would see. Think of all of that family bonding time.

Oh yeah…. then think about having to pay for someone to look after my dog for a month, think about having to cook meals on the road with no access to real refrigeration except for a cooler filled with melting ice. Think of trying to put some hours in for my online jobs using shaky remote WiFi access from campsites. And where the hell am I going to plug in my laptop to recharge it? Think of those cranky kids who will just be craving an hour of Disney channel while instead I am dragging them all to the local laundromat followed by a family jaunt through WalMart for supplies every few days.

No longer feeling like such a party.

In my heart I SO want to to do this…. but I know that the reality of this adventure would not quite meet my high expectations for learning and family bonding. (sigh….)

See NYC like a tourist!

Last February when our family traveled to Washington DC, we splurged and purchased tickets for the Old Town Trolley tours…. the kind that takes you on a loop around the city while the driver narrates all of the cool stuff you are seeing, and you can hop on and hop off to explore sites as you’d like. And the kids LOVED it! The younger ones just liked the novelty of riding in the trolley car- while the older ones were fascinated by everything the driver told them.

So that experience sparked my latest summer fantasy- seeing NYC like a tourist on one of those cool open-topped double decker buses!

So I started looking into it…. and there are actually 4 tour-loops that you can take of the city in a 48 hour time period… you would see uptown, downtown, a night tour, and a tour of Brooklyn. Think of all we’d learn about the city we live so close to…. think of how much fun it would be to hop off- have breakfast in Little Italy and then hop on and have lunch in Chinatown!

And then I realized that it will cost us $332 for our family of 8 before taxes. Plus we have to get in and out of the city, buy meals, and of course souvenirs. And then there’s the issue of sometimes not being able to catch the next bus because there are not enough open seats on it to fit all of us…. and that makes the kids cranky. Oh- and the city just stinks in the summertime (I can say that…. I used to live in the city).

You know… for the same price, I could take the gang to Great Wolf Lodge where they can lose their minds on the water slides all day and night for 2 days and crown me the “Greatest Mom Ever!”

Yeah- that might be the way to go…..

Okay- so what do you think? Am I giving up on my BIG ideas too easily? Or being smart about factoring in the reality of these scenarios? Please leave a comment with your advice!

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