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We are back from our East Coast road trip. It was less hectic than last year because we learned from our mistakes and planned it out better :) Since we didn’t go to New York (as my parents were out of town), we cut out that additional mileage and were able to enjoy a leisurely paced vacation, mostly in Philadelphia.
Monday, June 28th - We drove to Tampa to spend the night at my in-laws and save ourselves 2 ½ hours of driving the next morning.
Tuesday, June 29th – We were on the road by 4:30am. Kids stayed in their PJs and eventually went back to sleep. Starting super-early was the right way to go; we managed to avoid all of Orlando’s I-4 traffic and didn’t stop at all until after we had crossed over to the east coast. At 8:30am we were enjoying a leisurely breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Palm Coast (south of Jacksonville).
We made it to the Georgia border before 10am and passed South of the Border by 4pm. Our “go-to” place for lunch-time rest-stops was ChickFilA. It was perfect because Jacob could run around in the indoor play area to burn off some energy (and hopefully poop). Afterwards, he’d eat and, once we were back on the road, take a nap. Jacob is a good car-seat sleeper, so we did not stop while he was napping unless we absolutely had to.
We made so much progress that first day that we actually spent the night just over the North Carolina border, in Virginia!
Wednesday, June 30th – Happy Birthday to Jacob! We crossed the Maryland border at 10:15am, Delaware at 1:30 (major traffic due to a dumb toll), and made it to our destination state of Pennsylvania at 2pm! Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic so we didn’t get to our hotel right away but, after driving around the city a bit, we arrived at the Hyatt at the Bellevue. It’s a hotel with a lot of history; some might call it old, but I guess they wanted to keep the historic vibe. I prefer hotels with more contemporary décor, but for FREE I could deal with it. Yup, it was paid with points, thanks to Sanjay’s frequent stays with Hyatt.
We “celebrated” Jacob’s birthday with a trip to a (TripAdvisor) recommended gelato shop. It was really good and Jacob happily pigged out on his vanilla gelato.
Thursday, July 1st - The Northeast was in the midst of a heat wave but, thankfully, the weather dropped into the high 70s/low 80s for the couple of days we were in Philly. Although our hotel’s location in Center City was pretty central to what we wanted to see, we still walked a LOT! My pedometer was clocking an average of 17,000 steps a day! We took advantage of the City Pass discount which allowed us free transportation on the Trolley. Our first stop was the Philadelphia Zoo. It was nice, and the gorgeous weather made it easy to spend time outdoors. Next was the Please Touch Museum which is a hands-on childrens’ museum. It was a HUGE HIT with the kids! All these attractions closed at 4 or 5 o’clock, so by the time we left the museum, we called it a day and headed back to our hotel. For dinner we ate at this highly recommended (by TripAdvisor) Chinese restaurant called Sang Kee Peking Duck House. Sanjay is not big on Chinese food, but this place really earned its rave reviews. I can’t remember the last time I had good Chinese food and I’m glad we were not disappointed!
Friday, July 2nd – First stop of the day was The Franklin Institute, which I think is definitely targeted towards upper elementary and beyond. At some point Jacob conked out, so Sanjay stayed in the lunch-room with him while I took Alisha to explore the rest of the Institute. She really enjoyed herself. I think her favorite part was watching the shows in the planetarium; it was really impressive. After we left the Institute, we checked out the Museum of Natural Sciences. I found it a little boring. There was a section for kids but it was small, and just eh. Oh well, it was included in our City Pass, so it’s not like we paid anything extra for admission. For dinner Steve joined us in Philly and we ate at some Indian Fusion-type restaurant. It was okay, but I was sad there was no chicken tikka masala (my fave).
Saturday, July 3rd – We took a trip into the ‘burbs of Philly where we attended Sanjay’s annual family reunion. We were there a few hours, ate lunch, and were back on the road. We had 4th of July plans with our friends the Ipes so we headed to Jersey and stayed at a Residence Inn not too far from their place.
Sunday, the 4th of July – We went to church in the morning and headed to Joel & Namita’s for a 4th of July BBQ. The kids had a good time and we’d brought some sparklers which they enjoyed waving around. By the end of the day we were all happy, full and exhausted J
Monday, July 5th – We checked out of our hotel, ate brunch at this really good diner called the Americana and headed back towards Philly. We had one place left to visit on our City Pass and that was the Camden/Adventure Aquarium. It was O-Kay, I guess. Not worth a repeat trip, in my opinion.
We spent our last night at the Embassy Suites in downtown Philly. Very spacious; it would have been nice to stay there instead of the Hyatt, but it also would have cost us money!
Tuesday, July 6th – We started our drive bright and early. We had to make it to Palm Coast, Florida (south of Jacksonville) in order for Sanjay to present a seminar the next day at the Hammock Beach Resort. The resort was lovely with beautiful pools, lush landscaping and a beach. At last, the kids got their pool fix! I wish we could have stayed for longer than one night, but not if it meant coughing up the moolah ourselves!
Wednesday, July 7th – We drove and we drove and we drove, and we finally made it back to our home sweet home. Even though we were only gone for 10 days, it was a jam-packed 10 days. The kids had a blast, and we enjoyed ourselves too. Two thumbs up for Road Trip 2010!
