Lucas is concerned about how few days we are allowed to take Tennyson out of school (for adventures) once he starts kindergarten and I’m always looking for an excuse to go on a trip, so we decided to take the kids on a summer road trip in August before we’re officially tied down by school.
We drove from home (Portland) to British Columbia (Squamish then Whistler) and back. That’s 14 hours round trip (without detours) with a 3 and a 5 year old in the car. Some of our ideas are understandably questionable. Our actual time in the car ended up being closer to 20 hours.
I work with a lot of people who don’t have kids. It’s comical when they say, “I hope your trip is fun and relaxing!” knowing that I’m doing a roadtrip with kids. My goal is to get some level of rejuvenation but I know very well this will not be a relaxing experience.
Morning activity, lunch, nap, afternoon activity, yummy dinner, sleep, repeat. That’s the young kid trip schedule formula because the adults need a nap even more than the kids.
Each kid had an iPad filled with downloaded shows to watch during the car ride. Tennyson figured out how to use the photo filters and was entertained by taking dozens of bizarre selfies.
Boeing aerospace museum
Porteau Cove Provincial Park
The first of many roadtrips for the Brook fam Tundra.
Sea to sky gondola + hikes at the top
During one of our meal/gas pit stops on the drive North we got food at a McDonalds that shared a building with the gas station market. The kids found these stuffed animals inside the market and fell in love. I had no idea the kids would carry them everywhere and insist on sleeping near them every time.
We taught Tenny the pano photo trick and he asked to do it SO many times.
Lower Joffre Lake
The perfect family summer trip!
Whistler Valley Trail
The Canadian equivalent of Otter Pops are called “Mr Freeze” and they are 16″ long!
Shannon Falls
Train Wreck Hike
A few hours after this hike we asked Tenny what he wanted to do the next day and he said, “I don’t know but I DON’T want to go on another long hike.” 😂 The kids walked the whole 2 miles and loved climbing around the rusty train cars.
The kids seemed to have fun the whole trip but their favorite thing was playing in this fountain near our hotel. They played here for over an hour and only stopped because we needed to get back for nap time. We stopped by the hotel pool to see if it was warm enough to swim in after nap time. The kids were already wet from the fountain so they just got in ha.
We lucked out with a free live concert in the plaza on the last evening of the trip. Murphy was feeling the techno rhythms.