An educational adventure... oops, vacation.

[momof3inTN]

So, how much can you cram into a 4 day and 3 night adventure/vacation? A LOT!

First, you have to start very early in the morning, say around 5am. Put all the luggage in the car and then wake up, dress, and load up the kids (3 of them, ranging in age from 2 to 9). Next you have to start the weighted down minivan and get on the road... and that is where the fun REALLY begins!

We left out of the house right on time. We were loaded and ready to go, seat belts fastened and taking my foot off the brake at 6:15am, Saturday morning. We weren't going very far... just to Mobile, Alabama. That is about a 10-12 hour drive for us (time may vary depending on the bladder control of the children and the husband, the diaper staying power of the 2 year old, and the hunger levels of all involved).

We back out the driveway and hit the road! After a stop at the gas station to fill up, we decide to treat the kids to Burger King french toast sticks for breakfast. Go through the drive thru and then park for a minute to hand out the food. We turned off the car. It has started to rain a little bit but our spirits are high and we are excited for our first ever family vacation (we've only been married for 10 years, it's about time for a vacation).

I turn the key to start the car back up. Nothing happens!!! Click, click, click. "That's your alternator" says my husband. My what??? Wonderful. It is 6:30 in the morning, on a Saturday, we have 3 very excited kids in the van and we are broke down before we have even left town.

Luckily we are right across the street from a Firestone. We just need a jump start to get us over there. We get a jump start off a truck and we take off, while the battery holds out. We park. 6:45am and they don't open until 8am. Now what?

We sit and we wait. We talk. As soon as they walk in at 8:05am we are in the office and getting the paperwork started to get my car fixed. We told the mechanic that we were on our way to our first family vacation. He says that we are first in line and they are working hard to get my car fixed so we can get on with the vacating.

There is another problem. They take Ken back and show him where the problem lies. They cannot get to the alternator without first removing the belt tensioner. They can't get the belt tensioner off without breaking it because it is supposed to move back and forth, mine doesn't. Even Ken tried to work on that thing and it would not budge. They had to break it to get it off, then put the alternator on and a new belt tensioner.

At 10:30am we have raided the vacation money to pay for the alternator, the van is fixed and we are ready to hit the road... again. After a stop at the bank to replenish the vacation money, we are on the interstate and heading for Alabama.

It rains through North Carolina. It rains through South Carolina. We get a short break from the rain in Georgia, but then it starts back up again. It rains through Alabama. We are so close to the gulf we can almost taste it. Just another hour or so and we are there!

My windshield wipers are going fast and furious to clear the downpour from the window. Then, suddenly, the windshield wiper is hanging off the side of the van, next to my driver side side view mirror.

Fabulous.

We pull over to the shoulder of the interstate, put the wiper back on the windshield, try to tighten it down... nope. That doesn't work. We need real tools.

We drive down the interstate, emergency flashers on, rain pouring down, no windshield wipers, 10 miles before we finally get to an exit. Luckily, the owner of the gas station has a set of tools. We tighten down the wiper and give it a test run. It stays on the windshield. After numerous "thank yous" to the gentleman with the tools, we are on the road again. It stops raining for a little while. Great timing.

We have our directions to the hotel. They are REALLY bad directions. After driving around for 20 minutes and calling the hotel (twice) we FINALLY get there! We get checked in and unload the kids and the van. It is now 10:30pm.

We made it! We are in Mobile, in our hotel. Thank you to my MIL for the hotel room, it is fabulous! My MIL works for Marriott so we can stay for the friends and family rate. $35.00 a night instead of the $119.00 a night for 2 double beds at the Fairfield Inn. We all crash out pretty quickly. It has been a long trip.

We wake up and plan out the day a little bit. We want to take the kids to the Battleship Park and the beach (obviously), take them down to Dauphin Island to see the houses on stilts and get in the water. We go down to the continental breakfast. Fix the kids some waffles. They charm the employee who takes care of the breakfast service. She gives them extra bananas as she scolds me for cleaning our table off as we are getting ready to head out for the day.

We head for the door and see it.... the downpour of rain so heavy that seeing across the parking lot is difficult, at best. I'll pick them up at the door and we'll revise our plans in the van. I get the van and we load the kids under the awning.

Let's go to walmart and get the boys new swim trunks and some umbrellas and rain ponchos for the boys. We load up the cart and as we are leaving the Walmart, the rain lays off. Is that a hint of blue sky up there? Nope. Just wishful thinking, but if it isn't raining hard we can still go to Battleship Park.

We go. The kids had a blast walking around the battleship and submarine. They laid down on the bunks and pretended to cook in the galley. They are having so much fun! With just a bit of a drizzle we go to Dauphin Island and the beach. The rain is holding off, for the most part. It'll drizzle for awhile and then stop, drizzle and stop. We get the kids some buckets and they hunt for shells. Careful to avoid the jellyfish that are littering the beach.

We had dinner at a local seafood place with the worst service and cold food. Back to the hotel and the kids want to hit the pool. Another night and we crash out.

Monday morning we wake to rain, again. We drive over to Pensacola, Florida (to knock another state off the growing list of states the kids have been to). The rain is off and on again. At the beach the kids can't even get to the water. There are jellyfish all over the beach! We try the other side and the kids can get in the water. More seashells, more sanddollars, more sand. We take the kids to the Naval Air Museum, at least that is inside, we can get away from all the rain. Where is my debit card? It's gone! Probably fell out at the gas station. Call the bank and cancel the card. No one has tried to use it since I filled up last but sheesh! At least Ken is there and we can use his card when we need it.

We are at the Air Museum for awhile. All the planes are so cool and Ken is in his glory telling the boys all about the different planes. We leave Pensacola and head back for Alabama. We are going to take the ferry across the bay this time, instead of driving up and around. The kids love the ferry ride to Dauphin Island. I take hold of the camera and get a series of pictures of the sun setting on the beach, there are clouds of course but they are beautiful pictures! Back to the hotel and the pool. I am whupped!

Our last morning in Mobile. So far it has been a rain filled vacation, so what do we wake up to on Tuesday morning... SUNSHINE! As we are leaving of course. Beautiful. Check out of the hotel (making sure to run Ken's card as we had used my at check-in, can't run a card that's been cancelled). Load into the van and we are off.

We head for Wetumpka, Alabama. What's in Wetumpka? A meteor crater. A HUGE meteor crater. Liam is fascinated by meteors. We pull off and do the touristy thing and start looking around and pointing out the crater wall to the boys. We have a lesson in geology from daddy. A quick stop at Auburn and we can head for home.

We decided to make another side trip to Jonesboro, Georgia and see where Ken grew up. His tree house (built over 22 years ago) is a shambles, but parts of it are still hanging in the tree. As we are leaving the neighbrhood he used to live in (pretty house!) the van dies. What??? Start it back up and it dies again! Ok, this is getting weird. Get us home!

The van stays running and we bust tail out of there and aim for Tennessee. We stop at a Burger King to pick up some dinner (we have all the luck, we pick the place where the residents decide to case our van while we are inside). Ken keeps watch on the car and the locals. An unmarked police car pulls up and the locals run off. We run for the van and get out of there too.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful (except for another stalling out at the gas station after we filled up in North Carolina). We rolled up the driveway about 1:30 this morning.

I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

But, as any good homeschooling family, we had a lot of education crammed into this trip as well (plus I can count all these days as school days! LOL). On our way home we made a list of all the subjects we covered during the trip. Want to hear?

Sciences:

Ictheology, Marine Biology (to include vertebrate and invertabrate physiology), Oceanography, Barrier Island Ecology, Plant Ecology, Meteorology, Ornithology, Geology, Anatomy and Physiology, Physics (specifically hydrology and aerospace sciences), Chemistry (physical), Marine Ecology, Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Geography.

Social Studies:

Naval History, Naval Engineering, U.S. History (Civil War History, there are a ton of forts and such in the area), World History (colonization and St. Patrick's Day), Aviation History, Modern Energy conservation, Philosophy, Amritime Science (commercial fishing and shipping industries).

Other:

Mathematics (what else do you do in a car for 10-12 hours? You make up math problems for the kids to answer).

Home Economics (on ship cooking and maintaining the hotel room).

Reading and Comprehension (road signs, pamphlets, tourist info, etc).

Primitive Living Skills (as Ascher takes some of the rocks we picked up in Wetumpka and attempts to make a spear point and arrow head in the backseat on the way home).

Art (we have MANY drawings of the trip from the time spent in the van).

Auto Shop (watching the car get fixed in the shop).

I would write more, but I am going to relax for a little while before I start posting pictures... I am EXHAUTED! I will update the journal later with pictures!

[Lynette]

Mar. 18, 2009 at 2:23 PM

now that was an adventure!

[Mylovngheart]

Mar. 18, 2009 at 3:26 PM

Adventures are priceless, aren't they,

and make some AWESOME memories!

What a trip!

[SCMom130]

Mar. 18, 2009 at 4:10 PM

Wow....sounds like you guys had very INTERESTING time!

Thanks for sharing!

[NorahSethsMommy]

Mar. 18, 2009 at 4:53 PM

Wow...what an adventure and you tell it all so well I feel like I was there!