Midwestern Road Trip: Final Thoughts & Toddler Travel Tips

Ah, all good things must come to an end, right? This is the post, that after many, many posts, will finally wrap up my recaps of our Midwestern Road Trip. I just want to briefly recap our trip home, then I'll do a little debriefing about our favorites/least favorites and such, and then I'd like to talk just a little about roadtripping with a toddler (and not just any toddler, but a sick, teething, just-learning-to-walk toddler).

First, the "going home" stuff:

We had a rough night our last night in Bloomington. Ellie once again woke up and couldn't get herself back to bed, so she ended up in the bed with me where she slowly but surely forced Eric out. He went downstairs to sleep on the couch, while Ellie actually slept in - something we were not expecting, considering we needed to hit the road relatively early. When she and I finally woke up we hurried downstairs to wake Eric, then got ourselves dressed, fed, loaded up and out the door in pretty good time.

I'm posting this horribly unflattering picture of myself because LOOK HOW CUTE MY BABY IS, all snuggled up against me.

We had to make the 2.5 hour drive back to St. Louis, where the whole trip began, to catch our return flight. Our rental car had to be back around 12:30 p.m., and we made it in plenty of time. We had a much more positive experience with the rental car company this time as the drop-off process was simple and fast, and one of their employees even offered to drive us back to the airport in the car rather than making us unload everything and drag it onto their shuttle. That was MUCH appreciated, although it saved us so much time, we had a lot more time to kill at the airport.

On our way back to the airport, I got my last "welcome to" sign picture! Welcome to Missouri...for the third time!

We had lunch at Chili's where the slow service really helped kill some of our extra time, and then let Ellie burn off as much energy as possible by being generally crazy in the airport.

I'm going home! SCORE!

Our flight was delayed by about a half hour, but was otherwise alright, including our brief stop in Birmingham. Unfortunately I was still pretty congested from my cold, so my ears hurt terribly on both descents and remained blocked for about a week afterwards. I had worried about congested Ellie's ears, too, but she didn't seem bothered - just sleepy. She even napped in my arms for a bit, to my great delight.

Sleeping baby feet on my lap!

Sleepy girls on the airplane

We arrived in Tampa all in one piece, as did our luggage, and my dad met us at the airport. Good to be home!


Now, let's do some debriefing.

This trip was awesome. It went so well, definitely about as well as I could have expected (if not better), even given some unexpected glitches: I forgot my phone at home (hardly a catastrophe, of course, but I think most millennials would agree it's an adjustment to be phone-less), we had really gross weather in Milwaukee, we gave up a day of sightseeing in Cleveland, we had some unexpected illness to deal with our second week. Even with all that, though, this trip was fabulous. We handled everything in stride and it was great fun.

My favorite city was definitely Memphis, as I found it charming and just liked the atmosphere. It was the location of several of my other favorites, too: my favorite meal was Gus's Fried Chicken, and my favorite activity was, of course, the Peabody Ducks.

Love those ducks!

Our stop in Notre Dame was much more of a highlight than I expected, and I think one of my most favorite pictures from the trip is the one of Ellie running out of the tunnel onto the football field. I mean, she had only been walking for less than a week, and there she was, taking the field at Notre Dame. She kills me.

Way to go, Ellie!

Another favorite picture of mine is Ellie in the carrier under the Gateway Arch.

Love her little eye peeking out

I also really liked St. Louis, and I'm glad we took the time to go up in the Arch. It was very cool.

Of course, we also very much enjoyed our time with family in both Cleveland and Bloomington, and Santiago's first birthday party was a blast!

Milwaukee was my least favorite city, although I think it would've had potential had anything in the Historic Third Ward been open. I think Eric would agree with my assessment of Milwaukee, although he loved golfing at Whistling Straits during our stay there, and Milwaukee did host our favorite of the baseball stadiums we saw. So, see? Even our least favorite city was still a blast!

Go Brewers!

Some things I wish we would have had more time for: checking out Beale Street (in Memphis) after dark, actually going in the National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis) and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati), more exploration of Cincinnati in general, checking out the Public Market in Milwaukee, and some actual exploration of Nashville. Ah, well - next time!


As for roadtripping with a toddler...

A beautiful sight: a happy baby in the car!

Before we went on this trip, I totally Googled for advice about just this sort of thing. (Honestly, how did people parent before Google?) So, I thought I would share a little about what worked for us on this trip; things we did to make the whole experience easier on both us and Ellie. Naturally, what worked for my kid may not work for yours. Heck, what worked for my kid last week may not work next week. You know your kid best, and can make the best guess about what they need, but at the end of the day, it's a gamble. If you're willing to make that gamble, let me at least tell you what we did that seemed to help (note: our baby was 14 months old at the time of this trip):

• Hotel suites. We booked suites whenever we could (or "extended stay" hotels). This way, Ellie had her own space and so did we. That meant we weren't keeping her up during the night, and it meant we didn't have to sit quietly in the bathroom while she napped. We could each do our own thing and sleep peacefully. Not only that, but suites often have at least microwaves and mini-fridges, if not more complete kitchens - very handy for preparing "home-cooked" meals for the little one. And really, if you look hard enough, there are deals to be found for suites hotels. We were able to find all of ours for hardly more than a regular room would have cost us. It's definitely worth the time and effort to search for affordable suites!

• Don't rush out in the morning. This may be specific to Ellie's nap schedule, but it really worked well for us to spend leisurely mornings at the hotel, eating breakfast and relaxing until naptime. Then, after she had napped, we hit the road. That way we knew she was rested and we weren't putting too much on her plate in one day.

• Scale it back and be flexible. You never know how the little one is going to take everything. Prioritize your must-do's and hit them first, and then fit in whatever else you can. Be prepared to adjust as needed.

• Bring the comforts of home, especially WHITE NOISE.  One of our first stops was at Target to pick up a box fan to bring with us. When Ellie was sleeping in the hotels, we had both that bad boy and her Sleep Sheep going at full volume. Hotels are noisy, and if you're planning to sleep in the bedroom of the suite, the baby will probably be in the living area closest to the hallway. Drown that racket out! We also were prepared with blackout curtains to make sure Ellie had a quiet and dark sleeping environment, but we didn't need them because generally, hotel curtains rock. I also brought a couple of her favorite toys to put in her Pack 'N Play with her for added familiarity.

• Also bring familiar food. While we were at Target we also picked up a ton of Ellie's favorites and prepared them in the kitchen in our hotel suite, then carted them around with us (steamed veggies, pasta, etc.). Bring a cooler and keep it stocked. We knew we would be eating out a lot but we weren't sure if Ellie would be able to find something she liked everywhere, plus we thought it might just be nice for her to have any extra consistency and familiarity we could offer her.

• Baby transportation. While out and about, for us it generally worked best to wear Ellie in her carrier (we have a Beco Gemini and used the back carry). It was less hassle for going in and out of sightseeing places - no need to worry about stroller accessibility, etc. And, she was able to easily fall asleep in there (she's not one to sleep in the stroller). We did also bring a small umbrella stroller in case we wanted to switch things up but we really just found that wearing her was easiest for everyone, with the exception of our morning at the St. Louis Zoo and a couple of walks with family in Cleveland and Bloomington.

• Equip your car. We made sure we had everything we would need for car travel, starting with this car seat travel bag that worked wonders. It has backpack straps so it's easy to get to and from the baggage check counter, and although the zipper was a bit snug on our car seat, there was enough room in the seat to fit other things, including our travel high chair which was so helpful to have along. We also brought sunshades for the car windows, a mirror, car seat straps, etc. For ourselves, we made sure to have a car charger for our iPhones, too.

• Trip toys. Before we left, I hit up the Dollar Spot at Target and the Dollar Store for some little trinkets for Ellie to play with in the car: cheap books, necklaces, squishy toys, light-up toys, rattles, stickers, even a loofah. Basically, anything that I thought might hold her attention for a bit if she got antsy. On the longer stretches, I rode in the back with her and when needed, pulled a new toy out of my bag o' tricks to keep her occupied. It worked like a charm, and instead of buying one big "trip toy" as I had originally planned, for about $10 I was able to get enough little things that she had something new for every leg of the trip.

• Stop often and for long stretches, if possible. We had a few legs of our trip where the total drive time was about seven hours. On those occasions, we made it a point to find an activity we could do at the midway point, such as taking the tour of the stadium at Notre Dame between Milwaukee and Cleveland. That gave us time to get out, stretch our legs, let Ellie burn off some energy and then start fresh again for the second half of the journey. It really broke things up nicely. We would also stop between those big stops as needed for gas and such, and would let Ellie walk around a bit there, but we tried to plan a halfway stop to last an hour or more. I think it really helped all of us stay sane. And, those stops ended up being fun additions to our trip!

• Be prepared. I mean, obviously. But really, spend weeks ahead of time with a running list going of what you want to pack (I highly recommend the Wunderlist app if you have an iPhone - you can add people to your list so, for example, both you and your husband can add things to the same list as they come to you). If you think of something you may possibly need, bring it. For example, I made sure to bring teething supplies and Tylenol for Ellie, both of which ended up being much needed, and I was glad I was prepared.

So that's the basics of what helped us successfully complete a 17-day road trip with a 14-month-old who learned to walk, caught a cold and cut two teeth (and started on one molar) during our trip. Should you attempt something similar, I hope my tips help and may the Force be with you.

And that concludes my road trip talk. If you have really read all of these posts, I thank you. If you haven't, but would like to catch up on any, here are links to the collections of posts from each city:

St. Louis  ~  Milwaukee  ~  Notre Dame  ~  Cleveland  ~  Cincinnati  ~  Nashville  ~ Memphis  ~ Bloomington

Thanks for sharing this journey with us!

Cincinnati

For the life of me, I can never remember how to spell Cincinnati. My spell check has been getting a serious workout with that one.

Anyway, when I left off, we were departing from my Gramps's house on Monday morning (6/3) after a great family reunion in Cleveland. We were en route to Cincinnati, a drive that took a little under four hours.

Welcome to Cincinnati!

Driving downtown

When we arrived, we went straight to our hotel (Garfield Suites) and got settled in. This hotel was another older one, but the rooms were condo-style, so we had a living area, full kitchen, and bedroom with the biggest king bed I've ever slept in. Maybe it was super duper king bed or something, but at one point during the night I woke up and practically needed binoculars to see Eric on the other side of the bed. (He was probably pretty thankful for this, as I came down with a nasty cold while we were in Cleveland and was a pretty big mess by Cincinnati. So, also, if I look like I'm near death in any of the pictures in this post, that's because I was.)

Left: Our hotel; Right: Ellie helping Daddy get the luggage!

Our room

We arrived in Cincinnati early enough to give Ellie (and sickie me) a little nap before heading out for the evening's events (another baseball game!), which worked out quite nicely. I think we all needed a little bit of time to rest and recharge after the crazy reunion weekend.

When we did finally head out, our first stop was Skyline Chili for dinner. We were Skyline Chili rookies, but we had a great server who walked us through it. We ended up with two 3-ways (spaghetti, chili and shredded cheese) and one child's "P'Sghetti" meal (just spaghetti and cheese). Eric and I both really enjoyed it, and to our surprise and delight, so did Ellie! She gobbled that "p'sghetti" right up. We are officially Skyline Chili fans now.

Ellie loves her Skyline Chili!

Signing "more!" She can't get enough!

We still had some time to kill before the game, so we just did some wandering around. Our hotel was right downtown so we were able to both walk to the game and do a little exploring beforehand. We walked towards the river, past the National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum (we would have loved to go in if we had the time!), and along the waterfront. The riverfront area is actually really cute, with swing benches and fountains and nice landscaping, plus scenic bridges and such. It kind of reminded me of Pittsburgh a little bit. It was quite charming.

Downtown views

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum

A piece of the Berlin Wall in front of the museum

Fountains along the riverfront

The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, designed by, well, John A. Roebling - the same guy who designed the Brooklyn Bridge! We could definitely see the similarities.

Swing benches along the water

Stopped for a swing!

After exploring the waterfront we made our way up to the Great American Ball Park, MLB stadium #3 of our trip.

The Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds

All in all, we liked this stadium. The Reds were the first professional baseball team, and pparently there is a pretty cool Reds history museum on the property (with memorabilia such as a signed baseball from every Red since the 1920s), but that was a separate admission cost that we didn't feel up to paying. The rest of the stadium and surrounding area was pretty neat, though. There was a vibrant bar scene (for the grown-ups) just outside, and inside the stadium there wsa a cool fan area (for the kids). And again, it reminded me a bit of PNC Park in Pittsburgh because you could walk around (inside) the stadium along the riverfront - a feature I liked very much in both places. Eric was disappointed in the quality of the souvenir soda cup, however (he collects them from every stadium, and this one was his least favorite and the most expensive!).

Inside the stadium

Hooray, baseball!

We love a good photo op.

Steamboat smokestacks in right center field

The famous "toothbrush lights," although if you ask me, the lights at Progressive Field in Cleveland are far toothbrush-ier.

View of the river (and the National Steamboat Monument) from the stadium

Play ball!

Ellie particularly enjoyed walking around as much as we would let her, although I'm not sure how much of that was really Great American Ball Park-specific.

Left: She really wanted to get into that play area and climb around with the big kids! Someday, little one!

Right: Ellie and Eric, off to find some food.

We grabbed some snacks and stayed for a couple of innings, then we decided to head out. We still had another stop to make and didn't want to make it too late of a night. We did, however, pause for some pictures in front of the stadium before we left.

Cool statues in front of the stadium

Ellie amongst the statues

Family pic!

From there, it was onwards to Graeter's for some frozen custard.

Time for dessert!

I got the Peanut Butter Chip and Eric got the Cookies 'N Cream, and it was delicious. (Way better than Ted Drewes in St. Louis, if you're keeping score). Mine had huge chunks of chocolate, and similarly, Eric's had...well, see for yourself:

I mean, how often do you get cookies 'n cream with cookies so big the Oreo logo is still in tact?

Yum.

Graeter's was located right in Fountain Square, where there was live music/trivia and a lovely fountain. It was such a gorgeous night, and it seemed like such a great place to sit and spend the evening. Alas, my sick self was spent, so we hit up a Walgreens for some meds and then went back to the hotel to call it a night. Another time, Cincinnati!

Fountain Square

And that was our time in Cincinnati! Brief, but rather nice. I spent that night doing my best to rest and recover, because the next day, we were Tennessee-bound!

Coming up tomorrow: Our travels to Memphis, by way of a yummy lunch with family in Nashville.

To see more pictures from Cincinnati, click here.

Midwestern Road Trip Success!

We're back! What an awesome vacation we just had. It was a long one: 17 days and 2,530 miles of driving (plus a roundtrip flight to St. Louis), taking us through 10 states (with actual activities in eight of them), to five hotels and two family members' homes, four baseball games, one bucket list item crossed off for both Eric and me, one family reunion and one birthday party. Talk about big fun!

The trip was not without glitches, of course. You just can't expect to be on the road for 17 days (with a toddler, no less) and not expect a couple issues to pop up. We had some awfully nasty weather in Milwaukee (ummm, 40-some degrees with wind and rain on Memorial Day? Say what?), and Ellie and I came down with colds for the second half of our trip. However, we handled both things in stride and didn't let either put a damper on our fun.

And Ellie, by the way, was a rock star. It's possible that girl was born to travel. She had a little trouble sleeping our last two nights of the trip, but the rest of the time, she was a sleeping CHAMP. We're talking better sleeping than she does at home. She went down for the night with no trouble, slept through till morning, and took 2-3 hour naps regularly. WHO IS THIS CHILD. She had no trouble transitioning from hotel to hotel (in fact, she loved exploring all of them) and really just rocked the whole trip. And, she did all that while dealing with many other potentially sleep-disrupting, grump-inducing factors: she cut two teeth and started working on a third (her first molar), she fought off a cold, and she learned to walk. That's right, folks, we have a full-blown toddler on our hands. Brace yourself for some video coming your way soon!

No matter how great Ellie was, however, traveling like that with a baby is nothing short of exhausting. There was definitely a noticeable difference in our traveling style: whenever possible, we wouldn't get our day started until mid-afternoon, after Ellie's nap. Then, we'd try to be home in time to get her dinner and to bed at a relatively reasonable hour. We had to be careful to preserve her eating schedule, as well, which often meant preparing her favorite foods and carting them around with us all day. But the biggest thing was checking in and out of hotels - talk about a process. No matter whether we stayed three nights or just one, we had a cartful of stuff to lug in and set up after check-in and pack up and drag back out after check-out. We had her Pack 'N Play, our suitcase, a bag of food, a box fan, diaper bag, backpack, purse, stroller, etc. It's just so much stuff. Babies do not travel light.

But really, all in all, the trip was fantastic. My favorite event was, of course, being an Honorary Duckmaster at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Memphis overall was my favorite city, actually, and we had the best food of our trip there, too. Eric loved golfing at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, and has declared Miller Park as his favorite MLB stadium of the trip. We also had a great time visiting with family (and friends!) in Cleveland and went to an awesome monster-themed first birthday party for my nephew Santiago in Illinois. And I can't wait to share all these fun things with you!

But first, I must regroup. I have roughly a gazillion pictures to sort through, but even that must be put on hold because Eric leaves this week for Teach for America Institute in Jacksonville. He'll be staying in a dorm on the UNF campus, which means this week we have to outfit him for dorm life (anyone have an old set of extra long twin sheets laying around?) and get him moved up there. Then Ellie and I will be on our own for six weeks of mama-daughter bonding while Eric learns how to actually be a teacher. Exciting stuff, my friends - all our plans are finally getting underway!

I'll have a couple of other things to share with you this week while I get the trip recaps together, and hopefully we can get started on those next week. In the meantime, here's a little teaser including one picture from each of the cities where we made a stop:

Top half, clockwise from left: Ellie and me underneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Ellie running out of the tunnel onto the field at Notre Dame, Ellie chowing down on Skyline Chili in Cincinnati, Eric's Uncle Steve giving Ellie a flower at our lunch stop in Nashville, and Ellie rocking the Brewers beanie we bought her to wear in the Milwaukee cold.

Bottom half, clockwise from left: Ellie and me with the Duckmaster at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, my family reunion in Cleveland, and birthday boy Santiago about to go to work on his birthday cake!

Stay tuned for more details about all of these super fun things!

Our Midwestern Road Trip

As you know, our Sea World trip was a great opportunity for me to cross something off my bucket list. But, that is not the only bucket list item that will be attended to this summer. Oh, no sir.

We are leaving on Friday (this week already!) for a 17-day midwestern road trip, in which will be visiting eight cities in five states. We will be crossing off one of my favorite bucket list items, and will be visiting three new baseball stadiums in pursuit of Eric's goal of seeing a game at all 30 (this will bring his total to 20!).

Are we crazy to do this with a toddler? Oh, you bet. All I'll say is that Ellie has gotten much better at sleeping in the car as of late, and as you saw during my Sea World recaps she is clearly able to fall asleep in the carrier (this is a new and very welcome development), and we reserved almost all suites hotels so she can have her own space at night to keep any potential disturbances at a minimum (that did work out well at Sea World, so we're hopeful). Aside from that, let's just not talk about our temporary insanity, okay?

Instead, let's talk itinerary. Obviously we know that with a baby in tow, we can't do these marathon days where we see a bajillion things in 12 hours like we used to do on these sorts of trips. We've had to scale it back quite a bit, allowing for naps (so optimistic!) and early bedtimes. Instead of a set itinerary at each destination, we have a rough idea of what we want to do on each day (usually just one or two things) and plan to be flexible based on Ellie's needs. So, although our destinations are set in stone, our daily itineraries are a little vague. (Also, our food plan is a little sketchy in some places, so if any of you have any "Must Eat!" tips for any of these cities, please share!)

In general, this is our plan:

On Friday, we will fly to St. Louis, Missouri. We will rent a car and check into our hotel. If we have time/ambition, we might check out the St. Louis City Museum in the evening. It looks incredibly cool, unlike any museum I have ever seen before: made up of all sorts of things to climb on and through, up and down. Sort of like an enormous playground, I think. I'm not sure how much we'll really be able to do with Ellie tagging along, but it just looks so cool that I'd really like to just see it. And apparently there is a toddler section, so naturally we'll be sure to head there.

St. Louis City Museum

(source)

The next day we'll just be hanging out in St. Louis. We'll probably head downtown, check out the Gateway Arch, maybe do a riverboat tour. You know, play it by ear.

The Gateway Arch

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On Sunday morning if we're feeling up to it, we'll check out the St. Louis Zoo for a couple of hours. Then, midday we'll hit the road in our rental car and head to our next destination: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

St. Louis to Milwaukee

The drive from St. Louis to Milwaukee is about six hours, so we'll arrive there on Sunday night and hang out. Monday we'll be going to an afternoon Brewers game (MLB stadium #18 for Eric), then on Tuesday, Eric will golf at Whistling Straits while Ellie and I have a relaxing girly day at the hotel pool.

Whistling Straits

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We will depart Milwaukee early Wednesday morning, en route to Cleveland, with a stop for lunch in South Bend along the way to check out Notre Dame. We'll arrive in Cleveland Wednesday evening.

Milwaukee to Cleveland, via South Bend

We will be in Cleveland until Monday morning for my annual family reunion. We plan to have dinner with my friend Megan on Thursday, then Eric and other Hesterman folk will golf on Friday. On Saturday we're all going to an Indians game (the second stadium of our trip, although it's a repeat), Sunday will be church and Monday will be departure. I'm pretty excited to see all these people again, especially the three great-grandbabies, who will be far more mobile this year - look out!:

Group shot at last year's family reunion! Look at all those little shrimps in the front. They sure have grown in the last year!

When we depart Cleveland on Monday morning, we will drive the four(ish) hours to Cincinnati, where we will catch a Reds game (MLB stadium #19 for Eric) and try to eat some chili or some such thing. We'll stay the night there.

Cleveland to Cincinnati

When we leave Cincinnati on Tuesday, we will be headed to Memphis for my most anticipated stop of the trip. But first, we'll stop midway for lunch in Nashville (BBQ, naturally). We'll ultimately arrive in Memphis on Tuesday evening.

Cincinnati to Memphis by way of Nashville

Memphis is going to be awesome, because let me tell you about why we're going to Memphis: we're going to march with the ducks at the Peabody Hotel. Are you familiar with this? At the Peabody Hotel, they have several ducks that live in a little Duck Palace on the roof and spend their days swimming around in the fountain in the hotel lobby. Each morning, the Duckmaster goes up to the Duck Palace and brings the ducks down to the lobby on the elevator, and then they walk up and into the fountain via red carpet. HOW ADORABLE IS THAT. Here, perhaps a video would help you fully understand the awesomeness of these ducks:

VIDEO: Peabody Ducks on Animal Planet's Most Outrageous Pet Digs

This, my friends, is Item #36 on my bucket list: Stay in the Peabody Hotel to see the Marching Ducks. Hence, Memphis.

But it doesn't end there. Thanks to my incredible husband, not only are we going to see the ducks, but I get to be an honorary Duckmaster. Oh yes, that's right. We will stay in the hotel on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., we will go up to the Duck Palace with the Duckmaster, retrieve the ducks, escort them downstairs in the elevator, and walk them along the red carpet. We even get an honorary Duckmaster cane to use! Aaaaah! I am beside myself with excitement about these crazy ducks.

This is going to be me!!!

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After we march with the ducks, we'll spend the afternoon exploring downtown Memphis, including the National Civil Rights Museum and Beale Street.

Beale Street

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When we (read: Ellie) have had our fill of downtown, we'll go check into our new hotel (we're only staying at the Peabody one night), eat some more BBQ for dinner and relax. On Thursday morning, naturally we'll hit up Graceland. Because, duh.

Graceland!

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Thursday afternoon we'll bid Memphis farewell and head back to St. Louis.

Back to St. Louis, completing the loop!

Yes, this is weird. But you know what else is in St. Louis? Another baseball stadium, home to a team that does NOT have a home game during our weekend in St. Louis at the start of our trip. So, back we go to catch an evening Cardinals game (MLB stadium #20 for Eric), and maybe eat a Bratzel Dog:

Yup, that's a bratwurst wrapped in a pretzel. I'm guessing it might taste mighty fine accompanied with a nice, cold beer.

(source)

Then, we'll be leaving St. Louis yet again - possibly that evening right after the game, or perhaps the next morning (a detail still to be decided!). Either way, from St. Louis we will drive the 2.5 hours to Bloomington, Illinois to my cousin Molly's house.

Up to Bloomington - retracing our previous route!

We will be there from Thursday night/Friday until Monday morning. Molly's son Santiago will be celebrating his first birthday that Saturday, and we are so excited to be able to attend his party! We'll spend the rest of the time visiting with Molly, Arturo and Santiago and checking out their new house (well, relatively new, but we haven't seen it yet!). I can't wait!

Can't wait to spend the weekend with this lovely family!

Then, on Monday morning we will head back to St. Louis yet again, but this time, it will be to catch our return flight home. And that will be it! Seventeen days, 33 hours worth of driving, five states, eight cities, three new baseball stadiums (plus one repeat), two rounds of golf, one bucket list item accomplished, one family reunion and one birthday party. That, my friends, is a road trip.

Now, let's all join hands and pray to the nap gods to bless Ellie on this trip. Amen.