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!

Whistling Straits (and Girls' Day!)

I explained in my last post that Eric was supposed to golf at Whistling Straits on the first Tuesday of our trip, but, thanks to disgusting weather, had to reschedule for Wednesday (5/29), thus extending our stay in Milwaukee by one day. I was so glad that we had that little bit of wiggle room in our itinerary so we were able to do this - not because I fell in love with Milwaukee and wanted extra time there, but because I knew how excited Eric was about this golf outing and I would have felt terrible if he had to miss it altogether. I'm so glad we were able to make it work!

Because I am relatively golf-dumb, I asked Eric to write a little something about this Whistling Straits day in his own words. Without further ado, I give you Eric's recap of Whistling Straits:

* * * * *

Golf Digest ranks the Straits Course at Whistling Straits the #2 public course in the U.S. and, having finally gotten the chance to play, I can definitely see why. 

Around 15 years ago, noted golf course architect Pete Dye and his crew transformed a flat, abandoned airfield sitting on two miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline into a spectacular golf course with 80 feet of elevation changes and close to 1,000 bunkers. The Straits Course is modeled after an Irish links course and even has its own herd of Scottish blackface sheep, which roam the back nine at their leisure. I still remember my jaw dropping at the sharp contrast between the visually stunning and perfectly manufactured course and the flat and boring 1.5 hour stretch of poorly-maintained highway it took to get there from Milwaukee.

The 10th fairway (the green is behind he bunkers to the left)

Looking back on the 18th hole

Sheep roaming the 11th fairway

The clubhouse and facilities are very classy and the entire staff was polite and friendly. In fact, they allowed me to borrow a brand new driver to replace mine, which had unfortunately snapped during our flight to St. Louis (and which I didn't discover until I got there). In addition, the course requires you to take a caddie, which greatly enhanced my experience. Mine was very helpful and easy to get along with. He actually stayed with me the entire round, just like they do on tour and even hung around on the driving range before I teed off (as opposed to a lot of places where the caddies sometimes give you quick advice on the tee and then go ahead to watch for the ball). 

As for the course itself, it was definitely interesting and a lot of fun to play. Most of the time I missed a fairway, I was treated to an unusual lie and a one-of-a-kind stance. In the first five holes, I had shots that ranged from waist high to two feet below my feet. It was really an exercise in creativity and a very different experience from the courses I am used to playing. The fairways were in great shape and any hole that seemed on the easy side from the tee had a very interesting green to make up for it.

Sizing up my tee shot on #3

The second shot on #5

Standing on the 6th tee

I should also mention how crazy the weather was, much like playing a true Irish/Scottish links course. Aside from having to reschedule due to heavy rain, it was in the low 50s when I got to the course and perhaps 20 degrees warmer by the time I finished. At some point on the front side, the fog rolled in and stayed for a few holes before burning off by the time we made the turn. However, it wasn't gone for good and actually came back with a vengeance on the 11th (right after I remarked to my caddie about how nice of a day it was turning into). That fog stuck around for most of the back nine and actually led to a severe sunburn.

Teeing off on #7

The 9th and 18th greens and the clubhouse in the background.

In theory, the 14th hole is there somewhere.

I remember telling my caddie that I didn't really mind the fog so long as it cleared up for pictures on the signature hole. Which it did.

On the 17th tee

All in all, it was a great experience, and the Straits Course has moved (straight?) to the top of my list of favorite courses I have played.

* * * * *

Thanks for sharing, Eric! So glad you enjoyed it so much!

Meanwhile, while the cat's away, the mice have to do something, too. (That's how the saying goes, yes?) While Eric golfed, Ellie and I hung out at the hotel. We kept ourselves busy with some breakfast, some carrying around of things in the hotel room, then a nap, resulting in Baby's First Bedhead.

Left: Roaming the hotel room with the base of the telephone in hand; Right: Mad that I'm photographing her bedhead.

Then we went over to the hotel next door for a nice little mama-baby lunch out at the on-site Champps. I had a tasty sandwich but Ellie was offended by the un-melty-ness of her grilled cheese. She did, however, love the raspberries in her fruit cup.

Mmmm, raspberry mess.

After lunch we went back to the hotel and hit the pool for a bit.

The hotel pool

Ready to swim!

Before we knew it, Eric was back home in enough time for us to wander around the area on a Milwaukee postcard hunt (we collect postcards and magnets everywhere we go!) and grab dinner before trying to pack up as much as possible before bed. We were ready to hit the road again early the next morning!

Coming up next: A fun stadium tour at Notre Dame!

To see more pictures from Whistling Straits, click here.

Milwaukee

When I left off yesterday, we had departed St. Louis and were en route to Milwaukee (via Bloomington). We arrived in Milwaukee that Sunday (5/28) evening and went straight to our hotel: Brookfield Suites, just outside of Milwaukee. It was a much older hotel than our St. Louis hotel, but our suite was nice enough. The hotel itself, however, had some great perks: a fabulous free hot breakfast in the mornings (we're talking made-to-order omelets, people), the fastest free WiFi of any hotel we stayed in, and a free open bar happy hour nightly from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. And on Brewers game days, that happy hour included free snacks like popcorn, chips and salsa, and cotton candy (with hot dogs and burgers for purchase) and games like cornhole right there in the lobby. Very fun! I would say I drank more in Milwaukee than I had in years.

Our Milwaukee hotel! The open-air lobby (top left) reminded me of our hotel in Ixtapa, as well as the Oberoi (where Eric stayed in India)

Left: Made-to-order pancakes for Ellie at the hotel breakfast! Right: Ellie enjoying that pancake!

Anyway, upon arrival we pretty much just got settled in and called it a night.

The next day (Memorial Day), we did our usual morning routine: breakfast at the hotel, hang out (there may or may not have been some SpongeBob in it for Ellie), let Ellie nap then get on with our day. When Ellie woke up, we immediately headed out to catch a Brewers game at Miller Park, the first MLB stadium of our trip. Ellie slept long enough that we were a bit late to the game, but that was just fine.

The weather that day was brutal. The temperature was in the low 50s, but the "feels like" was in the 40s. And it was misty-rainy and windy. Awful. Luckily, Miller Park has a retractable dome and I had the forethought to pack some warmer clothes, just in case. Those warm clothes came in handy right off the bat because the parking lot for Miller Park is ENORMOUS. We parked what felt like miles from the park. We passed some crazy tailgaters (people, this is not tailgate weather), took some pictures and then made it inside the park.

Eric and Ellie by our parking space, roughly miles from the stadium

Phew! Getting close!

Miller Park

Outside Miller Park

When we got inside, we did a little stadium exploring, grabbed some lunch and went looking for photo ops.

The field

Another baseball stadium crossed off the list!

Cuteness.

Loves it.

You know how most ballparks these days do some kind of character race during the game - like the Presidents' Race in Washington, D.C., the pierogies in Pittsburgh, and various other racing condiments in nearly all other stadiums around the country? Well, apparently, the Brewers were the first to do that, with an assortment of racing sausages. The race takes place before the start of the seventh inning, and we thought we'd never make it to seven innings to see such a thing. However, Ellie's nap ran long and thus, we arrived late to the game, so we were able to catch the sausage race! And not only that, we were able to catch the sausages afterwards, as well!

With four of the five racing sausages!

After the sausage race, we decided we'd had enough baseball for the day and were ready to do some more sightseeing. However, the near-frigid weather was a concern, so we picked up a beanie for Ellie from the team shop on our way out.

Totally looking like a local!

Thanks for a fun afternoon, Miller Park! 

We still have several more baseball stadiums to cover on this trip, but SPOILER ALERT: Miller Park was Eric's favorite! He felt (and I agreed) that it was a fun atmosphere, with lots of things for the fans to do (photo ops and such), and overall was just a really fun place to watch a game.

From there we went downtown to do a little sightseeing. We parked near the Art Museum and checked that out first, as we heard it was a sight to behold. We didn't take the time to actually go through it, and they were setting up for an event in the lobby, so we mostly just admired the architecture on the outside.

The Milwaukee Art Museum

Then, we walked along the riverfront for a bit.

Eric playing the role of Tourist Dad perfectly; "No Swimming" (because we totally wanted to) - but climb the rocks at your own risk; and a skyride along the riverfront.

Our ultimate destination was the Historic Third Ward, which we heard was a pretty neat area. We were also told that the Public Market was a must-see. However, presumably because it was Memorial Day, everything was closed, the Public Market included. It was literally a ghost town - not a single shop or restaurant open, and nary another soul on the street. The area seemed rather cute, but I wish we would've been able to actually experience it!

The Historic Third Ward

Ellie took advantage of the quiet streets to catch some shut-eye.

Sleepy Brewers fan

In an effort to keep Ellie sleeping, we continued along the water in search of the Bronze Fonze. Success!

Scenes from the waterfront!

By that point Ellie was awake again and we were chilled and tired, so it was back to the hotel to warm up and eat some local Glass Nickel Pizza (Milwaukee style, with real Wisconsin cheese!) for dinner. Then, off to bed.

According to our itinerary and corresponding reservations, Tuesday (5/30) was to be Eric's day to golf at Whistling Straits, something he was very much looking forward to. However, the weather worsened overnight and the forecast was calling for more chilly temperatures in addition to a 90% chance of thunderstorms. Yikes! Not exactly ideal golf weather. Sadly, Eric decided to cancel his tee time.

However, I had a genius idea. Our itinerary as it was had us departing Milwaukee on Wednesday, en route to Cleveland by way of South Bend. Then Thursday was to be spent sightseeing in Cleveland before everyone arrived for my family reunion. I had the thought that we could cut our Cleveland sightseeing (we'll be back there again, I'm sure) and extend our stay in Milwaukee by one night, giving Eric the opportunity to reschedule his golf day for Wednesday, when the forecast looked significantly more appealing. After checking with both the golf course and our hotel, all systems were go, and thus we gained another day in Milwaukee.

So, what to do with this new-found free day? Why, drink, of course. We decided to spend most of the day relaxing but to go out for brewery tour in the afternoon. We opted for Lakefront Brewery (gotta go local, I say). For the nominal tour cost, they give you not only the tour but also four six-ounce pours of their fine beverages and a free pint glass to take home. Sold!

Lakefront Brewery

We arrived early and got started on our beers right away. I personally preferred the Riverwest Stein, while Eric most enjoyed their root beer (it was some good root beer!). Ellie enjoyed walking around.

Ellie roaming the brewery before the tour started

Beer. Yum.

Left: One of my "pours" plus two of our tokens for more beer! Right: Cheers!

The tour itself was good, although the lengthiest portion involved just standing in a room listening to our guide give a long speech about the history of Lakefront (and brewing in general), the process, etc. Obviously I expected all that, but I thought we'd sort of talk as we walked. Instead, it was a long stretch of just standing around, which made for a fidgety baby. We did get to actually go through the brewery at the end, however, and it was pretty cool.

Inside the brewery

Hard to make out, but this is bottles on a conveyor belt

Listening to our guide at the end of the tour

After our brewery tour we went back to our hotel and grabbed some dinner (and more drinks from the free happy hour in the lobby, of course). Then it was off to bed so Eric could rest up for golf day!

Coming up tomorrow:  Eric plays Whistling Straits while Ellie and I enjoy a Girls' Day In!

To see more pictures from Milwaukee, click here for the Brewers game/Downtown and here for the brewery tour.