Carla Schoepfle

Well some vacations turn out better than others.  Last weekend we took a long weekend to Luray Caverns.  And I think if we’d timed the travel a bit differently (or if the hotel pool were warmer) the vacation would have gone smoother.  Even thought there were some bumps – it was nice to get away for a while, and we learned some lessons for our next traveling.

So what we planned was:

• Friday: Leave around noon, and arrive at Luray Caverns Motel around when Ian wakes up from his nap.  See Garden Hedge Maze, eat, and play in pool.  Then go to sleep (in portable sleeper).
• Saturday: See Caverns in morning, get Ian’s Nap, and then see car museum in the afternoon followed by pool, eat, sleep.
• Sunday: Get packed, and leave around noon to get home around when Ian wakes up from his nap.

What happened:

• Friday: Leave around noon, and arrive at Luray Caverns Motel around when Ian wakes up from his nap.  See Garden Hedge Maze (If we had a bigger yard - I’d think about making one of our own), eat, and go to sleep early in fold away bed.  Pool was too cold for playing in – but Ian and the rest of us were so tired – we all went to bed at 7 pm.
• Saturday: See Caverns in morning (took us about 2 hours vs. the normal 1 hour), get Ian’s Nap, and then see car museum in the afternoon.  Sadly the pool was still too cold to play in – so we ended up going into town and finding a moon bounce at Uncle Buck’s 5 year anniversary.  Then went to eat, and finally made it back to the motel for sleeping.
• Sunday: Get packed, eat, and leave around 8:30 am to get home.  Ian was very fussy in the car – and was suffering from more teething pain (like the rest of the weekend).  Found a park in Front Royal to play in (it was a great park) and then left there around noon to get home (around when Ian woke up from his nap).

What probably would have worked best:

• Friday: Leave around noon, and arrive at Luray Caverns Motel around when Ian wakes up from his nap.  See Garden Hedge Maze, eat, and go to sleep early in fold away bed.  Pool was too cold for playing in – but Ian and the rest of us were so tired – we all went to bed at 7 pm.
• Saturday: See Caverns in morning (took us about 2 hours vs. the normal 1 hour), pack up the car, and then drive home around noon (so we could get home in time for Ian to wake up from his nap)

All in all - the trip was fun.  But in future travels – we will have to map out more stopping for Ian to play while we drive (or come up with a better way to keep him entertained in the car).    The vacation did highlight though that Ian is probably just about ready for a big boy bed (since he did really well in the fold out sofa bed).