Vacationing Part I: Packing & the Drive

For the past 32 years my extended family has headed down to Jacksonville, Florida for a family gathering. It started with my grandparents and now includes lots of great grandchildren, Anna being the youngest. We stay at the same Inn, eat meals together, and spend our days golfing, beaching, or whatever suites our fancy. This was my 27th (yikes!)year at Ponte Vedra and now having Anna it was a much different experience.

We loaded up the car with everything we could possibly need for Anna - what if she gets a cold, what if she gets the first 12 outfits dirty, what if, what if, what if. I even tried to cram the exersaucer in the car since Anna loves it so much; unfortunately it did not fit.

We left at the time Anna would normally take her morning nap which worked great for she slept the first 2 1/2 hours of the trip. A little ways into the trip we found out there was a slow leak in one of our tires and so we had to stop every 100 miles to pump up the tire. This didn't work well for Anna since every time the car stopped, she wanted to get out of her car seat. Anna took one more nap in the car and then cried for the last 30 minutes when we hit some traffic. The drive took about 8 hours with all of the stops for the tire - Anna was glad when we finally made it to our destination.