Going with the flow

I've come to a major realization. It is really eye-opening. Here it is:  My family of 4, Team Toppall, functions better as a family when we are on vacation than when we are living at home in our day to day life.

And its not because we have the most amazing trips ever -- hardly; it's because, for lack of a better explanation, we work well as a team.  Really well.  We somehow manage to all be on the same page and can go with the flow either for the better or the worse.  We manage to find the humor in all things, no matter how crazy.  We were instructed to go to the Welcome Center in Niagara Falls to redeem our Wonder Passes.  The first 2 welcome centers were closed (smack dab in the middle of the day!) and it took walking back to exactly where our hotel was (and the point we started from) to get to the Big Welcome Center that was open.  This did not dampen our mood but rather get a chuckle from all of us at our wild goose chase.

Case in point:  During our drive home from Pennsylvania two weeks ago, we ended up getting a flat on the PA Turnpike.  Had to wait an hour for roadside help and then ended up at Pennsylvania Firestone location getting 4 new tires on my car.  It's sounds nuts that one flat tire led to the purchase of 4 new tires, but we figured if we had to buy one, and the other 3 would need to be replaced within the next thousand miles or so, let's just do them all.  We made lemonade out of lemons and Jeff took the kids down the road to get Frostys and french fries from a Wendy's not too far away while we waited for the car.

Yep, that's a flat alright.  

Actually, on our road trip down to Orlando for the Thanksgiving holiday, we stopped at The South of the Border (I mean really, how could you not??) and upon getting back in the car, we discovered it wouldn't start.  Again, we had to wait for roadside service and yet again, while we waited, we took the kids across the strip and got ice cream.   I am seeing a pattern here. :)   It should be noted, lest you think my car is a real dud, that it has 50,000 miles on it and these two car issues we've experienced are the only ones I've had. Unfortunately they were both during road trips. Fortunately we had plenty of time to have the car serviced and we were not in a remote area where a mechanic wasn't too far away.

A key to success on us having a wonderful trip is advance research on where we are going and the kind of things we like to do.  It's a give and take, we do a revolutionary war location for Jeff (Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh), and everyone tolerates the Norman Rockwell museum for me (Stockbridge, MA), the Milkshake Factory (Pittsburgh), or the Hershey Store (Niagara Falls) for the kids. There is always something for everyone.   The best is when we try something new as a family and it goes really well; white water rafting (Berkshires), walking the entire Freedom Trail (Boston), or discovering the kids and I love zip lining (Berkshires).

We enjoy our time together so much that it instantly makes us want to plan our next adventure.  We limit ourselves to realistic distances we can do by car.  My threshold for a 3 or 4 day trip can be no longer than an 8 hour drive away.  After that, we need to be there at least a full week.

If only money was no object, oh the fun I could have in planning for places for us to go.
My dream is that we win the lottery and can travel continuously working like a well-oiled machine.  It's nice when we all get along and we are not anchored to our routine of school, homework, work, and activities.  No, make that really nice.