Toddler Talk Thursday - Vacationing with a Toddler

I’m so excited to be the feature blogger this week for Toddler Talk Thursday!! How did I get to be the feature blogger? Well, I suggested a topic for this week and it was picked to be the topic! YAY!

This week’s topic is: Vacationing (or traveling in general) with a Toddler!

The first trip we took with Bug was to the beach when he was 9 months old. And not because I thought taking a 9 month old to the beach sounded like fun, but because my cousin was getting married and my dad was paying for the trip. :)

So while the wedding was beautiful, the family times was great and the beach was gorgeous…taking a 9 month old to the beach was a nightmare:
That was a our trip in a nutshell right there. That was 4 minutes and 37 seconds after we set foot on the beach the afternoon we got there. NINE hours of driving for that right there.
Besides the “hating the beach” factor, all the stuff we had to pack was exhausting! I bought a little tent that I took to use on the beach (didn’t get used) and a baby-boat for the pool (use for about an hour). And then there was all the formula, bottles, baby food, diapers, wipes, toys, the pack-n-play, etc, etc. It was exhausting!
And then, just getting ready to go out to the beach was exhausting. A beach bag, a blanket, towels, a cooler, the tent, a chair, toys and oh yeah…the baby. Only to sit out there for half an hour and come back in.
But all was not completely terrible. We did have one nice afternoon by the pool. And the last time we went to the beach we did have about 10 tear-free minutes. (In my defense, so as to not sound like a complete grump, it was very windy while we were there which made it impossible to enjoy the beach with an infant because you couldn’t keep the sand off of him. He didn’t like the wind blowing that hard, let alone it blowing sand all over him!)
But the last day was much calmer and we were able to convince him that it wasn’t that bad:

So, I said all that to say that the second trip we’ve taken Bug on was in the opposite direction. We went to the mountains in Gatlinburg, TN, when he was 16 months old.
By then he didn’t need formula, bottles or baby food (granted we did have to take a couple sippy cups, some toddler friendly snacks and purchase a gallon of milk to keep in our fridge at the hotel – but still waaaay less than the beach trip). It required less “gear”. No tent or float or beach blanket or cooler. And the majority of the “attractions” other than visiting the actual mountains themselves, were inside.

I have much fonder memories of our Gatlinburg trip than our Destin trip. Hubs said he wants to go to the beach again this summer. I say, “NO”. Not this summer. Next summer. Bug will be 3.5, potty trained, and more likely to like the beach (right now, he won’t so much as stick a foot in a sand box!) So, next summer we’ll do the beach again. This year, I’m planning a trip to Chattanooga in the fall! :)