Weekend Road Trips Work For Us

A Texas Sunset

This past weekend we traveled to Wichita Falls, TX to see my husband’s grandmother and grandfather. We took the trip with my mother in law and her boyfriend. Luckily, we took this trip in her van…which has a DVD player. I say luckily because the trip there was NINE hours long (that was Friday). The trip home was only about 8 hours, but still… we have a 1 year old and a 3 year old!

This is significant because we are not vacationing type people. We like our home, and we don’t like to leave it. Every once in awhile we will get the itch to travel though, and weekend road trips seem to work for us! They are just long enough that we get away for a bit, but short enough that we don’t really get homesick.

I’m happy to report this trip went smoothly. It was a bittersweet trip, but that’s not my story to tell. So I’ll focus on the fun we had ringing in the New Year!

The trip there was fun, but 9 hours in the car will make you sleepy!

Hanging out at the hotel. My mother in law read this entire book to them! That’s about 7 stories in one book. Her voice was hoarse the next day. My kids are very lucky to have her. (as a side note, doesn’t Lizzie look so grown up in that picture?)

It was about 30 degrees outside, but we were splashing it up in the hotel swimming pool!

The falls that Wichita Falls is named for. Except it’s not. There was a waterfall in Wichita Falls, but it was washed away in a flood (sorry for the picture through the car window!).

A flood in 1886 destroyed the original falls on the Wichita River for which the city was named.^{[citation needed]} After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the non-existent falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are 54 feet (16 m) high and recirculates at 3,500 gallons per minute. They are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44.

Just a little trivia for you on a Wednesday!

We ate at a few different places, but this diner brought me back to my Jersey diner days. Unfortunately the food wasn’t that fantastic, but some things you can excuse for atmosphere!

The ride home was shorter than the ride there, but we had some fun.

These baby feet make 8 hours in a car worth it. Nom nom nom!

We visited with my children’s great grandparents a bit, and I’m so glad that they got the opportunity to see them. My kids really enjoyed getting to vacation with their Yaya (no we’re not greek, that’s what they call my mother in law though) and the memories made on this trip were definitely worth giving up our homebody hermit status for the weekend.

I still maintain that we are weekend vacationing folk though. Weekend road trips work for us!