California Roadtrip (with two toddlers!)

We’ve just returned from our big family trip of the year. Are we that kind of people now, where we only do one big family trip a year (I am not counting Florida / beach weeks, although I guess eventually that would count as a family trip)? Honestly, maybe, because as much fun as this trip was, it was tiring and expensive…we will continue to do long weekends at beaches / lakes / cabins, and will try to prioritize an adult-only trip once things are stabilized with the kids (later this year we are going to Ireland on our own, and are hoping to squeeze out an anniversary weekend as well.) But also a part of me is googling “NYC -> Europe” tickets for these next few months, so I guess nature is healing 🙂

For this trip, our good friend was getting married in Hollister, CA and S was a flower girl, so we had to bring the whole family anyway. We figured with that long of a plane ride (it’s similar to going to Europe) and a bit of a time difference, we might as well make a trip out of it. So we tacked on doing our bi-annual national parks trip to the wedding! (Our 2022 trip was when S was the same age as T, to Olympic National Park and the North Cascades, along with the Oregon Coast and San Juan Islands).

Our National Parks route was Pinnacles -> SEKI (Sequoia & King’s Canyon) -> Yosemite. It was my first time to Pinnacles and SEKI, and M’s first time to Yosemite. California is a big state, so it involved a good amount of driving, but we tried to stop in as many places as possible along the way.

In Hollister, we thought we had booked a suite so that we could have 2 separate rooms – but turns out the suite was just a bigger normal hotel room. So we spent 3 nights all together in one room. It honestly went pretty well, since we had a crib for T and also brought his slumberpod (our favorite travel + baby item) + white noise machine. S has transitioned to a real bed at home, so we just got a room with 2 queens. She took a bit longer to fall asleep and we couldn’t really talk / watch TV / do anything after 7 PM, but she eventually did fall asleep and actually really enjoyed sleeping near us since she’s been going through a bit of separation anxiety at bedtime anyway.

S did a great job as flower girl! She loves dressing up and is 100% a girly girl so was very excited to put on a pretty dress, crown, and throw flowers around. Our beautiful friend is married to her best friend and we couldn’t be happier for them :’)

Rehearsal dinner on night 1! The wedding and related activities were the first few nights we arrived in the area, and we had to get a babysitter. A lot of the situation wasn’t the most ideal – we only had one shared hotel room, it was the kids’ first time in a new place / new time zone, with a stranger, but it worked out (even though S especially went to bed pretty late both nights and couldn’t get to sleep without us). We usually get a sitter on vacation at least once, usually because we have a need (e.g., a wedding or a dinner with friends), but each time I say we should do it more when we’re on vacation so that we can actually have more of a vacation.

I will write separately about each leg of our trip, but for now figured would post some pictures of our roadtrip stops and S’s debut as a flower girl, as well as some items / tips that have helped us travel with toddlers.

For the flight

When S was almost 3, she became much easier to fly with because she loves watching movies! When we’re at home we do a movie maybe once a week, but when she’s on a plane she’s allowed to watch as many movies as possible. We have special headphones and a suitcase that only gets brought out for trips, to make it special for her, and bring a carry-on for kid-only materials. Our packing list is as follows for the plane:

Snacks! As many as possible
Shelf-stable milk
1 change of clothes for both kids
1 pair of pjs for each kid (we try to keep a bedtime schedule on the plane)
A bag of travel toys. Our favorites include WaterWow pads, these magnetic blocks, Melissa and Doug puffy sticker pads, these magnetic men, and a few books
Lovey and blanket
More diapers and wipes than you think you need (we only use Water Wipes which we’ve found gives babies fewer rashes than other brands we’ve tried)
Flyaway bed (optional. We brought but didn’t use for our CA flight given the flight time, but will use for overnight / redeye flights to Europe in the future. It’s super small and folds out easily, and is FAA approved on multiple airlines).

Kids did great for ~5 hours on the flight and then started melting down around hour 6…then we had to gather all our luggage, get the rental car, and drive 1.5 hours to our hotel. They did great! Makes me think we can handle another large trip with just the two of them sometime soon. Or maybe I should stay a sane person and just stay put.

Other big baby ticket items we had to bring on our trip include:

Both carseats (I don’t usually trust car rental agencies car seats). We have these padded carseat bags to protect the seats when they get checked. We never bring them onto the plane because we find that our kids / babies get the wiggles and don’t like sitting in their seat when they’re babies, and when they’re old enough (like S) they can just sit in their own normal seat. We also add in diapers and additional items that fit into the carseat bags when we check them in, to give us extra space in our bags. Car seats and strollers are checked in for free. This time we checked in 2 car seats, a hiking carrier, and a travel bed for free.
Hiking carrier! We love our Osprey! We have the Osprey Poco which is the mid-size version. I find that the Poco Plus is too big for our needs.
Travel stroller – we have an umbrella travel double stroller that we use just for airports, to get the kids through security and the airport. We gate check this.
Portable clip-on high chair. This clips on to tables and folds up small. Essential for Airbnbs or hotel rooms.
Portable travel bed. We stayed in 4 separate places, and while we usually try to ensure the hotel or airbnb has a crib or pack and play, our cabin in Yosemite did not. So we had to schlep it over.

*S was honestly pretty happy to be sleeping in the same room as us. Plus we tired her out with our packed days so she eventually fell into deep sleep.*

Traveling minimally is no longer possible, but we were able to streamline as much as we could. The flight to the west coast was a little challenging and the kids were melting down by the time we landed, but the flight back was pretty easier (it was shorter and we also flew during daytime). M and I switched off T every 30 minutes since he was more difficult to entertain, and S mostly entertained herself with movies and occasional drawing.

Our longest roadtrip stretch was 4 hours between Yosemite and SF, which was pretty dire with almost no interesting stops since we were driving through the breadbasket. On our way to SEKI and to Yosemite though we passed through Fresno, which although was a small town, had a few kid-friendly activities to stop at. S was pretty good but T had about an hour max in the car before he would start screaming. The frequent stops were great for us to have an excuse to stretch our legs every hour, anyway.

Some of the fun stops we did along the way: Casa de las Frutas, ice cream stops, playgrounds, surprisingly good Asian food at a strip mall, Fresno Discovery Center

More to come! We had a great trip and it definitely felt very manageable, especially since T was walking and was always happy in the hiking carrier. We generally kept kids’ schedules as much as possible; although S missed a few naps she’s at the age where she doesn’t REALLY need an afternoon nap (but definitely makes her less grumpy if she does get one).

Was considering squeezing in another family trip this summer while I have some time, but decided that I enjoy utilizing the daycare that I pay for more and having local daily adventures around our community 🙂 We have another substantial renovation coming up in our house (building out a guest bathroom in our basement, and building an office in the basement) so it’ll be good to save some money this summer in advance of ..even more…home improvement projects! The other part of me wants to take advantage of this period of our lives before life becomes chaotic again … but maybe that means taking advantage of the relative quiet, hah.