We luckily made it across the border without any delay whatsoever! We were especially relieved because it was the Monday afternoon of the Labour Day long weekend and sometimes the crossings can get very backed up.
Our first stop across the border was at our favourite little dairy store where you can buy ice cream. Daddy went for the super big swirl soft ice cream cone, which when we measured was almost 7 inches of ice cream! I don't know how he ate it without any of it falling all over him!
I decided to have a "fresh strawberry" milkshake... mmmm... it was sooo good! Just like the kind my mom used to make for us when we were little. I enjoyed a sip and then gave Matthew a sip.....
... and then never got it back again!
It was a good pit stop. Matthew got a chance to run around a bit and then we were on our way. Yes, the pit stop. That word got to be our friend throughout the week. I learned one very good tip for when travelling with kids. As long as you give them breaks to run around and be silly, they'll be good for you and sit in the car for a few hours. I don't think we actually had a single meltdown the entire trip. We had a few whiny times, but no down right meltdowns. Pretty good for a 15 month old little boy!
We stayed in the Candlewood Suites in Oak Harbour, a small city on Whidbey Island. The hotel had actually only been open since March and it was gorgeous! It did not feel like staying in a hotel at all, rather like our own little apartment! New appliances, hardwood floors, a nice bathroom and a SEPARATE BEDROOM!! What more could you ask for!? Now we could finally put Matthew down at night and be able to at least watch TV without worrying that any little move would wake him up. Let me tell you, renting a suite (or at least a hotel room with a separate bedroom) is definitely the way to travel with little kids. I would gladly pay the upgrade any day!
Call me weird, but one of the things I like to do when we travel is scope out grocery stores ~ Especially in the states.. I just think they have such different things down there and it's fun to find new products. So, I had a lot of fun cooking meals for the three of us which proved to also be the best way to eat when you're travelling with a small child. We did try eat out once or twice, but each time we pretty much had to eat in shifts and neither one of us enjoyed the meal. Eating in your own kitchen was the way to go.
So, that night, I cooked up one of our favourite dishes of mushroom porkchops. We cleaned up our dishes, put Matthew to bed for the night (he actually went to sleep no problem that night!) and got to RELAX for the first time in our vacation... ahh... how nice!
Oh, and after we arrived, I soon realized that we wouldn't be needing/using the tub of toys that we hauled along because the hotel had a set of
and even a few
:O)
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