If this story catches your eye while you’re washing your car or clearing out the trunk or vacuuming the back seats in preparation for the Memorial Day holiday, you’re not alone: 89 percent of travelers — that’s more than 31.2 million people — say they plan to travel by car this weekend, according to AAA.

That’s up slightly from last year, when 31.1 million motorists took to America’s highways for the traditional start of the summer travel season.

(If you’re flying, you might be in luck. Air travel will be down, but let’s face, it once you land you’re probably going to hit the highway to get to your final destination. And the roads will be full.)

What’s the best way to survive your the trip?

Timing is everything. Travel during off hours. No, really. New Yorkers know not to head to the shore or the Catskills Friday night. If you have any control over your schedule, take an extra day off or travel at night. After dark, it will be cooler in the car, less taxing on your engine and you’ll probably burn less fuel. Plus, the kids will sleep. Big rigs also take a break in the evening, so fewer trucks on the highway. Otherwise, avoid city centers and major interstate exchanges during rush hour or the hours right after lunch.

Driver swaps. Whether you’re traveling 30 miles or the average road-trip distance of 690 miles to get to your summer fun, switching drivers is a smart idea. It gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs, reach into the trunk for anything they need and reduce driver stress. A refreshed driver is an alert driver. Try to swap every two to three hours, more frequently in high traffic.

Pack smart. After crisscrossing the country over the past few years and covering it on our family travel blog we’ve learned some very important things. We pack too much into the car and we need more snacks. Our new mantra is: twice the snacks, half the clothes. Snacks keep the kids and adults happy and reduce the stressful edge of food anxiety. And believe me when I say, you can find a shopping center or laundry in every town, even Beverly Hills!

Pump right. The average price of a gallon of unleaded fuel is $3.67, which is down slightly from this time last year. If your drive is “average” fill up at your favorite gas station and then use the Gas Buddy app on your iphone to find cheap fuel along the way to your destination.

Stop along the way. If you follow our advice on driver swapping, frequent stops come naturally. But with a little planning, or luck, you’ll find some interesting places to pull over and explore. These quick visits help break up the monotony of the road and give the whole family a chance to stretch their legs, get some cold water or snack before moving on.

We have so many great stop-memories, we could write a whole story about it. Some of our favorite stops were Arizona’s Grand Canyon and the Meteor Crater both near Interstate 40, watching sea elephants at Año Nuevo State Park off California’s Highway 1, the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest.

We really regretted not stopping at the Petrified Forest National Park on our way to New Mexico from Arizona. Or the Canadian Badlands on a recent visit to Alberta.

Something for the next drive, maybe?

Follow these tips and you’ll find the journey may be as exciting as the destinations. But most important, stay alert and be careful out there. Not everyone will see this story.

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What’s a #Familytravel Reunion? Well, simply put, it’s an interactive, cross-platform adventure starring you. Here are the details.

You already know our big secret. We’re taking some of our summer road trips in our clunker. (Not all of them — thanks, Hertz.)

How about you? Where are you going? How are you getting there? What are you looking forward to?

We’ll be giving away tickets for the new Hidden Harbor Tour aboard the luxury yacht Zephyr in New York. Now through Sept. 24, visitors to New York City can go behind the scenes of the inner-workings of the bustling New York Harbor. Three new “Beyond Sandy”-themed tours depart Pier 16 South Street Seaport. Here are the details.

You can send us your questions by email or post them under the #familytravel hashtag on Twitter or Google Plus.

Oh, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Google Plus.

Then, tune in for a live conversation on Twitter on Thursday, May 23 at 6 p.m., followed immediately by a Google hangout at 7 p.m. We’ll be joined by Charlie Leocha from the Consumer Travel Alliance, who will share his best Memorial Day road trip advice live.

We’ll also post event invites to our Facebook and Google Plus pages. Follow us there and let us know you’re coming to the party!

See you there.

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Which came first the red warning light on our car’s dashboard or the ominous click, click, bang near our right front wheel? I don’t remember.

All I know is that we were in the middle of the New Mexico desert and had about six hundred miles to go before we could stop for the night in Oklahoma.

That’s not all. We could also hear the bounce-bounce-bounce of our license plate as it caught in the draught of the car as we sped down a lonely Highway 40. That was so bad that someone flagged us when we stopped at a gas station to warn us it looked as if it might fly right off.

To say that travel day was nerve-wracking would be an understatement.

Our 2004 Honda Accord isn’t exactly a jalopy, clunker, or rust bucket. It’s just our reliable, high-milage, nine-year-old sedan that we baby with frequent maintenance and oil change visits.

Sure it snugly transports our family of five, but we manage and have never really had any trouble — yet.

But we hadn’t really pushed it, until that trip. We were on the back end of a six-week family adventure from our home in Florida with stops in Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico and Georgia.

It had us wondering: What should you do before you travel if you’re driving a high-mileage car that’s been loved to pieces?

Make maintenance stops. Have your car checked before you leave and let the mechanic know you’re about to travel several thousands of miles. He’ll also be able to tell you which indicators to watch and when you’ll need to make maintenance stops along the way.

Limit the number of miles you drive per day. Have you heard of the six-hour rule? We try to be in the car no more than six hours a day. It was a lesson we learned from our first long-distance road trip. But it’s not always possible. Instead you might just plan a few long driving breaks, just to keep yourself sane and alert.

Take driving breaks. We recommend getting out of the car at least every three hours to move around, stretch and get the blood flowing. Or have a snack. You could also plan mini visits on travel days to a town square or landmark along the way to give your car’s engine a chance to cool down.

Stay in one place for a few days. On a later trip from our home to Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Washington, we had extended stays at vacation rentals and with friends. We’d drive one or two days and take our time at the destinations. This also gave the car a break.

Carry AAA. I have a bad habit of locking the keys in the car. Or leaving the lights on. But even if you aren’t afflicted with my absentmindedness you’ll find there are many benefits to belonging to AAA. One flat tire and you’ll be grateful.

Be prepared, anyway. Pack fewer bags to make room for a bottle of distilled water or oil in the trunk. Whatever you do don’t take out the spare tire, jack or charge cords to make room for your stuff. You might need them.

Get travel insurance. How many movies have you seen where the roadtrippers get a flat tire and are stuck in noname desert for an extended period of time? Funny, they never talk about the tours, hotel reservations or entertainment tickets they paid for but will never use. Worse still if you miss a flight or cruise. Travel insurance is there to bring peace of mind for those times you just couldn’t anticipate.

Rent a car. When we traveled along the east coast last summer we rented a Volkswagen Jetta. Sure, it was a low-mileage vehicle when we picked it up, but it also came with the peace of mind of having the car rental agency available to replace or maintain the vehicle if needed.

We’d put on thousands of miles in a small number of weeks and our vehicle’s age was showing. We feared this might be its last big trip. Especially after driving through a stretch of highway lined with abandoned vehicles, and one boat, in Mississippi the next day.

Oh, about that trip through New Mexico. Chris wrote about it in his Washington Post column. It was a close call, but it turned out to be a non-essential part that had come loose. The license plate got fixed in Oklahoma, and it’s locked in real good.

The rest of the car? We’re hoping for the best.

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We’ve always joked that our kids are six, going on sixteen, or eight, going on eighteen. But this year, it actually happens. Our oldest becomes a tween.

Our son, Aren, turns 11 on May 23rd.

What do we do now?

We were finally getting the groove on with this traveling with kids thing. And now this! Aren has to go become a tween, that twilight zone of childhood that we can never hope to understand.

Will we have to plan separate activities, worry about things seeming too babyish, or — gasp! — let him do his own thing? I remember having quite a bit more freedom as a kid, but today I’ve morphed into a more conservative parent. Especially when sending my kids off alone to play.

And what about kids camp at the resorts? You know, so the parents can have a date night. Last time, at the Kids Camp at the Holiday Inn Resort Wrightville Beach, Aren was the oldest kid by four years, not including his siblings. He was a good sport and showed the little kids how to bowl on the wii.

But that doesn’t sound like a tween’s ideal night out. He thought the morning sandcastle making was much cooler.

Of all our children, Aren has always been the most creative, independent and self-motivated. I fully expect him to shoot a full-length documentary chronicling his tween years. Or to create a photo diary. Probably both.

And I worry that by tailoring our travels to the younger siblings we may be holding him back.

How should we plan our travels differently now that we have a tween in the family? Would you do anything differently?

The post My son’s a tween! (Can we still travel with him?) appeared first on AWAY is HOME.

When you think of Daytona Beach, betcha Spring Break is the first thing that comes to mind. Many people still equate the world center of racing with the raucous seasonal college tradition, if not with its drivable sandy beaches.

Oh, and did I mention racing? Yeah, there’s the Daytona 500, the annual NASCAR race that takes over town and draws all eyes to the infamous Daytona International Speedway.

Not us.

Since we moved to Florida and had kids, we see Daytona in a different light. And since you know us so well, it won’t come as a surprise that we now associate it with food.

Seafood and chocolate, to be exact. And while that sounds like a strange and fairly yucky combination, have no fear. We never consume both at the same time.

This weekend, instead of making our usual beeline for Angell & Phelps Chocolatiers, (OMG I love that place!) we headed to the Daytona Seafood Festival for samples from the sea.

It seemed like a good place for a photo safari, too. The advertisement promised live mermaids!

TJ’s Seafood Shack‘s food truck is based out of Oviedo, Fla., and they have the best seafood nibbles around. Oh, and cold beer, too.

These rebels set up their booth with carnival food. Iden didn’t mind. He loves corn dogs.

And there were a few spots with Florida authentic cuisine. Gator is seafood, right? Close enough.

We finally found the mermaids. There was something fishy about them. What self-respecting sea princess paints her toenails, uh, I mean fin?

After all that food and fun, we practically crawled back to the car. Too much seafood! What a great way to spend the afternoon.

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Kids say the strangest things. Don’t believe me? Click on the video.

Of course we’d never resort to threatening our kids in the car. Nuh-uh.

But redirection will only get you so far. And things can devolve so quickly into backseat anarchy where the hapless driver is rendered powerless in mediating disputes. What should you do?

We’ve tried a few things. Some work, some … not so much. One thing we’ve been able to do is find the restart to harmony button.

And it isn’t the threat of having to walk home. (Besides, our kids know that if you’re more than a mile away from home it’s really only lip service.)

I know you really want the reset button secret first, but indulge me. There are common things that lead up to the meltdowns and elbow fights we should talk about first. Here’s our assessment:

Why should I care? If you want you kids to behave you should show them that you’re paying attention. We developed a points game that tracks our kids’ behavior and credits them for good behavior. The points give them the right to choose: will I be good — or bad?

Who’s in charge? Our kids are control freaks. Everybody wants to be in charge. Even if it’s only over the songs we’ll play on the stereo, what game to play in the car, what to do at our pitstops or where we stop for lunch. We use the point system mentioned above to reward their good behavior and give them a sense of control during the journey. Other moms do a rotation so each child gets a chance to choose. Both work.

I’m bored! This is soooooo hard to handle. Just accept the fact that no matter what you plan and bring to keep the kids engaged, there will come a time when you’ll hear the dreaded, “Are we there yet?” It is important that you not offer any options as questions, for example, “Would you like to …?” Trust me, the answer will be, “Nothin’.” This is probably a combination of our next two bullet points. Instead of asking, tell them something about when they were little or when you were little. They’ll either fall asleep or beg for more. Win-win!

Nobody is paying attention to me! Well, duh! The driver is probably driving and the person riding shotgun is either gripping the door in fear or checking email. Just kidding. It’s easy to forget about the kids when they’re out of sight, quietly playing Minecraft. But it helps to occasionally give them a fist bump for being so good. The point system and the rotation of choice privileges work great when the kids are bored.

I’m uncomfortable. You made it to the reset button! See that wasn’t so bad. Here’s our never-fail, 100 percent, tried and true way to reset your kids behavior. Can you guess what it is?

Most often problems in the backseat (even those listed above) happen when the kids are uncomfortable. Sitting to long, not eating at regular intervals or eating the wrong foods, not having enough water is enough to turn your little angels into cranky, irrational, territorial elbow-swinging monsters. I’ve become very familiar with this animal over the last two years of road tripping.

Here’s what we do: Without threatening to make them walk home, we calmly pull over at the next available safe place. We get out of the car and move around, toss a ball or jump rope as a contest for choice privileges and drink some water. If the timing is right we’ll have a meal or healthy snack.

It works almost every time. Even if you’re running late it’s better to stop and reset so everybody is in a good mood when you arrive at your destination.

What do you do to reset sibling wars and the battle of the backseat?

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I’m not a hang-out-at-the-pool kinda mama. I don’t like being hot. I burn.

So when we checked into our Orlando hotel recently, and my three kids caught a glimpse of the the massive “lazy river” that wound around our condo, I suspected my goose was cooked. (A lazy river, for the uninitiated, is an artificial river with a real current that carries you around the property on inner tubes. Think of it as a pool on steroids.)

As the kids high-fived and fist-bumped each other, gathering pool toys, I silently cursed our pool-view accommodations at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort.

But I’m also a pushover mommy who will do anything to exercise the kids and tire them out before bedtime. A quick phone call later, I had secured a private cabana as our “poolside room” for the day.

Guess what we learned? You can survive a whole day at the pool, even if you’re not a “pool” person. A valuable lesson with the summer pool season just around the corner.

Most hotel guests pass on the cabana, for a variety of reasons. But after we reviewed our last trip — and several others before it — we concluded that would be a mistake. Here’s why you should consider splurging between $50 and $200 a day for a cabana:

Shelter from the sun. You know that cabanas offer a level of privacy, but it is also a shelter from the sun. (Did I mention that this Norwegian-Irish girl burns easily? Yes, that she does.) Some cabanas come with a ceiling fan to help circulate the air and offer extra cooling. Many also block out the rain, which is very important in the afternoon when visiting Florida.

Snacks are included. Our cabana at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations included fresh fruit, chips and a refrigerator packed with bottles of water. That’s a pretty standard amenity that can save you the time it takes to shop for nibbles or the cost of purchasing them poolside, although some higher-end cabanas, like the one we checked into at the Four Seasons Miami, also offered chilled towels to stave off the tropical heat. Pretty cool.

An entertaining backdrop. When the kids lips turn blue it’s time for a break. They don’t always want to return to the room, but having a shady spot with snacks and a TV can be a draw. We packed coloring books and games for both the pool and the cabana, too.

Personal attention. This is a point of distinction for different resorts. It is standard to have an attendant to take orders and deliver food from the dining menu to your cabana, but some resorts have dedicated service personnel exclusive to the cabanas. When we had a cabana at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa near Miami a few years ago, our attendant always seemed to be just around the corner.

An unorthodox workspace. The cabanas are usually set aside which allows for privacy and quiet when the kids are out splashing. Our cabana in Orlando included a table and had power so I could set up the laptop to follow my favorite twitter handles. Some work was done in between trips along the lazy river.

Comfort and peace of mind. In our cabana, we were able to bring more personal items than if we stayed on a lounger at the pool. I could unpack my workspace and the kids packed a variety of dolls, toys, goggles and snorkels for the pool. The cabanas can be closed off for privacy, but I used this feature to keep our stuff safe. With constant attention by the attendants I wasn’t worried about leaving for a few minutes to take the kids for splash time in the pool. We did, however, discreetly put things away — just in case.

Wouldn’t you know it, this sensitive-to-the-sun mom managed to avoid getting roasted on our cabana day. So did the kids. I even got a little work done. Actually, it’s the story you’re reading right now.

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When we told the kids we were attending a conference and would be staying on International Drive in Orlando for a few days, they cheered.

As a rule, the children think our conferences are boring. They’re filled with boring meetings where they’re expected to be “good.” Did we mention they think it’s all boring?

Unless, of course, it’s happening in the middle of their favorite part of Orlando.

If you’ve been there you probably have your own stories to tell.

If not, International Drive — which locals call “I-Drive” — is home to the enormous Orange County Convention Center. But on one end, you’ll find Universal Studios and on the other end, there’s Seaworld.

And in between? Every imaginable hotel, restaurant and amusement. There’s even a helicopter pad for sightseeing tours.

A few years back we actually lived on I-Drive for more than a week while the purchase of our home was finalized. Can you imagine that? Our moving van sat in the parking lot of the Hilton Garden Inn for a week. I remember taking Aren, who was just a toddler, to Gatorland and then furniture-shopping on the way back. (We had only one baby back then.)

We now live in the suburbs of Orlando, so our kids have been to Wet ‘n Wild and The Fun Spot, both of which are popular day-trips during summer camp and I-Drive fixtures.

Thank goodness. Those parks don’t really appeal to most adults. I prefer trying out the mini golf like Pirate’s Cove, which has plenty of shade and misters to keep the players cool in the fierce Florida sun.

I’m super-competitive and it bugs me that the kids always beat me. The victorious children get ice pops at the end of the game, as a reward for their golfing prowess. The adults accept the ice cream cones as consolation prizes.

For our conference we stayed at the Hilton Orlando and believe it or not we almost never left the property. The kids wanted to spend their time at the cleverly-designed pools. Iden must have climbed the water-slide at least 50 times. He slept well every night. Tucked in a quiet corner was a lazy river complete with waterfalls, water cannons and bubbles. That’s where I floated with Erysse. Fun!

Ever been to I-Drive? What’s your favorite memory?

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We didn’t have to travel very far to get to this year’s TMS Family Travel Conference. It was held at the Hilton Orlando, which is only about half an hour from our home in Winter Springs, Fla.

But you know us, don’t you? Even if you live close-by and know exactly where you’re driving, the presence of kids means you may arrive on time — or not.

By the time we made it to the hotel, we’d missed the welcome party. Chris helped us into the room then headed out to a think-tank session.

We visited another kind of tank — the pool and lazy river. Awesome! (At least, that’s what Iden exclaimed after splashing down.)

This is how we learn about family travel.

After that, we headed around the hotel for a photo safari. Iden loved the ornamental butterflies on the wall.

Once we settled in the room, Erysse unpacked her bags, and we learned she’d brought her entourage of stuffed animals. Oh, my.

Chris and managed to escape for dinner, which was a special event held in the Hilton’s kitchen.

Aren, Iden and Erysse weren’t completely left out. We were send back with decadent strawberries freshly dipped in chocolate and meringue topped strawberry shortcakes. And they loved it!

The post Alright, who let these kids in the TMS Family Travel Conference? appeared first on AWAY is HOME.

Santa Fe haunts you long after it disappears in your rear-view mirror. It is more than a destination, more than a state capitol. For us, it is a state of mind.

We were fascinated by Santa Fe’s architecture when we visited a few months ago. This is the entrance to our vacation rental, located just a few steps from the city’s best museums and restaurants.

We cooked some of the most memorable meals of the year in this well-appointed home. The scent of tortilla soup, fresh-baked cornbread and the taste of a chilled Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc return when we think of this place.

We could live here. Permanently.

The state capitol building in Santa Fe is the only round capitol in the United States — another architectural peculiarity. Also on the architecture menu: the nation’s oldest house, which is also a museum, and the magnificent Loretto Chapel.

And there’s the art — so much art, and most of it public. You could spend an entire afternoon in and around the capitol building, admiring the paintings and sculptures.

And yes, I know I’m just scratching the surface of this incredible place. What are you favorite Santa Fe memories?

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