A Long-Expected Trip East: Our Summer Road Trip to Maryland with a 5 and 3 year old

We’ve playfully been referring to our early Summer 2021 trip out to Maryland as “Spring Break 2020” because that was the first thing we had to cancel mid-March as the Pandemic closed the world down, and it’s the first thing we’ve really done as the world opened back up. There is nothing like having tiny children who aren’t that tiny 15 months later to make you feel the length of the pandemic. Lily was in diapers back in mid March 2020 and by early July 2021 Jackson lost his third tooth, and just like that we’re out of diaper bags and scrambling to find a quarter for the tooth fairy.

We packed up and headed out to Annapolis the day after Evan finished school. We took the 14-hour road trip in two days with a hotel stay off the Ohio Turnpike after experiencing an hour of inching along traffic in downtown Chicago midmorning.

The kids promptly declared that the hotel was so cool. They seemed mostly to be impressed by the size of the hotel: so many rooms and doors and such a big bed. They did not even get to experience what I would think is the more exciting bits of a hotel for a kid: hot breakfast, cartoons watched from bed, or a pool. The sheer size of the bed they got to share was enough. And since they slept way better than Evan and I did, I guess they were entitled to their opinion of the great bed.

The second day of our trip happened to be Fathers’ Day. I suggested that Evan could eat his half-frozen egg-bake in the hotel bed, for “breakfast in bed” while Lily scribbled on the hotel note pad a shape that looked a lot like a “D” which I pointed out was a home made card for Daddy. It was a Fathers’ Day for the books.

Probably the more memorable bits of Evan’s Fathers’ Day 2021 were the insects. First we stopped off on a Pennsylvania rest stop just before we got into Maryland with a lovely grassy hill and scenic overlook. Lily ran down the hill without checking herself and flipped right over on her head. She was fine but thought she wasn’t, so she cried quite a bit as I pulled dried grass off her hair and dress. I set her down in the shade and tried to snap a picture of Evan and Jackson, and then a cicada (the east coast had their 17 year cycle of cicadas this summer) flew into her face. So much for the beautiful scenic overlook. Evan snapped a quick selfie just before a cicada flew down his shirt, and we gathered our puddle of a 3 year old into the car and kept pressing on.

We stopped at Evan’s home town to have lunch picnic (more egg bake) and Evan got stung by a bee in the clover. He ended up having what Dr Google told us was a large local reaction, which meant that his foot swelled up over the next 48 hours and took about a week to go back to normal: Happy Fathers’ Day! But the foot mostly looked worse than it felt, and Evan did get to see his Dad for Father’s Day.

For two weeks we were able to stay with the kids’ Great-Grandma Anne in her beautiful Annapolis home. And while there were so many wonderful day trips that we took to see friends and family, in many ways the highlight of the trip was getting to be in Evan’s Grandma’s house. Jackson especially enjoyed playing with toys that Evan had played with as a child and getting to be a part of Grandma Anne’s daily rhythms.

He loved to get the paper with her first thing in the morning, and then to ask her about the happenings in the world, the comics, and the crossword puzzles.

In the afternoons, after watching a bit of Euro soccer or Wimbledon tennis, Grandma Anne and Jackson usually would play a round of Spider Solitaire together. A few times we joined her on her morning walk around the Eastport neighborhood of Annapolis.

There were a half-dozen spots to stop and take in the sailboats on the Chesapeake Bay.

Evan’s mom and sister also live in Annapolis and we got to spend a number of mornings with them visiting at their place or touring the playgrounds in the area.

Evan’s mom, Grandma Ttea (pronounced Tee-Ah, a shorted form of her last name) found lots of tiny funny things for the kids to play with–bubbles, playdough, and a teeny tiny tea set. The kids loved it so much. And my mother-in-law has such energy and enthusiasm for playing with the kids, endlessly reading the same story to them if they want it, and listening to every word they say with rapt attention and love. She absolutely delights in them.

And Auntie Colleen, Evan’s sister, found treasures from her childhood to share with the kids. One of the hardest bits of the pandemic and being far away from family was that this was the fist in person meeting for Lily and Auntie Colleen. They had a lovely time together.

One evening we met Colleen after work at a park. It was a bit of a misadventure when Evan went to get the picnic cooler, and I was chatting with Colleen about books and the kids were climbing on the equipment and were momentarily out of my line of vision. Jackson came out saying, “Don’t worry Mom, we’re making good choices.” As any parent knows means that is probably not true. What they were doing was drinking out of half filled water bottles that someone had left on the ground. So gross. While we were still riled up about the water bottle fiasco we tried to eat our Jimmy Johns Unwiches on the grass, but were immediately swarmed by mosquitos. And when we moved to a bench to finish eating, a rather drunk man came down to sit by a tree by us, missed the tree and toppled down on the grass. I glanced at Evan and we silently decided it was time to go. We finished the picnic outside a Trader Joe’s, did a bit of grocery shopping, and ended eating some coconut chocolate ice cream in the Trader Joe’s parking lot, which ended up being a much nicer spot than the park.

It was an adventure!

We also drove about two hours south to see Evan’s Dad, Grandpa Doug, and step-mom, affectionately known as Lulu, just days into their retirement from the United Methodist Church.

We spent an hour at their beach a mile down the road. Our kids love the beach, and this beach had the added interest of having large military aircraft fly overhead from the nearby base every ten minutes or so. The kids loved playing in the sand and throwing balls with Grandpa Doug. It was unseasonably cool for a good chunk of our first week there and we had beautiful weather for Maryland in the summer.

Back at their house, Jackson showed them his new-found reading skills. They also graciously sent us home with a couple of boxes of books from their pastoral shelves of kids Bibles and devotionals. Grandpa Doug and Grandma Lulu drove up to Annapolis to see us several more times including a big Hays family cookout where everyone was having so much fun we forgot to take pictures of the second cousins playing corn hole in the beautiful backyard of Evan’s Uncle Rich and Aunt Dottie’s house. And we also got to swim in the Bay at the community access beach by Evan’s Uncle Bruce and Aunt Sue’s house.

During the week, we hopped from playground to beach with various Maryland family, and two Friday nights we got to see Evan’s Aunt Karen and Uncle Kevin at his new semi-retired fun job working at a new brewery. (We didn’t get to taste their well reputed ales, but we did discover a Madison area hard Seltzer “Untitled Art” that was delicious.)

Then on the weekends we drove to see our DC friends. We got to see our long-time friend, beloved Diana and her new husband Andrew whose wedding we missed a few months previous.

We got to see the families of the babies (who are NOT babies anymore) who I used to nanny for. They cooked us amazing post-church lunches. I even got to sneak away with my friend Lauren for a solo-friend walk that was deeply good for my soul.

We got to see sweet friends whom we love to take credit for them getting together since I invited Luke to church and that’s where he met Deborah. They made this amazing meal for us, and their out-of-town housemates’ children left super fun toys for our kids to enjoy. All our DC friends are so brilliant, doing amazing work and it was so wonderful to be with them in person.

All of these friends are also still at our DC church, Church of the Advent, working hard to make church happen and come out strong from the hard months of COVID. Getting to go to church two Sunday mornings was a big highlight of our trip.

I also got see my freshman year RA, Lynn, who lives with her family in Annapolis. Lynn is one of the people that emanates peace to me. I’m so glad that God had me on her floor my first year at Wheaton, and I was so glad to get to spend a few hours at the beach and a school playground with her and her three kids. Lynn also kindly tried to get a family photo of the four of us which Lily did not cooperate for.

The last two days before we left to go back home we were able to spend time with the kids’ god-siblings. We saw Lily’s Godparents and their two children, and then and our godson and his two parents (not pictured).

The kids probably would have been happy just playing with all their cool god-siblings’ toys, but we got them out to a nature preserve nearby to run around and see some wildlife. While we were meandering through the wetland board walks taking in the little green herons and the great blue herons and various frogs and turtles we came upon a crowd of excited bird watchers.

A woman enthusiastically explained to us that a rare spoonbill, which normally do not come up this far north, was here. Not only that, but that people had driven two hours to come see the bird, and that we really needed to keep our children quiet. So we solemnly explained to the four kids about the special bird and the need to be quiet, all the while harboring images of a child somehow falling into the water, screaming, and scaring the bird away but leaving us in the clutches of angry bird watchers sans Spoonbill. But we managed the gauntlet and even got to see the spoonbill up close and personal. (It’s the bird that looks like a tiny pink flamingo with a wide bill next to the bigger great blue heron.)

Back at their beautiful home, we celebrated surviving the spoonbill parenting test with lunch and some popsicles.

And then we had some sprinkler time. It was a Great Fourth of July Weekend with friends that feel like family.

And just like that the two weeks were over and we packed the car full of presents and gear and memories and started on the long trek back.

And I did pack a big tupperware crate of activities for the kids and checked out half a dozen audio books from the library.

(Activities in our Road Trip Crate: Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow! Reusable Water-Reveal Activity Pad // Colorforms Picture Play Set // PlayMonster Magnetic Personalities – Original Wooly Willy // Forest Animals Figures // Disney’s Cars Travel Magnetic Tin // Scratch & Sketch Sharks (Trace Along) // Calico Critters Apple & Jake’s Ride n Play // Fidget Snake Cube Twist Puzzles // Beads and Drawing Stylus Magnetic Drawing Board for Kids // Buckle Busy Board Sensory Toy Toddler Learning Binder // Disney Cars Die-Cast Mini-Racers // Toddler Road Trip Games Packet // Alex Desk to Go Kids Art Supplies with Melissa & Doug Sketch Pad (9 x 12 inches and colored pencils // Pencil case and pencils // Stainless Steel Baking Pans // Mazes Book // Melissa & Doug Soft Activity Baby Book – What Should I Wear? // Writing Tablets )

Most of the time the kids wanted to play with their “tubey thingies” (Poppin’ Pipes) and listen to all four volumes of Slugs and Bugs Sing the Bible and ask when the next time they could play twenty questions or have a snack was. (For this trip, our snack bin had: Blueberry Lara Bars, Fruit Veggie Apple Costco Sauce Pouches, Shelled Pistachios, Epic Beef and Apple Bars, Plantain Chips, Apples, Freeze Dried Strawberries).

We mainly stopped at rest stops and ate veggie-sausage egg bake that I had made before we left with some fresh avocado. (This time we used our new super serious RTIC cooler that was a Christmas present that meant the little freezer zip-lock baggie four-serving (a single meal for all of us) portions stayed frozen the whole trip. I didn’t follow a recipe per se but roasted a ton of veggies (carrots, parsnips, red onions, white onions, carrots, kale, spinach, minced mushrooms, and sweet potatoes) along with some sweet Italian sausages (2 1/2 per meal) and eggs (6 per meal). I made 12 servings for all our on the road meals. It worked pretty well and the fresh avocado helped a lot, and of course we were ready to eat something besides egg bake when we were done. We also brought a regular cooler for picnics and fresh veggie snacks and hummus that helped a lot. And of course, getting to use Grandma Anne’s beautiful kitchen for two weeks helped immensely.

Traveling with little kids, especially toddlers, has its trying moments, for sure. There were a lot of toddler melt downs, but as Evan reminded me, those would have been there at home too. I worried lot and planned a ton and had fairly low expectations for how it was all going to go down, but it was still worth it. I wouldn’t say that it was super relaxing for me, but it really wasn’t stressful.

The memories, the beautiful moments, the strengthening of connections, the heart to hearts, the widening of our kids worlds, the wildlife (crabs! bees! cicadas! spoonbills!) meant that I am so, so glad that we went, and can’t wait to do it all again soon.