Spring Break Planning Looks, Ah, Different This Year

I know a lot of my friends and family in Texas and Arizona are already enjoying their Spring Break. Or already enjoyed it in some cases. Spring comes early to the southern states!

And Lawdy, Arizona is already moving into summer: the weather app says 96 degrees in my old hometown this weekend.

Um, yeah, I’m good! Cold, but good. Who knew I’d ever be ok with snow in March?

That’s right- ?in March.?Stellllllaaaa! (Love how snow storms get names here- ha!)

 

Spring Break Planning Survey Results

Seeing everyone’s Spring Break posts on social media made me realize that our Spring Break planning is going to be a bit different this year.

According to a recent reader survey from The TravelingMoms, we’re not alone. Over a third of the respondents said they planned to try something new this year and only 11% stated they would do the same thing they do every year.

Until the move, we fell into the 11% stat.

For the past couple of years, our Spring Break consisted of road trips to California to see my sister and the cousins. Of course, getting there is half the fun! So you know we made some interesting stops on the way.

We stopped a lot over the years in Southern California, made a visit to Santa Monica, headed up the coast to Santa Barbara, and even popped over to Yosemite one time.

But our destination was the same: to family we don’t get to see often.

With the move to the opposite coast, my kids are not quite willing to jump in the van for an epic road trip.

Me? Oh heck yeah! I’m all about it.

But the kids are kinda laming out on this and said, mostly politely, no thanks, can we fly? And after I laughed and laughed and laughed over the cost of flying all of us cross country, I made it clear that wasn’t happening either.

 

Spring Break Planning East Coast Style

I get it; Spring Break is only a week. So there really isn’t a ton of time when it comes to road tripping. Plus road tripping with teens and tweens comes with its own special issues and maybe we just aren’t up for that this year.

So what do we have planned? I’m actually super excited about this one.

We’re going to spend it in and around our own backyard, which just so happens to be one of the most visited locations in our country.

Washington, DC and the surrounding metro area is only about 20 minutes from us and holds more Spring Break-worthy destinations than I can count. You are warned: all the monuments, nerdy signs, cheesy family pictures (see above) are coming. Because I love me some history and DC has always been a place I can let my nerd flag fly.

I’m just hoping the kids don’t harsh my nerd mellow on this. Museums are not the same high intensity distractions as a good theme park, obvi. But we will try to make it fun for everyone.

 

Including the Grands in Our Spring Break Planning

And according to the survey, we are joining 10% of our fellow travelers this year by including grandparents on these trips. Both sets are coming from Texas for visits. I think my history loving dad is more excited about this than I am.

We even put our names into the White House Easter Egg Roll lottery. I’ve always wanted to see one of these events and now we have the chance! Maybe, anyway. I’m not too lucky with lotteries.

So Spring Break looks a little different for us this year. We are going to miss the cousins greatly, that’s for sure. But different experiences can be good, too, and when those west coast kids are ready to come to DC, we’ll?have this city down!

What does your Spring Break look like this year? Did any part of the TravelingMom survey results surprise you?