Because of the destruction from Hurricane Harvey to the Texas coast and to one of our favorite spots, Port Aransas, we relocated our annual escape with my parents to the Llano River, an hour from Austin. Even though we missed Port A a ton, it was awesome.
Thanks to Airbnb, Kid & Coe, VRBO, and more, ideal travel looks a little different for us these days. Rentals are a game-changer. I've decided that during this phase with young kiddos, they're by far the way to go when possible. Why? Well...
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HOTELS: ⠀
Someone ends up stuck in the room at kiddo bedtime, likely watching Netflix in the dark on a tablet under the covers with headphones in an attempt to occupy themselves from 7pm on. Not ideal.Semi-hack: connected rooms where you can hang in another room...although still away from the action. Fail.
RENTALS: ⠀
Pop those babies down in a bedroom/oversized closet, shut the door, and GO HANG with your other peeps for another few hours where you can have real life, deep conversations with adult humans accompanied by a beverage, or two.
With a rental, the coordination of meal times and where to meet up goes out the window when you've got multiple families converging. I love that sharing a house opens up those in-between "just doing nothing" moments for quality time together. That's where the real magic is -- in chatting outside on the porch together, making meals in the kitchen while kids run around, watching a movie, playing a game, and watching the world go by. Suddenly the need to "do" goes away. And we’re a crew of doers!
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I came into our trip this past weekend with so many ideas of things to go "do" from our basecamp house-- oo let's rent a boat on the lake! Oo let's go to the funky restaurants in tiny Kingsland! Turns out, stopping all the doing and just hanging in the quiet moments with people I love was everything all of us needed.
I love you Kingsland, but I'm also hoping and praying that Port Aransas rebounds from this disaster stronger, in ALL of its quirky glory.
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What's your secret to enjoyable vacations with babies and young kiddos? Leave a comment if you've got any helpful tips or tricks!
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