Thanksgiving Road Trip About This Page:

[mjsmith1223]

We packed up the kids and headed to my sister's house in Pittsburgh, PA for Thanksgiving week. We left on Monday, November 24 and returned on Saturday, November 29. Along the way we stopped at the Toledo Zoo, the Disney Store in Pittsburgh, museums in Johnstown, PA, the National Aviary and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I'm working on the full travel journal and will post it here in a few days. As I'm working on it though, I'm realizing that an annual holiday road trip has as much adventure as a once every four years Disney World trip. Adventure is where you find it I guess.

[chezp]

Great start - looking forward to reading more.

[Colexis Mom]

Sounds like you had a great time

[mjsmith1223]

Here is part I:

Thanksgiving Week Travel Journal

Over the Thanksgiving holiday it was time for the family to hit the road. We piled into the rented car and drove to Pittsburgh, PA.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The day started with me going to pick up the rental car for our trip. Our cars kind of geriatric, so we don't like to subject them to long road trips anymore. I'd rented a full size car from Alamo figuring that would be enough for 2 adults and 2 small children and our assorted road trip luggage. The Alamo location at the Traverse City Airport considers a Pontiac Vibe to be a full size car. What?! There wasn't enough room in the back for my coat. So, I upgraded to a GMC Acadia. It was a little more expensive, but it was all wheel drive and lots bigger.

We got the Acadia packed and headed down the road at 1:30 p.m. It had been snowing all morning and was still snowing pretty good when I left. I figured that after I dropped a little south the snow would change over to rain. Well, I was right about that. I just miscalculated how far south I'd have to go before I ran out of the snow. We got to about Brighton (just west of the Detroit metro area), which is about 150 miles south of where we live before we got out of the snow. In between we had to deal with snow and icy roads. We saw many cars off in the ditch and a few rollovers. Remember: Ice and snow, take it slow. Apparently quite a few people were still trying to bomb down the road at full speed and ended up off the road.

On the way to Pittsburgh we had planned to stop at the Toledo Zoo to take in the Christmas light display, let the little ones exercise a little and get some dinner. I'm glad we did it. The girls had a great time.

Hannah on the brass lion at the Toledo Zoo (yep, she was a little chilly):

This is the 34 foot tall Norway pine tree:

We finished up at the zoo and piled back in the Acadia and hit the Ohio turnpike. My favorite time to drive the Ohio turnpike is at night. After an uneventful 4 hours and one stop at a Starbucks along the turnpike we got into Pittsburgh at about 1:30 a.m.

Tuesday, November 25

This was meant to be a sleep-in day and then go to the Disney Store. Well, the little girls were up at 7:30 a.m. anyway so there went the sleeping in part. We had some breakfast, dad (me) loaded up on coffee and we headed out to find the Disney Store at the South Hills Mall in the Pittsburgh area. I was reminded why I am not real fond of driving in Pittsburgh. It seems that wherever you are, you can't get to where you want to go without going downtown first. We had a little adventure of taking the wrong bridge and ending up by the USS and Mellon Bank buildings. We survived though and made it to the mall.

First we just got our bearings and then found the Disney Store. Wow, for a city the size of Pittsburgh, that was a tiny Disney Store. Lots of Bolt and Tinkerbell stuff. Not much else. The only pins they had were for Nightmare Before Christmas. They didn't seem appropriate for a 6 year old (at least our 6 year old didn't really seem to like them). Next, lunch. We found a place in the food court that sold whole pizzas and Mt. Dew in the huge size for mom and dad. The pizza was good and the Mt. Dew much needed.

Wednesday, November 26

We tried something different with the little ones and took them to Johnstown, PA for some history. They seemed to genuinely enjoy the Heritage Discovery Center as they got to pretend they were an immigrant child in the late 1800's. We took them to the Flood Museum and to the Incline as well. The Flood Museum was a little much for the small ones. They just didn't seem to understand what that was all about. The incline was fun, but it was cold, especially at the top of the hill. We thought it was interesting that there was enough coal laying out in the open that people could just go pick it up off of a mountain side. Obviously those days are long gone, but it must have been one of the factors that first attracted people to the valley.

The view of Johnstown from the top of the incline:

Thursday, November 27

Happy Thanksgiving! We spent the morning at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. Our little ones love it and it's a great way to get them out of the house for a couple of hours. More driving adventures ensued. We ended up over by the Science Museum before working our way back to the Aviary. No harm done. Really though, Pittsburgh needs to mark the streets better.

A couple of the "performers" at the bird show. These were some juvenile flamingos. As they get older they will turn the pink we normally associate with flamingos.

Part II to follow in a few days....

[Colexis Mom]

Great start so far!!

[chezp]

Great start!

[HeatherD]

More please! I've only ever visited Bethlehem, PA via Philly (DH's family is there), so I enjoy seeing about other parts.