Driving from N. CA to S. CA with 15 Mo. Old. TIPS PLEASE

Hi N.,

I moved to California from Oregon when I was 19 and 2 of my 3 kids were born here. I drove home every year for either a holiday or a summer visit since my son was 6 weeks old and my daughter was 2 years old. That is 10-12 hours in the car.

My best trips were leaving at 4:00 in the morning and they would sleep for several more hours and by then I was ready for a stop. I would let the 2 year old run and play for an entire hour and feed and change the baby. The future stops for the baby were shorter. That evening I kept the kids on schedule and they slept great.

Traveling at night is difficult for the parents. I tried it ans tended to get very sleepy on the road even with coffee and a nap previous to the trip.

For the 15 month old. Don't forget a busy bag of things to do and snack bags. A music player with head phones is good too with fun kids music. Don't hesitate to pop one in the CD player once in awhile either and sing with her. If you treat it as fun she will too.

Good Luck,
LLP

Hi N.,

If your baby is sleeping she's probably feeling pretty comfortable. The only thing I would recommend, if the family in San Diego will not be up, maybe they can leave a key out for you so you don't have to wake everyone. This way your baby wakes up a little, she won't get all wound up and may go back to sleep for a while. Otherwise is sounds like you have made a good travel plan.

Merry Christmas.....

Hi N.!

We drive from San Jose to Santa Barbara multiple times a year. When our our daughter was your daughters age, the trips were actually easier than now! Leaving about an hour or so before nap or bedtime seemed to be the easiest. (our girl is now 6). We usually Take 101 and stop in Gilroy to get lunch/dinner (as we want to get out of the city and the worst trffic, so you could probably skip this one) then a potty stop in Soledad, There is a Carls Jr that has a play structure if needed). We then make a gas stop in San Luis Obispo. We can then drive the rest of the wat to SB.

If it is night and your daughter is sleeping, you should be able to make it to SLO, gas up and make it to San Diego. If you have any other questions about stops along the way, feel free to contact me!

L.

I have been driving from the East Bay to Eureka, an hour and a half from the Oregon border since my son was 2 months old.

One thing that helped when both kids were younger was to get them really tired out the day before the drive. Then keep them up a little later that night as well.

Then we got up as normal, ran them a little bit and got in the car. Plenty of snacks are a must as well as liquids. A backpack with favorite toys was always the best to keep those little hands busy. Books on tape/CD have worked as well a lap top strapped in for just one movie. We just focused on small things to keep them occupied. Of course a stop at fast food is required but it always keeps the kids looking forward to something.

Now they look forward to the trip as they have hand held games systems to play. We still do the books and snacks are free for all about half way through the trip. Please do not stress about. Kids feed of your stress and it will only make the trip miserable.

We do lots of road trips as a family within CA. Some of our favorite stops along the way from San Francisco to San Diego are Ana Neuvo along Hwy 1 where you can see elephant seals, San Dunes in Pismo Beach, Kayaking in Morro Bay. We put our little one in a bumbo which I would not recommend doing unless you have a life vest and good swimming skills. We also love visiting tide pools along the coast. There is so much to do. There are tons of great ideas on Trekaroo - A travel site for families.

http://www.trekaroo.com/places/california/snapshot/?utm_s...

You can sort their list of Things to See and Do by price and age and view it on a map. Pretty cool.

I personally think it's more dangerous to drive during the night hours. I would take the 5 FWY to the 210 East to the 57 South to the 10 East to the 15 South. Lots more freeways, but I'm from that area and this will help keep you out of the LA rat race traffic.
I'll be driving down myself with my son who isn't a year old yet and doesn't like to be in his car seat for very long. We purchased a portable DVD player and will take his favorite vidoes along. Try that! :)

N.,

YES!! Leave at night when she is ready to go to bed-- it will make things much easier. Also, pack a few soothing cd's to help with the drive when she wakes up. Have a bag of snacks, toys and books that she can look at--easily accessible to your reach if you can. Best wishes for a safe trip!

Molly

I moved from WI to CA with my daughter before she was two. We drove during the day. The best thing in the world was her baby Tad learning doll. I had three bags for her. One with snacks, one with books and one with toys. If nothing seemed to make her happy I would sit beside her until she fell asleep while my husband drived.

We used to travel all the time with my 2 boys, we'd alway leave during in the morning. Borrow or buy (you will use it again) a TV/DVD that straps to the back of the head rest, bring snacks, her favorite dvd's, toys and if you need to pull over for a break...pull over! Enjoy your trip, don't stress out...that's what I used to do. Just remember, Life flies by...slow down and enjoy your road trip. Good luck!

I do that drive once or twice a year, and you can try the night drive if you like driving at night, if you are taking I-5 there are about 4 hours of the most boring, grueling strip of freeway before the grapevine. I wouldn't personally want to do that at night, with no lights around me. If you do it during the day, you need to leave either around 8:00 a.m. or 12:00 or 1:00 p.m., so you minimize your exposure to the L.A. rush hour. If you get into L.A. anytime between about 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 or 7:30 p.m., you will add a couple of hours to the drive.

The next time I do that drive I'm taking the 101, even if it does add a couple of hours to the trip. It's so much prettier and there are nice places to stop on the way.

We've done a lot of road trips, and when the kids were little my husband, who always does the driving, would just listen to books on tape while I spent the whole time jumping back and forth attending to a kid's need, which was not all that much fun sometimes. So I'm not sure if there is any really easy way. I've gotta say the best thing was having a mini-tv in the car, it kept the kids pretty content, even though it defeated the purpose of the "family" trip somewhat.