savi.you

Every year, like many families in America, we take a trip to the beach. For us, it usually consists of an overpriced 3-night stay in Ocean City, MD. After a less than desirable experience at a crummy hotel with intermittent hot water and a shower that smelled of raw sewage, I decided that we'd try something a little different this year.

The initial plan was to rent a house in the Rehobeth area or Cape May with my in-laws...sounds like fun huh? However, my good buddy Mike, came to me out of the blue and asked if we'd like to vacation with his family at the Outerbanks in NC! The price was good and since I love visiting new places, I accepted the offer.

Mike is involved in an investment group that owns some vacation properties in New Jersey and North Carolina. We'll be staying at a gorgeous beach house in Avon, which is located on Hatteras Island, a 72 mile stretch of the Outer Banks from Nags Head to Ocracoke Island.

The vacation will last a full week, so there's a lot of preparation involved. For me, it's half the fun of going away! This will be our first trip ever to NC as a family. Our Google'd ETA is approximately 8.5 hours, but for us, it'll probably be closer to 10. The plan is to leave on Saturday night and arrive sometime Sunday morning.

My girls, ages 2 and 5 do not travel long distances very well. My 5 year old gets car sick before the car even starts moving and our 2 year old is, well, a 2 year old. Our longest drive we've done are the trips to OCMD, which takes us over 5 hours, with several stops. We're attempting to drive most of the time while they are asleep in the car, so hopefully that helps. I'm curious to see how this will pan out.

If anyone has any tips on how to survive a car trip with young children or "things-to-do" ideas for when we're down in the OBX, please comment. Well, I'd better get back to work. 3 more days until we hit the road!