We don’t usually do family vacations.
As a lot of families with Autism know, vacations can be a recipe for disaster – the lack of structure, the unfamiliar environments, the missing preferred foods and sounds… and in our case, especially, I tend to spend more nights on overnight trips in the minivan with the Monster, than I do enjoying the bed I’m paying for.
At some point, though, you just have to bite the bullet and take a trip. Continue reading
So as followers of my Instagram feed (or those who noticed the pictures on the Facebook page) will know, my family and I decamped from Charm City for a week for a vacation down the Shore.
Yes, I say “down the Shore”. (My wife’s the “down the ocean” or “downy Ocean” person.) Don’t look at me like that.
My mother very generously arranged for a rental house in Wildwood, New Jersey for a week, so that my siblings could come with their families (as appropriate). So a little more than a week ago, our cars converged on a nice little house a block off the boards, and we spent seven days away from it all before the new school year. Continue reading
Yesterday, my wife asked me to take the day off so that we could take the kids to Sesame Place. Baltimore City schools let out early for the summer this week – on Monday – and while the rest of the state seems to still be in classes, it seemed an ideal opportunity for us to fill some time for both children by taking them somewhere fun.
As my long time readers already know, I love how Seaworld Entertainment accommodates guests with disabilities. Sesame Place has been the top of the heap in this regard – they’ve been so easy with regards to accommodating the Monster, and their policies in general are very disability friendly – so we’ve always looked forward to our trips there. We’ve even bought season passes, despite the fact that it’s twice as far away (if not more) than the nearest Six Flags park.
So a visit to Sesame Place is fairly standard for us – we park, we go inside, the wife goes to Guest Relations just inside the gate to get the bracelet and RAP sheet for the Monster, and we go about our day. And then… this year came with a change. Continue reading
Every summer, my company finds something for us to do with our families. For several years in a row, it was the company picnic at a local swimming club, but… then we grew a lot. So it got moved, first to Six Flags America (see On the Road – Six Flags America), and then the last two years have been at Hersheypark. (Given where the staff at our company live, it just makes more sense to have it north of the office than south.) Continue reading
This weekend, we zipped off to the Tidewater region of Virginia to go hit the two amusement parks – Busch Gardens and Water Country USA – and two baseball games. Unfortunately, one was washed out due to the weather, but…
I know I’ve reviewed Water Country USA previously (see On the Road – Water Country USA), but this time, due to the weather on Friday, we were able to do more of a visit that would answer questions that are of interest to Autism parents. Continue reading
Yes, this is a second visit to the aquarium, but… I didn’t look at it as a review, that time, so it’s time that I did that.
Last night was Pathfinders for Autism‘s night at the National Aquarium. We attended the event last year when the Monster was 4 1/2 and R 1 in a semi-ragged fashion, so this year we figured the trip would be more representative of a visit with young children and one on the Spectrum. Continue reading
I suppose I can’t really put it off any longer, talking about the weekend.
This past weekend, we managed to get down to Busch Gardens one more time before the end of the season – the goal being to let my wife go do some haunted houses with her brother-in-law, which she enjoys, and get the kids on a couple of rides. (Though, why anyone likes haunted houses is beyond me. Then again, I dislike being startled/scared/et cetera.) Continue reading
For those of you who do follow my tweet feed (@DadEnoughBlog), I mentioned – briefly – about how I need a vacation from our vacation. Indeed, we went down to Busch Gardens Williamsburg again this weekend, and I’ll write about that in the coming days when I have some… distance. (It was that kind of a Sunday.)
On the other hand, this was the first road trip in the wife’s new minivan. Continue reading
So yesterday, there was a deal with the Smithsonian Museums and their affiliates for free entry. Never ones to pass up a deal, we signed up to go to Port Discovery, the local children’s museum here in Baltimore.
(Yesterday was a whole bunch of free, since we also had lunch at a nearby, newly-opening Red Robin… but that’s beside the point. We like Red Robin, if only because bottomless fries == distracted children with full mouths.) Continue reading
I know I promised this review on Friday – I’ve had a few things to keep me busy offline (least of which is a complicated schedule to squeeze in extra therapy for the Monster on Friday afternoon), and since I don’t generally post on Shabbat…
A week ago today, my family visited Busch Gardens, in Williamsburg, Virginia. We went primarily to go enjoy the Food and Wine Festival, but admittedly there was a coaster that we’d not yet riden at the park… Continue reading