Driving straight through from Washington(state).

[SeansMom]

We've driven from Portland to Anaheim. I don't recommend driving at night, straight through. Personally, as a midwife I've stayed up more nights than I care to count for births, and I don't think driving all night is safe. Whether you *think* you're alert or not, the reality is that far more medical mistakes are made during night shift than day shift. This does apply to driving, as fatigue is the second most common reason for fatalaties in MVA's.

If you must drive straight through, I would advise leaving EARLY in the am if you plan to drive straight through. Like 4:00 am, take a long lunch, and frequent breaks. I'd hate for anybody to be seriously injured on their way to the happiest place on earth!

Should I just sign this "Mom"....lol...

 

[jcatron243]

We did the trip about 5 years ago straight through with a 1 yo and a 3 yo. They did great. We left my place (Grays Harbor) at about 4 am. And made it to the Hotel at about midnight. Because of the kids we made several stops for changing, stretching, and food.

We are driving down this weekend. We will leave Elma at about 530pm Friday night; we are stopping to sleep in Grants Pass ($60 is worth the saftey stop). Then finishing off the trip on Saturday. We tossed around the idea of driving while the kids slept, but I hate driving at night.

 

[purplecrush]

We've driven from Portland to Anaheim. I don't recommend driving at night, straight through. Personally, as a midwife I've stayed up more nights than I care to count for births, and I don't think driving all night is safe. Whether you *think* you're alert or not, the reality is that far more medical mistakes are made during night shift than day shift. This does apply to driving, as fatigue is the second most common reason for fatalaties in MVA's.

If you must drive straight through, I would advise leaving EARLY in the am if you plan to drive straight through. Like 4:00 am, take a long lunch, and frequent breaks. I'd hate for anybody to be seriously injured on their way to the happiest place on earth!

Should I just sign this "Mom"....lol...

LOL..I agree "Mom"

In June when we head down there, we are leaving at 3 am. We will hit Redding around 10am, then we are staying the night in San Fran again.

Driving through the night sucked big time. I was so tired!! And the freeway is surprisingly very dark on those corners lol

 

[RangerPooh]

Wow, I can't believe so many of you make it one stretch! We have little ones so there's no way we could do that, but maybe some day... I'm happy if we can make 10 hours in the car (counting in an additional 2 for bathroom and food stops).

We're planning to drive there later this spring and are planning to stop for the night in either the Grants Pass or Medford/Ashland area. Then the next day drive to San Jose (stopping to see Grandma), and finish the drive the next day. Why so many stops? We have (or are about to have) 4 kids ages 6, 4, 1, and ? months. When it was just DH and I and we lived in the SF Bay Area we'd leave at 3 or 4 am and make it to DL for breakfast. Those were the days...

 

[danabalana]

My Dsis and I took our kids a few years ago and drove straight through from Portland. The yougest was about 10 yrs. We left at 6.30am. It worked out fine. It was a nice safe to drive through the mountains in the daylight.
We stopped a few times.....We like to drink tea ;-)
We got into LA about 10 or 10:30pm but there was an accident on I5 and we didn't get to our hotel until 12:30.
I prefer to fly if given the choice, but with all the kids it saved us $$$ and we had fun!!

 

[Bungle]

We did it in one stretch a few times and then switched to breaking it up into to days. For me it was too stressful. I was always so tired/irritable when we arrived. Then again I typically did all the driving while my husband "rested" his eyelids.

One thing about driving through central california at night is that the roads can be awful.