WA to AZ to Southern CA

[abckid]

We just found out that the inlaws want to throw a surprise 75th b-day party for dh's grandma in Mesa, AZ. We can't afford to fly down because we would need 5 plane tickets, so we're going to drive. We can't drive through southern CA without stopping though

Our tentative plan is to spend 2 days in Mesa with grandma, and then 5 days in CA. We haven't figured out yet if we want to do San Diego (Sea World and Legoland, along with 2 days at the beach), Disney, or the City Pass (a little of both).

I wish we could stay longer, but we already have another family vacation planned this summer so we can't really afford this extra one. If you have any time and/or money saving tips, feel free to share

Thanks!

 

[Barbday62]

Ive done the trip many times driving. Its about 24 to 25 hours from Seattle to Mesa plus any stops you do. We prefer to leave Washington at night to get through Southern Oregon/Northern California when all the truckers are sleeping. My husband is a night owl and Im a very early bird so we find he can drive until about 3am and I sleep then we stop at some restaurant to eat and switch. Eating helps him fall asleep and me wake up lol. Other than that one meal stop we only do rest stops. We carry a cooler with sandwhich stuff.

I use to live in Everett WA and Now Im in El Mirage AZ (West of Phoenix)
I have driven to Arizona through California then over on the 10, and on one other trip we went through Vegas and Salt Lake City and up through oregon and eastern WA. We always seem to prefer the route through California. Its about the same for time and distance. Also the trip from Disneyland back to Everett use to take us about 19 hours.


From Phoenix, Disneyland is about 5 1/2 hours plus stops or 6 hours if you hit bad traffic in LA. From Mesa it would be an additional half hour or so as long as you dont hit bad traffic in Phoenix. Ive also gone to San Diego from here and its about 5 hours on interstate 8. (again add a half hour or so from Mesa). The nice thing is in the Desert the posted speed limit in Arizona is 75 and most go faster than that.

We prefer to take turns sleeping in the car so that we have more time in our destinations. Plus it saves a nights hotel cost. we even did this when our kids were still at home. We try to start our trip at night or extreemly early in the morning and they fall asleep pretty easy that way.

 

[abckid]

Thanks

I was going to have us leave at night too. That's what we always used to do growing up. But dh told me last night that he really wants to leave in the morning He doesn't sleep well in the car, and he doesn't do well driving at night. He can drive a lot longer if we leave in the morning after getting a full night sleep. I hope he realizes that leaving at night means the kids will sleep for 8 hours minimum while we're driving and leaving in the morning means we might get bored and cranky kids LOL We are not stopping at a hotel on the way down because we are on a tight schedule to get to the party on time. I think he wants to stop on the way home though. I'd love to save money and just drive all the way home.

 

[pixiewings71]

Well let me know if/when/where you stop on the way home, maybe we can get together. I haven't seen you since J was a baby!!!! LOL Do you guys have a portable DVD player? Game boys? MP3 players? We ended up getting all those for the kids and let me tell you, they are great for the car trip to DL! We actually have an after factory installed DVD player in the van. I can't remember what all your boys have. Also, we play games like 20 Questions, I'm Thinking Of and even cards. M doesn't play when we do cards if he's driving and I don't play if I'm driving but there are lots of good car games to keep the kids occupied. You can also print up pages for them to color or just take drawing supplies for them. I'll have more ideas....I'll let you know when I do.

 

[abckid]

I would love to meet up with you on the way home if we can. We won't really be in a hurry on the way home

We have a portable DVD player, a gameboy, a Leapster, and a Leap Pad. So that will definitely help. We always bring balls and such to play for 20 minutes we stop at a rest stop for potty breaks. We like to get the kids running around, burning some energy, and stretching their legs. We're going to make a scavenger hunt game for the kids to play through the whole trip, so that whoever has the most things marked off their list by the end will win. I'm not sure what else yet, but I'll take any car activity ideas I can get since we are also driving to KS this summer. My poor kids are not going to want to see the inside of a car for the rest of the year LOL

 

[pixiewings71]

We used to play "find the license plate", we had a list of states and whoever found all the states first won. But, we had to wait to find the state we were in until we were out of state. So we couldn't find Oregon plates while still in Oregon. LOL And we had to wait until we were x miles away to be able to "claim" those plates. The boys like that.