On the road from Clearwater to New Orleans

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We find driving with kids to take a long time.  Big surprise, I know!  We are learning that once we hit lunch time we all start slowing down.  If we can get most of our driving in the morning we will go far.  If we don't hit the road until closer to noon a 3 hour drive often turns into a 6 hours.  We get sluggish.  We also love to stop and see cool things along our route.  It's a tricky balance: drive constantly until we get to our destination or stop, stretch, see what there is to see.  We are still figuring it all out.

We made two overnight stops on our trip from Clearwater, FL to New Orleans, LA, but we tried to make some fun (often spontaneous) stops along our way.

Road trip bingo!  Kids loved it.

A county park in the middle-of-nowhere Florida.  We were desperate to eat lunch and stretch our legs.  The park was officially closed, but the guy in charge was there and let us in and gave us a wheel barrow to take the kids around the park.  It was lovely and I wish I could remember where it was.

Making lunch in the car while Brian drives.

A favorite, unplanned stop was the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL.  The museum was massive and packed full of very cool, old planes.  The boys were in heaven.  They have never been so captivated for so long.  I loved that the kids could touch almost all the planes and climb in several.  I would love to go back to Pensacola and spend more than just a few hours there.

Some more fun stops:

Lambert's Cafe in Foley, AL.  Home of the "throwed rolls"...yes, they throw hot, soft, delicious rolls at you.  Several friends had mentioned that we should go there.  We thought it would just be kitschy, but we had a blast.

The kids first Krispy Kreme...hot, of course!  He liked it.

A brief stop in Biloxi, MI.  I think this will be our only stop in Mississippi.  The little white lighthouse in the middle of the main road seems to be one of the more popular sites in the state, so we did it!

Here's a 10 second video of me catching a roll...hope it works!

Next post: New Orleans!