Traveling results

We are now home from our trip to Oceanside, CA.  What a trip.  We were gone 7 days and had a great time.  I thought I would share what worked the best for traveling plus our favorite activities in Oceanside.

What entertained my 3 year old the best in the car
Coloring book from the dollar store.  We were working on coloring the whole picture instead of just one little scribble then turning the page to the next picture.  When I would help direct her she was entertained with this for quite a while.

5 year old--
Winnie the pooh book on tape and car bingo from http://www.momsminivan.com/

8 year old--
He spent over an hour working on Mad Libs on his own.  He really liked this

10 year old--
He loves to read so he spent most of the drive reading Harry Potter.

Group Activities that we enjoyed in the car
We rented a Red Box on the way home and watched Gnomeo and Juliet
We watched two musicals, Joseph and the Technicolored Dream Coat and Fiddler on the Roof.  I'm surprised how much they enjoyed these musicals, and its fun to hear while driving as well.
License Plate Game--The older kids enjoyed this and it helped them with some geography as well  Print off this easy map to play.  http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/uspostal.pdf
pipe cleaner creations--This was a hit.  I brought some colored pipe cleaners and gave each child 3 and they got to make what ever creation they wanted.  My girls wanted to do this game a few times.

Best Snacks in the car
Pretzels, Licorice, Beef Jerky, Travel Yogurts, cookies,

Food for the Trip
Pumpkin bread (frozen before to take)
Sweet Chex Mix
Chocolate Chip Cookies (made ahead and put in ziplocks in freezer)
Homemade bread for Sandwiches (freeze before hand)--we ate lots of PB&J's for lunch
Muffins (wrap in saran wrap and freeze in a ziplock)
Fruit and Veggies (You can take them over the CA border as long as they are store bought)
crackers, summer sausage, and cheese (had the meat department slice for me)
Kershaw Camp Tool-great to take to cut bread, sausage and cheese, melons, and the oranges we brought.  It has a cutting board and multiple tools that can attach to the handles.  A great buy that we will take camping and to picnics.

Oceanside Favorite Activities
Unstructured Time on the beach:  building sand castles,  boogie boarding, Frisbee throwing, burying people in the sand, reading
Mormon Battalion Museum--This was the best attraction in Old Town San Diego.  Recently remodeled and just a beautiful site!  So well done, free, and air conditioned.  The kids loved the interactive tour and then panning for gold.  Definitely a must see!
Balboa Park--We spent a day here and could have spent another day.  Beautiful gardens, free parking, concert in the park, playgrounds with tons of shade, museums galore, water fountains.  We spent the majority of the day at the Natural History Museum and learned about Penguins, polar bears, dinosaurs, gems, and 3D videos.  (We had 2/1 Happening Book coupons which made it much more affordable)
Coaster to Old Town.  This was more expensive then driving and parking but was exciting to see a different view of San Diego.  On the way home we traveled with many commuters and I had a nice visit with a gentleman coming home from work.  Tickets for 5 and up were 10-13 dollars.  The boys also took this home from the Padre Game which worked out well.
Seal Watching in La Jolla at the Children's Pool--This was fun but the parking situation was crazy.  Maybe this would be less busy on the weekday.
Oceanside Farmer's Market and Sunset Market.  This is every Thursday and had tons of vendors.  We didn't make it to the Farmer's Market because this was in the morning.  Live entertainment, food, kids corner and more.
We loved being with our family and enjoyed the nice weather of Oceanside, CA.  We will remember this forever.  But really the most important thing is we were with family and spent time with each other.  This could be done anywhere really.