Last-Minute Spring Break Getaway

By Laura Lucy

We’ve done it again. Spring has sprung and we didn’t plan ahead for spring break…but we still need a break! If you can’t imagine another day at a crowded theme park and the thought of staying in town with thousands of tourists gives you anxiety, check out these last-minute mini-getaways. They are all family-friendly, require four hours or less in the car, and are ideal for a few days away if you can’t miss a whole week of work.

Mobile, Alabama

Head west on I-10 for a couple of hours and explore Mobile. It’s close enough that you could make it a long day trip, but there’s so much to see I would recommend staying a few nights. Start with the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education is all the rage these days, and your kids will get plenty of hands-on learning at the Exploreum. With more than 50 fun, interactive exhibits, the kids won’t even realize they are learning about electricity, mechanics, magnetism, and more.

If you have a budding botanist in the family, you cannot miss a stop at Bellingrath Gardens to experience spring in a 65-acre garden. I have been to the spectacular Magic Christmas in Lights here, but seeing the garden in daylight in its full blooming glory is high on my spring to-do list. You can check out the What’s in Bloom? page on their website before you go.

Baseball fans will want to take in one last Mobile Baybears game at Hank Aaron Stadium. The team moves to north Alabama in 2020, but you can catch them close by this spring and summer. The city that gave us Hammerin’ Hank really knows how to put on a game. There is no chance the kids will be bored here with non-stop entertainment throughout the game. When we went last year, my daughter, Vivi, was delighted to snuggle up with the mascots, chase the Geico gecko around the field, and win some Subway gift cards in a dance contest.

No trip to Mobile is complete without a visit to the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. The 45,000-ton ship was home to 2,500 crew members during World War II as it saw plenty of action in the Pacific. Upon the ship’s retirement, forward-thinking Mobilians saved it from being scrapped and turned it into one of the country’s most unique military attractions in 1965. At the park you will also find the submarine USS Drum, aircraft, tanks, war artifacts, memorials, and a picnic area, all with views of beautiful Mobile Bay.

There is no shortage of good food in Mobile, with ample seafood and southern options. You can opt for fine dining, but with the kids along, my choice is the Original Oyster House. The original Original Oyster House opened in 1983 in Gulf Shores, with this location on the Mobile causeway opening in 1985. It’s a straightforward seafood joint that simply does everything right. The service is great, food is yummy, and the views are breathtaking. If you are a fan of baked potatoes, theirs will change your life. Try it.

Rural Northwest Florida

Don’t be fooled into thinking the big cities are where it’s at for a quick getaway. Just up the road a ways you will find an exciting, albeit slower-paced, destination in Washington and Jackson counties. Ecotourism enthusiasts will feel at home in the natural environs of this region. Falling Waters State Park boasts Florida’s tallest waterfall. Who even knew Florida had waterfalls! Enjoy hiking trails through verdant forest and learn about the history of the area, with a grist mill dating back to the 1860s and Native American artifacts from 5,000 years ago. Hurricane Michael damaged the park’s lower observation deck at the falls, but most of the park is fully functional. Sadly, Florida Caverns State Park in nearby Marianna had more severe damage from the storm and has yet to reopen at the time of this writing. But it will be back!

Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Chipley allows you to get up close and personal with Gray, Arctic, and British Columbian wolves. This is not your average petting zoo. Reservations are required, the dress code is strictly enforced, and children under 10 are not permitted. You enter the wolves’ natural habitat and interact with wolf ambassadors. Adventurous types can even camp out at the preserve and howl all night.

Ghost hunters and nature lovers alike will enjoy a walk down the Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail in Marianna. Be on the lookout for birds plus rare and endangered plants as you wander down the path that has been referred to by some as Florida’s most haunted spot. Visitors have reported seeing the ghost of a moonshiner who died near the bridge in the 1800s, a headless wagon driver, and hauntings by Elizabeth Jane Bellamy, who died either by fire on her wedding day or by fever as a young mother, depending on which legend you believe.

Don’t head back to the coast without loading up on fresh produce to bring home. If you don’t see any roadside stands where you can buy direct from the farmer, stop off at the Brickyard Market or Piggly Wiggly in Chipley. Both of these grocery stores have prices on produce that Destin probably hasn’t seen since the 70s. Plus, it’s all fresh off the farm and tastes like real food. So good!

Columbus, Georgia

When you think of road tripping, Georgia, Atlanta or Savannah probably come to mind. But you’re missing out on a gem that’s a little closer to home. Columbus is only a four-hour drive from the Emerald Coast through some pretty scenic countryside. You might be surprised by what the city has to offer. The Coca-Cola Space Science Center houses more than $17 million of Space Shuttle era artifacts from NASA. There are also flight simulators and many interactive displays that will keep the kids in a STEM state of mind even when they’re out of school. You can look at the stars during the day at a planetarium show in the Omnisphere Theater. There are even special shows tailored to kids. If only the real thing will do for you, check the schedule online to see if they are having a free public night at the Westrock Observatory while you’re in town.

About 40 miles north of Columbus is where you’ll find yourself taking a walk – or rather a drive – on the wild side at Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain. This drive-thru animal park gives you the option to drive your own vehicle through 3.5 miles of animal adventure. You can also choose to go on a bus tour or rent a Zebra van. On the tour, you will get to see more than 550 animals, 75 different species, throughout the 500-acre spread. Expect to have a close encounter with camels, zebras, and bison, to name a few.

The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center located at Fort Benning was the highlight of our trip to Columbus a few years ago. I know some of you might groan at the thought of a military museum, but this one is truly impressive. My dad is a Vietnam veteran, and he met my mom while he was stationed at Fort Benning in the 1960s. Upon hearing that the museum had been voted USA Today’s Best Free Museum, he wanted to take the whole family. That included my daughter who was only three at the time. I worried that she would be bored or even frightened by some of the depictions of war. Instead she was intrigued by everything, especially since she knew her Papa had been a soldier in the infantry. She went through the simulated Vietnam jungle at least three times. Once was enough for Papa. The museum takes you through galleries with artifacts and interactive exhibits from every era of the infantry, from its formation in 1775 right up to the ongoing global war on terrorism. If you visit on a Thursday or Friday, you might even catch a basic training graduation ceremony in the field outside the museum.

Columbus is home to a shockingly hip and eclectic district known as Uptown. The area along the Chattahoochee River, once known for industry with spewing smokestacks, is now home to beautiful parks, trendy boutiques, and happening restaurants with food to please any palate. I highly recommend The Black Cow. How can you go wrong at a restaurant where the appetizers include lobster tots, fried bacon, and fried green tomatoes stacked with goat cheese? And their burgers were voted Best in the South by Garden & Gun readers.

No matter where you find yourself this spring remember to have fun, be safe, and don’t act like a tourist. See you on the road!

Keeping Your Resolutions

By Laura Lucy

The Christmas decorations are back in storage, and the champagne corks have already been popped. That can only mean one thing – it’s time to write your New Year’s resolutions. These commitments to do better date back 4,000 years to the Babylonians who made promises to their gods each year. Ancient Romans and medieval knights also vowed to straighten up and fly right as they ushered in a new year. Today, most of our resolutions are internal, promises made only to ourselves, rather than to the Man upstairs (or men and women upstairs in the case of the Babylonians). While we don’t have any data on the stick-to-itiveness of our ancient friends, modern studies show that of approximately 40% of American adults who make resolutions, fewer than 10% keep them more than a couple of months. With that depressing statistic in mind, perhaps we should look to the past for inspiration. Share your resolutions with family, friends, coworkers, and yes, even God, or gods for the Babylonians reading this. We all know about accountability partners to keep your exercise and eating plans on track. Why not enlist their help for resolutions too? The people who are most successful in keeping their resolutions are the ones who make them specific and tell others what they are doing. Commit to doing a little work toward your goal every day and find others who are heading in the same direction as you, or at least people who are willing to encourage and support you on your path. Whether you want to exercise more, read a book a week, or organize your closet, identify your tribe and ask them to help you persevere. Here are a few of the resolutions I’m making so my 2019 will be one for the history books:

Give Thoughtfully

We all have limited resources – money, time, talents. How much and where we invest those resources should be an important consideration when planning our year. Does that mean increasing your charitable or religious giving? Does it mean rearranging your schedule to fit in time volunteering at a nonprofit? For me, it means planning more and reacting less. I have a hard time saying no when there is a need. Outlining how I will spend my resources this year will help me focus on giving more to the causes and organizations that I most want to support. Part of this plan is finding regular opportunities for us to give as a family. In recent months, my husband, my six-year-old daughter and I have volunteered at Crop Drop, worked at a hurricane relief food panty and given time to our church. I have no doubt that these will be some of our fondest memories when we look back on this period of our lives.

Prioritize My Husband

When you become a mom, it can be all-consuming. In those first couple of years, this tiny human is literally attached to you almost 24/7. The changes to your body, and more importantly, changes to your heart make it hard to put anything but your offspring first. Intellectually, we know how crucial it is for our kids to see a healthy relationship between mom and dad. Practically, it can be a challenge to put energy into the relationship with your spouse when you are so fixated on the children. Patrick and I recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and 14 years together. I’m lucky enough for him to still think I’m cute. I think it’s time for me to brush up on his love language and get to work. My daughter, Vivi, might grumble some now about me giving Daddy more attention, but she will appreciate it in the future when she has a healthy relationship of her own.

Have More Fun

Between a full-time job, side business, volunteer work and being a mom, I am overcommitted and stressed out. This year I will carve out more alone time to recharge my batteries so that I can relax and have fun with my family instead of fretting over the next item on my to-do list. This resolution MUST include at least two road trips in 2019. We have never had so much fun as a family than last summer when our road trip included real mermaids, dolphins, whales and Florida’s best cheap motel. I hope my words have inspired you to do more than buy a gym membership in January that you will abandon by March. Put some thought into your resolutions and put them out there. If you see me around town, please ask me how I’m doing with my resolutions and I’ll do the same for you. Cheers to a fabulous 2019! Is it too late to add “Drink More Champagne” to my resolution list.

Avoid the Summer Slide

By Laura Lucy

We are smack-dab in the middle of a long, hot summer. The kids are whining about being bored, and parents are counting down until we can send our precious little angels back to school. As tempting as it is to plop the kids in front of the television until the first day of school, we need to keep their minds and bodies active to avoid the dreaded summer brain drain. Brain drain, also known as the summer slide, happens when children forget much of what they learned during the school year over the summer break.

According to the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) at Johns Hopkins University, most students lose two months of math skills over the summer. Low-income children can fall behind up to three months on reading skills. This means teachers spend the first month of school reteaching lessons, and students risk falling further and further behind each summer. Some children also gain weight over the summer without the discipline of daily school and physical education.

This information is alarming, but don’t let it ruin your summer. Combating brain drain is easier than you think. You don’t have to get a tutor or enroll your children in summer school. There are plenty of fun ways to keep their brains active until the teachers tag back in.

Lean on the Library

There is so much more to do at the library than check out books – though we do plenty of that too. We have fantastic libraries across the Emerald Coast with fun and educational activities happening almost every day throughout the summer. On a recent trip to Destin Library, my six-year-old daughter, Vivi, checked out books she can read on her own and chapter books for us to read together, played a coding game for kids, signed up to attend a Pete the Cat extravaganza, and stumbled upon a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) workshop for kids. She loved it and was even more excited when they told her she can come back next week and build a robot. I highly encourage you to check out the library closest to you.

Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming

With the Gulf, bays, bayous, lakes, pools and waterparks, we are literally surrounded by water. Learning to swim is not just fun for local kids, it’s necessary. The good news is swimming is healthy for the mind as well as the body. A study of children in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand by the Griffith Institute showed that children who started swim lessons earlier had better visual motor skills in addition to gains in language, math and writing. We kicked the summer off with a fast track class at Emerald Coast Scuba in early June. This was Vivi’s fourth summer with Coach Mary and her crew. She already swims like a fish (or mermaid if you ask her), but this summer she improved her freestyle form, learned to do the butterfly and is spending the rest of this summer practicing her dives in Mammi and Papa’s pool.  

Mini Golf = Maxi Learning

You can find a way to make any fun outing an educational experience. Take miniature golf as an example. Younger children will naturally learn deductive reasoning as they play the course – if I hit my ball in this hole versus that hole, what happens? You can be a bit more explicit with older kids, talking about the angles and physics involved in the sport. This works for billiards too. Keep it light and fun so you’re not forcing the educational component. If they realize you are trying to teach them, they might tune out. Think of it like blending green vegetables into spaghetti sauce – what they don’t know could help them.

Technology Isn’t Evil

The kids likely want to spend every waking moment with a screen in their faces. Zoning out to endless YouTube videos isn’t the only way to utilize these devices. There are plenty of educational apps out there, both free and pay. ABCmouse is a fun learning app for pre-school and elementary school children. Even video games aren’t all bad. Playing games can teach kids how to be good winners and losers, problem-solving skills and creativity. Chances are they are better at the games than you are. Let them teach you how to play the game and explain how it works. This is a great brain-building exercise for them and a wonderful way to improve the parent-child bond.

Our favorite discovery this summer is the Art for Kids Hub channel on YouTube. This channel has more than 1,200 videos with easy step-by-step instructions on how to draw everything from animals and ice cream to Hatchimals and LOL Dolls. Trust me, your kids will sit peacefully for large chunks of time while following along with these videos. You will be shocked by how quickly they will create some pretty awesome drawings while using both sides of their brains.

Chill

The most important thing to remember is that schools give kids a summer break for a reason. They need time to rest, relax and recharge. Let them have that time without stress, without pushing them too hard. I hope these tips will help you find sneaky fun ways to incorporate learning into your summer fun. Vivi and I will see you at Big Kahuna’s. We’ll be the ones talking about velocity as we fly down the Tiki River Run.