Family Activities on the Way to Florida

We only ever travel by car and have made that drive recently. Well...we went to Orlando, but pretty much the same. New Orleans we found to be out of the way unfortunately. We stopped twice because we made the travel part of our vacation. Shreveport LA actually has a really great science museum called Sci Port. If you are going to spend an overnight, that's a fun place....however it's still a bit too close to Texas. I prefer to do the bulk of the travelling the first day. Gulf Shores Alabama is pretty nice and somewhat along the way. Maybe you could splurge for a hotel room right on the beach for a night or something. Get up, walk the beach then get on your way?
Also, we always put together binders for each kid. In the binder is a zipper pouch for things like a new box of crayons, sharpened pencils, etc. Include a map of your route. Blank paper is fantastic for sparking imagination, and our favorite thing to do along the way is a scavenger hunt. ALL ages can play so your 13 year old and 2 year old will both have fun. Have the 13 yr old be in charge of making the list, but she has to include everyone's input. One of my daughters (5 at the time) wanted to see people picking up garbage. Another wanted to see 3 cows in a truck. See the fun? And we DID see that. We also added stuff along the way like...a bunch of onions on a bridge (they apparently fell out of a produce truck!) For the youngest, we challenged her to count how many bridges we went under.
Have a fantastic time. :)

We make that trip a lot from OK, I have family in FWB. We have stopped along the way at the battleship in Mobile, AL which might not be the most interesting choice for a 2 year old or teenage girl, although my sis and I thought it was interesting enough. You get to tour it and look all over. Once we went out of the way and went through New Orleans on the way home, I think we went to the aquarium there but don't remember it too well. The last time we went (last Oct.) we just drove overnight to get there so our little one could sleep in the car. Have fun!

I always used to make up "surprize" bags full of inexpensive coloring books, word puzzles, crayons, etc. for my kids for their yearly vacation ride from Virginia to Rhode Island. The kids loved looking in their bags to see what I had packed for them. I would vary the contents according to their developmental stages. You can get free activities, according to age and interests, via the internet now. Best of luck and have fun!

If at all possible, I suggest whomever will be driving try to get some rest during the day on Friday and then leave shortly before bedtime. This will help get through a good portion of your travels while the kids (especially the little one) are sleeping. When you stop for bathroom and/or food breaks, try to let them have time to stretch their legs, run around, and burn some energy.

You can get fliers for places you will travel through and talk about them on the ride...maybe peak their interests before you go or just before coming into the area. Play "I spy" in various ways...colors, numbers, letters, state tags (I realize your 2 yr old may have trouble but it can be a learning experience for her). Do you have a portable dvd player? Pick family friendly movies and maybe a few that are geared to each of them (your older one can watch her movie when the little one is asleep) and the others can be watched at any time.

We drove to Florida and had a ton of fun! There are some interesting and fun rest areas along the way that we stopped at. But what really made it fun for my kids was the grab bags that we put together. I put tons of new goodies in brown paper bags and put there names on them. When they got bored or passed a state line, we gave them a bag. We also had DVD players in the back so they could watch movies along the way with new movies. At the time we went, they were going into K & 3rd grades. Worked out great!