TripLearning

 "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Laozi 27 days.  20 states.  4,500+ miles.  4 kids.  2 adults. My husband and I used to travel for ten weeks around the Eastern United States for our university.  We would drive a 12- or 15-passenger van with a trailer thousands of miles to various camps.  It was a tiring ten weeks, but when school ends and summer begins I begin to get antsy to be on the road again.  Normally we will have a trip to visit family, but this summer our trip grew into a four-week journey to try to see as many family and friends as we can. Since moving to Houston last June, we have not journeyed far from Houston.  We have missed traveling and seeing people.  We also remembered how hot summer in Houston can be and decided it was a good time to plan our getaway.  Then one of my cousins decided to get married in WI in July and that sealed the deal.  I started packin...

We quickly decided that when travelling with children we do not like to stay in hotel rooms. Our main reason is that our children don't want to miss out on anything and if we want them to go to sleep then we have to shut off all the lights and go to sleep too or hide out in the bathroom. That is not a vacation to us. So, a few years ago I found the website that has solved our problem. Are you ready? It's www.vrbo.com and it stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner. Now we are able to stay in a condo or a house for about the cost of a hotel room (depending on the location and season). Examples: We rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bath corner condo unit for a week on the beach in Alabama for about $115 a night in March. We rented a 3 bedroom, 1 bath duplex unit for $80 a night for 2 nights in New Orleans at the end of February. We rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home for a week in the mountains of VA outside Winchester for less...