On the Go with Hayley in Princeton NJ - Episode 212

This week, we're tagging along on Hayley's family road trip to Princeton NJ!

Want help planning your own adventure? Danielle would love to help you. Reach out to her today at daniellegriggs@fantasticalvacations.com to get started!

Mickey with Minis podcast outro music

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Good morning. This is Haley. I'm in the car here with Luke, who you may hear in the background. We're doing something a little bit different today. We are taking the kids down to Princeton, New Jersey for the weekend and thought we would do some on the goes on the way. So today is Thursday. This morning, Luke and I are driving the dog to drop her off to be boarded for the weekend. Hello, Luke. He's not happy. And then we're driving him to daycare, and then I will work for the day, and then I will come home and we'll hit the road. It should be about a five and a half hour ride. We're hoping it doesn't take quite that long. I think I'm going to hit a lot of traffic coming home from work because there's a BTS concert tonight at Gillette Stadium, and that usually that usually affects my commute home from the office. So we're kind of just loosely holding our plans for this evening because we have no idea what time we'll actually get on the road. But we have no plans for tonight once we get there, other than settle everybody into bed, God willing. So I'm not quite as packed as I meant to be. Story of my life, but um I've got, I don't know, maybe 75% of the way packed. So Nick's working from home today. The kids will go to camp, he'll pick everybody up, and hopefully um he's gonna get the house stuff ready, get the dishes away, trash out, etc. We're only gone for three nights, but I hate to leave a super messy house because then I just feel stressed the whole trip about coming back to it. So hopefully he'll get the house all ready. I will finish the packing, and I would love to be on the road by six, but if we're on the road by like seven, that is also okay. Um, so the reason we're going down there, um two of Nick's roommates from college and some of his best friends live there. They're twins, twin brothers. Um, Nick went to an all-male college in Indiana, and all of his guy friends are super close from that time period. Um, so he's really excited to see them. I am too. They're, you know, my friends now at this point, too. Um, their parents are in town, so it'll be awesome to catch up with them. Um, and Nick's parents are also gonna drive out and meet us. Um it's not quite a halfway point, but kind of from where they are in Ohio. And Nick's mom um grew up in that area, like the New Hope area. So we're gonna spend some time there, kind of show the kids around where grandma grew up, so that should be fun. Um, not really sure what else we'll do. We're we've got some, I researched a whole list of options and we'll just kind of take it day by day what we decide to do. Um, I think the weather is not supposed to be great Friday and Saturday, but it looks like it will be good on Sunday, and we're not in a huge rush to get home, so um, you know, we could do some outdoor stuff Sunday. Yeah, so I researched some play places we could take the kids to. Um, Hooper's really into American history, so we thought maybe we'd go to the um the spot where Washington crossed the Delaware River. There's a park there, and I think like maybe a little museum or monument or something. So we might do that. Um, like I said, we're gonna go to where my mother-in-law grew up and show them around that area. Um, there's a children's museum in that town, so that's an option. And we're just gonna kind of hang out, spend time with our friends, um, Googled some kid-friendly restaurants if we're gonna pinch, although our kids are pretty good at restaurants usually, so it doesn't need to be, you know, a super kid-friendly place. Um, we're staying at a Piet that we've stayed at before. Uh, like I said, New Jersey is can be on the way from um when we're driving back from Nick's parents' house in Ohio, so we've stayed in this area before as our stopping point on the ride. So we've stayed at the same Piet before. It's like a suite, which is great for us. We only have to get one room for us and the kids, um, which is wonderful. Actually, this drive is um in the opposite uh one that Nick and I made just about a week after we started dating, way back in law school. Um we drove out to Boston. He was going out to visit um college friends, and I was going home for October break, and we stopped at the twins place in New Jersey, and that was the first time I met them. Um so kind of blast from the past there. So we're excited, it should be fun. Um, just gonna kind of relax and see where the weekend takes us, and I will check in as we go. Okay, we just dropped the dog, so step one is complete. Uh, hopefully she does well there for the weekend, and now we are headed to daycare drop-off and work. Um, I just thought I would talk a little bit about how we prep for road trips because we do them pretty often going back and forth to Ohio. So the number one thing we have is what we call our car bag, and that's basically the bag that needs to be in arm's reach at all times. So, what goes in there? Um, we put trash bags in there in case, God forbid anybody gets sick on the ride. Luckily, that has only happened to us once, not wood, um, a full roll of paper towels, a full container of wipes, and then everything the baby needs for the ride. So a spare outfit, um, his changing pad stuffed with diapers and wipes, his formula, water bottles to make his Bubba, and then the empty bottles. So that's kind of the car bag. And occasionally we'll throw a couple of snacks in there too. Um, this time I actually did the snack bag completely separate. I am on a GLP1 shot. So my appetite is really wonky, and I really didn't want like McDonald's fries on the road. So I packed protein bars and some a little cooler with some fruit and things like that to hopefully keep my stomach happy on the road, and the kids will want some of that stuff too. So that will be good. Um, so those are kind of the two bags we try to keep with us. We let each of the kids pack their own backpack. So if they have a screen, um, a couple of them have tablets or a Nintendo game, they can bring that. Um, they're responsible for packing anything that goes with it, so like the charging port or the hoard or whatever. Um, they also the girls packed uh books and a stuffy, and I think everybody brought some coloring book type stuff. They have historically been awesome in the car, so I'm not too worried about it. Again, knock on wood. Uh we'll only have one or two long road trips with them that were like pretty brutal, where everyone was kind of miserable the whole time. And we do these, like I said, we do these pretty frequently. So one or two back ones is is like a really good success rate. Um, and then if we're doing an overnight stop somewhere, I try very, very hard to have just one little suitcase with basically everyone's pajamas, outfits for the next day, and our toiletries. So, like basically just the bare minimum of what we need for the night. Um, the few times I haven't been able to organize like that, you know, you get to a hotel at nine o'clock at night that you intend to leave by 6 a.m. the next morning and you have to bring like 18 bags in, it's it's a huge bummer. So um, but this time we're not doing an overnight stop, so we don't need to worry about that. So I just kind of threw everything into one suitcase. It's a pretty quick trip. So I packed basically for the big kids um the number of days we're going, plus one extra outfit. And then for the baby, I basically packed every outfit he owns because he blows out diapers like nobody's business, and God only knows how many outfits he'll go through. I also packed a swim bag. Um, our hotel does not have a pool, but Nick's dad had floated the possibility of maybe driving to the ocean, which is like I think it's an hour away. So I did throw together the swim bag um just with swimsuits for everybody and the goggles, and I'm not sure we'll need it, but I do have it. And that is pretty much it. Um, I did work off of my Disney packing list, which I have like a Disney packing list that I use for every trip. It's pretty comprehensive at this point. I can pack our family of six for Disney in like 20 minutes or less if the laundry's clean, which is the big F. Um, so I just deleted what wasn't necessary for this trip and was kind of ready to go. So that's kind of how we prep for the road trips. Um, pretty simple, but the car bag is really the essential item that we have learned over the years what absolutely must be in there. So uh with that, I am off to daycare drop-off and then the office, and then I will check in on the ride home. Okay, it is about 6:30. I am almost home. I definitely hit a lot of traffic, which I kind of expected. So I'm getting home a little later than I wanted to, but that's okay. Um, the goal I'm manifesting here. My goal is for us to be out the door by seven. Um, so let's see if we could stick to that and actually make it out the door in the next half hour. I've got all the clothes folded and in some semblance of order. I'm hoping to just throw everything in a bag or two and get going. So I will keep you posted. If we do get on the road at seven, that should put us at the hotel probably around one, but realistically with stops, probably like 1.30 or later. Um, Nick already stopped and got McDonald's for the kids, so they will be fed. So hopefully we can make it pretty far without a stop, but we'll just see how we do. All right, it is 7.02. I don't want to brag, but we pretty much hit the goal, which is awesome. Everybody, where are we going? New Jersey. New Jersey. So we're packed up. We hope we have everything, but it's just three nights. So I'm sure anything we forgot we can have delivered or stop at a target or something like that. So um, as of right now, it says it's no, we have diapers, thank you. Um and Minecraft yogurt, Emma's favorite. So as of right now it says four hours 15 minutes, uh, which would put us there like 11 15, which is earlier than I thought, but I'll be happy if we get there by like 12 30. So we'll keep you posted. All right, Nick, where are we?

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Either Summer in Connecticut, I think we're close to New Haven.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Somewhere in Connecticut, close to New Haven. It's went pretty well. Um, Cooper and Grace are asleep. Emma talked and talked and talked and talked until she finally fell asleep. She learned the song We Will Rock You, but the only part of the song that she knows is the part that says we will rock you. So she's just been singing it on a loop, which was very cute for the first hour, less so for the second hour. Um, the baby just woke up for a bubba, but otherwise he's been doing really good. And for a while the GPS was creeping up pretty steadily, and it looked like it was gonna be a really long night, but um, it's come back down, and God willing, we'll get there maybe like 11 30. So we'll see how we do.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Okay. Well day what day we're good morning. Good day, we're gonna go outside and I'm gonna do a walk. Then I'm gonna make you do the bottom of my walk and look easy if I go to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. So the girls are very excited to say hi. Um, we got here around 11:30 last night, so we actually made really good time, four and a half hours. We didn't make any stops. Um, and then Emma, one sec. Um, the kids were great in the car. We really can't complain. They slept a lot of the ride and they entertained themselves when they were awake. They were really wonderful. Um, so we got here, we got to our room. Um, my in-laws came over for maybe half hour or so to say hi. Um, but it did take me till almost 1:30 to get the baby down, and then he was ready to party at six o'clock this morning. So I'm very uh sleepy. And my apologies to the nice people at the Hyatt place in Princeton because he's just even when he's not crying, he is just the loudest baby. He just has one volume and that is shouting. So he was quite loud, but that's okay. My guess is the kids will absolutely crash later, but um right now everyone's in a good mood, and um, the Pompeo is just went to get coffee, bless their hearts, and yeah, when they come back, we'll kind of plot out our day. All right, it's been a minute, it is one o'clock. Um, Nick had to work remotely today, so and um my mother-in-law and father-in-law and the kids drove over to this place called Pedlar's Village. Um, it was a very nice ride. We kind of took back roads and it was very scenic along the Delaware River. Um, and then we came to Pedlar's Village, which is like this really cute shopping area. It is very hot. There is a heat heat advisory today. Um, but we're just walking around. We found an amazing toy store and spent like, I don't know, an hour in there. And now we're just grabbing some lunch and everyone's pretty tired. So I think we're gonna try to head back to um the hotel room sooner rather than later, maybe do naps and showers. And then we have a seven o'clock reservation um with our friends at the Yankee Doodle Tavern, which we're really excited about. So should we done? All right, guys, where are we? New Jersey. But what are we doing? What are we eating? Ice cream ice cream from Nina's. It smells so good in here. Cooper, what'd you got? Vanilla. Vanilla. Emma, what'd you got? Cotton candy. It looks like dip and dots. It's a different brand, but same idea. And Grace, what do you have? Banana split banana split dip and dots. Everyone is very happy. Hello, it is 6.40. Um, let's see, let's see. Last we checked in, we had gone to the ice cream place um in New Hope, and then we stopped at the New Hope winery and got some wine to go. Then we came home and I got the baby to sleep, and then um I tried to nap. It felt a little bit more like a fever dream because I kept getting waken up, woken up by various children. Um, but I did get a little sleep, which I sort of desperately needed, so that was good. And the kids terrorized their grandparents for a while. The baby took a good nap, and then we rallied, and now we are headed. Where are we going, guys?

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yankee Doodle Tap room.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

The Yankee Doodle Tap room for dinner. So we're meeting our friends there. Um, which should be really fun. So we'll check in later. Okay, Cooper would like to correct me. Um, at the game shop this afternoon, he got a game called Beach Bandits, and him and Nick played that for a while. Um, well wow, we were just hanging out in the room. Big hit, major hit, Beach Bandit, check it out. Okay, it is almost 9:30. Um, we had dinner at the Yankee Dean Tapron in Princeton, downtown. It was awesome. It was very, very loud. Um, there was, I think, maybe an event going on, and also um they had live music tonight, which we did not realize when we made a reservation there, but the kids were so good. I was really, really proud of them. And the food was good. Nick, was your food good? Yeah, it was good. Um, and we hung out with our friends and their parents, and it was just so nice to catch up. And downtown Princeton is just so gorgeous, um, absolutely beautiful. So they have this whole wall of pictures of like famous Princeton alumni, and I made um each of the big kids stand next to they have um a picture frame that says like I forget what it says, like future tiger here or something like that. Um, so I made each of them take a picture next to it in case they go to Princeton someday. I thought that would be cool. So that was fun, and everyone is extremely tired. So we just got back to the rim and I think we're gonna call it a night pretty soon and then just kind of see what the day brings tomorrow. Good night. Good morning, but just barely. It is almost noon. Um, the baby tormented us most of the night, so we had a very slow morning. Uh, I don't think he likes being in the hotel room. Maybe I'm not really sure what's going on with them, but our hotel's also very cold. The hotel room is also very cold. Uh so I think we just chilly when he wakes up. So we were up quite bed, so we had a very slow morning. Um, got some donuts, went off the room, played Christmas party. What's it called? Peach beach. Beach bandits. I got my butt kicked, I'm not very good at beach bandits. Um, and then Canada Randy Girls went back into uh downtown Princeton. They wanted to go to the chocolate store. I guess they have some deal where you can get like something crazy, like a hundred truffles for $50 or something like that. So they got all kinds of truffles to sprinkle. Um and now we are headed to the cemetery where Jan's parents are buried, and then we're gonna stop by Washington crossing to just do a quick little visit, I think, because then we're doing lunch at one o'clock at Labourdale Station on. We're gonna go to Triumph.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Labourdale Station's in Lambert.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Oh, okay. It's in there. Uh sorry. Uh I guess Triumph Brewery closed back in March, which is the bummer. That's where we're going to watch lunch, but um, so Labourdale Station takes reservations and has the door seating, which is great because there's still a heat advisory Sunday. Uh so the twins and their parents are getting us there, and that should be good. So we'll check it later. All right, it is 3:30. We had a delicious lunch at Lambertville Station, and then now we are. Is this New Hope where we are? This is New Hope. Okay. Crossing the river into Lambertville. We are crossing the river into Lambertville, so we are about to cross between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which Cooper is extremely excited about to stretch his arms out and be in two states at once. Um after lunch, we walked around a little, started to rain. The kids got ice cream. Um, I popped into like a spooky store to see if there was anything to get for Danielle, but um it was too spooky for me. I couldn't say. I'm an absolute wimp. So I looked at what they had and then I ducked out, and then I was heading over to the ice cream shop to meet everybody and saw a distillery. So I took it upon myself to taste all of their offerings to make sure I chose the right ones. So I had a couple of um their drinks that are sold in six packs. They were very clear they are not seltzers. They're not seltzers, but I'm not sure what they are. They taste like a seltzer, but they were delicious. It was nomad distillery. Um, I wound up getting two six packs, the blackberry and the lemonade. And I also did a sampler. You could get um, I think it was six samples for eight dollars of all their like moonshine and whiskey and stuff like that. So that was really fun. Nice quiet little 10 minutes to myself. Um, the lady was like, stay and have another drink. And I was like, I'm so sorry. My husband is next door with my four kids at the ice cream shop. He's probably ready to murder me. So um, yeah, now we're just walking around, walking back to the car. I think we're gonna go regroup at the hotel for a little bit. Okay, it has been a minute since I last recorded. It is 9.45 on Sunday morning. Um, last I checked in, we were leaving the New Hope Lambertville area where we had had a great lunch and done some fun shopping. And I didn't end up updating last night because we had a pretty chill night here. Um, so we came back to the hotel, everyone kind of rested a little bit to varying degrees. Um, God bless Jen and Randy. They took our kids for a little bit so Nick and I could get a little power nap that we sort of desperately needed. Um, this baby's sleep schedule is sucking the life out of us at the moment. But um yeah, we decided everyone kind of wanted a chill night in. So we ordered pizza and the twins picked it up, and everybody met us here to just hang out in the lobby and have pizza and chat and play Cooper's new car game. So it was a blast. Um, and now we are all packed up. Nick just brought up a luggage cart and we are gonna go to breakfast and hopefully Washington Crossing since we didn't get there yesterday. It was raining when we left Lambertville. I don't know if I mentioned that. Um, yeah, and that's the plan. And at some point today we will start the drive home. All right, it is about two o'clock. We are in Connecticut. Um, we've got about three hours to go. So backing up, we had a wonderful breakfast at PJ's Pancakes. Um, our friend was an angel and went there early to put our name in because they don't take reservations and we had a party of 12. So that was great. Our table was ready as soon as we got there, which was awesome. Um, we had a really good breakfast. It was like a little bit cramped around the table. We were kind of tucked into um it's a corner. And also the baby is really not psyched about um high chairs right now, so he was pretty mad and he wanted me to hold him, but there was literally no room for me to hold him. Like I had to leave him in the high chair, so that was a little tough. But it was it was a nice breakfast. And then we um we said goodbye to everybody. We were thinking we would go to Washington Crossing and maybe make another stop at Cuddler's Village, but those were in the opposite direction. And also the kids were really sad from leaving grandma and grandpa. Um, so we decided it was time to just call it a day. We figured let's just get on the road and get home at a reasonable hour. So that's what we're doing. The kids have been great so far. Um, been taking turns, choosing the music on Spotify. Um, right now I'm just chilling in the car with the baby for a few minutes um while everyone else runs in to go to the bathroom and get happy meals. And hopefully we should be home around five-ish, um, god willing, if we don't hit a ton more traffic. So um I think that would pretty much wrap this up. Princeton, uh a great place to go for like a long weekend with little kids, tons to do. Um, I'm already looking forward to the next time we go back because there's obviously stuff that we didn't even get to yet. Um, and I would definitely go back to some of the places we already did. So it was a great weekend. I'm so glad we did it, and it was great to see our friends and their parents um and the grandparents. So, all in all, um, a plus weekend. So that is about it on this trip. We will see you real soon.