Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

  This was one of our many COVID cancellation trips and just like the others (Alaska that went from planned 2 week to an entire month and WITH a new baby!, Utah that went from 1 week to 2 WITH a new RV!), this trip was made even better by the delay because I learned about some AWESOME Harry Potter themed lodging options that made the trip extra special. Shout out the the Mama Docs Travel group on facebook for the lodging suggestions!  Well rested- slept until 11 am! North Hill Farm So we are nature loving, outdoor people. Most of our trips are in that vein. But this trip was intended as an 8th birthday gift to our HP loving Zooey so the focus was on HP. We are not fans of Disney, in fact will absolutely never take our kids there- the commercialism, the "fakeness"- it is definitely not for us. The kids (now 10 and 5) seem to understand this and frankly have learned to share a lot of these values. But the HP Studios is a totally different feel - it's small, it's a few h

I really enjoy LIVING life more than planning life so in general I do not spend a ton of time on trip planning. I'm a busy, active mother of 3 (9 yo, 5 yo, 9 mo old at time of travel) with a full time high intensity job. I like going on trips more than I like planning trips. I do not feel the need to find the "best" things or to check off boxes of classic to-dos. I find it very helpful to have overarching goals for each trip. And my main goal for this trip was for us to have an awesome time hiking the Queen Charlotte Track (QTC) . So the first week of the trip was really dedicated to preparing for (by traveling to the QCT and recovering from jet lag) and hiking the track. Beyond that, I wanted us to spend time as a family enjoying the outdoors. I was willing to fast travel the 2nd week as long as drive times weren't too long and I made sure we had a couple "breaks" were we stayed in the same lodging for 2-3 nights. I wanted us to have new experiences- all of