Road Trip Re-Cap - Five After-Thoughts

See Also: FIVE-DAY FAMILY ROAD TRIP!

Two adults/three children, five days/four nights, 1500 miles (roughly), from Atlanta to Cocoa Beach, Florida (to Daytona & back to Cocoa Beach) to Orlando to Daytona (again) and home to Atlanta...

Family Road Trip Re-Cap - Five After-Thoughts:

1. Long car trips CAN BE FUN -- really! That's not even a set-up to anything, no whining or complaining, we really had a great time. Trip prep helped a lot --
   See Top 10 - Family Vacation Travel Tips - Road Trip!
   
   
2. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen -- I am 40 years old, with freckles and fair skin I have passed down to my children, and I still can't figure it out: We all came back with uncomfortably painful sunburned faces.
   I am the Worst.Mother.Ever.
   
   Thank goodness the kids and hubby love their swim shirts, which is the best sun protection for those vulnerable shoulders and backs. Normally, we all wear hats and huddle under beach/pool umbrellas, but that was impossible all day at the water park. We sprayed liberally, with the new aerosol high-SPF sunscreen spray -- not only our body parts, but everything and everybody else within a 20 square foot radius -- I have decided I hate that stuff and we're going back to the squirt-on lotion (non-aerosol) that you have to rub in.
   
   It's the face protection I can't get the hang of, especially those ultra-sensitive under-eye regions and foreheads you can't put anything on because it will drip down into their eyes -- we have tried everything, so I am totally up for suggestions on this one -- and then what to do after, when everybody is crisped and complaining. I drove out to a CVS Pharmacy in Orlando, searching for Noxzema Cold Cream -- do they even make that anymore? I came back with NIVEA "Refreshingly Soft" Moisturizing Creme w/Jojoba Oil & Vitamin E and two different kinds of Aloe Vera Gel (COOLING and MOISTURIZING); as well as our old stand-by, Hawaiian Tropic ALOE After Sun Moisturizer, but nothing provided cool, instant relief without burning around the eyes or drying sticky and uncomfortable.
   
   Next time, we'll all wear the hats, waterslides and lazy river floats notwithstanding.
   
   
3. Theme parks are best visited and most-enjoyed AFTER DARK -- We found this to be true last year, too, at Universal Studios -- easy entrance, thinning crowds, no lines, cooler and exciting, with lights, music, special attractions and, usually, FIREWORKS. The hours from 4pm to 11pm (or closing) are THE BEST!
   
   On a related note, even though we couldn't stay until After Dark because we had to get in early, before the park reached capacity (by approximately 10:30am), and we stayed and played hard all day long in the cool water and hot, hot sun, until we were all so exhausted and sunburned we had to crawl back to the hotel and order room service for dinner, after a quick trip out to CVS for sunburn relief products...AQUATICA ROCKS!!
   
   
4. NASCAR is a quickly-obsessive, fatal attraction -- Once we started track-touring, on NON-race days/weeks, in Talladega, Alabama, we were hooked. If you have NASCAR fans in the family, the tracks and attractions -- again, on NON-race days/weeks -- are (relatively) inexpensive, fun family entertainment. I fear any future Road Trip Family Vacations will have to be on the NASCAR track circuit -- fortunately, we have THE BOOK.
   
   
5. It will take a full week to recover from our Five-Day Family Road Trip.