Mini-break

I have loved the term mini-break ever since I read "Bridget Jones" and I love traveling, but particularly like traveling in bite size portions.  I have taken a handful of 7 day or longer vacations/trips, and I always find that I am ready to go home by day 5.  What I excel best at is going somewhere for 3 or 4 days and sight-seeing at break neck speed.  Just ask anyone who traveled in Europe with me.  I came prepared with an itinerary and even in big cities, we'd hit major things to see in just a few days.

Then my boys came along and my mini-breaks screeched to a halt.  We visited family in Christmas 2008, but that was a long trip and painful for all involved.  We took 2 week long trips to Florida.  The first was when Dave was there for training before he deployed and we didn't have any time to see much.  The second time was after the deployment when we stayed at a dear friend's parents' house.  Ben didn't like the beach or the heat and we struggled to find something to do that didn't cause him to scream.

One of the main reasons my boys don't travel well is special needs.  Liam is on the autism spectrum and changes in routine cause him stress.  Both boys have Sensory Processing Disorder which means they have trouble interpreting sensory information.  I cannot control their environment while traveling, so this causes more issues for them.

We took a trip to Seward this weekend (pictures coming) and it was mostly successful but the issues they have with traveling were highlighted.

Liam became obsessed with the idea of "the little house" and began to repeat questions about it.  When are we going to the little house?  Will there be other kids there?  Will my toys be there?  It made for a long drive to Seward.  Once we arrived, he wanted to be at the little house, and he didn't want to leave.  He was so excited about going there, he thought that was the whole idea of the trip.

Lesson learned: Liam has anxiety over schedule changes and I really need to start implementing a picture schedule.  Almost all kids on the spectrum need one and hopefully it would help eliminate some of his obsessions.

Our first sight-seeing stop was a Dog Sled Tour.  When we got to the "sled" the dogs went crazy.  They LIVE for pulling sleds and were barking like crazy to be picked to be hooked to the sled.  The barking was too much for our dog lover Ben and he went into full meltdown mode.  Then the dogs started pulling the sled and his meltdown got worse.  He finally started calming down, by the time the ride was almost over.  Then we got to see puppies, which went well for the most part, except I had to protect the puppy from being squeezed to death by Ben as he seeks out tight squeezes.  Finally, there was an informational portion about running the Iditorod, except I didn't hear any of it because Ben was literally running circles around the property after recovering from the meltdown.

Lesson learned: Ben is sensitive to auditory stimulation and to vestibular input he doesn't control (the dog sled and swinging) but he seeks out tactile input (puppy fur).  He also seeks out hard squeezes and requires non-stop running.  I really wanted to do a wildlife cruise, but Ben on a boat for 4 hours or longer would  have been a nightmare.

The day we left, I wanted to check out a coffeehouse in an old church that doubled as an art gallery.  We planned to eat breakfast there.  As soon as we walked in, Liam started saying "It smells too much in here."  He became agitated and wouldn't sit down, repeating about the smell.  We decided to leave as he was starting to cry and pace.  I asked Dave if he thought the coffee smell was overwhelming Liam, and Dave said he smelled an old musty smell like old books, and maybe Liam picked up on that.

Lesson learned: Sometimes it just isn't worth the battle.

All in all, it was a good trip.  I don't know if we would have experienced more problems if we stayed longer or if there would have been less problems.  In any case, I hope that things start getting easier down the road.  I am not sure how to work travelling around Ben's need for constant movement.  I am wishing Liam could learn to read sooner rather than later so I can write a schedule instead of drawing pictures. I miss travelling and am determined to find a way to accommodate my boys' needs with my desire to see new places.