Against my better judgment, we loaded LuLu in the car on Saturday morning and started driving north. We spent the weekend in Washington DC (at Super Dad’s sister’s house) and now we’re in Philadelphia for the week. This is a long-awaited trip for LuLu; one she’s known about for months. For me, I had NO IDEA what I was going to do with LuLu for five days straight in a hotel in downtown Philly, while Super Dad headed out each morning for his conference.

Well the truth is that it hasn’t been so bad…yet. Other than the fact that LuLu has been PMSing for the last several days and now can’t go in the swimming pool, overall she’s been really good. Here are some tips I’m using to make things as easy as possible.

1. Pack a “bag o’ meds”. We always pack LuLu’s medications, presorted and measured in a handy medication container that each day can pop out and conveniently go with me in my purse. This time, we’re going to be gone from home for more than one week, so I sorted the next week’s meds in small zip bags and stapled each day’s together.
2. Buy or borrow a portable DVD player. We bought one last year for our trips into hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). But it comes in really handy if you are car traveling…or have rainy times in the hotel.
3. Use bribery. I’ll admit it. Just now I promised to take LuLu to Starbucks for dessert if she allows me to finish this blog. We had anticipated that she and Super Dad would be spending evenings in the hotel pool…but mother nature threw us a curveball…so bribery works wonders.
4. Plan your backup and escape plans. In LuLu’s case, she’s highly prone to get agitated when faced with unknown situations. Few things could be as unknown as going on vacation in a strange place and trying to see things for the first time. So far, I haven’t had to use escape plans, but just knowing that Super Dad would come running out of the conference at a moment’s notice, or that we never wander too far from the hotel reduces my own stress level.

Another tip to any travelers of major cities – check out City Pass. We bought them for Philly today; they are available in 10 major metropolitan areas. They cover admission to pretty much every touristy thing LuLu is interested in. Today we went to the National Constitution Museum (where she nearly melted down worrying about the noise in a presentation that never occurred). Then we took the ferry across the Delaware River to Camden, NJ for the Adventure Aquarium…which she thought was awesome! Tomorrow…the trolley and the zoo.

Meanwhile, the book I selected to read this “vacation” is The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Dr. Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz. I can hardly wait to start blogging on this awesome book about traumatized children.