Have you heard of the hot new vacation spot? It’s got all the amenities of home because it is your home. It’s a staycation. There are benefits and drawbacks to a vacation at home. With two young preschoolers driving more than 6 hours away from home is just crazy! It will take more like 8 hours to make that 6 hours and if they are tired it can feel like much longer. As they’ve gotten older it has gotten better since they can sit still longer than when they were first learning to walk and couldn’t be pinned down for anything. So the obvious pro is no long drive there and back which of course means saving dollars on gas and meals on the road. Which leads me to the next pro/con, saving money on meals. By staying home you can make your own meals saving lots of money by not having to eat out. This can be both a pro and a con since that means you have to do the cooking on your vacation. Of course most vacations I end up cooking anyways since we try and get a place with a kitchenette so we can save money by making meals. But there are things you can do to make that staycation cooking easier, by either making meals ahead of time that all you have to do is reheat, use prepared foods, or eat out for the main meal of the day since you don’t have to pay for a hotel you’re still saving money. Another way to save some work on your home vacation is to use paper products so you don’t have to wash all those dishes on your vacation. Of course with all the time you save driving or flying gives you extra vacation days to play with and of course there’s no packing, unpacking, buying the things you forgot to pack.
With little kids that are on fairly strict schedules involving naps staying home is a great thing. We have attempted three different vacations in the past with our girls as babies and toddlers with mixed results. It’s always been hard to get up and rush out because you knew you had to back to nap by 2-3pm or you would have a huge meltdown on your hands. And not to mention the times we actually tried to all sleep in one hotel room together. Trying to get your girls on different schedules to fall asleep in a new place and then you have to tip toe around the room til you want to go to sleep. One time we rented two adjoining hotel rooms and still had to separate the girls by putting one in the bathroom! Our most successful vacation was last year when we rented a beach house in Rhode Island which had three bedrooms so everyone had their own room and the girls had a yard to play in and they had a VCR to play their veggie tales in. But going back to the topic at hand, by staying home we can keep them on their regular schedule so we are all happier and more rested. There isn’t that feeling of we have to see and do everything because we may never be back here again. And it’s fun to take dad along to see the places that I take the girls to all the time but he has never been to. And there are lots of things to discover together too. You don’t have to worry about getting lost or have unexpected tolls or parking charges.
There is of course the pitfall of wanting to clean your house and do laundry, and grocery shopping, paperwork, etc. But you can set it all aside if you like, even hire a maid service at the end of a week from some of the money you saved by staying home. Or you can clean it yourself and splurge on a massage or mani/pedi out of the money you saved. You can put your mail on hold if you want to avoid paperwork during your break and turn off your phone or set it to go straight to voice mail. And if you can let laundry go for a week while you’re on vacation surely you can let it do the same thing at home. But if you’re like me you’ll still do all of the above because one of the things I don’t like about going on vacation is all the catching up afterwards. But this way my husband is around to help wrangle the kids while I work so I do get a break too.
And of course you can get a babysitter at home because you already have people you can trust to do it. That is always been the hard thing about vacations is that 24/7 with your family and not even being able to go on a date with your husband. But by staying home you can have friends or family watch them while you go out for dinner or for a day so you can go do something fun for adults that you couldn’t do with the little ones, like white water rafting.
Another great thing is the kids have lots of toys to play with where you are staying ;P And you can afford to buy something special for them to play with with the money you saved. I was able to pick up a used bouncy house for my moms group but have set it up for the kids in the backyard for the week and they are loving it. That definitely beats a hotel with a pool. Of course I heard of one family that did a staycation who used some of the money they saved to buy one of those small snap set pools for their yards. So that money saved will bring entertainment for years to come.
So today we went to something we haven’t done for a while and were able to take family with us which made it even more fun and less work. Many hands make light work, it’s so true. We went to a corn maze or a maize maze as some call them. We have gone before but haven’t gone in a few years because it can be a lot of walking and with toddlers it can be too long for them since they don’t get it. But we thought this year they were old enough, and I think they did great. Of course the one we went to has a lot more than just a maze, it has goats you can feed, all kinds of playground structures, a variety of smaller mazes of different types to try out, a trike grand prix, jumping pillow, huge slide, and more. So we got there early before the maze even opened and spent a hour doing all the activites before going into the maze. The maze itself took us about an hour and a half to walk and we had fun. Now keep in mind we took our jogging stoller with us so the kids could ride or walk depending on how they were doing. That also allowed us to bring drinks, food, and our trusty travel potty for that emergency pitstop when you are lost in a field. And don’t forget your sunscreen because even though you think you’ll be shaded by corn you’d be wrong. The paths are wide enough for our double jogger stroller if that gives you an idea so most of the time you aren’t in the shade. And of course by the time we were done with all that walking we decided that we’d earned ice cream which they of course sell, along with a variety of other things. All in all we had a great time, the girls loved it and took great naps when we got home.
Where did we go you ask? It was Long Acre Farms, in Macedon, NY. Every year they have a different theme to the maze which if you had an aerial view you would see a picture in the maze such as this years theme of fitness that you can see pictured. There is a cyclist, runner, swimmer, weight lifting, and the heart beat which is the way out.
Maize aerial view
The maze is divided into squares which you can find a mail box located in each square which will have a mail box with squares on the map to help you find your way out. There are also different colored sections to help you visualize where you are in the field, like the heart beat was red, and the water was blue. There a couple bridges that you can go above the level of the corn to give you an idea where you are. Also they give you very tall flags and a team name so they can tell where you are at all times and you can “flag” down help if you are hopelessly lost or have to go to the bathroom or whatever. You can either get a worker have you walk you out or they can give you hints to help you on your way. They also have trivia questions along the way in case you were getting bored. But most people are too busy trying to beat the record time ;P All in all it’s a fun family outing for all ages.
Prices run from $6.50-$10 depending on what activities you choose-either an all in one combo or just maze and of course the ages of each person. Open Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun from 12-6pm. There are many corn mazes popping up around the country since it’s a great way for farms to earn extra income.
