Fun for the Whole Family Across 14 States

A travel guide for people who have a good half hour before the baby gets grouchy

I used to “collect” state license plates on family vacations. The further we got from home, the more likely we’d be to see one of the coveted plates rarely seen in Wisconsin— Rhode Island, Hawaii, Alaska, the District of Columbia, and the prize of prizes, Guam.

Juniper is too young to care about license plates; she’s barely old enough to care about much beyond the basics, but she is old enough to make what pre-baby would have been a lengthy but pretty straightforward road trip into an ordeal of planning and patience.

Like that now-hacky joke premise goes, there’s really no such thing as “fun for the whole family,” just places that are designed to entertain kids so that the parents can relax a little for like an hour. And if I’m being perfectly honest, now that I’m back home, I’m feeling so relaxed. Even though the Wrath of God is raining down on Southern California, I am the picture of serenity. Road trips with a child are stressful. I’m realizing that I spent the last month with a feeling in my chest that resembled a meaty hand clenched around my heart.

Still, there were places in each of the 14 states we crossed that the whole family seemed to enjoy— maybe just not at the same time.

In no particular order: