It’s been 8 years since we took our first grandchild on their Adventure with Grams and Pops the summer they were 10. We’ve been to Washington, DC, Baltimore, Lancaster, Knoebels, Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Williamsburg, VA. Each one was unique and special and made sweet and lasting memories. For them and for us! This summer, as we were anticipating taking grandchild number 4 on his (our first boy!) adventure, we reviewed what we had learned.
- Spend more time in one place. Spending days driving in the RV isn’t really that exciting for a 10 year old.
- Be flexible with your planning. SO MANY things can impact plans.
- Don’t shop for food until after you pick up said grandchild. And don’t be surprised if they order chicken tenders each time you go out for a meal.
- Throw in some educational activities, but make sure there’s some good adventure options available too!
Given our logistical constraints and a bit of input from Noah (he was interested in amusement parks, the beach and scuba diving (!!!)), we decided to spend our week doing All Things Delaware.
Wait, Delaware?
I know – it doesn’t sound all that exciting, but as I checked into Delaware options it really seemed to fit the bill. It’s got historic/educational (it is the first state, after all) value, it had beach options (with boardwalk amusement rides), and while we couldn’t manage the scuba diving, we did venture high up into the trees with an almost four hour high ropes course.
We started our adventure with a bang (or a leap as it were) at the Go Ape Adventure course located right in the state park where we were camping. Since Noah really wanted to do the Treetop Adventure (“This is the big one! Our original Treetop Adventure in the canopy. Looking for 50 foot high tree-to-tree crossings, super long ziplines and heart-stopping Tarzan swings? Search no more. A 2-3 hour adventure like no other awaits you.”) and he needed an adult to accompany him, we decided that both of us we take the plunge.
To say that this was outside of our comfort zone would be an understatement!
We were stretched to be sure – but we all lived to tell the tale.
(I’m going to add high ropes/ziplines to my bucket list just so I can cross it off!)
The middle days of the week were filled with museums
Children’s Museum of Wilmington
and nature walks
and mini-golf!
We filled our last full day with Beach Goodness –
Time at the ocean,
on the boardwalk rides,
and finally at the waterpark.
Where we would wait patiently at the bottom of the big waterslides to see which chute he would come out of! (Well, when we weren’t floating down the lazy river ourselves!)
Phew. What a day! So fun (and minimal sunburns!).
Saturday we left our sweet parking spot (Lums Pond State Park) and regrouped back at Potomac Park, our August SOWER project location. But before we returned that beautiful boy back to his parents, we had one final bit of fun – spending the evening with his newly discovered (for him – not for us!) second cousins (thanks to that family reunion in July) who live nearby.
Such a sweet finale!
Sunday morning we packed him up (along with miscellaneous items (like those Cocoa Puffs) that we’d collected for him along the way)
and returned him to his parents.
It was a grand week! It was wonderful to spend that one on one time with Noah and many precious memories were made. We’ve definitely noticed that we’ve aged some since we devised this plan 8 years ago, but I don’t think we’d trade it for anything.
Maybe just factor in a few more naps!
Thanks for coming along on our Delawarean adventure!
PS – The whole batch of Noah’s Delawarean Adventure photos can be found HERE!
