On January 5, 2018 our family started our move from New York City to San Diego.

After school, we loaded up the car, said some final goodbyes, and road across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge out of Brooklyn NY headed to San Diego with tears in our eyes.

New York City is a hard city to say goodbye to, but in truth saying goodbye to any place we’ve lived is always hard.

Our little family kicked off the new year by moving from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. Our 5th move in 7 years.

We were prepared as we could be – my tips for getting kids ready to move are in this post – but moving is hard. Every single time.

This is our story of getting from one coast to the other.

Warning: This is a long one so grab a cup of tea or mug of cocoa before you dive in.

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The Road Trip Plan

This is the map that hung in our kitchen for about a month before our move. It always looks so easy when it’s drawn out on a map, doesn’t it?

This is the longest road trip and most continuous time in the car we have ever attempted with our kids. They have a lot of practice at traveling, but I was still a little nervous when we mapped out our plan.

Due to Google Maps suggestions and Winter in the North, we decided to swing South pretty quickly as we headed West.

Our route took us:

• Ocean to ocean
• Into 13 states
• 45 hours of driving
• 3,097 miles
• and 9 days

Activities for the Car

I had a massive tote bag in the car filled with all kinds of toys and activities and games for us to play in the car. We ended up only using a fraction of what I packed. Below are the items we actually used in the 45+ hours in the car with two six year olds.

• Kids Amazon Kindles with these Headphones
• DVD player, same headphones, and DVDs of Bambi and a few favorite TV shows.
• Melissa and Doug 50 States Game license plate game (We found ALL 50 plates!)
• Melissa and Doug Magic Velvet activity books
• BrainQuest activity books (mostly to make me feel less guilty about all the time in school they missed during the move.)
• National Geographic Road trip activity book
• Coloring books and crayons and colored pencils
• Highlight Magazine
• Mom and Dad listened Ready Player One on audiobook (the Mom’s Nook Bookclub book for January)
• Audiobooks: Our favorite was How to Train a Dragon.

Read Also: Quality, Engaging, and Creative Activity Books to Bring on Family Trips

New York to Pennsylvania

The first day we left immediately after their last day of school and we drove to Harrisburg PA.

There we pulled in around bedtime so we quickly got everything set up and the kids in pajamas. We read them Baby Monkey Private Eye and then all quickly fell asleep.

If you have more time I would highly recommend stopping in Philly for a day or half day.

Cincinnati OH

The next morning we got up early to drive the rest of the way across Pennsylvania. This was when I lost any remaining doubt about our decision to head South soon.

Originally I had pushed to drive straight west and then South. We haven’t been to the western part of the US much yet and I am eager to explore it, but Winter is not the time to drive across the northern part of the country.

Our wiper fluid froze. We had to stop a few times to clear the windows so we could proceed safely. It was frigid cold outside every time we had to stop.

We finally made it to our friends’ home in Cincinnati a little before dinnertime.

We stayed an extra day to enjoy the weekend with friends.

They took us to the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky just outside of Cincinnati. The highlights for us were the touch tank and the shark walk which is one of the oddest things we’ve ever done and yet fascinating to my kids.

Afterwards we had brunch at Taste of Belgium which is incredible. I had the Nutella crepe and it was one of the best I’ve ever tasted – Paris included. Our Dairy Free allergy kiddo had eggs and bacon.

Nashville TN

On Monday morning we headed South through Kentucky towards Nashville. We stopped briefly at Carmichaels Kids in Louisville, Kentucky.

This is such a cozy little children’s bookstore. There is a quality collection of all kinds of books for kids and some games and toys.

We arrived in Nashville to spend the afternoon and evening with dear friends. There are a million family friendly things to do in the area so even if you don’t have people to visit I highly recommend a stop in Nashville.

Jackson MS

In the morning we headed a little further South through Memphis to Jackson MS. This was our home before New York.

We stayed with dear friends near Jackson MS and they gave our kids the best gift – time outside. It was our first rain free few hours and they took full advantage racing around outside. By dinner time they were covered in mud and completely delighted.

Read Also:  20+ Best Things to do in Jackson MS with Kids.

Dallas/Fort Worth TX

We were now about halfway and we turned West towards Texas and the West Coast.

From Mississippi we drove to the Dallas – Fort Worth area.

It is a long, flat drive across Louisiana and into Texas. We’ve made this drive many times because when we lived in MS my Cystic Fibrosis doctor was near Dallas, but that probably only made it a little more dull.

We stopped at a playground near our hotel to run around a bit.

Note to Self: packing a football in the car to throw around was a genius idea. It got us all running around and laughing.

El Paso TX

The next day was one of the longest. We drove from Dallas to El Paso across the rest of Texas.

We saw endless sky and cattle farms and long freight trains and listened to several audiobooks.

That night we all went to bed super early. The time changes were started to catch up with us.

The flip side of the time changes of course is that our kids were waking up SUPER early. The bonus of this is that we got on the road before the sun rose the next day.

We saw this gorgeous sunrise from the first rest stop inside New Mexico. Desert sunrises are now one of my favorite things.

New Mexico was a lot more endless flat desert and big skies, but the drive to Phoenix was quicker.

This was one of my favorite days. The sunrise was spectacular. The drive wasn’t too long and when we got to Phoenix we still had plenty of time to explore.

Phoenix AZ

My sweet friend from high school lives near Phoenix and she recommended hiking at Papago Park. We loved it.

The path itself is pretty easy and gives you a nice view of Tempe and Phoenix. My kids of course “needed” to climb up the rocks so our hike was a little more strenuous, but a ton of fun.

Then we met my friend and her family for dinner at a fun little spot in Tempe called The Lodge Sasquatch Kitchen. The food was good (and had good allergy options) and there were fun things to do on the outside patio for our kids which the grown ups chatted.

finally onto California.

The next day we were up before the sun again and headed West one last time.

This drive was fascinating. We had never driven through this part of the country at all and the hills and rocks and mountains were so cool.

It took us about 6 hours to weave through the mountains and desert, but it felt quicker despite our serious desire to be out of the car once and for all.

Also Read: Family Road Trip from Portland to San Diego

and we have arrived in San Diego CA!

Finally, around lunch time, we pulled into San Diego. We found tacos and walked a few blocks to the beach. We all looked around kind of in disbelief.

We are here.

If you’ve made it all the way to the bottom here – wow. Thank you!

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for all the comments and love on Instagram and Facebook and everywhere as we made our way across the country.

We can’t thank you enough for your support of our little family.