![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.myvacationpants.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Taking-the-Adventure-Route-Featured-Image-278x300.jpg?resize=448%2C483\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I am so excited to introduce my first guest post writer. \u00a0My husband, Phil, is pretty much the smartest human I know. He has been my editor on many of my writing adventures for about 20 years now. \u00a0I have shared with you how we are a family that travels on one income because we wanted our children to be with a parent instead of being raised by someone other than us. \u00a0My husband is a stay at home Dad and has been one since my daughter was born in 2008. \u00a0He is an amazing one at that. \u00a0In this first post by him, you will see the backstory to our whole traveling philosophy. Read on to find out how you too can choose to take The Adventure Route. Enjoy.<\/p>\n
By Phil Vecchio<\/p>\n
When I was a kid, my dad used to take me and my brothers hiking a lot.\u00a0 The love of hiking he instilled in me has endured, and it is still one of my favorite things to do with my own kids.\u00a0 However, it wasn\u2019t just the passion he had for the outdoors, or his love for sharing his knowledge of nature with us, that made it so enjoyable (although those were important aspects as well).\u00a0 I think the biggest thing that made me love hiking is that my dad has always known how to find fun and adventure.<\/p>\n Hiking can be great fun, but sometimes, as a kid, hiking can seem like a chore.\u00a0 It\u2019s not always cliffs and waterfalls.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s long treks through the same flat forest, and that can get boring.\u00a0 That\u2019s when my dad would find an adventure route.\u00a0 We\u2019d come up to a long, straight, dull part of the path, and he\u2019d ask us kids, \u201cDo you guys want to take the regular path, or The Adventure Route?\u201d The Adventure Route isn\u2019t just a great trick to motivate kids to keep walking, it\u2019s a life lesson and a great travel tool.\u00a0 We often use this in our vacation planning.\u00a0 If the freeway is the most direct path, I\u2019ll check out a map and find an alternative route to our destination.\u00a0 Sure, it may take a little while longer to get there, but who knows what adventures we may find along the way?\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s a cool little restaurant, or a small museum, or a pretty park, or a beautiful vista.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t believe some of the great things we\u2019ve discovered just by getting off the beaten path.<\/p>\n This works great when doing touristy things too.\u00a0 Maybe, instead of seeing the biggest monument, you could visit a smaller attraction.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 You might just avoid the crowds and see something truly unique. As much as we all love to travel, most of us have to spend the majority of our lives not on vacation.\u00a0 But The Adventure Route still works.<\/p>\n Do you have a commute, or maybe drive the kids to school and back?\u00a0 Driving the same way over and over again can be mind-numbing.\u00a0 Try The Adventure Route!\u00a0 I try to go a different way each time I drive back and forth, even if it\u2019s as simple as driving past our street and coming to our house from the next block up.\u00a0 It keeps things interesting, and I am constantly noticing things I never knew were there, even in my own home town. So have some adventures this week.\u00a0 Whether you have kids or not, approaching life with adventure in mind makes things so much more fun.\u00a0 And the next time you travel, go a different way.\u00a0 When you\u2019re on The Adventure Route, you never know what you might find.<\/p>\n Oh, and one more thing:\u00a0 If you do take The Adventure Route, let us know in the comments about the adventure you have.\u00a0 We\u2019d love to hear all about it!<\/p>\n Follow My Vacation Pants on Social Media:<\/p>\n Instagram:\u00a0https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/myvacationpants\/<\/a> I am so excited to introduce my first guest post writer. \u00a0My husband, Phil, is pretty much the smartest human I know. He has been my editor on many of my writing adventures for about 20 years now. \u00a0I have shared with you how we are a family that travels on one income because we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42],"tags":[80,81,89,93,95,104,105,108,131,132,135,136,150,159,160,161,162,163,169],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-vacation-shorts","tag-adventure","tag-adventure-route","tag-budget-travel","tag-cheap-travel","tag-dad","tag-fathers","tag-fathers-day","tag-hiking","tag-parenting","tag-parenting-advice","tag-relax","tag-relaxation","tag-stay-at-home-dads","tag-travel","tag-travel-advice","tag-travel-blog","tag-travel-tips","tag-traveling-with-children","tag-vacation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p87NkQ-cy","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/myvacationpants.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.myvacationpants.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/phil-backpack-300x225.jpg?resize=477%2C358\")
\nLike any kids with any shred of imagination, we\u2019d always pick The Adventure Route.\u00a0 Then, my dad would lead us off-road on a windy course, ducking under trees, or clambering across boulders, or hopping on rocks in the middle of a stream.\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually, I came to realize that this wasn\u2019t some magical path that he had discovered, but really just a creative way to get us kids excited to keep moving forward.\u00a0 But knowing this didn\u2019t take away from the adventure, it just made me appreciate my dad\u2019s creativity all the more.\u00a0 I understand now, as an adult, that The Adventure Route is all about the attitude with which you approach your journey.<\/p>\nTaking The Adventure Route on Vacation<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.myvacationpants.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Hiking-with-Dad-2-300x169.jpg?resize=455%2C256\")
\nSometimes, taking The Adventure Route is less about actually moving, and more about how you approach a difficult situation.\u00a0 One time on vacation, we were accidentally booked into a hotel room with only a double bed, and no other options were offered.\u00a0 Our kids couldn\u2019t fit in it with us if we wanted them to.\u00a0 So, we took two of the chairs in the room, pushed them together, and with a little creativity made a little bed-like structure that our kids could sleep on.\u00a0 Instead of griping about the situation, which wouldn\u2019t have helped, we told the kids, \u201cLook, this hotel room has a super secret bed, just for kids!\u201d\u00a0 They loved it!\u00a0 By taking The Adventure Route in a frustrating situation, we made a negative into a positive.\u00a0 Now, whenever we stay in a hotel, the kids love to make \u201cspecial kid beds\u201d from chairs, couch cushions, spare pillows, and anything else they can find in the room.<\/p>\nTaking The Adventure Route, Even When You\u2019re Not On Vacation<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.myvacationpants.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Hiking-with-Dad-3-300x169.jpg?resize=486%2C274\")
\nThe Adventure Route is great for breaking up the daily routine as well.\u00a0 Try eating dinner in a different room of the house each night for a week.\u00a0 Or let the kids brush their teeth using the hose in the backyard.\u00a0 In the summer, when it\u2019s warm enough, we sometimes bring our sleeping bags out to the backyard and sleep on the trampoline, under the stars.\u00a0 The Adventure Route is all about doing the unexpected and making the mundane into something exciting.<\/p>\n
\nFacebook:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/myvacationpants\/<\/a>
\nTwitter:\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/myvacationpants<\/a>
\nYouTube:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/myvacationpants<\/a>
\nPinterest:\u00a0https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/vecchio100\/my-vacation-pants\/<\/a>
\nInquiries: myvactionpants@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"