We spend a lot of family time in the car. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t always quality time. However, a quick pit stop can fix that.

While parks are nice, you may not have the time to drive that far off the freeway. Never fear, coffee shops (like Issaquah Coffee pictured above) are great places for kids to sip a hot chocolate and unwind. Please note, espresso in kids may have the opposite effect.

This post is part of UpTake’s Wordless Wednesday Series. If you would like to see your photo featured here please contact us via the link in the sidebar using subject line: WW.

Photo: Whit Honea

Summer is winding down, but that doesn’t mean that road trips need to take a backseat. See what I did there? I know, clever.

Valero Energy Corporation and Last Exit Group have teamed up to create The All-American Road Trip website. It gives users the opportunity to plan trips and share the tales that follow them home. The site, if it says so itself, uses “eye-catching graphics, and thorough descriptions of destinations near and far. Along with detailed route maps, destination finders, driving directions, and itinerary tools, visitors will find tips, tricks, and time-savers to make planning any size trip easy and fun. Listings of local restaurants, hotels/motels, campsites, rest stops, and of course, Valero gas stations, are all at travelers’ fingertips.”

What? I think Valero showed quite a bit of restraint.

You can follow The All-American Road Trip on Facebook and Twitter. You can also follow UpTake on Facebook and Twitter, because we’re cool like that.

Enjoy the open road!

If you are going to be traveling anywhere near Los Angeles this weekend, and by near I mean San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix, then you may want to take some precautions. Things are going down in the city of angels and you do not want anything to do with it.

Seriously.

They are calling it Carmageddon, and it is the closing of the 405 freeway for a 10 mile stretch as of this evening (Friday, July 15), and opening again at 6:00 a.m. on Monday. Basically, the traffic in L.A. is going straight from the frying pan and into the fire. It happens.

Travelers trying to get to Disneyland or the beach for their family summer vacations should allow for long delays (we’re talking HOURS) and avoid the 405, I-10 and 101 (the 405 is closed between the two latter freeways). My advice? If you make it to the Disneyland Resort, just stay there. If you make it to the beach of your choice, find a hotel and ride out the weekend on surf and waves. If you need to access LAX, you are in for a very frustrating weekend. Keep smiling!

This is part of our Friday Family Vacation Series. It’s probably not our best. Hate the message not the messenger.

Photo: Atwater Village Newbie via Flickr

Do you like the butterflies? Of course you do. Fun fact, the Monarch Butterfly migrates south for the winter and then north in the spring, making it the only butterfly to do so. However, the entire migration lasts longer than the Monarch’s lifespan (about two months) so it’s a generational thing. Now that’s a family vacation.

Wikipedia has more information on their migration, flight pattern, and when and where you can see them.   My personal experience happened one morning while driving through San Diego — the freeway was covered in thousands of Monarch Butterflies. It was amazing. Sadly this was pre-smartphone and I didn’t get any photos. Just one more example of how technology has failed me.

This post is a Wordless Wednesday entry. I know I typed stuff, but to be fair, the butterfly was pretty quiet.

Photo: Donnasheets via Flickr