Travel Games: Kid Tested, Uncle Approved

Traveling to Tucson with 5 kids, I wanted to be prepared with plenty of offline activities. Here's a handful of games that we brought and how they faired among the kids.

Kariba: Winner! Shira and I walked into Labyrinth Games & Puzzles in DC and said: we need an easy to travel with game that 5 kids--pre-teens to teens--are going to love, what do you got? Without missing a beat, they pointed us to Kariba. And they nailed it. Kariba is fast to learn and fun to play. It requires enough thinking to be engaging, but it's not so intensive that you can't kibbitz about other things while playing. It was a hit.

Bandido: Good, maybe great. Bandido is another compact card game. This one is cooperative and is a "route building game"; a form of game that was new to us. We have yet to beat the game, and so we haven't had the thrill of winning yet. But, that's probably a good thing as we've played this only a few times and it's cooperative so it should be tricky. This game is probably more suitable for older kids who are interested sticking with a challenge. Still, it's compact and clever, so perfect to travel with.

Lucky Doug 12-in-1 STEM Solar Robot Kit: DO NOT BUY. Don't do it. Trust me. Don't buy this. This isn't a game, but I figured building a robot would be a fun way to keep the kids occupied. Alas, this kit is a disaster. We spent the first 30 minutes of the building process unclipping tiny plastic pieces and putting them in tiny plastic bags; all the while imagining that we'd surely lost or damanged one of the tiny plastic pieces. When we finally got to building stage, we found the instructions complex and the pieces impossibly finiky. If you're an adult who likes to build complex puzzles, or a masochist in general, then enjoy. But yeah, this is not a kids toy.

Mate: Clever, unique, and accessible. Mate is card game played with a standard deck of cards that is a sort of distant cousin to chess. Mate, like chess, is a "game of perfect information: both players know the location of all cards from the start." This was a great game to experiment with when I had one on one time with the kids. We didn't play it enough to get out of the awkward learning phase, but I've added it to my offline games repository, so I hope to keep playing it. I love that you get to sharpen the skills involved in chess but in a more portable package.

Snip Snap Snorem: quick, all-ages fun. We didn't play this card game this trip because I'd forgotten about it, but in the past it was a staple. It was especially useful in restuarants when the kids got antsy and we were waiting for our food. I've added this to my offline games list so I'll have it at the ready in the future.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Kids loved it, I was utterly confused. Early in the trip, J took out his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and asked if he could teach us to play. We were all psyched to give it a go. Within seconds of him explaining what was going on, I was lost. To my surprise, the other kids were totally tracking. The thing is, it wasn't that J was bad at explaining things; there's just a heap of new concepts that you need to hold in your head at once, and my brain wasn't having it. Consider this how-to play page. It starts off gentle enough, explaining:

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is played in turns that follow a specific order of operations. To begin a duel, the decks are shuffled and each player draws an opening hand of five cards.

OK, fair enough. That makes sense. But then, in the very next set of instructions, it becomes overwhelming:

In this phase, you make most of your non-combat actions. These include the normal summon/set of one monster (in face-up attack position or face-down defense position respectively), any special summons you are allowed, the activation/setting of spells and traps, and changing battle positions of your monsters, including flip-summoning facedown defending monsters into the face-up attack position.

Wait, what? That second sentance contains like 8 different operations you can perform. Mind. Blown.

What I need to do is hire a 10 year old to coach me to success. Just you wait kids, next year I'll be flip-summoning monsters in attack position in no time!

Tucson Adventure - Day 9

[Composed: July 13, 2023, High in Tucson: 106°F ]

The last day of our Tucson Adventure went off without a hitch. We delivered J to his Mom and caught our flight from Jacksonville without incident. Arriving in DCA, we were pleased to learn that our DFW delayed luggage had beat us home. When we got to the baggage claim area, our two bags were parked off to the side, waiting for us. See, I explained to Shira, it was a good thing that our bags were delayed in Dallas: it meant we didn't need to schlep them from Tampa to Jacksonville (Shira did not appreciate my gratitude gaming of the situation).

As we walked into our home, we finally breathed a sigh of relief. We'd done it: we'd gotten the 5 kids from their respective homes to Tucson, had an amazing adventure in Tucson and gotten everyone home in one piece. We'd avoided sunburns, heat exhaustion, spider bites and even most cactus spines (sorry D)!

Looking back at our trip, it was clearly crazy to visit Tucson in the dead of summer. And yet, it totally worked. There were two factors more than anything else that made this trip such a success.

First, the vacation rental home was ideal. It was spacious enough so the kids could spread out during the day and not feel like they were stepping on top of each other. More than the house itself, the location was key as it was essentially in Saguaro National Park. This meant that we didn't need to go any further than our backyard or even the home's picture window to be face to face with an amazing landscape. Having such effortless access to the desert meant that even though the temps were high, we could still be immersed in unique flora and fauna. And finally, the pool was legendary, giving the kids and adults a heat friendly activity that everyone relished.

The other primary factor that made our trip work was letting go of the normal expectations for visiting such an outdoor friendly location. Normally, for a location such as this, I'd want to spend every minute hiking and exploring nature. But with temps well over 100°F every day, this just wasn't possible. So we had to get creative and find either indoor activities or outdoor activities that we could do in short bursts. This creativity lead to some really fun experiences.

Next year, we'll no doubt try to select a cooler location to take the kids. But Tucson, even with its insane temps, was a winner. 10 out of 10, would recommend.

Tucson Adventure - Day 8

[Composed: July 12, 2023, High in Tucson: 100°F ]

This morning we were up, out of the Airbnb and standing in line at the airport to drop off our luggage by 8:15am. We boarded our flight to Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) with plenty of time and had a relaxing flight to Texas. Flying through DFW on the way out to Tucson required that we sprint from one terminal to another, leaving just minutes to spare. This time, we not only had plenty of time but were arriving and leaving from the same gate and plane.

As you can see from the pic below, we used our the layover to taste-test some prickly pear cactus candy. Yum!

Our flight from DFW to Tampa seemed uneventful. However, while flying Shira checked the status of our luggage and found that it was still in DFW. I assured her this was just a lag in the status update and that surely the airline didn't miss transferring our bags when they had so much time to do so.

When we landed in Tampa we found out, sure enough, that for the second time this trip DFW had eaten our bags. The main complication was that of the six bags, three needed to remain in Tampa, two needed to be forwarded to DCA and one needed to be forwarded to Jacksonville. It took a bit of explanation, but Shira got it all sorted out.

When our bags were delayed flying out to Tucson, I tried to think about the lessons I should learn from this. Should I be bringing a change of clothes or toiletries in my carry-on? Should I give up on checking bags and insist we all fly one bag style? I decided at the time that, no, I didn't need to make any changes to how I packed. I figured losing luggage was such an infrequent occurance, why bother?

So now that both legs of our journey resulted in delayed luggage, I again find myself asking: what should I be doing differently? Surely, I need to respect that anytime there's a layover there's an increased chance our bags will be delayed. But ultimately, I'd had the essentials--medication, mouthguard, USB charger--in my carry-on as is recommended. It only took a quick trip to Walmart to stock up on other supplies we needed. Heck, the hotel probably would have given us toothbrushes and toothpaste if we'd asked and we could have probably skipped the Walmart trip.

As long as I'm honest with myself and don't attempt to stash essentials in my checked bag, which you're never supposed to do, than I think it's safe to live like a wild man and hand my bags over to the airline. I've dabbled in the one bag lifestyle and for the majority of travel we do the Internet points you score for traveling with a single bag are far outweighed by the convienience of just taking what you need and having the airlines shlep it for you. More than that, it didn't take long for me to gratitude game this whole ordeal and come up with the fact that I appreciate the opportunity to improvise for a night or two without bags. Staying flexible and problem solving when the stakes are low is great practice for what may be more more serious challenges in the future.

Waving to the Tampa crew as they drove off in their minivan was bittersweet. On one hand, we were sorry that our adventure with the kids was over. On the other, we'd safely delivered the kids back to their parents--sunburn free no less--and had a fantastic time in Tucson.

Our travel experience, however, wasn't quite over. We had to deliver J to Jacksonville and fly back to DCA ourselves. Onward!

Tucson Adventure - Day 7

[Composed: July 11, 2023, High in Tucson: 105°F ]

I regularly lecture impart Sage Uncle-Based Wisdom to the kids that part of traveling involves leaving your comfort zone. Whether it's going to new places or trying new food, we should seize the opportunity to try something different, even when our first reaction is: yuck, no thank you! And so it was this morning, the last full day of our Tucson Adventure, that I was asked to take a dose of my own medicine. Instead of waking up before sunrise and heading out on a multi-hour drive like I wanted to, Shira had me do the unthinkable: we slept in. It was rough, and I didn't love it, but I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to give it a try.

In fairness to Shira, it was nice starting the day without a clock hanging over our heads. Today we had a casual day planned: we'd swim in the pool, clean up our Airbnb, hit up an escape room and if all went well, we'd close out the evening with a short hike at sunset time.

The slow start afforded us a novel opportunity: we had the time to find, prepare and eat the fruit that dot so many of the saguaro cacti in the area. The fruit are positioned at the top of the cactus' arms, which typically grow to be 40ft tall. Fortunately, one of the cacti on our Airbnb's property grew in a twisted fashion so we could pick its fruit with ease.

The kids then helped me use a lighter to burn off the tiny spines on the fruit which ward off predators. Finally, T scraped out the red-seed filled bounty onto a plate where we could all try a spoonful. Bottoms up!

We all tried the fruit (hurray for leaving our comfort zone!), and none of us were particularly impressed. I found the taste to be pretty neutral. It wasn't bad, and I enjoyed adding it to my cream cheese and bagel, but it also wasn't anything special. For the natives living in this area, I'm quite sure these fruit were an invaluable and tasty resource.

More than the taste, the fruit made me appreciate just how in tune the saguaro cactus is with its environment. The saguaro, like other plants, needs to defend itself from creatures big and small. At the same time, it needs these same creatures to do the critical work of spreading its seeds to fulfill its mission in life: make baby saguaro cacti. The solution to these extremes is ingenious. The cacti, including the fruit are covered in gnarly spines which keep wildlife at bay. When the seeds are ready for distribution, the fruit burst open, displaying a bright read, spine free, irresistible feast for bird and man alike.

After an epic dip in the pool, we headed off to an activity T had suggested (and I had initially hemmed and hawed over): an escape room. We picked Ace of Escape's Six Shooter Bunk House Escape, which turned out to be the perfect choice. This was the first time the Tampa kids had done an escape room, and it could easily have been a high stress endeavor (are we really locked in a room??). Ace of Escape has found the right balance of making this a challenge without inducing anxiety. They made it clear you could leave the room anytime you wanted (say, for a bathroom break), they offer gentle clues to keep players moving and they even let me snap a few pics in the room to capture the moment.

I went into the escape room experience 100% sure that Shira and I would have to carry the kids. Sure, we'd let the kids put the combination in the lock or turn the key, but the real work would be done by adults.

Yeah, no. Not even a little bit. First of all, this was not J's first escape room and I found him zipping through the clues. At one point, I found myself saying: J--slow down--how did you know to enter that code?! C, D and T quickly got on board and all had successes of their own. I solved a puzzle or two, but I was definitely a small contributor to our success. The kids absolutely carried the day.

We busted out of the escape room with 13:04 to go! We received a few hints, but most of them were along the lines of: you're doing the right thing, just try doing it again. We were proud that we found the loot and solved the mystery. This experience, and Ace of Escape in general, are absolutely recommended. If you find yourself in Tucson and it's too hot for outdoor activities, Ace of Escape is a winner.

We closed out our last day in Tucson with a short hike to Signal Hill in Saguaro National Park. The hike takes you by some impressive petroglyphs, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but left the rest of the crowd unimpressed. I would have liked to hike many more miles, but even at 6pm it was still well over 100°F, so keeping the hike short was reasonable. Catching one last view of endless desert was special and was a fitting way to close out our trip.

On the way home, we got a bonus treat: a deer bolted across the road. We stopped and got out to take pics. This was the first time D had seen a deer in the wild, so he was psyched.