Part IV – San Antonio Trip – Lessons Learned
Overall, it was a good trip. We all had a great time. But there were some points that should be noted:
1. Use the cone of silence. Plan for quiet time, particularly through major cities and heavy traffic. Girls could read, whisper, listen to music, anything but talk loudly and giggle. If anyone was asleep, the cone might last a little longer.
2. Impose bathroom breaks. Our schedule included break stops about every hour and a half. At each stop, I made the girls go to the bathroom, despite protests of “I don’t have to go”. I would tell them to just try. This really is a safety issue. This rule got broken and we ended up looking for a bathroom on a stretch of lonely state highway with only a few biker bars along it – and it was getting dark. Needless to say, we had to hold it until we reached our destination.
3. Watch out for the oil and the water. Some personalities just don’t mix well. I made the big mistake of putting two opposing personalities into the same bedroom for sleeping arrangements and things got pretty ugly at one point.
4. Stick to your agenda. I didn’t keep things moving along while we were on the Riverwalk, and, as a result, we had do drop some things off the back end of the day. While some girls were okay with the flexibility, others were not. Don’t let the cute little jewelry stalls lead you astray. I should have stopped and informed the group when we started falling behind and let the group help drive our time.
However, sometimes those plans get changed for you. We were shocked when we saw the huge line outside the Witte. There was no way we were going to get in that evening. So we had to turn around and re-write plans on the fly.
5. Be sure to have down time. By afternoon of day three, most of us were worn out. We had been to the San Juan mission and were supposed to go the Market Square for some site seeing and shopping. Instead, I gathered the group and asked them if they would like to change plans and go back to the house for a break. We were lucky to have a place where those of us who needed to could rest, while the others had plenty to do outside. That evening, with our spirits restored, we had a great evening without bickering.
6. You don’t have to be a group all the time. When you have a large group (12) of people confinded together for a while, the personalities start to clash. Some time in smaller groups (with their friends) is a necessity to diffuse tempers. For instance, we had to stick together on the Riverwalk, but when we were at the mall section, the girls broke into groups of three and went shopping with an adult. At the same time, make sure you have some group activities so that the girls have time to bond, rather than click. After our big shopping day, half the group did make overs on the other half. Adults got to ooh and awe over the big transformations. Everyone had a great time.
7. Give them eight hours of sleep – no quarter given. I wanted to let the girls have lots of fun, which – once we got some ground rules understood – we did. But come night time, I had to turn into the big bad witch. I HATE that. This is probably one of my biggest Lessons Learned. Every major clash we had was caused by a lack of sleep. From now on – no matter where we go – we start bedtime activities on time – no excuses. They get some settling down time after going to bed (30 minutes) and then mouths are closed. Next time, I’ll have the curfew breakers do all the dishes the next day or ground them from activities.
Despite the few hiccups, mainly caused by a group of diverse people suddenly living together, the trip was a success. And I learned a lot for the next time. We are already starting to plan for our next big adventure to Disney World (three years from now).
