Road Trips Used to Be Synonymous With Fast Food

From Wyoming to Washington, my family was always one game piece short of winning a Subway Scrabble or McDonald’s Monopoly game. We found most meals spur-of-the-moment: convenient, cheap, and not a bit healthy. We would drive in and out to stay on schedule and arrive at our destination on time.

Then, my a-ha moment led me to newfangled health-focused thoughts on life. It was exciting. It was torture. CHANGE is torture. This kind of shift could create a mutiny with my mini adventure crew. Unless we made good food FUN.

The Key was the Experience

Just like reading Sandra Boynton's Moo Baa La La La to a 24 month old in your lap, or finding Richard Scary's Lowly the Worm in a Busy Town book with a kindergartner, love for an activity blossoms from the sensations attached to it.

As we started to eat at tables and not in car seats, ordered food through servers, not through windows, tasted apps not played them, one by one, I watched the children blossom.

We touched, tried, buffeted, and sampled our way through local and fresh food of the summer roadtrip regions.

My family fell in love with Flatbread (pizza) in Portland, Maine, topped with sundried tomatoes, locally grown baby spinach, and organic caramelized onions. Tentatively, we tried catfish on the outskirts of San Antonio, and it was a hands-down winner. The grass-fed hamburger enjoyed lakeside in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was unbelievable.  

Fabulous Food is Now Synonymous with Road Trip

The sense of exploration enticed my kids to abandon boxed meals served with toys.

They grew. We evolved. And they developed an appreciation for food outside of a box.

I invited them on the family trip to Italy. (Lucky kids.) There, across not-so-small undulating hills in Tuscany, we participated in an all-day bike ride + pasta-making excursion. That may or may not have included a wine tour and someone's first sip of wine.

Farm fresh foods and road trips are now embedded images of summer—just as much as the neighbor’s swimming pool. With a small maternal victory, I recently witnessed one leave their dorm room on a Saturday afternoon sporting tousled hair and flip-flops to stock up at Trader Joe's. And another texting BFF's "Sweetgreens or Chipotle?" when hanging at the mall.

Now, I shake my head and chuckle, “What were we in such a hurry for in the first place?"

Five Favorite Family + Food Pairings: Portland-to-Brunswick

1. Sticky Sweet plant based (amazing) ice cream paired with a stroll on the Eastern Promenade. Portland, Maine

2. Flatbread Pizza and watching the boats, ferries and ships in Portland Harbor. Portland, Maine

3. Deli sandwiches from Bow Street Market on the picnic tables at Leon Gorman Park. Freeport, Maine

4. The Farm Cafe at Wolfes Neck Center then a stroll to the barn. Yes, this is a campground snack shack. But don’t let that detour you… Freeport, Maine

5. The food trucks at the Brunswick Town Mall (an open space park in the center of town.) Especially Taco the Town. Brunswick, Maine

6. And while the kids might gravitate toward Ben & Jerry’s in the center of the Freeport Outlets…our family highly recommends heading a two blocks over and enjoying Li’s Place for fresh Chinese Food. Freeport, Maine

I am smiling because there are a couple that I am sure others would add onto this list. I was aiming for five, but there are clearly SIX listed! It is such a foodie-culture! Go ahead, share your favorites in the comments! Anywhere between Portland and Brunswick, Maine!