Taking Our ND Son to Milwaukee — Here’s How We’re Planning It Differently 💛
We have been taking Lance to Reds road trips for a while now.
And somewhere along the way, something shifted. We stopped planning trips and hoping he’d come along for the ride — and started planning trips that were actually built for him.
Here’s the part I didn’t expect: we ended up loving them more too.
Why Sports and Music Trips Work for Us
We started doing sports and music trips specifically because Lance enjoys them. The structure of a game or a concert gives the whole trip an anchor. There’s a thing we’re going to. There’s a time it starts. There’s a reason we’re in this city.
For a neurodiverse traveler, that kind of built-in structure is genuinely useful. But what surprised me is how much Jamie and I benefit from it too. When the trip has a center of gravity, everything else just falls into place around it.
And the other thing — the thing I wasn’t expecting — is that we’ve started genuinely enjoying the parts of the trip we originally planned for Lance. Not just tolerating them. Actually loving them.
Turns out planning for someone else’s joy has a way of sneaking up on you.
The Hotel: Predictable on Purpose
We booked the Hilton Garden Inn Milwaukee Downtown. Walkable, central, familiar brand.
I know some people chase the most interesting boutique hotel in every city. And I get it — I really do. But for us, the Hilton family of hotels has a consistency that actually matters. Lance knows roughly what to expect when we walk through the door. That’s not a boring choice. That’s a smart one.
Downtown location means once we park, we’re done driving. That alone removes a whole layer of logistical stress.
The Food Strategy: This Is the One People Skip
We scope out two things before every Reds trip: what’s near the stadium, and what’s near where we’re staying.
Near Great American Ball Park, we have our go-to spots — the Cincinnati Lager House, the Yard House. Places we’ve been enough times that we know exactly what we’re getting. But some of our favorite meals happen away from the ballpark entirely, in the neighborhoods near our hotel. In Cincinnati, the streetcar line opens up so many great options it’s almost not fair.
We apply that same approach everywhere we go. Before Milwaukee, I’m already looking at what’s walkable from the Hilton Garden Inn downtown and what we can get to easily from there. Milwaukee actually has its own streetcar — The Hop — so we’re already planning to use it.
Here’s why all of this matters more than it sounds.
Lance needs a schedule. Breakfast at a reasonable hour, dinner at an expected time. When we don’t plan this out, we end up stuffed from a big ballpark lunch at 1pm, and by the time dinner rolls around nobody wants the amazing restaurant we had bookmarked — so we end up with takeout in the hotel room. Which is fine. But it’s not a memory.
Breakfast is actually the easiest part. We always look for hotels with complimentary breakfast — it’s one of the reasons we love Hampton Inns — because it solves the whole morning scheduling problem in one move. Lance gets breakfast at a consistent time, we’re not making decisions before we’ve had coffee, and nobody starts the day stressed.
Dinner we actually plan ahead. We know where we’re going before we get there. Not a rigid reservation-for-everything situation — just a real answer when someone asks “where are we eating tonight” that isn’t “I don’t know, let’s figure it out.”
And then there’s the pizza rule.
Local pizza is always somewhere in the plan. In Cincinnati, that means LaRosa’s delivered to the hotel room — especially if we’re staying two nights and need an easy night-before or post-game option. In every other city, we find whoever does it best there. It’s predictable enough that nobody panics, but you still get to try something new. Lance is in. Jamie is in. I am very in. Finding the local pizza is now just a thing we do on Road trips, and I fully support this tradition.
The Game Day Plan
What time are we arriving? Which gate? Where are we sitting? What’s the food situation inside the park?
I used to kind of wing these things. Now I have answers before we leave the house. Knowing the plan ahead of time means Lance isn’t getting information for the first time while we’re standing in a parking lot. That small shift makes the whole day run differently.
For this one we chose to sit in section 222. The photos from the seats look great and a good view of our team.
We Still Sprinkle In What We Want
Planning for Lance first doesn’t mean Jamie and I don’t get a trip. It means we figure out what works for him — and then build the rest around that foundation.
And in this case, it’s hard to go wrong. This is our first time in Milwaukee. We are excited about everything. The food, the city, the ballpark, whatever we stumble into on the way from the hotel. First-timer energy is genuinely one of my favorite things about road trips — you don’t know enough yet to have expectations, so everything is just a discovery.
That’s a good feeling. I’m not taking it for granted.
What I’d Tell Other Families
You don’t have to overhaul your whole approach to travel. You just have to plan one layer deeper.
Know the food situation before you arrive. Have the hotel figured out. Build in structure where it helps — and breathing room everywhere else.
And if you’re traveling with someone who needs a predictable rhythm to the day, try anchoring the trip around something they genuinely love. You might be surprised how much you end up loving it too.
If you want a tool that helps you track all of this — the logistics, the meal planning, the game-day details — that’s exactly what the Away Game Planner is for.
If you travel with a neurodiverse person and you’ve found something that actually works — drop it in the comments. I’m still figuring this out too. We all are.
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⭐Our Sonic Temple Ritual (And How We Keep It Manageable)
Every family ends up with a few rituals that become “their thing.”
For some families it’s camping trips.
For others it’s holidays or annual vacations.
For us, one of those rituals has become music festivals.
Most recently, that ritual has taken us to Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival here in Columbus. On paper, a rock festival probably sounds like an unusual family tradition.
Thousands of people.
Loud music.
Long days.
But somehow, it’s become one of the ways my youngest son and I connect the most.
One if our favorite traditions: Live music together.
We’ve gone together a few times now. Once with my husband, a couple of times with friends, and now we’re starting to build our own rhythm for the festival.
Recently I asked him something I’ve wondered about for a while.
I asked if there were things we should be doing to make the festival easier for him.
His answer surprised me.
He said he doesn’t really need strategies.
He said that when he’s at a music festival, he actually feels alive.
He said he feels like himself there.
That moment stopped me for a second.
Because sometimes as a parent, you spend a lot of time trying to manage environments, reduce stress, and make sure everything is set up in a way that works for your kids.
But sometimes the environment itself is what makes everything click.
It reminded me of something I’ve been learning about travel lately — it’s not always about where you go, but what it gives back to you.
Why Midweek Baseball Trips Matter More Than They Should — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
Some Places Just Fit
He told me he feels the same way at sporting events.
There’s something about the shared energy of a crowd that feels natural to him.
Everyone is there for the same reason.
The music.
The game.
The excitement.
Nobody is trying to be anything other than what they are in that moment.
And that made something else click for me.
It explains why these experiences end up being some of our best connection time.
At sporting events you’re mostly sitting and watching. You can talk a little, but the focus is on the field.
Music festivals are different.
There’s a lot of space between the big moments.
You wander between stages.
You grab food.
You sit for a while.
You talk.
The day has a rhythm to it.
And somewhere inside all that movement and music, we end up having some of our best conversations.
This is the same feeling we’ve noticed in other trips too — especially the ones where we slow down enough to actually be present together.
Why Couples Should Travel Together: Travel as Relationship Maintenance — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
Limp Bizkit performing at Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival. One of the moments that reminded us why live music is such an incredible experience.
Keeping the Day Manageable
Even though the festival itself feels natural to him, I’ve still learned that a little planning makes the whole experience smoother.
Before we go, I always check the festival guidelines so we know exactly what we can bring and how things need to be packaged. Avoiding issues at the gate keeps the day from starting with stress.
I bring the basics that make long outdoor days easier:
• refillable water bottles
• sunscreen
• comfortable bags
• portable phone chargers
Over the years we’ve also learned the value of a home base.
Lockers have been surprisingly helpful because they give us a place to stash things and regroup during the day. By the end of the night, they also become a familiar spot to return to before heading out with the crowds.
This year we’re trying something new.
We decided to get VIP passes.
Not because we need anything fancy, but because the idea of having a calmer space to sit and reset between sets sounded like it might make the whole day even more enjoyable.
Sometimes the smallest adjustments make the biggest difference.
Joy Works Best When It’s Natural
What I realized during that conversation with my son is that not every experience needs to be managed into something enjoyable.
Sometimes the right environment does that on its own.
When you find the places where someone feels comfortable being themselves, the energy shifts.
The day becomes easier.
The conversations come naturally.
And the memories tend to stick.
For us, music festivals somehow landed in that category.
I may joke that I’m getting a little old to stand in a stadium all day, but there’s something about the music, the crowd, and the rhythm of the festival that keeps bringing us back.
At this point, it’s not just an event.
It’s one of our rituals.
And those are the experiences that often end up mattering the most.
Planning a Festival Visit
Over the years we’ve learned a few small things that make festival days easier.
If you're planning a visit to Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival, these basics help keep the day smooth:
• Comfortable shoes
• Refillable water bottle
• Small backpack or sling bag
• Portable phone charger
• Sunscreen and a hat
• A meeting spot in case you get separated
The goal isn’t to pack everything.
The goal is to pack enough that the day stays easy.
A Question I Ask Before Every Trip
Before planning any experience now, I ask myself one simple question:
Where do I feel most like myself?
When the answer is clear, planning becomes easier.
And the joy usually follows.
If you enjoy travel that feels a little more personal — less pressure, more connection — I share more of that in my weekly emails.