How Our Donut Road Trip Made Me Awesome
Some links may be affiliate links. We may get paid if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these.
Donut!? Donuts plural?! Donut Road Trip? With one of my homeschool besties? Um…you had me at DONUT! Donut say anything more – my two favorite worlds merging – food and homeschool – donut you know me at all? There is no question about it! We’re going! And we went! And it was everything I dreamed it would be.
This post is giving you our actual Donut Road Trip. You can use this as your guide to create your own in your town for donuts, or whatever other kind of food or special interest you or your children have. We offer other suggestions on our Road Trip podcast series, part 4, Real Road Trip Itineraries and Ideas.
Donut Stops Day 1
Stop 1: Peterson’s Donut Corner
First, we met at Peterson’s Donut Corner, Escondido – an institution - with our hubbies at 10 AM. We wore our matching donut leggings (kids and adults) and t-shirts, and I wore my donut Mickey ears of course! We handed out the kids’ homemade tote bags with their donut clipboard, Yummy Activity Book, pencil case with colored pencils, donut stickers, and a cute little donut lip-gloss squeezy keychain. Jessica introduced the Bag O’ Fun and their 25 page Yummy Activity Book, and us proud moms watched our kids go straight to work enthusiastically on their first assignment – The Donut Survey. We explained how our taste-testing would work – that at each place we will buy the same donut, our Control Donut…and then of course we can try the special donuts at each spot too. Our hubbies LOVED our awesomeness and thanked us profusely for being the most fun homeschool moms ever! After our photo session, we kissed our hubbies goodbye and were on our way to our next stop.
Throughout the two days of driving, we utilized our Donut Fun Bag, the educational Yummy Activity Book with their clipboard, and donut songs to enjoy the drive, grow minds and form memories together.
Stop 2: The Donut Bar
Our next stop was a donut chain, The Donut Bar, Temecula. We actually prefer the one in downtown San Diego, but since this was really close, we thought this a great option – their Unicorn Donut is my whimsical favorite. And…it’s an actual bar! Can we Uber the rest of this trip, because these creatively fun drinks are too cute to pass up!?! This donut shop is a great bathroom stop, because you can still dance to their killer music list inside the spacious bathroom stall when accompanying your little one. But seriously, they sell $1 Donut Bar buttons, which was super rewarding for the kids to be able to pin to their donut tote bags. The problem with this location is that they closed at 1 PM that day, and by the time we got there, most of their donuts had sold-out. I donut know how I missed that detail in my planning! So, check your day’s closing time and that will determine if they will make a bigger supply of donuts. Since they didn’t have the “Control” donuts we needed, we had to settle for some other dumpy, boring donut shop down the street to pop in and grab our control donuts. But, at least we got to use the bathroom and dance to “Push-It” by Salt-n-Pepa.
TIP: Most donut shops do not have bathrooms, so make sure you pick at least one stop that has a bathroom.
Stop 3: The Donut Hole
Now, the mother of all donut shops…The Donut Hole, La Puente. It actually gave birth to us – I’m not kidding. We were born again into donut heaven after driving through this hole. We loved it so much, we had to drive-through twice. Airhead Rainbow donuts, Hot Cheetos donuts, Fruit Loop donuts, croissant sandwich donuts, dare I stop? So many crazy combos…and they still had the Control donuts! I seriously cannot say anything but good things about this stop – because obviously it was my favorite. And the donuts were delicious. We ate them at the In-and-Out that’s right next to the freeway exit after we enjoyed our burgers and french-fries. The Donut Hole is only a drive-through, and there’s no place to sit to eat them on location. I don’t allow children to eat in my van…yes, I’m a homeschool mom with a van, but my van does not need to smell like I’m a homeschool mom with a van. This was our last stop before our LACMA, The Grove, and The Original Farmer’s Market excursions – which we all loved and wished we had more time to enjoy them (start road trip at 8:00 AM next time!). But, let’s get back to the donuts.
Donut Stops Day 2
The next morning, we lounged our breakfast in the cabana-ish outdoor lounge at our hotel, enjoyed learning and playing the donut board game, conducted our Day 1 taste-test using our soggy and not-so-fresh Control Donuts, and ate some delicious bacon and grocery food. (Make sure you make time to perform the taste-test the same day – like at the third donut shop to avoid the stale smooshiness that we experienced.) After we checked-out, we spent almost 3 hours at the La Brea Tar Pits. Those outside pools of asphalt seemed quite prehistorically Armageddony to me…Interesting fact that many donut know - the tar pits are actually asphalt! I digress, because it was simply crazy. After the life-changing magic of watching bubbling asphalt, we hopped in the car to experience the most iconic donut shop of our time…
Stop 4: Randy’s Donuts
You know, the one in Inglewood with the giant donut on the roof? The one, in my opinion, that basically inspired the intro for The Simpsons…And, I totally felt safe. As the planes flew directly overhead, I thought about all those pilots looking down at me saying, “Those lucky homeschool kids – getting to ride such a rad road trip on a school day!!!” As my son yelled out “Alaskan Airlines!” and “That’s Southwest!” I stood in line wishing I could buy the Randy’s base-ball tee and a matching one for my fellow travelers. But, alas, I figured one donut t-shirt and one pair of insane donut leggings was good enough. Really, the whole reason I was super excited about Randy’s was the perfect photo opp of the giant donut. However, all of this paled when I tasted my most favorite donut of all time…the Raise Glazed, Chocolate Frosted, Fruity Pebbles Donut! I was at first super bummed that it was chocolate frosted instead of strawberry frosted – but, as I tell people all the time before I give advice… “You don’t know what you don’t know, so let me tell you…” And it’s totally true. Chocolate frosting with fruity pebbles was seriously the best!
TIP: If you have a napping baby, it’s perfect because the stand is in the parking lot and so we just left the car and air running and rotated moms so our littlest one of the five kids could get his beauty sleep.
Stop 5: Sidecar Donuts
The goal for the next stop was lunch, donuts, and kombucha – and Sidecar Donuts in Costa Mesa was perfectly situated for lunch. There are about 5-6 really great restaurant options right in its strip mall and across the street. We chose Mi Casa – because, nothing beats home-cooked Mexican…and since I’m not Mexican and I can’t cook, a restaurant is the closest thing I get to home-cooked Mexican food. This place is completely geared for kids – free Pac-Man the joy-stick way, wiki-sticks, coloring kid menus, and a bathroom. When I asked them if their taco shells were pre-fried like Taco-Bell…the waitress adamantly and gutterly retorted, “No! Not at Mi Casa!” And I swear she almost spit on the ground and stomped it out with her foot…and even though she didn’t do that, I did feel secure that the taco shell was fried in-house by the Mi Casa chef. Needless to say, it was delicious and our tummies were full. Sidecar was right next door, the most stylish of all our stops for sure, and was serving Kombucha! What?!?! Actually, I knew they did and had been pining over it all day, in anticipation of my favorite drink. In my thoughtfulness, I told Jessica to “go ahead” and she ordered her donuts and Kombucha. Then it was my turn. And there was no Kombucha left! My gasp rattled all the windows, and I nearly fell over. Jessica caught me in my trust fall, and she happily offered to share with me, but in my selflessness, I opted for the delicious iced tea – which they gave me for free since my jaw-dropping reaction was probably payment enough. I don’t even remember what donuts I bought at this place, because I’m still getting over the shock.
Stop 6: Krispy Kreme
The last place was one of our detour places, because we originally wanted to go to Baked Bear in Encinitas for donut ice cream sandwiches. But it was getting late and we had eaten like over two dozen donuts collectively at this point – we didn’t want to overload on sugar. So, we opted for a donut at the educational donut place, Krispy Krème, Mission Viejo (off Oso Parkway on the 5 freeway). What I absolutely love about this location is that we can all watch the donuts actually being made! They make donuts in the morning and then again in the evening as needed, so if you want to see the factory in action, you need to go there 6-10 am or 5-9 pm (call to confirm your location’s schedule). And, they have those super cute hats to wear. I spoke with the manager there and he said that if you call ahead of time, you can actually get a tour and see how they jelly fill, sprinkle, and who knows what else! I almost wish we had started with this one, gotten a tour, and worked our way up the opposite way for the road trip…something to consider if you live in Orange County or San Diego. But, the nice thing about this place is it has lots of tables for finishing your Yummy Activity Book and finishing your taste-test! This location has a decent bathroom as well that is not likely frequented by street folk, and our Control Donuts were stocked.
TIP: When considering your Control Donut, check the menus ahead of time for each donut stop to confirm that they sell your Control Donut. We had pink frosting with rainbow sprinkles and also an Old Fashioned as our Control Donuts. Only a few places sold either of these, which made it more difficult for the taste-testing assignment.
After this last one, we drove home and my kids excitedly shared their experiences and their Yummy workbook with their daddy. And again, I was given all the accolades for my amazingness as a homeschool mom. It’s moments like these that refill your cup –whenever your regret or your feelings of insufficiencies and inadequacies as a homeschool mom poke holes in your cup and you feel like you donut know what you are doing – you think back on adventures like these, and your cup is patched up and refilled with precious memories, encouragement, and the knowing, that sometimes, you are a great homeschool mom, and that is good enough.
For more about road trips, check out podcast episodes 53, 56, and 60.
The Coop Homeschool is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.