First, let’s be honest. My family would still be circling the back streets of New Jersey trying to outwit shore traffic without me. But I’ve got Waze, which not only leads the way with turn-by-turn directions, but crowdsources vital info like traffic, construction, and speed traps up ahead. We arrived safely and in record time!

The rest of the week I mostly found myself in the bottom of a sandy beach bag. Where my owner did not hear me ring. To the occasional annoyance of other vacationers.

Ahem.

I did have another hero moment, when my family checked the forecast using Yahoo Weather to determine the best day to hit the water slides. This weather app is really slick, with a background that serves up a beautiful photo of your location reflecting both the current time of day and weather.

And that’s pretty much it. I didn’t even get to take many pics, because Owner says my iPhone 5s camera is “Meh” and still prefers her Canon point-and-shoot. When the kids returned from a day of fun, their sandy paws were all over my brother, iPad (nah nah nah naaah nah).

So while Waze and Yahoo weather were the two most useful travel apps for us, overall you could say it was a good old-fashioned, unplugged vacation.

May your smartphones get as much R&R as I did on your summer getaway! — iPhone