2013 Parent,
My comment isn't about the details of a summer spent eating out or staying in hotels. What it is about is enjoying every second of time you spend watching your child's team play the game they love. Like so many posters on here, our journey through travel ball holds countless memories. Some highs, some lows. But always, priceless memories of time spent with our son! The Mothers Day card I received this year says it all. "Thanks, Mom, for all you have done to help me continue to do what I love." I can't even type that without tearing up! Of course, this came from a 19 year old who never made that kind of remark when he was young. As he got older we received numerous invites to showcases. At first, we didn't even show them to him because we knew we couldn't afford to take him. As he got older and we began to let him in on the invites, he realized which ones were just money makers for the organizers and which ones were worth the cost. Incidentally, the college he now attends spotted him as a 15 year old playing on an 18U team at East Cobb. We never even knew they were following him until the summer before his senior year.
Now, more to the point of your question. We always tried to stay in places with a substantial continental breakfast, preferably one which had a nice loyalty program also.
We always carried a cooler with water, Gatorade, and just a few sodas. Trail mix and prepackaged peanut butter and crackers filled in during the day.
We would eat a nice (not necessarily expensive) hot meal at the end of the day. Not the best time for mom and dad to eat a big meal but it worked for son! Son ate burgers or chicken sandwiches from the concession stand between games. We figured he was burning off the extra calories and fat during the games.
Hope this helps. Enjoy the time spent with your family this summer. In a way, I'm jealous. Our son will spend his summer playing in Collegiate Wooden Bat League several states away.