I thought it would be fun to share a few behind the scenes pictures from the Travel Blog Exchange Conference.
We'd been planning the details of the conference for months, but things really started to heat up the week before I left for BlogHer. I flew in a day early to meet in person with co-host Kim Mance for the first time, and we checked out the Chicago Cultural Center, our venue. OOOh, look at that elegant sign.
The building was completed in 1897 and served as the city's original Chicago Public Library. Today it hosts weddings, meetings, and many free programs arranged by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. It's also home to the incredibly helpful Chicago Visitors Bureau (a TBEX sponsor). Just wandering around the building was a treat. This is the world's largest Tiffany staned-glass dome, and it made me want to renew my wedding vows right away - too bad my husband was home with the big kids
One detail that caused a lot of unexpected drama was the swag bags. While I was blithely lining up useful and interesting items to fill the bags, Shanna Quinn's apartment was beginning to overflow with boxes. By the time everything arrived, she was practically sleeping on swag.
The tireless Shanna took a day off of work to stuff the bags and then loaded them in her car and Kim's mini-van. We all arrived at the Chicago Cultural Center loading dock at 7:30am on the day of the event, we took load after load of them upstairs.
Did I mention that Baby Eilan helped?
The view from our meeting room was gorgeous
and we were delighted to see that our hard work paid off. The room was packed with attendees eager to hear from our speakers!
I'll post more about the actual event soon!
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Posted on July 29, 2009 |
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There's been a lot of buzz on Twitter about the TBEX gift bags, so I wanted to post a few pictures here, and to thank the very generous companies who contributed products and services.
Here's what it included:
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Posted on July 28, 2009 |
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If you are here at BlogHer, be sure to ask me for one of my cool handouts on How to keep your child busy on a plane. In addition to my tips, you'll also get a pack of Wikki Stix, generously provided by the Wikki Stix Company. They look simple, but my kids love the open ended, creative play that Wikki Stix let them engage in, and I love the fact that there are no small pieces to get lost under the airplane seat and no mess to clean up! Each pack comes with an activity sheet to help you get started, but the possibilities are endless.
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Posted on July 24, 2009 |
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When I first saw O'Hare's self-covering toilets back in the early '90s, they seemed like the height of modern convenience (a clear plastic cover slides over the toilet seat after each use), and I expected to see them cropping up everywhere (obviously that never really happened.) Now, over 15 years later they seem dated, and I was surprised to see them still in use. Still with my luggage and a baby to manage, I appreciated having one less step in between me and the toilet.
In contrast, this was the hardest, most unforgiving changing table I've ever used. I had to hold Eilan throughout the entire diaper change to keep him from sliding off the slippery surface. I'm glad I've had lots of practice with one-handed diaper changes!
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Posted on July 23, 2009 |
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Eilan and I flew from
Seattle to
Chicago today - his very first flight - and made it safely to the swank Dana Hotel and Spa, where we'll be staying for a night before we join everyone else at the conference hotel. The flight was uneventful, but I couldn't resist sharing a few shots!
See you at BlogHer and TBEX
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Posted on July 22, 2009 |
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Together with springpad, I'll be giving away a free JetBlue gift certificate to one lucky person! The contest starts Thursday, and you can find all the details here or swing by the springpad booth at BlogHer for a demo and details.
If you are already using springpad to organize your information, you can follow me at @deliciousbaby
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Posted on July 20, 2009 |
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Chicago's Jay Pritzker Pavilion, in Millennium Park, hosts outdoor free concerts during the summer. The acoustics are amazing, and the fact that it is outdoors makes it an easy bet with kids - when they start to get impatient with Opera (or whatever else is on offer) you can rejoin the park.
I leave for Chicago for BlogHer and Travel Blog Exchange '09 in a few days. See you there!
Photo Friday: Please Share Your Photos:
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Posted on July 17, 2009 |
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In just over a week, I'll be at the BlogHer conference in Chicago with baby Eilan to attend the BlogHer conference. I am looking forward to meeting 1,000 other powerful, interesting women who express themselves through their blogs, and I'm especially excited to be co-hosting the Travel Blog Exchange '09 meetup after BlogHer.
The big kids will stay home with dad this time, but we were lucky to visit Chicago together last summer to build our kid-friendly guide to Chicago. Our "½-day outings" are perfect for printing out and taking with you. Each day trip gives you a single piece of paper to carry, complete with a map, things to do, and places to eat.
½ day outings near the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers:
½ day trip: Chicago's Near North Side
½ day trip: Millennium Park With Kids
½ day trip: The Loop With Kids
Elsewhere in Chicago
Chicago With Kids Guide
Lincoln Park With Kids
Restaurants that Adults and Kids Will Both Love
Favorite Chicago Activities With Kids
Worried About The Flight? Check Out our Travel TIps
Packing Lists for Travel With Kids
Preparing Your Kids for the Trip
Ten Tips for Keeping a Toddler Busy on a Plane
Flying With Babies, Toddlers and Kids
Find Me at BlogHer
I am always excited about talking to other moms who are interested in travel and I have some truly useful swag to give away, so catch me between sessions! I'll be the one with the baby sleeping in the sling and spitup on her shoulder.
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Posted on July 14, 2009 |
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This post includes a review of our family visit to the Theo Chocolate Factory and our at-home experiments with a
Make Your Own Chocolate Kit
. I paid for both myself. Whenever I do accept a complimentary visit to an attraction or a complimentary product, I will always let you know.
Congratulations to everyone who guessed the answer to this week's Photo Friday, the answer was Theo Chocolate Factory
It is no secret that I love chocolate, or that I'm constantly seeking out the best chocolate shops and supermarket candy bars in any city we visit. My kids take after me, and until he was three, E didn't realize that there were other types of sweets. Even better, they're as entranced as I am by bittersweet chocolates and enjoy "grown up" chocolate flavors as much as I do.
One of my recent obsessions are locally made Theo Organic Chocolate bars, so while M&Ms and the occasional truffle carried me through previous pregnancies, baby Eilan was grown with bar after bar of Theo's. Without digressing too far, let me just say that's all I need to make one DeliciousBaby.
D and E are finally old enough to really enjoy factory tours, so we picked an otherwise quiet weekend to take the Theo Chocolate Factory together as a family.
Theo is located in the funky Freemont neighborhood in Seattle. The close in location makes the factory an easy outing, and though the tour is not designed for children, kids are welcome to join in. The tricky bit, I reasoned, would be keeping all three kids entertained (or at least quiet and well behaved) for the entire duration of the 90 minute tour. Four-year-old E should handle it just fine, I thought, while containing mischievous D in a chocolate factory might be like trying to keep Curious George out of trouble.
I put Eilan to sleep just before entering the factory, leaving just the two older kids to wrangle. We ran into trouble earlier than anticipated, as cautious E balked at wearing the disposable hairnet required to step onto the factory floor. Even the promise of free-flowing chocolate samples wasn't enough to sway him, and he stayed behind in the showroom with my husband as D and I proceeded to a classroom to start the tour.
Our guide explained everything from how chocolate grows to how the beans are prepared and processed to finally become chocolate bars. She used pictures liberally to show the plants and the harvesting process before we stepped onto the factory floor and saw the equipment that turns the raw beans into delicious, wrapped chocolate bars.
Chocolate samples from different regions brought home the point about how "terroir" impacts chocolate flavor, just as it does wine. The biggest lesson for me, though, was about D. Normally giggly and mischievous, D (who had been told that we would leave at the first sign of trouble) sat straight up in her chair and didn't utter a word, with the draw of bite sized chocolate samples anchoring her to her seat. Through the full 60+ minute tour, she was a dream. Staying quiet while the guide was talking, standing inside the lines on the factory floor, and passing platefuls of chocolate on to others after taking her own sample... behavior I would have never believed possible from my 2.5 year old.
A few days later, stuck at home with the kids, I remembered some long-hidden "Make Your Own Chocolate Kits" I had been saving for a rainy day. On the heels of our chocolate factory visit, this seemed like the perfect time to experiment with making chocolate ourselves.
The kits contained everything needed to make chocolate bars or candies along with a few pictures of chocolate trees and a couple of raw beans. Until the chocolate factory tour, I hadn't really understood how cocoa and cocoa butter are blended together to make chocolate, so melting and blending the raw ingredients was just as interesting for me as the kids.
Listed as being for ages 8 and up, I figured that the kids would enjoy the kits if they had enough help from me. That was largely true, though with two impatient toddlers, it was tricky to temper the chocolate to the right temperature and to pour it into molds quickly enough, so the resulting chocolate was a bit lumpy, but still enjoyable.
Did the kids get anything out of the tour or the chocolate making extravaganza? Possibly... a few days later at gardening camp, the kids got a dismayed look from their teacher by listing chocolate as their favorite food that grows in a garden. They were right, of course, it's their teacher that needs a refresher course in where food comes from!
Related Links:
Seattle With Kids
Amazon:
Make Your Own Chocolate Kit
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Posted on July 13, 2009 |
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Mystery Photo Friday a few weeks ago was a lot of fun, so I thought I'd do it again. Can anyone guess what this factory produces? I'll post the answer (along with our story) on Monday.
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Posted on July 9, 2009 |
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