I'm excited to announce that I'll be teaching a class at the Rick Steves Travel Center in Edmonds, WA on Saturday January 24 from 12:00 to 1:30. The class is free, and you can register here
If you live in the Seattle area, I hope you'll join me. I plan to talk about everything from planning your trip to packing light and making travel days work.
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Posted on November 11, 2008 |
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Tots on-the-go, an online store with a great selection of strollers and other travel gear designed to make traveling with young kids easier, has generously given me a Sit n Stroll stroller to give away to my readers! I hope you'll take a moment to check out Tots on-the-go, the store sells many of my favorite travel products, and this is an opportunity to support a small, mom run business.
The Sit n Stroll is designed to convert easily from a stroller into a car seat, and back again. You can use it to wheel your toddler through the airport, and then install it in the airplane seat during flight. It is also a great solution when you plan to travel to a city where you'll be taking lots of taxis, and lets you avoid the risk and expense of renting car seats when you travel.
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Winners
We will choose a winner randomly and announce the results here on Tuesday Nov 18 2008. Many thanks to Tots on-the-go for generously sponsoring this giveaway.
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Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post (except as outlined above where the comment is related to an extra entry). Duplicate comments and Anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid (email addresses are never public). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A Sweepstakes winner's failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered such Sweepstakes winner's forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. To enter, you must be a U.S. resident, age 18 or older. Employees, partners and vendors of DeliciousBaby and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. When applicable, the winner may be required to execute and return within five business days an Affidavit of Eligibility and a Liability and Publicity Release to be eligible for the prize or an alternate winner will be selected. All prizes will be awarded. No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that DeliciousBaby reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize.
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Posted on November 10, 2008 |
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Over at TravelBlogs, there is a great interview with parents who travel (including me) about Why Travel With Kids is a Rewarding Experience. It's interesting to read all the different perspectives, so go check it out!
I have been obsessed with SixInTheCity, a Seattle blog about a family who sold their home and is renovating a 2300 condo in the more urban Pioneer Square neighborhood for months, so I was excited to see a travel related post. Here are some terrific photos & a story about cashing in some investments to take a seven week trip with the kids. Here are links to Part 2 and Part 3. With the market where it is now, those experiences seem like a great investment, don't they?
I am always fascinated to peek into the lives of families who have moved abroad, and Expat blogs are one of my favorite sources local information when we travel internationally, so I loved Shannon's article about moms who are Raising Kids in a Foreign Country. I also loved this story about Halloween in Morocco
It's impossible to have too many travel tips. Wandermom wrote a great and pragmatic guest post, also at TravelBlogs about Surviving Long Haul Flights With Kids. TravelSavvyMom has some great tips about tips for taking pictures of kids. Over at Away.com there's a great tip for using stroller connectors to join two umbrella strollers when you travel.
I thought this post on what state welcome signs would look like if they were more truthful was funny. It plays off of state stereotypes & uses some inappropriate languge, so if that bothers you, don't look.
Family Travel Bargains
Wendy Perrin wrote about a great deal at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas it's so great, she says she'd grab it herself if she didn't already have plans. Need a getaway from the West Coast? Wendy also hi-lights some great deals in Hawaii
Prices have been slashed at Disney's Cheapest Orlando Resorts
Airfares to Australia are the lowest I've seen them in about 10 years. To make matters even better, the US dollar has gotten stronger against the AUD in recent weeks, so if this is your dream trip... now is the time.
Contests
This is the first time I'm adding links to travel related blog contests. Let me know what you think.
I'll be running a Sit-n-Stroll giveaway beginning on Monday!
Beth Whitman (author of Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo
Travel Savvy Mom is giving away RosettaStone Level 1 interactive Spanish language learning software
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Posted on November 9, 2008 |
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If you're participating in Photo Friday this week, don't forget to link back to this post... linkbacks are how more people find out about Photo Friday and how we keep the carnival growing from week to week, which ultimately brings more traffic back to you!
In the basement of Chicago's Art Institute is a small children's museum, the "Kraft Education Center." The center does a great job of getting kids engaged with art. There are art projects, a reading room, sculptures that can be touched, and this... my kids' favorite exhibit.
Artist Joseph Cornell assembled collages inside segmented boxes using found objects. Just off camera, a real Cornell box sits in a glass case for kids to view. What my kids loved, though, was this kid-friendly large scale model. They could have spent hours assembling and re-assembling their box, and in fact, they only left when the museum finally closed.
In researching this article, I found this great toy-version on Amazon: The Joseph Cornell Box: Found Objects, Magical Worlds
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Posted on November 6, 2008 |
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I recently finished reading My Life in France
It's a marvelous story, and from the moment I picked it up I have been imagining and plotting making a move of my own. I've always dreamed about moving to New York and being able give up my car. When the kids were smaller, I imagined sneaking out to a restaurant w/baby in to after one of those crazy midnight feedings. Now I picture regular trips to the Museum of Natural History and weekend lunches at Katz's Deli. I'm not so sure we'd be able to cope with trading our spacious home for a one or two bedroom apartment...
A taste of life in Paris back when E was an infant leaves me dreaming of fresh pastry in the mornings and afternoons at Luxembourg Gardens with the kids. Please don't shatter my illusion that I would somehow teach myself French by reading children's books to the kids. (France seems one of the healthiest book industries anywhere, and I've enjoyed exploring the children's book departments on each of my trips there)
Australia seems like another wonderful place to live, Melbourne reminds me very much of Seattle and I envision myself making weekend getaways into wine country to eat pumpkin muffins and look for Kangaroos. The possibility of having Southeast Asia practically at my doorstep for longer vacations is enticing to.
What about you? If you could move anywhere in the world, where would you go? Tell me in comments!
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Posted on November 6, 2008 |
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Posted on November 5, 2008 |
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The "HappyHotelier" just posted a list of the top 300 travel blogs according to Technorati ranking. Imagine my surprise to find myself at number #20 on the list! The list includes blogs owned by AOL, National Geographic, Conde Nast, the Travel Channel and Gawker Media so I felt particularly honored to place so high as an independent blogger.
Technorati ranking is based on how many blogs have linked to DeliciousBaby in the past 6 months, so I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to link to one of my articles, added me to their blogroll, or accepted a guest post from me! Of course I want to thank my readers too. From day to day, it's your comments, email and questions that keep me motivated.
Update: HappyHotelier was kind enough to point out something I didn't... if you were to remove all the group authored blogs, DeliciousBaby would be tied for third most popular single-author travel blog!
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Posted on November 3, 2008 |
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There must be thousands of articles about how to get the most out of your visit to Disneyland. The Internet is littered with them. So how many do you think I read before visiting? Me, the person who usually plans our trips down to meals and snacks? The person who researches the best bakery and ice cream in every city we visit? Zero.
Our kids first-ever trip to Disneyland was a whim. My husband's parents live nearby, and we've always planned to take the kids to visit the theme park when they were old enough to enjoy it. Suddenly, on our most recent trip, we realized that they were, and finding ourselves with an afternoon free we decided to visit.
Like most parents, I have fond memories of my own childhood visits to Disneyland. Like most parents, I look forward to sharing those experiences with my kids as they grow up. As a parent who has made a decision not to limit our travels exclusively to the theme parks and all inclusive resorts that seem to be the mainstay of family travel, I was also interested to see how our experience at Disneyland compared with our independent travels to destinations like Paris, Barcelona, Santa Fe, New York and Chicago. Would it be tons easier? Would the kids have way more fun? Would our memories be more special? Or would it feel too manufactured and perfect to satisfy me?
We did everything wrong. Not having planned even an hour ahead, we showed up with no advance tickets, no water bottles and no snacks. We waited in the heat, in an unshaded line for 20 minutes to buy tickets, and before we were even in the door, we had spent almost $250! (2 adult tickets, 1 child ticket, two stroller rentals and parking + our first round of snacks and water)
E was overwhelmed by the crowds along Main Street, and we quickly hustled him into the penny arcade where he delighted in making a squished penny with "Chip" the Chipmunk's image on it. As we emerged from the arcade, crowds were beginning to form along the sidewalk for a midday parade. We parked our strollers, using them to save our places, but with over 30 minutes left before the parade would start, we high-tailed it over to the "Astro Orbiter" a low key rocket-ship ride just at the edge of Tomorrowland. Our first thought had been that E would love the ride, while D, perhaps too young, would wait it out down below. Instead, D raced to the rockets screaming while E held back, refusing to ride even after watching his sister take a turn. A little worried about whether he'd ever warm up, we headed back to the parade.
The parade was possibly the hi-light of our visit. Our kids don't watch much TV and weren't familiar with any of the characters, but they were enchanted with the costumes, the music, and the dancing. The opportunity to sit quietly and watch helped E settle in a bit too, and when the parade was over he seemed more relaxed and open to exploring.
Our next stop was Toon Town. It was late afternoon on a Friday, and with the parade over, the park was beginning to clear out a bit. The kids were thrilled to run around and explore the cartoon-like buildings, play in a playground, and unwind a little. It was here, though, that we made our first critical mistake. With no written guide to the park, we assumed that the ride in this particularly toddler friendly area would be a good bet for our young kids. As we waited in a characteristically long and winding line for the ride, we should have clued in to the offbeat entertainment and dark atmosphere. Roger's Cartoon Spin was absolutely terrifying for our two little kids, and by the end of the ride they were both crying and had their heads buried in Daddy's chest. Needless to say, we worried that the kids would have nightmares for weeks and that that we'd never get cautious E on another ride again. Now I know why there are so many shops at Disneyland. Our first (if not best) parenting instinct was to herd the kids into the closest one and let them choose anything they wanted. Two very-fancy-sippy-cups later we, and our rejuvenated offspring were on our way to our next adventure.
We shuttled the kids over to Mikey Mouse's house where a sign advertised the opportunity to meet Mickey. The kids wandered through the house and gradually made their way to the "back yard" where Mikey would be filming his latest movie. I was surprised at how effective the theatric build up was. By the time the kids made it in to meet Mickey, the character was, in their minds a huge celebrity worthy of adoration. Each of them was thrilled to stand next to Mickey as I snapped the pictures that now hang on their bedroom walls. It's this experience that the kids come back to over and over, and when friends ask them about Disneyland they beam as they tell the story of their meeting with Mickey.
With the sun beginning to set, we took one final ride, a train trip around the park that the kids absolutely adored. The trip through the "Grand Canyon" especially resonated with them, since Daddy had returned his river rafting trip down the Grand Canyon just a few weeks before. They were obviously very curious to see "first hand" what the canyon looked like.
We hustled out of the park before the final parade began, and D fell asleep in my arms before we stepped aboard the shuttle that would take us back to the parking garage. E was still awake, though, and as we stepped off the shuttle, Disneyland's end-of-day fireworks filled the sky. As we stopped and watched, it was clear that what had started as a stressful outing for little E, and ended well after his regular bedtime, was in his mind one of his most spectacular days.
I think it is that potential that makes Disneyland special. There were certainly rough spots throughout the outing. For us, it wasn't any easier than a day out in Paris, Rome, or Santa Fe. It was expensive too, and I was surprised at how much pressure I felt to make magic moments happen for the kids, rather than just exploring and letting them find us. There's tremendous value in encouraging kids to explore the real world and in letting them learn first hand that not everything is sanitized and perfect, so I'm glad that not every family trip is a Disney vacation. But an occasional dose of magic and wonder are healthy too, and that is what Disney know how to make it happen better than anyone.
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Posted on November 3, 2008 |
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If you are participating in Photo Friday this week, please be sure to link to your post directly, not to your home page, so that readers can find your post later in the week
When we took the baby E to Paris in 2005, I was bummed that we would miss celebrating his first Halloween here at home. To my husband's chagrin, I dragged along a bulky bumblebee costume in our already overstuffed luggage.
Still, halloween was a blast for everyone. We took E to the Eiffel Tower for a photo op, and then retired to this cafe for lunch. Seated on the in the sidewalk, E was a magnet for every passing French grandmother. These normally reserved (and impeccably dressed) women pinched his cheeks, made funny faces, and fawned over him, and he just soaked in it.
Later in the day, Paris' schools let out, and french children (all dressed as either witches or goblins) galavanted through the city, picking up cookies and other sweets at the best bakeries. Now that the kids are old enough to reach the counter, don't you think we should return for another Paris Halloween?
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Posted on October 30, 2008 |
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This book is from my personal collection and I do not accept paid reviews. From time to time, I might choose to review a book that a publisher has offered me, but I will always let you know when that happens.
One of the reasons I love traveling is that we tend to seek out so many new experiences, both for us and for the kids. It's always fun to see how the kids react to new situations. When we're at home though, we tend to get in a rut, visiting the same tried-and-true destinations over and over. That's why I was excited when I saw 101 Places You Gotta See Before You're 12!
This is a book that helps you be creative about finding exciting new activities in your own home town. It has ideas I never considered before, like visiting an Olympic Training Center (what toddler wouldn't enjoy seeing gymnasts live in action) or a farm during harvest season (big trucks anyone?). For each idea, there are enough pictures to inspire both you and your kids, and enough information to help you get the most out of the outing. What's great is that these are general ideas instead of specific cities or national parks... I'd be hard pressed to find a single one that can't be located within driving distance of our home.
With 101 Places You Gotta See Before You're 12
Related Links:
Book Review: Pickles to Pittsburg
Book Review: Airport by Byron Barton
Book Review: Le Voyage De Polo
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Posted on October 29, 2008 |
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