Dreaming of Vacation

I’m dreaming of the trip we are going to take this summer!  With teaching behind me, I am itching to make some decisions, so I can feel like it’s really here.

Originally, we had planned to go to Boston for a few days, and then on to Ireland.  We had wanted to go to England, but with the Olympics starting in late July, we can’t be bothered with all those people that will be traveling around the U.K.  Flights to anywhere in Europe are so expensive this summer!  After watching prices for a few months, I just don’t have the gall to spend this much money to get to Ireland.  If I were flying to the Middle East or Asia, I might justify the high price, but it should be at least $500 less than it is to get to Ireland right now.  Ugh!

I thought we could possibly go to Costa Rica, but I do not have the heart to expose my daughter to all the bugs.  Perhaps I’m a fool, or ignorant, but we have decided upon Puerto Rico as our destination.  I have no idea if it has just as many bugs, but in reading reviews, people didn’t mention it.  With flights from L.A. being 9-10 hours with U.S. stops, we are splitting up the travel, just as we had planned to do with getting to Ireland.  We’re going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida!  We’ll wander South Florida for a few days, and then head on to Puerto Rico.  I’ve only landed in Miami, so I would love to explore a little bit of Florida.  My husband has not been as far south in FL, so he’s excited to check it out as well.  Here are the two rentals we are weighing from vrbo.com:

OPTION 1:  POMPANO BEACH, 20 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale

http://www.midmari.com/Unit_2.html

It’s a 1 bedroom condo, on the ground floor, ½ of a block from the beach.  It looks clean and nicely decorated.  The price is about the same as option 2, but we would have to rent a crib, so that is an added expense. 

There’s a pool, free parking, and wi-fi.  Looks nice, right?

OPTION 2:  FORT LAUDERDALE

http://www.vrbo.com/348589

It’s also a 1 bedroom, but it is a beach cottage, so a bit more private.  It’s a 6 minute walk to the beach.  It also looks clean, and it has charm.  A free crib is included.  There is no pool, but if offers free parking and Internet. 

Which one would you pick?

Photos: 1) Fort Lauderdale, Florida http://arithmetaiuniversity.org/  2) Pompano Beach, Florida http://www.extraholidays.com/ 3) Pompano Beach unit, vrbo  4) Fort Lauderdale unit, vrbo

Redefining Myself

I played soccer in college and coached high school soccer in the off season, so by the time I graduated my identity was very much wrapped around being an athlete.  While I was student teaching the following spring, I tore my ACL playing in a spring league.  Since I couldn’t take any time off while student teaching, I had to wait three months to have surgery, and then it was another six months of physical therapy and such before I could really start exercising regularly.  During that time I learned to adjust to a new version of myself.  It seems like there are moments in our lives like these that call for us to shift who we are.

 Now that I am a mom, I am here again, changing, but also trying to remain true to myself.  A huge part of me is adventure, so I romantically envisioned myself with my baby on my back, but continuing on.  I’m finding it a bit more complicated, though.  In trying to decide upon a travel destination, we considered Costa Rica.  My parents bravely moved our family to Costa Rica when I was 11 months old.  If they can do it, I can visit there for a week, right?  I had an amazing time with 3 of my girlfriends over a Spring Break several years ago.  I would feel totally comfortable taking my daughter there.  Then reality hits.

We have to go in the summer, rainy season.  No problem; she’ll need afternoon naps every day, anyways!  Then I envision our car stuck in the mud, or rolling over, with my sweet little girl.  Who is this person?  I have never been one to think of these scenarios.  Stop it!  Then I remember the flying cockroaches.  They won’t hurt her—it’s okay.  Oh, but those mosquitoes.  No big deal when it’s just me, but my precious baby?  I don’t want her to have to suffer.  Can I put Jungle Juice on my 1 year old?  Probably not.  Hmmm…

As I read the descriptions of all the great things to do, I want to go zip lining again.  It was my favorite.  Ele can just ride with me, right?  Or Rick can just hold her while I go, and then he can go.  Maybe we can ride horses?  Oh, I suppose we shouldn’t.  

I will take our girl to Costa Rica, but maybe not while she’s this young, too young for malaria pills, it seems.  I don’t want to allow for my fears to take over.  I want to teach Ele to be a risk taker, and traveling is such a great way to teach her so many things.  I know that we would have an amazing trip with her if we did go, but I am going to try another idea, and hope this one doesn’t get cast down as I try to keep that piece of myself that I love.

All pictures taken by me on an old fashioned film camera! 1) Monteverde Cloud Rain Forest 2)Manuel Antonio National Park 3) Dominical 4) Monteverde Cloud Rain Forest

San Francisco

Since having a baby, we’ve taken two road trips.  The first was comfortable—an hour and a half getaway to San Diego.  We spent the week exploring a different part of the city, slowed down by the demands of a napping and hungry four month old.  Ele did really well, though, so I was emboldened to try something further away.  We picked Angels Camp, which ended up being about an eight hour drive from home.  We broke up the drive by heading to Bakersfield for the night, to pick up my dad, who was joining us for the week.  Since Ele only naps twice a day, now, there was a lot more flexibility.  We spent the week training her to nap when we were in the car, and I entertained her on the drives when it wasn’t time to nap.  It was a success, and Ele is quite comfortable in her car seat because of it!

I won a travel blog contest through Wyndham’s Women on Their Way (Hooray!), and they invited us to stay in a four star hotel in downtown San Francisco.  Who can pass that up?  We decided it would be our first flight with Ele, so we packed our bags—one for us, and one for Ele.  It’s amazing how much gear a baby needs, and we really streamlined things.  Since we had to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel, I played it safe and brought the car seat, too.  The great thing is, since we flew on a Wednesday and Saturday in May, the flights were not full, so Ele was able to sit in her car seat in her own seat both ways.  I’m not expecting that when we fly across the country this summer!

The Parc 55 Wyndham was beautiful, and I really enjoyed meeting some of the other blog contest winners—6 of the 10 of us were there.  I’m honored to be a part of the group, as the other women are pretty amazing.  The hotel provided a crib and refrigerator, so it was pretty easy for us.  We were right by Union Square, so we could walk along Market Street, down to the Embarcadero and back, without any hills.  On Friday we decided to wander, so we put Ele in our little backpack carrier and hit the streets. 

One of our favorite things to do in a city is to just start exploring.  We headed towards Chinatown, checking out the stores and people as we ambled.  Ele absolutely loved being in a city with tons of people.  She had started to say hi to people a few weeks earlier, but with a person everywhere we turned, she adored the attention and responses to her friendliness.  We’ve noticed that people are so much more open and willing to speak to us now that we have a baby.  

For lunch we hit our favorite Chinese restaurant, the House of Nanking.  We ended up sharing a table with a mother and daughter from Tennessee in the city for the first time, and enjoyed their excitement.  Ele especially liked the sweet potatoes on my plate.  From there we headed a little through North Beach, but then through a neighborhood I hadn’t checked out before.  There were some charming boutiques and some really nice antique stores.  It’s been awhile since we’d been to the Embarcadero, and it is so much nicer than it used to be.  The stores and restaurants in there are something we will have to check out again. 

We followed the water front and walked to Pier 39.  We visited the sea lions, but Ele was far more interested in grabbing the attention of all the people that were gathered to see the sea lions.  As we waited in line to catch the cable car, we met a nice couple from Ohio who had driven across the country in their motor home over the past month.  The next day their nephew was getting married in the Japanese gardens in Golden Gate park.  That must have been a beautiful wedding, as the weather could not have been more perfect.  Ele’s first cable car experience was trumped again by her interest in entertaining the passengers!

The next day we had a couple of hours before we had to head to the airport.  After a delicious breakfast at a local restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge, we wandered down Market Street and discovered Yerba Buena Gardens.  It was a really cool area, with museums, a charming French restaurant, and a live jazz concert in the park.  We’ll definitely head back here when Ele is walking, as there’s a children’s park with a museum, carousel, and playground.  Ele was so excited to have a chance to crawl in the grass while we enjoyed the live music. 

I love San Francisco, but it is quite a different experience with an infant.  Traveling with a baby is awesome, but we have really had to rethink the way that we travel, the activities we plan, and the pace that we go.  We’re still trying to figure it out, as we try to plan for taking her overseas this summer!

All photos taken by Rick McDonough 1) View from our hotel room, Parc 55 2) Chinatown Graffiti 3) Embarcadero neighborhood 4) Ele 5) Chinatown 6) Yerba Buena Gardens 7) Night view from our hotel

http://rickmcdonoughphotography.blogspot.com/

http://www.womenontheirway.com/about/

“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” –Mark Twain

It was Mark Twain’s famous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, that convinced my husband that a trip to California’s gold country would be a good plan for Spring Break.  We decided to head up north for a week, and our temporary home would be Angel’s Camp, the town where the frog once lived.  The foothills of the Sierras are beautiful this time of year—everything is green, the trees are regaining their leaves, and California poppies adorn the hillsides.  There are charming mining towns up and down Highway 49, and we had fun exploring a few of them.  People are really friendly when you have a baby, so we met a lot of nice shopkeepers and restaurant owners.  

The town of Murphy’s became our eating out destination.  It has some neat shops, and some day I would love to return to rent a vacation cottage or to stay at the local B & B, an old Victorian.  There are dozens of wineries in the area, and the town features many tasting rooms.

It was on one of our drives on a windy road that we turned to check out Mark Twain’s cabin on Jackass Hill.  Apparently he spent 5 months living in a small cabin, while he tried his hand at mining.  They built a replica of the cabin on top of this hill, named for the donkeys that pack trains kept there.  It was here that Samuel Clemens—Twain’s real name—scrawled down the notes that eventually became his frog chronicle, the story that made him famous.  He had heard the story in the local tavern at Angel’s Camp. 

What was Twain doing as a miner?  It turns out that Twain did a variety of things, in addition to writing fiction like Huckleberry Finn, a book I remember reading in high school.  He was a newspaper writer for a number of different towns, from Nevada City, to San Francisco, to Buffalo.  He started his twenties as a steamboat pilot along the Mississippi.  After the fame of his jumping frog tale, he was hired as a travel writer for the Sacramento Union. 

My heart is a flutter at dreaming of the possibilities that lie ahead.  My day job does not define me, even though I absolutely love it.  I can still be a Mark Twain or Lawrence of Arabia.  May Samuel Clemens inspire you to go out and turn over that rock—you never know what could be waiting for you to discover.

Credits:  The Mark Twain House and Museum web site, http://www.marktwainhouse.org/ , for more background on Twain’s life & Rick McDonough for the photography.

Turkish Delight

After spending the whole summer traveling down under and then Asia, I had to go somewhere unexpected the next summer. Unfortunately, Rick had just started a new job, and all of my friends were busy, so no one was up for a trip. I started to dream about where I could go, and I found myself browsing through the Intrepid web site, since they travel to alot of great places, and joining a tour would allow me to get away. On a whim I booked a trip to Turkey, and informed my family and friends. One of Rick's friends was stationed in Turkey for awhile when he was in the military, and he thought I was nuts to go to a Muslim country, alone. The day before I left there was an attack on foreign tourists just outside of Ephesus, and everyone in the minibus died. It was claimed by a Kurdish separatist group.


Istanbul had been placed in my mind when I was just a kid playing Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? I arrived in Istanbul a couple of days before the tour began so I could explore the city a bit. It was really exciting, as it turned out that my hotel was a block away from Hagya Sophia and the Blue Mosque, two of the most famous sights in the city. The first morning I was awoken at 5 a.m. with the call to prayer, a sound that became familiar and comforting as the days went by.


On day three, I met up with the group. I was one of two Americans. My roommate was from Melbourne, and we became fast friends as our adventures unfolded. There were twelve of us, including our guide. Our group got along really well, and we enjoyed getting to know one another.

The itinerary was filled with one beautiful place after another, as we followed the Mediterranean coast most of the time, until the last few days. Ephesus was really neat, and I learned that wealthy Romans had running water, toilets with plumbing, air conditioning, and heating. The main road even had built in air conditioning and heating. Very impressive! We spent a few days on a private boat sailing along the Mediterranean. We were excited to escape a rooster getting us up at dawn, something we were all lamenting. Low and behold, the bays where we docked always had a resident rooster for us. It was charming as we sailed over ancient sunken cities and explored Lycian tombs on a seemingly remote island. We even enjoyed Magnum bars from an ice cream boat that sailed by!


One morning we were told to pack our swimming suits for the day, as we were going to hike down to a beach. We hiked through an abandoned Greek town at the top of a mountain, and it was crazy to imagine a vibrant group of people once lived in the empty ruins. The Greeks and Turks went to war with one another over territory over several hundred years. After World War I, in an attempt to fix the historical ethnic conflicts, there was a population exchange between the two countries. In 1923, all Greek villages in Turkey were abandoned. It was a beautiful hike along the edge of the Mediterranean, and to top it off, we hiked down to Oludinez, a really popular beach town.


My favorite place became Goreme, a town in the fairy chimney area of Cappadoccia. While I spent my evenings visiting carpet stores and drinking endless amounts of apple tea, days were spent hiking the valley floor, exploring the underground cities of the ancient Hittites, and checking out Byzantine churches carved into the hillsides. The area was a major battle site during the crusades, and due to the endless amounts of places to hide, the Byzantine Church was able to survive and thrive despite so many attacks. I did end up buying a flying carpet, and it is one of my most treasured items.


When the trip was over, a few of us still had a few days left to spend in Istanbul, so we stuck with each other. Again, the Kurdish separatists threatened tourists, and there was a warning to stay away from the bridge that connects the Asian side of the city to the European side. Due to the warning, we decided to go to an island about an hour from the city center, but still part of Istanbul. It was a really cool place, as no cars were allowed, so horse drawn buggies were the transportation of choice. We wandered around and ended up at a monastery at the top of the island mountain, with views of the city and sea. By the end of the day, an explosion had happened in a restaurant on the bridge. There were injuries but no casualties.


I miss Turkey, its lovely people, and delicious food. I hope to return some day soon. Most of all, I miss the rhythm that a group of twelve people can make in such a short amount of time when truly enjoying a journey.

All pictures were taken on my trip. 1) Scene outside of a mosque 2) Turkish tea on the Bosphorus Sea, Istanbul 3) Ephesus 4) Mediterranean Sea 5) Cappadoccia 6) Blue Mosque, Istanbul 7) Asian side of Istanbul

Exploring the Land of the North

Today Norway is unfortunately in the headlines due to a horrible attack. The reality is it is one of the safest places in the world! My mom struggled with Rheumatoid Arthritis for twenty five years. Unfortunately, she passed away from the disease in 2007 a week after Rick and I were engaged. I already loved Norway, but her death instilled a desire to journey back to her homeland to reconnect with my roots. Her older brother still lives in Bergen, so we were also looking forward to seeing him.

We decided to rent a car to get around, as it would give us the most freedom to see the country. Cars are pretty expensive to rent there, and after watching the price for a few months, I went ahead and made a reservation through Auto Europe. It's cheaper to pick up the car in the city, so we planned on spending a couple of days at the beginning and end of our trip in Oslo. Knowing we were going to move every few days, we couldn't stay in apartment rentals as most have a 3-4 night minimum. As such, I had fun searching for unique accommodations in this book, since I wasn't having much luck searching online: The Norway Bed and Breakfast Book.


From there, I was able to book almost all of our accommodations. We had almost four weeks to tour around. My aunt has a farm in Nesbyen, where she grew up, so we started off our trip by heading across Norway, on our way to Bergen. We stayed at a charming Nesbyen B & B that was in an old farmhouse. Our room was fun, as it was like we were sleeping in the attic, with charming Scandinavian decor. The breakfast was scrumptious with several different types of breads, jams, and meat, along with some sardines, of course. We ate in the oldest part of the house, a room decorated with furniture that had been passed down through the family, original to the farmhouse. It was lovely.


I booked all of our accommodations ahead of time for peace of mind, as some of them were more isolated and popular. In Alesund, it was incredibly expensive to stay the night, so we ended up staying in a dorm room that was rented out for the summer for about $150 a night, which was the cheapest I could find. It was okay, and we had to pay extra to rent sheets. The location was great, though. One night we stayed on top of a fjord, renting a cabin-like accommodation across the street from a stave church. It was enchanting, and I relished the farm made jar of jam I brought home.
We spent our one year anniversary in a hotel sitting on the edge of Geiranger Fjord. In the late evening we sipped wine as we watched the sun disappear behind the cliffs from our window. It was very romantic. One of the most charming finds was a B & B in Larvik, a town on the coast just south of the town where my mom was born, Sandefjord. It was called Elle Villa, and we really enjoyed the vintage decor, warmth of the host, and delightful breakfasts that varied from day to day. We loved it so much we extended our stay. Surprisingly, there was a delicious Indian restaurant just down the way that was charming as well.


All photos were taken on my trip. 1) Nesbyen farmhouse 2) Nesbyen farmhouse breakfast room 3) Alesund 4) Gol Stave Church, Hallingdal 5) Geiranger Fjord
Elle Villa: http://www.ellevilla.no/side11.html

Traveling with Tours

When I was nineteen I spent six weeks studying in Norway for the summer. It was empowering to jump on an airplane by myself, get to a hotel, spend a day wandering through a foreign city, and then getting started with the official program. I had visited Norway with my parents when I was twelve, my mom taking us around her home country and introducing us to our family abroad. I fell in love with the country, and I still consider it my home away from home. At the end of our study program they offered a tour of the country, so we toured around for two weeks, getting a better feel for other parts of the beautiful countryside. I have no idea what tour company we traveled through, but I discovered it was a good way to see things quickly and effectively, when given a limited amount of time. In addition, it offered a home stay when we were in Kristiansand, a town in the South, which was really interesting. I stayed with a family for a couple of days and jumped into their lives. Traveling solo would not allow for this type of experience.


Right after college I backpacked around Europe for seven weeks with friends. We did the whole trip without having any reservations ahead of time except for our Eurail passes. It was a great trip, and I left feeling like I could go anywhere on a whim, and I could discover things spontaneously. However, when I convinced a colleague to go to England for a month, she had never traveled outside of the U.S., so she was uncomfortable flying by the seat of her pants. To ease her fears, we booked a tour for the first two weeks and then rented a car for the second two weeks. We met a lot of cool people on our tour, saw a whirlwind of England, Scotland, and Wales, and were sad to leave. Our two weeks in the car proved to be a really fun time as well, but I again saw the benefit of traveling through a tour.


My trip to England inspired me to go back, so the following summer I spent six weeks doing graduate work at Oxford. After I finished, I flew to Spain and took a week long tour, seeing a few highlights. Since I was alone, the tour offered me an instant group of friends and social opportunities that I otherwise might have struggled to have. Again, when it came to traveling through New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand, my friend Jodi and I thought it was a good idea to take tours since we had a limited amount of time and wanted to see a vast amount of each country. The other benefit are the many activities that these tours offered, so we could spare the time and worry of finding them on our own. We had a tremendous time in each country, and each tour company offered positives and negatives.


I took two tours through Contiki (Great Britain and Spain), two tours through Connections (New Zealand and Australia), and the tour through Thailand through Intrepid. I booked all of them through STA Travel. Contiki and Connections were very similar. They tended to have a younger crowd (Contiki has an age restriction of 18-35) and both offer a huge menu of activities as you go, so it is easy to add expenses to your trip. You are responsible for some meals, but each trip discloses how many meals are included. What is unknown is how much each activity will cost. The trip itinerary will disclose options, but many have an additional fee. The nice thing about all three is that there is independence once you arrive in a city. If you don't want to go with the group, you are free to go wherever you want. Contiki and Connections tend to be large, with about 30-40 people, enough to fill a coach bus. Intrepid has a limit of twelve people, which is why it has become my favorite tour company. All of the tours were English speaking tours. Most people on the Contiki and Connections tours tended to be from Australia and the United States, with a few Europeans. Intrepid is an Australian company, so we were the only Americans on the Thai tour. There were a few people from England, a Kiwi, and Australians. The great thing about Intrepid is that they take a lot of local transportation, and stay in locally owned hotels. Contiki and Connections tended to stay in large hotels, and we had our own private bus. I don't regret any of the tours I took, and I highly recommend them for people that want to experience fast paced travel.


All of the pictures were taken on my tours.
1) Jodi and I riding a camel in the outback, Australia. I envisioned myself riding a camel in the glorious outback. Instead, I had to ride with Jodi, wear a helmet, with our camels tied together going extremely slow in a big circle. It was still fun, but not quite the romantic vision I had hoped for!
2) Sunrise at Uluru. A beautiful sight, but there were several coach buses parked and I remember fighting for a good spot with a view.
3) Group shot at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. Our tour guide looked exactly like Antonio Banderas, which was fun.
4) Jodi and I in a Thai Buddhist Temple near Chiang Mai. Loved Thailand!