Please Tip Your Waiter

After a long day of walking around the city we're all hanging out in the hotel terrace restaurant right now with the hotel staff which is actually a ton of fun. The barman actually has his daughter here who is just a little younger than Maya and we are all having a great time talking and watching the girls play with Maya's dolls while we all learn Turkish. A quiet way to spend the holiday but I feel like I'm surrounded by family and it's making for a wonderful holiday away from home. I don't think I can think of a better way to spend this night while here in Istanbul.

Today was a long day of shopping at the Bazaar, walking through the back streets of Istanbul and seeing more of this wonderful place. Maya did well with some of the walking but I think she's starting to get tired of the trip. Hopefully she will sleep well tonight. I will try to post more pictures soon but until then check out Josh's Flickr pictures

So Many Things to Do, So Little Time

I've only got a few minutes to post because we're off again. The past two days have been busy, busy, busy. We went to all kinds of gorgeous mosques, went for a cruise on the Bosphorous, saw the last palace used by the Ottomans, went to the Asian side of Istanbul, and now we're off to the Grand Bazaar. I even went to a Turkish Bath which was incredibly amazing and totally embarassing all at once. I loved it!

Maya has held up well thanks to using the scarf as a sling when she's tired. It really helped out yesterday during the tour of the Ottoman palace because she fell dead asleep. She really seems to be enjoying the trip, even though she complains every now and then. Overall, she's behaved herself very well. Unfortunately, she's broken out with her HSP again so we're trying to keep her from doing too much walking today because of it. Hopefully her knees won't hurt her too much.

Tonight should prove to be amazing. I have no idea what we will be doing but spending New Years in a place like this will be wonderful no matter what. I'm really looking forward to it. I hope everyone else has a wonderful holiday!

The Beauty Within

We had a busy day today even though we ended up not making it to either of the mosques. Josh found time in the evening to take some great pictures of them, though, and we plan on seeing them and the Grand Bazaar tomorrow. We did, however, make it to the beautiful Topkapi Palace, the main palace for the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries. The expanse of the palace was incredible and was only rivaled by the beautiful tile-work and gilded calligraphy adorning the many buildings. Maya handled the palace fairly well though she fell dead asleep about half-way through. Thankfully one of the scarves I had packed to use as a head covering in the mosques saved the day and I was able to use it as a sling to support her while we walked around. I had used a sling religiously to carry her around on trips when she was smaller and it proved once again to be one of the best inventions ever created by woman.

After the palace, we went to the incredible Basilica Cistern, a breathtaking columned water reservoir located underground adjacent to Hagia Sophia. Maya especially loved the huge fish that were swimming around in the water and Josh was in pure heaven with all the photo opportunities. It's amazing that something so simple as columns and two feet of water can be as dazzling as the cistern is, but it will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip.

We finished the day off with a belly dancing show. It, of course, was the canned tourist trap type place but Maya was mesmerized. I looked over quite a few times to see her completely in a trance watching the dancers. Even though the food wasn't the best and some of the acts had more cheese than France, the whole experience was a lot of fun and well worth the price. Now I just need to get Maya to stop hiking up her shirt so she can be a belly dancer.

We Made It!

I don't have much time to post anything of real value because we're about to head out but we did make it here safe and sound. Our hotel is small but it does what it needs to do and there was even a wonderful continental breakfast this morning.

Today is sure to be one of our busiest days. We're off to see the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the Basillica Cisterne, the huge open market and we'll end the day with a belly dancing dinner show.

Well everyone is waiting for me to go so I'm off. I'll post later today if I can with all the fun things we did!

Trixie Saves the Day!

Excellent! Maya's inflatable bed fits right in Trixie with almost no squishing! I was surprised because that bed is generally a big pain to deal with and I didn't think it would fit in there but, bust my buttons, it did! I'm going to look through our bags tonight and find a suitable carry on bag that can fit both her things and my things since I'm losing out on the space in the Trunki for toy storage. Considering the fact that we have enough bags for a small third world nation, I think I'll be OK finding something though so no worries on that front.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Maya got all kinds of great things to take on the plane for entertainment. My mother sent her several write-on, wipe-off books to teach her her letters and numbers which should be fun. We really need to work on her letters and numbers and the flight will be a great time to bust out her new books and work on those since I'll have her trapped. She asked me today if she could take her new Bratz doll which I said she could. Hopefully that wont go the way of her last blanket and end up under a seat somewhere far away.

I mentioned yesterday that Maya tends to be a bit of a thrasher in bed. Here's the proof. This is how I found her last night


Try sleeping next to that for 10 nights. BAH!

Now I'm off to do about twenty loads of laundry to get ready for leaving tomorrow. Ahh a mother's work never ends.

Suitcase Jumble

So Josh and I realized today that we will have to take Maya's inflatable bed with us on the trip because our hotel in Istanbul only has a queen sized bed. Yes, yes I know boo-hoo a queen sized bed. Well, let me tell you, it's no fun sleeping with "The Thrasher." Generations of the women in my family have all gotten the thrashing gene. Basically, we flip-flop around more than a fish out of water beating anything within arm distance to a pulp while we sleep. Maya's sleeping habits are quite impressive. She's worse than I am when it comes to sleeping positions. Sometimes I'm amazed she can even sleep with the formations she gets herself into. I swear, I've caught her sleeping upside down like a bat a couple of times. Anyway, with all that said, we have to figure out how to pack her bulky inflatable bed into all of our stuff because if we don't none of us will have any hope of getting sleep while we're gone.

*Sigh* I may just end up doing a test pack tomorrow. Josh thinks it will fit into the good ol' Trunki. Normally I put her toys in her Trunki but if the bed fits in there that would be awesome. I'll just have to figure out how to handle all of her other stuff. I may have to *gasp* take a larger carry-on. NOOOOOO! I've always prided myself on taking very little on the planes. It just makes life easier when all you have is a backpack to take on and off. If I can't fit her bed in Trixie though, I'm going to have to take up valuable suitcase space which is worse than taking a bigger carry-on. If all else fails, I may end up just taking less clothing. Lets see 10 day trip, that would be 4 sweaters, 2 pairs of jeans, one nice outfit (just in case), one extra pair of shoes and *ahem* all the under bits. Frightening isnt it? I promise, it is humanly possible to survive on that lol. Maya tends to take more because, well...four year olds like to "wear" their day.

Anyway, Christmas is fast approaching, though, and our trip is just a few days away! We bought an extra guide book today to add to our collection. We usually take 3 or 4....or more. (Yes, we're guide book junkies.) We've had some time to look at them a bit more and it's just so overwhelming! So many things to see. I hope we don't miss too much. Once Christmas is over it will be time to seriously hunker down and get ready for our long days of traveling. We leave late late on the 26th then arrive in London only to have a five hour lay-over! (I KNOW, isn't it AWESOME?! I bet you wish you could have a five hour lay-over in Heathrow!) Then we finally fly to Istanbul in the afternoon, spend a week there, fly back, take the train to the Midlands to see friends, take the train back to London and fly back home. Oh, and don't forget the lay-over in Amsterdam on the way home! WHEW! See why I pack light?

Santa's Coming to Town

Yes that's right folks it's almost time for the big man's visit which is why I've been a little absent from the blog lately. Juggling work, Maya, the house, and anything else that comes along can make mamma tired. Good news though is that in one week I'll be finishing up packing for our big trip! I can't wait. These last few weeks of work have felt like they've been in dog years. I love my job but, really, Turkey? Much better than fixing the postage machine in my office.

I was telling someone last night that I can't believe this trip is only a week away. I still feel so unprepared. I haven't learned any Turkish and I've barely cracked a guidebook. Thankfully, Josh has been pulling up the slack (though he never learns languages). He was flipping through a guidebook one day and showed me an illustration of the huge wall that use to surround Istanbul during it's days as a Roman capitol. It looked amazing and hopefully we can see it at some point. I did get a chance to oogle some articles about traditional Turkish wares that one should get while there. I have one word for all my fellow women...JEWLERY! If nothing else, I do plan on purchasing some of the beautiful baubles they have there. Ahhhh, rings, they are my downfall. We also watched a documentary about the train tunnel they are building through the Bosphorous channel to link the European side with the Asian side. It's truly an engineering marvel though work on the European side has been held up with the discovery of an ancient port. It would be cool to see the excavation site so that may be one thing to do while we're wandering around.

After Turkey we will be making a pit stop to see our friends in Chesterfield, England. I'm so excited to see them. I love going to Chesterfield. Yes, yes, it's an industrial town but really getting to hang out with good friends, good food and maybe catching a footie match or two is my idea of pure heaven.

A quick FYI-There was some excellent news on the Trunki front. Towgo won a silver medal from Mother & Baby magazine in the Best Travel Product category! Way to go Trunki! I, of course, think they should always get a gold but I can't judge everything. Congratulations to Rob and the gang!

Three More Weeks

In three weeks we'll be in Istanbul, Turkey! I can't believe it. I feel like we've had this trip planned forever. Oh wait, we have. As of right now I have no idea what to expect other than I know it's sure to be a great trip. I'm definitely looking forward to see Hagia Sophia, a beautiful building that began it's life as a church and then was turned into a mosque and now is a museum. Other than that, I'm at a loss. Hmm maybe it's time to actually look at a tourist guide. Bah!

One thing I will say about Josh and I, we love the unusual. We love to step away, far away, from the tourist spots and find a little gem of a shop or a restaurant on a side street. It's made for some great finds and some interesting eating. One time, when we were in Prague, we went to this pizza place that we swore was run by the Czech mafia. Everyone who walked in seemed to know each other and they all kept going into this back room. There were also some guys who sat a a table the whole time, who just looked like mafia types, who kept answering their cell phones in hushed voices. In the end, the pizza was good and the "mafia" guys loved Maya. I have to say though, we ate quickly, said our thank yous and watched our backs the rest of the night. The creep out factor was definitely high but it was fun trying to guess if they were running some kind of front business for a secret Czech mafia operation.

Then there was a time when we were in Argentona, Spain and our friend Xavi took us to the most amazing bakery. It dated back hundreds of years and I had a pastry called an angel's bell (Cabella d'Angel). It's a sinful pastry, almost the size of my head, made of a phyllo dough glazed with honey on one side and chocolate on the other. I almost passed out it was so good. Steve, our friend who was traveling with us, said he was going to come back to Spain just to get another one. I told him to take me with him.

This all amounts to me trying to say, when you travel don't be afraid to leave the comfort of the tourist trap with the English menus and cookie cutter brick-a-brack shops. Take a stroll down a quaint side street and see what you find. You just may find your own one of a kind story.

I'm Ready to Burst

I just weighed myself on my scale and I have officially gained 10 pounds in the past 3 days. I feel like I'm going to explode. If I see anymore food this weekend, I think I'm going to cry.

Other than feeling like Thanksgiving's stuffed turkey the trip has been great. We took advantage of the after Thanksgiving's Day sales to buy a new gadget for our travels. We bought a portable GPS unit, something we've been talking about investing in for a while. This thing is great! It has the requisite touch screen, voice prompts, blue-tooth wireless phone integration and, best of all, it already has the maps for the U.S. and Europe loaded up in it. You can also set it to have famous people tell you directions, although, now that I think of it, it might be scary to have Mr. T yelling at you to take a left. We're looking forward to putting it to the test on the streets of Turkey, but, for now, we're happy with it finding every Sonic restaurant along the highway.

Right now we are in beautiful and scenic Oak Ridge, Tennessee; which is my home town. For those of you who don't know, Oak Ridge has quite the history. It was a secret government installation established in 1942 as part of the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb. For the first five years of it's existence it...well, didn't exist. It did not appear on maps, the roads were not paved and you could not enter or exit the city without passing through armed checkpoints. In addition, the city was broken up into separate communities which were barred from socializing with each other in order to prevent any one person from truly knowing what was going on at any of the nuclear installations. While the city no longer is a secret, it continues to play in important roll in promoting American innovation and competitiveness in areas such as science, engineering, physics and even medicine and is the home of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory which does important research in nuclear physics and nanotechnology. When people tell me I'm bright, it's for a reason, har har. Josh doesn't really think it's much to look at but I happen to think it's a pretty cool place and am quite proud to call it my home town.

Tomorrow we drive back to Virginia and back to life as usual. This has been a somewhat difficult two weeks for me so I'm looking forward to some normalcy.

Holiday Euphoria

Maybe it's the approximately five pounds of Thanksgiving dinner I ate tonight, but right now I'm positively euphoric. The drive down yesterday went really well despite a bit of a rocky start (we had our doors open so long packing the car that the battery died and we had to jump it...ooops). Indie barely made a sound the whole time and Maya and I had great fun listening to the music from E.T. and pretending we were flying through the mountains as we drove. Today was, of course, filled with lots of food, family and laughter. Maya looked positively adorable, too. Last year Jeremy and Heather had brought her back the cutest dirndl dress from Germany and she has finally grown into it so she wore it today, complete with pig tail braids. It made my German heart skip go all a flutter. Later on Josh, Jeremy, Heather, Maya and I went to the movies to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium which was just great. It was a sweet movie and I smiled the whole way through it, something I haven't done in a long time.

I don't know. Maybe it's all the medicine I'm on right now but for some reason I just feel like life is good. I have a beautiful daughter, a wonderful husband, a great family, a great life and frankly I couldn't ask for more. Today is a day of thanks for us Americans and right now, I'm thankful for everything I have and everything that is to come. One of the lines in the movie tonight really struck me today and maybe that's what's making me so happy and just looking forward to what the future holds.

"Life is an occasion. Rise to it." Rise to it indeed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Long Road

Well it's Thanksgiving Week here in the states and that can only mean one thing for the Young clan. A fantabulous 12 hour drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky! Thankfully, I'm feeling quite a bit better so the drive shouldn't be too bad but can I still just say "ugh" to 12 hours in a car. And did I mention we are taking our dog, Indie, too? Sweet, 12 hours of mundane landscape AND the smell of dog. Quick, everyone hop in! This is gonna be AWESOME!

The good news is that we always have a great time when we go so it's at least worth the trip. I really do enjoy seeing Josh's family and it will be nice to see Heather and Jeremy in a more coherent state of being. We will be in Bowling Green until Saturday and then we will start the drive back, making a pit stop in my home town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee to see my family. That usually works out well because it breaks up the drive. We drive 5 hours from Bowling Green to Oak Ridge and then about 8 hours the next day from Oak Ridge back home. We'll go straight to Bowling Green on the way down only because we just want to get there as quickly as possible. Though, I'm not sure 12 hours can actually be counted as quick.

So far, I haven't even packed for me or Maya yet so I need to get cracking on that. We have the important things though...books on tape, DVDs, snacks, drinks, and, oh yes, directions to all the Sonic Restaurants along our route. Mmmmm, Sonic.

Jinx

So, I think I jinxed myself by writing about what to do in a medical emergency while on travel a while back. As I said in my previous posts, the trip to Chicago definitely took a turn for the worse but the worse wasn't over for me. Wednesday morning I woke up feeling moderately OK. I was still tired but I thought I could make it going to work and I had an appointment with my allergist who is downtown so it was easier to just go in. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to my doctor's office I was in serious trouble. I couldn't breathe, my pulse skyrocketed and I was quickly becoming incoherent. My doctor was afraid that the previous breathing problems and the fact that I had flown the night before were pointing to a possible pulmonary embolism. He immediately sent me to the emergency room which was thankfully only two blocks away. I safely made it there and after 12 hours of uncontrollable coughing and several instances of nearly passing out they admitted me to the hospital. Initially, it was only to be over night but I ended up being put into the pulmonary care unit for three days under constant observation. I had to receive IV steroids, round the clock breathing treatments, supplemental oxygen as well as a barrage of other medications and testing. The final diagnosis is that, as in Chicago, it was a severe uncontrollable asthma attack. I'm now at home but it seems like it is going to be a long road to recovery as I'm still not "recovered."

They cleared me to go to Kentucky for Thanksgiving, but this means that I am going to have to severely limit where I can go when I'm there as two of the three houses we hang out at are unfit for me to be in at this time just because of previous allergic reactions I've had. I have to admit that for the first time I'm afraid of what might happen on a trip. I don't think I'll be wacky but I think from now on Im going to have to be hyper-vigilant about my allergies and my asthma. I've also considered getting a medic-alert bracelet so that if anything does happen people can have access to all of my important medical information. The hard thing to admit is that there is the potential that I could have died if I hadn't gotten medical attention. I literally could not breathe. My lungs were working but I could tell I was not getting enough oxygen. When I realized that I just couldn't even think in a coherent fashion because of it I knew I was in trouble. Had I let it go who knows what would have happened. I hate having to change my life around, I hate having people worry about me and I hate having to worry this much about what might happen, but this is life and you can either choose to throw in the towel or keep on going. Just for the record, I've still got my bags packed.

All in the Family

Well amidst all the laziness we have actually gotten some things done and had a pretty good time doing them. Saturday we spent the morning just catching up, watching some TV and playing with these little remote controlled helicopters that Josh brought for Jeremy as a late birthday present. That afternoon we all headed out to the German Christmas market in Oak Brook, Illinois. It ended up being a little disappointing as there were very few booths but we still managed to get one of the best bratwursts I've had since going to Germany last year. Heather and I found a nice little booth with lots of beautiful jewelry and ended up getting rings that almost match. We've dubbed them the wonder twin rings, har har.

Yesterday was pretty quiet as well. The boys watched Maya while Heather and I went to the bookstore for some girl time which was very nice. Heather and I are pretty close and really enjoy spending time away just the two of us. We are very similar and us getting away by ourselves is alway a recipe for lots of laughs and even some mischief. While we were out we talked about important issues like whether or not, when ordering an egg nog latte from Starbucks, you should even bother worrying about figuring out how you can get it low fat and how children's book titles like "The Day My Butt Exploded" could possibly be good for your kids to read (disclaimer: I haven't read it so I don't really know). You know, the real hard hitting subject matter.

Last night was suppose to be the big lasagna dinner but, unfortunately, it didn't end up that way. Jen and Steve had come out to visit and I slowly started not feeling good as we all sat around the living room and talked. As it turns out my dizziness and fatigue was because I was having a severe asthma attack. After making it up the stairs, I suddenly got really bad and ended up almost passing out in poor Heather's arms. So, rather than hanging out and eating some good food I ended up being taken to the hospital. I'm not sure how many people know this, but getting multiple albuterol breathing treatments is WAY more fun than hanging out with friends. I was really excited about it :P! Anyway, this means that today is probably going to be filled with lots of nothingness as I continue to try and recover a bit. That's it for now. I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

'Scuse Me While I Cough

We made it to Chicago, YAY! I'm sick, BOO! One thing I haven't mentioned before is that I have severe allergies and moderate asthma...and yes, I was one of those lame kids with glasses sitting on the bench during gym class because I couldn't run. I have to be careful because when I have an allergy attack I don't get the sniffles, I often get severe complications with my asthma which makes life pretty miserable. Around the time Maya had to go to the hospital I got bronchitis and haven't been able to kick it. I woke up yesterday with a horrible cough and had to go to my allergist for a check up and a breathing treatment. Now, I sound like one of those old people who have been smoking for 50 years with a cough I think they can probably hear from down the street and it's tough to breathe. The good thing is that we're in Chicago, so if I have to laze around it's not a big deal but still it's disappointing. Asthma can be pretty debilitating and I just hope I don't continue to have problems the rest of the winter especially since we've got several big trips lined up.

In other news, Maya once again did excellent on the plane. I think she's also learned that if she asks the flight attendant the second she gets on the plane that she can get into the cockpit. It's so hilarious to see her in there asking a billion questions while sitting in the pilot's seat. What does this do, what beeps, what's this thing, can I press this? At one point the co-pilot let her talk on the intercom long enough to say "Hi, Mom!" for the whole plane to hear. She also once again had everyone in the airport ooh-ing and aah-ing over her Trunki especially parents. Everyone wants to know if it really is a suitcase and where they can get it. The ticketing agent was asking us all kinds of questions and thought it was great. Hopefully it will really start to catch on here in the states and we'll see more of them around!

Getting Ready for the Windy City

I am so ready for this trip to Chicago. Things have been hectic, crazy, frustrating, tiring, and several other adjectives that I probably can't post in a public forum. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my family and having a good ol time doing nothing of real value. My sister in law and I talked about going to one of the German Christmas markets that they have every year in various places around Chicago which I'm very excited about as my family is quite proud of our German heritage. I can't wait to see all the good food and trinkets that are surely waiting for me with my name on them.

Josh also found out about an exhibit at the Field Museum called Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. Given that we're pretty much always looking at some kind of map and have actually grown to be quite fond of them as some can be quite beautiful, we are definitely going to head over to that at some point. The exhibit as is turns out is actually part of a citywide event called The Festival of Maps which celebrates some of the greatest discoveries, discoverers, and explorations that the world has offered throughout history. Actually, I was just looking and the famous Adler Plantarium is even doing an exhibit on historical maps of the cosmos throughout time called Mapping the Universe. I wonder if we can go to that?! Oops, my inner nerd is coming out. I should go before I scare anyone.

Anyway, the trip should be a lot of fun so be sure to start checking in because I'll be posting a lot in the coming days!

When First Class Just Isn't Good Enough and Other News

I'm not sure if anyone else saw this but Singapore Airlines announced recently that they have now installed First Class Suites on their A380 jumbo jets. These things are ridiculous. Not only do you get an Italian leather lounger, but you also get meal service on hand painted china, your own wide-screen LCD, turn down service and a restroom that's actually the size of a real restroom. Oh, and did I mention that there's a bed. Yes, folks, that's right...a BED. Now, granted, the cost of the trip will only set you back $10,000 USD but who's counting?!

Check it out for yourself at http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/new/suite/index.jsp.

For those of us who function in the real world, here's a tidbit you can actually use. I was trolling around the Dollar Store the other day killing some time and saw all kinds of great things to take on flights for entertainment. Usually my rules for in-flight toys are that they are flat, they don't have anything parts that will roll all over the place, they can quickly be put away and that they can fit in the backseat pocket. I saw things like sticker books, some simple crochet crafts, ink stamp kits, small coloring/activity books, etc. At a dollar a piece it's a cheap way to keep her entertained and if it somehow ends up getting lost I'm only out a dollar. Obviously, these are more for the older set but right now, that's what I've got. When Maya was a baby I generally stuck to the same rules but made sure that the toys were age appropriate. I usually took soft sided books, relatively quiet rattle toys and, my personal favorite, a mini child sized back pack filled with some of the animals from her Fisher Price zoo set.

The Young family travel calendar is starting to look full again! Our trip to Chicago is coming up fast and I can't wait. I love seeing my brother in law and his wife so it is sure to be lots of fun. After that it's just a few weeks until Thanksgiving which involves driving 8 hours to Tennessee to see my family and another 5 hours to Kentucky to see Josh's. Then we're on a crash course for Christmas and our big trip to Turkey! I never believed my mom when she would tell me how fast the time goes when you're grown up. Now I know what she was talking about. My head is already spinning!

Also be sure to check the Where We've Been section for new links. I've been slowly going back and posting about old trips so if you want to see what we've done in the past be sure to click on those!

Totally Unrelated

This has nothing to do with travel unless it's travel to Fantasyland! Here's pictures of Maya's Halloween costume! Can you say ARGGGGH?! Hope everyone had a great one!

Let's Talk Turkey

I really wish I could go into mom mode with the Turks and the Kurds right now and make everyone go to their rooms for a time out. And they definitely aren't getting any pudding after dinner! This whole situation is putting a damper on my excitement about going to Istanbul after Christmas. In truth, Turkey is gigantic and I seriously doubt there is any reason for us to be concerned but I just don't like it when there is any kind of questionable events going on in a place where I'm going. Honestly, for me it's very similar to when we went to New York so soon after September 11th. I knew that it we would be safe and nothing would happen but it still made me kind of uneasy going there. In the end everything was fine (physically at least, emotionally not so much) and we had a good time on the trip which is what I think will happen with this one.

Actually, distance-wise, the stuff that's going on in Turkey is about as far from Istanbul as New Orleans is from DC and honestly I think the aftermath of Katrina was probably worse than anything that's going on right now in Turkey. It was unbelievable what happened to New Orleans. It was complete and utter devestation and it was agonizing to watch. For us, though, outside of TV coverage of what was happening dominating the news, it was life as usual here in DC. That's probably a callous way of looking at things as we all know the people who lived in New Orleans and the surrounding area really suffered, but it's just how it was. Knowing that something like that can happen in my own country and it still not affect my daily life shows to me that, despite the unrest going on in Turkey right now, we will almost certainly be fine in Istanbul.

I just wish I could threaten them with things like no TV or forced chores to get them to stop and play nice. *sigh* The world would be so much easier to live in if it was run by moms.

Our New Family Members!

They're here!!! Our new luggage arrived today and it is AWESOME! It's incredibly light weight and it's actually very flexible which was a big surprise to me. I had assumed that the shiny exterior shown in their pictures on the web were a sign of a rigid, metal-like substance. It's actually a thin, but apparently very strong, flexible plastic that gives when you push on it. The advantage to this is that it can withstand impacts much better than either a soft-sided or hard-sided bag. It's the best of both worlds! Even better than that is that it is about a thousand times easier to maneuver as well because of the 360 wheels. It also has a very swanky inside ala something Paris Hilton would have. That's not to say that I want to be anything like Paris Hilton...unless it means staying in a huge suite at a Hilton with no charge for room service. I could definitely handle that.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the luggage. Overall its great and I'm very glad we took the plunge and got a new set. I can't wait for our trip to Turkey!

I heart my luggage!

Bring It On!

Well, after 5 1/2 years Josh and I decided it was time to get some new luggage. The luggage we have now is pretty much on its last legs with all the traveling we have done. Right now our luggage is a set of soft sided suitcases that can expand about 2 inches if we need them to. They've worked out well for us but as the years have gone on they've gotten pretty beaten up. The fabric is ripped, some of the zippers dont work quite right, the handles sometimes don't want to go down. In short, we've run them into the ground.

Last week a friend of ours sent us a link to some snazzy new hard sided luggage that can spin 360 degrees and can also expand. It's made by Heys Luggage and is called the 4WD Spinner Luggage Set in silver (I'll post some photos of it when they come in). People, can I just say that I am in luggage heaven at the very thought of these? With several big trips coming up like Turkey and England, I'm really looking forward to not having to worry so much about our luggage surviving airports, customs, planes, trains, cabs, cars, hotel attendants and especially us. If I had a dollar for everytime our luggage has skidded down steps, fallen out of buses, been packed to within an inch of its life, and just generally man-handled, I wouldn't need my job. Plus this will be much easier to keep clean and it can get scraped up all it wants. So bring it on world! I'm ready for anything you can dish out!

BTW, speaking of hard luggage, I would like to say that the Trunki has kept up beautifully over the past couple years and thats been during some of our most hard core traveling. It's got a few scratches, scrapes, and other traveling war wounds, but that thing could probably go on forever and is definitely built to last. Maya is even harder on luggage than we are so for it to still be in one functioning piece is quite the achievement! Hopefully Trixie won't be jealous of her flashy new travel mates.

These Things Happen

It's been a while since I last wrote but for a very good reason that may need some explaining. About a month ago, Maya started breaking out in a bright red rash. At first, I thought it was from all the mosquitoes that we encountered while sitting outside with Jen and Steve at their house in Chicago. Like her dad, when Maya gets bitten by a mosquito she doesn't get a red bump, she gets a welt. Knowing this, when I saw lots of red welts on her legs I didn't think much of it. It went away for a while and I thought we had seen the last of it. Then, mysteriously it showed up again a week later. This time, I thought she was reacting to some blue Irish Spring soap that she had apparently vigorously rubbed on her legs (and into the lingering mosquito bites) in an effort to, as she said, "make herself blue like a bluebird." I attributed the rash recurring in this instance to my familial heritage of being highly allergic to anything remotely resembling soap. Last Wednesday though, I finally realized that this rash was not you're everyday eczema.

Maya had been home sick with a cold and fever. Late in the afternoon she came up to me and said "Look, mommy! My rash is back!" I looked at her legs and they were almost entirely covered in the red splotchy rash. Then I looked at her feet and they were swollen to almost twice their size. After about 20 minutes of monitoring and trying to figure out if the rash and the cold were related we were off to the hospital for emergency treatment. We now know that the rash wasn't mosquitoes or soap. It's actually the main symptom of a form of vasculitis called Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. It's believed to be an auto-immune condition in which something triggers her immune system to go into overdrive and eventually begin attack the small blood vessels in her legs. The result is the "rash" we were seeing. Thankfully, it will eventually go away on its own with no long term effects, but it can last for up to 12 weeks! Because of some of the issues HSP can cause besides the rash, like joint pain, Maya will most likely be on bed rest for most of the next month (Yikes!). So, that is why I have been so aloof lately.

Now, you may be wondering why I explained all of this to you. After all, who really wants to hear about someone else's weird rash. Well, while we were waiting in the hospital we realized we had never really thought about this issue, a medical emergency, in terms of traveling. What would we have done if, while on travel, we realized we were in an emergency situation and needed to get her help right away? What would we do if we were in a foreign country and needed a doctor? What if something happened and Maya, or one of us, had to be on bed rest for the rest of the trip? For most, these questions are enough to make them not want to travel. I'll admit it, the what ifs can seem overwhelming sometimes but it's really important to look past that when planning travel. We realized that no matter where we are there will always be the potential for an emergency situation. In the end, where you are is often less important than whether or not you have prepared yourself for that situation. This is why it's helpful to do things like finding out where your embassy is and making sure you can say emergency words like "I need help," "I need a doctor," "I need a hospital." It's also helpful if someone has emergency training in First Aid and CPR (I am certified in both) because that kind of training teaches you how to keep a cool head when everything else is going crazy. One thing I've learned over the years is that if you are prepared and if you have asked yourself "What would I do if this happened?" then you can handle most situations, even the really high stress ones like medical emergencies. You can't let the fear of what might happen keep you from going someplace because things will happen no matter where you are. In the end if you choose not to go somewhere because of what "might" happen you are only denying yourself what may end up being a wonderfully fabulous experience without so much as a paper cut.

Hidden Delights

We made a VERY quick trip to Trenton, New Jersey this weekend. It was so fast I didn't even have time to post anything! Josh really wanted to see the last baseball game of the season for the Washington Nationals against the Philadelphia Phillies. The game was great and the Phillies made it into the playoffs for the first time in a long time. Since Josh's uncle, John, lives only 45 minutes away in Trenton we decided to make a trip of it. The big game is not the story, though. The big story is Trenton.

Despite the fact that Trenton's role in the manufacturing industry has seen a great decline in the past 50 years, there is no denying it's important role in American history. It dates back to 1679 as a Quaker settlement but took the name of "Trent-town" in 1719. During the Revolutionary war, Trenton was the site of Washington's first military success and in the famed painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" he is actually crossing into Trenton. Later on, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Trenton was a key city in the manufacturing of a variety of industrial products including steel and rubber. Unfortunately for Trenton, economic hard times in the manufacturing industry have taken its toll and Trenton has fallen out of favor in the eyes of many Americans. Thanks to John, though, we were shown a brand new side of Trenton and the Trenton area that has us looking forward to our next visit!

As we were driving to what would be a wonderful dinner in Imlaystown, New Jersey we passed a seemingly innocuous park no different than any other. To our great surprise, it was actually designed by Frederick Olmstead who also designed the grounds of Central Park, the U.S. Capitol, and the grounds of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago that we saw not but a few weeks ago! Further down the road, we passed a neighborhood of enormous historic homes that were beautifully lit for a home tour on a street that looked like it would be delightful to walk down with Maya during the day. After picking up a friend of John's, Jeff, we headed out to Imlaystown. I had never even heard of this place but it made me feel like I was right back home in Tennessee. It was a tiny little town out in the farmland that consisted of a very short and narrow main street and I think two or three stores and the inn where we ate dinner. It was dark so I have to admit, there may have been more, but what I saw was enough to make me all warm and fuzzy inside remembering my home state. We ate at the Happy Apple Inn, a historic in that had been there since the mid 1800s. While the dinner was a little on the expensive side, it was definitely worth the cost and if you are ever there you should pay it a visit. I had some wonderful crab cakes with twice baked potatoes and Josh had the biggest pork chops I think I have ever seen in my life.

We wrapped up the night with cake, tea, coffee and wonderful conversation at Jeff's house (another historic home!). As we walked back to our car through the beautiful garden behind Jeff's house I realized that sometimes it just takes a local to show you the hidden wonders of a place. I never really expected that Trenton would be on my list of places I really want to go back to for reasons other than to visit family, but now that I've been introduced to an entire different side of it and I can't wait to go out again.

All the Time In the World

While there are countless benefits associated with traveling, one thing that it offers families is the chance to experience the world in an entirely different way. For so many, life is overflowing with jobs, school, meetings, activities, and countless other events. The typical 21st century family often has so little time together that they can go a full week without seeing everyone in the same room at the same time. When you travel, though, the clock stops on regular life and you are afforded the chance to spend real time with your family and, indeed, yourself.

Traveling with a child is a much different experience than traveling with other adults. Children experience the world head on, always questioning and examining…always learning. When you travel with your child, especially a young child, you are forced to do the same because at any given moment, you are their teacher. They are looking to you to lead them through their own discoveries and thus, you too have to learn about the places you are traveling to. Children teach us to learn rather than to simply look. They constantly ask the questions that we have forgotten how to ask. What is that? Who made it? Why did they make it? Where are we? Why is this place important? In daily life, a child’s questioning nature can be taxing, but when you are both seeing a place together for the very first time, they become the experts at truly experiencing a place.

Unlike adults, children live in a world that has no real schedules or commitments. They are only limited by their own seemingly boundless energy. They put so much energy into being in the moment and enjoying that moment to its fullest. As adults we are so accustomed to going, going, going that we often forget this part of life. We must plan our time down to the minute and make sure we fit in everything we are expected to do. Travel with children, however, is the exact opposite. Yes, you will make plans, but only half of them may get done in any given day. They are too busy enjoying themselves to be troubled by an itinerary. At first it’s maddening because it goes against everything we are accustomed to. Slowly, though, we learn that we too need to stop and enjoy ourselves just as they are. By embracing the child’s way of discovering the world, we experience more than we ever would have if we had stuck to our meticulously planned trip. Traveling is indeed a wonderful cultural experience that everyone should take part in. Traveling with a child, though, opens your eyes to not only their own wonderful personalities and ways of learning, but also to the person you used to be before you grew up.

Sleepy Head

I have a challenge for you. Pick up 30 pounds worth of weights and carry them in your arms for a mile. You can rest if you need to, but you can't lay the weights down. OK, ready? Go! Why aren't you moving? Seriously, let's go. Why are you looking at me like I'm crazy? I've done this before so that means you can too. Go, go, go!

You still think I'm crazy don't you? OK, I'll admit it, this whole challenge is crazy, but it's not out of the realm of possibility when you are traveling with a child. One thing I think all parents are aware of is the fact that kids' schedules never seem to mesh with ours. This fact extends to sleeping as well. It's pretty much a guarantee that at some point, especially on long trips where you are sightseeing a lot, your child is going to fall totally and completely asleep at the most inopportune time (walking tours seem to be a favorite for Maya). Now you may think "Well that doesn't really matter. Surely you travel with a stroller." Well...actually, I don't. As inconceivable as that sounds, Josh and I have found that strollers cause more problems and hassles than solve them. Thus, we never travel with them. (If you don't believe me, try navigating the subway in Spain or any other city with an old transportation system. Steps and strollers don't work well.) The drawback to this, of course, is that when your child is so asleep that they are flopping around like a rag doll full of lead pellets, someone's got to carry them no matter how far the walk is.

Case in point: When we were in Budapest last year we spent one afternoon at Palatinus Beach on Margaret Island which is an island in the middle of the Danube River. It was roughly two miles from our hotel. After Maya and I played in the pool for a couple hours and then played at one of Budapest's gazillion playgrounds, we decided to head back. Everything was fine...until Maya fell asleep. Dead asleep. We took turns carrying her but we had to keep going as we wanted to try to make it back to the hotel because it was starting to rain. It was the longest two miles of my life.

Really, your options when they get to the dreaded "dead to the world" stage are pretty limited. If you can't stop, you just have to keep trucking along. For smaller children, this is when a fabric baby sling is invaluable. For older children, you can try taking turns carrying them or putting them on your shoulders. Most of the time, though, Josh and I will take the opportunity to stop into a small cafe or restaurant and have a small leisurely meal while she sleeps. Honestly, if you can't do anything of touristic value because your little one is zonked out, you may as well enjoy yourself! Cappuccino, anyone?

Excitement

I'm very excited today because we just reserved our tickets to China for next summer! So far, the plan is to spend a week in Beijing and then a week in Xian and the outlying Xian area. It's a bit off as the trip is early summer, but it will be the longest trip we've had since our honeymoon and to someplace just as cool.

I can't wait to take Maya there. I think she's going to love it. There's so much history there and I know it's going to be sensory overload for all of us. I just hope Josh doesn't try to bribe me into eating anything REALLY ethnic like scorpions or grasshoppers. The closest thing we've had to real chinese is eating Moo Shi Pork from the take out place down the street and I doubt that even that is authentic Chinese food. I may be in for it, though, because I do not like fish at all and I know they eat a lot of it there. Maybe I'll just live on noodles and steamed dumplings.

Remembrance

I was planning to write a blog yesterday complaining about how our flight from Chicago was delayed on Monday night but, as we were taking the bus to our car at 1:30 am, I saw the date scrolling on the bus’ electronic ticker. September 11th change so many things for us as Americans, but most especially our views on traveling. Traveling for fun became viewed almost as an unnecessary risk by many though, obviously, not by us.

The first trip we had planned after then just so happened to be two and a half weeks later…to New York City. As with most of our trips, we had planned it months beforehand and had expensive show tickets to a show we really wanted to see. After some great thought as to if we should go, and even whether or not it would be disrespectful to go, we decided to continue with our trip. Driving there was odd. There was a lot of traffic and we got stuck on the ramp into the Lincoln Tunnel. From that vantage point you could see lower Manhattan with smoke still billowing out from between the buildings. We had taken a trip about two weeks before September 11th to New York and had decided on that trip to skip out on seeing the World Trade Center because we knew we were coming back. That fact made them not being there all the more poignant.

Being in New York so soon after was a profound experience that has now been burned into my memory. We rode the subway as far as we could into lower Manhattan and then walked the rest of the way through dreary rain. We weren’t going there so we could say “We were there,” we were going more so we could pay our respects. Seeing the wreckage and the hundreds of flyers with the names and faces of the missing is still something I’m not fully capable of describing. Indeed, to this day, I have a very hard time going there or even watching footage from that day. Later that day we went to our show, a wonderful musical comedy that we had seen several times before. It was a desperately needed laugh and it really kind of let us feel some sense of normalcy, even if only for a few hours.

It wasn’t until 2003, when Maya was born, that we really started traveling a lot. I think, for us, we wanted to in part because of 9/11. Rather than allowing the actions of a few make us fearful of the world, we chose to seek it out so we could understand and respect the many different countries and cultures out there. Now, we view travel not as a way to boast about where we’ve been, but as a way to better ourselves and hopefully our child. We have made many friends around the world and have been places I never would have dreamed of going to. I can only hope that others will someday follow our lead and discover the wonderful places and people our small world has to offer them.

Hooligans in Training

Well, yesterday was the big soccer match. I'll leave out my personal feelings about our performance on the field, but everyone still managed to have a great time despite losing 4-2.

The day started with a quest to find face paint. One thing you may eventually learn about me is that I never miss a chance to be goofy, especially if I can do it with Maya. After Jen and I woke up, we left Maya with the guys and headed out to try to find some red, white, and blue face paints. We figured since it's close to Haloween that it would be no problem and we'd be in and out. Three stores and an hour and a half later, however, we finally were on our way home. We didn't have too much time once we got back so I had to do the face painting on the run and ended up doing Maya's once we got to the match. Since we never had the chance to get Maya's face painted at Disneyland (which she wanted to have done really badly), I decided to go all out and paint a big red, white, and blue butterfly on her face complete with glitter. I couldn't pass up the chance to paint my own face, though, and adorned myself with a giant red star and the letters USA on one cheek.

I'm quite, well, passionate at soccer matches so I was pretty into it. Maya however, isn't always so excited and soon was sucking her thumb and nodding off. She's actually got a good streak of falling asleep at important soccer matches and eventually was snoozing away even as I yelled and screamed at the top of my lungs. Oh well, she really only missed out on an own goal, a couple yellow cards, and some pretty fantastic acting on the field (a Brazilian player was actually carded for diving...classic!). Ahhh, I do so love soccer.

Not So Short and Sweet

One may think that shorter trips are easier on kids, but I've actually found the opposite to be true many time. I think the reasons for this are because you tend to be on the go much more since you are trying to maximize your short time at your destination and also because there is little time between travel days. Many times, Maya's behavior is actually wore on trips like the one we are on now and it can make for some pretty long days (mentally at least).

Saturday, our first full day in Chicago, was a tough day for her in terms of her behavior. It all started when she woke up at, what felt like, the crack of dawn. This meant that I, too, had to wake up at the crack of dawn. Considering the fact that she had not gone to bed until about 11:30 our time the night before, this set thing up for a very, very long day of whining, crying, running away, and basic unruliness. It all came to a head when we were in the beautiful Baha'i House of Worship for the North American Continent in Wilmette, Illinois.

Josh had been to the Baha'i temple in India while on a graduate school trip earlier this year so, when he found out that there was one in the Chicago area, he really wanted to go see it. The temple is a gorgeous intricately carved white stone building with well kept gardens in a quiet serene setting. Maya, in keeping with the India meaning of her name which is chaos, was anything but quiet and serene. Eventually, while we were in the midst of listening to one of the tour guides tell us about the other Baha'i temples around the world, I had to actually take her outside and give her a time out right there on the front steps of the temple. Not exactly a fun way to spend an afternoon. She was pretty mopey and whiny the rest of the day, but quickly fell asleep when I finally got her to bed later that night. It will probably come as no surprise that she slept in until 8:45 the next morning.

Quicksilver

It may be hard to believe, but our family is on the road again! Every now and then, Josh and I plan trips that most people think are, well, ridiculous. This weekend's trip would be one of those. A while back, we found out that the U.S. National Soccer team would be playing the Brazilian National Soccer team at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Being the crazy soccer fans we are, we called up our close friends in Chicago who are also big soccer fans and made plans to come out and support our team.

The trip out was pretty good, though we kept getting threatened with delays. First they said we would be delayed an hour, then 30 minutes, then they boarded us. When we got on the plane, it turns out we were actually suppose to be delayed an hour and a half from our original departure time and that air traffic control had been telling us the wrong times! Our pilot seemed pretty steamed as he was relaying all this to us in the cabin and finally came on and said he had basically shamed traffic control into letting us take off. Once we were up in the air, Maya played with her princess sticker book and colored in her new Trunki passport. We got Trixie quite a while ago, before the good people at Trunki had developed the passport that comes with the new ones, and they were nice enough to send us one to use for our travels. Maya loves it! She had a great time coloring in all the pages and asking about all the pictures...that is, until she drew a great big green line on the back of my nice white shirt with crayon! They had to be put away after that one.

While we were flying, we were also treated to a beautiful lighting show. We were far enough away from it that it didn't cause too much turbulence but it was still fun to watch. I think making something like that, that can easily be kind of scary for a kid, into something fun and exciting is a good way to handle it. Then, rather than seeing it as something to fear, they look at it almost as a game. Much like with the waves in La Jolla, we had a great time trying to guess when the next bit of lightning would flash in the clouds and how big it would be. It really was a beautiful sight and a fun way to pass the time.

You Have to Start Somewhere

People often ask me when I got so hooked on traveling, especially when they see that I'm still going all over with a child in tow. It really started with my honeymoon seven years ago. Until my wedding, I had never really been out of the country. Oh, I had gone to the Bahamas, but it was a pretty canned experience and it didn't feel very different from any other beach in the U.S. When we got married, however, Josh and I shocked everyone we knew by choosing to honeymoon in Luxor and Cairo, Egypt. Looking back on it, it was probably a crazy thing to do as neither of us had ever been out of the country on our own, we couldn't read or speak Arabic, and we pretty much had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It still reigns as my favorite trip.

Going to Egypt taught me that experiencing the unknown, and even embracing it, isn't always a bad thing. I think it's the fear of the unknown that keeps a lot of parents from believing that traveling with children is possible. What if they don't do well on the plane or in the car? What if it's really different when we get there? What if we can't find a place to eat with food they like? And, as if all the questions and apprehensions parents may have just on their own weren't enough, there's also no shortage of websites and news articles sharing stories of how horrible it is being around small children while on travel. My advice: don't believe everything you read and hear and don't give up if your first experience is a bad one. True, it's not always sunshine and roses. We've had really good experiences and really bad experiences in our many travels, but traveling, be it to great grandmas or Great Britain, can become a truly rewarding part of your life if you allow yourself to just let go and experience it as it happens. In reality, traveling with a child is much like eating vegetables when you're a kid. Yes it's different and everyone has their horror stories, but, really, you won't know if you (or your child) will like it until you try it. Who knows, maybe you'll be the kid who loves brussel sprouts.

Baseline

We are still in the process of getting back to normal life here in our house. Recovering from the jet lag of coming back from California is difficult as we all seem to have a harder time dealing with west to east time changes. I've had a hard time waking up so I can go to work. I love my job, but even that can't keep my body from complaining in the morning. It also doesn't help that Maya hasn't been sleeping very well the past couple nights, a typical aftermath of vacationing. One problem that we have found with traveling is that Maya gets use to sleeping in bed with us because we usually have one large bed in our hotel room that is big enough for all three of us. With all the extra room, Maya loves take the opportunity to sleep in between us the entire vacation rather than sleeping on a roll away bed or her blow up bed. I think it is because it makes her feel safe and secure in a strange place.

The drawback of this is that when we come home she still wants to sleep with us. Now, I don't mind the occasional "There is a big storm and I'm scared" sleeping in bed with us, but, to be honest, she beats us up at night and we prefer for her to sleep in her own bed. There is nothing worse than getting hit in the head with a little foot in the middle of the night because your child has decided that sleeping horizontally across the bed is the most comfortable position. She doesn't know she's doing it, but we sure do!

It usually takes about 3 to 5 days for all of us to get back to normal in terms of sleep depending on how long we have been gone and how different the time was. Sometimes Maya is out of sorts for longer (especially when it comes to wanting to sleep with us) but we just do our best to stick to our normal routines and make her go to bed and wake up when she is suppose to. Getting back to feeling like working after a long vacation...now that is another thing all together!

Flying Solo

I'm so very tired at the moment, but who needs sleep when you can post a blog about not getting any sleep?! Our day started at the bright and early hour of 4 a.m. Maya and I both woke up, albeit slowly, and got dressed. At around 4:20 we headed downstairs to the hotel lobby to catch the shuttle to the hotel. Maya was actually quite chipper and it helped to wake me up. We both gave Josh a big hug and Maya told Josh that she was going to be a grown up for me in the airport. With one last wave to Josh as we pulled away, we were suddenly on our way home.

Maya did in fact act like a grown up at the airport and behaved wonderfully the whole time. She waited patiently by my side as I got us checked in and then she did what she could to help get through security. She listened to what I asked of her and was happy and cheerful the whole time. The walk from security to our gate was actually quite long but that was ok because Maya got to ride on Trixie the whole way. She really does love zooming through the airport terminals (she especially likes it when it's me pulling because I walk fast). We made it to our gate and Maya promptly began telling the people across from us all about how she rode on Pirates of the Carribean and how it said "Dead men tell no talessssss!" Once we got on the plane, Maya sat in her seat and happily looked out the window until we took off. After we were in the air, she played with her new Tinkerbell toy for a little bit and then, thankfully, slept the ENTIRE way back home. Josh was so glad to hear that she had been such a big girl for me on our first flight alone together. We're looking forward to having Josh home on Tuesday but for now Maya and I are just laying around the house recovering from our long day.

Thanks to all of you who have followed along on our trip! I do hope you've enjoyed reading my first foray into travel blogging. Be sure to continue checking back because the fun here doesn't end when our trip does. I'm hoping to do weekly updates (or even more often than that) with more information about traveling with your kids in general and maybe even some helpful survival tips for all you parents out there heading off into the world with your little ones.

I'm going to head off for a nap now.

Final Hours

Well, Maya and I have reached the end of our vacation. In just a few hours, we will wake up in California for the last time and will take a shuttle to LAX to catch a 6 am flight back to Washington, DC. We've had a wonderful time, though, and I really feel like we got to do pretty much everything you can possibly do while visiting here.

We spent our last day driving around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. First we drove down Rodeo Drive just to gawk at all the ridiculously expensive stores. It was a much smaller area than I was expecting so I was a little disappointed. I'm sure the shops would have been fun to walk around in but, with wares that probably cost as much as the computer I'm writing on, I decided it would be best not to visit them with a three year old in tow. Next, we decided to try to find Griffith Park where the famous Hollywood sign is. We got a little lost trying to find it and then when we finally found it we couldn't even go there because of the threat of wildfires. Eventually, we drove around until we found a good spot to snap some photos and got to see some of the ENORMOUS houses on the way. I think Maya was still quite a bit tired from yesterday because she slept through pretty much all of our time in the car today (though, admittedly, I took a cat nap as well).

After that, we visited Grumman's Chinese Theater and walked along the Walk of Fame some. We even happened upon Walt Disney's star, which I thought was very fitting after yesterday. I got to have my picture taken next to the foot and hand prints of the cast of Harry Potter (Oh no, I've outed myself as a Potter fan!) and saw the prints of many other Hollywood legends. I was a little put off by some of the weird people hanging about the theater, so I made sure to hold Maya tight. There were quite a few unsavory looking types milling about and that coupled with the many, many people there really kind of freaked both Josh and me out. We took our pictures and then made our way back to the car pretty quickly.

Sadly, because we are leaving so early, we had to say our goodbyes to Robin. It was great getting to see him though and we are already looking forward to our next trip with him at New Years. Josh is staying behind for two more days so he can see the Anaheim Angels play so hopefully all will go well in the airport in the morning as it will just be me and Maya. I can only hope that she will just sleep on the plane but, knowing my luck, she'll want me to read stories and play dolls with her. I'm getting tired already.

Dreams Do Come True

I'm so sore and tired right now, but for good reason: We went to Disneyland yesterday! At first Maya wasn't very interested in doing or seeing anything and I was afraid she was going be that way the whole day. Every ride or character we saw, she just wanted to sit in her stroller and sucked her thumb. We finally convinced her to go get her picture taken with Winnie the Pooh. After she got that hug from Winnie, she totally changed her outlook and was so excited about everything. Everything we mentioned, she wanted to do. We went on so many rides, a couple of them twice, and walked all over the park. We also saw two or three of the 3-D movies, which seem to be a favorite of Josh.

Maya's favorite ride was It's A Small World but her favorite thing all day was the lunch we had at Ariel's Grotto (which is actually in the California Adventure Park just adjacent to Disneyland). We found out about this special lunch they have there where you go and eat while all of the princesses walk around and stop by your table. Maya got to see Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, and even got to meet Cinderlla's Fairy Godmother! She was so excited she could barely sit long enough to eat her food. All of the princesses were very nice, even as Maya subjected them to her long drawn out story of how she lost her last blankie at a baseball game.

We stayed long enough to see some of the fireworks being set off and Sleeping Beauty's castle lit up at night time. Maya was very excited to see Tinkerbell flying all around during the show as it seems that Tinkerbell is now her favorite character. By the time we left, Josh and I could barely move but it didn't matter because Maya had an awesome time there. As she went to sleep last night she lovingly clutched her new Tinkerbell doll in her arms and I'm sure dreamed about princesses and fairies as she slept. Proof to me that dreams really do come true.

The Late Show

Unfortunately, we've been so busy the past few days that I've not had much access to the internet. This would be why I'm just now getting around to blogging for both today and yesterday (yesterday's is below). We had a full day today and I'm pretty tired. Maya is blessedly sleeping now but earlier, she had skipped right over bed time and went straight to crazy time. I thought I was going to have to peel her off the ceiling there for a moment. At one point, she was pretending that the room service menu was a storybook about a lost chinchilla. Good grief!

We woke up a little late today and packed up our suitcases because we were checking out of our resort and driving up to Los Angeles for the last few days of our trip. After we checked out, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park which is an open animal reserve for African wild animals. Maya celebrated being only a few hundred feet from them by sleeping though the entire tour. Even though Maya missed out on most of the park, Josh and I both agreed that this park was more fun than the zoo just because of the proximity to the animals. It was pretty amazing to be that close. After tour visit with the animals, we headed up to L.A. for a soccer match and then on to the hotel (I could write a whole other blog about my love for soccer) (and no I don't like soccer because of David Beckham) . The hotel's parking lot was forever away and actually part of LAX's parking so I was happy to have Trixie on hand to help me get from the car to the hotel with Maya. Maya seemed to enjoy the fact that we were going so much faster than Josh and Robin. Now, Im going to go get some sleep before our big day tomorrow at Disney. I'm on my way Prince Charming!

Halftime

Maya and I have reached the half-way point of our trip. First on the agenda, after a swim in the pool, was the Birch Aquarium, which is part of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute. While it was small, it had some really nice exhibits and Maya had a great time looking at all the jellyfish (her favorite marine creature thanks to Spongebob Squarepants).

After the aquarium, we headed down to Belmont Park in the Mission District. Belmont Park was an old time seashore carnival area. They had an old wooden roller coaster, carnival rides like the tilt-a-whirl, and a few kids rides. Maya's favorite ride was the antique carousel. Once we all had wobbly legs from riding the rides and walking around the beach front, we had dinner in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. Since Robin speaks fluent Spanish, and we were eating at a latin restaurant, I thought I would embarrass myself by speaking Spanish, with an emphasis on embarrass. Despite subjecting everyone to my horrible foreign language skills, a good time was had by all and I think Maya may have actually learned some Spanish (though, not from me)!

Water Babies

Today seemed to be all about water. We woke up early and Robin, Maya, and I all headed down to the pool. The resort doesn't have a children's pool which made me a little apprehensive since Maya is still in the process of learning how to swim. She totally showed me who was boss, though, when she swam like a pro (with a little help from some hot pink floaties on her arms). By the time we left she was jumping in with no help and even swimming out to the deep end with no one holding her. I was so proud of my little fish!

After our watery morning, we headed out to La Jolla (pronounced la hoya) for a little California sea lion watching from the special sea lion watching pier. Maya thought they were cute, but she thought the waves breaking on the rocks were much more interesting. She and I had a great time just watching the waves crash against the coastline, trying to guess if the next one would be big enough to get us with sea spray. Once we had had our fill of the beautiful La Jolla coast, we hopped on down to Coronado for a great dinner at the Hotel del Coronado, made a quick trip to see the Mexican-American border crossing, and then finished up the day with another swim! I'm waterlogged!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Today we put on our walking shoes and headed out to the world famous San Diego Zoo. Our friend Robin, who is in America on holiday, flew down to San Diego from San Francisco to join us on our trip. After we picked him up, we made our way to the animal kingdom!

Maya squealed with glee at anything remotely looking like a deer. No matter what it was, if it had four legs, horns, and brown hair it's name was Bambi. At one point she actually looked at a giraffe and said, "Mommy, look! Bambi's neck grew and grew and now it's really long!" (I'm shaking my head as we speak at that one). We also got to see quite possibly one of the cutest images in the world: a live video feed of a mother panda caring for it's 17 day old cub from the inside of the panda den. Everyone say "Awwwwww!" We did notice, though, that the zoo is really into pigs. I think they had at least 7 different species from the pig family. I'm guessing that someone there really likes Charlotte's Web. All in all, the zoo was great and one of the best I've ever been to. It was well worth all the walking.