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.