We're still traveling

Leavenworth was a nice destination to relax and enjoy the scenery. We wandered around the town, took alot of photos of this Bavarian village and had fun looking in all the shops. We rented a condo so there was room for everyone to spread out and it's nice (and inexpensive) not to eat every meal out. It is funny to observe the kids at restaurants. For example, one night we went out to eat dinner and were seated in a nice restaurant in downtown Leavenworth. There wasn't much to do while waiting for our food so my very imaginative son began making various shapes with his napkin. I thought to myself "Wow what a creative boy!" Until I realized that he was making a wide variety of weapons with his napkins including different gun sounds to match each weapon. I'm so proud!

We're now in Seattle which feels like my second home. I lived in the area for 20 years so I love to visit. We're staying downtown so we can walk everywhere. This is SeaFair weekend so there's lots of activity going on. We've seen the Blue Angels flying overhead and the Navy Ships are also at the Pier. We took the monorail to the Seattle Center and the kids loved the Pacific Science Center which is similar to OMSI. We've been doing alot of walking and the kids are starting to get worn out although not too worn out to punch each other every time they see a slugbug. Here are a few questions that I must ask myself:

-- Why doesn't our hotel have FREE Wi-Fi?

-- Why didn't the parking attendent tell David that the garage is closed on weekends? Luckily we figured that out just a few minutes before he closed up for the weekend. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get the car out on Sunday. Crisis averted!

-- Why did I just tell Sydney that we're going to Disney World next summer and we're go to drive to Florida?! I simply told her the drive should only take a week each way and then we'd have 2 whole days to spend at Disney World before driving back. If you're unsure of her reaction to that news please refer to the previous blog entry. ( I probably won't win any Mommy awards for that story but it sure made me chuckle and isn't that what roadtrips are all about?)

More later.....

The Journey Continues

We're all getting into the rhythm of our daily routines. At the beginning of our journey the conversation in our car rides started out with Sydney and Eric having rousing debates about who was uglier or who was dumber to (more recently) Sydney actually quizzing him on multiplication and the two of them making up a game about Star Wars. Now that's progress!

Couer d'Alene has been a great destination to start our trip! We took a hike around Tubbs Hill which had some unexpected finds. There were hidden beaches with crystal clear water and we even got to walk across a suspension bridge during our hike. If there was one word that would describe this hike with our children that word would be "breathtaking!".

We also took a sidetrip to Kellogg, Idaho and took a ride on the highest gondola in the world. It's a 25 minute gondola ride up Silver Mountain and the view is incredible! Once at the top there were hiking trail and even some snow that the kids enjoyed "mining". It was so hard that they decided to just kick it to chip away at it. They didn't want to leave but eventually we had to head back down the mountain.

I realized that I haven't really talked much about actually being on the road so I've decided to have Sydney be my guest blogger to give her perspective of what it is like to be on a roadtrip when you are 12 (and a half!) years old. Here's what she has to say:

What I thought when I heard we were going on a 2 week road trip:
UHHHHGGG…..road trips are rrreeeeaallly boring because all you do is sit in the car for like 5 hours and can only get out once or twice and then you just have to get right back in the car and drive for 20 more hours until you FINALLY arrive SOMEWHERE, hopefully to a decent hotel or something and then you’re starving and tired and there’s nothing to do and you’re really bored and all you want to do is watch TV but your parents drag you on a hike and you’re melting! Up and up you go and you just want to go to bed but you have to keep walking and then you wish you were back in the car and then you get thirsty and groan and when you finally get back all you want to do is sleep but you end up staying awake half the night because your dad won’t stop snoring so you have to kick him or throw a pillow at his head so he will stop snoring and you can FINALLY get to sleep….

Road Trip!

I've had many requests (or maybe it was just one request) to blog about our excellent two week roadtrip. It is day number 2 and we are in beautiful Coeur d'Alene. The weather is clear and everyone is out biking, running or just shopping and eating. We are renting a condo which is only a couple blocks from the main part of town so it's a great location. Sydney and I went running today (that's right!) and passed some really nice homes along the waterfront and then walked through town and found a chocolate shop that was just begging us to come inside!

Today we had a great time visiting with relatives that live nearby (I've included a photo of all of us). We had a BBQ and sat outside while we visited. We also celebrated David's 50th birthday with a cake and balloons. Oops not sure if he wanted me to mention the age thing but it's my blog so I can pretty much write what I want!

I'll keep you posted on our journey!

Fall Getaways

One of my favorite times to travel is during the fall. The weather is usually pretty good and the prices are even better. Sometimes it's great to travel to faraway lands and then other times it's fun to stay close to home. I recently returned from a Mother/Daughter getaway with my 11 year old daughter. The approximate travel time from our house to the hotel was no more than 10 minutes! We never left town but it felt like miles away. We stayed at the Camas Hotel (www.camashotel.com) which is located in historic Downtown Camas and is a very charming European style boutique hotel. It is a century old and has recently been renovated but still retains it character. The rooms were very nice and the bed was so comfortable, much better than any chain hotel bed I've ever slept in! A very good continental breakfast is also included in the price. The cost of a one night stay was so reasonable I had to look at the bill a few times to make sure I was reading it correctly.

Sydney and I enjoyed taking a long walk and looking at all the pretty fall colors. We then visited the library and after that we were starving so had dinner at a great Thai restaurant and ate till we dropped (well almost!) It was so nice to come back to our hotel and just hang out in our room before we drifted off to sleep. The next morning we enjoyed our breakfast and then checked out of our home away from home. We weren't quite ready to return to our own house so we went shopping!! When we were driving home Sydney told me that "This has been so much fun!"
The end to a perfect weekend.

Girlfriend Getaways

Just got back from a fantastic weekend getaway with my Delta Gamma Sorority sisters! This is our second annual getaway to Las Vegas. We live in different cities so this is the only time we get to see eachother all year. In fact we enjoyed it so much that we've decided to add one more night to our vacation next year! What I love about it is that we can all catch up on what we've been doing during the year and we also just laugh alot. My friends can be pretty darn funny!

One night we went to The Parasol Bar at the Wynn and we sat outside and got to enjoy their famous lightshow. There was a huge frog that was singing What a Wonderful Life while the lights were changing colors. It was kind of strange to see this giant mechanical frog belting out the tune but in Las Vegas I guess nothing is really too strange! We stayed at The Encore and the rooms were really nice with large bathrooms and separate sitting areas with couches. I brought my Flip camera along and captured some of our moments. My friend, I'll call her Shan, really enjoyed being the narrator. I guess none of us are very camera shy so that just makes it more fun! We crack ourselves up!

As a Mom I enjoy having a few days to myself and exerting my independence. I especially love coming home because everyone seems to have survived without me and they really missed me. In fact, my son even made his bed so I could see what a good job he did. When my daughter saw me she so eloquently exclaimed "you're FINALLY home!" Ahhh music to my ears. I think a little break every so often is a very good thing!

What We’ve Learned

Now that we are home we’ve had a little time to reflect on our trip and everything we saw along the way.

Here are some final observations that we have all made during our travels:

· We can get by with a lot less! The four of us shared very tight quarters for 2 weeks. Our Barcelona hotel room (including the bathroom) and our Disney Cruise stateroom were smaller than Sydney’s bedroom at home and yet we had everything we needed!

· When you have less to take care of you have more time for living.

· The toilet bowls have a lot less water than American toilets. Don’t know if this is a significant fact but we found it interesting.

· Limited living space means everything is smaller. Our apartment had a washer that was also a dryer. Idea sounds good but it was very small and took 3 hours to get clothes semi dry. Now I know why Europeans hang their laundry outside to dry. Most apartments probably don’t even have space for a washer/dryer.

· They make the most of their living space. Their tiny balconies serve as their garden.

· We never saw any school busses, which leads us to believe either kids take public transportation to school, walk, or parents take them. We read that in some schools there are busses but you do have to pay a fee for that service.

· School kids have awesome field trips! We saw them at most places such as the Cinque Terre, Monaco, and even in the airport on their way to some destination.

· Peanut butter is not available. Never saw it any grocery stores. They use Nutella like we would use peanut butter.

· There were no large supermarkets. The grocery stores were all small family owned businesses.

· The locals went out of their way to help us. Very friendly!

Barcelona (Post-Cruise)

We’re very happy we are staying our last two more nights in Barcelona! First reason is because we didn’t get to see everything when we were here before the cruise and the second reason is that the weather is beautiful! Clear blue skies! We are staying in an apartment, which is a great choice for families. Much more room than a hotel and you can do some of your own cooking so it saves money.

 

Today was  a very special day for Eric because he received his First Communion. I thought it would be a great experience (and good story) if he could receive his First Communion at Sagrada Familia, which is the most famous church in Spain! Okay I’ll admit that the whole service was in Spanish so he didn’t understand a word BUT he doesn’t exactly understand everything that’s going on at our church either! The service was in a special area of the cathedral with mosaic tiles on the floor and vivid murals on the walls. There were high domed ceilings along with stained glass windows that were at the very top of the church. This special area is called the Crypt because it is where Antoni Gaudi is buried and we could view his tombstone.

                          

The architect Antoni Gaudi started the plans for this church and it became his life’s work. He died in 1926 and the church is still not finished! The construction has lasted 100 years and it still has another 40 or 50 years until it is completed. It is the most Gaudy (play on words) church I’ve ever seen! There are steeples, sculptures, intricate religious scenes, etc. wherever you look and that’s just on the outside! Definitely sensory overload!

I think it is time for us to come home because the kids are now thinking about their house, friends and dog, Stella (I think I miss her the most!) We have an 18-hour journey ahead of us tomorrow so we’re hoping there are no additional delays. We were counting all the types of transportation we’ve been on during our journey and it was quite Impressive! We figured that we have been on 9 different modes of transportation throughout this trip: Plane, Taxi, Motor Coach, Shuttle, Cruise Ship, Tram, Funicular, Train, and Subway. Pretty amazing considering in America we are usually just in a car or (for the kids) a school bus!

Time to pack it up and head home!