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!

Sea Day and Thoughts on Disney Cruise Line

This is our final Sea Day and a good opportunity to relax a little. We also have to pack up everything and have it outside our cabin door this evening. It’s important to remember not to pack everything up or else you could wake up in the morning and have no clothes to wear. Only your PJ’s!

This has been a very busy itinerary. We’ve visited 8 ports and 5 countries in 10 days! The kids are sad to leave the ship and the new friends they’ve made. Sydney is taking pictures and getting friends email addresses and Eric says one of his friends is from Greenland and the other from the U.K. He just doesn’t happen to remember their names!

This was our second cruise with Disney and they definitely know how to treat their guests! The crewmembers all greet you in the hallways and I have never heard anyone speaking disrespectfully to each other or to guests. They are focused on ensuring the passengers have a great time and all our needs are met. Disney Dining is unique in that there are 3 different restaurants that you dine at on a rotational basis. The same wait staff follows you which means that you have the same waiter throughout the entire cruise so he gets to know your likes and dislikes and can accommodate any food preferences or even cater to picky eaters! Here are a few thoughts on traveling with kids to Europe.

· If you’re taking a cruse make sure you get to your departure port at least a day or two early. That way you won’t have to worry about missing your cruise if your plane is delayed. It’s also good to try and work out some of your jet lag before your cruise starts. I also really wanted to see Barcelona.

· Allow extra time for everything. Kids don’t move at the same pace that grownups do and sometimes (as in Barcelona) they just want to chase the pigeons!

· Don’t be afraid to leave them on the ship when you go out to explore a port. The Disney counselors are the best I’ve seen. Kids wear a GPS tracking device so they can always be located. I told Sydney and Eric that we were all going to get off in most of the ports but if they wanted to stay behind in a few that was fine. If you force them to come to every museum and church you want to go into they’ll resent it and then no one is having fun!

· Before you leave make sure you buy some fun books or look up information on the Internet about your destination. It gets them interested in the history and they can start looking forward to their trip. We did a lot of research on Herculaneum so they were really looking forward to visiting it. In fact several people we talked to that had visited both Pompeii and Herculaneum said that Herculaneum is the better ruins yet most people have never heard of it!

We’re glad that we still have a couple more days in Barcelona, as there is still more of the city to explore. We’ll be staying in an apartment so it should be homier and a good transition before we head home. Sydney is already trying to finagle a few more days out of school; “I won’t be able to stay awake because of my jet lag so why can’t I just have the rest of the week off?” I explained that she’s going back on a Wednesday so only has half the week. Welcome back to reality!

Villefranche Sur Mer and Monaco

Villefranche is in the South of France and has a very small town feel to it. We decided to take the train into Monaco and spend part of the day. Later we would explore Villefranche. The Monaco train station won our vote for Overall Best Train Station. It was very clean and modern. After we got off the train we walked up to the palace and saw the changing of the guards. We strolled along the streets and into the Royal Gardens, which were in full bloom and had a spectacular view of the harbor and the yachts. Sydney and Eric each picked out their own yacht! We picnicked in this area and then the kids fed the overly large seagulls, which appear to have been living off people food.

I explained to Sydney who Grace Kelley was and how she became Princess Grace by marrying the Prince of Monaco. We visited the large cathedral in which the royalty is buried and saw Princess Grace's tombstone that had a lot of fresh flowers on it. 

Next stop was the Oceanographic Museum, which was founded by Prince Albert. It had one of the best aquariums we’ve ever seen! The kid’s favorite spot was the tank that had hundreds of little Nemo’s swimming around in it! Then it got a little weird in some of the other areas of the museum. Sydney said (and I agree) that the strangest display was a sheep that had been cut in half so you could see what it looked like inside. Not sure of the purpose of that one or how it relates to oceanography! The French are definitely a serious people and each room had an attendant who made sure no one sat next to exhibits or came too close to them. In fact there was a line that you must not cross and if you do they would tell you to back away. We even saw one family who was getting too close and the attendant blew his whistle at them! Pretty funny to observe!

Back in Villefranche we decided to do some exploring and came upon an underground street. Not sure the story on it but I seem to recall it was built so the residents would be protected during the war. I could have just made that up but there may be some truth to it! It goes for quite a ways and we determined that there are ghosts living there because as I was trying to take a photo there was a mysterious white line down the center of my viewfinder yet when I looked at the actual photo it was gone. There was another couple taking photos as well and this strange white line appeared on his viewfinder too!

It was a beautiful day and just perfect for walking around. We love being able to just hop on the train and go to some new destination. European trains are so efficient and are ridden by travelers, locals, and business people. It makes spontaneous travel super easy! We originally had not planned on going into Monaco but I’m glad we did, as it was definitely worthwhile and Sydney and Eric had a great time!

Cinque Terre

  We were really looking forward to visiting the Cinque Terre again! David and I came here on our honeymoon (almost 13 years ago) and were excited to see it again. Sydney joined David and I on our Cinque Terre excursion and Eric decided he wanted to stay in the kids club. Cinque Terre means “Five Towns” and they are all accessible via Train or you can walk between them. They are located on the Ligurian Sea in Northern Italy. The pastel colored houses are perched on the hillside. Once you start taking photos it hard to stop because everywhere you look there’s something incredible!

We caught the train to the first hill town (Riomaggiore) and when we stepped off the train we saw a huge mural that showed the workers as they were building the train tracks and tunnel. Most of the journey is through a tunnel in the rock that connects all 5 towns. Must have taken a long time to build. Before it was built the towns were isolated from each other and many residents never left their town. We walked up the hill of Riomaggiore and explored all the alleyways and found some stairs, which led us up to the top of the town with a panoramic view. There is only one main street with minimal cars. There was a green shuttle van that transported passengers to the top and bottom of the town. We nicknamed it “The Green Thing” because we kept having to get out of it’s way!

Every single town, no matter how small, has a church with incredible statues, artwork and pillars. This town was no exception. We stepped into a church that had arched ceilings, marble floors and appeared to also have ornate memorials and headstones perhaps for important deceased townspeople. They really make a big deal about their dead people!

Next we hopped on the train heading toward Vernazza, which is where we stayed on our previous visit. Vernazza is the only town with a natural harbor and is the most picturesque. It is no longer a hidden gem but has become very well known so can become overrun with tourists. We saw a lot of school children on field trips (what a great field trip!) We decided to eat lunch in Vernazza and we ended up at the same restaurant that we had eaten at many years ago. It was still delicious! We started chatting with the couple at the next table and found out that they were from Portland! Pretty funny!

We had a great time and Sydney enjoyed getting all the attention from her Mom and Dad. Great to have a girl with me so we could do some shopping! We each found unique rings to buy and I also bought two really vibrant oil paintings of the Cinque Terre. The Italian artist has a shop in Vernazza and we talked to his wife quite a bit. She is American and has lived in Vernazza for 10 years. She met her future husband when she was on vacation and then moved there. Wow that would be quite a lifestyle change!

In all this walking around I never mentioned the fact that it was raining. That’s because it didn’t tarnish our experience at all. In fact it kind of made it more fun! We were able to see most of Riomaggiore before it started raining hard. It was almost coming down sideways as we were waiting for our train. Then the lightning storm began. It was very dramatic to watch. We’d see the flash of lightning and then hear the loud boom! Sydney freaks out with lightning so I have a picture of her cowering behind a building.

In Vernazza we ducked into a Gelateria since it was beckoning us and just sat inside and watched the rain while enjoying our gelato. As we told Sydney, it’s all part of the adventure and makes for a good story. She kept telling us how much fun this was so this will be a very good memory for her.

Once we got back to the ship we picked up Eric in the Kids club and he had a great day too so everyone was happy! Next stop is Villefranche in the south of France!