London and India, 2010

Last December, my family and I went on a fabulous vacation. All my in-laws live in India, and it had been quite some time since we'd last been there. So, we scheduled a trip over Christmas break and decided to stop over in London for a few days on the way.

Oldest has been to London twice, but he was only a year old (both times). DH was traveling there for work, so Oldest and I tagged along a couple times to see the sites and visit with friends. Oldest doesn't remember any of it, though (since he was, you know, a year and a half). This time, though, he'll remember it. In fact, he knew exactly what he wanted to see.


Once again, the Magic Treehouse series has given him the desire to travel and see various parts of the world. Book #25, Stage Fright On A Summer Night, is where Jack and Annie meet William Shakespeare and act in one of his plays (A Midsummer Night's Dream, I think). Before we'd even started packing, he asked if we could see the Globe Theater. So we did. :) Our kids were the only kids in the tour, but Oldest was just as fascinated and paid as close attention as all the adults. Then he turned to DH and asked a question.

Oldest: Will we get to meet William Shakespeare?
DH: (confused look) Um, no. That's not really possible.
Oldest: Why?
DH: Well... He died a long time ago.
Oldest: (shocked and horrified) He died?

DH: I'm afraid so. Hundreds of years ago, actually.

Oldest: (looking like he's going to burst into tears) But I wanted to meet him.

Me: I'm sorry, sweetie. He lived a long time ago. But, you know what? There's a Shakespeare Theater in Chicago. It's not The Globe, but we can go see one of his plays there. Would you like that?

Oldest: Yeah. (perking up slightly) Can we see the same play that Jack and Annie were in?

Me: I'll do my best.

He was much happier after that and was able to absorb all the details of the theater. He thought it was pretty cool that there was no roof, and that the huge space in front of the stage was a place for people to stand and watch the play.

Both boys wanted to see the ravens at the Tower, plus the Tower bridge (they kept calling it London bridge, and it took a while to set that straight). We also went for a ride in the London Eye ferris wheel, which I'd never done before. It was pretty cool, and had great views of the city. It was cold, but we had a great time. The only damper was the night before we were supposed to leave for India...

I was packing up our suitcases, walking from one side of our hotel room to the other, and my knee gave out on me. One second I was standing, and the next I wasn't. And, wow, it hurt. It felt like my knee had slipped out of the socket. I was able to limp around the room and finish packing (I was almost done anyway), but, the next morning, I couldn't put any weight on it. At all. The hotel was great and brought me an elasticized sort of bandage, which helped a lot, and then they found us a pharmacy that was on the way to the airport. DH got me a knee brace, more bandages, ice packs, and ibuprofin. When we got to the airport, the wonderful lady at the check-in counter took one look at me and set up wheelchair services to get me to the gate, as well as for after we landed. I am incredibly grateful for that, because our plane wasn't at a vestibule. We took a bus to the plane and everyone walked up about two flights of stairs to get inside it. There was no way I was making it up so many steps. Fortuntely, I didn't have to. They put me (and about five other people in their seventies) on an enclosed lift and raised us up to the plane. I did have to walk back to my seat, which was painful and difficult, and a saint of a flight attendant helped me the whole way.

The flight to India from London is about ten hours, and, fortunately, my knee started feeling better. By the time we landed, I could limp along okay without hurting myself. But I was incredibly slow, and I couldn't carry or pull any suitcases, so, again, I was grateful for the wheelchair. We had a connecting domestic flight, and by the time that plane landed, I was hobbling along at a pretty quick pace. I'd even figured out how to do stairs--again, I was slow, but I could do it. Which is a good thing because my in-laws' house is a two-story walk up. :)

After about a week, I was walking normally. Still slow, but normal. And, by the end of the trip, I was getting along fine. It still ached, but I didn't need the wheelchair on the way home and I was able to pull along a suitcase. I went to the doctor last week (it was the soonest she could get me in) and it looks like my problem can be fixed with physical therapy, followed by regular exercises. So, that'll start soon (the sooner, the better, because this cold weather is making it ache like a !@#$!).

Anyway, even with my knee injury, we had a great time in India. We visited family, and I got to hold a baby--which is kind of a miracle. My in-laws live in a town that doesn't have many tourists, so I'm something of an attraction because I'm blonde and pale. Everyone stares, and at least one guy yelled "Hey! White girl" as I went by. The kids usually stare at me like I'm from another planet (which, to them, I kind of am), and a two-year-old girl actually rubbed her hand on my arm and then looked at her fingers. I guess she wanted to see if my skin color rubbed off. :) Anyway, the kids don't usually let me hold them, so I was thrilled when this baby decided I was okay. :)

We also went to a theme park type place that displays the various cultures and ways of life across the different states in India. It was really cool to see, and the kids enjoyed it. There was also a woman doing mehendi, which is a henna paste that she draws on your skin. After it dries, it leaves a temporary tattoo that'll stay on for at least a week, possibly more. My niece and I both got our hands done.

Our trip home was uneventful, and we were lucky enough to avoid the crazy weather that diverted planes and closed down airports, including London. The boys had a great time, and Oldest told me he wants to learn his dad's native language so he can understand what everyone is saying. I told him I'd learn it with him, which made him even more excited. So I'm looking into finding a teacher here in Chicago. Maybe by our next trip we'll all be able to communicate pretty well. :)

San Francisco

Over spring break this year, we went to San Francisco.  My husband has been there before, and has friends living there so he was pretty familiar with the city.  I'd been there once for a conference, and had, like, half a day to see the city.  So, basically, I hadn't seen anything. 

The boys knew of San Francisco because of a book in the Magic Tree House series (big surprise) called Earthquake in the Early Morning.  It's about the big earthquake that hit San Francisco and caused a fire the destroyed most of the city.  Fortunately, the boys forgot about the earthquake and fire disaster, and were just excited to be going to a place where Jack and Annie had gone.  In fact, Oldest wanted to start packing two weeks before we were supposed to leave.  :)

Our first day there, we just walked around a bit.  The hills are amazing, and the boys were fascinated with how such steep hills could be in a city (Chicago is flatter than a pancake).  They quickly got used to that, though, and moved on to oggling the cable cars.  We rode our first cable car on the second day of the trip, which the boys thought was cooler than cool.  :)

We took a helicopter tour over the city, which blew everyone's minds away!  Seeing the city from so high up was just plain amazing, and DH got some great pictures.  We saw the downtown skyline with the bay bridge in the background, Candlestick Park baseball field, Golden Gate Park, the 'crooked' part of Lombard street, and a bunch of other stuff.

We ate some really, really good food, too.  My absolute favorite was breakfast at Dotties True Blue cafe, this tiny place with maybe ten tables and a line stretching down the block.  And, I had the best sushi I've ever tasted at Sebo, which Anthony Bourdain has visited and raved about.  The chef was preparing sushi where everyone could see, and Youngest loved watching him.  Before long, he was asking the chef questions about what he was doing, and what kinds of fish he was preparing.  The chef got a big kick out of it, and even offered him a piece of blue-fin tuna.  And Youngest tried it!  He didn't like it, but that didn't stop him from watching, and asking even more questions.  He was sad when it was time to leave.

Of course, we saw the Golden Gate bridge.  A few times.  And we spent an afternoon at the beach, staring right at it.  It was too cold to go in the water, but the boys kept busy playing in the sand and hunting the beach for interesting rocks.  By the end of the day, they had a huge pile of them.  And, of course, they wanted to bring them all home.  I explained that the airplane wouldn't let them take so many rocks on board because they were too heavy, and they grumbled.  But then they picked out two rocks each, and that's what we brought home.

We took the ferry to Alcatraz, too.  The kids were excited about the boat ride, but once they saw the jail house they weren't so excited.  Oldest was particularly affected when he saw that the prisoners could only visit their families through a window, and couldn't give their moms hugs.  He immediately hugged me, and said he wanted to go.  :)  We walked around the island, and I was surprised at the amount of birds and vegetation that has taken over much of it. 

On our last day, we took a drive up the coast of California and visited Muir Woods, and then a lighthouse at Point Reyes.  The trees at Muir Woods were amazingly tall and beautiful, and I loved the clover that was growing everywhere.  We never got out to the lighthouse, though, because it was insanely windy out.  Youngest freaked out after we'd walked five feet, so he and I headed back to the car while Oldest and DH took the path to the lighthouse.  They made it halfway before Oldest got scared and wanted to turn back. 

We also visited the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.  The kids didn't to go, but when we got there they didn't want to leave until they'd explored every square inch of the place.  We had tea in the tea house, too, which was super yummy. 

Overall, we had a great time.  We saw lots of cool stuff, but there was still much we didn't see, so I think we'll just have to go back sometime.  :)

A Trip to Paris and Brussels

My wonderful husband surprised our family with a trip to Paris this year!

The trip came about because of my oldest son. I started reading the Magic Treehouse Series to him about three years ago, and almost two years ago we got to the book where the two main characters go to Paris and climb the Eiffel Tower. When we finished it, he turned to me and said “Mommy, can we go to Paris? I want to climb the Eiffel Tower.” I smiled and said sure, we’d go someday, and then figured that would be the end of it.

Not so. He continued to ask me at least once a month for the next two years, “When are we going to Paris?” So, finally, my husband planned out a great trip for us, then surprised us with it after it was all planned out. My oldest was beside himself with excitement.

After we landed and got settled, the first place we went was (of course) the Eiffel Tower. We didn’t go up to the top because the lines for all the elevators was several hours long. And there was no way any of us was going to walk up the thousand or so steps. So we took some pictures, walked around some more, and then came back the next day. Fortunately the lines were much shorter, though still long (an hour).

The elevators were pretty cool, powered by these huge wheels and moving at a slant up the side of the tower. Then we had to change to another elevator to go the rest of the way up. Both boys were really excited because elevators are just too cool to them, much less one that goes diagonal. The view from the top was impressive, but windy. And insanely crowded. So we didn’t get many pictures.

After the Eiffel Tower, the kids were about ready to go home, because they didn’t think there was anything left to see in Paris. But it didn’t take much to convince them there was more, a lot more. We walked all over the city, took a boat ride down the Seine, and checked out a cheese shop. We didn’t go in, though, because as we were staring at the window display, someone came out. Strong, pungent cheese smells filled the street around us, and my youngest wrinkled up his nose and asked me what that smell was. When I told him it was the cheese, he said he didn’t like it and wanted to go. He’s so cute.
We also took a bullet train for a day trip to Brussels. The boys LOVED the train, of course. Brussels is a quaint and pretty town. We were still a little jet-lagged, and had gotten up at 5am in order to catch this train, so we were too tired to walk around the city. Instead, we bought tickets for the local hop-on-hop-off tour bus, and sat on the top to see the sights. We sampled the amazing chocolates, had some authentic Belgian waffles (which are so amazing I will never be able to enjoy regular waffles the same again), and then headed back to Paris on the evening train.
Over the next couple of days, my youngest son developed a bit of a limp. I have no idea why, except that he probably wasn’t used to walking so much (we didn’t bring a stroller). I had been taking turns carrying the boys on my back whenever they got tired, but with my youngest son’s injury it was clear he couldn’t walk. So I carried him on my back for the next two days. During that time, we went to Notre Dame and climbed up to the bell towers. And yes, I carried him up all 400 stairs. The funniest part was when we got to the top and I told him I had to put him down for a moment. He sighed heavily and said “Yeah, Mommy, I’m tired!” I laughed, then asked him why he was tired since I’d carried him up the whole way. He looked at me like “oh yeah,” then peeked through the fence at the view. He’s so funny.

We also visited Sacre Coure, which is an amazing churce at the top of a hill. And I carried Youngest all the way up there, too. I definitely got my workout on this vacation! On the way down, we spotted a double-decker carousel, and the boys rode it three times in a row. It was pretty cool.

On our last day in Paris, we had planned to go to the Louvre...but it was closed! On a Tuesday! So, we ended up hanging out in the plaza just outside the Louvre, and my husband took pictures while the kids ran around and played. I think on our next vacation I’m going to plan more time like this for the kids. They had as much fun in this plaza as they had riding the elevator on the Eiffel Tower. And I enjoyed sitting and watching them.