Category: Travel

Surviving Restaurants

'Patience Tester'By far the greatest test on my patience during our recent trip to the San Jose area has been eating lots of meals in restaurants with the kids. Our very first dinner of the week at a fresh mex place called Chevy’s was a disaster of great proportions. Ruthie kept getting up from her seat, was grabbing things across the table, shouting, sassing, and generally being a brat. Oh, and she’s discovered that if she says she has to go potty then we jump up immediately to tend to her – so there were many false alarms that evening as well and I was getting fed up with her manipulations.

I made several trips to the bathroom with her for a private, terse rebuke of her behavior, but to no avail. She was simply not going to cooperate. I can’t remember what the final straw was, but at one point before I had even eaten half my meal, I took her from her seat, asked Bryan to have the food packed up, and marched Ruthie out to the car for a spanking, and when we got back to the hotel she got a long time out.

Eating out is not easy for kids, I admit. I usually cut her a lot of slack because it’s not easy to sit still for that long, and that particular evening we were all tired and cranky from travel. The next night we ate at the hotel which provides a full meal buffet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and it’s FREE. You can either eat in their cafe area or bring a tray of food back to your room. The hotel also provides a full breakfast spread every day, including scrambled eggs, sausage or ham, and oatmeal, among other things such as fruits and breads. If you have to stay in a hotel with kids, I highly recommend paying a little extra for one that provides more than just pastries and cold cereal in the morning – the extra amount you pay for the room and amenities will never come close to what you’ll spend eating in a restaurant for every meal.

Other things I did to avoid eating out a lot is to stock our kitchen with a few basic lunch and snack items, and one night we stopped at a Trader Joe’s to pick up some dinner items. The kids had a small cheese pizza, and Bryan and I had huge spinach salads and Asian marinated chicken that we thawed in the microwave. Including some snacks and other goodies, this all came to only $24, which is by far much less than we would pay in a restaurant after tax and tip.

And finally, while most chain restaurants are kid-friendly, I would definitely do your homework before committing to a meal. One night we decided to go in to downtown Palo Alto for dinner and ended up at The Cheesecake Factory. They have high chairs and booster seats, but they do not have a separate kids menu. I repeat, they DO NOT have a kids menu, but rather claim to have kid-friendly food items. Setting aside the fact that their menu is REDICULOUSLY huge with, like, fourteen pages of options, their portion sizes are also REDICULOUSLY huge. I ordered the kids a meatloaf sandwich to share, and what came to our table was a meal of such great proportions that I never would have been able to finish it myself, not to mention my inability to get my mouth around the thing.

Now THAT's a meal for kids.In contrast, we drove in to San Francisco’s Pier 39 on Sunday night after visiting the Golden Gate Bridge to find some dinner, and ended up at a surfer-themed place called The Wipe Out Bar and Grill. They caught my attention immediately by posting their kid’s menu outside their door along with the main menu. I may have paid three times the amount for a serving of Kraft macaroni and cheese than if I had purchased a box and made it myself, but the peace and tranquility I enjoyed while sipping a giant margarita and eating ‘shark bites’ for appetizers was priceless.

So all and all we survived this portion of our trip for the most part, with only a few stressful occasions. As an extra special bonus, Bryan arranged for one of his co-workers to watch the kids on Friday night so we could enjoy a nice dinner out ALONE. We ordered a bottle of French wine at a French Bistro and spent two whole hours drinking and eating and talking. Long, slow, dinners are my favorite kind of date, and my husband gets four stars for that special treat.

Golden Gate Bridge

IMG_5297On Sunday afternoon Bryan knocked off work about 2pm and we picked him up and headed straight to San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a fun drive through the city and neighborhoods (I had to veer off into a neighborhood of row houses to find a bathroom!), and the bridge was breathtaking. The kids were great – especially considering that a long drive to look at a bridge is probably not all that exciting for them – and we showered Ruthie with positive reinforcement praise regarding what a fun time we had with her. After hiking around the viewing area of the bridge we navigated our way down to Pier 39 in San Francisco to wander around and find some dinner. After pushing the double stroller up and down a few steep hills we decided to reserve the bulk of our San Francisco touring for when the kids are older!

Our flickr set is here.

On Growing Up

Making friends 1Today it is sunny and nearly 70 degrees, so we went to a huge park in San Jose with our friend, Larah. While there I had the opportunity to watch Ruthie pursue friends for the first time. She started out by playing around them, kind of on the sly, but they went away from her. When I came toward her to take a picture of her climbing, she totally blew me off and hovered near this group in their new location.

Making friends 2It was fascinating to watch my baby girl making such big girl bold moves, and my heart ached at the idea of her growing up. Also, she’s normally very shy around other kids at the playground near our house, so I was totally enthralled as I watched her creeping closer and closer to the group. She was motivated and determined and moved so cautiously, and I hoped they would include her.

making friends 3She continued to hover over and around them for quite awhile, until she finally sat down in the sand next to them and began to build her own pile next to theirs. At one point she placed a stick at the top of their pile as a flag, and the one girl took it off, saying, “No!” Then Ruthie began to add sand to their pile as they were doing, and they seemed to let her do this. I was really impressed that she was playing WITH them, and not antagonizing them like she often does with her friends or her brother, by knocking piles down or otherwise spoiling their fun.

At one point she tried poking holes in the side of the pile with her stick, but the other kids told her to stop, and they brushed it smooth again. Two more times she tried adding poke-a-dots, but they wouldn’t have it.

In the midst of this observation I surprised myself: instead of being irritated that she was antagonizing them, I began to consider that maybe she was just trying to be creative and decorate the sand pile, and that maybe all those other kids were just really boring in their design strategy because all they wanted to do is just sit there and look at a normal looking pile of sand. And then I swelled with pride that my brave girl approached a group of unknown kids, pursued them despite their initial brush-off, and then tried to make the world a better place by adding stick-flags and poke-a-dots.

Did I mention that vacation has been good to me?

More photos here.

Getting Connected

One of the things I was looking forward to while staying in the San Jose area is seeing a few friends who live here. When Bryan’s contract here began a year ago we knew that one day he would bring us with him on a trip, and the kids and I would have some fun doing The Tourist Thing while he worked. But a pleasant surprise developed – a good friend of mine from college, who had been living far away for several years, recently moved to San Jose with her husband.

So during our stay we have enjoyed the company of my friend, Larah, on many occasions. We’ve been to the Children’s Discovery Museum together and the Monterey Aquarium together, and later in the trip we plan to have some girl time as well. We’ve had a great time talking and catching up in great detail about what we’ve been doing and how life has been since we last lived together.

I also had the pleasure of having a park play date with my blogging friend, Kristin, whom I first met at BlogHer when we had lunch together with another set of Jens and Kristins. It was the first cool and cloudy day of our stay here and Kristin nearly chickened out on the park, but I convinced her that fun can happen even when the sun is hiding! Meeting at the park was perfect – it was enclosed by a fence so there was no need to chase a rogue toddler, and we were able to have nearly two hours of scathing conversation (which I shall not repeat here!). We also got to meet some of Kristin’s park friends and the children they brought with them. I was inspired by the simplicity of visiting the park every day, and will maybe not be able to do that in rainy Seattle, but building in a routine of library trips and the like is in order, I think.

Maryam and I also had some great time together (as always) shopping at the Stanford Mall and eating dinner at PF Chang’s, which has turned out to be a recurring destination for our get-togethers! Our conversation rolled effortlessly from serious to creative to funny, and I look forward to seeing her again at Northern Voice.

Getting Around

California Drivin'The more I travel outside of Seattle, the more I am convinced it exists in the Dark Ages of transportation. We all may hate urban sprawl and the cement swaths of freeways it creates, but building an infrastructure to handle the population makes everyone’s life more livable.

When my dad first moved to Seattle from Southern California he complained about how slow everyone drove. I don’t think I really understood what he meant until this week when I’ve spent a significant amount of time driving around. Seattle’s roads are narrow and have disruptive traffic patterns. One cannot just GO on a Seattle freeway or surface street, but must merge, stop, wait, or cross.

The roads here are wide, the lanes are wide, and stop lights are few and far between. Many ‘expressways’ parallel one another through the Silicon Valley allowing for fast alternatives to the freeways system. I’ve been toodling up and down roads like The Central Expressway and the El Camino Real, which has three lanes in both directions, few stop lights, and a speed limit of 45 mph. Yet, there are still thriving businesses on this route thanks to a strategically designed system of U-Turn routes. There is no center ‘turn lane’ like we have on major streets in Seattle that creates a dangerous situation of random cars crossing traffic at random points in the road.

We’ll see if I am still optimistic about the Bay Area traffic system once I get out to places like Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco later in our trip.

Getting Here from There

... and more luggageLuggage...Traveling with children would be a lot more fun if one could teleport from Point A to Point B, because moving all these people is a lot of work (and I don’t even have a huge family)! But having traveled by air many times since we’ve had kids, we’re getting our system very finely tuned. I think the biggest challenge (next to the flight itself, I suppose) is getting from the baggage claim to the rental car. If only we could just push our crap down a hallway to a rental counter, that would be a dream. But any airport we’ve ever been to transports you to an offsite rental company by shuttle bus, and let me tell you how fun THAT is with two kids, a stroller, four carry-ons, one car seat, three suitcases, and two back packs.

Playing with Polly PocketsThe kids were amazingly good for the entire flight despite having started their day at 4am. As it turns out, the Polly Pockets were a better time distraction for Ruthie than watching movies on my laptop – she loves to take their clothes off and change their outfits all around. The only downside is the tiny tiny shoes (about the size of my pinkie fingernail) kept getting dropped on the floor, and they are VERY difficult to find. On the trip home Bryan plans to tell Ruthie that Polly Pockets like to go barefoot on airplanes.

Playing with HotwheelsThomas was scared of the airplane. As we stood on the jetway about to step onto the plane, he literally dug his heals in and would not move forward. A successful boarding experience depended on each kid carrying his or her own backpack, so Bryan ended up carrying Thomas AND his car seat AND an armful of other crap. Thomas cried fearfully all the way down the center isle to row 18 and for the entire time it took to strap in his car seat. The 6am flight to San Jose is pretty much all business commuters, so I was feeling a little on the spot about my screaming kid. But after snuggling with me during the pre-flight process, he was fine. He clutched his blanket at played with his Hotwheels the entire flight.

By the time we landed, got our car, checked in to the hotel, and dropped Bryan off at work it was after 11, and I had been awake since 3am. I bought the kids a Happy Meal and settled them in to a nap, only they didn’t sleep. What the??? They’d been up since 4am and they wouldn’t nap? I almost went insane.

After only 45 minutes of quiet, during which I passed out on the living room couch, I heard Ruthie’s little voice at the bedroom door, ‘Can I be awake, now?’ I was in such a deep sleep that I actually felt heavy, and I couldn’t move my body, and my eyes wouldn’t open. I kept telling myself to wake up, but I couldn’t move, and she kept asking if she could be awake, and I was afraid of what chaos she would create if I didn’t wake up.

As I came out of my sleepy fog I recalled something Bryan said in the car on our way to the hotel: “I’m thinking of everything I would do differently next time.”

“Like?”

“I’d book a later flight time.”

Ya think?

I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane

Bryan leaves again for San Jose tomorrow, but this time he is taking us all with him! For TEN DAYS! I keep talking about how we are going on vacation, but he reminds me that HE will actually still be working. He pouts, but I know he’s glad to have us with him even if he IS still working. It is not good for a man to be without his family.

This is the longest vacation trip we have ever taken that didn’t involve visiting a grandparent (who seem to always have toys on hand and baby gear to use), so I did some planning ahead for living in a hotel room and eating in lots of restaurants, as well as for flying in an airplane. I purchased a few special toys that are small and easy to pack, and most items were under $5.

For instance, I found a small basketball hoop with suction cups and a foam ball that will stick to the window or refrigerator in our suite; the Barrel ‘o Monkeys game that fits in a container the size of a sippy cup; Hot Wheels for Thomas; Polly Pocket dolls for Ruthie; a baggie full of little dinasaurs (which are the same size as the little green army men); a little Nurf soccar ball and football (that fit in the palm of my hand); a few small horses we already had; and a few books, among other things. I also packed a large, square-bottomed beach bag that folds flat into the suitcase to keep the toys in while at the hotel, or to pack for a long day trip in the car.

I feel spoiled by the hotel we are staying in. We have a suite so the kids can take good naps in a bedroom, breakfast is included with our stay, and a few items stocked in the kitchen will save money at lunch time. There is also a pool, a workout room, and laundry facilities if we end up running out of clothes. But honestly, while I at first thought we would just spend time hanging out in the hotel and in Palo Alto where Bryan works, I now think we’ll be out exploring every day!

There’s a lot to do around the Bay Area, and my Tags are stockpiled with great ideas.

Cannon Beach Photos

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My parents have been to Europe, like, three times, and whenever they came back I had to watch their slide shows – the kind on an actual screen with an actual projector. These are my PARENTS and I had a difficult time staying captivated.

And you? I may not even know you. So I will not be offended if you skip the rest of this post. These photos are for people who like this sort of thing.

Wind
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Water
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Sand
Forgotten

Kite Festival

Zugs and Rygels at the McBee

This morning we woke to a beautiful blue sky and warmer temperatures than yesterday. The population in Cannon Beach swelled with the coming of Saturday, and all the little ice cream shops and saltwater taffy shops were finally open.

Friends drove down for the day, as it was the annual kite festival in Cannon Beach – the reason we came here in the first place. The wind was so strong today that one of the lines on Bryan’s stunt kite broke, and sand was plastered to my son’s face via fresh sunscreen. It was just too windy to do anything, and the kids were miserable, so we moved the party to the grassy yard outside our motel door. We shared good conversation and dinner, then they were off into the night for the long drive back to Seattle.

I finished my book yesterday – after just a week! Amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t watch t.v. I will reserve any specific comments for our book club, but I will say that I appreciated how the author described the aimless wandering, the overwhelming nature of everyday things, and the depressive state of mind as she struggled through the grief of losing her brother. She was able to beautifully put words to nothings, to voids, to the numbness of experiencing loss. I think the next time someone asks me what it’s like to lose someone (not that anyone ever HAS asked me that) I will hand them a copy of this book.

Oregon: The Jen-Friendly State

Walking the dog

Did I mention that I love it here? How could I not? It’s against the law to pump your own gas, and I HATE pumping gas. If I lived here I would joyfully fill my gas tank each week. And yours, too. And yours. And I would never even have to leave the car.

And not only are dogs allowed on the beaches – an accommodation not provided for in Washington state – but they are allowed on the beach OFF LEASH, which means my little Scout can run barefoot and carefree through the surf and sand.

Yes, I think I could live here and do all my shopping tax free.

This Is What Vacations Are Made Of

Normally vacations with children are not really vacations. They are just transplanted chaos without the chores. But when vacations involve doting Grandmas and Aunties with grown children, the week comes very close to a vacation for me. I have spent hours reading books, catching up on rss feeds, and updating my website.

I’ve brought back the Book Pile section in my side bar. Thanks to the Harambee women’s book club and the Diva’s book club, I’m back into reading again. Being introduced to new books and new genres has been so rewarding for me that the blog posts are piling up in my feed reader.

The next Harambee book club I’ll be attending is May 22nd, and we’ll be discussing Name All the Animals, by Alison Smith. Then on June 19th I’m hosting Harambee’s book club discussion on About Grace, by Anthony Doerv. If you’d like to join us for either of these discussions, send me an email!

In the Words of Chandler Bing: Could my trip have BEEN any more perfect?

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After the initial panicked rush of getting out the door on time, EVERYTHING about our trip fell into place. I was able to fit my laptop, a few books, and some snacks into one backpack, I checked our luggage at the curb, and getting through security was a breeze. We ate some lunch at the gate while we waited for our plane, and the kids had fun looking at all the airplanes out the window.

And the flight? I mean, really. I actually READ A BOOK for almost two hours because Thomas went to sleep in the empty seat next to me, and Ruthie watched the Lion King on my laptop, nearly falling asleep herself. I never knew flying with kids could be so easy.

Last Sunday I decided to keep the kids home from church because a couple of her little friends had the flu the previous week. Since you don’t always know who’s going to come down with it next, I didn’t want them exposed to the potential Yuk just before getting on a plane. Lord knows we didn’t need to repeat The Great Puking Incident of 2005.

I felt somewhat embarrassed by my paranoia, but as it turns out, it may have been a wise decision!