Connecting With The Kids On A Family Vacation

Last week, for my vacation and my daughter's spring break, our family spent the entire week on the California Central Coast (San Luis Obispo) area doing activities such as hiking, “geocaching", playing on the beach, visiting wineries, riding bikes, picnicking at parks with playgrounds, and my personal favorite: the occasional afternoon nap in the sun to the sound of crashing waves (I can’t think of anything more relaxing than that!)

It was so much better than our normal family affair of a multi-day theme park visit to someplace like Disney World. 

 

On the way home I asked my kids what their favorite activities were from the week. My 4 year-old answered, “eating Easter candy and visiting a farm” and my 9 year-old, “playing on the beach and the REALLY fun conversations we had while hiking.” 

"…the REALLY fun conversations we had while hiking.”

Win!

A trip well spent. 

Vacation - Good. Taking a Toddler on an Airplane – BAD!

We leave for Disney World soon and I couldn’t be more thrilled about finally being able to take some time off of work to spend time with my wife, kids, some friends, and some family we haven’t seen in over 5 years.

But with all of the excitement comes dread – my son is now 18-months old and has literally two setting: RUN and sleep. Saying he’s a bundle of energy is an understatement.
I first considered buying him a seat on the airplane, which of course is HIGHLY recommended by the airline and “experts.” Problem is, when my daughter was around 19-months we flew with her car seat and she kicked the seat in front of her for hours. Yes, hours, even with us trying to hold her legs down. Try holding toddlers legs down for a few hours?

Yeah, that’s the part the airlines and those “experts” don’t tell you about. The lady in front of us had every right to shoot us. I should have given her permission to shoot the stupid expert who thought putting a car seat in an airplane was a good idea – especially now that the seats are even closer together these days. My recommendation, don’t put a toddler in a car seat in an airplane unless you really want the entire plane against you. Most people are already not caring or concerned for parents and small kids on airplanes as it is.

Anyhow, we’re tried the Benadryl idea with my daughter when she was just about 2-years old and it created horrible results. Instead of sleepy or drowsy she became irritable and hyper. We read later that you’re supposed to “test” it first. So this time around we tested it with our son and it seemed to chill him out. I guess the ultimate test will be the upcoming 4 and a half hour flight.

But I’m looking for alternate ideas. Parents of the world, PLEASE tell me your secrets to a successful airplane flight with your toddler?

Bonjour from Paris!

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but we’ve been busy these last 11 days.

The weather has been near perfect most of our trip, the place is MUCH cleaner and friendlier that I remember, the food is absolutely amazing, bringing the nanny along with the BEST idea ever, and the wine – oh the wine -- I’m now completely addicted to 2005 Bordeaux’s.

Oh and I’ve mastered the entire French language: I speak English in a heavy French accent while occasionally throwing in a French word or two – when English speakers ask me for directions.

Anyhow, here’s a small sampling of what we’ve been up to:

Jardin du Luxembourg (guess what happens when you walk on the grass? They shoot you)

Chateau de Versailles (It's HUGE. No wonder why they hung him. Note to self when I become king - don't flaunt the money, hide it in a big hole instead)

Sacré Coeur de Montmartre (used my heavy French accent many times here)

Notre Dame (no Football team here or Irish people boxing)Picnic on Seine/Bike ride in Giverny (wine, cheese, and... chips)
Claude Monet's garden at Giverny (he actually planted the place himself... and dug the pond with an old spoon)

Musée d'Orsay (This was once an old train station...and roller skating disco for 3 months in 1979)

Musée de l'Orangeries (Monet's waterlillies on the wall and no they don't sell Oranges)

Musée des Egouts (aka "sewer tour" – our nanny and my daughter wanted to go. It stunk really, really, really bad down there. I still threaten to send my daughter down there when she isn't behaving)

Moulin Rouge (Magicians, jugglers, live snakes & ponies, and topless women)"The" Louvre (how do you keep a 3-year old entertained for 5 hours in the largest museum in the world...?)

Disneyland Paris (...you bribe her with a trip here. I'm convinced that's why they built it)

France Miniature (see all of France in 3 hours... built out of Lego's and cheese)

More to come later... à plus tard!

A Real Christmas Vacation...

The family and I were at Disney World for a week. And if that wasn’t enough, we spent an additional 4 days and 3 nights on a Disney Cruise in the Bahamas. At this moment, I don’t want to see anything that remotely resembles a Mickey silhouette for about 6 years.

We traveled with two other families which wasn’t all that bad considering we had three 3-year olds, one 9-year old, and one 1-year. We quickly discovered the key to a successful vacation with kids is to make sure the adults outnumber them, especially in Orlando.

A Disney World vacation is not as relaxing as one might think. We woke up at 7am every morning (daughter woke us up at her regular time) ate a quick breakfast, and headed over to a theme park around 9 or so. Stayed until closing 10-11pm. Crawled into bed. Child wakes at 7am. Repeat for 6 days.

But then something truly amazing came into play. We arrived at the cruise ship and that's when the real vacation kicked in…

"Where dreams really come true..."

Whoever invented that Disney Cruise concept geared specifically for families with kid’s ages 3-12 should be promoted, and then named king of the world. That kids program is definitely worth the price alone. The kids did not want to leave. At one point we had to literally drag them out. I’m not sure what they’re giving them (Candy? Unlimited Apple Juice? Crack?) Whatever it was, I don’t want to know because the wife and I got to dress up and have fancy dinners together. Sleep. Go to bars. Sleep. Go dancing. Sleep.

That kids program is open from 7am to 1am. What does that mean? Well, they feed the kids, entertain them, and even put them to sleep. Genius!

"This apple isn't so bad.."

Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter and treasure the time we have together. But after a week of Disney World, and not a whole lot of time of alone time with the wife for virtually years, a program like that is just what a parent needs.

Even though I’m extremely tired, a bit nervous that Christmas is nearly tomorrow, and wondering where to buy those last remaining Christmas gifts, I’m feeling pretty good. Why? Because my daughter had a great time, and the wife and I spent more time alone together in 3 days than we have the past 3 and ½ years. And that quiet time on an “adults-only” beach on a private island in the Bahamas while my daughter was so entertained by a kids program that she didn’t want to leave was pretty nice too.
Finally - a real vacation.

“The” Trip To Fiji: I Wish I Had More Money To Stay Longer…

Fiji is amazing!
We’ve been to 2 other exotic tropical places, Tahiti – Bora Bora and Kauai, those places don’t even compare. Well, Bora Bora is really nice – but seriously Hawaii feels more like Disneyland with Starbucks and Wal-Mart compared to the others (although, I must admit… having a KFC on Kauai did come in handy a few times.)

Great weather, the friendliest people we’ve ever encountered, beautiful beaches, amazing islands (there’re like 300 that make up Fiji) a Bure on the beach on a secluded “private” island, top-notch food every day – I swear it felt like we were in some movie or as if we’ve stepped into somebody else’s life the whole time there.

We were contemplating our visit since the government had a military coup a few months ago back in December 2006 and isn't planning on elections again until 2009. After some research and some advice, we decided to move forward with the trip. Fiji is extremely dependant on tourism and since the incident the industry has dropped about 33% leading to the loss of much needed jobs primarily at the resorts.
After meeting the people (and talking to other guests), we were happy to have made the decision to go. Nothing even remotely dangerous was evident anywhere and everybody we encountered was more than happy to have us there. Although we hear, the Fijians are always grateful to have visitors - that was evident.

Where We Stayed
Vomo Island Resort – an incredible 5-star resort, with only 29 Bures on the entire 200-acre private island (pictures). Where guests arrive by private helicopter or seaplane. We chose the helicopter for the full affect! (it felt more Indiana Jones-ish…if he had a helicopter.) Other resorts (islands) we considered were Jean-Michel Cousteau (the famous dude’s son), and Turtle Island.
We chose Vomo because Cousteau didn’t have air-conditioning in the Bures (you NEED it and French in a hot place with no air-conditioning is just WRONG) and Turtle…well, I would need to sell both kidneys and maybe a lung too. Vomo is pretty much on pare with Turtle.

Everything Included – They Even Do Your Laundry!
The only things not included were booze (wines from New Zealand and Australia) Cuban cigars, we paid extra for “the nanny/sitter”, and the village visit day-trip. Oh, and you don’t “tip” in Fiji BUT you can give money to a staff Christmas Fund that gets divided evenly among the entire staff. We did put money into that at checkout (oddly, they don’t ask; I asked to contribute – because the staff really went out of there way for so much.)

What About “The” K.I.D.S…?
If you check out the website, you’ll probably think, “Hey! Wait a minute - this place doesn’t want kids messing up the place -- peeing on the furniture and burning things like rock stars”. I read a few things and talked with an agent – so we went ahead with the trip thinking we would be the only people there with a kid (a toddler!) Totally not the case! The Fijians adore children, everybody was always hugging her, playing with her, running up to her like she was a real princess (even the housemaids and gardners.)
This whole resort was either couples, or couples with kids around 2 to 5-ish. There’s really nothing to do for older kids (especially teenagers) unless they’re pretty laid back and are content with just sleeping, swimming, eating really fancy food, and getting waited on like royalty – you know, all the things parents with kids (and maybe couples) want.
We were assigned a nanny/sitter at the beginning and our daughter loved hanging out with her (Emele – pronounced Emily), and two other 2-year-olds and their nanny’s (we felt like the Kennedy’s or Rockefeller’s with the ‘nanny’ bit.) My daughter did stuff like hang out with endangered turtles, feedings fish in the ocean, and being entertained while the wife and I slept, went on snorkeling adventures, slept (did I just say that again), ate quiet fancy meals together, slept, sat on the beach, slept (pretty much anywhere…) What a paradise!

Where’s Everybody From?
I’d say 80% of people are from New Zealand, 10% from Australia, then the rest were a mix from Japan, Germany, U.K., then one other family from the U.S. (or “the states” as its always referred as overseas.) This is one of my absolute favorite things about traveling to places like this – meeting all the interesting people from around the world. And these people had interesting lives. We got some travel advice on other places we’ve been considering – Australia, Malaysia, Cook Islands, Hong Kong (and China), and India.

Village Trip: A Fijian School And Our Meeting With The Chief
We did something most of the other guests don’t usually do – we booked a boat to take us to visit a real Fijian village and school. We did some reading about this before going, so we were a little prepared – but not as prepared as we would have liked.
We visited Namara Village and the school nearby (it’s a boarding school that has kids from about 4 neighboring island villages.) The kids live there during the week and go home on the weekends.
When we arrived during lunch, a group of 4th and 5th graders ran out extremely excited. They all wanted to hold my daughter (they took turns) and gave us a tour of their classrooms while asking us a million questions in their best English (better English than most people in L.A.!) One of the kids asked me what grade I was in (I said 33rd) and then a few had asked me to point out where we’re from on a globe.
We brought Jolly Ranchers (they rarely get candy) to give out; we had our daughter give them out to the shy little ones—around kindergarten age. She loved going up to kids and giving candy. She kept coming back for more to hand out. The kids and adults all thanked us a million times over for bringing candy.
Then we were off to visit the chief in the traditional “chief bure” (I didn’t take any pictures out of respect.) We sat on the floor of this REALLY cool hut (he later said they built it for around $400 Fijian dollars - I want one in my yard!) while we presented the chief with Kava powder (we had bought earlier on.) He, and our guide, did a welcoming traditional ceremony and then he talked to us for about 15 minutes before we were allowed to walk around. He was extremely friendly, for a real chief, as asked us to visit anytime.
The majority of Fijians are poor. They, on the outer islands, live in communal villages of about 100. People cook outside, sleep on floor mats of their small one-room houses, and have some basics like minimal electricity and running water from fresh-water wells. They don’t watch TV, but get radio, and there are no computers.
But from talking and walking around, you never get that feeling that there is poverty or that they're missing out on anything. They're very traditionaly people.
We were asked if we wanted to buy handmade goods from the local women – we brought money just for this (research came in handy.)
The all came out and set sheets on the ground, like a swap-meet, and unwrapped all sorts of cool things – just for us.
We bought something from each woman, when we had left we spent around $200 Fijian dollars (about $140 U.S.) -- pretty much all the money we had with us. They all were very happy that we bought so much. I really wished we had taken more money; most of the stuff was really cool.
A few of the kids gave us the school’s address and asked us to write them. They were very excited about that prospect when we said we'll write and send some things along too. Not only are we going to write the school and the kids, we’re also sending a huge box of stuff (we get a lot of kid-stuff from work too.)
When we got back to the resort, the staff got wind of our visit and were really excited we had taken the time to see what real Fijian life is like. The vast majority of them are from the outer island villages and work at the resorts for 10 days (they all have staff quarters) and then go home for 4.
We felt a pretty humbled after the village visit and knowing how much they work hard to make sure visitors, like us, vacations were absolutely perfect. Everybody wants to work at the resorts, and they want more visitors so they'll be more jobs.


The End Of Vacation
Waking up knowing we had to leave really sucked. The staff met us at the outdoor reception and sang us a tearful song and the manager and his wife (New Zealanders - "Kiwis") came out to chat with us (we talked to them a lot while there, since they had a 2-year old my daughter played with.) and then we were off in our helicopter.
We never like to travel to the same place twice, the wife and I have a huge list of places we want to visit before we get really old and have so many robotics parts installed in our bodies that we can't be near electronic devices or airplanes.


But we are seriously considering going back to Fiji - soon.

Bula! Want To See What Fiji Looks Like?

I don't have much time to write, so I'll show pictures instead (with maybe a few comments...)
I'll write more later. By the way --- why didn't anybody tell me toddlers and 9.5 hour flights don't mix!?













This is a REAL Fijian Village (with a REAL chief...who we met and presented a gift to allow us to visit - more on that later)

Our "bure" (or fancy little hut that looked like it was decorated by Fiji Pottery Barn...)


Our helicopter to/from the island. Only 10 minutes from Nadi. Or you can take a boat which takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes.





There was this "rock" next to our island. Every night bats would fly over from it to suck blood from young women. Well, not really. But that would have been pretty cool if they did.


One of 500 pictures I took from the helicopter. can you believe my daughter fell asleep? She's awake for the plane ride, but fell asleep on a 10 minute helicopter ride?! (sheez!)




Sunrise...

Random Thoughts Just Before Vacation...

Pencil sharpeners come with instructions?
Yes, and in 8 languages too. My old electric sharpener at work died after 6 years of dedicated service. Today I finally got my replacement, and it came with instructions. Like a dork, thinking it had some special magical powers like bill pay, I read them:
1. Insert plug in nearest outlet.
2. Insert pencil into the opening (oh, so that’s where it goes..?) Motor will start.
3. Remove sharpened pencil.
Save these instructions for future reference. (Recycle logo)


When I’m an Old and Can't Smell My Cologne Anymore
I was tagged by Mamalee for this.
When I am an old, I hope to:
1. Have Robotic parts that allow me to finally crush beer cans in my hand. Or at least on my steel forehead.
2. Have a walking cane with a brass goose head (which removes to reveal a flask) and has a retractable knife at the bottom to scare away rowdy teenagers.
3. To be addressed as "Dr." or "old wise one" to friends, family and strangers. And only as "The Punisher" to enemies.
4. Have lots of grandkids who will want to visit me (the "Dr.") for my ability to make balloon animals, perform magic tricks, and to hear my heroric War stories (of wars I was never in.)

When I am an old, I will not:
1. Still never buy credit card protection insurance.
2. Use a wheelchair or one of those "little rascal" motor chairs (...unless it fly's)
3. Start complaining about the government (I can do that now)
4. Use my magic and balloon making powers for evil. EVER!

Invisalign Update
I’ve promised a few of you awhile back for an update on my Invisalign experience (or as I like to call it “ma’ grillzs.....ahhhh yeeeah!" *big grin*)
I’m on week 10 and I think they’re working. They must be because every time I put in a new aligner it hurts for the first two days (nothing a little Motrin and some Vodka won't fix.) The upside so far:
1. It’s working
2. Aligners don’t affect my “speech” anymore.
3. Can’t really tell they’re there anymore.

Downside:
1. Eating is a pain; in fact I recommend these for weight loss because you really have to think about snacking (is it really worth the trouble of taking them out and then cleaning the teeth, again and again.)
2. The 'tooth sanding'. The dentist sands in-between the teeth so they can move- very weird.
3. The first week - getting use to taking them on and off without sheer pain. After a week it's no problem anymore.
So far, until “lasers”, yoga, or David Copperfield can correct teeth - they're by far the best choice without looking like a dork in your 30's with a metal mouth.

Just another guy named “Tony” at the Italian festival
Yup, that was me on Saturday at a local Italian festival. I wanted to introduce my daughter to a little family heritage (the 1/4th of me that’s Italian; 1/8 in her…does that even mean anything anymore these days?) I’m probably better off just taking her to Italy or maybe Disney's Epcot because Italian heritage in L.A. is pretty sad.
The "festival" was very ghetto, they didn’t even serve any Chianti (only Australian Yellowtail? What's up with that!?) The pizza could be mistaken for Pizza Hut and the sandwiches resembled Subway. And don’t even get me started on the Gelato – they had “basic” flavors like strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate – that's not real Gelato! Where's Amaretto or Hazelnut? My grandmother would have slapped everybody and made them all do push-ups.

Fiji vacation begins Friday night (meca leca hi, meka hiney ho!)

We leave for Fiji and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The wife and I desperately need a vacation away from work and our normal "groundhog day" routine. I’m just going to sit on a beach, eat, drink, sketch, and watch my daughter play in the sand with endangered turtles. (I mean seriously... what kid wouldn’t want to play with endangered turtles, right?)
I am taking my laptop; apparently private islands have Wi-Fi now, so I may end up posting pictures of things like island villagers, beaches, and us painting endangered turtles. Or I may not, and just sleep (you can do that kind of thing on vacation without getting fired.)

Daddy Days, Vacation Days, And Keeping Weird Looking Kids Away

Sundays over the last few weeks have been the wife’s “I’m trying to study for the GMAT so take our daughter out for at least 4 hours PLEASE days”, or as I like to call them “let’s see how long the kid can survive without mommy days.”
So far, I’m doing pretty well and I’m really enjoying the time alone with my daughter. We’ve been to the movies (survived about an hour of “Meet The Robinson’s” before she told me “All done! All done!!”), Birthday Parties (nothing like getting the kid high on sugar and then coming home), and of course plenty of visits to the neighborhood lake and park.
This past Sunday we paid a little visit to the L.A. Zoo -- a place we have a membership for but have only been once. We were a little jaded on our previous visit last summer; it isn’t nearly as cool as the San Diego Zoo. But whatever, it’s cheap, it’s close, and I can brush up on my gringo Spanish since that’s about all you hear while there (in fact, I think the animals speak Spanish too!)
The only scary part of the visit was hanging out in the Kids Corner (Reardon toddler room, I think it’s called) and some other toddler who looked like she had leprosy (with scales, scars, and dried blood all over her face, and maybe some kind of mutant pink eye with legs...) tried coming over and kissing my kid with a drooling open mouth –I screamed (quietly) and quickly yanked my daughter away and then moved to the far side of the room (checking for Gremlins.)
Great – now I’m “one of those parents.”

After months of debate, research, investigating recommendations (a huge thanks to those who sent me loads of info) and weighing options, we’ve finally figured out where we’re going on vacation late next month – Fiji.
Yup, nothing like dragging a near 2-year old on a 10.5 hour flight (thank God its a redeye) to a far away place that just had a military coup last December, and some outbreak of something in some remote area.
But on the bright side, the UN folk are vacationing there right now, we found out the “bloodless” coup isn’t affecting the posh resorts (or really anybody), and the outbreak of something is on a small part of one of the main islands (we’re going to be on a private island.) The wife and I have been aching to go for years now AND we got a sweet deal because tourism has taken a hit (but it’s rebounding.)
We've met many Fijians over the years on our travels around the South Pacific (they're really friendly people - even more than Canadians, eh) so the way I look at it, the people need the tourism more than ever right now (and did I mention I got a sweet deal?)

Hopefully I don’t come back with leprosy, because that would really suck.

Random Thoughts For Thursday

The Baby Monitor Is Worse Than The Alarm Clock
If a tree fell in a forest (in China) our baby monitor could probably hear it and then start flashing like a disco (we have one with those sound light bars.)
In the early days if the kid even breathed funny two light bars would glow like an RPM meter and the wife or I would rush like EMT’s to her room - checking for signs of life, room temperature, aliens, etc. But now, we’re a bit more relaxed. We wait until we get at least 5 bars of light before even thinking about getting up. In fact, the bars have to stay at 5 for a whole minute (or more) and then one will wake the other to go check. Does that make us bad parents?
Although, I must say, when she was sick recently, we’ve been on EMT/paranoid alert again, just like the old days.

Borat Was A Disappointment
We ‘Netflixed’ it. I was really anticipating this movie from all the word-of-mouth and reviews; I even started laughing prematurely at the DVD menu. In reality, there were only like 4 or 5 funny parts (The egg laying, rodeo, the feminist interview) everything else seemed too staged. I honestly felt a little ‘duped’ – like that Blair Witch Project movie.
The part where he wrestles the fat naked dude was just wrong. It gave me nightmares…I still see creepy man-boobs when I close my eyes…(shiver)

Vacation Where?
Our original plans to France this fall changed when the wife decided to go back to school for her MBA beginning this summer (which is very exciting; more on that later...) So now we’re scrambling for someplace to go this May/early June. We know what we want – island, beach, nothing “touristy” but not empty. So far we’re exploring Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Antigua, and/or Costa Rica (although that may be too hot in May/June.) The kid just got her passport on Saturday, which she is very excited about – walking around with the little book pointing at the picture.
Has anybody been to any of those places, or have any recommendations?

Bendable French Canadians
Cirque Du Soleil is coming back to L.A. this August for their new show “Corteo”. The wife and I love going to these things. We’re contemplating taking our daughter who will be 2 by then (or for those exact-age people “25 1/2 months”.) We think she’ll sit through it since their shows are usually loud, bright, crazy music, and people swinging all over the place like monkeys. Normally we wouldn’t have considered it, but they sell tickets for kids as young as “2” which has us wondering – what is the “right” age to introduce this to kids?

Funny Things The Kid Is Doing
We just bought her Christmas gift now (I know 3 months late - we’re bad parents, but she didn’t know) which was a fancy little kitchen. She loves it, although now if you’re anywhere near it when she’s cooking “bloop” (her word for "soup" and the only thing on the menu) she forces you to sit down and eat.
She’s learning new words and sentences daily - “I want that”, “I’m splashing”, “Sit down”, “I want crackcorn (Popcorn)”, “Sushi!” and repeats that one line of ‘Old McDonalds Farm’ - “E.I, E.I. -O” about a million times each day. Even in her sleep (we can hear on the baby monitor…)