Sleeping & Traveling

Sleeping has never been one of E.'s preferred pastimes. There are those babies who always nap during the day, or sleep through the night form day 1, or at least 2 or 3 months in... not E.

When she was an infant, she almost never napped. If she did it was in 20 minute increments, when she was in the baby bjorn, when I was outside & walking. So basically no rest for mommy. Similarly, at night, sleeping didn't seem like a priority. She hated the crib. Wouldn't sleep in it whatsoever. I tried letting her cry it out... This experience ended with a crib full of vomit, pyjamas soaked (really) with tears, and a diarrhea explosion (excuse the details). So I did what I said I would NEVER do, and my husband let E. sleep in our bed for about a year.

This sort of made things easier when we traveled. All we had to do was find a place with a big enough bed (read king) to accommodate all of us. Sometimes we squeezed into a queen (and once a double!?!), but for the most part it wasn't a problem.

Until E. started moving when she slept (or decided to sleep horizontally) and I wasn't getting any sleep, and neither was she. This was when we had enough and decided that it was time for her to start sleeping in her room. This is the same story many parents have, with babies (or toddlers by this point for us) who have sleep issues. My husband and I started wondering if we would ever get any sleep, and what would we do the next time we traveled.

E. was an early walker, so as soon as she was out of our bed, she was in her toddler bed. No more crib. Well, no crib ever actually. I figured if she can walk, she can go in and out of her bed, she won't fall out. And yes she did go in and out, and she didn't fall out (well, maybe once), but she was still getting up many, many times a night. So we were wondering, do we go back to having her sleep with us?

We did when when traveled when she was about 18 months but then when we came back, we had to start all over again. Back to square 1. Sleep training all over again. Then just before she was 2 we went to visit my cousin in London who had a camping bed which his son would use. They're also called EZ beds, or ready beds. This was fantastic. It's like an air mattress with a sleeping bag on top. You can get them at Target or Toys R Us. We would put her to sleep in the camping bed, and then go to bed later. We were all sleeping in the same room, but not in the same bed. This was so great that we decided to get her one for our upcoming trip to California.

E opening her Cars EZ Bed

The choice in pattern was Disney Princess or Cars, and I figure that i probably have many years of Princess themed everything that Cars just seemed, i dunno, less stereotypical. So Lightning McQueen it was. She loves it.

It came in very handy for our Californian adventure. We didn't have to worry about getting a place with an extra bed, all we had to do was take out the air pump and blow up her bed. We would put her to sleep and move onto our evening. But like every parent knows, this wasn't the end to all our problems.

When got back home, we quickly realized that she got used to falling asleep with us in the room. So back to sleep training it was. Fabulous.

I have a friend who gets suite type rooms when she travels, so her son (E's boyfriend) can fall asleep on his own and they can enjoy their evening. This is definitely something to consider for next time. In the meantime, E is finally (!?!) going to sleep after story time, and for the most part, is sleeping the whole night.

Newfoundland

A few years ago, before Little E., we took a five week road trip across North America. The minute I begin telling this story to people they interrupt and say "this was before the baby... right?" Well, yes, it was before the baby, but the thing is, my husband and I love taking road trips and most people assume that it's not something you can do once you have kids because they create these nightmare scenarios of the kids screaming and crying the whole time. Well, my answer to that is "Get them used to it". If your kids are used to being in the car for half an hour at the tops, of course anything longer than that will seem never ending, but if you get them used to it, it's been my experience that it's fine for the most part.

Last year we drove to Newfoundland and spent 3 weeks there. It took us about 3 days to get there (and back) so we had about 2.5 weeks to explore and drive around. At the time E. was just over a year old, and yes, we did find many things to do which kept her entertained and us interested.

Over and above everything else, E. favorite place we visited on the trip was Terra Nova Park and it's incredible visitors centre. They have a "Touch Tank" which is basically an open aquarium which anyone can take the animals out of and touch them, look at them and see how they interact. E. loved this. We spent hours here, and really it was quite interesting and some of the most hands-on learning I've seen.

E discovering the Touch Tank at Terra Nova Park

Another great thing you can do at the park is take a private jet boat tour. Ocean Quest Adventures will do custom tours for you. They are absolutely amazing people! At first we were thinking of doing some snorkeling, but in the end decided against it, so a photo tour was what we opted for. (However, if you are interested in snorkeling, they have some amazing packages.) We got to see some incredible landscapes and because the boat is small and much quieter that usual tour boats, we got to see some great birds and animals without interrupting them. E being on the boat and so close to the water. Even the speed, she absolutely adored having the wind blowing in her face!!

On the private jet boat tour courtesy of Ocean Quest Adventures

Another great place we visited was Grand Falls-Windsor, which is home to the Salmonid Interpretation Centre, the largest of its kind in North America. Basically this is where the salmon swim upstream and return to every year. You're in this great beautiful, scenic park and you can see salmon swimming. A guide will tell you all about the salmon's cycles and tell you all about the area. You also get to see a film explaining how the centre came to be. A great partnership between industry and nature.

Salmon swimming upstream

E and me at the Salmonid Interpretation Centre

Gros Morne National Park is easily one of the most amazing places on earth. Take a boat tour and take in the majestic beauty. E. loved this and so did the other children she met on the boat.

Newfoundland & Labrador also have a pass the call the Viking Trail Pass which will get you in to all of the National Parks & Historic sites on the west coast of Newfoundland, including Red Bay in Labrador. L'Anse aux Meadows, in Northern Newfoundland is an amazing place where you can learn all about how the vikings who came to North America lived and explore the sod houses they lived in.

The town of Tilting, located on the north-eastern tip of Fogo Island is an amazing place. It's a Provincial Heritage District and National Historic Site of Canada and accessible by ferry from Twillingate which is also a great place to visit where you can take boat tours and see whales and icebergs depending on the season. If you go to Tilting, you must stop at Nicole's Café in Joe Batt's Arm, a small nearby town on Fogo Island. This was probably the best restaurant we went to in all of Newfoundland, and possibly in the top ten ever, hands down. They also have a great kids menu.

Newfoundland overall offered great things to do for a family. Be prepared to do alot of driving if you will be visiting both sides of the island. That being said, be prepared to be completely fed up of your child's favorite music. However, if your child enjoys napping in the car, which most do, it's easy to get a 5 hour-drive if they can handle 1.5 hour before the nap and 1.5 hours after.

Everything Newfoundland has to offer though makes driving absolutely worth it!

Great place to stay in San Francisco

Traveling with kids isn't always easy. Budget concerns pull you in one direction, while aesthetics, lifestyle and wanting to live a relaxing vacation pull you in another. The question is, which pull will win the tug of war.

My husband and I have never shied away from staying in hostels. Sometimes we have discovered gems, like just outside of Philadelphia and the Sanborn Park Hostel where we stayed a few years ago and, which unfortunately, is now closed.

Sanborn Park Hostel was only 45 minutes outside of San Francisco, and last time we used it as a base and did lots of day trips from there. It's an amazing family friendly lodge, with private rooms, in the middle of the forest of Sanborn park, in Saratoga. At the amazingly incredible price of $13 per person, there was no point even thinking of going anywhere else now that we were traveling with little E. Only, after booking our entire trip (where the amazing beachfront cabin was not so budget friendly), I called the place to find out they had closed in January... So it was time to find something else.

And this is where the budget concern wins the tug of war.

I booked a room at what was supposed to be the best Hostel of the San Francisco area (and one of the best in the US), only to find out, once we're there and I'm not sleeping, that it ain't so great. Using my insomnia productively, I find this amazing gem.

With clean bright ultra-modern rooms, a shabu-shabu restaurant-lounge in the hotel and a super central location, this is Best Western's "joie de vivre" boutique branch. Bright, whimsical J-pop inspired rooms are perfect for families with kids, or the young at heart. Suites come equipped with PlayStation 3, Wii, bean bag chairs, and a 6-foot LCD projection screen. Overall, not the kind of room you expect, in the middle of San Francisco for around $100/night (the same price we were paying for our hostel).

The next day, we move out of the land of shared bathrooms and communal breakfast areas and make our way to Japantown to the greatest boutique budget hotel ever. I can't say that I'm totally turned off from hostels, like I said, there are some gems out there, but next time I'm in SF, I know where I'll be staying, and this time, form the get go.

Might I add, I slept very well that night.