Month: November 2006

Categories
Tips

Packing the light fantastic

You over-packers know who you are.

Lugging all of that stuff “just in case.”

Carrying diapers and snacks for kids because they don’t sell diapers or Goldfish crackers where you’re going (which is Des Moines or something and they really have discovered diapers there, but never mind.)

Now that you’re back from your Thanksgiving trip and have vowed to stop killing yourself carrying so much, let me send some helpful links your way.  I’ll preface this by saying that I finally learned how to pack properly when a rapid-fire series of business trips forced me to fall back on one black suit, one brown suit, one black dressy T-shirt, one white dressy T-shirt and the old “change your accessories” trick with scarves. 

I was amazed at how little I really needed, nobody cared if they already saw my brown trousers on Tuesday, and I actually had suitcase room to bring back souvenirs (even bulky Dale of Norway sweaters.)

One carry-on bag? Travel writer Rolf Potts has some thoughts on how to do it.

Yes, I know, packing for travel with kids is another ball game, you say.  Well, not really; not if you’re fairly ruthless.

One, kids that are old enough to wear a small backpack and pull their own little suitcase should do so.  Nothing is better for teaching children the disadvantages of bringing too much than letting them discover how much of a pain it is to carry it all from one end of the airport to the other.

Two, you never need as many trousers/shorts/skirts as tops.  Stop cramming in all of those pairs of bulky blue jeans; you only need one pair and one pair of chinos/khakis, which can be dressed up.  And you know you’re going to buy souvenir T-shirts when you get there, so don’t pack so many to start with.

Three, for long trips, they have this thing called “laundry.”  You can wash stuff in the hotel sink, or just go to the local laundromat for a couple of hours.

Four, if you have too much stuff at the other end, mail some of it back to your house rather than carrying it. 

Five, the shoe problem.  I have one pair of brown, one pair of black (to go with the suits above) and in summer it’s the same for sandals.  Maybe a pair of running shoes if I think I’m going to work out, but I try to leave it at that.  Keep your kids to just a couple pair as well (and wear the bulkiest ones on the plane.)

The FlyLady, as usual, has an exhaustive list of family-oriented packing tips for you.  Check out the rest of her get-organized site if you have CHAOS in your house….Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome.

The Washington Post devotes a bunch of space to “The Packing Issue.”

Europe’s travel expert Rick Steves has long been a “pack light” advocate.  His readers also have a bunch of “what/how to pack” tips, and the ultimate packing list from the guru himself is here.

So make it a game with your kids the next time you’re planning a trip, don’t wait until the night before to pack (so you’ll have time to say, “Do I really need to take that?”) and have room….literally….to enjoy your travels a bit more.

Update 02 December 2006:  Here are some more packing tips for travel with a baby, from a San Antonio Express-News staff writer who just took a Vegas trip.

Update 17 December 2006:  The Miami Herald has the answer to over-packing — it’s in the shoes. 

Update 09 January 2007: Teresa Plowright at About.com’s Travel with Kids gives us a comprehensive packing list, just in case you don’t want to travel too lightly. 

Categories
Philosophy Texas USA

Why the bleep would I want to go there?

Lubbock CVB logoThis post is about going to those sucky places. Maybe they aren’t so bad.

These are destinations that (at least initially) evoke no sense of excitement or anticipation in your family. When you tell friends your travel plans to Boring Town, they say, “Uhh, hmmm, that’s….interesting.”

Let’s take Lubbock, Texas, for example. The city that Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings got the heck out of. Sights include, hmmm, the National Ranching Heritage Center (exhibits of spurs and bits!) and ummm, the American Wind Power Center (windmills!)

“Lubbock or Leave It,” sing the Dixie Chicks.

The legendary folk/country Texas vocal group the Flatlanders (Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) didn’t name their group “Guys from a Nifty Place,” they named it “Flatlanders.” ‘Nuff said.

OK, so why am I whipping up on poor Lubbock? Because I just don’t think you can designate a place Yuckyville until you have physically been there to investigate.

Ergo, I need to travel to Lubbock before I can pop off about it.

Good thing there’s a visiting RMS Titanic exhibit enticing me to go up there. My daughter and I like the movie about the doomed passenger ship, and I’ve long been interested in its artifacts, so here’s my chance to see something I’m interested in plus check either the Lubbock or the Leave It box.

The exhibit only runs until January 1st, 2007, so I’d better get the family loaded into the minivan and make tracks to northwest Texas.

You never know when a lowly burg holds hidden delights.

One of our best trips while living in the Netherlands was to the industrial seaport of Rotterdam. Awesome place with unbelievable architecture and a fun September Harbor Festival that my kids loved. Believe it.

And you know what else is around Lubbock? The acclaimed Llano Estacado Winery. If the town is that bad, I will at least be able to drown my sorrows in a classy joint.

So try not to ever completely write off a destination. Put it in the hopper and look for an excuse to go sometime. Because you never know how a place might turn out.

Update later on 20 November 2006: Here’s a Frommer’s article on “Favorite Underrated Cities,” including Cleveland, Ottawa, Bratislava, St. Louis and some other surprises.

Categories
Philosophy

Blogger Interview with Liz Strauss

Yes, I know, I just finished an online interview with TechZ (in Bahrain,) and here I am as a designated B.A.D. Blogger (Blogger A Day, her new interview series) with Liz Strauss for Successful Blog (in Chicago.) It was a multi-time-zone kinda day, not to mention my road trip down to Dime Box, Texas later that same day to do some research for a travel article.

Liz and I had never met or spoken on the phone before, but we knew from our blogging exchanges that we had a lot in common. In fact, much of our conversation consisted of, “Really?  That is so bizarre!” when we found yet another similarity between us….Austin, or kids, or music, or being married to a full-time Dad.

That is the beauty of the blogging world — links and conversations back and forth, plus finding new friends in the process.

Thanks, Liz.

Categories
Philosophy

Blogger Interview with TechZ

One of the fun things about blogging is meeting (usually only virtually, but no matter) a whole bunch of interesting fellow bloggers. 

That’s why I wax rhapsodic about Liz Strauss and how writers meet writers at her Successful Blog, which is where I met TechZ, an interesting and enthusiastic guy who writes a tech-oriented blog from one of my former homes, Bahrain.

TechZ and I did an online interview today about my perspectives on blogging and how I got started writing about family travel (and drag racing.)  I want to thank him for the chance to talk about blogging, and I hope his readers (and mine) enjoy our conversation.

Categories
Philosophy

How Books Can Enrich Travel With Your Kids

Every month and week seem to be designated “National Month/Week of the Something-or-Other,” just like every worthy cause has its own colored ribbon. (How many of us really remember the Tony Orlando and Dawn song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree” that was the 1973 kickoff for yellow ribbons for the troops?)

A child's library

I’m willing to get on the recognition bandwagon November 13-19 2006, which the nonprofit Children’s Book Council designated “National Children’s Book Week” in the U.S.

When you’re planning family travel, it adds a lot to the trip if your kids have read books about your destination.

(Movies sometimes work even better, and I have an upcoming post with viewing suggestions.)

A lot depends upon your child’s reading level, of course. There are so many topical books that could tie into a trip, it’s hard to know where to begin, but here are some ideas to get you to the library:

** “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is a window into the Deep South if you are going to travel there. So is “My Dog Skip,” by Willie Morris. (Anyone have ideas for more recent depictions of places in the South?)

** “The Yearling” and “Cross Creek” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings are classics for north central Florida.

** “Little House on the Prairie” and the other books in the pioneer girl series by Laura Ingalls Wilder are perfect for road trips in the Midwest. There are museums about the author in De Smet, South Dakota and Mansfield, Missouri. Other homesite links are here.

** There’s “Georgia’s Bones” if you’re going to O’Keefe country in New Mexico.

** “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson, for Australia.

** “Blueberries for Sal” for a trip to Maine and “Make Way for Ducklings” for a trip to Boston, both by Robert McCloskey.

** Obviously “The Diary of Anne Frank” if you’re going to the Netherlands, but there’s also Corrie ten Boom’s “The Hiding Place.”

** For a visit to New York City, try “Harlem Stomp!” by Laban Hill, or the Eloise books by Kay Thompson (then have tea at the Plaza Hotel!) For NYC atmosphere I like Lyle the Crocodile in “The House on East 88th Street” by Bernard Waber.

** The Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans are fun for Paris.

** “The Legend of the Bluebonnet” by Tomie dePaola, for a Texas visit in springtime.

** If you happen to go to a place that was a stop on the Underground Railroad, look for books about Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.

** Going to Ohio or North Carolina? Consider (based on where you’re going in the state) books about the Wright brothers and their work in aviation.

Children's picture book about Japan, courtesy Flickr

** Naturally, the “Anne of Green Gables” books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, for a visit to Canada’s Prince Edward Island.

** I highly recommend the “Magic Tree House” series chapter books by Mary Pope Osborne. They provide terrific history lessons and fun stories set in a huge number of places and across time and historical events. My daughter and now my young son love them.

Hearing that little voice say, “It’s just like it was in the book!” is always fun for me, and the trip becomes more than getting from Holiday Inn “A” to Waffle House “B.”

Yes, I travel with my kids for general enjoyment of adventures, but also for all of us to learn something. Books can create atmosphere better than anything else.

Update 22 November 2006: Here’s a neat idea from Lark Books, “101 Places You Gotta See Before You’re 12” by Joanne Sullivan. Ideas include a big cave, an ethnic restaurant, a lighthouse and a working farm; none require some exotic vacation.

Categories
Middle East

Travel with Kids to….Iran?

OK, not really, at least not now. I think it’s a little dicey with kids given the current situation, though not everyone agrees with me.

Ancient Persian ruins at PersepolisBut consider the benefits of taking your family, when the opportunity presents itself, to a destination somewhat off of the beaten track (someplace that allows you to sneak in a history lesson as well.)

As a preteen I lived in the Middle East, when my Navy family was stationed in Bahrain. We’re talking the very early 70’s, so the political landscape was different than it is now. For example, my parents took me to Beirut, and I still remember swimming in the hotel pool at the St. George (it had an underwater window so that bar patrons could admire the bikini’d swimmers.)

My most vivid memory, however, is our trip to Iran. This was before the Shah fell, before the Revolution and the Ayatollah Khomeini, and official government relations with the U.S. were quite friendly. We started in the capital of Tehran, then set out to see some of the country.

My 12th birthday was spent in the university town of Shiraz; that night the restaurant staff even brought a little cake to our table.

I was privileged to see the spectacular ancient ruins nearby at Persepolis; they rival anything you’ll find in Rome, Greece or Mexico.

We then took a memorable bus trip to the Silk Road outpost of Esfahan….my first experience with a squat toilet was that bus trip.

It made quite an impression, but I mostly remember the dramatically beautiful tiles and scrollwork on the Imam or “Blue” Mosque, dating from the 1600s.

Imam Mosque (courtesy Chung Hun, Travelblog.org)

The Iranians we met were unfailingly polite and gracious; my first-hand impressions were hard to reconcile with the anti-Iranian rhetoric that I heard a few years later.

That’s the wondrous thing about travel — people can’t BS your kids when they, unlike the bumper-sticker spouters, have actually been to the country in question and met some of its citizens.

Out of nostalgia, I’ve been reading some posts from folks who are braving the current political climate and traveling to Iran. There’s a lively thread on Frommer’s by some people considering a trip, and I simply love this Pink Floyd-related article in Perceptive Travel.

There’s even a blog, “A Persian Passage,” in the San Antonio Express-News, written by Sean-Paul Kelley, an intrepid traveler who visited Iran this fall.

So, don’t ever completely strike a destination off of your To See list. It would be a shame for some of the most significant wonders in the world to remain undiscovered and underappreciated. Take the pulse of the place in question, consider your own values and tolerance for adventure, and then go as soon as you and the kids are ready.

Update 20 March 2007: Take a look at this article in the San Antonio Express-News by Patrick Zeller, an intrepid guy who took a motorcycle tour of Iran. There’s even a picture of him on the road between Shiraz and Esfahan.

Technorati Tags: travel, Iran, family travel

Categories
Philosophy

When You Could Happily Live Without Family Travel

Businesswoman workin' itThe topic is Moms on business travel.

I am here to confess that I am (guiltily) quite happy to be a Mom on business travel.

It is so nice to have a chance to worry only about me and what I want to do, not sort out the clamoring clatter of a bunch of kid’s voices and what they want to do. Travel with hubby, of course, is another much more pleasant matter, but we hardly ever get to take a trip anywhere together (kidless) anymore.

Not that hope for a return to those carefree days doesn’t spring ever-eternal.

This past weekend I was up in Fort Worth, covering my first NASCAR race for Motorsport.com instead of my normal NHRA drag racing work for Fast Machines. Even though I wasn’t in a hotel — I was staying with an old high school friend — it was great to be alone to relax and enjoy her company.

We had one dinner in a restaurant and I didn’t have to correct anyone’s table manners or take anyone to the bathroom. I took a nice long shower at one point, and not a single small voice banged on the door to use the toilet.

Unfortunately, business travel usually doesn’t involve much tourist action (I’m working, you know!) so I didn’t check out Fort Worth landmarks like the Stockyards or see fine American art at the Amon Carter Museum. I was in the non-glamorous Dallas Morning News pressroom at Texas Motor Speedway, instead.

But it was semi-divine to just be with myself, driving a car sans McDonalds wrappers.

Evidently I’m not alone in this guilty pleasure; a recent New York Times article quotes one business Mom who confesses,

“I can go home and deal with two screaming 6-year-old twins and a grumpy preteen,” she said. “Or I can go to the Four Seasons in Mexico City and drink Cognac in the bathtub.”

Yeah, I could deal with that bathtub, too.

So if you’re thinking that sometimes family travel would be a lot better without the “family” part of it, don’t feel too badly. You aren’t alone out there as a guilty Mom road warrior.

There are a lot of us pining for that nice, quiet hotel room where we hold the remote and SpongeBob is nowhere to be found.