Back from Las Vegas

Last week I was in Las Vegas with my sister, Kelly, and her family and her husband's family (this is not the sister I went to Disney with).  I have taken this trip several times in the past.  It's always a nice trip, but not a great trip.  This trip fell into the same category as the rest.  It's funny, everyone keeps going on the trip, yet no one seems to love it.  But it's cheap for my family so I guess that's a big part of it.

Here is a profile of the trip:  We stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations on the strip in 2 - 2 or 3 bedroom suites.  We go to the pool in the morning, do an activity with the kids in the afternoon and go out for lunch.  We have dinner out with the whole group (11 of us) to a child friendly restaurant.  We'll usually see 1 show during the trip.  After dinner most of the adults go out gambling for a few hours, the Dad's stay out later then the rest of us girls.

What I like about the trip:  it's pretty relaxing.  I have very little control over what we do, I just choose if there is something I want to or don't want to do.  Mostly, I just go with the flow and that's nice.  I enjoy relaxing by the pool with a drink and a book, chatting and watching the kids in the pool.  I also like exploring Vegas.  Since I have been there a few times I know the layout fairly well and have seen most of the casinos/resorts/hotels.  But there is always something new there and there are plenty of things I haven't done there.  But, I do sometimes have to make and find opportunities.

What I don't like:  It's a little over indulgent of the kids.  The afternoons often consist of trips to game rooms.  There's so much there to do that has a little more substance to it, but they seem to end up in game rooms everyday and sometimes more then 1 in a day.  And the game rooms aren't cheap.  I'm just glad I don't have to bank roll a kid on one of these trips!  Gambling, I'm not a big gambler and at night it's all about gambling.  I'll go out a few nights and play some blackjack but it seems if I don't feel like going out that there is something wrong with me and I don't like that feeling.  I don't think that it helps on this trip that my body was totally on the wrong hourly schedule to be gambling at night and I never adjusted.  On this trip I was a little frustrated with the eating arrangements.  Due to the surgery I had in July I'm a bit restricted on what I can eat - I can't use my front teeth so am forced to eat food on the softer side and I didn't feel like anyone other then my mother took that into consideration when choosing restaurants.

But in the end it was a nice vacation, I got to see a Cirque Du Soliel show which was on my things to do in Vegas list.

Traveling with family

On my trip to Disney there were several signs before the trip that this trip was not going to be my best. My sister and her husband have some issues, and her kids are very demanding. But much more then that was the accommodations...

In the past with my other sister we have always stayed in 2 and 3 bedroom timeshare apartments, which even the 2 bedrooms can be a bit tight at times, but leaves enough space. Well for this trip my sister booked a 1 bedroom villa at Boardwalk, which is listed to accommodate 4 people. The villa consists of a living room, small kitchen, bedroom, bathroom (one part is a shower, toilet and sink, the other area is a tub and sink). There was 1 king size (I think) and a fold out couch.

My sister didn't put my mother and I on the reservation, because it cost too much. When I said we wouldn't be able to take Magical Express she said we could just take a taxi that it would be cheaper. This set the tone for the trip. My mother and I never really felt like guests on this trip or at this resort and that feeling started with not being added to the reservation because of the cost.

When we arrived at the hotel I asked where to put our stuff, she said anywhere. It was more of a I don't care then a make yourself at home type of comment. I put my suitcase in a corner and it never moved. When I put my clothing in a dresser drawer she made a comment about me "moving in." I often do this when I'm staying somewhere for more then a few days. Again, another little thing to make me feel less welcome.

Sleeping arrangements were my mother, my nephew and I on the fold out couch. At 3:30 in the morning my sister would go into the kitchen to make bottle for the baby and wake me up (I usually get up around 4am so this wasn't convenient). My nephew flipped and flopped all night long, it was an adventure.

So here is my list of things to do to keep your family from feeling welcome on a family trip:

1. Bring up costs and how expensive things are, often

2. Don't add the family to the hotel reservation (see #1)

3. Don't pay for transportation costs, but tell them how much money they saved

4. Say you're going to help out with transportation, but don't actually do it

5. Book accommodations without enough beds

6. Have family share a bed with 2 other people

7. Have a fight in front of the family, blame them for the almost non-existent involvement

8. Don't have a plan for anything (in particular for Disney World)

9. Tell them how wonderful the accommodations are, often, to the people who can't sleep at night.

Photo of the Week: Disney with the family

Anyone who follows me on Twitter, travelingiraffe knows that at the end of May I went to Disney World. I went with my mom, sister and my sister's family. I actually have 2 sisters, one of which I vacation with fairly regularly - Disney and Vegas. The sister that I went on this recent trip with I don't spend nearly as much time with, but she has 2 young boys - an infant and a 4 year old.

This was actually my worst trip to Disney and has me rethinking going on family trips. Don't get me wrong, I had some good times, but I wouldn't do this trip over again if you paid me. Over the next few weeks I'll write some posts about this trip, I'll cover things like:
The Boardwalk Villas, making your family feel welcome on a trip, rides, touring the parks, dining, screaming children and how not to travel with children, getting on the wrong plane and lots of other stuff.

But just to give you an idea of how great this trip was, I came home and immediately had a cold, what fun!!!!

Book Review - One Year Off

I recently finished the book One Year Off - Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children by David Elliot Cohen, I really enjoyed this book.

David and Devi took their 3 children (9, 7, and 2 - I think) on the road for 13 months. I liked David's writing style, it felt very intimate, I felt invited into their family. The book is a series of emails sent by David to family and friends, which would explain the honest and intimate feel of the book. The writing immediately caught my attention and I was quickly drawn in by the book.

One example of the honesty of the book and the people is that David and Devi tried to home school their children, a common theme for families that take an extended trip. I'm not a fan of home schooling (aside from the whole pulling your kids out of school for a year then you obviously have to do something). It seems like many families who take extended trips around the world were at least considering switching to home schooling if they weren't doing it already, so home schooling wasn't a jump for them. David and Devi are not that type of family, they tried and failed at home schooling and put the kids into school in Austarlia for 4 months as their education. It's honest and human, and they found a solution to the problem for thier family.

What did I learn?
France is not a good place to take children. Sardinia is a good place to take children. African safari's are good for children but not 2 year olds. Take the babysitter, they help manage the kids and allow you to have an occasional dinner without the kids.

What was missing from the book?
I would have liked a little more information on the families re-entry into "normal" life.

Planes, Cars and Children

Ahhh, I'm finally getting around to something about my trip... I thought I would start with the obvious - traveling by plane, car and children. I'll start with kids.

I complained recently about lap children (those under 2 who do not have a seat), while I understand there are people who can not afford to pay the inflated price of a seat, I think some parents are just irresponsible about it. If you're going on a vacation and you can't afford that seat, then maybe you can't afford the vacation??? But if you're visiting grandma and grandpa then I'm feeling a bit more generous to your struggle.

But, what I saw on my flight home from Pittsburgh was disturbing. A child, who had to be close to 2 years old, traveling with her father. Originally Dad sat in a seat next to another person (this was a smaller plane with 2 seats on each side of the isle.) Since the plane was fairly empty he moved up a couple rows, giving me a birds eye view of him and the daughter. The daughter never sat during the flight, she was climbing on the father during take off and landing in such a way that he could not sit straight in his seat. This was a child that should never have been a lap child, she should have had her own seat and had a car seat.

If you're child cannot sit down during take off and landing and turbulence, then you're child needs to be restrained in a car seat. I know it's a pain in the butt, but this is the safety of your child. I found this child's behavior disturbing, and I don't even have children of my own. The worst part is that the flight was $60, I think the highest I saw it advertised for was $80. Then the guy has this wacky contraption with a giant seat that straps to his back that the kid sat in when he went around the airport. I tried to find it on the internet, but couldn't. It was like a big canvass chair with metal tubing to make the shape of it. Then it harnessed on the father like a backpack, the child is seated facing the fathers head. Of all the wacky things they make that you could use to carry your child in while going away, he came up with THAT! But didn't get his child a seat on the plane, which is one thing if he figured the plane might be empty and he could get two seats. But how about the car seat???

I'm too worked up now to write about my flights and my car rental, I'll do that tomorrow, sorry.

Babies on a plane and Penn State

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm heading out to Penn State for a football game. It's only the Akron game, but I'm quite excited. I haven't been to a Penn State game since I went to the PSU vs Boston College game in 2004 in Boston. Much too long... I'm dreaming of the fun of Beaver Stadium, yelling "WE ARE..." "..Penn State." Shopping downtown State College for Penn State clothing and visiting the creamery for some Ice Cream...

On a completely different topic... My friend is flying this year with your 7 or 8 month old baby. She was planning on buying a seat for her baby, until she found out that a seat for a baby is actually $100 more then it is for an adult. This is outrageous to me. A baby doesn't take up any extra room, and doesn't require a snack or drink. Further this is a safety issue. For some reason airlines apparently have this idea that because it's free it's a good idea to have your baby on your lap, I've heard of people being discouraged from buying an infant a seat by the airlines. Hello, it's a safety issue some people think that the extra money is worth their piece of mind. But there is a breaking point, like $100 more for an infant. I think it's irresponsible of an airline to charge more for a child. They should be encouraging (or at least neutral) to parents who choose to get a seat for their child. They should charge less, not more for that child. I don't get it?

Book Review: A Brilliant Teacher

I've finally finished reading the book A Brilliant Teacher: Lessons Learned From One Family's Journey Around the World by Steve Rhine &Toby Abraham-Rhine. The Rhine family - Mom, Dad and 3 kids took 8 months off and traveled the world - Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. There are 3 different things I want to talk about - their trip, the book and how it affected them.

I was sometimes frustrated by their trip, because they were doing things cheaply (they did go into debt for this trip) they sometimes wasted a lot of time. While I like to save money myself I do prescribe to the idea that time is money so to see them skip a tour and do things themselves, which sometimes ended in not seeing what they wanted to see, was frustrating to me. Then other times they would skip the tour and do to a comedy of errors would end up spending just as much money and more time and see less. I also can't imagine staying in some of the accommodations they stayed in, I give them credit for that. While I'm ok with hostels and basic accommodations I'm not sure I can do bugs and dirty places. Do you need to sleep with bugs to know how the locals live? Maybe.

The book was at times very interesting and at other times slow and not as in-depth as I would have liked. I just didn't always click with them in a way that drew me in. At times it seemed to be a bit more about the adventure then about the experience. But I often have this problem with travel books, they talk so much about the experience but not the impact, I rarely connect with the author as much as I would have liked. This is where the Epilogue comes in, it was the reward for reading the book. The other gem of the book is little sidebar types of things scatter throughout the book on different topics - Philosophy's, Extrovertism, Progress, Harmony, Intimacy. These often bridged the gap that I was stuck at.

While the impact of the trip is seen in the sidebars the Epilogue tells the tale. I'm not sure how the Epilogue would read though without reading the rest of the book. Here they talk about their re-entry to American life. A couple years ago I listened to a podcast about couple who had taken a year off and traveled and lived in Europe, at the end they talked about their re-entry and there were some commonalities, though I think expressed differently. The idea of these big stores where you can get any of 8,000 types of a single item was a change. Also the American idea of consumption and consuming whatever you want - it could be cars, big houses, food or any of a number of things. After a trip like this there is a profound impact in how you look at America and Americans. The Rhines spent a good about of time in 3rd world countries and have learned a bit about the difference between wants and needs. When they wrote the book, a year after the trip, they wondered if their children had gotten a lot out of it. They traveled in 2001. I heard Rick Steves interview them recently and their children did seem to get something out of it, their oldest daughter certainly did and struck me as being a better person for it.

It's not the best book I've read, but far from the worst either. A Brilliant Teacher certainly has a place in travel books. Anyone who is considering traveling around the world, with or without children would benefit from this. Or just families considering travel with children could certainly learn from this. There are lessons to be learned on traveling, on experiencing the world and the resilience of children. They really are harder to screw up then one would think.

World travel with Children

The other day I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The K&K Podcast, and Kylie brought up a topic from a podcast she had recently listened to - the topic of traveling with children. The podcast is The Family From the Heart and in episode 50 they discuss Cliff's idea of traveling/living outside of the US with the whole family. They would sell everything and move to different places for 3-6 months each, for 2-3 years. The children would be around 7, 10 and 13 when the trip started. I listened to the podcast myself, it was the first one I had ever listened to so I don't know much about the family but the vibe was good.

This obviously isn't my typical type of topic to discuss, and I have no children so maybe I have no business discussing it, but I thought it was really interesting. I don't know if it's becoming more popular to do extensive travel with children, or if I'm just noticing it more, but it seems like it's getting more popular for Americans. There is a show Six for the Road about a family of 6 who bought an RV and are RVing around the country. The 6 in the World blog is about a family of 6 who sold everything and traveled around the world. When I was growing up a vacation was a weekend trip to Amish Country in Pennsylvania, this seems really fascinating to me. Ok, as a child we did take 2 cruises and go to Disney twice, but otherwise it was just Amish Country. It took me a long time to find out I had a passion for travel.

I think my concerns about it are that the oldest child will be a teenager, which is a time when kids really start to connect with their friends. But with technology today the oldest daughter would be able to keep in contact with friends. Also, I wonder if the youngest will be able to really appreciate being in the different places. But just like every adult gets something different out of travel, so will each child, no matter the age. I suspect they'll look at it as a special time once it is over and hopefully during the trip. But other then that, I think there is so much opportunity for the children to grow - travel does that. I used to listen to a podcast called A Year In Europe, the year is over, but it was interesting to hear the journey they went through. Learning how different people live in different places and then to come back home to the US and to see how different we really are from Europeans. I think no matter where they end up the kids could learn a lot. And their experience will be so unique from other people they encounter in life.

I think this trip will require a lot of planning, and the involvement of the kids. I've only listened to the one podcast, but I think they will include the kids. I don't think they'll learn a language in 3-6 months as they've stated they wish to do - A year in Europe didn't seem to learn more then some basics when they spent a month or more in a country. But they will learn about how different people live, and take in some of the good things and integrate them into their lives. Even though they seem to be seriously considering home schooling while away I hope they will stay somewhere and put the kids in school for maybe an entire school year, or at least part, schools vary so much from country to country, even from school to school here in the US. That could be a great experience for the kids. But too many schools might be overwhelming for the kids, not just adjusting to how different schools work, but also meeting new kids so often. There is such and opportunity for them to grow as a family and as individuals. Yea, they can and will run into some problems and roadblocks, but as a family, if it's done rightish, I think it could be great. I wonder if I can get them to adopt me as a 4th child?