Category: Travel

I love to travel.

Not just love it, fully LOVE IT!*

I daydream about the trip, figure out what to do in the area, plan out my packing list like a military strategy, and wake up the morning of the trip with a sloshy stomach of anticipation.

It doesn’t really matter whether it is a family cruise, road trip to the beach, or a work conference, I fully enjoy leaving town to mix up my days. I especially enjoy staying in a snazzy hotel somewhere for a full change of scenery and have gotten my packing list streamlined down to a reusable excel spreadsheet.

Which is all well and good, but what do you do when you add a baby to the mix?

I have a wonderful opportunity to go to a week-long conference for work. It will not only be a super educational workshop that will benefit the work side of my brain, it is also in Chicago… a place I’ve never visited. And I freaking love going to new places!

However, I have a 5 month old baby. I guess I could leave him home with my husband, but I have a feeling that my sweetie’s head might implode if he had to work 12 hour days, take care of the baby every night and then do it over again with no help. So, I decided to bring Jack with me.

No, I’m not going to stick him in my Baby Bjorn during the daily presentations and scribble notes over his head. I’m bringing one of the awesomest friends in all the land, Lindsay, to hang out with Jack while I’m in class. Then, once my presentations are done each day we can go out and have fun – exploring the city and finding fun places to eat.

I’m actually totally looking forward to the trip, since it’s kind of like a mini girl’s vacation. And last time we did that we had such an amazing time we ended up coming home with an unplanned tattoo and piercings. Oopsie.

But as much as I’m looking forward to the trip, I’m also a little bit intimidated because I’ve never traveled with a baby. This will be our first overnight trip away from home AND our first plane ride. Jack is typically a pretty awesome baby, but I have to assume that at some point he’s going to freak out and I’m just waiting for that day.

I’m pretty comfortable grabbing Jack up and going out the door for a full day of stuff, so I’m trying really hard to keep it in my mind that it shouldn’t be too much harder than that. Right? Or am I totally insane?

Anyways, here are my initial thoughts on how I’m going to do this and keep my sanity at the same time:

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
My diaper bag is usually pretty well stocked, but I’m going to make sure to have a couple extra onesies, diapers/wipes, and bottles ready to go in case I need to be quick-draw-Joules and whip them out at a moment’s notice. We’re going to be checking the stroller and car seat at the gate, so I got one of those car seat bags to keep it clean while it’s under the plane. I’ve requested a crib for the hotel room and plan to confirm that again the day before we arrive.

Be THAT girl
I’m flying Southwest, so we will be seated by rows based on our boarding group. I know that families with children are typically able to board first and we plan to use that to our advantage. If the flight isn’t full, Lindsay and I are going to spread out on the window and end seat of a row leaving one seat in between us. When other passengers see me with Jack on my lap in the end seat, they’ll just keep on walking. NOBODY wants to sit near a baby on a plane! Hmmm…maybe I can time his morning bottle so that he’s really grumpy when the plane is loading up…

Let’s be Low Maintenance
I plan on changing Jack’s diaper right before we board the plane. Since it’s only a 2 hour flight, he should be fine for the duration without any awkward mini bathroom changing sessions. Of course, if a random blowout occurs, all bets are off.

Figure Out How Much to Pack
I’m going to try really hard to just have one large suitcase for me and Jack to share. With wrestling a baby, stroller/car seat, carry on diaper bag, and more through the airport, having more than one bag might put me over the edge. However, just the amount of diapers, wipes and formula needed are kind of freaking me out. I’m planning to call the hotel and find out how far the nearest Rite Aid/Walgreens/Whatever store is so that I can just pick up a pack of diapers and wipes while I’m there. It’s only 5 days, so I’m trying to keep it as streamlined as possible!

Bring Important Stuff
I know I have to bring Jack’s birth certificate in order for him to fly. I also will be bringing his favorite giraffe pacifier, bottles, dish detergent, a couple clip-on baby toys and his Baby Bjorn. Oh, and extra outfits for him too. But is there something else I’m forgetting?

My Secret Weapon
Whenever I start to get freaked out thinking of what could go wrong on the trip, I remember that Lindsay will be there! When I describe her as awesome, I fully mean it. Not only is she a great friend to me, she also makes my life easier by anticipating ways to help out before I even think of them. So if I wander away without my bright orange suitcase by my side because I’m too focused on how to find the shuttle bus while also looking for a Starbucks because I need a caffeine fix and oooh is that something shiny? I know that Lindsay has my back!

So I’m feeling mostly excited for the trip and a little bit unprepared too, but I think we’ll survive it. Do you have any tips or suggestions that will help our very first trip go smoothly?

Also, if you’ve been to Chicago, do you have any recommendations of fun stuff to do in the Magnificent Mile area? I mean, it’s called the MAGNIFICENT mile, so it must be pretty awesome, right?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting here, on my facebook page or tweet me at @JoulesDellinger.

*Imagine me staring at you with crazy eyes while forcibly saying LOVE IT. That’s kind of how it sounds in my head.

As I previously mentioned, my husband and I went away for a last minute vacation cruise right after Thanksgiving.

After a super stressful Fall, we were looking forward to the chance to get away before the beginning of the crazy holiday season. The fact that we were limited on when we could travel due to my pregnancy (they will not allow you to cruise after 24 weeks), meant we had to jump on the cruise train – um, boat – as quickly as we could.

So, although we were self proclaimed Royal Caribbean snobs, we decided to take a chance on a 7 day Carnival cruise to the Western Caribbean. The price was right, the timing was right, so we went for it.

All in all, our vacation was awesome! We had plenty of time to relax, hang out with each other and eat a ton of food. The food was especially great because I could totally blame any weight gain on the baby having a growth spurt!

The Yea

The customer service was excellent! Everyone from the room stewards to the servers at dinner really made you feel welcome and as if they really did love their jobs. As a customer, it is so nice to have positive people around you who are actually disappointed when you don’t order more than one dessert.

Two of our stops were absolutely gorgeous – Belize and Isla Roatan in the Honduras islands. We went on a jungle hike in Belize and then floated down the river for our cave tubing excursion.

In Honduras, we took a chair lift (just like the kind you use to go skiing) to the beach and enjoyed the clear water and warm sand. There was nothing I would have changed about either of those days, they were perfect!

 

My husband is awesome. Not to brag (okay, just a little), but I really chose wisely when I married Travis. By the end of each day my mouth hurt from smiling and laughing so much. The chance to spend 7 uninterrupted days with him was priceless.

 

Did I mention the food? The last time I cruised on Carnival I remember thinking that Royal Caribbean’s food was so much better. Not this time, there were tons of buffet options, delicious FREE room service and amazing dinners each night. The fact that it was all included in our original price was even better, because you could order what you want and not what you felt like you could afford.

The Nay

The weather. As much as you’d like the weather to be perfect and sunny for your entire vacation, sometimes that just doesn’t happen. On this trip, we had a couple rainy days. On our stop to Cozumel, Mexico it was so overcast that we abandoned our plan of going to the beach and just did some exploring and guacamole-eating in a fun bar. Of course, the positive side of this is I’m pretty sure that this is the first vacation in my entire life where I didn’t end up with random sunburn.

The rocking ship was not awesome. I don’t know if it was due to the time of year we cruised, our itinerary, or the weather, but our ship was rocking like a teenager’s car at Makeout Point.  I pride myself on my stomach of steel and have never, ever gotten seasick. Unfortunately that streak is now broken due to a ship that rocked so hard that the pool was sloshing onto the deck and our room was creaking. Travis was feeling a bit green too, but it was pretty much under control with some seasickness pills. I’m going to blame my seasickness on the baby, perhaps he’s seasick, not me…

The flight home was AWFUL! My husband is 6’4” and flying is typically pretty uncomfortable for him, so I usually take the middle seat to give him a little more room to stretch out in the window or aisle seat. The flight to Miami was so cramped that we decided to upgrade to first class on the way back, but it was full so we resigned ourselves to a slightly cramped ride back.

This would have been totally fine, if the person who sat down on the other side of me wasn’t a 350ish pound man. He literally overflowed from his seat, over my arm rest into my area. Once he sat down, my left arm was pinned and I couldn’t move it to lift a drink to my mouth or turn the page of my Sky Mall magazine.  He was so large that he couldn’t put down the little tray in front of him, so he balanced his family-sized boxes of Pizza Hut wings and cheese breadsticks on his stomach and then proceeded to eat every one of them within about 6 inches of my face.

Now I’ve been pretty lucky with my lack of morning sickness until this point, but I truly thought that I was going to hurl. I can not believe that the airline did not require him to purchase two seats. The moral of this story is that we are definitely splurging on business class tickets next time we fly!

So the trip was totally worthwhile and we would definitely do it again with the one change of upgrading our flight. Oh yeah, and a little extra for the “Yay” column:

While in my post-vacation haste to do laundry, I accidentally threw a few pairs of clean, coupled socks into the washer and then dryer. So when I was folding the load of laundry later that evening it was as if happy little laundry ninjas* had started folding for me. While appreciated, I’d really like them to finish what they started and do the whole load…

*These are apparently the opposite of those douchy sock stealers who live in the dryer.