My #1 travel tip is to pack clothes that you plan to throw out during the duration of the trip.
When I clean out my closet, I set aside most clothes for Goodwill, but I also keep a few pieces that are still decent looking for vacation travel. On the last trip, I brought all of my camisoles that were now too loose fitting, a couple of pairs of worn socks that were on the brink of forming big holes, one shirt, and one sweater. For my husband, this generally means very worn t-shirts and socks.
After wearing once, I throw out or leave behind in the hotel room. This helps you lighten your load as you travel, provides extra room for your souvenirs, and decreases the amount of laundry you'll have when you return home.
Our friends warned us that our whirlwind life of travel would end when our son arrived, but I was and am determined to prove them all wrong. Travel doesn’t need to end when you have a baby, but your mindset about travel does need to change. Your African safari and Amazon River cruise may be distant memories, but you’ll discover a new world that you hadn’t seen before when you vacation as a family.
For our baby’s first international vacation, our main concerns were flight time, ease of getting around the country, and costs. We chose Ireland because of the 5.5 hour flight time from New York city, the short driving distance between the main historic sites, and the lower costs compared to other European countries.
Being the consummate overplanner, I compiled my packing lists and our day-by-day itinerary. I outlined every possible scenario in which an eight month old might lose it (lack of toys and entertainment, too much time in the car, boring food choices, bad weather). I wrote down three goals: (1) sightseeing in Dublin, (2) kissing the Blarney Stone, and (3) viewing the Cliffs of Moher. As long as we accomplished those three things, we should be happy.
My husband and I chose Ireland because of the distance mainly but discovered that it is an underrated country. The landscape is lush and green (as beautiful as New Zealand), the food is excellent (too many stories of the potato famine danced in my head), and the memorable sites are numerous.
Sunday, 10/11/09
We arrived at 7AM at the Camden Court Hotel in Dublin after a red eye flight. I was exhausted as I did not sleep at all on the flight because I was holding our son most of the time. Adding to the pile of reasons why a red-eye flight might not be advantageous is that we had to wait over three hours in the brightly lit and loud hotel lobby for our room to be ready. In the past, we would have dropped off our bags and explored the city; however, that is hardly a plan of action with an eight month old.
After finally getting into our small room and sleeping for a few hours, we did mange to go to St. John's Green, which was walking distance from our hotel. The little one loves nature, especially sitting in the grass, which means that we spent more time on this vacation relaxing at parks and playgrounds than rushing through cathedrals and castles.
Monday, 10/12/09
We began the day with the Dublin Pass, a double decker bus tour of the city's main attractions. We caught the bus at St. John's Green and hopped off a couple of stops later at the Dublin Castle. We found out that most of the castles require you to reserve a set 45 minute to 1 hour tour group in order to see the inside. We quickly dropped the castle idea because we did not expect our son to sit still or be quiet through an organized tour. Being new parents, we were not quite ready for the glares and sympathetic looks this would engender. We walked around the outside area and then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Cathedral was beautiful with gorgeous stained glass windows and grand architecture. We happened to visit at lunchtime at which time there is a prayer service; the melodic voices vibrate through the building.
We left there and walked past Christ Church Cathedral, which is the older of the medieval cathedrals and the official seat of the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin. We decided going inside one cathedral was enough as it was sometimes tricky to navigate with a stroller. Luckily, we had brought our compact and lightweight umbrella stroller because doorways and sidewalks were narrow and there were lots of up and down steps.
We finished the day with a visit to the Guinness Storehouse where we learned the history of the brew and that Guinness was celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2009. This is definitely a site more for the parents, but my son loved the indoor waterfall. My husband learned to pour his own pint while I lifted my self-imposed ban on alcohol to have a few sips of Guinness. I am not a beer person, but I do like Guinness. The building, by the way, is quite impressive. There is a 360 degree view of Ireland from the bar at the top of the building and a free pint is included with entry into the Storehouse.
Tuesday, 10/13/09, Jurys Cork Hotel
We left Dublin in the morning via car rental and drove down to Kilkenny on our way to overnight in Cork. Kilkenny Castle is an imposing site. We toured the exterior of the castle and the grounds.
We made one more stop in Cobh, a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork. There is not much going on there except that the Titanic's last port of call was to Cobh on the morning of April 11, 1912. The colorful buildings are indicative of many of the small towns of Ireland.
Wednesday, 10/14/09, Killarney Plaza Hotel
A ten minute drive from Cork city is Blarney Castle, which houses the famous stone of eloquence. We stopped here, of course, to kiss the Blarney Stone. We had not realized that the stone was at the top of the castle and the climb to the top was challenging, especially for my husband who was carrying our son up the narrow, winding stone staircase. The experience reminded us both of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona although that climb was more claustrophobic, more rigorous, and longer. We made it to the top not a moment too soon. The Blarney Stone is still set in the wall below the battlements. To kiss it, you have to lean backwards while lying down and hanging in the air as some guy holds on to you. Once kissed, the stone bestows the gift of eloquence. Check that off the list.
Thursday, 10/15/09, Hotel Galway
Outside the town of Killarney is an expanse of rugged mountainous country, enormous lakes, and green woodlands. The focal point is the Muckross Estate, which we viewed from the outside. We stopped at Ladies' View overlooking a beautiful green valley. Ladies' View provides a good view of the Lakes including the Gap of Dunloe, the Black Valley and Ross Castle. We stopped at one of the lakes to take a boat ride from a elder Irish man who said he'd been giving tours for 65 years. It probably wasn't the best idea as our son lost it about 20 minutes in, but I felt sympathy for the old man standing outside in the cold.
Friday, 10/16/09, Hotel Galway
The Cliffs of Moher stretch for 8km and rise up to 702 feet above the Atlantic Ocean at the highest peak. The cliffs consist mainly of beds shale and sandstone, with the oldest rocks found at the bottom of the cliffs. From the top, one can see the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, The Twelve Bens, the Maam Turk Mountains in Connemara and Loop Head to the South. The main reason I wanted to see the cliffs is because I'd been to the Dover Cliffs years earlier and so I'd gotten it into my mind to visit the Cliffs of Moher, also. And then, once I found out that the cliffs were featured in The Princess Bride, that cemented my need to go there. The cliffs were also featured in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I found out after the trip.
Saturday, 10/16/09, Bunratty Castle Hotel
Our last day in Ireland. Although we had a great hotel room, this was the most manufactured, tourist trap portion of the vacation. Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is a recreation of 19th century Ireland, with a village and townspeople acting the part. It's sort of like Plimoth Plantation. The saving grace was when we stopped at a pub because my husband wanted to make sure that our son visited his first Irish pub.
I bought a bookmark with a lucky shamrock and the following Irish blessing.
May you live as long as you want,
And never want as long as you live.
In the state of Gujarat (the home state of my parents), Sheero is a sweet food (called prasad) that is offered to the deities and then distributed among the guests at the end of many religious ceremonies. I remember going to these ceremonies (or pujas) when I was younger and enjoying the taste of it at the end of another long, unintelligible Hindu ceremony. It was a reward for sitting through an Indian function that I probably did not want to attend in the first place.
Sheero does not have the religious connotations for me anymore, but rather it has become my comfort food. The tasty treat reminds me of the admirable woman that my mom is. After my son was born, my mom came to stay with us and helped me with my son and with household chores for several months. I would not have survived without her. During this time, she made sheero for me every week because it is one of my favorites. I am grateful for the family recipes and traditions that my mom has passed down to me.
Sheero is soft, fluffy, and rich and made of roasted cream of wheat mixed with milk, butter, sugar, cardamom, and almonds. Many people add raisins and you can add fruits such as banana, grapes, apples and pineapple to give it a sweet and fruity flavor. I love my mom's simple recipe the best, of course. My mom has learned over the years to exclude raisins from almost everything if she expects me to eat it. I like raisins on their own but for some reason, I don't like them mixed into my food.
Sheero Recipe
Ingredients :
1 cup Ravo or Sooji from the Indian store --> substitute cream of wheat from supermarket
one stick unsalted butter --> my mom uses 1/2 cup of ghee
4 cups hot low-fat milk --> my mom uses whole milk and others use water
a little less than 1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1 teaspoon saffron
Preparation :
Place non-stick pot over medium heat and melt the butter.
Pour one cup ravo/sooji/cream of wheat and stir continuously for about 12 minutes, or until the mixture becomes slightly pinkish-beige in color.
Add hot milk (pre-heat in microwave) and stir. The mixture may bubble so keep your body turned away from the pot. Stir until the milk is absorbed.
Add sugar and keep stirring. Do not let the mixture stick to the bottom of the pot.
By now, the sheero will be soft and fluffy. Add cardamom powder, chopped almonds, and saffron and stir.
Turn off the stove and keep the pot covered for about 5 minutes.
Lots of excitement to report from the past month...
In addition to looking more like me and less like the exact replica of my husband, the little one experienced some firsts in the last month. On September 28th, he had his 3rd round of vaccinations and a general flu shot. He dropped in all of the comparable metrics - 31st percentile in length, 4th percentile in head size, and 4th percentile in weight.
First Step - Just past the 7 month mark, he learned to take a few steps after standing up. His motivation involves moving around so he can grab something on the sofa. Now that it has become automatic that he will stand up, he is tentatively moving around objects by coordinating his feet. I hesitate to call it cruising because its only been a few steps here and there.Also, my dad did see him briefly stand without holding onto anything. He fell within seconds but that was a first, also. First Fever - Over Labor Day Weekend, he had his first fever - almost 103 degrees.On that Sunday, he was crying almost all day long, which made the whole experience heartbreaking. We kept him on a steady diet of Tylenol and Motrin, which helped the fever break and bring on sleep. A few days after the high temps went away, he developed an awful cough followed by a stuffy nose and then runny nose. It took a week and a half for him to recover. He lost much of his appetite during that time and barely ate. We had his pediatrician checkup a couple of weeks later and he was down to the 4th percentile of weight (down from 9th).
First Haircut - On October 3rd, we held a ceremony for his first haircut. This was a tradition from my husband's side of the family and about 30 people came to the party. The little one was quite disturbed by the crowd in such a small space and was crying upon entering the house. He didn't settle down much as anything would set him off into a fit, especially a relative approaching him. It was too bad because he is normally a very happy, smiley baby and most of the people there did not get to see that. It has been in the last few weeks that the little one has developed separation anxiety and awareness of the people around him. He is fine in a small setting, but larger groups are scary to him.
First, there was a ceremony in which they set out books, pens/pencils, cash/gold, and fruit. The little one had to crawl to and pick one of those choices to determine his fate. Books meant he would be scholarly, pens/pencils meant he would be a writer, cash/gold meant he would be well off, and fruits signified a fruitful life. He started crawling to the stack of books when he saw the folded money in front of him. He crawled straight to the cash and was about to reach out when the crowd roared and applauded in unison. He stopped to look at the wall of people and then looked back to my husband and me and started bawling. I don't blame him. I said he got close enough to the cash and we could move on to the other ceremony after I calmed him down.
Next, we had the ceremonial first cut. My brother took a few snips of his hair so that my husband's family could take the strands to the temple later to be blessed. The little one cried throughout this part of the day. I was happy when everything was over and the crowd dispersed to the different rooms and outside.The little one was much happier outside playing on the trampoline with his cousin and crawling in the grass.
First Tooth - His first tooth is emerging from the bottom front of his gums. I felt it with my finger and saw it yesterday. I think it's developed in the last week, though, as I felt something when he was breastfeeding. There is no mistakening the sharpness. He has been drooling and putting everything into his mouth for a while so I am relieved to finally see a tooth popping out. The bottom front gums are swelling as are the top front now.
Upcoming First Flight -On Saturday,we leave for Ireland, which will be his first flight and first international vacation. We're excited and nervous and fearful. Hopefully, it will go well and his teething won't be too unbearable during the time. I have lists detailing everything I need to pack, including baby food, Orajel, feeding utensils, diapers, wipes, clothes, bibs, toys, etc. For someone who packs light, this will be a new adventure for me, too. Photos to come...
