Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Vacation...

So…we are back from our trip to Chicago and the first thing I have to say is BOO to United Airlines. No snacks, you get charged $15.00 for the first piece of checked luggage and $25.00 for the next one, and there is NO PRE-BOARDING FOR FAMILIES WITH SMALL CHILDREN! What is this world coming to? I mean seriously, no pre-boarding? I am calling on you all to boycott United! Write letters of complaint to your senator! This is a travesty for all new parents who one day hoped to board before everyone else!

Lucky for us our son was an angel when it came to traveling…and we did plenty of it. Out of Seattle on Thursday at 1:30 PM: 4 hour flight to Chicago + dinner with family + drive from Chicago to the suburbs = bedtime at 1 a.m. Up on Friday morning at 4:15 AM, left the house at 5:00 and drove 7+ hours to Wisconsin! Spent a fun three days in Wisconsin with Katie’s family and then drove another 7+ hours back to the suburbs on Tuesday. One day of rest (Wednesday) and then another 4 hour flight back to Seattle on Thursday. 22 hours of travel with a six month old child and maybe 30 minutes of crying. He got a little fussy on the flight ride home but overall did an AMAZING job! Of course because of all this he has a rash on his back and bottom (likely from sitting in a car-seat for way to long) and went from waking up maybe once a night to 2-3 times a night.

This brings me to another thought, when was the last time you took a vacation that you didn’t return feeling more exhausted than when you left? I have done some serious thinking about this, and I am not entirely sure that I have ever experienced a vacation like that. Do such things exist? The closest I can think of coming to that was when my wife and I flew to Bali for Christmas vacation while we were living in Indonesia. We had some flex time before and after our trip and we didn’t kill ourselves trying to do everything we could think of. Plus, we got to eat real American food. More typical would be something like our trip to Vancouver BC a year or so after we got married. Long weekend, 3+ hour drive, allot of walking, even more walking because our car got towed and I refused to take mass transit to the tow lot because I was not going to contribute any more money to the city of Vancouver, 3+ hour drive back. There were bright spots (aquarium, hotel on the water, beautiful wife) but overall, I got back and needed a vacation to recover from my vacation. Now that kids are in the picture, I am not sure that a “relaxing” vacation will ever be tenable again.