Month: October 2015

This post is a little random but I have some thoughts about what to carry while you’re out and about.

Traditionally, I carry a large handbag or backpack when we are out sightseeing. It holds my (large) wallet, the camera, a guidebook, maybe a water bottle, sometimes a sweater. It’s convenient in case we make a couple of purchases while we’re out, because they could be tossed in the bag, too.

Back when the kids were little and we had one in a stroller, we would stow that backpack under the stroller and our hands and back were free. I think I just never backed away from the large bag even though I certainly didn’t have diapers to carry around!

A couple of weeks ago in Barcelona, though, I left the big bag in the hotel room, and carried a tiny cross-body bag along with my camera. Inside my bag I put a few essentials and my Moleskin (more on that in a sec). It was awesome! My hands were free, my camera was always ready, and my shoulders were never tired.

I highly, highly recommend trying this on your next trip. I loved not having a huge bag full of things I didn’t even need. In a city, if you decide you need water or a quick snack, you can always duck in somewhere and buy something. I’ve decided that we just don’t need to be prepared for every single thing that could happen. The difference I felt in just carrying my camera, and wearing my tiny bag, was amazing. I was just so much less tired at the end of the day. Plus, many of those cross-body bags are really cute.

So here’s exactly what I needed to carry with me. I recommend all of it:

• Money of some sort–credit cards and a tiny bit of cash work well.
• Some form of ID–I am always surprised how often I’m asked to show my ID when I use my credit card.
• Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm–no need for a mirror, but a quick pick-me-up.
• Phone–I hope I don’t need to explain this one.
• Moleskine and a pen–This needs more explanation.

In my everyday life, I always have one of these little Moleskine notebooks with me. I jot lists, notes, anything I need to remember, on a day-to-day basis. When we go on vacation, I just pop it in my bag. I make notes every day of what we did, a place we ate, the weather…anything that helps me remember our trip later on. I’ll slide business cards from our restaurants inside so I can write TripAdvisor reviews later. And they even come in handy for games of tic-tac-toe or dots, or for scoring our card games. I love Moleskines because they are flat (no spiral binding) and they are sturdy. This is just an indispensable item for travel and for life.

If you MUST carry a backpack with a few more things, share the load. Make it the “family” bag and pass it around so everyone has to carry it. Mom (and Dad) aren’t the sherpas and this is a great opportunity to share carry the burden!

You, Mom. Yes. YOU.

Of all the ways to remember our trips, photos have always been the best way to preserve those memories. And I am in almost none of them.

My number one photography tip is to make sure that the photographer gets in front of the camera a little bit every single day. In my family, I’m the shutterbug. That means that I have tons of shots of things that I’m interested in, and of course tons of shots of my family. But they have almost none of me. And now, years later, I wish we had more.

It doesn’t matter if you feel ugly or fat. First of all, you aren’t, and second of all, ten-years-older-you will just be glad to have the pictures. I have a feeling she will be a lot kinder to you than you are right now, too. And if Dad is the photographer in your family, take the camera out of his hands once in a while. I promise, PROMISE, the day will come when you will be so grateful for those shots.

Good equipment makes a difference, but it just depends on what you are most interested in. I love the artistry in learning to take photographs, so I’ve invested in a decent DSLR and very good lenses over the years. (Be warned! This is a never-ending spiral!) Plenty of people are happy with their iPhone shots, too. But use that equipment. Don’t let it languish in your pocket or over your shoulder.

Take a class! You’ll be surprised at how a very little bit of effort can yield much better pictures. I’ve never taken a class in person, but I’ve taken Karen’s class on-line. I can’t say enough good things about it. You can even find classes on Craftsy, and those classes are entirely on your own schedule.

Take pictures of the really mundane things. Food, restaurants, where you stay, the funny car you rented…I forget to take pictures of these, but they are so much fun to have in later years.

Take pictures of faces! I’m bad about getting pictures from too far away. Aim for a mix of close-ups and landscapes. Don’t underestimate the selfie.

Finally, don’t freak out that you don’t produce a beautiful scrapbook or photobook immediately upon returning home. We went to London in the summer of 2014, and I have just started putting that photobook together on Shutterfly. It has brought me so much joy to go through those pictures and remember all the fun things we did, the great food, the beautiful sights. All of the bad parts of that vacation have receded and what is left are the very best parts of our English adventure. I feel like I’m reliving a wonderful vacation–merely looking through the book won’t give me that.

Enjoy the process. These memories are worth preserving.

I love that the French word for remember is “souvenir.” That’s exactly how I feel about the things we’ve bought in our travels.

After a lot of junk purchases, I’ve discovered a couple of basic ideas for buying souvenirs while we’re gone. That apron I’m wearing in that picture is one of my favorite purchases, and I think of Windsor Castle every time I put it on. Plus, it is super-useful and just a great apron.

After bringing home, and then tossing out, more junk than I’d like to admit, here’s what I think about souvenirs.

• Create a collection. For many years, if we were somewhere where I could buy handmade pottery, I would buy a pitcher. Honestly, I had to stop because I just don’t need that many pitchers! Having too many things just sitting around is annoying to me. My husband insists–INSISTS–on a coffee cup from every single place we go. I finally had to get him to move his collection to his office at work. He is now legendary for this huge collection. I’m just glad I don’t have to use cabinet space for it!
• Buy big. In Belize, I bought a beautiful wooden tray, small enough to fit in my carry-on bag. That’s the problem with it–it’s too small! On the other hand, on our last visit to Vermont I bought a large maple bread bowl. It was gorgeous but required my repacking our entire suitcase. It was so worthwhile! I love that bread bowl, look at it almost every day and have great memories of four summer vacations in a wonderful place.
• Ship home. In Tuscany this summer we found a lovely pottery place that would ship home for a reasonable fee. Yes, I bought a pitcher–how could I resist? And several other pieces, including an olive oil bottle that I use for dish soap. Every time I reach for the soap I have a tiny bit of Greve-in-Chianti. We’ve also shipped some items home from Montana when we decided to create a little bit of the West in our basement.
• Don’t forget edible. We’ve brought home wine, olive oil, cheese, maple syrup, corn meal…the hardest part is deciding to go ahead and enjoy it and not to save it too long.
• Buy cheesy but useful. All these other items are great, but my very favorite thing to buy–dishcloths!! You can find them everywhere, and who doesn’t need a new one, or three? Every time I reach into my drawer for a clean towel, I hope for one of my vacation towels. It seems like a lot of these towels are maps, from the Paris Metro to Chianti to West London. It never fails to make me happy to use one of these. And my kids notice, too. Best of all, they are pretty easy to find, and cheap. I also buy other kitchen items, but kitchen towels are just the best. Treat yourself next time, and see if I’m not right!

And for the kids, it is easy to drop a lot of money on junk before you even realize it. This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy! But here are just a couple of my thoughts about this:

• Buy good shirts, rather than the cheapest. My kids wear sweatshirts for years. I started buying the good ones when we traveled, rather than buying a cheap one on vacation and then another Land’s End or L.L. Bean jacket. Same with good t-shirts–buy the cute one that will look good with an outfit.
• Help your child start a collection. This might be a fun way to  cultivate an interest. My girls have silver charms from most of our destinations that they put on a charm bracelet. It is fun to decide on each trip what the best symbol from that destination might be.
• Buy a little junk. Set a budget, but go ahead and let them get the craziest, ugliest, most ridiculous souvenirs they can find. And then be prepared for the agony when it breaks after you get home.

Souvenirs are one little way to keep some of your vacation joy present in your life. Don’t miss out on a fun way to remember your vacation in the midst of your daily routine. Have fun!

 

Even on vacation, life happens. We’ve had bickering, exhaustion, stitches, broken bones, and IVs while away from home. How do you keep the bad things from taking over your vacation?

Plan, but don’t cast those plans in stone.

The name of my blog is “Holding Butterflies” because that is how I feel raising my kids–I hold them, but not so tight that I damage them, and not so loose that they don’t know I’ve got them. Hold your plans the same way. How many times have you had to cancel a playdate because of a cold or just not feeling good? Life happens on vacation, too.

Make sure you’ve planned adequate down time.

I don’t know about your kids, but mine don’t get along perfectly 24/7. Somehow, though, I always feel like they should get along extra-great while we’re out of town. Quiet or alone times probably happen at home while you aren’t really paying attention. On the road we have to be a lot more intentional about building that time into our days. There is a huge–enormous–temptation to use every single second while we are gone. Take it from me:  don’t do that. Even injuries seem to happen more when everyone is tired. Consider this the vacation equivalent of a vaccine.

Get adequate insurance before you go.

If you’re traveling domestically, this is not a huge issue. But if you leave the U.S., check with your credit card to see if you have coverage while you are gone. One coverage you likely won’t have concerns transportation, should you get injured, from your destination back home. This comes to mind because we have a dear friend who was severely injured in a traffic accident out of the country. He did not have this protection, and merely getting him home to undergo several operations was harrowing. You WON’T need this, but if you do…

Adjust as needed.

On our cruise, I got severely ill. I suspect now it was an e. Coli infection, and I spent one entire day in the ship infirmary hooked up to an IV. (To be clear, I got sick while we were in port, not from ship food.) When we docked, I was released on the condition I head to the hospital. I got better quickly but was still incredibly weak. We could have let that day color the rest of our vacation, as we were set to spend a few days around Seattle and Mt. St. Helens. Instead, Bill took the kids out while I rested one day at the hotel. The next day was an easy day, mostly in the car, so I was able to pick back up and hang out. I didn’t hike around the volcano as much as I wanted, but I was there taking pictures and getting lots of rest in the car.

Look on the bright side.

A couple of years ago, we were taking our first pass down a green slope at Big Sky, just getting warmed up for the week. It was an easy slope, deceptively easy. Jack caught the edge of his board on the slope, flipping heels over head and tumbling down the slope. He left a bloody trail (sorry), and the fall even took his helmet off. Ski Patrol was called, and he got a free trip down the mountain. That was the end of his board day, but a quick check from the doctors told us that he just needed a bit of rest. He and I headed back home and settled into the couch for an afternoon of hot chocolate and Spiderman. I honestly can’t think of another day before or since that just the two of us had an afternoon to hang out together. I wouldn’t have chosen it (him neither) but since he wasn’t hurt, it really was a special day.

I hope you never, ever have to deal with any of these things while you’re on vacation. But we’ve had a much easier time learning to roll with the bad things so they don’t take over our vacations. What’s the worst thing you’ve ever had to deal with on vacation?

The Louvre. The British Museum. The Smithsonian. Huge names. Huge museums.

Sometimes, they really are too much. And it’s easy for them to dominate your attention. But today I want to encourage you to look for the little museums in your travels.

When I pay to go somewhere, it’s easy for me to feel like I’ve obligated us to look at Every. Last. Thing. And then, before we’ve realized it, we are spending all our time in dimly lit halls, peering at who-knows-what.

I’ve learned to look for the small museums for get our “fix” for the vacation. As a bonus, it’s far easier to get my crew to agree to an hour or two in a museum rather than a very daunting “Let’s spend the day!” On the way, we’ve learned that the out-of-the-way museums can offer experiences that the big guys can’t compete with.

Off-beat topics: One favorite is the Sandwich Glass Museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts. We almost drove right past it, and what a loss that would have been. The kids got to blow glass themselves, and we got an up-close look at the whaling industry and life on Cape Cod through a nearly-extinct industry. The size of the museum meant it only took about an hour, maybe slightly more, but the docents were so enthusiastic about their subject you couldn’t help but get interested.

Odd locations: How about under the streets of Paris? We explored the catacombs of Paris with the kids, complete with ossuaries and chapels. A larger museum couldn’t have accommodated the creep factor we had in that place!

Singular focus: While the kids haven’t been to this one, Bill and I love the Picasso museum in Barcelona. The emphasis is on Picasso’s training and painting process, and you can tackle the whole thing in about 90 minutes. It’s a great introduction to his art. The Rodin museum in Paris is similar in its narrow focus and small size. Most of these small museums have to limit their collection to only one or two big ideas, which makes their exhibits easy to grasp and remember.

A regional approach: My favorite aquarium is lovely Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, which we prefer even over the local, and world-famous, Georgia Aquarium. Chattanooga’s offers a real focus on the waters of the Southeast in a way that you can cover in a couple of hours. It’s thoughtfully arranged to guide you through their various exhibits. It doesn’t try to impress you by being the biggest or the showiest. It just presents what it knows and loves, and does it very well, giving us tons of local flavor. (ha, not fish flavor!)

Star treatment: Small museums typically have just a couple of super-star items, where a huge museum might have stack after stack of mummies or Monets. The Michael C. Carlos Museum has a wonderful antiquities collection and is one of my local favorites. They have about eight or so mummies, and each one is treated like a star. In larger museums these remains of less-famous people might rate barely a glance, but here they get top billing. And we get a chance to see these antiquities without huge lines, up close and personal.

Another way to break a bigger museum down is to just take a look at one or two special exhibits. The girls and I did this at the Victoria and Albert in London. The V&A specializes in the decorative arts (my favorite) but we decided to only attend the special wedding dress exhibit they had going on. It was really beyond wonderful, and even my non-fashionistas loved it. We had decided up front that we really weren’t going to look at anything else that day, and we ended up creating our very own small museum inside the quite large V&A. I’m not sure I would have had the heart to do this at the Louvre, but this would be a great approach to take at the Smithsonian!

There are so many more museums I could list, but I’d love to hear about your favorite small museum.

I know, it sounds crazy, over-the-top extravagant. But let me tell you about our experiences hiring a private guide.

In 2014 we took a trip to London during the summer high season. We expected crowded sites to be overwhelming, so to help us plan our trip we hired the completely delightful Henrietta Ferguson for a few days in the city. The first morning she met us at our house. I loved her immediately when she asked if she could just “pop in” and take a look at our Victorian townhome. She had our day’s itinerary worked out to introduce us to London on the first day, and then to see the major sites in a way that would hopefully be efficient on the rest of the days.

We began our day at the Churchill War Rooms and continued to Westminster. As we were making our way to another museum, the insanely huge London Gay Pride parade and a lot of rain got in our way. Henrietta had seen in Westminster that we had a basic but incomplete knowledge of English history. So she changed up the plans and ducked into the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery is arranged in historical order, so Henrietta was able to give us an history of England by going from face to face. It was an amazing way to get our historical bearings for the rest of the trip. Brilliant.

The next day Henrietta met us very early. We were going to the Tower of London and needed to beat the big groups. As we neared the Tower we could see groups massing on its flank. She tossed a “Let’s run for it!” over her shoulder and broke into a sprint. We trailed behind her, passing group after large group, and managed to get to the group entry point before the most massive groups. By using a tour guide, we could bypass the “individual” ticket line, and by using a private guide she was able to maneuver us around the big groups. We were able to walk right in to see the Tower Jewels–no line! By the time we got out the line wrapped completely around the turnstiles. Brilliant!

Henrietta was already booked for another portion of our trip, so a colleague of hers took us to Bath and Cambridge. David introduced us to the most charming town we have ever been to. Paige talks about it even today as the place she would most like to live. (I hesitate to name it because it is so cute!) We enjoyed a perfect pub lunch that day under a lovely blue sky. While David wasn’t responsible for the sky, he gets full marks for the pub. We have had incredible results eating with our private guides–not the only reason to hire them, but a definite bonus.

London was our first experience with private guides. We also hired guides this summer in Rome and Florence, and would still highly recommend the experience.  As a matter of fact, we “worked our network” and used recommendations from Henrietta to find our amazing Roman guide Giancarlo. He may have been our kids’ favorite guide ever.

Most of our guides were very successful for us because they were good matches for our family. Here’s what I think you should consider when hiring one:

• What are you most interested in? A particular site? Or just getting the overall flavor of the place? Maybe you are very interested in art, or have absolutely no interest in history. Make sure you tell your guide up front.
• Ask for references. Some people are wonderful guides, but you want guides who have experience with children. Especially on a hot day, a patient guide needs to understand the need for frequent gelato (or bathroom) stops.
• How much can you realistically fit into your tour? Here, you need to trust your guide. Be up front about how much or little you like museums. Henrietta saw right away that we like to linger in museums, so quickly into our tour she explained how she was changing our itinerary and why. We ended up see fewer things in London with her, but I don’t think any of us would change our experience.

Do you have a favorite guide story? Or does hiring a guide make you nervous? Share your thoughts!

 

We’ve stayed in hotels, houses, apartments…even a houseboat! I think that the kind of place you stay really effects how you feel about the vacation.

Hotels

I think this is the default vacation lodging choice. There are six of us and my husband does NOT like to be packed in, so fairly quickly we started getting at least two rooms when we travel. And yes, we put all the kids in one room while we stayed in the other. When they were especially small we went with suites or hotels like a Residence Inn. The kitchen there was a lot less important than having room for my early bird sleepers to go to sleep while my husband and I enjoyed staying up, watching a little television (we’ve never had a TV in the bedroom so this is a treat for us!), even enjoying room service.

We like hotels when we know we are going to be out a lot during the day, spending time together virtually all day long. I’m pretty realistic about all of our need to be alone at times on the vacation. Staying realistic about these needs is one of the ideas that keeps us from melting down over too much together time!

A close cousin to hotels are small inns and B&Bs. We didn’t try these until the kids were older, and I’m glad. It seems like noise travels a little easier in places like this, especially older buildings, and it is really hard to for me to relax when I was worried that my kids were bothering other people.

Apartments

While we haven’t tried AirBnB yet, we have rented apartments. The advantage over hotels is that you have a living room–together time! We love apartments in cities. One of my favorite memories is renting a lovely apartment in Paris when we were there for Bill’s work. Having a kitchen allowed us to take advantage of the markets and eat at home, on our own schedule. We also had laundry facilities and separate bedrooms. I’ve always loved having a table to gather around, and I love not having to eat every single meal in a restaurant!

Houses

This is one of our favorite ways to stay now when we are in the country somewhere. A house gives you a yard or garden, sometimes a pool, and tons of room inside and outside to spread out. Kitchens are typically well equipped. We tend to enjoy the isolation of a house compared to a condo, too. In particular, houses are great where there is a lot of “gear,” whether at the beach or ski slope.  Here’s some insight into the way we go:  we usually rent a house when we ski, but last year we got a condo. The difference was remarkable–I think we are messy because it was really hard for us to put all of our gear away in the little hall closet every night. We prefer to just spread it all out and be kind of messy. So we have already reserved a house again for this year.

The other advantage of houses and apartments is that you get a better feeling of being native, even if only for a week. We rented a house in Tuscany this summer, and we all felt like the villa was our “home” in a completely different way than our Roman hotel felt like “home base.” Somehow a house lets the place get into your bones, and that is one of the feelings I’m after when we travel together.

Other ideas

We stayed in a houseboat in Boston Harbor, which has led to lots of discussions about what we don’t like! It was…interesting, but we aren’t going to do that again. We’ve stayed in treehouses in Belize, too, which were amazing, but so far from each other (we had to have two because there were so many of us) that it was hard to get lots of family time there. We hung out on the beach instead. We’ve never stayed in tents and we’ve never rented an RV, which are both very high on my list to try out! I’m hoping we’ll get to stay on a small boat, too, as opposed to a moored houseboat or a cruise ship.

The point is that now I choose that kind of place that we stay in an intentional way. If I have several days and want to feel native, I’m going to look for an apartment or house. If I know we are playing hard at the beach or slope, with lots of gear, we are going to want a place to rest together–again, a house. When we are away for an event or if we know that we are in for lots of sightseeing, I don’t mind using a hotel. That lets us focus on the world outside our hotel, and we aren’t really tempted to just hang out inside.

What’s your favorite place you’ve ever stayed? What’s the strangest KIND of place you’ve ever laid your head?

In all our vacations, we’ve used travel agents rarely. But when we have used them, they’ve been incredibly helpful. I wanted to take one post to highlight the specific circumstances to use them in.

• Cruises: A few years back we decided to go to Alaska and try a cruise. It seems to me that this is where a well-connected travel agent excels. Cruise options are vast and our agent was able to narrow the choices for us much more quickly than we could have on our own. Our agent helped us pick a family-friendly (but not kid-centric) cruise that was within our available dates. We enjoyed this particular cruise even though we decided that cruises are probably not the best thing for our family in most cases. If we decided to cruise again, I would absolutely call an agent!
• A huge group: Well, maybe not huge, but big. Last year I had to plan a fiftieth anniversary trip for my parents, with all thirteen of my family. For various reasons we had a tight deadline and also many constraints on types of lodging. Our agent came through, helping me plan a trip to Costa Rica that was truly a trip to remember with my parents, my family and my sister’s family.
• The agent’s specialized knowledge:  My husband used an island specialist to plan our honeymoon in the Caribbean. We loved out-of-the-way destinations, even then, and he contacted an agent who specialized in the islands. She planned a gorgeous get-away for us on Montserrat, complete with dinner recommendations. Most importantly, she recommended trip cancellation insurance–which we needed!! The island of Montserrat had a volcanic explosion two weeks before our wedding, leaving our private house under six inches of ash. Our agent was able to rebook a new honeymoon on Nevis for us and didn’t even miss a beat. She knew we would be covered by the insurance so our bills were covered. Had Bill not used an agent for that trip, I think we would have honeymooned in Atlanta.

Have you used an agent? What are your thoughts about them? Please share!

Let’s talk about a subject particularly near and dear to my heart right now: jet lag. Depending on where you go, this is either a little issue or a huge one. Here are a few hints for dealing with it:

• Put yourself on the local meal schedule as quickly as possible. Even if you arrive in California from the East Coast at lunch time, and find yourself not hungry, go sit down at a table and have an appetizer. Meals are crucial in resetting your body clock.
• Sleep on the plane with an eye to your arrival schedule. For instance, flights to Europe from the US East Coast are typically overnight. On the return, you leave and arrive mid-day. We’ve found that sleeping on the way over, but staying awake on the way back, is the best way to deal with the initial jet lag. To the West Coast, we usually nap a bit, knowing that the first night is going to feel like a late one no matter what.
• Get as much sunshine as possible on the arrival day and the next. Plan your museum or theater days for later in the vacation. Take a walk, too, as the exercise will really help your head. Pool time, if the weather permits, is awesome for the kids. Otherwise go find a park and let them run around for a while. If you plan for this in your schedule then it won’t seem like you are “wasting” time. As a matter of fact, local parks are great for “going native” and really getting to know your destination.
• Decide ahead of time when naptime will be for your nappers, and do your darnedest to stick to it. Yes, they will nod off. Yes, they will be a little cranky. This is the time to indulge in a special snack or take an extra turn on the swing.
• Know that the second day is the worst. The first day you will be cocky, think you “have this licked.” And then day two will kick your fanny. Plan for it, stick to the meal and nap schedule, and by day three you will be getting back to normal. (I’m currently dealing with day two fog on my return home. It’s awful, but I know a good night tonight will help a lot.)
• Give yourself a couple of extra hours to sleep on that first and second night. Just in case. And when you wake up in the middle of the night, do everything you can not to turn the ipad on! A reading light and book will interfere with your sleep a lot less. Also, set an alarm just in case you sleep through breakfast time. Your goal is to get to local meal time.
• Know your limits. If you absolutely need eight hours every night, then go to bed in plenty of time to get your hours in. Plan ahead for waking up in the middle of the night.
• Don’t stress. Caffeine early in the day is your friend.

Here’s to hoping I sleep really hard tonight! I’d love to hear any tips you’ve found helpful in dealing with this travel menace.

I just returned from four days in Barcelona, Spain, with these lovely people. With virtually no internet connectivity, I missed posting yesterday and the day before. (Sorry!) I still have some things to say about logistics, but this trip is so fresh on my mind that I’m going to share just a little thought tonight.

Background:  this was a work trip for Bill and some of his executives, the European trade show. All the wives but one (happily, eight months pregnant, but also sad because she couldn’t travel) tagged along, and we arrived a couple of days before the show for sight-seeing and fun. Completely unrelated to travel, we couldn’t have planned a better team-building exercise.

Barcelona is an utterly charming city. I’d been there before but had kind of forgotten how completely lovely she is. We were able to have so much more fun by doing this one thing:

We adopted the local customs of rising, meals and bedtime.

We rose late, by American standards, eating breakfast from 9:30-10:30. We would visit a cathedral or take a tour, and not have lunch until 1:30, 2 or even 3 p.m. We might duck in somewhere for a light snack around 6 p.m., but dinner was never before 8:30, and one night our reservations were for 10!  This meant strolling home on crowded streets at midnight or even later.

We didn’t “fight” with the local routines that mean closed restaurants at noon and we enjoyed being part of the lively chatter in restaurants that were open so much later than at home. And by being out late we even hopped into a club on the beach for some dancing–shoulder to shoulder with happy locals. If I had stuck to my usual time for dinner, I would have been in bed long before that dance party had even started. That would have been such a miss!

Of course this was a bunch of adults, but you might be surprised that not everyone, even in our little group, found this to be easy. But we were all glad we had tried it. I’ve had similar experiences with my kids, too, and discovered (among other things) the power of a well-timed granola bar.

I’m still deep into jet lag so I’m going to call it a day on this post. I’d love to hear how you have succeeded when you’ve taken on the native customs–or have you ever resisted it and had it turn out horribly?!