Travel?

So. Joel Andrew is banned from skiing the remainder of the season.  Naturally, that made me think that we need to go away someplace awesome for February break.  We will not be sitting in a ski condo feeling sad and sorry, we will travel.  I married a person who will ensure we are going to go to ski condos, or snorkel, or scuba all over the place.  But have a brief moment in history where a child is relegated to only being able to eat, walk and sightsee? I must take advantage of this and off we must go.

First off, I recognize how incredibly privileged this all sounds.  I am sorry.  Nonetheless here we go.  I have this opportunity and we decided, let's just go for it, let's just do something awesome.  That means... It better be awesome.  I do not want to turn around in March and think, wow... We spent a ton of money, for something ok or sorta cool.  If we are going for it, we are going to go for it. We can stay home and certainly have a good time.  We can go to maine and have a good time.  If we are going to take a 3 and 5 year old with an injury on a plane for 8+ hours and then spend thousands of dollars, we all better have a freaking awesome time.  

Also, this does not mean it needs to be picturesque from start to finish.  It will not be perfect.  Traveling is an adventure and teaches you more and ages you more and grows you more than anything.  It isn't always pretty, but in the end, it can be awesome.  Awesome means you completely were absorbed into a new world.  You didn't plan every second and walked around and let yourself enjoy lots of new things.  You were totally stressed about something, worrying about the train or whatever, and something awesome and funny happened and everyone laughed.  Awesome is deciding every day you will stop at the same ice cream place to get another scoop.  Or, sitting in front of a painting making up stories for 40 minutes, or watching your kids for the first time realize people speak in other languages.  Or, that ketchup tastes totally different in other countries.

I have always wanted to take my kids traveling, I have always wanted to travel. I travelled to three different countries for month or semester long visits while I was in college,  this is the thing I miss the most.  I lived in Italy, went to a train station and just hopped on the next train that left and went to that city.  Me.  I miss that.  Time to recreate it.  If you can't bond on a train in Europe, you can't bond anywhere.

But the truth of the matter is, do you want to bond with your 3 year old? I do.  But I'm not sure Europe is necessary at this point.  I do want to instill a travel bug into my kids, and I want to start the first of many trips to new countries and cultures.  My parents took me to Paris when I was 12, and as I like to tell many people  - it was too late, and I totally owe them a trip to Paris by the way.  But by then it was all disney, all english, all the time.  Put me in Paris, and I am 12 and it is the summer, and no one speaks English and the food is just weird. Museums are boring.  I know, the irony is lost on me now.  And, I am not whining (am I?) that they took me too late, should have taken me earlier... Or that they took me at all.  Wait, what am I whining about? Hopefully I am not setting up a karmic retribution for taking my future children to foreign lands.  I guess I just hope that if they do it when they are young, they will get it and not think it is weird, different or strange.  Imagine that, raising kids who love to travel? I would love that...

So, in that vein. Here we are.  I need to take advantage of my one chance.  This maybe it.  Vacation time is precious and it needs to be an awesome mix of the kids having a good time, the adults having a great time, and Joel Andrew not feeling like he can't take part.  So here are the rules.

If you could pick anywhere in the world, that was different and fun, that you could go to, where would it be?  You need to remember:

- you are traveling with a 3 and 5 year old.  They will eat random food, but let's not push it.

- it's for 10 days max.  And a 3 and 5 year old might not make a longer than 10 hour flight.

- ideally said country(ies) would have food that can be considered "normal" to a 5 yo.  That means, the cuisine features your basic 3, cheese, meat and bread - in a not too overly spiced form (sorry India).  

- if a parent went there before, it is a plus.

- train rides would be a good mode of travel once we get there.  

- we need american hotels with these two.

- sightseeing and walking, not activity is the main thing to do there.  

- it would also be cool, though totally counterproductive to an earlier point, if it was a new place for mommy.  Life is short. If you had this opportunity, wouldn't it be neat to try something totally new? However, perhaps I might need to take one for the team here and we should try something tried and true for mommy so at least one person knows whats going on.

Alas, this is where we are.  We went today from thinking Italy, France, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Peru, and now back to Italy.  Anthony Bourdain is on in the background.  And my husband and I stood, for a good five minutes (before he ruined it, but I won't go there) in front of a map of the world actively and realistically debating where we could go.  It was an awesome night.

So, here's hoping we go someplace epic.  Someplace incredible.  Someplace where the boys love it, go nuts, and have a great time.  We shall see.