Socal Mom

"Ten on Tuesday": Places to Travel

Each week, my friend Florinda publishes a kind of top 10 list. This week, her theme is "10 Places You'd Love to Travel To (That You Haven't Gone to Yet)." And I thought it would be fun to participate, as I spent much of yesterday's post lamenting the fact that I haven't done any travel blogging recently (and am not likely to, given the current economic climate).

So here are my Top 10 (in no particular order):

1. Havana, Cuba. I actually HAVE been here, but as I was an infant at the time, I don't think it counts. It is the city where my mother was born and lived until she was 17. My grandfather is buried there. I still have relatives living there, although I do not know them (and am not likely to have a lot in common with them, as the only ones who stayed were true believers in the revolution). But I have heard so much about the city and the country since I was very young, and should travel restrictions be lifted, I would very much like to go there.

2. Istanbul, Turkey. Another genealogical destination. The grandparents who settled in Havana were born in Constantinople. They were Sephardic Jews, descended from those who were forced to leave Spain during the Inquisition. They lived peacefully there for four centuries, until the end of the Ottoman Empire.

3. Edinburgh, Scotland. In all my many visits to the United Kingdom since I met my British husband, I've seen remarkably little outside his home town of Cardiff, Wales. I have a long, long, list of towns and regions I would like to visit, but based upon the hub's description, I think Edinburgh belongs at the top of that list. Besides, if we go to Scotland, we might be able to indulge in the Scottish version of one of our favorite past times and do a little whiskey tasting.

4. Bordeaux, France. Yes, that favorite past time is wine tasting. This is something we've been able to indulge quite a bit here in California, but I would love to take that show on the road somewhere else. I keep reading about all these cool bicycle tours of the wine regions in France, and the romantic in me thinks that might be fun. (The lazy ass in me would probably die if I tried it, but this whole exercise is a fantasy anyway, so I can imagine having the stamina to do this!) Another benefit of going wine tasting in France would be that I would get to visit a city I HAVE been to and am dying to see again: Paris.

5. Yosemite. I should be ashamed of myself for being a California native who has never been to one of our state's most wondrous spots. The problem is, I am NOT the outdoorsy, camping type. I want to go, but only if I get to stay at the Ahwahnee Lodge.

6. Rome, Italy. Do I have to explain this choice? The history. The architecture. And yes, the food and the wine.

7. New Zealand's Marlborough region. One of my friends is married to an assistant director who worked on both Narnia movies, and the family spent an entire summer here while the first one was being shot. Their photos are spectacular, and yes, this is another wine making region.

8. Santiago, Chile. Oh hell. I may as well turn this into a top ten list of vineyards! Chile is also known for terrific wine. Also, my husband used to work with a woman who was from Santiago, and the photos of the countryside nestled below the Andes were gorgeous.

9. Washington, D.C. I've been to London. I've been to Paris. I've never been to the capital of my own nation. 'Nuff said.

10. Tokyo, Japan. I'm one of those people who loved "Lost in Translation." I want to experience the otherness of Japan, too.

Actually, I can think of lots more places I want to visit! I shall just have to redouble my efforts to win the lottery so I can take that 12-month, round-the-world cruise I dream of.

Momma Needs a Vacation

This space has been woefully short on travel posts the last year, which is sad for a blog whose original URL included the term "travelblog."

Travel is expensive, and lately, we've had to use our family resources to pay for other things.

So how could I say non to the folks from the French Tourism Board, who asked me to participate in a contest to help them promote the joys of Martinique?

Twenty-five travel bloggers have posted some of their funniest experiences on the French site. The blogger who gets the most votes wins a free one-week trip for two to the tropical vacation spot in the Caribbean.

The best part: All who vote for a travel post also become eligible to win their own one-week vacation in Martinique!

Please vote for me here -- even though, to be perfectly honest, my story isn't even close to being the best one on the site. The first draft was a lot more amusing before I cut it down to the requisite 800 word limit. Even then, it was rather tame, next to tales of spa days in Tajikistan and backpacking through Africa.

The truth is, we're not adventurous travelers. We rarely go anywhere that doesn't involve visiting our far-flung family, and we don't tend to put ourselves in situations that might be dangerous for ourselves or our child. So I really had to rack my brain for an incident that might qualify for an entry, and this is what I came up with.

So why should you vote for me and not one of the other, better qualified entrants?

Ummm...

Because a week in Martinique would be the honeymoon my husband and I never had.

Oh, we did go away for a week following our wedding (15 years ago next month). But it wasn't a traditional honeymoon.

You see, when my husband's parents and aunt and brother and his wife flew in to San Francisco to attend our wedding in the Sierra foothills, I could not envision kissing my new husband for the first time and saying to them, "See ya." They came 6,000 miles for our event, had never been to the United States before (and have never been able to get back). How could we then just go on our merry way without them?

We could not. So we borrowed a second car and toted my in-laws around so they could see the best of Northern Calfornia.

We didn't have a lot of money, but we did have sympathetic friends and family. A friend of my dad's lent us the use of his Lake Tahoe cabin for a few days. A friend in Sonoma hosted us while we moseyed around Wine Country. A cousin in Silicon Valley temporarily moved into his girlfriend's house so we could use his home as a Bay Area base.

It was a lot of fun and a vacation I (and my in-laws) will always remember.

But it wasn't a proper honeymoon.

Come to think of it, THIS is the story I should have given the French Tourism people for my entry.

OK. So if you liked THIS POST, please head over to the contest and vote for me.

And who knows? YOU could be the winner.

Winter Wonderland

This was the view outside our window this morning at the Hotel Park City, where we are staying with our friends, Tim and Debbie.

I've been looking forward to this trip in the middle of our family holiday. It's not that I don't love being with my family (because I DO) -- but it has been a while since my husband, daughter and I have been away from home WITHOUT family obligations. My husband and daughter have been looking forward to getting out on the slopes. And I've been looking forward to having some quiet time to myself while they're out there.

The only problem is that by the time I've been able to get away and come here, I've nothing to say. I could talk about our Christmas (nice and uneventful, thank you) or our flight over here (stressful due to weather-related delays), or how funny my husband and daughter are when they fight over what is appropriate to wear in sub-freezing temps (I don't have to fight about it -- you aren't going to find my out there!)... but I had too many margaritas in the Baja Cantina to think clearly... and am too relaxed after my spa pedicure to care.

Perhaps tomorrow, I'll be coherent enough to offer a good report on this lovely resort in the winter. In the meantime, here are some more photos:

Kidsick

I miss my baby.

Between her week at camp and her current visit with her grandparents, I feel like I haven't seen her in ages. True, we were together for the week inbetween when we stayed with my sister, but once my daughter hooks up with her cousins, they flit off into their own little play world, and I don't get my little girl back until we get her home. And that won't be until Sunday.

I had managed to keep myself busy -- until today. Not that I don't have plenty of things on my to do list.... I just can't work up the energy to tackle them. And it occurred to me that one reason I'm being so lethargic is that without my daughter around or the need to get her where she needs to be in the morning -- I don't have much reason to get out of bed.

It's like being homesick, except that I'm where I'm supposed to be, but it doesn't feel right because Megan isn't here with me. I seem to have forgotten how to function without her around, which is a little bit scary, because I did just fine for the first 40 years of my life.

Thank goodness my husband suggested I meet him for lunch today, or I would never have left the house. But now, lunch is over and I'm back here and looking at my list and not feeling like doing any of it. And at this point, I may just leave it be and deal with it tomorrow, when all the items are more urgent.

In a way, my sister is feeling more kidsick than I am. She called to tell me about it this morning.

"How would you like a free three-week trip to Europe?" she asked.

My 19-year-old niece -- who is on a three-week study course in Rome -- is still nursing a broken finger and missing her luggage (lost somewhere between Heathrow and Italy). That would be bad enough, but apparently, her traveling companion is behaving like a spoiled brat about it all. (Her luggage was also lost, but at least, she doesn't have to deal with any broken bones.) She's threatening to go home when the UCLA course is done -- which means that my niece won't have anyone to accompany her on the 3.5 week EuroRail tour they had planned to take. And if that happens, she might have to cancel her trip (and lose all her deposits), too.

My sister does not want that to happen, and is desperate for someone she trusts to join her daughter on the second leg of the trip. Of course, she couldn't possibly want ME to do it.

But as soon as I finished laughing at the image of myself staying with my niece in youth hostels in Prague, I realized that my sister is serious. She ticked off all the reasons why no one else in the family would be available (starting with herself -- she is an anxious flyer and no matter how much she's been urged by all of us, she doesn't have a passport).

"You know, they only arrived in Rome on Sunday night," my husband pointed out. "Carly's friend may mellow out once she gets a good night's sleep."

That could be. I hope so. Gareth had a lot of good ideas to help my sister track the girls' lost luggage; some avenues she hasn't tried yet.  When I called my sister back, she was feeling somewhat calmer, or as good as a mother can feel when she is too far away to help her child.

Which isn't good at all.

A Travel Meme!

Jas at Through the Lenses tagged me in her post, Five Reasons Why I Travel. Here are my top five:

1. Family.

Although I was born in Los Angeles and have lived here for most of my 50 (soon to be 51) years, my mom and dad and sister all moved out of the area nearly 20 years ago. I did not feel so alone once I met my husband, but the fact that his family resides in the UK only compounds our isolation. And once our daughter was born, we wanted to be sure she felt connected to everyone else, on both sides of the family. So over the last 11 years, we've made trips to Sacramento (my side) and Wales (his side) as often as our budget will allow.

2. Because It's There.

And as long as we have to drive to Northern California or fly to the United Kingdom, we may as well take in some sights along the way (or not too far out of the way). So a Sacramento sojourn expands to include the Napa Valley, or San Francisco, or the gold rush towns of the Sierra Nevada... and a visit to Wales inevitably includes London, countless old castles, small villages like Abergavenny... and even Paris (OK. That one WAS out of the way -- but not in relative terms!)

3. The "Miss America" Reason - To Foster World Peace.

Travel expands you. I firmly believe that the citizens of this country would be less willing to go to war if more of us experienced the world -- and made friends -- outside our borders. The United States is so vast -- it is hard for some of us to believe that our ways are not the only way. I am proud of the fact that our daughter has an awareness of the world outside our little neck of California.

4. Teaching Moments.

OK, that last one was a bit of a stretch. Getting back down to the practical -- It's a kick for me to see places that figure in the history books I read in school, like the California Missions -- or the Tower of London. And having seen these places first hand, I believe my daughter will pay more attention to them when they pop up in her history books. We do make it a point during our travels to visit museums, landmarks and other points of interest.

5. There's Nothing Better than a Four-Star Hotel.

Except for a Five-Star hotel. I love checking into my favorite hotel in London, where the desk clerks greet me like an old friend (yeah, I know, all they do is pull up my record on the computer, but it's still a lovely gesture). I love the big, comfy king beds with the outrageous linen thread count and the granite in the bathrooms -- none of which I have to clean. I love sampling the restaurants, walking around the city, visiting the parks, and window shopping (because after paying for the hotel, I've got nothing left!)

For that matter, I am perfectly happy in lesser establishments, too (as long as they are clean). It's just fun to get outside and explore and see new things and meet new people.

And then I love coming home, where I tell myself I'm going to stay for a long long time.

Until the following month, when I start looking at travel brochures again.

Because I Can

So, here I am: alone at Burbank Airport, waiting for Southwest Airlines Flight 344 to Sacramento... without my family. I could read the magazine I purchased -- but instead, I decide to test out the terminal wifi and am thrilled to discover that T-Mobile is their carrier (which means I can use it at no additional cost).

So here I am. I'm over the indignity of going through the security line. I don't mind removing my laptop from the case, placing everything I am carrying into three separate plastic bins or giving them my ID at every checkpoint. But removing my shoes -- that's the final straw, the thing that makes the experience most unpleasant, especially since there are never enough places to sit when you get out of the line to put them back on. Fortunately, it's midday on Wednesday, and the airport isn't nearly as crowded as on the days I usually travel.

So I'm happy and ready to read my email and settle in for my short flight. My parents will be meeting me at the airport in Sacto. It should be fun.

A Weekend in Park City

For the last few years, our friends Tim and Debbie have been spending their holidays in Park City, Utah. They go in the winter for the skiing, and they go in spring and summer for golf and bike riding. They love the fact that a 90 minute plane ride gets them to a town where they can shed the stresses of their jobs here in SoCal...

...and each time they go, they ask us if we would join them.

Unfortunately, their Park City visits usually coincide with family obligations of our own. We always spend our Thanksgiving holidays with my family, and our last few Christmas vacations were opportunities to visit my husband's family in the UK.

But this year, with the first two nights of Passover falling at the very beginning of Megan's spring break, we realized we could swing a few days in Utah. So the morning after my sister and her family high-tailed it back to Sacramento, we boarded a plane for Salt Lake City.

It was our first time in Utah, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Our 7:00 a.m. flight didn't give me any time to grab my usual latte, and I was afraid that Mormon restrictions on caffeine intake would mean that coffee would be hard to find in the Beehive State. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Starbucks in our terminal... and plenty more could be seen along the highway leading to our destination.

"Say hi to Bob for me," my sister joked. It took me a couple of seconds before I understood that "Bob" was Robert Redford, whose Sundance Film Festival occurs in Park City each winter. That's actually pretty much all I knew about the town -- along with images of the festival from the episode of Entourage that was filmed there.

That was enough to make the little downtown area seem familiar.

Tim had reserved us a room at the beautiful Hotel Park City, where they always stay. This beautiful 4-diamond property is adjacent to both golf and skiing (at the Park City Mountain Resort). And since this year's snowfall was lighter than usual, it was possible to do both on the same day, as the golf course had opened the day before our arrival.

The resort reminded me a lot of Montage, the Laguna Beach hotel where we celebrated Debbie's birthday last year. It has the same kind of Craftsman styled buildings, centrally located pool and amazingly comfortable feather beds and high thread count linens. The bath in our suite was amazing; gorgeous tiling on all the walls and floors, a jacuzzi tub and a separate shower with three different kinds of shower heads. Only instead of a gorgeous beach view, we got to gaze at magnificent mountains (and skiers and ski lifts).

We spent the first afternoon wandering around the rustic downtown area, home to good shopping, restaurants and a cute little museum located in the old mining town's original police station and territorial jail (which the kids really enjoyed). We pet the cats who reside at Dolly's Bookstore , where Debbie picked up a book on Utah lore and legends -- then bought goodies next door at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

Lunch was at the charming Cafe Terigo, which had terrific food that could be enjoyed by both the kids and the adults. (I am writing to Bon Appetit magazine to see if they can obtain the recipe for the restaurant's amazingly light and tasty onion rings, which they serve with a homemade berry ketchup. It was out of this world!)

The next two days were spent skiing -- by everyone but me. I am not athletic, I need to lose weight, and I have really bad acrophobia. And I've attempted downhill skiing before -- 20 years ago, when I was younger, lighter, and less afraid. Believe it or not (and my husband has a hard time believing it), my idea of a great winter vacation is to be able to spend some time by the fire, with good reading material and decent movies to watch on TV -- and no housework, shopping or cooking duties to worry about -- especially after all the work I did getting the house ready for Passover.  So while Gareth and Megan were having a wonderful time with this new (to them) sport, I got to do exactly as I'd dreamed of doing. We all got the weekend we needed.

Over our four-day visit, I did discover that you had to jump through some hoops to drink anything stronger than fruit punch. Debbie has been visiting the area regularly for a number of years now, and she says she still doesn't have a complete handle on all the rules regarding alcohol. For instance, we could drink in the part of the hotel that's designated a bar -- but when it was closed because they were accommodating a wedding party, there was no other place to get a glass of wine, except through room service... and even then, because they cannot deliver anything "open," we had to order half-bottles. Not full bottles, because there are rules about serving someone a second drink before the first one is finished (no such thing as a "double.") Our room had a kitchenette, so we thought of buying some wine at the Albertson's across the street -- but discovered that supermarkets don't carry it. You can only buy it at state-licensed stores and they are hard to find. (The Albertson's did, however, have a Starbucks, which I did take advantage of.)

All in all, we had a terrific time, and returned to SoCal last night, refreshed and happy. "I hope this means you'll join us again," Debbie said over Easter brunch yesterday. I think we will.

The Monster Has Landed

Now that I've got this new YouTube account, I promise not to abuse it. However, the biggest travel news event in the world occurred in Los Angeles yesterday (as well as New York and Chicago), and I wasn't there to witness it, because I had "better" things to do (i.e., clean my house, which I've neglected the last couple of weeks while taking care of other business, and I think we were at the point of being red tagged by the health department).

The event in question was the maiden US flight of the new Airbus 380, the largest passenger plane ever built. Production delays on this monster (the wingspan is nearly as long as a football field!) have put the European manufacturers in financial jeopardy -- so they had something to prove yesterday with flights to JFK, O'Hare and LAX, where roughly 1,000 spectators showed up to watch -- many recording the event on videotape.

I thought I would test the theory that EVERYTHING ends up on YouTube these days, and I was right -- here's a clip that gives you an idea of how MASSIVE this new airplane is:

:

When the Airbus 380 is finally delivered, it will come in two configurations: standard three-class compartments, which will hold 555 passengers -- or all-economy, with a capacity of 853. This plane is not designed for short-haul flights and will likely only land at the world's largest airports. The ones that received it yesterday had to spend millions of dollars reinforcing their landing strips so they could accommodate this thing, and will have to build major upgrades to their terminals before real flight service can begin. (The A380 has two decks, and loading and unloading passengers will require gates that can service both levels.)

One would hope that the plane's designers have given some attention to passenger comfort, and I'm sure they've pulled out all the stops for the first-class compartments. But the majority of air travel is done by those of us flying economy, and in this age of diminishing expectations, it's probably futile to list the things I would like to see down in steerage. But I'm going to do it, anyway:

A Perfect Day in La Jolla

Megan's best friend in second grade was a girl named Rachel. That year, the two of them had weekly after school playdates -- often at Rachel's house. This gave my only child a taste of living with a lot of siblings, as she also got to play with Rachel's younger sister, little brother and the baby (also named Megan). My daughter was heartbroken when Rachel's dad got a new job down in San Diego. Strangely enough, so was my husband. "They are just the nicest family," he lamented.

So we have stayed in touch, and when I saw that we would have to go down south for Megan's last meet, I called Rachel's mom to see if we could arrange a get-together. Fortunately, they were available.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked. I suggested we meet in La Jolla. After all, who needs a plan when you have five kids and a beach?

I began to worry on Thursday when SoCal got hit by a winter storm. Fortunately, it passed quickly... and Saturday was about as glorious a February day as you could ask for.

I had never before been to La Jolla, which is a beachside community within the city of San Diego. It boasts Ellen Browning Scripps park, beautiful expanse of green lawns on a bluff overlooking a beach, with protected coves, lots of native wildlife. And it is adjacent to a lovely upscale "Village" with art galleries, expensive stores and good restaurants. In other words, something for everyone.

We began our day by crossing Scripps Park to Children's Pool Beach, which really was once a protected beach area designated for children, but several years ago, was overrun by harbor seals, who discovered that it was a nice, safe spot for their children, too. The seals won; it is now exclusively a nesting site for them and it is roped off during pupping season - as it was on Saturday. The good news is that we got to see a lot of mommy and baby seals swimming in the cove (when they weren't basking in the sunshine).

From there, we moved on to a beach designated for humans. I hadn't thought to pack swimsuits... or sunscreen (I was focused on gymnastics and besides, it's FEBRUARY). And as the kids played in the sand and climbed the rocks for what seemed like hours, I realized what a mistake it was to omit the latter! Fortunately, my friend was well-prepared (after all, she is mother to four children between the ages of 3 and 10) and we all got the protection we needed. (In my defense, Gareth usually keeps sunscreen in his car, which was in the shop for the week for repairs after our break-in last month -- so we drove to San Diego in an empty rental).

The kids never got tired of building sand forts and watching the waves knock them down, so it was up to the hungry parents to make the decision that a little lunch would be in order. Rachel's dad actually works in a building overlooking the park and has to live with that view every single day (we really do feel for him). He also knows where the best lunch spots are, and he led us to a beautiful little cafe with a patio facing the ocean. We were told that from 3:00 on, they were only serving coffee and pastries. It was 3:02.

"They probably saw five kids coming up the steps and hauled out the sign," my friend grumbled. So we went to Plan B - walking into the little Village to find a restaurant that served food both the kids and the adults could enjoy. We were having a little trouble with that - until he remembered that there was a nice Hard Rock Cafe with good hamburgers and fries and decent salads... as well as a large outdoor patio that would allow the kids to enjoy themselves without disturbing other diners.

It was just what the doctor ordered. We followed lunch by taking the kids upstairs to Cold Stone Creamery. We moms decided that was too sweet for us -- and not only that, but it was getting kind of chilly out -- so we left the kids with their fathers and walked down the block to Starbucks for our version of dessert.

We then walked back towards the beach to the Sunny Jim Cave Store, featuring an entrance to La Jolla's largest sea cave. The tunnel you enter through the store was dug out over 100 years ago, making this one of the area's oldest ongoing tourist attractions. The 145 steps leading down to the cave are somewhat uneven, and as you get closer to the bottom, they are slippery. It's a bit of a spooky trip down, but it's the kind of spooky that kids enjoy - and the destination is definitely worth it. There is an admission fee to enter the tunnel: $4 for adults and somewhat less for the kids (all eight of us entered for under $30).

The sun was setting when we emerged from the cave, but there were still plenty of beaches and coves to explore -- which we managed to do until it was too dark to play any longer. We'd had such a late lunch that no one was ready for dinner, which is a shame, because I wanted to explore more of the restaurants in the Village (probably just as well, as they didn't look to be very kid-friendly). We bid our friends good-bye and went back to our hotel -- satisfied and tired after a perfect winter day at the beach.

A Quick Post Before I Go

I feel like I went to bed on Sunday night and woke up and now the week is over. Where did it go?

OK, I know today is Thursday, but in a frustrating move, Megan ended up in a gymnastics meet on Friday. Tomorrow. In SAN DIEGO. Couple that with the fact that Monday was a school holiday -- and you can see that I've been trying to cram five days' worth of juggling into just three days of actual time to do it in. And (of course), I have a couple of project deadlines I'm dealing with.

No wonder I'm feeling so scattered. No wonder I haven't posted anything since my Sunday complaint about cooking dinner. No wonder I haven't bothered with trying to cook anything since then. (In preparation for the meet, Megan has been at the gym until 8:00 three nights in a row. I'm going to do a roast chicken tonight, thank you very much.)

But I do want to follow up on a couple of items:

1. Last week, the Los Angeles Unified School District came to an agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles, thus averting the strike I was worried about a couple of weeks ago. I am delighted -- that the school year won't be disrupted and that some effort (although not enough) will be made to reduce class size in the upper grades. Now I can go back to just being annoyed with the District and its byzantine bureaucracy.

2. I received this email from the CEO of JetBlue: