Hi all -- it is good to be back! We went away for a week to attend my brother-in-law's graduation in Connecticut and managed to squeeze in three days in Washington D.C.. But, man, traveling with a five-year-old and a two-year-old -- okay, just the two-year-old -- is exhausting.
Toddlers really are creatures of habit and the slightest thing -- like a six-hour plane ride -- will set them off. :)
But overall, it was a fun trip. We got to see Hillary Clinton receive an honorary law degree at Yale. We got a White House tour, which usually takes something like six months to secure. But let me tell you, for at least the adults, it is worth it. To Ari's chagrin, we did not see Barack Obama in his house. As for the rest of us history buffs and TLC-viewing junkies, we saw plenty of beautiful old furniture and portraits of former presidents. "Look Ari, another portrait of another U.S. president!" I would bellow. (Poor Ari used every excuse to get out of this tour from "I am hungry" to "I want to go home to Berkeley." Eli just wanted to be held by Papi.)
Every night, we played Liverpool Rummy with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. A big part of the reason I am tired is we were getting by on five or six hours of sleep a night. I would put down the kids and then stay up playing cards. I never play at home and I love card and board games so I seized the opportunity.
We walked a lot in D.C., which allowed me to devour food and dessert to my heart's content. There were a lot of good fusion restaurants like Greek tapas. But here are some things I discovered about DH and I:
We hate taking pictures. And it's terrible, considering we have blogs and nothing tells a story better than a good photo. But we left the camera because we deemed it yet another bulky item to carry on top of a stroller, two computer bags, two suit cases and the hands of two small children. (We forgot the car seats and ended up paying for them at the car rental place.) Also, getting the kids to sit still for a photo is a pain in the butt. I am afraid the kids' photo albums are going to be quite slim.
Any tips on how to travel with a two-year-old are welcomed. Fortunately for her, Eli is cute and easily wins us over with her Shirley Temple curls and killer smile. But damn that girl can throw tantrums. She threw some major fits on the streets of D.C., which left people either smiling (grateful she wasn't their child) or annoyed. She wanted to push her stroller by herself but we would not let her because it would have taken us all day to get to the Washington monument and she was running into people. For her, this was a tragedy.
What else is there to say about this trip? For me, it was nostalgic. As we were riding through New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in our rented van, I realized that I was the only east coaster in the car. When my father came to the United States from Cuba, he immigrated to New York. I was born in New Jersey and spent my childhood summers in Pennsylvania. I let Ari know all this and told him that when I lived in New Jersey, I lived in a house with Mamá (my grandmother), Papá (my grandfather), his abuelos, my sister and my uncle. It was a little piece of family history I did not want lost.
How do you keep your family history and stories alive for your children? What are some of your favorite vacation memories?
