Madrid & Barcelona

I write this at 9:45, as the girls remain asleep in their chambers.  We're cruising past an idyllic island in the Mediterranean which has planted a lovely oil refinery right on the most visible section of their coast.

 

Just having come off of 3 of the longest days of my life...not long in a bad way, just in a long way.

 

The flight to London was fine....everyone slept a little.  The girls loved being on a plane...and then fell asleep and tossed and turned the whole 9 hours.   We got off for a quick turn at London, and American Airlines lost their stroller.  We've heard different stories...but not sure what the truth is yet.  They told us it was coming, we waited a half hour at the gate...then had to leave.  Then it was being delivered to our second hotel....then it was being shipped home.  I do not expect to find it at LAX.  

 

Our first night in Madrid was weird...we weren't tired at all, and we got to the hotel around 8pm.  The airport was a breeze...no customs, just a stamp and our driver was waiting at the exit.  We checked in to the Vinnci Via hotel, right on the Gran Via.  A very nice hotel...but like most European Hotels, very small.  We took the girls wandering through the walk only streets of Madrid, past an Easter Procession to a Hot Chocolate and Churro café (Chocolateria San Gines).  This was a big hit.

                                                           

 

The kids went to bed fine, sharing a blow up mattress that I manually inflated, since the motor sparked when I plugged it in.  That first night they woke up in the middle of the night, Hannah watched the ipad for about an hour then went back to sleep. They have been adjusted to the time change ever since.

 

We finally got up around 10am and sprinted around Madrid, getting back just as our car to the train station arrived.  We saw the Royal Palace and did a tour of the inside. 



We then walked through many squares and plazas to Plaza Mayor.   We had lunch at Restaurante Yerbabuena - a vegetarian restaurant with authentic Spanish dishes. Beth got paella complete with veggie "shrimp".

                                                

 

Without our stroller we made an ill-advised bee line for Retiro Park.  By carrying the two children.  The park is incredible.  A maze of shaded pathways, with a hard pack soil perfect for a stroller.  The girls enjoyed ice cream by the lake, and then we ran back home.  Fortunately, we found a bus that took us right back.

After a bizarre day of travel, night of not sleeping and a half day running through Madrid, we took the train to Barcelona.  The train was mostly empty, so we had plenty of space to spread out.  iPadCation continued in full force. We arrived at the hotel close to midnight and the girls (and boy) were exhausted, so straight to bed.  The Mirror Hotel is really cool, and highly recommended.  We had a Star Trek style hall door, all types of nice design features and a good sized room.

Friday was Good Friday, which means all conceivable stores that sell strollers were closed.  We logged 32,000 steps running through the streets without a stroller...which is some kind of record of something.  We started by wandering down the main streets to the central square (circle?) Placa de Catalunya.  From there we explored the 3rd Street Promenade equivalent - Las Ramblas, and got lost in the really cool Gothic District.  Gothic District is a typical European medieval town - no cars, narrow "streets" excellent architecture, knock off soccer apparel stores, etc.

 

We made it down to the waterfront for a carnival that the girls enjoyed and headed back to wander around town.  After a few more hours of walking we decided to see the Magic Fountain performance.  Very cool overall, but a lot of walking and a long subway ride back to the hotel.  

 

                                         

Fortunately the next Morning I bought a stroller.  Hidden at the top of a large mall next to Placa de Catalunya is a small stroller department, apparently mostly selling to tourists who have lost their strollers.  I cannot tell you the sheer joy I felt at seeing a stroller for purchase!  After a slow morning we hopped a nap bus to Montserrat for a tour.

Montserrat is an Abbey perched high in the hills outside Barcelona.  Its more impressive when you realize it was built before there was a train and bust that go there.  Unfortunately most of the original structure had been destroyed in various wars, so its a newish Abbey with views at this point.  

 

 

That night we caught a flamenco show.  If there is one thing overtired toddlers and 36 year old men like is a 90 minute interpretive dance performance in a foreign language.  Becca seemed to enjoy it enough to make it worth going.  The highlight was finding that the bus leaving from in front of the show went almost directly back to our hotel.  A side note:  Google maps is invaluable in easily routing you on local public transit.

 

                                                     

 

Sunday morning we had reserved tickets to La Sagrada Familia - the still under construction Church by Barcelona Superstar Antoni Gaudi.  I won't write about it.  Just look at the pics!

 

                   

 

From there we took the bus up hill to Gaudi's Parc Guell.  A large park (parc?) with a special park in the middle that you need tickets well in advance for.  We spent two hours walking through the regular person park, enjoying incredible views, a small playground and regretting having only a single stroller.  From there it was a bus ride back to hotel, a quick Spanish lunch (over priced pizza) and off to the boat! 

 

        

Hawaii at Aulani

We stayed at the Disney Aulani Resort for 6 days and explored 1 day around Honolulu. Details to come.



Caribbean Trip December 2015

Day 1:  Traveling With Children!!!

Nothing to report here.  Everything went fine.  Beth and the girls totally packed a reasonable amount of clothing, knowing that I would end up carrying it.

Our flight left at 5pm from LAX, and with a super fun stop over in Dallas for 42 minutes. After a successful red eye for the kids!

 we landed and got our car around 3am.  If you've never seen wide awake children at 3am.  Well, here is a photo.

 

(But right back to sleep in car and hotel after!)  We checked into a pretty nice hotel across from the sand, which we were able to book last minute.

Day 2:  Hotel #1 / Ft Lauderdale

Wow - slept til 10am!!  Eastern time, and went to bed at like 430am - but still, not bad.

Had a sweet breakfast on the patio overlooking the ocean. Fortunately, there were hurricane winds to keep the temperature down.  

We took our rental car up the coast to visit Uncle Joe, Aunt Edna, Uncle Izzy, & Myra.

The kids enjoyed the M&Ms they were given and we went to Gramercy Deli - our favorite place in Del Rey Beach.

After a drive home and a stop at TJs for some two and a half buck chuck - we retired for the night.

 

Day 3: Ft Lauderdale/Cruise

Got up early today.   Walked around the Ft. Lauderdale Riverfront - there was no one there.  It was odd. 

Anyway - went to the cruise terminal.  I dropped off the girls, returned the car, walked most of the way back and still waited 30+ minutes in line with the girls.

Quick Ship Review:  The Nieuw Amsterdam is a smaller boat, by Caribbean standards.  The small size leads to a relative lack of high end amenities like on our last cruise on Royal Caribbean.  This skews towards an older crowd.  We had two connecting balconies (OMG STOP SMOKING ON BALCONIES, NEIGHBORS) which were very nice.  The boat is nice, the best feature is a Piano bar. I did feel that the small size made the lines/crowds more tolerable.

 

Day 4:  Sea Day

Explored the ship, pool, etc.

Day 5: Grand Turk

So the boat had a weird schedule.  This was one of the stops that started at 8am and went until 2:30 - which is a weird time to do the beach.  Either way, I was off the boat asap - and had one of the first beach chairs.  The beach was just at the end of the cruise dock - so you could basically swim back to the boat.  

We had a clam shell tent, there was a Jimmy Buffet's there, and weather was nice.  I did a little snorkeling - but there was not much to see. Girls had fun in the sand, and got their hair braided. Anyways - quick trip and back on the boat to the next stop..

 

Day 6:  San Juan

We've been here before.  We took the girls on a cool hike around the water front.  Cool for them, as they were in the carriers, and we carried them in the sweltering heat.  Saw some cool Iguanas, and heard children say "Iguana," which is even cooler.

We then hiked up "El Morro" and down through the downtown. 

The girls, as is custom, enjoyed a coconut.  The coconut was prepared with a drill.  Literally.

 

Day 7:  St Thomas

Another repeat for us.  I couldn't remember St. Thomas, so it felt new!  We took a shuttle bus to Magen's Bay Beach.  If you ever go to Magen's Bay they will tell you over and over how nice it is - the 10th prettiest beach in world!  It is very nice.  It is not the 10th nicest beach in the Caribbean, much less the world.  That negatively colors your day.  Magen's Bay is a 2-3 mile long beach at the end of a bay.  There are many small fish in the water and some turtles.  We even saw here (and in San Juan) Gulls and other birds diving and catching fish.  

This was a nice stop - Had fun and then took the shuttle back.  In town, we saw the second-oldest Jewish Synagogue in the Western Hemisphere: The St Thomas Synagogue

There is sand on the floor.  They actually have a legit reason for the sand, that is not based on it being in the Caribbean.  Very cool place.  Glad we could see it.

After that, another bus back and then back on the boat.

 

 

Day 8 - Sea Day

More fun on the ship. Becca went to Kids Club which she loved.

There were a formal night and Christmas on the ship thrown in here somewhere too, can't remember if this was the day! But here is our formal pic:

 

Day 9 - Half Moon Cay (Private Island)

Richard's favorite day of the trip!  Again, another early 8-2:30 stop.  The private island is jointly used by Holland America and Carnival, so we had been there before.  Again, having an industrious, handsome husband like me helps, as we were on the first boat off, and got a premium "front of the beach" clamshell.  

The island is ridic.  It's super long - you cannot walk all they way up one side in a day.  There is a pirate ship bar, a shopping village and dozens of cabanas.  We snorkeled, dug in the sand, here look at pics!

At night, we went on our 4th date night of the trip! to the piano bar.  The piano man played a couple songs for us and we went to pick up little b from the kids club.  We found her in what can only be described as a coma on the floor (but apparently was having a great time and tried her best to hang in there til the end!)

Goodnight moon.  Goodnight Hannah and the towel animals.  Goodnight Cruise Ship.  

 

Day 10 ;-(  Ft Lauderdale and Flight Home (in theory + 1 day)

Last day of the cruise.  We had 2 exhausted children, a full day to further wear them out and an evening flight back.

We did a duck boat tour, which was pretty cool.  Becca and I both fell asleep.   Then walked around Las Olas Street. Got some yummy fudge.

We took the kids to the mall to keep them awake.  Then off to the airport.  I don't want to recap this next part, so I made a brief outline.

1.  Got to airport 3 hours early.

2.  Was notified of delays at our connection in Dallas

3.  AA lies to us part 1

4.  Rebooked on new flight to Dallas.

  4a.  No flights are leaving Dallas and we would be standby all day,

5.  Wait 4 hours for flight to leave.

6.  Book trip to LAX from Orlando

7.   Flight is cancelled.

8.  Rent new car, have luggage retrieved, install car seats, drive 3.5 hours to Orlando, spend an hour getting a room for the night, sleep 4 hours (me on the floor).  Wake up  at 7am go to airport.

9.  Orlando-LAX delayed

10.  OMG finally get home.

Kids were really cool and chill the whole time!

 

Overall really fantastic trip!!

Caribbean Cruise - February 2015 - with the Horowitzes!

The first Caribbean trip for the girls!  Becca has done a couple (once in utero), but this is Hannah's first time to the white sands of the Caribbean!

We flew out to Orlando and had a relatively uneventful flight with the girls.  Momma and Poppa rode shotgun in Business Class, and had an extra seat, that apparently came with a pretzel platter.  Becca had some pretzels.

We then rented separate cars and drove down to Delray Beach to see Uncle Izzy and Uncle Joe.  Last time down they met Becca as a baby, and this time they got to meet Hannah as a baby.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites that had swans, which Becca loved.  

After a whirlwind adventure in Delray Beach, we took a midnight drive to our hotel near the cruise terminal in Port Canaveral.  The room was not a suite, as Richard remembered booking, and as the booking slip confirmed.  But, it was late and everyone squeezed in....

The next morning we rushed to get onto our boat - Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. This was by far the nicest boat we had ever been on - it had a stunning indoor promenade with "shops" and bridges and lights and Dreamworks Characters.  

The boat was the largest in the world when it was built, but has been since surpassed by two new RC boats.  

First stop - Coco Cay - RC's private island.  Raced off the boat to claim our spot of paradise.  Turns out the sand is imported and an inch layer of sand sits on a concrete foundation, but it was still beautiful.

Did some snorkeling, ate, swam with the kids.  Later on we met up with Richie and found a lesser populated side of the islands.  For some moronic reason, people packed up early and went back on the boat.   

We wandered around the rather large island and ended up on a shallow sand bar, hundreds of feet from shore...pretty cool.

Boat was awesome - it has a Flowrider (see pics) and a Johnny Rockets (not sure it's needed, but cool), also had a desert and pizza bar on the promenade and an ice skating rink.  Rich and Teri used their status to get us into the fancy lounge and to get front row seats for the ice capades.  Becca fell asleep...but in the front row.

Next stop:  Falmouth, Jamaica.  In the words of Richard Schulman "Hard pass".

It's a port supposedly owned by RC.  All of the excursions involve bussing to Ocho Rios or other Jamaica stops.  There is a pseudo mall/port and an entrance to an extremely run down town.  More than a block outside the gates is thoroughly impassable.  Beth stepped in a pothole filled with liquid death, though, so that was cool.

We did get some sweet woodworking items, and a soccer ball.  Back at port the girls shared a giant coconut.

Third stop - Grand Cayman - my 4th time there, and Becca's 3rd.  Did the whole island tour - stopped in Hell, and experienced a plethora of awful jokes.  Also, hard pass.  After that we went to the turtle farm.  IT WAS SO AWESOME.  First is the breeding pond.  And the turtle are like 500 pounds each.  Then, you get to hold baby turtles.  Wait.  It gets better....then you can swim in a lagoon with giant turtles and other sea life....and there is a predator tank adjacent., that you can view underwater through a glass wall!  And there is a water slide (not into the predator tank).

We also stopped in Cozumel for the 300th time.  We did a (windy) walk across town. Then Beth and the girls went back to the ship.  Richard  went back on land and pretended to work, but just went to a beachside resort for some much needed male-only time.

After that, we went back to Orlando and to the KW convention.  Beth, the girls, and Mama and Papa flew home, and Richard stayed in Orlando for more girl-free time.