Category: <span>Travel</span>

What do you get for a man who has … well, everything? I don’t mean literally of course, but in reality, we’re very fortunate. We have a warm home, food, jobs and too many material possessions. I was seriously challenged in the gift department for hubby’s B-I-G 3-0. It finally dawned on me that perhaps at this stage in our life, the best gifts are experiences or gifts that enable experiences. Ephemeral gifts are often treasured because they are fleeting and we always treasure them just how we want to remember them in our minds.

I also realize that the most fortunate people in life, are those who can control their destinies by making their own choices. We may not always have all the information to make the perfect decision, but that’s part of life — making do with what you have.

So, the morning of his birthday, Sophia presented her papa with an envelope that contained a card and another envelope. The “other” envelope contained two envelopes. The rules of the present were this: you choose one envelope and return the other one to me. This way, he doesn’t get to see what he didn’t select. The first two envelopes were labeled “Romance” and “Adventure”. Inside “Romance” there was “Rustic” and “Luxe”. In “Rustic”, there was “Sticks” and “Stones” and in “Luxe” there were “Hot Pink” and “White”. In each of the Sticks, Stones, Hot Pink and White were destinations. The same went for Adventure. Stay tuned for what hubby ended up choosing…

As promised, this blog documents not only our culinary adventures, but also our globetrotting escapades with little Sophia. We’ve documented our frequent trips to the Philadelphia area to visit our families and this summer’s shore trip. This past weekend marked our first trip further afield. Specifically, we traveled to West Bloomfield, Michigan to attend my cousin’s beautiful wedding. As Sophia is a little young and would probably make too much noise at the ceremony, we decided that she would spend the evenings with my amazing mother-in-law who traveled with us just for this purpose. Before I share the nitty, gritty of our first experience in airline travel with child, I must say that all went fine.

First, we took a flight from Baltimore (BWI) to Detroit (DTW) on Friday at 9:45 in the morning. We were renting a car in Detroit and visiting with family briefly before heading to our hotel for the mandatory afternoon nap. Much to my surprise and delight, Sophia held out for her morning nap until we boarded and promptly fell asleep as we were taking off. We weren’t so lucky on our trip back as the flight from DTW was taking off at 10 am and Sophia decided to sleep while we were at the gate and still only took a 20 minute nap. She spent the duration of our return flight playing and jumping and interacting with all of us until we were exhausted and she was hungry and ready for her afternoon nap. We got home on Sunday with just enough time to bathe the airplane grime off our little girl and put her to bed.

My general observations are that it is entirely possible to travel with an infant, although I am not sure I would travel with a small child and an infant. I would also dare not travel alone until the child could sit, stand and somewhat walk on their own. The amount of stuff we brought was significant and I doubt would decline until Sophia was potty trained and eating table food. All that said, I am happy we chose to attend the wedding as it was beautiful and the experience with travel with Sophia was enlightening. Looking back, we did the right thing and we will travel again. I grew up in a family that traveled, enjoyed and saw the world and so will my own family.

Lastly, I owe my wonderful mother-in-law a big thank you for traveling with us and leding a helping hand throughout the weekend while we went to the wedding.