Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Gearing up for vacation

In 3 days, Mommy, Daddy, and Kaylani will take our first family vacation. Sure we've already been to Orlando, Puerto Rico, and Boston, but this will be our first family vacation alone. Picking our vacation took a little bit, but we finally settled on a place. We wanted somewhere nice like Hawaii or maybe even San Diego to save a few hours of travel, but decided that was too far for a 4 day excursion so we looked a little closer. We wanted somewhere warm, but we've been to Orlando already so we looked a little Norther. And we wanted somewhere family friendly, so we ruled out a casino trip to Atlantic City. Finally, we settled on Baltimore.

Now many of you might say, "Baltimore? What's in Baltimore besides some crab cakes and a losing baseball team? Are they playing anyone good at least? And Mommy doesn't even eat crab cakes!" While those are valid points and questions (to which the answer is no, they're not playing anyone good or even anyone at home), we decided that Baltimore was the perfect place for our first getaway. We'll be staying right in the Inner Harbor and will be walking distance to things like the aquarium, the shops at the Inner Harbor, and even the National Museum of Dentistry (which we will not be going to...sorry Steve) so we're sure we'll have enough to keep us busy during the day. It's the nights we're worried about.

Daddy spent almost 2 years of his life living out of a hotel as a traveling consultant, and Mommy spent a significant amount of time doing the same by herself while she worked trade shows and also with me. But we haven't stayed in a hotel since Kaylani was born, and there are significantly more challenges to deal with now. For example, Kaylani will spend her nights in her pack and play. Sure she's spent a few nights in a pack and play before, but never in a confined hotel room. Luckily they've upgraded us to a king studio room so we'll have a little bit more room to move around.

So the room size issue isn't a big deal, but there is the part where Kaylani is usually asleep in her crib in her room by 8pm. At home, we walk out of the room and go downstairs to watch TV for awhile before going to bed. But in a hotel, we can't exactly walk out of the room. Well, we could, but I'm pretty sure our monitors won't work if we try and go down to the hotel bars or lounges. And if we can't hit up the bar, that means we'll be in the room. And if we're in the room while Kaylani is trying to sleep, that probably means we can't watch TV either. And it probably also means that we can't have any lights on, or move around, or do anything besides sleep.

Maybe this is what vacation as a parent of an infant is all about. Lots of daytime activity, followed by family bedtime at 8pm. Maybe it's not such a bad thing anyways. Maybe we'll get 10 hours of sleep with Kaylani and we'll all wake up early in the morning refreshed and ready to go. Or maybe it won't be much of a vacation for Mommy and Daddy and we'll sit in the dark trying to be as quiet as possible so we don't disturb her and hope that she sleeps. If you've got any advice, hit me. Otherwise, wish me luck. Whatever vacation turns out to be like, it couldn't come soon enough. Is it Saturday yet?

4 comments:

Alan said...

Lets see, forced to the hotel room early, can't turn on the TV. Is Kaylani going to have a baby brother soon?

Rina said...

I've never thought about this... You bring up some very valid points. I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. You could blog a lot! :)

JonnyTam13 said...

Yeah...I'm pretty sure that no TV means no something else either. Might not be as bright, but the noise...nevermind.

And if it did happen, I sure wouldn't blog during it. Now tweeting on the other hand...

Otter Thomas said...

Good luck with the vacation. I don't think we will be brave enough or rich enough to go anywhere for a while. Eat some crab cakes for me.