Recently in Trips Category

Please allow me to start this post by saying way back in early January I had grand plans of recording each day of our awesome holiday tour, supported in colorful detail by our SmugMug photos, but in the effort of updating the blog itself (among other things) I've let months slip by and now the events are starting to become hazy. Here however is the last post I started way back when (may as well put it to some use!), and I will do my best to broad-brushstroke the rest before it all turns to dust in my head!

The second day of our big holiday trip began with a trip to feed the ducks by the Marin County Civic Center with our fabulous hosts, the Eversons. We all hit the playground together and then split off to drive up to Petaluma for lunch. It was exciting to make that familiar drive again, now with the girls so much older. On the way we stopped by our old house to see how it was holding up, and were happy to see how good the neighborhood looked. We were also surprised at how established all our front yard plantings had gotten:



After snapping some pictures we crossed the D Street Bridge (and Rivertown Feed, thinking mightily about Eula and the dog park!) for lunch at Mike & Susie's house. We hadn't seen their family since our combined trip to Martha's Vineyard a few summers ago, but Sophie still remembered her friend Kane. We had a grand time catching up, playing and relaxing in the sun in their backyard (ah, late fall in northern California!):


After lunch we headed into San Francisco for a gorgeous sunset and belated Thanksgiving dinner with our newlywed friends Matt & Jane (whom we had last seen in Wellington just a year prior, thanks again for all their help during a very difficult time!!!) Dinner was over-the-top delicious, but possibly overshadowed (in Sophie's mind at least, not mine or Brandie's!) by their very cool wedding presents:

...you might ask, somewhat crossly? All over the place, we are happy to answer!

At the end of November we left New Zealand for the first time since we arrived in April 2008 - almost 20 months later. We departed on the heels of our beloved reasons-for-being-together, the Youngs, and followed them up to Auckland before boarding our red-eye to San Francisco (more on their awesome visit later!)

Traveling this time around was much easier, both since the girls are older and we weren't having to fly too many consecutive flights. Our arrival to New Zealand involved 4 planes, 9 50lb. checked bags and 32 hours of travel, so we were very excited to be getting off the plane with only 2 bags in San Francisco. We also hadn't been back to the Bay Area since we moved in 2005, so it was a homecoming on many levels.

The first thing we noticed was how huge all the cars seemed. A Mitsubishi Pajero is one of the larger vehicles on the road here in Wellington, and Suburban-size trucks from what I can tell are just unheard of. SFO's Budget was out of mid-sized cars so we ended up in a very new, very huge Ford Explorer:



The second thing we noticed was fall, the perfect kind of fall Charlie Brown & his friends have. Leaves were blowing across the parking lot and the light had a beautiful, pale gold quality. We giddily made the drive up 19th Avenue to the Golden Gate, snapping pictures all along the way and rolling our windows down to breathe in the eucalyptus.

We arrived at our old neighbors' the Eversons' house in time for lunch (snacks from Trader Joe's, thanks Mark!), relaxed for a bit afterwards and then hit a nearby playground to let off some kid-energy. Of course Sophie's shoes were off before she stepped foot on the playground:



After some outdoor playtime we returned to the Eversons' and ordered our old stand-by from Amici's pizzeria in San Rafael - the Trentino. It was just as good as we remembered, and very fun to drive past both our old apartments on Mission and B Streets. I vaguely remember staying up too late catching up but then sleeping like a stone in Mark & Julie's very comfortable guest room.

The planets aligned to give us a weekend off and some fantastic weather, so we headed up to Mt. Ruapehu Friday evening with some friends. Sophie had her first ski lesson and we got to spend some much-needed family time together. Click on the thumbnail to see the rest of the gallery. Hooray for weekends!

Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after they arrived (and nearly a year since we last boarded an airplane!), Mary & Joe returned to the airport with us for a short flight back up to Auckland followed by a 3hr drive up to Hahei Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. We met our friends Chris & Joanna for a nice lunch in Auckland and still made it to the beach by 4pm. The weather more than cooperated and we had a gorgeous long weekend - hope you enjoy the pics!

Yesterday we finally braved the narrow roads of the Akatarawa Valley to visit Staglands, a perennial favorite of our local friends. It was worth the trip and cost of admission, and as usual the cafe was excellent. Click on the thumbnail pic of Sophie to see the rest of the pics, and enjoy your weekends everyone!

The girls and I met up with some other Mums and their little one's for a fun morning over at Days Bay.  We started pretty early by catching the 8:45 am East by West ferry from Queens Wharf.  It was a small ferry and we had it pretty much to ourselves at that early hour.  It only took about 20 minutes to get over the bay and we docked right as the clouds burned off.  We were greeted by a local unofficial tour guide who instructed us to go to the duck pond, then took the kids by the hand and walked us over himself.  He was a friendly resident who just happened to be seeing his daughter off on the ferry.  He gave us some interesting info, however, we couldn't drag the location of the playground out of him.

We walked to the nearby village of Eastbourne and found another mum who pointed us in the right direction.  The playground was wonderful and we all enjoyed the crazy high slides, roktopus, and various wooden structures near the beach.  We headed back over to the pier and caught the 12:40 ferry back.  We sat on the open upper deck for the return trip and got some great views of Wellington and the other cities on the edge of the water.  

It was an amazing day trip and we can't wait to do it again when Jake can come with us, or hey, maybe just a mom's afternoon out so we could explore all of the boutique shops and yummy looking bakeries and cafes!  Oh to dream!  :) 

The girls and I, along with our very wonderful friend Nadine, headed up to Kaitoke Regional Park for a little half day trip. The drive was beautiful and took only about an hour from our door to the park entrance. They had a great website advertising the many hikes they offer and I was pleased to see that more than half of them were graded suitable for children.

I never planned on taking the girls on the swing bridge portion of the hike that crosses one of the rivers in the park, however, once we started down the trail, it was only a few yards before they saw it and wanted to go. I surveyed it for safety and it seemed very sturdy. A slatted, wooden deck covered with mesh to keep you from slipping on the moss that has formed on the wood. The sides were high with chain link fencing wrapping a u-shape from one hand rail, under the deck and back up to the other hand rail. The bridge itself is probably around 150 feet long (I am totally guessing here) but to me, it felt like 3 miles. This was the first time I really had to face a phobia while dealing with my children. I obviously didn't want to let them know that I was scared but I had to stay in control of them and my fear at the same time which was a true task. Both girls were in front of me with Nadine following behind. The girls were fearless and darted about, leaning from side to side to look down at the ducks swimming in the river. I barely held it together when they discovered that they could swing the bridge by leaning from side to side and started giggling like, well, little girls. I drove them forward in an attempt to stop the madness as quickly as possible.

Finally on solid ground we continued with our hike through the amazing rain forest. There were so many beautiful trees that when trying to take their picture there was just no way to capture the scale of these creatures.There were gigantic ferns and palm trees, vines so tangled they looked like a spiders web, and trees housing other plants that seemed like they could house us.  I've seen the redwood forest and some of these monster trees made the redwoods look like saplings. Although we could hear it raining, we hiked under the cover of the forest for the first half of our loop.

Once out of the forest Nadine and I each picked up a child (did I mention how wonderful Nadine is?) and carried them the rest of the way through the rain. It was a great ladies bonding morning and I was so grateful to have children who enjoy being outdoors and hiking and haven't yet learned to love talking on their cell phones, hanging out at malls or otherwise being too cool.

After the marathon trip to get here and 3 weeks in a hotel we haven't felt much like adventuring outside of the house, but today we finally dusted off our traveling hats again and took our first day trip from Wellington up the Kapiti Coast to Paraparaumu. Our primary goal was Lindale Centre and its Farm Walk, which came highly recommended from other parents who had made the trip.

We weren't disappointed, in either the weather (it was rainy and blustery all day in Wellington, but gorgeous only half an hour north of the city), the food (the cafe and ice cream were both excellent), the Farm Walk (Sophie asked for a pig before she went to bed last night, and to go back to the farm again today) or the other sights along the way (a contingent of the Western Bays Street Rod club arrived at the Centre just as we were finishing lunch, so we got to see their cars parked all in a row outside, as well as a glimpse of the Southwards Car Museum.)

All in all a fabulous finish to a great weekend, which included seeing Indy at the Embassy Friday night, Brandie's spa day at the East Day Spa in Wellington, yummy dinner at Nadinie and Sock's (thanks to Josie for that one), a work-related web-chat about The Hobbit and our first video-conference with my family back home. I was sad to see it end!

We've returned from our first travel crisis free vacation.  I honestly can't believe that nothing bad happened with our flights.  There was a small delay on our return and we thought we may have missed our connection but nope, it was there. 

Our youngest daughter must have sensed our relief and decided she didn't like mom and dad being so relaxed. So after we checked in we headed to the pool to "wear the kids out" so they would take naps since they didn't sleep a wink on the plane.  They were tired alright.  Josie was stumbling her way back to our room and ate it on the concrete.  Thankfully this kid has cat like reflexes and caught herself with her forehead.  The goose-egg was so big I seriously thought it would burst.  We booked it to our room and iced her head down. She was coherent and talking to me about the pool and plane ride so we were pretty sure she didn't have a concussion.  She fell asleep fighting against the ice pack which was good because I got to ice her head down while she slept which meant less screaming AND less swelling.

The next day we got up bright and early to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom.  We got there shortly after they opened the gates at 7 am and had the place practically to ourselves.  There seemed to be characters everywhere and no lines to be seen.  Sophie got to meet Snow White and Dopey first.  This was the first test of Josie's interest in characters and it came out negative.  She liked seeing them from a distance but had no interest in actually walking up to them.  I think if Snow White would have been alone (stupid Dopey) she would have wanted to see Snow White.  Sophie on the other hand was thrilled.  Snow White commented that she and Sophie had the same hair cut and you could practically see the little girl walking on sunshine as she departed, autograph book in hand.  We met Chip and Dale and Daisy Duck then walked up Main Street USA to see the castle.  It was surprisingly magical.  I honestly didn't know what to expect but all of us got caught up in it.  We ran up to the castle and inspected the murals inside. Once on the other side, Sophie and I got to ride the Dumbo ride with no line.  This was Sophie's first real amusement park ride and I wasn't sure what she was going to think.  All the way up, as high as we could go!  That in-utero helicopter ride from the folks at Nelson must have made an impression on her.  We walked back to Main Street USA for breakfast at "The Bakery" and while we were eating, the Main Street Trolley and musical cast stopped and sang "Main Street USA", one of Sophie's favorite songs from her Grandma's Disney Sing-a-long tapes.  After that we did all of Fantasy Land and had a blast. Minnie's house, Mickey's house, the Hundred Acre Wood, The ToonTown Fair where we met Pluto, Goofy and Donald.  Donald actually came out and escorted Sophie by the hand back to have her picture taken.  The Judges Tent to meet Mickey.  Jake and Sophie rode on Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster (Sophie's favorite) then we took the train all around the park.

More details coming soon, just wanted to share the pics (188 of them!) from our trip. Click on the picture above to see the first page.