(A post written on Tuesday)
For the sake of perspective, I need to start this post by
saying that I am the daughter of a chemist who served in the business world for
many years. On occasion, he would have a business trip to an interesting
location so my mom, sister, and I would tag along. The hotel room was then a business expense,
and his meals and airfare were covered.
We traveled from the East Coast to Disneyland for
a fraction of the cost by touring while my dad was in meetings and then
enjoying the best of the city’s fare with him and his colleagues at night.
One of the ways we would also cut costs was by taking
breakfast foods with us. A couple bags
of bagels and a jar of peanut butter, and I’m a happy woman. That may seem incredibly cheap to some of
you; but when a glass of orange juice is $4, I don’t even want to know how much
a bowl of corn flakes would be. It’s not
even that my dad didn’t make a good living (or that we don’t have plenty to
meet our needs), it’s just that they (and we) have other places we’d rather
invest our money.
Imagine my delight when Teacher Man told me that he had not
one but two conferences at our state’s capital!
So here we are in the hotel, getting settled in for our first day of
vacation. At first, I felt crazy bringing
my Coleman cooler into the Radisson; but then I remembered that I’m a mom with
small children. If I can meet their food
needs and likes with a quick breakfast in the room and a yummy picnic lunch
wherever we are, then we all can splurge a little bit for dinner. Plus, we also won’t be waiting in lines
trying to order lunches while have a low-sugar meltdown.
Because we arrived at the hotel at 11 a.m. the children’s stomachs were already starting to
growl by the time we got settled in the room. No problem! I pulled out a lunch picnic in two minutes,
and thanks to PBS Kids, my children are convinced this is the coolest hotel
ever.
Tonight, we’ll check out the mega mall that is attached to
this hotel and find one of the city’s finest, kid-friendly restaurants. Tomorrow we’ll be going to a living history
village and farm, and then next day it looks like we’re meeting a friend who
lives here for a walk on the local trails.
I’m super excited about all of this, and I love seeing the world through
my children’s eyes. Everything is new
and exciting. Around every corner, a
surprise is hiding. Vacationing with a 3
year old and a 1 year old definitely limits where we go, but I feel like I’m
seeing so much more because I get to enjoy seeing it through their eyes. And to them, everything’s magical.
So just in case you hear about a crazy family who brought a
cooler to the Radisson, it’s us. I would
spend more time worrying about what people are thinking of our nuttiness, but I
have a book that is calling my name, and two children who are finally
napping.
No comments:
Post a Comment