Category Archives: Travel

Turning 30 in Edmonton

Posted on by

We had a blast in Edmonton this past weekend, and unbelievably enough the weather was nicer there than it was here in Kelowna. In fact, on Friday we’d boarded our flight to Edmonton and were waiting for final takeoff clearance when they closed the runway and sent us all back into the terminal to wait out the snowstorm. Fortunately, we ended up being only about an hour late. This has been a weird winter in the Okanagan.

But of course, you don’t go to Edmonton in January for the weather. We were there to check out all the activities in West Edmonton Mall (we even stayed in a Roman theme room at the Fantasyland Hotel, which came with a round bed…check out the photo gallery) and meet up with some people we hadn’t seen in a while. Leslie (my former college roommate and bridesmaid) came up from Red Deer with her husband to meet us for a birthday dinner, which was awesome. I couldn’t believe they were willing to drive three hours round trip after working all day just so they could buy us dinner. You don’t get better friends than that.

We also mooched a free dinner from my cousin Terry and his family, whom I hadn’t seen in at least 10 years. I know I’m short, but so is everyone else in my (and Chris’s) family and I don’t usually notice it too much. But these four cousins each towered over me by at least a foot — where’d those genes come from? Anyway, it was great to see them and I hope they make it to Kelowna sometime soon.

Justin had two good days with Grandma and Grandpa Kingwell, but apparently by the third day he was missing us pretty bad. He sure was happy to see us at the airport — he smiled and even came up and hugged us. What a change from a few months ago, when I came back from London and got the cold shoulder from a toddler who was mighty ticked that I’d gone away and left him for a week.

Back to the old routine…

Jet Lag Can Kill You

Posted on by

The London trip with Mom was great overall, but it was tough dealing with an eight-hour time change and the bone-crunching fatigue of early pregnancy. The first time I went to London, I was 21, single, just out of school and ready for an adventure. This time, I was 29, pregnant, travelling with my mother and pretty much always ready for a nap.

Still, we managed to see almost everything we wanted to: the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, Shakespeare’s Globe, Westminster Abbey, the cabinet war rooms, Buckingham Palace and even Edinburgh Castle as part of a day trip to Scotland. Aside from the monsoon-like rains we encountered in Edinburgh (we couldn’t even see out the bus windows because of the rivers of water streaming down), the weather was warm, sunny and just picture-perfect. It was kind of a bummer when we landed in Calgary on the return trip and discovered it was barely above freezing and had recently snowed.

Apparently Justin had been pointing at my picture a few days before we got back, so maybe he missed me, but he sure didn’t show it when I got home. He was happy to see his grandma, but he completely ignored me. I think it was payback for leaving him for a week. He seemed to forgive me by the next morning, though, especially since I was the one who got up and gave him his breakfast.

The little man gave up his morning nap just before we left for London and I’m still mourning the loss of some free time, but c’est la vie. At least now we can join some of those activities that were off-limits back when he needed a mid-morning snooze.

Back to the ol’ grind…

Post-Holiday Post

Posted on by

While I still don’t think I’m really the type of person to do tropical trips, I did enjoy our time in the Caribbean. More specifically, I enjoyed the amenities on the cruise ship (most of which weren’t available on our Alaskan cruise cause it was too damn cold): we played tennis, made good use of the ship’s games room, went to a different Broadway-type show every night and ate whenever we wanted. All good. The islands themselves weren’t all that exciting to me, although swimming with dolphins on a Venezualan island was definitely a highlight.

Grandma and Grandpa Kingwell were fantastic babysitters, naturally, and they loved every minute (even if they went home exhausted this morning). While Chris and I were away, it was almost like our pre-kid days, so it was a little strange to come back to baby land — but I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

Sunny Getaway

Posted on by

Chris and I have just decided to do a Caribbean cruise in February (sans baby). We wanted to do some kind of holiday next year but we didn’t want to leave Justin for too long, so we settled on a seven-day cruise. The Kingwell grandparents are more than happy to come stay with the little guy while we’re gone, and we have complete confidence in them, but it’ll still be tough to go away for nine days. After my experience in Vancouver this summer, I know it can be done, but he’ll be 11 months old this time around and it’s possible he may actually notice we’re gone (as opposed to when he was four months old and everything was pretty well out of sight, out of mind).

Those who know me might be surprised to hear that I’m looking forward to this cruise. I’ve never been one to do tropical trips, and I didn’t really enjoy the last cruise we did (our honeymoon cruise to Alaska), but I have a feeling this time might be different. For one thing, we’ll be able to wander out on deck occasionally, whereas in Alaska it was too damn cold and wet. Besides, I deliberately chose an itinerary where we only spend one day at sea, so we’ll spend most of our time touring (read: off the ship). We’ll see how it goes.

Road Trip

Posted on by

We’re now back from our road trip to Saskatoon, and Justin proved to be a better traveller than Chris or I could ever have hoped for. We ended up driving all the way to Hanna the first day, which meant we were on the road for 12 hours, but Justin didn’t mind at all. It took us a few minutes to get him to sleep that night (that’s the first time we’ve ever shared a room with him, so he was busy watching us), but he did sleep all night. I was getting frustrated with him during feedings cause he was forever pushing the bottle away — eventually we realized he won’t take it if it’s too cold. That meant we had to get creative about warming bottles while on the road, but we did figure it out (lesson for next time: always take the thermos!) So his first trip to Grandma and Grandpa Kingwell’s house was good.

Summer Plans

Posted on by

I’m really excited about this editing workshop, which is a good sign. I’m going to tell myself that Justin is too young to miss his mom too much (and his dad will still be here, so that’s OK). It’s been years since I upgraded my skills — I can’t wait!

Shortly after that workshop, we’re going to pack up and drive to Saskatoon to visit my family. We don’t know what kind of traveller Justin will be, but we’re crossing our fingers. He’s a pretty easygoing guy in general, so hopefully four days of driving won’t be too traumatic for him. I’m famous for travelling light, never taking more than is absolutely necessary, but I think those days are gone now that Justin is here. The amount of stuff we have to take just for him is unreal.

It was a bit of an early morning today, and it wasn’t even Justin’s fault: it’s Chris’s birthday, and he’s always so excited about it that he wakes up early to open presents. Talk about a kid at heart…