Preggers at the Campsite
Coming from a completely unbiased perspective, our baby is the best baby. Roger or Rosie Mathews has made pregnancy easy(ish). Ok there’s still heartburn and restless leg and acne and backne and swollen hands and foot cramps, but otherwise it’s been smooth sailing. So smooth, in fact, that our move across the country became a camping one. We tested out camping in the San Juan islands over Memorial Day and it was San Juan-derful.
The best part about camping whilst preggers, other than the camping and the being preggers, is that you get so much street cred (woods cred?). People would stop to commend my ability to do outlandish things like, um, walk – while JD set up the entire camp and unrolled my princess foam mattress. Budweisers were raised and nods given in approval by fellow campers when they spotted me and my s’mores. Perhaps they were just relieved that the giant creature in the bushes was a big belly instead of Big Foot.
Not every night from Sequim to Grand Rapids was a tented one, but every night was lovely. Here’s where JD and I went on our semi-pragmatic baby moon.
Farewell, Washington
It seems like just 10 months ago I was writing a goodbye letter to Vietnam, and now it’s time to say goodbye to a newfound friend: Washington. We moved here with the intention of having much more time together but Roger and the subsequent hormones demanded otherwise. While JD and I are hugely excited for our next adventure with our move to Michigan today, we also realize we’re leaving a lot behind. Here’s what I will miss about Washington.
Encouraging Cozy
Our impromptu spring break trip to Canada took us straight into the romance of the Great White North. Banff National Park was a peek inside a snow globe that left us truly impressed.
Even for a directionally challenged loon like me there was something off about driving east to reach the great Rocky Mountains; considered Out West when growing up in Michigan. We drove through never-ending plains of white, past train tracks and tunnels that should have been part of a children’s play set and mountain peaks that looked like Kindergarten renditions of triangle mountains (mad-jestic in JD’s words).
Strangely, I was reminded of Namibia here. They are alike in their opposite extremes. There was the same quiet and same sense of smallness that comes from being the only humans for miles. Although exhilarating, there was also the feeling that we shouldn’t be there, as if we were trespassing on Mother Earth’s hallowed ground. The land was both too sacred and too brutal for us to cruise though in our temperature-controlled car.
Leavenworth: Quintessentially Odd
As we prepared for a weekend getaway to the mountain town of Leavenworth, I kept running into words like ‘quaint’, ‘charming’, ‘adorable’. But the one review that really made me excited described it as something like Alpine-weird. I was Alpine-interested.
Leavenworth was once just your regular run-on-of-the-mill timber town (pun fun!). But when the railroad relocated, the economy “fell” (sorry, folks, I had to). It “wood”n’t be until several decades later that they decided to turn over a new leaf. So, how do you save a struggling economy in a logging community? Rebrand it as a Bavarian town in Washington, naturally!
Our Grand Finale Tour of Southeast Asia
The words, “This is our last year in Vietnam” clearly struck fear into the hearts of my family members. Before you could say, “Tien’s your uncle” suitcases were packed, tickets bought, visas ordered and – lo and behold – they came, they saw, they loved it. For JD and me it was a chance to see them, to show off our city and to revisit our best spots.
So where did we go?
Cape Town Unrequited Love
I’ve met the best city in the world. She’s beautiful; she’s cultural; she’s fun and interesting and she makes me happy. She’s the city of my dreams. And, wait, I’ve known her before.
Cape Town, the Mother City, is my one who got away.
How the East Was Won
Or rather how the East won me over – East as in Eastern Europe. After spending most of my American life pining to be exotically French or Italian or even British and being obsessed with all things Western European, I have come to admire Europe’s other half. My trip with my mom to Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia and Italy (just couldn’t resist!) transformed Eastern Europe from intriguing to enchanting.
This is Croatia
And it’s wonderful.
The Glitz, Glam and Grit of Budapest
Budapest startled me. The fine beauty I associated with Western Europe interlaced with the darkness of far and recent past so perfectly that I was sure I was in a storybook. Here the opulent Parliament building sits just in front of walls still suffering from Soviet bullet wounds. The Jewish Quarter hosts one of the world’s largest – and most beautiful – synagogues in between lots that have been abandoned since most of the Jews there were deported in the last months of World War II. From the Danube River you gaze at a fairytale castle just next to the statue made to commemorate that the people wanted no more war. Budapest quickly became one of my favorite places.
Honeymoon of Nine Children
Most couples are surprised to get one honeymoon baby. We had an average of nine.
The idea of revisiting a place where we’ve already been is not our style. The more you travel, the longer the list grows of places to visit. No matter how many places you can check off, the list never gets shorter. So it was our highest compliment to return to the Philippines for our honeymoon. After becoming engaged in the Philippines last year there was a sentimental component, but really we went back because it’s so fricking cool.
beyonddisneytraveltips 