Ellicott City

On Wednesday afternoon we had the wonderful opportunity to meet my aunt and my cousin's wife at Ellicott City, MD.  It is about 45 minutes north east of our house. The city was founded in 1772 and is home to the B&O Railroad museum. It also has a great Main Street with numerous antique stores and boutiques.

 My favorite store was called Vintage Girl. It had so many cute things! I bought a pair of vintage fake pearls for $8.00 and an adorable hat. I could have bought so much more! My Aunt Arlee was so great with all the kids. I love her. She is so patient, loving and fun. I'm glad her kids live nearby so I get to see her (and them) more frequently.

 Calder loved playing with Anniva and Tove. I'm so glad Arn and Leisha live so close! It is quite a blessing.

 If you have the chance to get to Ellicott City for an afternoon of shopping I highly recommend it.

Will Travel With Kid

So, I'm going to be going to Oregon alone with Calder next week and I need some advice from all of you. I haven't traveled alone with Calder ever and so I'm a little nervous. I have three questions / concerns:

1. I want to get Calder a new 'special' toy for the trip. I'd like it to keep his attention for quite a while. Do you have any favorite silent (or very quiet) toys that would fit the bill?

2. The last time Calder was on an airplane he was 2.5 months old. I carried him in the sling and it worked perfectly. I can certainly do this again but I'm wondering if it would be easier for me to take the stroller. I won't be needing it in Oregon so it would be just for the airports etc. He will be 12 months at the end of the trip, is taking steps but not yet walking if that makes a difference. He likes his stroller very much and when we went to DC a few weeks ago (crud, I didn't blog about that yet) he took many naps in it. The sling is comfortable but I don't know if Calder would nap in it. I'm leaning toward taking the stroller but I think it will be a little bit of a hassle. If you've done this was it a big deal?

3. I'm worried there's something I'm forgetting. If you have any travel advice, please bestow it upon my comment section.

Another Travel Adventure

As I've mentioned before, I have problems traveling. See here and here. It is not related to anything I can change or do and it is definitely a problem with me since Jason can travel just fine without me but I have problems alone or with others.

We were scheduled to go to Oregon on Dec. 22nd. Of course there was weather problems on both ends of our trip and our flights got canceled. When we tried to call Alaska Airlines to reschedule their lines were BUSY! No kidding. It's not like we got the message telling us to hold and the next available representative will be with us, but it just rang busy. So, after trying for 30 minutes or so, we finally got through to the aforementioned message. It only took us 1.5 hours from then to get a person on the line and rescheduled for the 26th. They did try to give us a flight through Anchorage but we kindly declined and flew through Seattle instead.

The fun doesn't end there! Both of our flights from Chicago to Seattle and then Seattle to Portland were delayed, so we didn't have any problems getting there, we were just late. But, somehow our car seat didn't make it. So after filing a claim they took Jason into a room full of random junk and showed him the carseats. He could then choose one for us to use during our trip.

I was nervous checking the car seat to begin with because I have heard they aren't very nice to them and since you're supposed to buy another one if it gets in an accident, how am I supposed to know whether it had an 'accident' while being loaded or unloaded. But, we did it anyway to avoid having to haul the stroller along as well.

Jason chose the best looking carseat available but of course it doesn't have a base. I'm sure he was much nicer than I would have been. I was so mad. So, we drove the 3 hours to Hermiston and back with a less than safe carseat. The roads were slick for the hour and a half of our drive. UGH What a mess.

They did call us that night to let us know that they had it waiting for us when we came back to Portland to pick it up.

The trip back wasn't so bad. All of our stuff made it but we were delayed in Seattle for a long time. We didn't get to Chicago until 1:30 or 2:00 AM. We were supposed to get there at 11:00 pm.

I'm sure Jason can't wait for Calder to get older so the two of them can go back to traveling without me. It's such a mess. Calder was a perfect little boy while were were flying. He had a meltdown on the way from Hermiston to Portland but we all survived.

We've Arrived

Well, we actually got here on Monday! We decided to do the last two days of the trip in one day. It all worked out well. We got here around 8:30 and unloaded the car. Deebo was quite tired and ornery. (He still is, but the more he sleeps the better it gets.)

The condo is fabulous. I love it. The kitchen is beautiful and larger than our other one. It has a washer and dryer and dish washer. It's so nice! I'm seriously not going to know what to do with my time! It's a good thing I brought a suitcase of crafty things. The only down part about the apartment is the sleeping arrangements.

Last week I called the person we're subletting from to make sure everything was ready for us. She is a very funny person who is not a native English speaker. After making sure everything was okay and ready she mentioned that there were twin beds. Knowing it was only a one bedroom I realized that meant there were ONLY twin beds. I don't know why she failed to mention this two months ago when we arranged everything, but she said she didn't know our sleeping arrangements. Hah. We decided that wasn't a big deal and we could make it work. (not that we had a choice since we already had a contract and nowhere else to live).

So when we showed up there was ONE twin bed and a mat. I took the bed and Jason took the mat. Deebo was probably thankful we brought his bed so he didn't have to fight over a bed. He also probably thought Jason was in trouble. Today we figured out if we take the twin bed off the box springs and lay it on the floor the mat and mattress should be about the same height. We'll see if that works. If not, Jason's sister Karen was so sweet to lend us her inflatable mattress.

Good times.

We've spent the rest of the day getting set up. I made a Target run and did some serious damage at the grocery store. It feels like we're pretty well settled.

Tulsa to Albuquerque

Day two was also better than expected. It wasn't as pretty as yesterday's drive but it was still decent. Okay, the panhandle of Texas is just ugly but at least we got some pretty views at the beginning and end of the drive. Deebo did great. He was always willing to get back in the car and keep driving. Jason and I are both shocked. He's been so good.

Last night he did well too. He had to sleep on the bed because every time someone would walk by the door he would growl. Jason did a good job calming him down. I slept. Thankfully people didn't really walk by much and it only happened 2-3 times.

Lunch was from DQ in the middle of nowhere Texas. I'm not kidding. There was nothing else and after a disastrous lunch at DQ yesterday we didn't really want to stop, but didn't have a choice since there wasn't anything else. Today was at least better but the ambiance was exactly what you'd expect from the only fast food joint in the middle of nowhere Texas. All well. Dinner was from Chili's To Go. It's a great system. Yesterday we did TGI Fridays. I call and order and Jason runs over to pick it up. We can't really eat at a restaurant since we have Deebo but we don't want fast food again. I highly recommend it.

Chicago to Tulsa

Today we drove from Chicago to Tulsa, OK on our way to San Diego. Jason and I were very nervous about Deebo since we haven't taken him further than 60 minutes from our house. Jason loaded the car mostly by himself this morning since I'm not allowed to lift heavy things. We got everything of ours to fit in the back seat of the car and then Deebo's bed and water went into the hatchback portion of the car.

Deebo has been a bit ornery for the last week. He usually gets this way when we pack for a trip. It was exaggerated this time because we packed all week. It drove him nuts. Deebo normally sleeps all day. I'm not kidding. He probably sleeps 18 hours a day. For the last week he has refused to sleep in the evenings while we pack because he's afraid we were going to leave without him while he's sleeping.

This morning he was beside himself as Jason carried stuff to the car. Finally we put his bed in the back and he got so excited! He couldn't stop panting and he had the biggest grin on his face. He was trilled to start our trip together.

Deebo was a champ today! He didn't howl once. I have to get out to walk every two hours to avoid blood clots, so that worked out for him too. We would take turns walking in the grass while the other went to the bathroom or got gas. It was perfect.

Tonight is his first trip to a hotel with us. Right now he's sleeping, so that's a good sign. He is a little on edge, but I hope he'll be okay. We'll see how the next few days go.

Cami's Travels

Well, I can't seem to go anywhere without some sort of glitch. Today I flew to Orlando for a work convention and my carry on bag had to be scanned three times and then emptied out in search of 'something round' I was told. I could not think of anything I packed that was round. They did eventually find the apple I randomly threw in while packing. This was a minor setback, but let me tell you about the other problems I've had.

I have slept in the Minneapolis airport and missed work the next day because my flight was delayed getting there. I have had numerous flights cancelled. I was re-booked to Portland, Maine instead of Portland, Oregon. I've also had a speacial search where the woman wanding me asked numerous times what my hips were.

Jason and I don't fly together. Not really for this reason but because of my work schedule it doesn't always work out that we can travel together. Jason has found it quite handy because of all the problems I have.