Tag: bed and breakfast

  • Adjusting Expectations: Travel Edition

    So I’ve been listening to podcasts for a while now, and one of my favorites is The Mom Hour with Meagan Francis and Sarah Powers. Each week they have a new episode that shares parenting advice and experience on a particular topic–but in a no-judgment, do-what-works-for-you kind of way. It’s just my speed.

    (And their episodes always give me blogging ideas, so watch for more references to them and the podcast!)

    They’ve also added a series of episodes called “More Than Mom,” in which they discuss things beyond parenting advice. This week’s topic was travel.

    Travel’s something I’ve been meaning to write about for a long time, because it’s one of those areas in life where I had expectations based on my own childhood–and then things turned out to be different.

    When I was a kid, we traveled a lot–with the result that I visited every state (except Alaska) before I was 30. In the U.S., we traveled mostly by car, often camping in our pop-up tent trailer. Budget motel rooms were fairly rare, and the four of us would stay in one room. Then we moved to South Texas, where it was too hot to camp. Budget motel rooms became more common.

    We were fortunate enough to do a fair amount of international travel; my dad was in the military, so when we lived on the East Coast, we could get cheap flights to Europe on Air Force cargo planes. On those trips, we stayed in B&Bs, which tended to be less like showplaces filled with antiques and more like the house of someone who had a couple of spare rooms and was willing to serve you some food in the morning.

    Eventually, my parents moved on to tour packages and cruises, but my travel expectations for myself, certainly for the forseeable future, were of the DIY, low-budget variety. And, as it turned out, so were Mr. Sandwich’s. Neither one of us felt like resort people.

    But then we had Baguette, and we got to know her needs, and our travel style changed.

    First, neither Mr. Sandwich nor I has been on a plane since our trip to Kauai in 2009. This is kind of bizarre, because when I was single, I was the person who was on a plane once a month, and not for work. Even after we married, we flew once or twice a year. But we haven’t taken Baguette on a plane yet–although I’m sure we’ll try it at some point–so most of our travel is by car or train (she loves the train!).

    Second, we don’t stay in budget motels.

    Baguette is pretty adaptable, but she does best and is most comfortable in a setting that’s like a home. She likes some space, and some delineation of that space, and a comfy sofa. Those don’t tend to be features of budget motels.

    When we move in, we move in. Stuff EVERYWHERE.

    Also, she’s not a fan of restaurants. Too much waiting. So we cook more on vacation.

    What this means is that VRBO is our best friend. We look for one- or two-bedroom places with a full kitchen, in areas that are walkable and close to amenities, as well as within reasonable striking distance of the attractions we’re visiting. We’ve found a regular place in Santa Barbara (this summer vacation will be our eighth year spending a week there, and our fifth with this particular rental), and based on our Spring Break trip to San Diego, we may have found a regular place there, too.

    If VRBO doesn’t have anything available in another location, we look for a hotel room that comes with a kitchen. There are more of these than there used to be; over the past few years, we’ve stayed in Homewood Suites, Larkspur Landing, and TownePlace Suites.

    For a night or two, we can manage a simpler room that has a mini-fridge and microwave, but longer than that and everyone gets cramped and edgy. No one wants to be cramped and edgy on vacation.

    So it’s not what I expected–but it works. It works well. And if something else works in the future, we’ll do that. But this is really good for now.

    How do you travel?

  • Solo Travel: A Weekend of One’s Own

    Sick = short on posts. Fortunately, Ginger of Ramble Ramble has another prompt: Do you/have you traveled solo? What do you like about it? What don’t you like? What makes it so different from traveling with other people?

    I’ve traveled a lot–I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states, and every continent except South America and Antarctica. But nearly all of that travel has been with family or friends.

    When I moved to New Jersey, I thought I’d travel a lot. Airlines (at least at that point) offered great last-minute weekend fares to Europe–and I’d be so close to JFK!

    But then the California-based Mr. Sandwich and I started our long-distance relationship, and that meant that if my flights weren’t taking me to San Antonio to visit my parents and brother, they were taking me to Los Angeles to visit him.

    Before that, though, I did manage to plan and go on one weekend getaway.

    Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I was able to find an affordable work-in-progress B&B right on the Hudson River, in a town called Rhinecliff. (Rhinecliff is just a couple of miles from the–at least locally–much better-known town of Rhinebeck. Neither of them is pictured here.)

    Hudson River view

    The drive up is aptly identified as scenic, and I took my time driving along the back roads (not even Route 9, but 9-D).

    Based on a brief stop that I never repeated, the town of Cold Harbor (also not pictured here) may be my dream spot. If it isn’t, keep it to yourself.

    At this juncture, I can’t tell you much about either Rhinecliff or Rhinebeck, but I did visit a number of historic houses: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s childhood home of Springwood, where he is buried; the Vanderbilt House, which is so rigidly symmetrical that it is ugly; and Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s retreat where I apparently took no pictures.

    Springwood manor
    Springwood: a lovely place to grow up and be buried
    Vanderbilt House in Hyde Park
    Sure, the Vanderbilt House looks innocuous enough from this angle, but it actually gave me the creeps in person.
    Gardens at Vanderbilt House
    But the gardens were very nice.

    I also spent one day with one of the co-authors of a textbook I was editing; when she learned that I was going to be in the area, she insisted that I drive over and join her. She was prickly on paper, but I really had a great time with her and a couple of her friends who were also visiting.

    My main memories of the weekend are that I got to explore an area that I might otherwise not have (it was a little far for a day trip, particularly with that many sites), that I was able to choose what I did and to set my own pace, and that it was a little lonely, particularly in the evenings.

    And in spite of the loneliness, I wish I’d done more of that while I was in that part of the country, because there are places I meant to explore but never got anywhere near (Finger Lakes, Montauk, the Adirondacks).

    So I guess I’ll have to go back someday and discover them with Mr. Sandwich and Baguette.