How we're getting our kids into hiking (in the flattest state ever.)

Peter and I have always loved spending time together outside (it's a big part of why I ranked my residency so highly- it was a ten minute drive to some amazing state parks!) so we knew we wanted to raise kids who love spending time outside too. Since E has gotten older, I'm starting to realize what a challenge it can be to bring little kids along hiking, and I've heard from lots of parents of young kids that this is a common problem. While I don't doubt she can do it, the mix of boredom and whining can be really grating and suck the fun out of even a short hike. And to an extent, I get it. Who wants to hike when you've got playgrounds and splash pads?

Fast forward a few years and our kids are now 4 and 1.5, and we're looking ahead at a few trips this summer that will involve some great hiking destinations. We really don't want to skip these parts of our trip, so I'm starting to work on getting both kids more into hiking now so we can squeeze at least a few trails in this summer. Some of these are methods we've tried and some are suggestions from other parents a little ahead of us, so I'll definitely post an update once we've wrapped up our trips about how things went.

Start small and short. When I trained for half marathons, this was key to being able to accomplish my goal- starting my training with super short distances and slowly building up. For us this means neighborhood walks and boardwalks that are under a mile. My kiddo can easily ride her scooter to and from the nearest playground, but we're currently working on getting her to the library and back, which is double the distance. Once a week on my full day at home with the kids, we make the mile-ish walk to the toddler story time, or hit a local nature trail or boardwalk. I'm hoping this will make for an easier time doing mile-long hikes in the summer. 

Make it a game. E actually has a little background in hiking- from the age of 18 months to 2 years, she was part of a free forest school and went on lots of hikes with the older kids in her cohort. The big kids loved playing different games as they walked, from scavenger hunts to I spy (and of course, lots of imaginary play.) We like to play a lot of sensory games too- talking about what we can see, hear and smell (this exercise is also a great way to introduce mindfulness.)

Food can be an excellent motivator. E is definitely a snackaholic, and she usually gets a lot farther if I bring a few different kinds of snacks for her and her brother. I try to keep some loose rule in place so we're not stopping every 5 feet- on the walks where we live there are plenty of benches so we have to get at least to the next bench or so before we take a break. And for longer trips I'm not afraid to pack along some sweets like kisses or M&M candies for her to have once we’ve reached a certain distance. 

Be prepared to carry. Even our big kid gets tired, and while I know she's capable of walking a fair distance, it's still not uncommon for her to want to be carried sometimes. Luckily she's still just within the appropriate weight for our soft carrier, but this summer we plan to upgrade to a toddler size carrier that we can either wear on the waist or easily fold into our backpack. It can be a fine line to know when to push them to keep going, so having a backup way of getting back seems like a good idea.

Choose an exciting destination. I've heard this from parents of older kids but I've also seen it with E- when there is something cool at the end of the hike she's definitely more willing to keep going! Things like waterfalls, arches and even a little creek bed to splash in can be a big motivator for kids to keep on moving. And it doesn't have to be the destination itself- interesting bridges, rocks to scramble up and narrow passages to squeeze through can also get kids back in the mood for adventure.

If you take your kids hiking, what has worked for you? I'd love to hear your experiences! And will definitely post an update of some kind when we get back. 

 

The surprising way we took a low-waste trip to Boston

The kids having a snack at their art table.

This fall, my family and I did something that felt a little bit out of our comfort zone.

We have been so thankful to buy a home and grow our family in the last few years, but it also means that money has been a bit tight. So when we were invited to three(!) big family events within a few months of each other, we knew we had some difficult decisions to make to fit them into our budget. 

I had been toying with the idea of a house swap on and off since we bought our home, but there weren’t really many trips we were planning as we prepared to welcome our son, then care for him as a newborn. By the fall, he was one and we were eager to get back into traveling to explore new places and see friends and family. I also knew from a work trip over the summer that apartments and home rentals work much better for our family at this stage than hotels. So when my cousin announced her wedding in the neighborhood we lived in when E was born, I realized it might be a great opportunity to try house-swapping out for size. 

If the term isn’t familiar to you, a home swap is essentially two households swapping homes for an agreed on length of time. It could be extended family, or someone found through a website or agency. According to this BBC article it’s been a rising trend since the 2000s, getting a boost from the film ‘The Holiday’ (and probably also helped along by the economic crisis of the late 2000s.) My parents actually house swapped once with cousins when we were kids, and Peter and I had relatives from Greece stay in our tiny New York apartment while we were traveling one holiday. It had gone pretty smoothly and we were happy to help another couple make their trip more affordable. What’s more, house swapping is considered more eco-friendly than other forms of travel, as it reduces carbon footprint, waste and resource consumption. Realizing that I knew the neighborhood we’d be interested in pretty well (and after lots of talking and thinking about it,) we decided to try to find a family to home swap with us for a week in October.

Here’s the nuts and bolts of how we did it, how it went, and what we learned and might do differently moving forward.

This room looks a bit different now, but the view from the living room window is still one of my favorite spots in the house.

Finding a family to swap with.

For me, this was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole experience. How do you know you’re exchanging your home with someone trustworthy? We could have used a service -Home Exchange has great reviews and has been around awhile, but the annual fee was a bit of a deterrent, since we didn’t know if we’d use the service again if it didn’t work out.

Instead, we opted for a bit of an unorthodox choice- Facebook groups. 

I have to say, under normal circumstances, I couldn’t recommend this. Even typing it out sounds like the start of a scene from The Vacation From Hell. We opted for Facebook *only* because I was a regular user of the Mom groups for this neighborhood when E was born, and knew they were exceptionally strictly monitored. I had used the same groups dozens of times to buy, sell, gift and exchange baby items, so this felt like a slight level up from what I had already been using them for, and had positive experiences with. 

I posted a brief description of my idea, our home, the dates we were interested in swapping, and what we needed in a home, and immediately got quite a few responses! We ultimately decided to swap with another family of four who lived just one street over from our old home. It had enough space for us and was a short walk from the local transit station. I was excited to revisit our old playgrounds, libraries and restaurants with our kids now that E was older. 

Preparing to swap.

Since this was our first time having someone stay in our home while we weren’t there, it took a fair bit of work to make everything go smoothly. We spent many Saturdays decluttering, reorganizing and making our guest room and office into less of an afterthought and more liveable, comfortable spaces. We organized the garage so the family could easily find our beach gear. A week before the swap we paid to have our home deep cleaned by professionals. We borrowed an extra twin mattress and bought separate towels and sheets for our guests. I also spent a lot of time making and editing a document on accessing and running the house and wifi, as well as a few rules and requests for the end of the stay. 

The other slight difference to other forms of travel was timing- while I usually search for the cheapest flight itinerary, but having to coordinate with another family meant we had to make sure we were out of the house and back at roughly the right times, and as a courtesy I checked with the family in Boston to make sure our travel times worked for them. A very manageable problem, but worth pointing out.

Snuggled up in the coziest armchair (with the cuddlier of the two cats.)

The home exchange.

The exchange itself was surprisingly smooth! The apartment we stayed in had two bedrooms and an open work space off of the living room/play area, so it worked well for our needs (mostly vacation time with a little remote work for Peter.) Their kids were older than ours, and although they did hide as many small toys as they could, we did have to watch our son pretty closely during the week we were there. They also had two very sweet cats who occasionally showed their faces for cuddles before disappearing to hide from our noisy kids. 

The biggest hitches were pretty minor- on the night our babysitter drove in for the wedding, she parked incorrectly and I missed a call from our hosts at the wedding reception for her to move the vehicle. We apologized and the family was very understanding. We also had one mishap where one of the cats bolted, and I’ve never been so thankful to have married a cat person- Peter very quickly bounded down the steps and grabbed him just as he was making his way down the sidewalk. Apart from a noisy night or two when the unit above had a party, we were very comfortable the whole time and things went pretty smoothly!

Our kids made themselves right at home!

The return home and some afterthoughts.

Heading back home went pretty well, but it did take more work than leaving a hotel room with linens and messes to be dealt with by someone else. We wanted to leave the apartment as nicely as we found it, which wasn’t easy considering we had to leave to catch a flight early in the morning. We spent the night before departure tidying and replacing any food we had used up. I assembled a small bag of thank you gifts for our hosts and their kids. Early the morning of our flight we had to get the kids up to wash the sheets and towels and break down the travel crib we had borrowed. Once we triple-checked we had locked everything up properly, we were off.

We made it home that afternoon to a house in similar shape to when we left it and a TON of food and new pool/beach toys the family had ordered and left behind (Amy, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!) A few things got misplaced but were found eventually. One pool float managed to break, but they were nice enough to replace it for us. I asked the mother who coordinated with me on our exchange what they might like to do differently next time, and she assured me everything was great on their end too, and offered to try this out again during the summer months, which I take to be a good sign! 

It left us feeling ready to try a home swap again in the future- we are actually looking at another home exchange experience in the coming months when we visit family overseas. Here’s what I’m keeping in mind to make future swaps go as smoothly as possible.

Returning to playgrounds E last visited when she was two was pretty wild

Decide what you’re looking for. 

Do you need one bedroom? Two? A dedicated workspace? Is some amount of pet or plant-sitting ok? Do you need to go and be back at a fixed time, or are your travel dates fluid? It helps here to be flexible, but if there are must-haves, be clear on needs before you start your search.

You also need to decide who you’re looking for, meaning who you are comfortable swapping homes with. The ideal situation is going with someone who is well-vetted- just like when you’re looking for an airbnb. Apps usually have systems to review guests and host homes, but knowing someone personally is another option. In our case, the who also mattered in that we were bringing young kids, and wanted to be in a place that was set up to host our children. So swapping with a family of children similar ages to ours worked out great.

A word of caution: none of these strategies for choosing the ‘right’ family are foolproof; they help, but cannot completely prevent problems from arising. There is always going to be an inherent risk when inviting someone to use your home. Bad exchanges, like ones involving ruined kitchen equipment and huge messes that required professional cleaners- are rare, but they do happen. To that end, think carefully about whether this kind of travel is right for you. Because my parents live close and kept an eye on things, and we don’t have nice furniture or many valuables (and the ones we did, we locked up carefully or removed from the home), we felt comfortable moving forward with a home exchange. But even for us, risks are always present.

Write up a house manual. You might know how to run your home as a well-oiled machine, but a total stranger is going to have no clue if the router needs to be rebooted every now and then or the sprinklers need adjusting. Start with the very basics- how to find and get into the house. Add photos if you can (visuals can be a huge help!) We also printed out step-by-step instructions for our coffee and tea machine. 

If you’re swapping vehicles, be sure to add rules and recommendations on what to do if any problems arrive. As a bonus, we like to share a local guide to our area with the nearest grocery stores and our favorite restaurants, parks and attractions. 

Set clear expectations at the get-go. If there are any big take-homes, this is it. Cleanliness and common courtesy can mean different things to different people. If you want folks to strip the beds and run a load of linens, or have the place cleaned professionally, tell them! If you don’t want any smoking on the premises or would like your food replaced (or left untouched,) be clear from the start. For us this meant delineating the house rules and expectations in a document. This helps avoid so much stress and unmet expectations. 

Keep lines of communication open. We didn’t have a constant stream of consciousness text, but for little things (where’s the litter box, again? How do you access the basement?) you can and should keep in touch. We also enjoyed hearing from the exchange family about how much they enjoyed the pool, beach and our favorite local places. 

Home exchanges probably aren’t for everyone, but when done right, they can be a fun, low waste and engaging way to see another part of the world or visit friends and family. We're excited to try and exchange our home again this summer!

What do you think? Is this a kind of travel you would try? Have you house swapped before? I’d love to hear your experiences!

 

Lessons in Camping

 

Did you know that camping season in Florida is actually the winter? Even after growing up here, it didn't occur to me until chatting with another Mom in the outdoor playgroup I set up after moving here. But if you think about it, it makes perfect sense! Winters in Florida are beautiful- they're cooler, less humid, even a little less buggy. It's why we get 'snowbirds' all the way from Canada weathering out their winters here. 

Peter had a couple vacation days that were going to expire, and I was itching to explore a new part of Florida- camping seemed like a natural fit. So I threw together a quick plan and we were off. 

We chose the campsite (Long Point Park in Sebastian) purely from the recommendation of another parent. It's a nice little organized campground, but you definitely don't feel like you're out in nature- most folks have RVs with hookups, and there's a pretty clean bathroom/shower area that we were thankful for, plus a playground for kids. It was great- just not exactly the quiet set up I was expecting. That being said, we'd love to come back, maybe with kayaks or canoes, since our campsite had a spot for launching small boats!

On day one we arrived in time to set up our tent and cook dinner before it got too dark. E was SO excited to sleep in the tent- we had opened it on a test run the day before in our yard and she asked right away if she could sleep inside it. So I guess she gets it? 

That being said...sleeping in a tent proved challenging for our girl. I kind of expected it- apart from the occasional car nap and if she's overtired, E does NOT sleep well on the go. I joke that she is over-sleep trained because she really does struggle outside of her dark, cozy room and bed (or pack and play.) The white noise machine did help, a bit. So definitely bring that if you've got littles. The silver lining: she loved seeing all the stars at our camp site.

The next day we spent the morning/mid-day at the beach. We packed a picnic lunch and E loved digging in the sand. We didn't swim (most of the beaches have dangerous rip currents, huge waves, oh- and it's man-o-war season!) but it was honestly not too warm and we all just enjoyed getting some sun. There is a smaller cove-type beach in the park just down the road that is great for littles to splash around in. 

By the afternoon it was too hot to swim (or to nap inside the tent,) so we went for a drive. I was secretly hoping that E would fall asleep on the way down A1A, but no such luck, so we visited a small treasure museum (McLarty, more info here.) It was not at all expensive and an easy way to escape the heat. This part of Florida is known as the treasure coast because a number of shipwrecks from the Spanish colonial era have been found here. The staff was really knowledgeable- we got to chat with a ranger who grew up in the area and described moments where you'd just put your hand in the sand and pick up Spanish coins- so cool! It was a nice way to kill an hour and escape the heat. 

The second night was a little warmer, which meant a LOT more bugs. It didn't help that our independent little gal was a little bit slow getting herself into the tent- unfortunately that combo meant lots of bug bites that night :( note to self, re-apply deet at bedtime!!) 

Overall, we had a great time, with lots of valuable lessons learned about bringing small kids along for the ride and how camping in Florida is different from other parts of the country. Here's a few:

- Start with a game plan. I made a planning template for our first camping trip with E back when she was a baby. In addition to reservation dates and details, it included a packing list, meal plan, and list of local activities and hikes. I basically adapted the same template, tweaking it for Florida. And we'll definitely adjust the packing list slightly for our next trip

- get organized before you go. I got this tip from another blog/instagram Mom, Cali Wolf - in addition to having all the camping gear in one place in the garage, we keep the smaller odds and ends in two bins- one for kitchen stuff (the bin doubles as a wash basin) and one for miscellaneous smaller items. It makes packing 10x faster!

- adapt for littles. This is really true of all trips- pre-kid, I was definitely the travel that was always on the go- I wanted to squeeze as much as I could and see as many places as I could into a single trip. That really does not work for kiddos. We've found since having E cutting the pace by 50% and leaving afternoons open for quieter activities (or the occasional precious car nap, haha) works much better for us. Oh! and don't forget to add a few things to your packing list for the baby- namely, a place to put them down, like a pack and play, potentially a travel high chair and bassinet, and any other small essentials you need.

- prepare for all weather. Especially in Florida, winter doesn't mean consistent cold- a chilly evening and morning can swing into a hot afternoon. The key is bringing light layers so you can easily adapt.

- bug defense! This was the toughest lesson for us- even though I lived here in Florida for years, I forgot how bad bugs can be, even in the winter. We brought deet, which helped, but just one night without applying it meant we went home with dozens of bug bites. Next time we'll add citronella candles to the packing is. We have an insecticide-treated mosquito net too, but I'm not sure if we'll use it. Lastly, permethrin treated clothing is another good way to keep the bugs away- I had a scarf I was wearing the first night that I ditched because I was too hot, and I'm convinced it helped. 

Thoughts? What would you add to this list? If you've camped with littles I'd love to hear your tips!

That time we went to South Dakota

I never mean to take as much time off as I end up doing when I get busy with life and school and other things. I had every intention of making a nice, curated travel guide for visiting South Dakota. Instead please accept these unedited photos from our travels. I'll make a short list of things to do as well. One thing I do want to say is the mark of white colonizers on what was once indigenous land runs deep in this state. Anywhere we travel in the U.S., it's important to know the often damaging history and impacts of white folks on the land, and even more important to understand who the original custodians are and were.

Any trip you take I would strongly encourage you to visit native-land.ca to learn more about the original tribes of indigenous peoples who originally occupied these spaces. During our time, we spent time on Sicangu Lakota Oyate land as well as on the land of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. You can find more information about the 18 tribal nations of South Dakota here.

We spent most of our times on the plains as I was working at a small hospital there, but we spent a couple of weekends in the Black Hills and it was gorgeous. We only did a few short hikes with the little one (Silver Lake trail and Cathedral Spires were both fantastic) and really enjoyed some scenic drives in the area. We used an Osprey Poco carrier my parents generously gifted to us and it worked great. Next time we go we also plan to stay in a traditional tipi like this one, which helps raise funds for local Lakota Youth Programming. 

Johnny Cash actually visited Lakota country at one point in his life. This guitar on display at a museum was part of a local performance.

One thing I fell in love with in South Dakota was the beading art. Pieces like the ones above are incredibly intricate and would have taken hours for the maker to complete. It wasn't uncommon at the hospital to see the clerk working on beading baby moccasins in her down time, and a local youth development programs often teach beading to teenage tribal members as a meditative and calming practice. I was lucky enough to have the stethoscope below made by an incredibly talented member of the local Lakota tribe. This museum shop carries some pieces of his and other local makers.

One of my favorite days was this one, when I had the chance to teach kids from a Lakota language immersion school about health and doctors' visits! Kindergarten is such an awesome age. Loved working with these kids.

We spent one of our last weekends visiting Wounded Knee, the site of one of the worst massacres in our country's history. 150 Native Americans were killed here in 1890. It was later the site of a protest against mistreatment of indigenous peoples by the U.S. government in the 1970s. 

As I mentioned above, our trip was related to my work and while I wasn't expecting much, we were blown away by the natural beauty and history of South Dakota. We're looking forward to heading back when we can, and hopefully doing some of the stuff we didn't get the chance to see on this trip. If you want to learn more about the Lakota people and this part of the country, I've listed a few resources below: 

An Indigenous People's History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz 
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer (Ojibwe)
The Rider film by Chloe Zhao

Lakota Youth Stay Cultural Tourism Opportunities 

If you have more please share! And please- support indigenous writers, artists and makers. There is a ton of work out there that plagiarizes, manipulates and capitalizes on Native American traditions for mainstream/fast fashion, which is not ok. 

Travel with a baby (hi, we have a baby!)

 Um, hi, hello! I always tell myself I will never take a month off from writing...and then life hits. And to be honest, I don't think I've ever had a bigger distraction than the one we've got right now...

In November I became a mom, maybe a couple days after that last post (and a few days early, to my shock and disbelief!) It has been a wild ride but suffice it to say we are so incredibly happy to have little E in our lives.

I'm not up for sharing the birth story just yet (may never be, to be honest) but I did want to pop on here and share how our travels went and what we learned. We traveled a lot before E came into our lives, and since her birth we've lived in 3 different places(!) Some days I felt really awesome managing to continue working in global health and travel with a baby in tow. And some (many) days I felt like I was drowning and life was irrevocably changed and I was failing at both my career and being a good mother. I think both are true to an extent (that's a story for another day.) So without further ado, here's some general advice and things we found that made traveling with a baby easier. 

Have a loose routine. Like it or not, your life will change when a baby arrives. When E first came (aka before reality hit,) I was very motivated to keep life as unchanged as possible. I tried to get her to sleep anywhere, with normal daily life buzzing in the background, in hopes that she'd learn to sleep on the go. HA. ha. Did you know that babies are actual humans? (note the sarcasm here.) And sure, some humans can literally sleep anywhere...Others need pitch black, total silence, Abby the bear and a lavender diffuser in the room to sleep well. Once we were exhausted into submission, we found a happy medium that worked for us by tracking and identifying our kiddo's wake windows/sleepy times and establishing a flexible schedule and sleep routine that worked for us. We loved the Huckleberry app for this (side note: none of these shares are sponsored.)

Obviously we didn't want something too complicated so it would be easy to implement in a bunch of different places (in the last month alone we have put her down for naps/bedtime in 2 houses and 3 different hotel rooms plus the occasional car or lap on the airplane.) So I'd argue for something really simple/loose- for us it's change diaper, sleep sack, books, bed with the sound machine on/lights out for naps (we just add a bath for bedtime, which can be skipped in a pinch) and naps around 9 am, 1 pm and 5 pm +/- 30 minutes. It really did work wonders for us. E is a different kid when she's able to sleep well, and this simple routine goes a long way in helping her get the rest she needs.

...And be willing to break it. Ok so I know I just went on and on about how amazing routines are...but hear me out. If you've got limited time somewhere (whether a few days or a few weeks,) you're not going to want to spend 5 hours of your vacation sitting in a hotel room in the dark, texting your significant other because you can't actually speak since the little one is sleeping two feet away. Peter and I agonized over this for a long time. Ultimately what worked for us was prioritizing naps in the first parts of the day, and either skipping or pushing off the later nap to do things as a family, since the third nap is hit or miss for her anyways. Sometimes we ended up with a grumpier baby. Sometimes it ended with E excitedly flailing her arms at the sighting of her first ever bison, a truly sweet and hilarious thing to see. 

We really tried not to do this every day, but on weekends or special occasions we wanted E to see or do something with us as a family, we made it work. It ended up giving us some sweet family moments that we would have missed out on if we were nap-trapped in our hotel room. 

Have an on the go routine option. I guess this is an extension of having a routine. South Dakota is pretty rural and spread out, so we spent many 3 hour chunks of time driving with E having a meltdown because she was so tired and couldn't sleep more than 10 minutes. That was until we stumbled on the magic of mimicry- in an act of desperation I flung my nursing cover over the car seat, we blasted the AC to make some white noise and just kept driving in total silence. While I wouldn't recommend using this method routinely, it did work for us and could prove useful if you're in a bind. 

Modify your expectations. When we first arrived in South Dakota one of the first websites I found had a list of '15 things to do in a day in the Black Hills.' Being a realist with a 5 month old, I cut the list down to 8 or 9 things that were realistic with an infant and sounded like fun. In the span of 4-ish days in the area we did 4-5 of them. Some of that was weather and not baby-related, but the reality is time just disappears with an infant. The days of driving for 8 or 9 hours straight are gone- instead, every 2-3ish hours we were stopping to check a diaper and feed. When we visited the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre I ended up stuck in the car nursing and didn't get to climb the hilltop to pay my respects. 

The first weekend I was super disappointed that my 7-item to do list went so terribly. By the last weekend there, we'd figured out that for stuff we were trying to do (mostly scenic drives, sight-seeing and short hikes) a list of 3 felt less daunting- 2 things we would definitely get done and one that was a maybe, depending on how well the day had gone. You can probably adjust this based on driving time, how long it takes to do something, your child's age, etc. But the more laidback schedule definitely made for a more enjoyable time for all of us.

Stay close to the action. I wish we had learned this sooner! Our first weekend out exploring we booked a hotel that we knew was kid friendly but was also an hour away from the hikes and parks. With a small infant often the timeframe that they're awake and happy is pretty short- in our case at most 3 hours on a good day. Staying somewhere we could walk or quickly drive to the spots we wanted to check out made a huge difference! Less time driving = more time to do things you enjoy as a family. It's that simple :) If you do one thing differently on your travels, I'd say this should be it, even if it means paying a little more for that convenience.

Come up with your packing list. Having moved to two states in E's first 6 months, I now have a good sense of what we do and don't use for her in the span of a couple days, a couple weeks, etc. This will definitely look different for everyone, but in general we realized we should have packed more clothes and fewer toys. E went through multiple outfits a day some days thanks to spit up, drool, and blow outs, and babies are often down to play with just about anything (just make sure it's safe/not a choking hazard.) They also LOVE repetition- she ended up playing with the same 1-2 toys every car ride, and we read her 4 of the same books over the span of of that month we were gone. I would also add that it is helpful to calculate how many diapers your kid goes through in 24 hours, then figure out how many you should bring for your travel day from there and maybe multiply by 1.2- just for peace of mind :) then you can buy as many diapers as you need once you arrive. We always purchased more than we needed and ended up donating what was left over to a local organization. 

As far as large items, a few things to know before you go: if you're renting a car you can also rent a car seat, and most hotels have pack and plays/cribs you can use- just ask! If you've got a mobile little one I'd also think about if there's a safe space to put the baby down, if you can make a space up by moving stuff around, or if it's worth it to try and buy an exer-saucer or playpen secondhand. I'd also add if your kiddo is taking some solids a high chair would be useful if you're going to be somewhere long term. We had some pretty comical dinners where we'd sit E on our laps in a diaper with a towel to keep things clean. A high chair would definitely have made life easier!

Stroll (or carry? or...) So this is less of a recommendation than a call for advice...do you bring your stroller or carry your little one through the airport? We've done both- it was super useful to have in Boston when we flew to Florida with all our stuff- but once we arrived at our hosuing in South Dakota we didn't touch the stroller as Peter carries E in our Lille carrier (linked, no commission.) I imagine once the family grows the stroller is kind of a must. But with one baby and a backpack diaper bag we found it much easier to navigate travel with our Sakura Bloom or the Lille. We also found the more stuff we could check or gate check to the final destination, the easier life was. And the less sore and exhausted we were by the time we made it to our lodging.

If you're a parent let me know what you find to be the best way to travel with your little one! Would love to hear more tips/advice. :)

Photo by the insanely talented Lyndsay Hannah. Definitely check her out if you are in the Boston area and in need of a family photographer.

Well, I'm Back

I wasn’t expecting to be writing my next post from outside of Liberia, but here we are. The plans changed slowly and suddenly at the same time. That may sound strange but it’s true. First, just under 2 weeks ago, a supervisor’s visit was cut short by Covid-19. Before she left we talked about the possibility of me leaving early and what it would entail, but nothing was set in stone. Then the craziest week of my life went down (can’t go into details but I have never been more stressed out in my entire life…) All the while I felt torn in two by the decision to stay and continue my work in Liberia or go home. Even with plans on the ground getting canceled left and right, and lots of fear of the unknown, there was still so much work to be done. I had finally fallen into a good workflow, become friends with my colleagues in Liberia, and felt like I was making progress in the right direction with our research goals. Ultimately the decision wasn’t in my hands and I was recalled by my program.

And then I left. It took 2 of 3 bookings getting canceled (all made within 24 hours of each other because airlines were changing routes and canceling things left and right,) a night spent hurriedly doing as much data entry as I could before leaving, and 2 last minute visits to a tailor (priorities, right?) before I was en route to the airport, starting the long journey home.

I didn’t sleep the night before my flight. Once the decision was made my mind began to torture me with all the possibilities for things to go wrong- delays, crowds and cancelations, running out of cash (I was already short due to an emergency the week before I departed,) running a fever before boarding the plane. I donned a surgical mask for the flight, anticipating dense crowds at the airports, but Roberstfield was calm and eerily empty. I think I was part of the last wave of foreigners to leave. I had one last cassava leaf at the airport café before boarding a half-empty flight to Accra, where I waited in a quiet airport lounge before boarding the flight that would deposit me at Dulles. Most people donned masks but were feeling uncommonly jovial and friendly- perhaps relieved knowing soon they’d be home and not stranded far from family during a global pandemic.

A few people coughed on the 11 hour flight back to the U.S. I tried not to worry about it too much, but couldn’t help but notice how gaping the openings were in my ill-fitting surgical mask. I was expecting mass chaos, crowding and long waits once we arrived in Dulles, but even with my border agent pausing every 10 seconds to check with his neighbor that he was asking me the right screening questions, there was absolutely no line or delays. I missed my flight anyways but was promptly booked onto another half empty flight back to Boston. From there it was surreal how fast everything happened. Less than 2 hours later as we deplaned I almost immediately exited the terminal, nearly blowing past my husband because I had left the secure area. I thought I would cry, or laugh, or be overwhelmed with emotion, but I was to numb with surprise and shock. He took my bag, handed me my coat and we headed back home on an uncharacteristically empty Storrow drive.

I am both relieve and disappointed at the same time. Despite having some health issues in Liberia, I really was having an incredible experience. The specialists, consultants and residents and I had all gotten to known each other, I had figured out where I fit into their system, their world. Up until the week before I left, some really great projects were going to be ramped up. One of the pediatricians had taken me with her to visit waterside market, and she I had plans to make pepper sauce before I went back.

Apart from all this, I definitely feel some guilt as well. Guilt that I am home, on my couch, unpacking, with my husband only a few feet away, in a country with an ICU, with ventilators, with intensivists, and with way more capacity to handle a surge in cases of Covid-19. Guilt that my friends and colleagues are still in Liberia, facing uncertainty and a disease that has been shown to cause serious illness in healthcare workers. I still feel the decision to leave was the right one- both due to my health and because I would hate for my job to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars evacuating me in the event of a medical emergency when that money could be better spent elsewhere.

I’ve spent the last couple of days since getting home sleeping, unpacking and trying to wrap my head around Covid-19’s impact on Boston. Soon I’ll meet with my team to devise a game plan for work these next few months. Hopefully it will make me feel less helpless. In the meantime I’ll keep reading the situation reports from WHO and prepping myself mentally for whatever lies ahead the next few months. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy these days. 

Israel: Jerusalem

After a long and

I was operating on less than 2 hours of sleep for our day trip to Jerusalem, so I'll keep this one short, mostly because I don't remember much of it, haha. I think the smartest thing we did was get up at crack of dawn to catch a 'sherut' (shared taxi or van- more here on different ways to get to and from Jerusalem) into Jerusalem in time for a 7:00 am divine liturgy at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. To participate and receive holy communion, watching tendrils of smoke lace their way through light and darkness in the lofty Greek chapel, was something I'll never forget.

The rest of our time at the Holy Sepulchre was a mix of fascinating, reverent, and feeling like we were being herded around like chattel. There were SO many different groups of pilgrims it made it hard to move around, although it was nice to see so many people coming to worship and pray. If we had one take home lesson from our experience, its that a lot of these religious sites should be visited as early as possible. By 9 am it was hard to feel serene with the level of crowds that had amassed.

Other than the massive crowds, our experience was great. Jerusalem is definitely a less secular city than Tel Aviv, and we really enjoyed wandering through the various quarters and exploring a place that's been occupied by people for so many millenia. My only other piece of advice is to do research online- this trip was a last-minute tag along for me to one of Peter's work trips, which meant we didn't know a ton going into it. For example, we totally missed out on seeing the Dome of the Rock because there's only a couple short periods each day that its open to non-worshippers (you can find the hours here.)

Hopefully someone finds this interesting/useful for their upcoming visit to Israel and Jerusalem. I'll try to post one more time before my classes start up again.  

Israel: Tel Aviv

Back in December I was stressing out about a number of things that in retrospect probably didn't matter that much ( this is my M.O., if you're new to this space,) when, in a last-ditch effort to cheer me up, Peter suggested I tag along for his work trip to Israel. It didn't take much convincing for me to say yes, so off we went a few weeks later...

I landed in Tel Aviv airport after a red eye and from there headed straight to Tel Aviv. We only had a few days total in Israel so I didn't want to waste any time catching up on sleep; instead we walked from our hotel on Rothschild down to the seaside towards Jaffa Port.

I have to say as far as trips go, this was one of the least planned out ones we've taken overseas. Usually one or both of us has some sort of bucket list of things we absolutely want to see/would like to check out if we have time. Unfortunately, 5 days was not enough, especially factoring in jet lag. But we did our best, had a blast, and soaked in the beautiful sunshine, so I'd still say it was worth it!

Jaffa and Tel Aviv are interesting bedfellows. One (Jaffa) is a town so ancient it's heavily featured in the bible, while Tel Aviv is a relatively new city, growing upward and outward from an old fishing village to a huge center for technology and culture in the past century.

Most of our time spent in Tel Aviv was just walking through beautiful neighborhoods- Rothschild Avenue for its beautiful bauhaus architecture, Florentin for cute cafes and an artistic/hipster vibe, and Neve Tsedek for beautiful houses and instagram-worthy doors. We tried to visit Carmel Market, only to find it was closed for the Sabbath (these kinds of mistakes became a trend on this trip, haha.) A lot of sites (less in Tel Aviv but moreso in Jerusalem/Nazareth) kept surprisingly short visitor hours, so if I could give one piece of advice for someone spending any amount of time in Israel, it would be to research opening hours for Markets, Churches and other religious sites you're interested in.

We were pleasantly surprised by the collection at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which has a great collection of Impressionist and Modern paintings.

The city as a whole is quite beautiful. I was impressed not only by all the natural greenery and parks, but also by how clean everything was. It was a stark (and saddening) contrast to the coastal Cretan towns where I spent my Fulbright, where the streets are rife with crude graffiti and litter. Obviously the financial and political climate in Tel Aviv is quite different, and they do a fantastic job of keeping the city clean and beautiful.

Where we stayed: The Diaghilev Hotel had been pre-booked by Peter's job, so we added a couple of days to the reservation. The location right by Rothschild avenue was super convenient, the rooms were clean and spacious, and the breakfasts were great (wish I had taken a photo, Israeli breakfast is so. delicious.)



Where we ate: We went based off of quite a few sources for this trip. A friend of mine had lived in Tel Aviv for 4 years, so for food and drink we mainly relied on a list she sent us, along with this post from Les Flaneries D'Aurelie blog. A few favorites were North Abraxis for amazing farm to table food with a menu that changes daily, the Old Man and the Sea for some truly amazing fish overlooking the old port (the colorful photo of a dozen or so small plates, above, is from that restaurant), and we got some incredible Falafel in Jaffa's Flea Market area (Falafel Danny.)

For Nazareth, a former colleague who is Palestinian and has quite a lot of family there gave us some great recommendations (more on Nazareth/Jerusalem later.) And of course you can't go wrong with a Lonely Planet Guide :)

Ok time to run catch another plane! Will post the rest of the photos some time this week :)