Travel For FOUR

When we first moved to London in 2006, we heard of people traveling to the Canaries for a dose of winter sunshine and added the islands as a possible destination for our upcoming travels. As is usually the case, things shift up and down on the list based on who we’ve spoken to, books we’ve read, documentaries we’ve seen, articles in the Economist, etc, etc, etc…so, here we are in 2015 having just visited the Islands–well over 8 years since it first appeared on our ‘to do’ list.

Also as per usual, we purchased the guidebook for the Canaries well in advance of our actual trip. As in years in advance–so far in advance that we had to rebuy current books before our trip?! So, if you’ve ever felt a tad overwhelmed with choice upon setting out to plan a trip, you’re in good company.

Upon first traveling to Europe together in 2004, we picked up a Rick Steves guide to Italy and used it as our ‘Bible’ for planning the trip. At the time, the book was filled with opinions and his taste and travel style matched with our own. So, Rick Steves made the daunting task of where to go way more manageable for us. 11 years on, we’ve traveled to well over a majority of the places Rick’s guides cover and have run out of ‘easy’ options. We now have to see through the ‘data and options’ provided by other guidebooks–pairing guides’ advice with opinions and reviews online in order to arrive at a solid itinerary and accommodation plan for each trip.

Having been in the UK for a while now, we also realise that the Canaries aren’t really the UK’s answer to Hawaii… The Canaries were and are a major winter travel destination for Europeans and as a result, the islands aren’t ‘authentic’. And they’re not posh. That said, by perusing the guidebooks and review sites, we landed in a lovely rental villa very near the path to the Papagayos beaches, found an authentic Spanish-speaking grocery store nearby and a great cycle-hire company just up the hill. Though it was a bit chilly during our stay (darn wind chill), it was ~20 degrees C each day and we managed to get some good beach time in (albeit we were fully dressed in layers).

The 7km boardwalk cycle path along the coast in Playa Blanca made for a great active day adventure for us–it’s a smooth ride with little ones in tow. Well done, Playa Blanca, for installing it.

On a particularly windy day, we visited sights around Timanfaya. We rode a camel (Tsunami was his name), saw volcanic craters, held stones warmed by the earth’s heat and nearly blew away!

All this said, we’ve visited many patches of sun-drenched winter sand which would put Playa Blanca to shame. Lanzarote’s strength is cost. All in (7 days in a private 2-bedroom rental villa, air fare, food/drink, rental cycles, etc), our trip to Lanzarote cost well less than only just the airfare for our brood to travel to Asia. Oh, and there’s no time change…that easily tips the scales for our eventual return.

Our eldest son, Walker, was born in April 2011–just over 4 years ago. For a year or so, we were able to happily go about our travel adventures in a manner very similar to our usual style pre-kids. But once babies become mobile toddlers and/or there are two to tow about, things change. They did for us, anyhow.

Adventuresome hikes become cycles complete with baby seat. We traded jaunts to lands less traveled for a sunny patch of sand somewhere, anywhere. Our boys will eat just about anything, so food’s never a worry…but white tablecloths become a playtoy…or worse…a napkin.

So, seeing that it’s been nearly 1 year (gasp!) since our last post, we thought it worth shedding some light on what we’ve been up to. We’ve stumbled upon a travel calendar which works for us…visiting the States to see family ~ every 9 months, a week of winter sun in December-February, Spring sun (April) someplace warmer than the UK and Spring/Summer months spent in the UK (June to mid-September). And we try to visit a new country every year (Denmark last year). For this stage, this plan works well for us.

Last September, G and I went away for a weekend. Thankfully, our nanny was available to keep the boys at ours while we were away in Copenhagen, so they were well cared for maintained a sense of normalcy despite our travels.

Next, we went to Lanzarote for a dose of winter sunshine (and G’s birthday). And in April, we ventured back to the States to visit our families and a couple friends in Virginia.

For all the tradeoffs, our new travels are just as special as the old–albeit special in a new way. Rather than an exploration of new cultures and possible ‘life paths’, our recent family travels serve as quality time spent reconnecting with one another and enjoying the odd dash of sun.

Stay tuned for a few long-overdue posts Copenhagen, Centre Parcs (UK), the Canary Islands (Lanzarote) and the States.

I, K, constantly think…’if only we could bottle this time to enjoy later’. This time is intense and without respite, but I am certain one of the most worthwhile and lovely of life. We’re doing our best to savour it…well, as much as you can while literally running at full speed with a Baby Bjorn strapped onto my chest and pushchair to catch the next bus.

To sum up the changes 2013 has brought, we now live in a new house (to us–though built sometime around 1910), in a new borough (Herne Hill–south London), with a new addition (ever-smiley Coleman). We moved to Herne Hill 19 April. Coleman was born 19 May.

Writing this in November, Herne Hill feels like home to us now. Herne Hill has the essential shops (garden centre, cafe, groceries, gourmet butcher (it’s new), lovely pubs, bookshops, toy store, pharmacy, etc) all within ~4 minutes of our door. And our station is also a 4-5 minute walk away and has us to the center of town within 10 minutes. We love it here! It’s certainly not so posh as Belsize Park, but it’s very ‘us’ and we’ve already begun to make local friends. In fact, K runs into the same people from the various playgroups and childrens activities all around town, we’re certainly not anonymous here and the huge number of children in the new borough (London’s nappy valley, supposedly) means we’re amongst our peers.

Coleman has been a super-star. The birth experience was a lovely 1 hour 40 minutes preceded by a 6 mile hike across London to coax him out. We never even had to go into hospital. He’s been amazingly smiley, happy and inquisitive ever since–he seems very social. At 6 months now, he’s eating table food and sitting up. It’s a joy to be his parents. He’s wishing for teeth this Christmas.

Walker’s 2.5 now and regularly outsmarts me (K). While on the whole he’s an absolute gem, suffice it to say our timeout timer has run out of batteries and we’ve reached to the bookshelf more than once to explore how best to parent G’s ‘mini me’. The two’s are all about boundary testing–especially when stuck indoors on a rainy day. So, thankfully, 2013 hasn’t given us many rainy days

As for travel this year, we began 2013 with a trip to Hawaii to celebrate G’s parents’ 40th anniversary with the extended family. As you would expect, Hawaii is gorgeous. And oh how we could go for another dose of sand and sunshine in grey, bleak November?! Kauai was our favourite island. Lots of good hiking to be had (6 miles straight up while 5 months preggo, thank you ), gorgeous all-natural beach scenes by the dozen and an easy place to ‘be’ with a toddler. But a locally grown pineapple costs $10 at the local farmer’s market?! Our dreams of living in Hawaii be dashed…

When C reached 3 months, I (K) and C traveled for a quick weekend to visit a friend in Netherlands (Lottie)–and we traveled with our friends’ family (Andy, Chiaki & Co–meeting them in Helsinki before venturing to St. Petersburg together on an overnight ferry. We loved both Helsinki and St. Petersburg. The big surprise was how incredibly family friendly both cities were.

And, of course, we traveled back to the States in October of this year to introduce C to the extended family. The boys LOVED it there. And I think we all were a bit depressed upon returning to London after being completely spoiled for two weeks. And though the visit was fun-filled, I think grandparents were depressed thereafter because they aren’t able to see our boys so often as they would like.

We brought some remnants of our State-side life back to London with us this time. Silverware, a couple paintings, our wedding album, Christmas ornaments, our favourite dolls/toys from childhood (for the boys to adopt), sentimental kitsch from our old house/life for display on the bookshelves. Having bought a house in London, it’s high time to make it feel more like a representation of our ‘joined up’ life chapters rather than simply the UK. We’re looking forward to putting up our tree this year, complete with the angel we bought and Christmas treekskirt K made in time for our second Christmas together.

Diana, K’s friend from Uni, also paid us a visit this October and we had a great time showing she and her sister about town. With her visit, we’ve now seen all 4 of our wedding attendants in London. And G’s parents will have spent ~6 weeks here with us in the UK this year (7 weeks total with us counting Hawaii). We’ve been very blessed to have their help and support in London for so much of the year.

Though 2013 has been good to us, we’re exhausted. We’re hoping for a lovely, calm year ahead to enjoy the many blessings we’ve found in 2012. [And, hopefully, a few more international trips to boot.]

K’s best friend from university, Diana, and her sister Rachel came to London in Late October. While visiting, they played with the boys and got to know them better, made family dinners, went to the pub, shopped (for about 30 minutes total , had wine with a view of Tower Bridge, Tea at Kensington Palace, had a glimpse of the changing of the guard and saw a majority of the most iconic London landmarks (Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Parliament, etc, etc, etc). While living in the States, we spent lots of milestone days with these two and we were honoured and impressed that though they have 6 kids now between them, they took time away from their usual lives to visit us in London solo. This was their Di’s first visit to see us here in London and Rachel’s second and the house was a bit quiet and sad after they left us, good friends and a good spot of laughter make a house a home. Thank you to their husbands and kiddies for sharing them!
Di and Rachel, our door’s always open to be your home away from home. 16 years of friendship and counting…goodness…maybe I shouldn’t say that aloud?!
A bit of sidenote–with this visit, all of our wedding attendants have paid us a visit in London!

In October, we traveled back to the States to introduce Coleman to K’s extended family. This was our first trip back since November of 2012 and we had a really nice visit. Coleman couldn’t get enough of grandma and grandpa’s cuddles (not to mention swinging, wagon rides, petting the cat, petting the donkey…). And Walker couldn’t believe his luck with all the new toys and playmates to enjoy.
And since all K’s brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, grandma, etc, etc were around to visit, there were plenty of spare hands to give mum (K) and dad (G) a much needed break.
In London, the boys are very clingy to Kimberly. They spend much of the week together solo and as a result, she’s their security blanket. This is great for attachment theory (not that we follow that convention), but not so great when mum needs a shower or when it’s dad’s turn to do storytime and bedtime for a change. So, the boys being enamoured with grandparents was the absolute best gift of all. We ran out for a solo coffee one morning. Spent a morning in the storage unit (yes, we still have all the contents of our NC house in storage 7 years on, ridiculous…). And when we were at the house, we could still have some downtime there.
So while we LOVE our London life and don’t plan to move on from this chapter anytime soon, we do also love our American respites. Though, K still wishes her family would travel.
And this brings us to another theme. Living abroad–the pros and cons as evaluated 7 years in.

For us, the big reason for moving abroad initially was to allow ourselves more opportunity to see and do things in Europe. The limited holiday allowance in the US (generally 2-3 weeks) didn’t really allow for many jaunts across the ocean. And low-cost air carriers made it easily possible to travel loads using London as a hub.
Now, 7 years on, we realise that we’ve grown accustomed to the ways and life here in London and while we can’t say we’ll be here forever, we can say that it very much suits now. For any who have asked us ‘why’d you decide to stay in London’ over the years, I’ve recently found http://www.businessinsider.com/us-expats-in-england-2013-10which sums it all up much more eloquently than I have ever been able to.

Sadly our most marked regret is one which we can’t impact or control.
A majority of our family doesn’t travel. Of our immediate family members (K’s 3 siblings, K’s parents, G’s parents and G’s sister), only G’s parents have been to visit over the last 7 years of our living in the UK. And while we do see everyone while visiting Virginia and many of our immediate family have to make a large effort in order to see us there, it would make our life seem more ‘whole’ if everyone could see and experience a part of our life here. So, alas, life abroad (for us) does come with its tradeoffs…but that’s life?!