Month: July 2017

Trip Preview: Summer in Scandinavia

/ babyflyerblog / 2 Comments
IMG_0245

Nyhavn, Copenhagen.  No, we’re not staying at this floating hotel….but It looks nice, right?

We’re packing again!!  This Summer has already been busy, with trips to Mexico and Seattle, among others, but this next trip is the one that’s been on our calendar for almost a year now.  We’re getting brave, and taking Baby Flyer to Europe!  It’ll be a week and a half of Oneworld award flights, Scandinavian Airbnb rentals, and a few side jaunts here and there.

Our itinerary starts off with a 787 Dreamliner flight to ORD and two nights in Chicago, which we added because our tickets start there.  Since we love that city, we added some time so we’ll have a day there to take Baby Flyer back to Millennium Park.  From there, we head to Helsinki (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), and Copenhagen (Denmark).  The international part of the trip lasts 10 nights (plus one on the flight out), and includes plenty of planes, trains, but not really many automobiles.

Canal

The canal in Ruoholahti where we’re staying in Helsinki

This trip was inspired by Finnair opening up some award seats to Oneworld partners in business class for the summer.  Since premium mileage tickets are notoriously hard to find without big taxes and fees, we jumped on them and booked a round trip ticket from JFK to Helsinki in business class for some miles and about $60.  It will be Baby Flyer’s first long haul international flight, but hopefully having the extra space and lie-flat beds will make it reasonably comfortable.

Finnair Seat

How Finnair claims we’ll sleep** on their international flights.  **Baby not pictured

Once we get to Helsinki, we’ll have three days and nights to explore the city.  Given that this is a family trip, we’re planning baby friendly activities, and luckily, Scandinavia in general is overall safe and welcoming for family travelers.  Highlights we’re hoping to hit include the ‘Children’s’ Town’ museum- an interactive exhibit where everything is play-with-able for the little ones, and importantly, is indoors, making it a good rainy day option since we’re likely to get at least one of these this time of year.  We’re also hoping to take the boat out to Suomenlinna island, for a little outdoors time, hiking, and sightseeing.

tallinn-old-town-toompea

Tallinn’s Old Town

The next part of the trip is taking the Eckero Line ferry across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn, Estonia for two nights.  We’re staying in the ‘Old Town,’ which is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.  Our plans here mainly involve exploring the medieval town, food and shopping.  We may venture out to Kadriorg Park, which includes palace grounds, as well as gardens, and several museums, and checking out the KGB museum at the Hotel Viru.

Eckero Line

Eckero Line- M/s Finlandia

As for the ferry, we booked the Eckero Line through Direct Ferries.  It’s a 2 hour crossing on a ‘ferry’ that looks more like a small cruise ship, and we went all out (all extra $40 of it) to book a 4 birth cabin with our reservation.  It’s not really necessary, but since the crossing times just about hit Baby Flyer’s naptime, we thought we might find a little privacy nice.  It also means we’ll have a private bathroom as well.

Once we get back to Helsinki, we’ll be off to the airport once again to catch a short flight on Finnair to Copenhagen.  We booked these tickets separately, and they were reasonably priced, so we didn’t use miles.  Technically, if we’d flown Norwegian, we could have saved a few dollars on the ticket price, but this was one of those lessons for people who don’t look hard enough at discount carriers.  Given that we’re Oneworld elites, we have free checked bags, and free advance seat assignments as long as we stay on partner airlines.  Had we flown on Norwegian, our ‘savings’ would quickly have been more than eaten up by the added charges.  Plus, because we’re flying Oneworld, we’ll have lounge access at Finnair’s comfortable and full service lounges before our flight.

We’ve been to Copenhagen before, and it’s stuck in our minds as one of the places we really wanted to get back to.  We’re spending four nights this time, and are looking forward to seeing the city as a family.  Copenhagen has plenty of kid-friendly places to visit and things to do.  It’s full of parks and playgrounds in the city center (Danish companies design the majority of new playground equipment around the world), and since everyone bikes, walks, and takes the train, it’s easy to get around.

IMG_0277

Central Copenhagen

This trip will be the test of our planning, and also of our Airbnb skills.  We’re staying in a suites hotel in Chicago, but once we cross the ocean, it’s all Airbnb all the time.  To start things off, our accommodation in Helsinki is a three bedroom flat in Ruoholahti.  It looks to be an easy walk to the city center, or a very short tram ride.  It will be nice to have the space to give Baby Flyer her own room, so she can go to bed before we do (hopefully!)

Renting an entire flat or house really makes traveling with babies more enjoyable over a traditional hotel.  Having the space, as well as a kitchen, and if you’re lucky, laundry goes a long way.  There are of course some draw backs as well.  If you haven’t seen the property before, there’s really no guarantees on what it will be like, aside from reviews.  Plus, you’ll be hard pressed to find one that’s really baby-proof, but the same goes for hotels in general.  If you’re lucky, you can generally find a reasonably priced rental as well, especially when compared to the pricey hotels in this part of the world.

IMG_0274

Deer Park (Dyrehaven).  One of my favorite pictures from our last trip there.

After our time in Copenhagen, we start the trek back home again.  We first have a flight back to Helsinki, then a couple of hours to enjoy the airport lounge and collect ourselves before flying Helsinki to JFK, and JFK back to Los Angeles.  That will make for a long day, but it gets us back home seamlessly, and I managed to find some award space in business class on American’s premium transcon plane, so we’ll have space for the three of us.

Wish us luck & happy summer travels to you all!!

-CET, CAR & Baby Flyer

Friday Favorites

/ babyflyerblog
IMG_3513

Pack it up!  Time for a weekend ‘up north’!

Happy Friday!  Hope you all are getting ready for a great  weekend! We’re headed to Seattle on Saturday to visit CET’s family. Of course we are looking forward to seeing them, but also some tall trees, ocean views, and hoping to take Baby Flyer to explore the tide pools and sand flats during low tide.

We’re jumping on board the Friday Favorites train this week! Personally, I love to hear about recommendations of products people truly use and enjoy, and places they frequent.  Below you will find a few things we’re loving and as always, we would love to hear what you’re loving below in the comments.

S’well water bottle

Swell

I received this water bottle as a present for my birthday and it is super! I never appreciated having cold water as much as I do now. It really does keep my water cold and is so refreshing after a hot workout. I haven’t tried it with a hot beverage yet, but I’d expect similar results. I have the 17oz bottle, and my only complaint is that sometimes I wish it was bigger. The price is a bit steep for a water bottle, it’s worth it! It’s also something to keep in mind when looking for a present.

Also, the company has excellent customer service. The o-ring on my top fell off earlier this week. I emailed them asking if there was any way I could purchase the lid instead of a whole new top. They responded almost immediately and we exchanged a couple emails and later that same day, a new complimentary o-ring was in the mail. I love to support companies with good customer service.

Water proof outdoor blanket

blanket

We have found this reusable outdoor blanket so handy since having Baby Flyer. It’s easy to clean, water resistant, durable, and easy to fold and put away. We often go to parks and sometimes meet friends at the farmers market and having a dry and clean place to sit is a nice option. I find it to be fairly compact. We are heading to a wading pool this afternoon and I brought it with us. It can comfortably fit a couple adults and kids sitting up. We haven’t used it yet but it comes with a cooler that attaches to the bag when it is folded.

Reusable sandwich bags

bagsWe’ve found these bags to be pretty handy, especially when traveling. We have room for improvement but we try and be conscious of our water and use reusable containers whenever possible. Huge fans of Mason Jars and PYREX in our family. But sometimes I want something less bulky than a container so I’ve been using these bags to carry Baby Flyer’s treats. They come in a 3 pack with three different sizes. On one trip, I push smaller bags of different snacks inside the larger one and it seemed to work well. Her snacks stayed organized and having different snacks to offer kept her entertained.

El Dorado Nature Center

If you are ever in Long Beach, I can’t recommend the El Dorado Nature Center enough! It is such a nice change of pace and environment than the typical landscape we have around here. There is a .25 mile paved trail and 1 and 2 mile dirt loops. The dirt is packed and we have never had a problem pushing our BOB Revolution on it. You walk next to and over streams, through groves of trees and fields. The landscape is constantly changing and I’ve never felt like I was always walking in the sun. There’s plenty of shade throughout the trail. It’s fairly well marked too!

Patagonia Sun Hat

img_3128

Just a little throwback – Baby Flyer last summer on the island!

Baby Flyer always has one of these hats! She pretty much constantly wears one when she’s outside in the sun. Right now we have two- I keep one in her stroller and the other in the house/my diaper bag. They have a wide brim so they really do block the sun and shade her face and they are made of UPF fabric. The Velcro closure underneath her chin helps keep it on. They are reversible and dry quickly after getting wet. I really can’t recommend them enough!

Those are ours for this week, what are your current favorites?

Thanks for reading & have a wonderful weekend!

~CAR

DFW Centurion Lounge Children’s Room Review

/ babyflyerblog

We often have a layover at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW).  Especially when traveling across the country with Baby Flyer (LAX to BDL), DFW is almost in the middle.  It’s a nice point for us all to stretch our legs and have a change of pace.  Plus, it breaks up the travel time into two manageable flight times (less than 4 hours each, usually somewhere between 2 hrs 30 min and 3 hrs) which makes it seem less daunting, especially when traveling alone with a baby.  We typically have 6am flights which equal an early morning for all of us.  I usually can count on Baby Flyer to nap for at least part of each flight which also helps break it up.

001

Since we’re American Express Platinum members, we have access to, and almost always visit the Centurion Lounge when we are in DFW, even if it means riding the Skylink and switching terminals.  It’s worth it!  They have a delicious full complimentary buffet that changes throughout the day, plus free drinks (both alcoholic and otherwise), and even offer 15 minute manicures, facials, and massages!  They also have an excellent kids’ space that has never been crowded.  We’ve always either had it to ourselves or shared it with one or two other kids.

The Centurion is located in Terminal D, opposite Gate D17, on the mezzanine.  The Centurion can be reached from any other terminal via the Skylink train.  Its current hours of operation are 5:30am to 10pm.  Terminal D is the international terminal and was relatively recently renovated.  The Terminal itself has high ceilings and an open feel.

The kids room is a bit hard to find if you don’t know it’s there.  We’d been going to the Centurion for years before having Baby Flyer, and we never even knew it had a kids’ room.  I was so delighted the first time I learned it was there.  It is to the right of the entrance tucked in the far corner next to a conference room.  To keep the room clean and tidy, no food or beverages are allowed.  Aside from the slight inconvenience, I appreciate that the space is clean.  I usually grab something to eat from the buffet and then once I’m done, we head back there to let Baby Flyer loose to roam around and play.

001 (1)

The room itself is light and airy, as are the other spaces in the lounge.  It’s not huge but has luckily never felt crowded.  There are puffy ‘chairs’ to sit along the perimeter on one side, a young children’s height shelf with lots of toys, a large activity cube with things to do on all sides, as well as a television for older kids.

001 (2)

001 (5)

Overall, it’s as good or better than any domestic lounge childrens’ lounge spaces we’ve been to, and the added bonus being that the lounge is awesome from an adults’ perspective as well, so truly fun for the whole family.  It makes keeping our Amex Platinum membership make even more sense.  There’s currently lounges like this also in Houston, Miami, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Newark, with more coming soon, including Philly and Hong Kong.  They’re worth planning stopovers around!

Travel well, and enjoy,

~CAR

 

 

 

Inside Baby Flyer’s Suitcase- South of the Border Edition

/ babyflyerblog / 1 Comment
IMG_4397.JPG

The view from Villa Del Palmar- Nuevo Vallarta

We’re currently lucky enough to be on a week’s vacation at the family timeshare (massive thanks to Baby Flyer’s Mema and Bumpa, CAR’s parents, for being timeshare booking experts) in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico!  We’ve decided to embrace the fact that it’s summer, and we’re going to be making the most of Baby Flyer’s last few months as a lap infant.  We’re relaxing in Mexico, then headed to visit family in Seattle, will follow it up with a trip through Scandinavia (there will be updates), and finish the summer with a long weekend in Santa Fe, NM.

Back to the purpose of this post, we thought it would be fun to show you what we packed for Baby Flyer, since we get plenty of questions about what we bring on trips. We will probably be spending most of our time relaxing at the resort. Or as much relaxing as you can with an active 17 month old, so her suitcase is full of ‘resort ware.’

We believe there are different types of vacations and it’s alright to enjoy them all. Sometimes we do lots of exploring and see new things, and other times we soak up time as a family and enjoy the water and being in one place without as many appointments and expectations.

For all of our trips, I’ve been sharing a medium sized suitcase with Baby Flyer.  It seems more simple to have one suitcase to wheel around than two, especially when flying by myself.  I always seem to under-pack for myself and over-pack for Baby Flyer.  I never know how many outfits she will need in a day.  Some days she is fine with one and other days she needs two.  Luckily for this trip, the condo we’re staying in has private laundry, which is a huge benefit with a little one.

It’s the last minute items that always fill up our suitcase.  Things like her white noise machine, monitor (we just packed the monitor portion), eating mat, sleep sack, snacks, running shoes, and nebulizer to name a few.

For this vacation, I expect that we will spend a lot of time in the water, in the shade by the pool, and up in the room.  We are meeting my parents, sister, brother in law, nephew, and niece.  We haven’t all been together since October so I think we are all looking forward to it!

FLYING

Baby Flyer typically flies in pants with either a long, or short sleeve shirt.  It’s comfortable and convenient for changing her diaper as you only have to pull down her pants and there aren’t any snaps.  She wore a pair of Robeez soft soled moccasins which are softer and less clunky and seemed for comfortable for when she stood on our laps during the flight.

SWIM

Baby Flyer has fair skin and so we try our best to keep her covered up as much as possible, and have her wear protective swim clothing and sunblock.  Luckily she is excellent at wearing her sun hat without too much complaint.  The velcro closure under the chin has helped us keep it on.  It may have been a help that we’ve been putting a hat on her since she was a baby…maybe?  Sunglasses are a different story.  We haven’t had as much success, even though she does like to play with them.

All of these swim outfits have UPF fabric so we don’t have to worry as much about the parts of her body that are covered up.

I had wanted to buy Baby Flyer a pair of Native sandals but they didn’t fit her feet.  Her feet are pretty small, she just grew into a size 4, but they are still a little chubby.  I ended up finding a pair of Teva Water Sandals at the Nordstrom Rack for a good price.

Our whole family uses Coola sunblock.  We just love it!  It doesn’t even feel like you’re wearing sunblock when you have it on.  We use the Coola Mineral Sport Sunscreen and the  Coola Mineral Matte Finish Face on us, while we bought the Baby version for Baby Flyer.  Both apply so evenly and thinly and we find that they protect our skin.  I tried the Beauty Counter stick face sunscreen and didn’t find it protected my skin as well and always left it feeling sticky, like I could tell I was wearing sunscreen, and was hard to wash off.  However, I have friends who love it.  To each their own.

DRESSSES

Baby Flyer tends to wear a lot of casual dresses so we packed quite a few.  Even though Mexico is hot and humid during the summer, we included a couple pants as options to wear with the dresses if she needed them.  Not pictured, we also packed a pair of white shorts to wear under some of her shorter dresses.  Sometimes she’s interested in her taking off her diaper so covering it up helps keep it on.

A family friend has an online Scandinavian children’s clothing store, Ittikid, so some of her dresses are from her shop.  We try to support her whenever we can plus the clothing is cute and always so soft!

ROMPERS

I packed her a couple of rompers.  Baby Flyer had this Patagonia romper last year and we bought it at the end of the season when it was on sale for this year.  We love her Patagonia hat!  It’s UPF fabric, velcros under her chin, is reversible, and has a wide brim.  It literally goes everywhere with us and was a no brainer to pack it.  Her Keen sandals have been working out well so far this summer.  We had a coupon for the Nordstrom Rack and found a pair in her size there, so we only had to pay $9 for them.

SHORTS

JULY 4TH OUTFIT

Baby Flyer’s Mema found this top on sale at Old Navy and thought it had a perfect hint of patriotic flair for the 4th of July.

It may seem like Baby Flyer has a lot of shoes, however, up until two weeks ago she only had one pair of sneakers.  Just recently she outgrew them so we bought her two pairs in a size 4 for her to grow in to.  We also wanted something that would give her a feet some air since it’s warm in the summer where we live.

That’s pretty much the run-down!  We’re in Mexico for a week, so reviews and updates to follow from the beach!

~CAR & Baby Flyer