Travel Time Archives - Page 2 of 3

Learning to Relax in Dela-where?

July 14, 2012 by momindcity 3 Comments

We’re at the beach– and for an entire week! I haven’t spent the week at a beach since elementary school.

Growing up in Houston, there wasn’t really a need for a beach vacation since Galveston is only an hour away. My brothers and I spent summers with our family in Kosova, and sometimes that meant tagging along for beach trips to Greece or Montenegro… but that was [cough cough] years ago.

This summer, it’s Bethany Beach, Delaware (or Dela-where?, as I like to call it) . Yes, my Texas friends, people actually go to Delaware on purpose– I wouldn’t have guessed it either. We had to leave DC early to avoid traffic on the bridge. It’s about 120 miles from our house, but that can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, depending on whether you get stuck in bridge traffic.

We were in Bethany so early we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Check-in at the condo wasn’t until 3, so we roamed around and did a whole lot of nothing. Mainly just dug our toes into the sand and reveled in the fact that we’re here!

If there’s one thing I’m terrible at, it’s relaxing. It is my personal mission this week to relax. I’m going to work really hard at it. Can’t you tell how relaxed I am just talking about how hard I’m going to work at relaxing?! But seriously, it’s become a joke to people who know me. When I told my Dad that I took my work email off my phone for the week, he laughed at me. “Nice try,” he said. “But I know you better than that.” [Read more…]

50% Pregnant Girls Weekend In Raleigh

June 24, 2012 by momindcity 10 Comments

Thank gawd for Wi-Fi. I’m on the Megabus heading back to DC from a girls weekend in Raleigh, and am so grateful for the entertainment. The trip down on Amtrak took 9 hours– it should have taken 5, but the train broke down outside of Richmond, so we were stuck in the heat while they repaired it. Lesson learned: do not take Amtrak ever again. Ever.

While I listen to the guy next to me attempt to hit on the girl sitting behind us, I am reminded (once again) that I am not 18 anymore. The evidence was mounting all weekend:

Exhibit A: 50% of the girls at Girls Weekend are Pregnant
The pregnancy factor has been present for a while. There was a pregnant chick on our Vegas trip a couple of years ago and we’ve gotten together for baby showers– but this is the first time we’ve met the 50% mark. Our conversations were about things like finding the best stroller, the size of the epidural needle and how long it’ll take before your baby sleeps through the night.

Exhibit B: Your main activity of the weekend is eating, not drinking.
Don’t get me wrong, eating has always been paramount to a good weekend, but that’s literally all we did. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. We ate, walked around the shopping center where we ate, then ate again and walked around that shopping center. The food was the highlight of the weekend… especially Gonza Tacos y Tequila.

Exhibit C: You’re staying in a beautiful home that one of your friends owns.
We’ve all had real-people jobs for a while, but now my friends are getting grown up homes. Second homes– as in, upgrades from their first. And beach houses where they go on the weekend. Long gone are the days when we’d pile into someone’s one-bedroom apartment and share a couch, unless the friend lives in New York– we all still pile into a one bedroom if the friend lives there.

Exhibit D: Nobody did anything stupid.
We may be doing stupid things in our individual lives and discussing them all weekend, but nobody made any poor decisions during the weekend itself. No one drank too much, forgot to check in with their families, or spent their rent money on shoes. The wildest thing we did was stay up until 3:30 in the morning talking. We also got spur-of-the-moment-pedicures. That was pretty wild, too.

Verdict: Guilty!
Throw the book at me for thinking this was a perfect weekend, despite the lack of things that used to excite me. Farewell, younger years. I’m back in DC feeling refreshed, and not like someone ran me over with a truck. I’m in my 30s now (mid-30s? nah, I’m not ready for that), that’s ok.

I’m going to hold off on the mid-life crisis for now. I saw one in action this weekend, and it wasn’t pretty.

Back From Our Trip and (not) Ready to Go Again!

June 20, 2012 by momindcity Leave a Comment

After spending more than 24 hours in the car this past weekend, I had plenty of time to be annoyed, impressed, frustrated, and amused by my kids. There was also plenty of time to be annoyed, frustrated and annoyed (did I already say annoyed?) with my husband– but hey, we’re still here! And that’s an accomplishment.

It doesn’t matter how many DVDs, coloring books, Barbies and snacks you bring… when you’re on a road trip from DC to Chicago, there is plenty of down time.

Here are ten things I learned about Lira and Zana over the weekend.

Lira does not back down from an argument– especially when it has to do with a Disney movie. (Want to know which is which when it comes to Flora, Fauna and Merryweather? Ask her, not Dave).
Time outs work for Lira– even when it just means no books for 10 minutes. They don’t work on Zana at all– not even when it means locking her in the trunk. Just kidding. Sort of.
Zana does like to eat after all! The problem is that we’re always trying to feed her a fruit or a vegetable. If you give her rest-stop pizza and cookies, she’ll eat all day long– even while sitting in a car seat and expending zero energy.
Accusing Lira of “tooting” makes her laugh, no matter how many times you do it– which in this case, was before every toll booth. You know those rumble strips they put in the road to make you slow down for the toll? The ones that make that… that sound? Well, all you have to do is say “Ewwwww, Lira!” and the giggles don’t stop.
The girls know all of the words to Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire. Lira even asked “if this song is in India, why do they say ‘bila bila’? That’s Spanish.”
Zana has a death grip. Every time Lira got too close, Zana would grab a chunk of hair; it took two adult hands to pry each finger off one at a time. And she’s convinced that a simple “saw-wee” makes it all ok.
There’s nothing more exciting than a tunnel.
Starbucks better watch out if Zana needs to “go.” She needs her privacy, even if that means hiding behind a display and knocking over all the glasses.

No matter how many Disney movies you bring (we brought 8), you never have the one they want to watch.
Both daughters are very patient, only asking “are we there yet?” about 10 times… which is more than I can say for myself.

As insightful as this journey may have been, I hope we don’t ever make that drive again. The girls have other ideas, though. When I arrived home from work yesterday, they both ran out to the car with bags full of toys yelling “we wanna go back to Chicago!”

Have mercy…

Quick and Sappy Roadtrip to Chicago

June 19, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

If someone told me a few weeks ago that I’d be driving 1,403 with two kids over a long weekend, I would have punched them in the face. Luckily for them, it was a game day decision.

My brother told us more than a year ago about his MBA graduation from Northwestern yet, in true delusional fashion, we kept telling ourselves we’d find flights for under $200 a pop. Wrong! So, after quick trip to the ER, we packed up the ol’ Prius and began our journey. Google said it was a 12 hour drive, so we figured that (with kids) meant 16.

Two Disney movies, three lattes, one Olive Garden, four rest stops and 13 hours (total) later, we arrived in Chicago. We spent a quick 6 hours in a sketchy hotel (Hotwire deal) and then headed over to meet the rest of the fam downtown.

“The rest” includes my parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew– that’s nine of us, if you’re counting. It’s hard to do much with nine people– especially when three of them are munchkins. We hung out at our hotel a lot– the W Hotel, which was a hilarious choice for our party. We were the only people not wearing Feragamos (well, my brother was), sipping cocktails at 9am and rocking too much self-tanner. It was entertaining, though, and Zana certainly enjoyed the lobby.

All the kids enjoyed the fancy bathtubs:

And the rest of us enjoyed some quality time together. The graduation itself went on for longer than necessary. I somehow managed to cry three times during the ceremony. I always forget how sappy I am, but nobody else seems to– my dad just laughed. And that somehow made me feel better because, come on, who wants to talk about their emotions? Not me! But I do want to write about them, so here goes…

Besim, I am so very proud of you. I don’t think I told you that enough (or ever) while you were flying back and forth from Houston to Chicago every week for two years. It’s a big deal to get an MBA. An even bigger deal to get one from Kellogg School of Management. And an even bigger-est (sorry, I don’t have an MBA) deal to do that while maintaining a job and a healthy family. Hard work is inspiring, and yours has not gone unnoticed. I am so thankful that we could be there to celebrate you, and can’t wait to see what you do next.

So, MomInDCity readers, what kinds of things turn you into a sappy, weepy mess?

Top 10 Things I Learned in New York

May 30, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

Coming back to The District from New York was a strange feeling. The city we live in seems more like a sleepy town. The girls are bursting with energy, despite the fact that we got back at midnight. They caught the New York bug (not that kind) and keep asking when we’re going to move there.

We won’t be moving any time soon, but I did learn a lot and we will certainly visit more often armed with these 10 important tidbits:

If you’ve got a stroller, take the bus. You may think it’s cool to be city-savvy and ride the subway, but trust me: you do not want to lug your stroller up and down the steps of the train stations. This is one area where the DC Metro is superior. DC takes elevators and escalators seriously, even providing alternate transportation if there’s an escalator outage. If you’re in New York with young kids, take the bus. Do it.
When it comes to germs, just give up. My kids cannot keep their hands out of their mouths no matter what I do: threats, bribes, beatings—nothing works. Want to know what 100 years of grit and grime tastes like? Ask Zana. She touched every single part of the New York subway system and then ate it.
In her element
Taxidermy: it’s not just for hicks.I am fascinated by tattoos and have thought, for the past 10 years, thinking about what kind I want. New Yorkers don’t share my dilemma. They just stop at a tattoo parlor and get the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t believe me? Check out this girl’s taxidermy tattoo:
Exhibit A
Just a guess, but I don’t think she kills animals. Brooklynites have more tattoos per capita than any other place on the planet—and that includes Marine Corps Bases.
All vegans must move to The City. From hipster vegan restaurants to falafel shops and diners, every place has at least one delicious vegan option. I wasn’t sure I’d survive a weekend in New York without pizza, but here I am enjoying my falafel food coma. Pizza? Who needs it? (ha)
Zombies don’t give a warning call. Just because someone looks like they’ve had their face smashed in and is covered in blood, doesn’t mean they’re hurt. After Dave and I argued about whether to call an ambulance for a guy with a massive head wound, we found out he was fine; he was just a zombie who had risen from the dead. He and his kind were in Brooklyn for a bar crawl and left a bloody path of destruction in their wake. Fear.net has some great pictures of the event here. I’ll be sure to mark my calendar for next time.
“I’ll meet you at the coffee shop,” really means “I’ll meet you at The Coffee Shop.” Or The Donut Shop, or The Grocery Store. Whatever marketing strategist came up with this was a genius. Why waste time thinking up fancy shmancy names? Just say what it is and people will come.
NYC street food
The parking gods don’t hate me after all. Not only did we have a place to park our car all weekend, but it was right down the street from where we were staying and it was free! Is that even legal?! (Note: if this happens to you, do not move your car. You will never find a space again. Ever.)
I am not a cat person. Ok, I already knew this but our weekend stay with my friend’s two sphynx catsreinforced it. I just can’t deal with animals walking on kitchen counters. Not to mention, Zana is so violently allergic that she coughs until she throws up whenever she’s around them. We learned that this weekend. Fun.
Couldn't keep her away
My husband might be Jewish. While walking down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, he was asked not once, not twice, but three times by Orthodox Jews, if he were one of them. Maybe it’s the size of his shnaz (my mom’s Jewish, so I’m allowed to make racist comments) or the Matzo ball soup stains on his shirt (he loves that stuff). Whatever it was, Dave had every Jew within a 6 block radius on high alert. When he told them he wasn’t, they seemed disappointed. “But what about me?! Am I not giving off the vibe?!” It’s like I’m invisible…
There’s no such thing as comfort footwear. I tried them all this weekend: Flip-fops, sandals, tennies, my adorable new platform wedges—they all hurt.
Can you believe these weren't comfortable?!
How do sassy NY natives manage to look so fashionable all the time? They must get a $25 mani/pedi every day (yes, they’re that cheap). I would, if I could find a discount place in DC. If anyone knows the secret to comfortable feet, please let me know.

And if you have any more tips about NY, share them below.