Saturday, June 26, 2010
Seattle
It's 9 pm and Lucas juuuuuuust fell asleep, after about an hour of me trying to put him to bed. He is still getting back into his routine after our trip to Seattle.
Normally at about 8 pm we read a few stories while he has his milk, I give him a kiss and put him in his crib and say "Goodnight Lucas" and he says "Bye" and then goes to sleep. How wonderful. Of course this routine just didn't magically happen, we had to work at it, but 4 nights away from home has put us back a few steps. So a bit of cuddling in Mom's bed and a few cartoons to get him to sit still and calm down isn't the end of the world.....I guess. Besides, he was such a little trooper during our trip that he deserves a bit of leeway.
I knew traveling with an 19-month old was going to be different than any of the trips Terry and I have taken together before, and I think it went really well. There were definitely some challenges, but all in all Lucas was a great little traveler and I think we came pretty well prepared.
We brought our massive Tonka-truck of a stroller, and even though it is huge and bulky (the Air Canada customer service agents were probably swearing at us under their breath trying to wrap that thing in plastic, which would explain why it came back looking a little worse for wear after our return flight....) it was a necessity and it would have made for a tough trip with just a little umbrella stroller. We have a Quinny Freestyle, probably the one baby thing that we splurged on when Lucas was coming, and already it has been a worthwhile investment. Every morning we would load it up with what we needed for the day and head on out. Lucas would fall asleep in there for his afternoon nap, I could recline him and throw a blanket over top, and voila, afternoon nap without having to go back to the hotel, and two hours of sleep time.
Seattle is a nice city, but not what I expected really. The waterfront is so industrial and just....well not pretty like Vancouver. There is no green space at all downtown. The only time Lucas got to run around in a park was our trip to the zoo. The Pike Place market was amazing. Everything is so fresh. The fruit and fresh fish were delicious! The kids play area at the downtown library, the zoo and the aquarium were Lucas' faves for sure, and great places for kids, but next time I would skip the Children's Museum. I think the highlights for Terry were taking almost every mode of transportation possible. The monorail, the streetcar, the city bus.....super exciting Terry.
For me, I just loved seeing Lucas have a great time. He loved loved loved all the animals at the zoo and the fish at the aquarium. I think he would have jumped right into the starfish tank if we would have let him. He learned a few new words while we were there (notably elevator....which sounds more like eeevvaaaooorrrr? when he says it) and developed a love for buses. Seeing Amy play soccer was also one of my favourite parts, I haven't seen her play in what seems like forever and she had a great game. It is so crazy that we planned this trip not knowing that she had a game in Seattle at the very same time. Couldn't have worked out better.
Of course I did just a little shopping while I was there, but being pregnant helped keep me under control. What is the point of buying clothes that aren't going to fit me in a month anyway??? So instead I took advantage of some maternity stores that we don't have and scored some great deals at Gap Maternity. Pea in a Pod on the other hand was not a great deal, that stuff is crazy expensive!!!! But I got a few lower priced items that will last me through the summer. Maybe this time my pregnancy wardrobe will consist of more than my pink bunnyhug and Lulu pants.
We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Seattle and it was fantastic. I used priceline.com to bid on a hotel room, which I have done once before, and it worked out great again. We got a downtown hotel room for $100 bucks a night, which was about 60 % off of the normal price. I highly recommend it and would do it again in a second. You don't get to pick your exact hotel that you want, you just pick the area and the number of stars for your hotel, and then enter what you are willing to pay.
Air Canada, not so fantastic. This trip was on a tight budget, so we used Air Miles and didn't get to pick our airline. Their planes are old and noisy, and everything was just sub-par compared to West Jet. No TV's to watch World Cup games. Boooooo.
I didn't win the $50 million Lottomax jackpot so I guess it is back to work on Monday.....sigh.
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