This time last year we were returning from a family Labor Day holiday in New York City where we played in Central Park, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and saw the dinosaur skeletons at the American Museum of Natural History. We had a fantastic time and today I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for that trip, the boys’ first memorable experience in Manhattan.

Perhaps the most dreamy part of our adventure was our visit to FAO Schwarz, that purveyor of everything any child could want from marbles…

to Muppets…

and everything in between.

I was probably seven or eight years old – the same age as Tommy – the first time I entered this iconic space. What’s amazing to me is that it was just as thrilling to go back at 39. There is just so much of everything, more than you’ve ever seen – more Legos, more dolls, more trains, more stuffed animals -  that children actually forget to be acquisitive while they are in there. I don’t think I heard one “can I get that?” It’s like visiting the Museum of Childhood Dreams Come True where everyone wanders around in kind of a happy daze. Everywhere you look there is something you never even knew existed, whether it’s giant stuffed dinosaurs,

or snakes,

or a piano you can dance on.

I know that there are other toy stores in Manhattan and that many people think an indoor Ferris wheel can’t be beat. I’ve got no beef with that, but nevertheless I remain loyal to this old-school store in this most magical of locations, close to the Central Park Zoo and facing The Plaza. So today I’m dreaming of a return to New York City with children, and especially to FAO Schwarz. Maybe next time we’ll even make a purchase.

A Happy Labor Day and unofficial end of summer to one and all. Please feel free to share your Monday Dreams below. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

We used the Underground to get around London a lot on our most recent trip. I find it unnerving. The New York City subway and the Paris Metro don’t faze me in the least, but there’s something about the deep descents and the constant crush of commuters pressing always to the left instead of the right  that make me uneasy in the Tube. There are so many stops and so many ways to get lost. And Teddy seemed so small and precious as I clutched his hands while we dashed through tunnels teeming with people and rode down dizzying escalators.

I’d rather ride the bus when it comes right down to it, even if it means sorting out which roads are closed for construction as so many of them are while London gets ready for the 20212 Olympics.

Come to think of it, I most preferred riding a bicycle. Maybe that’s how I’ll get around the next time I’m in London.

But even if riding the Underground isn’t my favorite activity, like everyone else, I find the iconography irresistible, from the tiled walls to that bold red circles to the charming and sometimes mystifying stop names (Tooting Bec anyone?). This photo was snapped at our “home” Tube stop, which was right up the street from the apartment we rented.

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Please stop by and check out the other wonderful travel photos.

Love it? Share it!

]]> http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2010/09/taking-kids-on-the-tube.html/feed 9 http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2010/09/taking-kids-on-the-tube.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotherOfAllTrips/~3/oprx7Ls5bXI/teatime-with-kids-at-fortnum-mason.html http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2010/08/teatime-with-kids-at-fortnum-mason.html#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:51:51 +0000 Mara http://www.motherofalltrips.com/?p=5133

There are two food-related items that are important to me when I’m traveling with my children. One is that they always have some exposure to local traditions and food. The other is that they get some experience eating at restaurants that do not have a children’s menu and where they cannot color on the tablecloth. That is to say, I like us to have at least one reasonably fancy meal out. We accomplished this with Tommy in Paris at Le Train Bleu. In London I decided that our best bet for an authentic and upscale dining experience was afternoon tea. And although I scouted some different locations where we could do so, in my mind I never strayed too far from Fortnum & Mason, arguably the most traditional place in London to have this most British of meals.

Fortnum & Mason is an elegant and old-fashioned department store near Piccadilly Circus that is justifiably famous for its food halls where you can purchase everything from live crabs to candy potted shrimp. The store actually houses five different restaurants. You can have tea at any of them, but the truly formal tea is served at St. James’s on the fourth floor. The atmosphere starts as you ride the small, creaky, paneled and mirrored elevator, which opens right into the dining room. They’ve redecorated since the last time I was there in 2003. It’s still in shades of peach and gold, but one relaxing change is the introduction of sofas to sit on as you dine – a very nice addition if you’ve spent the entire day on your feet as we had at the Tower of London and then Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

Travel-with-kids tip: Although the dining room is lovely and the food is fancy, the atmosphere at the St. James’s is decidedly relaxed. Everyone who worked there was friendly and clearly used to children. And don’t worry too much about dressing up (unless, of course, you want to!). Do avoid shorts and t-shirts; boys should wear closed-toed shoes. My boys wore polo shirts and chinos and were appropriately clad.

There are actually three different menus for tea. Under the friendly and expert guidance of the staff, we chose to order three Fortnum’s High Teas along with a jug of fresh lemonade for the boys. This was more than enough food for two adults and two children, even relatively big eaters like us. In fact, we were asked for and were given seconds on scones and I think our pastries may have also been replenished without our asking.

We started with Welsh rarebit, Eggs Benedict (not called that in England, but that’s what it is), and a warm crab and saffron tart (no photos of this part of the meal – I apparently was too busy eating). Teddy decided at this point that he wanted to try some tea, so we let him have a sip from the lovely robin’s-egg-blue china.

His verdict? “Um, kinda good…and kinda not.” I don’t think we won a convert, but this was soon forgotten since our first course was followed by scones with jam and clotted cream as well as a large selection of cakes and cookies, all served in lovely tiers.

There were berries and cheesecake and chocolate and lemon drizzle cake and Madeleines. My particular favorite was the lemon meringue tart. Teddy liked it too.

Travel-with-kids tip: Tea is an afternoon meal, but the hours are really flexible, making it ideal for children. At the St. James you can have high tea at any point from noon until 6:30, Monday to Saturday, Sunday from noon to 4:30. We chose to have tea instead of dinner, but you could easily have it instead of lunch. It’s a good idea to make a reservation – you can do so online.

Tea at St. James’s restaurant is not cheap – we spent about 110 pounds or 170 dollars for the four of us. But I felt it was worth budgeting for this kind of extravagance, since it was our only expensive meal of the entire trip. And we weren’t paying just for the food, really, but for the entire experience of relaxing in that lovely room, putting on our nicest manners, and of course, eating dessert for dinner. Which, as far as Tommy and Teddy were concerned, was just brilliant.

I share this as part of Wanderfood Wednesday at Wanderlust and Lipstick. Stop over there to see what else is cooking.

I don’t usually share posts that are primarily photos (since I don’t really consider myself a photographer) but sometimes the perfect words elude me, especially when it comes to a place as gorgeous and magical as Oxford. Looking at these pictures, it amazes me I don’t still have a crick in my neck, I spent so much time looking skyward.

I’ve got lots of posts about our trip to England still to come and also tips for traveling with kids using only carry-on bags, some exciting upcoming travel to share, and the return of MidAtlantic Wednesdays. But for now I think I’ll tarry among these dreamy images for a while. What about you? Anything good to share? If so, please list your link below. And if you could be so kind, please link back to this post. Happy Monday!

Now is usually the time to write the obligatory “summer is ending and I’m feeling wistful” post, but to do so would be disingenuous. Yes, I love fireflies and ice cream and corn-on-the-cob as much as the next person, but you know what I don’t like? Mosquitoes. Heat and humidity. Aimless children bickering in the backyard. And so the fact is that this August, as I face the prospect of two children on the same full-day schedule for the first time in eight years I’m quite happy to say Au Revoir Summer! Don’t let the door kick you in the behind while I put the kids on the bus and start churning out posts!

I may not be pining over the end of summer, but I do miss Vermont in that dull achy way that always follows me around a while after we leave (we’ve been home for almost a week). You won’t see me writing lots of posts about our trip there this year; I actually took a blogging vacation and didn’t even bring my camera along most of the time. But happily, I did have my phone with us on our last evening when we took a stroll down my favorite country road before enjoying one last maple creemee. Because otherwise I wouldn’t have caught these quite dreamy shots.

OK, so maybe I’m a little sad that summer is almost over. But only a little, you hear?

What about you? Any summery dreams this Monday? (If you need guidance, please see About Monday Dreaming.)

When the boys said they wanted to go up in the London Eye I was dubious. Expensive, crowded, tourist trap…these were the words that came to my mind. And yet as we approached it on the afternoon of our ride I realized that like the Eiffel Tower it has a beauty all its own that comes partly from the sheer grandeur of size, partly from the human folly that led to its creation, and partly from the tremendous feat of engineering that keeps it rotating in a circle that is somehow both efficient and lazy.

Travel-with-kids tip: If you will be visiting the London Eye at the height of tourist season as we did, it’s worth it to spring for the Fast Track tickets. Yes, they are almost twice as expensive. But we saved ourselves nearly two hours on line and the boys loved the little knapsacks they got each of which contained a pair of binoculars, a pencil, and a small pad of paper.

I actually found the ride to be worth the money, largely because it offered such a new vantage point for viewing the city. And each of us saw something a little different. I gave Tommy my point-and-shoot camera and he spent the entire ride like this:

I now have photos of any number of buildings in London, most of which I don’t recognize, especially since he spent more time taking pictures of the Southwark side of the Thames, not noted for its architectural distinction. He did snap this beauty though, which I love:

Teddy realized his dream in the London Eye of seeing a pod of dolphins in the Thames (that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it, thank you very much – if you or I didn’t see them, that’s our problem). He spent the first part of the ride searching for them diligently in the water using his binoculars. When he “found” them swimming alongside one of the tourist boats that move up and down the river he gestured excitedly and told everyone in our car that he had seen a pod of common dolphins and one bottlenose. Then he decided that like any good scientist he had to sit down and sketch his observations.

And me? I simply enjoyed getting such a different view of a familiar cityscape. The spans on the Jubilee Bridge looked like violin strings or spiderwebs, so fine and white were they against the gray water.

I’d never seen the front of Buckingham Palace so clearly, nestled almost cozily into the surrounding trees.

And I loved the rain-dappled Houses of Parliament.

But my absolute favorite had to be seeing Nelson’s Column, normally so high above it all in Trafalgar Square, looking small (yet still self-important and imperious) tucked in amongst the buildings and cranes of an oblivious city.

Riding on the London Eye was one of the dreamiest parts of our trip and I’m so glad now that the children persuaded us to take a spin. Have you any Monday dreams? Please feel free to share them below. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

I haven’t been taking too many actual pictures during our Vermont vacation this year, choosing instead to take mental photographs. In some ways these are better because I record them with all my senses: The sweet honey scent of freshly mowed grass, the warmth of sun on skin, the small burst of sour-sweetness on my tongue from the wild raspberry Teddy has placed there, the rustling of wind in pine branches, and of course the shades of saffron, pale pink, cream, and purple that are goldenrod, joe pye weed, wild phlox, Queen Anne’s lace, and loosestrife swaying in the breeze.

But I have snapped a few photos of course, most recently on our bike ride in South Hero, a quiet town on the southernmost tip of the Lake Champlain Islands. In addition to the ample natural beauty to be found there, there are some human-made features that are really fun for kids. One is a number of different of stone castles built in the early twentieth century by a local gardener (for more information on the castles see here and here). This one was our favorite:

And apparently a stray brachiosaurus has made its home where it can gaze across the lake to the Adirondacks.

We also came upon what we referred to as the “birdhouse forest” – a large piece of property where brightly colored boxes decorate every tree as far as the eyes can see.

I’ll definitely be storing these and other memories up and pulling them out on cold winter afternoons.

I share these pictures as part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Have a great late-summer weekend and please come back next week for more about our trip to England.

When I was recently in London, I was lucky to spend an afternoon hanging out at Coram’s Fields with Victoria Wallop and her son Dickon. (And you can tell, by the way, that we were two solo moms trying to cram about three days worth of conversation into part of an afternoon while watching our kids at the same time – did I think to snap a photo of us together? Of course not.) Victoria writes a blog called It’s A Small World After All and she is about to embark on a 9-month trip that will take her, her husband, and their three children (8, 6, and 4) from London to such far-flung places as New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, and Disneyland. They leave this fall and she seemed remarkably calm and pulled together for someone who still has to find someone to rent her house while she is gone. Oh and for someone who will spend the better part of a year in the constant company of three people under the age of nine!

Victoria isn’t the only person I know who is about to start a travel adventure with multiple children. Looking west I see Michelle Duffy of WanderMom who in a few short weeks will be leaving with her husband two tween boys to explore Bolivia, Laos, China, and possibly Egypt (just to name a few of their planned stops). Michelle literally wrote the book on traveling with kids and she and her husband have been biding their time in high-tech jobs while just itching to hit the road. I’m very excited for their family that departure is now imminent. (Again, I spent lots of time hanging out with Michelle at the BlogHer conference in Chicago last summer but we were too busy gabbing to take a picture apparently.)

When Matt and I sold our house and one of our cars and hit the road seven years ago, we were mostly traveling domestically; the farthest we were heading from home was Italy. More significantly, we only had one child. I smile now when I think how complicated and difficult it all seemed at the time. I’m sure Victoria and Michelle would smile too to see how stressed out Matt and I were about things like making sure that Tommy had his own dark and silent bedroom or what would happen if he missed a nap. The two of them have trips planned that make our jaunt seem strictly minor league. Trips that involve things like vaccinations and schooling on the road.

Anyway, today I’m dreaming not of our previous trip, already taken and well catalogued, but of a new extended adventure that Matt and I have just begun to discuss. This one will possibly take us to the far side of the world from where we live, to places like Hawaii, Australia, Korea, and India with school-age children who expect more from us and from the world than a toddler ever could. It’s more than a couple of years away and only a gleam in our eyes at this point, but it’s there, a golden possibility. A perfect Monday Dream.

What are you dreaming of on this fine morning? Or perhaps you are already living the dream of extended and distant travel? Either way, I hope that you will share your link below. And I do hope you’ll check out Victoria’s and Michelle’s blogs – I know that their stories are going to inspire me until I can follow in their footsteps. What I love about both of them is that they are taking their trips for a very pure and simple reason: They love the world and want to explore it with their children.

(Questions about how to participate? See About Monday Dreaming.)

Photo courtesy of atomicShed via Flickr.

Tommy has been taking piano lessons for two years and whenever he sees a piano, he wants to play it:

Of course, he doesn’t usually have this kind of backdrop:

Yes, that’s Christopher Wren’s famous dome of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Tommy’s best recital sonata echoed across the hot still expanse of Paternoster Square, much to Teddy’s delight. The piano is part of the “Play Me I’m Yours” installation sponsored by the City of London Festival. Thirty street pianos were set up in various locations around the city for three weeks for the public to enjoy.

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Please stop by and check out the other wonderful travel photos.

Love it? Share it!

]]> http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2010/08/just-another-kid-playing-piano.html/feed 6 http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2010/08/just-another-kid-playing-piano.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotherOfAllTrips/~3/xDSrcrKtIbY/seeing-london-in-a-new-way-with-fat-tire-bike-tours.html http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2010/08/seeing-london-in-a-new-way-with-fat-tire-bike-tours.html#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:00:18 +0000 admin http://www.motherofalltrips.com/?p=4976

Our recent trip to London was my third and since on one of those trips we lived there for a month, I have definitely had ample opportunities to explore much of the central part of the city, visiting some well-loved monuments like Westminster Abbey and Kensington Palace more than once. Until this trip my favorite means of getting around has always been my two feet and a battery of double-decker buses, but on the recommendation of Lisa Begren of The World is Calling, I decided that on this trips we’d add some bikes into the mix courtesy of Fat Tire Bike Tours.

We started the day, the second full one of our trip, outside the Queensway Tube stop just north of Hyde Park. We were met by a very friendly young man who led us up the street and suited us up with helmets and bikes. I made reservations online and paid in advance for a bike that fit Tommy and tandem bike for Teddy. Everyone’s bike had a name and a squeaky toy instead of a bell.

Travel-with-kids tip: Fat Tire offers baby seats, tandems, and kid-sized bikes. You don’t have to make a reservation in advance, although they recommend that you do so if you’re bringing kids so that they can be sure they have what you need waiting for you on the day of your tour.

Our guide’s name was Dillon, an Irish actor fresh off the boards with lots of amusing stories to share. Looking at him I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that he recently played one of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan. Here he is in front of Buckingham Palace telling us about Michael Fagan who on that very day in 1982 broke into the palace and ended up sitting on the Queen’s bed while she slept.

Everyone else was interested except Teddy, who decided it was his job to make sure that everyone’s squeaky toy worked.

A little bit further on the guards stopped me and Teddy at the driveway to Clarence House, home of the Prince of Wales (we were behind because an Italian family had to admire Teddy and take a picture of him on his tandem). The rest of the group waited for us on the other side, which meant we were all only feet away when HRH Prince Charles himself pulled in riding in the back of this car:

(I know. I didn’t get a very good picture. But you really could see him, I promise.)

Then it was onto the Horse Guards Parade, which Dillon informed us is the future home of beach volleyball during the 2012 Olympics but which Teddy saw as just one big sandbox.

I didn’t get a picture of one of my favorite moments on the tour, which was riding through Admiralty Arch into Trafalgar Square. This has to be one of my top places to visit in London; I love the lions, the fountain, Saint Martin’s, and the statue of Nelson presiding over all. To arrive on a bike through that arch in the middle of traffic gave me a thrill (it was also a little scary to do with Teddy on the back of the bike, which is why there are no photos). No less because we got a good view of the “nose” that sticks out of one of the walls right at the perfect height for a man on a horse to touch. It is reputed to represent the Duke of Wellington’s nose (which was sizeable) and for years royal soldiers have touched it for good luck as they ride through.

After a nice long break for lunch we biked around Westminster, stopping for a graphic description of Guy Fawkes’ public execution outside the Houses of Parliament that actually made my stomach turn a little bit, making it just about perfect for an 8-year-old boy. We stopped to snap a few pictures in Saint James’ Park:

and then headed back to Hyde Park to ride along The Serpentine, full of paddleboats.

The last stop on our tour was the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, which I had never before visited. It was a warm and sunny day (hot by London terms) and the circular cascade of water was full of children.

The rest of our group waited patiently as the both boy made a cooling circuit. “You think this is hot!” Teddy babbled to anyone he encountered as he traipsed through the water, which flows in way that is meant to represent Diana’s life, now turbulent, now smooth. “In Delaware you could fry and egg on the sidewalk! It was 102 degrees the day we left. ” Reactions varied from blank incomprehension to amusement.

We were on Royal London Tour, which I’d recommend for anyone who’d like to see the main monuments in Central London from the outside and also get a good idea of the lay of the land. It would be perfect for a first-time visitor offering both a historic and geographic overview, although I certainly enjoyed it as well since it offered me a completely different view of a familiar area. I never before realized quite how much of the city is dedicated parkland.

It’s also a great tour to do with kids. The stories about each monument are fun (and short!) rather than pedantic and most of the time the ride is in the parks, away from traffic. It’s only eight miles start to finish and is basically flat. The pace of the tour is quite genteel with numerous stops including a generous lunch break. I also consider the tour a bargain – four hours of exercise and entertainment for about $115 (this amount includes the really cool t-shirt we bought for Tommy, but not our pub lunch. If you wanted, you could pack a picnic to save money).

I highly recommend a Fat Tire Bike Tour in London and would definitely check them out on visits to Barcelona, Berlin, and Paris. Not only was Dillon charming, friendly, and well-informed, he was very solicitous of everyone’s comfort, offering repeatedly to take over for me on the ride back (I didn’t take him up on his offer; I may have just turned 40 but I’ve got legs thank you very much!). Although in fact, we were all pretty tired at the end of the day, especially Teddy:

I think that’s a sign of a successful outing, don’t you?