New Orleans Redux

Once again, in early February, we escaped the gloom of Seattle winter by visiting New Orleans. Not only did we get several days of sun, but we celebrated Chris’s birthday with gumbo and Bourbon Street drinks. Learning from experience, we skipped lugging a car seat and used the street car to get around. We rented a place one block away from a St. Charles Streetcar stop in the Garden District. It had a big gated front patio were we enjoyed the morning sun, and a back patio with a fire pit we sat around a few evenings.

In addition to relaxing outside; we watched the Superbowl, ate beignet’s on Bourbon Street, visited a cemetery, had some yummy crawfish (twice), toured Mardi Gras World and the WWII museum, wandered a night art market, saw several different bands perform, and I made it to the art museum. Aside from one day of heavy rain and hail, the weather was nice. Dom loved riding on the street cars and this trip may mark the end of our traveling with a stroller! He managed to explore the streets on foot the whole time. At one point he even announced that he wanted to “explore more of New Orleans” rather than head back to the house.

Even after this, our second trip to New Orleans, I still feel there is more I would like to see and do in the city. Who knows, a third trip may be in our future.

Anyone planning a visit I would recommend Boil Seafood House, walking down Frenchmen Street at night, Domenica, and wandering off Bourbon street a few blocks for drinks.

Chris’s Comments: I realized some time ago I really wanted to go back to New Orleans. There’s always something cool around the next corner and I was convinced it’s a family friendly city everywhere but the French Quarter. Having been there before, we wanted to dig a little deeper into local culture. With a birthday coming up and cheap fares, we decided to go. Every time I go, I can’t wait to go again. It’s just a cool place with great food, music, people, and architecture… and, indeed, there are plenty of things for kids of ALL ages.

: Sun means playing outside.

The front courtyard at our rental.

: Visit to the New Orleans Museum of Art

: Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

The back of St. Louis Cathedral and St. Anthony’s Garden at night.

: Looking at the Stars and Planets.

And a final thought on the trip…

Vienna Family Adventure

After a week in Prague, our family took a train to Austria for a stay in Vienna (Wien). By this point we’d adjusted to the time change and had a better idea of the amount of activity Dominic was willing to take part in. Our stay in Vienna was a lot closer to living in the city than actually touring the city. Several nights we ordered food in, we visited three of the playgrounds, and avoided many of the tourist attractions. Normally I read a lot about the place we are visiting. This time I didn’t look much further than recommended kid friendly activities, and as a result, I am now reading about some of the sights we saw in passing.

I would return to Vienna; it was a very clean city and the public transportation was great. The desserts were excellent, there was good beer and wine, we did not have trouble with only speaking English (the primary language is German), and I personally loved some of the grocery stores. On the downside, it was not as friendly as Prague had been, and it may have been a result of us not looking hard enough, but I was over the cuisine after a few meals.

Chris’s Comments

The thing that strikes you, going from Prague to Vienna, is the modernity and cleanliness of the city. That’s not to say Prague is dirty, but Prague has decades of underinvestment during Communist rule to overcome. The combination of subway, streetcar, and significant bike lanes makes Vienna seem like a great place to ditch your car. Folks in Vienna are definitely more stoic than people in Prague, but not nearly as stoic as those in Iceland. Cost of living is cheaper than Seattle (as are most cities these days) and there’s no shortage of cool things to looks at. That said, there was at least one day where I didn’t leave the apartment. :-D It doesn’t have the party-time, youthful reputation of Prague, but it seems to be a pretty great place to raise a family… if you speak German.

A quick rundown of our activities in Vienna:

October 8 – We left Prague in the morning; what was scheduled to be a four hour ride took five. Near the Austrian border the train stopped on the tracks for a broken train ahead. Once we did arrive in Vienna, Dom attempted to run away from us and we almost lost his stuffed friend Elliott. Our apartment was right in the city, with two bedrooms, a tiny bathroom, and very creaky floors. Even though we had seen none of the city, we were tired, so we ordered food in.

October 9 – Went to the bakery across the street for breakfast then walked a few blocks away to a playground. Dom got some energy out, then we did some grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I went out to explore some on my own, found the Anker clock, and a fancy grocery store.

October 10 – We took the Hop-on-Hop-off bus tour out to Prater early in the day. Apparently it was Wiener Wiesn-Fest, an Austrian festival, so people in traditional costumes were already hanging out and drinking; overwhelming the only open cafe. After a beer and ice cream we wandered the park. Most of the rides were either closed or Dom was too little to ride them. When he did find a ride, he sat right in front with the biggest smile on his face; followed by a melt down when they stopped. After lunch at a beirgarden in the park, it was back on the bus around the city. After going over the Danube a few times, we got off and walked through the main shopping district to our apartment. It was late in the day by then, so we just cooked dinner in the apartment.

October 11 – I went on my own to the Belvedere museum in the morning; arrived shortly after opening. After touring I had some apple strudel at the café then walked back to the apartment. We went out to a playground a few blocks from the apartment, then dinner at Mel’s Craft Beer. I took Dom to bed and Chris had some time to check out the area at night.

October 12 – We took the metro out of the city to the Schonbrunn Zoo. We had some snacks, checked out a bunch of animals, and then stopped for lunch at Landtmann’s Café. After we walked out of the zoo towards the palace, then took the metro back to the apartment.

October 13 – It was an overcast morning, but we went out early and visited St. Stephan’s Cathedral. Then walked to a playground in Stadtpark for a while. Dom found a bunch of kids to play with in the sand box. We walked back to the apartment with a stop at McDonald’s for lunch. That night we had dinner at Beer Paradise a few blocks from our apartment. We forgot to take into account that pretty much everything is closed on Sundays, so we ordered wine to be delivered.

October 14 – Our last day in Vienna, I checked out a few stores on my own in the morning, including stopping by Frey Wille. After nap time we went out for a bit and had dinner at an outside table at Restaurant Fuhrich.

October 15 – We headed back to Seattle. We had a short layover in London, Dom slept a bit on the longer flight, and when we arrived in the U.S. we finished up our Global Entry interviews at the airport.

Looking back on the whole European adventure there were some stand out moments; Dom’s excitement on the rides, visiting the shop I had missed on my last visit to Prague, seeing the friends in Prague after three years, and many walks along the cobblestone streets. It is great that Dom can go with the flow, as much as a three year old can. I am not ready to embark on another trip like this until he is a bit older, but I am sure that will just bring a whole new set of challenges.

Oh, the fries in both places were really good. I could go for some right now.

Daddy and Dom checking out a local playground.

: Super fun rides, and the reaction to the ride ending.

Franciscan church a few blocks from St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Palm House in the palace park at Schönbrunn.

Climbing through the play structure at the zoo.

Leaving the zoo and looking back at the Emperor’s Pavilion inside.

Dom leading the train of boys with their cars around the sandbox.

Prague Family Adventure

In October, our family took an unexpected trip to Prague and Vienna. We had talked about returning to Prague for a while, a city Chris and I had visited while I was pregnant. It had not worked into the vacation time schedule until now. So with a few weeks of planning, NHL Global Series tickets in hand, and a bunch of credit card miles spent, the three of us were on our way.

Thankfully our flight to Heathrow was uneventful. Dom got a few hours of sleep and we had a few hours to navigate through the airport before our flight to Prague. Our lesson learned from Italy – we had a transfer to our AirBnB waiting. We arrived at the apartment around 2 pm and settled in. It was a really nice family-friendly apartment building a few subway stops from the city center. There were six or seven strollers parked in the lobby, and the kids room had a bunch of toys including a toy kitchen that Dom loved. After a short nap we ventured out into the neighborhood for dinner at Italian Restaurant Equilibrista.

Everyone with kids talks about how traveling with kids is just that – traveling not a vacation. Dom did well given the huge time change, but three is a challenging age. He loved riding on the subway and trams, but had a heard time getting off when we arrived at our stop. His understanding that sometimes things are closed or that we have to wait to do things is a challenge at home, and felt amplified while traveling. We tried really hard to balance things that the adults wanted to do and actives we thought he would enjoy. The end result was the trip felt more like living in the country than touring.

Chris’s Comments:

Prague has been a favorite city of ours since we went there a few years ago. We’ve always talked about living there, but never really chased it very hard for many, many reasons. When I learned the Flyers were playing there last spring, I was obsessed with going. I did a bunch of math and come to the conclusion I’d screw my PTO balance (going way negative) for like two years by going. Fast forward to me being on leave and stumbling into a RIDICULOUS deal on tickets with our miles and things became a reality. We stayed in apartments, as we generally do, which just makes life with a young child that much less hectic (read: separate rooms and a kitchen for 7 am breakfasts.

I had zero goals for Prague, other than the hockey game and seeing the city again. Melissa was pregnant when we were there, we were both sick, and we needed another bite from the apple… with a kid… to see what we still felt about it. I love Prague – I really do. The food options aren’t as varied as America, it doesn’t have world dominating technology at everyone’s fingertips, and it seems like there are broken things being fixed everywhere, but the people are friendly, they have great beer (they drink like 4x more beer in Czech Republic per person than the #2 country), and the city so, so beautiful. I think we’d raise a kid there, at least for a half dozen years, given the right opportunity.

Oh, and Prague is extremely navigable… even with an opinionated three year old. What parent doesn’t love taking a tram to drink a bunch of pilsner?!

A quick rundown of our activities in Prague:

October 2 – Took the subway toward Old Town Square, had lunch at McDonald’s. After we watched the bubble blower in Old Town square and walked to Hamley’s toy store. After nap time we took the tram out to Restaurant Zalezitost for some great Czech food.

October 3 – Tram ride to Wenceslas Square for lunch at Vytopna Railway Restaurant, a restaurant were the drinks were delivered to the tables by model trains. It poured rain and Dom didn’t nap so we ordered dinner (yay internet food delivery apps!) in from Lasagneria.

October 4 – Tram and subway to Mistral Café, shopping at Mucha jewlery store, then took a tour of the city on the EkoExpres train. That night a babysitter stayed with Dom while we went to the Flyers game for our 16th wedding anniversary.

October 5 – After breakfast in we took the tram out to the suburbs to meet a former co-worker of Chris’s and his family at the Koala Café. Dom had a blast jumping into the ball pit and playing with the other kids. That evening I picked up things at the grocery store and we ate in.

October 6 – We walked across Charles Bridge and stopped at the Secret Garden Café for breakfast. Dom really wanted the cake pictured in the menu so waitress surprised him with a slice when we were done eating. Then we walked to a playground under the bridge and tried to take the inclined tram up Petrin Hill. The line was super long so we crossed back over the Vltava River to find where we took our pregnancy announcement photo three years ago. We then stopped in Old Town Square for Trdelník and mulled wine before nap time. For dinner we walked a few blocks to Lokal Korunni where we drank lots of beer and Dom ate more cake.

October 7 – Our last day in Prague, I went out early on my own to get the VAT paperwork filled out and see the city a bit more. That evening we returned to Old Town Square for another Trdelnik before having dinner at Mincovna. After dinner we watched a few of the street performers before heading to bed.