Tragic Sandwich

Tag: kitchen

  • Cottages and Cabins

    Baguette loves a good cottage.

    In fact, Baguette loves a cottage so much that sometimes she will just ask to go to one. We’re pretty sure a big part of the appeal is that it’s a cozy space that has a LOT less stuff in it. About a year ago, she told me that she wanted to “go to the house that you carry on your back.” I told her that this was a fantastic description of a cottage and how it made her feel — and let her know that she could use the word “cottage” for that. Recently we spent some time in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and let Baguette know that we were going to a cabin, which was a “mountain cottage.”

    Baguette loves a good cabin, too.

    Logs burn in a fireplace behind a metal curtain
    Fireplace preferred, but not required

    I’ve written in the past about how our travel patterns don’t match what Mr. Sandwich and I envisioned when we married, much less how either of us traveled growing up. And that’s okay, because what we do works for the three of us. But we are always rethinking the details.

    What makes a rental space work for us? For starters, a distinct living room with plenty of seating — including at least one sofa — is important. Baguette likes to lounge (and will commandeer a sofa) so having a couple of comfortable chairs in addition means that all three of us can enjoy the space together.

    Sleeping and Bathing

    The closer we can get to real beds for everyone, the better. That often means that we’re looking for a one- or two-bedroom space, but we’ve found a couple of large studios that work well for us. Sofa beds can be tricky, but recently we’ve rented one place that had a futon for the second bed, and another boasting a Murphy bed–both of which worked just fine for Baguette.

    We’re pretty flexible on the bathroom. Baguette prefers baths to showers, but as long as we all have a way to get clean, we’re fine.

    Eating

    Kitchens: It turns out that one of our must-haves is a microwave. That may not sound like a big deal, but every now and then we run across a rental that doesn’t have one. Apartment-sized fridge? We can work with that. Two-burner stove? Not ideal, but not a huge problem. A dishwasher is nice, but far from essential. But we have to have that microwave.

    The other thing about rental kitchens is that you never know how they’re going to be equipped — but you can probably count on the knives being mediocre at best. Our latest pre-vacation project is assembling a “kitchen box” with a few tools and non-perishables that we’ll take with us, to be sure that we’ll have the things we like to use when cooking.

    I found a number of recommended take-these-to-your-rental kitchen tools lists online, and they seemed pretty thorough, and generally reasonable. I used them as a starting point and adapted based on how we cook (people who use zesters would want to have one on hand, but it’s not a tool we routinely use at home — so we won’t be taking one on vacation). Here’s how we’re planning on packing our travel kitchen box:

    Equipment

    • Small set of sharp knives for slicing/chopping
    • Small plastic cutting board
    • Ice cream scoop
    • Tongs
    • Vegetable peeler
    • Strainer/colander
    • Spatula
    • Wooden spoon
    • Whisk
    • Plastic wrap and aluminum foil
    • Quart containers/bags
    • Chopsticks
    • Coffee maker*

    Ingredients

    • Coffee
    • Tea
    • Sugar
    • Olive oil
    • Salt and pepper
    • Steak seasoning
    • Kroger brand Chocolate Paradise ice cream

    Most perishable items we’ll buy on location; we’re usually staying within striking distance of a major grocery store. But that ice cream? That’s what Baguette wants for dessert, and no substitutions will do. We’ll also have a small cooler so that we can be sure we have her ice cream of choice.

    *Coffee maker. Sigh. A lot of rentals come with coffee makers, but I have come to prefer the French press coffee I make at home, and I’m just dubious about how often those coffee makers are getting cleaned. The thing is, I don’t want to take my French press on vacation. It’s glass, and I don’t want to risk breaking it. I’ve tried a travel version that was metal, and the resultant coffee was . . . kind of terrible. More recently, I’ve been trying this to make pour-over coffee, and so far it’s just okay. But I want to have coffee AND I don’t always want to go out for it, so hopefully I’ll come up with a travel method that works.

    What are your vacation must-haves?

  • Adjusting Expectations: Travel Edition

    So I’ve been listening to podcasts for a while now, and one of my favorites is The Mom Hour with Meagan Francis and Sarah Powers. Each week they have a new episode that shares parenting advice and experience on a particular topic–but in a no-judgment, do-what-works-for-you kind of way. It’s just my speed.

    (And their episodes always give me blogging ideas, so watch for more references to them and the podcast!)

    They’ve also added a series of episodes called “More Than Mom,” in which they discuss things beyond parenting advice. This week’s topic was travel.

    Travel’s something I’ve been meaning to write about for a long time, because it’s one of those areas in life where I had expectations based on my own childhood–and then things turned out to be different.

    When I was a kid, we traveled a lot–with the result that I visited every state (except Alaska) before I was 30. In the U.S., we traveled mostly by car, often camping in our pop-up tent trailer. Budget motel rooms were fairly rare, and the four of us would stay in one room. Then we moved to South Texas, where it was too hot to camp. Budget motel rooms became more common.

    We were fortunate enough to do a fair amount of international travel; my dad was in the military, so when we lived on the East Coast, we could get cheap flights to Europe on Air Force cargo planes. On those trips, we stayed in B&Bs, which tended to be less like showplaces filled with antiques and more like the house of someone who had a couple of spare rooms and was willing to serve you some food in the morning.

    Eventually, my parents moved on to tour packages and cruises, but my travel expectations for myself, certainly for the forseeable future, were of the DIY, low-budget variety. And, as it turned out, so were Mr. Sandwich’s. Neither one of us felt like resort people.

    But then we had Baguette, and we got to know her needs, and our travel style changed.

    First, neither Mr. Sandwich nor I has been on a plane since our trip to Kauai in 2009. This is kind of bizarre, because when I was single, I was the person who was on a plane once a month, and not for work. Even after we married, we flew once or twice a year. But we haven’t taken Baguette on a plane yet–although I’m sure we’ll try it at some point–so most of our travel is by car or train (she loves the train!).

    Second, we don’t stay in budget motels.

    Baguette is pretty adaptable, but she does best and is most comfortable in a setting that’s like a home. She likes some space, and some delineation of that space, and a comfy sofa. Those don’t tend to be features of budget motels.

    When we move in, we move in. Stuff EVERYWHERE.

    Also, she’s not a fan of restaurants. Too much waiting. So we cook more on vacation.

    What this means is that VRBO is our best friend. We look for one- or two-bedroom places with a full kitchen, in areas that are walkable and close to amenities, as well as within reasonable striking distance of the attractions we’re visiting. We’ve found a regular place in Santa Barbara (this summer vacation will be our eighth year spending a week there, and our fifth with this particular rental), and based on our Spring Break trip to San Diego, we may have found a regular place there, too.

    If VRBO doesn’t have anything available in another location, we look for a hotel room that comes with a kitchen. There are more of these than there used to be; over the past few years, we’ve stayed in Homewood Suites, Larkspur Landing, and TownePlace Suites.

    For a night or two, we can manage a simpler room that has a mini-fridge and microwave, but longer than that and everyone gets cramped and edgy. No one wants to be cramped and edgy on vacation.

    So it’s not what I expected–but it works. It works well. And if something else works in the future, we’ll do that. But this is really good for now.

    How do you travel?