Tragic Sandwich

Tag: Travel

  • 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?

  • So Long, 2016

    I wrote 14 posts this year. Sometimes I wonder if I’m still a blogger.

    What can I say? It’s been a hell of a year. A lot of this is known to people; we all heard about the election, and no matter how you feel about the results, it was a big damn deal. We all know about the celebrities who died; Carrie Fisher’s passing hit me particularly hard.

    For us, we’ve had a triathlon to train for (Mr. Sandwich) and support (Baguette and me), multiple IEP meetings, changes in leadership at Baguette’s school, lost teeth (the sixth came out this week), family drama that warrants assessment, and lice.

    Oh, the lice.

    We were supposed to travel to visit my dad and stepmom for Thanksgiving. But I had a bad cold, and based on much prior experience of making that trip sick, we decided not to. As it turned out, that was a wise decision. Because on the day we would have been driving, I discovered that Baguette and I had lice.

    We called a service to come over to the house that night and comb all three of us, and scheduled the follow-up for the Monday after the holiday. But as it turned out, we couldn’t wait that long, so we also went to a lice-combing salon on Friday for an additional come-through.

    There are, by the way, a lot of businesses providing this service in Los Angeles.

    That was our hair; we also commenced on an astonishing amount of laundry, washing and drying on hot things that we often don’t even put in the dryer. We vacuumed and lint-rollered and bagged and froze and did everything we could think of to halt this in its tracks.

    It was exhausting. It was not a vacation. It was not a break. But ultimately, we were successful–although we now are completely fixated on checking our heads on a regular (and probably unnecessarily frequent) basis.

    We delayed our trip, planning to visit the week after Christmas. And then I got bronchitis. So we didn’t go. But we did have Christmas dinner with Mr. Sandwich’s parents, as planned. That was nice for a bit, and then discretion is the better part of valor, and also of family harmony on Christmas.

    Now we are two weeks into Baguette’s three-week winter break from school. In case you were wondering, three weeks is too long. It’s not that I don’t love and value the time with her–it’s that we don’t have any other care for her, which means we have to take more days off from work, and it means that her routine is significantly disrupted in ways that are very difficult for her. And with my bronchitis that first week of the break, we didn’t do a great job of creating a different routine. We’re getting into one now, but that still doesn’t keep us from having rough days.

    Long story short? I am ready for a new year. So Happy New Year to all of you!

    And know that while I may not be able to stay up the whole time (among other things, Baguette got me up at around 4:00 this morning), I am definitely feeling this:

  • Disruption Can Be Good

    We spent the last week visiting family out of town. For Baguette, routine is king–but this morning, I was reminded of why disruption can be good.

    The trip was great, and I’ll write more about it later. But it was also exhausting, because we were constantly on the move, seeing new places and spending time with people who Baguette doesn’t know all that well yet.

    Last night, after we got home, Baguette used more full sentences than we usually hear in a week. And they were new ones, like “Mommy, get the ball” (it had rolled under a piece of furniture) and “Mommy, I want green Play-Doh” (more typical is simply “Green Play-Doh”)

    This morning, she started reciting the alphabet. This is not unusual, but here’s what was: She was also signing it. All that time this week she spent playing with the Baby Sign and Sing app we’d bought her?

    She’s been teaching herself ASL.

  • Separation Anxiety

    For almost a year, J has been involved in a management training program at work. He’s had lots of meetings, a group project, a mentor, you name it. This weekend he also had an overnight retreat to wrap up the program (although there are a couple of months of work remaining).

    That meant that yesterday morning I dropped him off so that he could take the charter motorcoach up to Lake Arrowhead. He and his group headed off for the mountains, and I went to a friend’s house to do some scrapbooking.

    My scrapbooking efforts are never-ending. We don’t have children yet, but we do have a lot of photos. There are “daily life” photos from individual events (I’m caught up to 2004) and trips (as of yesterday, I’m working on the Caribbean cruise I took with my parents in 2002).

    In addition, there are the historic family photos I inherited, which stretch back to the late 1800s. I refer to them as historic not because they have any larger significance, but to distinguish them from the more recent family photos. My mother pretty much abandoned scrapbooking in 1987–although even she was running behind. The last year that went into a book under her auspices was 1977. I’ve made my way into the early 1980s, so I’m making progress. But without a good work surface, it’s slow. I don’t get to my friend’s house very often–she doesn’t live nearby, and we both have busy schedules, particularly since she had a daughter–but I make a lot more progress at her home than I do at mine.

    But then I came home to an empty (and with the weather, very VERY hot) apartment. J and I often go our separate ways during the day, but it’s very unusual for one of us to be away overnight. I think he’s probably been away a bit more than I have, because he and his dad have made a couple of hiking trips that required 1 a.m. departures. Those are rare, though, and their last trip of that sort was probably more than a year ago. I’m glad neither one of us has a job that requires lots of overnight travel.

    I’m even more glad that he’ll be home tonight!

  • Belated Triathlon News

    The training paid off! I still have a bad knee, which limits my running, and I’m still afraid of biking down hill, which limits my cycling. But I rocked the swim, if I do say so myself. I expected to cover the 1/4-mile distance in about 20 minutes, and came out of the water in just under 13. The entire experience was fantastic, and I decided to follow it up with a relay at the Catalina Triathlon.

    This race featured a 1/2-mile swim, which made up my portion of the event. I was so excited at not having to prepare for the bike and run that I completely forgot to prepare for the swim. I was late to the transition area, and as I was laying out my towel, I realized that I couldn’t find my official swim cap (color: yellow) or my ear plugs. Fortunately my husband was able to provide extra ear plugs, and I did have my regular swim cap (color: blue). Naturally, in between the discovery and the solution, there was freaking out and shrieking.

    So I made my way over to the start, where I waited for my wave (relays go last). I couldn’t see anything, because I had torn a contact and therefore decided that it would be better not to wear them. In retrospect, that might have been half right.

    Soon it was time for my wave to begin. I gave myself a quick pep talk (I am a strong swimmer! I am going to swim very fast!) and ran into the water. Within 50 yards, I was shocked to realize that (a) I was already dead last, and (b) I felt like I was going to drown. What kept me going at first was the realization that I was part of a team, and that I couldn’t let my friends down because the swim was too hard. After that, what kept me going was the people on surfboards. The support crew was absolutely fantastic, providing moral support and directions to the buoys. After I rounded the second one, I could see the shore, and somehow things got easier. One woman paddled the entire way in with me, cheering me on the whole way.

    At this point, I was clearly the last person out of the water. Apparently the race photographer didn’t see me, and left to take pictures somewhere else. (Harumph! I was only 40 seconds behind the person who finished immediately ahead of me!)

    However, in spite of being incredibly slow compared to the other racers, I improved on my previous pace. This time I finished in just under 22 minutes, which means that my pace was faster over the longer distance.

    So on a personal level, my training paid off. On a team level, it’s a good thing that I was on a team with people who were faster on the bike and in the run in comparison to other racers–my friends and their speed are the reason that the team didn’t come in last, even though I did!

    That’s it for this year. I don’t know what next year will hold.

  • More Eats on Kauai

    I need to catch up on our Kauai eats.

    First, more on garlic shrimp. Savage Shrimp, on the corner of Lawai Road and Hoonani Road in , is housed in a lunch truck. It may move in the next two years, depending on what happens with the shopping center that is supposed to be built across the road–but for now, the truck can be found mid-day, with Susan dishing up freshly cooked shrimp in a handful of preparations. We had the Garlic Scampi and the Bahia Scampi, both of which were delicious. It’s worth noting that the prices are a tiny bit higher than indicated in the Roadfood.com review, but only by a dollar or two. Portions are generous and flavorful.

    Next, Hamura Saimin. This is a small place on shabby Kress Street in , but it’s good for a cheap bite. The menu is small, but the Special Saimin is quite good. Try the lilikoi pie–light and fluffy. At one end of the restaurant is Halo Halo Shave Ice. Their hours are limited, but the shave ice is vastly superior to the mainland Sno-Cone and its kin. We had it plain, without ice cream at the bottom, and found it very refreshing–just the thing for a hot day. The serving was big enough for both of us, so keep that in mind when ordering.

    The Camp House Grill in offers enormous, messy breakfasts with spicy-but-not-too-hot gravy in the morning and big, tasty burgers in the afternoon and evening. Be sure to have pie. They excel at pie.

    If you’re in (and why wouldn’t you be? It’s delightful), try Polynesia Cafe. Their plate lunches and fish sandwiches are quite good, and they’ll provide you with fuel for hiking (at least part of) the 11-mile Kalalau Trail, which begins at and provides cliffside views of the Na Pali coast. Even if you only make it to the first overlook, you’ll have worked off your lunch and seen truly spectacular scenery.

    That’s it for Kauai, unless I remember something else that I just have to share. Eat hearty.

  • Fine Dining in Poipu

    When in Kauai, our favorite restaurant for a nice dinner is Plantation Gardens, in .

    My parents came here in the early/mid 1970s and loved it, and we had a terrific meal at the same place during our honeymoon. This time, we started with the tempura plate and moved on to surf’n’turf and the fish of the day, which in this case was a pan-roasted ono. Everything was cooked perfectly, and the sauces for each dish were fantastic.

    Plantation Gardens is in the Kiahuna Plantation Resort, and is definitely worth a visit–no matter where you’re staying on the island.

  • Burritos

    If you’re in , why not stop at Burritohead? We went because it’s owned by a friend of a friend, but we’re talking about going back because of the food. As you might guess, they have burritos–as well as tacos, flautas, and quesadillas. These come with pork, chicken, or beef, and are all in the $7-9 range, or fish for $2 more. We had a pork quesadilla and fish tacos, and everything was really good.

  • Shrimp, Glorious Shrimp

    In the town of Waimea, on the south shore of , is a roadside restaurant called Shrimp Station. Actually, “restaurant” is a generous term–it’s basically a cookstand with a patio. But no matter how basic the setup is, the outcome is fantastic. The sauteed garlic shrimp are to die for, and the beer-battered shrimp are crisp and light. Please, sir, I want some more.