We're Back...again

I know our trip to Dominican Republic was only a month ago, but we just returned from Hawaii for a friend's wedding. Occasions always seem to happen around the same time rather than spread out, so off we went on a flight to Honolulu 3 weeks after unpacking from Santo Domingo. Luckily, it was a hop, skip, jump from Vancouver and we did not have to endure an 11 hour flight from New York. We returned on a red-eye this morning and are already almost done with the laundry. Success!

We packed a lot (beach gear and toys takes up a lot of space) and as we get on the plane, I realize we forgot our suiter!! This was problematic, considering it held Melvin's suit AND 4 dresses (rehearsal lunch, wedding + 2 casual dresses) of mine. AHHH!! My mind was racing. Upon landing, I called our good 'ole friends, Robyn & Reggie (the ones that visited us in Aug) who were coincidentally in HI for ANOTHER wedding. Long story short, we wear the same sizes as them and we rocked their outfits at the wedding. PHEW. Crisis averted. It was also a good conversation starter at the wedding, according to Melvin: Hi, nice to meet you. We forgot our clothes at home and this is our friends' outfits. 

Our friends, Roland & Maeann (the ones that helped us find our apartment in Vancouver) are now newlyweds and had a fabulous wedding at Kathy Ireland's estate on the island of Oahu. It was literally picture perfect. 

VIEW FROM OUR TABLE

Aside from the wedding, we were able to meet up with friends from University, which was a great reunion. We went to a traditional luau at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and it was a really fun night, which the kids enjoyed so much. I feel like we went on a food tour of Oahu, which was no joke. Wailana Coffee House, Side Street Inn, Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, Leonard's Bakery, Papa Ole's...Sinfully delicious! My sister and her fiancé also met up with us there and we shared a condo together. It was beautiful watching them spend time with the kids and they took care of them during the wedding, which was perfect. We had plenty of beach and pool time, as well as visited the North Shore to see its amazing waves.

Banzai Pipeline during a surfing tournament

Living further has made us take more of a conscious effort to spend "quality" time with people when we see them. It has been so fun spending time with people in other states/countries. It is a great revelation.

Chickenpox??

NO! It is not chickenpox!!

We've been home for 4 days now from the Dominican Republic and about 5 people (mind you, we haven't been outside THAT much) have asked us if our kids had chickenpox.

Instead of my typical retort: No, we were just in the Caribbean and they got bit up really badly.

I should respond with: Yes, actually, we wanted to infect everyone at the (playground, store, swim lesson, etc), why don't you bring your child closer...

One may wonder why Melvin and I aren't bit up as badly. Well, during our 2-day road trip, it rained overnight and since grandma doesn't have air conditioning, all the windows were wide open. Those little "buggers" (pun intended) must have smelled fresh blood and they went to town on our kids, particularly Julian's face. He has about 50 bug bites just on the right side of his face - not joking - and literally hundreds on both his arms. 

I can't even bare to take a picture because I feel so bad for him. Hopefully, they will clear up a little bit before his 4th birthday this week. 

Mission Accomplished

We returned from D.R. at 1:00am yesterday and we are so proud of our little ones!


Each way the endured the following: 
17 hour journey 
3 planes 
2 security lines
2 customs lines
2 immigration lines
1 red-eye
long connections, with a switch in terminals

They were rock stars and we couldn't believe it! All in all, the travel portion was painless and the only problems we encountered were the 100s of mosquito bites each kid got and Julian tripped over my luggage getting out of our cab at 1am and bit his lip open. Yes, he is not picture perfect right now between the bug bites and busted lip, so hoping child services is not going to come after us. :)

We had an amazing time. It was wonderful to see family and to see our kids meeting family for the first time. We had a birthday party for Julian and Melvin's dad's 70th separately, so plenty of Dominican Cake to go around! Melvin and I also took a 2-day road trip, leaving the kids with grandma, and explored the entire island with his dad, brother and 3 uncles. Hopefully it won't be too long before we go back. 

Coson Beach - Las Terranas, Samaná

Mission Impossible

...YVR --> LAS red-eye --> EWR --> SDQ (Dominican Republic)
...3 airports = 3 take-offs, 3 landings
...2 sick kids; 1 recovering from croup
...1 luggage full of donations, including 20 lbs worth of Costco products my husband picked up
...1 car seat
...50 degree weather to 91 degree weather
...2 grandparents that will no doubt overwhelm and fight over the 2 sick kids when they arrive


Prayers, miracles...we'll take it.


Santo Domingo, here we come!

Salud! (Cheers in Spanish)

I love how my kids start the morning by sitting next to each other at the dining table, looking at each other with huge smiles on the faces and clinking their milk glasses, while Julian yells, "Cheers".

Thanks for this wonderful life lesson Tita Robyn!  LOL

We had a blast in Seattle, but just have been so busy to write about. Quick snapshot: we had a nice room at the W Hotel downtown, kids were wonderfully quiet and asleep for most of the car ride back and forth, we picked up packages and mail in our mailbox, we did a cheesy duck tour, but it satisfied Melvin's need to "know more" about the city. We even stopped off at Birch Bay in Washington to throw rocks in the water and look for crab shells. Our highlight was a trip to Trader Joe's and had wonderful meals at Wild Ginger, Le Panier, Athenian Inn, PF Chang's. Trader Joe's and PF Chang's do not exist in Canada. tsk tsk. Man, do we miss the world of consumerism. So bad, but it's really insane how there are SO many stores in the States and they go strong. It's probably the biggest difference we've noticed.

Okay, gotta get Julian to school, but wanted to write about the "Cheers" incident :) hah

Nexus Approved!

Cross often? Make it simple, use NEXUS.

NEXUS is designed to expedite the border clearance process for low-risk, pre-approved travellers into Canada and the United States.

I got the above quote from the Canadian Border Services Agency Website. They make it sound so darn easy! Well, it was technically TOO hard, but it was certainly a process.

1) I had to create separate log-in and passwords for all 4 of us.

2) Adults have a $50 application fee.

3) Each application (yes, 4) took FOREVER to complete and you have to list every country visited the past 5 years. This was a little tough with my elephant memory. I was so cross-eyed by the time I did the last application (Melvin's) that I accidentally entered Mozambique as one of his countries. We had to then send an email since you can't edit an application!

4) Then, we had to wait....and wait, and wait, and wait.

5) Finally, after about 4 weeks, Melvin & I got emails within a day of each other saying we were conditionally approved and we could make appointments for our "interview".

6) 4 weeks AFTER that, the kids got approved (weird), so we had to make their appointments, which at that point were booked for more than a month out after ours.

7) Interview Day: Melvin and I got interviews the same day. The Canadian officer was so mean, said we couldn't process the kids' cards and they had to wait like everyone else. The American officer was SUPER nice (big surprise) and said, "oh, I'll just do the kids too. It's just a formality". Hah. An iris eye scan and fingerprints later, we got approved.

8) Our cards arrived in the mail a week later.

We're heading to Seattle tonight to try them out! Let's see if they really do make a difference in the time it takes to cross the border....our fingers are crossed. We also have some items from Amazon waiting for us in our mailbox. Yay!

Next blog post will be about our Seattle weekend. It'll be my 2nd trip there and Melvin & the kids' first. I tend to think it's very similar to Vancouver, but Vancouver is cleaner and more beautiful, but let's see if I think differently after this weekend.

Until next time!

Cruisin'

We returned from our Alaskan cruise yesterday...much heavier in weight, but fully enjoyed vacation mode. It's always hard coming back to the daily grind, no matter what it is...It was wonderful seeing our family and showing them Vancouver, before we embarked the Disney Wonder for Alaska.

What did I think of Disney Cruise Line? Well, I am generally not a fan of Disney and my kids will not be going to Disney World until they are both over 4, can remember the trip, and are not napping. However, I highly recommend the cruise experience for parents! You can drop the kids off at the kids club all day, any day, while you go off to the gym, spa, a wine tasting, game of family feud or to simply stand on the deck and look for whales as the Alaskan coastline passes by. The food is not marvelous, but it's better than good and there's always a lot of it. Plus, Disney is the only cruise line that is BYOB. Cruising is definitely not for everyone though, so always something to bear in mind. My sister and her fiance, while childless, had a good time with their excursions and port of calls, so all were happy. Conclusion: we would cruise with Disney again.

Another interesting fact is that Alaska is really popular for their wholesale jewelry, just like in the Caribbean. Many of the vendors spend 5 months in Alaska and the rest in St. Thomas, St. Maarten or wherever else in the Caribbean...Who would've known?  So what did we do in Ketchikan, you ask? My sister scored a beautiful wedding band and I got Amelie some bling - her first pair of diamond earrings...of course, my daughter's birthstone is diamond.

Visitors

Our visitors from Philadelphia just left...waahhh...we love having visitors and showing people around our new city. It started off a bit rainy (big surprise), but was followed by 4 solid days of sunshine! As always, it was wonderful catching up and spending quality time with great friends. 

Whistler involved snowshoeing, snowboarding, grilling, spa-ing, hot-tubbing, shopping and of course, EATING.  Julian went to Whistler Kids Snow School, which is an AWESOME program. It runs from 8:30am-3:30am and includes lunch, 2 snacks and ski lesson!  It was tough leaving him and there were some tears during drop-off, but at the end of the day, he really enjoyed it and wants to do it again!

Vancouver involved sightseeing, walking, driving, boating, shopping and of course, EATING.  We also dined at a fabulous French bistro called Salade de Fruits Cafe.  It was actually a wonderful surprise, as I didn't expect much, but it was truly....FABULOUS. It is really hard to find an authentic French bistro, but this place was truly authentic, French server and all...the fries were awesome and the moules portion was huge!  We will be going back really soon.

We really hope our visitors enjoyed everything as much as we did!

Poet's Cove

We just got back from a much needed mini-getaway to the Southern Gulf Islands. We headed out to Pender Island and stayed at beautiful Poet's Cove in South Pender. It was such a retreat-like setting, extremely relaxing and reminded me how important it is to get out of the city every once in awhile and breathe in some fresh air. 

AERIAL VIEW OF POET'S COVE RESORT & BEDWELL HARBOUR

The BC Ferries are a fascinating (and organized) system!  It was our first experience bringing our own car onto a ferry, but it is a common mode of transport here, especially in the summer. The only other time I've done this was in Malta (to and from Gozo), but that was so long ago with someone else's car and I didn't appreciate travel as much then. Anyway, it ran very much like an airport; made a reservation, got into a line, turned off our engine and waited there (just as if we were at a gate) until our ferry docked and it was time to "embark".  The nice part is we were free to roam around, there was a "Kids Zone", cafeteria, etc. on the ferry and we are able to go outside. I spotted a Bald Eagle flying past my window, which was pretty unexpected.  

We are excited to check out some of the other islands, but not too keen on the long line ups I hear about during the summer. When all is said and done, I'm sure it's completely worth it.  What does one expect in the Gulf Islands?  Lots of nature, hiking, random animals, secluded beaches/coves, fresh food and local wine...all one can ask for in a relaxing vacation.

Crossing the Border...

Travel has become so complicated! I no longer have to just worry about myself, but I need to worry about my husband and two kids too...sheesh, I miss being selfish. Gone are the days that I am able to book a weekend trip to Barcelona to visit a friend, the week prior (sigh, I am reminiscing as I type this, Erica!).

Today, we applied for Amélie's first passport (she is 4 weeks old). Yes folks, you DO need a passport for Canada and you DO need a passport no matter what age you are. We still don't have a move date or much information, but I was frantic as I know these things take time!

TIPS ON APPLYING FOR AN INFANT'S PASSPORT:

* Minors (under 16) may not apply for their first passport by mail, so moms & dads, take the day off because you both need to be there. BOTH parents/guardians need to be present when applying for an infant's passport. Supermoms, you cannot do this task alone! You will need baby's birth certificate/proof of citizenship, evidence of relationship to the minor, Photo IDs of parents/guardians and two (2) passport pictures.

* Original Birth Certificate - mandatory to apply...so if you think you're getting on a plane with your kid the week after he/she is born, you're mistaken. New York City Dept. of Health is particularly slow: 4-6 weeks for a birth certificate!

* You must send the original birth certificate with the application. Don't worry! They will send it back with the passport. It is nerve-wracking sending original documents, but it'll be fine.

* Social Security - you need the number for the application! Quicker than dept. of health, but not quick enough!

* Passport Photo - you need to get creative for this. Your hands (holding baby up) cannot be in photo, so either hold the baby under the onesie/shirt OR bring a white blanket so you can lay it out on a table and take a stress-free picture of your infant.

* Form DS-11: This is the form you need for minors under 16 of age. http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/minors/minors_834.html

* You can expedite a passport for $60 extra and it takes 2-3 weeks door to door. Without expediting, it takes 4-6 weeks.

* Apply at your local post office (call and inquire if you need an appt. and if they facilitate passport applications) or Regional Passport Agency. Bring personal checks!

Happy Travels!