Recently in Travel Category

It seems like I turn around and another week is gone.  I've been meaning to sit down and post for quite a while, but with one thing and another, it hasn't happened.  My husband marked another year on the calendar (happy birthday, sweetheart!), Ms Z had her first overnight away from home and parents this week (she was with her Babcia while John and I celebrated his birthday a la Belgian beer without having to worry about when we had to get home) and at work I am settling in with a new boss (I've now watched several leadership changes where I work, so the transition doesn't seem quite as traumatic as it might have at another time).  So it's all good, but this biologist is busy, and not getting a whole lot of non-work related computer time.

Boston is always one of those places I like to visit.  It's filled with history and roads that don't necessarily go where you think they will.  It's got crazy drivers (they make Chicago drivers look like they are out for a Sunday stroll) and beautiful landscape.  It's got good shopping and great eating (as far as I am concerned, no meal that involves fresh oysters on the half shell can be too bad) and some beautiful spaces.  The picture above was taken in one of them.

Thanks to some very helpful commenters, I learned that "Make Way for Ducklings" (a book I knew about but had never actually read)  was centered in the Boston Public Gardens.  And with the help of the most fabulous Claudia (who gave me a great tour of the area near the Boston Commons and the gardens) I not only found a copy of the book for Ms. Z, I also got to see the famous bronze statues of Mrs. Mallard and her celebrated ducklings. To commemorate the trip for both me and Z, Claudia took a picture of me with Mrs. Mallard -- I'm going to print out a copy of the picture and put it in the front leaf of the book, so Z will have a small set of books that are part of her mother's travelogue.  And if I go back to Boston, I still have some good book options -- I found out later when Claudia and I went into an old cemetery not too far from the garden, Mother Goose also hails from the Boston area (and is buried in that cemetery), so if I get back that way while Z is young, I know what book I will be looking for next.

I also got to come home with my own heart warming Boston story.  On Wednesday evening after I had dropped off all my booth shipping information to the shipping company, I went outside the convention center to wait for a good friend from when I was doing my post-doc.  She pulled up and while I was putting my suitcases in the back of her car my iPhone decided to make a run for it.  It was a little rainy and rather cold and a bit noisy and I didn't notice it's unfortunate bid for freedom until we got to Burlington for dinner.  After searching my friend's car it was clear that the phone was gone.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.  Borrowing my friend's phone, I called John.

The call went something like this:

Me:  Guess what?

John: You lost your iPhone?

Me: <surprised> How did you know that?

John: The person who found it called me at the same time as you did... I'm going to merge the calls...

As it turned out, not too long after we pulled away from the convention center, a gentleman on a bike with a penchant for electronics noticed my iPhone's bid for freedom.  He stopped, surprised to see it in the street and nearly getting run over himself, retrieved the phone.  He took it home and there he and his wife turned it on, saw the picture of Ms Z on it that is my wallpaper and decided that the phone must belong to the mother of a cute baby and that it needed to find it's way home.  They figured out where my recent call list was, saw that John had been called more than anyone else, and called that number to find out if he knew anything about me or my phone.  And just at that time, I called John as well.  The gentleman who found the phone agreed to leave it at a hotel near the convention center where I could pick it up.  With Claudia's help I retrieved the phone the next morning.  I never got to meet either of the people who helped my phone come back to me, but they did leave me a nice message telling me that they had once lost a phone and never gotten it back and they knew how frustrating that was and wanted to make sure my phone got back into the right hands.

These people deserve much good karma to be sent in their direction.

Needless to say, I am still sort of in shock (in a good way) that my phone came back to me.  I know most people do the right thing given the opportunity, but I guess I just don't expect it to happen when it comes to me.  One of the other things I have been doing this week is finding some Chicago things to send back to them to say thank you for going out of their way to help me out. I settled on a pound of Intelligentsia coffee and my favorite variety of Vosges chocolate bar and a gift card.  Z and I are going to head off to the post office after her afternoon nap to see these goodies on their way.

Tonight I start my first color theory class at Quiltology (I am so excited about this I can hardly sit still) and then we're off to Ann Arbor this weekend to celebrate Father's Day with my dad.  I wish all of you a most wonderful weekend full of family warmth.

Well, the time has come.  Next week I'm going to be spending most of the week in Boston, like a lot of other people associated with the microbiology world, taking in the big ASM meeting.  (Well, I won't be taking much of it in, I will be hanging out in a booth on the trade show floor, but you get the idea).  And for the first time ever I'll be apart from the baby -- she came with me to Toronto for last years meeting.  On one hand, I'm excited.  On the other hand, I know I'm going to miss her terribly, especially at the end of the day when I don't get greeted by that big fabulous happy smile when I come home from work. 

Since I'll likely travel a fair number of times for my job during her childhood, I want to start a tradition of bringing a little something special back for her.  This will give me a Z-related mission that makes me feel like I am doing a little something sweet for her and I hope that it will give her a reason, especially as she gets older, to not feel bad about my going away. Not something large, just something small, easy to collect and transport, tough enough to withstand the love/appreciation of a child.  I'm also going to try to work on a pair of socks for her.  I have Cat Bordhi's most recent sock book and some lettered stitch markers from JLYarnworks all ready to go -- and I love her idea of making baby sized test socks in order to try out her general sock forms from the book.   Z hardly needs socks with warm weather approaching, but making things for her makes me happy and makes me feel close to her even if she is too young to understand of know. 


Any of  you travelling moms have suggestions for how to make the time away from the baby easier? 

For this vacation, I did something remarkable.  I got all the things I needed for the vacation in my single suitcase (which is small enough to be carry on when I am on a business trip) and a tote bag.  I limited myself to one book to read (never touched it), one book of Sudoku puzzles (did a few) and one knitting project (made many stitches).  On the way back, there was still a little room in all of our suitcases.  I consider it an ironic victory that we were able to travel lighter with a baby than when we travel on our own.  Maybe just knowing that we weren't going to be going out any place fancy with a 7 month old in tow was the key.  Who needs fancy shoes or clothes that have to live on hangers when you have to find a restaurant that is tolerant of a small child spreading saltine cracker shards everywhere?

Ms. Z did travel very well and I think we were impressed with both her and ourselves when it came to our airplane trip.   My best advice for traveling with a baby?  1) Pack some juice.  And then take twice as much as you think you need.  Take offs and landings can take longer than you think they will and liquids are the perfect way to make a baby swallow so they can handle the pressure changes.  2) Toys. Lots of them.  Sacrifice your own potential entertainment for that of the kid.  As we learned, you might get lucky and get a short nap, or you might get an active baby. An active baby means that you won't be reading that third book you brought (or knitting) anyway.

By limiting my own entertainment options, I actually made my vacation better.  One sock project is easy to schlep around without feeling over loaded.  My usual regimen finds me with much more day-to-day luggage because I worry that I won't feel like working on any given project.  This time, I just had one project to focus on, and, as a result, I got quite a bit accomplished.  Nap time when you are on vacation is just pure bliss time to do whatever you want, even if you can't leave the condo.

I can hardly believe that I'm settling in for my last night in Toronto. Where did the week go? I got to spend my night in an exceptionally fun way, though.

SnB at Lettuce Knit

With almost perfect weather, I got to enjoy a final fabulous evening in the company of a very friendly group of knitters at a beautiful little yarn store, Lettuce Knit. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and it's hard to imagine a better way to spend an evening in a new city. I enjoyed seeing Rachel H and Stephanie again (Rachel made sure I got a nice walking tour down to Lettuce Knit and I got to hold Stephanie's current sock) and I got to meet Amy for the first time as well as Michelle and more lovely Toronto knitters than you can shake a stick at. As always, I have to apologize for my terrible memory for names -- but it really was a pleasure to spend a few hours knitting with such a nice group of folks, and I do hope that I get the chance to come back someday and do it again.

Of course, a little bit of shopping was done... but discussion of that will have to wait until I have good light to take pictures in.

CN Tower from the 14th Floor of the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre

You have to love a conference package that comes with free high speed wireless internet access -- and the claim is actually true. I've been in Toronto now for about 4 hours and from where we are staying the views are lovely.

A View of Lake Ontario from the Hotel

And the hotel room isn't all that bad, either. Now I just need to figure out where some good restaurants are (as opposed to the touristy near by to the hotels restaurants) that really give some flavor to Toronto. Clearly a city that's this lovely must have some good places to eat.

Given that the troops are still gathering for our meeting (it is just a hoot to me to see signs saying "Toronto Welcomes the American Society of Microbiologists" -- who would have thought that any place would be excited about having a bunch of people who study viruses, bacteria and fungi running around?), this night is likely to be a good one to relax in my hotel room. So I think I'm going to dig into this:

Bootie Making Materials: Rowan Wool Cotton, Cotton Glace, and 4 Ply Cotton

There are so many cute patterns in Zoe Mellor's book and too many lovely baby girl friendly colors to choose from in cotton and cotton blends. I've always wanted to try out Rowan's cotton-based yarns without making a commitment to a big project in case I didn't enjoy the experience of knitting with them. Babies need lots of booties, right?

And one last picture before I sign off. I just could resist getting a snap of this sign just past the security check point in Terminal One at O'hare.

Be Careful Choosing Your Starbucks

I don't know which is funnier... the concern that people might choose the wrong Starbucks and not have the option of getting their tall skim mocha lattes or that the "drip only" Starbucks and the restrooms seem to be in the same place...

The annual meeting of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) is going to be in Toronto the week of May 21st. My company is going to be there to market our wares on the trade show floor and (assuming my doctor clears me for travel) I'm going to be there from Sunday evening (May 20th )until Thursday morning (May 24th).

This will be my very first vist to Toronto. We're staying downtown at the InterContinental Toronto Centre and I'd love to have some recommendations for "must sees" in down town Toronto. I'm hoping that the famous Lettuce Knit isn't too far away -- I'd really like to see it and find out what makes it so special to Toronto knitters. But I'm interested in finding out about other places that make Toronto special. And if you have a favorite restaurant, please share it! I always love to know about good places to eat.

I understand that May 21st is Victoria Day in Canada. Are there good things to see? Events to take in? We'll be setting up our booth that day, but, otherwise, I'm expecting to have some free time. I'd love to know more about the holiday and how Canadians usually celebrate it.

Finally, while I hope I don't need it, can anyone recommend good hospitals downtown in Toronto? As I mentioned earlier, I'm not going to leave Chicago unless my doctor tells me everything looks good, but I figure better to be safe than sorry and be prepared with a phone number or address or two.

I don't know yet how much scheduled free time I'm going to have (that's the hard part about being there on business... the whole point is to schmooze potential customers, meet with strategic partners and find out about new technology) but I'm hoping I have time for a couple of coffee breaks and that I might have a chance to meet some of the folks in the Toronto fiber community.

I was supposed to have a post for you today. I even have a good picture and everything. But my plane didn't get into Missoula, MT until almost 1 PM mountain time and it took an hour to get to the hotel.

I can tell you one thing, though. Even in the dark, under a layer of snow, Montana's the Bitterroot Valley is beautiful. And the drive from Missoula to Hamilton on 93 is quite lovely done by moonlight.

I hope to get a few pictures today (I'm here on business so I probably won't have too many opportunities to sight see until tomorrow) so that I can give you an idea of what the place is like. This is definitely one of those un-sung beautiful places that you don't hear about too often.

I've also got a special -- fiber related -- side trip planned before I head home. Can any of you guess where I might be planning to spend some of my afternoon tomorrow?

Today is our last full day on the island... I was going to work on pictures (there are definitely a few more for the gallery) but instead I am just going to soak in the last of the lovely island weather and feelings before we have to pack up and head home. Unlike some vacations I've been on, I always find it difficult to leave Hawaii. There is something undefinably special about this place.

And it's been such a great trip... canyon hikes, beach strolls, dramatic sunsets, snorkeling that included several up-close interludes with some wonderful green sea turtles, some excellent Mai Tais in Po'ipu, out door showers, beautiful gardens and natural spaces, incredible surf, and a doors-off helicopter ride that put the whole island in perspective.

Would I come back to Kauai again?

In a heartbeat.

Would that I didn't have to have a job and that I could travel anywhere when I wanted to.

Even then, I am sure I would find myself spending much time on the Hawaiian Islands.

The next post will likely be in a couple of days when I am back in Chicago. Dealing with much less hospitable weather. Until then, Aloha!

P.S. I seem to be having some email problems right at the moment, so if you left me a comment or sent me some other email to one of my keyboardbiologist.net accounts, I probably won't be able to answer until I get back to Chicago. Not sure why I am having this problem, probably some strange quirk of the internet that will repair itself when I get back into my home territory.