Travel Day: Mini Sewing Kit

**Our Internet connection is sub par so some of these posts are going up days later than intended. This particular posting is from our flight to Frankfurt on 12.26.16. 

Well, I got as far as the LAX International Airport terminal before my backpack needed stitching on the strap. Lucky me, my sister, Regina, gave me a mini travel kit as part of my Xmas gift. Knowing this I managed to get the stitchery done while eating the most expensive Panda Express I've ever had (three one item bowls and waters, $42).

I'm eager to see how long my ugly stitching will last.

The kids were awesome on the flight. Nolan slept the longest even missed breakfast on the plane. That will make our 1-hour layover interesting.

Me and Madeline tried diligently to keep our tv's in sync so we could laugh at the same time.

Neck pillows. I love mine, except when it began whistling as I blew it up in the dark. Madeline was too cool for the neck pillow and Nolan forgot to get his out before passing out.

A little hand reached through the seats and tapped me around 4am Frankfurt time. My Fischer was trying to say hello.

Travel tip: Be the first before breakfast to use the bathroom, otherwise bring an oxygen mask, the methane from the holding tanks is not worth encountering; trust me.

Staying Awake Day One

We rushed through Frankfurt, Germany where our passports were stamped at customs, to board our second flight headed for Paris, France.

Madeline and I were startled awake by sandwiches being handed out by our German speaking attendant. She stayed sleeping, I forced myself awake because the boys all looked so content eating and playing on their phones.

The sandwich was unexpected. A slice of salmon between a creamy horseradish spread. I liked it. Madeline never tried it due to her slumber, Fisher got it out of his mouth the instant it hit his taste buds. Nolan and James seemed pleased.

The goal: DO NOT GO TO SLEEP UNTIL AT LEAST 8 OR 9 PM PARIS TIME.

Here's me: asleep in the taxi, except when beggars pounded the windows for money, and for the Champs Elysees and the Arch D'Triumph, James shook me for the Eiffel Tower a few blocks from our hotel. Inside the hotel, I tried really hard to stay motivated. I showered and redressed for dinner and then when I realized nobody else was ready to go, I sat down on the bed. BIG MISTAKE.

One I got out into the crisp night air, I felt good, awake. Madeline looked like a zombie walking around, the boys, still wide awake, jumping and playing and laughing as we made our way down the street to see the Eiffel Tower lit up in the night sky. Realizing our hunger, we stopped and ate at L'Dome, a bustling restaurant seemingly established for American tourists (one half of the menu with American food, the other half with French food). Eating in France with a family of five--not so easy. This is a city of romance, tables for two, etc. We need three tables to fit the five of us. Sadly, this meant, they had to relocate the two American girls who just sat down, so they could use one of their tables. However, the French waiters were joyful and happy to repeat key words in English and French, as if it were a little lesson (we enjoyed the lesson and his energy in creating the lesson). Bienvenue! Welcome! Merci! Thank you! Merci, beaucoup! Thank you very much! And on and on. He asked us where we were from, we said California. He put the credit card reader up to his head and said, "Hello? California. Hello?" We all laughed. Funny, funny!

I was surprisingly awake with James eating our onion soup and fromage (cheese) plate. Madeline was half asleep over her quiche lorraine. Fischer was in heaven with his Nutella Crepes and Nolan was happy to ask for Frites with his cheeseburger but that was as far as he strayed, however, he did have a cappuccino with his meal. 

Madeline (Do we really have to go to the Eiffel Tower tonight?) Magnificent, all lit up in the night sky! Really fantastic! A lovely lady from China took our pictures. Madeline kept asking how much longer. How much longer (until I can sleep)? But, it was too dark, except for the Tower. In fact, so dark, that I didn't even upload the one of the family. Haha!

After we brought dessert up to the room and played a little Trivial Pursuit (travel edition), we crashed hard!!! Bon soir! Goodnight!

Flight to Frankfurt

Well six hours of sleep sitting upright was not ideal but we only have 1 hour till we land in Frankfurt.  Currently flying over Ireland and a piece of the UK. Ironically, Fischer and I are feeling quite refreshed.  Must be the adrenline. 
The gentlemen sitting next to us has been accommodating to our up and down bathroom needs.  He still has a 4.5 hour flight to Lebanon.  Makes our 1 hour flight to Paris seemy miniscule.  Food on the flight was tasty, Fischer at the pasta while I ate the salmon.  Flight attendants were a really friendly, German based Lufthansa crew. 
Looking forward to the next leg of our adventure.

Departing

Departing - Such Sweet Sorrow

After a lot of saving, a lot of preparing, and the dreadful packing--we are ready to depart for our European vacation. 

 

Our itineraries are carefully organized (OCD fashion) in the binder we had to borrow from Madeline (So much for being well organized, we realized at the last minute we should think about putting it altogether in a binder).                                                        

  Packing: what can I say? I've had finer moments in life. At first it seemed fairly well organized. We began laying things out days in advance. But, then we had to really get to packing and didn't start until last night. Everyone was tired. Nolan wanted to pack everything he got for Xmas and much of his belonging (as if we are moving out of the country instead of going on vacation). It was challenging to reason with him. Our reluctant traveler: Madeline, just couldn't understand what the purpose of all this was or how to help beyond staring at her cell phone. Fischer was in it to win it, helping all along the way and never really getting frustrated. I once shouted out, "There are two window seats. The two most helpful kids get those seats, the least helpful might get the aisle. If no one is helpful, Mom and Dad get those seats!" The boys were immediately motivated; Madeline said in her blah voice, "I will sit in the aisle seat." (Backfired for her, but hey, the boys finished strong).

 Fresh start! Day of departure! Reluctance is reluctance. Those who are reluctant will be interesting to watch as we travel. Nolan was first of the kids up, dressed, and standing in my room with his backpack (four hours before go time). The bags are packed, whatever we forgot we can pick up along the way, and the electronics are charged. 

McGehee's are exiting the country!!!!

 

Book it and Leave!

First off: people with three children usually do not just book tickets and leave---not Mom and Dad with each other, not even Mom and Dad with their nine, eleven, and fourteen year olds. It's just not often possible.

We didn't so much just book a ticket (or five of them), and leave the country for thirteen days--we saved, and planned, and saved, and planned for three years (except for the coins, that took a good six or seven years to amass, I'm sure I'll write more about that savings in a bit).

So, before any of our readers go on thinking our family is fabulously wealthy jet-setters, no, no. We had to save; even the children had to put their allowance in the jar for three whole years (the first several times there were tears, and then after awhile it became routine).

Here's how we did it:

1. We did the 52-Week Savings Plan times five people for three years. 

Image from: lazygeniusmom.com

2. Miles. We saved our credit card miles. Three of five tickets were paid with miles.

Image from: nerdwallet.com

3. Loose change: Coins, those seemingly useless funds hiding in drawers do count as savings. It took us about seven years to save up $647 in coins. This amount went to what the children can spend while on their trip ($200 each). The coin jar takes practice and habit to perfect. For instance, I would often get $20 in quarters and dump it in the jar from time to time over the years. Using a larger bill than necessary at the store to get coins in return became a thing (if they said, "Do you have a penny?" I said, "No."). Coins are harder to spend than bills so it felt like I was saving part of my money every time I received coins back at the store. Change falls out of pockets in the laundry. I have a little money box hanging on the wall in the laundry room. I save all loose change and bills that come out of the dryer. Shopping online really hampered my coin savings though. If I wasn't going out to the store then there were no opportunities to get change.

Madeline's pic of us counting our coins

So you see, there are many little ways that can pay off big if you are seriously saving for a trip that can make you feel like a fabulously wealthy jet-setter. If you're feeling inspired, there are a few more savings hacks on Forbes: How to Save Serious Money for Travel. 

How do you save for trips? Are you feeling inspired to travel?

Picking the Destinations

It took us two years to really begin to feel like we might have enough money to take a grand trip. But where to?

Some people may enjoy picking the destination and then saving for it. We threw around some ideas as we saved along the way. But, it wasn't until the second year that we began narrowing down places to go.

Wouldn't it have been better for the kids to know what they were saving for? 

Maybe. Everyone is different. The kids all knew we were saving for a vacation. But, they also knew it would take several years to save this money. What we did was get their input on where they all would like to go if we could save up enough money. When we started saving our kids were ages: 6, 8, 11 which is very different than the ages they are now during our travel: 9, 11, 14. 

2013

 

2016

We considered Disney World for a bit. And then a Disney cruise. There were mentions of tropical travel. We thought about Mexico. Everyone's idea of travel changed as the funds were counted up every few months. In the end, we all chose France and England. We threw in Belgium to demonstrate to the children that many countries are very close to each other and even an overnight stay in a small, neighboring country, can be extremely beneficial. We thought about Luxembourg, but then turned our sights onto Belgium thinking it would be more kid friendly than Luxembourg (Belgium has chocolate after all!!!). 

Okay, but, how do you go from thinking Disney World to France and England?

I'm not going to lie. Our Elf on the Shelf gave us some inspiration. One year, our elves (we have a girl and a boy elf), sent us a globe and then went about traveling the world. They were absent for days at a time, often only sending postcards from places around the world. But, always, when they returned, they had gone somewhere interesting, gave us interesting facts about each place, and brought us back treats from each country. That year they went to places like Australia (brought back ginger beer); China (brought back fortune cookies); England, France, they also went to Sweden and brought back Glogg. This began our global thinking.  

The most exciting part of saving for this trip:

Seeing the kids eyes get big and their minds imagine the possibilities of what we could do with the savings. If you ask a child where in the world they would like to go, it is enjoyable to see them think about the possibilities.  

Are the kids really looking forward to going to France, England, and Belgium?

They each have something within each country they are looking forward to the most. 

1. Madeline (14): Added the Conciergerie to our list in France, because she read a fictional, young adult book called: Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alendar and decided she wanted to see Marie Antoinette's prison in the Conciergerie in France.   

2. Nolan (11): Has always wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I'm not sure what sparked that idea, but he has been talking about the Eiffel Tower for at least two years. 

3. Fischer (9): Soccer is his thing, even though he plays baseball. He loves to watch soccer. He keeps track of the players and the games. Since both Dad and Fischer are in love with soccer, we made sure to add a soccer match onto our trip to England. (Sadly, finding five tickets in a row is impossible. We will be at the Chelsea game but on the visiting side. Even then, only 4 seats together and 1 separate. Fischer will be on one of laps, but hey, it's a soccer match in England!!!). 

4. James (Dad):  He talks about the catacombs in France quite a bit but also of the soccer game.

5. Patty (Mom/Me): First and foremost, I want to walk across Abby Road. And secondly, I want to buy a book at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. I'm also looking forward riding the trains, having High Tea, and seeing the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve. There's nothing I'm not looking forward to.  
 
 

Introducing The McGehee's

2016 Seattle

We are The McGehee's a quirky little family of five.

James: Is our leader. He makes everything seem so effortless. He takes us on all of these adventures, otherwise we might be reclusive. I'm not as outgoing as James is. We are never lost so long as he is with us. Food: he will literally eat anything. He does not relate to those of us who are not as adventurous in eating, and so he ultimately gets us to try more food than we might normally. James has traveled to Italy, Luxembourg, France, Mexico (to name a few)...he is our jet-setter.

Patty: I am firmly planted in my setting, but enjoy being uprooted from time to time. I'm not as portable as I would like to be. That's because I am a mostly vegetarian, picky type of eater. I'm the type of person who writes lists and enjoys checking them off. I love resolutions, even if I cannot complete them. I read and write and study when I'm not being wifely and motherly. With James I have been to Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Mexico. Even though I am a reluctant traveler, I am really looking forward to being altogether on this trip.

Madeline: My most favorite oldest daughter. At this very moment, she's our only teenager. We're navigating these waters together. She has a long history with her piano, she follows the music. She's a member of the high school Jazz Band, Concert Band, Marching Band, and Choir.  Her laugh is a gift. She gets her reluctance from me, but I also see a bit of her father's adventurous nature here and there, especially with food, she will try anything. This trip will have the most impact on Madeline, whether she realizes it within these thirteen days together abroad, or as an adult.

Nolan (pictured on the left in the gray shirt): My most favorite middle son. He is the most inquisitive of our children. A budding engineer, a hobby cook, and a regular comedian. If he gets an idea, he's off and researching how to make it a reality. He loves to travel and see the world for himself. It's maybe because he is also Dyslexic that he cannot rely on words to inspire him, he needs to see the things for himself, and what a gift to be able to explore the world with him. Picky eater like me though. Eating abroad will be interesting for him.

Fischer: My most favorite youngest child. Mathematically inclined like his father, wishes he could have more math homework. He follows baseball and soccer. He has no particular ideas about the world outside of the little one he inhabits. Maybe at nearly 10 years old he will not have a full appreciation for these worldly travels, or, maybe he will. He has an incredible memory for detail and for foreign languages. I imagine at times he will feel bored and tired, but there will be some mind blowing experiences. He is the only one of the children who has never been on a Ferris Wheel, what an experience to look forward to one of these rides in another country. He is also a picky eater. Poor dad has to take three picky eaters with him. I'm sure we'll find exactly what we all enjoy in one way or another.