LindsSays: Travel

Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Y'all recommended a lot of helpful products and considerations for our first family beach resort vacation with an 18-month old. These were the items we used the most with our toddler at the beach and pool (thank you everyone for your recs!).

Rashguard: HL wore this or the short sleeve version to protect his skin every day of vacation. He's on the bigger side of 18 month olds and the 2Ts fit perfectly.

Sunglasses: These rarely stayed on but aren't they so cute? He loved putting them on when he saw us put on our sunglasses and wearing them for 2-3 mins each. These fit his head and make great gifts.

Slip-on Sandals: He LIVED in these, they're so easy to slip on and off - he can almost do it himself. The back strap is adjustable.

Hat with neck cover: To my surprise, he had no issue wearing this in the pool. He usually refuses hats, but I think it being wet (cooling) and giving him shade helped.

Swim trunks: Target has a lot of size/pattern options for under $10, although I did struggle to find trunks in his size that are not blue (a safety tip from a lot of parents was to have them in bright colors so they're easy to find in the water).

Swim diapers: I was confused by the concept of swim diapers and learned a lot on this trip (the hard way). I brought a reusable swim diaper and boy was I glad to have the disposables (sorry, environment!) - I'm not sure where I could have washed a poopy swim diaper at the pool or beach, and putting it back on him while wet would have been a huge pain. We learned that these diapers really do the job while IN the water, they don't provide a lot of protection while walking around/hanging out, so whenever he got out of the water we switched him back to a regular diaper. We had 0 leaks in the pool which was what really mattered.

Float: This might be the best thing we took with us. He could sit upright in it in the water and he was very relaxed in it. Of course, we were with him at all times while he was floating in it but it is nice to have hands free. It folds up compactly to fit in the bottom of the suitcase and requires minimal inflation/set up.

Swim Vest: He wore this at all times when he was around the water, unless he was in the float. It keeps them upright in the water which surprised him when he was playing around, but this was great to have with us. We practiced wearing it at home so he was used to it by the time he got to the pool and again to my surprise he got excited to put it on any time I pulled it out.

The Beach Bag

We carried a tote bag (just a regular one because it packed easier than a full on beach bag) around with us that had extra swim diapers, a dry change of clothes, wipes, regular diapers, toys for meal times (a few magnetic tiles and the spinny suction things were the biggest hits), snacks, a sunscreen stick (I found this the easiest way to apply sunscreen), and his EpiPen.

Going to the Pool (and beach and resort) with a Toddler

Thursday, June 29, 2023

I had a work conference in New Orleans last week and thought I'd have all the time in the world to catch up on blog stuff, eat healthy, have some quality time for myself... not so much. Not at all actually. It was an amazing time though! It was my first time in NOLA - Harrison flew down on the last day of the conference and some of my friends from Florida came up for a few days on the town. Then we drove to Alabama to see Harrison's family and hit Grady, Montgomery and Birmingham (sadly we were just there for a minute, I was praying for some downtime to finally have a drink with my blog crush Nadine but it was non stop).

For New Orleans I highly recommend every single restaurant we stopped at in NOLA but my favorites were Charbroiled Oysters @ Drago's (I don't even do oysters), ghost tour with Free Tours by Foot, and Frenchman Street. My fav stops in Birmingham: The Purple Onion (Harrison has been talking about this restaurant since we met) and Kelly Ingram Park. Here are some highlights:

Bourbon Street!

Maison on Frenchman Street

Harrison's Grandma Pearl had this food waiting for us when we arrived to her house (no cell service, no internet, no neighbors. Quite different from DC life!)

Exploring his grandma's property - Harrison spent summers here!

Boppin around the farm

And now it's back to the real world womp.

Before I left for the conference I attempted some pho. Let me start by explaining that I once had Vietnamese co-workers who introduced me to this incredible dish, but who also always ordered for me (in Vietnamese) and I have never been able to re-order or re-create the exact dish. It's not quite paleo (rice noodles, sorry) but it is super healthy and super super delicious. Mine was also a little heartier/less soupy than your average pho but I loooved it.

Servings: 5
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

1 head broccoli, chopped into florets ($2.50)
1 12 oz package of snow peas ($2.00)
32 oz broth ($1.50)
2 cups water
1 package pho / rice noodles (I found mine at Wal-Mart! - $2)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, chopped ($1)
1 jalapeno, sliced and seeded ($1)
8 oz sliced mushrooms ($1.80) (I used a package from Wal-Mart also)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon minced onion
Serve with fresh basil, fresh cilantro, and sririacha sauce

Cook the noodles according to the package directions (I just put mine in a covered bowl of water and let it set for 20 mins. Too easy).

Combine the broth, water, onion, salt, garlic and broccoli in a pot and bring to a boil, then let simmer for 15 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Serve with the basil, cilantro, hot sauce, or anything else your heart desires!

Do you like pho? Do you make your own? What is your favorite New Orleans stop??

That Time I ate my way through New Orleans and Alabama + Clean, Grain Free, Gluten Free, Vegetarian Pho

Monday, June 29, 2015

Ok so I just had an amaazzzing weekend celebrating an old college BFF's bachelorette party in Charleston. I hadn't been to Charleston since another bachelorette party five years ago (5? 4? 6?). Despite being around college friends and attempting to party like I was in college, I did survive and I did have an amazing time. So here's the scoop on Charleston (one of my BFFs lives there so she told me about the places we didn't go).

Beaches:

Isle of Palms: This was a nice quiet beach with a few restaurants and bars but definitely not party city. Fortunately we brought our own party so this was no prob. Saturday we took a shuttle 30 minutes into downtown Charleston that cost $5/person so def not bad.
Sullivan's Island: Closer to Charleston, location of Charleston's University of Georgia bar so obvi I went there.
Folley Beach: This party beach was our college fav. Lots of people, lots of boozing, kind of like a college party.

All very bachelorette friendly as you can see.

Bars:

Husk Bar: This place is well-known for its restaurant but my friend (a real live local!) swears by the bar scene at night.
Midtown: This was very bachelorette-party appropriate. Live southern rock band, lots of college kids, shots all around. My friend lost her phone here and at the end of the night left her name and phone number for the bartender to call her if he found her phone if that tells you anything about how the night ended there.
Republic: This place was pretty sweet because it had table service with flaming bottles and a dance-y dj playing inside but a live band playing outside.
Market Street Saloon: We ~~fortunately~~ didn't make it to this one but everyone said it is THE bachelorette spot. A Coyote Ugly bar (aka dancing on the bars) that forces the bachelorette to dance on the bar.
*Sidenotes about the bars: If you want to hear live music, Charleston's noise ordinance forces it to cut off by 11pm. Also taxis are maaaddd expensive BUT this weekend was their first weekend with UberX so I definitely recommend using that. Or booking a shuttle ahead of time for a big group. Just be ready for that major expense.

BACON FRIES THIS IS REAL

Restaurants:

Fish ($$$): Thai-French-Seafood fusion. Sounds weird, tastes amazing. We ate here on Saturday, it's definitely on the fancier side but not SUPER fancy.
Xiao Bao Biscuit ($$): Asian soulfood. SAY WHAT? My friend swears everyone has to eat here.
The Grocery ($$$): Farm-to-table, all local, all goodness. BFF says this is where they go when they're in the mood for something fancy. I am dying to try it, also dying to go back to Charleston asap so we'll see how that goes.
Rarebit ($$): Could eat literally everything on this menu. Also could drink every drink on the menu. Yeah yall.

See: Ghost Tours. This is Philadelphia Alley which caught on fire forever ago but apparently you can hear people's screams at night. EEEEk

Things to do:

Beaches (above)
The Market: They have a big market place full of fun things to check out.
Carriage tour: This was totally unnecessary for me because my friend took me around town and explained everything to me but I really recommend this if you don't have someone showing you around. Charleston is so rich with interesting history.
Ghost Tour: A place this full of history has got to be haunted right?

Ok now for my photo dump of amazingness.

Woke up to this view every morning:

Hey franz!

The girls on the beach. The MOH brought us all tank tops that said "that's what she said" and the bride's said " yes". Funny.

The 3 of us met in the dorms freshman year and lived together 3 years of college. Now we are all getting married within 9 months of each other. Weird right?