Travel without kids. Travel on my own.
Professional learning trip. Girls only trip. These are all the things I
experienced for the first time in my life.
This past weekend is the first time in over 12 years that I traveled all
by myself, without the kids or the husband.
It was so exciting! I traveled
with four other ladies to Portland, Oregon.
We went to see the Opal School and to attend their Reading the World
Conference. One of the ladies, Kelly,
and I’ve known each other for years.
Kelly is a SPSD colleague that I look up to and hold up with high
regard. The other ladies, also early
childhood educators, I had just met a few times but was excited to get to know
them on a professional and personal level.
We all got along super well and I truly feel I’ve developed some new
friendships.
Here are some of my favorites from the
weekend!
I am not going to spend a lot of time giving
you the details of the conference but I will say that it was truly inspiring
for me. We spent time learning from
their educators and exploring their classrooms.
They truly embody and practice the idea of “children as competent
learners” in everything that they do. I
have a lot to share with my teachers at SPSD and am looking forward to pursuing
some of these ideas as I mentor teachers and also when I return to the
classroom in a year and a half. If you
go to Portland with children, the museum is a MUST see, and I think the zoo would
be a place to visit as well.
This was the highlight for me. I went into the forest to a few times on my
own to run during lunch while at the conference. It is breath taking. To be so close to the city and yet so far
into the forest, surrounded by trees
that reach high above, touching their branches up to the skyline. You know there are roads nearby but get lost
in the beauty of the natural world and wonder.
THIS IS A MUST!!! Kelly and I
spent 2. 5 hours hiking the forest and taking various trails that led us to
explore the ‘winter garden’, ‘rose garden’ and Washington Park.
Oregon
Holocaust Memorial
The Holocaust Memorial in Washington park
was haunting. Kelly and I were happily
taking in the beauty of the day when we suddenly and unexpectedly came upon it the memorial. Our mood immediately changed as we took in
all the artifacts that were scattered around.
A beautiful bench sprinkled with rose petals caught our eye first and
then the baby that was clearly laid to rest there as a symbol of all the young
lives lost. We paused and noticed that the pathway leading up to the
large stone memorial was scattered with discarded items to represent all that was lost and taken
from the Jewish people. An opened
suitcase. A teddy bear. A violin, that once produced a beautiful
melody now laid broken like the people who once owned it. A young child’s boot. The large head stone was filled with words t
of the horrors that once were. It was a
time of quietness, respect, of grief, and
of reflection. We allowed ourselves to feel and be swept by the horrors
of the past. As we continued our hike, we
found ourselves taking time to walk in silent reflection and gratitude.
Powell’s
Book Store
I love books so this was a must see. Powell’s book store is stocked with books and
takes up one whole city block. Being teachers,
we mostly spent time browsing in the kids section for new picture books to
inspire little minds.
Tom
McCall Waterfront Park & Saturday Market
Kelly and I ran a 5km loop on the first day
down by the Tom
McCall Waterfront Park. It was a perfect
way to stretch our legs after hours on the plane and to see the cities bridges.
The path was filled with runners, bikers and walkers which was lovely to
see. On Saturday morning we all headed
down towards the Tom McCall Waterfront Park for their Saturday
Market. We weaved in and out of people and vendors filled with crafts, jewelry, art, food,
nick knacks and so on. Many of us walked
away purchasing the softest sweatshirt and shirts of Portland form a local
vendor. I got my girls and I matching
ones J
Accommodations,
Food and Wine
We stayed in a beautiful Mark
Spencer Hotel in downtown, which is also the last independent hotel in the
downtown area. The rooms were modern,
with a stunning bathroom, modern kitchenette and beds that you could spend
hours laying in, which we opted out of 😊. They also had a great light
breakfast every morning, and a wine and cheese happy hour that we took advantage
off before venturing into the city streets.
For all the foodies out there, the city
will not disappoint!
My favorites were:
Imperial Restaurant: Food
was unique and a classy evening out.
Petunia’s
Pies & Pastries: The cakes were
to die for and the coffee was excellent and GLUTEN-FREE!!!
Teardrop Lounge:
Fun little lounge with a variety of
drinks to choose from. An excellent
place to stop after a nice dinner and before heading back to the hotel.
Voodoo Doughnuts: I am not a doughnut person but these were
AMAZING and a fun experience. I got a
fritter, drizzled with chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate chips. Can you say sugar overload?!? I ate almost ate the whole thing.
I feel rejuvenated both professionally and personally. I was struggling with the winter blues that
seemed to be hanging on and getting away like this for five days was an
incredible gift. Getting off the
airplane and seeing my little families smiling faces was the icing on the
cake.
I know that traveling big cities, exploring
new territory, is something I want to continue doing. Though I love all inclusive beach vacations,
I feel ready to do some new types of travel here and there, when we can afford
it.
Tell me your favorite travel destinations
with and without kids.
It's been a long time since my last post but for good reason. Logan and I just returned from a 12 day, adult only, trip to London and Paris. We did 6 full days in London and 3 days in Paris, and then a few travel days. While in London we stayed with my friend Alley and her significant other Adam, and they were wonderful hosts.
Today's post is a bit lengthy but here are my top five events, in no particular order, from London.
#1 London’s Parks (St. Mary’s Gardens &
Kensington Park)
If you love the outdoors and beautifully
manicured open spaces, London will not disappoint. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many
beautiful parks in my life and they are literally EVERYWHERE. There are so many to choose from, St. James
Park, Hyde Park, Victoria Park, etc. My
two favorite parks were Regent’s Park, specifically the rose gardens and the
boating lake, and Kensington park. As we
strolled through Regeant’s Park on a Sunday afternoon we witnessed numerous children
and families picnicking, as well as structured sport practices taking
places. The London Zoo is also located
nearby but we didn’t check it out but it sounds like a great place to
visit.
My second favorite park, in which we spent
at least 2.5 hours in, was Kensington Park/Gardens. This is a HUGE park and not only does it
house Kensington Palace, but has numerous playgrounds including Princess
Dianna’s playground which we weren’t allowed to checkout because we didn’t have
children with us. You will find several gardens,
two lakes, row boats, picnicking areas, walking paths, etc. It also has the Peter Pan statue and Princess
Diana’s Memorial fountain, which is more like a large paddling pool that
children of all ages were playing in.
#2
Buckingham Palace & The
Royal Mews
We did watch the changing of the guard at
Buckingham Palace but honestly it was not something that stands out in my mind
at all. Truth be told it was kind of a
waist of time but it’s what you are supposed to take in and do while in London
so we did.
Afterwards we wondered over to the
Royal Mews where they keep all the horses and the carriages used by the queen,
and all the previous royals. We did a
walking tour with a guide and really enjoyed our time there.
This carriage is mostly used by the queen
for state affairs.
This is the gold state coach and it is
massive. It’s the oldest coach, mid-18th century. It is so heavy that it takes them two days to
prepare it and get it out of it’s holding facility. This has been used for every coronation since
the mid-18th century and also for the jubilee celebration. The heavy coach needs 8 horses to pull and 4
riders to pull it. It is heavy due to it’s wooden frame as well as the luxurious
gold decor.
This is me practicing my
royal wave.
The Royal Mews also has a daycare area to
drop of your children if you are visiting with them. I know my girls would have
loved seeing all the carriages though.
3) Live Theater
We were fortunate enough to see two
different shows while in London. The
first was at the Shakespeare Globe Theater, which also included a tour with the
guide of the actual theater and learning about Shakespearean times. I have always appreciated Shakespeare, though
I don’t always understand it all, and have read/seen quite a few of his
plays. What I grew to appreciate even
more is how talented he truly was. His
plays are written so that both the rich and the peasants would be able to identify
with the story. As you can imagine this
would be very difficult as the two classes were leading such extraordinarily
different daily lives. In watching The
Taming of the Shrew, which I didn’t know much about except that it was a comedy
and 10 Things I Hate About You is loosely based on it, I recognized how the
play is actually very tragic. It depicts
and questions women’s roles in society. I
was devastated by the fact that the “Shrew”, the young woman with her own view of
the world, what being a women men’s, and a strong will, gets tamed by a
man. Sure Shakespeare made it funny but
I wonder how many people left the play years ago, and thought that’s not right.
The second performance we went to has been on
my wish list for some time, Les Miserables .
We didn’t purchased tickets ahead of time, so we were super fortunate to
get standing tickets for our last evening in London. The show was completely sold out but when we
went to Lancaster metro station to buy daily discounted priced
tickets the gentleman saw how disappointed I was that he told that us that if
we went straight to the box office they sell a few standing only seats if the
show is sold out. We both got tickets
for $30 pounds!!!!! The show did not disappoint!
The stage, the actors, the singing, the story, all blew my expectations out of
the water. It’s such a beautiful story
of love, human devotion, kindness, empathy, overcoming obstacles, and also a
time piece representing the class system that once existed and how that
impacted human character. If you get a chance,
it’s a must see!!!!
4) Tower of London
We spent 4.5 hours here!!!!! Honestly there was so much to see and learn
at this place that we could have spent more time but we were meeting up with
our friends for drinks so we scooted out of there. One thing we didn’t do, but wished we had, was
get the audio tower for the towers. We
did however enjoy a enactment of the peasants charging the tower and a tour of
the white tower. Anytime we could we joined
a tour because you learn so much and they always add so many antidotes that
make the place come to life. We saw the
crown jewels, totally worth the 45-minute wait, and even purchased a broche for
my grandmother from the gift shop. We saw the etchings of prisoners who were
kept captive in the ‘prison’ tower. Some
of the prisoners were held for their whole lives, others were kept until they
were beheaded, while others still had lush accommodations if they were of
royalty and were just kept until a ransom was paid.
What we found interesting about this
location is that it was where the London Zoo actually originated! When
the wealthy would come to see visit the king they would bring exotic animals as
a gift, which came to be known as the Royal Beasts. The tower saw an elephant, snakes, lion (this
is were the lions found in Trafalgar Square were sketched),
ostrich, monkeys, etc. At the time the
guards did not know how to take care of the animals so they were left to roam
around the tower and they struggled to feed them as they didn’t understand their
diet. They fed the elephant wine daily,
stray dogs to the lion, and nails to the ostrich because they were told it
needed ‘iron’. People began visiting the
tower to see the exotic animals but after several attacks on humans they
realized that they needed to contain the animals and they were relocated to
what is now the London Zoo!!!!
5) Westminster
Abby was worth the visit and it’s absolutely stunning in it’s architecture as
well as it’s history of people who have come to worship, carnations, wedding,
baptisms, and the ones who are laid to rest there. We took the audio guide and it provided us
with a wealth of information. As we
walked through the abbey its difficult to take all that it’s made up of, the
art, stain glass ceilings, the tombs and the statues that represent the ones
laid to rest there, the architecture of the church itself, etc. The coronation chair is also seen at the end
of the tour and I have to say was not grand as I had envisioned it but then
again it’s 720 years old!!!!!
There are so many things to see and do in
London and of course we didn’t get to it all.
We did go down to the famous Borough
Market but after a
half an hour we wandered off into Notting Hill and enjoyed the quite
neighborhood rather than the jam packed busy street filled with vendors. We ate and drank in fancier and local pubs. We took in a roof top movie with the locals. . I did a little bit, very little, shopping on
Oxford street and found a new store that I absolutely loved, M & S (Mark
& Spencer) and I just found that they do ship to Canada but haven’t
explored it yet.
Thanks for stopping by.
