Family Vacation

When I think of family vacations, the movie National Lampoon's Vacation comes to mind. With the mom, dad, and two kids (and who can forget Aunt Edna strapped to the roof of the car) on a road trip, traveling cross country in the family station wagon. (This comedy still makes me laugh.)

While Uwe and I may not be Clark and Ellen Griswold, (and I'd like to think that Uwe isn't racing along side a Blond in a Ferrari down the freeway while I'm asleep in the passenger's seat), from here on out our vacations are now "family vacations". Instead of a family station wagon, we travel by a family SUV which is packed to the brim with baby "stuff".

Our first family vacation involved us packing up our kid and baby stuff and heading off to Palm Springs for the weekend.

We stopped at a "family restaurant" on the drive up for lunch. Even at a "family restaurant" when you walk in with a small baby you're automatically tagged with specific instructions that say "please seat this family away from the other paying customers as to not annoy them in the event that the baby starts crying, and please seat them where there is plenty of room." So they sat us in the back of the restaurant which was fine with us. Uwe and I are getting used to no longer having premium seating, as long as we have room for the baby, car seat and/or stroller and diaper bag (in my case Bjoern diaper backpack).

Up until now I have been a proud member of the "adults only" club. But having a child has changed all of that and my membership to that exclusive club has been revoked. I'm starting to notice all the changes. Uwe claims we are treated like second class citizens at restaurants. The changes include not only which restaurants we can go to with the baby (and hopefully they will have a changing table..something I never gave any thought to before having a child) and where we are seated, but also hotels that are exclusively for "adults only" and children are not allowed. No longer are we welcome at our favorite resort in Desert Hot Springs for that same reason.

So Uwe did a search on the internet and found the Viceroy Hotel in Palm Springs.

The pool outside our room was designated "adults only". There it was again. A reminder that I am married with children and must stay where me and my kind are choraled together. The map of the hotel showed a "family pool" down another pathway. I probably let out a big groan at this point as I wasn't excited about having to spend the afternoon in and around the "family pool" where older kids would be doing canon balls into the water. But I was pleasantly surprised.
The "family pool" was very nice. It had individual cabanas on one side and a large cabana in the back with a canopy that shaded the whole back end including the deep end of the pool. This is where we spent our time at the pool. And it was quiet and relaxing for the most part.

This was Astrid's first time in a pool. The water was warm and comfortable but Astrid didn't seem to know what to do at first, as she just hung in place and didn't move her arms and legs. We thought she would take to it right away since she loves her baths and kicks and splashes in her baby tub, but I guess this felt like a new, strange environment to her.

Uwe placed Astrid on a floating mat and got her acclimated to being in the pool.

Isn't she just precious in her ladybug swimsuit and matching floppy hat?

Here is Astrid asleep in her customized lawn chair.

There was never even a question of whether we would bring Astrid with us or not. Astrid's a part of our family now and it just wouldn't be the same with out her on a family vacation.