{"id":516,"date":"2006-06-13T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T12:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=516"},"modified":"2006-06-13T12:13:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-13T12:13:00","slug":"family-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2006\/06\/13\/family-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"Family vacation!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the midst of planning our first real family vacation. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done plenty of road trips, staying with friends or relatives for a weekend, and of course we had a few camping trips with varying degrees of luxury. But this will be the first time we go to a city where we know no one, just for the heck of it, and actually stay in a hotel. Believe it or not, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be the first time since our honeymoon (in Paris, bien s\u00c3\u00bbr<\/em>) seven years ago that Beloved and I have stayed in a hotel together.<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec City for three whole days, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait! We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also going to Montreal for a day, where we have an all-day playdate inked in with my frequent co-conspirator and favourite blogger, Nancy<\/a> and her boys.<\/p>\n

Beloved is teaching a course on Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec art this fall, so he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing a gallery and museum tour to familiarize himself with the subject matter. While I would absolutely love to tag along with him, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking that preschoolers and art galleries do not make a good mix. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably do something as a family early in the day, and either I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll retreat to the hotel for Simon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (ha!) nap, or I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll drop Beloved off at a museum and drive big loops around the city for a couple of hours while the boys snooze in the back.<\/p>\n

Planning a vacation with preschoolers is not exactly the same as planning a trip for yourself, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m learning. When I went to Europe in 1995, I travelled by myself and chose places to stay based first on the cool factor, then on the safety factor, and finally on the cost factor. If I were travelling to Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec without the kids, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d stay in the old city in a little B&B with period furniture and lots of charm and character. Where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re actually booked is a Holiday Inn about a 20-minute walk outside the old city, with a pool, wi-fi, cable and lots of Internet reviews that say things like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153family friendly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153boring but serviceable\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Because Simon the Terrible and period furniture just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be a good mix, ya know?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been to Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec City before, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to it. Everyone who has been there tells me it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the closest thing to a European city this side of the pond. I absolutely love the idea of letting the boys run rampant on the Plains of Abraham<\/a>, and I think there will be more than enough to keep everyone busy for a few days. And who knows, I might even get to practice my French.<\/p>\n

Any thoughts on vacationing with preschoolers? You guys were positively inspiring on the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what should we eat when camping<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d issue, so now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not making a move without consulting you first!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the midst of planning our first real family vacation. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done plenty of road trips, staying with friends or relatives for a weekend, and of course we had a few camping trips with varying degrees of luxury. But this will be the first time we go to a city where we know no … Continue reading “Family vacation!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-away-we-go"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}