I’ve had my blankie since I was born.

I was brought home from the hospital with it.

I’ve slept with it every night minus the months I’ve gone traveling for extensive periods of time. And it never went away with me for a weekend or a week long trip (minus college where in some cases I had to take it with me to be protected from my roommates-you know who you are – Heather and Alison- who found it funny to “torture” blankie by hanging it outside and other bizarre things!).

But generally speaking, I’ve slept with it every night of my life.

It’s comforted me on the worst days of my life and relaxed me on the longest days. And all the days in between it just made me feel “good.”

Well blankie is gone. Vanished. Lost on our trip to San Diego…I’m heart broken. I’ve called every hotel we stayed. Justin’s Mom has searched her guest room countless times. I’m actually impressed at how understanding and thoughtful some of the hotels have been…even when I tell them, well, actually “it doesn’t really look like a blankie…it’s just some shreds of material…”

It’s been like losing someone close to you. I feel lost. I’m embarrassed to admit this but it is true.

My blankie held a ton of sentimental value to me. It wasn’t much more than a piece of tied together string (what was left of both my blankie and my mother’s blankie’s soft edges–I “inherited” my mother’s when she passed away five years ago–more on the shreds later)- Or better said by my good friend Katina when we were living together one college summer and it went missing after a big party…and I quote, “oh that, I thought it was something the cats drug in and threw it away.” Several hours later and after much digging in the apartment complex dumpster and trashbags, blankie was found and given a very good bath.

Blankie, to my knowledge only went missing one other time. It was several months after Justin and I had been dating. He used to think it was funny and would throw it around my room playing games at seeing what he could hit with it…ummm, not so understanding of my attachment. It went missing one day and I blamed him for months. It finally turned up when I moved out of my place. It had been wedged between my bed frame and the wall.

Now that it’s gone and after having to describe it to countless hotel staff, it got me thinking, why was blankie in shreds? Why was it merely a bunch of tied together edge pieces? What happened to the rest of it? Now that I’m a mother with a daughter who has a blankie and a “blankie attached little boy in training” I think I know why…my mother must have cut the blankie up so that if it went missing she had a spare bit to give me (I vividly remember stories being told of when I was 2 or so and had to have my tonsils removed and she got all the way to my grandmother’s to drop my brother off to be watched and then had to go all the way back home (45 mins) to get my blannkie). So eventually all the pieces must have gotten so worn out that she had to tie them together. I’m not sure about this theory but I’m guessing it’s a pretty good one.

So what does all this have to do with a blog about traveling with children? A lot.

You see when you travel (child or not) part of the excitement (or not) is being in an unknown place with unfamiliar tastes, sounds, sites, smells, etc. For an adult this can be very exhilarating (or unnerving for those who don’t like change or different things). For a 2 year old it can be quite disturbing. Bring a child’s blankie (or any “lovey” for that matter) along and that sense of comfort of home and familiarity is maintained. While we don’t let the children take their blankies out on everyday adventures (for fear of losing them), they are always with us on overnight trips anywhere.

Travel tip: if your child has a blankie or a lovey, don’t leave home without it if you are traveling. And I guess if you think it might get lost have a spare just in case. Or cut up the blankie into pieces so there’s several spares…

I’m fearful that blankie is in a landfill somewhere in California but hoping that maybe blankie will still turn up.

But for now R.I.P. BLANKIE, you will be missed…

Last week we moved into Justin’s Dad’s place after moving out of our home.  I cried like a baby when we said goodbye to our house.  It was our first “family home” and we were all sad to say goodbye.  Stella still can’t quite grasp the concept that it’s gone as last night she had an accident in her bed here at Grandad’s and said “Mommy, we need to go home.”  Ofcourse I’m all mommy guilting myself into worrying that “oh no, my children aren’t going to have a home for awhile.”  But as everyone has reminded me, it’s not the house that makes the home but the people who are in it.

It’s funny, now that we are homeless and the chaos of the move has died down I feel amazingly relaxed.  The most relaxed I’ve felt in awhile.  Home ownership is a wonderful thing but the freedom of just having the bare essentials and no worries and stresses of a home is somewhat liberating.

So I’m sure there are some of you wondering why the heck are we homeless?  What are you doing?  Where will you go?  What will you do?

Well, we sold our house because it really wasn’t going to work for us long term with 2 small children and we believe the market here in Vancouver can not handle much more of an increase in value.  Unlike the US, Vancouver real estate has stayed really strong.  So strong that we can’t really see ourselves investing in our next long term home here until prices stabilize.  We did very well on our home in Vancouver and have decided to sit on the sidelines of Vancouver real estate for awhile and possibly “play in the US real estate market” in San Diego.

A lot of people have asked what are your plans?  I have hesitated to even try to explain the next few months as it exahausts me just retelling our plans but here you go for all those who are curious…

On Wednesday we leave for a flight to Washington, DC where we will spend 2 nights visiting with some of my college friends.  Then we are off for 10 days in State College, PA, to Justin’s alma mater, Penn State.  As anyone who knows Justin knows he is a die hard Penn State fan so our stay at PSU is going to allow him to go to 2 big games and also pursue a business idea around Penn State football.  I am so very excited for him and feel that all his hard work over the years starting and running businesses is really going to pay off and he is going to be doing something he loves.  So stay tuned.  My husband is surely going to rock it out at PSU!

Then we will be heading back thru DC for another quick hello to some friends enroute to my Dad’s house in Salem.  I haven’t seen my brother and his wife and my 4 nephews in a year.  I can’t believe it.  It saddens me to think how much I’ve missed seeing them grow-up but excited to be able to spend 2 weeks with them.

We will be heading back to Vancouver on Dec. 1st to close on our investment condo here in Vancouver and spend 2-3 weeks furnishing it to rent it out.  Then we’ll be heading down the West coast to LA for Christmas and then on to San Diego for 4 months to 2 years…  We’ve rented a beach house in Encinitas (north of San Diego) for 4 months to give it a try down there and see if we like it.  We may buy a house there and stay a few years but ultimately plan to come back to Vancouver for the children to go to school here.

So that’s the plan in a nutshell…or rather a tortoise shell..far too big of plans to fit into a nutshell!

Now off to pack our bags.  Given all the airline restrictions and charges for everything we are trying to pack light…no easy task for a month long trip with 2 small children.  But I’ll be doing my best to pair down to the essentials.

We are taking our car seats again as it wasn’t that big of a deal on our trip to San Diego, though we will have to pay $25/car seat on the way back as United charges.  Flying out on Air Canada and they allow you 1 piece of luggage PLUS free check of a car seat or stroller per person.

Yes, Justin got a Seat By Himself!

We also took along both car seats for the first time and our new double Phil and Ted stroller… to say we had way more gear than luggage would be an understatement.  But, it wasn’t that bad at the end of the day and I think made the children more comfortable during all of the riding around we had to do by having their own familiar car seats.

We headed to San Diego in search of a house to possibly relocate to.  We recently sold our home in Vancouver and due to the exorbitant prices here and an interest in trying something new we decided to check out the San Diego market.  Most of our US friends couldn’t believe that we were choosing to move to San Diego to save money…it’s one of the most expensive areas to buy real estate in the US.  But compared to Vancouver, it looks affordable.  Not to mention that for the first time since I left the US I saw a pound of fruit priced at under 50 cents…

We spent 6 days in San Diego.  We had 32 houses to look at…no easy task with 2 small children but it went really well all things considering.

Sunset

We stayed at the Sheraton downtown and again were impressed with the niceness of the staff (similar to our experience last year in Atlanta).  We chose the Sheraton because it was an all suite hotel and with 2 babies needing naps and not sleeping thru the night always it’s nice to have an extra room.  Because we also have membership in the Starwood Preferred program we were upgraded to their club level which meant, free breakfast, free internet and 2 free drink tickets per day and water.  All said and done this probably saved us a good $60/day.  Worth the membership in our American Express Platinum program.  For anyone who travels often and does not have the card…do yourself a favor and get one.

We also get Gold Membership in Hertz with this card.  Again, no waits and great service.  However you do pay a bit more for Hertz but the cars are clean and there are never any issues.  We also obviously got the “Never Lost” system given all the driving we were going to do.

If you’ve never been to San Diego and you have children I HIGHLY recommend it.  VERY family friendly and not only were the people we met some of the nicest I’ve come across in a long time but most were genuinely helpful.

Yummy Chicken during our Room Picnic

There is a ton to do in San Diego.  Beaches of course, the best zoo in the world (or so they say), Sea World, LegoLand, Wild Safari park, outlet shopping, casinos, etc.  And I had no idea how much American history there was in San Diego.  Not to mention a TON of museums.  If you haven’t been, put it on your list.

We hit the beaches in N. County which were beautiful.  We also went to the Zoo which was very impressive though I still think I have issues with animals behind bars…  If you are there on a Wednesday the Farmer’s Market in Ocean Beach is pretty lively and fun.  Versus the Pacific Beach Farmer’s Market on Saturday which was pretty beat.

So how was it traveling with 2 babies?  Not as hard as I thought but obviously not as easy as one.  Obviously being organized and taking advantage of memberships in travel programs, etc. helps.

How did the house hunting go?  Not as well as we had hoped.  In all honesty I went down there not very optimistic.  I really enjoy living in Vancouver and all that it has to offer.  We also have a pretty good support network here.  A great nanny, Ciska, who helps me out occasionally and Justin’s Dad is close by (though he was planning ot move to San Diego with us).  I also have some great friends here now and a pretty good routine of things we like to do, etc.

But I also didn’t want to sit back and say, “what if,” one day.  So we went.  The first few days I was pretty sure it wasn’t for us.  Then we started exploring the North County and the beach towns.  That’s when I was hooked.  We found a cute house in a town called Cardiff by the Sea.  It wasn’t our dream home but it was very nice and we could walk to the beach.  It was in a cute village within a bigger town (Encinitas) with just about anything we would want within walking distance and everything else a mere 5 miles away.

We had also found a house in Mission Hills that we were considering as well.  It is an urban neighborhood in San Diego.

Who would have thought however that our luck would fail us.  By the time we got to San Diego with our list of 32 houses to look at 6 had gotten contracts or been pulled off the market before we could even look at them.  And wouldn’t you know it… the 2 houses we were about to write an offer on got offers literally the day/evening before we were to write ours.

Father/Son Moment Watching Football at What Would Have Been Our Local

We did end up putting in a back-up offer on the beach house.  It is a short sale (when the bank decides to take less than what is owed on the property to avoid a foreclosure—good for the bank, good for the homeowner and good for the buyer) so there is a chance we could possibly get the house.  But we aren’t very hopeful.

We figure “guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

All was not lost though as we had a nice getaway as a family and some much needed QT together.  We also got to see our colleague, Colin Egbert and meet his beautiful girlfriend and daughter.  Justin was also able to catch up with some other business contacts.

We are headed to Seattle next week to look at houses.  We have a lot of friends there and do business in WA state already so it would be an easy transition.

Not sure what life will bring in the next few months.  We have to be out of our house on October 30.  Part of me and Justin are sad to be leaving this house.  We love it, but it’s just not conducive to 4 people living here anymore.

We definitely have mixed emotions about our next move.  One day excited, next day down, another day confused.  But as things always do, it will all work out.