This week has been spent visiting Justin’s family and hitting Manchester so Justin could see a Manchester United game (a missing item on his “resume of sports events” that can now be “ticked”).  While the week had its challenges with poor little Stella having a pretty bad cold, it was a nice trip.

Francesca and Stella

We started out at Eden and Janine’s house in Stratford Upon Avon.  Wellington, Justin’s Dad, had arrived there for a visit so we met him for dinner with Eden, Janine and Francesca (Justin’s cousin).  It was a nice visit and good to catch up.  We had not seen them since 2005 when we were over for a visit.

We then headed up to Manchester so Justin and his Dad could go the match.  We stayed in a really nice hotel, Yang Sing Oriental Hotel.  I highly recommend it if you are going to Manchester.  Free breakfast, mini-bar and very nice/ornate rooms.  There’s also a great Chinese restaurant attached where we had a nice dim sum.

Stella and I spent the evening shopping and then hanging out in our hotel room with room service and a movie.  It was very nice mommy/daughter time which was quite fun for me as she’s finally old enough to relate to  – well sort of – and “hang out” with.

I even picked up a pair of proper English riding boots!

Manchester is a great city, shopping, culture and a variety of ethnic cuisine.  And of course they have teh best footy team Man-United!

Helen and Stella

We then headed back to Liverpool to visit Justin’s Grandmother Alice and also see some close family friends (and Justin’s Mum’s long time childhood friend), Helen, Charles and their lovely three boys.

Charles and Samuel with Stella

It’s been nice to let Stella spend some time with family and experience the life and culture of her roots here in England.  We look forward to the next few months as well where we will be taking her to Pennsylvania, NYC and of course VA to visit and experience some of my roots and places where Justin and I both have many memories.

That is the one thing about travel.  Outside of experiencing new things (which we love to do), it’s also nice sometimes to go back to your roots and explore and remember who you are and where you came from.

Back to Marlow for 10 days and then off to St. Louis for work on November 5.

Some Baby Tips:

Make sure you travel equipped with a few relief medicines, balms, etc. for baby in case they get a cold and you find yourself unable to get to a market.  Stella unfortunately picked up a really bad cold last week at the little daycare/play time we took her to.  I had a few things that I knew helped relieve her cold with me and picked up a few other things here.  At her age there isn’t much you can do but Vicks balm and menthol vaporizers really help.  Unfortunately I was unable to find a cool mist vaporizer in England.  Apparently no one uses those here.

Another thing to think about if you are traveling in Europe.  Don’t run out of diapers on a Sunday (and in some places, any day for that matter).  We were rationing out our last diapers last Sunday as I didn’t realize I was out until 5 pm on Sunday and every shop was closed.  Thankfully we made it with the last 2 diapers until morning but we could have been in BIG trouble!

Anyway, back to the post title. The amount of trash I’ve seen around the island is absolutely appalling. The majority of it is bottle caps and plastic bags. If you got to a beach maintained by a hotel or someone renting beach chairs and umbrellas it’s still full of cigarette butts and bottle tops.

And we thought when we got here there would be tons of fresh seafood and I had these great plans to go visit the local fisherman and get some yummy fish for our BBQs….well we visited him and he went into the freezer and pulled out this frozen tiny fish…all he had for the day. I still haven’t gotten a clear answer on where all the fish have gone … the guide books say overfishing. We do see some small ones swimming around in the sea occasionally.

But where have all the fish gone? Why aren’t we cleaning up our trash or at least trying to not produce so much? I know it’s not just this island (however, I don’t remember past trips to the Mediterranean being this destitute when it came to the fish or this dirty when it comes to the trash).

When I think about this it makes me really worried that Stella and Stella’s future children won’t have clean beaches to visit or fresh (and yummy) seafood to eat.

I know there are some out there who disagree with global warming theories, etc. But can’t we all see the harm we are doing to our environment? Forget about melting ice caps. Just look at the trash we produce? Where does it all go? Even my brother, who often calls me a “big hippie,” has said, if we don’t do something about the trash problem we are going to be living in trash. We are running out of places to put it. And he’s an expert on where the trash goes. He works for the largest company in the US that tries to find a place for all our trash, Waste Management.

And what about the overconsumption? We are fat in the Western world because we over consume. And I don’t just mean physically. Look at our debt…fat! Look at our trash cans…fat!

So what does this have to do with simple baby travel and what can you do when you are traveling to do your part in helping ensure there are clean beaches and fish in our seas for our future generations?

1. Probably the number one thing every traveler does is buy bottle after bottle of water. We are just as guilty. We did make a conscious effort when we got here to not buy bottled water and use the tap water. That was until we found raw sewage in our backyard and thought maybe that wasn’t such a good idea anymore. But we are buying large jugs of water now and pouring the water into glasses. When you are traveling try to bring along water bottles and re-use them. Especially if you are in the Western hemisphere where water is very clean.

2. I’ve commented on the whole packaged food thing before…but please…don’t. It’s not only bad for you but it’s wasteful. Perimeter shop (that’s shopping along the edges of the supermarket—no packaged goods there for the most part) and teach baby that wholesome good food is best. This will be good for your waist, your wallet and reducing waste… Justin and I have coined it “W3.” That is if you shop on the perimeter of the grocery store you won’t buy packaged food so you won’t gain weight (#1 diet buster) which is good for your “waist.” You won’t spend money on a ton of food you don’t really need which will be good for your “wallet.” And you won’t be buying a lot of food with packaging which will be good for reducing “waste.”

3. Try to walk when you can. See “W3” above. You are on vacation, relax, you don’t need to be in a hurry to get somewhere and baby will love taking all the new sights in while in the stroller (this might also allow for you to avoid the rental car which will really save on the wallet…and help you lose some weight or counter the vacation 5 lbs. so good for your waist and of course great for reducing waste).

4. Re-use your towels when staying in a hotel. While one of my favorite things about staying in a hotel is a fresh crisp clean towel each shower, I’ve even changed my habits and re-use our towels several times before we request new ones. This is especially important in countries where water supplies are already really low.

5. Use re-useable bottles and bring toiletries in these bottles from home. Buying travel sized items only creates more waste. But in all honesty with all the baggage weight restrictions these days I often buy the travel size…I’m not perfect, just some guidance and ideas, not preaching! It’s on the top of my list to buy some nice travel size bottles to bring along toiletries in the future (I did bring a few but they were plastic and I thought they needed a good cleaning and put them in the dishwasher…they melted).

6. Choose low energy use activities (that’s electricity, not low energy use for you!). Take a walk or hike versus going to ride a roller coaster every night.

7. Use public transportation when you can.

8. And definitely forgo the disposable swimmers. I blogged about this before. You can buy the reusable swimmers just about anywhere now. Use them. They work and are way better for the environment (check with your resort as some REQUIRE both a disposable and a swimsuit on top).

Hope this helps and hopefully we can all do our part to try to make sure our children have as many opportunities to enjoy this beautiful world we live in as we have.

Looking Cool at Dinner

Finally settling in and doing some sightseeing, having some meals out (we are already tired of Greek food actually and going to likely brave it and try the one Chinese restaurant…) and enjoying our villa pool.

Enjoying the Villa Pool

We drove by to see the villa we were supposed to have had yesterday.  Fantastic view, nice garden.  Didn’t get inside though but it looked really nice and was in an area where we could have walked to a few things (shops, restaurants, beach).  So it was  a bit disappointing.  However, our villa is more private so we are looking on the bright side.

Old Town Rhodes

Since Nanna has been here we have done quite a bit of sightseeing.  We got to visit the Old Town of Rhodes and hit the weekly farmer’s market on Saturday in Rhodes Town (always a highlight of any trip I go on being a “foodie”).  I think we were the only non-Greeks at the market which was a lot of fun.  The Old Town is absolutely amazing and definitely something to see.  We hear that it is a lot like the old walled city of Dubrovnick so we are looking forward to that.

Justin and I were even able to go out for a few drinks in Lindos (a World Heritage site and very pretty) after we put Stella down to bed.  Nanna kept an eye on Stella which was nice.  It was great to take some time for just the two of us.  As parents I think it’s really important to nurture your marriage once children arrive.  Happy parents make for happy children.

Nanna and Stella driving the boat

We rounded out the sightseeing by renting a boat and after we dropped Nanna at the airport on Tuesday we circumnavigated the island and visited some more

Kamiros Ruins

ruins and Embona (the wine producing region).  The drive on the west coast was very nice and very different in topography (mountains and a lot of pine trees).

Lindos Acropolis

Justin and I are getting caught up on work which is nice but still enjoying ourselves.

Now, since this is a baby travel tips blog I must share some more insights.

Here are a few of my packing tips for traveling to the beach with baby (you will find others throughout the blog):

1.  Tons of sunblock.  I try to get organic/all natural as possible as babies are so small and all the chemicals in other sunblocks are quite harsh.  Of course, you can always pick up more sunblock at your destination no matter how remote, in most cases.

2.  Sunhats, swimmers (non-disposable), sunshirt:  Anything to protect baby from the sun.  I also have a great muslin blanket that is great for keeping the sun off of a sleeping baby.  I am not a fan of the disposable siwmmers as they are just another pile in the landfills.  I have now found that the reuseable swimmers you can find at Target and just about anwyhere else these days are fine.  They keep “everything in” and you can reuse them (saving precious packing space and the environment).  A word of caution here though is that I have heard that some resorts REQUIRE disposable swimmers and a swimsuit over top.  Enquire with the place you are staying first if you are concerned with this.

3.  Beach toys, umbrella, raft, life jacket, etc.:  If you are flying you can likely pick all of these things up when you get there and pretty inexpensively (again though, if you have it, bring it I guess so as not to increase the plastic waste buy buying new…you can always hit a second hand store for these sort of things at your destinations, some are easier to find than others.  I actually bought a table cloth at a charity shop in Marlow to use as a play blanket for Stella on the trip).  And if you are lucky your resort, condo or house may already have them.  Ask before you go.

4.  All natural bug spray if you are going to a climate with nasty bugs and where you will not speak the language (harder to find mild sprays in another language).  I also try not to put this directly on Stella but rather we wear it (I don’t even like wearing the harsh stuff on myself or Justin as it always rubs off on Stella) and put it on her stroller, etc.  I have also heard that some people place a lady bug pen on the baby’s stroller which is suppossed to keep bugs away.  We are having a terrible time with “buzzy bees” at our villa and are desperate for any recommendations on how to keep them away.

5.  Baby toiletries:  most you can buy at your destination but if your baby has sensitive skin bring some from home.  I also sometimes use Stella’s toiletries myself as they are great for dry skin and saves me transporting a lot of toiletries.  Baby sunblock is all you need as well.  No real need to buy adult and child unless you plan to do a lot of water sports then you’ll want something that is waterproof for yourself.