Exploring the world and scratching off as we go

This post is sponsored by Uncommon Goods.

It's wedding anniversary month over here and I've been feeling really nostalgic lately (more so than usual, hah) thinking about all the years and memories that Brandon and I have shared together.  It's our seventh wedding anniversary this year, but we've been together since December 1999 (shout out to the 90's!), so we're actually working on year sixteen as a pair.  That's a whole lot of life together.

I was recently contacted by Uncommon Goods to take a look at their Gifts for Men ideas(check them out here), and I was delighted to find their scratch off national and world maps.

I knew it would be a fun way to celebrate our anniversary and all the places we have visited together. You see, many, many years ago (were we still in high school?) Brandon and I created a "together bucket list" that included places all over the world we wanted to visit and also included "visit all 50 states."

Well, after sixteen years together: six of which were long distance, seven of which were married, three kids, two rented apartments together, two owned homes together, two dogs, a cat, and a handful of fish (hold the partridge in a pear tree please), we've been slowly (ever so slowly) working our way on exploring the world together.

We started with our national map and felt compelled to set rules for how we would go about scratching the states off because we're big time nerds and serious about intention.  I mean, it seems sort of like cheating to scratch off all of Texas when we've really only been to Austin.  But Brandon reasoned that if we were only going to scratch the states off by how many cities we've visited, could we even scratch off our home state of Pennsylvania?!  So our rules for scratching in USA were as followed:

• We had to have visited together (sorry Arizona, California, Louisiana, Connecticut, and Tennessee!  Not yet!)
• We had to have at least slept over one night for the visit to count (drive-bys and airport lay-overs don't count)
• Even if it was in only one city in the whole state, it counts as a state visit!  We want to get to all fifty after all :)

After laying out the ground scratch rules, we set to uncovering the states below the top scratch layer all the while chatting and reminiscing about the places that we've traveled together.  

Chicago, IL 2008

Oahu, HI 2009

We are both born and raised in PA which naturally lends to scratching a fair amount of the our northeast USA map.  (although we really need to get to the north-northeast:  Maine lobster? yes please).  Also, this is a public apology to Delaware! In that whole mix of visited states and it's the only one not scratched!  I promise, we will visit soon - any readers from Delaware with some suggestions of places to visit that is little-kid friendly!?

Punxsutawney, PA 2007

When we were all finished scratching and talking, we stood back and felt both parts proud and excited for the future.  Somehow seeing it all visually gets us feeling inspired in all the places yet we can plan to go and show each other and our kids.  Northwest, we need you in our lives big time.  It's slow going with three little kids and work and commitments, but our USA scratch map, a 'work in progress' (direct link here) makes us feel excited and inspired to keep branching out farther and discovering new places with each other.

We pressed on to the world map (direct link here), and we were still talking about each of the places we've traveled together.  It was the same rules as for the national map:

• We had to have visited together (sorry Canada, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua!  Not yet!)
• We had to have at least slept over one night for the visit to count (drive-bys and airport lay-overs don't count. Sorry, South Korea!)
• Even if it was in only one city in the whole country, it counts as a country visit! 

Since we also have the national map, we decided that for the integrity of the world map, USA would count even though we are still majorly working on visiting states.  It's also a good visual for our kids who are trying to figure out how we fit in the world as Americans.  So all of our USA was scratched off on our world map, but what I liked about the Uncommon Goods world scratch off map  was that the state lines were visible, and if you only choose the world map alone, you would still be able to track your USA state visits within the whole world map view!

The memories went on as we scratched off the different countries we've visited together.

Ayutthaya, Thailand 2011

Negril, Jamaica 2008

Our world map is hardly what someone would consider well-traveled, but we look at as inspiration for all the places we can explore together in the future.  Maybe with our babies as they grow older, or maybe in some distant far off time when our babies are grown and it's just the two of us again (can you imagine?!)

Documenting our travels together has been on our married to do list for the past seven years!  I am so glad that I took a look at the Uncommon Goods Gifts for Men page (check it out here yourself) to finally check this one off of our list, and just in time for our anniversary.  As we worked on our map, I kept thinking of so many of you readers that I know travel as much or more than us.  I'd love to see and be inspired by your maps!

Besides the scratch off maps, Uncommon Goods truly has unique and inspiring gifts that I've been writing down to remember for upcoming birthdays and the holiday season.  and they are not only a great place to look for gifts, but also they're a company that you can feel good about supporting.  A privately-owned retailer based out of Brooklyn, NY that feature hand-crafted products that are created with the environment, people, and animals in mind.  Most of their products are created here in the USA and about a third incorporate recycled or upcycled materials.  They are also a B Corp business meaning that they meet the rigorous standards meant to solve social and environmental issues including wage levels, giving back to the community, and environmental impacts.  You can check out their Gift Ideas for Men page here and their Gifts Ideas for Women page here and their Personalized Gifts page here.

As for us and our travels plans for the near future?  We are keeping it stateside in the next few years because of financial limitations and also #bigfamilylittlekidsprobs But we're thinking of doing another family road trip adventure soon and going Northeast (I wasn't kidding Maine Lobster) to spread our state wings a little more.  I also have a inexplicable jonesing for New York/Adirondack exploring.  We've also set a goal to visit DisneyWorld in the next two years (!) and Alaska in 2019 (!!!)

Here's to continuing to explore and discover with my favorite guy in the whole world.
Where you go I will follow.
Where you are, I am home.

Grandmas & Kids to the City - 5th Annual

In our four past adventures, the grandmas, kids, and I have loaded up in train or car and had a few days adventure centered around my beloved New York City.  After last year's trip, we started talking about how it might be fun to expand our city trips to include some other locations and then sprinkle NYC trips along the various years too, but it might give us a chance to see and learn more while still keeping our tradition.  This year, we chose Baltimore as our first non-apple destination and we spent a day and half exploring, playing, and discovering a great city.

For a few weeks prior to our trip, I spend some time surfing the internet for inspiration on planning tips for traveling with kids to that specific location.  I use TripIt to track where and when I think we'll be during the trip.  I also have the TripIt app on my phone and I like it because it gives me really quick access to websites, costs, and maps for each of our stops along the way.  In the planning weeks, I just pop in our hopeful plans and then build out the trip from there. 

A few days before we left, my brother in law stopped over to take the kids to a local jubilee and upon learning that I was planning on driving all six of us three hours to Baltimore in our truck, he jumped in to save the day and offered up his Lincoln Navigator for the trip.  Leave it to Uncle Juice to save the whole weekend!  He brought it over the day before we left and even helped configure the back seats to accommodate our double stroller, umbrella stroller, and room enough for luggage and car seats.  (He's the best ever).

The grandmas carpooled to our house early on Friday morning and we were all loaded up and pulling out of the driveway by 5am.  It was an uneventful trip down and all three kids snoozed for almost the entire drive.  We got valeted into our hotel: Hampton Inn & Suites Baltimore Inner Harbor and after freshening up and grabbing some complimentary breakfast in the hotel lobby - we made our way via the FREE Charm City Circulator bus system to the Fell's Point neighborhood.

Our first activity was to board the awesome Urban Pirates' ship to take their Family Adventure.  Gigi bought the kids eye patches and swords in their gift shop and the kids were decked out in pirate garb on the boat as part of the experience (complimentary:  tattoos, face paint, temporary vests & sashes).  

Over the course of the trip, we enjoyed stories, games, and music all with the pirate theme.  The kids were enchanted and Gemma (3yrs) was only a little scared and wanted to be held for part of the boat ride.  Even Violet loved being a pirate for the morning and bouncing to the music and watching the sails blow in the wind.

  

Throughout the ride, we heard about the bad pirate who had stolen the ship's treasure and all of the kids were in charge of spraying him with the ship's water cannons as he circled the ship in a motorboat.  It was awesome and Greyson was so serious about making sure to spray the bad pirate.  Ultimately, the boat recovered their treasure and all the kids got to choose two little pieces of it to take home.  It was really an awesome and magical activity for the kids and a great glimpse at the Inner Harbor too. 

After our pirate adventure, we spent a little time walking along the cobblestone streets of Fell's point and checking out one of the docks while we awaited our water taxi to deliver us to the Federal Hill neighborhood. 

I especially liked the option for water taxi on our Baltimore city trip because it is so different than what we've done in the past.  The kids have been in a taxi before, but never a water taxi - so that was pretty cool for them.

The water taxi took us from Fell's Point and delivered us to the Rusty Scupper dock where we strolled through the park and stopped for a quick ride on the carosuel and made our way up to Federal Hill park and playground.  It offered beautiful view of the harbor and also gave the kids time to goof around on the playground while the grown ups got some down time and Violet took a catnap in her stroller. 

 After our park visit, we made our way through Federal Hill towards the Cross Street Market where we joyfully inhaled a delicious late lunch from Pop Tacos, to which Greyson told me, "Mum, you better pay these people a lot of money for this taco, because it is the deliciousest one I ever ate."

We used the restrooms at Cross Street Market to get the kids changed into their swim suits before walking across a few streets to the Sondheim Fountain.  The kids ran and ninja fought (Grey) the streams of water for a little while before going bananas in the neighboring field that was armed with foam building supplies, soccer equipment, and a live theater group.  I have no idea why all this stuff was there, but we were happy to partake in its (apparent) free use.  The grandmas went on a coffee run while the kids and I laughed and played for over an hour between the fountains and the playing field. 

From my planning, I discovered that the Maryland Science Center offers lower cost admission after 5pm on Fridays, so a little after five, we walked the half block over to the science center and entered for only $9 a person.  Let me tell you, that was nine dollars well worth the money.  I'm basically obsessed now with science center.  For the next almost three hours, we wandered about in amazement at all the awesome exhibits. 

Gemma was taking a much needed nap when we arrived, but luckily she woke up with about an hour left of our visit to the science center and she got to enjoy some of the exhibits too.  The science center wasn't crowded at all (evening? summer?) and we were able to easily make it to all the places we wanted to and back again to a few spots after Gem woke up.  It was a combination of the ticket price, and exhibits, and the lack of crowd that really made our science center visit shine.  (It was my favorite part of the trip).  Abba even bought the kids an awesome dinosaur book (a new favorite non-fiction of ours now!) after Grey and I were so enamored with the dino exhibits.

At closing time, we were all mostly wiped out ourselves, so we walked the short distance from the science center back to our hotel where we got settled in for the night.  We contemplated ordering some pizza in, but after the filling and awesome late lunch at Pop Tacos and the bounty of snacks that the grandmas bring on the trip (thank you!) we didn't have any need.  We all got cozied up and everyone was asleep by ten that night. 

We got up the next morning and had some complimentary hotel breakfast and then packed up and left all of our luggage at the valet desk so that we could check out.  Due to the sudden thunderstorm, we took the hotel shuttle across a few streets to the Port Discovery Children's museum for our last big activity of the trip.  My children's minds were blown, friends.  I mean, it's pretty hard to beat a three story playground right off the bat, amirite?

We spent the rest of the early afternoon following the kids around ("we're the bosses today!") as they made their way through the various sections of the museum.  Violet even got to enjoy her own special section for the three and unders (Mumma got to enjoy it too, goodness it was beautifully quiet in there!)  Both kids chilled for about 20 minutes in the reading room, and both of them were wildly in love with the Tiny's Diner area where they served up fake food and menus to the grandmas, Violet, and I.

We made a much contested exit from the museum around 2:00p and crossed the park to Joe Squared for a great lunch of pizza, salad, and wings before heading back towards the Inner Harbor for Ice Cream from The Best of Luck as the sun had come out and was shining down with a heat index of over 100 degrees by then!

It was a pleasant ride back (thanks again to Uncle Juice's navigator and sleepy kids).  We made it back late in the evening on Saturday and the kids were sufficiently worn out.  It was a great trip; not too far away in distance (3hours) and just the right length of time (a full day and one half) for the kids and also for us to get a decent amount of fun in!

I'd like to finish with a public announcement that I understand just how incredible it is that this weekend happens at all.  My kids two grandmas (my Mum, and my Mum-in-law) and my babies traipsing about unfamiliar cities and sharing a hotel room, snacks, drinks, and stroller duty.  I am so grateful to have these two women in my life loving and teaching our kids and going along with my big ideas and plans with blind faith.  Love you Mumma and Gigi.  I am so so blessed.