Author: lindsay.p.bird

Long Weekend in Venice Beach with a Toddler

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The summer before A was born was an exciting time for our family. We were enjoying all of J’s new milestones as he reached toddlerhood, trying to soak in our last months with J as an only child, and anxiously anticipating life with 2 kids under 2. Part of this anticipation was the uncertainty of life with two kids. Would we be able to travel like we used to? Would we be able to go out for dinner anymore? Would we ever sleep again? Spoilers: yes, yes, and no. We wanted to take one last trip as a family of… Continue reading

Beach Trip with Young Kids

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Growing up in Houston, I was lucky enough to live within an hour or so from the beach, and beach vacations were a constant through my whole life. My childhood summers are consistently punctuated by memories of walks along the shore, collecting sand dollar fragments, building muddy, crumbling sand castles, boogie boarding in the occasional rough surf. As I got older, these activities evolved through some Spring Break-esque misadventures and eventually beach vacations became all about relaxation: lounging in the sun, book in hand, toes in the sand.  The beach became my favorite type of vacation destination. I loved everything… Continue reading

Long Haul Flights with Young Kids

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We’ve done many long haul flights over the years, including several since we started traveling with kids. Flying with a baby in general is a whole new ballgame. When you combine that with a long overseas flight, you are definitely going to want to be prepared. Each time we have flown with the kids, we have learned new things about the experience, and hopefully some of our flight tips will help brace yourself for the adventure to come. All those other flights – the ones before kids, the shorter domestic flights with and/or without kids… those were your hours in… Continue reading

Global Entry for the Family

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Travel days are always filled with excitement and anxiety. We are anticipating our destination and looking forward to enjoying the trip. For the actual transit, the kids still get pumped up about airplane rides and the endless screen time we allow on these days. Anxiety normally comes into play when we are wrangling our luggage, trying to get through security, and then collecting ourselves at our destination city (made even more stressful if that involves customs and passports). One way to reduce a large part of the travel day stress is to obtain TSA Precheck or Global Entry (GE). Both… Continue reading

Tips for Air Travel with a Baby

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I vividly remember the days leading up to our first trip with our first baby. I was terrified. I love traveling, but let’s be honest, air travel can be difficult in the best situations. J was almost six months old before we took our first family trip, so I was well aware that anything with the baby involved would fall far short of the “best situation”. We were headed to San Fransisco, a place I was so excited to visit, and yet, I found myself dreading the trip. We were regularly running 20+ minutes late for everything outside of the… Continue reading

Tips to Enjoy Your Perfect AirBnB When Traveling with Kids

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Staying in a vacation rental home has become our absolute favorite way to travel since we began traveling with kids in tow. Before kids, we had used AirBnb and VRBO a couple times – for beach vacations or travel with large groups. Our first time that we took J abroad as a baby, we used AirBnb exclusively and have been hooked ever since. The extra space in a vacation home coupled with kitchen and sometimes laundry access has been crucial on many of our trips.  Don’t get me wrong, a plush hotel with concierge and daily housekeeping is a wonderful… Continue reading

How to Choose the Perfect AirBnB For Your Family

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Before having kids, we didn’t have much experience using AirBnb type vacation rentals. We used AirBnb and VRBO a handful of times previously for large family trips and always had good experiences. It wasn’t until our very first trip to Europe when J was an infant that we thought to expand our AirBnb use for travel abroad. Why AirBnb?  Traveling with young kids is a whole different animal than child-free travel. Your days are typically structured around naps and bedtimes, and you will likely spend a lot more time in your accommodations than you would have otherwise. With that in… Continue reading

Miami Girls Weekend

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My baby sister is getting maaaaarried!!! Well, she’s no baby anymore and will soon be a married woman! Her fiancé is the absolute best, and we couldn’t be happier about their upcoming nuptials. A milestone like this deserves to be celebrated multiple times, so obviously we needed a proper bachelorette party – a girls weekend in MIAMI! The guest list for the weekend was eight girls, including myself, my other (middle) sister, and the bride-to-be. All of us were coming from Texas, most from Houston, and flight options to either Miami or Fort Lauderdale were plentiful. We actually ended up… Continue reading

Guatemala – Cliff Jumping in Lake Atitlan

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Our flights were booked, AirBnb reserved, and we were all set for our visit to Lake Atitlan in August 2019. Pictures of this lake were absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t believe we were going to be soaking in the sight for ourselves in just a few weeks. We were really hoping to go swimming in the lake, but kept reading that the water was too contaminated in many places for swimming to be safe. Especially in the water near the larger towns around the lake. So we had to seek out locations where the water was known to be safe for… Continue reading

Guatemala – Antigua (Kid-Free!)

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Day 3 Coming from our stay at Lake Atitlan, we thought Uber might be scarce, so our Airbnb host arranged our driver from Panajachel to Antigua. We wanted to spend a night visiting the historic town of Antigua, and it was going to make a good base for our trip to the airport the next day since it was much closer to Guate City. The drive away from Lake Atitlan was much quicker this time, but unfortunately, was much more for difficult for me. The stomach bug was back and the smell of cigarette smoke permeated the car. That combo… Continue reading