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Spokane...

8/29/2012

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       Many, many moons ago (when he was a bachelor) my husband lived in Spokane. Taking an alternate route home from Yellowstone, we stopped in Spokane to get a glimpse of his old stomping grounds.
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    I’m not sure exactly what I expected to find in Spokane, but I (honestly) didn’t have particularly high hopes. We pulled into town with hotel reservations and a plan to leave early the next morning. Instead, we stayed past lunch and found a new favorite, downtown hotel and park.

Lodging: 
Usually when traveling, I look for a hotel with two things: a pool for the boys and a business center for me. After a long day’s drive – I can check my work email, while Dad and boys exhaust themselves in the pool. By 9pm, we’re all happy and tired.

However, when making arrangements in Spokane, our hotel choice was all about location, location, location. Well... location AND price. I wanted a hotel that would allow us to walk to Riverfront Park, but needed a room that would not break the bank.

I found Hotel Ruby through an internet search and decided that to take the risk, fully hoping that “boutique”, “recent remodel”, and “locally-owned” would add up to something interesting.

We weren’t disappointed.

Here are just a few snapshots of the trendy, hip hotel that served as our home away from home.

Riverfront Park:
 A fabulous public park is like a piece of art. A great park includes a mixture of colors and textures. It often tells a story sparked by a bit of inspiration. The designer must employ time and care in the details of the creation. What joy it was to find that Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane has all these things. Built for Expo ’74 of the World’s Fair, the park has things-to-see, things-to-do, beautiful strolling pathways, and treasures around every bend.

The public art in the park ranges from a gigantic red wagon (slide included), building blocks (see below), a trash eating goat-sculpture (sadly out of order on the day we visited), and a long line of iron men (and women) running in a race. While the playground in the park is very small, the carousel, gondola, suspension bridge, and splash fountain provide more than enough fun to fill the day.

Riverfront Park in Spokane has now been added to our list of favorites:
Bush's Pasture Park, Salem, Oregon
Riverfront Park, Spokane, WA

Lithia Park, Ashland, Oregon
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
Central Park, New York City, New York
Bonderen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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The Pen is Mightier than the ...

4/25/2012

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      Over Spring Break this year, we traveled to Colorado to see family.  Our air carrier of choice for the trip was Frontier Airlines. Half way through the outbound flight (just when the toys and books brought to distract the boys began to lose their luster), we were served warm cookies. It was delightful.

      Heading back to Oregon on the return trip – we heard the rumor that Frontier Airlines had decided to stop serving cookies on its flights. My youngest son took this news very seriously. Upon take-off he asked for pen and paper and penned a quick note to the cabin crew. He held tight to the note throughout the flight and was visibly relieved when the cookies were finally served.
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      At the precise moment we received our cookies – my son handed his note to the flight attendant. The look of confusion quickly changed to a smile for the steward. “I’ll be sure to pass this along!” he told my son. My son nodded solemnly and then leaned back with a huge grin on his face, enjoying every single bite of that gooey, warm chocolate chip cookie.

     I mention this event, as at the time it took every ounce of strength I had to conceal the pure joy I experienced watching this drama unfold. My kid was using writing to say something to someone. He was giving his opinion, trying to enact change, making his voice heard. He was not prompted by his mother, or his teacher, or an assignment from school. He was using writing on his own terms, for his own purposes. Later he even explained to me, “I used two exclamation marks to show that I really meant what I said!”

It just doesn’t get any better than that....
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Top Ten Copenhagen...

9/19/2010

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Since returning from our AMAZING trip to Denmark,
we’ve met several folks who plan to travel there soon.
 This post is dedicated to these fellow world-travelers. 

Before our trip, I read through a variety of travel books.
Every author had his/her own idea of the must-see sites. Here’s the Obery list - as inspired by our summer visit:

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Six more turns to go!


1) The Round Tower
            Imagine viewing the heart of old Copenhagen from 35 meters above street level. Now imagine enjoying this view without having to climb hundreds of stairs or use an elevator. This is exactly what you get when walking up the gently sloped spiral walkway that winds up this historic tower.

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My beautiful boat boys!


2) Netto Boats
            One hour, $6, and a view of the Copenhagen harbor – what a deal! This guided tour runs daily and picks up passengers at two central locations, with no reservations needed. Beat the crowds by boarding at Holmens Church (opposite the old Stock-Exchange).

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Groovy cool Biome exhibit!
3) Staten Museum for Kunst
            The National Gallery of Denmark has art and art and art and more art. It also has an amazingly peaceful café with amazingly delicious food and a children’s playroom that truly rocks. It's a city spot with something for everyone. Admission (to most exhibits) is free and the Museum is open late on Wednesdays.

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The main gate. Pusher Street one block.
4) Christiania
            I recently read an author describe Christiania as Brooklyn’s Prospect Park taken over by the Rainbow family with a dollop of Scandinavian whimsy, engineering skills and democracy. A forty year social experiment that continues today - Be sure to catch the guided tour (in English) on Sunday at 3pm.

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Photo from Planetware

5)
Rosenborg Castle
            Denmark has castles – many castles. I have kids – two active kids. So…. I did my research and decided that our single palace tour would be of Rosenborg. Besides being conveniently located in the heart of Copenhagen, this castle is packed full with a powerful punch: a moat, crown jewels, old paintings, painted china, expansive garden, and swans.  I highly recommend it.

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Strike up the band!


6) Changing of the guard at
Amalienborg
       When the queen is in residence, the changing of the guard includes the Band of Royal Danish Life Guards and is quite a show. The guards depart from Rosenborg Castle at 11:30am and arrive at Amalienborg at Noon. Take a picnic to enjoy on the nearby boardwalk after all the excitement has passed.

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Biking on the boardwalk!
7) Amager Strand
       Biking (or taking the Metro) to this local beach is a lovely ride in itself. Just five kilometers from downtown Copenhagen, you feel far from urban life. Standing on the beautiful beach you will see a row of windmills, Sweden, a variety of wildlife, and Danes soaking in the sun while enjoying soft ice. 
Dipping our toes into the water
(and then dodging the scurrying crabs)
is one of my favorite memories.

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Feeding the goats!
 
8)
Bonderen
             Named "The Farm" this Copenhagen public playground should translate to: the best public playground in the entire world! It has a  petting zoo, bikes, toys, wagon rides, a zip line, a castle, shade trees, picnic tables, paddleball and climbing structures galore. If you have kids - you must visit.


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Love that Library!
9) Copenhagen Public Library
      Half way around the world and still I find love in the public library. As well as a fabulous (air conditioned) children's area, the library has computers with free internet right inside the main door. That provides fun and the chance to email folks back home all in one stop.


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10)
Copenhagen Zoo
     Just a ten minute bus ride from downtown sits this fabulous zoo. Lions and tigers and bears AND penguins and cows and more! Enjoy!


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Shopping like the Danes...

8/17/2010

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It would seem almost un-American if I failed
to mention the shopping in Copenhagen:

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Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Illums Bolighus: Fancy-smancy department store of Denmark (Think Nordstrom x 10). This place has such pretty things it’s just as fun to surf their website as it is to walk the various floors of the actual store. As travelers on a family budget – we kept to a strict look-but-don’t-touch policy, but oh, it was fun to look! Added bonus: the on-site childrens' play area was a hit with the kiddos.

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Magasin du Nord: This department store is just as big as Illgus, but more reasonably priced (Think Target x 2). Flash your passport and get an additional 10% discount. Visit the Customer Service Desk and get your VAT refund. The basement of Magasin contains a great grocery store, deli, bakery, and coffee shop where you can grab super yummy, impromptu picnic supplies for Nyhavn.

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Tiger: These small chain-stores are located throughout town (Think Dollar Tree x 3). Aisles are set up to guide you past a variety of small items – clocks, dishes, school supplies, candles, toys, umbrellas, socks. This is a great place to buy everyday items that will fit perfectly in your suitcase during the trip home and always remind you of Copenhagen.

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Photo shared by: Scythian
Copenhagen City Hall: Strange as it may sound, City Hall is tourist shopping-spot numero uno! The small gift shop just left of the main doors sells high quality souvenirs.  The building is a massive stone structure in the heart of the city, but beautifully light and delicate within. The high ceilings and artwork (be sure to check out the stairwells) make a visit well worth your time.

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Netto/Irma: A trip to a new country, without browsing the local grocery stores, is truly incomplete. Irma offers high quality produce and delicious cookies. Netto is less expensive but offers a great variety as well. Our favorite Danish treat: banana-pear yogurt that you pour from a milk-style carton. It’s the perfect way to start your day!


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Home away from Home...

8/13/2010

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Choosing your vacation lodging in a new city can be tricky. While I adore Google Maps, there’s only so much that can be gained while half-a-world away from your intended destination.  When surfing for hotel rooms, I typically start with trusted guidebooks and then move on to travel review websites. In the end, I always make reservations with my fingers crossed.

Hotel rooms in the heart of Copenhagen are expensive and extremely small, but I was determined to maximize our time at the Stroget and minimize our commute time to the major sites. That’s when I began to investigate apartment rental and hit the jackpot with Dansk Bed & Breakfast.


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In the heart of the old city, we rented this cutie of an apartment for much less than a nearby hotel room. We enjoyed two bedrooms, a bath, living space (with flat screen TV and stereo system) and a full kitchen. Access off a local street led us to a secure courtyard (with ample bike parking).

Once inside our home-away-from-home we were surprised by the complete and utter lack of noise. It was our private, silent oasis in a bustling city of half a million people.

Added bonus of this apartment: location, location, location! Tucked among the locals who lived in the apartments around us, we were just blocks away from major bus stops, metro stations, grocery stores, and more local eateries than you could shake a stick at.
 

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A quick shout out to the pizza joint just around the block from us: Café Istanbul and its straight-from-heaven pizza!  We can't wait to return to this home away from home.

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International flights are now departing...

8/9/2010

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      While flights within the continental US have long since lost their luster – International flights still seem like a limo ride through the clouds. When visiting Denmark this summer we traveled on Scandinavian Airlines and enjoyed a lovely ride.
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     Worried about taking a small child on an overseas flight?
Do not fear: SAS has you covered…


Food-
While US flights no longer provide meals- international flights include three course meals. On our trip there we had a fabulously delicious lamb dinner. On the return, dessert included cool strawberry sorbet for the kiddos.
Yum!

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Entertainment-
Individual mini TV screens are included for each and every seat. Free movies & TV are standard and SAS also offers an assortment of video games. Hand held controls pop from your arm rest and allow you to battle Tetris, Solitaire, or 8 other individual games. My non-
Nintendo/Wii/Xbox boys thought this flight was their private traveling arcade. 

Flight Info-
Those handy-dandy TV screens also provide a flight map which indicates distance traveled, estimated time of arrival, and air speed. Two channels also include real-time video of the view out the front of the airplane and the land, sea, or clouds below. It’s as if every seat is a window seat…wild stuff to see the runway as we landed!
 

Luggage-
No luggage fees; enough said.  

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Bikes...bikes...bikes

7/10/2010

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So here it is…
the real motivation behind our trip to Denmark: BIKES.

My husband is a bike guy and Copenhagen is a bike city. It didn’t take long to do the math, but an international bicycle conference tipped the scales.We called this trip -- work for him, travel for me, play for the boys. It had something for everyone.

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When at home, my hubby rides his bike all over town, but I tend to be more reserved. I don’t like to travel busy roads. I dread big intersections. I worry about the gigantic hunks of steal surging by my sweet innocent children.

Copenhagen was a whole
different ball game.

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Copenhagen is a city built for bikes, in a country built for bikes.
 They call it urban planning on a human scale.

Imagine a city built for people –
not for cars.
Here
it sounds revolutionary.
There
it just makes sense.


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Less pollution. Less noise. More active lifestyle. Greater equity. Wait… soon I’ll be standing on the street and waving my arms -- crying out to subvert the dominant paradigm! What can I say? Years married to a bike guy and I’m a true convert.

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While in Copenhagen, we rented bikes from Baisikeli Bike Rental. Besides having a groovy cool business plan that supports bikes in Tanzania, these guys couldn't have been nicer and hooked us up with the perfect bikes for our visit.

I rode this lovely three speed  -- with a basket and a comfortable seat. My boys and hubby were in a Nihola.


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These ‘family bikes’ are wonderful. We have a bike trailer here in the states, but I much prefer having the boys up front where they can see and talk with us. The bench inside had space underneath for storing bags, and comes out completely if you are hauling grocery bags (instead of boys). 

On one day of our adventure, we rode our bikes all the way out to the beach. We packed water, and blankets, and sweatshirts, and sunscreen, and snacks and STILL had plenty of room for the wiggly legs of two growing boys. The cover slips on and off to cover the 'bucket' easily – keeping the boys dry during an afternoon rain shower on another day.

As groovy as the bikes are- it’s the country’s infrastructure that makes the magic all possible.  Copenhagen has very few bike lanes. No…bike lanes don’t cut it. They have cycle tracks – which are like mini-roads designed just for bikes. Separated from traffic, Mommas like me can ride without the worry of those pesky cars coming too close. Also, there are bike traffic signals.
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That’s right. The cars have stop lights. The bikes have stoplights. The pedestrians have walk signals. Everyone knows when it’s their turn and everyone knows when it’s not.
I had a delivery truck actually stop and give me the right of way as I turned left in front of him. Wow! It was surreal and wonderfully memorable (perhaps doubly so because of the 70 year old woman who passed me on her bike just afterwards.
 I was going too slow… such a tourist).

And so with that, let me close by saying this…..
All this bike riding and I saw very little spandex. The Danes ride as transportation to work, the store, school, to meet friends. It’s part of life, not an activity added to life. Women ride in their high heels and colorful scarves. Men ride in suit and tie. It’s all very fashionable and I loved it. I tried not to stare, but honestly was in awe of these beautiful people. Here’s a video that sums it up perfectly. Thank you Copenhagenize.com:

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.

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Lovely Legoland...

7/5/2010

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There is an amusement park in this world
 specifically designed for my family. I’m not sure how
the designers knew my child’s every wish, or how they
knew my every concern, but somehow they
channeled all this knowledge and built: LEGOLAND BILLUND!

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Legos are a favorite pastime at our house. Hand-me-down Lego sets transform (on a regular basis) to reveal boats, space ships, snowplows, and hospitals. When we announced our intentions to travel to Denmark, our oldest son was lightning-fast to point out that Legos were first created in Denmark and we could visit the original park there. Besides a considerable amount of jetlag (and a small bout of food poisoning the day before), we started our Denmark adventure in Billund and were not disappointed. As we haven’t been to other outdoor Legoland Adventure Parks, I can’t compare it to anything closer to home -- but let me give you the best of the best of Legoland Billund:

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1) Lodging
We chose to stay at the nearby Legoland Village. Located an easy walk from the park; the rooms were clean, comfortable, and the on-site playgrounds provided plenty to do before and after the main park was open for the day. Nearby Lalandia provided an easy spot for inexpensive dinners.
I recommend future travelers check out the local ‘holiday homes’ as well. These seemed very popular with the Danes.

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2) Food
Most Danes packed a picnic lunch for their families. We learned from this and followed suit when we were in Copenhagen. Inside Legoland we ate hamburgers and were pleasantly surprised to find that even the junk food was somewhat healthy: burgers are served on whole-wheat buns.

We indulged in some Danish ‘Soft Ice.’ This yummy stuff tastes like frozen whipped cream and is served covered with the ‘sprinkles’ of your choice. I, of course, was too busy eating to be taking pictures. A big thanks to Rachel J Photography for sharing this photo!


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3) The Fun Never Stops
‘They’ say June is the best time to visit Denmark.  I would add ‘mid’ to those words of advice, as the local kiddos were in school until the 24th and this meant lines were short for us at the park. Of course had there been lines, Legoland has a plan for that: each waiting area included a huge table of Legos. Kids would enter the play area and build to their hearts’ content, while parents stood in line. Once near the front, Mom and Dad would call for the kiddos to join them. Our average wait was 2 to 5 minutes. On our second day at the park, our last ride included a 10 minute wait, but with those handy-dandy Lego tables nearby it wasn’t a problem at all.


4) Action! Action! Action!
My husband and I agree that the best part of the park is the action. These rides are not the sit-back-and-entertain-me variety. The Danes actually expect you to move your body!!! Most of the park rides involved the active participation of steering, or pumping, or pulling. Ranked as our very favorite was the Falck Fire Brigade. Mommas, Daddies, Grandparents and kiddies all have to pump to get the job done. Exhausting fun - we must have done it a dozen times. 
I snapped a few photos, but I was too busy to take any video. Please people...we had a fire to put out!
Here's the YouTube version....
5) Family Friendly
I’ll address this again in a later post, but I must say that I’ve never in my life seen such a nation of well cared for children. On these first days in Denmark, I thought it was the mesmerizing powers of Legoland that enticed fathers to gently rock baby strollers, mothers to magically deliver jackets to keep the evening breezes at bay, or the complete and utter lack of harsh words said to any child within ear shot. However, when we progressed on to Copenhagen it continued. Family time is cherished. Kids, doing the hard work of being kids, are honored. These scenes (again and again) throughout our trip were like music to my ears; food for my soul; medicine for my heart. It’s as if Denmark has been calling me for years–
I’m so glad I answered.


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Denmark Adventure

7/1/2010

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I used to consider myself a traveler...
I used to consider myself spontaneous...
I used to consider my slim...
Then I had kids.

This summer our family embarked on a grand adventure to Denmark and it was as if I reclaimed a bit of my old self. Just two short weeks, but oh, so much living.
                 To sum it up in one word: remarkable.

I'll be posting a bit about our trip here over the next few weeks. If you know (and love) us, this will give you the highlights of our trip.  For all other readers... perhaps it will entice you to plan your own trip to this incredibly family-friendly destination. It's definitely a spot worth considering!
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Just to start, here's ten things we love about Denmark:
1. Legoland - the best amusement park for kiddos in the entire world!

2. European Trains - fast, comfy, oh so easy to use.
3. The incredibly stylish Danish women and their wear-everywhere-all-purpose scarves.
4. Danish soft ice cream and yogurt in milk cartons.
5. Old Castles/New Windmills: Both right at home.
6. An urban environment designed for evening strolls.
7. Biking all over Copenhagen - the cycle tracks, the stop lights just for bikes, the variety of bike options for families, the thousands of people riding with us.
8. The creative and fun public playgrounds.
9. Danish Daddies (gentle, loving, involved fathers --- changing diapers, rocking babies, and soothing toddlers at every turn).
10. The wonderful sense of safety and kindness we experienced while visiting this lovely country. Without a doubt, an international, family-friendly vacation destination that should be considered by passport carrying Mommas.


 

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