Travel Barbados

Well because I have a sense of humor and can laugh at myself and some of my awesome choices, I am writing about our Barbados trip. My husband thought it would be a good idea to share this experience with others so they can also get a good laugh. To this day we still laugh so hard about it that we cry! I love to travel and I love a good deal, so this trip was the result of both of those things. Should've been a homerun but instead it was a swing and a miss. Needless to say we did have a good time, and that is one of the reasons we love to travel together. Never a dull moment.I started looking for a place to go and Barbados seemed to be a hot spot. I was looking on Travelocity and found this awesome deal for $900.00 per person, which included round trip airfare, hotel for 7 nights, breakfast each morning, and a location to "die" for. I was so excited that I called my hubby and asked if he thought it would be fun. He always says yes :) Since I am in charge of the vacation booking and planning (because I am OCD, he doesn't have the time, and probably so I can't blame anyone for choices like this one.) Vacation booked. Barbados here we come! January 30th, 2012 we arrived in Barbados at roughly 10:00 p.m. and leave the airport in a taxi for our hotel, New Edgewater. As I was trying to remember the name of this "gem", I discovered an article "another Barbados hotel bites the dust." Not surprised. With a description like, " The Bathsheba hotel, which boasts 24 rooms and SUITES, and a history dating back to the 1700's, I was sure we were in for a treat. So as we were being taxied to the hotel, in the dark, on the wrong side of the road, no street signs, winding roads and no one else in sight, I was sure something beautiful would soon appear. After about 30 minutes in the taxi, we come to a small dirt road with a metal chain link fence on one side and trees on the other, and our driver pulls down this scary small road. After my head hit the roof of the van a few times from all of the pot holes, we arrived in the parking lot where there were no other cars in sight but our taxi. The driver told us to walk through the "lobby" and check in, then he left. I gave my husband the holy crap look more than once, mostly scared for my life. As we walked through the lobby, there wasn't anyone at the desk, so we proceeded to walk further along the path surely we would find the right lobby. Only to come across a sleeping security guard who asked us our name, reached up and picked a key off of the wall and led us to our "suite." This was seriously happening. He unlocks the door with a few jiggles of the key and lock....he shows us the room. "Here is your TV, air conditioning, and your bathroom." Then he left. I looked at my husband like this was some kind of a joke or bad nightmare. This was the location to "die" for? The bed had a brown comforter on it, the bathroom was walled off with a folding door that was 1/2 off the track, and the shower....good lord. It was so late, it was pitch black outside, we had no clue what the place even looked like or what was even outside of our room window. We lied down on the bed, on top of a blanket of course because I was NOT staying here. I was so mad and freaked out and he was laughing so hard at me that I couldn't be mad, after all I had picked this "sweet deal." We laughed so hard we literally cried before falling asleep. The next morning we woke to the sound of the ocean and an amazing view. Our hotel was set on a cliff overlooking the best surf I have seen. 

Heading for our "free" breakfast we scoped out the place and boy was it...simple. Breakfast was some fruit, toast, and some pastries. I quickly became consumed with getting on the internet and finding a new place to stay for the next 6 days but stubborn me, decided to stay and suck it up! Over the remainder of the time we were there, we were able to actually experience the culture first hand. In fact we were on the opposite side of the island than we wanted to be, also called the surf side. Beautiful and untouched but we were quickly informed that we should NOT swim or we would drown. Perfect. Our morning ritual became eating our "free" breakfast, catching some rays, the we would walk down to the local bar, Sea Side Bar.

Here we would grab a very local lunch of flying fish and macaroni pie along side a Banks beer. The locals started at the bar at 9 am drinking Rum and water...yep you heard me right. The view from this place was spectacular and that was about all. We did walk up to the Andromeda botanic gardens where we walked through this amazing area with every species of tree and flower you could think of, very touristy thing to do, but it was new and kind of fun.

We sat down afterwards and ate lunch at their Hibiscus Café, only to be served the very same stuff as everywhere else. At least they were consistent. Next we got a wild hair and decided to go to Bridgetown Barbados for the day.

A taxi would cost us about $60-$100 or we were told we could take the bus, which conveniently the stop was right across from the Sea Side bar. My poor husband. I sat on the inside of what seemed to be a very empty bus, only to realize we had about 500 other stops before we actually arrived in town. The bus was maxed out at capacity about 15 stops prior to town and my husband's view was the crotch, fat rolls, and breasts of complete strangers who never seemed to mind whose face their business ended up in, as long as they were on that bus. The heat, the smell, and the people were some of the things I will never forget about that bus, but again who want's to pay a bunch of money for a bus that costs only $2 each way? So we rode the bus every time we needed to get anywhere and it was the same thing each ride. After we got off the local bus, we visited the Mount Gay Rum factory (which was totally necessary if you rode that bus) where we toured and sampled the rum that these people seem to love so much. I will just stick with my Malibu rum, I don't much like the taste of gas.

After walking through the town we wanted to go to the side of the island that everyone else apparently stays on, the "nice side". We watched a dance off (which was probably the coolest thing we both had seen), attended the fish fry (duh), and watched the locals playing dominos. By then end of our day we were actually ready to go back to our quiet side of the island. My husband wanted to make sure I put the part in about us going back to our hotel and we were waiting for our stop which is right at the end of our hotel drive and I thought it was the stop before and insisted that we get off the bus...so we did. I am laughing while I write this because it was pitch black, scary as crap, and definitely not the right stop, but I had to maintain my "rightness" and in the midst of me peeing my pants from being scared I put on my big girl pants and pretended to him that we were fine, we could just walk the mile back to the hotel in the dark, no worries. The part he probably doesn't want me to mention is that he was scared out of his mind! Pansy. Needless to say, I was once again wrong, but I was willing to own it. In Barbados the people are not really that friendly and tend to mind their own business which does not work well when you have 2 white people from Iowa who want to chat with everyone we meet and mingle with the locals. I am sure not everything in Barbados is like we experienced it so please do not steer away from going there because I was an awesome trip planner. We ended up having a good time minus a few hiccups but that tends to be the best part about traveling and seeing the world. My husband still lets me plan the vacations so I must be doing something right! Happy Travels and cheers the Barbados way :) 

Baby Kissing Craze

http://youtu.be/_L03lX5AuBk For those who have not seen this video on my Facebook account and want a good laugh...here you go. I turned on the camera to hear her sweet giggle and what I got was so much more. Happy Friday! Everyone have a great weekend. Happy Easter🐇

Bringing up Bebe My Way

Let's go back to before I had a child....I was going to be the best mom, do everything right, be that parent that everyone envys, have the smartest and most well behaved child in the history of babies. Duh because I had never had a baby so how could I ever understand the reality of raising a baby? I read the book Bringing up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by: Pamela Druckerman. Sounded great, achievable, and ideal so why couldn't I be THAT mom? I can. I would casually talk to my mom friends about how I was going to accomplish this task and be that fancy French parent, heels and all :) It became an ongoing joke, my friends would say to me how they couln't wait until I had a child so they could sit back and watch. One friend even bought me snack cups for my baby shower because I said I was NOT going to give my baby snacks, they don't need them according to the book. They should eat meals just like us. Right? I would love to think that I am still a great mom but ladies....this mom is gonna use snacks as blackmail, bribes, and silence (when she can start eating them of course.) But I am already washing up those snack cups for future use. I give up. One thing I have not let go is the way I dress. No friends, I did not take on the yoga pant wardrobe, never have, except actually going to yoga class. I swear it is the only way I feel human is if I continue to pretend I got sleep, got a shower, and had a warm meal, but it's all an act. I may look cute in the process but I am starving, dirty, and the bags under my eyes are covered with concealer. I kind of win. I swear my child is trying to win every Untapped badge available, if only there were one for breast milk not beer. I can feed her 20 minutes before we leave or I can try and squeeze in a feeding in the parking lot but for some reason she waits until the most inopportune time to want to eat. You name the place, I have breastfed there. Every mall-tapped, Smokey Row-tapped, Palmer's Deli-tapped, oh and Chocolate Story Book-yet again tapped. It was awkward at first because I try not to draw attention to myself but now...we whip it out just about anywhere. Sorry not sorry people. If you had to listen to crying instead, you would be begging me to make it stop. So you are welcome :) For those following my bottle saga (Breast or Bootle blog post)...it is still a battle of wills. I try daily but I am home all day with her and I choose peace over screams and she wins, I cave and the boob she gets. At my caffine fix mom date this morning, my friend suggested the MAM bottle, it worked for her so I guess we will be borrowing one of those now to give it a whirl. Add it to the list, why not right? Oh, and in my search of trying to replicate a boob in bottle form, Joovy, who has a nipple like your so called Boob bottle? (Please don't send me pictures if you do.) She wins.

The car rides are still painful with screaming and crying from start to finish, we are lucky for a silent ride. It is so painful that I bought an iPad case for the car to hang over the seat so she can watch her favorite Baby Einstein movie EVERY car ride. Seriously, how can this precious thing be so viscious? Geeze! What 5 month old gets to watch a movie every car ride? Spoiled much? We will see if it even works, hurry up Amazon and ship my package my sanity is dwindling away. I bet those French mothers are covering their eyes and ears over this one. Shopping with the baby is also painful. Come on child you are supposed to love shopping! She wants to be held and see everything, or wants to sit up as if her car seat doesn't sit up far enough. So she gets held the entire time so I can have some silence during my walk. I even went as far as asking the lady at Von Maur if they had baby care so I could actually try something on for once. They have everything else so why not? She kindly held my baby so I could try on clothes and spend some money. Too bad she caught me trying to sneak away and leave her with my baby (Kidding.) I will admit, when I see kids on those leashes I cringe, but next thing you know I will have one in every color and animal they sell! She wins always! People remind me daily that "oh little girls are so sweet now, just wait until 12 or 13 years old." What exactly am I waiting for? It gets worse? Aye ya aye! I am totally in for it and my mother would proably agree:) Paybacks. The new thing I am now struggling with the whole only child syndrome thought. Yes, she has siblings but they are older and it isn't the same. Babies relate to the whole baby talk thing. I YouTube babies and she talks to them, it is so cute. Is she socialized enough, is she going to be the sterotypical introvert nerd? Oh the stupid things I worry about. Sooooo....I signed us up for a class at the local library. Singing, clapping, and sitting in a circle with other babies and gaurdians. She seemed to like it but oh the things I do now with my free time is comical, the next thing you know my car radio will be nursery rhymes and I will know every word to every song, but I will still look cute singing it by golly! Haha good Lord. You should hear the amazing sounds I can make trying to entertain her 24-7. It's impressive.

Yes, I know she is only little once and it's only for a short while, but if you can not vent or laugh at your awesome parenting skills along the way, admit your faults, and try something else, what fun would it be then? The best part about these memories is that a year from now I will look back and wish that those problems were our only "issues" again as they will seem so minimal. But in the moment, right now, it is a monumental battle with my parenting knowledge. We will see who wins next time :)