The Red Cooler

Whenever I'm packing for a family roadtrip, I always wonder what my children will remember most about our travels.  Will it be the places we go?  The sights we see?  Will it be the people we meet along the way?  When they think of their parents packing and preparing, what will jump into their minds?  It'll probably be the most random things that I won't even remember 10 years from now.

We traveled quite a bit when I was growing up.  We lived in the midwest, and my grandparents all lived in Florida.  A lot of hours were spent on the road traveling to see our family.  Before each trip, my mom would carefully prepare.  Amongst other things, we had our suitcases, the 'kitchen' (a basket with all the plastic utensils and kitchen-y extras we could need), beach towels on each seat, coloring books, card games, and the red cooler.

The red cooler fit perfectly in front of my seat in our van.  It made for a great footrest!  It also worked well as a table for playing solitaire.  Packed with lunchmeats, cheeses, and egg salad for my dad, it became a sort of symbol of family vacations for me.

About twice a day while traveling, we would pick up a bag of ice along the way.  This, of course, had to be hit against something repeatedly to break up the ice and make it fit in the red cooler.  Then, there was the careful dumping out of the water that had accumulated from melting ice cubes.  Once we were at our hotel room for the night, there was more dumping of water, and numerous trips to the ice machine to fill it back up again.  The cycle started again the next morning.  I loved that red cooler!

I spotted it just recently in the bottom of a cabinet when I went to go get the cooler we currently use for our roadtrips.  We now have the kind that plugs into the car and doesn't require constant refills of ice.  That's a good thing, too.  If you ask anyone in Europe for a bag of ice, they'll look at you funny.  But just seeing our red cooler brought back so many great memories.  It's one of those random things that I remember about my childhood travels.  When we move back to the US, I think we'll have to start using that red cooler again.

Poland: The Rest of the Story

Rainboots and Umbrella?  Check!

Every trip has a story.  Normally, it's filled with the highlights of "we went here, we saw this, we did that".  On our recent trip to Poland, we went to some incredible places. We went to probably the most somber and emotional place in Europe.  But what's the rest of the story?  I don't even know where to begin, except to say that I don't think I've ever been happier to be back home.

Things started to go wrong before we even left.  Over a week before our departure, I began attempting to contact a specific pottery store in Boleslawiec.  I had read that it was possible for children and adults to paint their own pottery and then the store would fire it, and ship it.  I thought it would be a fantastic souvenir for Tootsie and Turkey.  After numerous failed attempts to contact the store, I was finally able to reach them...only to find out they only did the pottery painting on Saturdays.  We would be there on a Thursday, and were unable to alter our itinerary.

Our hotel on the first night was...well...sub-par.  Amongst other problems with the hotel, the listing on the website I use to make hotel reservations said that it had a restaurant attached.  When we went to the 'restaurant', we discovered it was pretty much just a banquet hall.  When my husband asked if the restaurant was open for dinner, the staff member made a phone call to ask about it, and afterwards said "We can make you schnitzel".  Ummm...ok.  So we all had schnitzel.

The plan to wander through the Krakow didn't go so well, either.  Mother Nature decided to assert herself through rain and heavy winds.  Our first day of attempted wandering started out innocently enough...it began to drizzle, so we pulled out our umbrellas and stroller covers.  Once we got into the open square, however, umbrellas were turning inside out.  The support spines broke on one umbrella, and the handle on another snapped completely off...popping springs and all.  In the midst of all this, we also lost our city map.  So, of course, we got lost trying to find our way back to our hotel that evening.  At least by then the rain had stopped.

Our second day of wandering in Krakow found us fighting the wind to go up the Wawel Hill.  And then the rains came.  (At this point, of course, we were down two umbrellas)  We took shelter under the arches of a building at the top of Wawel Hill.  When the rain subsided, we thought we'd give it another try to see just one more thing....but the wind nearly took us away.  Our stroller (with Tiny inside) was barely stopped from flipping over.  We gave up, and went back to our apartment for a fun family game night.

There were other travel oddities that occurred...but I think I've relived enough for one blog post.  Through all of these difficulties with our trip to Poland, I'm still glad we went.  We were able to see some amazing and deeply moving sights.  The memories of this trip (both good and not-so-great) will stay with me always.  "And now you know the REST of the story"