International Travel with Kids: Spain Edition

Well, we're at it again. We liked the southeastern coast of Spain so much last year, we decided to return this year...for two and a half months.

Only time will tell if that was a good idea or not. We might get homesick a month in, we might hate it and want to call it quits. I don't think we will, but if we're to spend, say, six months living in a different location next year, we wanted to get our feet wet with a "small" trip first.

For best prices and options, we drove to Chicago to fly out of O'Hare.

ProTip #1: For the long, over-sea leg of your international journey, make it an overnight flight.

We boarded at 6pm, right around bedtime, and with Babs' teeth brushed and jammies on, she stretched out across 2 1/2 seats and zonked for roughly 6 hours. It was only slightly more difficult for the larger versions of her to get some shut-eye, but we managed a few hours at least.

ProTip #2: BRING SNACKS

We loaded up at Meijer outside of Chicago with packaged foods. They make single-packs of olives without liquid, presumably just so you can take them through airport security! What will they think of next??

We focused on protein snacks, like those grass-fed EPIC brand beef, bison and venison jerky packs, and I made up trail mix of roasted almonds and dark chocolate chips to bring from home.

Especially on budget airline (we took Norwegian air this year, after months of ticket-price-tracking, 3 round-trip tickets totaling 1400 USD), where they charge you for e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g., being prepared with snacks is important if you want to travel on the cheap.

ProTip #3: Get a credit card with no international fees. Like an Amazon Prime credit card, which you can then use for extra cash back on all your Amazon purchases, like the boss you are.

After a 3-hour layover at London Gatwick, we went on to Madrid. Instead of staying in an Airbnb in the city, or taking a taxi to the Atocha train station, then a 100 euro train to Alicante, we rented a car for 90 euro and drove to the coast that night. The last hour of the drive was pure misery, jetlagged and having to get my Airbnb key from my host's friend then drive across town and find the place, but then we arrived, took our stinky shoes off and slept for 11 hours.

We returned our car to the Alicante airport the next morning, and took the 3.85€ C6 bus to Alicante city center. It departs from the 2nd floor (Departures level) of the Alicante airport.

Note: I watched Airbnb prices go down several dollars/night until I booked two days out from our arrival. If you know you have lots of options for lodging, sit on it and wait and you may get an even better deal.

More on living in Spain in another post. Hasta luego!

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DIY Kid's Avengers Black Widow Costume

She's been Hulk, she's been Thor, now Babs has chosen Black Widow for this year's costume. Maybe next year we'll branch out of the Avengers. Maybe not.

Widow Bites Bracelets

2 sheets Black construction paper

Elastic thread & hand sewing needle

Glue

Cut strips 2.5" x 4". (Sizes may vary depending on your child's wrist size.) 2.5" will be the length of the "bullets" and 4" ensures enough layers to be sturdy. Find a marker or glue stick that's the diameter you want the bullets to be. Wrap the strip around the marker and glue liberally.

Babs is 4.5 years old and I used 10 bullets for each bracelet. I should probably have done more, because when the elastic stretched, there were gaps.

Thread the elastic thread onto the needle and take a short stitch through the seam side of the bullet, about 1/2" from the short end. Stitch through each bullet. Cut the elastic with plenty extra. Repeat for the opposite short ends. Tie around your child's wrist, making sure it's tight enough to stay on, but not too tight! Keep in mind if they're going to be wearing multiple layers of clothing under the bracelet.

Black Widow Belt

Buckle

Elastic

Grey sheet of craft foam

Markers

Cut a length of 1"-wide elastic 2" longer than your child's waist. Thread one end through the female buckle end and stitch. Thread the opposite end through the male end.

I practiced my Black Widow hourglass on some paper, then used that as my template to trace onto the sheet of grey foam paper. I drew in the inner shapes and let Babs color them in red and black.

Glue the foam piece onto the front of the buckle.

A long-sleeved black shirt and black pants and she was doing parkour in the living room.

Happy Halloween!

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DIY Greek Yogurt Recipe

I LOVE greek yogurt. It's high in protein, great for your digestive and immune systems, plus it tastes delicious.

But a tub of that stuff runs $6 a pop at our hometown store. An expensive habit like Chobani really adds up. So the DIY-er in me wondered, Can I make that myself? Turns out you can!

Save 2-3 TBSP from your store-bought tub of Greek yogurt to use as your starter culture and incubate your own batch in the dehydrator.

Supplies:

• Starter culture from store-bought Greek yogurt (straight-up, not the "blended" kind with sugar flavorings)
• Candy thermometer or a meat thermometer
• Sieve
• Cheesecloth
• Jars
• Dehydrator (you can use other things for incubators, like an oven on low temp)

1: Heat 4 cups (1 quart) whole milk to 160 F. We're killing off any bad bacteria.

2: Cool it off to 120-115.

3: Scoop out 1 cup and add your 2-3 TBSP of starter culture. Stir it up real good, get those cultures allllll incorporated. Then add it back into the main pot and stir that up real good.

4: Transfer them all to heat-proof containers, cover (not airtight--simply to keep dust/bacteria out of the jars) and set in dehydrator at 110 F for 8-10 hours. Mine typically go more toward the 10-hour end to make sure it's completely set. (Try not to check on it, but to test if it's set, tilt the jar. If the yogurt comes off the side of the jar in one mass, it's done.)

5: Let cool for 2ish hours. This step is actually important. Impatient Me has skipped this before and been disappointed. Cooling allows the yogurt to firm up even more, otherwise if you pour fresh warm yogurt into your cheesecloth, you'll get a lot of white unformed yogurt in the whey.

6: Pour into cheesecloth-lined sieve, set over a pot to catch the whey. Let strain for 1-2 hours, depending on how thick you like your yogurt. (Check out this post on what to do with that liquid gold whey you strained out.)

The yogurt will come off the cheesecloth in one creamy lump of glorious nutrition.

Store in the fridge for a week or so, I guess; ours never lasts that long. Don't forget to save 2-3 TB for your next batch!

BONUS MUESLI "RECIPE"

Muesli is traditionally an oat-based granola/cereal, but use coconut flakes and nuts instead for a lower-carb option. A couple scoops add the perfect crunch to a big bowl of homemade yogurt.

1 cup roasted salted sunflower seeds
1 cup roasted salted pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Add in some sliced strawberries or bananas (and mayyyyybe a dollop of honey on special occasions) and enjoy.

Resources for At Home Learning

I almost entitled this post "The Failure of Standardized Education to Adequately Educate Children," having just finished this book by Ben Sasse, but I toned it down a little. Preschool might be a little early for me to get up in arms about the ways in which our beureaucratized school system is an embarrassment, but oh well. I might as well just get a Mom Haircut and roll with it.

But really, you cannot leave the education of your children primarily to their school. At least, not if you want a well-rounded, conscientious and engaged adult. Taking a hands-on (and indeed primary) role in Babs' education is something we look forward to. Watching her learn is so fun! To see her grasp concepts and then apply them: magical! (And not just readin' writin' and 'rithmetic, but problem-solving, empathy and confidence.) We are crafting a bourgeoning human being!

I haven't dipped into the 'homeschooling' realm (yet) but I've dipped my toes in the Google water of at-home worksheets, and one resource rises above for actual education: the aptly named Education.com.

Googling coloring sheets for whatever Babs is into at the moment is well and good, but Education.com has THIRTEEN pages of coloring activities, all with subtle number- and letter-recognition reinforcement.

You can find worksheets on an array of subjects, such as math, science, and a breakdown of social studies, for kids from preschool to 5th grade.



"Scare up some fun word recognition with this Halloween themed matching activity. For more engaging educational activities, go to Education.com!"

Games like word searches, crosswords, connect the dots and match games make learning fun, and with the vast array of themes and worksheets, it'll always seem new and different. They even have online computer games too.

But don't take my word for it, check it out at education.com. Just make sure your printer has paper.

Taking Kids to See Phish

Our first stop on our recent Colorado road trip was to see Phish play at Dick's, an event we haven't missed in 7 years. This marked Babs' first Phish show, a momentous occasion to be celebrated with sequins, glow sticks, staying up too late and puking in the van (I'll let you guess who that culprit was). Hooray Go Family!

Many phans take their wee ones to shows, and though I am personally not a proponent of 2-week old infants in headphones, Babs was probably ready for it at 3 years. I do recommend noise cancelling headphones, such as these, to protect those developing eardrums.

I can't speak to other venues, though friends took their tots to a show in Raleigh, but Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado is a very kid-friendly venue.

At the back of the floor at Dick's is the unofficial "Kid's Section," where parents set up blankets or strollers as a base camp and the children run rampant. There's enough space that they can move and not be lost, and parents (mostly) stay vigilant to keep any wobbly wooks from knocking the kiddos down.

I thought the Phish crowd was welcoming and accepting before, but bringing Babs to a show has deepened my oceanic love for them. Everyone, even those without kiddos, love to see kids at shows. A new generation of Phish fans! Phamilies having fun together! Awesome!

Vendors gave her pretty rocks, stickers, jewelry and high fives. It was magical. Babs watched the freak show in the lot before the actual show with wide-eyed wonder: girls with butterfly wings, humans of all genders wearing brightly colored dresses and headgear and even a man with a lizard on his shoulder.

She was so enamored I told her she could go talk to the people who struck her fancy, and for the rest of the evening she scampered up to girls, tapped them on the hip and shyly complimented them for their fabulosity. She was loved by all and watching her experience it may have been the most fun I've ever had at a Phish show, and that's saying something.

Since Babs had so much fun, we decided to shuffle some tickets around (Mr. Go faithfully uses CashorTrade.com) and take her again the second night with even greater success.

If we worried toting her around Shakedown would cramp our style, we needn't have. She improved the experience (as she usually does) and I am struck anew with love and gratitude in the knowledge that we are a cohesive family unit and she an active, vital member of it.

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Summer Adventures: Phish, Colorado, Overnight Parking at Rest Areas, etc

Summer rushed by at an unrelentingly rapid pace. Since my last post, we camped for 4 nights at Swan Lake, the lake of my childhood, where all my family reunions have been held for my entire life. It's a beautiful lake and excellent for swimming. (Babs, once afraid of the water, now wants to do nothing else than swim.)

I was particularly proud to have beaten Mr. Go's smallmouth bass record with not only a 19" bass, but a 20" bass the very next day.

George, WA

We followed that up with a 9-day trip to George, WA. Babs and Flotsam were left with Grandparents while Mr. Go and I took the Subaru across the country.

I've told you about this before in this post, and while the core crew was smaller this year, we enfolded two of our camping neighbors into our group to round out the craziness and now our network has grown.

On the way out, Mr. Go and I spent some quality time in the car listening to Into the Wild by John Krakauer and camped in State Parks and campgrounds along the way. Since the Subaru was so packed full, sleeping in it was not an option, and we had to pitch a tent every night, which quickly became tiresome. But I did get this sweet shot of Mr. Go being zen by a waterfall in Minnesota:

RV Parks and campgrounds are seldom as nice as they sound, and State Parks (many of which require a vehicle day pass to enter) are more expensive than they're worth. The app RV Parky helped in finding campgrounds along the way.

More Camping

Three days after we got home, we were packing up the van for another week-long camping trip with one half of my family, during which we picked a prodigious amount of blueberries.

The next week we made an impromptu camping reservation at the most primitive site yet. Surprise, surprise: there wasn't even a toilet, a discovery which led to us digging cat-holes with Babs' plastic shovel. Good times were had by all.

Curveball? More like Blueball

The week after THAT, we dumped Babs and Flotsam again, for another trip in good ole Subey, this time bound for Watkins Glen, NY, for the famed Phish Festival weekend, a bi-yearly event, this time called Curveball. We met up with two sets of friends, and as soon as all our camping gear was set up, we got a nasty surprise.

The entire week before, the Finger Lakes area had received monsoon-level amounts of rain, which led to the rising of the water table, which led to concerns regarding water potability, which led to the CANCELLING of the festival, not 10 minutes after the last tent stake was pounded into the soggy ground.

After making it through all stages of grief, all 20,000 of us campers consoled each other by getting drunk and running around the campground until the wee hours.

Colorado

A week (and a friends-with-kid visit) later, we packed up and left for Colorado, this time with the whole fam damily in tow.

The first leg of the adventure was to take Babs to her first (and second) Phish show! More on this in a later post...

Wedding

We travelled from Thornton, CO down to Colorado Springs so Mr. Go and GuideBook (remember him from our adventures in Mexico?) could reclaim some branches from trees around his house and make an arbor for he and Ms. GuideBook to get married under.

After this we spent a night with friends in Golden, then headed on up to the mountains to stake out the claim at Boreas Pass, where the Guidebooks would be wed three nights hence.

Sleeping at 11,300 feet elevation is no joke. After one night, I was done and Babs seconded that emotion. Luckily, our other friends (also of the Mexico & Spain adventures) had a house in the town of Breckenridge, where we were gratified to shower, nap and wash our clothes.

Wedding festivities abounded, culminating in a morning ceremony atop a mountain with a breathtaking skyline background.

Yes, Babs acted as Co-Flower Girl, with her "sister" C

After the fake paella lunch that followed, the Go family split. Babs' school had been in session for a week without her and Breckenridge, though closer to sea level than Boreas Pass, still sits at a pretty 9,600 feet elevation, and none of us were acclimated.

Life in The Van

We made tracks on the way home, stopping off at rest areas for two nights of sleep. Note: The rest area at Adair, Iowa is stellar. Did you know Iowa's rest areas offer WiFi? And they allow overnight parking.

Also, in the town proper of Adair, Iowa, there is a great little park not far off the highway where we stopped off to let Babs let out some energy.

I typically consult this list to determine whether overnight parking will be allowed. Wisconsin says it's a No, but we've parked overnight at the rest area in Dubuque twice now with no issues. If there aren't signs posted that specifically say "No overnight parking," I'd do it.

Next Up...

Between pickling and canning our home-grown veg (more on that in a later post), house projects (including but not limited to replacing one nasty window and the asbestos tile in the attic), and keeping up with personal hygiene, Fall promises to click by at an unrelenting pace as well.

And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.


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Camping in a Van

The omnipresent permeating smell of wood smoke, bug spray and sunscreen....the smell of summer!

We just concluded our second camping trip of the summer, at a tiny lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In case you were wondering, the van makes an excellent camper.

On our first trip, we slept in our 3-man tent, but this time we slept in the van, which, with the foam topper on the bed, is infinitely more comfortable than being shoved off the Thermarest by a wiggly child and a blanket-hog of a terrier in the tent.

As I may have mentioned, totes are the savior of van-living. Keeping grocery items in bags on the floor is the pits. Items I reached for a lot (salt, oil, sunscreen, bugspray) I now keep in two little totes for easy access. The duffel bag stayed crammed under the bed as usual, keeping our living space open for changing clothes and other activities.

We camped at Mowe lake for three nights in late May and caught a break in the warm weather so we spent most of the time in sweaters. But it was great, the wind kept the bugs away and we spent a lot of time out fishing.

Speaking of which, Mr. Go bought a 14' john boat with an 8hp motor and a trolling motor and, after stocking up on all the accoutrements, spent literally more time in that boat than he did at the campsite. He brought me back an 18" largemouth bass and a mes of bluegill though.

Last week we camped at Steuben Lake for three nights and had gorgeous weather. Halfway through, the heavenly breeze quit, and the black flies tore us up. Poor Babs got the worst of it. She's covered in red itchy, swollen bumps.

Actually, I take that back. Finley got the worst of it. Let me tell you about Finley. Many years ago, Finley was bit in the hindquarters by a horsefly and ever since he has been paranoid about bugs. He spent the entire trip whipping around to check that there wasn't anything getting after his butt. He was in a chair (yes, we brought a chair just for Finley), under the van, trying desperately to get in my lap until finally I just let him in the van where he spent the last two days getting our pillows filthy, but at least his butt was safe.

Mr. Go, as with any skill he sets his mind to, has become quite the angler. He hauled up 5 pounds of fish fillets from Steuben. Pike, walleye, sunfish and Babs snagged a 15" bass. She's come a long way from not wanting to get near a worm. She's touched worms and petted fish and absolutely loves fishing.

My camp cooking has been stellar, no surprise there. I used the round cast iron dutch oven for everything, I don't even know why I bothered to bring any other pans. It has a lid, which is key for softening veggies and fluffing rice. (Fresh off the Grid has some amazing campfire recipes--cornbread chili and campfire paella are now staples.) I love cooking over the fire; I'd love to do more of it and rely less on the propane campstove. Sizzling bacon with a little bit of ash and smoke, like the cowboys used to do, is satisfying in a deep, primal sort of way.

We purchased an RTIC 45qt cooler for camping purposes, hoping it will also solve our road trip food-cooling issues (See Last Post). It's pretty big, so it has its pros and cons for road tripping but for camping it's been stellar. It holds an ice block like a monster and is sturdy enough to double as a seat/table.

We go out camping again this week, then it's a 10-day trip for Mr. Go and I to Washington state. It's already mid July...where has this year gone??

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