The Happiest Place on Earth

Our plan this Fall was to head to Spain.  Procrastination is my worst enemy at times.  As we looked for airline tickets using our frequent flyer points, we realized it was NOT going to happen.  Between black out dates and the kids having to miss too much school we would only be able to stay for 5 days.  Yep.... not worth it. All was not lost for this traveling mommy!  We found some wonderfully priced tickets to California.  We could save our points for the summer and still have a lovely Fall vacation.  Whoohoo!!!!

You cannot go to California with kids and not go to Disneyland, right?  After looking through the Disney website at park entry prices, I decided I wanted to find a deal.  After asking around to friends who have already been to Disneyland, I discovered you can actually get packages through Costco.  Did I mention I LOVE Costco?  I saved hundreds of dollars as well as received lots of perks.  First, we saved by staying in a partner hotel rather than at one of the Disney hotels.  We stayed at the Hilton which is a few blocks from the park.  We also received an ART pass which allows you unlimited access to the tram/shuttle that picks you up and takes you to the park.  The package also included 4 nights in the hotel, a three day pass to both Disneyland and the California Adventure, a character dining experience, VIP seating at several shows, free pin and lanyard, a collectable figurine, discounts rate for parking at hotel, and early admission to the park one day. ( We sooo did not use our early admission.)

We ate at the park a maybe two times.  Anyone who has read my blog KNOWS we like to eat.  Eating at the park was VERY disappointing.  The food was not very good, even in the fancier options.  However we found lots of yummy places to eat on Yelp.  One of our most memorable was Mas Chinese Islamic restaurant.  If you get a chance to go there, do not pass up the lamb and noodles.  Portions were huge and the bill was the smallest we had our entire stay in Cali.

More on the trip to come......

Random pics from Prague

I just want to mention that we used the Rick Steve's Prague and Czech Republic guide book.  I really found it useful.  The Czech :Lonely Planet Phrasebook was also helpful.  Most everyone spoke English, but I fooled a few locals with my awesome Czech greetings.  Well...that is until I could not answer them back.  Ha!  I did find it useful to know how to say the numbers when asking for food and beverages at a deli, bakery, or street vendor.  Knowing how to say please and thank you in the native language will always endear you a bit more to the locals.  It also helped we had two cuties with us :)

Old Town

The Fam

Street performer

A few peacocks from the park

El Ombú estancia in San Antonio de Areco

I have not posted in a while. My grandfather passed away while we were on vacation:( We tried to get flights home, but the soonest we could get home was Thursday afternoon and the funeral was Thursday morning. Let's just say we needed to get away somewhere to relax and reflect. We packed our bags and headed out with some good friends to an estancia two hours outside of the city. An estancia is a real working farm with available rooms for you to stay in and enjoy lots of good food.



View of the lunch feast tables and horses



 

We were not sure what to expect. Let's just say my expectations were more than exceeded. After a two hour bus ride, we landed in what I perceived to be the closest thing to heaven. We were greeted and shown to our ADORABLE rooms. From there it only got better. I love food. All of our trips and vacations revolve around food. This was the place to be! For lunch, aka the feast, there were tables set up on the lawn of the old mansion that overlooked the farm. All of the tables had bottles of wine, salads, empanadas, and fresh bread to greet us. I had to give applause where they were due.... although I may have embarrassed my family with all of the squealing and hand clapping. Next came, hot off the asado (grill/smoker), chicken,steak, sausage, and ribs with such flavor that my mouth is watering just typing this. Did I mention dessert?



One of the many puppies on the estancia

Where my heaven has lots of food, my girls' heaven has lots of doggies. There were dogs everywhere. Those dogs probably never had so much attention in their lives. My girls were all over them. They ran and played and had a ball.

After a long nap, we took a carriage ride around the property. We had tea and alfajores (cookies with caramel in the middle) followed by a beer in honor of my Papaw. The day was just magical.

If you are traveling in Argentina with children, an estancia is definitely worth checking out.  El Ombú estancia in San Antonio de Areco gets my two thumbs up.





Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay

One of the highlights of our trip so far was hopping on a boat (aka buquebus) and heading to the sleepy and historical town of Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay. The kids loved it so much that when it was time to leave, the oldest cried. We definitely could have spent several more days there since there was plenty to see and..... eat.

We stayed in the historic district of the town at a quaint little hotel called El Capullo. It was so adorable and had the warmest people working there. We were greeted and promptly introduced to the toy chest. The girls were in heaven. I loved the giant orange tree growing in the back neighbors garden that hung over the fence.

Walking around the town you felt such a sense of history. The town had been founded by the Portuguese and, several back and forth battles later, settled by the Spanish. We took a guided tour after being there a few days and learned quite a bit of interesting information. One interesting tidbit was the Portuguese had used tiles on their roofs that were made by placing the clay over the top part of a slave's leg. Because no slave had the same size muscle, the tiles were all different sizes. You could see this on many of the original buildings. Colonia de Sacramento also had the oldest church in all of Uruguay that we were able to go into and tour.

One of the things that the girls truly loved was renting a golf car and driving around the town. It was a little scary for Mommy and Daddy because we were on the same road as many other cars, but the gorgeous view of the coast along the way made it worth it. Word to the wise- make sure you get a golf cart with seat belts.

We drove our little golf cart out to Playa Ferrando, a lovely little beach about 2 km from town. The girls enjoyed putting their toes in the water. Apparently you could walk out for 100 meters and still not have the water go above your knees. We did not test that theory though. We stopped at a local shipwreck museum. It was quite interesting to learn of all of the ships that had sunk right around the port of the town. We also drove out to a dilapidated bull ring. Apparently the bull ring was built in 1910 but bull fighting was made illegal in 1912. LOL

Drinking mate (pronounced matay) is a way of life if not an obsession in Uruguay. You would see everyone walking around with their little hollowed out gourds sipping mate tea through a bombilla (a metal straw). The guide on our tour mentioned the average person there drinks roughly 4 liters of mate a day. Whoa!!!!

Steak in Uruguay is a source of pride. According to our guide, there are three cows to every person there. We thought we would help them control the cow population by eating at the local parillas. El Porton is the one to eat at if you ever get the chance. Uh....yum!!!!

Life was relaxing in Colonia. I can still hear the bell from the church tolling while drum beats from a local drum parade marched by my window. Ahhhh....

Food and the City

Being this is our second time to Argentina we knew what to expect as far as what the kids would enjoy to do and eat. If you have never been to Buenos Aires, it is probably not what you expected. It is not called "The Paris of the South" for nothing. It is quite a large city with tall buildings, somewhat like New York, but with a lot of French influence in the parks, gardens, and older buildings. The food is beyond delicious. I believe I had read 70 percent of the surnames here are Italian so one would be right in expecting some of the best homemade pasta outside of Italia can be found here. As with any big city there will be people will be kids. Buenos Aires seems to be super kid friendly. Even the nicest restaurant will welcome children and have a baby seat available. I love the fact that many of the restaurants will serve the children first and pretty immediately which keeps a hungry kiddo from getting loud and grumpy.

The main fare here is meat at a parilla (steak house) , pasta, and pizza. The people here are quite proud of the food and for good reason. Everything is fresh from the farm. You see trucks coming in daily with fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, and eggs. The beef is from grass fed cows that actually get to roam around on the Pampas. Because of the climate and size of the country, fresh fruits and vegetables are available year round.

My kids love the handmade pasta that is available everywhere. Since we have been here they have lived on toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, pasta, alfajores (two cookies with caramel... aka dulce de leche inside), and of course gelato. I have been living off of milanesas (breaded veal), steak, pizza, gnocchi, choripan (sausage inside a homemade bun with chimichuri sauce),amazing cheeses, and the list goes on and on. When we travel it is all about the food. Thank goodness for all of the walking, huh? Enough with the food talk. I am pretty hungry and suddenly dreaming about hitting a local parilla for a good steak and bottle of wine.