There's no place like home for the holidays. [View Full Entry]

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Katherine and I are back in the States in time for the holidays. I was really anxious about flying for so long with a toddler. When we first came to Germany, we had an overnight flight, so Katherine slept part of the way, but coming back to the States our 9-and-a-half-hour flight was during day-time, so I spent a lot of time planning in-flight activities. Here are some tips from me to other globe-trekking mothers of toddlers: 1) Prepare your toddler. Start reading picture books about air travel before you leave. You can even use pictures off the internet to make [View Full Entry]

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We got up at our usual time to eat breakfast, then we packed and checked out. It took us a long time to pack, but daylight’s saving time was on our side! We arrived at Disneyland a little bit after the park had opened, and we took Katherine shopping for a princess dress along main street. All week long, we had tried to get her to choose a costume for Halloween, but she hadn’t seemed the least bit interested. This was our last day, so Papa and I were really pushing the dress-up clothes. The shops aren’t very busy in the [View Full Entry]

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We got up at 6:00 a.m, as usual, this morning to be ready for breakfast from 7:00-8:00 a.m., but we didn’t head out to Disneyland immediately afterwards to stalk Mickey at the front gate. Instead, I decided that I was exhausted, and went back to bed. Katherine and Papa quickly followed my leadership and went to sleep, also. We slept in until about 11:00. Then we headed to the train station to visit the great city of Paris. After standing in line to buy train tickets and spending an hour on the train, we arrived in Paris at about 1:00. We [View Full Entry]

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Today started similarly to yesterday. We arrived at the park early and stalked Mickey in front of the gate as he greeted arriving guests. Then we took silly pictures with Halloween decorations along Main Street. However, instead of heading to Fantasyland, we started our day in Discoveryland. When the gate opened, we joined the stampede and headed for Space Mountain. But we didn’t get into line, we opted instead to get fastpasses and then we went to the Orbitron. Orbitron is basically a rocketship version of Dumbo. Once again, Dad sat out to take pictures, and I got queasy from s [View Full Entry]

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Thursday, a toddler’s dream day… We decided to devote this day to everything that a toddler would love. We arrived at Disneyland Park early and we were at the front of the line (almost) when Mickey opened the gates to Main Street. Mickey was very friendly and greeted Katherine cheerfully. Older kids formed an orderly line to get autographs and have their pictures made, but Katherine just kept standing next to Mickey, watching his every move, basically stalking him. He took a break from the kids in line and greeted Katherine again, which he didn’t have to do, but I was [View Full Entry]

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I’m gonna warn you in advance that the rest of this blog about our six day journey to France is entirely about Disneyland with the exception of a six hour trip into the heart of Paris. (And even when we visited the Arc de Triomphe, we went to the McDanlad’s nearby.) Okay, so this won’t be the best travel blog ever, but Katherine had a great time. We checked out of the Novotel in the morning and headed for Disneyland. Then we checked into our Disneyland Paris hotel, the Sequoia Lodge. They had a meet ‘n’ greet character area near the [View Full Entry]

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When does a four-hour drive take eight hours? When you’re traveling with a toddler, of course! We left for France at 9:00 a.m. and didn’t arrive until 5:00 p.m. The drive was pretty, though. Both Germany and France have lovely fall foliage right now. We had planned on driving straight to Reims, stopping for lunch, touring the cathedral, and then continuing on to Paris, but Katherine got cranky way before Reims, so we stopped for lunch near Verdun. We ate at another truck-stop over the autobahn. (Same kind as we stopped at in Belgium. It‘s a chain, but I forget the [View Full Entry]

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So, by the time we got on the Rhine River cruise it was raining. We stayed on the boat for forty-five minutes and got off at St. Goar. We had lunch and went shopping at the touristy shops. Katherine got a really cute kitten. It's more of a rag doll than a stuffed animal, but it's really cute and it was made in Germany. It's even wearing a cute overall dress. At this point it was really pouring. We took the van/shuttle up to the castle. St. Goar's castle is the best castle I've ever been to. It's a really fun [View Full Entry]

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We went on on a short Rhine River cruise today. We started in Bacharach and went to St. Goar. Unfortunately, the weather was very wet and rainy, but we managed to have a great time. We arrived in Bacharach at about 9:30 in the morning and we decided to was to climb up to the castle. The first few steps were steep, but it was a pretty easy hike. (Our two-year-old walked most of the way herself.) Once you get to the top, you can go in the castle for free. There's a few vending machines and a hotel inside. They [View Full Entry]

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