Travel in Review 2018
Travel in Review 2018 is our inaugural year travelling as new parents. We celebrated two big milestones in 2018. The first is the birth of our daughter in February 2018 and the second was our 10th wedding anniversary in October 2018. These are both very worthy milestones to celebrate and what better way to make the occasion than the gift of travel?
I’ll keep the travel in review 2018 brief because I want to write more about travelling with a baby. Short but sweet, here is our travel in review for 2018.
California Homecoming
Lady Yeya dropped into our arms in late February 2018. To our surprise, we weren’t able to set an appointment to register her birth until a month later. As frazzled new parents, we were on a tight deadline to get both her British and American passports before her maiden voyage across the pond to the Golden State of California in late May.
Eagerly awaiting Lady Yeya’s first visit were grandparents, extended family members, and life long friends. We didn’t make big plans other than to spend time with the grandparents so they can dot on their new granddaughter.
The nice thing about travelling with a 3-month-old was that you can take her everywhere. Kenz and I took her to lunches, wineries, breweries, and even some dinners. With an easy-going and sweet personality, Lady Yeya would be content and happy in her Bugaboo Bee or her BabyBjorn carrier snoozing through the background noise. If she did fuss a bit, I’ll discreetly nurse her under my “mom cape” and she would nod off from being milk drunk.
Lady Yeya’s homecoming coincided with her 100 day birthday otherwise known as the “Red Egg and Ginger” in Chinese culture. We had a small dim sum with my family to celebrate the occasion. Lady Yeya met all of her aunties, uncles, and cousins in the South Bay. Kenz’ best friend kindly hosted a luau themed reunion of all of his friends from high school and their growing families. It was wonderful to see old friends as parents especially as Kenz has known some of them since pre-school.
It was a beautiful homecoming with wonderful memories introducing our new daughter to dear friends and family.
St. Remy de Provence, France
With the newest addition in the family, my sisters were eager to meet their new niece. High up on my older sister’s bucket list was to run through the vibrant lavender fields in Provence. What’s not to love about France? Gorgeous country, delicious food, and wine for days.
At the time of travel, Lady Yeya was about 5 months old. We took the Eurostar to Avignon and flew home from Marseille, renting a car for the entire duration. On the return leg on Eurostar, we would need to stop in Lyon to clear border control and customs, plus change trains altogether which we weren’t keen on.
In terms of where to stay in Provence, it was a toss-up between Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue or St. Remy de Provence. After some research, we booked a private villa in St. Remy de Provence for ease of day trips to places such as the Luberon to visit the classic hill towns of Gordes and Roussillon; Avignon and its historic Palais des Papes; and the amazing wine region of Chateauneuf du Pape.
As expected for the high season in Provence, it was very hot – unbearably hot. We had to finish up with our sightseeing or wine-tasting in the mornings and retreated to the pool for the afternoon. We took advantage of the fresh fruit and vegetables and cooked all of our meals at the villa with me happily being the chef-in-charge whipping up some classic French dishes. Every Wednesday is market day in St. Remy which is not to miss as the whole town is taken over by the market selling everything from chic French table clothes to wicker baskets, fresh fruit, and pastries.
We had a wonderful week with my family in beautiful Provence. I’d highly recommend renting a classic stone house villa with a group of friends or family for the perfect Provençal holiday.
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
We wanted to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in style with a family beach holiday. One of the hardest things for us is to forgo our intrepid style of travel since becoming parents. We didn’t want to give up travel, but we knew if we were to continue travelling as a family we would need to manage our expectations and change our priorities. Forget midnight trekking up Southeast Asia’s tallest mountain, white river rafting, scuba diving, rather our priority is comfort and convenience especially now with the baby.
When planning on where to go for our 10th anniversary trip with an infant in tow, we had a few requirements for an October trip: warm weather, gorgeous beach, and comfort. This rules out most of Europe as the weather can be hit or miss, and we weren’t keen on the Canary Islands or Cyprus. Looking further afield, we decided on an All-Inclusive in the Caribbean purely for the convenience and guaranteed warmth.
Staying All-Inclusive was not our style of travel but seeing that Lady Yeya was 8 months, we didn’t want the added stress of driving, leaving the accommodation for meals, or cooking. We simply just wanted to chill and relax (well as much as you with a baby) on a beautiful beach and all the amenities at our disposal. For ten blissful days, we either sat on the Bali beds on the beach, at the main pool, or our private plunge pool. I’ll write more about our trip in another post.
And that’s a wrap for our travel in review 2018.
