Tawanna, Author at Mom's Guide To Travel

Mar 03 2011

Travel Tip Thursday: Travel and your health

I am so happy that I read. Don’t laugh – it’s true. I’ve committed to designating Thursdays around here, “Travel Tip Thursday”. Naturally, I immediately had writer’s block and could not figure out for the life of me what would be my travel tip for the week.

After reading an article on yahoo, I figured it out. This medically informative article had a very useful travel tip in its paragraphs. The article discussed pulmonary embolisms and it really hit home for me personally.

When my mother was in the hospital several years ago from an accident where she was struck by a van, she experienced one of these. She had surgery on her leg, which already suffered from vericose veins. While sitting in the bed, a blood clot traveled up her leg and into her chest. Thank goodness she was in the hospital and could be treated immediately.

Unfortunately, my favorite aunt (my mom’s only sister) wasn’t so lucky. A few years ago, she had a cancerous “spot” removed from her lungs. Two weeks after her operation, after waking up, she started experiencing shortness of breath and couldn’t breathe. By the time the ambulance got to her, she was already unconscious. The embolism had traveled through her lungs. She died in the hospital not long after the episode began.

One thing that I’ve learned from my personal experiences and from stories of others is that surgery doesn’t always resolve the problem. When we continue with our regular activities, after our so-called recovery, we have to make slight adjustments to adapt to our new selves. Full recovery might take longer than the doctor estimates or than anyone expects.

Nowadays, when my mother travels the 3.5 hours to see me, she can’t make the trip in a straight shot. Besides having to stop for several bathroom breaks, she has to get out and stretch her legs. This helps to keep the blood flowing properly and efficiently through her legs and body.

The following travel tip is applicable to anyone but is specifically geared towards those traveling who have recently undergone surgery or suffered injury or trauma in the legs.

Thursday Travel Tip: Take a break every two hours whether you are riding or flying to stretch and re-energize your legs. Walking around and stretching, and even implementing massage, can regulate blood flow and help avoid clots.

Of course, it’s best to inform your physician of your travel plans if you’ve recently undergone any surgery as they can offer you specific and sound medical advice. The harmless advice/tip that I can offer is to take your time. I know that I need to follow my own advice at times as well, even in the heat of my excitement. As they say, traveling isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey.

You can read the Yahoo article here.

Feb 27 2011

Vacation Home Rentals vs. Hotels

After a stressful birthday week with sick kids, I had the pleasure of enjoying a spur of the moment getaway with my family. We stayed in a vacation home on a quiet inlet in Ocean City, MD. Normally, we book hotels when we travel – partially out of habit but mainly due to convenience. Whenever I’ve considered vacation homes, I thought about the fact that I probably wouldn’t be getting a break from the chores I face in my own house – making beds, cleaning dishes, straightening up. And that’s certainly not a vacation for me.

However, since our accommodations were provided by incrediblebeachvacations.com, I couldn’t turn down the chance to try one on for size. I couldn’t have had a more relaxing time.

Bungalow Review
The vacation rental, named Islamorada, is a tranquil space decorated like a beach home with its fair share of blues, greens, and whites. My husband and oldest son fell in love with the space immediately. Daddy liked being out on the water and junior couldn’t resist the loft’s pinball machine. My toddler and I, are always the harder sell. However, as the day wore on and I assimilated my linens and creature comforts around the bungalow, we both loosened up and relaxed.

Islamorada is a decent sized space with enough room for two families. The house measures at 1424 square feet with two master bedrooms on the first floor, wi-fi, vaulted ceilings, a great room, a family sofa and a queen pullout sofa, three twin trunk beds in the loft, galley kitchen, and a spacious back deck. Here are some pictures:

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Lighting in the dining room and the loft area is a little challenging if you’re looking to do any work but it’s perfect for setting a romantic mood. For a brief moment, it took a little bit of an adjustment to travel with my own linens and paper products but once I made up the bed and stacked my towels, I realized that a vacation home is a better choice for me and my OCD.

Overall
If families are planning to stay somewhere for a week or longer, vacation home rentals are an economical choice. As a home away from home, mom may not get a break from fixing beds and straightening up bathrooms. However, she will get a break from the expense of eating out for every meal and the money saved can be used for a day of massages or a mom-only vacation. No bed-making allowed.

To see other vacation rental properties, check out www.incrediblebeachvacations.com.

Feb 16 2011

Heritage Travel – taking our kids back to their roots

Whether we are from another state or another country, it’s important to always take our kids back to their heritage, back to where their people come from. Traveling to explore one’s heritage is the most rewarding kind of travel a parent can offer themselves and their children.

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with my 7 year old son. I don’t recall what we were talking about but I told him that he was part West Indian. I was surprised by his response, an emphatic “No, I’m not! I don’t want to be Indian.” An easy misunderstanding I thought to myself, so I clarified and re-worded, telling him that I meant Caribbean, like his grandpa, great grandma and great grandpa. I might as well have been trying to clarify addition with multiplication. Surprisingly, he was still annoyed that I was labeling him something other than his birth name. So I broke down the family tree, naming everyone who was Caribbean, in full or in part. He heard me mention: “mommy, auntie, Uncle D, grandpa, cousin B, cousin M, great grandma, great grandpa.” Still no dice.

The conversation hurt my feelings and stirred up a hot pot of guilt. I knew at that moment that I had dropped the ball on teaching my son early in his life, his full identity and where his ancestors came from. Mommy’s fault – of course. Here was a teaching moment for both of us.

Too often we 1^st generationers forget the importance of carrying the torch of our heritage and passing it on to our kids. Comfortable and assimilated in our environment, we occasionally tend to take our history for granted.

Little does my son realize that his heritage explains a lot about him – his likes and dislikes, his temperament, his beauty, etc. I told him, “That’s why you love coconut and fish so much.” These foods were just a couple of the staples in our family’s diet in Barbados. Cod fish cakes, bread fruit, coconut bread, patties – all foods that he has an affinity to that he can’t explain. All he knows is that he likes it.

But again, it is my responsibility to teach them. I have to expose them and travel with my boys to the places of their origin. This is intentional travel, heritage travel at its best.

When we get to Barbados, my son will be enchanted by the pristine blue water; soothed by the clean air; satiated by the delicious foods, and whine when it’s time to leave. He won’t know what hit him when the day comes where he accepts all of who he is and wears it like a badge. In the meantime, mommy has to show him the way, pick out the size, and help him put it on. This is the only way that he’ll know.

*photo courtesy of Postdlf, Wikimedia Commons.

Feb 10 2011

T-Shirt Printing review

You may be asking yourself why is she doing a t-shirt review. What does that have to do with travel and kids?My answer: not much but who doesn’t love a good old t-shirt with quality printing. Check out my video review below since I’m too lazy to type.

You can check the company out at www.tshirtprinting.net.

Disclaimer: TShirt Printing.net sent me that T-shirt to conduct this review. I love it and I’m keeping it!

Feb 09 2011

Traveling with the GFCF diet

Yesterday I took a 35 minute ride with my youngest to a health food store, recommended to me for having plentiful gluten free, casein free food options. In my previous post, where I spoke about traveling with a special diet, I mentioned that the stress of it all would be ensuring that the foods my children would need to eat were available. Well, I can now add the cost to these foods to that stress. For 23 items, I shelled out $75.76! Wow! And a lot of these items were snacks for them. It’s a shame that eating healthier can be so expensive.

Receipt — My gluten free casein free receipt (one of them)

I came home and cleaned out my pantry, reorganizing it to have a GFCF shelf, specifically for the kids. This way, my husband doesn’t have to think too hard about what they can eat and can’t eat when I’m not here. And when we have to be on the go, I can quickly and easily grab their foods without making any mistakes. It also allows my 6 year old the opportunity to see all the things that he CAN eat and not focus on the things that he can not.

Bottom line: I’m going to do right by my boys, no matter what the distance or the price. No matter what the diet or circumstance, traveling with your kids is all about preparation, research and planning. We are fortunate enough to be within reasonable driving distance to several specialty stores that carry the items we need – so that when we do travel, we are able to just pack them with us and go confidently.

My goal is to make positive changes AND reduce stress, all while keeping our traveling stride.

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