Changes in Latitude

When we found out we were expecting we received lots of advice and comments from people. From those that know us well, we heard a lot of "good thing you have already done so much traveling" and "there go your vacations". I have to say, thankfully, that their comments are not all true.

Melia is only 12 months old and has been to 5 states outside of Florida. She has traveled all over the state of Florida, from Miami to the Panhandle. And she has taken 6 flights (12 if you count connections). She travels great in the car.

This year, circumstances have not allowed us to leave the US. Babies have to be 6 months old to cruise, and that's when Chris and I were both back to work after leave. We had to get her passport (getting the picture was a pain!). And our schedules when we returned to work didn't allow us to both get the same weeks off. But we have been able to take some "mini vacations".

Having Melia has changed the way we travel. We used to stay in cheap hotels (we would rather spend the money enjoying the location we were visiting). We don't stay in expensive hotels now, but we look for amenities that make travel with a baby easier. We LOVE Staybridge Suites. We used public transportation, but that is a little more difficult with a diaper bag and stroller, so we have rented a car on our past few trips. We have even taken different flights in order to cash in on Frequent Flyer miles. Now we need two people to travel with Melia and all of her stuff! Having Melia has also changed our activities when we travel. We have done some crazy excursions on vacations in the past. Now we choose the tamer activities. It has actually been a nice change of pace. Plus, we get to go in the kids sections now, which gives us a whole new perspective!

We have booked Melia's first cruise! In April we are traveling to Bermuda. Again, we picked the itinerary to accomodate her. We stay overnight in port for 4 days. This way if she is having an off day it is easy for us to head back to the ship and not worry about missing a port that we are only in for a couple hours. I hope she loves cruising as much as we do. There are so many more places to visit on our bucket list!