I’m bored, Mom,” the princess said, “I don’t want to settle down in any place for too long. I want to travel the world.” She comes by her wanderlust naturally. For years, while my husband travelled on business, I packed the kids and went to visit him. We spent many hours visiting historical or educational sites, to their dismay, and getting lost in seamier parts of cities around the country.
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| The View From The Top of the Mountain |
Our latest adventure was a seven mile hike around a mountain canyon. My son, a firm believer in having nothing to do with the great outdoors, decided he didn’t want to wear proper hiking boots. After sliding along the trail in his flip flops, tripping over a rock and complaining of a hurt ankle, I chided him about choosing proper footwear. “These shoes would have been fine if we hadn’t been on a mountain!” he responded.
Choosing proper footwear is essential for any trip. On my recent trip to New York for Blogher, I chose a pair of shoes I thought would be comfortable. I knew I would be on my feet and walking a lot, but I didn’t realize how much. By the end of the conference, I had bloody raw places on the tops of my feet from my shoe straps and blisters on the bottom. I decided, although I wanted to look stylish, I’d carry a pair of tennis shoes in my bag for when I had to walk around town. At the conference I could switch shoes easily to look stylish and chic again.
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| Central Park |
Another tip I’ve discovered to being comfortable while traveling is packing sunblock and making sure to apply it to the tops of the feet, especially when wearing sandals or flip flops. Last year, during a family vacation to Cancun, I forgot to apply my sunblock. The only part of my body that burned badly was the tops of my feet! Once again I had huge blisters and spent two weeks limping. Finally, a nurse friend took pity on me and told me the remedy they used at the hospital whenever people had sun poisoning.
I could go on and on about experiences we’ve had during our travels, shoes that disappeared, never to be seen again, shoes that were swept into the ocean because someone left them to close to the waves and more. I’ve learned to never purchase new shoes and not break them in before we leave.
What are some of your favorite travel tips?
very nice site, its great
Love your post. I’ve suffered similar shoe problems too. lol.
You aren’t kidding about sunblock and sandals! I’ve learned that the hard way 🙂
Great post and I have lots of shoe and blister stories too. Proper foot wear is such a need.
Talking about sunblock another tip is always apply it to the earlobes on your kids..we recently went to Orlando FL and we forgot to apply sunblock to my sons earlobes and wouldn’t you know it that is exactly where he got burnt..always when hiking take water. You are definitely right about the proper shoes…Great post!
We only travel with the kids. My only tip is do whatever makes them happy – and keeps the quiet 😉
As my kids have gotten older I have introduced them to the joys of geocaching. High tech meets mountain journey!