FAMILY TRAVELS
Behind the Scenes at the Seattle Aquarium (Seattle, WA)
October 25, 2013The Seattle Aquarium was one of the first places I felt comfortable taking my twins to on rainy fall and winter days in their early years. Unlike more traditional kids’ play places, it seemed pretty clean and not as full of germs and we loved eating snack on the “bottom of the ocean floor’ under […]
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Visiting Monkeys in Arashiyama Japan
October 23, 2013I’d like to think I had a calm conversation with the hubby about this one, a casual “hey did you know you can see monkeys in the snow in Japan?” But when I saw some National Geographic Pictures of the Nagano snow monkeys while figuring out our Japan trip I probably brought this on with […]
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Sumo with kids in Japan
October 18, 2013It might be my fault that I’ve had to buy one of my guys a sumo costume. It started with a book we read. And then he decided that he’d like to see Sumo in real life. (And if you’re in Tokyo in January, May or September, you’re definitely in luck.) I thought we might […]
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The Singapore Zoo, a breakfast, and a Behind the Scenes Tour
October 15, 2013I don’t think we’ve ever been to Singapore without going to their Zoo breakfast and we’ve traveled there a bunch of times in the past 10 years. I absolutely LOVE this breakfast. There is an abundance of good food (this is Singapore after all) and it’s a great place to get your feet wet if […]
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Cup Noodles Museum and the Hikawamaru (Yokohama, Japan)
October 9, 2013Yokohama is a really neat city. It feels like a big city and business center, but there were so many beautiful areas to walk and see things that it felt really peaceful too. We went there specifically to see the Hikawamaru, a ship that brought my mom, my aunt and my grandmother to Canada years […]
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Two days in Kochi, Japan (On the Island of Shikoku)
October 7, 2013We’re lucky enough to have family in Kochi Japan or I might never have heard of this beautiful place which is why if you want something off the well-traveled path in Japan, Kochi is definitely a place for you and your family. Kochi is a small city in Southern Japan, and it is absolutely stunning […]
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A night in Okayama
October 6, 2013I had big plans for Okayama. I really wanted to visit the Kurashiki area, and see little boats floating downstream, but when we finally arrived in Okayama, I realized we were pretty exhausted and decided I’d save those for another time. (Okayama is the 2nd stop in our Japan itinerary. It’s a perfect stop in […]
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A cool coffee shop, a secret bakery, a toystore and robotic sushi (Tokyo Family Travels)
October 1, 2013If you talk and walk with me, I could go miles and not have any idea where I’m heading or where we’ve been so use this loosely as a guide and plot your own route on a map. We had a plan for a day in Tokyo and it consisted of these 4 places: 1) […]
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What jet-lagged people do the first day of a trip (Travel to Japan with kids)
September 29, 2013I’ve read everywhere that once you land in another time zone you just have to embrace it. We arrived in Tokyo around 6 pm and we were all exhausted so we grabbed a light dinner and put the kids to bed around their regular time. And then they woke up around 3 am. We were […]
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Things to Read at 30000 feet while traveling to Japan
September 27, 2013I am not a good flyer. We travel a lot and I’m always reminding the hubby that the journey might be just as fun as the destination, but the only place I can’t do this is on an airplane. And since having withstood about 70 days of hospital bedrest ( I wonder if NASA could […]
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When Sigi gives you a scarf you wear it
September 26, 2013I signed my guys up for the Seattle Sounders’ Junior Alliance club back when they did the Sounders Camp and kind of forgot about it until a couple of boxes showed up at our door. Inside each box was a scarf, a membership card and a ‘letter’ from Sigi Schmid, the Seattle Sounders’ head coach […]
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Singapore Shopping List (planning a family trip to Singapore)
September 21, 2013If you read my previous post, you know we’re headed to Japan very soon. We’re also heading to Singapore and it’s great that Tokyo is an easy stop over on a 17 hour airplane trip from Seattle. We’re really lucky that the hubby has family there and we’re just going there to hang out with them. So […]
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Japan pre-reading (How I do my trip research for Japan Family Travel)
September 20, 2013In what seems like just a handful of sleeps we’ll be heading off to Japan and hopefully by the time we leave, we’ll be totally prepared. We’ve made it a habit now on trips to make sure we all read about where we’re going ahead of time. Of course we get the basics like Lonely […]
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If I go to the spa
September 18, 2013When the hubby wants to be the BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD on a weekend, he notices my ragged toes or my frazzled hair and tells me to book a morning appointment and he’ll take care of the guys. After I pinch myself a few times to make sure I’m not dreaming (sometimes in an […]
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The Exploratorium at the San Francisco Airport
September 15, 2013Of course I doused my guys with Purell immediately after playing at this play structure, but the Exploratorium collaboration at the San Francisco Airport is the coolest airport installation I’ve seen. The Exploratorium was one of the highlights of our recent San Francisco trip and it was quite a surprise when we found some of the museum’s […]
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When you go bowling with friends and it’s awesome
September 14, 2013I’m beginning to think that West Seattle needs to get added more frequently to our “where should we go today” list. We used to go there quite often when the boys were little but we haven’t been much lately. And then we accidentally ended up there a little while ago and saw a baby seal! Our […]
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An overdue visit to Grandma’s (Point Roberts, WA)
September 12, 2013There is nothing like a big wave of guilt that washes over you when you realize you should have done something ages ago. “I don’t think I’ve been here in 10 years, Grandma” I say as I pull into the cabin driveway. “10 years??!!! Shame on you!” My sweet grandma slaps me in the arm […]
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First Day of School Pics (phone apps for photos)
September 10, 2013After the fiasco I had with the kids trying to take fake first day of school photos last week , I thought I might just snap a picture in front of their school and call it a day. Then I found some awesome chalkboard printables on this sweet sight: Yellow Bliss Road that I thought […]
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Because the guys are obsessed with Planes
September 3, 2013So we are not just into airplanes now, but PLANES, as in made by Disney planes from the movie that we survived a few weeks ago. I’m not sure if you remember what I was worried about, but the guys sometimes find things like this scary and I wanted to make sure it was a […]
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When you get the first day of school wrong
September 2, 2013Yep. That’s me. Mom of the year. I thought school started tomorrow, but it actually doesn’t start until next week. Thank goodness I didn’t get the kids all ready and show up but now I’m totally scrambling to figure out what to do with them for ANOTHER WEEK OF SUMMER! We scored the last Planes […]
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