Paris Food 2017

Although the US has great healthy options (salads, smoothies, greens, etc…), Paris ultimately has my favorite food, which we enjoyed last week at the Paris Marathon. We had great luck with the restaurants we chose and couldn’t have been happier (well, our stomachs are a little bigger, but C’EST LA VIE!).

 

Sunday Brunch: Our favorite, Cafe Charlot. Not many restaurants are open on Sundays (and Mondays), but this is a classic French bistro where all the cool kids go to brunch for seven hours. We ate and drank for hours on end. The food is delicious, the sun was shining, life was (is) good.

 

This burger was the best thing I have ever eaten. And this was AFTER my huge caesar salad with smoked salmon. The waiter looked at my crazy when I ordered two main courses, but hey, you only run a marathon every so often, so when in Rome......

This burger was the best thing I have ever eaten. And this was AFTER my huge caesar salad with smoked salmon. The waiter looked at me crazy when I ordered two main courses, but hey, you only run a marathon every so often.

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Glimpse Guides – Travel with Kids

Introduced by a good friend, I had the privilege of meeting Jordan Rhodes, the creator of the website Glimpse Guides. The website shares Jordan’s travel finds, reports on current fashion for children and adults, and provides a wide variety of travel tips for families. It is a great resource when booking trips with kids. (She also featured my tips on traveling in Paris… take a look here). As a mother of two (with the third on the way!), Jordan manages to visit, write, and post inspirational and helpful content — thank you so much!

 

Jordan (pregnant with her third child) and her husband this past Fall in Scotland.

Jordan (pregnant with her third child) and her husband this past Fall in Skibo Castle in Scotland. Her family loves Scotland as there are so many outdoor activities for all ages, and the beautiful, remote landscape is unrivaled.

 

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Paris. Again! Packing For a Trip

I am currently in Paris, France (shocker, I know….my posts are either about Paris, Oregon, NYC) but this time with my 6.5 year old son. Not sure why I scheduled this trip, but I wanted to “show him the world” and have “global experiences.” I have been terrified of the agony and pain of a whiny, tired, jet-lagged child.  While I have a hard enough time powering through the jetlag and not being cranky myself, my son is about 100 times more whiny and difficult than I am (#MyHusbandDisagrees). That said, here is my #1 packing secret….packing bags!

 

Before we get to the packing bags, I want to show you a picture of me when I was 8 years old in France. I know, right, I am the CUTEST kid you have ever seen? Mullet and perm, why YES, that is the best look EVER EVER EVER.

Before we get to the bag packing, I want to show you a picture of me when I was 8 years old in France. I know, right, I am the CUTEST kid you have ever seen? Mullet and perm.  Why YES, that is the best look EVER EVER EVER.

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Traveling Tips

Recently, every blog and newspaper has featured traveling tips for summer holidays. Two sites provided me with the best information; Goop and The New York Times (both of these sites are constant sources of inspiration and happiness for me. I am not a Gwenyth hater and the NYTimes is my source of news). That said, I have my own tips on traveling for people — especially for families.

 

This past weekend, we made our first cross country trip as a family of four. And boy, let me tell you, did it take a lot of planning, to do lists, and effort. Thankfully, we will not have to do this trip again for another two months when I head back out east. Yep, that is right folks, I am spending the summer in Heaven on Earth — good ‘ol Eugene, Oregon. I will be there with my parents and kiddos, with Ken coming out three times for some family fun times. I am not the most successful traveler, but I have had a lot of experience traveling with ONE baby (not two) and feel that despite some bad trips, we generally have everything covered.

 

PACKING BAGS

 

I started traveling early on as a child and my parents showed me how to pack everything in an organized and systematic way (perfect for me and my organization OCD ). The key was the use of  Eagle Creek Packing Cubes. Discovering these is comparable to discovering gold or oil. It just changes your life. You have a cube for your shorts and pants, a cube for your cute and fun outfits, a cube for your workout clothes, etc…It just makes life so much easier when you are packing, dealing with your items upon arrival, and repacking everything back up. You can find them online at Amazon or in various stores such as The Container Store. I swear, a game changer.

 

packing cube

The packing cube. Now that we are a family of four, we have almost 20 packing cubes. Everyone in the family uses them (or truth be told, ***I*** use them to pack everyone) and it is easy to keep track of what you have.

Note: packing clothes in cubes does not prevent you from overpacking

Our porter Cruz “helping” us out

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