Great Britain Day 1-2 Travel nightmares!

Day 1-2 of trip to Great Britain were mostly devoted to travel and boy oh boy was it fun!

First diaster struck actually the day before we were scheduled to leave.  Hop! (Air France's regional carrier) went on strike and our flight from Paris to Birmingham was cancelled.  As much as I like flying Air France, it seems at least every other time we fly with them somebody is on strike.  Thankfully they gave us a heads up and after a very stressful 3 hours we were able to get on earlier flights.  That really wasn't good for Lincoln's sleep schedule but at least we were going to get here!

Thanks to my mom and sister Kate for watching Lincoln while we frantically packed and got ready for our flights!

Full van on the way to MSP

Belle knew we were leaving and seemed very sad.  She will have a good time with Kate and my parents though!

Happy boy at the airport.  So were we after some inital stress.  Security actually went ok, we didn't have to take everything out which was great!  Still there was lots of stuff to move through the airport!  Then when we got to the gate we found out that there were lots of babies and of course we didn't have a bassinet seat assigned (we were in 2 middle seats on oppostie sides of the plane).  Thankfully probably because our tickets were so screwed up from having our itinerary completely changed which changed our booking code we were able to get moved into bassinet seats.  After a nice 2 hour wait at the gate and getting our last Caribou and meal at French Meadow we were ready to board!

First group of people on the plane so thankfully we got all our stuff put away and settled before the completely full plane started boarding.  Lincoln managed to scream for the first 30 min after takeoff, but was otherwise pretty good for the flight

Lincoln was not very much interested in sleeping, but he was ok with playing with the bassinet buckles and watching the secret life of pets

Lincoln's bed.  Seemed like a good idea, although he only managed to sleep for about 1.5 hours of the 8 hours we were on the plane.  

Chillin in his own seat while we waited to get off after all the people

Quick starbucks breakfast in Paris.  Every single time we go through CDG something has to go wrong.  This time it was a mess getting through security.  They made us take out everything.  Then they had issues with something in my bag.  We latter figured out this is probably when Lincoln's medicine got lost.  Thankfully it is just vitamin D plus some things we can probably find over here.  Another issue was the lack of working elevator to get to our stupid ground level gate.  Then we were on a tiny plane so we had to take a bus and then climb the stairs.  Not exactly the most fun thing to do with a stroller and a million bags.

Climbing onto the tiny plane

And yet another travel disaster at the Birmingham airport (at least the flight itself was ok and the male flight attendant seemed to like Lincoln).  First issue was they checked our stroller to the baggage claim after security.  Then the customs line had only one person working for anybody without an EU passport, and no babies don't let you jump the line.  We finally made it out of that line and found what happened to our stroller.  It was probably at this point that I lost my breast pump bag which Zach has also zipped some of Lincoln's toys into.  I filed a report with missing luggage at the airport, but nothing has been found so far.  Finally after all that mess it took nearly 2 hours of waiting in line to get our rental car.  They don't reserve cars in advance so the line was super super slow.  Then we Zach finally got up there they decided we need to pay double of rental fee because of some insurance they claim we need (but we are sure our credit card company covers!).  Still waiting on a company response to that one.  Next up was the half mile walk to the rental cars

Our rental car got upgraded to a small minivan.  I guess that was good for the amount of stuff, but it made Zach's first driving experience on the wrong side even more fun.  The drive was very stressful between being on the wrong side, not knowing the area, remembering how to drive stick and the endless roundabouts.  Thankfully we made it finally all in one piece.

Our home for the first 5 nights is the Hampton Inn on Broad Street.  The hotel is giant.  Our room is pretty small, but the bed is big enough for Lincoln to crawl around on and play with toys.  After feeding and play time we all finally got to take about a 2.5 hour nap (first time really sleeping since we left MSP for Zach and I)

After our nap we went out to see our surroundings and find some dinner.

Cool looking memorial to WWII on the way to dinner

Dinner was fish and chips to go from a well reviewed place.  Zach was completely out of it and managed to order an insane amount of fish and fries for each of us.

The view from our room while we ate

Dinner!  Like I said way way way to many fries, but it was pretty good.  We also had stopped for a beer and cider on the way back.  The beer was supposed to be an IPA but it was truly terrible (like skunky Budweiser level).  We didn't even managed to drink half of it, but the cider was more drinkable.  

After dinner we spent about an hour figuring out a plan.  Lincoln kept doing really well.  We put him to bed at 10:30 without too much fuss.  He woke up at 1:30, ate and screamed for 30 min, then woke up at 5:00 for food and finally for good at 9:00.  All in all he seems to be a pretty good traveling baby which is great news for us!

Can't wait to start exploring and start the conference tomorrow night :-)

Great Britain Overview, our first international family trip

Hi all (I assume mostly family!)

I am going to try to do some sort of update every few days on our trip to Great Britain and Paris.  First post is just a overview of where we are going.

We decided to go to Great Britain because I got accepted as a US delegate to the International Women in Physics Conference being held at Birmingham England.  So my flight is paid for, plus since Mr. Lincoln still isn't really taking a bottle if I was going he was going.  Final straw was that Zach finished his teaching license and he has a real job that pays real money lined up.  So in summary it was a good time and place to try our first international trip with Lincoln.

I planned most of this trip before Lincoln was born and I was glad I did because things have been very hectic since then.  We are driving around most of England Wales and Scotland then we drop the car in London and finish with a train ride to Paris.

Without further ado here our trip summary with where we are staying each night (we have lots of stops planned along the way between cities as well!)

Day 1 July 14th night flight to Birmingham

Day 2 July 15th Birmingham

Day 3 July 16th Birmingham (Conf start)

Day 4 July 17th Birmingham 

Day 5 July 18th Birmingham (Conf with sidetrip)

Day 6 July 19th Birmingham

Day 7 July 20th Stratford Upon Avon (Conference ends, afternoon start vacation!)

Day 8 July 21st Oxford

Day 9 July 22nd Weymouth

Day 10 July 23rd Weymouth

Day 11 July 24th Bath

Day 12 July 25th Cardiff

Day 13 July 26th Dolgellau

Day 14 July 27th Liverpool

Day 15 July 28th Keswick

Day 16 July 29th Keswick

Day 17 July 30th Glasgow

Day 18 July 31st Oban

Day 19 Aug 1 Oban

Day 20 Aug 2 Edinburgh

Day 21 Aug 3 Edinburgh

Day 22 Aug 4 Durham

Day 23 Aug 5 York

Day 24 Aug 6 York

Day 25 Aug 7 Cambridge

Day 26 Aug 8 London

Day 27 Aug 9 London

Day 28 Aug 10 London

Day 29 Aug 11 Paris

Day 30 Aug 12 Paris

Day 31 Aug 13 Paris

Day 32 Aug 14 Home 

Canadian Rockies Day 5 Icefield Parkway Banff to Jasper

Ok so we have now been back from our trip for like a month, and I still have multiple days of trip to write about.  I am hoping to slowly get these up since we already have another trip (BWCA) down and have another one (Yosemite) coming up this week.  Hopefully the friends family and random people who are interested in our travel will find this blog interesting and useful if you plan a trip to the beautiful Canadian Rockies.

Day 5 centered around our drive from Banff to Jasper along the Icefield Parkway.  Stops include Kootenay National Park for some short hikes, Bow Lake for the hike to Bow Glacier which is the source of the Bow River that runs through Banff, Peyto Lake, all sorts of random waterfalls and other lakes, Athabasca Falls and finally Patricia Lake Bungalows where we stayed in Jasper.  Stats for the day is over 32k steps and 150 flights of stairs!

We enjoyed a very good breakfast at the Juniper Bistro with this gorgeous view of Banff.  The food was amazing.  Zach had some sort of egg dish and I had French Toast (somebody really needs to popularize a breakfast dish that has protein and isn't egg based!)

One last view from our hotel before heading out

Very strange sign in downtown Banff.  Really do many people ask for help getting a PhD in physics?

Quick stop at Nesters for sandwiches.  Nesters is for sure the better grocery store in Banff.

About an hourish drive later we entered Kootenay Park which is one of the lesser visited parks, but still just as beautiful National Parks in the area.

Stop one was the Marble Canyon hike.  This was a short 1 mile hike that allowed great views of the super deep Marble Canyon with some interpretive signs.  This area had a fire somewhat recently so the landscape was very interesting.

Remnants of recentish fire

Found the Canada Parks red chairs at the far end of the hike

Next stop not to far away was the hike to the paint pots.  These were pools that First Nations used to dye clothing and such and that the first white settlers later exploited.

This is a paint pot.  Notice all the really red dirt everywhere that was dug up and used for dye.

Final stop in Kootenay was the continental divide

One more time at the Trailhead cafe for some banana bread and coffee.  The last place to get decent coffee until we get to Jasper

And this is pretty much what the view looked like the entire way.  Lots of trees and mountains

This young bear greeted us as we pulled in for our long hike for the day.  He was just hanging out pretty close to the road with a gathering group of people including a parks canada officer trying to prevent people from getting too close.

Bow lake at the start of our hike

 

First part of hike was flat along the lake with great views all around

Somehow we got really lost and ended up hiking randomly in the woods.  Thank goodness for cell phones with offline maps with allowed us to get back to the trail.  I think it was close to a total of a mile detour from the clear path we should have gone on.

Once we found the path again it was an uphill climb until we got to the Bow Glacier and Bow Falls.  This waterfall is the source of the Bow River which goes through Banff and Calgary.

Dinky chilling near the water as we ate our picnic lunch.

We made it!

View of Bow Lake as we went back the same way.

Next on the stop list is Peyto Lake seen above.  Not I didn't photoshop this or anything.  This is really what it looks like.  There was a short walk there and then a viewing platform.  Once the large bus of Asian tourists left it was much more peaceful

Another lake view as we continued north

Next small hike was Mistaya canyon.  I don't know how they get such deep canyons here, but it sure is pretty!

Brief stop at Saskatchewan Crossing for really overpriced juice.  When I walked into the bathroom here the song Jolene started playing which was a little strange to hear in the middle of nowhere

Weeping wall.  Hard to see but there are just waterfalls all over this wall which is right next to the highway.

We saw this mountain goat near the glacier skywalk and scared the poor guy to death.  It is actually a sad situation because people warned this was goat habitat before Brewster built this stupid walkway that blocked them in.  Both times we ended up seeing goats here and they didn't seem to appreciate being boxed in with the traffic.

Waterfall near the goat sighting just right next to the highway

More great views along the way, although at this point we were starting to hurry because we had to make sure to check in and get food before everything started closing.

Looking for moose and wildlife

Final stop before Jasper was the Athabasca Falls for a short hike.  The falls were impressive with lots 

of water flowing

A small herd of Elk greeted us as we entered Jasper

Hello Jasper, or base for the next 3 nights

Cute but skitish dog that belongs to owner of Patricia Lake Bungalows

Check in area

Our room seems great!  Lots of privacy and room plus a fireplace!

We quickly unloaded then headed back into town for dinner (at this point it was nearing 10 pm).  We ate at the Jasper Brewery which had lots of good beer options

Real Poutine which was pretty good, although anytime you have french fries covered in cheese and gravy it is bound to be good.

We split a salad and the brat dish shown below. Good choice as the salad was quite good and healthy while the brats were quite good but decidedly unhealthy.

Finally back to our room for the night to enjoy the fireplace and plan for the next day's adventures.