Recovery Day

Julie's turning Owen into a tourist.

Today was a recovery day. With some good rest behind us we almost missed breakfast at the hotel and had to rush down and eat only to head back to the room to get ready for the day. Finally getting out of the hotel at noon we headed over to Selfridges as Julie hadn't been.  I was hoping to pick up a Groovin' banana hammock but Julie didn't seem into it.  A shame as blue's my favourite colour.

We wandered about for a while before deciding to grab some lunch in the foodhall. A combination of Marche and a grocery store we loaded up our bags and checked-out; finally realizing it was more like a grocery store and less like Marche with the food arriving cold.  With this poor plan in play we decided to head back to the room and re-heat the food in the kitchenette -- another delay to an already slow day.

Softball sized pork ball.

Julie opted for the safe play with a chicken sandwich and some fruit while I dared to go with something more absurd -- a massive breaded pork ball and a safe play -- a slice of frittata.

Surprise! There's an egg inside.

 Much to my surprise and delight there was a friggin egg inside that pork ball.  Delicious.

Owen in envy as Julie enjoys her sandwich.

Back out on the streets we made our way over to London's famed 250-year old toy store, Hamleys.  The store was fun but as with many European buildings had old lifts and of course only one was functioning.  After a wait of eternity to get up one floor we decided to bail but not before playing with this great marionette that squawked.  Owen didn't really get it but I thought it was good fun.  It's on my Christmas wish list.

Owen actually had more fun sporting the Ray Ban's.

After Hamleys we continued on to famed Piccadily Circus.  It's known for its traffic craziness and didn't disappoint with roads seemingly in every direction merging at this intersection.

Only a fraction of the action at Piccadily Circus.

Owen loves the head bobbing action of cobblestone.

Back at the hotel we took the easy route ordering up some room service for dinner.  Another London day in the books.

Get Me Some Brooks Walking Shoes

Brooks Addiction Walker: pimp.

 There are few good reasons to own a pair of Brooks shoes. Foremost, you qualify as a senior citizen in the territory you reside; or you intend on walking over 7 hours in a single day.  Today we wished Santa had brought us both a pair of Brooks for Christmas.

Starting the morning off at HUNter 486 for a quick breakfast we loaded up and set sail on an epic voyage.  After re-charging the night before the squad was ready to bring their A-game. Zig-zagging South down the backstreets of Mayfair admiring the 15-20 million GBP townhouses an their equally priced vehicles we reached Green park.  Part of the Royal Parks, Green park is a tree covered park with pedestrian only pathways.

I found this looker in Green Park.

Without any direction we were fortunate that Green park funneled us directly to Buckingham Palace and timely enough to catch a portion of the charging of the guard.  Masses of tourist line the streets and gates of the palace -- so our view was obstructed but we did catch the ponies rolling in. Not overly caught up in the pageantry we continued on to St. James park.  As the oldest of the Royal parks it's also far superior to any we've seen.  Beautifully landscaped and filled with birds it's definitely worth a visit even if you skip "Bucky". The resident pelicans are quite the scene as well.

Owen and I --unimpressed with the changing of the guards -- standing in front of the gates leading in to Green park

Bird with feathered feet -- what?

Le pelican.

Since we had no plan or direction, we continued walking what ended up being South then West landing us on Kings Rd to Sloane Square and all the shops of Chelsea. Realizing we had traveled significant more  South than we hoped we started to work our way back up to Kensington then Knightsbridge ultimately stopping for a quick pizza lunch. There is a significant Arab presence in the area and in turn many, many shisha bars.  Despite being in England we've noticing English is spoken very little while most are speaking some Arab language.

Afterward we headed to Harrods, London's famed luxury store.  Harrods is a happening place with a great food hall well worth the visit alone.  Owen even got into the action in the pet section of Harrods.  I think we have his first birthday gift picked out.

Owen loves fish or anything brightly coloured that moves.

 Making our way back towards Hyde Park we wandered past the Royal Albert Hall and zig zagged our way back to the hotel.  All told over 7 hours of walking.  A solid showing that makes up for a slow start after day one. Sore feet to follow -- damn I wish I had those Brooks. 

Later in the evening I met up with a colleague who happened to be in London on business.  We headed over to the Punch Bowl formerly owned by Guy Ritchie and Madonna -- and recently only by the former.  Guy wasn't around and neither were any of his celeb friends but it's always good fun catching up with friends when out of town.

Settling in .. and not much else.

On arrival at the hotel we completely unpacked and got settled in.  Atypical, for me at least, but we're sitting tight at this location for the entire duration so it's nice to have an at home feel. The accommodations are nice with the room feeling more like an apartment with a few separate spaces (kitchenette, living, bedroom) connected by a hallway.  The hotel itself is relatively new and therefore the finishes are modern.  We'll post a quick tour video in a subsequent post.

Once settled in at the hotel and unpacked the family decided to take a nap.  I took the opportunity to log some miles running in one of London's largest parks; Hyde Park. Our hotel is well positioned at the Northeast corner of Hyde park allowing easy access to all areas of the city.  Hyde park is bookmarked by Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace -- where Prince Charles & Princess Diana used to lay their heads -- and Park Lane. Heavy construction around the palace obstructed most of my 'on the move' views. The perimeter of the park has a horse riding path and the accompanying horse crap -- so steer clear.  The park, while huge, wasn't overly impressive compared to New York's central park although the history pre-dates the aesthetic considerations that Central Park would have had.  For example, Rotten Row was established to allow William III easier passage between palaces -- tough life. I didn't hear anyone ranting at the famous Speaker's Corner but we'll stop by again on the weekend.

King's Private Road -- aka Rotten Row

After clocking 8km around the park I hiked back up Park Lane past all the swanky hotels to hit the shower.  The fam was still sound sleep so I showered and headed over to Selfridges -- London's equiv of Holt's on steroids -- to kill some time.  On the way back I grabbed dinner to bring back to our "home" as Julie keeps calling it.  Surprisingly, everyone was still asleep!  Needless to say, jetlag should be cleared up after today and we'll set our sights on seeing a bit more of London tomorrow.

Sleeping with our arms up is cool in London.

Have Family Will Travel

We're back on the "road" with a sojourn in London -- including a day trip over to Paris to visit with Kim and Justin.

Having tested the travel waters in Florida we (aka Julie) had a good idea of what to pack for this trip. Fortunately Air Canada allows Owen one checked bag, a stroller, a car seat -- etc all at no fee. Logistics come in to play trying to manage 3 suitcases, the stroller, diaper bag, carry-ons and so on; so my advice -- spend the extra $25 for valet at YYZ and voila, you're in the front door in two steps (or grab a luggage cart and make the hike). Check your stroller and car seat at the gate and you stow all your carry-ons at the bottom of the stroller making airport life much easier.

Checking-in at Pearson

We took the red-eye out of Pearson (23h30) putting us in London at 11h30 although with the strong tail wind we actually arrived an hour early -- which translates to waiting in queue at the destination airport.  A few laps in the air around London and we were ready to land. Owen is a better flier than us; watching some TV and sleeping significantly more than anyone else.  The timing of the flight couldn't have been better as this is his (almost) guaranteed sleepy time.

A bevvy and a movie; Owen's content.

 

We had pre-arranged transportation via the hotel as we had quite the heap of luggage with the stroller.  After installing our car seat, Richard our driver, provided some colourful commentary on the way in.  He also showed us pictures of his newborn grandson who may end up in the Guinness book of records coming in at a towering 86cm at 12 weeks!

Checked-in at the the Arch London and all is well -- despite Owen signing (aka crying) to Richard on the drive.

I did steal the title of this post from the FS family travel blog; check it out. 

Shopping and Some Steak

Watching a movie... sort of.

Sunday morning Julie hit the spa for a massage whilst Owen and I caught up on the film Midnight in Paris that we missed during our snooze (see above). With Julie back we finished watching the movie and packed up to visit the shops at Bal Harbour, a short 10 minute drive South.  Since the rain clouds were rolling in this seemed like a good option, particularly for people watching.

Indeed Bal Habour was good for people watching unless you plan on selling your house to buy something. The bustling on-site restaurant, Carpaccio, is a good meal option with reasonable prices and good service.  It also provides ample entertainment for people watching. I had to opt for the carpaccio di carne with shaved parm and portobello and prosciutto stuff focaccia -- Julie was wise enough to only get the focaccia catania with sausage and spinach.  All delicious.

Giving Owen some fresh air -- and drying my shirt.

Koi ponds run up the middle of the shops.

At around 6, closing time, we dragged Julie back to a store to buy a dress that she had tried on and been debating ever since.  I (embarrassingly) grabbed a linen dress shirt, sans flowers, since it seemed to be the only shirts anyone was wearing -- probably due to the heat.  I also grabbed a funky t-shirt from a shop owned by a Morrocan with whom I had a brief chat in French.  70% of Floridians aren't born in the state which makes it a great melting pot for all cultures.

Apparently we were in a French Riviera kind of mood.

I dropped the family back at the hotel and headed over to the nearby liquor store, aka Publix grocery store, to pick up a bottle of champs and back to the Aventura mall to grab some strawberries from Godivas.  Getting back to the hotel just in time to shower and head down to the acclaimed on-site Michael Mina restaurant, Bourbon Steak.  Not having reservations in advance meant Sunday was the only opening other than 10pm on Friday or Saturday -- typically a good sign. It also meant the restaurant should be relatively quiet.  Handy for Owen.

The restaurant is worth the visit alone with some great design aspects.  There are a handful of menus; one specifically for burgers with check boxes to select what you want; the full menu; and at the time the Miami Spice (think Summer/Winter-licious) menu.  We opted to go with items from the full menu, me a 14oz New York and Julie with a 8oz filet and a side plate of truffled mac 'n cheese.  Everything was great. The mac 'n cheese was interesting as expected but seemed to use gorgonzola which neither of us can tolerate for long.  Steaks were cooked perfectly.  Order also came out with fries done with three seasonings and dips.  These were pretty rad as well as the popcorn. Overall a good experience. I'd probably try the burger menu but the steak were similar to a good steak anywhere.

Owen was a fan of the seating options at Bourbon Steak
* Julie's new dress.

After dinner we headed back to the room for the some champs and strawberries on the balcony.

Celebrating our first family trip

Next stop, Europe.

Day 3 - Ready to become a Floridian

Vacation is a hardship

Today we had a very lazy day.  I woke up and clocked a 5km loop around the property with great views of the two Raymond Floyd golf courses.  Definitely the greenest grass I've every seen. I got back in time to wake Julie and Owen up to lazily order some in-room breakfast.  Fortunately the in-room dining is fairly good and we've abused this option already at a rate of once or twice per day for full meals or snacks.

Around 4 Julie headed over to the Willow Spa having swapped her massage for a pedicure.  Apparently after all those years of ballet her feet are in constant need of care. Owen and I took the opportunity to cruise the property before a solid rain cloud rolled in and we had to duck back inside.

Stolen from Fairmont web site - my Blackberry didn't do it justice.

Later in the evening we walked over to the Waterways Shoppes about 30 mins from the hotel.  Without much research or asking the Concierge we landed in what seemed like was once a pretty happening place to ultimately an area with the majority of restaurants closed or shops out of business.  Fortunately Barrio Latino was open and absolutely packed -- always a good sign.  I scooped up some recommended Cuban fare -- basically beef, beans, rice and plantains and Julie opted for a salad.  Since we were sitting in a booth I laid Owen on the bench which seemed to work well until he woke up (which doesn't happen in the carrier).

We hiked back and started to watch Midnight in Paris until we all passed out.

Back to Blogging and Traveling + 1

Owen's an official traveler.

Its been a while.  Our last entry left us in Carmel, California -- afterwards we headed to Santa Monica and to our original stomping grounds, some eight years ago as our first trip together, at the Fairmont Miramar and in February to Boston with the Huitemas. Since then work has taken me to Prague, Budapest and scorching Dallas -- sans Julie since Owen was either en-route or too recently joined us.

Now we're back traveling as the Ringling Brothers.  Owen endured his first flight with class and style despite 3 hours of delays.  We even made the special request for the customs officer to stamp his passport.  Hopefully that'll be the last customs visit for the US as we await our Nexus application to be reviewed. 

Party time on the plane.

Note to self: car rental seats suck.

So for a prep before a potential European trip in Sept we hopped down to Florida and are hanging out just outside of Miami at the Fairmont Turnberry.  The hotel labels itself as family friendly and didn't disappoint when they even offered Diaper Genies for the room.

After arriving late on Thursday and after a morning massage we spent Friday down by the pool.  Owen's a bit young but the 180' waterside, lazy river and massive waterfall were clearly hits with the other kids.  The clientele seemed similar to our last visit to South Beach @ the Delano -- heavily Hispanic with some New Yorkers.

Jamming to Barney by the pool.

Everyone enjoying a drink.

We were able to get Owen settled after we all grabbed some poolside lunch and put on his favorite tunes -- which let us even enjoy the pool while keeping a watchful eye from about 3 feet away. Having a newborn is like selling ice cream.  Every kid and parent (of every nationality) stops by to chat.  One lady asked if we spoke English -- another even offered to call local friends to loan us baby gear, none of which we needed.  And most importantly, despite warnings of Hurricane Emily, the sky was cloudless.

After some much needed showers we headed to the Aventura Mall across the way the back the hotel and Cascata Grill for some dinner.  We figured this would be the first challenge of traveling with Owen.  But Julie brought the secret weapon -- the baby carrier.  A natural sedative, Owen was asleep in minutes and I got to feel what it's like to be pregnant.

Overall travel day + day one were huge successes without any issues. A good sign.

Cascata Grill overlooking the golf courses.