travel – TeamLouka

I typically reserve this space for reports of family travel adventures. Traveling with kids is a special kind of hard, all of which I’ve been reminded of since embarking upon this most recent Louka journey.

School was cancelled all last week due to snow that quickly transformed to ice. Our au pair was stranded in Orlando at the beginning of the storm, my husband facing stranding in Tampa at the end of the week. I held down the fort at home, just happy this all landed when I wasn’t scheduled to work.

My husband said “take a few days – just you. Go somewhere warm and relax.” I fought him at first – that’s not practical, that’s money we don’t have… who will do _____? But he kept pushing, and I realized he meant it. I said yes.

The initial plan was St Maarten Sonesta Maho Resort. If you follow us, you may remember we went there in January 2023. Alas the weather gods did not have that in their plans for me. I thought I’d be safe connecting in Charlotte, NC but of course the day I chose to travel there was a winter storm there dumping 12” of snow, an all time record for the city.

My flight to St Maarten was supposed to leave at 9:30am. I’ll spare you the back and forth which involved two trips back to the gate and a 1 hour de-icing of our plane, only to be the last plane de-iced before the entire airport shut down for the night. They cancelled the flight, and four hours later, the flight they’d rescheduled me on as well.

Exhausted, I crashed at an airport hotel, which was not easy to get to. Initially I was fighting with 300 other people to get an uber to take me 1.5 miles in 12” of snow. I quickly realized this was not the time to be cheap, ordered up the Uber Black (SUV) and skipped the line.

That turned out to be a good call as we passed 4 sedans that had run off the road or been abandoned after getting stuck in the snow. In just 1.5 miles. I crashed at the Charlotte Suites, just happy to have a safe place to sleep for the night.

This morning I awoke recharged and ready to formulate a new plan. Realizing breakfast might be my only meal of the day as the airport had closed all restaurants due to staffing issues, I stocked up on sausage and fruit.

For the love of all travel gods, Expedia refunded my entire trip since there was no way to get to St Maarten for at least 48 hours. That allowed me to start fresh and rebook an entirely new trip. But where to? How does one decide?

With a lot of help from Amir, I’d narrowed it down to San Juan, Puerto Rico or Cancun, Mexico as those both allowed me to get there same day rather than losing another day. Ultimately I picked Mexico, probably since I’ve somehow never been there (aside from a cruise stop 20 years ago) and would be able to practice my Spanish.

With some help from Ale, our former au pair from Mexico, I picked a resort and pulled the trigger. My flights departed and arrived without issue – a fresh change.

Tomorrow I’ll explore this place – I booked a massage for 4pm but otherwise just plan to wander and relax. There’s a freedom in being here alone, but I’ve already caught myself wondering what Amir or the kids would think about this or that.

-Steph

It turns out late January is an excellent time of year to visit Greece. Technically “off-season,” it’s still 60 degrees with sunny skies and greenery all around, just minus about 1/2 the tourists one usually encounters in peak season.

We flew Dulles–>Heathrow–>Athens with an itinerary we thought perfect for our almost 2 year old. An overnight transatlantic flight on British Airways followed by a shorter flight arriving early afternoon into Athens.

Don’t forget to download episodes of a favorite show in case of no internet access

Asleep on the floor while DaDa helps a stranger

We’ve flown together as a family of three on at least 4 occasions in these two short years. Our daughter is usually a good flyer, but I still have PTSD from our trip last summer to Italy when she screamed for 6.5 hours straight. I’m happy to say she was a delight on the way here. Entertained by Peppa Pig and endless crackers, she hardly fussed a bit. What we didn’t expect however, was the call for help on the plane.

“If you are a Doctor of Medicine, please press your call bell.” I half thought I’d dreamt the overhead call. Just over halfway through our flight, my two co-travelers were both sleeping, and I’d just closed my eyes. I jabbed Amir. He awoke startled, pressed the button, and we waited. About 5 seconds. A calm but concerned flight attendant arrived and told us a man up front was having a medical event and they were attaching the defibrillator. What I had assumed was a simple syncope or low blood sugar event was clearly more serious.

“My wife and I are both emergency medicine doctors, we can go.” We decided that he would go, and I would stay to watch our daughter. After thirty minutes, a different flight attendant came to update me. “The man is 82. He stopped breathing. Your husband will be tired when he returns.”

I knew then what the outcome was. We were only 4.5 hours into our flight, still an hour away from the nearest airport where you can safely land a 747. The story of what happened in between is not mine to tell. We were required to stay in the plane for 2 hours after landing to give statements to police. As such, we missed our connecting flight to Athens. The British Airways crew were so apologetic, but we felt it a small price to pay to delay our holiday a few hours to have the opportunity to put our training to use. If only the outcome could have been different.

Amazingly we all were asleep by 10pm Athens time and slept all night and into the morning until 10am. We’d missed the delicious hotel breakfast of fresh coffee, yogurt and fruit, but we were well-rested and ready.

If you have a baby or a toddler, and don’t have a CitiMini stroller, you must be missing out on how easy getting around can be. We’ve taken this thing to California, the Bahamas, Italy and now Greece. It’s survived the pummel of airport baggage handlers across the globe and can even tackle the crooked sidewalks of The Fan District back home in Richmond. If you plan to travel with young kids, don’t be afraid to travel with a good stroller. Strollers and car seats are free to check.

CitiMini is easy to carry in case you hit unexpected terrain

Whenever we arrive in a new place, we like to walk around first to get a feel for the location, people, safety and maneuverability.

Athens has an insane amount of graffiti. Most cities attempt to take down graffiti as soon as it goes up. There’s a threshold you cross where once there’s a certain amount it’s accepted, just part of the area. It’s peculiar to see the juxtaposition of 2500+ year old ruins with this century’s modern art.

From down in center city near our hotel, we walked up towards the Acropolis. The incline wasn’t as severe as it seemed when looking up from below.

Walk up to the Acropolis, looking back towards city center

We stopped along the way to refuel and taste some local sweets. We enjoyed coffee and pastries hand-piped full of Nutella.

Amir teaching the finer points of coffee and donuts

We stopped to say “hello” to a few of the numerous kitties who live just outside the Acropolis. They are quite friendly and appreciate the music of the street musicians.

We reached the top of the hill and the Acropolis. You can purchase a 5 site pass for $30 euro which lasts 5 days and gives you access to the major historic sites. We also opted to hire a guide to walk with us and narrate the history.

Boba carriers are good for up to 45lbs, so our 30lb toddler can rest comfortably

Our guide Cuina, a native Athenian, was a wealth of knowledge

The views from here were amazing. You can see the whole city and even the Aegean Sea.

Throughout the millenia, the Acropolis has been rebuilt. Limestone is the older part on the bottom with marble more recent (400 BC)

They recently moved these statues into a museum we will see tomorrow. Replicas now sit where the originals once did.

Our guide was kind enough to take photos for us along the way

While our guide said the tour was 1 hour, at hour 2 our daughter was getting restless, and we still had more to see. We politely cut our tour short and carried on by ourselves.