Sometimes we travel for work. When possible, we roll a family vacay into it. The stars aligned with a work conference this month and we headed to sunny California! I didn't need to be at work till Sunday, so we flew in on Thursday and stayed at Ellie's house. Super sad we didn't actually get to see Ellie because she was out of town, and still she was the most fabulous host!! She had gifts for the girls, pantry full of snacks, and directions for parking and wifi. She even left us passes for the most beautiful gardens nearby, though we overslept and missed our opportunity to go. (Definitely next time!) Ellie's neighborhood is walkable and family friendly.
We got to her place by 2am! And then I woke up with the girls to find breakfast. We not only found breakfast, we found my new favorite breakfast spot. Merengue, a Cuban bakery. When I tell you delicious....I'm smacking my lips now at the memory. We ended up eating there 3 times. No joke. It's clean, charming decor, friendly staff, and the food! Y'all...sometimes food tastes good because you are hungry. In this case, the food was good because it was good.
The girls and I ate, then walked to the park to soak up some vitamin D, before heading back to a refreshed Matt. Yes, we took him leftovers. With everyone full of food, we set out for the aquarium.
For a couple years now the girls have expressed an interest in all things marine life. Cassidy has declared she is going to Hampton to study marine biology and play in the band and dance. Anytime there is an opportunity to indulge what they are excited to learn about, we take it. It so happens that a friend of ours who I work with named Dani has a SoCal connection! Her parents live walking distance within the aquarium, and they are the warmest people! They volunteer there often, and procured day passes for us. We spent the day with them, seeing behind the scene, meeting their favorite volunteers, and just enjoying the weather. They were very sweet, and even arranged for Savannah to be the "helper" during one ed talk about seals. I most certainly bought postcards....y'all might get one sometime next month!
After our lovely day with Dani's parents, we headed back to Ellie's house and walked to the Friday night market. Samples from all of the vendors made up dinner. We also loaded up on fruit and veggies for the next day.
Why, you ask? Because the next day was to be spent at Disneyland!!! And we needed snacks so as not to buy lots of things in the park.
Disneyland. Magical? Yes. Fun? Yes. Rooted in white supremacy?Yes (look up the real history of Steamboat Willy https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=694149912). Serious economic disparities between CEOs and the thousands of people barely making a living wage who work there? Yes.
We went back and forth about if we should go or not. In the end, we went. Because life is messy and layered and complicated. And we have no easy answers. We most certainly talked about Disney's origins with the girls. And we also talked about the pay gaps. We talked about how they could make a difference, and how princesses have evolved into empowered role models. Some of their faves are Tiana, Merida, Moana, and Mulan. It came down to, if we want things to change, and we wanted to be represented, one way to do that , was to show up and be seen.
I bought the girls matching Moana shirts back home on sale and told them not to ask for a single thing, because, hello...we are on a budget and we could spend $$ on trinkets that would be soon forgotten, or we could put $$ towards our next adventure. With everyone in agreement, we set out early.
We got in to the park and bypassed every store and line for character photo ops. We beelined it for the tea cups and within minutes, we were spinning!
Admittedly, no one enjoyed the matterhorn. That yetti character is frightening and the ride is uncomfortable.
We hit up Thunder mountain...easily my fave!
And had fast passes at the ready for Indiana Jones. This was funny...
The girls had watched the first movie for the first time last Thanksgiving when we were in Reno. And on the way home from that trip, and really ever since that trip, we have had multiple conversations about nazis. I had not watched that movie in quite sometime...I completely forgot chunks of it. Similar to Sound of Music, a movie the girls LOVE, they caught on so much quicker to the nazi plotlines than I ever did as a kid.
So, the girls are talking about the ride, wondering if we'll see nazis, and while we're waiting, we make the most of our time by taking the jungle cruise and doing the canoe ride in the water. This is where it's funny. We were waiting to go on a ride based on a movie where the protagonist defeats the bad people...by going on two rides where there were characters based on stereotypes rooted in bigotry.
Good gracious.
And you know how kids are! They don't miss a thing. They ask all the questions. We have no problem having the conversations...I can't say the same for the folks around us who weren't looking for historical accuracy or race-conscience dialogue. Their faces! Ha! Morale of that story...don't ride on the same ride as Team Smith if you are looking for avoidance or sugar coating because when you glare at us, I'm going to sweetly smile your way and keep talking. There was a point where I had to tell Matt to let it go....he gets hyped more than me sometimes. Let's just say we mutually agreed not to ride the small world ride.
We did pirates of the Caribbean, and the auto ride too. The girls wanted to see something on the map and that led us to Toontown. Friends...we walked right out of Toontown. Sweet Corn on the Cob!! What a zoo. I have never been so glad to escape a throng of strollers and sticky snotty toddlers running around high on sugar and Disney. That was not a happy place. I said a little prayer for sanity and peace for the parents we left behind...
We had the churros! We shared one serving of the Dole Whip. We ate snacks in every line and played heads up to make the time go faster. We did the haunted house and the girls loved it! We ended our evening around 9:30p with the carousel. I have never ridden one at night before- wow what an experience. The lights are beautiful.
We watched the parade twice and accidentally ended up following it the second time around. When the princess float came through with Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, I thought the girls were going to riot....but then Tiana came down the street on her own float?!?!?! With her own dancers?
Ok Disney, I see what you did there. And I am here for it.
Overall, the girls are pretty well behaved. This trip, they were exceptionally behaved. When we started at 7am that morning, I had told them if there was one squabble, tantrum, outburst, or whiny noise, we would be leaving promptly. No second chances. No negotiations. Done. They must have taken that to heart, because when we left at 9:30pm, they were still all smiles. I really think the all day snacking helped with blood sugar levels and the unexpectedness of the park left no time to even think about arguing over something.
On Sunday morning, we cleaned up, and the the fam dropped me off in downtown LA for my conference. They headed home, leaving me to stay in LA till Wednesday. I missed them so much and wish they could have joined me, but I needed to focus and they needed to be back home.
The rest of my trip was fantastic. A great conference, new connections made, old connections reunited, information overload on research, best practices, models and current events in our field. We got to celebrate my supervisor, yes she is as amazing as the award says she is. I got to hug Dr. Sherry Early in person!!! Salutations!!! And hang out with Juls too. Her friend was kind enough to give us a behind the scenes tour at ESPN and we sat at the sportscenter desk...eek! We walked the same halls as Jemele Hill!!!
And I got to see THE Dr. Christina Cho!!! Christina is one of those incredible friends who hears you are in town and will battle LA traffic to scoop you up and introduce you to her fave food places. And you know her expectations are high, so these places come through on quality, experience, and service!
We went to Republique. One of the pics, I look confused. I was. How in the world did all of the items on that plate come together to produce such deliciousness? It was great fun to catch up and I am excited to return as we clearly have a weekend of food places to visit! We also walked around a museum and the tar pits.
She dropped me back at the hotel with a box of goodies from one of her favorite bakeries. I thought I was too full, but I sure did eat a pastry a mere hour later. The rest made it home and I shared (as promised) with the fam.
I was thankful my flights were on time, the shuttle was on time, and I made it back home Wednesday night.
It was short. It was sweet. It was a Team Smith LA adventure :-)
We got to her place by 2am! And then I woke up with the girls to find breakfast. We not only found breakfast, we found my new favorite breakfast spot. Merengue, a Cuban bakery. When I tell you delicious....I'm smacking my lips now at the memory. We ended up eating there 3 times. No joke. It's clean, charming decor, friendly staff, and the food! Y'all...sometimes food tastes good because you are hungry. In this case, the food was good because it was good.
The girls and I ate, then walked to the park to soak up some vitamin D, before heading back to a refreshed Matt. Yes, we took him leftovers. With everyone full of food, we set out for the aquarium.
For a couple years now the girls have expressed an interest in all things marine life. Cassidy has declared she is going to Hampton to study marine biology and play in the band and dance. Anytime there is an opportunity to indulge what they are excited to learn about, we take it. It so happens that a friend of ours who I work with named Dani has a SoCal connection! Her parents live walking distance within the aquarium, and they are the warmest people! They volunteer there often, and procured day passes for us. We spent the day with them, seeing behind the scene, meeting their favorite volunteers, and just enjoying the weather. They were very sweet, and even arranged for Savannah to be the "helper" during one ed talk about seals. I most certainly bought postcards....y'all might get one sometime next month!
After our lovely day with Dani's parents, we headed back to Ellie's house and walked to the Friday night market. Samples from all of the vendors made up dinner. We also loaded up on fruit and veggies for the next day.
Why, you ask? Because the next day was to be spent at Disneyland!!! And we needed snacks so as not to buy lots of things in the park.
Disneyland. Magical? Yes. Fun? Yes. Rooted in white supremacy?Yes (look up the real history of Steamboat Willy https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=694149912). Serious economic disparities between CEOs and the thousands of people barely making a living wage who work there? Yes.
We went back and forth about if we should go or not. In the end, we went. Because life is messy and layered and complicated. And we have no easy answers. We most certainly talked about Disney's origins with the girls. And we also talked about the pay gaps. We talked about how they could make a difference, and how princesses have evolved into empowered role models. Some of their faves are Tiana, Merida, Moana, and Mulan. It came down to, if we want things to change, and we wanted to be represented, one way to do that , was to show up and be seen.
I bought the girls matching Moana shirts back home on sale and told them not to ask for a single thing, because, hello...we are on a budget and we could spend $$ on trinkets that would be soon forgotten, or we could put $$ towards our next adventure. With everyone in agreement, we set out early.
We got in to the park and bypassed every store and line for character photo ops. We beelined it for the tea cups and within minutes, we were spinning!
Admittedly, no one enjoyed the matterhorn. That yetti character is frightening and the ride is uncomfortable.
We hit up Thunder mountain...easily my fave!
And had fast passes at the ready for Indiana Jones. This was funny...
The girls had watched the first movie for the first time last Thanksgiving when we were in Reno. And on the way home from that trip, and really ever since that trip, we have had multiple conversations about nazis. I had not watched that movie in quite sometime...I completely forgot chunks of it. Similar to Sound of Music, a movie the girls LOVE, they caught on so much quicker to the nazi plotlines than I ever did as a kid.
So, the girls are talking about the ride, wondering if we'll see nazis, and while we're waiting, we make the most of our time by taking the jungle cruise and doing the canoe ride in the water. This is where it's funny. We were waiting to go on a ride based on a movie where the protagonist defeats the bad people...by going on two rides where there were characters based on stereotypes rooted in bigotry.
Good gracious.
And you know how kids are! They don't miss a thing. They ask all the questions. We have no problem having the conversations...I can't say the same for the folks around us who weren't looking for historical accuracy or race-conscience dialogue. Their faces! Ha! Morale of that story...don't ride on the same ride as Team Smith if you are looking for avoidance or sugar coating because when you glare at us, I'm going to sweetly smile your way and keep talking. There was a point where I had to tell Matt to let it go....he gets hyped more than me sometimes. Let's just say we mutually agreed not to ride the small world ride.
We did pirates of the Caribbean, and the auto ride too. The girls wanted to see something on the map and that led us to Toontown. Friends...we walked right out of Toontown. Sweet Corn on the Cob!! What a zoo. I have never been so glad to escape a throng of strollers and sticky snotty toddlers running around high on sugar and Disney. That was not a happy place. I said a little prayer for sanity and peace for the parents we left behind...
We had the churros! We shared one serving of the Dole Whip. We ate snacks in every line and played heads up to make the time go faster. We did the haunted house and the girls loved it! We ended our evening around 9:30p with the carousel. I have never ridden one at night before- wow what an experience. The lights are beautiful.
We watched the parade twice and accidentally ended up following it the second time around. When the princess float came through with Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, I thought the girls were going to riot....but then Tiana came down the street on her own float?!?!?! With her own dancers?
Ok Disney, I see what you did there. And I am here for it.
Overall, the girls are pretty well behaved. This trip, they were exceptionally behaved. When we started at 7am that morning, I had told them if there was one squabble, tantrum, outburst, or whiny noise, we would be leaving promptly. No second chances. No negotiations. Done. They must have taken that to heart, because when we left at 9:30pm, they were still all smiles. I really think the all day snacking helped with blood sugar levels and the unexpectedness of the park left no time to even think about arguing over something.
On Sunday morning, we cleaned up, and the the fam dropped me off in downtown LA for my conference. They headed home, leaving me to stay in LA till Wednesday. I missed them so much and wish they could have joined me, but I needed to focus and they needed to be back home.
The rest of my trip was fantastic. A great conference, new connections made, old connections reunited, information overload on research, best practices, models and current events in our field. We got to celebrate my supervisor, yes she is as amazing as the award says she is. I got to hug Dr. Sherry Early in person!!! Salutations!!! And hang out with Juls too. Her friend was kind enough to give us a behind the scenes tour at ESPN and we sat at the sportscenter desk...eek! We walked the same halls as Jemele Hill!!!
And I got to see THE Dr. Christina Cho!!! Christina is one of those incredible friends who hears you are in town and will battle LA traffic to scoop you up and introduce you to her fave food places. And you know her expectations are high, so these places come through on quality, experience, and service!
We went to Republique. One of the pics, I look confused. I was. How in the world did all of the items on that plate come together to produce such deliciousness? It was great fun to catch up and I am excited to return as we clearly have a weekend of food places to visit! We also walked around a museum and the tar pits.
She dropped me back at the hotel with a box of goodies from one of her favorite bakeries. I thought I was too full, but I sure did eat a pastry a mere hour later. The rest made it home and I shared (as promised) with the fam.
I was thankful my flights were on time, the shuttle was on time, and I made it back home Wednesday night.
It was short. It was sweet. It was a Team Smith LA adventure :-)
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