Flashback: Planning a European Itinerary

The process for adopting a child from Russia involves a 10 day waiting period, which occurs immediately after the Court approves the adoption. The waiting period is in place so that the adopting family can have one last chance to change their minds before traveling home with their newly adopted child. Of course, considering that the entire adoption process itself can take up to two years, and involves two trips to Russia, by that point the waiting period seems a little bit silly.

That said, I am probably one of the few people in this position who think “Woo-hoo, I love the waiting period...a 10 day vacation! Where should we go?”. When we adopted our first boy, Xander, this vacation was truly our last hurrah. One more time to play on our own before we begin the lifelong journey of raising a child. On that trip, we chose to go to St. Petersburg and Prague. It was an absolutely phenomenal trip. Thank goodness for those waiting periods.

This time around, when we were adopting Caleb, we had Xander with us. This meant that I had to think about how to plan the 10 day vacation with a 3 year old in tow. There were definitely some immediate considerations: Whereas with the St. Petersburg and Prague trip, where we decided on an itinerary with multiple destinations for flying, we wanted to keep the travel itinerary very simple this time around. We also thought about eliminating air travel altogether and traveling to Solchi. Solchi is three hours away from Stavropol, home to the 2014 Winter Olympics, and a beautiful destination along the Black Sea. We were implored not to do this however, particularly while traveling on our own with a 3 old boy. We were told it wasn’t safe, and we listened. In fact, not long after we left, Russia had invaded Georgia not too far from there.

With that, my criteria points were:

• A location where we could feel very safe
• A location that was very kid-friendly, with lots of parks
• A location that was a short distance by plane from Moscow.
• A location that could be traveled nonstop from Russia
• A location that was inexpensive
  

The field was very quickly narrowed down to two viable options: We could either fly to Vienna to tour around Austria, or we could head to Finland. The trip to Finland may have included a day trip to Estonia, and then certainly would have involved another visit to St. Petersburg.

In the end, the logistics of a trip to Vienna, especially when coming in to Moscow from Stavropol, proved to be far more convenient. I also had remembered from previous visits to Austria that it was extremely kid-friendly. After all, Salzburg and the Lakes District are Sound of Music country.

The next step was to plan the detailed itinerary. I am perfectly ok with winging it, when traveling on my own, but when traveling with a family, we wanted to have all of the specifics in place. The entire family loves trains (in case you couldn’t tell), and so I had no qualms with setting up plenty of train travel. But here’s where I had to edit: I had wanted to visit Slovenia for a long time, and felt it wouldn’t be too far out of the way to add Ljubljana and possibly Bled to the itinerary. Again, traveling with just Kate and me, it would have been fine, but with the three of us, trying to fit in Slovenia along with Austrian destinations would have been too much.

So, we settled on an itinerary that involved flying into Vienna, taking the train to Salzburg, heading south to the Lakes District, and then back to Vienna. This meant spending a couple of extra days in Vienna to simplify the itinerary, but this turned out to be a great choice. When it was time to head back to Russia and complete the adoption of Caleb, we were all rested and relaxed.

Flashback: Trip to Get Caleb

The idea for my kids travel blog came about about 18 months ago when Jonathan and I spent 23 days on the road with Xander shortly after his third birthday. Both our boys were adopted from Russia, and the 2008 trip was to bring home our youngest Caleb.

Over the next six months I'm going to write a series called Blog from the Past about that adventure. I will also continue to write about our current adventures as well. This years trips include Fort Lauderdale Fla., Cheboygan, MI and Washington, D.C. and New York City for Thanksgiving.

Jonathan and I vacillated a lot about our decision to take Xander on our 2008 trip. We were very concerned about the prospect of traveling for that long with a three year old. Especially in a country like Russia, where the typical couple goes out to eat twice a year, and kids are a rarity at restaurants. We read several books on the subject, some better than others.

I had extensive travel lists, I packed and edited, and packed and edited again. We needed to plan for three distinct trips,  with three micro-climates, and dress to fit in two very distinct cultures.

As part of the trip we spent 10 days vacationing in Austria, it was less expensive then flying all the way home to California. We also spent five days in Moscow, and of course we were in Stavropol Krai, the region where both my boys were born.

The trip was a success, and it reinforced our love of travel. Many of our friends and family thought we were crazy to travel with a three-year old abroad for that long. What we learned is that we don't have to limit our trips to the continental United States, or "family friendly" tourist spots. We can continue to explore and travel the world, and with a little planning bring our sweet little boys a long for the ride.

Xander remembers the trip fondly, and was a dream to travel with. The trip brought us closer as a family, and helped make the transition from only child to big brother easier. Xander was part of the process, we didn't disappear for a month, and then surprise him with a sibling. The transition was also easier for Caleb, having a three-year old made the funny talking strangers less scary.

We continue to explore because it is fun. Jonathan and I love to travel.  I grew up as a military brat, and my best memories are of my family trips. I want my boys to have the same.

Happy 2010, I look forward to sharing our adventures.