Roll With the Punches

When our son was born on our wedding anniversary last year, my husband and I knew we were going to have to work hard to make sure neither was forgotten. To celebrate, we decided to do something big; something really BIG. 

It took a lot of courage (with a baby that is), but we decided to take our son, Jack, to Russia. It's a place we have always wanted to visit and we figured we'd better do it now while Jack is still willing (and free). Traveling with a small child demands preparedness and we thought we were prepared.

Even though Russia was our primary destination, we decided to travel there via a cruise of the Baltic out of England to limit the number of hotels and all of the packing, unpacking and all-around chaos that goes along with multiple transfers.

We selected the flight times around his sleep schedule and opted to drive to Chicago to limit the amount of time we would be trapped in an air carrier with a potentially fussy baby. We packed lots of warm clothes for the drafty weather we were sure to encounter. 

We booked all of our excursions ahead of time in US dollars so we wouldn't have to worry about a thing once we got there or worry about carrying much cash lest we get robbed by pick-pocketers. We called our bank and our credit cards and gave them the exact locations and dates of our journey. 

We even went so far as to print off the embassy addresses and phone numbers just in case we might need them. We covered all of the bases...or so we thought. 

The trip started off spectacularly. Jack was the perfect travel companion (I swear no drugs were involved, although I did have plenty of infant pain reliever just in case a new tooth may have debuted mid-flight). 

When we arrived in London, we had a car service pick us up from their airport and there was no traffic so our two-hour car ride was slightly over an hour. We walked into our hotel grinning from ear to ear thrilled by how seamlessly everything had gone.   

When we walked into the hotel, however, we left all of our good luck at the door. Before we even had a chance to check in we learned from the hotel staff that our cruise of the Baltic was canceled! 

Our travel agent had done her best to find a last minute alternative for us, but it was three times the amount we had paid for this particular cruise. So there we were stuck in a small port town in England essentially homeless in 12 hours time. With a baby. And eight bags and a car seat. And did I mention a baby?   

You know how I mentioned how solidly we planned this trip? Well, as it turns out, we forgot to have a backup plan.

Needless to say, we didn't sleep that night, although—thankfully—Jack was oblivious to the whole meltdown around him. We thought we were going to have to turn back and get on the next flight home. Not a plan most people would find rational, but as we quickly learned our cell phones didn't work so we couldn't make calls. Our credit cards didn't work and we couldn't call our credit card companies because our phones didn't work and in order to use any land lines we had to have a credit card. 

We had booked everything in US dollars so we wouldn't have to carry cash which left us with 200 British pounds and a flight 2 1/2 weeks later. We didn't have enough money to eat, let alone pay for a hotel (or, let's be honest, a hostel) for two weeks. It appeared we had no other options.   

But we refused to give up. There had to be a way to salvage our trip. We had traveled too far to end our vacation before it started and, with a little luck, a lot of determination, and some skillful negotiations, we managed to redirect our vacation to the Mediterranean five days (and five hotels) later — not quite the trip we had in mind (or packed for), but if you want something badly enough you can make anything work. 

The focal point of our trip—our anniversary and Jack's birthday—was not quite as we envisioned it; we woke up at 4 a.m. after four hours of sleep for a two hour bus ride to the airport followed by a two hour flight to Italy, and another two hour commute with several periods of waiting in between, but we did our best to make it a fun day. 

We got to sit in the cockpit with the pilots and push buttons. We played hide-and-seek in the airport. We ate the best pesto pasta I've ever tasted and and we sampled (can you still call it sampling when you eat it by the scoop?) gelato at several local gelaterias. All in all, a good day.

It all comes down to a choice; you can look at the glass as half empty or half full; you can either roll with the punches or get knocked around. It is a choice. Admittedly it is a choice I struggled with when I was packing and unpacking five times over or when I was donning a turtleneck in 95 degree weather, but at least I was lucky enough to be in that position so I couldn't allow myself to be ungrateful (no matter how uncomfortably hot I was).  

Needless to say, next time (and I guarantee we will try this again), we will be a little more prepared, or at least properly prepared with calling cards and plenty of cash! But, if something does happen to go awry in a future trip (barring physical illness or injury) I know we'll still have a great time because it sure beats the alternative!