Travel

Great Wolf Lodge Trip

Great Wolf Lodge is an indoor water park a little less than two hours south of our house. It’s a national chain so if this post sounds interesting to you, check their site to see where the closest one is to you. Tyla and I have always thought it looked interesting as we drove by, but a quick check of the website proves that you’ll be a creeper if you show up without kids. So we basically had Elijah as an excuse to go to the water park.

Our trip was Monday through Wednesday because we found a deal for 40% off. Your waterpark pass starts at 1pm on the day of arrival and ends at 9pm on the day of your departure. You could get a LOT of waterpark time for just a one night stay. Checkout time is 11am but they have lockers and restrooms where you can easily shower and change even if you don’t have a room anymore.

We arrived pretty late on Monday night so we skipped the water park and took Elijah down to story time. They have a big animatronic setup where they tell some story about blah blah blah Mother Nature blah blah. Elijah’s favorite part of every story time was at the end when one of the Great Wolf Lodge wolf characters would come out to read a story.

The rooms are HUGE. I don’t know if they are all like this, but ours was near the conference center on the second floor just down from the water park entrance. The ceilings were probably 11-12 feet high and there was more square footage than most other hotel rooms that I’ve been in. It’s nothing super fancy but it’s nice and there’s a pretty big mini fridge there to keep your food cool.

If you’re looking to save money, the fridge is a key part of it. Everything there costs money except the room and waterpark. We had to walk past four money spending opportunities in the ~100 steps from our room to the water park entrance. If your kids don’t know the meaning of the word “no”, prepare for a big bill. Thankfully, ours was happy playing in the arcade without realizing that he wasn’t acutally playing anything.

The waterpark is impressive. There’s a large wave pool, a swimming area with basketball hoops, a big “fort” with a 1000 gallon bucket that dumps every few minutes and two waterslides, a large toddler play area with two tiny slides and then four “big kid” slides. It’s a big place, but I was actually surprised that it wasn’t bigger. The Lynnwood Aquatic Center is somewhat similar and isn’t that much smaller than Great Wolf Lodge. That being said, it was plenty big for a toddler. Tyla and I had fun on the various slides while we took turns watching Elijah.

There are tons of activities for kids (all of which you pay for.) The coolest one is probably MagiQuest. Participants get a magic wand and then walk around the lodge pointing at stuff on the walls and on pedestals. The art/animals/pedestals react to the wand helping guide the player along a quest for points and prizes. I’m excited to give that a try when Elijah is old enough to understand it. Other activities include a spa for adults, a spa for kids, arcade, and mini golf. There’s a breakfast buffet ($15/adult, $7/child) and burger/steak/chicken dinner place that looked to be about $20/person unless you ordered the steak. Our general practice on vacations is to pack our own breakfast and lunch for the room and then eat out for dinner. We chose a Mexican place in nearby Centralia, but unfortunately it was closed so we just chose a random place that was close by.

Will we go back? Yep! It was fun and I could see it being a great vacation once Elijah is old enough to run around on his own. Everyone gets their own waterproof bracelet that acts as your door key and credit card during your stay. It’s super convenient because you never have to worry about taking anything with you to the waterpark. Elijah could just run around and do whatever he wanted while we relaxed. It would be especially great if he brought a friend or two with him. We’d definitely look for another deal though. Full price is about $200/night plus about $35/night in taxes and fees. I’m glad we gave it a shot! Thanks to Tyla for doing most of the planning on this one!

benmartens February 16, 2016 Family, Travel

Indiana Christmas Video

While we were in Indiana, we took a lot of video with the intention of making a Christmas movie. That’s all been edited up and is now ready. Dad’s tractor shows up a ton in this video, but it honestly did get used a lot during the trip: rides for the boys, rescuing the girls who got stuck in the car on the driveway in the snow/ice, plowing snow, and moving trees that had fallen during the storm. There’s also a clip of Dad putting the tractor into their brand new garage/shop for the first time! For 30 years he’s had to tarp and un-tarp the tractor before every use, deal with mice chewing cables and haul the tractor battery in and out of the house. It’s so much easier now!

benmartens January 18, 2016 Family, Travel, Video

Indiana Trip

Tyla, Elijah and I flew back to Indiana for Christmas this year. Leading up to the trip, we had visions of a relaxing white Christmas with lots of fun activities. It was definitely a memorable trip, but it was not what we had expected!

It was over 60 degrees the first day so there was no snow for Christmas. Soon after we arrived, Elijah started throwing up and that lasted a few days. And on the last days of our trip, we had a freezing rain/sleet/snow storm that knocked out power for 3 hours, snowed us in for an afternoon, and took down three trees on the driveway. We had to saw our way out.

Still, with all that going on, we had a great time. Elijah’s sickness had a pretty big effect on our activities and even going to church as a big group, but there were plenty of smiles to go around. I was very thankful that we were at Mom and Dad’s house for Elijah getting sick like that. I kept imagining how much harder it would have been if that had happened on our trip to San Diego or something like that.

Dad has the new shop all buttoned up on the outside. The doors are in, the siding is up, and while we were there, he parked his Allis Chalmers in the garage for the first time! After 30 years of storing the battery inside and putting a tarp over the tractor every time he was done with it, this is really a game-changer! There’s still a lot of interior shop work to be done, but I’m glad he was able to get the exterior done before winter hit.

We took a lot of video while we were there with the intent of making another Christmas movie. That should be posted soon, but until then you can check out some photos.

benmartens January 13, 2016 Family, Travel

Lake Cavanaugh

For a long time, Tyla has wanted to rent a house on a lake to spend time playing with Oskar (and oh yeah, the rest of the family too.) We booked it early this year. Unfortunately we had to put Oskar down before we made it to the cabin, but the vacation must go on!

So Tyla, Elijah, and I headed to Lake Cavanaugh with Tyla’s family. Booking it in mid-September, we really didn’t know what kind of weather we were going to have. We were very blessed to have 80 degree sunshine the whole weekend! It was perfect for swimming and boating in the provided canoe and kayak.

The house was a VRBO rental and it could easily have handled twice as many people. Elijah loved playing foosball, ping pong, air hockey and pool. The house was great!

I had never heard of the lake before this, but I was really impressed. It’s only about 1.5 hours from our house (northeast of Arlington, WA) and even though it’s close, it feels very secluded. The lake water is VERY clean and the lake is big enough to easily support a lot of people skiing and tubing. The only downside is that the lots are very narrow so the houses and docks are really crammed together.

We made a lot of great memories that weekend. It also happened to be my birthday so this was a pretty great way to spend a birthday. I hope we’ll be able to visit the lake again!

benmartens September 24, 2015 Family, Travel

Indiana Vacation

I use that word “vacation” lightly. It’s true that I wasn’t at my normal day job, but I spent the trip doing more physical labor each day than I normally do in a week (or a month!)

Dad and Mom already have a two car garage, but they are adding on to the end of it to have a nice shop work space and another garage bay to hold their tractors. It will be a huge win for them to keep their Allis Chalmers WD45 in the garage instead of under a tarp near the woods. Other than having the foundation poured, Dad is doing almost all of the work by himself. It’s a huge undertaking and this was a fun opportunity to make some memories with him.

Luke, Rachel and David were there for the first couple days. It was fun to see Elijah and David interacting together. They’re the only cousins they have and they rarely get to see each other. David is 7 years older than Elijah so Elijah was pretty excited to hang out with David. The reverse probably wasn’t always true!

Elijah was in tractor heaven. Mom and Dad have three tractors: the big orange Allis Chalmers, a John Deere lawn and garden tractor that they got in 1981 and a newer John Deere mower that they got recently from GrandpaH. On top of that, a neighbor stopped by with his big John Deere 3320 tractor with a bucket on the front. That one came in really handy for getting material up to the roof. Elijah had a ball riding ALL of them multiple times. It was part of his daily routine and now that we’re home, he still talks about it and he uses a blanket to cover his tractors just like my Dad puts a tarp over some of his tractors.

Dad, Luke and I made great progress on the project. When I arrived, there was no roof. When I left, we had started the shingles. Dad and I both thought we’d have been farther along than that, but being novices meant that we did a lot of things twice. We kept joking that when we build the next garage, things will go a lot faster.

It was a great week. The weather mostly cooperated and nobody got hurt. Mom and Dad have continued the shingling work and are probably going to be done by the time you read this. That will be a huge step in the project. Next up will be finishing off the front wall and getting the windows and doors in. If Dad can get the building wrapped and the siding up before winter, that would be a huge win, but he’s just taking it as it comes. There’s a lot to learn along the way!

I set up the GoPro every single day and ran it all day long. I’ll do another post about how to handle these super long timelapses, but for now you can just enjoy the results.

benmartens September 9, 2015 Family, Timelapse, Travel

Edmonds Marina Beach Park

Tyla and Elijah found Edmonds Marina Beach Park and they were both very excited about it. Elijah particularly loved it because the park features:

Train tracks that run by the park
A nice playground
A beach
Ferries
Fork lifts moving boats around

The fork lifts probably trumped all the rest. They store quite a few boats on racks on land and then forklifts put them in the water. It’s quite a process and Elijah can watch them for a long time without getting bored.

One Saturday a few weeks ago, I went along with them to check out the park. I think it’s going to be a regular spot for us. The park really is beautiful and there are a lot of things for Elijah to enjoy.

benmartens September 1, 2015 Family, Travel

Kangaroo Farm

Tyla has wanted to visit the Outback Kangaroo Farm in Arlington for quite a while, so her birthday seemed like a good excuse to go. You pay $10/person an get a one hour tour around their facility. Imagine if someone you knew bought a kangaroo. And then another. And then 10 more. And then they bought some alpacas, lamas, donkeys, goats, tortoises, lemurs, peacocks, mini horses, ostriches and emus to go with them. You’d have the Outback Kangaroo Farm.

On the tour you get to feed and pet a lot of the animals. Tyla loved it and Elijah had fun too, though you can imagine that those animals look a lot bigger to him so he was a bit nervous at times.

It was a fun experience but probably not one that we need to repeat on a regular basis. It’s a great place to see some animals that you don’t normally see in the Pacific Northwest. And oh yeah, feeding the alpaca is done by putting a piece of food in your mouth and letting them kiss you…

benmartens August 18, 2015 Family, Travel

Loews Coronado Bay Review

Tyla and I stayed at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort when we went down to San Diego a couple weeks ago. Tyla had picked it out of a list of the best places for families with young kids. The resort is very nice and normally would be out of our price range, except since we were traveling with such a young child, we knew that we would spend a lot of time at the hotel. So we thought it made sense to devote more of our budget to the hotel.

When you arrive, you’re greeted by valets, bellhops, etc. Be ready to tip because you’ll feel the need to do it a lot during your stay. Tipping outside of a restaurant isn’t something I’m super familiar with so it always adds a little bit of stress for me. I just don’t encounter those situations a lot.

The website makes it sound like the resort is ready to provide you with everything your child needs to thoroughly enjoy their time. Thankfully, Tyla called the concierge desk ahead of time to figure out exactly what they had. While they do have beach toys (there’s a locked trailer that they park at the beach) and they had a nice crib for the room, there were other things on the list that just didn’t exist when we got there. And beyond those things, we didn’t see much difference in the kid-friendliness of the hotel. But to be fair, we were there in the off season and I think they have more kid programs that run in the summer months. Oh and make sure that your kids can’t get into the snack stash in the room or you’ll be shelling out $10 for a tiny bag of expired gummy bears and $8 for a bottle of water.

The location was nice. It’s on the east side of what is basically a sandbar so it was a little bit protected from the wind coming off the ocean. The resort is surrounded on three sides by water so there are lots of nice views. You can get to the beach with a quick golf cart ride from the valet or a 5-10 minute walk. The resort is about a 10 minute drive from Coronado which has shops, a grocery store and some restaurants. There’s an hourly shuttle from the hotel but we just used our rental car. Don’t forget to factor in parking when you’re budgeting out your trip. We paid $29/day to self-park! Valet parking adds a few bucks on top of that.

There are three pools, all of which are heated to 80 degrees. There’s a kid pool, a large family pool, and then an adults-only pool. We pretty much had them to ourselves since the hotel was mainly filled with conference attendees during the week.

Overall, the resort wasn’t bad, but it didn’t blow us away. The staff was nice enough, but they never went out of their way to help us out and regularly looked at us like “that’s not my job, go ask someone else.” Again, it’s not terrible, but it’s not stellar.

It was a nice place to stay and I’m glad we tried it. We do hope to go back to San Diego to visit Sea World, Legoland, and the zoo (again), but we’ll probably consider other hotel options next time.

benmartens May 28, 2015 Travel

San Diego Trip

Ever since Elijah was born, Tyla has had her eye on a specific resort down in San Diego called Loews Coronado Bay. This year, we decided to make that trip a reality. This was the first time any of us had been to San Diego. It was also our first major trip with Elijah that didn’t end at a relative’s house.

Tuesday
The trip down was pretty simple with a 2 hour and 20 minute direct flight. We bought Elijah his own seat even though he technically could have flown on our laps. It was nice having our own row and since it was a quick flight, it wasn’t too much money. He did pretty well on the flight despite only taking a 30 minute nap.

It was nice having a quick flight in the same time zone because we didn’t have to get up early and we arrived with plenty of time to set up in the hotel and then go to dinner. Dinner the first night was at Nicky Rottens in Coronado. We were actually looking for Coronado Brewing Company but found this place instead. We got there in time for happy hour, enjoyed some beverages, and had some delicious food.

Wednesday
We were a little bummed to see that the weather was not what we had hoped when we originally booked it. The forecast said it would never get above 70 and it would probably rain at least part of the time. Wednesday was forecasted to be the nicest day so we decided to head for the beach. The resorts sits on a very long strip of land that separates the Pacific Ocean from Coronado Bay. It’s basically a sand bar with an island at one end. A quick golf cart ride (which Elijah loved!) from the valet took us over to the state park beach. It was pretty deserted because of the cooler weather, but Elijah didn’t care because he got to play in the sand. There was also a big grader moving some sand around so we had to go check that out.

After a failed attempt at a nap, we visited the pool area of the resort. It consists of a kids pool, a very large family pool, an adult pool and two hot tubs. Elijah has been taking swim lessons for quite a while so he was very comfortable in the pool. I really enjoyed it becaues it was my first time swimming with him. Tyla had a floaty thing that kept him upright in the water and he was happy to float around by himself, blowing bubbles along the way. Pretty cool for a 23 month old kid!

On Tuesday we had visited Von’s (Safeway) to buy food for breakfast and lunch in the hotel room. We did that each day and then went out for dinner. Wednesday night we headed to Old Town Mexican Cafe. As the name implies, it’s in an old part of San Diego with lots of shops. The food was pretty good and from the way Tyla walked after dinner, the margaritas must have been great.

Thursday
We didn’t plan a lot of things to do because traveling with a young kid is unpredictable, but the one thing we did want to do was visit the San Diego Zoo. Today was the day! We got there right as the opened to get as much done as possible before Elijah collapsed from exhaustion. The zoo is HUGE! We started with a double decker bus tour. Elijah loves buses and it was a good way to see a bunch of the park very quickly. If you take the tour, I recommend sitting on the top of the bus on the right side. We were on the top on the left which was ok, but it was a little hard to see most of the exhibits as we went clockwise around the outside of the park for the most part.

On foot we tried to pick the highlights that we could hit before nap time. The pandas were at the top of that list. I didn’t really understand why they were such a big deal, but I learned that there are only 12 of them in the United States! We saw two of them and one was awake and eating. We saw lots of other animals before ending up at the petting zoo and then heading back to the car. Overall Elijah did a good job. He got a little tired of sitting in the stroller and walking the way that WE wanted to go, but for a two year old, you can’t ask much more. He zonked out in the car on the way home and finally got a good nap.

By the time he woke up, some rain had rolled in so we walked around the resort for a while and then headed to dinner. Dinner was down in Chula Vista at Project Pie. It’s a pizza place started by the same guy who started Mod Pizza. More on that in another post but the pizza was good! (There are a lot fancier/better places to eat, but with an antsy two year old, our choices are limited.)

Friday
Rain. What are the odds of visiting San Diego in May and getting rain? Very low. I looked it up. But that didn’t stop the rain. We made the best of it and headed to the USS Midway. Being a huge aircraft carrier, most of the area is inside and it kept us dry. Pro tip: Get there early! We showed up right around the time they opened and had to wait in the ticket line and also wait in line to get into the ship. If you have access to a printer, you can buy your tickets online and save some time.

Tyla wore Elijah in the baby carrier as we explored some of the rooms below decks. It was awesome to see all that living history, but we only scratched the surface since Elijah was along with us. They give you free headsets for an audio tour and the few stops that I listened to were really interesting. Elijah was happy to spend every possible minute in the big hanger right below the flight deck. It was a big space where he could run around and they also had bout 4 cockpits to sit in. For a kid who loves buttons and knobs, this was perfect. While Elijah played, Tyla and I took turns going up to the main flight deck in the rain. They’ve got it loaded down with a bunch of planes from many different decades.

If you had no other obligations, you could easily spend 4-6 hours there. We finished up in about 2. Elijah got a set of wings which he was pretty proud of and then we went back to the hotel.

After lunch and a failed attempt at a nap, we hopped in the car for a ~45 minute drive out to Cabrillo National Monument. It commemorates the first place where Europeans landed in the western US in 1542. There’s a statue and a lighthouse in the park, but I think the big draw is the view. It’s also a good spot to watch whales migrating during specific times of the year Thankfully the rain had cleared out leaving beautiful skies.

Dinner was at the Coronado Brewing Company. This was the place I had been shooting for on Tuesday night. The food was good and the beer was good as well. Nothing stellar but I had no complaints from the six different beers that I sampled.

Saturday
We had to leave for the airport around 11 so we spent the morning packing and walking around the hotel. We had hoped to go swimming in the heated pools one last time but it was so windy and cool that even the heated water didn’t seem very inviting.

The flight back went well. Elijah caught about 20 minutes of sleep on the way into the airport but somehow stayed awake for the entire flight. It’s incredible how much sleep he missed on this trip! He did a great job for being so tired though.

Thanks to Don and Nancy for giving us rides to/from the airport! We arrived home to find everything in order and then settled in to try and resume a more normal routine with Elijah.

While the trip wasn’t exactly what we had been dreaming about, it was still relaxing and enjoyable. San Diego is a nice city. Traffic was almost non-existent and it was easy to navigate. I think we’d both be happy to go back again. We want to spend more sunny time on the beach, check out Sea World and LEGOLAND, and probably visit the zoo again. Thanks Tyla for all the research you did leading up to this trip!

You can also view a Photosynth from our balcony and from the national monument. Note that you can click on any of the photos in this post for a larger view. Bonus points if you can figure out which photos were shot with our Canon T2i and which were shot with the our Lumia Icon phones. These phones take really nice photos!

benmartens May 20, 2015 Travel

TSA Known Traveler Number

Last summer, Tyla and I filled out the paperwork and did the in-person security screening to get TSA Pre approved. The basic idea of the TSA Pre program is that you do some extra up-front security checks, pay a fee, and then on most flights you’ll get to go through faster security screening. You get to leave your laptop in your bag, you don’t have to take off your shoes, etc. While I question the whole security show and this program, I want the benefits of it.

You’re never guaranteed to get TSA Pre marked on your boarding pass even if you have been approved. We’ve flown a couple times since getting approved but we have never gotten to use the TSA Pre line. I looked into it after seeing that we didn’t get it again for our trip to San Diego and … oops… when you get approved, they give you a Known Traveler number and you need to submit that number when you buy your tickets. Boy do I feel dumb! Thankfully a quick call to Southwest got it added to our tickets and we were able to reprint our boarding passes. Voila! TSA Pre approved! It’s amazing what happens when you follow the directions.

benmartens May 18, 2015 Travel

Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Just trying to get through life without looking stupid, so far it's not going very well.