When dad is on maternity leave - Road trip to California
We have followed the Karaas family, who have just returned from their road trip in California with their 8-month-old son. They have met the concerns and challenges that we probably all think about and which hold us back from booking that maternity leave.
We have absorbed a lot of knowledge and experience from their experience, which leaves one with a certain calmness and courage to follow their style, so that children's holidays do not just become playland and all-inclusive buffets.
Who?
Alexander, Maria and our son #babykaraas at 8 months
Social media: @alexanderkaraas and @mariakaraas
Where?
For many years we had dreamed of going on a road trip in California, USA. So when the opportunity to travel for three weeks presented itself in connection with maternity leave, we of course started planning. We considered for a long time whether we could even have the road trip we really dreamed of, now that we had to travel with a little guy of eight months. In the planning phase, we decided that the trip should take place on our son's terms, so in the end it was a good trip for all of us. It also meant that there were several destinations that we chose not to go to, so instead we could take it easy in the cities we ended up visiting. It was important for us to have several nights in the same place, so that there were not too many changes for our little tour guide.
On our road trip through California we have visited: San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and LA, San Diego and finally Disneyland.
How long?
We were away for 3.5 weeks. When we arrived in San Francisco, it took a few days for all three of us to shake off the jet lag, so it was really nice that we had plenty of time. The first few days our son woke up at 2 in the morning and was completely fresh! So it turned into long nights in the hotel room. But after a few days his rhythm and ours were fortunately adjusted to American time.
The flight (number of hours, biggest challenge, best tip)
We were really excited about the flights and feared the worst. We've all experienced a full plane with a screaming baby, and we really didn't want to be that family. But the 11 hours and 20 minutes from Copenhagen to San Francisco exceeded all expectations. We even watched four movies while our son slept in a baby bassinet that we had booked from home. A baby bassinet is a small cradle that babies can lie in during the flight until they weigh 10 kg. We had prepared to the smallest detail and had packed all the necessities; clothes, stuffed animals, toys, quilts, teddy bears, food and snacks. We also brought a woolen suit for our son, which turned out to be brilliant, as it can get cold on board. And when he had to sleep, he was given a small cotton cap on his head and down over his eyes, so that he could easily sleep in the cradle, even if there were spotlights on in the cabin.
The trip home also exceeded all expectations - and here we even got praise from our neighbors on the plane, who couldn't understand that they hadn't heard him during the flight. We believe that it is all about taking it easy - already when you are on your way to the airport, so that your baby is not stressed and exposed to unrest. At least it worked for us!
We dreaded the flight and the many kilometers we had to cover on the American highways! But both parts turned out to go really well! It was important to us to make the driving lessons part of the experience and not just something to be completed. That's why we went all in on cozying up in the back seat when the little man was awake. We always had a bag of toys in the car, and we had brought sunshades for the windows from home. We also had a mirror with us, so that those of us who were driving the car could see what was going on in the back seat - and vice versa.
Coolest experience you had?
There are many! Some of the things that stand out are especially our days in Yosemite National Park. It was so unbelievably beautiful and a lovely calm, which we all needed after five full days in San Francisco. For our son, the MoMA in San Francisco and the Monterey Bay Aquarium were some of the biggest hits!
All the delicious breakfast restaurants! For us, food is one of the most important things when we travel, and the rest of the program is often planned according to where we are going to eat. But when you travel with such a small size, it can be a bit tricky to go out to eat in the evening, so we prioritized getting off to a good start and spending a little extra on breakfast and lunch. Often we could even get madro around breakfast as it suited our son's morning nap. Win-win! If you're going on a trip to California, catch us on Instagram and get some tips for delicious restaurants.
Learning to travel with a baby. Although we had been on a weekend trip to Hamburg a few months before, it was something completely different to be on the road for over three weeks. Keeping a rhythm with fixed eating and sleeping times, which is very important to our boy, could be difficult to maintain sometimes. When we drove from San Francisco, we actually ended up stopping at an IKEA on the way and invested in a high chair so we could more easily feed our son in the hotel rooms. It sounds totally crazy, but the high chair made our lives so MUCH easier over there!
Recommendations and advice?
Plan from home! We got to experience SO much on our trip, but only because we had made a good itinerary from home. When you are constantly focused on making sure this little one is well, there is rarely much time to google and less energy to be spontaneous on the road. Therefore, we were very happy that we had booked all overnight stays from home, had found good places to eat in all cities and always had a list on hand of things we wanted to see. Then we didn't have to spend the evenings on travel planning, but could actually relax! And let's just be honest… traveling with an 8 month old baby is hard and extremely tiring, so we fell asleep ourselves every night after he was put to bed! We had also planned our route so that we would not drive too long distances in the car and put in a lot of time for breaks if needed. We were also really happy to have food, diapers, wet wipes, etc. from home so we didn't have to stress about shopping. Americans have a strange tendency to stuff a lot of scents into diapers and wipes (even if they say they're perfume-free!). And our sunshade for the pram was absolutely indispensable, just as there was a crisis if we couldn't find the little man's bully hat!
The coolest and funnest places we used our Baby Dreamer include an observation deck at the Golden Gate, a jail cell on Alcatraz, a Yosemite National Park parking lot, in the emergency lane on Highway 1, and during the parade at Disneyland. Let's just say our diaper bag got a little bit of everything!
Our Baby Dreamer was simply worth having on our road trip in California. The diaper bag is so spacious and super divided with lots of pockets that you can actually keep ALL your baby stuff for a whole day in it. And we were also happy that the nappy bag works both as a rucksack and can be attached to the pram, so it's super easy to take on the go.
If you feel like it, you are always very welcome to contact us on Instagram if you would like to hear more about our maternity trip to California.
The Karaas family chose the Baby Dreamer diaper bag in recycled polyester. See it here
