Seoul Mates: How to travel with a baby (Bolender style)

Just got back after an incredible long weekend in Kyoto, Japan. True to traditional Korean custom, we kept Elliot predominantly nestled inside for his first 100 days (easy to do between the bitter winter winds and industrial yellow dust of spring, blowing in from China). But then true to Morente-Bolender form, we left for our first international family vacation less than a week later.

Luckily for us, "international" from Korea means just a 90 minute flight to Japan. And even luckier for us still, Elliot's grandparents joined in on the adventure!

All of which brings me to some tongue-in-cheek early lessons on how to travel with a baby (Bolender style):

1. The more adults, the better. For us, a 4:1 adult:baby ratio was just about perfect. This ensured one person was carrying Elliot or pushing him in his stroller, while the other three trailed behind, carrying all of his stuff (only a mild exaggeration; gone are the days of us packing light: he had one suitcase, two shoulder bags, a refrigerator pack, and his stroller/car seat, while the adults shared one small suitcase per couple). To be extra safe, carry all his stuff on board while we check in ours. Included in one of these bags should be one toy new to him... in this case, Mr. Japanese Lion-San (who he couldn't wait to get in his mouth) and his bouncy ball (guaranteed to turn frowns upside down).

2. But much better than toys is seeing and experiencing the world. Sometimes that's looking out the window, transfixed at the world outside (like during his first train ride). But other times, that's just being in awe of the shadows inside (the hugest eyes watching the shadows that the bridge cast inside the car!)

3. Get a house, get a house, get a house. Staying in one (instead of in a hotel) was seriously the best decision that we made (besides choosing a destination 90 minutes away and going with Dan and Kris on this admittedly training-wheel plane adventure). Luckily for us, we found an incredible house: traditional Japanese architecture with original wooden beams in a quiet neighborhood where you go to bed listening to the babbling neighborhood stream and wake up to birds chirping away. Elliot was just thrilled to see trees outside -- a far cry from our 29th floor high-rise at home (Toto, we're not in Seoul anymore).

View from my meditation cushion upstairs:

The house let us enjoy meals in...

And gazing out.

4. Along the same theme, spend Day #1 nearby the house. Luckily for us, our house was a 10-15 minute walk to beautiful tree-lined paths, temples, and gardens. We checked out Philosopher's Walk, the Nanzen-ji Temple, and the gardens of the Heian Jinja Shrine -- stopping for lunch to enjoy what we learned was a specialty of the area: tofu (you can bet Kris and I were more excited about this than Tyler and Dan).

You'll see in the pics below that Elliot moves from a carrier to a stroller. A baby's cries never sounded so loud as along a quiet walk along a peaceful stream in a sleepy Japanese neighborhood (the carrier didn't come out the remainder of the trip).

5. Spend just as much time gazing at the baby as you spend gazing at the scenery outside.

6. Make a list of things you want to do. Halve that list. And then halve it again. (this is inspired from how our good friend (and one of Elliot's godfathers) used to serve up my plates when we used to date post-college -- "I think about how much I would eat, and then I half it. And then I half that again").

For us, this was easy: top of our Kyoto list was the Fushimi Inari Shrine -- thousands of orange gates up the Inari Mountain leading up to the shrine of the rice god (of course, this would have been a bit easier had Elliot been okay in his carrier. Instead, Tyler and Dan carried him in his stroller over steps up half the mountain like a little emperor!)

Remarkably, the earliest structures of this shrine date to 711 and was transferred to the present site in 816. While Kris and I were smitten by the dozens of wooden foxes along the path (seen as messengers to the rice god), Elliot liked the bright red flags at smaller altars.

7. Rest when tired. As Andrew says: "Nobody likes to overdo a day." Here's Elliot immediately following the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

8. Don't forget date nights! On the suggestion of our friend, a former NY pastry chef and now-Asia food blogger, we bee-lined to Kyoto Gogyo to check out their burnt miso ramen. Ah-MAY-zing. While we are both known to get overly excited, we easily felt it was our favorite ramen, perhaps ever (we later took Dan and Kris two days later and ordered the exact same thing all over again).

Later that weekend, we went on a micro-date -- a walk to revisit Philosopher's Walk, this time minus a crying screaming baby. We noticed temples we harried past previously, and stopped to buy artwork from this artist.

9. Throw in a celebration or two. We arrived on Children's Day and left on Mother's Day (which, in Japan, is celebrated as Parents' Day... but shh, don't tell Tyler and Dan)