walking on travels

Fellow Medill School of Journalism alum, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan,  just released her first book A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family. I love a good travel memoir and Singapore holds a special place in my heart as it was the first country in Asia I ever visited. I have many good [...]

I am very protective of my son. I have a back up plan if I ever see someone try to snatch him. I assume adrenaline will kick in, I will sprint to the kidnapper and take him/her down at the knees. I’m not a violent person, and yes I may be slight, but if you [...]

I have never really been out of the country during the Christmas season, but like all good commercial centers, Hong Kong had already broken out the Christmas lights and Santas by late November during our trip in 2010. We had a lot of fun seeing all of the elaborate decorations and metallic-colored trees. Plus nothing [...]

I’ll admit it, I have a friendly kid. He doesn’t have a lot of stranger anxiety. As long as he knows mom and dad are close, he will wave and say hi to just about anyone. If you are really lucky, he will hug your leg. We weren’t sure if this would carry over when [...]

We all can’t travel all the time. There would be chaos and no one to make your morning latte if we did. No, when I can’t travel, I do something almost as good (but not quite). As some of you know by now, I have a guidebook issue (the good kind, not the bad). Well [...]

A funny thing happened when we were traveling in China. Several times women stopped to say hello to Dek, and would then turn to me and start talking in Chinese and gesturing towards him. They were obviously giving me some motherly advice. He was too hot. I should take off his hat. He was too [...]

I know I might get a lot of backlash for this, but given our recent trip to China, I’m questioning whether I would haul a car seat along with us again, unless we rented a car. As responsible parents, Mike and I brought our car seat on my recent business trip to China thinking we [...]

I often wonder if I should be looking for more kid-friendly activities and places to go with Dek. The answer I usually come up with is no. When Dek was 5 months old he slept through most of a whale watching tour in Maui. At 14 months he slept through some of China’s greatest sites. [...]

When we entered Jingshan Park (Coal Hill) overlooking the Forbidden City in Beijing I knew that I needed to get Dek strapped on for a nap. First he needed a diaper change and an extra pair of pants thrown on so his legs wouldn’t freeze, so we went in search of a restroom. I found [...]