Globetrotting with aToddler - Planes, Trains & Automobiles

This is my daughter GG:She and I traveled by planes, train and automobiles to and from her dad's native Trinidad & Tobago where I participated in carnival festivities, and she got a chance to bond with her cousins, enjoy the balmy weather of the tropical twin-island nation and hang out with her paternal Grandparents and Auntie.


These are the lessons I learned during our travels. Here are a few of them I am sharing...

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It is better to not spoil your child than to have to unspoil them in the middle of the Immigration and customs line when she's begging to be picked up by you---you balancing 3 carry ons, whilst trying to keep track of luggage sitting on a push cart. Um NOT a good look!

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GG is an international expert charmer. She managed to swoon and woo her way into the hearts of every restaurant waitress, plane passenger, Taxi driver and bathroom attendant during our travels...

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I should've planned to stay an extra day so we could've gone to the beach while we were there, alas I forgot to take pics of her playing with her auntie's puppies and her grandad's dog in the front yard...

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Even if the baby has the slightest bit of sniffles, nighttime cough medicine is a good idea to ensure a restful plane ride for the both of you. She slept 2 hours during the longest leg of the trip up and 2 hours during our nonstop flight down. All the passengers around us who probably feared she'd be one of those non-stop crying babies, were pleasantly surprised when we landed and all applauded her on being such a good flier! Shaddup! LMAO!

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If I had patience, I could have hooked up baby girl's hard- to- grow hair into these tiny braids like my sister in law did (crossing my fingers that this will be the cure and I won't have to dread her locks as my husband is suggesting I do)...

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If I try hard enough, I could actually understand a two year old giving me a 10 minute run down on the things she did and stuff she saw while I was "palancing" (revelling in the streets of Port-of-Spain Carnival Monday and Tuesday) and she was hanging with her auntie and cousin...

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If you luck out, you can get a nice and understanding Doctor who is also a parent sitting in your row like we did. He was even kind enough to tend to the 4 medical emergencies that took place during our flight. Nothing much, just anxiety attacks, a passenger experiencing diabetes shock and others suffering from plane ride related nausea and discomfort. Eek!

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If you can avoid it, try NOT to have more than a 6 hour layover like I did, which required me to go through immigration, pick up my luggage, go through customs, check in baggage and find a way to keep a 2 year old busy because a Taxi tour around the island of Antigua would've been too big a risk of missing our second trip leg. Thank Goodness for the friendly waitresses at the airport restaurant and lounge, a Dora DVD and portable player...
Chivalry is not dead. I credit the nice business men who hauled my 50lb luggage onto the top of the Amtrak overhead compartment during our 4 hour trip from Newark Penn Station to Union Station DC starting at 10 at night. I also credit the very pleasant Japanese tourist and his wife for allowing her husband to risk back injury taking my suitcase down as the train rolled into the last stop. Said tourist took my luggage off the train and rolled it to the Taxi stand area where we waited for TriniDaddy to come pick us up...

Newark Airport is a strange and lonely place (we launched from there on account of buying our tickets so late and all of the DC bound flights costing the price of a tiny African nation)...



Newark Penn Station is an even stranger and lonely place full of bizarre characters after dark...like the woman who elected to wash her bald head in the bathroom sink totally entrancing my 2 year old...or the thief who thought the luggage outside of my opened bathroom stall was unattended and attempted to hog ass with some of it before she saw me sitting on the stool changing GG's diaper (there was no changing table)
AND THE BIGGEST LESSON OF ALL....

NEVER TRAVEL ALONE WITH A CUTE BUT SLIGHTLY OVERLY SPOILED 2-YEAR OLD AGAIN!

HA! I'm glad we got a chance to bond some more though, even though that has also meant she's been stuck on my like white on rice since we got home and has previously resolved attachment issues all over again.