I’d been wanting to go on a special trip with my oldest now that’s she learning about things in school that we can go out and see in the real world.  My mom’s cousin lives in Atlanta, and she’d been learning about Martin Luther King, Jr in school, so Atlanta seemed like a natural choice.  We had a free weekend, and the flights were pretty open, so I told her on Friday night that we were going take a trip.

We slept in Saturday morning and headed the airport around 9.  The gate agent had already cleared us in Economy Comfort in the row right behind first class on the two-seat side of a MD-88.  I appreciated the extra leg room, and she appreciated the outlet to plug in her tablet, which she played with the whole flight. We landed at about lunchtime, so we took the train to the international terminal and stopped in The Club (Priority Pass lounge) hoping to make lunch out of it, but there was far less food there that they’d had in the past, so we snacked a bit and headed on our way.  We hopped in an Uber (her first), and took it to Uncle Grant’s, just west of downtown.

Grant would be out for the evening, but he got us set up with a house key and made sure we were comfortable with getting back in the house.  He was in the process of making huuuuuuge chocolate chip cookies for a social event he was attending that evening.  He set aside one for each of us, and three to send home to the rest of the family.  After settling in, we ordered another Uber that took us into the city.

Our first stop was at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where MLK and his father were both preachers.  We made our way through the adjacent memorial where he and Coretta Scott King, his wife, are laid to rest.  We then walked down the street, where we found that MLK’s birth house was open to the public for two hours.  It’s not often open to the public, so we felt lucky.  The enforcement ranger outside the house said that the line was about 25 minutes at that point, so we decided we could handle waiting.  The line moved fairly quickly, and ended up being about 25 minutes on the dot.  The walk through the house was led by several rangers and volunteers who passed the group from one to the next, and told us about each room in the house.  After the tour, we spent a few minutes looking through the MLK Visitor Center, and upon leaving, she spotted a playground, where she played with some kids from all over the city of different backgrounds, which felt very appropriate to me.

It was now mid-afternoon, and we were getting hungry.  We hopped another Uber over toward the Georgia Aquarium, where I’d scouted a couple adjacent restaurants where I hoped to find lunch.  She immediately spotted a Waffle House that was located right between the two restaurants, and decided that’s what she wanted.  We ordered her chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream, and she ate almost every bite.

We then walked about a block over to the aquarium, where we paid admission and got in quickly.  We headed to the dolphin show to learn that the next and last show of the night was at 6:30, about an hour and a half away.  That was perfect, as it took us about that long to go through the entire aquarium.  There are sections named River Scout, Ocean Voyager, Cold Water Quest, and Tropic Diver.  Her favorite parts included the coral reefs, penguins, cute otters, beluga whales, and the awesome tunnel and moving sidewalk that took us under the huge Ocean Voyager tank.  We finished right in time to line up and find seats for the dolphin show.  We were seated in row 9 of 10 of the “splash zone.”  The show was awesome, and included trainers riding on the dolphins, flips, trivia, and completely soaking the first few rows of spectators.  This was her absolute favorite part of the aquarium, and she can’t wait to go back.

After leaving the aquarium, we got on FaceTime with the rest of the family and updated them on our adventure.  We then took a leisurely stroll through Centennial Park, where festivities for the 1996 Summer Olympics were held.  I was getting very hungry by this point, so we took another Uber just north of downtown where we stopped by Bartaco for tacos for me and a quesadilla for her, but only after stopping in a local craft beer store to pick up a few local cans to try, with lots of great suggestions from the staff.  While the wait for the tacos took a while, the awesome staff at the restaurant gave her a coloring book to take with us.  One more Uber back to his house, some tacos, and cookies later, and she was ready for bed after a long day.  I enjoyed my beer and hung out with Grant for a couple hours before hitting the sack myself.

Unfortunately, as flights later in the day on Sunday were filling up, we had a very short night, and had to get up at 5am to catch a 7:30am flight home.  We took one last ride to the airport, and were again dropped off at the international terminal, to avoid traffic and long security lines.  I told her our gate number and that we’d need to take the train to get there, and asked if she could find the way.  I was very proud of her when she found the train, told me to get off at the A concourse, and led me right to our gate, A12.  I feel like she’s ready to start taking trips on her own!

Although a very quick trip, we had a lot of fun, and it showed me that she is ready to do more trips like this.  I’m looking forward to more of these with her and with her sisters when they get older.  It’s very nice to have relatives in other cities that we can stay with.  With Atlanta being a short, quick flight away, I’m sure we’ll be back plenty of times.

This is an installment of Bryant Backyard Border Bouncing (BBBB).  For more information, please see the bottom of the About page.

Once again, this report is being written almost two months after our France weekend, and once again, we didn’t learn nearly as much as we would have liked about France.  Clearly I need to do better at planning these, as it seems to be a recurring theme!

Regardless, I was excited that the middle girl pulled France out of the hat, as Delta Air Lines had recently announced that nonstop service from Indy to Paris would start in May 2018, and we were planning to make the trek at some point (which has since happened, so see those blog posts also!).

We started that pleasant Saturday morning by finding France on a map, again with just a couple hints from dad.  Dad then had the idea to have the girls color plain white paper to make French flags with red and blue colored pencils, though like many things we do, they never got finished!  We did learn a few basic French words are phrases.  There aren’t many things cuter than toddlers and kids saying “bonsoir” and “merci!”

When it comes to facts, we failed pretty miserable, and ended up spending a lot of time learning about food.  But can you blame us?  We’ll try harder next time to make it more about the entire and not just the food…maybe.

On Sunday that weekend, we made the trek to the Broad Ripple neighborhood of Indy, where we stopped by a French bakery, Rene’s.  We picked up some goodies to go with dinner later that night.

After that, we and were lucky to find an empty table at Petite Chou, a popular brunch spot with a French influenced menu.  There was lots on the menu, so we ordered several dishes to split.  We ordered Croque Madame, duck fat pommes fries with aioli, French toast, French onion soup, and a peanut butter and jelly crepe from the kid’s menu.  Everything on the menu looked fantastic to me, though I’d never really thought French food sounded particularly interesting before.  Everyone enjoyed the food, though I was forced to finish up everyone’s leftovers.  It was rough.

On a more serious note, I think we’ll best remember this day as the day where the oldest busted her chin open on a playground after brunch, sending us to an immediate care center, where we spent two hours waiting and holding her down to get her stitches.   While it was not fun for any of us, we at least had some goodies to look forward to when we got home.

For dinner I made ratatouille, paired with four French cheeses I’d picked up from the Murray’s cheese counter at the Brownsburg Kroger the previous day, along with the baguette we’d picked up, and some Bordeaux for dad (and a few sips for mom).  For dessert we enjoyed a croissant, pastries, an eclair, and macrons.  Having never had well made French pastries before, I determined that it would be a new addiction.

While I’m not happy with the fact that we didn’t go very deeply into history, the geography of the country, watch some videos, and do more in general, at least I know that it’s one we’ll be able to visit fairly easily with the new nonstop flight, and we’ll learn plenty in researching trips and heading over the pond.

This is an installment of Bryant Backyard Border Bouncing (BBBB).  For more information, please see the bottom of the About page.

I failed a bit on this report, as we learned about Ethiopia in January, though I’m just now in May catching up.  We also didn’t study it as extensively as I’d like, as we had a busy weekend.  So therefore, it’ll be a short one!

I was very excited when Ethiopia was pulled from the hat, as I have worked with several people from the country both in the hotel and airline industry, and they’ve been some of the warmest and kindest people I’ve ever met.  Also, I love the food!  While I’ve made Ethiopian food at home before, I’ve never found it to be nearly as good as what’s found in local restaurants, with a big part of that being that some of the main seasonings and spices used are not found in stores, but are instead made at home using long, involved processes.

As always, I had the girls find Ethiopia on a map.  The oldest is getting to know the globe better, so with a few hints, she found it herself!  While we didn’t find any books at the library, I did find some facts about the country that I shared with the kids.

• The official language is Amharic, though there are 286 languages spoken by 86 ethnic groups!
• Famine and drought are huge problems, with over seven million people not having enough food, and as a result, life expectancy is very low.
• Teff, the grain used to make the staple bread of Ethiopia, called injera, is believed to have originated in the country between 4000BC and 1000BC.
• Some animals in the country include camels, elephants, and baboons.

On a cold night in January, we visited Major Restaurant, located less than 15 minutes from our house on the west side of Indianapolis.  We were happy to see another family there enjoying a meal.  Always nice to see other parents exposing their kids to different cultures!  As an appetizer, we ordered sambussa, which are thin shelled pastries stuffed with beef, chicken, and lentils.  They were served with two sauces, both of which were delicious, though too spicy for anyone but me.  For dinner, we ordered a combination plate that included two kinds of meats, along with salad, collard greens, two types of lentils, and cabbage.

I taught the girls that in their culture, it is custom to eat with one’s own right hand, using the injera (thin, soft, spongy bread made with a sourdough base) to scoop up each bite. We also learned that “gursha” is an act of friendship and love, and is when a person used their hand to strip off a piece of injera, wrap it around food, and place it in someone’s mouth.  We girls were big fans of this.

While we didn’t do nearly as much with Ethiopia as we have with other countries, we really enjoyed learning what we did, and found that Ethiopian is a food that they’ll tolerate some of, which is a win, as dad loves it!