Northern Lights, Viewing the Northern Lights in Norway, Seeing the Northern Lights as a Family, Norway, Kirkenes, Russian Border, Family Adventure, Diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, misadventures of a standby traveling family, family travel, traveling with kids
Seeing the Northern Lights is nothing short of becoming a witness to celestial splendor. It is emotional and spiritual and supernatural. When we first stepped out off the bus there was no mistaking the arched halo that formed a bridge over the horizon. The sky was no longer dark, as the lights fanned into the sky brilliantly like a...
Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground, anaheim, disneyland, good neighbor hotel, hojo, retro family fun, swimming, disney's california adventure, diapers on a plane, diapersonaplane, creating family memories, family travel, traveling with kids, traveling standby
The Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground opened 10 years after Disneyland debuted to the public and was the first good neighbor hotel located in proximity to the park. It’s a five-time winner of TripAdvisor’s Top 25 Hotels for Families in the United States, and claims to be the #9 family hotel in the entire country. A bewildering...
Airport Food, Pepe's Pizza, Oslo, OSL, Norway, traveling with kids, family travel, misadventures, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories
All things considered, during our eight day trip in Norway we actually spent a majority of our time at the Oslo Airport, OSL. Three of those eight days were spent at the Oslo Gardermoen Airport in fact. We had zero success getting on a flight to Tromsø for Christmas, and we had zero success getting on a flight out of...
Olso, Norway, Radisson Blu, Olso Airport Hotel, creating family memories, misadventures traveling standby, family travel, traveling with kids, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, breakfast, hotel breakfast airport hotel
Flights didn’t look good departing from Oslo to Amsterdam on December 30 but if nothing else we are risk takers. What do a couple too few seats even mean to a standby traveler? Anything can happen. After all, we made it on a flight from Kirkenes to Oslo that morning when the odds were against us, and not just...
Christmas in Norway, Winter in Norway, Norway, Oslo, Scandinavia, Europe, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, family travel, traveling with kids, misadventures traveling standby, Christmas, Scandinavian Christmas
Across town, in the opposite direction of the graffiti and promiscuous pictures was where we found our home for Christmas. This darling airbnb, with red cupboards in the kitchen and four single beds laying side by side each other in the bedroom, was perfect for our celebrations. Though we longed to be in Tromsø, we were finally in a...
Seashell Beach, Galveston, Texas, Conches, Scallops, Littlenecks, Steamers, Sand, Water, Beach, Swimming, Seawall Blvd., Gulf of Mexico, Diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, misadventures traveling standby, traveling with kids, family travel
Our favorite thing to do when we visit any beach, anywhere in the world, is to go seashell hunting. We love bringing them home from the beach, filling up a special bottle exclusively for each destination and placing them on display to remind us how much fun we had sifting through the sand for the biggest, most colorful and...
Kirkenes, Norway, Christmas in Norway, Winter in Norway, Russia, Northern Lights, traveling with kids, family travel, creating family memories,
We found ourselves in Kirkenes after debarking from our two night cruise on the Hurtigruten. Kirkenes is a tiny little town of only 3,000 inhabitants on just over 500 acres, and was upgraded from a village just 20 years ago! The peninsula is sandwiched between the Bøkfjorden fjord, and the Varangerfjord fjord that borders Russia, and the city is...
bad airbnb, oslo, norway, bad host, bad experience, christmas in norway, winter in norway, stinky airbnb, dirty shoes, dirty laundry, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, traveling with kids, family travel
We knew it would be an adventure to travel for Christmas, especially through two different climates and with a suitcase full of Christmas presents, but we didn’t quite anticipate everything that could go wrong, would go wrong. On our first leg of the trip from Salt Lake City, Utah to Galveston, Texas one of our bags of luggage was...
riding in the cockpit, flying in the cockpit, copilot, co-captain, SAS airlines, aircraft, standby, jumpseat, once in a lifetime, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, traveling with kids, family travel
Scandinavian Airlines, SAS Airlines, flies throughout Denmark, Sweden and Norway to 1300 destinations all across Europe. Their slogan, “We Are Travelers” is fitting as Scandinavians travel an average of five times a year throughout the three countries listed above! It was also fitting for our particular family as we are not only travelers, but have Scandinavian ancestry. Everything comes...
Oslo, OSL, Norway, Airport, Christmas saga, stranded in the airport, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, family travel, creating family memories, traveling with kids
Our family trip to Norway was one of those standby adventures gone wrong, but one we probably should have known better to anticipate. I was stressed for weeks leading up to this vacation. We had three flights to take after disembarking the Disney Wonder cruise ship, and making our way to our Christmas destination in Norway. That meant three...