Catskills, NY

Month - Jan
Destination - Bed & Breakfast in Forrestburgh, NY
Travel Mode - Car
Duration - 1.5 hrs away from home base

Having lived in NY for many years now, it seemed unconvincingly feeble to not have visited the Catskills, which is one of the primary getaways for New Yorkers. For Madhu's birthday weekend, we decided to take an impromptu trip which would be first of many with baby Nio. Of course, after we confirmed the B&B and got our arms wrapped around our planning, enlisting friends/family to feed Einstein - we learn that a polar vortex and storm will hit that Sun of the weekend. We were planning to head out on a Friday and come back Sunday. So potentially we could shorten our trip or lengthen it since Monday was MLK day - we dared to lengthen it. With the polar vortex, we didn't feel comfortable leaving Einstein outside, he has been out only 3 months now and we were learning best techniques to keep him comfortable. For most part, we had it under our belt but when the news of polar vortex came, we got on Mommy alert. Our idea was to move him to the basement in his large crate. With two days to travel date, we had to put Einstein's crate together, setup his space, portion his food and put in separate baggies and most important, make a tutorial video for our friends and family who we enlisted to feed him in our absence. Finally Friday arrives and we pack everything up, including the baby and get on the road at about noon. The drive was pleasant, event-less until the last 10 minutes, that is when Nio lost it and started screaming. We had to take a pit stop at a convenience store parking lot and do our best to come up with various non existent songs and tunes.

Inconsolable Nio (was probably hungry & too warm)

After Jes took off a layer of clothes he was wearing, he seemed to calm down, turns out it was polyester and poor Nio was heating up in the car seat. Once he calmed a bit, we sped to the inn. By the time we got there, he seemed ok. Lesson #1: Always carry a bottle of breast milk because trying to do laid back position or cradle or side-lying in the back of the car is next to impossible. Jes tried them all. Lesson #2 Make Nio wear light clothing.

The inn was really beautiful, old charm, quiet, comforting. The caretakers run their business in a old fashion way, everything was printed up, there was a 5 min tour of the place which included how to open a door lock with a code (yo stop!). The only thing that got my attention was that there was food available in the pantry for us to snack whenever we wanted to. Back in the room, we were very impressed with our suite and the two person jacuzzi - which we intended to make full use of. It was a really nice evening, we had a lot of fun making our dinner in the room which needs to be explained in great detail - we had packed few raw steaks and veggies and ventured to make them them in the tiny kitchen which was part of our suite. It was a very functional kitchen we have to say, however, the chimney won't work. We tried everything, even mind control. Madhu decided to make the steaks anyway, once they started sizzling, the smoke just built up and in less than a minute we had a very smoke filled room. This would have been perfectly manageable for two adults but we completely forgot that we had a baby with us. Nio started his micro coughs and both of us went - fuck, fuck, fuckety fuck fuck. Opened all the windows, doors, turned the fan on. Nio just looks at both of us in utter shock as to what just happened to my Moms (ah memories!) He was fine after our recovery plan went into action.

Birthday dinner

Next day, we decided to elevate our experience more and of course, it was Madhu's special day, so we made a run to the local supermarket and wine store to stock up on bubbly, Tater Tots and a special massage for Madhu. Bliss!
On Sunday, the storm arrived, lots of snow and we were glad that we decided to stay another day, Madhu was getting used to the jacuzzi a bit much more than required. This was also the first time we discovered co-sleeping with Nio. It was a sleep number bed and both of us suddenly discovered that we were indeed sleeping on a marshmallow bed at home (wonk wonk!) Lesson #3 We needed a new mattress and that we could co-sleep with Nio and potentially get rid of the dockatot. Sweet! 

Madhu trying her new Fujifilm Camera

Post Storm Window

Couple of challenges were getting breakfast together. First morning, all of us went together but Nio was very demanding and doing his baby thing (drooling, wriggling like a super worm) so it was hard to have food together. We had to take turns but added to that the caretaker, I think his name was Ivan, an older gentleman, was talking a lot, constantly. I think we would have enjoyed our breakfast without him around. 
Overall, not only was it a great, much needed break but also a valuable learning experience for us cuz, we'll be needing all the wisdom in the world for our next trip - Atlanta.

Preface

Left to Right: Jes, Madhu & Baby Nio

For those who don't know us, our names are Jes and Madhu, we live in NY and as from the picture you may have deducted (or not) that we are a lesbian couple and just welcomed our first child Nio in Oct, 2018. We also call ourselves the "Gradient" Family because of the color spectrum of diversity under the same roof. Nuff said about us, let's talk about what this blog is about. This blog is about our travel stories in 2019 with an INFANT. One may ask, what were we thinking? The truth is, we weren't really thinking, we were high from life one evening and decided that we are going to travel every month for the whole year. Full disclosure, part of the idea came when Jes was asked to travel for work in the months of Feb and March, mandatory travels are fun aren't they!? Nio being just 4 month old, Jes exclusively BF, pumping, and returning to work after her maternity leave of 4 month right into a traveling gig - we were struggling to figure out whether she should go on her own or we all should travel. In the spur of the moment we decided that we will all come with her and figure everything out later. It's one way to do things, in all certainty, this strategy will always lead to having more life experiences. In our books, it's all good, sure there will be challenges (many challenges) but we were determined to overcome each one of them. Our time together with Nio was too precious, besides, we were also thrilled to take Nio around the country and maybe the world? (ambition vs wisdom check). So while we had to travel twice in two months for work, and Jan we had already taken a trip to Catskills for Madhu's birthday, we were like, wait, this run must not be broken. We truly set something in motion - so we set out to plan our next 9 trips. You read that right, 12 travels in 12 months, with an INFANT! Names of places went on a whiteboard, we looked at our flight credits, we looked at distance, work time off situation for each of us, deliberated on mode of travel and spent many hours into the evening planning our epic journeys. This blog captures our highs, lows and the mediums of our adventures (and pictures). Last but not least, there is one more of our family member, our potbelly pig Einstein. He is a year and a half, and lives in his comfy home in our yard. Because he is his own pig, and is loving his new found independence in our yard, we are thinking of getting him his own postal code. Here he is doing what he does best, eating.

@thestein2017

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