Travel

Mom guilt is a thing. Working mom guilt is also a thing. Take working mom guilt, then add extended travel to very cool domestic and international destinations to the mix. Now we have a special brand of perverse agony from guilt.

Unlike my other two visits, this trip to Paris was different. We stayed in a much less touristy area surrounded by Parisian locals. The benefit to being in a less touristy area is actually experiencing a city as if you lived there. To be frank, the area was grungier than I expected. But grungy has its perks, like really cool Paris street art.

On my recent trip to Paris, what I noticed most was the architecture. I couldn’t help but notice all of the cool doors in Paris. There is just something about the historical feeling, the intricate details, and the varying shapes and colors of the doors that really struck me.

The best thing happened to me on a walk back from Harrods. We decided to stroll through Hyde Park. Before we even entered the park, we saw these guys, which was pretty thrilling in and of itself. Then, as we walked through the park, we literally stumbled upon the Hyde Park rose garden. What good luck!

A couple weeks before I was set to leave for London and Paris, I thought a lot about what was most important to include on my Europe packing list. The obvious things that came to mind were a universal charger, my passport, and an umbrella.

Can peaches grow in Phoenix? That’s the question I asked myself when I heard about the Phoenix Peach Festival. It seemed unlikely to me that peaches could grow in such an arid climate, but apparently they can. My friend brought her kids last year, so I thought it would be a fun event to check out the Festival with my kids.

It was Friday morning and I was scrolling through Instagram like I usually do. It was any other day, except for the fact that I was prepping for a nearly 3-week trip to London and Paris for work. As I mindlessly scrolled through Instagram, I stopped short when I saw British Vogue was promoting their Vogue Festival, which was happening the weekend I was set to arrive in London. On the unlikely chance of me being in the worlds’ fashion capital the very weekend I arrived, I just knew I had to attend.

I travel a lot for work, which I really enjoy. The only downfall of traveling a lot, besides not seeing my kids for several days, is the lack of routine that comes with traveling. It can be hard to eat right and exercise while on the road, but it is not impossible. Recently, I was in DC for a week, and I actually stuck to my diet, lost a couple pounds and still managed to exercise every day.

Last week, I had the opportunity to experience Washington DC in springtime. I’ve been to DC before, but never in the spring. I was very excited to see the city in spring, as I’d heard so many great things about the cherry blossoms. What I didn’t expect was all of the spring flowers that were in bloom.