Tips for traveling after a baby enters the picture

My wife and I have always traveled light and fast. We've camped among monitor lizards and wild pigs in Borneo, endured a 24-hour Bolivian bus ride and climbed the highest peak in Vietnam despite getting hopelessly lost in a trackless jungle along the way.

Inspired by the great travelers of old, we've made suffering a virtue, knowing that the resulting memory is worth every moment of frustration, anxiety and discomfort.

We realized we didn't know anything about suffering until we began to travel with our baby son, Ciaran, now 15 months. An expedition to the grocery store sometimes evoked such discomfort and frustration that I vowed never to leave the house again. Clearly, our plans for traveling during my wife's three-month maternity leave had to be scaled down. So instead of flying to a friend's beach house in Goa, we decided to go to ... Walla Walla.

Slowing down
There was a time when we would have stocked up on coffee, turned up the stereo and driven straight toward the Blue Mountains without stopping once. But things were different now. It turned out that Ciaran didn't like the car the way that we didn't like those rickety Himalayan buses -- the difference was he wasn't interested in suffering for the sake of an eventual story. He just wanted to get out.

So we ended up exploring rest stops, Snoqualmie Summit and the banks of a small lake outside the Tri-Cities. The four-and-a-half-hour trip took us about seven hours. Ciaran got to see snow for the first time, smell the early desert flowers and watch some ducks on the water. It was an entirely different trip than I'd imagined. Slowing down, which had always been a drag, now seemed like an opportunity to watch our son get to know the world. So we were happy.

Plane drain
But we still wanted to take him abroad. We decided on Mexico as a first step. The seven-hour flight to Cancun was brutal; Ciaran squirmed from lap to lap, not crying but obviously uncomfortable. Once we arrived, though, he seemed to enjoy himself, and we loved watching him play in the sand, mistrust the lapping waves and discover such wonders as huevos rancheros and watermelon agua fresca.

It was on that trip that I realized we were going to have to adjust the way we traveled. The "getting there" had become a lot harder, and it wasn't just the discomfort of the plane or the car. It was all the stuff we had to bring. Gone were the days of carrying everything we needed for a year in a backpack. Now we had pacifiers and diapers and bibs and the little blue puppy Ciaran can't sleep without.

We've slowed down, paid more attention to what's sitting right in front of us and cared less about what might or might not happen tomorrow. For now, my eyes are focused on Ciaran plucking the dandelions in our front lawn or trying to eat the wet stones on Alki Beach rather than on the possibility of overland routes across the Sahara.

I don't think our days of adventurous travel are over for good. But we'll probably put off some of our most ambitious plans until Ciaran grows up a bit and can better appreciate the joys of suffering through that 18-hour flight to Indonesia.

5 great places to take tots

Walla Walla
Prepare to pull over a few more times than you normally would. Otherwise, it's a great spot for new parents trying to recover from lots of sleepless nights. Rent a nice room, spend the day strolling around the pleasant town, purchase a bottle of red from one of the many vineyards and then watch the sunset together after he's asleep for the night.

Orcas Island
Ditch the kayaking itinerary and rent a cozy cabin with a kitchenette instead. The baby gets all the comforts of home in a spectacular setting, plus lots of time on the beach. You spend a week sipping coffee, taking naps and watching for seals.

Baja California, Mexico
If it's warmth you're craving (and who isn't this time of year?), Baja is a relatively short flight for babies and offers some serious sunshine on the other end. Pack a gallon of sunscreen and park yourselves under a palapa for a week.

Hawaii
If you need something more exotic, Hawaii is only a six-hour flight away. Don't get me wrong - six hours on a plane with a person under 2 years old is not fun. But if you have a villa and some shaved ice waiting for you on the other end, it could be well worth the effort.

Southeast Asia
A perfect place for older kids, Southeast Asia is fascinating, friendly and easy to get around. Plus, it has some of the best beaches, food and historical sites in the world.

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