Brandon O'Brien

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 @ 8:39 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 7

The rain last night really helped cool the Airbnb down at night. We woke up a few times to feed Dakotah but otherwise had a pretty decent night sleep. Once we had some coffee at our room, we set off to find some breakfast. I found a patisserie around the corner so we headed over there. I had an eclair with a coffee cream filling and Sam had a quiche. Both were good but I think the quiche was the better choice (more fill and not just straight sugar). We ate under a tree on some benches and then set off to see some of the sights around town.

First on the list was La Petite France. This is the area with the most old half-timbered buildings, small canals and winding narrow roads. The buildings were really interesting and the way all of them are crooked and the streets are really winding make the area fun to get lost in. We aimlessly walked around and then made it to one of the bridges at the end of the island where they had some ramparts and a big covered bridge. We walked along the river around the city until we made it to the north side of the old town and then cut down to Place Kléber where there was a clothing market going on.

From there, we cut over to the east side of the old town, up toward the opera and through a big farmers market at Place Broglie. By now it was around 11:30 and we were getting tired of walking around so we went down to Au Brasseur, a local brewery and restaurant, to eat. They opened at 11 and we were almost the first ones there (people don't eat early here). Sam and I shared a brown ale, salad and tarte flambee (the Alsace version of pizza).

We came back to the Airbnb so Sam could take a nap and we could get off our feet for a little while. I took the opportunity to go run and get groceries for dinner. I got a bunch of veggies and a premade couscous salad to mix together, then went to a boulangerie to pick up a baguette, then a wine shop to get a bottle of local wine, a beer store we saw earlier to get some Cantillon (extremely rare to find in the states but was super cheap, relatively, here) and a Trappist beer.

The last stop on the journey was to a cheese shop to get some cheese to go with the bread. I didn't know what any of the cheeses were and the woman working there didn't speak English so I just picked a random cheese. Turns out it was a pretty mild goat cheese (not bad, but still has the goat milk flavor). The cheese shop was tucked away in a really cool alley with a bunch of other wine shops and bakeries. There were a couple restaurants that might be fun to go back to and sit and eat outside.

Back at the Airbnb I did a little work while Sam napped and then got a little nap myself. Unfortunately the windows in our Airbnb face south and it was getting really hot in here so napping wasn't the easiest. After a while the sun shifted and we could open the blackout curtains which helped get it to cool down more. I opened the wine and we had our cheese and bread with a little olive oil mix I made with salt, pepper and herbs d' provance.

I chopped the veggies I bought (mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, and red bell pepper) and sauteed those with the same spices as the dipping oil. When they were done I added the premade couscous salad and mixed it all together. It was a pretty good dinner and one filled with veggies (which we've been sorely lacking the last few days).

After our food settled and it cooled down some more we went out and got some gelato from the shop just outside our Airbnb. Sam got a scoop with caramel gelato and I got a scoop of chocolate chip. We ate them and walked back near the Cathedral then looped back over to La Petite France via the paths along the river surrounding the city. It was a great temperature outside and we enjoyed the walk.

Back at the Airbnb we've just been trying to wind Dakotah down for bed and I started some laundry. We're planning on going to Colmar tomorrow to see a different city with similar old half-timbered buildings. Trains run down there every 30 minutes and it only takes about 30 minutes, so we're not really in a rush to get moving. I bought some yogurt, granola and bananas so we can have breakfast here without needing to eat something out.

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Tags: france, strasbourg, half timber

Posted from: France

Tuesday, August 30, 2022 @ 8:25 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 6

Today started out reasonably well. We both got some sleep and Sam ran downstairs to the coffee shop and picked us up some Chai. We made some croissant sandwiches for breakfast, finished packing and then went down to the train station to catch our first train of the day. We thought it might take a while to find our gate but it was actually pretty easy. With some time to kill, Sam set off to find another coffee and a snack.

We boarded our train and got settled in for the 3 hour ride to Mannheim. It was pretty uneventful, although we were losing time at each stop and we weren't sure if we'd make our 11 minute layover from Mannheim to Strasbourg. Lunch was leftover pizza from last night, which was actually pretty decent on the train. Some of the towns and countryside we passed through were really neat. Many of the towns had cathedrals or towers in the middle of them. Near Stuttgart, there were some vineyards on what looked like sheer cliffs too. When we left Stuttgart, the train said it was running 8 minutes late but we made up a little bit of time. Before arriving in Mannheim, they showed a list of updated connections and showed that our train to Strasbourg was also running a little late. With a sigh of relief, we didn't need to rush to get to the other gate.

Once we got to Mannheim, we got off and went to gate 5 where it said our train would be. We were supposed to be on the TGV9580 which went direct to Strasbourg. This is where the day went from chill to stress-fest. Our train was supposed to depart at 2:48 (after delays) and at 2:47 a train pulled up to gate 5. Not thinking anything about it, we got right on the train, found car 11 and sat down. One of the seats we were supposed to be in was taken, but that didn't seem too weird since some people kinda sit wherever they want and then move if the person with the reservation comes. Right as the doors shut and the screens updated to show the next stop, I realized we were on the wrong train. This one was going right back to Stuttgart (about 40 minutes away), and not Strasbourg.

With no other options, we were stuck on the train and had to figure out another way to get to Strasbourg from Stuttgart. The train we were supposed to be on was the only direct from Mannheim, so backtracking to Mannheim again wasn't going to help us out. We found some regional trains that would require two different transfers but would ultimately get us to Strasbourg (albeit, 2.5 hours after we were supposed to get in).

Back in Stuttgart, we jumped on our first train which was an extremely overcrowded commuter to Karlsruhe with a 50 minute ride time. Once in Karlsruhe, we got on another packed train to Appenweier. This one was doubly annoying because our huge roller bag took up like 3/4 of the aisle so every time someone wanted to walk by, they had to shimmy around the bag. There weren't any restrooms on this train either and Dakotah was in serious need of changing. With several delays and stops, we finally made it to Appenweier after about 45 minutes.

Due to the train being late, we missed our connection in Appenweier but fortunately there were trains running every 30 minutes to Strasbourg. This at least gave us time to change Dakotah at the train station (on the top of our suitcase in the parking lot, lol). At 6:11 we jumped on our last train of the day and made the 11 mile journey across the Rhine river into France.

After finally arriving in Strasbourg, we had to jump on the tram to take us into town. The tram station we got off at was just a couple hundred feet from the Airbnb which was convenient. What wasn't so convenient was having to carry a 50 pound roller bag up 3 flights of several hundred year old stairs to get to our apartment. After a lot of sweating (I was carrying Dakotah, my backpack and the roller bag), we made it and were able to get to our room.

By now it was well after 7pm and we were tired, hungry and thirsty. We gave Dakotah a quick clothes swap and then went back downstairs to eat at a microbrewery and restaurant called La Lanterne, directly across from our Airbnb. Sam and I each got a beer (I had an amber and she had a weissebier). For food, I got a chicken cordon bleu with spatzel and mushroom sauce while Sam got a burger and fries. All the food and beer was good but we were super stuffed and tired.

Since it was already dark out, we decided to take a walk to Strasbourg's Notre Dame Cathedral which wasn't too far away. The cathedral took a couple hundred years to build (starting in the 1100's) and looks really neat, especially at night. We walked around the entire cathedral then made our way back to the Airbnb. Unfortunately due to historical regulations, they couldn't put A/C in the unit so have a couple of fans blowing to try and cool it down. It was still really hot in the room but not too long after getting home it started raining which helped cool things down considerably (it also helped get people off the streets, which was pretty loud from our open windows).

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Tags: germany, munich, trains, france

Posted from: France

Monday, August 29, 2022 @ 7:22 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 5

Today was a much needed rest day after several late nights and very little sleep. We got up around 8:30am, made some coffee in the room and then I set out to track down some laundry detergent so we could do a load of laundry in the basement of the hotel. There was a DM store around the corner and I found some laundry sheets there (basically sheets of soap you use). I went down to the laundry room to see if any of the machines were being used and saw a sign that said no detergent was needed... the machines automatically added it. Whoops. At least the detergent was cheap and doesn't take up much space.

I brought all the laundry down, put it in the machine and then started looking for a coin slot or start button. Turns out you had to use an app to reserve and start the machines. Not a big deal, but the wifi wasn't working in the basement and it was below ground so I didn't have any cell service. I went up to the lobby to download the app and get it started. For some reason it wouldn't let me immediately start it but I had to wait 10 minutes before it would let me start the machine.

Once we finally got the laundry going, Sam and I headed out to find some coffee and grab a quick snack for breakfast. By now it was getting close to 11 and we didn't want too much food since it was getting close to lunch. We found a Coffee Fellows near the train station and got a cappuccino and blueberry muffin. After that, the laundry was ready so we came back to switch it over to the dryer.

Not really sure what to do, we headed down to the Oktoberfest grounds to see all of the beer halls under construction. Back in 2008 we were able to walk through the grounds but now they have the whole thing gated off. We walked around it a little while and got to the Bavaria statue where we sat down for a little while and fed Dakotah. Allie video called us so Emmie and Sofie could see Dakotah again too.

I got a notification that the clothes were done so we went back to the hotel to grab our clothes and then find some food. Along the way, Sam found a couple Thai restaurants pretty close to the hotel so we picked one to try. The food hit the spot and it wasn't as heavy as sausage, potatoes and cabbage would have been.

We came back to the hotel for a quick break before heading out for an aimless wander around town. We started going through the botanical garden / park near our hotel, making our way back down to the Marienplatz and over to the Hofbrauhaus. After snapping a quick pick there (didn't need to go in since I had been there before and wasn't really feeling the need for more beer), we walked through Old Town and the Promenadplatz. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a Rewe to grab something for breakfast in the morning. We landed on some croissants with cheese and meat.

Not really sure what to do for dinner, we went back to the same Doner place we had for lunch yesterday and got a couple pizzas. One was mushroom and prosciutto and the other was spinach, onion and feta. We brought them back to the hotel, ate and have been getting ready for our train ride to France tomorrow. Fortunately the train doesn't leave until 11:30am so we have plenty of time to get packed up in the morning. We also have some leftover pizza we can eat for lunch.

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Tags: germany, munich

Posted from: Germany

Sunday, August 28, 2022 @ 7:41 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 4

After a late night at the wedding, we got as much sleep as we could but were still up and hungry by about 7:30am. We had another big breakfast buffet and got to say goodbye to Tom, Kay, Scott, Stef, Marrit and several other people who happened to be up early enough to catch breakfast. Once we finished up, we went back to the room to pack up our bags which was quite the undertaking. We already had a pretty heavy roller bag but adding the steins and a few beers added even more weight.

Our plan was to walk all the way down to the train station with the big roller bag, but Allie and Al said they'd take it in the taxi with them. That was really helpful and saved us some awkward pushing and pulling on some of the hills down to the station. It was raining a little bit but not too bad. Sam and I actually beat Allie and Al down to the station so we went ahead and got our tickets. A lot of people ended up being on this train back to Munich or the Munich Airport. We got to ride with Allie, Al, Deb and Amir.

Once the train started rolling, it really started to downpour and rained the entire ride down to Munich. We said our goodbyes to everyone at the station and set off for the hotel. Fortunately our hotel was pretty close to the train station so it wasn't too long of a walk in the rain to get there. It was only around 1pm and we weren't supposed to be able to check in until 3pm but we figured we'd try. The hotel we're staying at is a different style and doesn't actually have a check-in staff but instead uses a kiosk. I tried to check in but it was telling me our room wasn't ready. It was still raining and we didn't want to have to go to a cafe or something and hang out for two hours with all of our bags. There was a help phone next to the kiosk so I gave it a call and asked if they could check on the room availability. Fortunately they had just cleaned the room so they updated their check-in system and we were able to move in.

We're staying in an extended stay style room which has a small kitchenette and "separate" seating area with a couch and small table (it's really just a basic studio apartment). They have a laundry room in the basement so we'll definitely get a load of clothes going tomorrow. Dakotah has dirtied a lot of his shirts already and it'll be nice to get a fresh start before we head into France.

While Sam was getting things organized at the hotel, I ran out to find some lunch. It was already about 1:30 and I didn't feel like walking too far or waiting too long for food, so I found a restaurant called Doner Deluxe and got the Doner Teller box (basically a doner kebab without the bun but on top of fries). I brought it back to the room and we quickly demolished it.

With full stomachs and it still being gloomy out, we laid down for a while. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fall asleep but Sam got a good nap. Before dinner we opened a beer Mike and Anne handed out in their wedding favor goodie bag. I was looking around for restaurants and found a place called Bento Ya which had a lot of Asian food. Sam and I both got some Ramen which was perfect for a rainy and gloomy day. For some reason they didn't take Visa at the restaurant so we had to pay in cash. All I had was a 50 euro bill and Europeans notoriously hate breaking large bills but we didn't have another choice. We walked around a little bit after dinner but ultimately just came back to the hotel to call it an early night.

Tomorrow we're going to hit the Oktoberfest grounds and then see the Hirschgarten. The plan is to make it a pretty chill day without any real rush to get up in the morning.

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Tags: germany, munich, miesbach

Posted from: Germany

Saturday, August 27, 2022 @ 11:30 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 3

Today was Anne and Mike's wedding day! It started off pretty chill with breakfast at the hotel which had a ton of breads, spreads, meats, cheeses and traditional breakfast fare. After breakfast, we met up with Allie and swung by Aldi to pick up some diaper wipes on our way down to the center of Miesbach. We stopped at a few shops and made it down to the center of town where Allie picked up some chocolate and then we stopped for coffee and some cake at Cafe Huatfabrik.

Matt stumbled on us and we sat at the cafe for a little while before going to Weissbräustüberl where we met up with Amir, Ben, Brogan, dude Sam and Mike. Sam and I spilt a Hopf Spezial Weisse (basically a supercharged hefeweissen) and some currywurst with fries. We didn't want to eat or drink too much since we knew there would be a lot of food and booze at the wedding later in the day.

Allie offered to watch Dakotah for a couple hours so Sam and I could get a little nap in. We took her up on the offer and dropped Dakotah off while we got rested up. While she was watching him, she gave him a bath too which was really helpful. After the nap, we changed and got ready for the wedding.

The ceremony was at a farm and organic market a couple minute drive away from the hotel. A shuttle bus took us over there since it would have been difficult for some people to get over there in their wedding attire. They handed out some champagne while we were waiting for everyone to arrive and as we were waiting, some really dark clouds started rolling in. As the ceremony was happening, thunder started rumbling and we were sure we'd all get rained on. Fortunately the rain held off and Anne and Mike were able to say their vows before any rain hit.

They tapped their keg and the reception was under way! Everyone got a customized bier stein to drink from. The beer on tap was some sort of helles lager and it was really refreshing. We all mingled, took photos and hung out for a couple hours until Anne's mom, Deb, and Mike's dad, Tom, gave their speeches. Once they were finished, dinner kicked off and we were shown to a buffet with a ton of Bavarian food. The goulash was extremely good, especially with some seasoned bread.

The planned shuttles weren't departing the venue until after 1am so we got together with Brandon B. and his wife Marissa and got back to the hotel around 11. They had a 5am departure for Venice and didn't want to stay up super late. With Dakotah in tow, we knew we'd be better off getting to bed early too.

As we were getting ready for bed, I got a reminder email about our hotel in Munich and realized it was for two days, not one. I had accidentally booked our train to Strasbourg for the wrong day thinking we only had one night in Munich. Unfortunately the ticket wasn't refundable so I had to buy a new ticket for Tuesday. On the plus side, this gives us Sunday night and all day Monday to relax and catch up on some sleep before getting on a train for 6 hours.

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Tags: wedding, germany, miesbach

Posted from: Germany

Friday, August 26, 2022 @ 11:29 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 2

This morning I actually felt pretty refreshed! We were able to get a little sleep last night which really helped get feel better.

We went down to the hotel breakfast around 7:30am and were pretty amazed with the spread. They had a huge assortment of cheeses, meats, pastries, juices and hot breakfast items. We hung out in the breakfast area for a while sipping on coffee and enjoying some relaxing time. The server who was cleaning the room kept coming over to us and talking to us about Dakotah and her grand baby.

After eating, we went back to the room and started packing up. After feeding Dakotah, I went out to get some saline drops for him since his nose seemed really stuffy last night. I think all the dry air on the plane really made it hard for him to breath and fortunately clearing out his nose seemed to really help.

Once we packed up, we met with Scott and Stefanie outside the hotel where they took our bags and parked their car. The plan was to walk around the pedestrian area near the Marienplatz, get Doner kebab for lunch and then try to hit the Oktoberfest grounds. We waited around the Marienplatz for about 20 minutes to see the Glockenspiel do its thing at noon and then got a little sidetracked at the beer garden at the Viktualienmarkt. We also met up with Eric and Emily there before realzing how late it was getting and that we wouldn't really have time to do much else.

We went and got some Doner for lunch near the Hauptbahnhof after checking out the Karlsplatz. The Doner was really good and something I haven't had in years since I was last in Europe.

Eric and Emily went to the train station and got on the train to Miesbach while Scott, Stef, Sam and I went back to their car and drove to Miesbach. We got to see some of the Alps on the way to town. The scenery got really nice with more of an alpine farmland and dairy feel to it as we drove into town.

After checking into the hotel, we showered and got ready for the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was really fun and great to see everyone again. We sat with Allie and Al and had a few beers over the course of the night alongside many typical German food options in the dinner buffet.

We stayed up a lot later than we were planning to, but it was hard to leave the party. It's now about 11:30pm and we really need to get to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day with the wedding planning to go well past midnight.

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Tags: europe, germany, miesbach, munich

Posted from: Germany

Thursday, August 25, 2022 @ 10:29 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 1

Today has been a really long day, but we successfully arrived in Munich, Germany with a 6 week old baby and no meltdowns on the plane! We woke up in Santa Fe around 6:30am on the 24th but didn't need to be on our first flight until around noon in Albuquerque. We figured this would give us plenty of time to get all of our last minute packing and organizing done and head out.

We left Santa Fe around 9am and made it to the ABQ long term parking a little after 10. It didn't take long to get the car unloaded and our bags on the shuttle bus which dropped us off at the United counter. Fortunately there weren't any issues getting checked in and our big checked bag was just barely under the maximum weight. Security was also a breeze since Sam and I both have TSA Precheck. No taking off shoes, belts, separating liquids, etc.

The first flight from ABQ to Houston was on a really small express jet with only three seats to a row (one seat, aisle and two seats). My backpack just barely fit in the overhead bin which says a lot about how small the plane was. The flight to Houston started off pretty normal but after about an hour they got on the speakers saying we might need to be diverted to a different airport due to thunderstorms over Houston. Uh oh, that would not be good.

Fortunately the storms cleared and we landed about 30 minutes late. Unfortunately that meant our layover was almost non existant. We ended up having to run through the hot and humid airport to get to our international flight. We arrived just as they were boarding group 1. We jumped in line since we can preboard with an infant but Sam couldn't find her ticket! After a quick jot over to the counter, we got a new one printed and got onboard before Group 2.

We were almost an hour late to takeoff due to the storms and a broken radio issue they had to fix. At least it didn't matter to us since we didn't have any more connecting flights, but a lot of people were getting really nervous.

As far as international fights go, this one was pretty standard. I tried sleeping but only got about 15 minutes of sleep on the entire 10 hour flight. I would have taken a sleeping pill but wanted to be alert in case Dakotah started to freak out and needed attention.

We were about as lucky as we could be in that regard. Dakotah didn't fuss and was a really great baby the entire flight. We either had him in my chest carrier or Sam was holding him. There were quite a few diaper changes over the flight but at least that wasn't a big deal since the bathroom had a changing table in it.

Dinner on the flight was quinoa with salsa and chicken, a side salad and a glass of wine, and breakfast was some yogurt and a biscotti. Customs in Munich was also a breeze, even though it was packed and took a while to get to the agent. Once we made it through customs we were a little worried that our checked bag might not have made it after the really short layover. We didn't need to worry though since it was there without a problem.

I tried buying some tickets for the S-Bahn to get us from the airport to downtown Munich but the ticket kiosk was asking for a PIN with my cardit card (we don't have a PIN). I had to get some cash but the ATM was out of service. We ended up finding another ATM and ticket kiosk but found out the kiosk didn't take 50 Euro bills (which is what I got). We tried another one and fortunately that one did accept them.

Train ticket in hand, we got on board and about 40 minutes later were at the Karlsplatz station. A short walk through some nice pedestrian areas and we made it to the Mercure hotel. It was a little before 1 and we weren't supposed to be able to check in until 3 but our room was ready and we were able to change out of or sweaty clothes and decompress for a few before heading out to find food.

We weren't sure what to eat so we went to the Augustiner Klosterwirt where I got the sausage platter and Sam got some schnitzel. To drink, I got a Dunkel and Sam got a Radler. Both the food and the beers were really good but after having almost no sleep in 24 hours and sitting on an extremely full stomach, we did a quick walk to the Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel and then went back to the hotel.

I was able to nap for about an hour and a half while Sam watched Dakotah. We were going to try and meet up with Brandon B. but they were in the same boat as us and wiped out from their trip. Now she's napping while I'm writing about everything up to now.

After some quick napping, we hopped on the S3 line from Marienplatz up three stops to Giselastraße where we walked a few minutes to the Chinesischen Turm biergarten in the Englischen Garten. Sam and I split a giant pretzel, a radler and some couscous. It was really nice just chilling in the park as the sun went down. After we finished, we walked back to the Giselastraße station, back to Marienplatz and then walked back to the hotel.

Since getting back we've been working on getting Dakotah to fall back to sleep but it's not working too well. I think being chill for 36 hours has finally caught up with him and he doesn't want to go to bed.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that we can actually get some real sleep tonight.

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Tags: germany, munich, bier

Posted from: Germany

Monday, August 22, 2022 @ 2:03 PM in 2022 Germany and France

With the trip actually happening (thankfully Dakotah got his passport in time), it's time to share our itinerary. The main point of the trip is to join Mike and Anne at their wedding in Miesbach, Germany (a small town south of Munich).

We'll fly into Munich, go down to Miesbach, then have another day in Munich before heading to Strasbourg, France for a week and then ending in Nice, France for a week. While in Strasbourg and Nice, we'll be doing some day trips outside of those towns to see some other towns and sights.

Full Itinerary

Date	Location	Notes
Thursday, August 25	Munich, DE	Arrive at 10:05am
Friday, August 26	Munich > Miesbach, DE	Spend the day in Munich then go to Miesbach for rehearsal dinner
Saturday, August 27	Miesbach, DE	Wedding day
Sunday, August 28	Miesbach > Munich, DE	Recover and head to Munich
Monday, August 29	Munich, DE > Strasbourg, FR	Catch our train at 11:30am, arrive in Strasbourg at 4:00pm
Tuesday, August 30	Strasbourg, FR	Explore Strasbourg?
Wednesday, August 31	Strasbourg, FR	Go to Colmar?
Thursday, September 1	Strasbourg, FR	Go to Freiburg?
Friday, September 2	Strasbourg, FR	Relax in Strasbourg?
Saturday, September 3	Strasbourg, FR	Go to Riquewihr?
Sunday, September 4	Strasbourg, FR	Relax in Strasbourg?
Monday, September 5	Strasbourg > Nice, FR	Catch our train at 9:05am, arrive in Nice at 6:30pm
Tuesday, September 6	Nice, FR	Relax in Nice?
Wednesday, September 7	Nice, FR	Go to Menton and hit Italy?
Thursday, September 8	Nice, FR	Relax in Nice?
Friday, September 9	Nice, FR	Go to Antibes?
Saturday, September 10	Nice, FR	Go to Villefranche-sur-Mer?
Sunday, September 11	Nice, FR	Relax in Nice?
Monday, September 12	Nice, FR	Depart at 8:55am to head back to the States

We're just finishing up our packing now and tying up loose ends around the house. We're still a little unsure how Dakotah will do on the flights, but we'll keep our fingers crossed he does a good job!

Tags: itinerary

Posted from: United States

Friday, August 19, 2022 @ 9:03 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Who knew that getting a passport for a five week old baby would be so tough! The process seems pretty straightforward, and it should have been, if not for the hospital putting the wrong date on the birth certificate notification they sent to the state of New Mexico.

First off, what's actually needed and how do you get a rush passport? Well, you just need to have proof of international travel, have the physical and copies of mom and dad's passports and drivers licenses, fill out a DS-11 form, and have a physical and printed copy of the birth certificate. When you have all that, you can make an appointment for an Urgent Travel passport at one of the many passport facilities around the country. We chose El Paso because it was the closest and they had availability. They only allow you to make the appointment within 14 days of your international travel (hint: not that you can schedule it a few months out for within 14 days of travel, you can't actually make the call and schedule the appointment until two weeks before your travel). Our international flight is scheduled for August 24th and our appointment was for August 19th. The urgent travel passport cost us $195 to the government, plus travel and hotel costs. We got the passport 3 hours after showing up.

Let me get back to the mess though... When Dakotah was born, the hospital didn't immediately file his paperwork and had the date and time incorrect on the file they sent to the New Mexico Department of Health (the department that handles birth certificates). The DoH sent us a form with all of the information they received and said to make a note if anything was incorrect. I did so and we got the form notarized and sent back off to the State.

That paperwork was sent back to the state before Dakotah was two weeks old. I figured they'd make their changes and get his birth certificate processed and on its way to us. Well, we waited and waited (and saw our check was cashed which paid for the certificate) but nothing arrived. Getting desperate, we found out we could go to the Office of Vital Records here in Santa Fe and have them print one for us right then and there. We did this on Monday the 15th. Great! Well, not really. Unfortunately since we had made a correction to the data the State had, they couldn't print us a certificate until they got confirmation of the changes from the hospital.

Since we wouldn't be able to get Dakotah his passport without having his birth certificate (otherwise, there aren't any legal documents proving Sam and I are the parents), we were really starting to get nervous. We didn't hear anything on the 16th so we started calling consistently on the 17th until Sam finally got a hold of someone near the end of the day who said they would try to escalate the issue to their supervisor. We tried stressing the importance of getting this on the 18th since we had to head to El Paso for our 9am appointment on the 19th.

On the 18th, we called almost every hour to the various phone numbers we had been calling and new ones we hoped might get us somewhere. By noon we still hadn't talked to anyone and it was getting to be time we needed to head to El Paso for our appointment. We thought we'd try one last ditch effort and go to the actual vital records office again and see if they had heard anything. Unfortunately they weren't able to do anything because their system still showed the case was pending confirmation from the hospital.

Not knowing what else to do, we set off towards El Paso. We had printed off all of Dakotah's post natal documents, Sam's hospital record from the birth and an additional form, DS-10, hoping that maybe all of this stuff would help prove we're Dakotah's parents. I was giving us only a 5% chance of all that working but we didn't have any other option but to head south.

We got stuck in quite a bit of traffic due to construction leaving Santa Fe. Sitting in stop and go traffic only added to my stress level. Sam tried making a few more phone calls and about an hour later, right before hitting Albuquerque, I got a call saying the birth certificates were ready! Great! Except we had to go back to Santa Fe to pick them up. UGH. We'd already been in the car for an hour and needed to turn around, sit in the worse side of the construction traffic and head back to Santa Fe to pick up the certificate.

While sitting in construction traffic, a FedEx truck in front of us let off the brake and was slowly creeping backwards and ended up hitting our bumper. Fortunately they didn't keep going and the damage was superficial. It was still one more added piece of unnecessary stress. Since we were in stop and go traffic, we couldn't jump out and go try to flag the guy down or anything.

After another 30 minutes sitting in stop and go traffic, we finally made it back to the vital records office, got the birth certificate and then started the journey back down to El Paso that we initially began 3 hours prior. By now it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, we've already been in the car for about 3 hours, we still had a 5+ hour drive with an infant and a dog and there was still a 30 minute backup in that same construction zone we had to contend with.

The construction zone had even more traffic than the first time we went through, probably due to end of day commuters going back to Albuquerque from Santa Fe. To add to the time issues, we also hit rain and rush hour in Albuquerque. On the bright side, the traffic cleared and the roads were almost empty from Los Lunas all the way through Las Cruces. We did a quick pit-stop in Socorro for dinner (got some Blakes Lotaburger).

Dakotah had been a trooper but just outside of Las Cruces (and about 8 hours in the car), he finally started having a pretty epic meltdown. We actually pulled over and had to bounce him around for a little while. Since we were stopped, we found a hotel in El Paso that was dog friendly, cheap and pretty close to downtown so we went ahead and booked it. There was still about an hour of driving to get there so we buckled up and set off again.

Getting to the hotel was pretty uneventful aside from some more construction in El Paso. We checked in some time around 9pm, well past when we wanted to get in (we were hoping for 5:00pm or so). One nice thing to happen on an otherwise crazy day was the woman who checked us into the hotel was a dog lover and waived the $50 pet fee.

We got situated in the room, set Dakotah's travel bassinet on the bed and tried to wind him down to sleep. It actually wasn't horrible having him next to us in the bassinet all night (which we were relieved about since we're about to spend 3 weeks in Europe doing just that). Max actually tolerated the whole situation pretty well too. He didn't try to jump into the bassinet and didn't freak out when Dakotah started getting hungry.

We ended up waking up around 6am and decided not to bother sleeping in until 7 like I had set my alarm for. We figured having a little extra time would be good in the morning. I'd estimate Sam and I probably got about 5-6 hours of sleep, which wasn't horrible. The same couldn't be said for the hotel's breakfast offering though. The coffee was on the cold side of lukewarm and watered down to the point you could almost see to the bottom of the coffee cup. They had some eggs and potatoes as the hot offering, of which the eggs were fine but the potatoes were pretty undercooked. Fortunately a quick zap in the microwave fixed that.

By now it was around 7:30 and we had the car loaded up and set off to find some real coffee and get to the passport office. We actually found a bakery/cafe pretty close to the hotel that had some great coffee and muffins. The drive from there to downtown El Paso was actually a breeze and we arrived at the parking garage around 8:15. Having some time to kill and seeing a nice park across the street from the parking garage, we took Max out to stretch his legs.

Fortunately between the overcast/rainy skies, early time of day and being in a parking garage, we didn't feel bad having Max in the car while we went into the appointment. The process at the passport office was super smooth (thank goodness for having the birth certificate!). We overheard several other people trying to explain how they didn't have this piece of info or that specific document and I could only imagine us in that situation trying to beg and plead that our random docs were enough.

After the application process, they told us it shouldn't take more than 4 hours for the passport to be ready. Rather than leave max in the parking garage, we got back in the car and set off for a big outlet mall we had passed by earlier. Sam was looking to get some specific clothes she's been having trouble finding in Santa Fe so we figured it would be a good way to waste some time.

We walked around the outlets and Sam did find some stuff which was great. I got a call on my phone around 11:30 saying the passport was ready and we could come pick it up. That was super fast! We finished up and ate lunch at a place called TacoTote which was really good. Sam got a couple tacos and I got a "street plate" which was a huge pile of carnitas with some corn tortillas and a roasted onion. They have a huge salsa bar with tons of other veggies to add to your tacos.

When we were sufficiently stuffed, we got back in the car and headed back to the passport office where I ran in and got Dakotah's passport. By now it was around 1:30 so we started our trip back to Santa Fe. While on the road, we decided to stop at Elephant Butte, a big lake near Truth or Consequences, and let Max run around and to give us a break from the car.

The rest of the trip back was pretty uneventful. Sam got a few naps and we stopped for some subpar Chinese takeaway in Albuquerque. Fortunately it was late enough in the day so there wasn't any slowdown in that construction zone that had screwed things up so much yesterday.

Now that we all have passports, this trip just became extremely real. We have four days to pack and get any other miscellaneous things we need for the trip. Check back for another post with our itinerary as well as daily posts while we're on the trip!

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Tags: passport, dakotah, road trip, el paso

Posted from: United States