2010 travel highlights: Beijing, the Big Island of Hawaii, and a new travel buddy

A trip to San Diego in June marked my daughter's first dip in the Pacific Ocean.

Just over a week into 2010, I became a dad. During the year I realized though that any concerns I had about parenthood—and my new editor-in-chief gig at Louisville.com, which I also started in January—impacting my travel were unfounded.

Here are my travel highlights for 2010 (and while my daughter didn’t go on all of these trips with me, she did make it to 14 states and Washington, DC in her first year):

• In February I visited the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach and wrote about its teen club for Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, enRoute, and one of my rare visits to a spa for UpTake.
• A road trip to Milwaukee and Chicago in March marked my daughter’s first trip out of Kentucky; I talked about the experience on a podcast for UpTake and mentioned our Chicago hotel room’s wonderful view in enRoute.
• As much as I enjoy traveling, it’s nice when a big event comes to me. In May it was the Kentucky Derby, which I wrote about for BlackBook and oversaw Louisville.com’s best week of traffic ever (November’s Breeders’ Cup did well too).
• While family was the focus of my June visits to San Diego (brother’s wedding) and Kamiah, ID (to see my grandmother), I wrote about San Diego restaurant Jsix’s chef’s kitchen experience for BlackBook.
• In June I made it back to New York City for TBEX, a travel bloggers conference, and finally got to meet in person a lot of folks I’d only known on the tubes. They were terribly disappointing exceeded high expectations.
• Coming from a small family (no aunts or uncles), my wife’s family’s annual reunion just outside of Morgantown, WV is a can’t miss—I’m serious.
• In Columbus, Ohio for my brother-in-law’s wedding, I stayed in a hotel where James Thurber use to live.
• In August I flew to the The Big Island of Hawaii on assignment for enRoute to take a fine art photography class with Photo Safari Hawaii.
• Later that month Las Vegas was the destination for another enRoute assignment, this time to take a poker lesson from two-time World Series of Poker champ Mark Seif.
• I wrote about looking out over Gerald Ford’s grave site from my hotel room in Grand Rapids, Mich. for UpTake and visiting the art fair with the world’s largest prize (if not the best art) for Gridskipper.
• On Columbus Day weekend we trekked to Watoga State Park in West Virginia for another of my wife’s family reunions (it’s a big clan).
• At Thanksgiving I returned to my hometown of Reading, Mass. for the first time in 17 months, the longest I’d ever gone without a visit; I reviewed the accommodations at my parents’ house for UpTake (executive summary: meh).
• For the second year in a row, I visited China with the Ritz-Carlton (this time it was Beijing); I won’t complain if trips to China with that hotelier become an annual tradition. Culinary highlights already have been posted on Gridskipper.
• It was fantastic to get back to Washington, DC and see our friends. I wrote our stay at the Ritz-Carlton, Washington DC about for UpTake.
• For the third time in four years, both my wife’s family and mine gathered in the neutral playing location of Deep Creek Lake Maryland for Christmas.

A room with a view times three: My latest contribuiton to Air Canada’s enRoute

Last month I contributed a sidebar to Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, enRoute, on hotel rooms with views that give guests an eyeful (in a good way):

• Download a .pdf of the article here.
• Read the article on enRoute’s website here.

I got the idea for the piece after a visit to Chicago’s Hotel Monaco in March (you can read my description of that room at UpTake).

Talking about traveling with a child on UpTake’s podcast

In a conversation on travel quite different from our last one about solo backpacking through Europe, Addison Schonland interviewed me again for UpTake’s podcast–this time we discussed traveling with a baby. (I blog about travel lodging for UpTake.)

Last month my wife and I took our infant daughter on her first overnight trip when we drove to Milwaukee and Chicago. While the trip went well, traveling with a 2 month old was a different travel experience. Nevertheless, being a parent doesn’t mean the end to being able to travel–you just have to do a few things differently. Listen to the podcast for some pointers.

[Updated Feb. 24, 2011: The link to the podcast on UpTake's site is no longer working, but you can still listen to our 14-minute talk here.]

2010 brings a new travel buddy

Vivian Elizabeth, born Jan. 8, 7 pounds, 13 ounces and 18 inches:

She and her mom are both doing great (and I’m rocking too, thanks for asking). Yes, she already has her own website, but between sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom, and looking cute, she hasn’t had a chance to post on it yet.

Vivian’s first travel experience–at least on a journey further than her pediatrician’s office–will be this March when the three of us take a road trip to Milwaukee and Chicago. I’m excited about my first visit to Milwaukee (it’ll be Vivian’s first time there too I think). And while I love Chicago, I expect this stay will be different experience from my last time there when my wife and I spent most of the afternoon sampling wines and cheeses at Bin 36 before heading off to a four-course meal at a culinary school.

And this summer we’re taking Vivian on her first flight when we go to San Diego. I’m excited about traveling with her (until she screams on the plane anyway) and look forward to writing about my new way of experiencing travel.