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The digital ink has barely dried on my last travel blog post, & I am already writing about my next travel plans. It does seem like our little family unit travels a ton, but to be honest, we don’t travel as often as we used to…& by used to I mean in the pre-pandemic days. Leading up to 2019, we traveled a ton, just Jian & I. Sometimes we’d travel overseas twice in one year. Nowadays, we really want to go to a cuss ton of places, especially with our little bean who loves to travel, but we’re so reluctant to travel outside of our California bubble (especially because of all the headlines we see/read in the national news). Even though all three of us are fully immunized, we are still highly cautious about traveling & plan our travels very carefully & thoughtfully.
This year for Jian’s birthday, we have decided to go camping. It was Jian’s idea to travel for his birthday, & we have been itching to go camping again. We were supposed to go camping back in 2020, but our statewide COVID-19 lockdown pretty much cancelled that plan. Plus, I miraculously got pregnant that year, so camping has been out of the picture since then.
Jian has been wanting to go ‘glamping‘ for a long time. He found this great glamping campground semi-near us, & this year we decided would be the perfect time for us to try this glamping experience. Both of us have been talking about when we would introduce our little bean to the whole camping experience, & we thought that glamping would be a good way to test the waters (so to speak), & introduce our little bean to the general idea of camping & also see if she is okay with sleeping outdoors.
In case you’re wondering, ‘glamping‘ is just like the word describes. It’s glamorous camping, where instead of pitching your own tent, cooking food on a self-made fire pit, & peeing behind a tree, you get to sleep in a bespoke camper or a luxury canvas tent kitted out with full-size furniture & take a shower in a locker-room style private bathroom. The campsite is an all-luxury-amenities-included area, that kind of feels like a grown-up, luxurious hotel-esque version of a kids sleep away summer camp.
Jian found an awesome glamping company called Autocamp, with several U.S locations that was just perfect for a first-time glamping experience, especially with a wee little bean in tow. We both have been tinkering with the idea of one day introducing our little bean to actual camping, but right now she’s too young, in our opinion to be roughing it in the woods (or in our case, a state run camping reserve). Glamping at a moderately sized campground with modern amenities will be a good “toe dip” into the waters, so to speak, for our wee little one.
On this glamping trip, we will be celebrating Jian’s birthday in style. Yes, staying in a fully framed-out canvas tent with a comfy bed & sofa lounge area would be fun, but Jian wanted a few more creature comforts, so we initially tried to book a modular tiny cabin, but they were all booked. We ended up booking our next favorite option which was a deluxe Airstream camper, which comes complete with a private bathroom, private bedroom area, & kitchenette/seating area. See photos below for reference.
We are super excited to try out this Airstream glam-camping experience for Jian’s birthday. We are planning on celebrating in style in the great outdoors. We would love to introduce our wee little bean to full-on camping complete with sleeping bags, a tent & mosquito bites, but for now this will be a good beginner’s introduction to camping to test out if she likes it at all. I don’t know if I will upload any photos here on this blog (I probably will forget to take photos anyway), but I will at least report back here & give my full review of this glamping experience. Until the next adventure cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
So, like, a couple of weeks back Jian & I took our little bean back to Los Angeles to spend time with our ever-expanding extended family. Since Jian doesn’t have much vacation time saved up yet, he took this opportunity to turn our visit into a work-slash-family trip. Also, this gave him a prime chance to snoop around his company department’s newly renovated Los Angeles office. While Jian worked during the day, I would take our little bean out on little excursions around town or go & visit relatives (namely my aunt, who is one of my little bean’s favorite family members).
This recent trip was unlike any other trip we have gone on before. Sure, I have previously tagged along with Jian on a few of his work trips to Vancouver, BC, but I had already been used to spending my free time alone & doing things for myself, like making appointments for specialty manicures at my favorite nail salon, getting impromptu tickets to an art museum, or hopping on the subway to explore a semi-distant neighboring town. On this trip I had to plan my days around my little bean, making sure I had easy access to family style (a.k.a. changing-table accessible) bathrooms & kid-friendly eateries. I also had to take into account my little bean’s napping schedule. After all, I didn’t want to be stuck out at some inconvenient place dealing with a half-asleep, cranky toddler all by myself.
Usually as a family unit, we prefer to book a stay at a Marriott branded hotel. We get lots of perks & an advantageous friends & family discounted rate. However, on this trip we stayed at a different hotel (courtesy of Jian’s company corporate discount) in a completely different area of Los Angeles that we’ve never stayed at or explored much before. On this trip, we decided to stay at the hotel recommended by Jian’s company (mostly for it’s corporate discount & walkability to Jian’s L.A office) in Culver City, which turned out to be a great idea. Jian was able to take an 8 minute walk to & from his office every day, & I was able to have free access to our family car so I could take our little bean on daytime excursions.
For this trip we stayed at The Shay hotel, & though it was extremely close to Jian’s L.A office, it was not so convenient for us if we wanted to take a quick trip to visit our relatives who mostly live in the San Gabriel Valley region. Although, visiting my older brother in his little beach town in the South Bay was much easier for us.This location turned out to be a good fit for our little family’s work/vacation hybrid trip. There were just enough things to do immediately around our hotel to keep my little bean entertained, while allowing Jian easy access to his temporary office on his work days.
I had meant to take first photos of our hotel room, like I had previously mentioned in my last post. However, with such an active little kid in tow who just happens to love hotel rooms, I completely forgot to take any photos until after we had already settled in. Our room was not very spacious, but not small either. It was very adequate in size for just the three of us. Jian & I have experienced the more smaller layout hotel rooms in Asia (mostly in Japan), & our hotel room in London was super compact, so we don’t necessarily mind the size of our rooms as long as they are functional to our family’s needs. I would say this hotel’s room layout was very functional & well designed, & we loved the decor aesthetics.
The front entryway of our hotel room consisted of a semi-long hallway/passageway of wall-to-wall mirrors to the main bedroom area. My immediate impression was that the hallway was a wasted space. They could have taken out one mirror panel & extended the countertop space where the dresser/mini-fridge is to add in a dedicated desk space. That way, there wouldn’t be such a bulky round table in front of the sofa-bench area which seemed a little too big for where it was originally placed & a little unnecessary for the room anyway. However, we were able to make use of the long-ish hallway by parking our stroller near the doorway & lining up all of our thoroughly used shoes to keep organized.
As I have probably said in previous travel posts, when I stay at a hotel, one of the first things I scope out is the bathroom; the size, the layout, all of it. One thing that really bothers me about staying in hotels, is when the entire layout is all out of proportion. For example, when we stayed at the EDITION Hotel in London, our bathroom was cussing huge, as in as big as a walk-in closet huge. Yet, the sleeping area was practically the size of a broom closet. The room’s overall layout was totally out of whack. (Who makes the bathroom bigger than the sleeping area? I mean, the towel rack doesn’t have to be 50 feet away from the shower.) So that one experience is why I get very picky particular about the bathrooms when I stay at hotels. The bathrooms should be functional, yet proportionally sized to the room.
I was very satisfied with this hotel’s bathroom situation. At first, when I saw the extra vanity space I was a little disappointed. I don’t do my makeup or hairstyles requiring more than 3 steps, so I initially felt the vanity was unnecessary, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. We ended up using it to store all of our extra toiletries & kids bath-time gear. It proved to be valuable counter space after all. I don’t think I need to go into further details about the rest of the bathroom. It was all quite standard & very suitable for our little family.
Our hotel room was considered a balcony suite, & it did feel like a suite. It was very spacious & comfortable room. The closet wasn’t very big, but it was deep & had enough space to fit our jumbo sized Away suitcase. There was ample lighting throughout the room, & even the bathroom had a motion sensor night light (a convenient amenity for my frequent nighttime bathroom trips). There was no in-room desk for Jian to work remotely, but there was a rather large round table next to the sofa bench, which I thought was kind of a waste of space. The desk was heavy & hard to move out of the way, but where it was positioned made it a little clumsy to get around to the other side of the very comfortable bed. One thing I really liked about this room was there were more than enough USB ports & plug outlets next to the bed & around the room in general for everyone’s electronics.
This balcony was such a luxury. We probably used it only 3 times during our entire stay, but when we had used it, it was great. I had lost the other photos taken of this balcony, so please bear with me as I try to fumble my way through a proper description using just this one photo. To the left was a single patio chair & side table that we never sat on. To the right was a semi-comfortable patio sofa/bench. We borrowed the throw pillows from the seating inside our room to make the outdoor seating more comfortable.
Surprisingly on this trip to L.A, it wasn’t very hot every day, so we didn’t have much opportunities anyway to enjoy the outdoor patio. Occasionally, while my little bean was napping, I’d make myself a very lackluster Nespresso coffee pod drink & sit out on the balcony whilst playing games on my tablet. I’d like to say that my little bean was on ‘vacation mode‘ & that’s the reason why she was having a hard time taking her daily naps, but she’s been having trouble with her usually consistent napping schedule for quite some time & even more after that. This balcony was great while we used it, but we hardly were able to use it. We never brought our little bean out on to the patio for safety reasons. I had once tried to snoop out the apartments across the way from us, but almost all of those apartments had their shades fully drawn. Shucks.
So that was a phot review of our moderate & cozy hotel room during our work-cation. This particular trip with our little bean was one of the most fun L.A trips we’ve had in a long time. It was a perfect balance of Jian working during the day & meeting up with the two of us in the afternoons, while I spent quality one-on-one bonding time with my little bean. I really tested my limits, improved my skills in taking care of & handling my little bean without any help, & let me tell you that I am a very co-dependent person who relies on Jian for a lot of hand-holding help. On this trip, I had to take care of my little bean & myself…all by myself. I really felt like a mom who matured & built up my self-confidence by at least 5 to 10 percent.
I am so happy that my little bean loves to travel & explore new places. I also love that she doesn’t need any time adjusting to hotel life, compared to other kids who practically have to make the room an exact replica of their home bedroom or else they can’t get sleep. My little bean is an adventurer. I can’t wait for the many adventures we’ll embark on as a little family unit in the future. Which reminds me…in three weeks, we’re going on yet another trip. It’ll be Jian’s birthday, & we made plans to take our little bean on a glamping trip. I will talk more about it in an upcoming post. Until the next trip, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
I feel as though it wasn’t that long ago that I was talking about my family’s quick weekend jaunt to Monterey Bay. At that time, Jian (& probably my little bean too) was itching to travel. It was his idea to go away for an impromptu weekend getaway to temporarily satisfy our wanderlust after a prolonged vacation drought due to that nasty virus going ’round. I know we’ve already been to Los Angeles & Las Vegas multiple times since the pandemic restrictions in our state have eased, but we’ve only gone to visit specific family members & only went out to pre-selected places that were not typically prone to major outbreaks. Since the pandemic crashed down on us, & more importantly since we’ve created our own tiny human, we haven’t really taken a family vacation that was solely for ourselves & not for some family event or celebration holiday.
Shortly after coming back from Monterey, Jian started seriously looking for a new job & very quickly plunged himself into the interviewing pool. He had been thinking about changing jobs for quite some time, but decided that now would be the best opportunity for him to transition to a new environment. Before we knew it, Jian had landed himself a big corporate tech job. It was a very important milestone in his career & a major cause to celebrate. Luckily for us, through a delay in the process of some paperwork Jian’s official start date got pushed back which granted us a few extra days to spend some quality time together, just the 3 of us. It also gave Jian some much needed rest & relaxation time in-between jobs. This gave him the brilliant idea to go on another family road trip again. We had just a little more than one week before he would start his new job. So we decided to take a proper vacation. We waffled back & forth over where we would go, but ended up settling on our trusty go-to vacation spot: Los Angeles. (Again. *Sigh*)
This time on our travels, we ended up booking our stay at a super swanky, elite hotel. I mean, when Jian says he wants to splurge & indulge the family, who are we to turn him down? I haven’t done a hotel room tour in a long time, somewhat because it’s so tedious to edit all my photos; mostly because my little bean won’t let me use the computer for more than 2 minutes before she tries to grab the wireless mouse & keyboard to play with. On this trip, we chose to stay at the West Hollywood EDITION Hotel. The EDITION hotel series is an elite boutique set of hotels owned by the Marriott Hotels parent company & designed by Ian Schrager, the man behind the infamous Studio 54 in New York City.
Back in 2017, we stayed at the London EDITION Hotel in the Soho neighborhood of London for my early birthday celebration. When I first found out about this series of elite boutique hotels, I had figured that it would be an impossible feat to be able to afford staying at any of these hotels, ever. Then, by a sheer stroke of extremely good luck, we were able to grab one of the most incredible deals of a lifetime when we booked our stay in London. I mean, it was nothing short of a miracle we were able to book our stay for a mere fraction of the standard rate (which was triple what we paid). I never thought we’d ever get that lucky again, but this time it was by no means of luck that we were able to book a stay at another EDITION Hotel.
Right before this trip Jian had said to me, “We always drive by that hotel when we are in L.A & keep saying we would love to stay there one day but never actually do it. Why don’t we do it now? Why don’t we once & for all book a stay at that hotel?” So, after some consideration about saving money, we let ourselves splurge & indulge a little bit. We don’t splurge like this very often, & this was definitely a special occasion, so why not?
Also, I should note that on top of being a high-level rewards members through the Marriott BonVoy program, we also got a special employee discount, which grants selected family members of Marriott branded hotel employees special benefits. On top of the very generous BonVoy rewards upgrades, we also got a slightly discounted rate for our stay. We had originally booked a Loft Room with a king-size bed, which is already a very spacious size, but then we got upgraded to a Premier Suite. That 2-room suite was larger than our first apartment! Here is a look inside our posh hotel suite. (Side note, I’ve never stayed in a suite-sized room at a hotel ever in my life.)
As you can see from the photos above how fabulous this room was, you can pretty much guess that we tried to take advantage of this room during our short-but-sweet stay. Our little bean is just learning how to walk right now, so we let her explore around as much as possible. Crawling is our bean’s specialty, but she can side-step (we call it crab walking) around a room as long as she’s holding on to a table ledge, a straight wall, or a chair.
On this trip, we really let ourselves be truly lazy. Aside from our usual early morning wake-ups (because our little bean wakes up at the same time everyday like clockwork), we’d spend our mornings lounging in bed letting our bean crawl around the bed while watching the morning news on TV. Then we’d slowly get ready for the day & head out by mid-morning. At home, we’re usually up & ready for breakfast before starting work, but whenever we’re in Los Angeles we tend to forgo breakfast time so we can take more time to get ready & pack our things for the day’s outing. We will grab a mid-morning coffee at one of our go-to coffee spots (i.e. Alfred, Intelligentsia, Verve, or some other hipster spot nearby). By that time, we’re ready for lunch.
When we go out with our little bean, we try to limit our activities & only explore one or two districts/neighborhoods not too far from our hotel. We will grab an early lunch & try to get our little bean to take a nap. Our little bean is barely over one-year old, & we haven’t yet fully tested her endurance for an entire day’s outing. Therefore, we limit our activities so we can minimize any chance for a fussy freak-out in a public place. On this trip, we decided not to let our relatives know we’d be in town & just keep to ourselves, the three of us. We had considered telling everyone, but since our vacation was planned very on-the-fly, we thought it’d be inconsiderate to call upon our very busy relatives at the last-minute. That helped in making our trip even more relaxing. We didn’t have to rush anywhere to meet people & such.
Overall, we had a truly relaxing vacation. We didn’t have to rush from place to place. We didn’t pack our days with too much driving, & you know how pain-in-the-arse it is to drive anywhere in Los Angeles. We really just took the time to enjoy being with each other & eating good food. Our little bean got to spend quality one-on-one time with her mama & papa. She also got to take a much needed break from her maternal grandmother, who was spoiling her too much to the point of enabling her new bratty behavior.
Since writing this post Jian has already settled in nicely at his new job, & we are already planning our next vacation to Los Angeles again in May. My nephew (a.k.a. my cousin’s son) is graduating high school & heading to military school on a scholarship, lots of May birthdays in our family, & my aunt will have fully recovered from having major surgery done. There’s just so much to celebrate! We haven’t quite worked out all the logistics yet, or whether or not we are actually going back to L.A, but we can definitely say that we are feeling that wanderlust bug again, but this time we are itching to travel out of the country. Maybe we’ll start small & travel outside of our state first, like, Jian wants to go back to New York where he grew up after immigrating to the States. Either way, you know I will write about it when the time comes. Until then, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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