THALALO

I learned quite a bit this spring break in Breckenridge.  First off, my husband and I never realized that the town of Breckenridge sits nicely at 9600 feet, which makes it one of the highest towns in the US.  Also, altitude sickness is officially called Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), and it is serious stuff.  Here’s our little cautionary tale…

My first morning on the mountain I woke with a bit of a headache and felt dehydrated, but shook it off and went off on my usual snowboard routine.  I have to admit that I didn’t follow the literature, which suggested lots of water, no caffeine/alcohol, and small carb-filled meals.  By day two I started feeling a bit dizzy and unusually winded.  FACT 1 – it usually takes about 48 hours for AMS to really take effect. So don’t believe (like me) that if you are feeling decent on the first day that you will be OK.

I stopped by the slope-side clinic and the nurse reported that my blood oxygen levels were a bit low (around 85 mmHg) and it might be wise to check myself in.  I figured that I would go back to the hotel and rest a bit instead.  FACT 2 – once your oxygen levels are depleted, they aren’t coming back, unless you return to a lower altitude or you get oxygen.

By the evening, I was really struggling, and feeling miserable.  Eventually my husband contacted a local doctor who hooked me up to an oxygen machine and gave me a quick shot of steroids.  He also opened all our windows to allow fresh air to circulate in the room.  FACT 3 – altitude sickness is worst when you are sleeping.  Also, according to our doctor, what is really important is the altitude where you sleep.  If you sleep at altitudes above 8000 feet, your chances of getting AMS are much greater.

After sleeping with the oxygen machine overnight, I felt much better and was able to snowboard the entire next day.  Needless to say, I cut the caffeine, and drank as much water as I possibly could.  The rest of the vacation was saved (with continued help from the oxygen machine); however I really didn’t feel 100% until I was back in New York.

If ever in the Breckenridge area, here are two essential numbers to have.  Our amazing doctor, who tended to me in the middle of the night in my hotel room — Dr. David Gray (970-389-7999) and for 24-hour oxygen delivery, 24 Hour Oxygen.

When traveling with kids, I find that there are two inevitable truths:

1. You take a lot of photos.
2. You never do anything with those photos.

I have recommended the HP Photosmart Photo Printer so many times to friends, especially new parents, and everyone loves it.  I was given the predecessor to this printer as a gift when I had my first child.  Out of courtesy, I opened the box, put the midget printer on my shelf, and figured that it would become a nice paperweight.  As a photographer, I have a wide-format, professional Epson printer connected to my computer — what would I possibly do with another?

This printer is so simple and perfect that it is addictive.  You take the memory card out of your camera, stick it in the printer, and a few minutes later you have beautiful little full-bleed prints.  No need for a computer at all.

And don’t print with the HP paper included – buy Epson 4×6 Photo Paper – the photo quality is much better than any of the HP ones.

I’m not one to wax poetic about luggage, but there’s just something special about Rimowa.

At the airport a few years ago, I retrieved my trusty (and ugly) soft-sided luggage from the baggage carousel and was horrified to find that it had been completely soaked through with someone else’s duty-free rum.  Disgusted, I threw away the fragrant bag and immediately ordered a piece of hardsided luggage, my first cherry red Rimowa Salsa.

Here’s why Rimowa is the best:
1. POLYCARBONATE – The bags are completely indestructible and waterproof.
2. SO LIGHT WEIGHT – With current carry-on weight restrictions getting more and more, well, restrictive (especially on international flights), being two pounds lighter can make all the difference.  Plus it’s much easier to lift into those overhead compartments.
3. FOUR WHEELS – I, sadly, own just one of their multi-wheel trolleys, and it is amazing.  It pretty much rolls itself through the airport.

Currently I have three pieces of the Rimowa Salsa line, a 29″ trolley for check-in, a multi-wheel cabin trolley for domestic carry-on, and a IATA Cabin Trolley for international carry-on.  (And they have recently come out with the Rimowa Salsa Deluxe line which has my beloved cherry red color).  Rimowa is definitely pricier than most, but these bags last forever, are easy to spot on the luggage carousel, and are really good looking.  I’m in love.

Last week I had an extremely stressful experience flying solo with my two children.  Arriving at the JFK terminal 40 minutes before our flight (snow traffic in nyc slowed us by more than an hour), I thought we had just made it under the wire.  Actually, no.  The flight was ‘closed’ for baggage as it was less than 45 minutes before the flight.

Panicked and in disbelief, I refused to believe that we would miss our school vacation over a few minutes.  Not knowing what to do, I pushed my way through security with my two kids, single stroller, two carry-on bags, plus one piece of definitely-not-carry-on luggage.   I was extremely fortunate that (1) the security gate agent took pity on us, (2) my luggage was just small enough to fit through the x-ray machine, and (3) technically we were carrying the allotted number of bags.

The lesson: these days baggage cut-off times vary by airline and departure city so double check before you fly.  (Here is the info on the AA website.) Also, if you find yourself in my position, remember that if you can make it to the gate, they will gate-check any piece of luggage, even one which the gate agent deemed ‘gigantic’.  You become just another passenger who miscalculated the size of their carry-on.

Here’s a little secret that I discovered when traveling with a lap child.  As a courtesy, it is the standard policy of many airlines to keep the seat next to a person with a lap child empty until the plane is completely full.

So when booking your airline ticket with a lap child, always choose a seat with an empty one next to it.  If you are traveling as a family, try for window and aisle seats — don’t worry about sitting together – any passenger will happily exchange their middle seat if the flight fills up.   And check with SeatGuru.com – it’s one of my favorite reference tools, and will tell you if your seat doesn’t recline, or if it’s near a lavatory or congested area.

On many flights the seat between my husband and I has been the only free one on the plane.  This trick doesn’t always work (especially during the holiday season), but it’s definitely worth a try.

When making your flight reservation, you always need to tell the airline in advance about a lap child.  For domestic flights, there is usually no charge, and on international ones, there is a nominal fee (that corresponds to tax).  Confirm that the lap child is listed on your ticket on all flights.  Several friends have had serious complications on international flights when their lap child has not been listed – once, the harried couple had to spend several hundred dollars to buy a new ticket for the child!

1.  Go point-and-shoot, because how often do you happen to have an SLR in your pocket?
I admit that even entry-level consumer SLRs take much better photographs than any point-and-shoot camera.  And, if you were planning to frame 16×20 art prints of your family, this would be the way to go.  But most of the time you just don’t need the quality or the resolution.  The first rule to getting a great shot is having a camera there to get the shot.

2.  Keep the flash off as much as possible. Flash photography is great and allows you to take many shots that you otherwise couldn’t get.  The downside is that the picture looks nothing like the actual real moment.  In dim lighting conditions experiment with taking pictures at higher ISOs to see how the quality holds up.  You’ll be surprised how many shots you can get, even at night.  And a little blur is not a bad thing.  Also, remember that most on-camera flashes are only effective up to six feet or so — turn off the flash at concerts and other events – it’s just not doing anything.

3.  Get closer. It’s tempting on vacation to take that super-wide shot of a loved one standing in front of a majestic landscape.  But beyond proving that you were in fact at said location, what else does it do?  Get in close and capture a spontaneous moment, and it will be a much better souvenir.

4. Hold the shutter down halfway. Sometimes you just know a great moment is just about to happen.  But kids are fickle, and fast-moving.  Focus on your subject, hold the shutter down halfway and wait.  You might have to do this several times as the situation changes, but you’ll have a much better chance of capturing that split-second moment when it happens.

After years of collecting cameras and hunting for the perfect one to take on holiday, I finally found a point-and-shoot camera that I can love — the Canon S90. What Canon has done is taken many of the features of its professional G series and put them in a consumer camera that you can put in your pocket.  Amazing.

My favorite things about this camera–

1. You have 2 adjustment wheels – one on the lens and one on the back of the camera. That means that you can quickly adjust the exposure of your shots, the speed, the flash level, whatever you want.  (Or go completely automatic.)  So no more black silhouettes and overexposed heads…

2. It has an f2 lens.  What this means is that it gets much more light than most cameras.  So when you are shooting in a dimly lit space or at dusk, you can still get a shot without turning on the flash.

3. 10 mega-pixels and tiny.  And reasonably priced ($400-500 depending on where you shop).

4. It’s Canon – and in my experience, they have the fastest focusing point-and-shoot cameras out there right now.  Which means fewer shots that are wildly out of focus…

On this last (18 hour) flight from Johannesburg to JFK, I was prepared with a vast array of distractions for the kids, everything from child-sized headphones (good), sticker books (so-so), leapfrog leapsters (good), leapfrog tag books (great), coloring/activity books (great), magnetic dress-up dolls (useless), and various bits of Dora and Bakugan paraphernalia (not bad).

The surprise run-away winner for both for my almost 5-year-old boy and my 2 1/2-year-old girl was the Fisher Price Trio.  Snapping the pieces together is odding satisfying, and the parts are just big enough not to get lost.  After kids have been on a plane for several hours, it’s about all the concentration they can handle.  I am definitely hiding this until the next plane trip and buying the deluxe version.

If you do bring child or adult headphones, note that you should buy a 2-prong adapter jack for the airplane just in case.  They are just a few dollars and are sold in every airport gadget store.

When traveling overseas, I always worry (among other things) about losing our passports.  So, a few weeks before we go away I send myself an email with JPEGs of everyone’s current passport, so we’ll have something to show just in case anything happens.

If you don’t have a scanner, it’s as easy as taking a photo with your point-and-shoot camera and uploading it.  Set the camera on closeup mode (usually has a flower icon), turn off the flash, and take the photograph in a well-lit room.  Then email it to yourself.

Am I the last one to find out about the beauty of AmEx points?  For years, I collected miles on various airline credit cards, and tried in vain to upgrade myself or get free flights during what always turned out to be peak times or holiday seasons.  My husband finally convinced me to move over to American Express, and I have to say, I am in love with my American Express platinum card.  Not only do I regularly get rebates from various companies that I never expected and access to most airline lounges (so nice before a red-eye), but I just used my points for the first time to get quite a bit back on our Thanksgiving vacation.

A good friend just signed up for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which gives you triple points on all airfare — so if you don’t need the airline lounge access and free companion tickets, it’s definitely another great American Express card to explore.