Maine: Part 1

Kathy's brilliant idea: we'll feed and bathe Tai, put him in his PJs, and hit the road at bedtime. That way, he'll sleep all the way to Maine. Upon our arrival, one of us will pop into the hotel, set up the Pack N Play, and then smoothly transition Sleeping Beauty into the crib.

That didn't work.

We left at 7:15. Tai fell asleep around 9:30pm. OK, not a huge problem. He'll just be a tiny bit short on sleep for the night. We can still move forth with Operation Smooth Transition once we get to the hotel and get the crib set up.

Then we got to Brunswick. And got lost. No need to mention who's fault that was.

In an attempt to find the hotel, we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to ask directions. Not only did the woman behind the counter have no idea where the Days Inn was (that turned out to be a mere 2.5 miles down the road) but my exiting the car woke Tai up.

When we finally found the seedy-looking Days Inn, Tai was wide awake and "all done car." So much for my Master Plan. Rather than wait for Minh to check in and set up the crib, I decided we might as well all go in. Just had to put some shoes on my boy. Shoes? Who wears shoes with pajamas? No one. That's why I didn't think to put any shoes on him when we left the house. Oy.

I'm not a germaphobe by any stretch of the imagination and I'm a liberal user of the 5, 10, even 15 second rule. But I didn't want Tai walking around the lobby of this place shoeless. That should give you some idea of the cleanliness of this place. So up on my hip he went. And there he stayed for the 15 minutes we had to wait to check in while two elderly women from Florida flirted with the 30-something desk clerk and asked him if the all-night Wal-Mart around the corner sold cold beer. (It does, by the way).

After dragging our suitcases and other gear through the smoking section *cough* and up the stairs (no elevator) we set up the Pack N Play in which Tai refused to sleep. The entire trip. It was too late spend time unwinding and a shower was out of the question because there were no towels in the room. (Kinda makes you wonder whether they bothered to change the sheets on the bed before we arrived....eew.)

No need to mention who selected this hotel.

So we all climbed into bed and, after much flopping around, Tai eventually (12:30am?) Tai fell asleep with his head on my pillow and his feet in Minh's ribs.

And that was how our vacation started. Don't worry, the trip got better after this.......