80 Days Around The World

I've been trip-dreaming. I do that alot. Especially in winter, after Christmas, when the thought of FOUR MORE MONTHS of frostbite-inducing weather looms heavy 'round my psyche.

This summer, we're planning on zipping our way over to West Virginia. Richard is originally from there, and he has two Grandpa's, and a couple of Aunts who still live in Wild and Wonderful WV. Richard's parents and brother will meet us there, and we will have a grand ol' family reunion. I've never been to that part of the country, so I'm pretty pumped.

We had talked about tacking on a few days of sightseeing in either Washington or NYC, just the three of us, before hanging with the fam in West Virginia. Richard and I started dreaming about all the cool things we could do in either of those cities....

...and then it kinda hit us both.

How would it work to get Ellie in and out of the subway? Do they have elevators to get back up to street level? Are all the museums handicap accessible? What about riding a bus? Richard's been to the Statue of Liberty, and remembers clearly the daunting sets of stairs. Our hotel would have to be wheelchair/stroller accessible. Hi yi yi.

This is where it begins. We will never travel like we used to. Family vacations will take on an entirely new set of planning and preparation. I guarantee you that we will bypass certain activities because they are just too physically demanding or inaccessible. And it SUCKS. Seriously sucks.

What sucks most is that Ellie's entire life will be like this. She will never take an impromptu trip without hard-core planning in advance. She will have to research every event, every activity, every mode of transportation, every hotel. And that's just not fair!

I guess I'm just bummed with the realization. We will still travel, and we will make fantastic memories with Ellie. And we will make our holidays as stress-free and easy as possible on our sweet girl. And, God help me, I will NEVER say, "Oh, I wish we could do this-and-this, but it'd be too hard on Ellie..." Until she's old enough to know better, I want Ellie to believe that she can go where everyone else goes.

It just shouldn't be this complicated, that's all.