Travel – The Mocha SMC Way

Both of us loved to travel before we had children. While having children presents new challenges to travel, we also decided we were up for the challenge because we wanted to show our children to the world. This week on the podcast we discuss our travel hacks and the different ways we approach travel with kids. In the movie Brown Sugar, which we both love, Sanaa Lathan’s character Sydney is asked when she fell in love with hip hop. She was able to describe the exact moment, exactly what she was listening to, and how she felt when she fell in love with hip hop. This is how we feel about travel. We remember the smells, what we were eating, and how the experiences have changed us for the better.

Aisha, The Planner

When did I fall in love with travel?

I feel in love with travel during my first international trip for work. It was a trip to a country in the Persian Gulf region. I was nervous. The only thing I knew about the region was what knew from the media. My friends and family all warned me to be careful, but I decided to go anyway.

It was a great trip and opened my eyes and mind to the different ways travel can connect people. This particular trip felt like a deep cultural exchange. My host asking questions about America, what it was like being Black, and why Americans were so afraid to travel to the Persian Gulf.

I asked about food, local attractions, and the history of his country. I was there is a training capacity and the exchanges I had with my students were equally meaningful. I learned how to strike a balance between handling culture norms and beliefs that differed from my own and navigating the experience with respect and dignity. Every step of that trip from departure to return was an opportunity for me to learn and connect with others. 

As a child growing up in East New York Brooklyn I could not afford to travel by plane and my parents didn’t own a car. I did most of my travel to other boroughs using NYC mass transit. As a high school student, I ran track and traveled for meets and as a high school senior I traveled across NY state for college tours. Those brief bits of travel exposed me to many adventures. It wasn’t until I became a tech professional that I really began to travel internationally.

Prior to becoming an SMC, travel had already become a big part of that life. As a Black woman growing up in America, facing an ever present and lingering amount of structural racism, travel was a way for me to relate to people different than me in different spaces. I was searching for a way to bridge a gap – explore things that made me curious – and achieve the feeling of global citizenship. 

For me, travel can mean anything from leaving your zip code to travelling internationally. With every trip, and further exposure to a diversity of experiences, I fall more in love and wanted to share this love with my children when they arrived.

As a parent, I believe that travel brings to life language, history, music, art, food and culture. It also fosters character traits that I value humility, kindness, dignity, flexibility and resilience. What I’ve also learned as a parent is that there are many things in our own communities, we can do to further our children’s understanding of the world.

I eased into travel as a new mom. It started with area farms looking to teach my girls their food comes from. We’d regularly visit the baby animals, chickens and their eggs, cows and their milk, and pigs in the slop. During the summer months we’d travel a little further out to pick strawberries and apples.

When my oldest was about 3 we started to travel internationally. Our first trip was to the Franklin D. Resort and Spa (FDR) in Jamaica in 2017. We were traveling to meet up with a group of SMC families. That was a test run to see how it felt to travel as an SMC. Could I actually do it…you know…travel…with my kid…alone…just…the two of us. You know what? I did. It was fun. I learned some of the things I like as a traveling SMC and some things I didn’t like. One thing I couldn’t get used to at FDR (its main selling point) was the nanny for each room. Which shouldn’t have surprised me because in my normal life my preferred childcare arrangement is center based care.  

The next trip we took was in 2018, to a Clubmed resort in Sandpiper Bay where we were traveling to meet up with other Florida based SMCs. What I loved about that trip was the kids club. It was very much like daycare, where you can drop the kids and forget them. They had their own adventures out of sight out of mind. I recall lounging with adults when we spied the children from afar living their best vacation lives. I thought “now this is ideal”. 

I can’t wait for the world to open back up and we can travel again. My youngest will probably be 2.5 or 3yrs old by then.  

Hera, The Spontaneous Traveler

When did I fall in love with travel?

There are several moments I remember falling in love with travel, but if I had to choose a moment when I knew I was an addict it would be my first time in Rome, Italy. I was sitting at a café in Trastevere, sipping on the best latte I’d ever had while eating an apricot filled croissant. I’d just graduated from college and was on a two-week vacation, travelling through Italy by train with some friends. As I inhaled the strong aroma of espresso perfection, I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the city – mopeds whizzing past me – listening to at least three different languages whirling through the air like a romantic dance. I was in love and would spend the next two decades chasing experiences like this one – experiences that made me feel alive.

I’ve been traveling for as long as I can remember. My personality and the fact that I don’t sit still well is likely in part because my parents also couldn’t sit still for long. While we went through varying degrees of financial stability, I am extremely grateful that my parents were always willing to throw us in a car (or plane when they could) and go on an adventure. I learned early that sometimes you have to embrace the sucky parents of travel – like lost luggage or food sickness. Part of the beauty of travel is that it’s always an adventure and the unpredictable parts can be what’s magical. 

When I had children, I was so excited to share travel with them. Both kids had passport pictures of themselves only months after they were born, chubby cheeks and smiling. Even though I wanted to travel, I would be lying if I wasn’t a little terrified about getting on a long flight with a newborn. The first time I travelled with kids was from Washington, DC to Seattle with my then six-week-old daughter. My sister had a job interview, which I convinced her to take, because I thought it would be fun to check out a new city. 

When we landed in Seattle, six hours later, I was covered in baby vomit and my daughter was on outfit change number three from diaper explosions. But we survived and the trip was a blast. We went wine tasting, walked along the beaches, and went on a chocolate and coffee tour. I learned that it’s possible to pee while the baby is attached to you, inside a tiny airplane restroom. I got over my initial concerns about flying with the baby and learned that having another adult on the trip makes things a lot easier.

My oldest was a year when we attempted our first international trip – Lima, Peru. This is when I learned red eye flights are the worst – the baby won’t sleep like you think she will. We went to Hawaii, drove across country, and by the time my littlest was six months old she’d already been on six long (more than five hours each way) flights. 

I am spontaneous by nature and have a lot of trouble sitting still. This is also how I vacation. I’ve grabbed the kids and driven to the top of a volcano after my oldest daughter told me she wanted to “feel the clouds”. We’ve marched through the streets of New Orleans, throwing beads to other tourists after being invited to crash a wedding parade. This is how I vacationed before kids and that didn’t change after I had them.

 Our last international trip before Covid was a Mediterranean cruise. We spent several days in Rome before and after the cruise so I could show my kids where I fell in love with travel. My older daughter insisted we try a new gelato shop daily, so that she could try all the flavors. My youngest rode in the baby carrier on my back as we walked through ancient ruins. 

But by far the best moment of the trip was when my daughter rounded a corner and saw the Pantheon for the first time. Her stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth dropped open, and she told me it was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. I am not sure if that will be what she remembers as the day she fell in love with travel, but that is certainly the day I fell in love with it all over again. 

Both of us have had to change our travel plans after covid. Aisha had to cancel a cruise (her first trip as an SMC of two) and Hera cancelled the trip to Costa Rica she’d planned for her 40th birthday. Instead of hopping on planes, we’ve tried to take day trips or short overnights that are possible to get to by car. 

While we both miss travel immensely, we also appreciate some of the things that have emerged as a result of travel restrictions – such as more online experience opportunities like virtual museums in a depth that didn’t exist prior to the pandemic. This unprecedented global event has also forced us to reimage ways we can provide our children with culturally enriching experiences right in our own backyards. 

It’s important to understand that everyone might not always be in the financial position to buy multiple plane tickets, take a cruise, or stay at a fancy resort. We do what we can and look for ways to show our children the world. This pandemic has opened up an entire virtual world, an opportunity that was not available to either of us 80’s babies.

Call to Action:

Want to help us plan an epic family vacation (Mocha SMC style) for when the world opens up? Submit your ideas and we’ll write up a list of top ten ways Mocha SMCs want to spend their “end of Covid” epic vacation.