Koala in the wild, check!

Total Eclipse of the Heart

My husband proposed during a total solar eclipse. It was July 2009 and we were on the shores of a man-made lake outside of Shanghai, China. Our trip was planned around the eclipse -my husband, a photojournalist, has developed an eclipse habit that meshes nicely with our shared travel addiction- but little did I know what else had been planned.

The sky was full of heavy clouds, much to the disappointment of a large group of Greek astronomers who had staked out a spot near us. We all watched the sky patiently, then sadly, as the light began to dim and the clouds remained. But just as the sky went completely dark, the clouds parted and we could see the last sliver of sun disappearing behind the moon, leaving only the faint corona visible.

There’s nothing quite like those moments of darkness in the middle of the day. Birds chirp loudly at the point of first contact as they normally do at the end of a day, then grow silent. Automatic street lights switch on. The air is still. Faces crane upward, eyes shielded with eclipse glasses or welding masks, looking like members of some sci-fi army. Some people cheer, others watch reverently, their voices hushed as if they were in church. Some of the more die-hards even cry. I was riveted.

The eclipse remained visible for the entire six minutes of totality. It was followed by the flash of the sun’s return -called the “diamond ring effect”- which was accompanied by a beautiful proposal of marriage. (Yes!) Then the clouds returned as the sky slowly became light again. It was, and will be, the longest totality of any total solar eclipse of the 21st century. It will always be my favorite.

We’re now in Australia, another trip planned around an eclipse. This time we have our seven-month-old son with us (already a seasoned eclipse attendee after an annular eclipse in northern California in May), and my sister flew in from her home in New Zealand. On November 14th at 5:30am, we gathered on the beach in Port Douglas, Queensland, about an hour north of Cairns. Four Mile Beach was already packed with amateur astronomers and eclipse-chasers clad in safari vests, as well as most of the town’s residents, all nervously watching the sky for a break in the clouds.

Just as they did three years ago, the clouds magically parted just after second contact at 6:30am, and we were treated to the entire two minutes of totality. There was a hush over the darkened beach and then with a flash of the diamond ring, the sun returned. The clouds quickly enveloped it, and the beach quickly emptied. We walked back to our campsite, grinning and already thinking of our next eclipse trip in 2016.

-from Rainbow Beach, QLD, Australia

View from my tent this morning.

Lovely place, Australia. It’s effing hot up here in Queensland and traveling with an infant is not without its challenges, but we’re having a good time. Waking up to swaying palm trees and the ocean definitely tips things in the right direction.

-from Rollingstone, Queensland, Australia

This kid deserves a medal.

Four flights, three layovers and one especially irritating delay over 38 hours door-to-door, and my little rock star only broke down once. (It was hour 36, when, to be fair, mama was about to break down, too.)

- from Cairns, Queensland, Australia

We made it to the airport. So there’s that, at least.

-from SeaTac Airport

Who’s on First

We initially booked our flights to Australia well before M was born, using a chunk of miles to fly first class. A bed on the flight! And the baby can just sleep with us! How decadent! A few months after M was born, we hit a stumbling block when Cathay contacted us for Milo’s lap infant fare. For most international flights, this is 10% of the regular fare for that class. We learned that Cathay charges 25%, so that would have been $6,000. After a very brief consideration (well, $6K for three people to fly first class isn’t so b…nope, that’s crazy), we cancelled the flight and went back to the drawing board.

Our second option, Qantas, had no first or business seats available but we could get three economy tickets. M would have his own space and my lap wouldn’t go numb after holding a squirmy 18lb baby for 23 hours. We adhered to the FAA regulations: baby must be in an approved car seat and can’t be seated in an aisle or exit or rows immediately in front of or behind an exit. Our seat selection was approved. Everybody wins!

Except, it seems, the person in front of us. Two days ago, Qantas called us to inform us that there was a problem with our seat assignment for the LA-Sydney leg: M’s car seat is rear-facing (as are all seats for babies under 1 year old), so the seat in front of him couldn’t recline. Fair enough. It would drive me crazy not to be able to recline my seat during a 15hr flight, so I quickly agreed to what should have been a simple seat change.

I’ll spare you the bulk of the TWO HOURS of conversation with Qantas, but here are some highlights:

Me: “How about moving us to the bulkhead row?”

Qantas: “No, those seats are reserved for families traveling with infants.”

or this one:

Me: “How about moving us to the galley row? It isn’t an exit row, and there are no seats in front of him”

Qantas: “No, he must have a seat in front of him.”

(At this point, I contemplated resuming the conversation in my best Lou Costello voice.)

There were several mentions of “policy” which differed from the one I had found on their website. I asked her to read the mysterious new policy to me but oddly enough, she could neither remember nor find this document, repeating over and over in an increasingly frustrated voice that she “just knew” it was policy. The best solution she gave us? Turn the seat around or just carry the infant on our lap. I finally gave up on robo-agent and asked for a supervisor, who was as helpful as a person faced with a new problem (for which there is no official policy) could be. She listened, agreed it was a weird situation (most parents don’t get a seat for their infant), acknowledged that both the airline and the FAA recommend a car seat for infants, and even made me laugh once or twice.

Thanks to her common sense, M and I are now in a bulkhead row with my husband across the aisle from us. I have copies of Qantas actual policy (nothing about seat recline issues, mind you), the FAA’s policy regarding car seats, and just for good measure, a recording of part of our conversation. As frustrating as it all was, I’m happy that we dealt with this ahead of time and not as we were boarding, or even worse, after take-off. It could’ve been a lot more frustrating.

But I’ll take that free glass of wine now anyhow.

-from Seattle, about to leave for the airport


Two Minutes

In four days, I will spend about 24 hours on a plane -plus another six in layovers- with a just-about-to-crawl infant to see the moon totally eclipsing the sun.

Totality at our location in northeast Australia will last just over two minutes.

30 hours of travel. With a seven-month-old. For a two minute event.

What.

-from Seattle, fondly remembering my last total eclipse, Shanghai 2009

tiffehr:

Fire Sweeps Through Aleppo’s 17th-Century Souk of Aleppo - NYTimes.com

For many residents, the old city, with the souk at its center, is the soul of Aleppo, one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and Syria’s largest. Aleppo has been staggering for months under a bloody battle that has reduced some residential areas to rubble, and with no deaths immediately reported from the blaze, the damage to the souk pales compared with the recent human toll.

Yet serious damage to an area that Syrians widely consider one of their greatest treasures is likely to stir anger at both sides — each of which blames the other for the destruction in the city — in a conflict that seems mired in stalemate. It could also make the rebels’ latest push in Aleppo backfire politically: Some opponents of President Bashar al-Assad were already incensed on Saturday at insurgents they said had operated conspicuously near the old city.

Image from al Jazeera, which has more extensive information and sources.

The central souk (market) was the main reason I wanted to visit Aleppo last year during my trip around the world. @tiffehr and I arrived about a month after the uprising started and found the souk, as well as the rest of the city, almost completely devoid of tourists (normally a thrilling prospect, but unsettling in this case). We spent a couple of days wandering the dark corridors of the ancient market, inhaling spices, meeting friendly shopkeepers and gawking at over-the-top bridal gowns. It was the heart and soul of Aleppo’s old town and one of the most intoxicating places I’ve ever had the fortune to visit.

Seeing these images makes my heart sink.

California Road Trip!

700 miles, 10 days, just me and my infant son and (hopefully) no tears.

-from Livermore, CA


That’s My Boy!

He nailed it. Grinned through check-in, charmed the TSA, played quietly and slept on the plane with a negligible amount of fussing early on, even napped through baggage claim. He’s a natural!

Sure, he may have a meltdown on a subsequent flight and you’ll laugh at the cockiness of this new parent. But for now, shush. Let me have this one.

-from balmy Livermore, CA


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