Moms. I gots lots.

Mother's Day celebrates mothers. For me it celebrates people who are mothers to me and my child. They don't have to necessarily have a child but they have the sense of mind to give sound advice and comfort when needed. Moms come in so many shapes and sizes. They also seem to understand when you need a hug, a good cry, when you need love or in some cases when you need to hear the plain truth. 

I am so lucky. I was a single mom, but I was never alone. I can't even begin to thank the wonderful people in my life for helping me to be a decent mom trying to raise a decent human. Thank you for giving me hard truths when I needed to hear them. Thank you for telling me plainly when I was a big fuck up. Thank you for being there for me and Scout.  I love you more than I can possibly express. Happy Mother's Day,  to my village of strong women . ❤

Il était une fois....

Once upon a time... 

I grew out of believing in fairy tales. Scout and I moved in with my parents after my fairy tale ended. My faith slipped away as we sat on the carpet of my childhood room. Scout was full of excitement and promise. She had just started Kindergarten and wanted to tell me everything. We took time every night to read and just talk about our day together. 

Starting over was not easy. My heart ached as I fought my sadness but kept up my spirits for Scout. Our talks at the end of the day was a way for us to connect and enjoy each other's company. Earlier in the day, I felt like I would never feel hopeful or happy. It followed me all day and I wanted to shake that feeling. There had to be a way for me to find hope, to feel excitement...to fill my heart again. When I got back, Scout and I took our places on the carpet and chatted away. I knew there had to be something to look forward to so I asked Scout, "Where do you want to go when you graduate from high school? Pick something so crazy that it would be amazing when we make it!".

She said,"Paris. I want to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris."

I told her, "Let's get crazier. Let's go for New Year's Eve. We'll celebrate in Paris for New Year's Eve. You'll be in college and we can go wherever we want!". 

The plan for Our Little Trip was born. 

At that time (and many times in between), I had no idea how we were going to get there, but I knew that we were going to get there somehow. It was a goal that was so far away, but we talked about it every year: what we were going to see, what we'd wear, how fun it would be. We would go to the bookstore and camp out for hours over our warm beverages (she had cocoa and I had coffee) and mound of books. Really.. who am I kidding, this was a weekly visit to the bookstore, but once a year, we'd have books about Paris. 

Scout and I had many adventures near and far. Sometimes we were together. Sometimes we were apart when she was visiting her father. In all of those times, she knew that she was always my first choice. I was fortunate enough to get to Paris a few years back, but without Scout.

On this day, the morning we leave for our epic trip, I am a ball of so many emotions. I've been stressed out, angry, happy, grateful, sad, amazed and just...overwhelmed. I knew that this day would eventually come and these feelings would manifest themselves in too many random ways.

Currently, my warm blanket has been the way I've tried to hide myself from the inevitable: my little girl is no longer little. The Kindergarten innocence that once blinked its wide, brown eyes at me has been replaced with an 18 year old, college freshman who enjoys sleeping and watching movies. 

I'm packed and ready to go,  but knowing this trip is coming means... this is it. 

This. Is. It. 

Every moment of our planning is coming to this.  

Wings up,  friends.  Scout and I are ready to fly! 

Xoxo

Emma

We're Back With a Vengeance!

Welcome readers... AGAIN to the new and improved Library Girls Travel Blog. When we last left off, your favorite blogesses, Lizzie and Emma stopped writing about 5 years ago. 

It's a lapse we'd rather not repeat. For this, we apologize and will try to do better by you, our loyal readers. 

Starting again is difficult after a half decade hiatus, but rest assured, we'll be back with gusto and planning ANOTHER trip to Europe. The apple is not falling far from our travel tree as we will, once again, be visiting the metropolitan cities of London and Paris. This time, we will be travelling with Taylor and (the new adult person) Scout! 

This trip has been a long time in the planning. Scout, as a wee Kindergarten lass, and I were in a low place. We had moved to a smaller place together and were not in any financial position to do anything but dream of bigger things. In our many chats, I asked Scout to give me a dream for her Senior Trip; a dream SO big that when we achieved it, it would be epic. She said, "I want us to go to Paris together.".

Paris: a place that I had dreamed about for so long that the mere thought of it made my heart flutter. 

Paris: the magnificent city where I could use my toddler-status French language that I studied in high school. 

Paris: a destination so far away that the THOUGHT of going made my wallet weep dusty tears.

Paris: a 13 year time period to shoot for the goal to make Scout's dream a reality. 

As you all know, I made it to Paris without Scout in 2009 as an addition to mine and Lizzie's trip to London. I asked permission from Scout and she said I was forbidden to do one thing and I was to wait until we were together: Go to Disneyland Paris, so I didn't. I spent my solo time wandering the Père Lachaise cemetery and getting lost in the haute couture underbelly of Paris (no seriously... I didn't want to be there because I didn't belong there !). 

There's a quote that has stayed with me for a long time. I heard it many years ago before my own trip to Paris. Gwyneth Paltrow had recounted her first trip to Paris with her father when she was 11 years old. Her father had said to her,  "I wanted your first trip to Paris to be with the one man who is going to love you for the rest of your life." 

This is what I'll say to Scout when it's a quiet time in Paris, "I wanted your first trip to Paris to be with me, the mother who has loved you since the day you were born and will continue to love you for the rest of your life."

Over all of the challenges in our lives, we'll always have each other. With everything against us, we will have made it to our destination together. I look forward to that day and I can't wait to share it with her and all of you. 

xoxo
Emma 

The Resurrection

We are incredibly sorry.  

Really sorry.

It's been way too long.

We'll  do better,  I promise! 

We have a trip that's brewing and we want to share our experiences planning and on our adventure. 

Welcome back, dear readers!

Adventure is out there!!

Xoxo

Emma 

I admit...

I've had adventures and not shared them with you all. 

I've had so much to say and I haven't been able to write a stitch since I've. Been. Lazy. 

There, I said it. It's out there. 

Frankly, there is no good excuse to why I haven't written. I could tell you that it was my work that was causing me not to want to write. Or enjoying watching Scout play soccer was a reason. 

There are no valid reasons or justifiable excuses for my lapse in putting word to page. 

My solid vow is to make sure I get back into writing again so I can share some of the fun things I do in hopes that you go out and have adventures of your own, too! 

So, I am extremely sorry for not keeping up and I assure you that I will do better this time! 

:D

xoxo
Emma

Finding new adventures

Everyone who loves to travel has a bucket list of places they want to go, or things they want to do. Sometimes the list is a formal one, longingly written in a journal or commonplace book or typed into a computer document. Ever evolving, probably being added to faster than items can be crossed off. Sometimes the list is short and unspoken, internalized. The person who swears that one day (s)he will see Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower, or gaze upon the Sphinx whilst camelback, or snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef.

These are dreams that are so ingrained in a person that there's no need to be on the lookout for them. But not all travel has to be of the major vacation, fulfilling-a-lifelong-goal variety. There's also the day trip, overnight, long weekend, close-to-home adventure out there waiting to be discovered. People have often asked me, "How did you hear about that place?"

So here are some of my secrets to finding new adventures:

• Local and/or National Magazines- I religiously read Sunset Magazine and make notes of recommended hotels, restaurants, and things to do. Sunset focuses on life in the Western U.S., but there are usually other regional magazines, such as Southern Living, that would do the trick for different parts of the country. Sunset always has a section for day or weekend trips to places I never would have thought to visit. Who would think to spend a whole day visiting Alameda, or spending  a night in Petaluma?
  
  National publications, such as Travel + Leisure are also good, but more for those "pie in the sky" someday trips. But here's where technology can be your friend. I make notes of recommended hotels, eateries and sights in a database. That way if the opportunity for a trip to Italy or Japan ever comes up, I've already got a head start on planning.

•  Travel Channel- Though it may feel like they've gone away from their original format a bit, and there are more shows that do nothing for me ("Baggage Battles," "Bizarre Foods," "Ghost Adventures") than shows that are truly useful (Samantha Brown, Anthony Bourdain, etc.), I sometimes still find inspiration from cable TV. I must confess to having a spreadsheet with over 1,000 entries of nothing but places to eat that I saw watching Travel Channel or Food Network shows. It may seem like a waste of time to some, but I'll tell you, when you suddenly find yourself going to Portland, Oregon, and the list says that Voodoo Doughnut is a must, you'll be glad for compulsive note-taking.

• Online Deal Sites- If research and note-taking isn't your thing because you're more about spontaneity, consider signing up for one or more of the various "daily deal"-type websites out there. I love, love, love Travelzoo. Every Wednesday they publish their "Top 20" travel deals. Some are international, but there are usually really good local deals as well. Last year Emma, Scout and I went whale watching on Monterey Bay for $25 each with a Travelzoo deal. Groupon has teamed with Expedia to offer their Groupon Getaways, and there's also Living Social and Google Offers, and Travel + Leisure has a deals site called Vacationist for deals on upscale hotels. A couple of years back Emma and I got a great deal at the Tonga Room at the Fairmont in San Francsico through Google. Just be sure that the site you've signed up for is reputable, and be aware that there's potential for your in-box to be flooded with emails.

~Lizzie~

Re-re-introductions

This is the part where your faithful blogesses confess to not being so faithful after all. Has it really been more than a year since our last post? Shameful. 

Perhaps it's time for a re-commitment ceremony of sorts.

Hi there. We're Emma and Lizzie. We both work in libraries. We both like to travel.

In actuality one of the reasons our blog has fallen by the wayside in the last couple  of years is that we were both assigned to work in the same section of the same library within our system. And our system has been incredibly short-staffed for more than a few years now. So getting time off to go on BFF trips was extremely difficult. During this period we each traveled independently of each other-- Emma to San Diego, Oregon, Seattle and Las Vegas; Lizzie back to the UK. And there's always Disneyland and San Francisco. 

But the recent professional separation of your dynamic duo-- Emma finally got her dream job working in her hometown branch-- means we can hopefully return to our globetrotting ways. We have one adventure under our belt already, more on that in a soon-to-be-written post, and we've got something very interesting in the hopper. 



~Emma and Lizzie~

Dark Side... FTW

Holy cow, has it REALLY been that long since our last post? Well, if I was going to come back with a post, I'm happy it's with Star Wars Day with the San Francisco Giants.

Sundays = Free Parking! 

Lizzie and I got to the City right early in the morning and after we found free street parking (hooray for Sundays!), we took a walk to  American Grilled Cheese. It was closed. 

You know how Xena had her signature yodel? The Library Girls have a signature exclamation, "ADVENTURES". It's to remind us of the bigger task at hand... no matter what happens, life is always an adventure! That... and a nice way to say "we'll laugh about this later."

Lizzie was a sad panda because the Giants lost. 

After a teeny brunch at Red's Java House, we met up with Real Paul and made our way to the ballpark. 

This man's outfit was intriguing. Giants hat and shirt but a Wicked sweatshirt!
I'm also nosy... take a look at his book! 

The game started off great, but spiraled into a loss. We did, though, manage to get excited about Amy G. sitting at the end of our row (Lizzie and I had to excuse ourselves on our way back from a nacho excursion), Lou Seal dancing behind us and The Empire Strikes Back after the game. 

Enjoy the fun pictures of the game and the great Star Wars surprises that the San Francisco Giants had for us!

 

You know where I'm going this week?!?!?!?

It's about that time again! In fact, I will be leaving tomorrow to enjoy the spoils of a summer well worked. From preview night to Sunday, follow me through the panels, cosplay and after hours fun! This year, I have a special friend who will be coming with me to help me share the experience.

My hope is to take some time out to share pictures and videos of my time in San Diego and give our fans a taste of the best weekend ever! :)

NERDS UNITE!


xoxoxoxo
Emma

Scouting Report: Top 3 Rules for Traveling By Yourself

Hey guys! So as you know by now, I am the famous Scout. Well my mom has given me the chance to write for the blog while I’m up in the great, cloudy state of Washington. So since it’s the first week, I’ve decided to write my top 3 rules for traveling , especially by yourself, and they go as follows.

1. Don’t be” that” guy (or girl) on a plane. Now we have all had “that” person sit next to us, let them be noisy, obnoxious, rude, etc. Try to make sure that other people don’t have that same story about you. What I do is first either get a window or aisle seat. This ensures that if you do bother someone then it’s only 1 person. Then take either my nook or Sudoku book out or both. Once you hit 10,000 feet, your ipod or mp3 player is your best friend. I only take them off if the flight attendant comes for my drink order (which even then I might not remove them) and when we begin our descent. Also make sure you don’t sing along to your music because I know I have a problem with that. XD

2. Triple check that you have gum and a jacket. Gum is a necessity when on a plane. My ears are super sensitive so they plug up easily and pop not so easily. I have also learned that if you sit next to a little kid and their parent, their parent will love you forever when the kid throws a tantrum because their ears hurt and you offer delicious, nom-nomy gum. Also since I travel to an always cold and cloudy Washington, bring a jacket. This also helps if your seat neighbor decides to crank their air conditioning to full blast.

3. Never miss a chance to pee. This rule is probably the most important and pretty self-explanatory. I highly dislike airplane bathrooms. They are small, cramped and you cannot make a line or “congregate” in front when you really have to go. So go to the bathroom in the terminal. They are the exact opposite of the airplane. Big, roomy, and you can make a line . Even you don’t have that urge, go anyway. It’s better for everyone.

So those are my top 3 rules for traveling especially by yourself. I hope that these rules helped and remember to tune in to the blog (almost) every week for….ME!!!

:D

Scout

Surprises from afar!

Hey everyone!

I know, I know... long time no write. I don't blame any of you for being angry at me, but don't worry, there's a special blogger that I've invited to grace us with her presence.

Scout, in addition to being an amazing kid, is also a fantastic writer. At only 13, she's agreed to share some of her travel musings with us.  (I'm not biased...right?)

I hope you enjoy Scout's writings that will be called: The Scouting Report

It's Baseball Season Again!

We're working on new posts for everyone to enjoy! Until then, enjoy these pictures from The Library Girls' fun trip to the SF Giants Spring training last year!

It was raining in CA when we left. Lizzie thought it would
be awesome if we had yummy sno-cones. 

I agreed. It was good! 

Scottsdale Stadium, the Giants' Spring Training home! 

We were granted access to go into the stadium
before the general public. 

We got to hang out in the dugout. Pablo Sandoval
was getting interviewed right behind us! 

I snuck this picture. I was freaking out. 

Best. Breakfast. EVER!
Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix! It was worth the wait. 

 and enduring these offensive pants
during that wait. 

Restless feet

At this moment a good friend is road-tripping it cross country, from West to East. Following his blog is rekindling my own wanderlust. I have come to realize that I am just not happy unless I am planning adventures. So my head is now filled with potential travels. Until these bucket list vacations can be made a reality, I will just have to be content with local experiences and staycations. There are 70 items on my bucket list, and all but 5 are travel-related.

I don't live large-- I drive a 10-year-old Japanese import, bought my one good purse at an outlet store, and shop at the cheapest grocery store in town. Last month workers in our city, which , of course, includes library employees, took a large pay cut. Next month will be worse. It doesn't bother me that I'm always going to be shopping at discount stores, and have to cut back wherever I can. What does bother me is that I may not be able to make many of my travel dreams a reality.

Of course, this will all change after Colin Firth and I are married.

~Lizzie~

In a galaxy far, far away....

Emma and Lizzie will embark on a mission to AT&T Park where they will watch the Giants whoop the Arizona Diamondbacks back to their snake hole. They will be dressed in Star Wars garb, for it is Star Wars day at the park.

Pictures and travel goodness will follow!

xoxo
Emma

OMG.... too much goodness!

September 30th, 2009
Originally uploaded by Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright is from England. He directed things that I love and adore. Lizzie and I went to England. We passed this place.... a few months before he took this picture. Lizzie loved the Jack the Ripper Tour.

I love Edgar Wright.

WonderCon = WonderFUL!

Scout and I had an amazing time at WonderCon. One of the best things I could do with her was to expose her to "nerds like her" (her words, not mine!!!). My co-worker, Che, had told me to prepare Scout for "being the coolest kid in school that isn't popular". How true he was. Scout is interested in things that her peers don't care about:

Classmates: Jersey Shore
Scout: Big Bang Theory / Firefly

Classmates: Sucker Punch / Easy-A  (we're talking 7th grade here)
Scout: Scott Pilgrim / Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Classmates: Twilight
Scout: Anything she can get her hands on that's age appropriate

It was awesome to see her react to the costumes, the merchandise and the people. As a whole, comic book convention goers are pretty nice. They always take the time to talk to you and they're genuinely interested in the nerdiness of others. Case in point: Scout and I chose some kick ass Firefly artwork. The artist was there, signed the work and talked to us about how nice Fillion was and how grateful he was to do something he loved. I mentioned that I had seen him at ComicCon, but didn't purchase because I had to fly home. I was purchasing this time because I was closer to home and could transport the artwork in a car. When I purchased the artwork, he put it in a hard plastic sleeve with a handle. This ensured that everyone could see the artwork, it would keep it safe AND flat. No matter where Scout and I were, people stopped us to look at the artwork and comment on how cool it was and how much they loved Firefly. Scout was in awe. No longer was she the nerd at school trying to preach the Legend of Jayne... there were people who KNEW it! 

It's a shame I can't take her to ComicCon, but in time, we will go together and she will love every minute of it!! 

change of plans!

It's the weekend for mother-daughter fun! Scout will become an honorary Library Girl this weekend as we traverse the wilds of WonderCon! The weirder the costumes... the better! 

Nerdy mom-daughter weekend adventures!! :D 

Library Girls (and Scout) go to the City

New and weird adventures await us at WonderCon 2011 in San Francisco next week. Join the Library Girls (and junior girl, Scout) as we traverse the crazy world of comics. Join us for excitement!! 

Gratitude above all things...

It's always at the end of vacation, on the way back home, when I really being to digest the trip as a whole. This trip was the right amount of excitement, relaxation, insanity and fun. Since Lizzie and I became friends, I have realized just how lucky I was to find the best travel friend ever. While Scout is the best travel kid ever, I am so thrilled in being able to truly enjoy travelling with someone who embodies a positive travel philosophy. Some of the best memories I've had during this trip was the simplicity of the shared experience.

I've traveled to many places with friends and family. During that time, I've taken a lot of notes about what works and what doesn't work. Those notes have prepared me for the day when I would find a good travel friend in Lizzie. Traveling with others really gives you a sense of what you do and do not want in an experience. Here are some of the little things I've learned along the way:

1) Research is awesome. A time table to help establish things is helpful. Sometimes things don't work out as planned and sometimes adjustments have to be made. Good research helps derail disappointment for things like operating hours.

2) It's okay to not spend every minute of every vacation day together. It's fun to experience different things then return with exciting stories to share. Lizzie and I each had a day to ourselves in London and Paris. For me, those 2 days made me feel nomandic and happy. I loved sharing my day with Lizzie and loved hearing about her day out!

3) Local food is amazing. Seek it out and get the true essence of the city you're visiting. Lizzie and I have enjoyed great meals in every city we've visited. Expand your taste buds!

4) Planning ahead with your entire group is a necessity. Don't waste a lot of time arguing in hotel rooms or stopped cars on where you're going/eating/visiting. Decent planning means that you have a lot of your bases covered and what people want and do not want during the trip!

5) GPS is awesome... but be prepared for the time that it stops wanting to give directions. Paper maps still work!

6) Where one traveler is weak, the other is strong. Embrace your knowledge and know when to concede to your travel friend for their knowledge.

7) (most important) Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. Remember the trip isn't about only you. There are other people involved who are interested in other things! ;)  No trip is perfect, but the way you and your travel partners approach challenges can make or break a trip.

There isn't a day when I don't appreciate how lucky I am. I'm grateful for every second that I'm alive and living my life in the moment. Life IS a journey and I'm so fortunate to have good people around me.

Raise your glass, kiddies, to ADVENTURES!  :)

xoxoxoxo
Emma

A free, quiet moment to write about Sunday!

Laundry is in the dryer. Lizzie is napping after the late breakfast and I have a moment to myself to steal the computer and write about our travels.

Before I begin on Sunday's adventures, I'd like to say that driving through Arizona / Phoenix at night is boring. It was also dark. No lights and all together scary when you're on a 2 lane freeway through the desert. Our drive that was supposed to be 5 hours started to leak into 6 hours with the sudden emergence of road closures due to both accidents and construction. We were very angry and tired monkeys when we arrived at our hotel.

That being said, let me tell you about Sunday... our first real day in Phoenix. We got to the hotel at about 1 AM and found out that the hotel clocks said 2 AM. Our phone clocks said 1 AM but hadn't reset. One of the fantastic parts of our day was finding out that my hotel scouting and reservations paid off in a room that was over 30% off the current rate because I had booked so early. Our very basic and out of the way hotel in Mesa was at capacity due to Spring Training. Yay us!!  :D

The first game was in Surprise, AZ at Surprise Stadium. This was the venue that was furthest away from our hotel. At an hour drive through very un-picturesque landscape, we were happy to arrive and find our seats. We were not prepared for the heat (a crazy 88 degrees) and how close we were to the field (right past the 3rd base bag in the 5th row). They were so close!

The Giants stomped on the Rangers with a great score of 11-8. Take that, Claw fanatics! Their food at their stadium was lackluster. The only thing that was delicious there was the shared sno-cone. Perfect for the weather!

The day was capped with a trip to Alice Cooperstown for dinner. I had the veggie sandwich (which promised grilled veggies... and ended up being some marinated mushrooms and salad mix crap) and Lizzie enjoyed pasta with andouille sausage, chicken and a cream sauce. I had one bite and it was tasty.  I whittled my sandwich down to random carrot shreds and looked around at other goodies. There's a 2 ft hot dog called "The Big Unit". When someone orders it, there's a huge bell that goes off so everyone looks to see who is eating the Unit. Heh. It got annoying after the 2nd time. The first time, I thought it was a fire drill.

Back at the hotel, Lizzie and I stressed out about Monday's game and our big surprise which we will write about soon.... with pictures. There are some people who know about our project, but we will reveal more soon.

Be well and travel safely!
xoxoxoxox
Emma