This time last year we were returning from a family Labor Day holiday in New York City where we played in Central Park, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and saw the dinosaur skeletons at the American Museum of Natural History. We had a fantastic time and today I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for that trip, the boys’ first memorable experience in Manhattan.

Perhaps the most dreamy part of our adventure was our visit to FAO Schwarz, that purveyor of everything any child could want from marbles…

to Muppets…

and everything in between.

I was probably seven or eight years old – the same age as Tommy – the first time I entered this iconic space. What’s amazing to me is that it was just as thrilling to go back at 39. There is just so much of everything, more than you’ve ever seen – more Legos, more dolls, more trains, more stuffed animals -  that children actually forget to be acquisitive while they are in there. I don’t think I heard one “can I get that?” It’s like visiting the Museum of Childhood Dreams Come True where everyone wanders around in kind of a happy daze. Everywhere you look there is something you never even knew existed, whether it’s giant stuffed dinosaurs,

or snakes,

or a piano you can dance on.

I know that there are other toy stores in Manhattan and that many people think an indoor Ferris wheel can’t be beat. I’ve got no beef with that, but nevertheless I remain loyal to this old-school store in this most magical of locations, close to the Central Park Zoo and facing The Plaza. So today I’m dreaming of a return to New York City with children, and especially to FAO Schwarz. Maybe next time we’ll even make a purchase.

A Happy Labor Day and unofficial end of summer to one and all. Please feel free to share your Monday Dreams below. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

One of the things I’ve learned about traveling with kids is that it’s very important to do a thorough cost-benefit analysis when making decisions about things like whether to pay extra for the hotel suite where you are separated from your children for the blissful five hours that they sleep by an actual door or whether to drop twenty dollars on a taxi that will get you to your destination faster than the city bus that you would surely take if you weren’t hauling around a stroller, a sticky backpack, and a whiny child. When Teddy and I were invited on the Jet Adventure trip to the Bahamas I had to make just such a decision, choosing whether or not I wanted to spring for a hotel room near the airport the night before we left. Since they wanted us at JFK Airport by 7 a.m., and since it’s a two-and-a-half hour drive from our house, I decided it was worth the money to stay over.

Yes, technically, we could have gotten up at 4, driven to a long-term parking lot, and been there in plenty of time. But I guarantee you that by the time our plane touched down in the Bahamas my eye would have been twitching and Teddy would have been a humid wreck. So instead, we left early on Friday afternoon so as to avoid rush hour traffic, and made our leisurely way to the end of the earth through three of New York’s five boroughs.

If you’re flying out of JFK Airport and have an early morning flight, I highly recommend that you stay at the Fairfield Inn on Rockaway Boulevard. Why? The rooms are immaculate and the beds comfortable – in fact, dare I say luxurious? A few more bonus points: there is free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and the restaurant serves food that is reasonably edible. More importantly, it has a full bar. (Which you will need to avail yourself of after driving to the end of the earth on the horror that is the Van Wyck Expressway. But I digress.) And I was able to find a room for less than $125.

I was seriously impressed by this hotel, which has a friendly and welcoming staff and is quiet as a tomb. This latter is particularly surprising given that it is only five minutes from the airport. Teddy and I slept well and after availing ourselves of the free 24-hour shuttle, which dropped us right at the terminal, were rested and more than ready to swim with the dolphins at the Atlantis Resort when we arrived later in the day. Much more so than if I had gotten us up at 4 a.m. and driven all the way from Delaware. Yes I would have saved a little money had I done so, but I know from experience that I would have sacrificed that first afternoon and evening of fun. Not. Worth. It.

And while I’m at it, let me also recommend AirPark as the place to put your car if you will be leaving it at JFK while you travel. For one thing, it’s two blocks from the Fairfield Inn – Teddy and I dropped our luggage off, then went and parked the car, returning on foot. I wouldn’t say the walk was the most pleasant I’ve ever been on (and I wouldn’t want to do it in the dark) but there was sidewalk the entire way and it wasn’t unsafe.

Better yet, when we came back to New York, tired and cold after our days of fun in the sun, the staff at AirPark went out of their way to make our return a pleasant one. Although they were busy, they picked us up within ten minutes of my call. When the shuttle pulled into the parking lot, my car was out front, engine running so that it was nice and warm. We were two hours past the time I had dropped the car off, but the nice man working at the counter took that time off without being asked, charging me only for four days instead of five.

And I have to say, small details and a little expense make all the difference around the margins when you’re traveling with kids. I had put Teddy in his pajamas at the airport and bought him a snack that he ate while we waited for our luggage. It made things so easy to put him in his carseat in a warm car and speed him back to Delaware – he was asleep before we even hit Staten Island. And so our trip ended on a happy and positive note, even if I did have to drive on the Van Wyck for the second time in a week.

Please note that although I both my flight and the trip to the Bahamas were paid for by JetBlue, LEGO, and the Atlantis Resort, I covered the costs of both my hotel in New York and parking my car while we were away and was in no way compensated for this review.

It’s not often on this blog that I reveal the less attractive side of my personality to the world. Mostly that’s because I’m in charge of the content, and hey, I like to look good as much as the next person. But I think it’s also due to the fact that travel truly brings out the best in me – the side that is fun, resourceful, creative, and occasionally spontaneous. The happy side as it were.

I’ll admit with some chagrin that for the past few weeks that it is the darker side of my personality that has been more in evidence. This is the part of me that gets weighed down by the pedestrian and feels trapped in her own house. When this Mara comes to stay, I turn into a humorless, impatient person who can’t come up with anything fun to do but who also puts the kibosh on too many video games or too much TV. Oh, and did I mention that she’s a complainer?

This side is, unfortunately for my children, the one that shows up when a series of snow days comes along and wipes the slate clean of all my plans. And when those snow days are followed by a week-long head cold and then still more snow days, during the last of which my husband is out of town, the anti-Mara takes over as relentlessly as the weather. This past Friday the world seemed so small and impossible that I actually put the children in the car and attempted to drive to my sister’s house as I had planned earlier in the week even though it had stormed on Thursday night and school was canceled. I drove through blowing snow, jaw clenched, until I reached a steep patch of road in rural Pennsylvania that had not been plowed. Here I at last realized my own folly, turning around rather than risking a run into the ditch.

Three hours in the car and I was back at my own door with two very unhappy children and my own guilty face in the rearview mirror.

I’m pleased to report that Good Mara returned at that moment, rented Ponyo, and let the children watch it while they ate yummy quesadillas that she whipped up using a variety of odds and ends from her fridge. They both had “special drinks” (chocolate milk for one and pomegranate syrup in tonic water for the other) lots of cuddles, and then a good long read aloud before bed.

And I was kind to myself as well after the children were tucked in bed pouring a generous glass of Vigonier and then remembering that I hadn’t yet found a hotel room for the 2010 Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) Conference, which I attended in Chicago last year. This year’s edition will take place at the end of June in New York City and it promises to be both fun and enlightening. Within the hour I proceeded to find a deal at the swanky Cooper Square Hotel (thank you Meg of Backpack to Buggy who posted the link on Twitter). I then banished anti-Mara completely with daydreams of a quiet train ride followed by a day of walking and museums and then a weekend of learning and merriment with many of the online pals whose blogs I so admire.

One new aspect of the conference that I’m excited about this year is the Community Keynote. Travel bloggers have been invited to submit posts in a variety of categories. The winning posts will be read at the conference and linked from the TBEX website. I am planning to submit an entry and may even offer you, my dear readers, a chance to help select which post I send in.

And so my Monday dream is a mixed on this week: no more snow days this winter, a grown-up trip to Manhattan, and having my writing validated by colleagues I respect. But most of all I dream that the Mara I like – the Traveling Mom Mara – sticks around, even when she’s stuck at home.

What are you dreaming of this Monday? Please feel free to share a link below, making sure you link directly to your post, not your site’s homepage and that you link back to this post. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

This post was originally published last December, before I started sharing Monday Dreaming links and well before my site redesign. Since much about it fit my mood this Monday,  I decided to update it for this year and share it again.  Hope you enjoy!

We decorated our Christmas tree this weekend and before it tipped over leaving a pool of water and shattered glass in its wake (miraculously only two ornaments were irredeemably smashed) both of the boys remarked on the large number of angels that don its branches. And it’s true. I have an inordinate love of angels from fat naked cherubs to Victorian damsels dressed in red velvet and feathery wings to their more ethereal, shimmering cousins in gauze and sparkles.

I have of course seen many wonderful angels in my travels (the Uffizi alone is home to untold numbers), but a sentimental favorite place to visit them is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

My mother took me to the Metropolitan Museum a number of times, starting when I was about Tommy’s age. She would dangle a visit to the Egyptian wing in front of my nose while coaxing me to look at paintings. Once we were in a gallery she would ask me to look carefully at every picture. “What do you like about it?” she would ask. “What colors do you see? What shapes? Why do you think the artist painted the shadow here, the light there? What secrets is that woman hiding?” And she would tell me stories about the artists, explaining who was friends with whom and why he painted pictures of the same church over and over again.

I remember her laughing at paintings that struck her fancy, a laugh of such pure delight that I would laugh too as if I understood, while peering at a still life with a dead chicken at its center or a portrait of a woman holding a lapdog or a picture of a resigned-looking Mary receiving the word of her miracle from an angel. As a child I didn’t get what would possibly be funny in Mary’s expression (Who me? You’ve got to be kidding!) although now that I am a mother myself, and know the combination of joy and terror that accompanies a positive pregnancy test, her air of patient exasperation makes me smile too.

One of the last visits I paid to the museum with my mother before she died was at the holidays. We walked all the way up Fifth Avenue from Grand Central Station, a distance of about forty blocks. By the time we arrived we were windblown and tired and in need of refreshment (I’m sure I was also snappish and annoyed with her as I tended to get when she did things like insist that we walk all that way). I let her guide me and she pulled us in through the busy lobby, into the dim medieval sculpture gallery at the heart of the museum.

Ah yes, how could I have forgotten the angel tree? Any tiredness or irritation was instantly gone as I gazed up at the impossible beauty of those angels draped in satin. The tree was gorgeously illuminated against a delicate screen, the angels ready for flight. A huge nativity scene was spread out at the bottom. It was as if every Renaissance painting in the museum had come suddenly to life and converged on this one sacred space.

This past weekend as we eventually righted and stabilized our tree and cleaned up the mess I thought about that visit and about my mother who loved Christmas and also tended to suffer from disasters big and small.  While we were completing our second, more successful round of tree trimming, Teddy said, “It’s OK that your mom isn’t here to help us Mommy. Because she’s an angel. She’s watching us from heaven.” It is of course my fondest hope that he is right. But I wish that she could be here to show them the earthly angels on their first visit to the Met, perhaps on her birthday. She would be turning 67 next Sunday.

Although she isn’t here, I do look forward to the day when I will walk into that hall with my boys and see that magical tree covered with angels, the nativity scene at the bottom like the true Christmas gift it is. Then, maybe, they will understand why I love angels so dearly.

And maybe they will connect that love with the watercolor of an angel that their grandmother painted, a painting that watched over both of them while they slept as babies. Maybe they will see a bit of her, the woman they never knew.

If you’re looking for a way to be an angel for others this holiday season, please visit the Passports With Purpose site where we have surpassed our goal of $13,000 for a school in Cambodia and are now working to raise even more money to fund things like clean water and a school nurse. All funds raised go directly to American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC), which is a non-profit 501(c)3 registered in the United States; this organization will oversee all aspects of building the school. Ten dollars buys you a chance to win $150 to spend on photographs at Shutterfly or one of many other wonderful prizes. Chance to win make wonderful holiday gifts.

What are you dreaming of on this Monday? Please feel free to share a link below, making sure you link directly to your post, not your site’s homepage and that you link back to this post. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

Photo of Angel Tree courtesy of kamalaboulhosn via Flickr.

Photo of nativity scene courtesy of Genista via Flickr.

It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve never taken my children to a circus. They love street performers and have on past occasions been captivated by jugglers and musicians. They both have goofy, slapstick senses of humor. And of course, Teddy adores animals inordinately. The circus has a bit of everything they would love: Feathers! Glitter! Loud music! Dogs walking on their hind legs! To say nothing of popcorn, hotdogs, and cotton candy.

So today I’m dreaming of The Big Apple Circus, which offers funny, intimate performances in the finest tradition of street busking, acrobatics, aerialist, equestrians and more. What circus could be better for my globe-trotting family than this one? They have a Spanish juggler, Russian acrobats, as well as performers from Armenia, Brazil, China, England, and Italy. Right now the star of the show is Bello the Clown. I’ve never seen him perform, but I do like his vertical hairstyle and he apparently has won acclaim all over the world for being both funny and a daredevil.

What I really like about this circus is that they have a real commitment to both the aesthetics of performance and to the communities that they perform in. Many of the performers are graduates of professional theatre training programs. The dogs in the show have all been rescued from shelters. And the circus (which is a nonprofit organization) offers a number of outreach programs that send performers into pediatric hospitals, senior centers and care homes, and schools. They also give free or discounted tickets to schools and programs that serve disadvantaged children.

I’ve saved the very best part for last. Readers of The Mother of All Trips who would like to see the Big Apple Circus can get a $30 per-ticket discount to the troupe’s New York City performances at Lincoln Center this fall. They will be in Manhattan through January 18, 2010. To purchase your discounted tickets*:

• Online: http://bigapplecircus.org/pop.aspx and submit the code POP10 in the Promotional Codes box
• By Phone: CALL 888-541-3750 and mention code POP10
• In Person: Big Top Box Office  10AM–6PM daily. No service fee. Bring a copy of this blog post

*Offer good on select seat locations and performances. Must present this blog post to receive discount at the box office. Performance schedule subject to change. Offer is subject to availability; not valid on prior purchases; cannot be combined with other discounts or promotions. This offer can be revoked at any time. Discount amount varies. Limit 8 tickets per order. No refunds or exchanges. Telephone and Internet orders are subject to standard service fees.

If you can’t make it to New York, the circus will also be visiting Atlanta, GA in February and Washington, DC in March. Information about upcoming performances is available on the website. If you like what you see there, I hope you’ll consider becoming a member. For more information check out @BigApple_Circus on Twitter and the Big Apple Circus
Facebook fan page.

What are you dreaming of on this Monday? Please feel free to share a link below, making sure you link directly to your post, not your site’s homepage and that you link back to this post. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

All photos courtesy of Bertrand Guay/Big Apple Circus

Full disclosure: If I were to truly write about my dream tonight it would have to do not with adventures or scenery or roaming with my children. After logging 3700 miles and six weeks of travel this summer I returned to a house in desperate need of some sprucing up. And since we always stay away as long as possible, that means the sprucing (as in painting of most rooms and deep cleaning of most closets) has coincided with the start of school. So what I’m really dreaming of this week is rooms without piles, walls with pictures on them, and a general sense of order and quiet.

But then I remember that in less than a week I’ll be spending three days in Manhattan with my kids and thoughts of curtain rods and cleaning my file cabinets fly out the window in the face of romantic possibility. Because I know that I’ll be taking them to the Empire State Building.

They’ve both seen the building many times; it’s usually visible from the New Jersey Turnpike as we’re creeping to or from the George Washington Bridge, a symbol to them of all that’s alluring about the mysterious big city that we always drive past and never visit. They’ve also read the fabulous picture book Sector 7 by David Wiesner about the little boy who gets carried away on a cloud while visiting the observation deck with his class. I’m not sure if it’s the appeal of being up really high, seeing really far, or the possibility that a magical cloud or airplane might take us away also, but both of them really want to go up and up and up.

Although I dread the line to get in (which I myself have stood in on more than one occasion) I think that the promise of such enchantment will make waiting possible. In fact, I’m sure it is, since they both managed to wait over an hour to go up in the Eiffel Tower last summer. I’m also thinking that I may print off the Kids FAQ page from the website; it lists facts like how many bricks are in the building and how many people it took to build it, which I think will make for a fun trivia guessing game. I’m also planning to purchase our tickets to the 86^th floor in advance, which should save us some wait time. From there, we can just enjoy the view or buy additional tickets to go up to the 102^nd floor if the kids really need to go all the way up.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be clear one of the days we are in New York so that we can go when the view is at its best. According to the website it’s possible on really nice days to see as far as 80 miles. I’m a bit skeptical that we’ll see Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania while we’re up there, as the website also claims. But since this is a dreaming post, and since it clearly is a magical place, perhaps I’m mistaken. Maybe we will see all the way to our house in Delaware. From up there, it will look pristine.

What is your Monday dream? Please feel free to share a link below. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

First photo courtesy of Magnus Nordstrom.

Second photo courtesy of echiner1 at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/decadence/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Third photo courtesy of milfodd at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andymilford/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0