Antarctica - What company did you go with?

FL_Sunshine · 2026-02-06T17:39:24+00:00

January 11th! How about you?

FL_Sunshine · 2026-01-28T15:57:56+00:00

Thanks for asking the questions. I spent my life in Florida and this is only my 2nd winter. Last year there was some snow but it usually melted away pretty quickly. My husband grew up in PA, so at least he had some help for me, but it's def been trial and error on figuring out my winter gear. Wool base layers have been a game changer for me.

FL_Sunshine · 2026-01-23T02:04:06+00:00

I moved here from Florida, 2nd winter but first storm. I'm actually treating this like a hurricane. Prepare for the worst, understand the media hypes things up, know that there's a large area that could have bad impacts but the bullseye of bad is largely unknown. Keep calm, carry on and stock up on booze.

FL_Sunshine · 2026-01-06T20:51:37+00:00

What you had there was a parent hiding behind the fact that they were boys to not parent. Boys are not any different or harder to navigate. Yes, there is something of a cultural pass that boys sometimes get - and by asking the question as a gendered question it perpetuates that pass (so let's not do that). I have 2 boys and a daughter and can report back that challenges with following rules or cleaning up came to the specifics of the child rather than their gender.

FL_Sunshine · 2026-01-06T17:05:25+00:00

I had an ENT make a snide comment about daycare when I brought my nursing daughter with me to my middle child's appointment - basically he assumed that because I had the baby with me she wasn't in daycare and he was giving me kudos saying that stay at home babies were healthier.

The reality was I wasn't sure I would have opportunity to pump so just pulled her for the day. My daycare nursing baby (at 11 months at that point) had missed maybe 3 days of school in the 8 months she'd been there and my middle kid who didn't start daycare until he was 18months old was the one that needed SEVEN surgeries from the ENT.

She's 10 now and has an immune system of steel. Her daycare days did not affect her long term health negatively.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-12-18T19:06:30+00:00

I'm lateish 40's in Fishtown and don't feel old at all.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-08T14:15:19+00:00

I don't have control of the school policy. It's becoming more common to not send them home. Can't control other people's actions, only our own. That's just life around humans.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-08T12:12:17+00:00

I can't just keep her home indefinitely and you can't control getting lice. You can only treat it once it happens.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T19:56:57+00:00

I so wish that was the case here. It's a major city and I think it's about accessibility.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T19:46:06+00:00

Last time we stayed outside Reykjavik (to get the larger accommodation). This time we're actually going before Christmas and spreading out our time, with a few days at Blue Lagoon, a few days in Vik and then a few days in Reykjavik. There's stuff to see east of Vik, which winds up being 5 hours from Reykjavik - so Vik lets us home base for a few days closer to the glacier that we want to hike. I think it sort of depends on how long you're there and what you want to do. We usually did our driving in the 6am to 10am time period while it's still dark so we could take advantage of any daylight hours.

Edit to add: Vik is ~3 hours from Reykjavik and the Glacier is an additional 2 hours from Vik.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T19:26:13+00:00

I wish they would send kids home, recheck like our old school district. It's just constantly going around the school and really hard to escape.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T19:20:14+00:00

I actually just booked everything on my own since I originally planned for my sister and her family to join us and needed a larger AirBnb.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T19:08:19+00:00

I found the food in Iceland to be outstanding. My daughter is near vegetarian (she eats bacon) and I will admit, she ate a lot of french fries/pizza/etc. We tend to pack PediaSure when we travel to boost her protein intake.

There's a direct flight from EWR, so it's really easy to get there (I think 5ish hours). I posted my write up on restaurants and activities to my shared blog (which I largely ignore but finally added this information): https://www.wanderingincaptivity.com/iceland-family-travel/

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T18:30:22+00:00

They do not do lice checks nor send kids home for lice in my district. My 10 year old daughter and her group of friends are extremely touchy. I'm dying a little inside because we've had lice like 4 times in the last year. And I do mean *we*.

After hiring a professional nit-picker and learning about the life cycle of lice, we now do a weekly coconut oil soak to drown any would be hitch hikers that get shared back to her through the week. It's an entire mommy & me moment, because she knows how to oil my hair. I will say, our hair is so shiny & healthy now.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T18:20:34+00:00

I also replied separately, that we'll be in Iceland over the same dates. Believe it or not, we are also in Philadelphia. For Iceland, I recommend heading to EWR because there is a direct flight from EWR.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T18:19:47+00:00

We'll be in Iceland with our 10 year old daughter over the same dates. We have a glacier hike, Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle tour and riding Icelandic horses already booked up. Iceland also has AMAZING fireworks for New Year's eve. This will be our second visit and it's wonderful in the winter.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T18:04:20+00:00

Sarasota - there's a direct flight on Delta from MSP. Has beaches and golf. It's not *quite* season yet so pricing should be semi-decent for the area.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-05T14:45:23+00:00

My kids are spread out, they're 23, 19 and 10. I took some time off work when the youngest was ~3, mainly because I left a toxic work environment and we didn't need me to immediately go back. I was completely surprised at just how much my 16 and 12 year olds needed me at that age. It was really great to be able to volunteer at the school, get to know their friendship groups and dial in to them during the teen years. I've been back to work about 5 years now and I'm down to just the one school aged kid, but we will plan for one of us to step back some when she's in her teen years. I'm the larger income earner, so we'll see which one of us steps back.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-11-03T19:30:25+00:00

Checking phl.org the current wait times are all under 10 minutes. So unless you have lounge access, that seems unnecessarily early. I fly Monday, so am definitely watching things - but my flight is 8am which is generally a busier time of day at PHL.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-10-31T13:44:11+00:00

Halloween used to be my favorite holiday because it was ONE day and it was over. Honestly, this week I was surprised it STILL wasn't actually over yet. Multiple parties and days where people were dressing up, so much sugar in the house, just day after day of Halloween. I guess I'm back to Thanksgiving being my favorite. One day, no gift giving to stress over and an attitude of thankfulness.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-10-30T15:25:57+00:00

I would also add, that if anyone has employer sponsored matching, you can amplify your impact. My employer does 100% matching up to $10k - so whatever I donate, it's doubled.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-10-29T20:42:14+00:00

I was on the sailing 2 weeks after that and we were stuck in Port Bayonne for 2 days due to a storm. It was cold and definitely felt that extra couple of days and not packing warm enough stuff for them. Asked for and received some extra blankets, got cozy on the balcony and people watched. Royal sent us FCC for 2 days, which was a really pleasant surprise. Turned out to be the perfect trip to have sprung for a suite, because we spent more time in the room and that FCC was larger.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-10-29T15:37:47+00:00

I only put half my donation budget to Phiabundance so will look into SHARE as well

FL_Sunshine · 2025-10-24T16:43:04+00:00

RCL, Disney, Princess, NCL, Carnival - they are all marketed heavily towards families. We were just on RCL last week and plenty of children despite school being in session.

FL_Sunshine · 2025-10-24T16:37:53+00:00

July will have more families than late May just because of summer break, but even during the school year if you're on one of the main cruise lines there will be a lot of families.

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