Traveling around China for a month with Noey was a dream come true. Here are all of the things we packed for the trip! All of the things below are most helpful for a 0-6 month old baby. In total, we checked in two large suitcase and brought on a carryon, a diaper bag, a backpack for our electronics, and the stroller.
After Beijing, Ke and I headed to Xi’an. I love Xi’an! I’ve visited twice before and the biggest difference this time was we didn’t sightsee at night. Xi’an comes alive at night! Here are my previous posts on top things to do in Xi’an, the Muslim Quarter at night, and Xi’an during Chinese New Year.
When I got pregnant with Noey I knew I wanted to use part of my generous maternity leave to spend some time traveling. China was the obvious choice because it’d be the best time for Ke’s family to see Noey as early as they could, plus I LOVE China. I still hope to live in China one day, just for a few years, and am going to use this month long trip to play pretend as an expat haha.
I’ve been very fortunate in life. I’ve worked really hard, taken some risks (like buying a one way ticket to San Francisco), and have had a lot of luck along the way. My goal in life as a young girl was to be successful and I thought the pinnacle of success was to become a CEO. My younger self was definitely on to something.
For our babymoon, Ke and I went to Suzhou! At first we thought about going to Hawaii but thanks to Scott’s Cheap Flights, we found an incredible deal to China that was even cheaper than Hawaii – only $350 roundtrip on a direct flight to Beijing. I was already feeling bummed out that our trip to France was going to be our last international trip of the year so I was pretty excited about our change of plans.
Ke and I took advantage of a great flight deal last spring and booked our first trip to France. We first spent a couple of days in Loire Valley, and then made our way to Paris where we met up with a couple of friends also traveling in Europe. We spent about 4 days enjoying and sightseeing in Paris.
4 weeks after our trip to Mexico City, Ke and I headed to France! Just like our trip to Mexico, we had planned this trip to France before I was pregnant. I was about 2 months pregnant at the time and unfortunately was hit hard with morning sickness. Despite the nausea and lack of appetite, I still had a ton of fun and love looking back on these photos. In total we spent 6 full days in France, 2 in Loire Valley and then 4 days in Paris.
Last spring, Ke and I had had an awesome time visiting Mexico City with some close friends. While I had a blast during my first time in Mexico in Cabo San Lucas, I wanted to experience the real side of Mexico. Ke had also been studying Spanish for over a year and really wanted to put his Spanish to the test.