Visiting Normandie: U.S. at Its Finest

At a time when our country is at its worst, we had to visit a time and place when it was at its best. A pilgrimage ALL Americans should make. After visiting Disneyland in Paris, we went 180 from the so-called "happiest place on Earth" to the saddest. Certainly for Americans. We visited Omaha Beach - one of the five amphibious landing sites during Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day - June 6, 1944. This is also the site of one of the most gruesome and deadly battles ever fought in one of the most selfless acts of courage ever known. More than 700 U.S. soldiers died on Omaha Beach on this day alone. Thousands of miles away from home, they died in defense of our friends after Nazi Germany invaded France. We also visited the nearby Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,389 of our finest are buried.

Three things that stood out for me, before I turn it over to Aylin and Emilio for their reflections: 

 1-The French have not forgotten. As we drove closer to these historic areas, we were moved to see the amount of U.S., British, and Canadian flags waving alongside le drapeau tricolore, the French flag, from the homes of ordinary French citizens. More than 80 years later and with most of the French folks who were alive to experience our landing resting in peace, the grateful of our first Allies has crossed at least one generation. 

 2-How powerful this visit would be for us. The combination of heartbreak and pride overtook me in a way I'd never experienced before. Despite several visceral interactions during my military, including saluting the flag while standing watch topside of my first duty station: USS L. Mendel Rivers, a Sturgeon-class, nuclear submarine, the sight of the U.S. flag has never conjured so much emotion. 

 3-The realization that this was why and when we earned our exceptionalism. Every year, France and other European nations honor the ultimate sacrfice made by our bravest. In the history of the world, you would be hard-pressed to find another example of a people sending their children halfway around the world in defense of their friends. It is this bravery, I suppose, that made us - organically - a world leader. We became a country to emulate. A people to respect. A person to treat to a beer or two. Since then, however, we've rested on THEIR laurels to become a nation of entitled assholes. We earned our exceptionalism then. Now, we demand it without cause. 

Aylin's reflections: 

Normandy, France, has been one of the most beautiful and saddest places to visit. My family and I went to Normandy, where D-Day happened, and after we watched "Saving Private Ryan." 

We went to a museum in Normandy, where you could see real tanks, guns, military uniforms, and other things used during D-Day. After the museum, we walked around Omaha Beach, one of the beaches where the U.S. landed on D-Day. Nowadays, people cannot go swimming there out of respect for all of the soldiers, who died on that beach. My family and I saw a tall black marble pyramid with the names of all the soldiers who died, and the names that were in gold meant they had earned the Medal of Honor. I had found a bunker underneath the ground that the Nazis used. I also found ladybugs and put them on a white flower. I told my mom that because ladybugs represent good luck and white flowers are usually used when people die, both the flower and the ladybugs felt like a nice way to honoro all the brave soldiers who died.

The next day, my family and I went to the cemetery where all the D-Day soldiers that sacrificed their lives were buried. The setting of the cemetery was so beautiful and calming, the perfect place for all of the soldiers to be buried. All of the grave stones were perfectly aligned in lines, sections, and rows. The sight of so many grave stones made me feel very sad, thinking about how many families lost their special family members during this war. 

Emilio's reflections: 

After going to Disneyland, we went to a place that put us in the complete opposite mood: Omaha Beach in Normandy. We drove from Paris to the most northern part of France to Omaha Beach to visit museums, ruins, and other D-day memorials. 

On our first day, June 25, my dad's birthday, we went to the Overlord Museum near the beach. The museum had realistic war sounds, cool visuals, and even original relics from the battle, like weapons, tanks, and other memorabilia. They even had realistic mannequin soldiers. Even though it was a sad museum, it was really cool. 

After that, we went to the beach where the most people died on D-Day: Omaha Beach. We drove a few minutes. It was cold, but we had to get used to it, so we brought light jackets. We walked on a path and read a few sad stones that showed maps and people who died, along with roses and other items left behind out of sympathy. We went farther down the path and explored three hidden Nazi bunkers, including the one that "Captain Miller" and his team appeared to hide behind in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," which realistically depicted this battle. At one point, I had to urgently use the bathroom while we were near one of the bunkers, so I regrettably did my business in a hidden corner in one of the bunker's rooms. Then, we went to our Airbnb in Bayeux. 

The next morning, we explored the Normandy American Cemetery, which also appears in "Saving Private Ryan." We first went to the little museum where they showed a few war items and pictures, like the "Hedgehog" (picture shown below). We even saw a short movie on D-day in the theater inside the museum. After that, we went out and saw the graveyards that were lettered A - I. We saw the headstones from a distance, but for the most important ones, like two of the Medal of Honor recipients and one of a Jewish solider, marked by the Star of David instead of a cross, we were able to get closer and take photos. I left a pinecone for each important person as a form of sympathy and paying my respects. 

May they R.I.P. It was very sad to be here, but it was an honor for me to visit as an American who is seeing so many problems in my home country right now. It was beautiful, too, experiencing the clean grass, trees, and mild breeze. Not exactly a fun visit, but very interesting. I loved Normandy.

Emilio's First Post: Angels and Stuff

So my parents took me to two museums during our recent trip to Paris. One was the famous Louvre. The other was the Orsay! So, "It" actually took place in the first gallery at the Musèe d'Orsay.

After walking what felt like forever, due to the pain in my legs from walking all over Disneyland and then Northern France the days leading up to our arrival in Paris, I spotted two paintings, and in my ADHD mind, I knew just what to do... hehe! The first painting showed a happy woman, who looked a lot like Venus, actually. The woman had a cute, loving angel baby, exchanging happy eye contact with his "mom."

This baby... looked a lot like ME. Right? My curly hair came in later.

The baby angel was younger and, of course, uglier than me. I called this painting "Anne's Dream" or "What Anne Ordered."

The second one, now, showed the same woman, except she was frightened to death by the seven babies "assaulting" her, as the painting is called. I called THIS one "Anne's (Nightmare) Life" or "What Anne Actually Received."

It made us ALL - mom, sister, dad, me - laugh, especially my dad (Boss of Traveloquitos), a man who almost never laughs in museums. And that joke is still going strong today because we also made a short video. We have footage! After that, we enjoyed the rest of our visit to Orsay, including some of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh's work. I will post more photos later. The next day we went to the Louvre and visited the rest of Paris. One word: B E A U T I F U L.

Aylin's First Post: Shopping at Christian Dior's

When we visited Paris, I went inside Christian Dior's "OG" store with my mother. On our way inside the store, a person was holding the door open. Inside, the store was mostly white, with some rooms the color cream.

First, we explored the ground floor. There were newer things that Dior released, in the theme of a jungle or Africa. There were purses, handbags, perfumes, and makeup products. The purses were made of a special fabric that was soft and thick, making them durable. The handbags were absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to get one, but they were expensive, so I just continued to explore around.

Next, there were perfumes. I saw the most recent perfumes, including one called Miss Dior, which came in various shades of pink. My mother and I asked a kind woman employee which Dior perfume was the original and when it was released. The original perfume Christian Dior made was around World War II, and he made it for his sister, Catherine Dior, because she was taken away by the Nazis. They took her to a concentration camp, where they tortured her. They didn't feed her, give her a bed, or water. Christian Dior had been looking for his sister for a year. He cried. Later on, she was released, but when she came back to her house, she would not get out of her room because she was traumatized. One day, Christian decided to make a perfume just for her to cheer her up. Realizing other women were upset and depressed after the war, he started making dresses, purses, perfumes, and other items to help make women happy again, which worked. Although he was well-known, he used his ability and talent to help people, making him one of the most well-known designers on Earth.

Finally, my mom and I went to check out the makeup room. That is where the perfumes were, as well. There were lip glosses, lipsticks, highlighters, bronzers, eyeliners, eyeshadows, and blushes. I had looked at the lip glosses, Dior Lip Addict, where the lip glosses were clear, but lightly colored. I had tried on one, recommended based on my skin and hair color by the kind woman from earlier, which was a dark red-brownish or mahogany-red, wine-ish color. I liked that one, so I asked how much it cost, and she said it was 44 euros, making it one of the cheapest products in the store. I decided to buy it.

One of the employees grabbed a new, packaged lip gloss, and also gave me a perfume sample. Then, they put both of the products inside a small paper bag, with the design of the store's original front door with the number 30 next to it. It made my purchase and the sample look pretty in the bag that was very beautiful and unique. This indeed was one of my favorites part of going to France, after going to Disneyland Paris.

The Disney Bullet We Thought We Dodged

Living Europe admittedly made us a little snobbish about ever going to Disney-anything or anywhere. We figured, "All Dinsney's trying to do is look like these beautiful, old medieval European towns and castles. Why spend hundreds of dollars, when you can see see the real deal for free?" With Aylin 14 and Emilio 12, we prematurely declared victory thinking we'd dodged the Disney bullet. But when we asked Aylin, "Where do you want to go this summer to celebrate your quinceañera?" and she said, "Paris and... Disney," there was nothing left to do but bite THAT bullet.

We'll get to Disney later. For now, we'll roll right into Aylin and Emilio's first blog posts. I asked them to write about their favorite aspects of the trip in no particular order, so...

We're Back

After a long hiatus, Traveloquitos is back with a little help from my kids Aylin and Emilio, who seem to be better at writing than I was at their age. I know it's a low bar, but it's something. Here they are circa 2015...

Circa Now...

Ten years ago in 2015 - discouraged that an overseas job wasn't in the cards for us - we decided to take a roadtrip through Europe as our consolation. Little did we know that just two years later the election of Trump would drive us right back to Europe, where we have remained since. To be clear, he didn't push us away, it was being surrounded by 70 million people who voted for him. Even so, the irony of fleeing an idiot's version of fascism to shelter in Italy - the birthplace of fascism - was not lost on us. Neither was the symbolism in escaping the tiny grip of a tiny-handed autocrat to be welcomed by the dispraportionately large hands of Leonardo da Vinci's statute at his namesake airport in Roma. Haven't looked back since. Como stai bello?

To travel or not to travel (like crazies)

"Que LOQUITOS!" (pronounced: Low-KEE-toes and not Low-Kwee-toes) This, or some variation, is what we hear when we share our TRAVEL plans with family or friends. In Spanish, it means, "You little crazies!" It's a nice way of telling us we're brave, stupid, lucky or irresponsible for traveling the way we do: frequently, boldly and with two little ones. Whether it's a weekend getaway or a month-long stint in Ecuador, we like to go and go often.

The toughest consideration are the kids. Is this good for them? Or are we just fulfilling some egocentric void by doing this? We don't want to be those A-list, A-hole celebrities who give their kids awful names just to make themselves sound cool, like Jason Lee, for example. Pilot Inspektor? Really? I'm sure your kid will have a great time with that one in school. Anyway, we've done some research on this whole traveling with kids deal, but ultimately - like most things in the illogical, unscientific art of parenting - it's a judgment call. It has its pros, and other pros, and some cons.

Apart from giving our kids their rightful inheritance of being trilingual (English, Spanish and Turkish), we also want them to be citizens of the world. Hokey as it may sound, we figure, the more they can interact and experience different people, different cultures and different places, the more prepared they'll be for the ever-shrinking world that awaits them. In some way, it's also a mitigation strategy for those teenage years when they're supposed to hate us. "See all the awesome places we took you!" we'll surely tell 'em. That should help, right? Hopefully, we're right about some of this.

Europe 2015: Let's do this already

Ten years in the making and a year planning is finally here. In less than an hour, our young family of four will board a Turkish Airlines Flight to Brussels, where our two-month, six-country European vacation will begin. When you think about it, you get a small window to pull off a trip like this on your terms. Before kids, you can't afford it. When the kids are too small, what's the point? When kids start school, they're schedules dictate when and for how long you can go. When they graduate high school, two months with mom and dad don't sound too hot - for anyone. Of course, we also wanted to pull this thing off while we're still young-ish. We've had no shortage of signs this year - deaths, illness, really bad crap - to remind us: there are no guarantees. All of this is to say, our time is now. For added encouragement, Deniz and I, way back when we didn't know any better, made a promise to do something like this to celebrate our 10-year anniversary - it'll be 10 years on Sept. 10. Just look at us back then (this was the photo we used on the CD cover of our wedding favor):

So here we are. We're ready to do this. I'm psyched up even as the gentlemen at the terminal bathroom is rinsing and clacking his dentures in the sink next to me, as if to remind me: travel ain't always all that great, kid. "Sure," I think to myself, as I glance in the mirror smiling with my (still) real teeth.

Update 1:
Boarded and seated, we're ready.

Update 2:
Oh, and our primary mode of transportation during this trek: Death Chucks. Because nothing says style and comfort like these bad boys.