There are a few things you need to know about me and my husband. We love to travel. We love to meet strangers. We are trying to have a baby.
I’ve always been a traveler. I took my first trip to France in high school. I spent semesters abroad in college and graduate school. Then I moved to Fargo, North Dakota and met my husband. At 28-years-old, he had never flown on a plane.
Meeting me changed that. Roughly a year into our relationship, we flew to my home state of Maine. Trips to Boston and Florida followed. We honeymooned in St. Lucia. His world was opened.
Self-portrait in front of the Old Well at UNC Chapel Hill.
Part of the reason my husband (whom I call SuperFutureDad) and I are compatible in life, and as travel partners, is because we enjoy meeting new people. Strangers. The people we sit next to on the plane. The clerk at our hotel. The tour guide who eats ground provisions with us at Castries Market in St. Lucia. Strangers provide us the stories we tell about our vacations.
They are often also the people with whom we share an intimate secret — we’re trying to conceive a baby. You see, SuperFutureDad and I have found a way to combine what we love best — travel and strangers — with our biggest adventure yet: trying to become parents.
It all began last spring. We were planning a trip to Pittsburgh for a friend’s wedding. About that same time, my best friend who lives in Carrboro, NC, also happened to be due with her first child. That got us thinking, why not plan our debut baby-making effort(s) around this trip?
I booked a one-way flight to Raleigh-Durham (and a return trip from Pittsburgh), reserved a rental car and planned a rough road-trip outline. We would start in the college basketball mecca Chapel Hill, NC, drive north to the Civil War towns of Fredericksburg, VA, and Gettysburg, PA, and call it quits in Pittsburgh. We would rest and refuel at our whimsy. We called it a babymoon.
I’ve since learned that a babymoon is what expecting couples take as a last “hurrah” before the baby arrives. They relax, rejuvenate and treat each other to some romance. SuperFutureDad and I are taking a more… shall we say… proactive approach.
Sights and scenes in and around Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
In early June, we checked into a newly remodeled hotel close to the University Of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The designers gave the hotel’s interior a modern facelift, with stark colors and sparse furniture. Not what we were expecting from a hotel in the South. We dumped our stuff in our room (in the process eyeing our big, fluffy bed with lots of pillows!) and hit the road for the 15-minute drive to our friends’ house in Carrboro. We had a baby to meet!
Just west of Chapel Hill, Carrboro is a mix of bohemian earthiness and collegiate spunk. It’s home to the Maple View Creamery where you can lick homemade ice cream cones on the store’s front porch, a reformed cotton mill that now houses one-of-a-kind clothing and toy boutiques and Weaver Street Market where you can choose from an assortment of freshly-made organic foods, breads and desserts. Chances are you’ll hear some live music while you’re lounging outside on the lawn or sitting on one of the Market’s colorful picnic tables.
We did all of these things while my girlfriend’s baby napped — during our first day there. Needless to say, by the time we got back to our hotel room SuperFutureDad and I only had one thing on our minds. We slept for 10 hours straight on that big, fluffy bed of ours. So much for baby-making duties!
AlmostMommyGal on a pretty walking bridge at Sarah P. Duke Gardens.
The next day we ate a hearty breakfast at the hotel restaurant (they give you coupons when you check in) and headed back for quality time with friends and their latest addition. Parents for only three days, the bleary-eyed couple already looked like pros. She nursed while he did the dishes. He held the sleeping baby while she scolded the curious dogs. In the afternoon, grandmother took over duties so the new parents could rest.
We took our cue and headed out to explore the “crown jewel of Duke University,” the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. We sniffed our way through the delicately landscaped rows of native plants, walked paths lined with wooded sentinels stretching up into the sky and watched turtles sunbathe at the pond in the Asian-inspired garden.
Maybe it was the heady scent of the flowers or the heavy, humid air but something put us in the mood that afternoon and we finally put that big, fluffy bed to good use.
What a way to start our babymoon!
AlmostMommyGal Patricia Carlson has high hopes that she’ll soon be able to write at her computer with a baby on her lap. In the meantime, she’s an award-winning television news reporter and freelance writer. You can find her stuff at patriciacarlsonfreelance.com. Stay tuned for future posts about Patricia’s procreation vacation to Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.
Glad you got to see some of the beauty of my home state! Asheville is a really cool area as well.
I have always wanted to visit NC, thank you for the descriptive prose which will have to suffice until I get there.
As for babies, my three boys were all conceived on trips; one in Hawaii under a magnificent waterfall (don’t worry it was well hidden), one in Mexico on the floor of the bathroom of our Palapa where the other two boys were sleeping behind the wall (shhhhh) and one…in my husband’s bedroom that he grew up in (it was X-Mas eve, what were we supposed to do?).
Sooo, my point is…keep traveling, it’s good for the love genes.
Good luck with your baby making endeavor! I always wonder if parents are revealing something when they name their children after destinations/cities.
Ha h! What a fun guest post. One of my daughters was conceived on a vacation as well, although I never took a babymoon in the traditional sense of the word.
Thanks for all the comments and compliments everyone! I really appreciate your feedback…
L. – I would LOVE to make it to Asheville. Have heard very cool things about it…
Jillian – good to know SuperFutureDad and I are on the right track… you’re now our idol!!!
TwinCities – we’re leaning toward the name Lincoln!
SoCalGal – I’ll be sure to take a traditional babymoon too, when the time comes. Any excuse for a holiday!!!
Thanks again for all your kind words…
Great post!! I went to college in NC, and I absolutely love that state. And yes, Asheville is a must-see. My husband and I had our own baby-making vacation in Thailand. It didn’t work, but we sure had fun trying! (And by the way, it worked for us the following month when we were recovering from that vacation.)
Thanks for putting us on the map TOC!! Your description of our first few days with Camden were very generous (sleeping baby…ha!). What a great article. I’ll pass it on. Hopefully you can take a traditional babymoon to our new location in Baltimore in a few months. We’ll really miss Carrboro!!
Hi – I lived in Fayetteville NC and then Raleigh (NC STATE) for awhile…loved the area…thank you for taking me back!
Swati
What a fun chapter in your life & a fun way to write about it! I’m really looking forward to the blogs that you’ll be writing some day about being pregnant and then being a mommy!
Nice writing Tricia! A great article. And me too wishes you guys all the luck in the world. I need a baby O’Carlson to spoil.
xo MOM
[...] Road Trip NC to PA – A Different Kind of Babymoon | The Vacation Gals [...]
HAHAHAHAHA – is that last comment insinuating that I’m fat?
Sorry to say that’s not really breaking news. But nice try!!
And, hey, you helped me make it past 10 comments… thanks!
What we need is travel tips for families with young children. We feel a bit grounded right now. Help us out.
All those worried about the event in Thailands capital, let me inform you, stay away from Bngkok!
I was reading where someone was recommending straw. The truth is we need to hold big oil accountable for clean up the mess they have created!
[...] a how-to piece on creating a cozy guest room for your lake home, a fun, first-person essay on life before baby and an inside peek at some of Fargo-Moorhead’s most successful business owners. Stay tuned [...]