Oh, how I love Mary Jane style shoes. I thought I knew of all brands that carry this feminine, yet functional, style until I was offered the opportunity to wear and test the Wolky Strap Cloggy Mary Jane. Wolky? What the heck kind of company is that? Well, it turns out Wolky is a Netherlands-based manufacturer offering shoes that are both comfortable and fashionable.

What turned me on first about the Wolky Strap Cloggy Mary Janes is the array of awesome colors they come in. How much do you adore the purple varnished leather (pictured at right)? That’s the clever shade I have in my possession — it’s dark enough that I don’t feel like I’m walking around making a “Look at my shoes!” statement. Rather, the color is playful and upbeat, and whenever I look down at my feet when I’m wearing my Wolky Mary Janes I can’t help but grin.

In addition to the cute purple, these shoes come in hues such as a deep-red brushed leather, green pebbled leather and grey-blue metallic pebbled leather — among your more straightforward browns and blacks. Cool.

I’ve been wearing these shoes around my Colorado hometown during a very warm late winter without socks, and I find them extremely comfortable. That could be due in part to the suede-covered insole and the adjustable Velcro strap across my foot.

The shoe has a signature “rocker bottom” with polyurethane sole that is said to propel the walker forward for “effortless walking.” I admit I haven’t yet spent the entire day shopping or sightseeing in these leather clogs, but my guess is they’ll do the trick as versatile travel shoes on my next trip.

Another nice touch: the contrast stitching on the top of the shoe. Again, this accent doesn’t beg for attention, but is rather a subtle, eye-catching detail.

I found these shoes fit true to size. They are European-sized: I wear a 39 in other clog brands, and this approximate size 8 works well for me in my Wolkys, too.

Wolky Strap Cloggy Mary Janes retail for $169 at PlanetShoes.com, which offers free shipping both ways. That is, if you decide the shoe isn’t for you, they can be returned at no extra cost to you via a pre-paid shipping label.

Thanks to Wolky and PlanetShoes.com for providing me with my nifty spring shoes for purposes of review!

Ah, the joys of having a kid with braces. I don’t think my tween can get through a meal without getting food stuck in between her teeth and some metal. Her orthodontist was insistent I buy some sort of “water flosser” to help her keep her teeth and gums clean. We went with the rechargeable Cordless Water Flosser by Waterpik. It’s served her well at home until we went on a trip and I tossed the unit and the extra Jet Tips into a plastic bag and broke a tip when it hit something hard in her suitcase.

On the other hand, the Waterpik Traveler Water Flosser comes in a convenient case ideal for travel. The water reservoir inverts to cover the unit to fit neatly into the zippered square pouch with holders for the four different types of tips.

My daughter brought the Waterpik Traveler Water Flosser on a long-weekend trip to Three Forks Ranch last weekend, reporting that the stream of water that comes from the unit (and which she sprays on her teeth to remove food particles and clean around her braces), is just as strong or stronger than her rechargeable cordless Waterpik.

The reservoir holds enough water for 60 seconds of water spray, and users can adjust the pressure with three different settings. The Waterpik comes with Global Voltage Compatibility, which means it can be used in any country around the world (with electrical outlet adapters not included).

The case has enough extra space for my daughter to fit in a travel toothbrush, a travel-sized toothpaste tube and a mini bottle of mouthwash. All of her dental toiletries were in one handy case — secure against breakage. I like anything that will help her stay organized when we’re on vacation!

The Traveler Water Flosser retails for $69.99 on the Waterpik website.

Thanks to Waterpik for supplying this unit to my daughter for purposes of review.

My children are long-past the toilet training phrase, but being back to work in the skies as a flight attendant has triggered some memories of that era and the challenges parents face during the potty training era.

While more and more airports are becoming family-friendly, airlines likely won’t be installing child-sized toilets anytime soon. Over the holidays and on weekends, I watch parents nudge, urge and beg their toilet training tots to go into the lavatory during flight. The kids are normally wide-eyed with faces that reveal curiosity or downright fear. Who can blame them?

Aircraft lavatories look nothing like regular restrooms. Sometimes the flush handle is hard to find or there is a push button instead. As for the sinks, you also have to push a button or hold the handle down to get the water running. The space is also very cramped which makes squeezing a child and parent in no easy feat.

The most intimidating though are the toilets. Instead of white porcelain they are usually gray and instead of holding clear water the bowls have “blue juice” or no liquid all because they flush by vacuum.

Sometimes parents walk out of the restroom with their kids and say, “They won’t use it. I hope they can hold it.” Yikes. Me, too!

I’ll tell you a secret to getting kids comfortable with an aircraft lavatory, bringing in something familiar – and I don’t mean their stuffed animal.

I’m talking about seat covers. While the white disposable seat covers found in public restrooms probably come to mind first, a quick search on Amazon.com will reveal a number of different types of  toilet seat covers designed for children. Some line the seat, others have tape so the covers don’t fall off, but the type that stands out and appears to work best for an aircraft lavatory are the colorful PottyCover Toilet Seat Covers. The cover drapes over the sides and the front of the toilet to keep away germs and wetness (trust me, you don’t want your child sitting directly on the toilet seat anyway) but what makes PottyCover’s ideal for aircraft lavatories is how they hide the toilet so the child feels less intimidated.

The key to using these seat covers is to use them anytime you’re in a public place and even at home, before you fly. When it’s time to use the restroom, it’s something familiar to the child.

Being that everything is new during travel, using seat covers regularly may help ease your child’s tension, especially during the toilet training years, and hopefully that will help keep the potty training progress moving along while you’re traveling and flying.

Travel strollers are always a hot topic with parents who spend a lot of time on commercial flights. Who wants to lug a gigantic suburban-style stroller through airports and hotels anyway? When I’m working my job as a flight attendant, most of the strollers I see in the airport jetways have seen better days and are only one roll though LAX from falling into a pile of plastic and stale Cheerios. Just last week a traveling mother couldn’t open the 30-pound family stroller. The bottle that was left in the under basket leaked during the flight and dried leaving a milk encrusted latch. As she shook the stroller trying to open it the tray broke off. What a hassle.

There has to be a better way to travel with a stroller, I thought. Then, the QuickSmart Backpack Stroller ($220) landed on my doorstep for review.

If there’s one thing I love talking about, it’s cool travel products. I chat with other travelers, parents, flight attendants and passengers about the latest and greatest this and that. And this stroller is one that will be on my go-to list for a while.

The first thing that caught my eye about the QuickSmart Backpack Stroller is that it’s only 11 pounds. There are suitcases that weigh more than that empty. But exciting feature is that this stroller is compact enough to fit in most airplane overhead bins.

I’m not saying strollers should go in overhead bins. Strollers aren’t needed during flight and when parents do stow strollers in the cabin during a full flight it means they’re taking space that can be used for carry-on bags and laptops that do need to be accessible inflight.

However, this stroller isn’t long or bulky. It folds ups, in four easy steps, and truly fits compactly in an overhead bin without taking up much room.

What I especially like about the QuickSmart Backpack Stroller is the option to carry it as a backpack in the accompanying bag. Parents of toddlers may not feel the need to open the stroller when their plane lands, since their child will likely not be in a “sit in the stroller” mood after being cooped up in a plane. Therefore, you can save yourself the hassle, throw the stroller on your back, grab your child’s hand and go. If you do decide to check your stroller it’s safely protected in the bag – easy breezy.

As I said, the QuickSmart stroller folds in four simple steps, but as with any new stroller, practice opening and closing it before taking it on your trip. Wrestling with an unfamiliar stroller in an airport jetway is anything but pleasant, especially in extreme temperatures.

For traveling parents who are looking for one of the best travel strollers that boasts being lightweight, easy to carry and over all convenient to use, I recommend you look into the QuickSmart Backpack Stroller.

I received a complimentary stroller for purposes of review.

If your family is like mine, you’re regularly traveling with several handheld electronic devices. For us, typically, that’s 3 smart phones, 1 cell phone, 1 iPod Touch, 1 Kindle, at least 2 cameras, 1 GoPro and sometimes 1 Nintendo DS. (Don’t judge.) Inevitably something needs charging along the way, when we’re in a plane or car — usually it’s a phone or an iPod Touch. While we, of course, always travel with our car charges and wall chargers, I love the idea behind a portable unit that can be used in instances when a) we can’t find a coveted wall outlet at an airport or b) we’re on a long plane ride.

Enter the Enercell High-Capacity Universal Portable Power Bank. This handy item, combined with the Duracell Instant Charger we already own, keeps us charged when we’re on the go. It’s a handy little product that is great for those instances when you need emergency power. (And I’d call an iPod Touch going dark on a six-hour transpacific flight an emergency; I’m looking forward to bringing our Enercell with us on our long plane trip to the Big Island this spring!)

The Enercell — smaller than a deck of cards — gets its power when you swing the USB plug out to connect with a USB port (say, in your laptop; we also have a USB port that plugs into a wall outlet). You’ll know its done charging when you press a little button and all four LEDs turn green.

When you need to charge your handheld device, simply connect to it from the Enercell Portable Power Bank using the included USB cable (and micro USB adapter if necessary). If it’s an Apple product you need to charge, a USB cable is included for that, as well (or use the one that came with your iPhone or iPod Touch. Voila! Your device is charging and/or ready to use.

Marketing materials say the Enercell Portable Power Bank can provide up to 8 hours of “extra talk time.” I haven’t quite put my devices to the test, but I do know that when I plugged in my Droid phone (when its power had been depleted to 10 percent), the Enercell Portable Power Bank charged it full of power in just over one hour (and the Enercell was depleted of juice, so I had to charge that up again).

I have a small, zippered cosmetic case in which I store the Enercell and the two cables (and mini USB adapter) for travel. Otherwise, those cables would go missing in a heartbeat! For future versions made by Enercell, I’d recommend selling a small pouch to store the product and cables — then again, an additional piece would jack up the price a bit. I suppose I don’t mind supplying my own travel case.

The Enercell Portable Power Bank retails for $49.99 and is sold at Radio Shack.

I received a complimentary product for purposes of review.

Ah, the joys of finding a versatile, multi-season piece of clothing for wear at home, on the plane and throughout my travels! This wrap dress from GGO Clothing is made of 88% organic bamboo and 12% Lycra — it’s a wonderfully soft fabric that remains wrinkle-free when rolled up for a suitcase, is naturally antibacterial and wicks away moisture better than cotton. This dress is quality made — the fabric feels like a blend between cashmere and silk, and not flimsy at all. In fact, I was surprised at how heavy the dress felt in my hands before I put it on. However, once I slipped on the knee-length dress, I never felt weighted down — but surprisingly sexy!

Of course my feeling a little “ooh la la!” could be due to the fact that the V neckline is quite plunging (more so on me than the way it appears on the model pictured above). I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable wearing it without a camisole or strappy tank underneath it. (Perhaps at a Mexican all-inclusive resort after a couple of margaritas…)

Indeed, here in Colorado in the dead of winter, it made perfect sense to pair my navy dress with a black tank top, black leggings and boots for a friend’s cocktail party the other night. It will look equally good, I think, dressed up a bit more with grey tights and flats when I pack it to wear to dinner in Beaver Creek this weekend. In the warm-weather months: bare legs and strappy sandals, all the way.

The cut, style and fabric of the dress does make it form fitting, but it’s a figure-flattering silhouette. I’m not nearly as thin as the model wearing the dress in the photo at left, so the sash didn’t cinch my waist as much as it does on her (i.e. I didn’t have as much sash hanging down after I knotted it in the front). Still, I think it’s a dress that will be worn regularly in my upcoming travel year — with a sweater and leggings if I get chilly on the plane, and worn alone if I step off a plane into a tropical clime. This dress comes in seven colors and retails for $135.

GGO Clothing has a huge collection of casual ready-to-wear items for women, all manufactured with similar, eco-friendly fabrics. Catching my eye are the Drift Cardigan ($90), Eco-Thermal Hoodie ($70) and the hot Topanga Drawstring Lounger ($75). GGO Clothing also makes yoga practice apparel and men’s clothing.

Thanks to GGO Clothing for providing my wrap dress!

Sometimes I dream of uprooting my family and moving to another country for a year (okay, maybe six months), so it’s no surprise I enjoyed reading Jennifer Wilson’s account of her family’s multi-month stay in a small Croatian village in Running Away to Home: Our Family’s Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters. The book’s title and topic is similar to Halfway to Each Other: How a Year in Italy Brought One Family Home, which I read (and liked) last year. Indeed, Running Away to Home similarly made me laugh out loud and weep; both books detail a family’s trials and tribulations of moving to a foreign country for a family sabbatical, in an effort to reconnect without the distractions of computers and carpools and commitments that come with typical family life in the United States.

I think Running Away to Home (St Martin’s Press) spoke to me a bit more than Halfway to Each Other (Guideposts) because I related to the author’s desire to learn more about her ancestors. She moved her family (husband Jim, Zadie age 4 and Sam age 7) to tiny Mrkopalj, Croatia, for a year to see firsthand how her great-grandparents lived in the small mountain village. Similarly, this summer I did my own family tree research, discovering that my mother’s family is from Germany, not Holland as previously thought, and that my father’s family is Galician. How cool would it be to experience your ancestral village — to see the dusty streets, countryside and even the home sites where great grandparents once lived? Jennifer actually had the gumption to do it!

The Wilson family's home in Mrkopalj for four months was a room on the third floor of a bar owner's house.

I fully appreciated Jennifer’s candor in describing the difficulties she and her family encountered after moving from Des Moines, Iowa, to tiny Mrkopalj, a village of 800 residents that had been seemingly frozen in time. I marveled at them agreeing to stick it out when, on arrival, the housing they were expecting had fallen through and the foursome had to live on the top floor of their landlord’s house. In one room. With Jennifer and Jim on a futon. For several months. (Yikes!)

The author is someone I can totally relate to — in fact I followed Jennifer on Twitter (@TravelinFamily) before I even knew she was a book author. She’s self-deprecating and really funny and, as I mentioned above, totally honest in telling tales about life in Croatia. Her husband and children adjust much more easily to daily life in Mrkopalj, where parental supervision is minimal (the young children loved it) and drinking the local liquor takes place all day long (Jim bonded with the menfolk well before Jennifer found her tribe).

Sheep on a spit, a common meal in Mrkopalj. That's Jennifer's husband Jim on the left, bar-owner/landlord Robert on the far right.

There are tales of hiking in mountains, day trips to the beach (with the kids’ new Croatian-speaking playmates in tow), taking in local festivals and indulging not only in alcohol (when in Rome!) but also copious amounts of grilled pork and meat. Daily life for the Wilsons slowed to a crawl in an world that is devoid of shopping malls, soccer practice, Starbucks and school (Jim homeschooled the kids while Jennifer wrote on her laptop). It’s hard not to be envious of the Wilson family and their simple lives, despite being foreigners in a place that is polar opposite of Middle America.

You can guess from the book’s tagline that Jenifer Wilson’s family was changed by the experience, not only because they did indeed reconnect with one another (no surprise since they lived in small quarters without the distractions of modern life), but because Jennifer was able to actually track down living blood relatives. I stayed up late into the evening reading quickly as Jennifer and Jim (Yenny and Jeem to the locals) connected the dots and traveled to meet Jennifer’s grandmother’s first cousin. Their meeting: emotional and raw.

Searching for family information in old church records.

Many parts of the book are simultaneously engaging and emotional, but equally present are sections enhanced by Jennifer’s fabulous sense of humor. Some of the funniest parts of the book occur when Jennifer is dealing with Robert, the local bar owner and the Wilsons’ landlord. Occasionally hapless, sometimes annoying and typically drunk, Robert eventually works his way into Jennifer’s heart — after all, if he hadn’t put the Wilsons up in the attic-like dorm room in his house, they would have been homeless in Croatia. (Of course, it’s his fault to begin with that the original agreed-upon lodging — multiple rooms on the second floor — were under construction and never quite finished in a timely manner.)

On that note, while reading the book I was so curious to see a photo of Robert — and images of the other villagers, young and old, who befriended the Wilsons. I wish I could have seen the Wilsons driving the compact Eastern European car, drinking in the bar, playing games at the festivals, pouring over church records, meeting their distant cousin…. Alas, the author chose not to illustrate her 317-page memoir with personal photographs. She told me she didn’t want to influence the images that her readers conjured up in their minds of life in Mrkopalj. Still, I think photography would have only enhanced the storytelling. (I did later find photos from their stay in Croatia on Jennifer Wilson’s website — click over to the Croatia photos. You can also watch Robert sing and play guitar on the Running Away to Home YouTube video channel.)

Day trip to the beach! That's Sam in the middle, Zadie at right, and Croatian friend Roberta at left.

Indeed, I highly recommend Running Away to Home for any novice (or expert) genealogists or parents considering long-term travel with young children. For other opinions of this book, read my friend Mara Gorman’s “Croatia or bust” post on Mother of All Trips, as well as the accompanying Q&A with Jennifer Wilson, and Vera Marie Badertscher’s review on A Traveler’s Library.

And a bonus for anyone who has stuck with me through this lengthy book discussion: I mistakenly received two review copies of Running Away to Home. I’ll mail my extra copy to whomever wants it and first comments below (and has a U.S. mailing address)! Otherwise you can purchase the book at online retailers like Amazon.com.

Photos courtesy Jennifer Wilson.

Longtime Mrkopalj resident Baka Ana and her garden.