The week of "Dieciocho"is sacred in Chile. September 18th is Independence Day in Chile and they take an entire week to celebrate the occasion...yes kids are out of school, parents are out of work and it is time to party and, what most people to...TRAVEL. Santiago is EMPTY...I kind of like being the city when there is no one else around. You sort of have your own quiet playground.
We would have liked to take the week to explore a new city in Chile or take a quick trip to a neighboring country, but JJ and I both have quick trips to the states planned for October and then I will go with the boys for 4 weeks in January. This means we are in saving mode so a "staycation" was the perfect money saving option. Daddy also had to work so Mommy was the staycation coordinator, but with help from the boys.
The Saturday before the start of the staycation I sat with the boys and came up with a "to do" list for the week.
1. Complete Photo School Yearbook for Luka & Sam (2012-2013)
2. Go to a Fun Park
3. Organize Lego & Playmobil
4. Ice Skating
5. BBQ with Friends
6. Go to the Movies
7. Play date w/ Jacobo
8. Go on a Family Hike
9. Play w/ Linda
10. Arts & Crafts
Okay, that is a pretty comprehensive list that we all contributed to. Can you figure out which ones mommy put on the list?
No, let's take a trip around Santiago and see what we really did on our "staycation."
Sunday, was our "unofficial" start of the staycation and the entire family went to the Costanera Center. We got to walk around the quiet city a little and then catch a movie at the tallest building in South America!
We parked at JJ's office and walked from there. Here you can see the bleachers ready for the big parade in town to celebrate on September 18th.
First order of the day was LUNCH. We went to the food court and everyone picked something different. JJ and I had from "Take a Wok" - fresh wok dishes custom made fresh. It was delicious.
Movie Time...we saw Airplanes...very cute movie! Here the boys took a photo with "Berry" - new character from the sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs....looking forward to that one too.
Monday...first official day of the staycation and I asked Luka was he wanted to do and he said lunch at Ruby Tuesday...score, I love their Carolina Chicken Salad.
My boys really love this restaurant. They always pick a pasta dish..nice break from burgers and fries. After lunch we went to the mall and visited some art shops to buy supplies for projects this week.
Tuesday was stay at home day...we had to wait for the plumber and gardener and were home ALL DAY.
Wednesday...whoo hoo...today we see Dinosaurs come to live at "Explora" - a special exhibit put on by the Buin Zoo. The event was at a local mall, right next to a great park. After the dinosaur experience we organized a picnic.
Sam was kind of scared inside...those dinosaurs looked real and were HUGE! By the end Sam was a little calm and excited to sit on this "little" guy to pose for a picture.
We spent the afternoon with our good friends Jake, Maya and their mommy at Parque Araucano. This park has many things to do. Here are Luka and Jake enjoying the large playground area.
The kids spent a good 30 minutes in here looking at the birds. I might have to build one of these at home if they like it that much.
The park is also perfect to ride bike with the little ones. We didn't bring the bikes this time, but we will very soon.
Thursday....Luka went to work with Daddy and Sam stayed home with Mommy to prepare the house for the BBQ with friends we had later that day. I think he enjoyed baking the best. Look at my little sneaky Sam eating the cake batter.
Wednesday....yes, I went over to the dark side and took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. I am not a big fan of this place, but the boys love it. Honestly, it was so empty that it was quite okay. But my biggest complaint is the price. Each coin is about 50 cents (US). It took about 15 minutes for the boys to go through $30 USD worth of coins. I don't think it is that expensive in the US.
Here they are very proud of their winnings.
One of our prizes was a bag of cotton candy. Sam was all over that, Luka not so much.
It was Luka's choice for lunch and he asked for Sushi. So we headed to Sakura Express - our favorite Sushi joint where we get 40% off with our Claro cell phone. But oh no...it was a "holiday" so they didn't honor coupons. Well, that means that we will spend about $100 USD for sushi...I don't think so. I had promised Luka sushi so we got his roll to go and walked over to Burger King for the rest of the family. Sam was very happy!
Saturday we went to Chicureo with some friends and had lunch at one of our favorite weekend spots - El Establo. The kids really love to play on their Western themed playground. Oh, no...they got arrested. They must have been up to no good.
El Establo offers FREE face painting & animal balloons for the kids. Sam was feeling like a superhero that day.
Sunday...do we really have to go to school tomorrow? YES!!!!! This mommy is ready for staycation to be over. That is the thing about school holidays...not really a holiday for the parents, well not all the time.
Sunday the boys wanted to see snow...they got dressed and ready to go all on their own. We tried, but we left a little too late. It was 2:15 pm when we headed up, but the police asked us to turn around. They had shut down traffic up the mountain. We should have known, it was too late.
The boys were disappointed for about 5 minutes, but we did have the chance to discover a new AMAZING park - Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura.
The park is gorgeous with different playground areas, nice trails for a bike and look they even had FLAMINGOS!!! Cool, we feel right at home...missing Miami.
You could buy food to feed them.
The highlight of the visit were our ice cream popsicles. I wondered what all the fuss was about. The line for the ice cream truck was dreadfully long and at $3 USD a pop I thought they were a bit overpriced, but they were totally worth it...YUMMY! If you go to the park on the weekend don't leave without sampling one of these treats. We had pineapple and chocolate. They were both delicious, but the chocolate was the best...so rich and creamy...not what I expected from ice cream on a stick.
That is a wrap for our Santiago Staycation.
To recap, this is what we got to check off our original list:
3. Organize Lego & Playmobil (i am overwhelmed by this project. still no clue how to tackle it)
4. Ice Skating (the rink was closed for the season)
8. Go on a Family Hike (it was our plan on Saturday, but the weather was cold and wet)
Not bad...
