Adventure Travel Art: If only they slept like this for 8 hour stretches....

It's hard to complain, however. The girls have been doing pretty well at night by anyone's standards, and both my wife and I are thankful for that. However, our sleep schedules have been turned upside down, affecting me quite a bit more than I would have thought. I've always been an early riser, but also someone who needs a good, solid 7 or 8 hours of sleep to function properly. That's just not happening now, with stints of 2 to 4 hours of sleep being the norm, and an eventual emergence from bed around 10 in the morning. But, we are settling in and starting to get used to the new routine with the girls. Work for me, though, is another matter. I have managed to do some clean-up and file maintenance over the past two months, but that is about it. I have plenty of ideas for new travel pieces that I am itching to try out, but the time just hasn't been there to work on them. Hopefully soon.

Sisters sleeping - Siena on the left and Névé on the right.

We did manage to make our first real trip with the girls a couple of weeks ago, visiting the town of Cesky Krumlov in the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. My wife, our dog Osu, and I had previously visited this unique and beautiful town along the Vltava River two years prior and had always wanted to go back. Although the weather in the Czech during the month of February isn't all that great, this proved to be a great time to visit Cesky again. We figured it would be a good test for us as new parents who love to travel, especially at this time of year when the crowds would be low to non-existant. Besides a few Chinese and Japanese tour groups that had traveled south from Prague for the day, we basically had the town to ourselves. Just us and the locals - and we immensely enjoyed our time there. The girls, overall, did great, the stroller vibrations from the cobblestone alleys and streets in old town Cesky lulling any fits of fussiness in to submission. If you ever do find yourself in Prague or anywhere else in the Czech Republic, consider a day trip to Cesky Krumlov. Better yet, book for a couple of days, staying in one of the many refurbished, roomy, and affordable apartments in the town, or one of the many renovated hotels. Summertime can get busy, especially during some of the more popular festivals, but a trip to Cesky is always worth it!

Further information on Cesky Krumlov and the surrounding area