TRAVEL by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer
Travel Buzz Spring Break buddies
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haron and Mark Chetty have been traveling with their son Rushil for nearly a decade, since he was just 3 months old. Mark travels frequently in his work as an IT professional, and his family often comes along. So Rushil likes traveling, and he’s accustomed to the rigors of the road. There was always something missing, though. “Being an only child, he gets really lonely,” Sharon said. “Mom and Dad get really boring after a while.” So they decided to invite the Puigs, with their two boys, on a Spring Break adventure last year. Between the activities they’d planned and a California earthquake thrown in for good measure, Spring Break 2014 was definitely not boring. Spring Break can be an ideal time to join with another family on a group vacation. Several Buzz-area families had a chance recently to explore the pros and cons of teaming up with travel buddies – more fun for kids as well as parents, while still creating space for family time. Key to a good group travel experience, all agreed, is making sure your family is compatible with that of your proposed travel partners. The Chettys had met the Puigs through Little League, when Rushil was in the first grade. “We found that we were on the same level with the way we bring up our kids,” says Sharon, “and we got to be really good friends.” The Chettys had a Hilton timeshare in San Diego with space for the three of them and the Puigs – Jorge and Esther and their two boys, Nicholas, 9, and Lucas, 4. They knew they’d be good travel companions, after all the time they’d spent together on shorter outings around Houston. “What I enjoy about this family, is I call them up at 9 and say let’s go somewhere, and they’ll say sure,” Sharon said. “I’m not particular about bedtime for the children and neither are they, so if we’re going out we can go to midnight. So that was a huge deciding factor to go with them, was that they are easy-going with regard to the kids.” So they booked the trip together, and to make things more interesting, they added a bit of Hollywood stargazing to the itinerary. The Chettys arrived first at the Hilton right across from Universal Studios. BELLAIRE BUZZ MARCH 2015 14
CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE Mark Chetty, Rushil Chetty, Sharon Chetty, Esther Puig, Lucas Puig, Nicolas Puig and Jorge Puig (from left) enjoy a photo break amid their rounds at Disney's California Adventure Park.
“We saw Charlize Theron getting into her car in the driveway – and then we saw Jack Nicholson in his yard, cleaning his pool,” she enthused. “I said, ‘No it can’t be’ – but I suppose stars’ pools need to be cleaned sometimes, too.” That night the Puigs joined them – just in time to share the unsettling experience of a magnitude 4.4 earthquake the following morning. “It was extremely scary,” Sharon recalled. “We were on the 24th floor – thankfully it was nothing severe.” After the earthquake, the excitement was more pedestrian; the families rented a minivan so they could travel together, and the kids played games in the car. They stayed in La Jolla, with a spectacular beach and seawall, where the kids had a great time playing with the seals. They went to Legoland and Disney’s California Adventure theme park. In San Diego, they took a boat cruise on Tuna Harbor and toured the Midway Museum, a World War II aircraft carrier-turned-war museum, stopping to marvel at the 25-foot-tall “Unconditional Surrender,” a statue based on a famous photograph of a sailor just home from the war, seizing an unknown woman in a passionate kiss. They also had a memorable taste of the Chettys’ homeland at a South African restaurant called Cape Town Pub. The boys were delighted with a regional favorite called bunny chow, which consisted of a loaf of bread with the insides pulled out and filled with curry.
For the Mattas and the Nassers, the whole of their two families ended up being more than the sum of its parts, as the old equation goes. Kids were able to go off and do kid things while moms went running or relaxed around the pool and dads went dune-buggy riding, taking elder daughter Julia along for some special father-daughter time. “I think it’s more fun; it makes it more interesting, especially with people that you have things in common with,” said Gisselle Matta. Gisselle and her husband Eduardo have teamed up for several trips with Dean and Alana Kennedy Nasser, whom they know from their work in the medical field. Elena Matta, 7, is good friends with Alexis Nasser, who is also 7, and big sister Julia Nasser, 14, gets along with everybody. It all began during Spring Break 2013, when the Nassers were going to Costa Rica and invited the Mattas along. “Basically we tagged along and had a great time in Costa Rica. The following year we took a trip to Cabo San Lucas,” Gisselle said. That time, a couple more friends joined them – Claudia Rivera, from Houston, and Dr. Chrystal Louis, who now lives in Boston. “We’d traveled together before, so we already knew likes and dislikes.” In Costa Rica, first they went to the Arenal Volcano area for a few days, staying at the Lost Iguana Resort, hanging out in the jungle, soaring through the cloud-forest canopy on a zip-line tour, bathing in the volcano-heated waters of Tabacón Hot Springs. Then they took a bus trip