I have a second cousin getting married this October. She lives, along with all of my mom’s side of the family, in Pittsburgh and I haven’t been up there since Thanksgiving my senior year of college. Paul and I had made plans to go, but then CNN had a meeting and told everyone not to expect any time off in September/October due to the elections. Pittsburgh is about a 12 hour drive, and I knew I couldn’t do it by myself with Savannah.

I started looking into plane tickets the weekend of Savannah’s party, when my brother-in-law was staying with us. Not sure who mentioned it, but I got the idea of combining my Pittsburgh trip with a New York City trip to visit him. I was excited to see that ticket prices were only slightly higher to swing through NYC for a few days. We started making plans. I’ve never been to NYC and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to go! And since my brother-in-law lives there, I won’t have to pay for a hotel, and I’ll get a personal tour of the city.

The cost of the tickets went down a lot today, so I booked the trip. I am so excited! I’ll fly up to Pittsburgh for a few days to attend the wedding and spend time with my family (my parents and grandparents are also going to be going up for the weekend). Then I’ll fly to NYC for a few days, then back to Atlanta – all total I’ll be gone a week.

While I’m so excited I’m also a bit nervous about making this trip by myself! I’ve flown with Savannah quite a few times, but never by myself. I’m worried about trying to juggle everything – I’ll definitely have to check a bag, because I don’t think I’d be able to get a weeks’ worth of clothes for me and Savannah, plus all the other baby paraphernalia in a carry-on. Any advice for traveling alone with a 14 month old?

I’m trying to decide if I should rent a car in Pittsburgh. My parents will have 4 people in their sedan, so they technically don’t have enough room for us. While I’m sure I’ll be able to get a ride with *someone*, I hate being that burden. Also, I am hoping to visit Kacie and not having a car might make that difficult. My flight from Pittsburgh leaves at 6am, so I am wondering if for the sake of everyone involved I should just rent a car and drive myself. Another advantage to a car rental is that I could also rent a carseat, and that gives me one less thing that I’ll need to lug around the airport and NYC (where I won’t need it at all). Car rental will cost about $90, though, plus $40 for the carseat. Plus whatever fees they tack on at the counter – no matter how hard we try, we have only once been able to walk away spending exactly as we expected. They always try to trick you into accepting additional charges.

Anyways, what would you do? Rent a car? Rely on others to drive me? Regardless, I’m super excited!