Fun Times in the Union Hotel

The Union Hotel would not be the nicest hotel by American standards, but when you keep in mind that you are in a third world country you cannot help but be thankful for all the ammenities (hot water, meal, no bugs or rodents, indoor plumbing, etc.). The hotel staff are amazing...very helpful, patient, & great translators for the kids. Here's the view from our room...

Here's the view from the stairwell landing between the floors. If you look closely, in the upper lefthand corner of the picture, you will see a burgondy brick building with tan trim...that's HH! On our first morning, we looked out the windows wondering which direction HH was in & we had no idea we could see it!

We spent A LOT of time in our room just being plain silly. Silliness & laughter are huge keys to bonding, so we used every moment as an opportunity to teach our daughter to trust us & to show her our love. I am a person who likes to "go, go, go", but I can say that I never once grew tired of being couped up in the hotel with our sweet girl. Yes, it took creativity & a sense of humor, but we tried to make every second count. We spent lots of time making silly faces at one another & taking pictures of us doing silly things. She thought it was hilarious that we had brought pull-ups for her to wear at night &/or on the airplane, so she decided to wear them on the outside of her clothes. She thought this was hesterical! Playing with the beach ball, blowing bubbles, writing on the moisture that collected on the windows, and doing girly things like painting nails & brushing Mommy's hair were other activities OE enjoyed. Future travelers who are adopting older children, bring lists of good bonding activities & just work your way through the lists during your down time in the hotel room. This helped us remain focused on bonding & gave us lots of good ideas for activities.

The Union Hotel has a workout room on the main floor near the front desk. It was a great place for the kids to play while we waited for meals or just to run off energy. Physical activity is great for dealing with grief & stress, so this was very therapeutic as well.

If you're hoping to pass your time by watching tv, think twice. The tv programming is pretty slim. One thing I was hoping to be able to do was watch BBC or Al Jezeera (I'm a news person okay...a big dork...I know!). However, we only had one channel in our room & that channel showed repeats of one of the Olympics races that the Ethiopians won. It was exciting to see the first couple of times, but it got very old. Another family in our group only had a travel channel, but another one had three channels...not sure how it works, but your choice of programming will depend on your room....Lol! Regardless, when we return for our homeland tour, I can't wait to stay in the Union again...being so close to HH is worth it!