Marriott Vacation Club Opens the World for Traveling Families
Maybe you should check out Marriott Vacation Club. Backed by the Marriott name and celebrating its 30th anniversary, it’s a far cry from those old school timeshares
-
-
Teen Ambassadors offer unique perspective on 9/11 Memorial Museum
David Rothblatt and Fia Hargil are among the six members of the inaugural class of teen ambassadors trained to work with children who visit the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which opened at the new World Trade Center this past May.
-
A quirky new hotel in San Francisco makes you feel special
Welcome to the Hotel G, San Francisco’s newest boutique hotel with 151 rooms just north of Union Square but miles away from the big-box chain hotels in the neighborhood. Incidentally, there have been hotels in this building since just a few years after the 1906 Earthquake.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries
At the Presidio in San Francisco, top chef aims at kids menus
Award winning San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins wishes American restaurants would take a page—a menu page—from their counterparts in other parts of the world. “The United States is one of the only places in the world that has special meals for kids,” she said. “We are conditioned to teach kids to eat differently than we do and that is a mistake.”
-
Winter is a great time for a family visit to a zoo or aquarium
The human kiddos laugh and giggle at the antics of the animals all day at the St. Louis Zoo. It’s one of three major free zoos left in the country along with the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
-
Audiences of all ages love the Blue Man Group
It all started nearly 25 years ago, when three college-friends — Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink — developed a bald and blue character they called Blue Man (to evoke the word Human), who delighted audiences at this small theater
-
Fun off the slopes: learning to build a snow sculpture in the mountains
Mountain resorts across the country offer an ever-growing array of off-the-slopes activities where the kids — and you — can get inspired to build your own sculpture either at home or near where you are vacationing in mountain country
-
At the 9/11 Memorial Museum with unique teen guides
David Rothblatt has been a New Yorker all his life but his sole memory of 9/11 was being with his mom as she searched for a store to buy milk. Fia adds that next year’s high school freshmen will have been born after 9/11. “Kids need to know even if it is hard,” she and David agreed.
-
The New York Met and Madame Tussauds with teens
If only the Metropolitan Museum of Art had life-sized wax figures of Degas, Monet and Picasso. I’m joking, of course, but I was thinking that watching how much fun our group of high schoolers was having at MME Tussauds NYC.
-
A taste of Olde England and its literati in St. Louis, MO
We’re not in England though it feels like it. We’re in suburban St. Louis at the locally owned Cheshire, celebrating its 50th anniversary.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Volunteer & Service | Weekly Column
Teaching the kids about civil rights at our national monuments
If you want to expand on what the kids are learning in school, then head to a national park. That’s right. There are many national historic sites that figured into the fight against slavery and the civil rights movement and are ideal for out-of-the-classroom learning opportunities, especially when so many are offering special activities this month.
-
Kid tips for hitting the slopes for Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month
If you are a newbie, there is no better time than January, the nationally designated Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month to hit the Colorado slopes.
-
Soaking up the family holiday spirit at a theme park
Across the country, theme parks are adding new and bigger holiday attractions every year, enticing more and more families to come through the gates, glad to forsake holiday shopping and cooking for a few hours, even though it can be a costly afternoon or evening.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Aboard the USS Iowa searching for a charming mutt named Vicky
The USS Iowa, now a museum in Los Angeles Harbor, has a storied history but the story of its mascot, a little mutt named Vicky, charms visitors of all ages.
-
At Disneyland without the kids? Like yeah!
It might seem counterintuitive, but this past trip to Disneyland, we opted for grownups-only visit to the home of everyone’s favorite Mouse to take in all the holiday decorations.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Weekly Column
Mixing American history with holiday fun in Valley Forge and Philadelphia
Every Dec. 19, an annual event commemorates the arrival of the rag-tag Continental Army to Valley Forge PA, and its determination to persevere against hardship to become the first American Army.
-
How to light up your family’s holidays this season
Since holiday lights have become more and more festive each year, create new traditions to see them, even as early as Thanksgiving weekend, wherever you find yourselves.
-
Families & Groups | Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Kids conquering fears and having fun on a canopy tour in Pennsylvania
We were at Spring Mountain, a modest ski area just outside Philadelphia but a mighty fine adventure place for a canopy tour with four expert guides — and six high-school scholars
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Learning Revolutionary War history in Valley Forge PA
On a beautiful fall day, the contrast could not have been more different than what George Washington and his Continental Army found here in Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Cheesesteak and history for all – fun in Philadelphia with teenaged boys
Cheesesteak and ice cream. The Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and a galaxy of top-flight colleges… that’s what we found on a whirlwind day in Philadelphia with a group of teenaged boys.
-
Families love the greatly expanded National World War II Museum in New Orleans
There are dented helmets, letters home, photographs, flight jackets and K rations, complete with chocolate bars and gum.
-
Take it from the kids: San Francisco is a foodie’s paradise
“Dim Sum is one of my favorite foods. Everyone likes Dim Sum!” said Andy, 14, one of the many local kids who contributed their ideas on what kids like for my new “Kid’s Guide to San Francisco.”
-
Using interpretation and technology to revive the 18th Century in Williamsburg VA
The idea in the Historic Triangle — home not only to this recreated 18th-century city but also to the living-history museums Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center, is to use interactive activities, 21st-century technology and costumed interpreters
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
After the wedding, time to explore the Charlottesville VA area
Correspondent Melissa Miller had time to spend touring the Charlottesville VA area after a spectacular wedding this month. Here is her report.
-
A family visit to New Bedford MA, once America’s whaling capital
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is the largest museum in the country devoted to the story of whaling and the history and seafaring traditions of Massachusetts’ south coast region.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Monticello is super kid-friendly, just like Thomas Jefferson was
It is only fitting that the home of our third President and the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence is so kid friendly. Jefferson was very fond of his 12 grandchildren, many of whom lived here with him after his retirement
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
What the kids say about 18th Century Williamsburg VA
What’s it like to see 18th Century history unfold in the street of Colonial Williamsburg, VA? We asked some of the “junior interpreters” what they thought.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
21st Century meets 18th in Colonial Williamsburg – huzzah!
21st Century meets 18th Century—that’s the idea of Colonial Williamsburg. The audience was enthralled by the street theater Revolutionary City where costumed interpreters play out different aspects of the politics surrounding the American Revolution.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Jamestown Settlement: the place to start your Historic Triangle history tour
Jamestown Settlement is the place to start a visit to the Historic Triangle—and to teach a lesson in tolerance in the process as you learn the trials and tribulations of the settlers and the Powahatans learning to coexist.
-
Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
History and fun for families in Virginia’s Historic Triangle
Williamsburg has plenty to offer families—from Busch Gardens, famous for its coasters and Water Country USA, to plenty of American history. This is the heart of the Historic Triangle, of course, home to Colonial Williamsburg
