Five Days in San Francisco
DAY ONE — As long as I was flying cross country to San Francisco, I thought I’d try Virgin America (www.virginamerica.com) . I always liked…
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TO AUSTIN, TEXAS
All around Lost Pines were other families determined not to miss one second of vacation fun — floating in the lazy river, watching the kids on the water slide or in the baby pool, saddling up for horseback rides or bike rides around the extensive property (405 acres and an adjoining 1,100-acre nature park!), playing “golf” with preschoolers on the lawn and watching them on the playground nearby.
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TO VERMONT — IN SUMMER
The steep climb up the slick rocks — 770 vertical feet — doesn’t phase them, nor scrambling without footholds or squeezing between two boulders. “Hard but fun,” a trio of 9-year-old boys declare, as they race ahead. “Definitely worth it,” their older sisters add, as they trail close behind them.
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Vacations never go as planned
It’s over 100 degrees but the kids playing in and around the pool at Barton Creek Resort don’t seem to care. Ten-year-old Ryan Libby is slurping a frozen drink and eating chicken fingers poolside.
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Fun in the Texas Lost Pines Country
DAY TWO — It’s barely 9 a.m. and kids are in full vacation mode, playing water basketball, floating in the lazy river, zipping down the…
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A Trip Down Memory Lane in Austin, TX
DAY ONE — It’s a trip down memory lane — literally, for my husband at least. We’ve flown down to Austin, TX where he was…
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To a national park this summer-one of the most budget
We screeched to a halt along the side of the road in Grand Teton National Park. Reggie, 8, was equally mesmerized but 3-year-old Melanie couldn’t quite grasp that we were in the moose’s house — and it wasn’t a zoo. I still smile years later when I think about the kids’ excitement. Forget the Kodak moments. The chance to share something new together — something you’d never see or do at home — is what makes those indelible family vacation memories that last forever.
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Getting free gas, free golf, free s’mores and more this summer
Free gas anyone? Not quite. But the higher gas prices go — and the more we rethink summer vacation plans as a result — the more hotels, resorts, cities and towns across the country are rolling out the welcome mat with rebates and credits all designed to help fill your gas tank and ease the sticker shock that comes with it, as the price of gas climbs to $4.07 a gallon on average. That is $1.09 a gallon more than a year ago, according to AAA.
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A trip to the amusement park should not mean a trip to the emergency room
No one likes to talk about it but every year, nationwide, an estimated 8,000 children ages 14 and under are treated in emergency rooms for injuries involving thrill rides at amusement parks and traveling carnivals; in an average year, three or four die, reports Safe Kids USA
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EATING SMART AT DISNEY WORLD
For one thing, I didn’t think the 3-year-old and her 5-year-old brother were misbehaving. True, a glass of milk got spilled and they were (somewhat) noisy and jumped around a bit, picking up crayons that had dropped on the floor. But so were a lot of the other kids at The Flying Fish, the noisy, bustling Orlando restaurant.
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To Sea World’s new Aquatica and other water parks this summer
There are 36 water slides, six rivers and lagoons, white sandy beaches and two terrific kids’ water play areas. Let’s not forget the animals — Commerson’s Dolphins (take the “Dolphin Plunge” down 250 feet of clear tubes, through their habitat), Macaws, and colorful African Cichlids, which, for the uninitiated, are colorful fish found in freshwater lakes and rivers in Africa, Central and South America, among other far-flung places.)
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RECESSION-PROOFING YOUR SUMMER VACATION
Just as we’re all planning summer getaways, gas prices go through the roof, the dollar is so weak against the British pound and the Euro that trips to Great Britain and Europe seem out of reach, and the pundits suggest the economy is going to get worse. And, as if to make us even more frustrated, this month airlines will begin charging you for checking a second bag.
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TO UNIVERSAL ORLANDO
Welcome to Krustyland! Where we join the Simpsons — yes those Springfield Simpsons of TV and movie fame — in Krusty the Clown’s crazy cartoon world, a theme park within a theme park. Talk about make-believe — and incredible technology – as we’re swept along, flying, bumping and crashing through the attractions, just opened at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando.
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A trip to Walt Disney World with two little ones
DAY ONE — It’s 3 p.m. and the pool at Disney’s Boardwalk resort in Orlando is packed with parents and kids, including a lot of…
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TO SEATTLE
So what if it rains a lot in Seattle. As long as you’ve got good rain gear, you won’t care, especially when there’s so much to do and see. Where else can you take the kids to see guys throwing raw fish, introduce them to ferries (yes, parents commute to work via ferry) take a turn on a sailboat, learn all about rock music, science fiction and the creatures who inhabit the sea in this part of the world.
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WHAT’S NEW AT THEME PARKS THIS SUMMER
Whether your gang love coasters or hate them, love water slides or refuse to wait in line for them, (yes that was us skipping the famous water slides at the Atlantis in the Bahamas), you’ll find plenty of new attractions to amuse everyone at this country’s more than 400 theme parks (and scores more water parks) this spring and summer. Here’s just a sampling of what’s out there:
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Get out of the mall and into a national park!
Where are all the nature lovers? According to a new family travel poll conducted by Travelocity, parents with kids are visiting national parks and other nature sites a lot less often than their parents and grandparents did. The poll suggests: more than twice as many families focus on activities like shopping! Instead of camping, families are touring cities and going to theme parks.
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FINDING THE KID-FRIENDLY LAS VEGAS
Cheap hotels, every kind of food you can imagine. Plenty of sizzle, spectacle, first-rate theatrical productions, giant red rocks for climbing and water playgrounds.
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Volunteering in New Orleans (where they still need a lot of help)
All along the block in the middle-class Lakeview neighborhood where the Strauss family lives, less than a mile from the 17th Street Canal levee break, are houses in various stages of construction. Some are still boarded up; others are brand new, with flowers planted outside. Fewer than half the houses in the neighborhood are occupied.
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MEETING THE FOLKS BEHIND THE MOUSE’S MAGIC
They are Imagineers. That means they spend their workdays (and probably a lot of work nights) dreaming up and ultimately implementing new attractions for Disney parks and resorts around the world. There are about 1,000 Imagineers, 750 of whom work in Glendale, Calif., in an office building (once a cosmetics factory) that has tighter security than many government buildings.
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Plenty to see while helping rebuild New Orleans
Whether you are splitting your time between a volunteer project, there is lot for a family to see and do in and around New Orleans
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It’s New Orleans — LET’S EAT!
I think New Orleans is a great city to encourage kids to sample food they might not have tried before (Turtle Soup, or fried alligator anyone?) Every restaurant has its own version of gumbo, the rich seafood stew. But there are also plenty of places to get a burger, pasta or chicken fingers. Here’s just a sampling of the good eats I enjoyed in my few days in New Orleans recently. And I certainly left my diet at home (unfortunately).
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New Orleans — a Tale of Two Cities
This is a tale of two cities — literally. Walk the narrow streets of the French Quarter, where I was staying in the historic Hotel Monteleone with its Carousel Bar that turns (once a haven for writers) and the city that was devastated by hurricane Katrina in Aug 2005 seems back to normal. But go just a few miles, and it’s clear to see that all is not yet well in New Orleans.
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A LAST-MINUTE SPRING BREAK
What are you waiting for? Spring Break is looming and you haven’t planned a getaway. We’re not talking a Big Trip — a cruise, for example, or an adventure trip to Costa Rica, though, according to Travelzoo.com, there are good last-minute deals to be had in Costa Rica.
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You can have fun and help out in New Orleans
I just got back from New Orleans and it was packed with spring breakers. They were doing their share of drinking on Bourbon Street but they were also doing their share of helping to clear debris and build houses in neighborhoods that still have not rebounded nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina.
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Touring colleges in the heart of college country – Boston
It wasn’t the choice of restaurant that was making me so happy this particular Saturday night. It was that we’d survived a day of college touring in Boston without a melt down, without stalking off a campus, without tears and with everyone still speaking-and even more surprising, smiling.
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DISNEY WORLD 101
Your next-door neighbor insists he has the skinny on finding bargain lodging (you can find rooms, especially in winter for well under $100 a night). One friend says she wouldn’t leave home without “Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World 2007,” the official guide to Walt Disney World, while a co-worker says her bible is the “Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.”
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SEE THE RADIO CITY ROCKETTES
The next time the kids give you a hard time on vacation, remind yourself that you really are building memories to last a lifetime. Just ask Sheila Dennis. She was a wide-eyed 9-year-old when her parents took her to see the world-famous Rockettes perform at Radio City Music Hall in New York. It was her first trip outside Texas. “I loved the glitter and the color,” she said. “I was thrilled.”
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The Rockefeller Center for the Tree Lighting Festivities
As I fought my way through the crowds to inch closer to Rockefeller Center I wondered to myself why anybody would venture into Midtown Manhattan for the annual tree lighting, yet every year they come.
