Back to Disney World with the princesses
It’s hard work being a princess. You need to know how to curtsey and wave. You need to be kind to everyone—even annoying younger siblings. You need to wear fancy dresses and tiaras.
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To a Place American Families Haven’t Yet Discovered
In a desert oasis beside a roaring river, the handsome young Chilean reaches for my hand to help me over the rocks. He smiles. “Gracias,” I say. It’s not a dream. The long-haired, 29-year-old Chileano is Max Vera, our guide on a challenging uphill hike along the canyon floor. We scramble over rocks strewn along a sandy trail, large “fox tails” and cacti that are 12 feet high with needles so sharp that local Indian women use them to sew and knit. We’re in the Atacama Desert in South America, walking along the River Puritama. Our goal: seven pools of hot springs.
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Skiing Vail Mountain in one day!
Finally. I get to relax. After the extended family heads back to Denver and Connecticut, after my college freshman daughter and her friends head back to school, my husband and I head to Vail where we check in to the Arrabelle at Vail Square–a beautiful boutique hotel celebrating its second anniversary.
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To a Totally Kidcentric and Affordable Ski Resort This Spring
Sorry, Cinderella. Five-year-old Hannah Sitzman has forsaken all things princess to be a Winter Queen, she announces as she makes her way to the huge ice throne in a castle at the top of a ski mountain that took more than 75 tons of snow and two full weeks to build.
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Our family takes over Keystone mountain
DAY 8 — Yes, a ski trip can work whether you are five, 19 or 60-at least for our family, at least at Keystone Resort that is the most economical and most kid-centric of Vail’s Colorado resorts.
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Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Snow Vacations | Travel Diaries
No shortage of things to do at Vista Verde
DAY 6 — Ever since they were a young married couple in Indianapolis, Peggy and Jerry Throgmartin talked about buying a ranch. “This is my husband’s dream since he was seven, said Peggy Throgmartin. It took till the couple was in their fifties to make it happen—here at Vista Verde Ranch
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Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Snow Vacations | Travel Diaries
To Vista Verde Ranch near Steamboat
Our 2010 Colorado winter adventure continues. DAY 5 — Think four wheel drive. Think four wheel drive on skis. I’m in the back country of the Vista Verde Ranch—some 560 pristine snow covered acres at 7800 feet above altitude—trying my hand at back country skiing.
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A day trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium
The centerpiece of Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey Bay, CA is the massive Monterey Bay Aquarium . It’s an incredible structure which includes some of the largest fish tanks in the world and some of the most elusive creatures in our oceans
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Fishing in Alaska
“The fish must hate us,” moans 13-year-old Miles Singer. We are on the world-famous Kenai River in Alaska with one of the river’s best guides, Steve Fickes, who jokes that he’s been guiding “ever since I got my accounting degree” — more than two decades ago.It’s like Grand Central Station on the Kenai this morning
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Taking the Kids — On Spring Break
Who says college kids have all the fun? I’ve spent spring breaks hunting for the “perfect” Sand Dollar on a Sanibel Island beach, watching major leaguers at spring training games, along with my little leaguers, and exploring the Grand Canyon with a couple of young hikers who were thrilled to become Junior Rangers.
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Steamboat is most definitely kid-centric
DAY 4 — It’s just after 9 a.m. and the spanking new Kids Vacation Center at Steamboat—it has doubled in size this year—is in full swing.
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Soaking up the Hot Springs
I’m soaking in Steamboat’s famous Strawberry Park Hot Springs in a natural pool that is about 105 degrees surrounded by mountains and snow covered trees. There are two other pools that we sample—one that is 101 and one at 75 degrees is downright freezing. Some hardy souls are rolling in the snow and jumping back in.
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Moms gotta have fun too
DAY 2 — “If you have good coaching, skiing is effortless. You just need to use the equipment properly,” says my 72-year-old instructor IJ Fisher, a former Christmas Tree farm owner and ski patroller from the East Coast who followed his kids here in Steamboat, Co
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Back to Steamboat with a boatload of kids
It’s our annual family reunion on snow—11 of us this trip from five to 60–something and we’ve gathered in Steamboat, CO known for having more Olympians—79, including 17 this year—than any other American town and just as important to thousands of American families, pioneering kids-ski-free—some 27 years ago.
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Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Snow Vacations | Weekly Column
To Spectacular Silverton, Colorado
Talk about being a 21st-century pioneer. Jenny and Aaron Brill are raising the only infant in a tiny Colorado town, a town located more than 9,000 feet above sea level that offers heart-stopping mountain views in every direction and more than 400 inches of snow a year. And despite the economy, they’re making their dreams come true — and a lot of skiers happy in the process.
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Snow angels?
Weather permitting (there’s a new snowstorm bearing down on the Northeast today), I’m heading off to Colorado for a two-week swing that will take me to four family-friendly resorts in Colorado.
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Back to Bolton Valley with ABC and Chill
This quaint little ski area in the Green Mountains near Burlington, VT., is known for its hospitality and public service – hosting both the Burton’s great Chill Organization as well as the Vermont Adaptive Sports program
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Grabbing Some Time for Yourself
Such a tough decision! Should I stay stretched out on my lounge chair, waiting for the smiling beach boy named Ben Pierre to bring me a frothy concoction or make my way across the white sandy beach for a dip in the clear, turquoise water? Maybe I should go to the infinity pool — 7,000 square feet lined with blue mosaic — where the chairs are set right in the water.
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Vacationing with kids who have special challenges
The next time your kids are making you wonder why you left home with them, think of Terrie Easton. The Burlington, VT mom has eight-year-old twin boys one of whom has been diagnosed with autism; the other with a variety of cognitive and emotional disorders that present special challenges.
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Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Snow Vacations | Travel Diaries
A Weekend Retreat to Northstar Resort, in Lake Tahoe
After braving the rain all week in San Francisco, my boyfriend, a friend, and I decided that a trip up to Lake Tahoe for the weekend would be a must—especially considering that the area had received 79” of snow in the last five days that we had been soaked in the rain. We left the city before dawn Saturday morning and made it to the mountain in time to ski some fresh powder in the first sunshine Tahoe had seen in a week.
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Snowsports change lives
This past weekend at Bolton Valley, VT I got to meet some dedicated volunteers from two terrific organizations who make snowsports part of kids’ lives who otherwise would never get to the slopes and in the process, change their lives forever.
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Getting Up-close and Personal with Olympians’ Parents
It’s cold, dark and the snow is dumping, but that doesn’t stop thousands of locals and their kids from turning out at Park City Mountain Resort to cheer on snowboarding superstars Shaun White and Hannah Teter, as well as other world-class athletes as they strut their stuff under the lights in their final competition before the 2010 Olympic U.S. snowboarding team was announced.
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LAST NIGHT IN PARK CITY — OLYMPIC TEAM FINALS!
It’s cold and the snow is dumping but that doesn’t stop hundreds of locals from turning out to cheer on the Snowboarders in their final comp before the U.S. Olympic Team is named. “It’s fun family time,” says Dan Kemp, with his wife and two young daughters.
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DAY FOUR — HOW MANY OLYMPIANS CAN YOU COUNT?
Eight-year-old Henry Silverman may be a little jaded—at least when it comes to Olympians, his mom Caroline admits.
You can’t really blame him since he’s growing up in Park City, Utah, a town that’s home to the U.S. Snowboarding Team and chock full of past and present Olympians. “We see Olympians every day,” she laughs.
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Day 3 in Park City — what recession?
I’m lying on a heated massage table in the spanking new spa at the St. Regis Deer Crest at Deer Valley. “We’ve been very busy,” the massage therapist tells me. It is a great massage complete with paraffin treatment to soften and help the blood flow in my tired feet and a scalp treatment. Great steam room! Another massive luxury hotel property is on line to open next year. The people checking in to the St Regis don’t seem concerned about the price of the rooms.
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Day 2 — so this is what it”s like to be numero uno
Deer Valley has been named the #1 ski resort in North America in 2008, 2009 and again this year in North America by the readers of SKI Magazine.
Add in 300 annual inches of famous Utah dry powder, 100 trails, six bowls, 21 chairlifts and a limited number of skiers allowed on the mountain each day; three day lodges glowing warm with firelight and gourmet food, the well respected Ski School and Children’s Center; and the sheer ease of the place — parking lot shuttles, complimentary ski storage, ski valets and more.
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A trip to park city — day one
A GIRL’S JUST GOTTA HAVE FUN! I’m sitting in one of ski country’s newest posh resorts—The St. Regis Deer Crest in Deer Valley. My room looks out over the groomers Deer Valley is known for and I can see the hotel’s hot tubs. There’s a fireplace and a marble bath and oh-so-comfy beds.
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Taking the Kids — To Patagonia
The locals in Chile’s famous Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia are rhea, small ostriches, the gray fox, and herds of guanaco — a kind of llama who totally ignore us as the males chase each other (only one male can be dominant in a herd of females) and the females nurse their oh-so-cute babies. More than a dozen condors fly overhead so close we can make out the white on their wings, which span nine feet across!
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LAST DAY IN CHILE — Llama kabob anyone?
We’ve stopped in a native village called Machucha Town –at over 12,000 feet where local Attacamas stay while herding their llama. Today we don’t see llamas—just tourists—and a local man dishing up llama shish kabab while a woman fries llama empanadas inside. In case you are wondering, llama tastes like lamb.
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Tierra Atacama, Toco Volcano
It is not easy to breathe the air up around 18,000 feet, especially when hiking straight to the top of a volcano. The Toco Volcano is the most difficult excursion offered by Tierra Atacama, one of San Pedro, Chile’s most luxurious and beautiful boutique hotels.
