Travel reports and advice for families for the best outdoor experiences, including national and state park visits, camping or glamping
“HONK! HONK!” They are really whales—eight to 10 of them right in front of the boat alternately spewing water high in the air, honking and “fluking”—diving for food and showing us their magnificent tails. We watch them “blow” spewing water high into the air. It’s fun to watch them!
There are seven kids aged 11 to 16-six of them boys — in our group. And in Alaska, of course, we don’t let the rain stop us whether we’re kayaking to a glacier and ice caves, looking for bear on the beach or trying to track them as we bushwhack our way through old forest.
“If I had it I’d be on it but I’m not really missing it,” said 15 year old Jake Blacutt. Instead, they’re playing marathon games of slapjack and hearts, making origami, and with the grown-ups — telephone charades. Seventeen year old Drew Redmond shows 13 year old Miles Singer card tricks. Eleven year old Charlotte doesn’t let the boys phase her. It is a lot easier, I think, for the kids to get to know one another without the distractions of TV, internet and video games.
We are in the middle of Glacier Bay, paddling through the ice — big icebergs, little icebergs. One looks like an alligator. “I thought they were cool — they were so little on top and, oh wow — they were huge underneath,” said 14-year-old Xander Majercik.
Tahiti is closer than many think — just a little over seven hours from Los Angeles, about two hours farther than Hawaii — and Air Tahiti Nui is encouraging more families to visit with kids-fly-free offers and discounted hotel rates.
“Our aim is to keep your wilderness experience from being impacted by the cruise ships,” says Kimber Owen, who found her way to her boat and Alaska from a Texas horse farm after she was widowed in her early forties. “It was too sad to stay,” she explained.
We’ve joined three other families — together we have seven kids ranging from one 11 year-old girl and six teenage boys — for a week-long cruise through the 300 square acre (the size of Connecticut!) Glacier Bay on the 12-passenger Sea Wolf — built in 1941 as a U.S. Navy Minesweeper
DAY 2 — “The fish must hate us,” moans 13 year old Miles Singer. We are on the world-famous Kenai River in Alaska with one…
DAY ONE (July 15, 2009) — Bears on the runway? “Routine,” says Gerry Winkler, the pilot of our six-passenger Cessna. Routine, that is, when you…
We hopped a short flight from Bora Bora to the French Polynesian island of Moorea that is spectacularly beautiful with its crystal clear lagoon and the green cliffs. This island is known less for its manicured resorts than for what there is to do here — taking a hike, passing by ancient marae (ancient temples excavated by archeologists), checking out the spinner dolphins and humpback whales, playing with the stingrays in the crystal clear water.