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.
-
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
To the hot springs
I’m not dreaming. The handsome, long-haired 29 year old Chilean is Max Vera, who is guiding us on a challenging hike uphill along the canyon floor, scrambling over big rocks, along a sandy trail, in between large “fox tails” that grow in this region and Cacti that are 12 feet high with needles so sharp that local Indian women use them as needles to sew and knit.
(more) -
Chaxa Lake
Day 10 — Welcome to Laguna de Chaxa (Chaxa Lake) and the National Reserve of Flamingoes that is about an hour from St. Pedro, Chile from where we’re staying at the lovely 32-room Tierra Atacama
-
Who knows why glaciers are blue?
DAY 8 — We’re in Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, the largest in Chile with several hanging glaciers including Balmaceda and Serrano Glaciers. We’ve taken a small boat from Puerto Natales, about five minutes from Hotel Remota (www.remota.cl) where we are staying for a three-hour cruise—past a huge waterfall and condor nest! “You read about it in books and then you can look and see it,” says Sandy VanLandingham, from Arizona visiting here with extended family.
-
Whoa Horsie!
DAY 7 in Chile — It is one of those vacation days I think I must be dreaming. I’m in the Patagonian hills of Chile riding a gentle horse named Chinosca as we climb higher and higher on a traditional estancia or ranch, past grazing sheep and cattle. The hills are dotted with stumps of the traditional Linca trees—cut down in the early 1900s, our guide Alvaro Jaime tells us, both for energy in the new settlement of Puerto Natales and to provide more grazing land in those days.
-
They can’t all be the ‘best day ever’
I’m bushwhacking up a trail in Patagonia, scrambling over loose rocks and getting more frustrated by the minute. My knee aches. The guide is not helpful or attentive. I wish I’d remembered to ask for hiking poles—they really help. I wish he’d remembered to offer them.
-
A stroll through Guanaco and Condor country
This isn’t our neighborhood–the sweeping expanse of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile’s Patagonia belongs to herds of rhea (small ostriches), the gray fox, and herds of guanaco—a kind of llama who totally ignore our presence 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.
-
New Years Day hike to a lamb BBQ
The whole lamb is roasting on a spit over blistering hot coals in the middle of nowhere–literally. It smells delicious and has been soaked in beer and seasoned only with salt.
-
At the Remota — a unique resort in Patagonia
It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m writing this in perhaps the most unique resort I’ve ever seen—Hotel Remota outside the Patagonian town of Puerto Natales, a small (perhaps 15,000 people) but growing tourist town for those discovering the wonders of this region.
