Families learn about Pandas and environment at the San Diego Zoo
Zoos — besides being fun places to visit and see amazing creatures like pandas — are also ideal places to teach kids what they can do to help the environment
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A place where a private tour makes sense: The Louvre in Paris
The Louvre can be overwhelming for an adult, much less a child. That’s why I figure if you are going to splurge on a private tour, this is a good place to do it.
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Tinker til you drop at San Francisco’s Exploratorium
Step right into the Tinkering Studio at San Francisco’s Exploratorium where you can tinker until you make lights go on and buzzers sound, make music on a musical bench or create a toothpick sculpture, inspired by the giant toothpick sculpture “Rolling Through the Bay.”
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Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Volunteer & Service | Weekly Column
Boston’s Freedom Trail: Where families travel back in time
Welcome to Boston’s Freedom Trail, the 2.5-mile-long route over cobble-stoned streets that lets you travel back in time to when Boston was still a colony and people argued about what to do about the increasingly difficult demands from the king of England.
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Children’s Creativity Museum: A San Francisco family treat
The Children’s Creativity Museum in downtown San Francisco right at Yerba Buena Gardens, is unlike any children’s museum I’ve ever seen. For one thing, it appeals to all ages.
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A new way with kids menus at San Francisco’s Exploratorium
At the SEAGLASS restaurant in San Francisco’s Exploratorium, families and kids step out of their comfort zone to eat healthier and what is in season.
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Five places for your kids to get up close and personal with dinosaurs
You don’t have to be in New York or at The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., to get your dino fix, as wonderful as those museums’ exhibits are. Here are four others museums I’ve visited that are guaranteed to please.
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Back to Bolton Valley with the ABC boys — many lessons learned
Why would three sane adult males drive five hours for a day-and-a-half of skiing and snowboarding with a group of five high school boys when there are bigger and fancier ski areas much closer to home? A guys weekend of course.
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Take your family to an art museum and explore it in new ways
At the Denver Art Museum you can borrow a backpack. These days you’ll find plenty of activities to engage kids and the adults who accompany them to art museums across the country
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Futbol is life — at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Fútbol: The Beautiful Game is an art exhibition to examine soccer through issues such as nationalism and identity as well as share the human experience through different cultures, according to LACMA.
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The museums in Los Angeles have something for every family
Here are five Los Angeles museum bets that are guaranteed to please even the I-hate-museum crowd
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Preschoolers exploring the surface of Mars at Denver science museum
On a recent Tuesday, a group of pre schoolers were busy carving out what looked like pieces of water from the surface of Mars — at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
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Families love the time machines at History Colorado
Everyone visiting Denver—and Colorado should stop at this downtown museum that makes Colorado history relevant and gives those families visiting a way to connect with Coloradoans past and present.
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Families love the Denver Art Museum and its backpacks
It turns out that some 20 years ago, the Denver Art Museum was the first in the country to not only embrace families but to introduce backpacks-to-borrow as a way to engage kids.
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Beach Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Volunteer & Service | Weekly Column
Following the kid — to Nicaragua, the new destination for eco-tourism
After years of Taking the Kids, on this trip we’ve followed our 22-year-old daughter Melanie here to Nicaragua, which many say is fast becoming the next eco tourist’s must-see destination, offering volcanoes, cloud forests, rain forests, pristine beaches and a growing number of eco resorts.
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A family vacation includes volunteering at a nearby children’s center
In our family, an afternoon away from the resort is fundamental. A 20-minute taxi ride from the luxurious Iberostar Playa Mita brings you to the sleepy fishing village of San Francisco, known locally as San Pancho. In this tiny seaside town, you will find Entre Amigos.
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Beach Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
How inspiration is producing a badly needed new tourism industry
A vacation can inspire you to take a different path—or in some cases, inspire a new industry. That’s what happened when Clemente and Claire Poncon vacationed at Lapa Rios Ecolodge on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.
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Visiting Boston and the historic Boston Tea Party
There may be 21st-century LED holiday lights all over Boston, but we’ve time-traveled back to 1773 — Dec. 16, 1773 to be exact — the night that literally changed the course of American history.
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Six days in Nicaragua, the next family eco-travel destination?
We’ve followed our 22-year-old daughter Melanie here to Nicaragua, which many say is poised to become the next eco tourist’s must-see destination with volcanoes, cloud forests, pristine beaches and tiny eco resorts like Jicaro Island Ecolodge.
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A visit to the town where Vincent Van Gogh spent his final most prolific days
I’m literally walking in Vincent Van Gogh’s footsteps to the field where he painted the famous paintings like the Wheatfield of Crows and where he shot himself.
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Two days touring the D-Day sites in Normandy
We are at the famous Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach, where the massive allied assault on the Normandy on June 6, 1944 aimed to liberate France and defeat Nazi Germany.
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Family gatherings at Gettysburg for 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s address
At the time, no one expected the speech to be a big deal. Lincoln had merely been asked to make a few remarks at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, here in the Pennsylvania countryside, just four months after the searing battle that turned the tide of the Civil War.
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Touring the famous Louvre in Paris with a family-oriented guide
Eighty per cent of her clients are American families. She notes that most guides, while true experts in their field, aren’t often as willing to play to the kids’ interests so when booking a guide, it is key to make sure they appreciate that kids’ may not have as long attention span.
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Day Three in Dallas – at the Zoo, Audubon Center, Presidential Library
My favorite exhibits were the ones that allowed me to feed the animals. I loved the feel of the giraffe licking my hand as he munched on lettuce leaves. My daughter had tropical birds land on the top of her head and drink sweet nectar right out of her hand.
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Day Two in Dallas — great places to take the kids for fun and learning
There are a great many new options for families visiting Dallas – take the kids to the Perot Museum of Science and Nature, or the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure. And the new Klyde Warren Park with its sparkling new playground is one of the most vibrant urban spaces around.
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Families flock to aquariums in the fall for fun and learning
Fall is a great time to visit an aquarium — and go on a whale watch with your kids, whether you have a day off from school, are enjoying a weekend getaway or a reprieve during a college tour trip. Some aquariums also offer sleepovers and behind-the-scenes tours for marine life aficionados. Aquariums are a place to learn about the creatures who live deep in the sea and along the shore in far-flung destinations
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More free attractions for family travelers in Washington DC than any other place
Certainly you could spend all of your time in Washington, DC without paying to enter a museum—there are plenty of free ones to choose from. In fact, Washington DC likely has more free attractions than any city in the country.
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ACES in Aspen: a hidden gem for local and visiting families
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) is celebrating its 45th anniversary and it is a great place to learn more about the spectacular environment here—and the creatures who call it home, whether you visit in summer, fall or winter.
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Four days in the Adirondacks begins with a stop at Fort Ticonderoga
All summer and into the fall, there are Soldier’s Life programs, family hands-on activities and Fife & Drum Corps performances. We’re immersed in the year 1755 when French soldiers began construction of the Fort, called Fort Carillon. Ticonderoga, we learn, in the Native language was “The place Between the Great Waters.”
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Pick your Brain at the MIT Museum
Looking for a mind-boggling experience on a rainy day? The MIT Museum is just the place to visit. Tucked away at 265 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, this nifty museum offers a closer look at the technological wonders of science and engineering.
