Adventure Starts Here.
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I know when the new baby comes to visit it’s tempting to put your grandchild in the same crib you used as a new parent. DON’T!
The Living room is beautifully decked out for the holidays with greenery, wreaths and a tree in all its glory. On the mantel in my bedroom, Santa shares space with golden elk and garland festooned with bright red holiday balls and ribbon. Even the lamp is tied with a big red and gold holiday bow and there’s a poinsettia (albeit a silk one) in the bathroom.
I just got back from two entirely different kinds of destinations that are winners for entirely different kinds of families.
Life has a way of changing planned celebrations. Jean Anne McKiernan and Richard Sandano were planning a big Brooklyn, N.Y., wedding when they discovered—very happily—they were going to have a baby.
I’ve been saying for months that in this economy, we should ask for what else the hotel/resort/ cruiseline can do for us–a better room, resort credits, free food. But until last week, I hadn’t thought about that in the context of a family emergency. I found myself handling flights and hotels for family converging in Illinois after my 90-year-old mother-in-law was rushed to the hospital and then died.
Life is too short to waste a minute, I think. We say goodbye to Bermuda and Hamilton’s Town Hall (click image to enlarge) DAY 5—I wake up on board Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas
We learn it is the only place—and the place—for a traditional English Tea. In the 1840s, Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, wanted a snack for tea and thinly sliced bread and butter.
In the year since it has re opened, the Cal Academy has emerged as the city’s top cultural tourist attraction, drawing more visitors than Alcatraz Kids get up close and personal with specimens at the Academy of Sciences
Not sunny, but not raining. Just 66,000 people live on this pristine island—actually a series of about 360 small coral island, which is part of the British Commonwealth. Yes, we see businessmen wearing Bermuda shorts, knee-high socks, and shirts and ties to work. Hedges are manicured and lawns mowed. Houses are painted a rainbow of colors—bright orange, green and blue, pastel pinks and yellows.
It’s not the weather we imagined on our trip to Bermuda. The seas are rocking. It’s pouring and the waves are high. We get sprayed standing on our little balcony.
The cruise was long planned and then a week before tragedy stuck…
I smile remembering two other kids about the same age who were equally proud of themselves for making it to the top of Vernal Fall, also their first “big hike” in Yosemite.
We drive to Healdsburg, a small picturesque town where, around the Plaza Park square, are tasting rooms, restaurants, antique shops, and more. My 23 year old daughter Reggie is excited because she scores a cast iron frying pan for $15. I’m excited because it is a perfect sunny fall day and I’m spending it with my husband and daughter.
DAY 4 — Five year old Rivers Klopson is turning cartwheels on the rocks next to Yosemite’s famous Vernal Falls. It’s sunny and everyone sitting…
Here’s the chance to give your kids a lesson — without them even realizing it — in San Francisco’s seafaring past and the people who made their lives sailing in and out of San Francisco Bay, hauling lumber, canned fruit and more. Five vessels — the Alma, Balclutha, Eureka, Hercules and C.A. Thayer are designated National Historic Landmarks.
Colonial Williamsburg explores the lives and complexities of free and enslaved blacks during the Revolutionary Era, highlighting personal and unified contributions, sacrifices and decisions made by 19th-century blacks in securing their freedom
We’re at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco which in the year since it has reopened has emerged as San Francisco’s top cultural tourist attraction, drawing more visitors than even Alcatraz.
The Hotel San Francisco atop Nob Hill was getting ready for its grand opening when the city suffered its devastating earthquake April 18, 1906. The hotel survived and a year later, opened, celebrating the city’s renewal. The hotel has hosted celebrities and presidents. Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco “here.
The cruise was long planned to celebrate the 85th birthday of my “second mom.” I grew up two houses away on suburban Long Island and over the years, her family and mine became one, her two daughters my oldest and closest friends, sharing good times and sad.
Seen any ghosts lately? Now’s your chance. Time travel back to the 18th century where you can get up close and personal with pirates and ghosts at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Northern California that included museum-hopping in San Francisco, hiking in Yosemite National Park and wine tasting in Sonoma County. My companions, besides my husband Andy were my 23-year-old daughter Reggie and her boyfriend Dan Foldes. They live and work in San Francisco.
Yesterday was a very sad day in our house. We had to say goodbye to our 11-year-old Lab Gus who had developed a very aggressive and painful bone cancer.
Who says kids and romance don’t go together? Even in a place as famous for honeymoons as Bora Bora, families’ rule, especially as Air Tahiti Nui continues to offer kids free deals on flights. There are also great hotel deals
Five years ago, we visited Colorado Springs for our oldest daughter’s freshman Parent Weekend at Colorado College. We brought 13-year-old Melanie–not a happy camper that weekend to have all the attention focused on her older sister–and stayed at the iconic and sprawling Broadmoor resort.
It helps to have the kids read up on the animals before you go, as long as it’s fun and doesn’t turn into something “completely boring and educational!”
So what if you’re toting a stroller and diaper bag or home-school assignments, while everyone else is waiting for the school bus and arranging car pools
It’s impossible to go hungry in New York—not with vendors selling hot dogs, pretzels, kabobs and more on every corner. It’s also impossible to get bored eating in New York, whether you want to head to China Town or Ninth Avenue for good ethnic eats, great burgers, pasta, pizza or more gourmet fare.
We saw the penguins and the puffins, the sea lions and polar bears Ida and Gus, the Red Pandas and the Snow Monkeys. The Snow Leopards — new to the zoo — seemed to be hiding. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which oversees The Central Park Zoo as well as the Bronx Zoo and others in NYC (www.wcs.org), is a leader in the care and conservation of these creatures.
This is my four year-old cousin Hannah Sitzman’s first Broadway production and she loves every minute of it — from the costumes and sets to the music to the black tee shirt which spells out “Shrek” in pink sparkly letters. I especially loved the magic of the costumes.
A Denver Post reader told me she was “seething” when she read the column I wrote about Bora Bora being a good bet for families…
Like the 3 million other families taking freshman to school this year, I knew the weekend would be stressful, not to mention an emotional rollercoaster
It appears we’ve picked the perfect time to visit. Vermillion, who’s called Verm, explains there are more bears than there have been in years, including three sets of triplets and three sets of twins all born this spring
My mom never took me to a spa — I don’t think she’s ever been to one herself — but I’ve taken my wilderness-loving daughters to spas from the Caribbean to Colorado, from Arizona to Austria
Whether you want adventures with your kids, want to learn about endangered sea turtles or if you simply want to hit the beach, there’s no better time to visit Mexico.
Unlike the big cruise ships, we can take our time in Glacier Bay, which offers 3.3 million acres of glaciers that calve right in front of us
Elderhostel is known for their affordable, educational programs for seniors. But what many don’t realize is that there are 200 different grandparent-grandchild programs with almost 400 departures
“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…
Ignore those office emails, forget all about the economy and for an afternoon focus instead on what’s really important, especially on vacation — making memories with the kids at a place where you made your own childhood memories
Visitors to New York have their pick of world-class and iconic sites…But there is a lot more to New York than the tourist track
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.
We’re diving in an area called Muri Muri just north of the island of Bora Bora and nearly as soon as we get under the water, our dive master Benoit Gratas introduces us to a Hawksbill Sea Turtle (like Crush, the character in “Finding Nemo”), showing us how to feed him a piece of sea sponge. He’s so big — more than two feet in diameter.
I’m sitting in an over the water bungalow, the ceiling fan whirring, with a thatched roof and expansive deck with its own swimming dock and outdoor shower? Did I mention that gigantic tub big enough for two with views of the lagoon as well?
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Escape to the outdoors where lush parks, scenic trails, and serene natural retreats provide the space to relax, recharge, and experience the world in its purest form.
Every destination has its own flavor. Let the food take you on a journey through local traditions, and unforgettable meals.
