Adventure Starts Here.
Every journey brings you closer to new places, to people you love, to family, and to yourself. Let’s make your next escape unforgettable.
By Eileen Ogintz Tribune Media Services The beach is pitch black, except for the light from the stars dancing across the sky. The ocean waves…
Ever seen a cranberry bean? I’ve never seen so much luscious produce in one place — heirloom tomatoes, white peaches, plums, big and tiny grapes, almonds and walnuts, various varieties of chili peppers…eggplants, potatoes…welcome to The Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market .
Here’s one place where no one is afraid to get their hands dirty. They’re bent over tables diligently making multi colored clay figures from wire frames and assorted other creatures — dogs, sea lions, cats.
DAY ONE — As long as I was flying cross country to San Francisco, I thought I’d try Virgin America (www.virginamerica.com) . I always liked…
By Eileen Ogintz Tribune Media Services I’ve found vacation nirvana for teenagers and it’s a place parents will like just as much as teens do….
Pancake, the much loved blue bear, seemed right at home among the oh-so-serious laptop-toting business people. So did his 4-year-old owner, Colin Blodgett. Colin, Pancake and Colin’s parents were awaiting their flight from London to New York in British Airway’s expansive $60 million Executive Lounges in Heathrow’s new Terminal 5
We sniff the strong perfume that even kids used, since they bathed so infrequently (servants just once a year) and learn that even though royal children had servants to do everything for them (even brush their teeth), they didn’t have a lot of time to play because they were expected at court (sitting quietly for hours). Still, our gang decided they’d rather be royals instead of servants.
Searching out those markets and meeting the locals who shop there is all part of the charm of renting a flat in a strange city or a villa in the countryside. We sleep with cherubs over our bed and hear the noises of a city neighborhood — a baby crying, a couple jabbering in Italian and music playing.
A word about duty-free shopping. It’s tempting but I’ve never found any real bargains, except maybe on liquor or cigars. I buy something we can’t find at home for my husband and son just before we board our flight home and resist the temptation to stock up on cosmetics and perfume that I don’t need and that likely cost the same or more than at home.
We head to a nearby street where we can’t believe our food choices — Italian, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, French… After a week of heavy Austrian and Czech food, we opt for Indonesian at Sahid Jaya
After a morning of white-water rafting (and plenty of water fights) on Costa Rica’s Sarapiqui River, and a first-rate burrito lunch made by our raft guides at the river’s edge, we stop in the small town of Horquetas, about 10 minutes from where we are staying to visit an elementary school. Some 270 kids attend the ill-equipped school, which is so overcrowded that children must attend split sessions. The students mug for our cameras and giggle.
Another day, another church. We’re all excited to explore Prague, which many now call The Paris of the East. It’s crowded with tourists on this brilliant summer day. Prague, of course, is the capital of the Czech Republic and has been an intersection of continental merchant routes for centuries.
No matter how interesting the places, how scenic the terrain, touring is exhausting — especially with kids. That’s why the parents in our group so appreciate our Adventures by Disney guides who are always there to offer a bottle of water, a snack, even an activity or movie on the bus to keep the kids amused.
Lunch will be on a cruise down the Danube that will take us about 35 miles, from Durnstein to Melk. The villages are postcard-pretty, especially on a sunny day. The parents are pleased that the guides invite them to enjoy the views on the top deck while they entertain the kids elsewhere.
We meet 23-year-old Trevor Enderby, one of our two guides for the week, who whisks us to our waiting car and to the hotel where our other guide, Alex Kemper is waiting to greet us at the Marriott Vienna.
All around Lost Pines were other families determined not to miss one second of vacation fun — floating in the lazy river, watching the kids on the water slide or in the baby pool, saddling up for horseback rides or bike rides around the extensive property (405 acres and an adjoining 1,100-acre nature park!), playing “golf” with preschoolers on the lawn and watching them on the playground nearby.
What the kids don’t get is that driving for hours with a couple of antsy children (not to mention sullen tweens and teens) is no fun for parents either — especially not when we’re paying record prices for gas. Still, millions of us — 20.4 million just over the July 4th weekend, AAA reports — are hitting the road with the kids this summer.
A monkey in the treetops takes his time watching us before performing (click image to enlarge)DAY 5 — Our guide, Gaston Trujillo, says he thinks Costa Rica remains a jumping off point for many venturing into eco tourism for the first time. There are so many different species and habitats to see here, he explains, without great distances.
Tortuguero is all about the turtles. The Caribbean Conservation Corporation (www.ccturtle.org) is the oldest sea turtle conservation anywhere and the program here — more than 30 years old — has documented an over 400 per cent increase in green turtle nesting here. For a $25 donation to the Conservation Corporation, I adopt a turtle tag # 105549.
We parents of course notice what their schools are missing-computers, air conditioning, enough room for the children to go to school full days. Sarah Kate Garrett, at nine the youngest in our group, immediately makes friends with nine-year-old Maria.