New Travel Forum Launched

March 9, 2008

Planning the perfect family vacation often involves talking to other travelers.  Simply reading through all of the available advertisements and brochures doesn’t always give you a true idea of what the destination is like.  After all, those things are put together in an effort to draw you in and to get you to spend money.  That’s why I like to visit forums and share idead with other people.

Today, I learned about a new travel forum, which you can see check out at http://www.lmvr123.com/forum/.  It’s pretty new, so there isn’t a whole lot on there yet, but I am sure it is going to get busy rather quickly!  I am going to head over there to see what types of conversations I can get going – Care to join me?  See you at the forum!

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, a, advertisements, and, brochures, family, forum, forums, idea, idead, involves, learned, people  today, perfect, planning, reading, share, simply, talking, the, travel, travelers  , true, vacation, visit | Comments (0)

Check Out the Damage!

August 21, 2007

OK,  everyone.  I think I am ready to start blogging on a more regular basis once again.  I apologize for the delay, as I was making posts every day.  As I mentioned in my previous post, my house was hit hard by some terrible weather.  A large tree limb fell on my husband’s car, as you can see here:

 scotts-car-1.JPG

 Here’s a close up of the back window – check out the speakers sticking out.

scotts-car-2.JPG

I know this doesn’t have a great deal to do with family travel or family vacation tips, but I thought it would be interesting to share!

Unfortunately, the car wasn’t the only thing affected.  As you can see here, the same tree pushed into our house.

scotts-car-3.JPG

 This next picture is kind of difficult to appreciate without knowing what this area is supposed to look like.  Anyway, that little bit of white that you can see in the background is one of my garden sheds that was crushed by another huge tree limb that fell in my backyard.  I have a garden walkway in this cove that leads to the shed.  Obviously, you cannot see that at all now!

Damage

So, we have most of this cleaned up now and the insurance adjusters have been out.  So, I should be able to start talking about educational family travel and family vacation tips next time.  Thanks for your patience and the words of support!

By admin | Posted in Getting to Know Me, a, and, blogging, car, crushed, educational, family, fell, for your, garden, huge, large, limb, patience, pushed, ready, share unfortunately, start, terrible, the, time  , tips, travel, tree, vacation, walkway, weather  , words | Comments (0)

Check Out My Article and Book

August 8, 2007

I thought my faithul readers might be interested in checking out this travel article that I wrote for another site.  It is about my return trip after our family vacation to Disney – and how even the worse situations can turn out to be “hidden gems.” 

I will discuss this trip in more detail later (complete with pictures!), but here is a little teaser for now – click here!

While we are on the subject of me bragging, take a look at this book I wrote for Remedia Publications.  This is series of short stories that follow Jenna and her family through various national parks as she solves mysteries.  Obviously, I put my travel experiences to work for inspiration on this one!  If you want to see my name as author, you will have to get a copy.  Or,  you can visit this site where they have the book for sale and have listed me as the author.  I also did several of the stories and questions for this product. 

Although I do a great deal of writing for a variety of purposes, my favorite projects are educational materials and blogs such as this one since these materials help me teach someone in some way.  Hopefully, there are plenty of you out there that are learning something with this blog because of the experiences I have to share.

Do any of you write?  If so, what do you like to write about?

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, Getting to Know Me, article, checking, complete, faithul, gems, hidden, interested, my, readers, return, site  , situations, the, thought, travel, trip, turn, worse, wrote | Comments (0)

Family Travel Roadtrip Tips – Keep Them Entertained

August 7, 2007

Perhaps the single most important family travel roadtrip tip is to keep the kids entertained while on the road. By  breaking up the trip and stopping every couple of hours, you will automatically help stave off boredom.  Nonetheless, you will need to take other steps to prevent boredom as well.

The most obvious thing you can do to help keep the kids from getting bored is to install a DVD system in your vehicle.  Watching movies along the way to your family vacation destination will certainly keep the children entertained as long as the movies remain available.

Of course, not everyone has a DVD player in their vehicle.  If this is the case, music can help prevent boredom from setting in as well – particularly if everyone joins in with the merriment.

Another roadtrip game you can play is to challenge the children to look for certain items along the way.  For example, you can challenge them to look for license plates for all 50 states. If you create a list ahead of time, they can simply check off the states as they find them.  You can use this states.doc with your kids while on your trip.

Another roadtrip game is to look for every letter of the alphabet on the signs along the road.  To make the game even more challenging, go in alphabetical order and only count the first letter of the words you see on the signs.  You might have to cheat a little on X, though we usually find a semi-trailer with Xtra on it at some point or another.  Q can be a challenge as well – just hope you come across a Dairy Queen once you reac that letter!

You can also look for different colored vehicles, such as challenging the children to be the first to spot a red vehicle or any other color you select.

With a little imagination, you can make your family travel experience enjoyable while on the road.

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, and, automatically, boredom  , breaking, by , couple, entertained, family, hours, important, kids, road, roadtrip, single, stave, steps, stopping, the, tip, travel, trip | Comments (0)

Family Travel Roadtrip Tips – Be Prepared

August 6, 2007

One family travel tip that I learned rather early on was to always be prepared for the worse!

It seems like every time we go on a family vacation, at least one of our family members becomes ill.  I have been the one to all victim, as has each of my kids.

My oldest, Jacob, seems to be the one that gets sick the mose often when we go on family vacations.  He has a tendency to throw up at least once during the trip.  Of course, he is not the only one that has ended up puking in the car.

When you are speeding down a highway, there really is no way to quickly pull over to the side so your child can throw up outside of the vehicle.  Unfortunately for us, the only thing we had available the first time he threw up was a paper bag – it seemed like a great idea until the vomit seeped through just seconds after hitting the bag.

Therefore, I recommend always bring a plastic bag with you.  A Ziploc bag is the best, since you can lock it shut and seal out the smell until you can find a place to stop.

Speaking of Ziploc bags, my twins were having a problem with diarrhea when we went to Disney World.  Those bags were a life saver when it came to changing out underwear since we had to tote the soiled underwear around with us throughout the park (I will admit, a couple pair just ended up in the trash).

I know, the topic is disgusting, but kids have a way of puking and pooping at the worse of times! Being prepared will make it much less of a disaster when it occurs.

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, car when, early, family, kids my, learned, members, mose, my, oldest, prepared, puking, sick, the, throw, tip, travel, trip  , victim, worse it | Comments (0)

Family Travel Roadtrip Tips – Make the Trip Part of the Family Vacation

August 4, 2007

I have done a great deal of talking about some of the wonderful places I have visited with my family, so I think it is about time I offer a few family travel tips for when on the road.

For me, the actal trip to the destination can be just as much fun as the destination itself.  In order to make the trip a pleasant part of your family vacation, you have to establish a certain mindset.

First of all, don’t try to push your way through as quickly as possible.  This only results in cranky children and irritated adults when the trip schedule is inevitably thrown of track.

I used to call my husband the “Pee Nazi” because stopping for a restroom break was such an ordeal.  “But, baby, I am making such good time” he would say.

Finally, he realized that going into the roadtrip with the understanding that we would have to stop along the way just made it easier on everyone.  Now, when we go on a family vacation, we even keep an eye out for fun stops along the way.  Stopping every few hours to take a restroom break, to grab a snack, or to see a interesting site has made the roadtrip aspect of our family vacations a great part of the trip rather than a hassle.

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, a, actal, deal, destination, family, fun, great, itself  , my, offer, places, talking, the, time, tips, travel, trip, visited, wonderful | Comments (0)

Wisconsin Dells Wizard’s Quest

August 2, 2007

Another site that you will have the opportunity to visit when you take a family vacation to Wisconsin Dells is Wizards Quest.  Wizards Quest offers a different form of family travel opportunity to the norm, as it is basically a huge scavenger hunt that the entire family participates in.

 When you enter Wizards Quest, you will be asked to come up with a name for your traveling party.  If you are stuck, they have a list of suggestions that you can choose from.  You then enter a little room where you are introduced to the elemental wizards you will be trying to free.  In order to free them, you will have to find answers to questions you are given in order to collect enough points to release the wizards.  To find the answers, you will have to walk through the various realms and look for clues.

 While finding the answers to the questions was a little beyond the twin’s grasp (since they are only 5 years old), they still enjoyed going through the various realms because they included slides and other things to climb and have fun on.

 Beware of the last realm, however, as there are a whole bunch of mirrors that you will have to walk through and determining which images are the real person and which are just reflections can be tough.  The twins ran into mirrors on more than one occassion as they ran to what they thought was me in order to give me a hug!

I won’t give away any secrets to how you find the answers to the questions because I don’t want to ruin the fun of your family vacation.  But, if you are afraid that finding the answers to the clues will be too difficult and you won’t be able to free the wizards within your provided time limit, you can choose to take the easier challenge.  We didn’t gather quite enough points to free all of our wizards, but we did have a good time trying!

By admin | Posted in Great Cities for Family Vacations, Monuments for Family Vacations, a, dells, family, form, norm, offers, opportunity, quest, quest  , the, travel, vacation, visit, wisconsin, wizards | Comments (0)

Wisconsin Dells – The Kalahari Resort

July 19, 2007

The most recent family vacation that my family and I went on was a trip to Wisconsin Dells.  After having already gone to Disney World earlier this year, we decided to go on a sort of mini-trip to a location that was nearby (unfortunately, my husband doesn’t get much vacation time and I am always using it up with vacations!).  So, since we reside in Indiana, a trip to Wisconsin Dells was only about 5 or 6 hours away.

I had never been to the Dells before and I really didn’t expect much from it.  In fact, I kind of thought that it would be pretty lame – especially after having gone to Disney.  But, we really did enjoy our time there.

Wisconsin Dells is known for its many waterparks.  After having watched a travel channel special and finding that two of its water parks were listed as the top ten in the nation, Noahs Ark and the Kalahari resort, I decided to book a stay at the Kalahari.  The Kahlahari has both an indoor and outdoor water park.  Since we went in early June, it was actually a bit cold to enjoy the outdoor water park.  The indoor water park was a whole lot of fun, though, and there were some great play areas that my five-year-old twins could enjoy without concern for their safety.

Althouogh the rooms at the Kalahari were really nice and the water park was great, my family and I likely won’t stay there again.  The luxury of staying at a resort with a waterpark is quite costly and turned out not to be worth it for us because we only spent time there on two days of our trip – and, the second day was really more because we wanted to feel like we were getting our money’s worth.  If you are planning a trip to the Dells, it might be better to simply plan a stay at a less expensive hotel and save your money for visiting the many sites the Dells has to offer. 

By admin | Posted in Great Cities for Family Vacations, Lodging Tips for Family Travel, a, an, and, ark, book, channel, decided, dells, dells  , enjoy, finding, indoor, kalahari, noahs, outdoor, park, park  , resort, special, stay, the, there wisconsin, time, travel, watched, water, waterparks  , wisconsin | Comments (5)

The Hidden Joys of Travel Blogging

July 18, 2007

One of the great hidden joys of blogging about travel is the friends that you can uncover.

Today, I received an email from a fellow travel blogger who said he happened to “stumble” across my blog.  To hear from my readers and to learn that they are getting something valuable from my blog is certainly satisfying.

My new friend also offers helpful information for travelin parents.  His latest entry attempts to dismiss some of the most common myths that parents harbor regarding travel, such as safety fears and concerns about taking a child out of school.  Check his blog out at Go Budget Travel.

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, blogging, friends, great, hidden, joys, places, the, travel, uncover, world   today | Comments (0)

Home and Abroad: A Great Resource for Family Travel Ideas

July 9, 2007

As I had mentioned in a previous post, one web site that I recommend visiting for more educational family travel ideas is Home & Abroad.  This site provides some great information on some of the most popular travel destinations and also offers some fun and educational activity suggestions for specific locations.  I know they are great because I have written several of the articles for the site!

I am not just tooting my own horn, though, Home and Abroad employs a number of different city experts and activity writers in order to create a comprehensive site filled with travel ideas and tips.  It even includes a travel planner that allows you to create your own itinerary, which you can create based on a specific theme if you like. 

I definitely recommend checking this site out.  I know from experience that the folks running the site are good people and they have a true interest in helping families enjoy a better vacation experience.

By admin | Posted in Educational Family Travel, a, abroad  , amp, educational, family, ideas, mentioned, post, previous, recommend, travel, visiting | Comments (0)