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)

Involve Your Kids When Planning a Family Vacation

September 3, 2007

In my opinion, it is essential to involve your kids when planning a family vacation.  Whether you are planning a Disney vacation, at trip to the Smoky Mountains, a visit to Wisconsin Dells, or anywhere else, involving your kids will help create a better experience for everyone.

 I know, the control freak in you probably wants to plan the entire event.  Well, that is how I am anyway.  But, you will find that involving your children in your family vacation plans will actually help reduce your stress while also increasing their level of involvment with the trip.

When kids are involved in the family vacation planning, they feel as if they are an important member of the family and that their opinion counts.  This in of itself should be good enough reason to involve them in the planning.  But, one of the great benefits is that it will actually help reduce the whining during the family vacation.  After all, if your kids played a role in the planning, it becomes a bit more diffcult for them to complain about the plans.

 Of course, you can still narrow down the choices that you give to your kids.  That way, you can make sure that any activity they select will fit within your budget and will be something that you can tolerate visiting. 

I always involve the entire family in my planning process.  Sometimes, I find that the things they want to do are different from what I thought they would be interested in.  So, it always pays to ask and it will definitely lead to a far more pleasant family vacation experience.

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, a, children, control, disney, entire, essential, event  , family, freak, involve, involving, kids, plan, planning, plans, reduce, stress, the, vacation, vacation   | Comments (4)

Purchasing a Family Vacation Vehicle

August 29, 2007

In light of my recent vehicle catastrophes, I thought it might be relevant to discuss purchasing a vehicle for family travel.

The vehicle we had to replace isn’t actually the one we use for family travel.  This car is actually my husband’s work vehicle.  My primary vehicle is a Yukon and this is also the one we use when going on our family vacations.

When selecting the Yukon, my husband and I had travel at the forefront of our thoughts.  Initially, we wanted to get a Yukon XL because it has more storage space in back.  The only reason we wanted this feature, however, was because of vacations.  After much discussion, my husband and I decided that this would actually be cumbersome for day-to-day driving and we would just get a cargo carrier if we needed more space.

When shopping for a family vehicle that would also serve as our family vacation vehicle, we had many things that we kept in mind.  These include:

  • Comfort
  • Durability/ease of cleaning
  • Having a DVD system installed
  • Safety
  • Good for vacations and for day-to-day living
  • Able to meet all of our vacation needs, including towing

We actually had a mini-van before purchasing the Yukon.  I am not really a fan of mini-vans because I don’t really care for the way they look.  But, it worked out well when the twins were young.  Now that they are five, we decided I could go back to having an SUV without much trouble.  This is great because we like to ride ATVs and we have a trailer to tow them.  So, we can now easily take them on vacation with us if we like.  In the future, we might get a boat as well.  Having towing capabilities will be handy for this too.

 For me, having the DVD system was a must.  In the minivan, I had purchased an add on system but didn’t much care for it.  With the Yukon, the system is built in.  I much prefer this system because it is higher quality and the kids get good sound from the car speakers.

 Regardless of what you are in the market for, be sure to do your homework to make sure you get a great deal.  We prefer purchasing slightly used vehicles because you don’t have to pay the new car sticker price but you can still get a car that is in great shape.  Check out the Kelly Blue Book value beforehand to make sure you aren’t overpaying and look at many dealers to make sure you get exactly what you want.

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, a, and, care, deal   we, discuss, family, great, higher, kids, mini vans, my, prefer, primary, purchasing, purchasing slightly, quality, selecting, serve, the, vacation, vacations when, vehicle, vehicle  , work, yukon, yukon   | 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)

Making the Ducks at Wisconsin Dells Educational

August 12, 2007

Before you take your family vacation to Wisconsin Dells and ride the Ducks, learn a little bit more about these interesting machines and discuss it with your child.  These military vehicles are more formally known as the DUKW and is a six wheel drive truck capable of riding on land and on water.  This characteristic is known as being amphibious.  You can introduce this word to your child and talk about animals that are amphibious as well, such as frogs and toads. 

These vehicles were originally created by GM to use during World War II and were used to carry troops and goods over water and land. Today, they are mostly used to give tours in various places around the country, including at Wisconsin Dells.  You can learn more about these vehicles by visiting Wikipedia.

Ask your child to create his or her own new vehicle that is unlike any you have every seen before – just like the inventors of the Ducks did so long ago!

You are also going to see several rock formations along the way during your tour.  This opens up a wonderful opportunity to talk about rock formations and how they are created.

By admin | Posted in Educational Family Travel, a, and, bit, dells, discuss, ducks, family, interesting, learn, machines, ride, the, vacation, wisconsin | Comments (0)

Last Minute Summer Fun

August 9, 2007

For many of you, the school year is quickly approaching.  I know that, for me, I have to return to work on Monday and my students return on Wednesday.  EEK!  Where has the summer gone?!

With so little time left before your kids are back in school, it is time to consider some last minute family vacation ideas.

Obviously, you aren’t going to plan some great getaway over the next couple of days and whisk your family off on a week long vacation.  Nonetheless, you can still have some fun before those last few days of summer vacation pass you by.

One great place to go is to a nearby zoo.  Zoos offer fun for kids of all ages.  From my experience, even teenagers can have fun at a zoo.  And, it gets the whole family out for the day while the weather is still great.

More than likely, there are some great museums within an hour or two drive from where you live.  Children’s museums are a great choice as they generally offer displays that are appropriate for infants all the way up to adults.  In addition, the displays are often changing, so it can be a new experience every year.

Having a great family vacation doesn’t even have to involve going somewhere.  You can plan a great day of fun in your own backyard and, if you want to give it more of a “vacation” feel, you might want to pitch a tent and let the kids stay outside.  Roast marshmallows, sing songs, play games and just enjoy each other’s company.  After all, isn’t family togetherness the best part of having a family vacation?

If you don’t have a swimming pool or know anyone that does, you might even want to consider renting a hotel room in a nearby city for the night.  Enjoy an evening of swimming and fun as you spend the day somewhere away from the same ‘ole, same ‘ole of home!

By admin | Posted in General Family Travel Tips, a, and, approaching  , days, eek  , family, getaway, great, ideas obviously, long, minute, monday, my, plan, quickly, return, students, vacation, vacation  , wednesday  , week, whisk, work | 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 and Devil’s Lake State Park

July 30, 2007

For me and my family, no vacation is complete without including some sort of nature aspect to it.  While the trip on the ducks and on the speedboats had a certain amount of nature to it, it is not quite the same as getting out there and hiking.  So, we decided to add a trip to Devil’s Lake State Park to our trip.

 Getting around the state park was a little bit confusing, as there are a couple of different entrances to the park and they are a bit spread apart from one another.  Not only that, I hadn’t really planned this leg of the trip too thoroughly because there wasn’t too much info on the Net.

At any rate, we decided to just drive around the park and see what would strike our fancy.  There were quite a few visitors to the park and you have to pay for parking ($5), so be sure to bring some cash.  There are two lines for entering the park.  One line was supposed to be for people that already have passes, but we noticed that quite a few people were purchasing their passes from that line too (which was moving much faster than our line, I might add). 

The lake is absolutely beautiful.  The water is quite blue and the lake is surrounded by large, grassy hills.  There are also several trails at the park.  We took the trail to Devil’s Door, which is a huge rock formation.  The entire trip was up a hill with stone steps naturally placed throughout the hill.  Finding the right rocks could be a little confusing at times and the walk up the hill is pretty physical, but everyone managed it (including the 5 year old twins).

After seeing the rock formation and some other sites along the way, we had to walk back down the hill through another path.  This one was also straight down and quite similar to the trail we took on the way  up.  Some of the rocks were a bit slippery, too, so if you take this path, be sure to watch out for the rocks and use a bit of caution.

Visiting Devil’s Lake State Park was definitely worth adding to our agenda.  It only took about 15 minutes to get there from Wisconsin Dells, too, so it was pretty convenient as well.

By admin | Posted in Great Cities for Family Vacations, State Parks to Visit During Family Travel, and, aspect, complete, ducks, family, including, it  , my, nature, sort, the, trip, vacation | Comments (0)

Wisconsin Dells – The Tommy Bartlett Exploratory

July 27, 2007

The Tommy Bartlett Expository offers a number of fun attractions that will test your mind.  Making your family vacation an eductional experience is not difficult at all at this attraction, as you will explore a variety of different scientific concepts with the hands on activities the Exploratory provides.

When you visit the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory on  your family vacation, you will find that there is a kiosk outside.  I highly recommend stopping off at this kiosk before you visit any of the attractions in Wisconsin Dells.  Here, you can buy packages that will save you quite a bit on your Wisconsin Dells trip.  Even better, you can select the tickets you want and how many different attractions you want to add to your package.  Therefore, you are not tied down to attractions you may not really be interested in.

Many of the attractions at the Tommy Bartlette Exploratory actually seem like magic tricks as they trick your eye and your mind.  Others challenge you to perform certain tasks, such as remaining balanced on a tricky rolly-polly device or trying to put puzzles together and solve mysteries.

When you visit the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory, be sure to spend time with your kids at each exhibit so they will get the most fun and educational value the exhibit has to offer.

By admin | Posted in Educational Family Travel, Great Cities for Family Vacations, Museums for Family Vacations, a, activities, an, attractions, bartlett, concepts, dells, eductional, experience, exploratory, expository, family, highly, number, offers, on , provides when, recommend, scientific, stopping, the, tied, tommy, trip  , vacation, visit, wisconsin | Comments (0)

The Great Smoky Mountains – Part 1

June 27, 2007

So, I thought I would get this blog rolling by first discussing one of my favorite vacation destinations:  the Smoky Mountains.  As I mentioned before, I am a lover of nature.  My husband and children also love the challenge of hiking through woods or forests only to discover some magnificent site at the end of the trail.  Even my five year olds have been lacing up their boots and hiking since they were two.

I will admit, one of the reasons this is a favorite of mine is the fact that it is only about 8 to 9 hours away from my house – unlike most of the National Parks, which are all the way across the country from Indiana.  But, I also feel some sort of connection with the Smokies, and that is something that I cannot say of all of the places I have vacationed.

So far, my family has visited the Smokies two times and we have another trip to this great spot coming up in October.  On our first visit, my oldest two boys were six and four and the twins weren’t born yet.  Despite the fact that the boys were young, we were managed to hike some great trails.  One of our favorites being Abrams Falls Trail, which can be found on the 11 mile long circle that takes you through Cade’s Cove.

Now, as I have said, I am a nature lover.  At the same time, I love my creature comforts as well.  And, with a six year old and four year old along for the trip, I wasn’t about to take the boys out on a true camping trip.  At the same time, the thought of staying in a hotel just wasn’t natural enough for me. Besides, I like to spread my legs and have a bit of room for me and my family to enjoy – thus, my love for renting cabins began.

I spent a great deal of time researching a cabin for me and my family to stay in.  Now, I had actually been to the Smokies once before.  I was lucky enough to go as a part of a one-week long summer course I took in college as an elective.  But, when I was on that trip, I never left the Tremont Institute where we were staying.  Therefore, I really didn’t know what was available to me so far as accommodations were concerned.

While doing my research, I stumbled upon Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge rather quickly, as these are both tried and true tourist locations.  But, I knew I wanted something a little quieter and more peaceful.  That was when I stumbled upon Townsend, Tennessee, which is billed as the “Peaceful side of the Smokies.”  Bingo!  I knew I had the right spot.  Now, it was time to find lodging.

It didn’t take long for me to find White Oak Realty, which is now known as Smoky Mountain Cabin Rentals.  I took a gamble and booked a stay at one of their cabins. Since they offered pretty extensive pictures on their website, I felt pretty comfortable with my decision.  Boy!  I was not disappointed.  The cabin was wonderful!  In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we returned to the same location – but in a different cabin – on our second trip.  We will be staying on the same grounds again this October.

If you are traveling with your family, I really recommend that you look into staying at a cabin.  Often, cabins are no more expensive than staying in a hotel room.  Also, if you get a cabin through the right place, you will have a full kitchen, a washer and dryer, and maybe even a hot tub, a pool table, or other fun thing for your family to enjoy.  Having the full kitchen can really be a money-saver, too, as you can cook some of your meals at the cabin instead of having to eat out all the time.  And, knowing there will be a washer and dryer that you can uses for free can help you with packing a bit lighter.

My six year old and four year old absolutely loved their first trip to the Smokies.  We made sure to mix up the activities so they wouldn’t get bored or overwhelmed by just one activity.  We also did venture into Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, as there are plenty of great things to see there…I just wouldn’t want to stay there for my entire trip.  At Townsend, we were only about a mile from the entrance to Cades Cove and the drive to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge was only about 20 minutes or so – and absolutely stunning with places to pull off and explore along the way.

In Part 2 of my Great Smoky Mountains installment, I will discuss in a bit more detail some of the sites and activities you can explore while at the Great Smoky Mountains, as well as ways to make it both educational and fun for your whole family. 

By admin | Posted in National Parks to Visit with Kids, a, and, blog, boots, destinations, discover, discussing, favorite, forests, hiking, lacing, lover, mentioned, mountains  , my, olds, rolling, smokey, the, thought, vacation, woods, year,   | Comments (0)