Category: Kid-Friendly Trips
Start the New Year Off on the Right Foot with a First Day Hike
December 27, 2012 by Rex Vogel · Leave a Comment
With New Year’s Day just around the corner, people everywhere are zeroing in on their new year’s resolutions for 2013. Some will vow to add more exercise into their routines, and others will promise not to stay indoors as much. You can start the New Year off on the right foot, the left foot, or any foot by tackling both those resolutions at once and at the same time create a new family tradition by participating in a “First Day Hike” at a park near you, and together start off your year in a new direction. America’s State Parks announces that all 50 state park systems will sponsor guided First Day Hike Programs on New Year’s Day 2013. First Day Hikes originated over 20 years ago at the Blue Hills Reservation, a state park in Milton, Massachusetts. The program was launched to promote both healthy lifestyles throughout the year and year round recreation at state parks. State involvement has grown to the point where, for the first time in 2012, all 50 state park systems joined... [Read more...]
PassPorter’s Walt Disney World
December 15, 2012 by Canadianladybug · Leave a Comment
PassPorter’s Walt Disney World – The unique travel guide, planner, organizer, journal, and keepsake! One of our dream as parents is to bring our kids to Florida in vacation. Not for a week or two but more in the line of a whole month of fun visiting various theme parks including Walt Disney World. Last time my husband and I went it was our honeymoon and let me tell you that by what I am discovering these days via videos Science of Disney Imagineering and the book I am presenting you today, a lot have changed since then! So you want to plan a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. But you feel a bit overwhelmed with all the possibilities and fun things to do. No problem. Introducing the PassPorter’s Walt Disney World which is a travel guide that will help you plan and organize your discovery of this famous theme park. I know from experience that we enjoy our trips better when I plan in advance. Not everyone are like this but let me remind you that in the case of Walt Disney World, you... [Read more...]
National Parks – A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks
December 7, 2012 by Canadianladybug · 1 Comment
National Parks – A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks By Erin McHugh Published at Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers About the book “During National Parks Week, we reaffirm our need to maintain connections to the natural world.” —President Barack Obama President Obama has shared his views that it’s important for all of our country’s citizens to acknowledge the value of the natural world around us. National Parks helps families explore that world—the diversity, beauty, and history found in our national park system. Arranged alphabetically by state, this fun-filled book tours more than 75 U.S. parks, monuments, and landmarks, from the rocky shores of Maine’s Acadia National Park to the ancient redwood groves of Northern California. Also included is a removable, fold-out collector map to house the 56 America the Beautiful commemorative quarters! Through fascinating text and hundreds of vintage-style illustrations and photographs, ranging from digitally... [Read more...]
Stairs: The Hidden Danger In RVs
November 30, 2012 by Cynthia Baum · 4 Comments
The day after Thanksgiving, the full day of eating whatever we want; we set out for a fun weekend of camping at the beach. The beach camp spot my aunt reserved this year was at Leo Carrillo State Beach, a scenic stretch of canyon leading to gorgeous coastline, where the Santa Monica Mountains meet the Pacific Ocean. You access it from the Pacific Coast Highway, just south of where we live. My dear aunt was only one day late in reserving our typical spot at Carpinteria State Beach and, lo and behold, there were no spots left! So we settled for second best: Leo Carrillo, where I grew up camping and loving every second of it. Leo Carrillo is just off a narrow, windy stretch of highway along the coast with no bike lane, so bicycling with our kids in tow to the campsite was out of the question (although we did enjoy riding around the campground and over to the beach side)! We packed up our bikes and set off with the RV and a handful of tents for two nights at Leo Carrillo State Beach... [Read more...]
Book Review – Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
November 26, 2012 by Canadianladybug · Leave a Comment
When you travel with your RV, you sometimes plan where you will end up. And one of the places we would love to bring our children is definitively Walt Disney World. My husband and I dream of the day where we can surprise the kids with an extended trip to Florida and explorations to places like Walt Disney World. I wish I would know when this could happen. I am hoping in a near future. In the meantime, we plan places to visit and where to stay. We have found a very reasonable place to stay for an extended period of time. We just need to figure out when we will go now. As part of our planning, I stumbled on an interesting book which highlights the secrets of Walt Disney World. Here’s my review of it. The Hidden magic of Walt Disney Wold – Over 600 secrets of the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom Written by Susan Veness Published at F+W Media About the book Sure, it’s the Happiest Place on Earth, but how much do... [Read more...]
Plowing for Diamonds in Arkansas
November 20, 2012 by Rex Vogel · 2 Comments
Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public. On average, two diamonds are found each day at the park. The state park’s policy is finder-keepers. What park visitors find is theirs to keep. Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The colors found at the Crater of Diamonds are white, brown, and yellow, in that order. The search area at the Crater of Diamonds State Park is a 37 ½-acre plowed field, the eroded surface of the eighth largest diamond-bearing deposit in the world in surface area. Why plow the search field at the diamond mine? The practice of plowing the diamond field goes back to the earliest days of commercial diamond mining, according to Park Interpreter Margi Jenks. In the early 1900s miners used a mule team and farming plow to dig trenches. After tourism began in the 1950s, Millar’s Crater of Diamonds used a road grader to turn over the dirt on what is now the north end of the present diamond search area. Today’s... [Read more...]
Camping with Kids II
November 15, 2012 by Cynthia Baum · Leave a Comment
Petting zoos, swimming pools, water parks, play structures, and so many more amenities are offered at numerous KOA campgrounds across the nation. These Kampgrounds of America (KOA) are the ultimate family-friendly campgrounds that also have unbeatable specials, such as camp one night, get the next night for free. This is an especially common promotion at the local KOA we frequent. One of the local Moms groups I am involved in actually plans their bi-annual camp outs around this exact deal. It turns into a weekend-long play date! With fun teepees to sleep in and lots of other family-friendly options, including an exhilarating zip line, cozy cabins, and some kid-friendly play structures such as climbing walls, parents can look forward to taking their kids camping at such sensational campgrounds. Knowing how important it is for kids to get outdoors with their parents, KOA’s have even been known to offer free camping just for kids for a given weekend. For example, this year for... [Read more...]
First Backpacking Adventure Continued…
November 14, 2012 by Cynthia Baum · 4 Comments
When I left off with our very first backpacking adventure, we were just turning in for the night. Picking up where I left off… My family of four all slept in one queen-sized sleeping bag that night—not the best idea we ever had. With the two adults on the ends and two little ones in between us, we didn’t keep each other warmer, as we had originally thought. Instead, we just didn’t have enough room and were waking each other up all night, with even the smallest of movements. The air inside the tent was so cold that any skin exposed (which was basically just our faces), was frostbitten. Even sleeping with all of our snow clothes, hats, gloves, and jackets still on, inside the sleeping bag, we were still freezing! By morning, we were all a bit grumpy, tired, sore, and frozen-stiff. While cooking our oatmeal, we got some hot dogs in a pan, ready to go on the stove next, with an inch of water just barely covering them. By the time the oatmeal was cooked and ready... [Read more...]
Camping with Kids I
November 13, 2012 by Cynthia Baum · 1 Comment
Camping with kids these days? Where do you like to go? Adults with kids living in the home are more likely to go camping than those without kids, according to the 2012 American Camper Report http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/pdf/research.camping.2012.pdf. This makes complete sense to me since having kids of our own; we try to go camping as much as we can each year. We have always loved camping, even before kids we would go at least once a year. But once we had kids, we realized just how important and fun it is to spend time outdoors, camping with our kids. Some of my very best memories as a kid are from the annual camping trips we took with my extended family. Most of the families who went in those days had pop-up tent trailers and many came from LA and even further south so they usually wanted to escape the heat, crowds, and come to the beach; we always met up at Leo Carrillo State Beach (on the beach side). The week we spent camping with the family always ended up being a solid... [Read more...]
Backpacking, Check!
November 11, 2012 by Cynthia Baum · 8 Comments
All 8 of Us! We did it! We took the kids and all our gear and went backpacking yesterday for our very first time. Between freezing temperatures and over 50-pound packs, I am surprised we had as much fun as we did! The kids had a ball and we enjoyed a moderate to easy hike (little elevation gain). We set out for the East Fork on Lion Canyon Trail in Rose Valley, California, around one in the afternoon. With lots of rest stops and frequent changes in our riders, we ended up just upstream from West Fork at the base of a waterfall by nightfall. The trek to East Fork normally entails a relatively easy 2.5 mile hike– with four kids who all needed to be carried (for most of the way), it was anything but easy. On top of that, the camp spots were full since apparently a lot of other campers were out to enjoy a cool fall backpacking trip on their Veterans Day too. Not only were there no spots left at East Fork, there was also no water (contrary to what we had heard). So we had... [Read more...]
