I fancy myself as being somewhat of an expert on traveling with kids. Sure, we’ve never gone overseas or flown with our brood, but we’ve put on plenty of miles in the minivan, taken them to sites big and small, and weathered hotel moments good and bad.
Even though I’m comfortable traveling with my children, when I was given the opportunity to receive a review copy of Wanderlust and Lipstick’s Traveling with Kids, I jumped at the chance. Perhaps I was a little smug, wondering what I could possibly learn that was new (and hoping that I would indeed gain new tips and insight).
I found the book to be well-organized into sections about various parts of traveling with children: preparation, planning, flying with kids, staying healthy, and so on. Within each section, the authors offered their expertise, but also included anecdotes and tips from other real-life traveling parents. (I was surprised to see one of my own tips listed, as I had forgotten I’d submitted it months earlier.)
The other thing I particularly liked about this book was its extensive referencing of websites and other resources. Not only were they mentioned in the text of the book itself, but also in an appendix for ready reference. From Travelocity to the Association of Children’s Museums, the website references are why I will be keeping this book handy as I plan our future travels.
As I read the book, I found my self nodding in agreement at times, and saying “why didn’t I think of that” at others. Written traveling moms Leslie Forsberg and Michelle Duffy, Traveling with Kids will be a useful resource for families traveling around the world or within their home state.
Note: I was provided with a review copy of this book.
I suppose my fascination with the Lincoln Highway began sometime while I was living in Iowa. I remember driving through Tama and Belle Plaine and seeing remnants of the roads and the businesses that formerly thrived on the Lincoln route.
Unknowingly, my apartment in Cedar Rapids was a mere block from the Lincoln Highway route, and the road I took to the grocery store, to church, downtown, and even the mall on the other side of town was the Lincoln Highway.
At that time, the restoration of Youngville Station was merely a dream.
This winter, our family traveled to Pennsylvania, and part of the thrill of that trip was driving on the Old National Road in Ohio and on the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania. I love old roads; even while driving closer to home, I try to veer off the main road onto the county roads that still go through the towns instead of around them.
Before our Pennsylvania trip, I had purchased Brian Butko’s Greetings from the Lincoln Highway and obtained information from the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in Pennsylvania so we could be as prepared as possible for our trip.
Whereas the Greetings book is coffee-table sized and details the history and past landmarks of the Lincoln Highway, the Companion book is small, the size of a vehicle owners’ manual, and will easily fit in a car’s glove box. The Companion’s contents include maps of the original routes and their present-day alternatives, as well as current places to stay and eat and things to do along the way.
The book includes brief information about the history of the road and photos of some landmarks that are now gone, but its primary purpose is to showcase the places that drivers of the old road should be sure to take in. Whether recommended by the author or by local Lincoln Highway enthusiasts, the Lincoln Highway Companion will tell you where to get a good piece of pie or find a unique place to rest for the night.
By reading the Lincoln Highway Companion, I learned of all the landmarks that I drove past in my former travels, and when we revisit the Lincoln Highway with this guidebook in hand, we’ll know where to stop.
People driving across part or all of the United States via the old Lincoln Highway will certainly want to have this book along for the trip.
Note: Thanks to Stackpole Books, publisher of the Lincoln Highway Companion, for providing a copy of this book for me to review.
I’ve written about Famous Dave’s before because we really enjoy the food and family-friendly atmosphere there. Some folks from Famous Dave’s noticed, and over the next few months, I’ll be helping with some PR for Famous Dave’s. Because I will receive some compensation for this, future Famous Dave’s posts will be located on this blog and linked from Travels with Children.
CNN currently has an I-Report feature on Best BBQ Joints. Do you have a favorite place to eat barbecue? If so, submit it to CNN and tell them why it’s the best! You can see my report as well, and vote for your favorites, comment, or e-mail the entries to your friends. If you put in your own entry, be sure to specify a location if it happens to be a chain like Famous Dave’s. The best entry will get a chance to appear on CNN.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite BBQ joint? Share in the comments, and if you decide to enter an I-Report, please link to it below!
I’ll admit that I was a tiny bit skeptical when I was offered a review copy of Hide & Seek, a new board game. After all, I thought, how original can a board game be? But the representative from LemonTree Games assured me that my kids would love it, and we like to try new things, so the game was sent our way.
The kids wanted to open the package and play it right after breakfast. I had a headache and hadn’t eaten yet, so I wasn’t overjoyed with their timing. The game instructions were just a little too complicated for them to figure out on their own, so I sat down to play a few rounds.
I was very pleasantly surprised.
I did realize that I needed to read the instructions from start to finish. (I’m a reading/visual learner, so this is typical.) The instructions are clear, though, and it’s easy to find the answers to questions that come up during the game, like “Do I need to start on Home?” or “Is a rock counted as a space when moving?”
Then we got started: one mom and four kids, ages 8, 6, 5, and 3. It didn’t take long to catch on. Like any game of Hide & Seek, there’s an “It” and some hiders. When the hiders are “found,” by roll of a special die, It begins to chase them around the board. I first thought it would be impossible for It to chase us all around the board, but there are enough special spots, determined by roll of the die, that could put It right next to you or suddenly safely far away, that it keeps the game exciting.
The game is listed for ages 6 and up, but my 5-year-old had no problem with it, and my 3-year-old caught on quickly and could play on her own with help from the other kids. There’s nothing to read and there are numbers, not dots, on the die, so little ones can easily do the counting involved in the game.
There are eight, yes eight, game tokens, so large groups of kids or bigger families can all play together with no one being left out. This is a refreshing change from the many games on the market that are for 2-4 players.
There are two options for play included in the instructions; one is a series of quick rounds and the other creates “It” helpers and involves keeping track of points on the included score pad. I like that the rounds go quickly, so young kids can play a game or two without becoming bored halfway through. (It would also be easy to add an extra player midway through the game; it would be as if that person hadn’t “come out of hiding” yet. It always seems that someone wants to join the game after they see how much fun the others are having!)
This next point will be important to any family with a shelf full of games with taped-up boxes: The box is thick and sturdy and will be much more difficult to destruct than most game boxes are. It’s such a little thing but it really impressed me.
On the con side, I don’t have much. I wish there were a little more contrast between the green colors for the playing spaces and especially the clovers. These old eyes had a little trouble finding the clovers at first. I know it’s nitpicky, but it’s really the only downside I found.
This is a brand-new game, and is available directly from LemonTree Games as well as a growing list of retailers. (Retailer information can be found on the website.) If you’re looking for some new family-game-night fun, I recommend Hide & Seek.
Update: After two weeks, the kids are still pulling the games out and playing. Sometimes they ask me to play with them, but often they just play on their own. Because there aren’t a ton of pieces involved, it’s also easy to get them to clean up afterwards.
Note: I was provided a review copy of this game by LemonTree Games at no cost to me.
When I was growing up in North Dakota, we didn’t have any zoos in our area. I suppose we visited the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul on a trip once, and we went to Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo when on a weekend trip to Manitoba, but we didn’t have a nearby zoo. I remember classmates going to the “new” Minnesota Zoo (and it was new at that time) and being awed by it. I finally made it there when I was in college.
I’m happy that my children have had more and varied zoo experiences. From Chicago to Columbus, from St. Paul to Sioux Falls, and from Apple Valley to Winnipeg, we’ve taken them to several zoos.
We know the kids always enjoy the zoos, and when we’re vacationing, a zoo is a nice change from museums or amusement parks, but my husband and I always had the same thought in the backs of our minds: Aren’t zoos pretty much all the same?
America’s Best Zoos: A Travel Guide dispels this myth. With detailed entries about 60 zoos in the U.S., and “best of the rest” mentions of another 39, this isn’t just a zoo directory. The authors have a lifetime of zoo experience, and personally visited all of the zoos in this book. Because of this, they have been able to list specifics about each of the zoos highlighted in the book, including don’t-miss exhibits and animals that you won’t find in many other places.
In addition, they point out various animals and the best places to see them. I’ve noticed that Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo tops several of the lists, and thus I have added it to our list of things to see if in Omaha. (Those of you who read my Travels with Children blog can guess that a trip to Omaha would not be out of the question.)
While the bulk of the book will likely be used as a reference, arranged geographically so it can coincide with travel plans, the beginning pages are helpful in outlining the history of American zoos as well as their purpose and tips for visiting. This introduction to zoos is concise yet complete in telling the story of zoos in the U.S.
America’s Best Zoos is subtitled “A Travel Guide for Fans and Families” and families are indeed included. Each zoo entry includes specifics about things kids will enjoy, and the introduction contains many tips especially for visits with children.
With a list price of $15.95, this book deserves a place on bookshelves of traveling families. I’ll be using it to help plan our future trips so that when we visit zoos along our journeys, we’ll find the best of the best.
Disclosure: I was provided a review copy of this book at no charge by the publisher, The Intrepid Traveler.
We’ve been Netflix users for a few years now, but lately we’ve been good holders of DVD’s. We’re on the one-at-a-time plan, and whatever DVD had arrived in the mail never seemed to be the one we wanted to watch. We’d send it back, unwatched, just to have the next one sit there and have the same fate.
I knew that Netflix offered an instant-watch program, but we’d used that only once, when we were sick in a motel room and four kids and one dad crowded around a laptop to watch a few movies. We just haven’t entered the world of watch-tv-on-your-computer yet.
I finally logged on to Netflix with the intention of canceling the account; $8.95 a month isn’t a bad price, but if it’s not being used, it’s money wasted. I started poking around the site, thinking there had to be a way that we could use the account more. The “watch instantly” program seemed like the key, so we could sit down when we finally got a free evening, and watch what suited our fancy at that time. Still, watching on a computer just wasn’t going to work.
While looking at options on Netflix, I came across the Roku Netflix Player, which connects to a wired or wireless network and plays instant movies from your queue. At $100 with no monthly fee, it sounded like something to try. If it worked, it would allow us to make better use of our Netflix account; if it didn’t, we’d take advantage of the 30-day return policy and send it back. My biggest concern was that we wouldn’t get a good signal; a computer near the TV requires an extra antenna to receive a decent wireless Internet signal.
The box arrived, and I was surprised at how small it was–about the size of three DVD cases stacked on top of each other. It was easy to hook up to the TV, and simple to set up via its small remote. The biggest dilemma was choosing which type of connection I wanted to use, as it supports HDMI, S-video, component video, and more.
In order to watch a movie, you have to first create a film queue on Netflix using a computer. The player simply pulls up this queue, and you can cycle through the movies and choose the one you want. Netflix remembers how much you’ve watched, so you can pick up where you left off using the Roku player or another computer.
Buffering takes only a few seconds to start the movie, and rarely it will take a few seconds midstream to buffer again. We are on a very basic DSL connection and the box sits on top of the computer that requires the antenna for signal strength. There is no place to connect an antenna to the Roku box, but we haven’t needed it. Our movie quality and speed have been fine from the little box, even though our wireless router is several rooms away.
If I’m working on my computer while the kids are watching a movie, I notice a definite slowdown in my Internet speed, but using the Internet doesn’t seem to affect playback quality.
The remote is simple to use; my kids are already pros at finding movies they want to watch. There are currently about 12,000 Netflix movies available to watch instantly; they range from new movies to older releases to TV shows. In addition, the functionality has recently been added to view rental movies from Amazon.com Video on Demand, so if we can’t find what we want on Netflix, we can pay a few dollars to watch something from that route. The software update was done automatically when that function was added, and it’s now just another option on our menu.
We’ve had the Roku player for about a month, and already we’ve made better use of our Netflix membership than we did in the previous year. The Roku Netflix Player isn’t big or fancy, but it does its job, and it does it well.
Even in northern climates, sun protection is important. I’m concerned with sun safety for my kids and for myself. In the past that has meant sunscreen and sun hats and staying out of the sun when it’s at its highest in the sky.
As far as the cardigan goes, it’s a decent sweater. The fabric is soft and comfortable, a cotton knit that doesn’t have little fuzzies to tickle my nose as many sweaters do. The fit is true-to-size and the color as described on the Lands’ End website. I haven’t tried to wash it yet, but the label says machine wash delicate, dry flat.
The idea of UPF clothing baffles me to some extent, as I don’t recall ever being sunburned through a piece of clothing. Apparently, though, there is research saying that UV rays can pass through many types of clothing, so this additional layer of sun protection may be beneficial. Other companies have introduced UPF clothing in the past few years, and Lands’ End prices are competitive. Prices are currently discounted on many of their Sun.Life items, including a women’s t-shirt for $11.60, so many of the items are reasonably-priced.
I’ve been a fan of Lands’ End for many years. Their quality is consistent and their return policy (including returns at Sears for any Lands’ End item) can’t be beat. I’m going to look at more Sun.Life items for my family. While I won’t pay a lot extra for this feature, if I can find reasonable prices for this additional protection, it will be worth it.
To learn more about Sun.Life, you can watch this video.
Have you ever needed a 5-minute diversion for a toddler in a doctor’s office, restaurant, or grocery line? Have you found yourself without crayons or toys just when you needed them most? Have you wished that you had something in your purse or pocket that would keep your child entertained for a few minutes when “I Spy” and the alphabet game have failed you?
If you happen to have an iPhone or iPod Touch, there’s an application you might like for just those moments. Wheels on the Bus is an interactive kid-friendly app available through the iTunes App Store.
It’s simple enough: It plays “Wheels on the Bus” in several languages (or your own voice, if you’re brave enough for that), and with each verse, there’s a brightly-colored picture that kids can tap or slide to make things happen.
The pictures are bright and clear, and the variety of languages and instruments for the song can break up the monotony if your five minutes turn into ten or twenty.
At $2.99, it’s a pretty cheap piece of insurance; all you need is to have your iPhone or iPod Touch available and you’ll be set.
The biggest problem for me was having two or more kids trying to play it at the same time; this is definitely best-suited to individual child-parent time. My six-year-old enjoyed it as much as my three-year-old.
Wheels on the Bus is found in the “Education” section of the iTunes Apps Store; you can find more information about it at DuckDuckMoose.
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this program to evaluate for review.
I recently became aware of a website called Dealbase, which attempts to search out deals and let you know if they’re really money-savers. “Hotel Deals, Hotel Discounts, Hotel Packages–We scour the web for the best hotel deals, packages and special offers and help you determine the good deals from the bad” is what the website claims.
My first test of the site was to see if it would come up with better prices that those we had paid on our recent vacation, so I began by entering the city of our longest stay, Audubon, PA. Nothing was returned in the results, so I went to the bottom of the page and browsed for the Philadelphia area to see if our hotel, Homewood Suites Valley Forge, would show up.
There were two pages of entries for Philadelphia, and I soon learned that I was taking the wrong tack with the site. This isn’t like the sites that find you a great rate. Instead, it analyzes hotel packages to see if they’re really a good deal.
Armed with this insight, I gave it a second try. In a few weeks, I need to find a stay-and-park package in Minneapolis. Browsing through the five pages of Minneapolis-area entries, I found two that looked promising.
The first was the Country Inn and Suites-Mall of America. Dealbase spelled out the deal with its deal analyzer, beginning with the room rate (found via hotels.com and the same as the hotel website’s AAA rate), and adding the value of the free parking, grab-n-go breakfast, and airport shuttle. Their bottom line: the deal saves the traveler $42/night.
The math didn’t quite add up for me, though, nor did the deal say if a stay on either end of the flight was required or if one night’s stay would secure the deal. By my calculations, the quoted savings of $35/night of parking for seven nights would more than cover the “deal” cost of $189/night. I set the math problem aside and continued on to the Country Inns website to see if I could find the deal there.
At first I couldn’t find it; I had entered AAA for the rate type and only basic rooms showed up. When I went back and looked at all the rates, though, the package was there, for either a 2-queen room or a 2-room, 1-king, suite. The price of $139 matched Dealbase’s listed price.
The nearby Radisson’s package was similar, but allowed for up to 14 nights of parking. Here, though, Dealbase listed the package at “$189/nt and up”, but the hotel’s website put it at $159. This time, Dealbase calculates the parking savings at $112 for an unspecified period of time and shows the package savings at $12.
Cancellation policies were laid out on the hotels’ individual websites, but not on the package pages at Dealbase.
Next, I tried to see if I could do better since I knew there were other hotels in the area that offer such packages. A quick Google search took me to ParkSleepFly.com where a lot more hotel options were listed. For the Country Inn, ParkSleepFly returned a rate of $149 plus a $5 “transaction fee.”
Deciding to give it a try, I clicked through to book from Dealbase, where I was taken to a page that said the promotion had expired.
I fared better with the Radisson, which took me directly to the Radisson site to book the deal, at the rate of $159.
I like the fact that booking through Dealbase goes directly to hotel sites rather than third-party sites; it is just a preference of mine to deal with the hotels directly.
What I like about Dealbase:
The variety of packages available, featuring several hotel chains in a metropolitan area., rather than having to search hotels individually.
The setup of the site in laying out the math and savings on the “deals” (even though the parking math didn’t always come out right; something with museum passes or shopping coupons likely would fare better)
The fact that reservations are made directly with hotels.
What I didn’t like:
Navigation–The metro areas are buried at the bottom of the page or on a long “destination deals” page; the bottom of the home page lists general metro areas but the destination pages list more specific cities; it’s hard to move from one to the other or narrow the location of a metro area.
Tags–I couldn’t search for “Minneapolis” along with a tag to narrow my search. Tags are inconsistent–one listed “free parking,” another “free airport parking.”
Search feature returned “no deals found” for Bloomington, MN.
Incompleteness–for the package I was looking for, only a small portion of hotels were included.
Prices–Some of the “deals” I browsed cost thousands of dollars a night. I hardly consider that a money-saving effort.
Will I use Dealbase again? It’s likely, especially if I’m considering some attractions in addition to a hotel stay. Our family of six may complicate things, as it usually does when booking a room, but this is a good starting point in locating fun-and-stay combinations.
There are a lot of things to see around the USA, but not everyone has the resources to travel widely. A DVD entitled TripFlix is an ingenious way for kids and adults alike to virtually travel to places like the Gateway Arch, Mount Rushmore, Coney Island, Space Camp, and more.
Kids love the antics of the two teenage character/narrators, but it’s not all fun and games. After watching this movie, my kids can tell me all about caves, gristmills, and landmarks around the country. They’re also begging to go to places like the “four corners” after learning about it on TripFlix.
The segments are organized geographically, and at the end of each segment is a trivia quiz about that area.
Want to see for yourself? Watch this Tripflix clip:
We’ve enjoyed the TripFlix video for several months, and are hoping a sequel is produced with even more places to see in the U.S. Now’s your chance to get a copy.
Go to http://tripflix.com and enter their “12 days” contest and you could win your own copy of Tripflix! While you’re there, jump into the forum and share interesting things from your hometown. Good luck!
