Vacations Blog

This local perspective on Kansas City comes from Linda Szewczyk. Linda has lived in many cities and feels that Kansas City has something for everyone to enjoy. After reading through her terrific answers, I can see that she is right. Kansas City is a place full of surprises. For example, did you know that it is only 30 miles from the birthplace of Basketball and has more BBQ restaurants than anywhere else in the U.S.?! This last part could come as a surprise for all you Texans out there….myself included! I think that you will enjoy this glimpse into Missouri’s ‘finest city’.

1. Give five adjectives that you would use to describe the “feel” of Kansas City and its residents?

Beautiful, Surprising, Complex, Picturesque, and Sophisticated.

(It seems that those on the coasts are generally unfamiliar with the Mid-West. Having lived in many cities, I found Kansas City has something for everyone to enjoy.)

2. What is your favorite neighborhood/area of Kansas City?

The Country Club Plaza district, it is an area of majestic homes, towering trees, retail shops and restaurants. The architecture is styled after cities of the Iberian Peninsulaand is credited with being the country’s first shopping center.

3. Which cuisine do you think Kansas Citydoes best? What is the runner-up? (Feel free to share your favorite restaurants).

Kansas City was home to some of the country’s original stockyards and therefore is known for luscious beef. The city boasts many fine steak houses, including the Hereford House, The Savoy Grill, and The Majestic Steakhouse. They serve up terrific jazz along with their scrumptious steaks. Equal to Kansas City steaks is the barbecue! Of my favorites, Fiorella’s Jack Stack tops the list.

4. What is the best free thing to do?

Kansas Cityis home to Hallmark Cards. The Crown Center surrounds the Hallmark headquarters. Stroll three levels of shopping and dining at the Crown Center.You can visit Kaleidoscope a hands on art experience for children 5 to
12 sponsored by Hallmark. Enjoy free Friday Night Concerts and Flicks on the lawn outside Crown Center.

During the summers the Crown Center Square Fountain’s 48 water shooters perform a dancing water show synchronized by the Kansas City Symphony. During the winter, you can ice skate at the Ice Terrace in the square for a small fee.

The Coterie Theater, American Heartland Theater and Off Center Theater are located within the CrownCenterand offer shows for all ages. Tickets must be purchased for shows.

5. What is your favorite type of entertainment?

Kansas Cityhas the BLUES and all that JAZZ. Some of the greatest jazz players of all time started in the clubs of Kansas City. In the 18th and Vine and the Power and Light District fans can find many clubs,
bars, and music festivals.

6. List the best family friendly activity.

Family activities are abound in Kansas City. From the professional teams, the Royals baseball and Chiefs football and NASCAR, to the amusement parks of Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun, provide year-round entertainment for all!

7. What spot would you send a couple, looking for a romantic weekend?

The Country Club Plaza is a great choice! The Raphael, an elegant boutique hotel, is a wonderful retreat for a romantic weekend. Stroll the boulevards of the Plaza, dine at the Plaza IIIor just have margaritas on the patio at Baja 600. Take a horse-drawn carriage ride and admire the awesome array of the beautiful fountains which are abundant in Kansas City.

8. Describe the perfect day…one that captures what your area/city is all about– In three sentences or less.

Almost any day is perfect in Kansas City, despite or because of the true four season climate; there is always something to do, on the coldest winter day or the steamiest day in July. Visit the shops, restaurants, and other attractions and you are always greeted with friendly hospitality. I guess it’s the people I most enjoy.

9. Tell us about a place that you love to go whether it is in the guidebooks or not.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has an outstanding collection of artifacts from ancient times to modern day, and admission is free! Have lunch at the museum’s RozelleCourtRestaurantor picnic on the
scenic grounds.

10. What question did we not ask that we should have (and answer it, of course!)?

Little Known Facts:
-Kansas Cityhas the most extensive public display of European statuary and fountains in the country, with at last count over 200 fountains.
-Independence, part of the Kansas City metro area, was home to Harry S. Truman our 33rd President. His home and library are open to the public.
-The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas located 40 miles west of Kansas Cityis home to the NCAA Champion KU Jayhawks and is the birthplace of game of basketball.
-The Kansas City Barbecue Society reports that KC has more barbecue restaurants per  capita than any other city in the country.

Do you have a city you would love to tell us about? Send us an e-mail or comment on this post and maybe you can become our next local expert!

When the weather is nice and we don’t have other plans, we like to pack up a picnic and outdoor toys (and the dog!) and head up to San Francisco for a relaxing family day. Our favorite destination is the massive Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which offers many options for our family.

On Sundays in Golden Gate Park, the roads are closed to cars, and visitors bring out scooters, skates, and roller blades and enjoy a leisurely cruise through the park. Overlooking Stow Lake, we often find nice places to picnic and feed the ducks. Or, we sometimes like to plant ourselves (pun intended) on a nice grassy spot in the middle of the Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. And when the kids are in the mood for traditional park activities, we head over to the Koret Children’s Quarter, thought to be the first playground in the nation. This map has helped us plan our visits.

Golden Gate Park is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes locations north and south of the Golden Gate Bridge, and into San Mateo County. Fort Mason is part of this conservancy – a wonderful place to spend a couple hours, poking around in galleries and cafes, all right on the San Francisco Bay. Another park right on the ocean, Fort Funston, allows dogs to run off leash on the beach. Our dog Molly loves this park, she comes back completely exhausted and wiped out! When we are in scientist-mode, we head over to Crissy Field and explore the beach and tidal marsh, or head out on one of the many hiking trails in the Presidio.

Any one of these options makes for a great (and cheap!) day in the Park. What is your favorite spot in Golden Gate Park? And little gems to share?

Picture courtesy of Aslak Raanes.

What can a family of four can do in New York City with a budget of $20? Before we get to all the cheap, free and fun family things to do in New York, there’s the question of getting around New York City.

Best bet for local transport is get a MetroCard. The MTA has a 1-Day Fun Pass, good for unlimited Subway and Bus rides until 3 am, which costs $7.50. These cards are for individual use only, but this is the cheapest way to get around NYC as a family, if you’re planning to visit a lot of places. Obviously, the cost of the MetroCards is in addition to our $20 cheapskate budget.

Ok, let’s get down to the attractions. The latest addition to NYC’s pantheon of free attractions are the New York City Waterfalls, created by Olafur Eliasson, and presented by the Public Art Fund. The waterfalls are made up of four scaffoldings, set up along the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Governors Island waterfronts, with water cascading down from a height of 90 to 120 feet. A temporary park has been set up on Pier 1 for free viewing, and ‘paid’ boat and bike tours are also available. Special free tickets for a free 30 minute cruise from Circle Line Downtown can be availed of by calling (866) 925-4631. More details here.

You can also watch the waterfalls from the free Staten Island ferry, which will additionally show you the other sights (including the Statue of Liberty), plus you can visit the free Staten Island Botanical Garden. The Grand Central Partnership offers free 90 minute tours with an expert guide who will show you the wonders of famous landmarks like Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building.

Central Park is another place which has an amazing array of free attractions for people of all ages and stripes. Enjoy the shows and music at SummerStage, take a free guided and themed walking tour, visit the Loeb boathouse, and stroll the park enjoying impromptu street shows. Bon Jovi is scheduled to play at a free concert in Central Park on July 12.

NYCVisit.com, the City’s official tourism website, has a comprehensive list of free attractions including museums, parks, attractions and events.

In addition to all the above mentioned, some more famous NYC landmarks and places worth visiting (for free), include Times Square, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the New York Public Library, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Rockefeller Center. Two of the best of NYC attractions which you’re going to miss, because the tickets are priced out of our $20 budget, are the Observatory on the Empire State Building, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But we have a problem. We haven’t spent a single penny. So what say we order meals for less than $5, so all four of you can eat without spending more than $20? Visit Gray’s Papaya for their recession special (two hot dogs and a drink for $3.50), or Dumpling house at Eldridge Street in Chinatown for some cheap dumplings and sesame pancakes. I could whip out a lot more restaurants in Brooklyn and Harlem which could fill up your tank for less than $5, but that’s another post altogether…

Photo by Nexeus Fatale via Flickr (Creative Commons)

As the summer wears on, and the economy continues to lag, I strive to find some family friendly activities in San Francisco that leave my wallet unscathed. In order to maximize our entertainment dollars, I make sure we leave home well fed and rested, and bring along a couple snacks in my bag for the kids. Here are some ways that we would spend $20 on a family activity in San Francisco:

Two well-known San Francisco attractions offer free admission on certain days of the month. On the first Tuesday of the month, you can visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and on the first Wednesday of the month, the San Francisco Zoo is free to all attendees. That means I can spend my $20 on treats at Beard Papa (right down the street from SFMOMA) or on the Dentzel Carousel ($2 a ride) or Little Puffer Steam Train ($3 a ride) at the Zoo.

For a little San Francisco culture, I like to take my family to Chinatown, and explore the area on foot. Several websites offer self-guided walking tour directions – the area around Chinatown and North Beach is rich in California history. We all bring our cameras and take pictures of the many old and interesting buildings along the way. Our final stop? A stop at Golden Gate Bakery for egg custard tarts. At $1.10 a piece, we can afford enough for a great snack.

If anyone in your family is interested in the history of shipping and boats in San Francisco, head over to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, located just west of Pier 39. The museum has several kid friendly options, including a great little activity book available at the Visitor’s Center. Tickets are $5 per person, with no charge for kids under 16. That would leave you $10 for treats at Ghiradelli Square across the street, or perhaps you might like a souvenir from one of the many vendors along the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood.

And Golden Gate Park is always free, and if you bring a picnic lunch, some outdoor games and toys, you and your family can have a great afternoon in one of the nicest open spaces in Northern California.

What is your favorite (free and cheap) destination in San Francisco?

Summer Vacation at the Jersey Shore

Hana Wolf is a seasoned attorney turned expert “mom traveler” who decided to take a break from practicing law to help other parents with the inherent challenges of traveling with children. She is now the CEO and Co-Founder of LittleJetSet.com, an online store that sells travel games, toys, puzzles, arts and crafts, and countless other fun activities for families on the go, as well as a wide array of children’s luggage, backpacks, wash bags and other travel accessories.

I am a Jersey Girl and proud of it. While my days of big hair, hanging out at the mall, and listening to Bon Jovi are over, my love of the beach and affection for the Jersey Shore are enduring, and I give it top billing for summer family vacations.

New Jersey boasts 127 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and almost 50 public beaches, with daily admission for all but a few ranging in price from free to $8. If your main objective is keeping the kids entertained, then head for Point Pleasant Beach (Garden State Parkway Exit 98), where you will find expansive beaches and a mile-long boardwalk with arcades, amusements, games, rides and restaurants in abundance. There is a fun house, batting cages, miniature golf, and my personal favorite, Jenkinson’s Aquarium. Located on the north end of the boardwalk, this little gem has sharks, sea lions, penguins, sea rays, an albino alligator, tropical fish, birds, snakes, and much more. Throughout the summer, there are special programs and events for the entire family including movies on the beach, Thursday night fireworks, family yoga and dance, and talent contests, to name just a few.

If you can tear yourself away from the beach, head to Surf Taco for outrageous fish tacos, a free salsa bar, surfing movies, and a game of Connect Four while you wait for your food. And for dessert – head to Strollo’s Lighthouse Italian Ice. Strollo’s is synonymous with summer at the Jersey Shore. My order – large dish of orange Italian ice with vanilla soft serve. Skip the tiny squeeze cup. You’re on vacation!

Even though Point Pleasant Beach is only 1.7 square miles, there is no shortage of lodging. Choose from gracious Victorian inns, beachfront resorts and motels in all price ranges. The boardwalk can get a bit loud and rowdy at night on the weekends, so I would recommend staying just south of the boardwalk or off of Ocean Avenue if you’re a light sleeper. And, just in case you were wondering, there is a mall 2 miles away. More information here.

While your kids’ happiness is guaranteed once you hit the beach, the same does not hold true for the car ride there. In my capacity as expert “mom traveler,” I must advise that boredom, discomfort and hunger equal travel disaster, so be sure to pack snacks and plenty of entertainment for the road. Some of my favorite travel games, toys and activities for the car are: Find It at the Beach; Are We There Yet; Map of the USA Sticker Set Play Scene; and Sketch + Draw + Color Ocean.

First of all congratulations to Yahoo! “Rebel Alliance” for taking this first step on what might be a disruptive move to compete against the Don’t-Be-Evil Empire! (h/t Dave McClure who coined this phrase). Now you will have to Use The Force and go much further to power an industry of distinctively unique Alternative Search Engines, like Uptake. (Disclosure: we are not using BOSS but plan to evaluate BOSS Custom for our use on providing backfill results)

BOSS: one of Yahoo!’s last hopes

Photo courtesy: Revell.de

But it took more than an X-Wing to destroy the Death Star. It Took the Force.

Here are the salient features of BOSS and where we think it has to go further to truly power innovative new search experiences.

Three levels, but only BOSS Custom has real potential for a highly differentiated service offering.

There are three levels to the BOSS program, according to SearchEngineWatch:

• self-service API
• BOSS University for academics
• BOSS Custom, designed for companies with their own ranking and/or presentation methodologies. Or alternative, companies with proprietary data that can help as an additional signal that factors into relevancy.

I’ll go over all the aspects of the BOSS program below, and then come back to BOSS Custom as evidence that Yahoo! just might Use The Force. But the basic features looks like a free version of Google Custom Search Engine.

Four primary functions of search are addressed by BOSS

TechCrunch highlights these 4 functions of search that BOSS provides as service:

This is a good framework. Lets start with indexing and crawling.

Crawling and Indexing: Not the real barrier to vertical search

According to Yahoo! Bill Michels, as reported by ReadWriteWeb, “niche search engines often aren’t very good because they have access to a very limited index of content. It’s expensive to index the whole web.” This is just wrong, in my opinion. It may be expensive but that isn’t why niche search engines haven’t been successful.

Lowering the cost of crawling can be good for startups, of course. However, with cloud services and vendors leveraging low cost computing and crawling, crawling is already becoming a commodity. In building Uptake, “buying the web wholesale” is the least of our worries especially because we are focused on one vertical.

We have used a stealth mode vendor to crawl the entire Web and build the most comprehensive structured database of travel products, at least 30% larger than any other source, and it didn’t take us $300 million to do that. According to SearchEngineLand, there is a vendor called CommonCrawl who aims to provide a complete index of the Web on a white label basis. So “buying the web wholesale” is possible today.

Building a repository of documents is only the beginning. The key is extracting meaning from the documents (and the relationships between the documents) to power your ranking algorithm.

Ranking: Some new ability, but still built on top of a black box

Building a ranking model for a specific purpose is probably the most difficult task for a search startup. BOSS can help jumpstart a new companies effort by providing an acceptable but not differentiated result.

Ranking: Add your own search signals so you can re-rank results

Proprietary signals are needed to deliver better precision through better ranking matched against user intent for any given query. BOSS breaks new ground by allowing you to add and blend your own search signals into Yahoo!’s black box. Example from SearchEngineLand:

Me.dium is the example highlighted by Yahoo! Silicon Alley Insider points out that Me.dium is adding social signals to Yahoo! ranking and calling it “Social Search” which ironically is “using a name Yahoo! has already attached to a failed product.” VentureBeat has a more positive spin on the Me.dium demo application, although Dan Kaplan concludes:

The question that hangs over Yahoo, BOSS, and Me.dium is whether or not any search player will really be able to change user behavior and get people to consistently use something other than Google; the results would probably have to be a noticeable leap forward, and even then, it would be hard to break Googling habits.

Dan is absolutely right, and BOSS will have to go a lot further to deliver a true “leap forward.”

Ability to blend results:

In addition to re-ranking, Yahoo! BOSS also allows you to blend results. This has potential for much more interesting SERPs that are more tailored for a specific vertical or search intent state.

Blend: Mashup Framework

As an added plus, Yahoo! is providing the BOSS Mashup Framework. According to Yahoo! Search Blog: “We’re releasing a Python library and UI templates that allow developers to easily mashup BOSS search results with other public data source”

Blend: Web, news, and image search availability at launch

This seems like table stakes. Vanessa Fox at SearchEngineLand points out that at first glance, the API looks similar to Google custom search API and Microsoft’s Live Search API

Query handling

This is also a big challenge for new search startups. Yahoo!’s service provides for this as part of the overall service. But as far as I can tell there is no way to insert one’s own query parsing into Yahoo!’s so as to affect the search results. UPDATE from Huanjin Chen: I guess a developer can always use his/her own GUI to get the user query and parse it and then form a Yahoo query. If so, the developer can insert his/her own query handling.

Presentation: Total flexibility on presentation

According to Yahoo! Search Blog: “Freedom to present search results using any user interface paradigm, without Yahoo! branding or attribution requirements” This means no attribution required! But this is a red herring because…

Business Model: Advertising strings attached

According to GigaOm, you have to use Yahoo! Search Advertising. And Om makes the point:

Notably, they are asking startups to sign up for their search monetization system — the very same system that is going to use Google to drum up ads. That isn’t a very confidence-inspiring move. And if this monetization tool was so great, Yahoo wouldn’t be in the kind of trouble it’s in.

Indexing of the Semantic Web not included.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb asked if the indexing of the semantic web would be included, and they said not. But this is no big deal because semantic tags and microformats have yet to be adopted in a huge way by the most important sites, who would rather focus on traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Google rather than use immature tools to expose semantic meaning.

Business Model: Unlimited queries

Business model friendly pricing, although you have to sign up for their advertising platform.

BOSS Custom: Now you’re talking about Using The Force

Everything above was just for the Jedi Apprentice. But if you are going to confront the Dark Side, you need BOSS Custom. Here’s what they provide and why it is critical (and may or may not be far enough):

Near real-time indexing of public or proprietary content

Real-time indexing is appropriate for time-sensitive information like news and blogs. This could be an advantage over other wholesale crawling and indexing methods that other private label providers are providing.

Blending training datasets to produce advanced, customized ranking models that scale to the Web

This is probably one of the most interesting aspects of BOSS custom. This suggests that a training dataset and our own proprietary signals can be integrated into the Yahoo!’s existing ranking models. So the real question is: how much of that ranking model will be opened up for tuning by the search startup?

Federating web and proprietary content in a single search display

This can already be achieved using Google Custom Search Engine in a rudimentary way. The larger issue is that most proprietary content in structured databases are not just unstructured (or semi-structured) Web documents but more structured database objects with attributes. How does BOSS Custom make it easy to integrated the right Web pages with the right products, without really understanding what entities are on those Web pages?

Integrating query suggestions (Search Assist technology)

Query parsing services is one of the most interesting aspects of BOSS Custom. Search Assist is very well done already, and if it could be integrated with our custom, industry-specific ontology.

Leveraging highly trained query and document categorizers

Also very interesting, if indeed this is being opened up to developers. Our own query categorizers are still fairly early stage and if we could understand Yahoo!’s query categorizers work and could integrated our own understanding of natural language into that categorizer, this could be a real accelerator for us in parsing queries better.

Structured search (range queries, refinement)

This sounds interesting, but I’m sceptical that the horizontal approach to refinement will provide for a truly differentiated experience unless the specific needs of that customer, as captured in an ontology, can be integrated into the refinement controls provided for by BOSS Custom.

UPDATE: Here are some additional thoughts from our China search team and Huanjin Chen, our search architect:

Structured search and query/document categorizers can be useful tools for driving improved relevance for niche search engines. There are many ways of making search results more relevant. One is to understand the user intention better and refine the search, which structured search addresses. Another way is to build the ontology/taxonomy/directory to classify queries and documents, which can benefit from the categorizer.

Unlimited queries are essential to build a commercial search engine. Google search API might be more structured and flexible than Yahoo’s, but they only allow 50K queries per day. Potentially, a search engine could use both. One could build ontology using Google’s search API, and then use Yahoo BOSS for user search results.

Yahoo also does not allow access to their ranking signals. Agreed, this is a huge limitation, but it is understandable. The Yahoo ranking order is still useful. At minimum, one could use it as one of the relevance factors. If one can query Yahoo search engine in different ways, then one can kind of guess their ranking signals. The drawback is that multiple queries may be a performance concern.

Crawling is not a barrier to vertical search engine. It is true. However, first, it still makes an under-funded startup to get start easily; second, Yahoo data helps on time-sensitive data; third, some startups may want to try semi-horizontal market, such as content for kids and shopping, which is more costly to crawl.

New search startups have to take a different approach to differentiate from Google and Yahoo! How will BOSS support this?

Huanjin: In general, I think this is a very important event for all search startups. It opens new opportunities. Google has pushed search relevance to the limit that the current approach can achieve. To significantly improve the search relevance, we have to take drastically different approaches, i.e., not solely by keyword matching, not solely by statistical signals, and not treating every user the same. My take on the direction of search technology is

(1) Meaning based (semantic and/or syntactic).

(2) Context aware. The same word means different things in different contexts.

(3) Must be able to treat different users differently

(4) Opinion based.

(5) Leverage human knowledge base

The BOSS Custom roadmap needs to envision supporting these innovative approaches, because that is the only way that new startups can create a reason for people to leave their horizontal search engine like Google and adopt an alternative.

UPDATE:  Andrew Chen’s take is totally on target

Andrew Chen makes the point that Yahoo! BOSS just allows search mashups, and what Yahoo! really needs to do is open up their search and network traffic:

Andrew:  “The extreme approach – well not even that extreme these days, given Facebook – would be to let developers build extensions to the search engine that actually run on top of the *.yahoo.com domain. They can provide an API, do app approvals, and direct only small bits of traffic to each app to test them out – then ramp up the ones that perform better than anything else. There are difficult pieces necessary to make this work, but if done well, it has the potential to change the search game by letting developers target small groups of queries the way that advertisers have been able to.”

But when Marshall Kirkpatrick asked about this, Yahoo! responded “oh, that’s a different department.”  Will Yahoo! bring their disparate fiefdoms together into one integrated strategy to truly Use the Force?!

And much, much more…

This will be interesting. BOSS and BOSS Custom is a bold, dynamic approach to the ever-increasing hegemony of the Don’t Be Evil Empire! Competition is good and we wish Yahoo! the best of luck. Our advice is to Use The Force and go far enough to equip players like us to create highly differentiated experiences from general search.

Death Star here we come!

Source: Wikipedia

This local’s perspective on Atlanta is written by Kat Harris. Kat lives right outside of Atlanta and loves to drive into the city for a family outing or a romantic getaway. That is-when she can find the time. She is a busy mom and an active blogger. Check out her blog, Sunshine and Lemonade. I enjoyed reading about the large southern city of Atlanta. I would love to take a stroll down some of its stately neighborhoods as well as spend some time doing “retail therapy” at the city’s many shopping avenues. Enjoy!

1. Give five adjectives that you would use to describe the “feel” of Atlanta and its residents?

Diverse, congested, vibrant, political, eclectic

2. What is your favorite neighborhood/area in Atlanta?

There are a lot of neat neighborhoods around Atlanta. Decatur has a vibrant “hippy” feel to it – with farmer’s markets, great restaurants (One is Watershed – which is partly owned by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls), bars (Brick Store Pub is well known for their high gravity Belgian brews), and great people watching opportunities. Another one is Grant Park/East Atlanta near the Atlanta Zoo. This neighborhood has some beautiful craftsman style homes built in the 1920’s – and some amazing Victorian houses – complete with the gingerbread fixins. And one other to look at is either Druid Hills or Buckhead – to see some mansions and “old” money in the city.

3. Which cuisine do you think Atlanta does best? What is the runner-up?(feel free to share your favorite restaurant)

I don’t know that there is one thing that Atlanta does best. It’s one of the great things about Atlanta is that there are so many very good examples of all different kinds of cuisine. Favorite restaurant: Five Seasons Brewing company. It’s a brew pub (they make their own beer) – and even they have an eclectic menu. Second favorite: Watershed in Decatur – Excellent southern cuisine.

4. What is the best free thing to do?

There are free things to do in Atlanta? Besides paying for parking – you can walk around Centennial Olympic park. They have a fountain to splash in…and a great playground for the kids. During the summer they have movies on the lawn; at Christmas time there is a great light display.

5. What is your favorite type of entertainment?

Retail Therapy. Atlanta has some of the best shopping!

6. List the best family friendly activity?

There are lots of things to do: Six Flags and White Water…Braves games…Georgia Aquarium…Stone Mountain Park…and the Botanical Gardens by Piedmont Park has a fabulous children’s garden.

7. What spot would you send a couple, looking for a romantic weekend?

Not exactly in Atlanta – but on the north side of town – Chateau Elan (which has spas and a winery)…on the south side…Callaway Gardens.

8. Describe the perfect day…one that captures what your area/city is all about? In three sentences or less.

The perfect day would begin when the Aquarium opens (get there early to avoid most of the crowds) followed by lunch at the Varsity (the world’s largest drive-in restaurant – and home of the yummiest, greasiest, artery clogging onion rings). Next, drive out to Stone Mountain Park and either walk up the mountain to work off that lunch – or if you can’t do that, take the cable car up to the top to see the views. And finish off your evening by parking yourself on a blanket on the lawn in front of the carving on the mountain to watch the laser show after dark.

9. Tell us about a place that you love to go whether it is in the guidebooks or not.

I love to go to the Aquarium. I could sit and watch the Beluga whales all day! And they are about to expand the aquarium to include a whole wing for dolphins.

Another activity – for the grown-ups – that is so fun is to see the play “Peachtree Battle.” It is now the longest running play in Atlanta (beating out “Driving Miss Daisy”). The play is about an old moneyed family whose favorite son is getting married to a black Hooters waitress.

10. What question did we not ask that we should have (and answer it, of course!)?

“How do you get around to do all these things?”

In Atlanta…you need a car. The public transportation does not get you everywhere you need to go…and Atlanta is a commuter town…so even grabbing a cab is not an easy option. There is so much to do…but it is all spread out – sprawl is the name of this town…and you are going to need a car to see and do all the wonderful things Atlanta and vicinity have to offer.

Here is my Thursday Thirteen list of items I always pack when traveling with my kids, things I have found useful when taking my kids on the road. My two are 6 and 7, so our packing list has certainly evolved from when they were babies. And as they grow older, we look forward to even more changes. The list skews a little more towards airplane trips, but I think the list is also valid for car adventures too. Our most exciting packing achievement? For our trip in March to London and Paris, we took only carry on luggage – each of us had a roll-on suitcase and backpack!

In Letterman style, I will do my list backwards, saving the best for last:

13. Travel backpack with games, books and toys to keep them busy (check out the $1 bin at Michaels)
12. Refillable water bottles
11. Small first aid kit with band aids
10. Digital Camera (one for the adults and one for the kids)
9. Flip video recorder (so small it fits in my pocket) Read More »