Vacations Blog

The Old Faithful Inn, in Yellowstone National Park.

The Old Faithful Inn is everything that all of the documentaries, Travel Channel specials, magazines, and hundreds of publications say it is. It’s beautiful. Picturesque. Stunning. Historic.

It’s also a darned uncomfortable place to spend the night.

I must say that when my husband and I first set off on our Epic Road Trip, we didn’t expect our stay at the Old Faithful Inn to be the lowlight of our vacation. So here’s a perspective you probably won’t hear very often:

Four Reasons NOT To Stay at the Old Faithful Inn:
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Imagine running into President Barack Obama in Hollywood.  Or for that matter, Wolverine.  Both encounters are just as unlikely in real life, but if you go down the rabbit hole into a very special place, these weird fantasies of yours just might come true.

Smack dab in the middle of all the touristy action, Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum opens August 1, 2009.  With an updated cast of wax figure characters, (thank goodness) the museum offers an experience you cannot have elsewhere, that’s for sure.  Photo ops galore, and the whole family can go.  The comprehensive website helps you plan your visit, and you never know what celebrity you might bump into…for real.  Tussauds works the Hollywood connection so well that the real-life models drop in to unveil their lookalikes.

Madame Tussauds Hollywood is at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, right next to the famous Graumans Chinese Theater.

Get up close and personal

Legoland front entrace

My husband and I have amusement park-phobia.  (There must be a scientific name for that.  For now, I’ll go with the clunky made-up version.)  When we travel, we prefer to head to destinations in the middle of nature, with as few other people around as possible.  Now that we have two young children, however, entertainment and conveniences are much more necessary.  Stick a ton of both of those things in one place, jack up the price, and poof!  You have an amusement park. Read More »

Ohio.  I’ve never cared for it much.  I’ve had some bad JuJu up there.  But, perhaps, possibly it’s not the fault of the state itself as the fault of a Young Man with reckless abandon and “being a Bear of very little Brain.”  But still…….

So when the trip to Six Flags – Kentucky Kingdom was washed away in a deluge of angry cumulonimbus tears, and the children stood with sad eyes and tapping feet and bad intentions, well, we had to Go somewhere.

Enter Ohio. Read More »

Legoland in San Diego, CA

A big worry I often have when deciding to take our recently-turned-four-year-old twins places is whether that place will be age appropriate.  Restaurants have to be scrutinized.  Will there be things the kids can eat?  Will the kids be engaged or bored?  And that’s just for a night out on the town.  When it comes to amusement parks, I’m always dubious that young kids will have much to do.  Usually, amusement parks are built for the over 40-inch crowd and those with smaller children are left with whiny kids and even whinier parents.  (Is whinier a word? It is now.)

But Legoland, in Carlsbad, CA (located in San Diego County) and it’s newest attraction SeaLife Aquarium, are made for younger kids.  Recently I had the pleasure of a tour of the SeaLife Aquarium and LegoLand and was informed that the age range they aim to please is 2 to 12 years old.  Perfect for my little ones.

Rays at LegoLand's SeaLife Aquarium

If you go to LegoLand, go early – especially in the summer.  It gets mighty warm and the morning crowds are still manageable (For ways to beat the Summer crowds at LegoLand, see this post).  You can also eat at the new Ocean Journey Cafe which is part of the new SeaLife Aquarium.  The food is freshly made and really yummy.  You can choose between smoothies, muffins, eggs & potatoes made to order, cereal, fresh fruit and a multitude of other breakfast fare.  Breakfast is served from 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. and make sure you get a cranberry or blueberry muffin.  My wife, a true muffin connoisseur, highly recommends them.

The new SeaLife Aquarium was a lot of fun for the kids.  It has interactive tide pools for the kids to touch starfish and horseshoe crabs to a large 200,000 gallon ocean display complete with sharks, rays and tropical creatures that swim amongst some pretty cool Lego displays.  The LegoLand park itself has a lot of rides for kids of all ages.  My kids were able to go on a mini-rollercoaster (accompanied by me and my wife, of course) and had a bunch of fun running around in Explore Village and playing with the water features that make up part of the village.  Good times for a couple of four-year-olds.

Of course, vacationing in San Diego offers many things to do, but you’d be hard pressed to find something that is so uniquely catered to younger kids.  And big kids like me.

Jerome Arizona, pic by Open Sky Media

Jerome, Arizona, also known as “America’s Most Vertical City” and “Largest Ghost Town in America”, was founded in 1876. The town sits at an elevation of 5,200 feet, at the top of Cleopatra Peak. It rests above the largest copper mine in Arizona, which at its peak produced over three million pounds of copper per month. The mine closed in 1953, and most of the population (15,000 at its highest) left the area. However, about a hundred inhabitants remained, determined to see a renaissance of their beloved town’s popularity. Interest in this “ghost town” gradually grew – in 1967 Jerome was designated a National Historic District by the federal government. Today and it now supports a thriving artist and tourist destination, and is home to about 450 permanent residents.
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When our kids were small, there was no question about who paid for stuff. Air fare, entrance fees, food, lodging, and “Can I have it’s,” all subsidized by dear ol’ Mum and Dad. We made sure the budget accounted for that, so we tended to head toward less exotic destinations, which were less expensive to achieve. A trip to Maine, where we stayed with my family. A long weekend in Utah for some epic skiing. Road trips over to San Diego for three or four days. And we went camping a lot.

Me and the kids in Maine in '98.

When our son entered the military, and it was just me, my husband, and our daughter, we were able to branch out a little more. The three of us took a trip to Vancouver, BC, we spent a week driving up the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Francisco, and we spent ten days in Hawaii.

My husband, parasailing in Hawaii in '03.

Then our daughter moved out, too, and my husband and I indulged in a couple of lovely vacations, just the two of us. A trip to Maine, where we stayed in the Old Port section of downtown Portland. A long weekend in Oregon. And, this summer, our Epic Road Trip to Yellowstone and surrounding destinations.

Me and my husband in Maine, '07.

Lately, my husband has been waxing nostalgic. The kids are grown, and we don’t spend as much time with them as we used to. We see them less often (as in, a couple of times a week – they each live within a few miles of us), and we have fewer opportunities to make family memories. So we’ve been talking about planning a family vacation, with our now-grown kids, and their significant others.

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