Month: June 2006

Categories
Europe Tips

Travel with Kids to Western Ireland.

Hitting the links in Adare, Ireland (Scarborough photo)Ireland is a popular destination in Europe for family travel, and no wonder; there isn’t much of a language barrier, the currency is the easily-understood Euro, scenery is great and the Irish people are so friendly.

Many Americans feel a close affinity to Ireland, either from family ties or just from enjoying our local St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans.

I’ve only had one opportunity for a trip to Eire and that was a quick four-day stop in the charming village of Adare in Limerick (here’s some info on nearby County Clare, western Ireland and another perspective on Ireland’s west coast from Budget Travel.) From our admittedly short visit, we can report that this is a fun destination for kids.

Even when my “musical evening out” to a pub with singers turned out to really be a hotel bar full of middle-aged lounge lizards crooning Sinatra tunes, we still had an enjoyable adventure. Other pubs in Adare were welcoming to children and all of us could have a good time shooting pool or just listening to local blarney.

We took a day trip to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park in nearby Shannon (the location of the airport servicing this part of Ireland) and I can highly recommend a visit for kids. There is an open-air museum with restored farmhouses, village streets and gardens plus costumed museum staff to explain local heritage, foods and crafts. The castle on the grounds began as a Viking trading center in the year 970 (American kids have a hard time imaging a history going back that far; they think 1776 was a long time ago.)

Bunratty Castle near Shannon, Ireland (Scarborough photo)That evening we went to a well-staged medieval banquet in the castle itself, which included cups of mead, a four-course meal and plenty of lively entertainment and Irish songs. Yes, it’s a bit touristy-hokey, but children often LIKE touristy-hokey and if they learn something about Irish traditions in the meantime, why not?

My husband had a fun but rainy round of golf at high-class but not high-snooty Adare Manor (gee, it rained in Ireland? No kidding!) I got up early one morning for a run through part of the Manor grounds and was greeted with low-lying fog curling around ancient ruins as I jogged past; a veritable Irish whiskey ad visual, just for me. We also had a nice time just strolling through the charming Adare village streets, poking into shops and looking at the little local museum.

We also made a side trip to the Flying Boat Museum in Foynes; in the late 1930s and early 1940s this was the hub of Atlantic aviation, and abuzz with flying boats/airplanes like the Yankee Clippers. Since it was a bit of a rainy, chilly afternoon, my husband and I decided to have fun being touristy as well, and we ordered a couple of Irish coffees to warm us up — they were supposedly invented here as passengers tried to ward off the Irish chill in the old terminal.

A word of warning about renting a car and driving here — we have lived in Japan and so we had been taught how to drive on the left side of the road as they do in Ireland, but that does not mean it is easy. For gosh sakes, get an automatic transmission so you aren’t working a stick shift on your left side along with everything else involved with driving the car. The signage on those charming country backroads is often in Gaelic, or missing altogether or otherwise, ahem, “quirky,” so have a good map and plenty of time on your hands.

And may the road rise up to meet you….

Update 27 October 2006: Here’s a link to Char’s post over at Casual Keystrokes, about her family trip to Ireland. Great photos!

Update 02 February 2007: The UK’s Guardian travel section features twenty places that you can rent for a short stay in Ireland (and not just in the western area that I featured above.)

Categories
Philosophy Tips USA

Travel to New Orleans: A Snapshot Report.

On the Mississippi levee in New Orleans (Scarborough photo)Many thanks to all of the readers who have patiently waited for more frequent family travel blog posts from me as I move from Florida to Texas.

We are all staying temporarily with my parents while the Austin TX area job-hunt/house-hunt is in progress (that’s 2 adults, 2 kids and 4 cats, but who’s counting.)

I hope to get back to posting much more frequently now that the WiFi is up and humming.

During the drive to Texas, I decided to pull off of Interstate 10 for a few hours and do a “pulse check” in New Orleans. I felt that it was very important for me as an American citizen and as a traveler to judge for myself how one of the major American cities, and an international treasure of music, food and culture, was doing in its recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

I lived in a Big Easy suburb called Harvey LA a few years back and have visited since then as well, so I have some knowledge of the city, but when I say this is a “snapshot” that’s exactly what I mean — quick impressions from a 2-3 hour visit, with my 2 kids, in the French Quarter area around Jackson Square.

The drive to the center of the city was an eye-opener as we drove across one of the Lake Pontchartrain bridges and through eastern New Orleans. Miles of empty, blasted-out apartment complexes and blue-tarp-roofed subdivisions are still uninhabited, with fences and privacy walls crushed and flattened.

If you are driving in from the east and take the off ramp from I-10, turn right (instead of left towards the tourist areas near the Mississippi) and you are immediately looking at more deserted, boarded-up housing areas and crumpled homes with the famous spray-painted indications of whether bodies were found within or not. Many, many tall office buildings are dark and deserted, with more than half of their glass windows blown out and staring blackly down on the streets. My children were very subdued as they took it all in.

The smashed landscape goes for miles and looks as though it happened just 2-3 months ago, not last summer. This city is not “bouncing back” anytime soon and it is a shadow of what it was.

Yes, a few twists and turns found our minivan somehow absurdly cruising Bourbon Street, and that “den of iniquity” looks pretty much the same as always (this detour was not in my original quickie sightseeing plan, but my teenage daughter got to hoot at all of the girlie bars and soused adults wandering about.)

But drunks carrying daiquiris is not New Orleans.

The residential and business districts were dealt one hell of a body blow from which they are very slowly recovering, and all the powdered sugar beignets and chicory coffee slurped down at Cafe du Monde do not a real, live, sustainable city make.

I walked the kids up the levee to look out over the mighty Mississippi River and over at the venerable Huey P. Long Bridge. A guitarist was positioned near the steps down to the river; I was happy to see a musician and I threw a couple of bucks into his guitar case.

I join with Budget Travel Online’s recent article to urge you to visit the city and spend your money there now, rather than “someday.” Yes, family-oriented options may be a bit limited (although the world famous riverside Audubon Aquarium has re-opened) but try to focus your family on the culture of Mardi Gras and the wonderful food and music.

My kids just had fun eating beignets, seeing a new bride go by in a carriage while tossing beads, and buying silly skull stuff at a voodoo shop. Also, other areas of Louisiana (like Cajun Country) were relatively untouched and are looking for visitors.

So, where y’at? Go visit, take your family, and support this wonderful city. It needs you.

Update 30 Sept 2006: Another plea for tourists to visit New Orleans, from Arthur Frommer.

Update 02 February 2007: Smarter Travel updates us on how things are going in New Orleans; a mixed bag but improving.

Update 28 February 2007: World Hum, one of my favorite sites, has some links from terrific writers who are covering the situation in New Orleans.

Categories
Tips

Family Travel to South Africa.

Today I get on the road to head west as I move my family to Texas, so please pardon the continued spotty posting until about 20 June. 

While I’m finishing scrubbing out the oven and loading the van, I’d like to offer up a link to Kids Can Travel, a site I’ve just discovered that has all sorts of ideas for travel with kids, including this article on South Africa. 

I have not visited that country and these folks make me want to get on that plane to Cape Town.  Enjoy!

Categories
USA

Take the Kids to the Newport RI Folk Festival.

I’d love to have something more original to post, but I’m in the middle of a move, so let me instead highlight this article on Out With The Kids; it has all sorts of ideas and suggestions for taking the family to the Newport RI Folk Festival held at scenic Fort Adams on the bay.

(My parents saw Peter, Paul & Mary live there in the 60’s; the event’s been around for awhile!)

The 2006 lineup (August 5-6) includes David Gray, Rosanne Cash, the Meters (awesome funky New Orleans group,) Odetta and the Indigo Girls, to list just a few.

Categories
Blog Tips

Prevent a Midlife Crisis — Blog!

I just had a essay published in the Gainesville (FL) Magazine about my recent career change from active duty Navy to travel writer.  One of the things I wrote about was coming to a juncture in midlife when you realize you probably won’t be president or a Nobel Prize winner, so now what? 

My decision at age 45 was to do what I love and strike out into the civilian world as a freelance writer….and as a writer, how can I NOT blog?  If my goal is to be a successful communicator in today’s world, then it must follow that my goal is also to be a successful blogger.  You have to build an online presence to reach the largest possible audience. Even if you are not a writer, surely you have some (secret?) passion that you’d like to write about and share with the world.

The great thing about blogging is that I am my own editor.  I write what I want, when I want, within the constraints of my family travel topic.  No one edits my stuff or tells me that I “have to cut it down to X number of words.”  That also means that one of my blogging goals is to write such dynamite stuff that no one ever says; “Gaak, that chick desperately needs an editor!”

Then again, if you read my Blog Herald post on “How I Blog,” you may wonder how I get any writing done at all. 

I also like the immediacy of blogging. I write it, I click “Publish” and it’s out there.

People like that immediacy, and that means they want fresh family travel content and they want it often.  My goal is to provide that, but not to get too trendy or write about something just because everyone else is doing it.  Let others do the “What to See in Germany During the 2006 World Cup” articles, for example.  There is also something to be said for not just throwing posts out there for the sake of posting frequently.

I can also write about all sorts of unexpected things online — my first paid freelance writing assignment was to blog.  The Edmunds.com blog The Driving Woman hired me to cover the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Gatornationals drag races from a new race enthusiast (and woman’s) perspective. For four full days I did interviews, took notes, watched races, took photos, blogged like a fiend and generally fell in love with the sport.

Thanks to that gig, I’m now a regular contributor to a motorsports blog, Fast Machines.  How cool is that? An obvious goal at this point is to keep finding and blogging about topics that pique my interest, even if I might not consider writing about them in print media.

My final blogging goal is to not lose interest in the topic of travel with kids.  I may not post quite as frequently in the future, particularly when my kids are grown, but as long as I’m a writer I’ll be a blogger. 

I have over a decade to go before my youngest is out of the house, so there are a lot of years left in the family travel topic.  Maybe then this site will morph into another sort of travel blog; I hope you’re around to see it.

Categories
Texas USA

Summer Family Fun in Austin, Texas.

In honor of my soon-to-be new home, I have a collection of fun things to do with kids in the “Live Music Capital of the World,” Austin. If you want a searchable calendar of upcoming events, click here.

(Please forgive my less-frequent blogging this week and next as I’m in the throes of moving; I hope to return to a more frequent posting schedule on Monday, 19 June. Until then I’m shooting for about every 2-3 days.)

Anyway, it’s always an all-American good time with the AAA baseball team based just north of Austin in Round Rock — the Round Rock Express playing at Dell Diamond. Go on a Friday to see the fireworks at the ballfield.

Summer baseball too hot and “boring” for your teenager? How about heading for “SoCo,” the newly-hip South Congress Avenue area for some shopping and people-watching. The Austin Chronicle has a comprehensive guide as well. Your Goth can shop at Blackmail, where everything’s, well, black, and those wanting color just go next door to see the rainbow of clothes at Vivid.

As long as you’re in South Austin, grab some French crepes at Flip Happy. Even New Yorkers seem to have gone ga-ga for Texas food.

If you’re an indoor kinda family, the Paramount Theater has a spectacularly great summer film series; how can you miss seeing the classic Texas flick Giant, in Texas, on the big screen? (It’s scheduled for August 12 & 13.) You know what’s really depressing? The Paramount is also highlighting the 25th anniversary of the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark this year. Sheesh, seems like yesterday that I saw it for the first time, then went right back out and bought another ticket to see it again!

For additional air-conditioned options, there’s the venerable Book People book store (you can search their Calendar for kid’s events and kid’s authors making appearances) and of course you should pick up a copy of the new book The Tao of Willie….Willie Nelson, that is.

Really.

Categories
Philosophy

A Trip Too Far? When Travel with Kids Isn’t a Good Idea.

Thanks to overseas military duty stations in Japan and the Netherlands, both of my children have been able to see a lot of the world (which was only one of the reasons that I specifically requested overseas assignments. The main reason was that my husband and I love to travel and “get local.”)

My young son, now almost 7, doesn’t remember that much of Europe, but recognition of landmarks like the “Eyfee Towee” or the Louvre pyramid in Paris seems to come back to him every once in awhile, or he remembers a bit of the Dutch that he learned in his kindercentrum preschool. My teenage daughter remembers a lot, which was reinforced when she visited me in Tokyo and Hong Kong after I was sent to Asia on a temporary duty assignment.

This article in the UK’s Telegraph online asks some interesting questions about whether parents take kids for selfish reasons, not the “educational” ones that we all offer up as our primary reason for family travel. Should kids be taken to more adventurous locations (i.e., anyplace that needs special shots or anti-malarial medication?) Are we making them jaded by showing them too many cool places when they’re young?

I thought that a lot of the article was not convincing and had a rather peevish, lecturing tone. From my perspective, most parents take the kids not because they are trying to show off, but because they have always traveled and see no reason to come to a roaring halt simply because children have arrived in the family.

Yes, some far-away, exotic destinations should probably wait until kids are old enough to really appreciate them (and not drive everyone nuts on the long plane ride getting there.) But what is “old enough?” Five? Eight? Past ten? As always, it depends upon your individual child.

My son may not have been old enough to really “appreciate” Paris, but there was no way that I was not going to go and enjoy it with my husband and older daughter, especially living right there in Europe. We all took delight in the discovery of pistachio macaroons at Laduree, too.

There was no way that I was not going to have my daughter join me in Japan for a few weeks, either, and as long as she was coming that far, there was no way she was going to miss my favorite city in the world, Hong Kong.

Selfish? Fine, I’m selfish.

My daughter also read the article. She didn’t care for most of it, but did agree with the assertion that all of her travels have in fact made her a bit ho-hum about discovering the rest of the world. “I’ve already seen all of the important stuff, the stuff anyone cares about.” It’s no use telling a teenager that such comments are completely absurd; that there are world-class cities and whole continents she’s yet to visit.

I don’t worry about it because I was the exact same way as a young teenager.

I grew up in a Navy family and also lived overseas, in the Middle East, with lots of European and U.S. travel thanks to my parents. I, too, thought I knew it all….doesn’t every teen? I remember my parents worrying that I was too “jaded” (that was the word they used.)

Does that mean that they shouldn’t have taken me all over? I think not. With maturity I came to appreciate the gift of travel, and I’m still eager to see around the next corner and over the mountaintop.

I do know that I was making plans to visit Morocco a few years back, and my well-traveled father rather bluntly indicated that my young son was simply not ready for the jam-packed souk in Marrakesh or getting a stomach disorder and being miserable. What I considered “exotic” might well have been plain “scary” to my kids. He reminded me that I had been 10-12 when we hit some of the funkier places in the Middle East. I thought about it, and for my family at that time, he was right.

We went to Pisa & Florence instead.

The whole world is still waiting out there, it’s not going anywhere, and my family and I have every intention of seeing a lot more of it.

Update 17 October 2006: Thanks to TripHub for featuring this post on the latest Carnival of Travel, featuring the topic of family travel.