Month: December 2006

Categories
Blog Tips

Links by the hundreds, thanks to an Aussie

The results are in from the Darren Rowse ProBlogger Group Writing Project. I’m seeing more travel bloggers participating than in some previous writing events, but it was also fun to cruise through the non-travel sites.

Budget Globetrotting has predictions about travel in 2007, Working at Home on the Internet reflects on his blog’s focus, Time to Get Fit is proud of his weight loss and running (I’ve been thinking more and more of how out of shape I’m getting; time to pull on the tennies and get out that door!) and Travel Rants has some thoughts on his year as a travel blogger. 

Continue reading “Links by the hundreds, thanks to an Aussie”

Categories
Blog

From Schinveld and Kikase-cho to Dime Box: travel blogging now and next year

It’s not even (Julian calendar) New Year’s yet and I’m doing that “think and reflect” thing.

Thanks to Australian blogger Darren Rowse and another of his Problogger Group Writing Projects, I get to broadcast my thoughts to a wider-than-usual audience. Here’s my list of travel, blogging and general freelance writing ruminations as I look back on 2006, my first year blogging, and ahead to 2007.

Here’s what I learned at the revolution:

** I’ve made blogging friends all over the world but I’ve never actually met them. Liz Strauss in Chicago, TechZ in Bahrain, Pam in Seattle and Austria; they all give new and very positive meaning to “I met them on the Internet.”

** Blogging, if it’s done well, is harder than it looks and takes a lot of time.

** A good writer can write about almost anything, with a lot of research, creativity and willingness to admit what you don’t know. That’s how I fell into becoming one of the bloggers writing about NHRA drag racing on Fast Machines. I even figured out how to write racing posts that tied back into the travel with kids topic.

Holiday at the Alamo, courtesy of the San Antonio CVB

** Travel and discovery is great for educating your kids.

** Travel and discovery will spoil your kids for more of the same. Yes, they sometimes do get a little jaded and think that just because they’ve been to New York/Paris/Tokyo that everyone has gone or ought to go.

It’s a maturity thing for well-traveled children to recognize that not everyone thinks travel is all that important, nor can some others afford it or even want to budget for it. Military assignments got us overseas and all over the US, so we were fortunate to be able to do a lot on not that much cash. Just keep working to ensure that your kids appreciate it.

** Local travel holds all sorts of treasures and is easier on the budget. We just finished a nice day trip down to San Antonio to see the holiday-lighted Riverwalk and the Alamo.

As for looking ahead to 2007, I’m excited to continue developing my freelance writing business.

Never a patient person, I have to wait until March for my latest articles to be published in National Geographic Traveler, Transitions Abroad and CHOW (a food magazine; my first foodie work.) That’s why blogging is so much fun for me — no one edits my stuff and the reward of publication is immediate.

I also expect to do more drag racing work and continue my initial foray into NASCAR coverage, to use the other side of my brain.

One of my dearest friends gave me a lovely Waterman pen early in 2006 to help kick-start my writing career, and I used it this month to write holiday card notes to some of my editors. I reflected on how nice it is to even have editors to mail cards to, so with just that datapoint I’m calling it a pretty doggone successful year.

Finally, about the title: Schinveld, the Netherlands and Kikase-cho in Sasebo, Japan are two of the places that I’ve lived overseas, courtesy of the US Navy. Now I find myself in Central Texas, researching travel articles in places like the tiny town of Dime Box, Texas. How the world turns….

Categories
Texas USA

Support your parks: take the kids and visit

Bastrop State Park cabin area (Scarborough photo)We just returned from a quick weekend trip (along with the grandparents) to see one of the most unique and wonderful state parks in Texas — Bastrop State Park, about 30 miles southeast of Austin.

It’s hard to beat a place with pine trees, ponds, a golf course, an orienteering course and a pool.

Many of the amenities don’t get much of a workout in December, but we still enjoyed our stay.

The highlight was our 1930s-era stone and log cabin, one of many in the park that were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. CCC was one of the Federal government’s New Deal recovery programs during the Great Depression. They were also called “Roosevelt’s Tree Army.” The Corps put hundreds of thousands of young men to work improving municipal, county, state and national parks all over the United States.

Their projects are sturdily enduring examples of construction craftsmanship in our natural areas; many of the CCC buildings are still with us today, to be enjoyed by your family.

Examples include the Painted Desert Inn in Arizona’s Petrified National Forest, Mather Lodge in Arkansas’ Petit Jean State Park, White Pines Park near Chicago and the Myakka cabins in Florida. Go to your state park Web site and search for “CCC” to find out whether there are any near your home.

We loved our little cabin in Bastrop, with its Hobbit-like doors and windows, a teensy kitchenette (small fridge, microwave and 2-burner stovetop,) beamed ceilings, simple furniture and yes, a combo air conditioner/heater to keep us comfortable in any weather.

Carved log mantel, Sam Houston cabin, Bastrop State ParkThere was a nice fireplace with a big log mantel, and we lit a fire in the evening to make S’mores and another fire in the morning to enjoy while eating breakfast.

All of the cabins have sayings carved into their mantels: my favorite one is pictured, “Old friends are best.”

Our family combined the park visit with a stop at a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm, so now we have happy camping cabin memories and our house’s Christmas tree. Pretty good haul for a cold December weekend.

Categories
USA

Family travel to Washington DC

Washington Monument and cherry blossoms courtesy Kevglobal on Flickr

OK, the elections are over now and we can all quit bashing the nation’s capital as a cesspool of do-nothings.  Simply put, the Washington, D.C. area is chock-a-block with neat stuff to do if you travel there with kids.

To get started, there are a pile of good links put together on the Frommer’s guide to DC.

Recently, I have been impressed with a relatively new blog called The DC Traveler, written by Jon Rochetti.  There are many good ideas throughout his blog, but here are the specifically family-friendly posts. 

This is a marvelous place to visit, with plenty of efficient transportation options and many hotels with cheap rates, especially on weekends when they need to fill rooms and the government/business travelers are gone.  As long as you can hop a Metro subway or bus from your hotel, you can skip the car.

Thanks for your blog, Jon!

Update 22 December 2006:  Budget Travel Online has a list of great DC hotel deals tied to an upcoming 6-month festival celebrating Shakespeare.  There are also links for side trip ideas, like Virginia’s Northern Neck and the Shenandoah Valley.

Update 28 December 2006: A very nice New York Times overview of what Washington offers during the holiday season, including the National Christmas Tree (and fewer crowds.) 

Update 9 March 2007:  Looks like CNN Travel is predicting some amazing cherry blossom viewing this spring.

Update 5 April 2007:  Here are some great ideas from Smarter Travel about taking kids on their first visit to DC.

Technorati tags:  travel, family travel, Washington DC

Categories
USA

Biggest stuff in the U.S., in a good way.

The United States is known worldwide for BIG.  We have big cars, big trucks, big houses, big, umm, bodies. 

You can also say that we dream big, thanks to all of that wide open big space in our country.  That space is why we end up sprawling all over — because there’s room to do so!

This is all pretty overwhelming from a visitor’s perspective, but the UK’s Times Online gives a rundown of the most impressively fun big stuff in the U.S.

All of the bases are covered, from Arizona’s Grand Canyon to the MGM Grand Hotel in Vegas to Macy’s gargantuan flagship store in New York City to the massive Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

Think big.

Categories
Tips

I’m tired of ski articles; are you?

It’s pretty predictable this time of year — the travel magazines and newspaper travel sections are all filled with reports of ski resorts and ski towns and Western powder versus East Coast ice and blah, blah, blah.

Um, except I don’t ski.  Well, I took cross-country lessons once, but that’s it.  Neither of my kids is big on the sport, either, mostly because they’ve grown up in temperate climates. 

Only my Connecticut-born husband is pretty swift on skis, so what about families like us, who like the idea of all of that snow and frolic but don’t know any winter sports? 

I’ve actually answered this question before, in one of my very early posts on this blog.  Take a look at my rundown of family travel to Lillehammer, Norway, where we all found things to do besides ski.

Meantime, the UK’s Guardian Unlimited online gives us a nice article on “ski resorts for non-skiers.”  It covers mostly European destinations but does touch on Colorado. There’s another similar article in CNN Traveller here (although I don’t know about going to Beirut just now, even though it’s on their list.) I also found an all-US lineup of non-skier snowy places on a new travel site that I’ve just discovered, Tripso.com.

I’d love to get over to New Mexico from Texas; then I could visit a dear friend in Albuquerque and check out Taos.

That long underwear in my drawer needs to get some use somewhere. 

Update 11 December 2006:  Another article on non-skier winter fun is from Smarter Travel; its focus is U.S. destinations. 

Categories
Europe

London Calling….

Enjoying Covent Garden, London (Scarborough photo)Time for a quick update from the European city that Americans love to visit….London.

We went several times and really enjoyed ourselves, but you need to watch your budget. It’s tough enough for a family to deal with plane tickets, crummy exchange rates and the high cost of urban hotels, but everything in London seems to cost a fortune.

Tips for cutting costs usually include things like eating at a lot of Indian/curry joints. Now, I adore Indian food, but I’m willing to bet that a lot of American kids haven’t exactly been snarfing down the chicken tikka masala or prawn curry on a regular basis. So here’s my suggestion before you go to London — take the kids to your local Indian restaurant and help them find dishes that they like, and you’ll be all set for squeezing those food costs in Britain.

Fodor’s has a good Travel Wire overview article on London, including sights, dining and lodging and their list of 10 free things to do, plus five more inexpensive options.

Near the Westminster Abbey Bookshop, London (Scarborough photo)

Lodging is always a big chunk of the budget, and Britain is starting to develop chain hotel options that can help. Here’s the info from the UK’s Times Online. I’d love to always stay at a cozy, charming B&B that welcomes kids, but it’s hard to tell what you’re getting from across the Atlantic.

Sometimes a chain works best; there are names like Ibis in Europe that are good for families but not well known by Americans.

For discount prices to a variety of city attractions like museums, you often can’t beat city passes. The UK’s Telegraph gives links to sites that sell such passes for London and also Edinburgh, Liverpool and York.

There is a Travelcard pass for the Tube (the Underground, or subway) and bus service; we used this and it was so nice to just flash the pass and not have to fumble around for change, especially with wiggly kids.

Take a look at the London Tourist Board’s Web site for family fun in the city, and I also like the layout of the LondonTown site, which has a pdf download right now for “what’s on” for the 2006 Christmas/holiday season. Time Out London always has loads of info about what’s going on in the city.

London’s calling….you really should go!

Update 29 December 2006: From the venerable New York Times “36 Hours in….” travel series, here’s 36 Hours in London.

Update 10 January 2007: CHOW, the online foodie magazine, has some very specific suggestions for less expensive London eats.

Update 09 February 2007: More cheap eats from TimeOut London (an invaluable Web site and magazine.)

Update 27 March 2007: There are some gorgeous Will van Overbeek photos of London sights on this National Geographic Traveler blog post. I also like this video, 24 Hours in London, from the concierge.com Web site.

Technorati Tags: family travel, travel, London