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50 State Series USA

Family travel in Montana

Rafting on Clarke Fork rapids, Montana (courtesy wordcat57 at Flickr CC)We took a long hiatus while I worked on my social media for tourism startup, but every week or so until we run out of states, I’ll be posting about family-friendly vacation ideas, attractions and events in each one of the US states plus the territories, taking input mostly from Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, I know how to search for travel ideas on a destination or attraction website, but a tweet or a Facebook Wall recommendation is a much more engaging and public way to spread the word.

Please don’t email suggestions to me; that’s nice but it is one-to-one communication. Tweet me and/or Facebook me, so that all of our networks can see what’s cool about your state.

We’re going in alphabetical order but started with the end, so our first state for the series was Wyoming, then we investigated Wisconsin, West Virginia,  Washington,  Virginia,  Vermont,  Utah, Texas,  Tennessee,  South Dakota,  South Carolina,  Rhode Island,  Pennsylvania,  Oregon, Oklahoma,  Ohio, North Dakota,  North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nevada, Nebraska and now we’re moving on to…Montana!

The state has a foothold on all the major social media channels: they’re on Twitter as @VisitMontana, they have a Montana tourism Facebook Page, a active Montana YouTube channel and a nice Flickr Group for Montana photos.

When I asked for Montana travel ideas, here’s what came in….

Twitter Travel Tips for Montana

***  From Lisa Bergren via @TheWorldCalls on Twitter – Bigfork is a picturesque, historic lake town with a kid-friendly Summer playhouse, condos on the bay, water sports. #Montana Also just posted a family-friendly hike in Glacier Park:  https://theworldiscalling.com/2010/05/family-hike-to-grinnell-lake

***  From Heidi O’Brien via @IKnowHelena on Twitter – A great family event in Helena, Montana – Outdoor Fest. At the bottom of this page there are some good winter family activities in Helena.

***  From Terry Starbucker via @Starbucker on Twitter – Here’s one:  Glacier National Park, Going to the Sun Road. Simply awesome. 2nd place, a boat ride on Flathead Lake… 🙂

***  From Pam Mandel via @NerdsEyeView on Twitter – Do you have the totally fab Red Bus Tour in Glacier National Park?

***  From Framework Meetings via @frameworkmtgs on Twitter – Lots of Montana fun for families at https://bit.ly/cvGAsn and https://bit.ly/9NLt1 (it’s on its own island!)

***  From Stacy via @happilylost on Twitter – Glacier National Park. Super family friendly and gorgeous!

****  From Jessica Downing via @jessdowning on Twitter – Check @skiwhitefish for alpine slides, zip lines & affordable lodging close to Glacier in MT!

***  From Marci Diehl via @writerdiehl on Twitter – We loved Whitefish, MT & their open air crafts market. The Walk In the Cedars at Glacier Nat’l Park was easy for our 3 yr old.

Facebook Travel Tips for Montana

***  From Lanora Mueller on Facebook – Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in Anaconda, Montana, is a great place for families with kids. We stayed in a friend’s timeshare there when my daughter was about 11. The hot spring pools are open 24 hours for guests, and there’s a waterslide for a bit of extra excitement.

There are many nearby educational activities too. We did a tour of Butte, including the wonderful old homes of the copper barons, the Mineral Museum at Montana Tech, the World Museum of Mining, and the Berkeley Pit. On Main Street in Philipsburg, we panned for sapphires and watched taffy being made.

We also did a fair amount of hiking and fishing. It was a memorable family trip. I have a little article on Suite101 about the resort: https://montana-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/soak_your_cares_away_in_fairmont_hot_springs

*** From (Navy doctor and old friend of mine, now in Afghanistan) Tim Quast on Facebook – Sheila – never actually been here, but it’s on my list of places to visit. Renting a caboose on the periphery of Glacier National Park at the Izaak Walton Inn. https://www.izaakwaltoninn.com. One day, I’ll get there, either in summer or for cross country skiing in the winter.

Thanks so much for the contributions, everyone!

The BootsnAll Travel Network has some Montana travel articles as well.

The next state in the series is Missouri.

Send your Missouri highlights to @SheilaS on Twitter or write them on my Facebook Wall (please tell me you’re a 50 state-er if you want to friend me.)

My purpose for this series is not only to highlight worthy kid-friendly vacation destinations in all 50 states, but by using Twitter and Facebook I want to also encourage tourism organizations to learn more about connecting with their visitors using social media and online networks.

Please add your own Montana suggestions in the comments below, if we’ve missed anything. Thanks!

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50 State Series USA

Family travel in Missouri

Kids at the Gateway Arch, St Louis MO (courtesy Wendy Piersall at Flickr CC)Every week or so until we run out of states, I’ll be posting about family-friendly vacation ideas, attractions and events in each one of the US states plus the territories, taking input mostly from Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, I know how to search for travel ideas on a destination or attraction website, but a tweet or a Facebook Wall recommendation is a much more engaging and public way to spread the word.

Please don’t email suggestions to me; that’s nice but it is one-to-one communication. Tweet me and/or Facebook me, so that all of our networks can see what’s cool about your state.

We’re going in alphabetical order but started with the end, so our first state for the series was Wyoming, then we investigated Wisconsin, West Virginia,  Washington,  Virginia,  Vermont,  Utah, Texas,  Tennessee,  South Dakota,  South Carolina,  Rhode Island,  Pennsylvania,  Oregon, Oklahoma,  Ohio, North Dakota,  North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana and now we’re moving on to…Missouri!

The state is busy on all the major social media channels: they have multiple fun and engaging Twitter voices including @VisitMissouri plus @MoTravelMama, @MOTravelGuy, @MOPhotoGirl, @KatiesTrail, @MissMOitAll (awesome name!) and fishing updates from @VisitMOFish.  There is a Missouri tourism Facebook Page, a nice blog called The VisitMO Bistro and plenty of photos in @MOPhotoGirl’s  Missouri Flickr pool.

When I asked for Missouri travel ideas, here’s what came in….

Twitter Travel Tips for Missouri

***  From Sarah V. via @Wandering_Off on Twitter – I’m originally from MO! Columbia is a great college town.  St. Louis Zoo is phenomenal & free. Also, STL art museum.

***  From Sharlene via @DoubleAdventure on Twitter – Loved Main Street in St Charles when I was there earlier this month. And of course the arch.

***  From MoTravelMama via @MoTravelMama on Twitter – St. Louis offers many free attractions in Forest Park including an amazing zoo, history and art museum and science center. Kansas City also has a lot of free attractions: Money Museum, Kaleidoscope, Hallmark Visitors Center, great shopping and food. Branson ideas: Dixie Stampede, Silver Dollar City, Acrobats of China, Butterfly Palace, Titanic & Branson Landing, perfect for fams. Hannibal is a great family town. 4th of July is a great time there, Mark Twain Cave, Paddle Boat, Twain Home & downtown shopping.

(Can you tell she’s the Director of Communications for Missouri tourism?)

(cont.) Lake of the Ozarks has great family resorts, indoor/outdoor waterparks, shopping, water sports, mini golf and go-karts, and more! Jefferson City is has the State Capitol Building with museum, historic prison tour, Central Dairy Ice Cream, conservation center. St. Joseph is full of historical treasures. Pony Express , Patee House, Jesse James Home, Glore Psychiatric & Black Archive Museum. Hwy. 36 is the Way of American Genius. Disney, JC Penney, John Pershing, Mark Twain, Jesse James all lived along this highway. Springfield has a great Discovery Center, Jump Mania, Dickerson Park Zoo, Fantastic Caverns, Candy House & many historic theaters.

***  From Miss Dazey via @Miss_Dazey on Twitter – George Washington Carver National Park….families can learn history, explore science, hike and much more  https://nps.gov/gwca/index.htm Precious Moments Chapel, Carthage, MO  (town is neat too)  https://preciousmoments.com/content.cfm/park_chapel

***  From MASchweers via @MASchweers on Twitter – in St Louis – the Steam Ship Arabia…rather interesting.

***  From Andrea Torres via @AustinAndrea on Twitter – Never been, but my Missouri friends all reminisce about Silver Dollar City in Branson.

***  From Jared James via @count_01 on Twitter – Consider Elephant Rocks State Park, down in southeast MO, not too far from Ste Genevieve, which is itself worthy of mention.

***  From Allie Dillon via @AllieDillon on Twitter – Powell Gardens, 30m east of KC, MO on Hwy50. “Great place to grow family memories.” My sister loves this place. @powellgardens

***  From St. Joseph, Missouri via @StJoMo on Twitter – Visit the Pony Express Museum; all exhibits kid friendly including Play Area just for kids. www.ponyexpress.org St. Jo (MO) boasts 13 museums & 50+ listings on Nat’l Register of Historic Places (2000+properties) https://dld.bz/eQ6s This summer cool down at the St. Joseph Aquatic Park: enclosed water slides, lazy river & zero degree entry https://bit.ly/bFE4te Help celebrate the opening & dedication of the four-lane US Hwy 36 across the State of Missouri https://bit.ly/ddNGGL Remington Nature Center sits on the banks of the Mighty MO. Lots of kid-friendly attractions and activities https://bit.ly/cbOLlt

***  From Matt Flener via @mattflener on Twitter – Try fitz’s root beer in st. louis…great root beer fun! https://www.fitzsrootbeer.com Also if you like outdoor adventures…try devil’s ice box in columbia, mo https://www.mostateparks.com/rockbridge/cave.htm

***  From Mike via @VistaVision on Twitter – Kids like Lambert’s Cafe, Sikeston, Mo., where they throw much of the meal at you. https://bit.ly/aZ8G9r

***  From Jacqueline Conrad via @jhandleyconrad on Twitter – St Louis Zoo (excellent, well known and free,) Cardinal Baseball Game, Grants Farm, Lake of the Ozarks (huge,beautiful lake with tons to do.)

Facebook Travel Tips for Missouri

***  From Dara Quackenbush on Facebook – Visit Chillicothe, the home of sliced bread. While you’re there, go to the Hy-Vee and get a tenderloin sandwich. Evidently, it’s THE thing to do. 😉

***  From Jen Miner on Facebook – Kansas City! The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

***  From Michel Hudson on Facebook – The University of Missouri in Columbia has a bunch of museums with a wide variety of things – all for free admission. Here’s a link to a page with current info: https://mizzouwire.missouri.edu/stories/2010/summer-fun/index Oh, and the Buck’s Ice Cream mentioned on that page is REALLY good – made on campus by one of their colleges.

***  From Todd Randall Jordan on Facebook – Missouri History Museum has large schedule of events – https://www.stlouiskidsmagazine.com/story/ice-cream-and-other-stories-history-museum

Get the Scoop: July 16 and 17 – Did you know the ice cream cone has a connection to 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis? Come learn about the history of this delicious dessert.

Aunt Katie’s Visit: July 23 and 24 – In 1990, local author Katie Rodriguez Banister survived an auto accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, she will read her book Aunt Katie’s Visit. She will also demonstrate some assistive technology.

Backyard Buddies: July 30 and 31– Listen to the adventures of the critters found in your own backyard.

And more throughout August.  ‎

Thanks so much for the contributions, everyone!

The BootsnAll Travel Network has some Missouri travel articles as well.

The next state in the series is Mississippi.

Send your Mississippi highlights to @SheilaS on Twitter or write them on my Facebook Wall (please tell me you’re a 50 state-er if you want to friend me.)

My purpose for this series is not only to highlight worthy kid-friendly vacation destinations in all 50 states, but by using Twitter and Facebook I want to also encourage tourism organizations to learn more about connecting with their visitors using social media and online networks.

Please add your own Missouri suggestions in the comments below, if we’ve missed anything. Thanks!

Categories
Hawaii USA

For Oahu and Maui travel tips, say Aloha to local bloggers

@ParkRat at Waiola Shave Ice, Honolulu, HawaiiFor tips and insights into Hawaii with keiki (kids) you can look at the visitor’s website for Hawaii, but also consider some kamaaina local bloggers who live right there in the islands with their families.

We met many of them during the So Much More Hawaii bloggers tour, when they served as our hosts and guides.

**  Oahu – we spent a memorable day in and around Honolulu with Russ the ParkRat, who writes ParkRat’s Playground. He took us to eat chilly delights at Waiola Shave Ice, we all toured the USS ARIZONA Memorial and we spent the evening at the beach crabbing with him and his kids by flashlight.

He also spends a lot of time thinking about food (a man after my own heart) so he and I both like Melissa and her Urban Mix Plate blog. So ono! Liza, author of A Maui Blog, and my son

**  Maui – Liza authors A Maui Blog, and she and her family were fantastic hosts.

They took us all around the island, including a drive up the Haleakala volcano (ooh, silverswords) a scrumptuous meal at the Paia Fish Market (where my picky son actually ate seafood,) a delightful afternoon at the Maui Ocean Center and then some boogie-boarding and bodysurfing at the neighborhood beach.

You can also read Nathan Kam’s Kam Family Blog, Homespun Honolulu and watch videos on Beach Walks with Rox.

For more local flavor, turn to Alltop’s list of Hawaii blogs.

Categories
Texas USA

Peek behind the scenes with stingrays at SeaWorld

SeaWorld San Antonio shark mouth demo during a tour (photo by Sheila Scarborough)Breaking news….

….stingrays have very soft little vacuum-cleaner mouths.

I know this because when SeaWorld San Antonio hosted a group of Texas-based bloggers this past week, they took many of us on one of their educational tours (available to any visitor) to see some of the working areas of the park.

One stop included a small tank of young stingrays, and boy, do they like to eat!

Here’s a two-minute video with me, my son and one of our blogger group (Kristi and her family from Frugally Thrifty) perfecting our stingray feeding techniques. It was like being brushed with a cotton boll when they sucked the fresh fish bits from between our fingers.

Nope, no one was poked by any barbed tails.

Thanks, SeaWorld San Antonio and the San Antonio CVB, for hosting us!

Here’s the direct link to the stingray video on YouTube, if you can’t see the video box below:

Categories
Blog

Getting serious about your blog? I can help

Join Me!

For those of my readers who are interested in really ramping up their own blogging skills, I’ll be participating in a Webinar next week called the Girlfriend’s Guide to the Business of Blogging.

(After blogging about family travel for almost four years here, you know I have stuff to talk about! Conference organizer Debbie Lawrence saw me on Twitter – where I can’t shut up either – and was kind enough to invite me to speak.)

Continue reading “Getting serious about your blog? I can help”
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Blog Philosophy

Thinking about blog rank and whether I’m phoning it in

Phoning it in (courtesy Thunderchild tm at Flickr CC)Thanks to Wendy Perrin of the PerrinPost, I found this Invesp Consulting list of travel blogs broken out by various measurements: Google PageRank, number of inbound links, number of RSS subscribers,  number of unique visitors per month, etc.

Now, normally I try not to pay too much attention to such lists.  They often compare a one-woman show like mine to wide-ranging, multi-author efforts like World Hum, and there’s no way that I can match a gargantuan site when it comes to some measurement metrics.

On the other hand, seeing the Family Travel Logue floating around in the #40 – #60 range (for most metrics) was rather depressing for me, I’ll admit, considering that I’ve been writing here since February 2006 and have some nice recent kudos in addition to past recognition in the UK’s Guardian, the Telegraph and Real Simple magazine.

I lost some Google search engine placement/authority last summer when we shifted the blog to this URL, but we’re talking almost a year ago now, so that’s like claiming you’re fat because you had a baby, but the baby’s now 9 years old (like, ahem, my son. Hey, the baby excuse can no longer explain wearing “fat jeans” all the time.)

Continue reading “Thinking about blog rank and whether I’m phoning it in”
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Blog Tips

News and kudos for Family Travel Logue

Yay, life! (courtesy TheDreamSky on Flickr CC)First, a big, pink-cheeked, awww-shucks Thank You to Tripbase.

They kindly included this blog in their carefully-selected list of Top 10 Family Travel blogs.

What an unexpected surprise.

The Tripbase folks said,

“We look for bloggers with original destination, travel and activity ideas who can also give good advice on vacation planning and organising. The idea is that the blog is interesting, even humorous, without compromising on utility.”

I am honored to be included in such esteemed company as Delicious Baby, the rollicking Traveling Mamas, Europe-based SoulTravelers3, the Mother of All Trips and many others who I know and admire either online or IRL (in real life!)

There are other Tripbase Travel Blog Award categories too, so take a look….

In other news, I’m also excited to be included in a new project by the travel research site UpTake and Tips from the T-List:  it’s the Travel Insights 100.

Continue reading “News and kudos for Family Travel Logue”
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Europe

Tips roundup for the Netherlands

Dutch footie (soccer) fans, actually taken in Stuttgart, Germany (courtesy Dan Kamminga at Flickr CC)I recently had a request on my Facebook page for Netherlands vacation travel tips with kids….

“I came across your bio randomly as I was trying to plan a trip to the Netherlands at the end of August. I have three kids–16,12, and 8.

What kind of suggestions can you offer me for my travel plans? Any must-see places, any off the beaten path surprises–the kids have gotten rather fond of my penchant for doing that kind of stuff. Thanks for whatever help you can offer.”

Once I responded, I thought that I might as well put the same information here that I gave to him:

I haven’t been to the Netherlands in a few years, but we lived in the southern part of the country, down near Maastricht, which is easy to get to by train or car.  Ryanair flies into Eindhoven, too. This Zuid-Limburg “Dutch Alps” area is very pretty (its caves are cool – Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” was hidden in local caves during World War II) and the pace is slower, so it’s great for families.

Look for the VVV (Vereniging voor Vreemdelingenverkeer, the Dutch tourism agency) signs in each town or city – they usually have English-speaking tourism experts and printed guides in English. You’ll pay a few euros for printed information; they aren’t as big on freebie handouts as American tourism offices.  Some would say that’s just the thrifty ways of the Dutch.

Ride bikes whenever you can, even if it’s just hotel-provided clunkers around town – it adds a whole new dimension to your travels to get around as the Dutch do.  I often tell people about seeing a young couple on bikes in Amsterdam, holding hands and talking on cell phones at the same time….yes, no one was touching any handlebars!  Not recommended for your children to try, of course.

Our favorite guidebook was Here’s Holland by Sheila Gazaleh-Weevers . Its level of detail makes it well worth trying to find a copy.

Amsterdam – love it – there’s the BootsnAll Amsterdam Logue, plus an older post of mine, Travel with kids to Amsterdam.

Waddenzee Islands are great for families – we visited Texel and Terschelling for some serene beach time, wide open spaces and seafaring heritage.

Continue reading “Tips roundup for the Netherlands”
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Blog

Blogtipping July 2007

Do You Blogtip? courtesy Business Blogwire

Taa-daah! 

I usually never remember that the first of every month is the traditional day for blogtipping (sort of like Web 2.0 cowtipping) but with a Yahoo! calendar email reminder, a thwack with a two-by-four and some other mental pokes, here I am to join the monthly crowd. 

There’s sort of a standard format to these and I never follow it, but no one seems to mind….

This month, I want to highlight three new “old media” travel blogs, just to show that there are no hard feelings from my own recent corporate blogging experience.

1)  The Travel Log blog for the Washington Post travel section.  Team-written by section editors, it has very active comments sections written by experienced, articulate travelers, but I’d like to see more comment responses back from the writers for a better conversation. The recent series on wedding and honeymoon travel was fun to read, and reminded me that the best weddings aren’t necessarily angst-filled expensive blow-outs.

2)  This Just In…. blog from Budget Travel.  These guys cast a wide net and usually update multiple times daily.  I’ve learned about all sorts of new or lesser-known blogs and travel sites, plus late-breaking news like J.K. Rowling’s three-stop book tour in the U.S. in October 2007, which has already inspired me to figure out how to take my teenage daughter to New Orleans (it’s the closest city to our home in Texas) to see the Harry Potter creator.  I don’t even have to stray too far to get the lowdown on New Orleans; just click over to this article on Budget Travel Online.  These guys have blogging nailed, and they twist into creative pretzels to make just about anything travel-related.

3)  The Taking Off blog from the Chicago Tribune travel section.  Like the WaPo blog, it is team-written, and the writers do try to engage the audience.  Comments are starting to increase, but not to the level of the Post, although a post about kids and flying brought out the usual vituperative anti-child commentary.  Fairly frequent updates, with a Midwestern travel slant (the trans fat-free Indiana State Fair, for example. Who knew?) In an effort to engage readers at the start, there is a 50-day “What state are you in?” road trip challenge. There are some design issues to fix; there’s no way to go to “Previous Entries” at the bottom of the blog front page — you have to go look in the archives.  Comment hot links often show the person’s email, not their blog or Web site URL, which seems like a privacy problem. 

In these days of sometimes forcing journalists to work online, without a commensurate pay raise for the added work, it’s nice to see the newspaper travel sections making an effort (and having some fun with it, if the good-naturedly goofy photos of the Chicago Tribune editors are any indication.) 

Too much travel info is stale by the time it hits the printed street, and blogging allows a good flow of hot topics and info online to complement the in-depth, less-hurried features in print.  It also lets the cash-strapped newspaper travel sections add value to their product and connect with more readers without spending a bunch of money.

Happy Blogtipping Day!

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, blogtipping, blogging, blogs 

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Blog

Farewell to Kid Trippin’

Nobody said that the writer’s life is a secure one, but then neither is life in Corporate Land these days.

As of this month, my family travel blog Kid Trippin’ (for Disney’s Family.com Web site) is on indefinite hiatus.  I enjoyed working with my editors, who were professional enough to call me personally and explain that there was not a problem with me or my writing, just that the company is taking a pause to sort out where they want to take the site and the online presence that they want to build.

It’s frustrating to create a blog from the ground up and then have it shut down, and frankly it was the first really decent blogging money that I’ve made, but I’m OK with it as long as the issue is not my work.  Blogs and sites are not a “build it and they’ll come” proposition — you have to market and work RSS feeds and a host of other things in addition to the obvious requirement to write good content.  I took care of content and made suggestions in the other areas, but that’s the downside to corporate blogging; a lot of things are out of the writer’s control. 

By the way, interested in blog promotion?  Check out Successful Blog’s 20 Blog Promotion Guides to Inform Your Strategy.  Thanks for the helpful info, Liz Strauss!  Good online marketing ideas are also easy to find on Wendy Piersall’s Inspired Business Growth blog for Entrepreneur.com.

We’re at an interesting point in the business blogging continuum and the development and growth of online media.  Some things will work and some won’t.  I don’t like being associated roadkill 🙂 but I certainly understand it.

R.I.P., Kid Trippin’ and all the other bloggers out there who are with me on the Web 2.0 wave, rough as it may be.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, blogging, blogs