Family Travel Adventures

Delicious Baby has a great page on Paris, including restaurants and things to do with kids. I look forward to checking out all that Debbie has put together.

We are planning to visit San Diego in November, and with all the fires lately, we wonder if we should be planning such a trip. However, the cooler weather seems to have helped the firefighters control the flames and it might be a good time to visit, and pump some tourist dollars back into the economy. According to the San Diego Convention and Visitor’s Bureau all attractions have been reopened and residents are returning to their homes. The site encourages us to visit San Diego, and bring our business. Guess we will do just that!

Kango has some fun ideas for places to go in San Diego, not to mention lists of Family Friendly Hotels. I will continue my search for other San Diego travel ideas, please let me know if you have any good resources.

Sometimes, when my husband and I have a chance to get away from the kids and have dinner or an evening out, we like to brainstorm possibilities for future travel. Here is what we have planned (or would love to plan for the near future):

San Diego (November 2007)
Disneyland (January 2008)
Paris (Spring Break 2008)
Iceland (August 2008) (This might be a trip just for adults!)
Costa Rica (Spring Break 2009)
Australia (August 2009)

Pretty much everywhere except Northern California where we live 🙂

Even before we had kids, my husband and I agreed that water and sun vacations were our preference. Both of us are swimmers, he was a college water polo player, and we love spending time at the beach and in the water. Therefore, when our son (also our firstborn) was old enough to let us know that he hated the water, we were shocked. What was this going to do to our beach vacations?

The first time we took our kids to Maui in 2004, it was almost a disaster – we spent the first 2/3 of our vacation alternating our time between short visits to the pool and longer excursions to the Maui Ocean Center, as our son would not even go near the real ocean or beach. On the second-to-last-day, we finally coaxed him to the sand area by Black Rock Point on Kaanapali Beach, with promises of ice cream treats and special afternoon videos. And by the last day of our vacation, we got him to sit on the edge of the beach and let the water hit his feet. Progress!

This summer’s trip to Maui turned out much better, for two reasons – we had been working hard on swim lessons and water comfort over the last several years, and, our youngest child is a water baby. Since our son is so competitive with his sister, we used that to our advantage!

Our trip this time had a completely different feel and each day was a fun new water adventure for the kids. My daughter led the way with jumping and playing in the ocean; my son soon followed. Next up was learning to snorkel and when my daughter saw a turtle on our first trip out, my son had to one-up her by snorkeling all the way around Black Rock in Kaanapali. And when the kids decided they wanted to learn to boogie board, I was elated. I even promised my son that next time we come to Maui, he can take surf lessons. Hey, maybe we will learn together!

Even though Maui is paradise, our family sometimes needs a break from all the sun and sand (and occasional rain!). On our trip this summer, we found some fun things to do in downtown Lahaina:

Spend the afternoon at the movies – Lahaina has two great movie theaters offering current blockbusters, all on Front Street – Front Street Theater and Wharf Theater

Shave Ice on Front Street (don’t say shaved ice, or worse yet, snow cones. The term is shave ice!)

Playing at Banyan Tree Park (channel your inner monkey)

Lunch at Bubba Gumps (there is more on the menu than shrimp, but why? My kids love the paddles used to call the server to your table)

Ice Cream at Lappert’s Hawaii (wonderful ice cream, including Kona Coffee, Macadamia Nut, Kauai Pie, all served with plenty of Aloha)

Nearby to Lahaina, we also like these child friendly activities:

Maui Ocean Center

‘Iao Valley State Park

I have been itching to go to Paris since our last trip in 2002, when I was pregnant with my daughter. Everything about the city makes me happy – the culture, the ambiance, the buildings, the water, the food, the chocolate, the markets, everything. And now that our kids are old enough, and our tenth anniversary is coming up, my husband and I have decided to take our family of four to Paris for spring break in 2008.

We plan to arrive by Eurostar train from London, and spend 5 nights in an apartment in the 7th near Saint Germain des Prés. A friend recommended the apartment, as she had stayed there in 2005 on her families trip to Paris. It looks great, sleeps 5, and is apparently within walking distance of wonderful food shops.

Next on the list is to figure out what to do while we are there. I was talking with a friend who lives outside of Paris and when he asked my plans, I explained that nothing had really been sorted out, except that every day I plan to eat a chocolate croissant. He sent me a couple suggestions:

Laduree has beautiful Millefeuille and Saint Honore cakes. These are the kind that I would definitely want to squirrel away from my kids and eat alone! Lenotre seems to be in several different culinary arenas – bakeries and confectioneries, gourmet stores, prepared foods, champagne and wine, etc. The website is all in French, but they include pictures which helps a lot. Yumm, salivating already!

I also read this great blog post by Clotilde Dusoulier from Chocolate & Zucchini, who wrote about L’Etoile d’Or. Her account made me breathless with anticipation. Can you imagine a shop keeper in France inviting you to come back any time and stay as long as you want? I only hope that is true when I show up with my 5 and 7 year olds!

In any case, since my focus will be so much on the food, I will be gathering other suggestions for places to go. Among several things I would like my kids to know about France is the wonderful things to come out of boulangerie and patisseries, the cheeses of all kinds (goat, milk, sheep, hard, soft, the list goes on), how to make a picnic out of small-market finds and the true cup of hot chocolate. Hope they are up for this challenge!