Vacation Reviews

Illinois State Fair

2008-03-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Illinois State Fair

Springfield Illinois

My husband and I spent the day at the Illinois State Fair, back in the day when we were still dating. The Illinois State Fair is basically an average fair, but on a bigger scale. The Illinois State Fair takes place for 10 days in the beginning to middle of August. It is located in Springfield Illinois at the Illinois Fairgrounds. The fairgrounds are located 2 miles from I-55's Sangamon exit. Admission for adults and 13 years and older is $3. Kids 12 and younger are free and seniors 60 years and older are $2. You will need to pay to park and that is usually about $7. Bring a good amount of money with you to spend at the numerous food booths and to purchase tickets for rides, shows, and the other countless stuff you may buy. There are stroller and wheelchair rentals. Definitely bring your stroller if you have a small child. It is not only a good place for your child to rest, but is a convenient place to stash all your belongings. There is lots to do and see at the Illinois State Fair. There is a sky ride, carnival rides, agricultural and livestock exhibits, entertainment, horse races and shows, beer tents, tractor pulls, automotive races, concerts, and kids activities. Before you go to the fair, check out the schedule of events before you go, so that you can plan ahead which day and time is the best for you to visit. When we went we to the fair we grabbed a hotel room near the Springfield area to stay at overnight. I would recommend researching the area ahead of time and making a reservation, whether it is a hotel or campground, so that you are guaranteed a place to stay. Lastly, make sure that you dress for the weather. It is usually hot in Illinois in August. Also don't forget your sunscreen and drink plenty of water.

http://www.illinoisstatefair.info/

Lincoln Park Zoo

2008-03-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Park Zoo

Chicago Illinois

If you are visiting downtown Chicago, Lincoln Park Zoo is a great place to go. My husband and I went a couple times before we had kids and we used to enjoy it, especially in the summer. What's great about Lincoln Park Zoo is that you forget you are in the big, busy city of Chicago. It is pretty cool to have all these exotic animals living within a city. The other cool thing about Lincoln Park Zoo is that it is open year round and is FREE! Yes, it is free to get into the zoo. You will have to pay to park your car, but that isn't a big deal when you know you can spend the day at the zoo for free. If you park in the zoo's parking lot you will pay up to $24, depending on how many hours you park. Whenever we have gone to the zoo, we were never able to find a parking spot in the parking lot. You may have to park elsewhere, in another lot or feed the meter along the street. You may spend some time driving around for a spot. Just stay relaxed, that is how things are in Chicago. You can also choose to take public transportation or a taxi around the city. Lincoln Park Zoo is located off Lake Shore Drive at the Fullerton Parkway Exit. It is just minutes North of downtown Chicago.

There are lots of exhibits at Lincoln Zoo, which is so nice to find in a large city. There is an African Journey exhibit, several types of bears (I love the polar bear that you can view swimming,)

a bird house, birds of prey exhibit, penguin and seabird house, primate house, lion house, sea lion pool, family children's zoo, small mammal/reptile house, swan pond, flamingo habitat, antelope & zebra area, and a farm in the zoo that is really fun.

The newest addition to the zoo is the $26 million center For African Apes building. This new building has 29,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space for the zoo's apes. Beside having a fabulous space to show of the zoo's apes and gorillas, there are bamboo stands, trees, 5,000 feet of vines for the apes to swing on, skylights, termite mounds for chimpanzee "fishing," a waterfall, moat, heated logs, and fresh air. Throughout the year the zoo also offers special events.

Within the zoo there are also some additional rides and attractions that do cost extra. There is a carousel that has 48 wooden animals on it that are made up of rare and endangered animals. It is $2.50 per ride. There are also paddle boats that you can rent so that you can enjoy a float on the lagoon. There is also an African Safari Simulator Ride and a children's train ride.

There are quite a few options of places to purchase food throughout the zoo. The Park Place Cafe' is the zoo's year round food court. There are also seasonal restaurant locations, which are the Big Cat's Cafe', Cafe' Brauer, Landmark Cafe', and the Safari Cafe'. You can also bring your own food or have a picnic. One time my husband and I brought our little grill and had a picnic next to the zoo's lagoon. Furthermore, if you want to eat before or after your visit to the zoo you can choose to eat at any of the great restaurants throughout the city of Chicago. There are also several zoo shops that you can shop at for souvenirs.

For you convenience, the zoo offers a first aid station, security, a lost & found, stroller and wheelchair rentals, lockers, and an ATM.

Lincoln Park Zoo is a great zoo to visit, for adults and children. If you don't want to drive all the way into downtown Chicago, you can instead visit Brookfield Zoo. Brookfield Zoo is located in the suburb Riverside/Brookfield. Brookfield Zoo is bigger and you will have to pay for admittance and parking.

http://www.lpz.com/

Key Lime Cove

2008-03-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

Key Lime Cove

Illinois

Our family visited the brand new Key Lime Cove resort and water park in Gurnee Illinois for one night in March of 2008. This resort just opened in the past month and we thought we would try it out over spring break. Key Lime Cove is in Gurnee Illinois and is right next to Six Flags Great America and across the highway from Gurnee Mills Shopping Mall. It is located between Chicago and Milwaukee. It is one hour from both cities. Since it is located 3 hours away from the Wisconsin Dells, Key Lime Cove is being advertised in Illinois as an alternative to traveling to the Wisconsin Dells.

Key Lime Cove is not opened to the public, so you must stay as a guest in the hotel to use the indoor water park. You can visit the restaurants and other areas of the resort if you are not staying in the hotel. We were staying there on Easter weekend during spring break, so the resort was crowded. The check in line was kind of long when I went to check in, although there were lots of front desk people and the process went fairly quickly. When we were leaving the resort, the check in line was huge and almost flowing out the front door. The staff was giving people drinks and appetizers as they were waiting in line. Key Lime Cove is a keyless and cashless water park. This was new to us and we liked it. Your wristband that they gave you had a computer chip in it. To open your hotel room door you just waved your wristband in front of the senor on the door to unlock it. This was very nice, because you did not have to carry around a room key. You could also have your wristband activated so that you could charge stuff to your room account. This was nice, because you did not have to carry cash around with you. You could charge food on it and make purchases at the shops and arcade with it. When checking in I assumed my wristband was already activated. They didn't ask me when I checked in if I wanted it activated. I later found out my wristband wasn't activated, so I had to later go to the front desk to have them activate it.

I loved the decorating in Key Lime Cove. The theme is Key West/Key Largo/Jimmy Buffet atmosphere. The lobby is active and you feet like you are walking into a party atmosphere on a Caribbean boardwalk.

I really loved all the colors of paint that is used throughout the resort and in the hotel rooms. The bright Caribbean colors of yellows, pinks, greens, aqua blues, and corals made me feel so happy. I almost wanted to run home and paint the walls in my house those colors.

We happened to get a room in the Key West Section that was very close to the elevators and lobby area. It was nice because we didn't have a long walk to get anywhere. Since the resort is brand new, the room was super clean and fresh. Our room had two double beds, a sleeper sofa, coffee table, table and chair set, flat screen TV, classy white furniture, and a bathroom. We were in a handicapped accessible room, so I am sure there were a few aspects of our room that were different from a regular room.

The indoor water park was very nice. It is 65,000 square feet. There are two or three expansion projects that are planned for the future of Key Lime Cove. Therefore, the current indoor water park is the "starter" version. The water park was crowded when we were there. There was a lot of seating. Although, it was hard to find a spot to put our stuff. Once Key Lime grows and expands, it will become bigger and roomier. This is how all the big resorts start out and then they eventually expand and become so much more accommodating. We did enjoy the Key Lime Cove water park and our kids ages 6 1/2, 4, and 21 months had a great time. The water park provides towels and you can get a life jacket for your child if you want. The water park includes a wave pool, although the waves are the weaker variety. There are two body slides, 2 tube slides where you can slide single or double, a hurricane vortex (which our family calls the toilet bowl) where you shoot down a steep slide and spin around a circular bowl until you slide out the bottom.

All of the larger slides are accessed by one stairway. The only bad things is that there are not roped off lanes on the stairway to separate the lines for the different slides. Sometimes it was confusing which line you were standing in. On the hurricane vortex slide, they are going to have a camera that takes your picture on the slide. You are going to be able to scan your wristband at the top of the slide and then it takes and registers your picture on the water slide. You can then view it on a computer screen. There is a good lazy river that is a nice length and you don't get splashed much. There is a big interactive play structure with slides and a dump bucket. Some interactive play structures you can avoid getting soaked, but not this one. This one is super wet and you can't avoid the dumping water and the splashes. There is one large hot tub and the water is luke warm so that kids can go in it. There is also a Lil Limers Play Pond that has three small kiddie slides. There is a short, very slow baby slide and a curved small slide. There is also a super wide kids slide where several kids can go down it at once and the kids don't have to wait in line. This is a nice area for little kids. It is also nice that this area has a gate around it, so your kids can't suddenly escape and run away from you.

In the back of the water park there is an activity pool with basketball hoops.

I was impressed by the Key Lime Cove lifeguards. They all seemed well trained and attentive. The lifeguards had a system that when something happened one guard would whistle and then all the guards whistled and pointed in the direction of the guard that needed help. While we were there are girl fell and apparently hit her head or hurt her neck. All the guards whistled and pointed and they had everyone out of the water and the rides shut down immediately. They cleared everysone away from the injured girl and her family, held the girls neck to keep it immobile, had the mom filling out the incident report, and had the ambulance there to take her away within a few minutes.

Key Lime Cove has a large arcade. There are lots of games to choose from and the games are spread out so that you don't feel crowded. Some of the games were expensive, such as two tokens for a kiddie game. We had fun there and won lots of tickets. The prizes were decent. There is nice seating around the perimeter of the arcade. There are colorful picnic tables and cute little kids seating. Key Lime Cove also has a spa, although I did not go there.

Key Lime Cove is a resort where they make it so that you never have to leave the resort once you get there. Everything you need is right there, which is good for you and all your money is spent at the resort, which is good for the resort. Key Lime Cove has lots of dining options. We liked the Crazy Toucan Margarita Grill, which was located in the main lobby by the front door. They serve food, cocktails, appetizers, the basic kid menu, and there is live music in the evenings. My husband and I had the best chicken sandwich ever here. It was a tender chicken breast with a tropical salsa on it on a super soft and yummy bun. They also served things such as fish tacos and peel and eat shrimp. We also ate at D.W. Anderson's Eatery & Ice Cream Parlor. This place is down by the arcade and is an old fashioned soda fountain setting. There is lots of seating in the restaurant and they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There is an extensive ice cream menu, although it wasn't the most fabulous ice cream creations I have ever had. They also had a basic menu of hamburgers, sandwiches, and salads and soup. There was a basic kids menu. We like the food at the Margarita Grill better. On the other side of the arcade there is also two concession food stands where you can walk up and get food. There is Anna Covy's Pizzeria where you can get pizza and there is Hot Diggety Dawg's where you can get hot dogs, burgers, Italian beef, shakes, brats, and fries. Inside the water park there is also a concession area called Sharky's Big Bites. They served snacks and drinks. In the lobby of the hotel there is a grab and go area called Island Temptations. You can purchase candy, huge bakery items, beverages, coffees, hot chocolate, breakfast bars and cereals, and packaged fruit and yogurt. For breakfast we purchased some stuff from here.

There are also several stores within Key Lime Cove. There is Island Hoppers Outfitters which sells Key Lime Cove apparel and collectibles. Outside the water park there is Leapin Lizards' where there is daily activities and crafts for the kids. Our kids went in there to draw and color. While we were in there a wandering magician came by and did some magic tricks that our kids thought was very funny. There is also a gift shop in Leapin Lizards' that sells toys and kids items. In the lobby there is LuLu's Beach Shop that sells swimwear items. There is also a Mangrove Jack's 24 Hour Trading Post. This is a convenience store that sells snacks, drinks, small toys, and other essentials you may need or have forgotten to bring with you. Lastly, there is Pinki's Pet Palace which is a very small version of a Build A Bear Workshop. Here you can stuff your own teddy bear.

We had a good time at Key Lime Cove. We enjoyed the water park, although I will be interested in going back after they expand it and add more to the water park. We liked the hotel itself and loved the atmosphere. The room was lovely and we liked the entertainment, arcade, and the numerous restaurants. I would recommend this resort. It is pricey, but remember the price includes not only the room, but your water park passes. To save money for food, you can bring your own food to have in your room. The room has a fridge, but not microwave like some of the resorts do in the Wisconsin Dells. Key Lime Cove is a good choice if you live in Illinois and don't want to drive or spend the money on gas to get to the Wisconsin Dells.

http://www.keylimecove.com/

Country Springs Hotel

2008-03-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Country Springs Hotel

In Pewaukee Wisconsin

(By Miwaukee)

Our family stayed at the Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee Wisconsin for one night on March 22, 2008. We were supposed to stay two nights, but due to a snow storm we delayed our getaway and only went for one night. My husband and I and our three kids ages 6 1/2, 4, and 21 months went. The Country Springs Hotel is located in Pewaukee Wisconsin, but you will find it also advertised on the Internet as being located in Waukesha and Milwaukee. The hotel is actually 18 miles from Milwaukee and 75 miles from Madison Wisconsin.
The Country Springs Hotel was very nice. It is an older hotel, but has had lots of updating and expansions. The main reason we decided to try this hotel was because of the 45,000 square foot indoor water park that is attached to the hotel. The water park is also open to the public, so there is a second entrance for the public, along with the attached entrance to the hotel. Right outside the water park there were locker rooms, rest rooms, and two private birthday party rooms for people to reserve. The water park was nice. It is not as expansive as the huge resorts in the Wisconsin Dells, but it was definitely not small either. Inside the water park there was a 3 person water slide where 3 people could sit together in an inflatable boat to go down the slide. There was a raft elevator, so that you didn't have to carry the raft up the stairs with you. There was also a regular tube slide where you could slide down in a single or a double double tube and a body slide. Furthermore, there was a small lazy river, an interactive play area with smaller slides, a floating monkey bar area, and an activity swimming pool with basketball hoops. We enjoyed the water park. In the center of the hotel there is also another indoor pool in a dome that used to be the original indoor pool of the hotel. We checked it out, but didn't go swimming there. There was seating and tables throughout the water park. It was kind of hard to find a place to set our stuff, but it didn't ruin our time. The water park could use more seating, although I don't know how much more they could have fit in the area.
Outside the water park there is also an arcade. The arcade was OK and the kids liked it. Although, it wasn't the best arcade we had ever been to.
The room that we stayed in was in the newer, remodeled section towards the rear of the hotel. Our room was actually nice. Even thought the room had been updated and remodeled, there were a few older elements left in the room, but it was still nice. We had a one room suite. There were two double beds, a sofa sleeper couch, a desk, a wall entertainment center with a TV, a little bar area with sink, fridge, and storage shelving. The bathroom was very big. There were two double sinks, a big whirl pool tube, a TV and phone in the bathroom, separate stand up shower unit, and a separate toilet room. The flooring and counter tops were marble. I was glad I brought my own hair dryer, though. The bathroom had one of those old fashioned vacuum cleaner hose type hair dryers. What's with that? All hotels that have those should dispose of those immediately. Although, it did dry up the wet spots on my son's shirt when I later had to clean toothpaste splatters off his shirt.
The hotel had two restaurants. One restaurant was called Wildflowers and served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The other restaurant was an English pub and mainly was a bar that served some food. The Country Springs Hotel also had free continental breakfast in the mornings. We did not eat at the restaurants and we didn't get to try the complimentary breakfast. We were scheduled to meet family for Easter brunch somewhere else. My husband did run down to the continental breakfast to grab some milk for our youngest and some bakery items to hold the kids hunger off until we got to our Easter brunch we were going to.
The Country Springs Hotel also was a conference center. While we were there we saw a small wedding reception that was going on.
The Country Springs Hotel was very nice. I would go back there if I was in the area. The hotel was satisfactory and the water park was nice. I would consider this water park medium sized. I wouldn't call it small, although it is not nearly as big as the huge water parks in the Wisconsin Dells. This water park is good for younger children. If you have older children who like the bigger, faster water slide and are looking for thrills, then this water park might not be what you're looking for. The size of this water park was nice, because you could keep your eyes on your kids easily and not lose them like you could in a gigantic water park.

http://www.countryspringshotel.com/

Chicago Illinois

2008-03-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

Chicago Illinois

Since my husband and I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, we have spent a lot of time in Chicago and have visited many of the well known sights throughout our lives. Chicago is a great city to visit for a day trip, weekend getaway, or a longer stay. You can visit Chicago during any time of the year, although going when the weather is comfortable to walk around the city is a plus. Here is my list of fun things to do in the city.

Navy Pier is a popular place where there is usually a lot going on. There is a 150 foot-high ferris wheel, some other rides, dining, shopping, boat tours, free performances, and in the summer there is fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday night.

Millennium Park is right downtown and has an outdoor skating rink in the winter. You can ice skate while being surrounded by the cities skyscrapers.

Lincoln Park Zoo is nice to go to, especially if you have kids. The zoo is absolutely free, which is great. There are plenty of animals to see and it is nice to bring a picnic to have there.

You can go up, up, up, up and up to the observation decks of the Sears Tower or the John Hancock Building. View the city from the top obervation decks. The John Hancock Building elevator ride is actually wilder, even though it is not as tall as the Sears Tower.

Chicago Children's Museum is located at Navy Pier. It is a large children museum and all kids like it. It can get really busy and you do stay very busy keeping your eyes on your children and chasing them around.

IMAX Theatre- There is an IMAX Theatre at Navy Pier. Sometimes there are good shows playing.

Chicago Lake Front- There is 29 miles of paved walking, jogging, and biking paths along the Lake Michigan Lakefront. Great scenery.

Adler Planetarium- You can go here for the planetarium shows and learn a little bit about the solar system and stars.

Art Institute Of Chicago- If you like looking at art, this a place were you could spend hours. Lots of permanent and temporary exhibits.

Field Museum- This is Chicago's museum of natural history. Lots of floors of exhibits.

Museum Of Science And Industry- This is a fun museum for kids and adults. There are lots of interesting interactive exhibits.

Shedd Aquarium- The Shedd Aquarium is a wonderful museum. There is an awesome reef in the front of the aquarium, a new shark exhibit, and there is dolphins and beluga whales in the newer addition in the back of the building. This is a fun place for families and kids.

Theatre- Chicago is a great for catching wonderful shows. There are lots of theatres, such as the Auditorium Theatre, The Ford Theatre, and the Oriental Theatre. All of the big shows from Broadway usually make a run in Chicago. The most recent popular production in Chicago has been Wicked. I highly recommend this musical. There are also some theatrical shows that have made permanent homes in Chicago, such as Blue Man Group at the Briar Street Theatre and Tony & Tina's Wedding. You can also go to Second City for entertainment. This is where most of the stars from Saturday Night Live start out from. We have also gone to Tommy's Gun Garage, which is a roaring 20's dinner theatre in the city. You can also see super dance performances in Chicago. The Hubbard Street Dance Company and the Joffrey Ballet calls Chicago its home.

American Girl- Lots of moms like to take their little girls to the large American Girl Store in downtown Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. Here you can shop for American Girl dolls and accessories, take your doll to the beauty shop, see and American Girl live show, and eat at the American Girl restaurant, where your child's doll can sit in its own high chair. It's very cute and fun for little girls.

Horse And Carriage Rides- Horse And Carriage rides are a popular sight around downtown Chicago. You can go for a fun ride with friends or a romantic ride with someone special. You can usually catch the horse and carriage around Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue.

Beaches- In the summer time it is sometimes fun to go to the beach in the city to relax in the sand or swim in Lake Michigan. Oak Street Beach and North Avenue Beach with its large boat shaped building are popular beaches to go to.

Shopping- There is lots and lots of shopping in downtown Chicago. Shop along the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue and don't forget to shop at Water Tower Place. Shopping along State Street is also very popular.

Sporting Events- There is usually plenty of sporting events going on around Chicago. Go to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game, Soldier Field for a Bears Game, U.S. Cellular Field for a White Sox Game, and don't forget the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Bulls.

Oprah- Of course Chicago is home to the Oprah Winfrey Show. Get tickets to the Oprah Winfrey Show and be in the audience for a taping of the show.

Brookfield Zoo- Brookfield Zoo is a big and nice zoo. It is not directly in Chicago, but in the suburb of Riverside/Brookfield.

Kiddieland- Kiddieland is a fun amusement park to take younger kids to during the summer. It is located in the suburb of Elmwood Park.

Boat Cruises- You can take boat tours in Chicago so you can learn about the city and see the sights from the Chicago River or Lake Michigan. The Chicago River tours go through the locks, which is kind of neat.

Buckingham Fountain- Buckingham Fountain is the huge, well known fountain in Grant Park in Chicago. It is nice to go to Grant Park and see the fountain in the summer. If there is a breeze you can get cooled of from the mist from the fountain.

Chicago is know for it's great food and restaurants. There is a ton to choose from. There are also some Chicago specialities that you can only get in Chicago. Nowhere else compares when it comes to things, such as Chicago styled pizza. Here are some of our favorite places to eat in Chicago.

Giordano's Pizza- This is my favorite Chicago pizza. It is the best. I like the medium crust pizza with sausage or the stuffed pizza with cheese and spinach.

Cheesecake Factory- This a popular place. It can be pricey, but the portions are huge and the desserts are good.

Italian Village- Good Italian food and nice but small atmosphere. This is a very popular place after the shows are done at the neighboring theatres. There is an upstairs restaurant and a downstairs restaurant. We always go to the upstairs restaurant.

Berghoffs- This is our favorite German Restaurant. I started going here as a child. Good sourbraten (sp?) and root beer and fabulous strawberry shortcake.

Nick's Fishmarket- Really nice seafood, fancy and pricey.

Ed Debevic's- Perfect for kids. There is lots of action and noise at this 50's style dinner. The waiters and waitresses get up on the tables and dance. Watch out, the staff will yell at you.

Benihana's- Super Japanese restaurant where 8 to 10 people are seated around a grill and a chef will cook right in front of you. Fun and good food.

Geja's Cafe- This is a fondue restaurant. The cheese and chocolate fondue are great. It is a dark and older atmosphere and they specialize in wines. The smell of the fondue oils is very strong in the restaurant. It will stink when you walk in, although you get used to it once you are there for a while. Your clothes will stink when you leave.

Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab- This is a nice place to go for Seafood and Steak. Nice atmosphere and the sweet potato fries are yummy.

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery- A decent place to eat. It is similar to a Houilhann's restaurant.

Weber Grill Restuarant- Good food and everything is cooked on Weber grills.

There are lots of places you can choose to stay inside and outside the city. Here are the hotels that we have stayed at.

The O'Hare Marriott- This is our favorite hotel in Chicago. It is not in downtown Chicago, but by O'Hare Airport. It is easy to drive into the city from here or you can take the subway. The subway station is right next to the Marriott. The O'Hare Marriott is more relaxed than being downtown and they have a nice indoor and outdoor pool. There is also a very good breakfast and brunch buffet that they serve here.

The Palmer House is right downtown and is classy and fancy. We actually ate dinner here for our senior prom.

The Intercontinental Chicago- This is a good hotel. The rooms are decorated nicely, but the rooms are very small. The Intercontinental is know for its classic indoor pool. It is a good size pool and kind of fancy. We swam in it, but the water temperature was cold and the pool was old and had a metal bottom and sides. It was different.

The Omni- The Omni was nice. There wasn't much to it, beside the hotel rooms. The hotel room we had was nice, roomy, and contained a seperate sitting area from the bedroom.

The Marriott Downtown Chicago- The Marriott in downtown Chicago is nice and is in a good central location. The lobby is very big and contains some nice shopping.

The Doubletree- The Doubletree was actually nice and I thought it held up against the bigger name hotels in downtown Chicago.

Chicago is a wonderful city that has so much to offer. You could spend forever exploring it. It is good for a vacation, a weekend getaway, or a day trip.

http://www.choosechicago.com/

Skiing at Grand Geneva Resort, WI

2008-03-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

Skiing At The Grand Geneva Resort

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

My husband and I went skiing once together. We were spending the weekend in the Lake Geneva area in Wisconsin and we thought we would try going skiing for the day. We decided to go and ski at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva. You can ski there for the day without staying at their hotel. I ended up not enjoying skiing and found it actually a little scary. My opinion is that you have to start learning to ski as a child. Trying to learn as an adult didn't go over well with me. I wasn't confident about being able to stop, especially when going fast, and the ski lift really frightened me. I was able to go down the bunny slope a couple of times and was able to master the tow line. Anyways, the Grand Geneva Resort ski slopes are nice if you are thinking of going there. There are 18 slopes, snowboarding hills, cross country and snow shoe trails. They have snow making capabilities here, so there is guaranteed snow on the slopes all winter long. You can rent skis, snowboards, and snow shoes and there is also learn to ski programs. There is a snow sports shop and a Timbers Bar & Grill. The ski resort is open until 10pm, 7 days a week.

http://www.grandgeneva.com/

Chicago Brauhaus, Illinois

2008-03-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

Chicago Brauhaus

Lincoln Square, Chicago Illinois

Here is a fun restaurant to go to in the Chicago area. It is the Chicago Brauhaus. This is a 100% pure German restaurant that serves traditional German specialities, beer and wine, and has music and dancing six days a week. It is always Oktoberfest here. The food is good if you like German food. The beers are huge. You can order a pint sized beer or even a teeny tiny beer. There is traditional german musicans playing and you can get up and dance the polka while you are waiting for your food or after a couple of drinks. We went here twice with a group of friends during our first two years of marriage. My husband and I also took my parents here once, since my family is German. The Chicago Brauhaus is located in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Square.

http://www.chicagobrauhaus.com/

Shabbona Lake State Park, IL

2008-03-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Shabbona Lake State Park

Illiniois

During our first two years of marriage, my husband and I camped a couple times at Shabbona Lake State Park in Illinois. This state park is 1,550 acres and is 30 minutes south of DeKalb Illinois. The lake is a man made lake. Shabbona Lake State Park was a decent place to camp or hangout for the day, but it is out in the middle of nowhere. The campground has 150 electrical sites and there are restrooms with showers that were kept pretty clean. Each campsite comes with a picnic table and fire ring. There is also two rustic camping cabins available that have two rooms in them and electrical heat, but no water or bathrooms. Throughout the park there is 3 picnic areas, 8 miles of trails, and great fishing. During the winter you can cross country ski and snowmobile. Hunting is allowed during hunting season. Shabbona Lake State Park also has a restaurant/concession area that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the summer season. There is also a boat rental facility, boat launch, and a bait and tackle facility. The negative aspect of this state park is that swimming is not allowed. There is not a beach.

http://www.shabbonalake.com/

www.dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/PARKS/RI/SHABBONA.HTM

Mt. Olympus, WI Dells

2008-03-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

Mt. Olympus

Wisconsin Dells

Mt. Olympus has grown to be one of the larger attractions at the Wisconsin Dells, after expanding and growing for quite a few years. Mt. Olympus is now a theme park and a water park rolled up into one large package. Mt. Olympus was first known for its many go-cart tracks. Most of the go-cart tracks are wooden. There are also several large wooden roller coasters that are fast with steep drops and fast turns. Mt. Olympus also has some kiddie rides at their outdoor theme park. Most recently, Mt. Olympus has added an outdoor water park to keep up with the competition of the large neighboring water parks. Recently, they have also bought out the Treasure Island Hotel & Water Park, which was right next door. Mt. Olympus has also added an indoor theme park with a variety of amusement park rides to keep up with the year round business competition. Mt. Olympus now offers daily passes, so that you can use all the areas throughout the day. If you stay at the hotel, your nightly rate comes with wristbands, so that you can play all day at Mt. Olympus. Prices are high at Mt. Olympus, but you will be occupied and entertained all day and will not have to leave the property. We have gone to Mt. Olympus to ride the various go-carts. We had also been to the older part of the outdoor water park when it was still the Treasure Island, before Mt. Olympus bought it out.

www.mtolympusthemepark.com

Everson's Nelson Lake Lodge & Campground

2008-03-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

Everson's Nelson Lake Lodge & Campground

Hayward Wisconsin

During our second year of marriage, before we had kids, my husband and I went to Hayward Wisconsin for a week vacation. We reserved a cabin at Nelson Lake Lodge on the northwest side of nelson lake. This northwoods resorts was right on the lake, although it was lacking trees and the northwoods atmosphere that we were hoping for. Our cabin was very small. It consisted of a small living area with adjoining kitchen, one small bedroom, and a small run down bathroom. Besides being cramped, we were greeted with the smell of gas that came from kitchen area. We had problems with the pilot light and we didn't have hot water the first day. The cabin was right next to the lake, which was nice, although we were up on a hill and there wasn't any trees around us to create privacy. We had our own pier, which was convenient. We rented a fishing boat, although we only had a trolling motor, so we couldn't go out very far on the lake. Everson's Nelson Lake Lodge had 14 cabins. The other cabins were bigger than our tiny one. There were also 45 campsites, but most were seasonal and people lived there throughout the summer in their RV's. On the property there is a main lodge that has a bar in it, some bar style games, and a restaurant that served things like frozen pizzas and microwaved items. You could rent boats and motors and they had bait for sail. There was a small beach, which I actually can't remember, and a playground.

Everson's Nelson Lake Lodge & Campground is now for sale and is no longer accepting reservations. The cabins have been sold as condos and the campsites are all seasonal sites. Nelson Lake Lodge was not that great of a resort and we don't look back at it as a memorable place we stayed.

During our week in Hayward we went to the Fishing Hall Of Fame, The Wilderness Walk deer park, floated down the river on inner tubes, and saw a movie at the local theatre. My grandparents had owned a cabin up near Hayward when I was a kid. These attractions that we visited are ones that I remembered fondly as a child.

www.haywardlakes.com

Whirley Ball

2008-03-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Whirlyball

Illinois

In our newlywed stage of life, we ventured out with some other couples to play Whirlyball. This is a place that is kind of like an amusement park, arcade, and bar wrapped up into one. In Illinois there are three Whirlyball locations. There is one in Chicago, Lombard, and Vernon Hills. Whirlyball is a competitive game that combines lacrosse, hockey, basketball, and bumper cars. Your group divides up into teams of five and uses hand held scoops to throw whiffle balls at targets while operating a bumper car. There is a trained referee. Whirlyball was fun, although I had major bruising on the insides of my thighs from my legs crashing into the gear shift of the bumper car that is located between your legs. You need reservations ahead of time to reserve the whirlyball court and all players need to be older than 12 years old. The whirly ball facility has food, a bar, games, catering, and offers party packages. Some locations offer lasertron or a indoor rock climbing wall.

http://www.whirlyball.com/

KOA Campground WI Dells

2008-03-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

KOA Campground

Wisconsin Dells

My husband and I camped one time at the KOA Campground in the Wisconsin Dells, before we had kids. The KOA wasn't anything spectacular. We liked the Sherwood Forest Campground in the Wisconsin Dells better that we had camped at the year prior. The KOA was more crowded and the campsites were very close to one another without as many trees. We ended up getting a bad location for our campsite. Our campsite was a single site that was located in the center of a cul-de-sac. Therefore, everyone on the primeter of the cul-de-sac were staring at us. We felt like we were on display.

The KOA campsites are for tents or RV's. The campground is open mid-April to the end of October. There is also "Kamping Kabins" that have heat and air conditioning. At night there is movies displayed at the outdoor theatre and on Saturdays there is candy bar bingo. The KOA has some special events and theme weekends throughout the summer. There is a heated pool and a new Splashpad area with sprinklers and water fountains for kids to play in. There is also a playground, volleyball and basketball courts, a camp store, rec room and laundromat. There are the sit down bikes you can rent that you see at a lot of the KOA campgrounds and there is free WI-FI. The KOA has restrooms with flush toilets and heated showers. Pets are allowed in the campground, but not in the camping cabins.

www.wisdellskoa.com

Sherwood Forest Wisconsin Dells

2008-03-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

Sherwood Forest Campground

Wisconsin Dells

My husband and I camped at Sherwood Forest in the Wisconsin Dells back in 1998. This was the very first time I had ever been camping. My husband had camped a lot as a child, but I had never had the experience before. We borrowed a tent from a friend and selected Sherwood Forest as an easy and comfortable campground, where we didn't have to "rough it." On our first night camping, there was a thunderstorm with tornado watches. I don't take storms and tornado watches and warnings very well, due to the fact that my home had been destroyed in a tornado in 1990, right before my senior year of high school. Our first night camping didn't go that well, and we spent most of the night in our car parked by the restroom building, so we could take cover if we had to. My husband thought for sure that this experience would turn me off to camping forever, but I saw the potential for fun and we have camped a couple times a year since.

Sherwood Forest is a decent campground in the Wisconsin Dells. It seemed clean and the campsites were OK. I liked the campground and campsites better at Sherwood Forest than the KOA in the Wisconsin Dells. The sites are a little close together, but the property has enough trees to create a woodsy feel. The tudor-style buildings on the property go with the Sherwood Forest theme. You can tent or have an RV and each site has a fire ring and picnic table. There are also some rustic camping cottages available. The roads are paved and the campground does allow pets. There is a basic heated pool and a kiddie pool. The pool is OK, but doesn't compare to the neighboring water parks in the Wisconsin Dells. There is a playground, game room, camp store, coin-operated laundry, and restrooms and showers that were pretty clean. The campground advertises that it is in walking distance from downtown Dells, the water parks, mini-golf, boat and duck rides, and shopping and dining. Yes, I guess it is considered within walking distance, but I wouldn't want to walk it. It is kind of far and on busy roads. I recommend driving. Lastly, Sherwood Forest does have a two night minimum on weekends in July and August. This is common throughout the Wisconsin Dells in the busy summer months.

If you are looking for a place to camp in Wisconsin Dells, I recommend Sherwood Forest.

http://www.sherwoodforestcamping.com/

Kalahari Resort, WI Dells

2008-03-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

Kalahari Resort

Wisconsin Dells

Our family and four other families that are friends of ours spent the weekend at the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. For our own family, this was our second time at the Kalahari. We had visited there five years ago. This time we went with 9 adults and 12 kids and we had a three bedroom condo and a two bedroom condo, which were across the hall from one another in the "Sands" building in the convention center side of the resort. The condos at the Kalahari were great. Each family had their own hotel room, bathroom and outside entrance to the hallway. Each room was connected through an adjoining door to a common area. In the common area there was a living room with pull-out sofa, 2 arm chairs, and a flat screen TV. There was also a fully stocked kitchen with a breakfast bar that seated four and a kitchen table that seated six. Each room and the living room had a balcony. The side bedrooms had two double beds in them and the center bedroom had one king bed. All the bedrooms also had a mini fridge and a microwave in it. I had requested a rollaway bed for both of the rooms that had a king bed, but we never received them. One family brought an air mattress for their kids and that worked fine. The accommodations were very clean and comfortable. The condos are great because everyone felt like they had their own space and privacy, and we were able to come together comfortably as a group. All of us brought food and we were able to eat and share food together throughout the weekend. One night we ordered a bunch of pizzas from Sarentos, a great Italian restaurant in the Wisconsin Dells. The pizzas were delivered promptly to the room and it was delicious.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate the service at the Kalahari a 7 this time. The Kalahari is so big and there are so many people that there is bound to be some confusion or mistakes. We had a few minor bumps with the front desk, but nothing that was a huge deal that deserved complaining about.

Since the Kalahari is a big place, prepare to do some walking. We never find walking a problem. Bring a stroller if you have a small child to tote. From the area where the condo units are at, you have to walk through a sky walk to the main hotel building, take two elevators, and then walk through the connecting building to the indoor water park area.

The Kalahari has a very nice indoor water park. I enjoyed it a lot more this time than when we had visited 5 years prior. What I liked about this water park is the fact that there is enough to entertain all ages and that there are many rides that allow 2 or 3 riders at a time. There are also no height restrictions, which made it more enjoyable for some of the kids. The indoor water park has a wave pool, although the waves are not as strong as the wave pools at the neighboring Wilderness or Great Wolf Lodge resorts. There is also a lazy river, a flow-rider surfing and boogie boarding ride, water basketball, 2 rope monkey bars areas, a dark tube slide, a body slide, a "toilet bowl" slide, a 2-3 person boat ride, 3 hot tubs, a large kids play area with an activity tree house, 2 infant slides, baby jumper swings, and two medium water slides for kids. In the back section of the water park there is another little kid section with 7 or 8 other small slides. There is also a family raft ride that seats up to 3 riders and a cool Master Blaster ride where the water pushes you up and down hill to create a roller coaster affect. We all had a great time at the water park and it was the first time that I felt my kids got to go on a large selection of bigger water rides. The lines for the rides were not horribly long and the water park never felt over crowded. We didn't have a problem finding seats or towels. If you visit the Kalahari in the summer, there is also an outside water park. This is a little extra bonus when the season is right.

We usually bring snacks from our room down to the water park for convenience and cost savings, since the food is always expense at the resorts in the Dells. It is usually not a problem, but on our last day a crabby older woman that worked there went through the water park telling people they couldn't eat their food that they carried in. I just said "OK" and continued to let the kids snack and just kept our stash of food out of sight. That is what most people were doing too. I thought that was pretty ridiculous. We have never had that problem at the other large resorts in the Wisconsin Dells. Everyone there has spent a lot of money just to be there. You would think they could be a little nicer and not be so pushy about forcing people to buy their expensive food. This place makes zillions of dollars and that was a rude way to act, in my opinion.

Between the hotel and the indoor water park there is also an area with a good sized arcade. There is a good variety of games were you can win tickets for prizes. There is also a place where you can pay to get your hair braided or a temporary tattoo sprayed on. Outside of the Kalahari, but right next door is the Desert Cinema, which has lots of current and not so current movies playing.

Inside the Kalahari there are quite a few places to eat. There are grab and go places where you can purchase just about anything. Inside the water park there is a place you can purchase snacks are prepared or hot food. The Kalahari also has some sit down restaurant options and a place where you can order take out such as super duper large pizzas that cost $30. There is also a sweet shop where there is a large selection of candy, candied apples, and ice cream. I noticed that there was a large breakfast buffet that looked very yummy when I peeked through the window of one of the restaurants that looked out into the water park. There is also a gift shop, a paint your own pottery studio, and a spa.

The lobby is a busy place where there is usually a lot going on, but it usually feels warm and inviting. In the lobby there is a baby lion and a wallaby on display. You can pay to have your picture taken with either of the animals. It looked to me that when you have your picture taken that you are not allowed to touch or pet the animal. We didn't do it. I just don't think a lion, even if it's a cub, is trustworthy enough to be around little kids.

The Kalahari is a good place to stay for single families, or groups. There is a large conference center there, so the Kalahari does cater to very large convention groups.

We had a great time at the Kalahari. I would recommend it. We had fun at the water park and we very satisfied with our room and condos. It was very fun to go with four other families. It was a good experience.

http://www.kalahariresort.com/

Lake Lawn Resort

2008-02-28T07:01:00.000-08:00

Lake Lawn Resort

Delavan Wisconsin

We have been to Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan Wisconsin once or twice. For a long time it was called Lake Lawn Lodge, but it is now called Lake Lawn Resort. My husband has memories of going to this resort as a kid and running the long, window enclosed hallways. Lake Lawn Resort is in Southern Wisconsin and is just 12 miles west of the town Lake Geneva. Lake Lawn Resort is an older resort that is situated on 275 wooded acres on Lake Delavan. This resort is for all ages, couples and families. The rooms have undergone some remodeling and have been updated with things such as finer linens and flat screened TVs. You can choose between standard rooms or suites. There are also rooms with lofts and stone fireplaces. Lake Lawn Lodge has an array of recreation available to match the seasons. There is a championship golf course, spa, indoor and outdoor pool, arcade, and mini-golf and basketball and volleyball courts. On the lake there is a marina that offers boats and boat slip rentals. You can cruise or fish on the lake. There is a lakeside hiking, biking, and jogging trail around the lake. In the winter you can cross country ski, sled, and ice fish at Lake Lawn Resort. For dining within the resort, there is the Frontier Restaurant which is classy but casual. It is great for a relaxing dinner as a couple, but is also suitable for a family. The Frontier Restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the summern the Terrace Grill is open and you can eat outside overlooking the pool. Within the resort there is also a Lookout Bar and Manny's Old Fashion Deli & Ice Cream Shoppe. Here they serve bagels and croissants, burgers, brats, pizza, chili, popcorn, candy, and ice cream. Lastly, there is also a General Store for gifts and other needs.

Outside of the resort there are other things that you can find to do to entertain yourself. You can drive to Lake Geneva to take in the sights or go to the beach there. Within the town of Delavan, you can go horseback riding, go to the Dancing Horses Dinner Theatre, or go to Animal Gardens, which is a zoo that also has a small train ride.

Lake Lawn Lodge is a good choice if you are looking for somewhere to stay in the Delavan Wisconsin area. It is good for a weekend getaway.

http://www.lakelawnresort.com/

Lake Geneva Wisconsin

2008-02-27T10:27:00.001-08:00

Lake Geneva

Wisconsin

Before we had kids, my husband and I went to Lake Geneva a couple of times. This is a small, well known town that is centered around the lake and has much history and money. If you visit Lake Geneva, there is a variety of lodging options to pick from. There are bed & breakfasts, cabins & cottages, campgrounds, rental homes and condos, hotels, motels, and resorts. All of the lodging options are privately owned. There are not any "chain" hotels, such as Marriott, Best Western, our Super 8. There are quite a few dining options in Lake Geneva, from fancy to informal. There is shopping, although most of the shops are speciality shops. In the middle of town, there is a beach on Lake Geneva. It is nice. There are four other beaches considered to be nearby. On Lake Geneva there is a cruise line that you can take a narrated tour around the lake. While on the large paddle boat, you can see all the magnificent mansions and homes on the lake and hear historical tales. There is much boating on Lake Geneva and there are places that you can rent different types of boats and water sports. You can go out on a wave runner or go para sailing. There is much history in Lake Geneva. There are some fun facts, such as William Bell & Lee Phillips created the daytime soap Young & The Restless while living in Lake Geneva. They set the daytime drama in the nearby town of Genoa City. Hugh Hefner also chose Lake Geneva as the home for the Playboy Club & Resort, which is now the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa.

http://www.lakegenevawi.com/

Anaheim California

2008-02-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Anaheim California Trip

Disneyland*Sea World*Universal Studios*San Diego Zoo

During our first year of marriage in 1997, before we had kids, my husband and I traveled out to Anaheim California for the week between Christmas and New Years. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Anaheim, which is now called the Hotel Menage. When we stayed at the Holiday Inn ten years ago, it wasn't the greatest hotel. It was very basic and not that elaborate, although we didn't have that much money back then, so that was probably the best we could afford. The hotel was pink stucco and all the levels of rooms had outside access doors. This didn't make me feel as safe as I would have liked. The room was big enough, but dark and dingy feeling, especially since we had to leave the curtains closed so people walking by couldn't peer in. There was an outdoor pool and hot tub, although the weather was cool that week and we didn't use it. The hotel did provide a shuttle to Disney, which we took sometimes. We also drove our rental car to some of the attractions. The location of the hotel was decent. It wasn't an extremely large drive to get to where you wanted to go. As I said before, this hotel is now called the Hotel Menage. Besides changing names, it looks to have been remodeled. The outside has been painted tan and the rooms look like they have been remodeled. Before booking this hotel, read other reviews on trip advisor and compare other hotel options before making a reservation.

During our trip in California, we went to Disneyland. We spent about 2 1/2 days at the Magic Kingdom. Disneyland is just like Disneyworld in appearance, except for a few different changes. The castle is different than Cinderella's castle in Disneyworld and some of the rides look slightly different. Basically the lay-out of the two parks are the same. The ride we loved the most at Disneyland was the Indiana Jones ride. We rode it twice and waited extremely long in line. The ride took us off guard how good it was. It was awesome. Overall, I like Disneyworld in Florida better. I just felt the cast members where friendlier and there seemed to be a higher percentage of people there on vacation versus people on a day trip.

On another day we went to Sea World. This was my second time to Sea World and my husband's first time. Sea World was just like the one in Florida. There was the typical Shamu show, other animal shows, and the shark exhibit, where you stand on a moving sidewalk and go through the clear tunnel in the shark tank. The best part about Sea Word was that we were able to see a young gray whale on exhibit that Sea World had rescued and was rehabbing. Later in the year, we saw the news coverage as Sea Word made the special journey to transport the whale and return it back to the sea. Seeing the gray whale, that up close, was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We traveled from Anaheim to San Diego for the day and went to the San Diego Zoo. The zoo was large and we walked through most of it. The thing I remember seeing the most was the Koala bears. This was the first time I had seen a Koala bear in a zoo or up close. While we were in San Diego, we also stopped to walk along a boardwalk along a beach. It was cold and windy. San Diego was a good haul from Anaheim. It took a couple hours to get there. I remember driving back from Anaheim and about 2am my husband and I were super sleepy and couldn't keep our eyes open. It was kind of a scary drive to get back to the hotel. My husband had to stop to get a caffeinated drink and to do jumping jacks outside the car. We were driving with the windows down and the radio turned up load. It was horrible.

The last attraction we went to on our California trip was Universal Studios. Universal Studios is much different than Disney. At Universal Studios, you really have to be up for going on thrill rides. I would not recommend it for little kids, only teenagers and up. My favorite ride was the E.T. ride, where you got to ride a bike and fly like the characters do in the movie. That ride was nice and calm. We went on the Back To The Future Ride. It was a simulated ride that felt like you were on a roller coaster. It was wild. There is the Jurassic Park ride, which we waited in a long, long line and then I chickened out at the last minute. I don't like steep drops and the Jurassic Boat plunges down a huge, dark drop at the end. My husband went by himself. We went on the back lot tour at Universal. I liked that. On the tour you ride on a train type vehicle. You get to see where the sound stages are at. You drive through a street scene and they tell you all sorts of information about how they make movies and how they make the street look real. You also get to drive by the fronts of well known houses from famous movies and popular TV shows. While sitting on the train during the tour, you will experience a flash flood, an earthquake, a crazy tunnel, and be surprised by jaws and Godzilla. On the day we were there, they weren't doing the Godzilla part of the tour. In another area of the park we got to go through an attraction where you are on a movie set where they created explosions and fire. At Universal, there are also shows to see. We saw the Water World stunt show and a show with trained movie animals. Throughout the park there is lots of places to take crazy pictures, such as in front of the Hollywood sign, with Jaws, or running in action with celebrities in thriller scenes.

Our California trip was fun. We got to do some things that we couldn't do now with little kids. Before going to any of these attractions, take in consideration how old your kids are, check the height and weight requirements before you go, and take into consideration the time of year you are going and what the average weather is like during that time.

www.universalstudioshollywood.com

Fox River Trail Geneva Illinois

2008-02-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

Fox River Trail

Geneva Illinois

In our first two years of marriage, my husband and I often went to Geneva Illinois to bike along the Fox River Trail. This is a nice trail for biking, hiking, cross country skiing, and jogging. There seems to always be people around, so it is also great for people wathing. We usually parked downtown in a city parking lot, unloaded our bikes and hopped on the trail from there. There is a place, right downtown, where you can also rent bikes. The trail follows the river and in the areas we experienced, it was paved. There are some streets you will have to stop to cross. Along the way there are some restaurants and places that you can stop to eat at. There are also picnic tables along the way and benches to stop and rest on if needed. There is an old windmill in one large open area. The Fox River Trail is very long. It covers many towns and counties. There are 30 miles in Kane County alone.

Kettle Moraine State Forest- Southern Unit, WI

2008-02-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

Kettle Moraine- Southern Unit

Wisconsin

There are two Kettle Moraine State Parks in the state of Wisconsin. There is the Northern Unit and the Southern Unit. My husband and I camped in the Southern Unit with another couple that were old college friends. This was before we had kids. The Kettle Moraine Southern Unit consists of 20,000 acres. It is located 61 miles east of Madison and 37 miles southeast of Milwaukee. It is quite large and there are five family campgrounds within the park. There is the Ottawa Lake Campground, which is part of the Ottawa Lake recreation area, Pinewoods campground, Whitewater Lake East and West Campgrounds and Hickory Woods Campgrounds, which is part of the Whitewater Lake Recreation Area. There is also a Horse riders Campground. We stayed in the Ottawa Lake Campground. It was a very nice campground and we enjoyed it. There was a beach and playground within walking distance. At Kettle Moraine State Park you can hike, mountain bike, ride a horse, snowmobile, or ski on the 160+ miles of trails. There are two beaches in the Southern Unit and you can also picnic, fish, hunt, or tour three historic cabin sites. During our camping trip to Kettle Moraine, we also ventured out to Old World Wisconsin, which is a nearby attraction. This is a large, spread out place where there are a collection of farmsteads that recreate the homes and lives of settlers. It was a decent attraction to visit, but don't expect a huge thrill. The different outdoor homestead displays are spread far apart, so there was a lot of walking and you had to take a shuttle between areas.

The Kettle Moraine State Park- Southern Unit is a great Wisconsin State Park to visit for the day or an extended stay. The campground was very nice. We enjoyed it.

www.dnr.state.wi.us

www.reserveamerica.com

Meramec Caverns, Missouri

2008-02-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

Meramec Caverns

Missouri

My husband and I visited Meramec Caverns before we had children. Meramec Caverns is in Stanton Missouri. As you are getting close to its location, you can't miss the signs leading you in the right direction. Meramec Caverns is a tourist attraction where you can take guided tours inside the large cave that was once a hide out to Jesse James. At the entrance of the cave you will buy tickets and wait for your tour guide. The tours start every 20 to 30 minutes and the tour itself takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. At the beginning of the tour, you will walk past a large underground banquet and dance hall area that is used for larger events. You can also smirk at the extremely large pyramid of plastic chairs that they have stored in this area. The tours take you on well lighted, handicapped accessible pathways throughout the cave as your tour guides tell you stories and information about the cave and the wondrous mineral formations that you will see, such as the stage curtain and the wine table. The wine table formation is the world's rarest cave structures. The stage curtain is at the end of the tour. Everyone in your group will sit on theatre style benches and watch as your tour guide operates a light show onto these formations which resemble a stage curtain. The little light show is accompanied by patriotic music. The inside of the cave is a constant 58 degrees year round. Also, as a side note, strollers are not allowed on the cave tour, so very young children need to either walk or be carried. The cave tour is for people of all ages. It is not scary or dark and you will not feel claustrophobic. Tours are operated year, accept on major holidays.

Outside Meramec Caverns there are also some other attractions. There are riverboat rides where you can take a 1/2 hour ride on the Meramec river on a canopy covered boat. There are also canoe and raft rentals for floating down the river. There is a place where kids can pan for gold at the adjacent Meramec Mining Company and a Dino Dig area, also for kids.

At Meramec Caverns there is also a restaurant, which we ate at. I remember the restaurant being good and being fairly good size. It seemed to be able to seat a lot of people. There is also a snack bar and a place where you could get ice cream that had 28 flavors.

When we visited Meramec Caverns, we camped at the campground there. It was the Meramec Caverns' La Jolla Natural Park/Campground. It wasn't the best campground. I would recommend staying at the Meramec State Park instead. The campground was not huge and the people staying there were not the best types of people. We were a little out of our element. The campground had restrooms and showers, but they were in a kind of mobile unit set-up. The bathroom situation was a little gross, but we survived. The Meramec river is right behind the campground and by the Meramec Caverns Cave. It is posted that swimming is not recommended, but just about everyone in the campground was in the water and hanging out in the water. There is a current, so you have to be careful and cautious of what you are doing. The Meramec Cave and tours is right across the parking lot from the campground. There is also a Meramec Caverns Motel across the road. It looks like a 1 or possibly 2 star, at the very most, motel. The campground and the motel is open from April 1st to October 31st.

Pets are allowed in the campground, but not inside the cave tours. Meramec Caverns does have kennels outside that you can put your dog in while you go on the cave tours. For $5 they give you a lock and key and you can lock your animal up yourself, so it is safe while you are briefly gone. You just have to bring your own food and water and whatever else your pet may need.

If you are in this area of Missouri, the Meramec Caverns tour is an ok adventure. I would not recommend staying in the campground, but would recommend staying somewhere else or camping at another area state park.

www.americascave.com

Lamb's Farm, Illinois

2008-02-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

Lamb's Farm

Libertyville Illinois

Lamb's Farm is located in Libertyville Illinois. It is a small farm and petting zoo attraction located 35 miles North of Chicago. You can't miss the large sign off the intersection of I-94 and Route 176. It was founded in 1961 as a means for people with developmental disabilities to have employment and vocational training. The small, farm style zoo has a petting zoo with animals such as sheep and goats. There is also mini-golf, a mini train ride, bounce house, and an old world carousel. There is also a pet shop that sells not only pets, but supplies and gifts. There is a puppy and kitten viewing from 10-4:30pm. There is also a year round Country Inn Restaurant. It serves meals daily and also hosts corporate events, picnics, weddings, birthday parties, and reunions. Beside special events, the restaurant also has special holiday brunches. There is a lakeside pavillion for picnicing. Also at Lamb's Farm, there is a country store and bakery, which also includes ice cream. Everything there is made, manufactured, and packaged there. Lastly, Lamb's Farm also has a thrift shop.

Lamb's Farm is a day trip activity and is big enough to entertain for about one to two hours. If you are looking for a short daily activity or want to visit a small zoo where you children can interact with some animals, then Lamb's Farm is a good choice.

Six Flags Great America Gurnee IL

2008-02-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

Six Flags Great America

Gurnee Illinois

I have been to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee Illinois several times as a teenager. I also went twice with my husband. We went together once when we were dating and once when we were married, before we had kids. We are hopefully going to be taking our 3 young kids, in the near future. Six Flags has many rides that suit all ages and a waterpark that was built about two to three years ago. The price of admission includes everything. There are hotels in the surrounding area, if you are looking to make an extended stay out of your trip. There is also lots of shopping and restaurants in the area.

Six Flags Great America in Gurnee Illinois has thrill rides, family rides, kids rides, exciting roller coasters, entertainment, and the waterpark. When arriving at Great America, the first thing you will see are the huge roller coasters. The most well known coasters are Batman, where you sit swing-style with your feel hanging free and the track is above your head, Iron Wolf, which is a standing roller coaster, Superan, where you are in a flying position, the demon, which is considered the best "starter" roller coaster, and the American Eagle, a huge and ancient wooden roller coaster. For calmer family rides there is the two story carousel, Logger's run log ride, roaring rapids raft ride, the scenic railway train, the yankee clipper boat ride that is much like the log ride, and the whizzer, an intermediate/beginner roller coaster that is good for kids and non-thrill seeking adults. There are three themed areas set aside for small children and their families. One of these areas is in the waterpark section. There is also a new Wiggles themed area. There is a Big Red Cars ride, Bouncin with Wags area, Dorothy's Rosy Tea Cups ride, and a S.S. Feathersword Playship. There is also a looney tunes themed area for kids

The Waterpark section of Six Flags in 10,000 square feet. There is a family raft ride, 2 interactive play areas, tube slides, wave pool, body slides, speed slides, a tornado ride, racing slides where you slide on mats head first, and what our family calls the toliet bowl ride, where you slide into a round bowl and spin around until you drop out the bottom.

Six Flags Great America also provides entertainment throughout the day. When you get tired, it is nice to take a break and take in a show. There are shows, parades, musical acts, and live-action stunt shows. In the Wiggles children's area there is also a Get Ready To Wiggle Show with the Wiggles characters, such as Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, and Henry the Octopus. Throughout the park there are also carnival style game booths, where you can pay to play and try to win prizes.

There are lots of places throughout the park to purchase food when you get hungary. You can find just about anything. There is the typical kinds of foods you would expect to find at fairs or carnivals and much more, like salads, pizza, fried chicken, and sandwiches. There is also an ice cream parlor, New Orleans style cafe, an all you can eat buffet, Johnny Rockets, a pub & grub, a Mooseburger Lodge, a PaPa John's pizza, and Ben & Jerry's.

Inside the park there is 6 stores to shop for themed clothing, toys, and souveniors. There is also a sweet shop.

Six Flags Great America in Gurnee Illinois is located in northeast Illinois, not far from the Wisconsin border. It is located between Chicago and Milwaukee. Six Flags is opened from the end of April to the end of October. Check the website for park hours. At the beginning and end of the season, Six Flags is usually open only on weekends. You can also buy tickets online and check the entertainment and special event calendar. The waterpark area is opened from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day Weekend. During the month of October, is Six Flag's Fright Fest. The park is decorated for Halloween and has special events throughout the fall season. The entertainment consists of Halloween shows and performances. We went once during Fright Fest and it was fun and the lines and crowds were not as large.

http://www.sixflags.com/

Lake Shelbyville, IL

2008-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

Lake Shelbyville

Illinois

We camped twice at Lake Shelbyville in Illinois. The first time was before we had kids and the second time was when I was huge and 7 months pregnant with our first child. Both trips we took our dog with us. Shelbyville in is central Illinois and is 1 hour from Champaign and Springfield Illinois. There is 11,000 acres of water. There is a federal campground, three state campgrounds, and quite a few private campgrounds. We stayed at one of the state campgrounds, which are the most popular. The state campgrounds are Eagle Creek, Wolf Creek, and Hidden Springs. The campsites are first come first serve. You can make reservations ahead of time, but it must be done in writing. This is am annoying aspect, that in this day and age isn't really necessary. The campsites here are pretty unique here, in my opion. There are many sites that are lakeside. These campsites are above the water, but there is a hill that goes right down to the water. Many people brought their boats and anchored right at the shore by their campsite. When we took or dog, she loved it. Our lab swam in the water and we could just sit and watch her from our campsite. There are also campsites that are not lakeside. All the sites are kind of small and many are built into a hill. The place to pitch your tent is a built-up area bordered by railroad ties. It is a nice campground. There is a beach for swimming, which is also nice. In the Lake Shelbyville area there are several marinas that you can go to for boat rentals. You can also fish, hunt during hunting season, go for a hike on the 6 trails, or golf at one of the numerous golf courses in the area.

Upon visiting the Lake Shelbyville website, I saw there are some new attractions since we were there. There is a new outdoor aquatic center, which contains a zero depth entry pool, frog slide, water slide, drop slide, wet and sand playground areas, concession stand, picnic area, and bath house. There is also a new movie theatre in town. Other area attractions are a uniquely built goat tower on a local farm and vineyards and winerys.

www.lakeshelbyville.com

Starved Rock, Illinois

2008-02-18T13:17:00.000-08:00

Starved Rock

Illinois

When we lived in central Illinois, Starved Rock was one of our favorite places to visit. We would often visit there for a day trip, usually in the spring or fall. My husband and I would often take our dog with us, since at that time we didn't have kids yet and the dog was our only "child." Starved Rock is an Illinois state park which is 1 mile south of Utica and midway between LaSalle-Peru and Ottawa. Starved Rock is best known for its wonderful nature and hiking trails. There are 18 canyons that were formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion. All of the canyons and bluffs are quite beautiful. You will come across waterfalls and in the winter you can see these waterfalls frozen in awesome formations.

One of the main sights is to climb to the top of Starved Rock. There is a legend of how during an Indian battle that Indians climbed to the top of this huge rock formation and became trapped up there. Many died due to starvation. That is how Starved Rock got its name. To climb to the top of Starved Rock there are wooden stairs. There are other areas throughout the hiking trails that has stairs and steep climbs. Consult the maps throughout the park if you are worried about walking and climbing during your hike.

At Starved Rock you can also enjoy the views of the Illinois River, picnic, fish, and camp. It is a great place to take your dog, although you cannot take your pet indoors any of the buildings on Starved Rock propery. There is hunting allowed in the park during scheduled hunting seasons. If you want to horseback ride, there is a horse rental nearby, although for equestrian trails and horse camping you need to go to nearby Matthiessen State Park. The fall season is beautiful at Starved Rock, due to the changing leaves. People still visit the Starved Rock during the winter to see the sights in its frozen state and to cross country ski. There is a campground at Starved Rock, if you enjoy to camp. The campground isn't directly inside Starved Rock, but just outside. You will have to drive to the various hiking trail areas. There are 133 campsites, which most have electrical. There are also showers, flush toliets, and a play ground.

Starved Rock also has a lodge and conference center. You can stay at the lodge or you can go into the the lodge to hang out or grab a bite to eat, if you are there just for the day. The lodge has a large lobby, indoor pool, rustic dining room, 29 hotel rooms, 14 cabin rooms, and 8 deluxe cabin rooms. If you don't want to venture into the lodge, there is a visitor center. Last time we visited Starved Rock, I remember some new building and a concession area on the lower level down by the river's edge.

We have eaten at the dining room in the Starved Rock lodge and it is decent. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with Sunday and holdiay brunches.

If you are looking for other lodging options in the town of Utica near Starved Rock, there is a newer resort called Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge. It is fairly new, although we have not stayed there. I have heard it is nice. Many people were excited about the building of this resort, because there was not much around the Utica area besides the Starved Rock state park. The Grand Bear Lodge contains an indoor water park, an indoor amusement park, and miniature golf.

I recommend Starved Rock if you are in central Illinois and love the outdoors, nature, and hiking. It is great for a day trip or a weekend getaway.

www.starvedrockstatepark.com

www.starvedrocklodge.com

www.grizzlyjacksresort.com

Breezy Point Resort, Lake Of The Ozarks

2008-02-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

Breezy Point Resort

Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri

In mid-September of 2002 we journeyed down south to the Lake Of The Ozarks in Missouri for a quick weekend getaway. Our first child was 6 weeks old and we were desperately wanting to go somewhere for a getaway. Our entire summer was consumed of giving birth and having a new baby and we were a little depressed that we missed out on our entire summer. It was already September and we wanted to take a quick trip somewhere to make us feel better. My husband's older work partner at the time pushed us to try going down to the Lake Of The Ozarks for the weekend. Breezy Point Resort is where his family and a couple of other older, local families went for a week every summer. Lake Of The Ozarks was a 7 hour drive from our home and was really too far to go for just a weekend, but we packed up and drove there with our 6 week old baby.

This resort is a very basic, no thrills, fishing, lake side, small resort. There is not much to it. We enjoy cabin and woodsey vacations, but this resort was a little too basic and small for us. At the time it was nice to get away, but the accomodations were not spectacular and the drive was too long. The rooms are called cabins, but it is actually more apartment style buildings. The resort is located on the uncongested Little Niangua arm of the Lake Of The Ozarks. This fact is nice, since there is less boat traffic and no larger cruiser traffic. This part of the lake is much better for boating, skiing, and fishing. At the resort you can rent boats, motors, and boat slips. There is also a boat launch. There is a beach, but it is very small and not that great. There is an enclosed fishing dock for fishing in cold or rainy weather, although it was quite smelly in there. There is also lots of ducks around the resort. The cabins (or apartment style units) are very basic and plain. There is air conditioning, cable TV, and a kitchen with a microwave. The resort now advertises that it has wireless internet. Going into the main town and business area of the Lake Of The Ozarks was more fun. There are things to do, such as there are 15 golf courses, 4 family fun parks, 7 mini golf courses, a skate park, 7 go-cart tracks, an outlet mall, 3 caves that you can tour, marinas, hiking, horseback riding, and 110 restaurants.

I recommend the Lake Of The Ozarks area, but would suggest trying another resort. Although, the best aspect of this place was that it was on a good area of the lake where the boat traffic was not as bad.

www.breezypointresortozarks.com

Storybook Gardens WI Dells

2008-02-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

Storybook Gardens

Wisconsin Dells

The Storybook Gardens attraction in the Wisconsin Dells was built in the 1950's. It is one of the first tourist attractions in the Dells. I remember going there several times as a very young child. My husband and I took our first daughter there when she was a year or two old. Compared to all of the super-mega attractions, waterparks, and resorts of today at the Wisconsin Dells, Storybook Gardens is a small, aged attraction that has become engulfed by the other large attractions around it. After taking our first child their, many years after being there myself as a child, I can say that really nothing had changed and it was run down with age. It was obvious that not much money had been put into the place to keep it up to date or to compete against the ever growing attractions of the Wisconsin Dells. Actually, Storybook Gardens really can't compete at all. I am sure that the piece of land that Storybook Gardens sits on is worth a fortune, and I am surprised it hasn't sold out by now.
The last time we were there with our daughter we walked through and viewed all the old exhibits that I remembered as a child. There are statues, figures, and displays throughout the outdoor "garden" that represents many of the well known nursery rhymes and fairytales that we all know. There were some animals likes 3 baby pigs in the Three Little Pigs exhibit, bunnies in the Peter Rabbit exhibit, as well as some ducks and geese. There are some places for photo opportunities. You can go in the Three Bears House and sit at their table and be goldilocks eating porridge with them. There is a yellow train that you can ride, which even goes through a tunnel.

Recently, Storybook Gardens has been changed to Timbavati Wildlife Park & Storybook Gardens. We have not visited since this change, but I assume that either Storybook Gardens was either bought out or they have added this Wildlife Park to possibly further business. I do not know? The attraction is being advertised as two great attraction parks for one price. The website is mainly Timbavati Wildlife Park with a Storybook Gardens button at the bottom that you can click on. The website and pictures on the internet do show the same Storybook Garden features and train. There is animals that have been added such as tortoises, kangaroos, tigers, ant eater, white lion, monkeys, and birds. You can also feed a giraffe and baby zebra and go on a pony ride.
Storybook Gardens and Timbavati Wildlife Park is open May 6th-September 15th.

http://www.storybookgardens.net/

Wisconsin Dells Deer Park

2008-02-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Wisconsin Dells Deer Park

If you are visiting the Wisconsin Dells with children, then the Wisconsin Dells Deer Park is a great place to visit. This deer park has been in business for over 50 years and is one of the original attractions in the Wisconsin Dells. It is a family petting zoo that is 40 acres of paved and groomed wooded trails, where you can view many types of animals and pet many varieties of deer. There are lots of deer throughout the park wandering around that you can pet and feed. Upon entering the park through the gift shop, you can purchase special crackers that you can feed the deer. Besides deer, there are many other animals to view, such as goats, birds, llamas, horses, emus, lemurs, elk, bison, and pigs. The deer park is open from the first week in May to the last week in October. Among the hustle and bustle of the Wisconsin Dells, this is a nice peaceful and calm activitiy that you can do with your family or children. It's a great place to be hands on with the deer, which are well known in Wisconsin, and to get some great photos of the kids.

http://www.wisdeerpark.com/

House On The Rock Inn

2008-02-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

House On The Rock Inn

Dodgeville Wisconsin

If you are looking for nice accomodations in the town of Dodgeville Wisconsin, then the best choice is the House On The Rock Inn. My husband and I and our 1 year old daughter stayed here in the summer of 2002. The hotel is located in the small and quite town of Dodgeville. It is a very nice place that is up to date, clean, and has the northwoods decor of Wisconsin. The rooms are nice, the service is good, and most of all it has a very nice indoor and outdoor pool area. The indoor pool area consists of a regular pool and a kids water play area that has a large submarine marine that the kids can play in and go down the small slides that come out of it. There is also an outdoor pool that has a concrete deck area around it with seating. The pool area also has a whirlpool. The House On The Rock Inn also has an exercise facitlity, a lounge, a spa, and a nearby golf course. The House On The Rock is associated with the House On The Rock attraction, which is 7 miles from the Inn. This is a house that was designed by Alex Jordan, which is filled with many crazy sights that fullfill the senses. The House On The Rock Inn is also located right by Governor's Dodge State Park. This is a wonderful state park that offers lots of hiking, great scenery, a nice beach, and very good camping. I recommend visiting this state park. If you want to spend a weekend at Governor's Dodge State Park, but don't want to camp, then the House On The Rock Inn is a great option for lodging. In Dodgeville Wisconsin there are restuarants and fast food franchises. There is also some shopping and a Super Walmart for purchasing needed items and supplies. The House On The Rock Inn is a fine facility and I recommend it.

www.thehouseontherock.com

Crown Paradise Club, Cancun Mexico

2008-02-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

Crown Paradise Club
Cancun Mexico

Our family just got back from our winter vacation to Cancun Mexico. We traveled from February 7th-12th, 2008 with our three kids ages 6 1/2, 4, and 20 months. During this trip we stayed 5 nights at the Crown Paradise Club in the hotel zone in Cancun. We booked our trip online through Apple Vacations. The reason why we picked this resort is because it was the only hotel that we could find, at the time, were we could book 5 people in a standard room. It is a small struggle when you have a family of 5 and you are looking for hotel accomodations. Babies are considered "a person," even when they are small and sleep in a crib. Most times you can fib and say you have 4 people, but we were looking for an all inclusive resort and we wanted to make sure that all 5 of us could legally eat. Therefore, we chose the Crown Paradise Club for its 5 persons in a room policy, its all inclusive meal plan, and its family friendly atmosphere.

We ended up having a good time at the Crown Paradise Club, but it wasn't the best vacation resort we have ever stayed at. The Crown Paradise Club is definitely a value resort. That is the best way to describe it. The price we payed was very reasonable, but you get what you pay for. It is not a five star resort. If you are looking for luxury, pay the money to stay somewhere else. I would rate this hotel at 3 1/2 stars. The Crown Paradise Club is a family resort. Most of the guests there have kids. If you are a couple or honeymooner that doesn't want to be around a bunch of kids constantly, then stay somewhere else. We found that a lot of the things we read on all the mixed reviews on the Tripadvisor website were true. The reviews we read prior to our trip did prepare us well, so we were not surprised. Many of the negative aspects weren't a huge deal and it didn't ruin our stay.

There are pros and cons about this resort. When arriving at the Crown Paradise Club we found the looks of the hotel decent, but not glamourous. Probably the worst part of the hotel is the front desk. It seems to be a common problem that people are not able to check into their rooms right away. We arrived at 4:30pm and were told that we were assigned a room, but it wasn't ready yet. We were told it would be ready after 6pm. I found that to be extrememly late. When we went back to the front desk at 6pm, they were then searching for a room for us. I don't know if they gave our room away or they didn't have a room for us.

During our stay our room was always cleamed by 10am and it seemed that the housekeeping was always done quickly throughout the resort, so it was obvious something else was going on. It is also clear that the front desk overbooks it rooms, because there are complaints about people not getting there reserved room and being shuffled to another hotel. When we got into our room after 6pm, I was just relieved that we got a room with two beds. I had heard complaints of groups of 4 or 5 people that got a room with only one bed. Our hotel room was very basic. The room was entirely painted concrete with a tile floor. It felt weird and strange at first, but I quickly got over it. Everything in the resort is made of concrete and all the floors are tile, no carpet. You just have to realize that this place gets hits by hurricanes, and that is how things are built there. Everything has to be able to stand up to a hurricance and has to be repaired quickly, so I don't blame the building for how its are made. Our room seemed to be clean enough and the furniture was ok and the decorating was minimal. Almost all the rooms have a view of the ocean and a balcony. When walking into our room, it did have a strong musty smell. However, after the first day we didn't notice it anymore. You have to realize that many accomodations in tropical places gets that musty smell. It is just the damp air that makes it hard for things to dry out. On our first day, I was concerned that we only had 2 towels and 1 washcloth for the five of us. After that first day the towel situation did get better. The hotel seems to only have one set of towels for the whole hotel. The maid picks up the towels when she cleans the room in the morning. Then everyday about 4-5pm, there would be a knock on the door with a delivery of towels. It worked out, because we only showered about 5pm everyday after we were done swimming and getting ready for dinner. They only gave us 5 towels and basically no washclothes. We made do and it was ok. Like I said the room was fairly clean. There were some small ants on the balcony, but it wasn't a big issue. My kids did drink some of the water at the hotel and no one got sick. So the water must have been filtered well. The front desk at the resort is not very helpful. We tried to avoid it for the rest of our stay. We had some problems with our room keys that kept getting deactivated. We also asked for a key to the room safe, since the safe was not the usual punch code type, but needed an actual key. The front desk said they were out of keys. That was extremely odd. Even if they had a key for our safe, I am sure it wasn't very secure anyway, if they have multiple keys that can access multiple safes. There are two towers of rooms at the hotel. We were in the tower that was on the main side of the hotel where the front desk and main lobby was. There were 3 elevators on our side. The elevators were constantly running, but the wait was never extrememly long or agrivating. The second tower is a little farther away and supposedly isn't as updated and renovated as the tower we were in. In that tower there is a "second lobby," which looks like it might have been the main lobby some time ago. This second lobby is now filled with the representatives from all the travel companies like Apple, Expedia, and Funjet. We met our Apple representatives there a couple times and she was very helpful. The lobby of the hotel is basic. There is seating areas, a basic concrete water feature that runs through the lobby, and a bar. Several nights a week there are vendors that come and set up throughout the lobby to sell various stuff. There was nothing for us that was worth buying, but there was an interesting artist that created pictures with spray paint that was fun to watch. There were also roaming people with birds, little monkeys, and a dressed up burro that you could pay to get your picture taken with. We didn't do it, but the kids petted the animals. At night in the lobby there are also some musicans that play music and the little kids run around and dance. In the main lobby of the hotel there are some "information representatives" that try to get you to stop to talk to them. They try to tell you that they want to explain to you what is included in your hotel stay. We avoided them, because we were pretty sure they were time share representatives. We did stop at the conceires desk twice to check our departing flight information. She was helpful. The bellman at the hotel were also fairly quick with delivering our bags and coming to our room to pick them up on the day we left.

The pool areas at the Crown Paradise Club was nice. We have been to more fabulous hotel pools before, but the pools were fine and we had a good time. Our goals of this trip were to just relax and hangout by the pool everyday. We didn't want to drag our little kids on a bunch of tours and excursions, so we spent most of our time in the pool area. There are several pool areas at the Crown Paradise Club. We spent the majority of our time at the activity pool, which was the largest of the pools. The activity pool has a shallow area with lounge chairs in it, then steps that go into the pool. The end of the pool has a wall that overlooks the beach and ocean and makes an illusion that the pool blends into the ocean. There are several guys that direct the activities around this pool. They play music constantly and there are continuous activities in and around the pool that you can participate in. They have various contests for adults and kids and have activities such as water polo, water aerobics and water basketball. If you do not want to be around the noise, music, and flury of activity, there is an adult pool on the other side of the resort. There is a second pool that is next to the activity pool that you can still hear the activity director and music, but it is a little more relaxed. There is a large crescent shaped pool and a kiddie pool that lookes like it might have been a large jacuzzi some time ago. However, as the day goes by, this pool looses its sun quicker due to the fact that the sun goes behind the tower of rooms on that side. This pool is a little chilly, due to the lack of constant sun exposure. Behind the tower of rooms that we stayed in there is also a set of two waterslides. It is supposed to be for teens, but everybody uses it. There is not a life guard on duty, but there really isn't a need. The longer of the two waterslides was extremely slow. Due to the slow slide and the fact that you could see the people through the green tube of the slide, it was quite humourous to watch. This waterslide areas also looses its sun quickly, due to the sun disappearing behing the tower. It can get chilly and windy here, so use the slide early in the day. Inside the hotel near the lobby is an indoor pool. It has a "A" line roof over it to give it some protection from the sun or rain. It is actually a good sized pool. Also in this area is a kids club. You have to fill out a form for each kid the first time you go in. They check the kids in and out, so you can leave your kids there in the supervised area if you want to. We went in with our kids for a while on one day. Our kids do not like us leaving them, which is fine with us. Inside the kids club there is a section with a pirate ship and many little waterslides. It looked nice. Our two older kids went down a few of the slides. My 6 1/2 year old said that the bottom of the slides were a little too shallow for her and she hurt her butt each time she slid down. Again, everything is made of concrete. There were not any rubber mat protection at the bottom of the slides. Adults can stand in the water near the pirate ship area, but can't go in the other area to stand near the bottom of the other slides. I don't know why. Also in the kids club area there was a trampoline, face painting and art projects, a TV area, and basketball. There is a separate babysitting area for babies and young children. You can check your young child in there for babysitting, for an additional cost. There were toys to play with, ride on toys, and an inflatable bounce house, and a small shallow pool with a baby slide.

When checking into the hotel they give you a towel card. You have to turn the card in to receive beach towels. Once again, the hotel is short on towels so you have to go early to get some. Some times we would take the towels back to our room to dry them out and reuse them. They carefully check that you return all your towels. If you loose your towel card they will charge you for it. The front desk wants you to return your keys, towel cards, and not loose your wristbands or they will charge you. The hotel states that saving chairs by the pool is not allowed. Everyone still does it though. People already have their seats saved early in the morning. We saw seats saved all day where no one ever showed up. There were people at the pool that layed in the same spot in the same lounge chair every single day. We didn't save seats, but usually found a chair by the pool. We would just claim one chair for our family, since we never really sat there. We were too busy chasing our kids around.

There is a beach in the front of the resort and the water was nice with some stronger waves. You could walk all the way down the beach in front of all the hotels if you wanted to. The beach isn't very wide between the resort and ocean, but it is fine. There are lounge chairs on the beach for free and plenty of sand to play in. There are some life guards from the hotel watching the beach. My daughter cut her hand one day and the lifeguard was helpful cleaning it and bandaging it. There are local people walking up and down the beach selling items or wanting to braid hair. We did not find them troublesome and a quick nod of your head "no" will keep them walking away. There is a fresh water shower provided, to rinse all the sand off.

The Crown Paradise Club is all inclusive, which is very nice. It is great to be able to get food whenever you want and not have to pay for everything at each meal or each time you want a snack. In the middle of the resort, by the pool area, is the buffet area. It is open everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It closes briefly between each meal time. It is closed from 5-6pm each day before dinner. The breakfasts were good. My favorite was the omelttes from the made to order egg station and the french toast with lots of cinnamon that you could sprinkle on top of it. At breakfast they also always had ceareal, waffles, pancakes, some mexican food like tamales and tostadas, smoothies, fruit, toast, breads, bacon, sausage, oatmeal, vaious milks, juices, and coffee. At lunch and dinner you could always count on the buffet having sandwiches, desserts, stir-fry in the evenings, mexican tostadas, soft tacos, ice cream, breads, pizza, hamburgers, spagehetti in the evening, fruit, and a salad bar. There was also jucies, milk, and soda. At the buffet you can eat inside or outside. The tables and chairs are plastic. There is an adult only section. We usually got a table fairly easily. If we had to wait is was only about 5 minutes. Sometimes we grabbed a table and had to flag someone down to clear and clean it. There were high chairs and were most of the time easy to claim. The buffet was convenient. You will spend time jumping up and down to go get food, especially if you have kids. Getting food and waiting in line for certain food items were not to bad. The ice cream line is usually the longest wait. The ice cream was good, but it was hard ice cream which took each person longer to scoop themselves. The food at the buffet was pretty good. By the end of the trip you do get a little sick of the same food, but it is not too bad. The buffet is a cafeteria, so everything is mass produced and isn't displayed in a beaufiful presentation. So do not expect beauftiful presented gourmet meals. During the day there was pleny of food options by the pool. Next to the pool there is a station that is constantly grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, and has tortilla chips. There is also a great Japanesse place right by the activity pool. It opens at lunchtime and closes at 5pm. They had awesome Japanesse food like stir-fry, fried rice, and tempura. They also had great susi. I loved the fried shrimp and the fried rice. There are two bar areas by the pool for getting drinks. They had daquaris, mixed drinks, beer, soda, and water. We drank many non-alcholci strawberry daquaris and miami vices. Much of the food at the resort is a little watered down, but not the alcholic drinks. They do give you very small cups, so you will have to refill your drinks a lot. Some people bring bigger cups of their own and they will fill them up for you. When we first arrived at the resort I was a little worried that the hotel would be full of a lot of drunks with the all inclusive drinking. When we were waiting in line to check in to the hotel, there was a drunk older lady behind us in line that kept trying to talk to us. It ended up fine and there was not a huge problem with intoxicated people walking around. I only saw one other girl in the elevator that was obviously hammered. The resort is mostly filled with families and they don't allow the "spring breaker type," so it wasn't a huge issue. There are a good number of restuarants that are open for dinner in the resort. You must call during the day to make reservations, if you want to eat in one of the restaurants. We didn't have trouble getting through on the phone like some people said they did. Not all restaurants are opened everynight, so you have to ask. One thing that is noticed by all is that they do not fill up the restuarants. They will say that the restuarant is booked full, but they only fill about 1/4 to half of the restuarnt. I think they do this to try to get as many people to eat dinner at the buffet as they can. At one restuarant my husband looked at the reservation sheet on the hostest desk and he saw that they only had 5 reservations for each time slot. At the Crown Paradise there is a Mexican, seafood, Italian, French, and a steakhouse. We ate at the Italian restaurant and the steakhouse called Wayne's Boots. The atomsophere at the Italian restuarant was nice. The atmospere at Wayne's Boots wasn't as great, but they had a mechanical bull that people could ride on. When we were there they only had 5 people try to ride the bull and then they closed it down. They probably only do it in small shifts. My husband won the bull riding contest and stayed on for one minute. The food at Wayne's Boots was horrible, but we enjoyed watching Daddy ride the bull. The food at the Italian restuarant wasn't the greatest either. My husband was convinced that they take the same food off the buffet and serve it at the resutarants. Later at night, after dinner, they serve late night snack food in the lobby. They have hamburgers, chicken strips, tortilla chips and stuff. Overall the food was decent. We definietly ate a lot. I noticed my shorts feeling a little tighter and at one point my stomach looked like it was 6 months pregnant. EEEK! It is funny that you see people at the resort at the beginning of your vactation. When you see them a few days later they look visibly swollen from eating and drinking so much.

The resort also has a miniature golf course, where our kids played twice. The course is made of concrete and not extremely decorated, but they liked it. On the roof of the hotel, next to Wayne's Boots, there are also basketball courts.

Each night there is a different show in the theatre at the Crown Paradise Club. I wasn't expecting that much and was figuring the shows probably wouldn't be that great. We have seen bad local talent on other vacations before and was figuring that the shows at this resort would be the same. I was pleasantly surprised and the shows were pretty good. My 6 year old daughter and I went to the show everynight and enjoyed it. The hotel's activitiy directors work really hard during the day directing the activities and contests by the pool and monitoring the kids club and then they perform everynight in the show. They have a different show for each night of the week. Then on some nights a bus comes to the resort at 10:30 at night to take guests to places like the CoCo Bongo nightclub and Senor Frogs. The activity director staff goes on those outings too. The guys and girls work hard and are always happy and entertaining. We saw the show Crown Paradise Idol which they did performed Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, and Cher. We also saw the Fantasy Show where they performed Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Shrek, Barney, Beauty and the Beast, Speedy Gonzallas, Little Mermaid, Tarzan, and various other characters. The costumes in this show were great. The kids really liked it. The next night we saw the Circus Show. It had a Cirque de Soile theme and had acrobats, performing dogs, a girl that spun on a hoop in the air, a bendable flexible guy that did tricks and put his whole body in a little box, and a girl that spun tons of hula hoops all over her body. The last night they performed Grease (in Spanish it was called Vaselina.) The shows were well produced and rehearsed, the dancing was good, the costumes were nice, and the shows were entertaining and fun. All the singing was lip synced, but it was still great. The shows start at 9pm or 8pm for the more kid orientated shows. Before each show they have some sort of contest with audience participation, which is usually pretty funny.

We stayed at the resort and hung by the pool everday, except one day we took a bus down the hotel zone. The public bus was cheap and picked us up near the front of the hotel. The bus was safe. When taking the bus, sit in your seat quickly and have your kids hold on because they drive pretty fast. When you get on the bus tell the driver where you are going. There isn't designated bus stops, so they stop wherever. Sit near the front and keep reminding the driver where you are going, because sometimes they forget. We went to the La Isla mall. It was a nice mall and looked fairly new. It had many stores and restaurants. We don't enjoy shopping that much in Mexico. Even in the mall there was people trying to talk to you to sell you something or to get you to go into their store. We went to La Isla mall to go to the Interactive Aquarium there, so that the kids could participate in a dolphin program. The aquairum is small and we got there way to early before our scheduled time for the dolpin program. There are fish displays to look at, a shark and turtle tank where you can pet a nurse shark, some starfish to look at, dolpins to look at, and a shark exhibit. My 6 1/2 year old daughter, 4 year old son, and myself did the educational program with the dolphins. Our kids were too young to do the swim with the dolphins program, so we did the educational program that consisted of one dolphin that we got in the water with. We got to pet the dolphin, did hand signals to make it perform, learned some facts about dolphins, and had the dolphin kiss our cheek. It was fine and the kids liked it.

We had good weather while visiting Mexico in February. Most days it was 80 degrees. On the day we went to the mall and did the dolphin program, it grew cooler and cloudy in the later afternoon. The next day happened to be cooler, windy and cloudy. There was one short downpour of rain that sent everyone running from the pool area. On that day our two older kids and Daddy painted pottery at the hotel. There are people by the pool that set up an area where you can choose a piece of pottery and pay to paint it. They then spray it with a clear sealer and you can pick up your creation in an hour.

Our family had a nice, well needed vacation in Cancun. We had a good time. We did like Mexico better this time than when we went there 8 years ago. We did notice that Cancun looked a little more cleaned up than when we were there previously. The airport was also nicely renovated and organized much better. We had a good time at the Crown Paradise Club, although we would probably choose to try another resort next time we go to Cancun. The Crown Paradise is good if you are looking for value and if you want a family orientated, all inclusive resort.

http://www.crownparadise.com/

The Building For Kids, Appleton WI

2008-02-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Building For Kids

Appleton, WI

If you are looking for a day trip with the kids or to just get out of the house, The Building For Kids in Appleton Wisconsin is a great idea. This is a children's museum that has been recently expanded and renovated in downtown Appleton on College Avenue. We usually take our young children there about once or twice a year, usually in the Winter when we are searching desperately for something to do. My older daughter has also gone there for a school field trip to attend special programs that the musueum offers. The Building Of Kids is now two levels of permanent and temporary exhibits. There is a lot of scheduled events planned thoughtout the year. You can log onto the Building For Kids website to view the activities and events that are scheduled from month to month. One year we went to the Building For Kids on New Years Eve Day. Every hour on the hour there was a quick parade around the building and a Happy New Year Celebration. Kids were able to wear party hats, blow horns, and through confetti. There are often familar kids characters appearing at the museum and sometimes special storytimes with favorite storybook characters. You can also arrange birthday parties at the children's museum. The Building For Kids has many permanent exhibits that are guaranteed to always be there when you visit. There is a tree house that is linked between the two floors of the museum. There is also a waterplay area where kids can put on raincoats and play in the several watertables. The Da Vinci Studio has ongoing art and science projects that kids can freely participate in. Kids can work the Boldt Crane, where they can man the controls and pick up and move around electromagnetic pieces. There is an area for small children, ages 0-3 years old. It is an area where the little ones can crawl or toddle around, play, climb, and go down a small slide. Station 99 contains a firetruck, where kids can dress up in a fireman's outfit and play in the firetruck. My kids favorite exhibit is the newer "Move It" exhibit. This is an area with lots of foam balls that the kids can haul around and place in the many suction tubes built thoughout the exhibit area. They can watch the balls travel though the clear tubes and then wait for the balls to dump over their heads. The museum has an airplane that kids can sit in and pretend to fly. Downstairs at the kid's museum there is a Kid's Town where kids can play in a mini doll hospital, gas station, convenience store, car wash, diner, and drive around little scooter cars. Upstairs there is a golf simulator, which is fun for the older kids. An exhibit loved by little boys is an area where they can play with lots of trucks in a huge pile of cut up rubber that looks like it came from tires. Lastly there is a huge human heart that kids can climb through and then slide down the slide

that comes out of it. The Building For Kids in Appleton Wisconsin is opened everyday but Mondays. Log onto the website for admission fees. Children 0-1 years old are admitted for free.

http://www.kidmuseum.org/

Antigua Bay/Howard Johnson WI Dells

2008-02-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Antigua Bay & Howard Johnson

Wisconsin Dells

We have stayed twice at this hotel in the Wisconsin Dells. The first time we stayed there for a weekend getaway when our oldest daughter was a year old. The second time we had to stay there, because other family members were staying there for a wedding we had to attend in the Wisconsin Dells area. The outside of this hotel and the lobby are decent and it appears to be an ok hotel from the outside view. Once you get to your room you realize that the rooms and hallways are older, outdated, and not that clean. Both times we were there, the hotel was pretty crowded and there were more people hanging out in the hallways than you usually see at hotels. I thought that this hotel attracted lesser quality of people. Some of the people there made me want to watch my kids closer and make sure that my hotel room door was double locked. The Antigua Bay/Howard Johnson Hotel contains an indoor and outdoor waterpark. The indoor waterpark is much smaller than the other bigger mega resorts in the Wisconsin Dells. It appears to not be as well kept and as clean as other resorts in the area. The waterpark is limited and contains one waterslide, 1 kiddie frog slide, a hot tub, a couple of fountains, and some floating statues for kids to crawl around and sit on top of in the water. The pool is zero depth entry. There is limited seating in the pool area and there is a small bar/snack bar. There is also a small outdoor waterpark. It has a larger shallow kiddie pool with a medium kiddie slide, and another pool with a small waterslide. The outdoor pool area is older, outdated, and there was much chipping paint. Both waterparks in the hotel are not even closely comparable to the larger, more popular resorts in the Wisconsin Dells. One gross moment we had in the waterpark was when my husband suddenly spotted poop in the pool. At first he thought he was seeing things, but upon taking a closer look he found it was. He quickly told my daughter and I to get out of the water. He pointed it out to the weird looking lifeguards, and they looked completely disgusted. Another couple moms came over to us and asked if that is what they thought it was. They closed the pool to blast it with chemicals for a portion of the day. The Antigua Bay hotel also has a conference center and a gift shop in the lobby. An good thing about the hotel is that it contains the Green Mill restaurant. They have great pizza and Italian food. The decor of the restaurant is nice and they have some nice fish tanks for the kids to look at while waiting for their food. I don't recommend the Antigua Bay/Howard Johnson in the Wisconsin Dells. It is a value hotel that is not worth it for the money that you would save by staying there. Spend the extra money to stay at the bigger resorts in the Wisconsin Dells, such as the Great Wolf Lodge, The Wilderness, or The Kalahari. Only venture into the Antigua Bay/Howard Johnsons to go to the Green Mill restaurant.

www.aniguabay.com

Ely, MN

2008-02-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

Ely Minnesota

In August of 2006, our family spent a week vacationing in Ely Minnesota. This was actually our first visit to the state of Minnesota. At the time, our three children were 5 yrs, 2 1/2 yrs, and 2 months old. Ely is way up north in the state of Minnesota and is most know for the Boundry Waters Canoe Wilderness. A majority of visitors come to canoe the boundry waters along the Canadain border during day trips or lengthy camping trips. We did not experience this due to us having little children, so we stayed on land. Ely offers resorts, motels, bed & breakfasts, and camping accommodations. There is also a newer, larger resort called the Grand Ely Lodge Resort, which also has a conference center, restaurant, and boat rentals. We stayed at the Timber Trail Lodge resort, which is located 7 miles from Ely on Farm Lake. It has 1 to 6 bedroom cabins and some motel style rooms. We stayed in a cabin that was near the beach area. It was the Norway Pine cabin. The cabin was ok. It wasn't the best cabin we ever stayed in, but it wasn't terrible. I guess the aspect of this cabin that we didn't like, was that there was not a living room area to relax or hang out in. Our cabin had a kitchen with table and chairs and just a small bench area. The cabin had a screened in porch. three bedrooms that were decent size, and a bathroom that was a little small and outdated. Outside our cabin we had our own firepit, picnic table, and a wooden bench swing. There were some cabins that were bigger and maybe the accomodations were a little more comfortable or nicer. We picked this cabin due to the fact that it was close to the beach, so that we could easily monitor the kids. The kids liked the beach and there were lots of other kids to play with. My daughter made several girlfriends her own age and she was sad to leave. The resort also had numerous docks and boats and motors to rent. Once a week the resort schedules a float plane to land at the resort. You can sign up to go for a ride in it. One night the resort also had a folk band come and play outside on the lawn, right next to our cabin. The Timber Trail Lodge is also an outfitter for canoeing on the boundry waters. You will see people taking off on their canoeing/camping trips from the resort's beach. Many people canoe for days and stop and camp along the way. We have heard it is a fun trip, but it is for adults or older children. The outfitters help design your route, select campsites, supply you with food & equipment, and get you all the permits you need. As far as other activities, there is not a ton of stuff to do in the area beside canoeing. At first we were kind of worried about what we were going to do all week. We then relized that we were forced to relax and do nothing, which was quite nice. Most of the time we stayed at the resort and let the kids swim and play. We only did two activities outside the resort. We went to the International Wolf Center. This is in Ely and is an eduacational center all about the Wolf. There are many displays, educational presentations, hands-on kids area, and movies to see. There is also a glassed in exhibit that housed several wolves that you can see. On another day we journeyed farther away to the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary. This was a cool place and we all liked it. The sanctuary is 2 hours Nortwest of Duluth and the nearest town is Orr. It is out in the middle of nowhere and it took some time to find the place, even with navigation in our mini-van. The story goes that there was this man, Vince Shute, who long ago owned a logging company. Black bears became a nuisance on his property, because they were attracked to the smells of the men cooking food. The men routinely shot the bears. After a decade, Vince relized that the bears weren't mean, just hungary. In the early 1950's, he set food out in the meadow to keep the bears away from the buildings. He ended up develping special relationships with some of the bears and by the early 1980's he was a local celebrity. People came from all over to see the bears. When the bears were in the meadow they accepted people, but when they went back into the wild they exhibited their natural fear of humans. When Vince's health started to deteriorate, he began to worry about what would happen to the bears when he was gone. In 1993, at the age of 80, he donated his land for the formation of The American Bear Association. After he passed away, the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary continued his legacy. Normally, people are advised never to feed wild bears. It was decided, however, that continuing to feed the bears that migrated here was a neccesity. If they stopped feeding the bears then the bears would venture to other property, approach humans, and become a nuisance. In the days when Vince became a celebrity and visitors would appear to see the bears, the people would come and feed the bears inappropriate items that were unhealthy. It was even reported that people would pour beer into the bears mouths. The bears at the sanctuary are now fed by trained volunteers and they feed the animals only natural food that is acceptable in a bears diet. When you visit the sanctuary, you will see lots of volunteers walking among the bears and feeding them. They do not hand feed the bears, interact with the bears, or make eye contact with them. They hide some of the food so the bears have to find it and they also place food in hallowed out logs and such. When you make a trip to the Vince Shute Sanctuary, you take a short bus ride from the parking lot. The bus pulls right up to the stairs of the observation deck. The large observation deck is built up high and built to protect vistitors from being completely out of reach of the bears. My daughter had a great observation. She said that the people were in the cage and the bears were free. That is basically right. When we were there we saw tons of bears walking around, eating, lounging, and playing. There were huge bears, smaller bears, and cubs. It was amazing. There were many volunteers slowly walking among the bears and setting out food. It is a sight. There were some volunteers up on the deck to give talks about the bears you were looking at and to answer questions. The Sanctuary is open Memorial Day to Labor Day. They start decreasing the food supply to the bears in the fall and eventually the bears migrate away to go hibernate for the winter. If you go to the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary's website, you can read profiles about specific bears, which is interesting. There is a even a 3-legged bear. At the sanctuary there is a gift shop where all the proceeds go back to feeding the bears. As far as other things to do in Ely, there is a small list. You can fish, hike, golf at the two golf courses, or view wildlife. There is much wildlife around Ely Minnesota. A few of the unique species to look for is moose, black bear, and wolves. The Northern Lights can be seen throughout the year. It is most commonly seen in fall & winter along the edge of many of the lakes. I guess 40 minutes away is a casino. In the winter there is ski and snowmobile trails. In the fall, hunting is popular. There is a downtown in Ely that containas a strip of stores and some restuarants. There was quite a few stores specializing in name brand outdoor gear and outdoor clothing. We did do some dining out. We ate at Sir G's, which had good pizza and Italian food. We also ate at a busy indoor/outdoor restuarant downtown, which I cannot recall the name of. We also went to the Grand Ely Lodge one night to have dinner. It was decent and the kids were able to eat for free. Our family frequented Sherry's Northwoods Ice Cream quite a bit during the week. We also went to a Dairy Queen and Subway in Ely. The people in far northern Minnesota were quite different. Many very relaxed, hippy type individuals with long beards and long hair, displaying the natural look with their casual and outdoor wear and sandals. The main thing we liked about our trip to Ely Minnesota was that it forced us to slow down and relax. It is just that type of place!

http://www.ely.org/

http://www.timbertrail.com/

http://www.americanbear.org/

Turkey Run State Park

2008-01-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

Turkey Run State Park

Indiana

Turkey Run State Park in Indiana was a wonderful place that we enjoyed. We were lucky enough to visit there twice. The first time, My husband and I and our 1 year old daughter spent a weekend there and stayed in the Turkey Run Inn. The following summer we camped and my daughter was 2 years old and I was largely pregnant with my son. Turkey Run State Park has a lot to offer. The campground has 213 sites that are electrical and also has modern restrooms and showers. The Turkey Run Inn has 61 rooms, a conference center, and a full service restuarant called The Narrows. There is also a selection of cabins to choose from. There are 11 hiking trails and tons of beutiful scenery. Sugar Creek runs through the park and it is Indiana's most popular canoe stream. Turkey Run does not offer its own canoe services, but several local canoe liveries operate along the creek. Another awesome feature of the park is that there is an olympic size swimming pool. It is a $2.00 fee per person for the day. At the pool there is a bathhouse, wading pool, playground equipment, and concession stand. There are life jackets available there for little kids. Just a note, you are not allowed to have your small child wear a swimsuit with built in floaties. I had to put a different suit on my daughter and use one of their own lifejacks. The swimming pool is opened from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Another cool thing at Turkey Run State Park is the park's Nature Center. When you enter the Nature Center's building you will see education displays about the park, nature, and the animals. There are some live animals to view, such as snakes and frogs. There is also some hands on stuff for the kids. Towards the back of the building is a "nature window." This large window looks outside into a area of the woods where people are not permitted. The park rangers set out and hide food throughout the area. It attracts all sorts of wildlife. So basically, you can sit and watch out this window and see all different kinds of animals coming and going. It is like watching a live movie. When we were there we saw a large ground hog eating out of a log, hummingbirds feeding right up in front of the window, baby raccoons playing in the tree branches, squirels, birds, and a deer. It is very cool! The Nature Center is open year round and also includes scheduled programs, guided hikes, and planetarium programs. Turkey run has numerous picnice areas and some shelterhouses. You can also fish along Sugar Creek. There are 2 public access areas to put a boat in the water. There are bridle trails . You can catch a guided horseback ride from the saddle barn, which is open April to October. However, you are not permitted to bring your own horse. Overall, Turkey Run State Park is a great place. There is a fee at the front gate to get in. You will enjoy this place!

http://www.turkeyrunstatepark.com/

Governor's Dodge State Park

2008-01-31T06:32:00.000-08:00

Governor's Dodge State Park

Wisconsin

We have camped several times throughout the years at Governor's Dodge State Park. It is one of the larger, well-known parks in the state that is popular for camping. It is located 3 miles north of Dodgeville Wisconsin. It has 5,000 acres of steep hills, bluffs, and deep valleys. Governor's Dodge has two lakes and a waterfall. This state park is large and you will have to drive your car to get around. There are two main camping areas, Cox Hollow and Twin Valley. Both areas have a large amount of standard and tent campsites that are non-electric and electric. There is also a group tent site area called Hickory Ridge and a horse camp area. Lastly there are some backpack sites that you must hike into, which are a 1/2 mile from the parking lot. Governor's Dodge State Park has a very nice beach at it. It is a large beach with great soft sand. Around the beach is a big lawn area with picnic tables, a pavillion, and an indoor concession area that sells ice cream and treats. Near the beach is also a designated dog beach. Other amenities at Governor's Dodge are bike trails, non-motorized boat rentals, boating, canoe rentals, comfort station, disabled access, drinking water, dump station, fire rings, firewood, fishing, flush restrooms, handicapped access, hiking trails, nature area, parking, picnic areas, picnic tables, pit toliets, playground, shelter, showers, swimming, and water fill-up station. Governor's Dodge has a lot of great hiking at it. Before we had kids, my husband and I used to do a lot more hiking and would even take our dog with us. Now that we have small kids, we do not hike very much. When we do, we go short distances. At Governor's Dodge there is a very short hike to the Stevens Falls waterfall. It is an easy hike for little legs. If you are a hunter, deer hunting is allowed within the park during the designated deer season in November. When entering any of the state parks in Wisconsin, you must purchase a vehicle admission sticker. You can purchase it by the day or you can get an annual sticker for the entire year. The admission sticker is good for any of the state parks in Wisconsin. Trail passes must also be purchased if you are over 16 years old and are going to be biking, in-line skating, horseback riding, or cross country skiing on any of the designated trails. Firewood is not allowed to be brought into any Wisconsin state park from out of state or from over 50 miles away. I suggest waiting to buy firewood once you get there. You can buy firewood within the park or outside the park. Nearby, in the town of Dodgeville, there are some places for shopping and dining. There is a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, a Super Wal-Mart, gas stations, and Farm & Fleet. There is also some fast food places like Pizza Hut, Culvers, and a Country Kitchen. For entertainment there is a miniature golf course and the Cave Of The Mounds isn't too far away, if you want to tour some underground caves. If you want to visit Governor's Dodge, but aren't too keen on camping, there is the House On The Rock Inn. This is a very nice hotel that has an outdoor pool and an indoor pool area with a small kid's waterpark. I highly recommend Governor's Dodge State Park in Wisconsin for camping or just for a fun visit.

http://www.reserveamerica.com/

Waupaca Wisconsin

2008-01-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

Waupaca Wisconsin

If you are looking for a great small town in upper-central Wisconsin, then Waupaca would be a great idea for that much needed Northwoods vacation or getaway. Waupaca is a smaller community that is charming and wonderful with the greatest people. It is a treasure that not many people have heard about. Waupaca is situated between Stevens Point Wisconsin, which is 30 minutes away, and Appleton Wisconsin, which is 45 minutes away. Waupaca is also an hour west of Green Bay. Summertime is by far the best time of year in Waupaca. The days of summer are like gold to the local residents. There are several lodging options in the town. There are three hotels. There is the Best Western that is very nice and has an indoor waterpark, conference center and offers continental breakfast. There is also a Comfort Suites, which is by the Fox Fire golf course. This hotel also has a very nice indoor pool with kid's pool and jacuzzi. It also offers continental breakfast. The third hotel is the Village Inn. This is a little more of a value hotel and it has an indoor pool. Waupaca Wisconsin is also home to the Chain Of Lakes. Actually, in Waupaca County there is 22 lakes. In the summer the Chain Of Lakes are busy with boating, watersports, and swimming. There are many rental properites that are available for people looking for lodging accommodations on the lake. Within Waupaca there is also a fabulous state park called Harman Creek State Park. There is a great campground where you can have a campsite among the towering pine trees. Hartman Creek also has a beach, hiking trails, playground areas, and picnic areas. There are also some other private campgrounds in the area. In the nearby town of Weyauwega there is a Jellystone Park Campground. In Waupaca there are many activities that you can choose from to keep you entertained. Of course there are all the the lakes for boating, swimming, fishing, waterskiing, and wave running. Our favorite lakes in the area are the Chain Of Lakes and Spencer Lake. There are two places where you can rent boats . Both are on the Chain Of Lakes. Near downtown Waupaca there is South Park, which contains a playground, picnic areas, two pavilions, and a beach. South Park Beach is very nice and many of the local families hang out there. South park has two levels to it, upper and lower. In August, Waupaca hosts the popular Waupaca Area Triathlon at South Park. People come from all over to participate. The night before the event, they also put on a children's triathlon, which is fun. If you are not an athlete, it is still fun to go watch. If you are a golfer, there are five area golf courses. There is also a petting zoo in Waupaca call JR's Petting Zoo. It is next to JR's Bar and grill. The petting zoo is open Memorial Day to Labor Day and always has a selection of baby animals for children to pet or hold. They also have some bigger animals, like a black bear, monkeys, foxes, birds, a camel, and goats. In the back of the park is a walk-through deer area where you can feed and pet the deer. There are two miniature golf courses in Waupaca. Pioneer Falls Adventure Golf is off the frontage road of Highway 10 and the other is called Tom Thumb and is over by the Chain Of lakes. There is also a bowling alley in town. At the Expo Center there is an ice rink where you can go for open ice skating. There are several parks with playgrounds in Waupaca. There is Swan Park, which contains a large playground, baseball fields, a skate park, and hiking trails. Close to Swan Park is also Brainerd's Bridge Park, which is very pretty with a river that runs through it. The shallow river has little waterfalls over the rocks and rapids. There are picnic tables, a nice pavilion, playground, volleyball courts, and bathrooms. There is also Riverside Park and some additional playgrounds at the two local grade schools. Waupaca also has a dog park. There is also a place called the Red Mill, which is on Crystal Road. It is an old house/museum, which has a waterwheel on the side. You can walk behind the Red Mill building and see the beautiful landscaping and walk the quaint paths and over the covered bridge. There is also a small outdoor chapel where some people go to get married. Next to the Red Mill is a cute, small park that is bordered by a horseshoe creek. It is very pretty and peaceful there . Sometimes in the summer you see people floating in tubes along the stream there. If you are looking to some canoeing or tubing down the river, Dings Docks offers rentals and tours where they drop you off and pick you up at the end of our floating excursion. In the summer on Saturday evenings, the local waterski team puts on free waterski shows on the Chain Of Lakes in front of the local veterans' home. In mid-June in downtown Waupaca, there is a Strawberry Fest celebration with craft vendors. kids entertainment, food, and a duck race down the river. In the fall the town also has Fall-O-Rama which is a fall festival with craft vendors, food, and games. On 4th of July, Waupaca has a parade and fireworks in the evening above Shadow Lake at South Park. Also in mid-summer, there is an evening boat parade on the Chain Of Lakes. You can watch the lighted boat parade from The Harbor or from the lawn by the veteran's home. The local library is also nice and welcomes visitors to it's children's programs and other various events. In downtown Waupaca there is also a movie theatre with always has about four current movies playing. Waupaca also has a community rec center where you can go for some indoor gym time or to play basketball. In the Winter there is also activities such as ice skating, sledding, and snowmobiling. There are many snowmobile trails in Waupaca County. Hunting is also a big activity. Deer hunting season is huge in November. If you are a "hunter's widow" and are looking for some pampering, there is a spa in town. In the fall you can also go to Turner's Market, which has a pumpkin patch and activities for the kids. From summer through the fall, in downtown Waupaca next to to the library, there is a farmer's market where you can stop to pick up fresh produce. As far as shopping, there are many local shops downtown on Main Street. There are also many speciality shops along Highway QQ. In Waupaca there is also a K-Mart, a Piggly-Wiggly grocery store, a Pick-N-Save grocery store, a Farm & Fleet, and a Walgreens. There are actually a good amount of restaurants to choose, if you are looking to dine out. There are several great locally owned establishments that I recommend. In the summer the most popular is The Harbor. It is situated on the shore of the Chain Of Lakes on Highway QQ. You can eat inside or outside on the deck overlooking the water. There are also two bar areas. A couple times a week they have bands playing there. There are docks in front of the Harbor where you can park your boat and come ashore to eat or you can pull up to the dock and a waitress will come out to you. At the Harbor there is also an outside ice cream stand, a playground, and a large paddle wheel boat ride. You can buy tickets to go on a ride on this double decker paddle wheel boat and do some sight seeing around the Chain Of Lakes. Another popular restaurant by the Chain Of Lakes is the Wheel House . They serve pizza, sandwiches, and Italian selections. There is a bar and you can eat inside or outside on the boat shaped deck in the summer. Some other local restaurants are Weasel's Pizza, T.W. Martins House, which is an Irish Pub, Cronies, Kings Table, Northern Trails Inn, Waupaca Woods restaurant, Scoopers Ice Cream which is by the Wheel House, and two Chinese restaurants. There are also some chain restaurants, such as McDonald's, Culvers, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Burger King, Diary Queen, Subway, Hardees, a bakery, and Little Ceasar's Pizza. Waupaca is a great small town in Wisconsin to visit. Once you go there you will want to live there forever!

http://www.waupacaareachamber.com/

Sands Of Kahana In Maui

2008-01-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

Sands Of Kahana

On The Island Of Maui

In April of 2004 my husband's parents took the entire family to Maui for one week. My husband and I traveled with our 2 1/2 year old daughter and we left our 6 month old son at home with my parents. We also traveled with my husband's dad, step-mom, his sister, our brother in-law, our two nephews ages 6 and 4, and my husbands other brother and sister who are single and was in their mid-twenties. The Sands Of Kahana is a casual resort of towers of condos, located on Kahana Beach, midway between the Kannapali & Kapalua resorts. The Sands Of Kahana is located on the beach with views of Molokai & Lanai. You can pick from 1, 2, and 3 bedroom villas that are oceanfront, oceanview, or value view. We had a one bedroom acommodation. There was a foyer with closets leading into the codo. One closed had a stackable washer and dryer. The master bedroom had one queen sized bed. There was an attached master bathroom with vanity area, sink, toliet, and walk in shower. Off the hallway there was also a second bathroom with a toliet and tub/shower unit. There was a separate vanity and sink area outside. There was a full kitchen with stove, microwave, full size fridge, dishwasher, and a breakfast bar area with stools. There was a kitchen table that seated four people. The living room contained a section pull-out sofa, TV, and coffee table. There were two ceiling fans. One in the master bedroom and one in the living room. The condos do not have air conditioning. This is actually usually ok in Hawaii. Hawaii is warm, but the air is dry. In our five trips to Hawaii, we have never had to rely on air conditioning. Everything is open air and there are always heavenly breezes that keep you naturally cool. All the condos have a lanais, which is a balcony. Our balcony looked over the pool and the ocean. It was a nice view. The rest of our group was spread out in two other 2-bedroom condos. The two bedroom units were much bigger than our one bedroom unit. They had a larger foyer area and kitchen and also had a washer and dryer. There was a larger living room with an adjoined dining room that seated more people. The master bedroom with a king bed was open to the living room with a sliding door to separate it off when needed. There was a connected master bath also. There was a second bedroom with two single beds and an aditional bathroom. The two bedroom condo also had a balcony that was off the master bathroom. The Sands Of Kahana ammenities were decent, but not as extensive as the other luxury resorts on the island. There were a couple basic pools, tennis courts, a spa, a small restaurant with some nightly entertainment, a bar, beach activities center, outside grills, 15 championship golf courses nearby, childrens wading pool, a large beach, and a koi pond where kids can feed the fish during designated times. The positive things about the Sands Of Kahana is that the codos are large and good for large families or groups. The condos give you more room than a regular hotel room and you can cook meals and have food in your room to help save the cost of dining out. There are grocery stores near by. The Sands Of Kahana is a good value. The negative aspects of the resort is that it is not as luxurious as the bigger hotels on the island and does not offer as many amenities. The decorating of the rooms are a little outdated and a little musty smelling due to the tropical atmosphere and the fact that they are not daily like a hotel room. The condos do not have daily maid service or towel service. You do have to pick up yourself and wash your own towels in the washer and dryer. There is a housecleaning service and extra towel service, but you have to pay extra for it. The pools are not nearly as great as the luxury resorts. If you are planning on mainly beach hopping and not relying much on using the pool a lot, then it would be ok. The parking is self parking and the lots are very small with extrememly small and tight spaces. We battled the parking lot all week. The Sands Of Kahana is a timeshare, so you may be approached to attend a presentation. We were not bothered by sales people and it wasn't a big deal. Overall, the Sands Of Kahana is geared for value not luxury.

www.mauiresorts.com

Great Wolf Lodge Wisconsin Dells

2008-01-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

Great Wolf Lodge

Wisconsin Dells

This past weekend, in February 2008, our family of five spent the weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. We met relatives from my husband's side of the family there. This was our annual winter trip that we have done for the past 3 years in a row. It was my husband and I with our three kids, ages 6, 4, and 19 months and my husband's cousin's family who also have three young kids ages 5, 4, and 2 years. There was also my husband's Dad, Step Mom, brother, sister, our two nephews ages 10 and 8, my husband's Aunt, Uncle, other cousin and her husband. For our family, this was our third visit to Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. It is one of our favorite resorts in the Wisconsin Dells. In the past we have always stayed in a double queen suite, which is quite large with 2 beds, a pull out sofa, bathroom, mini bar area with sink, mirror, fridge, and microwave, and a TV and table and chairs. On this trip we stayed in a Kid's Cabin Suite, which ended up being awesome. Our room had one queen bed with a pull out sofa, table & chairs, fireplace, TV, large bathroom, mini bar area with sink, fridge and microwave. Also in the room was a walled off kids room that was trimmed in logs and had a sign above the entrance that read "Welcome To Our Cabin." Inside was a set of bunk beds, a single day bed, and another TV, just for the kids. It even contained a kid's bear skin rug on the wall. The entire suite was decorated in the Northwoods theme. The suite had more than enough room and I can't tell you how fabulous it was to have a separate room for the 3 kids and for each of them to have their own bed. It was great. My husband's cousin's family that have 3 kids had an identical suite right next door. The rest of the relatives had a 3 bedroom condo on the opposite end of the resort. It was a long walk to go over to their condo each time, but it was fine. We really couldn't complain. The condo section of the resort is built at the opposite end from the other hotel rooms and suites. Their 3 bedroom condo was decent. Not the best condo I have seen, but not the worst. The actual bedrooms and bathrooms were nice. The largest room was the same as a double queen suite. It had 2 beds, a pull out sofa behind a dividing wall, 2 TVs, and a bathroom. The second bedroom had only 2 beds and the third bedroom had a king bed. The second and third bedroom had to share a bathroom that was off the living room. The living room was kind of small. It had a pull out couch, 2 arm chairs, a table that seated four and a balcony. The kitchen was basic with full size fridge, stove, microwave, full stock of kitchenware, sink, dishwasher, and toaster. There was a breakfast bar that seated four. When you came into the condo there was a foyer area, that gave a little more room for placing extra items.

The main attraction at the Great Wolf Lodge is the indoor waterpark. It is big enough to satisfy just about any age and is divided into three sections. The front section contains a small lazy river, a tube slide, a family jacuzzi, an adult only jacuzzi, an activity pool with basketball and floating animals and logs to play on, a pool with 4 small slides for younger kids, 2 smaller body slides that look innocent but are surprisingly fast, and a pool with a climbing rope and floating logs to try to maneuver across. The second area has a baby pool for infants with fountains, squirting water features, and a little volcano with some infant slides. There is also a large tree house type building that has tons of rope bridges, stairs to climb up, lots of water blasters, buckets, and squirters, surprise splashes, a huge bucket that dumps every 5 minutes, and 3 medium sized waterslides. In the back of this area is the most extreme of the waterslides. It is called the tornado. Up to four people can sit in the tube. You slide down a steep drop before entering into a huge cone shaped room that resembles a candy corn, due to the color of it. You slide back and forth inside this cone going almost completely vertical. You then drop down into the hole at the bottom or small end of the cone and finish with a splash into the pool at the end. The third section of the waterpark there is a large wave pool, 2 larger tube slides, a children's play area with a water station with more squirting, dumping water, and spraying. There is also a small slide and three little jet skis that you can sit on and spray water at the other kids. In the back of this area of the indoor waterpark there is also a set of speed slides. There are four runways where you slide down on your stomach on a mat. You slide in a short loop and then slide down a racing hill. Four people can race at once. It is fun. If you visit the Great Wolf Lodge during the summer, you also have access to the outdoor waterpark that consists of even more options for water fun. Check-in time at the resort is 4pm, although you can arrive earlier to use the waterpark. Stop at the front desk to receive your wristbands and then you can swim and play until your room is ready. On your check-out day you are also allowed to use the waterpark for as long as you want that day. In the indoor waterpark area, there is also a concession stand area with hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, french fries, cheese curds, drinks, ice cream, pretzels, nachos, and various snacks. There is also a bar area with a TV that often has the current hot sporting event on it. We ended up buying some snacks at the concession stand, but it isn't cheap. We brought food with us to have in our room. We usually stuck some food in our beach bag to have throughout the time at the waterpark. There is a restaurant and a buffet at the Great Wolf Lodge. We did not visit either of those places during this trip. Since part of our group had the condo with the full kitchen, we met there for breakfast and dinner. On the first night my husband's Aunt brought a slow cooker of Chili and on the second night we ordered a bunch of pizzas. It was much easier than trying to go out to eat with such a large group. On previous trips we have dined at the restaurant and buffet at the Great Wolf Lodge. The restaurant was ok, but I don't think I would bother to go back again. The food was average and pre-made with a higher price tag. The service wasn't the best. We did like the breakfast buffet at Camp Critter Buffet that we went to twice on another trip. The food was good and plentiful and we received good service. There were many hot breakfast items, fruit, yogurt, pastries, and an omelet station. I would recommend not going at the peak time, especially on a Sunday before check out. Either go really early or for a late breakfast. On this trip we walked past the buffet on the way to get to the condo and there were people camped out waiting in the hallway to get in to eat breakfast. The Grand Lobby of the Great Wolf Lodge is really nice. There is lots to look at and it is totally decorated in the Northwoods theme with lots of wood and stuffed wildlife. In the lobby there is the Great Clock Tower Show. It plays at 10:00am, 8:00pm and 9:00pm and is only 10 minutes long. The kids like the show (so do I) and the music is really fun. At nighttime the kids usually put their pajamas on and we go sit in the lobby to see the show before going to bed. Also in the lobby, later at night, there is a bedtime story time where kids can sit by the big fireplace and hear some bedtime stories before going to their room to go to bed. The Great Wolf Lodge has a pretty good arcade in it also. It is not huge, but there is plenty of games for the really small kids on up to adults. We also thought that the games were pretty generous on spitting out tickets and that the choices of prizes were good and plentiful. On the far end, attached to the resort is Wiley's Woods. This is an indoor, 4-story, dry play area with climbing, bridges, slides, mazes, and tons of soft balls to shoot, catch, collect, and jump in. In Wiley's Woods there is also a Pizza Hut Express. Also in The Great Wolf Lodge there is a spa, an ice cream themed children's spa, a gift shop, a swim shop, and a Bear Claw Cafe where you can pick up coffee, candy, fudge, ice cream, and muffins to go. Another tip is that outside The Great Wolf Lodge there is an outlet mall with 30 name brand stores. It is good shopping for before, after, or during your trip.

The Great Wolf Lodge is a great resort and I highly recommend it. If you are making reservations you will notice that the room rates are higher than most regular hotels. Remember that this is not just a regular hotel. You are not only paying for your room, but also for all the admissions to the waterpark for your group. You are getting a much larger accommodation and hours of swimming and fun. You do not need to leave the resort. If you were to pay individually for hotel, waterpark tickets somewhere else, and entertainment, you would probably spend the same or more. The Great Wolf Lodge is not cheap, but well worth it.

www.greatwolflodge.com/Locations/Dells/

Jellystone Park & Three Bears Lodge WI

2008-01-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

Jellystone Park & Three Bears Lodge

Warrens WI

In August of 2007, our family of five with children ages 6, 3 1/2 , and 14 months, spent a weekend at Yogi's Jellystone Park in Warrens Wisconsin. It was our first time there. This is not your typical Jellystone Park establishment. It is huge and includes several waterparks, lots of activities, many accommodation choices, a full size hotel with indoor waterpark, and a conference center. When we learned about this place, we had to check it out. First of all there are quite a few lodging choices to pick from. The newest part of Jellystone is the Three Bears Lodge and Conference Center. This is a big hotel that also contains an indoor waterpark. The waterpark is included only for registered guests staying in the hotel. You can buy day passes for the indoor waterpark during certain hours and depending on capacity, if you are a camper. We found, however, that it was not a problem to get indoor waterpark passes anytime. The Indoor Waterpark is called Timber Falls and it has a wave pool, lazy river, activity pool, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, Yogi Bear picnic splash area with 4 waterslides, 4 mega waterslides, an arcade, activity room, and a snack bar. There are also newer villas that can accommodate up to 10-12 people. These are very nice log buildings that have bedrooms, lofts, living rooms, full kitchens, heat and air conditioning. The villas are very nice and some of them are free standing buildings and some are connected units. There are also Park Model Cabins which are basically permanent campsites that consist of a permanent trailer type building. They usually consist of a couple smaller bedrooms, a small living space, kitchen and bathroom. Most seem to have a deck built up to it and may have a fire ring and picnic table outside. Most of the villas and park model cabins are owned by private individuals and rented out by Jellystone Park when not in use by the owners. It is kind of like a timeshare deal. With this program, especially with all the villas, this is how the Jellystone Park was able to build itself up and build the Three Bears Lodge and conference center that is on the property. There are also Deluxe Camping Cabins that are smaller rustic cabins. They include a bedroom or two, a small kitchen, and table and chairs. There is not a bathroom but does include heat and air conditioning. There is a fire pit and picnic table outside. There are also Camping Cabins, which are the basic type that most people think of. It's a wooden building about 12x12 which consists of just sleeping areas inside. That is it. There is a picnic table and fire pit outside. At this Jellystone Park there is also many camping sites. Almost all the camping sites consist of people in all different types of RVs and campers. There are just rows after rows of people camping. There are a handful of tent campsites. Guess what? This is where we stayed. We have only tent camped and we don't own a camper. We could have gone for a villa or the hotel, but we hadn't done much camping that year or the previous year and the kids were excited to go. Be prepared to spend more. This is not your basic, cheap camping trip. We were there over a weekend for two nights and spent over $300. The place is big so there is a free express trolley that you can hop on to get to where you are going or you can just go for a ride like my kids did. Most people rent golf carts throughout their stay in order to get around. It is too crowded and inconvenient to drive your car around, so having the golf cart is very handy (and fun too.) Most people decorate their golf carts so that they can easily spot their own cart in the sea of parked golf carts. We did not know this when we went. People got really creative. Jellystone Park in Warrens Wisconsin contains lots of activities and amenities. There are several waterparks. There is Ranger Smith's Water Town, which has a wave pool, lazy river, two hot ponds, activity pool, Yogi Bears Picnic Splash play area, a Boardwalk Cafe for a quick bite to eat or snacks, and an entertainment area. There is also a swim n play beach with lots of sand and a playground and swings in the water. In another area close by is an older waterslide called Big Blue. It is a slide built into the side of a hill and you sit on rubber mats to go down it. There are also 3 pools, miniature golf, paddle boats, fishing pond, game room, and outdoor theatre where they show Yogi Bear cartoons at night. Over by the hotel there is also another outdoor waterpark area that all guests may use. It is called the Lilly Pad Area and it has body slides, activity pool, kiddie pool with a frog slide and mushroom, swan paddle boats, and a snack shop. Also in this area is a skatepark. Jellystone park offers many activities for everyone which are guided by an activities staff. Throughout the year there are themed weekends. The weekend we were there it was "Halloween In Summer Weekend." There was a campsite decorating contest, costume contest, costume golf cart parade, and trick-or-treating. We decorated our campsite with Halloween decorations and a big inflatable yard decoration that was a pumpkin. All three of our kids won a prize for their costumes. They each won a beanie baby that they got to select. The kids also got to trick-or-treat around to all the campsites. If you brought candy to hand out, you were able to sign up and they printed out maps with the participating sites giving out candy. There were lots of sites decorated with all sorts of Halloween stuff. I drove our two oldest kids in the golf cart all around so that they could trick-or-treat. Unfortunately, it was raining, so it wasn't as completely enjoyable as it could have been. There are also all sorts of activities going on throughout the day, besides the weekend theme. We played candy bar bingo, went to a dance party with the Yogi Bear characters, and there was also a sand castle building contest going on the day we got there. If you are camping or staying in a villa or cabin style accommodation, of course you can cook and prepare your own meals. There is also some dining options on the property. In the Three Bears Lodge hotel there is a restaurant that also includes a salad bar. The hotel also offers a coffee and sweet shop and a snack bar that has quick food by the indoor waterpark. Outside by the Timber Falls waterpark there is a Boardwalk Cafe, a snack shop, and a picnic area with a pavilion. Directly outside the front gate of Jellystone Park there is also a gas station and convenience store. In the surrounding town there are also restaurants and fast food places, along with a Wal-mart, movie theatre, and golf courses. Jellystone Park also sells ice and firewood and has daily garbage pick-up outside your camping accommodation, which is handy. On the weekend we were at Jellystone Park in Warrens Wisconsin, we did not have the best of luck. On our first night sleeping in our tent, the zipper on the door busted. This caused a draft throughout the night, which my husband received the brunt of. The next morning we woke up to a light rain, which didn't stop for the entire day. It was also really cold for the beginning of August. My husband woke up not feeling well and he got worse and worse as the day went on. We didn't get to swim because of the weather and had to suffer through the cold and rain during the few activities we could get to do. Like I said before, the kids and I were wet and cold as we trick-or-treated through the campground. By about 4pm my husband was miserable and he stated he had to get out of the cold and wet and absolutely couldn't go through a night sleeping in the broken tent. From a fetal position in the passenger side of the car he said for me to get us an accommodation somewhere indoors. I got phone numbers off our navigation in our mini van and called around to some surrounding motels. There were no vacancies anywhere. My husband then said drive over to the Three Bears Lodge hotel inside Jellystone. I ran in and waited in a busy line. I explained our situation and the girl behind the desk said they had no vacant hotel rooms. She said they did have a Park Model Cabin available. It was like $700 for the night. I went back out to tell my husband. He said "Take It." I now knew for sure he was miserable. When I went back in to reserve it, the lady did take some money off the rate, since we had already paid for another camping accommodation. She also threw in free indoor waterpark passes for 24 hours. That was nice. I then drove to go find the park model cabin and drop off my husband and 3 kids. The park model cabin was a permanent trailer home with an attached deck. It had a bigger bedroom with a double bed, two smaller rooms with bunk style beds, a gathering area with a sofa, chair, kitchen table, and small kitchen and a bathroom. My husband went into the bigger bedroom and collapsed in sickness. I left the kids there as I went back to the campsite in the cold and rain and loaded all of our bags, personal belongings, and food, into the car. I left the tent, camping equipment, and golf cart there until the next day. Back at the park model cabin, I unload everything and made what seemed like a zillion trips to bring all our stuff inside. My husband was puking but still alive. It was evening, and in an attempt to have a little fun and escape from watching Daddy be sick, I took the 3 kids to the indoor waterpark for an hour or two. This was a big job for me to do by myself, but I managed well. After that we went back and went to bed. The next morning my husband was thankfully feeling better and was able to get up, help make breakfast, and help load everything back into the car and then clear out our campsite. It was still raining, cold and horrible, so we went back to the indoor waterpark to spend a few hours there before going home. The indoor waterpark was not the best or fanciest waterpark we had ever been to, but the kids enjoyed it. They especially liked the Yogi Bear picnic splash area. It contained the perfect size waterslides for my 3 year old son, which kept him content. We had a good day at the indoor waterpark and then it was time to drive home. Jellystone does have a program that if you have over a 1/2 inch of rain on a day of your trip, that they will send you a coupon for money off your next visit. A short time after we got back home, we did receive our coupon. Overall, we liked the Jellystone Park in Warrens Wisconsin. We would like to go back again to try it when the weather was nicer. I have heard that there is going to be a name switch and that the whole place is going to be called The Three Bears. I am not quite sure if that means they are getting rid of the entire Jellystone Park name and Yogi Bear theme or not. We had received a piece of mail about it, but I didn't quite understand. The website currently is http://www.jellystonewarrens.com/

http://www.jellystonewarrens.com/

Key Biscayne Florida

2008-01-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

Key Biscayne Florida

Sonesta Beach Resort

My husband and I and our 13 month old daughter stayed at the Sonesta Beach Resort in Key Biscayne Florida for one week in September 2002. At the time, my husband was taking continuing education classes in the area and my daughter and I tagged along to hang out for the week. My daughter and I spent a great deal of time in the hotel, while daddy. The hotel is 20 minutes from the Miami airport, downtown, and Miami beach. The hotel is beach front with plenty of room to run around and play. There is one large Olympic sized swimming pool. There is also a jacuzzi and a playground area that was a little worn down. When we were there in early September, the hotel was quite empty. I guess it is considered the slow time of the year. There was one restaurant. We ate breakfast there on two occasions. It was just ok. The restaurant was a little too fancy for me to take my baby to by myself. I ordered room service most of the time for my daughter and I and we ordered food poolside once. The food kind of got old after a while and there was not a huge selection to accommodate a young child or even me, actually. There was a strip mall across the street that we went to a few times. There was a convenience store that sold some food items that we were able to grab some things at and stock in our room and small fridge. In the strip mall there were also various shops. I bought a few children's clothing items that ended up being kind of expensive. In the strip mall there was a great New York style pizza place that was awesome. The best pizza ever. It is a small take out pizza place that is in the corner of the mall. There were a couple outdoor tables to eat at, otherwise you had to take the pizza back to the hotel. There are some restaurants along the causeway of Key Biscayne, several of which are Cuban. The rooms in the Sonesta hotel were nice. We had a standard basic room. It was a little small, but we managed. It was clean and decorated nice. There were pay perview movies on the TV, which helped entertain us. The hotel also had a spa, fitness center, 2 small and limited stores, tennis courts, and supervised kids activities that I never saw functioning while we were there. The Sonesta was a nice hotel, but we did get a little bored because there was not a lot of activity at it. The beach and pool was our only things we had to do. It was extremely hot when we were there. We sweated the entire time. When my husband was not in his classes, we did a few things as a family. We went to the Miami Sea Aquarium that was not far down the road. We had a good time at it. Some of the exhibits were old, but we had a good time. There were fish, dolphins, a killer whale show, and a good crocodile exhibit. We also went to the Miami zoo. It was a nice zoo. It was practically empty when we went there and it was extremely hot and sticky. On our last day we went to Bill Baggs State Recreation Area and spent the day at the beach. The state park was at the end of the causeway. I really liked this beach and had a good time. We rented an umbrella on the beach and just chilled, swam, and played in the sand. Upon checking the internet, I recently learned that it sounds like the Sonesta is currently closed. It appears that they are under a remodeling project of some sorts. I don't know if the hotel is changing names or how much is going to be different. There are not a lot of hotels in the Key Biscayne area, so it seems that the closing of the Sonesta is currently causing a hotel room shortage. Research this hotel before booking!

www.sonesta.com

Nassau Bahamas

2008-01-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

The Wyndam Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino

Nassau Bahamas

In February of 2005 we went for a quick trip to Nassau Bahamas. My husband and I traveled with our two kids at the time, ages 3 and 15 months. We stayed at the Wyndam Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino. It was a decent resort, although it was not the best resort we had ever stayed at. The Wyndam is not the worst hotel in Nassau, but it is not the fanciest or nicest hotel either. It was decent. We had a transfer from the airport to the hotel. The transfer was pretty timely and the bus did make drop offs at other hotels besides ours. We were in the middle of the strip of hotels, so the transfer time was not bad. This was our first trip to the Bahamas and we did like it. We hope to go back again sometime. When we were there in February, the weather was a bit chilly, which was kind of disappointing. The temperatures were in the mid 60's when we were there. Back home we had cold & snow, so we were looking forward to some warmth and sun. Since it was so chilly, we were not able to do a lot of swimming. The Wyndam is situated on Cable Beach. It has 5 towers of rooms. The rooms were nice but basic and kept decently clean. The Wyndam is the only hotel that has a casino on the Cable Beach area. The only other casino I saw was at the Atlantis resort. The beach in front of the resort was decent. The sand had a lot of dried seaweed on it and the water contained a good amount of floating seaweed. I don't know if it is always like this, or if it was just due to the time of year, tide, or weather. The water is a brilliant blue and it is great to just gaze at. On the beach there is also complimentary non-motorized water sports. The Wyndam has a nice pool. It is a single large pool that has a rock structure built around it that contains a water slide. I didn't get to try the water slide, because it was cold, but my husband and daughter did it once. The Wyndam also advertises that there is a lagoon for swimming and snorkeling. It is nothing to get excited about. It is just a walled off area of beach. The water didn't look like you would want to go in it. There are not any fish in it for snorkeling either. Our kids played in the sand around the lagoon and that was about it. There is also a hot tub jacuzzi behind the pool. While hanging around the beach my daughter go her hair braided for the first time. There were local women on the beach offering to braid people's hair. She had her whole head braided. They did a nice job. It cost $40, which I now know is a really good price compared to other places we have been to. We now know that we probably could have haggled the price a little bit, but I still felt we got a reasonable price. The Wyndam also offers some other amenities that we didn't use. There is a fitness center, a spa, a kids club program, and golf nearby. There are several restaurants, bars, and lounges in the hotel. We ate ate at the Seaside Buffet for breakfast once. It was ok. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We also tried The Deli which is supposedly a New York style deli with sandwiches and a sports bar. It was by the casino. It was horrible. There was also an Asian restaurant, a steak house, a small shop that sold ice cream and speciality sweets, and several bars and lounges. There is a Sbarro pizza next door that is convenient also. Across the street from the Wyndam there was a local market set up with people selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, souvenirs, and baskets. We didn't discover this until the morning we were leaving. I bought some cute shirts for the kids and my daughter got a cute basket purse with Hello Kitty on it that the woman weaved her name on also. While we were in Nassau we did a few activities during our short trip. We toured the huge Atlantis And Paradise Island mega resort. We toured The Dig and all the giant aquarium areas. It was nice. We also looked around as much of the resort as we were allowed to. Visitors pay to go on the dig and aquarium tours and you are allowed to tour the inside of the hotel and of course spend your money at the restaurants and shops. If you are just visiting, you cannot walk around the outside areas by the pools or on the beach areas. They are strict about stopping you if you are not a registered guest. The place is pretty impressive and massive. While in Nassau, we also went to the Ardastra Zoo. It wasn't that great. It was a very basic and minimal zoo. There was still noticeable signs of the past hurricane in the zoo. The zoo is not visible from the main road, so you must ask the zoo to call a taxi for you. We lucked out and got a ride fairly quick, although I could see this could be a potential pain. We walked through the downtown Nassau once and went into some of the stores. We took the bus to get there. There is a bus stop outside the Wyndam. The bus was crowded and the people got a little pushy. One note, make sure you go to the bathroom before going downtown. The stores do not let you use any of their bathrooms. That was kind of inconvenient with little kids. We walked down to the port where the cruise ships come in. We used the bathrooms there. If you are going shopping downtown, try to go when all the people aren't coming off the cruise ships. Then it won't be so crowded. We also made a mistake to going to a dinner show that was right next door to the Wyndam. It was horrible. Once we walked in we knew we shouldn't stay. We made the mistake of staying and it was empty, gross food, and bad local entertainment. My 3 year old daughter ended up getting food poisoning from the chicken nuggets she ate there. She threw up in the bed and a taxi. My husband carried her through the Atlantis tour that day and she was miserable. Her sickness only lasted 24 hours, but to this day she still remembers and talks about eating the "bad chickens" on vacation.

The Wyndam Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino is a decent hotel although not the best. There are better hotels in Nassau, although you will pay more. We liked the Bahamas, but when we go back someday we will try another place. Overall, a good time! www.wyndam.com/hotels/NASBS/main.wnt

Outrigger Reef Hotel, Honolulu Hawaii

2008-01-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

Outrigger Reef Hotel

Honolulu Hawaii

Island Of Oahu

In August of 1997, my husband and I stayed 2 nights at the Outrigger Reef Hotel on the island of Oahu in Honolulu Hawaii. It was our first stop on our 3 island adventure on our Hawaiian honeymoon. This hotel is a great value if you are looking for a standard accommodation that isn't going to break the bank. Since we were there over 10 years ago, the hotel has gone through a process of renovation. It seems that they are now calling the hotel Outrigger Reef (on the beach,) or Outrigger Waikiki On The Beach. The city atmosphere of Oahu is much different than touristy Maui and lush Kauai. The Outrigger Reef is a tower hotel and is located 9 miles from the airport. It is directly located on Waikiki Beach. It was a basic, beach front pool that was roomy, but didn't contain any special thrills. The pool area is currently being remodeled, so it will be interesting to see what the end results will be. The lobby has been changed and now includes a sit-down check-in desk. The rooms were remodeled in 2003. We had a small corner room when we were there. At the time we didn't care. We were young, it was just the two of us, and we were thrilled to be in Hawaii. The rooms are air conditioned and most offer ocean views. There are two restaurants. My favorite was the Shore Bird restaurant. It had an all-you-can-eat salad bar and grill your own steaks and fresh fish. There is also an Ocean House restaurant that served Pacific rim cuisine. There is also now a Starbucks Coffee. Across the street there were some shops, convenience stores, and a McDonald's. There is also now a new Waikiki Beach Walk that features numerous stores and restaurants. There is also the Outrigger Waikiki Shore which contains condos. If you choose to stay there, you can also use the amenities at the hotel. In the hotel there is also a spa. Besides the hotel being directly on Waikiki Beach, there is a wonderful view of Diamond Head.

When we visited Oahu, we visited Pearl Harbor and took the tour of the Arizona Memorial. We did not have a rental car on Oahu, so we booked a tour that picked us up at the Outrigger. Since we were still on central time, we took advantage of it and went on an early morning tour so that we would still have time the rest of the day to do other stuff. We only visited the Arizona Memorial and it was a great historical sight to see. Our tour director gave us a lot of history information and there is also a museum there to walk through to learn more. Many of the volunteers that work there are surviving veterans that were there when Pearl Harbor was attacked. You take a boat ride out to the sunken Arizona ship. There is a building built over the top of the wreckage. You can walk around and look down into the sunken Arizona. There is also a memorial wall with all the names of those who died. It is a very educational and interesting experience.

While on Oahu we also visited Hanauma Bay Nature Park. We have been there twice. Once in 1995 and once in 2000. We loved this place. It is a curved bay that is a protected marine life conservation area. There is a parking lot at the top and a long, paved walk that goes down to the beach. It is a fairly easy walk down, although I recommend riding the shuttle back up to the top, since it is steep. The park is handicapped accessible. The views are gorgeous. There is a large reef that is fairly protected by strong waves and fabulous snorkeling with abundant marine life. This was our first time snorkeling, and we were hooked forever. You used to be able to feed the fish, but it is no longer allowed. On our honeymoon, our tour guide had sold us a baggie of rabbit food to feed the fish. It was crazy how the fish quickly swarmed you and even jumped out of the water. There are lifeguards on the beach and there are picnic areas by the parking lot. Some rules have changed, since we have been there. It is now required that you watch an educational video about the bay, the marine life, and the conservation, before going down to the beach. The fees at Hanauma Bay are $5 per person, 13 years old and up. Children are free. It is $1 to park your car. It is also now $1 per person to ride the shuttle bus to and from the beach. There is also a concession stand by the entrance, restrooms, snorkel equipment rentals, lockers, and a gift shop. Both times we visited Hanauma Bay, there were people selling Hanauma Bay t-shirts outside the entrance of the park. These were some of the best t-shirts we ever found in Hawaii. Reasonably priced too. If you want to learn more about Hanauma Bay, visit www.hawaiiweb.com/html/hanauma_bay_beach.html

Someday, we will hopefully go back to the island of Oahu and revisit some of our favorite sights and explore many of the other places that the island offers.

www.outriggerreef-onthebeach.com

www.hawaiiweb.com/html/hanauma_bay_beach.html

www.nps.gov/usar

ResortQuest Kauai Beach At Makaiwa

2008-01-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

Kauai

Coconut Beach Resort

Now Named- ResortQuest Kauai Beach At Makaiwa

We have been to Kauai once. We stayed at the Coconut Beach Resort for 3 nights on our 3 island tour of Hawaii on our honeymoon in 1997. It is now named ResortQuest Kauai Beach At Makaiwa. The resort is situated on a 12 acre coconut grove. Out of the hotels we stayed at during our honeymoon this was our least favorite. We thought Kauai was great, although next time we go back we will choose another place. The property was ok. The buildings were a little worn down at the time, but I have seen a lot worse. When we checked in we were given a really old room that looked like it hadn't been remodeled since the 60's. I was pretty bad and not a room I wanted to be in on my honeymoon. Walking through the hallways we could see into rooms that were nicer and had more updated decorating. We contacted the front desk and was offered an upgrade for $30 more a night. Definitely worth it! The Coconut Beach Resort's website says that all the rooms were remodeled in late 2006. Hopefully, that is an improvement for the resort. The grounds of the resort were ok, but nothing like the lush landscaping you would see on Maui. Kauai is a more natural and rustic island, although I expected more out of the resort. There was only one pool at the hotel. It is basic and not anything real special or spectacular. There was a large amount of beach space, but the ocean was very rough. It is advertised on the internet that the beach is not recommended for swimming due to unpredictable currents and rough waves. That is true. There is a lounge and a Voyager Grille Restaurant. We ate in the open air and it was ok. The hotel looked nice at night with the lights around the trees and the live Hawaiian music outside by the pool. We had an all inclusive package. I do not recommend getting an all inclusive package anywhere in Hawaii. In some places, like Mexico, it is great to get all inclusive. In Hawaii it is not necessary and a waist of money. We could only pick selected items off the menu and had to pay extra if we wanted something else. We didn't use all of our prepaid meals, because we went to luaus and wanted to try other restaurants we saw outside the resorts. The Coconut Beach Resort also had a luau at it. This was our first luau we had ever been to. At the time we thought it was good. Looking back, we have been to better luaus on the island of Maui. One thing I liked about our stay here was the live Hawaiian music outside by the pool. We could open the sliding glass door to hear the music in our room. We liked Kauai and are looking forward to going back someday. We would not choose this hotel again and are lucky enough that we can now afford to stay at a better quality resort next time.

On the island of Kauai, we spent a lot of time exploring and visiting as many places as we could.

We went to many beaches and did lots of snorkeling. We loved Po'ipu Beach and many beaches such as Anahola Beach and the Napali Coast. We went to Waimea Canyon, which I loved. It is gorgeous, like the grand canyon. It looks like you are looking at a huge painting. It doesn't seem real. We saw spouting horn and many waterfalls, such as Opoekaa Falls and Wailoa Falls. We also saw sugar cane and experienced the burning of the sugar can for the first time. There is also Fern Grotto, which we didn't do. I heard wonderful things about it and wish to do it next time we go to Kauai.

Kauai is a great island. It is much different than the other Hawaiian Islands.

Overall, we did not like the Coconut Beach Hotel back when we stayed at it. It has supposedly gone under major renovations since we were at it over 10 years ago. Before making reservations, I recommend researching the property. Remember that the resort is now call ResortQuest Kauai Beach At Makaiwa.

www.kauaidiscovery.com

Royal Lahaina Resort, Maui

2008-01-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

Royal Lahaina Resort

Maui

My husband and I stayed at the Royal Lahaina Resort in August of 1997 on one of our stops on our Hawaiian honeymoon. The Royal Lahaina is a nice place. Back then we were thrilled with the resort, because this was the first "big and fancy" vacation that we had ever been on. The Royal Lahaina is a great, standard resort that is the "middle of the road" in the resort selections in Maui. It is not one of the fanciest resorts on the island, but it is definitely not lower end, cheaper lodging. The Royal Lahaina is a great selection if you want great quality without the high costs such as the Grand Wailea or the Ritz Carlton. The resort is north of Black Rock. It is a little past the main strip of hotels in Kaanappli and the Whaler's Village. It is a very short drive over to the Whaler's Village area to shop, dine, or swim. The first thing you will see on your approach to the resort is the large golf course. The Royal Lahaina has a 12 story tower. The rooms have all been remodeled in 2007. The photos of the rooms look great on their website. When we were there, the rooms were plenty big, clean, and the housekeeping service was good. There are also cottages on the property that have a condo setting and include a full kitchen, a living room, and multiple bedrooms. These were nice too. The entire property is very beautiful. The lush landscaping is great and well maintained and of course the views are gorgeous. The lobby of the resort is smaller than most of the bigger hotels and it contained a few shops. There are 3 pools on the property. The pools are basic and smaller compared to the bigger resorts in Maui. We mainly used the pool that was ocean side outside the front of the main tower. There was also a pool that was by the large tennis area that was on the grounds. On this trip we didn't spend a lot of time hanging around the resort, like we do now with 3 little kids. We spent most of our time exploring the island and beach hopping around all the glorious beaches. See some of my other Hawaii posts that contain information about all the wonderful places we have explored around Maui. The beach is nice in front of the Royal Lahaina and it is a little more quiet that south of Black Rock. There are several restaurants at the Royal Lahaina. We had an all inclusive package. I would not recommend getting an all inclusive plan anywhere in Hawaii. It is not needed and there are so many places to explore and choose from on the island that you will not want to be stuck eating at the same places everynight. We also found that the all inclusive packages in Hawaii consisted of you choosing from only a few selected items on the menu. If you chose something on the menu that was not an all inclusive entree, then you had to pay extra for your meal. We didn't like that. There is the Royal Ocean Terrace which is beach side and has indoor and outdoor seating. We ate the buffet breakfasts here, which were wonderful, and a couple dinners. There is also a restaurant called Don The Beachcomber. This restaurant provides a private, intimate atmosphere. There is also an Italian restaurant called Basil Tomatoes, that was also good. There are also a couple bars and lounges. The Royal Lahaina also offers a luau. Many people from the resort and elsewhere, frequent the ocean side luau nightly. The luau is great and if you choose this luau, you will enjoy it. The Royal Lahaina had a good sized parking lot right in front of the hotel. We self parked our car everyday. When the luau is going on, the parking lot does fill up during showtime. There will also be some extra cars at night, due to visitors to the hotel's restaurants. We never had a problem with parking, though. I you are looking for a great hotel in Maui that isn't the most expensive, elaborate hotel, but not the cheapest, basic accommodation, then I recommend the Royal Lahaina. It is a fine choice.

http://www.greathawaiivacations.com/

Bay Beach, Green Bay WI

2008-01-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

Bay Beach

Green Bay Wisconsin

If you have small children and are looking for a fun place for a day trip in the Green Bay Wisconsin area, then Bay Beach is it. Bay Beach is an amusement park owned by the city of Green Bay. It is open from May until October 1st every year. It is a wonderful place to go to for an hour or a whole day. Bay Beach is a large park that contains rides, 2 playground areas, picnic areas, and an indoor pavilion building that serves food & snacks and houses an arcade. Bay Beach has a nice amount of kiddie rides for smaller children. There is a carousel, a train ride, helicopters, pony rides, cars, airplanes, tiny jeeps, ladybug ride and a granny bug ride. There are also some bigger rides such as a tilt-a-whirl, a scrambler, scat, bumper cars, flying swings, ferris wheel, and a giant slide. This amusement park is wonderful, because it is not to big and overwhelming. It is a perfect size if you have small kids. Another great thing is that the prices for tickets to go on the rides are very cheap. It is 25 cents per ticket. Most rides take 1 ticket and a few of the bigger rides take 2 tickets. We usually take our kids there once or twice a summer. When we go we purchase $10 worth of tickets and that lasts our two older children for the whole time we are there. It is great. The pony rides do cost extra. You have to pay cash at the pony ride booth. It is only like $2.00 per rider. We usually spend a few hours at Bay Beach and the kids always love it. We usually purchase food in the pavilion. They offer hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, ice cream, grilled cheese, soft pretzels, nachos, etc.... There is also plenty of picnic tables, if you bring your own food. When we run out of tickets, the kids usually play on the playground equipment. There is always lots of other kids there to play with. Bay Beach is always clean, well kept, and safe. I am able to manage taking our 3 kids there by myself. I have heard that during the evenings, later at night, that there are more teenagers there hanging out. The city does provide security to look over the park at night. We have always gone during the day and it has always been nice and filled with families. I recommend checking out Bay Beach if you are looking for things to do with little kids in Green Bay Wisconsin.

www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/geninfo/baybeach_web/baybeachhome.html

Chula Vista, Wisconsin Dells

2008-01-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Wisconsin Dells

Chula Vista Resort

In January of 2006 we stayed at the Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. We went there for a weekend getaway with our 3 kids, ages 5, 3, and 7 months. We also met extended family there. The Chula Vista is one of the newly built properties in the Wisconsin Dells area. It is along the river near the downtown side of the Dells. It is a large property and is still in the process of expanding. The accommodations at the Chula Vista were very nice. Since it is fairly new, the decorating is very modern. The rooms were big. We had a standard room with 2 queen beds, a pull out sofa, a bathroom with the vanity area on the outside, and amenities such as a fridge and microwave. Our extended family had a 3 bedroom condo that was beautiful. There was a large living room with a jacuzzi tub and fireplace in it, a full kitchen, a dining table, and 3 bedrooms. The master bedroom had a king bed and a private bath. The 2nd bedroom had 2 double beds and the bathroom was outside the room off the living room. The 3rd bedroom was a connected standard room, just like we had, with 2 queen beds, a pull out sofa, and a bathroom. The decorating in the condo was awesome. The chula vista has an indoor and outdoor water park. We were there in the winter, so we only experienced the indoor water park. Compared to The Wilderness and Great Wolf Lodge, also at the Wisconsin Dells, we didn't think the Chula Vista indoor water park compared as well. Now the Chula Vista is still expanding and not totally complete, so there is a possibility that it could be better as time goes on. The indoor water park was new, but we thought it looked and felt a little old. There was a kiddie area with shallower water, smaller slides, and squirt guns. There was a pool with water basketball and a rope climb that went across the pool. There was a lazy river and a large tree house type water play area with bridges, slides, a dumping bucket, and various squirters. There was a roller coaster type water ride where two people sit in an inflatable boat and you are pushed with water up and down the hills. There is also some speed racing slides and what we call the toilet bowl ride, where you go down a water slide into a large round bowl that you spin around in until you are pushed out the little hole at the end. That was it for the water park. It was ok and the kids had fun, although we have been to nicer water parks throughout the years. At the Chula Visita there is also an arcade. There is an underground tunnel that you walk through to get to the water park area. We lucked out and got a room right by the elevator to go down to the tunnel level. Some people were complaining the they had a long walk to get to the water park. You have to remember, though, that these mega resorts at the Dells are big and that you will have to do some walking. Since our group had the full kitchen in the condo, we prepared and ate our meals together in our room. It was nice. When you travel with a large group to the resorts in the Wisconsin Dells, this is what most people do. If you are going with just your single family, then you can dine out easier. My husband said that on Sunday when we were checking out, that it was crazy. There were lots of people checking out and not enough luggage carts. There is no bellman service and the elevator wait time was long. I would suggest thinking ahead and doing some planning around this to make your check out easier. On our last morning, we ate at the resort's breakfast buffet. We didn't like it. We got there later and it looked like a million people had been there before us. The buffet was sloppy and there was smashed food all over the floor. The staff could not keep up. One thing nice about the Wisconsin Dells is that the resorts let you stay and play at the water parks for the day after you check out. I would recommend the Chula Vista, although The Wilderness and The Great Wolf Lodge are a notch above the Chula Vista.

www.chulavistaresort.com

Las Vegas

2008-01-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas

Golden Nugget

and

The Orleans Hotel

We have traveled to Las Vegas twice. Once before we had kids and once with two small kids along. The first time my husband I went was while we were still dating and after we graduated college. We stayed at the Golden Nugget in June of 1995. This was officially the first "big" vacation that we had ever taken together. Back then the Golden Nugget was a very nice hotel. It was great and we received a wonderfully cheap deal at the time. The only negative thing I could find to say about the Golden Nugget, was that it was not on the main Las Vegas strip. It was fine, though, and not that big of an issue. I would go back again. When we did go to the main strip, we just took a cab. At the time when we were there, the hotel was very lovely and clean. The rooms were nicely decorated and also clean. The casino was just the right size and there were plenty of dining options and some nice entertainment shows that we saw there. We were happy with the pool. It was well maintained. There was one large pool and a hot tub. When you look at the website now, the Golden Nugget looks even better. I definitely could go back. The pool has been remodeled and includes a huge aquarium in the middle with sharks. I guess it makes you feel like you are swimming with the marine life. There is also a water slide that supposedly goes through the fish tank. Sounds and looks nice! The rooms also look updated and remodeled and there is a show theatre that I don't remember being there before. When we were there in 1995, they were just building the enclosure around Freeman Street. The street outside has a huge roof over it that gives the "Freeman Street Experience." It is called Viva Vision and there is a show on the roof above the street every hour up until midnight. It is also free!

The second time we went to Las Vegas was in June of 2004. We traveled with our two children , ages 3 and 8 months. We stayed at The Orleans hotel. It was ok, but I liked the Golden Nugget Better. My husband was going for a conference when we went. It seems that maybe this hotel is geared more for people traveling as part of larger conference. I know there is also an arena area where larger shows are held. The Orleans is not on the main Las Vegas strip. It was further out. I preferred the Golden Nugget more. The Golden Nugget was not on the strip either, but it seemed to be in more of a convenient area than the Orleans was. The room we happened to get needed to be remodeled. It seemed pretty old, at least the decorating was. Our bathroom ended up being larger, due to it was a handicapped accessible room. The pool was ok and a good size for me to handle two little kids by myself. There was a larger pool and a good sized shallow pool for young kids. We spent most of our time at the kiddie pool and that worked out well. It was busy with quite a few kids and parents. The casino was big. In order to get to anything, you had to walk through the casino. The dining options were not the greatest. We ate at Terrible Mike's, which was indeed terrible. It was a hamburger, hot dog, cafeteria style place on the casino floor. It was crowded and the food was not that great. We also also ate at Don Miguel's, which was a Mexican restaurant in the hotel. It was ok. We ate at the French Market Buffet at the Orleans. We waited a long time and it was crowded and a bit messy with all the food being slung around. There was also a Subway in the casino area that I went to with my kids. It was the slowest subway I had ever seen in my life. The longer the line got, the slower the workers moved. It was ridiculous. Upstairs in the Orleans there is a cinema showing quite a few movies, an arcade, and also a bowling alley that is somewhere on the premise. There was also a large kids club/play area where you could pay and drop your child off while you were in the casino or having dinner or whatever. I don't see it advertised on the hotel's website, but it was there when we were there. My 3 year old begged to go in there to play and climb around on all the equipment. I let her, although I was a little nervous because it was my very first time leaving my child at a place like that. She went into there twice, but I didn't go far. She liked it. You had to take your shoes off and have socks on. The children were locked in the area and they had a check system to make sure that the right parent was picking up the right child. It seemed safe.

Las Vegas is becoming more of a family destination. On the Las Vegas strip there were quite a few activities that we did with our kids, many of which are free. We saw the exploding volcano in front of the Mirage, the white tigers in the Mirage, the pirate show in front of Treasure's Island, and the dancing waters at the Belagio. These activities were all free. We also did the gondola rides outside the Venetian hotel. That was a little expense. You can also take the kids to see the Wizard Of Oz statues in the MGM. There is also a Wet N Wild Waterpark that you can take the kids to. A great website with a list of free and must do activities in Las Vegas is Off2vegas.com. If you are planning on taking kids with you to Las Vegas, go ahead. There is plenty of things that you can find to do. You just have to realize that there are going to be adult activities that you will not be able to do, unless you have childcare or you brought a babysitter with you.

www.goldennugget.com

www.OrleansCasino.com

Montego Bay, Jamaica

2008-01-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

Half Moon Resort

Montego Bay, Jamaica

In March of 2002 my husband and I traveled to Jamaica. Our first child was 9 months old at the time, although we left her at home during this trip. This was our first time to Jamaica. We stayed for 5 nights at the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay. We stayed at this resort, because my husband was taking continued education classes that were being held there with a dental association group. Montego Bay is the closest vacation area nearest to the airport. We took a taxi from the airport and it was not a long ride, thankfully. I would not recommend renting a car. They drive on the left side of the road and you just don't know which areas are ok for tourists to go. Jamaica is a poorer country and the sights you see on the way to the airport is much different than most areas in United States. On the way to the resort, we did see a hooker standing on the side of the road giving some gestures to our taxi driver. Jamaica is a place that you mainly stay at your resort and not venture out much. If you're planning a trip to Jamaica, make sure you select a resort with plenty of activities and dining options. The Half Moon Resort is on a very large piece of property. It is supposedly ranked the most popular and complete resort in the Caribbean. I don't know about that?? The best I can describe it is, yes it's a nice place in the Jamaican way. I think that Jamaica has different standards, or at least different than my standards. If you are making reservations, don't expect it to be a 5 star resort in Hawaii or something. The Half Moon is ok. Like I said, the place is pretty large and spread out. There is walking involved between the lodging units. There are some golf carts available for those staying farther out on the property. There is also golf cart pick up stations where you can catch a ride. There is also a bus that can take you to some of the restaurants and shopping that is further out on the property. We had a basic room with a queen bed and bath. There was also a small bar area with a mini bar fridge. Our room was very old. The building looked like it had been there forever and had experienced some hurricanes. The interesting thing was that our room was literally 10 feet from the ocean. We had a set of french doors that opened up to a small patio. There then was an alarming short distance of sand and then the water. If a tsunami hit, a storm surge, or even a gigantic wave, we would have been definitely swept out to sea. It was a little scary. It was obvious that our room had been flood a few times. The room had a constant musky smell. Everything in the room was quite run down from the floors, walls, and furniture. There was air conditioning, but it was a window style air conditioner. At least we had that, since the weather was horribly humid and hot. The bathroom in our room was the worst. It was very old, cracked, and stained. The toilet didn't seem trustworthy to flush, and the shower and sink were a little scary and old. We were disappointed in the room we had. I just didn't know if this was the standard of "nice" in Jamaica or if we were just in the worst lodging building at the resort. Some of the other people that were associated with our group had gotten a suite or villa type accommodation that slept a larger group of people. I guess they had several bedrooms with a common area and kitchen. It also included a personal cook/butler. The cook was supposed to prepare meals for you. Although, the deal ended up being that the guests had to buy the groceries and ingredients at the small convenience store on the resorts property and then tell the personal cook what they wanted to eat and how to prepare it. I don't know, that seems like to much work to me. If you look at the Half Moon's Resort website now, it says that they have completed many upgrades and remodeling. The pictures of the accommodations on the website look much nicer and nothing like the room we stayed in. So, it sounds like there has been improvements for the better. Before making a reservation, ask questions about the room you are staying in and specify that you want one of these new remodeled rooms. Also, since we were there in 2002, they have added a dolphin lagoon with live dolphins that you can pay to have an experience with. When we were there, I remember the area where they were going to build the lagoon. My husband had swam in that area. A lady on the beach had told him that dolphins were going to go in there. My husband had commented that it must have been the reason why it was so deep in that area. The 2 miles of beach is ok. There is nothing about it that really makes me remember how wonderful it was. It was just ok. There wasn't any good snorkeling there, so leave your equipment at home. There are some water sport items that you can rent on the beach. My husband rented a kayak for about a half hour. There is supposed to be 51 pools. I don't remember there being that many, but I am sure there is. There are some bigger pools, but also some really small ones that are more like decorative features that they must be counting in the total. The pools were ok. Nothing spectacular and a little old and not kept up extremely well. I remember lots of leaves in the pool. There are 6 restaurants at the resort. The main complaint we had was that all the food was kind of fancy and gourmet. By the end of our stay we just wanted a plain old hamburger. One night we just asked if they could make up a burger for us and they did, even though it wasn't on the menu. For several of the restaurants you have to take a quick bus ride to get there, because it is too far to walk on the property. A couple of the restaurants you have to drive out onto the main road and enter a different entrance on the other end of the property. The main restaurant in the lobby area of the resort is Sea Grapes Terrace. It was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We ate the breakfast buffet there a couple of times and a couple meals. There is an Italian restaurant called Giardino. The food was ok and the atmosphere was nice. We sat outside by candlelight under lighted trees. There is an English Pub call Royal Stocks. I didn't really like the Sheppard's pie I ordered, but the fish n chips my husband got was good. We also went to Akbar, which was an Asian restaurant where the chefs cook on grills right at your table. It was good, although you have to be in good spirits to sit with strangers and talk during the meal. The building was a little worn down, but I remember it being good. There are also two other restaurants. One is the Sugar Mill and the other is La Baguette, both serving Jamaican/International cuisine. We went to one of these, but I can't recall which one it was. It was the farthest bus ride from the resort. We went and ate outside on a candlelit veranda that was pretty nice. I remember the waiter bring Caesar salad and preparing it right next to the table and mixing in the raw eggs. I didn't need to see that. When we were done eating we had a really long wait for the bus to take us back. Our service took so long that we missed the scheduled pick up time to go back to the resort. We had to wait until the next group was done eating and take the next bus. We had to really negotiate to even get that situation settled. There are several shopping areas throughout the resort. Nothing that totally wowed me. The stores contained mostly souvenir items, t-shirts, and some Jamaican artwork and such. The Half Moon is for couples, groups, singles, and families. There is a kids club area. They also offer personal babysitting and nannies. We did see a few families that had a nannie who followed them around and took the kids when needed. It is nice if you are comfortable with that. The resort also has a golf course, golf academy, 13 tennis courts, 4 squash courts, 24 hour medical center, crocquet lawn, putting green, jogging & cycling trails, bike rentals, basketball & volleyball courts, equestrian center, gym with personal trainers, duty free shopping, spa, game room and a small convenience/grocery store. While in Jamaica we also went on a tour to Ocho Rios to go to Dunns River Falls. We went on a bus with only people that were with our group. It was a long drive. We witnessed a lot of the local scenery along the way. It gave you a good picture of how people live there. At Dunns River Falls we stayed as a group and climbed the series of waterfalls from top to bottom. It was fun and we are glad we did it. It is something that we could not do now with 3 little kids. If you go, wear your bathing suit and water shoes with good grip. Some people rented rubber aqua socks there, but I recommend bringing your own. Keens would be great or a waterproof gym shoe. Everyone holds hands as your Jamaican leader leads you up. The leaders know exactly the best places to climb up. It is fun and a little hard, but if you are in decent shape it is not a problem. You will of course get wet and may slip a little and might even fall. Holding hands in a big chain does help. You will get pulled from the front and pushed from the back and the support of people around you really helps. Try to position yourself between two sturdy people. For example, I was holding hands with my husband in the front and an 11 or 12 year old boy behind me. The younger boy didn't help my situation. Bring a disposable waterproof camera with you. As you climb, the leader will stop at various spots to have each couple, family, or person pose and take pictures. When we went to Dunns River Falls, we got there, climbed, and then went home. We didn't stick around. It looked like the beach and the ocean there was beautiful. I would have liked to have stayed and checked it out. Our trip to the Half Moon in Jamaica was not the best vacation we had ever been on. It was ok, but it always could have been a lot worse. I don't think I would go back. If I had to go back I would try a Sandals resort if it was just me and my husband. If I were to go with our kids I would try the Beaches family resort.

www.halfmoon.com

St. Pete's Beach Florida

2008-01-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

Tradewinds Island Grand Resort

On Memorial Day weekend of 2005, we traveled to St. Pete's Beach Florida and stayed at the Tradewinds Island Grand Resort. It was a very nice trip. We stayed for 5 nights and traveled with our 3 1/2 year old daughter and our 1 1/2 year old son. The St. Pete's Beach area is very nice and there are plenty of places around the area to go to. The Tradewinds Island Grand Resort was also a nice place. It is very family friendly. It would also be good for groups and possibly younger couples. The service was decent, no complaints, and our room was clean. We had a basic standard room. The room was nice, clean, and decorated in good taste, although a little small for the 4 of us. It was fine though, we didn't complain. There are larger rooms that you can get.

The resort itself is in good condition, although it is not a 5 start hotel. You can find a slight, maybe hurricane scars, but it is still a very satisfying place. There are several pools. There are two family pools, an adult pool, a kiddie pool, hot tubs, and a smaller pool under a roof.

The beach in fantastic. It is huge and stretches for miles. Plenty of room to play and relax in the white powdery sand. On the beach, in front of the resort, there was a huge inflatable dinosaur slide that you could buy a ticket to do down. It was very fun.

The resort had several restaurants. We ate at the little market in the lobby when we first arrived and at the Pizza Hut and Ice Cream area in the hotel. We did not try the sit down restaurants on the property. We did order lunch by the pool and the food we ordered was good. We did have to wait a while to flag down a waitress and we had to go to the bar for menus and stuff. It was also a little hard to snag a table by the pool, but we did. It was a little busy, probably due to it was a holiday weekend. We ate at a couple of restaurants across the street. We also shopped at several stores and went to a miniature golf course on the same street. You can rent paddle boats to float around the fresh water channel that goes throughout the resort.

In the center of the resort, there is also miniature golf. We self parked our rental car and had no problems. The parking lot was close and hardly a walk at all. On Memorial Day we signed up and paid to go to a special Memorial Day party that the resort was having that night on the beach. There was a huge tent on the beach with a catered dinner buffet that was awesome. There was also a DJ with dancing and silly contests and face and body painting for the kids. At dark there were fireworks. It was fun. During our stay at St. Pete's Beach, we went to a couple Florida beaches that were supposed to be in the top 10 beaches in the Continental United States. We went to Fort deSoto Park. The beach was nice. There was a sand bar out in the water that you could swim or wade out to. We also went to Caladesi Island State Park. You have to buy a ticket and take a shuttle boat out to the island. It was a decent beach, but we didn't think it was totally worth waiting in line and taking a boat ride to. Although, we are spoiled and we always compare every beach to the ones we have been to in Hawaii. On one day we drove to Disney World's Magic Kingdom. It is supposedly a 1 1/2 hour drive, but it took us much longer due to construction traffic. It was a good day. Our kids were pretty little, so we went knowing that we would just take our time and do what we could. We stayed until midnight, so it was a long, tired drive back to the hotel. I couldn't keep my eyes open at all and I was worried my husband would fall asleep while driving. Going to Disney World for the day is possible from St. Pete's Beach. If I had to do it again, though, I would do Disney on the last day or so of the vacation and get a cheaper hotel in Orlando and then fly out of Orlando. Overall, we had a great time in St. Pete's Beach, Florida. It was a fun trip that the kids still remember even though they were pretty little.

http://www.tradewindsresort.com/

Minocqua Wisconsin

2007-12-18T09:26:00.000-08:00

Vacationing In Minocqua Wisconsin

If you are looking to vacation in the Northwoods of Wisconcin, Minocqua is one of the well known places to travel. It is popular among the people of Illinois and is about a 6 to 7 hour drive from the Chicago area. We live 2 -2 1/2 hours south of Minocqua, so we usually visit there twice every summer. Minocqua is a great Northwoods vacation area to spend a week long vacation or have a weekend getaway. The town is great for any age person and is a great family destination. Summer is of course the busiest time of year, with July being the most populated time of year. People visit Minocqua for the many lakes, watersports, fishing, winter snowmobiling, hunting, and just relaxation.

You can find lodging such as cabins, condo, resorts, hotels, private home rentals and campgrounds. We have experienced quite a few of the different accommodations throughout Minocqua. I recommend the cabins at Nitschke's Northern Resort, which is ideally located on Lake Minocqua. It is a short walk into town on the historic Bearskin Trail. Each cabin at Nitchke's is privately owned, so the condition of the cabins are kept up very well. Nitchke's also has a nice beach and playground area for kids. They are also very accommodating if you have a wave runner or your own boat. The Beacons, located next door to Nitschke's, is also nice. There are a few cabin choices and many condos, which are nice for shorter stays. Beacons has an indoor pool, which is nice in winter or in the spring time when the weather is more unpredictable. For hotels, we have stayed at the Americinn. It offers a free continental breakfast, has an indoor pool, offers parking for trailers, and is in a great location downtown, right across the street from Torpy Park. Torpy Park has a wonderful and huge playground and also a public beach. At the public beach, boaters are also allowed to beach their boats and personal watercrafts if you want to come off the lake and come ashore to the park. There is also a larger resort hotel with an indoor waterpark called The Waters. This is also a nice place, although do not expect it to be like the huge mega waterpark resorts in the Wisconsin Dellls. The Waters Resort also allows day passes to use their indoor waterpark area. This is convenient to know of on when looking for a rainy day activity. There are lots of lodging options in Minocqua and the surrounding towns such as Eagle River, Arbor Vitae, Hazelhurst and so on. Contact the Minocqua Area Chamber Of Commerce and they will send you lots of info.

There is lots to do in the Minocqua area if you need to break away from the cabin, swimming, and boating. There are enough attractions that you can do an activity or two everyday during a week long vacation. I recommend the Scherer's Lumberjack Show, the local water ski show, Northwoods Children's Museum in Eagle River, Settlers Mill for mini golf, and Holiday Acres for horseback riding. I highly recommend going to the Wildwood Wildlife Park. It is a very nice zoo with lots of animals to view and pet and many deer to interact with. Don't miss the experience of feeding the black bears bear juice. In Minocqua there is also the Lake Of The Torches Casino golf courses, hiking, biking, a nice downtown with lots of shops, and winter sports such as skiing. There are a couple grocery stores for buying food, a movie theatre with several screens, and a Walmart.

There are plenty of dining options in Minocqua. Our family's favorites are Bosaki's, Paul Bunyans (a lumberjack camp style dining experience where the breakfasts are very popular), and Spangs Italian Restaurant. We also like Monical Pizza, Minocqua Brewing Company, Minocqua Dawg Haus, Saloons, Minocqua Popcorn Company, and the Little Swiss Village that specializes in Swedish food and pancakes. Get a seat by the window to watch the chipmunks outside playing in the chipmunk village. There are also a selection of chain establishments, such as, Cousins Subs, Culvers, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, and Country Kitchen. Minocqua is a great place for a family vacation. Our family has a special spot in our heart for the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

http://www.minocqua.org/

Westin Resort & Spa, Cancun Review

2007-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Westin Resort & Spa, Cancun

Before my husband and I had kids, we vacationed for 10 days at the Westin Resort & Spa in Cancun in the summer of 1999. (Ten days was a little too long to stay in Mexico. Go for 4-7 cays.) The Westin was a very nice resort back then and looking at the website now, it looks like it has been even more updated and remodeled. When we took this vacation, it was actually our first time being out of the country. We liked Cancun, overall, but we always seemed to be a little on edge about the local people scamming us. I guess I wasn't found of the aggressive marketplaces and the constant plugs to join timeshares. At the Westin, you will be approached by timeshare sales people and you will receive phone messages to "come down to the front desk to receive your free gift" in order to talk you into attending a timeshare presentation. If you are not into this, then say no and walk away. If you are into timeshares, then go for it. The Westin was towards the end of the strip of hotels and it has a very polished atmosphere. The rooms were very spacious. Most of all the pool areas were beautiful. Plenty of room, wonderful view, and stunning blue pools. There is also plenty of drinks flowing and an MC that keeps the pool games moving. The beach by the resort was ok too. To snorkel, we walked over to the Club Med next door and jumped in the water there, because there was reef. This is where I saw my first and only barracuda. Eeeek! You aren't really supposed to be on the Club Med property, but back then most people were doing it and the security people didn't seem too aggressive at enforcing the rule. We saw one Club Med worker that tried to tell us in Spanish that we couldn't swim there. We just acted like we didn't understand, since we spook English. At the resort, we ate the breakfast buffet once at the El Palmar and ate dinner once at Arrecifes. I remember both places being good. I would recommend this resort for couples, singles, and families. Cancun offers lots of resorts with all inclusive. Now that I have 3 kids, I would recommend going somewhere that had many restaurant choices and offered all inclusive packages. It just makes things that much easier on you as a family. You then don't have to drag kids out of the resort for every single meal. When we were on our trip to Cancun we did several tours. At that time we were a couple and had nothing to slow us down. We did a tour to Chichen Itza. It was a super long bus ride that was like 4 hours. The tour bus showed up 30 minutes late and didn't extend the tour any longer at the end to compensate us. The tour guide also seemed to make some jokes about us Americans in Spanish to the other Spanish speaking people on board the bus. The whole time in Cancun, I just felt like the people just didn't really like us. Anyway, it is very hot at Chichen Itza, especially in the summer. Wear cool clothes, bring sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, and lots of water. In 1999 when we went, they still allowed people to climb up to the top of Chichen Itza. It was cool, but it seemed kind of unsafe. They no longer allow people to go to the top of Chichen Itza anymore. Our tour included a stop for lunch at Ik Kil and a swim in the blue cenote. Swimming in the cenote was the best part of our entire vacation. Eat lunch quickly so you can swim as long as you can. They only gave us about 15 minutes in the cenote. Remember to wear your swim suit under your clothes. Some people on our tour were not informed to bring their bathing suits and they missed out on the experience of swimming in the large sink hole. We also did a tour to X-Caret Archaeological Theme Park. This was also a nice place that we enjoyed. My husband and I did the swim with the dolphins package. I liked it more than my husband. You got to swim with the dolphins, get pictures taken, and have the dolphins jump over you. The coolest part was when each person swam out in the water by themselves and when the trainer blew the whistle, two dolphins swam up behind you and pushed on the bottoms of your feet as you flew like superman on your stomach across the pool. It makes great video to bring home. Swimming with the dolphins did take up a good chunk of time at X-Caret. During the rest of the day at X-Caret, we enjoyed the beach, snorkeled in a lagoon and the underground river, and saw many animals and butterflies. Looking at the website, it looks like there is even more to do at X-Caret than when we were there. I could have spent two days there. While in Cancun we also went to Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha is similar to X-Caret. I did prefer X-Caret better. We snorkeled most of the time and snorkeled down the Xel-Ha river with inner tubes. X-Caret also has a swim with the dolphins program. We spent a lot of time on tour buses getting to and from these attractions. We are glad we did it before we had kids. We would never be able to do that much tours now with our little kids. Almost every night we ventured out of the Westin and took the public buses down the strip. The buses weren't extremely bad, although I couldn't totally relax on them. If you like nightlife there is plenty to do. Lots of restaurants, bars, shopping, and the marketplaces. One night we went to Senor Frogs for dinner and we saw lots of cockroaches, which was kind of gross. Coming up this year in February of 2007 and again in June of 2007 we are going to be venturing back to Mexico with our three kids. We are going to be staying at two different all inclusive resorts, one in Cancun and one in the Mayan Riviera. Stay tuned for the future reviews.

www.westincancun.com

Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa

2007-12-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa

If you are planning on taking a vacation to the island of Maui in Hawaii, the Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa is an excellent choice. The Hyatt is a perfect choice for both couples and families. Our family stayed at the Hyatt in Maui in February of 2006. We traveled with our two kids, ages 4 1/2 and 2. At the time, I was also 24 weeks pregnant with our 3rd baby. Let me say briefly, that Hawaii is a fabulous place to take kids on vacation. It is safe, you are still in America, you don't have to worry about ingesting bad food or water, and you can easily drive around freely without relying on buses or taxis. There are lots of families there vacationing with young kids. At the time, this was our 4th trip to Hawaii. Since we had done the major tourists activities suited for adults in our "life before kids," we pretty much relaxed in the sun the whole time. As far as traveling the 8 hour direct flight from Chicago, it is never that bad for us. Fly direct, it is faster and less stressful. Kids 3-4 yrs. and up can handle sitting in their own seat. For younger kids and babies, buy them a seat and strap them in their car seats. It keeps them contained and keeps them safer. Traveling mid pregnancy is not that bad. You may find some perks in it. Plan to relax on your trip and not do anything crazy like cliff jumping or scuba diving. Back to the resort, the Hyatt is great. The floors of the rooms are built around the center of the open air lobby. The lobby has nice landscaping, tropical birds, koi fish, and penguins.

The decor of the Hyatt is Asian. If you are looking for the tropical and bright Hawaiian look, there isn't. The Hyatt is very beautiful, though. We had a standard room with two queen beds. The room was very nice and clean and spacious. We did have a handicapped accessible room, so

I am not sure if that made a difference in the size of our room. I know the bathroom was a little bigger. The beds were super comfortable with fabulous linens, pillows, and blankets.

There are several restaurants in the Hyatt. We ate at the Swan Court three times for the wonderful buffet breakfast. Get a table up against the open doors right next to the lagoon. You can watch the swans swim while you eat. The breakfast buffet is one of the best we have had in Hawaii. If you have read my other blogs, our family loves the breakfast buffets in Hawaii. The selection is huge.

We also bought some food at the Pavilion which is a casual walk up eatery by the pool.

We also attended the Drums Of The Pacific Luau, which is on the grounds of the Hyatt. It was a decent luau, but I preferred the luau a few doors down at the Marriott better.

The pool areas are nice at the Maui Hyatt. The main pool is large and you can swim under a waterfall and go through a cave that leads to the second swim area. The "cave" area has a bar, that is not a swim up bar, but it is next to the pool. The second swim area is for kids and families. It is a man made sand bottom pool area with zero depth entry. There are squirting fountains and a small water slide. It is perfect for little kids. That is where we spent most of our time. The sand in this area is very granular with small rocks, so wear some swim shoes so your feet don't ache. There is a larger tube slide for adults and older kids that empties on this side of the swimming area, but it is separate from where the little kids will be playing. There is also a swinging bridge above the kids swimming area and a hot tub in the corner for adults. We liked the Hyatt, because there was the kids area and the adults who didn't want to be around kids could hang out at the larger pool on the other side. I have read other people's reviews complaining about the beach in front of the Hyatt resort. I don't remember it being that bad at all. If you get sick of hanging out at the pool or if you want to play in the sand, walk right on over to the beach. A beautiful view too.

The Hyatt is the last resort on the end of the strip of hotels. Black Rock, the well known snorkeling area, is on the opposite end. There is a sidewalk that runs the entire length of the strip between the hotels and the beach. It is so handy to walk to the other hotels and the other beach areas. In the center of the strip is the upscale mall, Whaler's Village. There are lots of stores and restaurant choices. Read my other blog to the right about Whaler's Village.

The entire grounds of the Hyatt are beautiful and well maintained. There a lush gardens with bridges, lagoons, swans, and various birds.

There is a spa at the Hyatt, although I didn't visit it when we were there. You can valet or self park your car at the Hyatt. I recommend paying the $15 per day to valet your vehicle. The self park seemed at little too far away. I read some reviews that said the valet service was too slow. We did not have that problem. Remember to call the valet desk 10 -15 minutes before you leave your room to tell them you need your car. Our car was always waiting. The men always opened the doors for us, had the air conditioning running, and greeted us by our names. It was nice. When we stayed at the Hyatt in February the weather was a cool 68 degrees. The end of the week we did have some days in upper 70's to low 80's but the nights were very chilly. It was a little unusual for it to be that cool at that time of the year. If you do travel to Hawaii during the winter, remember to take pant outfits, and sweaters or sweatshirts for the evening. On this trip we also enjoyed whale season. If you visit Hawaii between October and March, tons of whales are there to give birth. The whales migrate down from Alaska to give birth in the warmer waters. Around March, they then travel back towards Alaska. This was our first time seeing the whales in Hawaii. It is cool. You will be consumed with watching the horizon for spouts of water from whales. When we were sitting on our favorite beach, Kapalua Beach, a huge mother whale, breached out of the water. Everyone on the beach cheered & gasped. I caught the whole thing on video tape as the mother continuously jumped out of the water, followed by the baby imitating her jump. The two whales jumped out of the water quite a few times as they swam across the horizon. Take binoculars with you on your trip. You will use them often. If you are in Hawaii during whale season, do take a whale watching cruise. This is the only reason to take any sort of cruise in Maui. I think any of the snorkeling cruises or other cruises are not worth it. As far as snorkeling cruises, you can see the same sea life when snorkeling off the beaches. Anyways, the whale watching cruises are worth it. The cruises offer various length cruises and some do include food or snorkeling stops. We did a 2 hour whale watch cruise and it was plenty. We saw enough whales and it wasn't too long of a time to be stuck on a boat, especially with kids. The boat actually didn't sail that far. We could still see views of the shore. On your way to the marina in downtown Lahaina, check our the banyan tree. In conclusion, I highly recommend the Hyatt. It is one of the best resorts we have ever stayed at. Some other good choices in the same area of Maui are the Westin, Sheraton, and the Marriott. I would check out the Hyatt first, though. You will be pleased. As a side note, if you have time to kill after checking out of your hotel and before you go to the airport to go home, go to the the aquarium. It is very nice.

http://www.maui.hyatt.com/

Wilderness Resort In Wisconsin Dells

2007-12-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

Wilderness Resort In The Wisconsin Dells

Our family of five regularly visit the Wisconsin Dells several times a year. We have stayed at just about every one of the larger resorts and have experienced about all the activities that the Dells have to offer. The Wilderness Resort is the largest of the mega resorts with indoor and outdoor waterparks. The Wilderness is an expansive place that is centered around the Northern woods theme of Wisconsin. When reserving accommodations, you can choose between standard lodge rooms and suites, villas and condos with 2 or 3 bedrooms, or full size cabins with 4 to 5 bedrooms. When our family goes to the Wilderness, we usually get a double queen sofa lodge room. This is usually in the main area of the resort and it is a large room with 2 beds, a pull out sofa, table & chairs, TV (sometimes 2 TV's,) fridge, microwave, and the sink and vanity area outside the bathroom that has a shower/tub and toilet. Weekend rates you will expect to pay in the $200's range per night. If you go during the week the rates are lower. Many people gasp at the prices, but remember that the price also includes waterpark passes for your whole family. All your entertainment is included. Once you park your car, you will never have to leave the resort. The Wilderness has huge mega indoor waterparks. There are three indoor waterpark areas. The newest is the Wild Waterdome that has a clear dome ceiling that allows you to tan all year long. The biggest wave pool is here along with 2 family raft rides and a children's play area. The second indoor waterpark is Klondike Kavern. It has tube slides, a lazy river, Jacuzzis, and the huge Hurricane water raft ride that is just crazy for older kids and adults. There is also a large children's play area that was in Goldmine Mountain. It is currently under total renovation as is opening in mid December of 2007. It is going to be renamed Goldenmine Mountain and looks like it is just going to be a basic kids water play area with smaller slides, squirt guns, and a dumping bucket. The third indoor waterpark is the Wild West. It has a family raft ride, a smaller wave pool surrounded by water cannons that people can squirt you with, a baby play area, and another children's play area with smaller slides, squirting accessories, and a dump bucket. If you visit the Wilderness Resort in summer, you also have access to the huge amount of outdoor waterpark areas. The main outdoor waterpark area is 150,000 square feet of play for all ages. There is so much to do. The newer outdoor area is Lost World Adventure. It has a lazy river system that has twists, rapids, an uphill conveyor belt, and a tube slide. There is also a good size Fossil Falls play area for all ages and the Halley's Commet Racers where you can race against your friends down speed slides. The Waterpark areas, indoors and out, is so massive that you will go from area to area and hardly do anything twice. The place is also so large, that the lines for the rides are not long at all. There are pleny of chairs all over and you can also rent private cabanas. If your family gets waterlogged, the Wilderness also has a dry play area and arcade. The dry play area is really nice. It is called Dodge'Em City. It has a 4 story dry, interactive play area with foam ball blasters, crawling spaces, and slides. There is also a toddler crawl zone for little kids. In Dodge'Em City there are places to purchase food such as coffee, ice cream, continental breakfast items, cocktails, beer, and several TV's to watch your sporting events. Inside Dodge'Em City there is also the Northern Lights Arcade. There are lots of games for all ages where kids can win tickets for prizes. For dining options, you have a few. I highly recommend Sorento's which is owned by the Wilderness corporation. The restaurant is a short drive away and well worth it. Great pizza and Italian food. Go about 4pm and it's not crowded yet, or you can make a reservation. Sorento's also delivers to the resort. Next to the Wilderness there is Field's, which is a fancier restaurant also owned by the Wilderness. Inside the Wilderness there is the Wild Canyon Cafe that serves a breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet. There are a couple pub & grub type bars, bar areas, and concession stand areas throughout the waterparks to buy food at. I recommend bringing food with to have in your room. You will see everyone carrying in coolers to their rooms. Bring drinks, snacks, breakfast stuff, and lunch items such as stuff to make sandwiches with. You will save money. Once we spent over $75 to eat at the concession stand in the Wild Waterdome. That was ridiculous. In the standard rooms you have a fridge and microwave, so it is easy to go back to your room for lunch or grab snacks whenever you want. If you have a condo, villa, or cabin you will have a full kitchen, so you have even more options. We have taken a crock pot with us before and had premade barbecue for dinner. If you are with several families, you can all bring food to share and eat together. Other things that the Wilderness Resort offers is snow tubing in the winter, a fitness center, golf, and a spa. Throughout the resort you will also find hair braiding and temporary tattoos. A side note, directly across the street is a quick care medical center. I have used it when my younger daughter got sick, and it was a nice facility. If you are traveling to the Wisconsin Dells in the summer and want to try some of the areas other activities, I recommend the Duck rides, the Upper Dells Boat Ride, Mount Olympus Go Carts, the deer park, Noah's Ark Waterpark, and any of the large miniature golf places. If you are looking for good restaurants outside the Wilderness Resort, I recommend Paul Bunyan's, Pedro's, and Moose Jaw. I highly recommend the Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells for all ages. You will have a fun packed time.

http://www.wildernessresort.com