Looking for family vacation ideas

[jclements]

We're brainstorming for some family vacation ideas for this year. This vacation would be for my DH and I as well as our two boys (8 and 3). We've already been to Washington D.C., Seattle, New Orleans (pre-Katrina), and several places in Florida. DH hates theme parks. Hawaii would be nice, but is probably one to save for when the younger one is a little older. Scenery is good, especially mountains. We also like history and museums. I thought this treehouse place looked cool.  http://www.treehouses.com/treehouse/treesort/home.html My dad is a fishing guide in Alaska in the summers, so it's a possibility too.

Any ideas? Where have you been that you loved or hated?

Thanks in advance!

[jclements]

I'm thinking Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks would be good. Any suggestions? There is a hot air balloon festival July 1-4. I think this might be a winner!

[milliemax]

Yosemite is ALWAYS a great place for adults and kids!
  You can rent cabins, RVs, the hotels are quite pricey, if you have camping gear, campers or a trailor it is affordable.
  It is such a beautiful place to be! There are walks/hikes for every level of walker.
 You DO have to make reservations almost a year in advance to be IN the park.
  We got a cabin about 1/2 hr outside the park with very little notice, but still pricey.  HTH Nancy

[MikeW]

Boston and the Cape.

Cheers,

Mike

[tracey_shafer]

Yosemite is ALWAYS a great place for adults and kids!
  You can rent cabins, RVs, the hotels are quite pricey, if you have camping gear, campers or a trailor it is affordable.
  It is such a beautiful place to be! There are walks/hikes for every level of walker.
 You DO have to make reservations almost a year in advance to be IN the park.
  We got a cabin about 1/2 hr outside the park with very little notice, but still pricey.  HTH Nancy

Big Sur is very nice also and they have some very nice camping parks along hwy 1 to explore the beaches and coastline of calif and the redwoods. Maybe hit a few of the old spanish missions.

[jclements]

Boston and the cape are on the list too.

The airfare to Jackson, WY, is minimum $500/person. Whoa!

We would probably stay in a hotel in one of the national parks, we have very little camping experience!

All good suggestions, thanks~!

[Jerry]

You can do Big Sur and Yosemite on the same trip. Motor south and Mike W and I will feed you.
Okay Mike?

[tracey_shafer]

You can do Big Sur and Yosemite on the same trip. Motor south and Mike W and I will feed you.
Okay Mike?

That was what I was thinking & Yosemite is much nicer than Yellowstone (maybe I am alittle bais but I think Yellowstone is a hole in the ground in comparasion. And what a great offer free eats too!!

[Jerry]

Yeah Tracy, but only if she does not speak of the Gators!

[Joyce]

If you do Boston and the Cape, you are only 3 hours from me, so you'll have to stop by.

[kaz]

Jessica... if you ever fancy coming to the UK let me know.  As an investment, I bought an apartment which is about 50 yards from my house.  Anyway... its all new and furnished.  Now I've got it, I can't bear to rent it out in case it gets trashed ... but I will have to think about renting it next year.  What I'm trying to say is that if you, hubby and the boys want to use it for a holiday this year, it's yours for free.  It's about 40 minutes from London by train (forget driving there, no parking!).  If you look on any London tourist sites you'll see there's a zillion things to do... certainly history, museums, castles, palaces, etc are rife. 

[MikeW]

Wow, now there is an offer!
Jessica, if you can swing it, this is someting you can't afford to turn down. Even only half way decent hotels in London easilly top $300 a night. I think this is something you will always kick yourself for not having done later.

Cheers,

Mike

[jclements]

Wow, Kaz! I'll mention it to DH!!! I could certainly think of a few things I'd like to do over there...I have a travel map for scenes from the latest Pride and Prejudice (love the story and the movie). Hmmm.....

Jerry and MikeW, I'll keep CA in mind too, but I'm not sure my gator pride can be hidden! I did joke about getting a gator logo tattoo if they won a second year in a row. Maybe I'll do that if they can get a third year in a row, yeah right!

[CoolShades]

Williamsburg Va might be interesting and is light on the wallet.  I'm partial to the Everglades, but I suspect someone Ohio might have problems with the Gators... it seems a Buckeye is no match for a Gator!!!!  (See the Quandry that UF Presient is in (Posted on ChitChat)).  I like Austin, & San Antonio, which is not too far from you.  If you want to learn about our country's history Philly has some very good deals during the summer.  Besides Independence Hall and Constitution Center, The Franklin Institute is great for kids, The Barnes Foundation is the most impressive art collection hands down in the world!   Seeing it in Barnes Mansion will only happen for the next year as the collection will be moved downtown.  Barnes was an educator of art and he has over 150 Renoir's, many significant pieces from Matise, Seurat, Manet, Monet, van Gogh, Picasso, Cezzane, Corbet, Grieco, Ruebens and many others.  The au he arranged the paints was from an educators point of viw on which artist influenced who.  Also go to Longwood to see the Lilies, Orchids, etc.  Give me a call and we can trade Gator stories!

Anyway have an enjoyable vacation.

Gary

[LeeAnne151]

I loved Yellowstone. The geysers, the wildlife, the scenery....Have wanted to go back for years.
However, I would not turn down Kaz's offer if I were you.

You could take a road trip in Texas, head down to San Antonio then to Big Bend National Park, then over to El Paso, visit Mexico then to White Sands National Monument and then up to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I don't think there are hotels at Big Bend so you may skip it but I know there are at the other two.

http://www.nps.gov/cave/

http://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm

http://www.nps.gov/bibe/