September 8, 2011
Our family recently completed a seventeen day trip from the Los Angeles area to the east coast. The purpose: a hybrid between supporting and facilitating my daughter’s burgeoning music career (you can find some of her tunes at www.nicolelexidavis.com) and a family vacation highlighting historic stops, urban delights, and finishing up at the beach, allowing fun ...
September 6, 2011
Looking for a friendly town full of history? On a recent east coast visit, charming Fredericksburg Virginia more than fit the bill for history buffs, scenery lovers, and shopping enthusiasts. It made a great stop as we drove from the Washington D.C. area into the south. Just off busy Interstate 95, the town retains a small ...
September 5, 2011
Virginia is a state of great contrasts: it houses upscale bedroom communities that serve the Washington, D.C. metropolis, bucolic horse farms, antique shops, George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, and — the Blue Ridge Mountains. We started to explore the Blue Ridge region visiting friends in Roanoke, with a family pleasing visit to the Taubman Museum ...
August 12, 2011
Charleston, South Carolina is a genteel city. Polite. Adults hold the door for you and your children’s strollers, and hotel employees pat your child on the head. If you like history, historic recreations of river boat steamers, horse drawn carriage rides, a beautiful water front city, a lovely nearby beach, and plenty of courtesy, then ...
August 10, 2011
I’m about to embark on a two week trip tomorrow, up and down the Eastern Seaboard. The trip is both a tour promoting my adult daughter’s acoustic folk rock career, and an exploration of things family and friendly for kids of all ages. Some cities I’ve never been to, some this will be a second ...
August 5, 2011
What’s sweet as fudge, gooey as cotton candy, has as many tourists as Disneyland, is on the edge of a major national park, and pretty far off a major highway? Why that would be Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Ringed by the Le Conte and Sugarland Mountains, the Big Ride and Grape Ridge, Gatlinburg is in a lush, ...
August 5, 2011
Sonoma, California is near Napa, California. And as such, it’s home to lovely wineries and pretty villages, rich forests, rolling hills, and pleasant cafes. However, what makes Sonoma different than Napa is its emphasis on nature rather than the wine culture, its family-oriented restaurants and activities, and a more laid back, and slightly less expensive ...
August 3, 2011
We love the beach. So when I suggested a simple driving tour of Florida, heading north from Fort Lauderdale featuring a succession of beach days, my kids were as excited to check out the sand and sea as I was. We’d heard from friends that the beaches are wide, the sand soft, the water warm, ...
August 2, 2011
Is it hokey? Or is it history? It’s hard to tell at first glance in Fredericksburg, Texas, at least when you come for Oktoberfest as we did a year ago. This October festival means that Main Street, with its nineteenth century houses is bedecked with Texas state flags and German ones. It means rowdy polka ...
July 30, 2011
We love the South-east in the summer. Not everyone does of course, it’s humid, it’s hot, and the beautiful beaches that offer a cooling breeze and comfortable water can be crowded. But those are small caveats to what we think is a wonderful season for exploring a region of the U.S. as different from our ...
