Salty
Sea Adventure
©2004
Jenks Studio |
Take
a step back in time and enjoy a windjammer cruise. Sail
one of the tall ships for a weekend or a week, as a crewmember
or a guest. Relive the days of sail on an authentic, tall-masted
schooner and spend carefree days among the islands of
Maine. For
information contact Maine Winjammer Cruises®, PO Box
617, Camden, ME 04843; (207) 236-2938;
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The Bahamas
may beckon you to fulfill your dreams of luxury and sunshine.
What better way to experience the tropics than aboard a windjammer.
From June through August, kids rule the waves on two family-friendly
ships. While Junior Jammers explore, play games, and go to the
beach, parents can take a deep breath, relax and enjoy each
moment of their vacation. Parents may join their children on
the adventures ashore, or meet up with their kids later in the
day. It's truly the best of both worlds. Contact Windjammer
Barefoot Cruises, P.O. Box 190120, Miami Beach, FL. 33119-0120;
(800) 327-2601; www.windjammer.com.
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Early
American History
| If
you prefer a landlubber vacation, travel off-season to Boston
and experience an American history vacation. March to Concord
at sunrise on April 19th with the Sudbury militia. Every
year, the Sudbury Minutemen join volunteers from other communities
to re-enact the historic march to Concord Massachusetts
that signaled the beginning of the Revolutionary War with
the “shot heard round the world”. Men, women
and children dressed in colonial costume re-create a moment
of history. Afterward, join in a picnic at |
Photo Courtesy of the Sudbury Companies
of Militia and Minute
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the colonial
Wayside Inn where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned his famous
work “Tales of a Wayside Inn”. Next day, spend the
day walking the Freedom Trail through Boston to visit 16 sites
that represent part of our nation’s early history. The Freedom
Trail is a 2.5 mile red brick or red painted line that travels
through Beacon Hill, downtown Boston, the North End and Charlestown.
Visit Boston Common, New State House, Park Street Church, Granary
Burying Grounds, King’s Chapel, the first public school
site, the Old Corner Bookstore, Old South Meeting House, Old State
House, Boston Massacre Site, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.
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Weather
permitting, travel to Cape Cod for a bicycle tour through
the quaint towns and sandy dunes that dot the shores of
this famous peninsula. For information contact Cape Cod
Bicycle |
Adventures,
2533 State Highway Wellfleet, MA 02667; 888-644-4566; www.capecodbybike.com
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Factory Tours
| Fun
for the entire family, educational, often tasty and sometimes
intriguing, factory tours may constitute a day trip or a
weeklong adventure. Factory tours celebrate American imagination
and industry. What better way to appreciate those qualities
than to visit and tour America at work. See how potato chips
are made, or pretzels or popcorn; Crayola crayons, cranberry
juice, |
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Martin guitars,
or Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Learn how beer is brewed
and bottled, even if you choose to pass up the free sample at
the end of the tour. But at the Hershey Chocolate Factory you’ll
probably take the free kisses at the exit. Factory tours are fascinating
and they can be found everywhere! Log onto www.factorytoursusa.com
to discover 467 factory tours across the country.
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Volunteer
Vacations
If service is an important family value for
you, consider a volunteer vacation.
Family volunteering provides a new, fun way to spend time with
your family. Imagine planting trees with the Nature Conservatory
or collecting data on dolphins with the Earthwatch Institute.
Donating time with your family offers a unique way to spend
time together while helping your community.
There are endless opportunities for a volunteer vacation in
your neighborhood, throughout the USA or abroad.
• Join others in a Habitat for Humanity build. All
levels of construction experience are welcome and needed,
including novices. Visit www.habitat.org
to find out how you can make another family’s dream
of homeownership come true.
• Volunteer together to collect food and re-stock the
shelves of your local food bank. Ask another family to join
you. For more ways to help, go to www.secondharvest.com.
• Swing your family into action – join the KaBOOM!
team in building a playground for kids. No experience needed
… just long pants, closed toe shoes, and a smile on
your face. Be a part of a one-day playground build that will
bring joy to kids for years to come. Visit www.kaboom.org
for dates and cities of upcoming KaBOOM! builds.
• Consider a Volunteer Work Weekend at one of the YMCA's
many facilities. In exchange for your work in the outdoors,
you can receive lodging and meals and participate in a variety
of programs. Visit www.ymca.net
to find opportunities near you or where you may be traveling.
• Get the family together and run or walk to support
the Race for the Cure for breast cancer. Please click
here to find race dates, times, and cities.
• Many organizations offer volunteer vacations and destination
service activities that let you work together to build trails,
assist with archeological digs, and build houses. For more
information on how to connect your family with volunteer opportunities
on public lands all across America, visit www.volunteeramerica.net/vacations.htm.
• Use the USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network or check
with your local congregations, faith-based organizations,
volunteer centers, senior centers, YMCA, Big Brothers Big
Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs and other programs for more
volunteer opportunities.
For more information about family volunteering, try this website:
www.idealist.org/kt/familyvolunteer.html.
If you are interested in volunteering with your family abroad.
Through Global
Volunteers, you might find opportunities to serve in these
capacities:
Teach English language conversation skills:
Work in China, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico,
Peru, Poland, Romania, and Tanzania., Ukraine, and USA: Minnesota
Care for the disabled or orphaned children:
Work in Ecuador, Greece, India, Peru, Poland, Romania, Ukraine,
and USA: Arizona
Protect the environment: Work in The Cook
Islands, and USA: Hawaii
 |
Build
and repair homes and community facilities:
Work in Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Greece, Ireland,
Jamaica, Peru, Tanzania, and USA: Arizona, Florida, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia |
Tutoring
and advance literacy:
Work in The Cook Islands, Ghana, Greece, India, Poland,
Tanzania, and USA: Florida, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana,
West Virginia |
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Improve basic health care services: Work
in The Cook Islands, Ecuador, Ghana, Greece, Jamaica, Poland,
Romania, and Tanzania, and USA: Arizona.
Global Volunteers is a non-sectarian organization. Visit their
website for more information: www.globalvolunteers.org.
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Try
an intergenerational adventure
Strengthen family ties and enjoy leisure together through a
vacation planned to include grandparents, nieces, nephews, aunts,
uncles, and children, especially if distance seldom allows time
together. Whether it’s a one-day tour in a nearby city
or a week at a resort, this is the kind of family togetherness
that works. If you want to avoid the planning hassle, there
are tour companies that specialize in intergenerational vacations.
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Travel
America’s waterways aboard a hotel barge. Stop along
the way to visit nearby towns, eat home-style meals on board
and enjoy regional entertainment. In an area of the United
States where fiddles and banjoes are as much a part of local
color as muskets and coonskin caps, select an excursion
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that is a perfect adventure to share with friends and family.
Learn about the Cajuns and Creoles of the Atchafalaya River Basin
and the Lower Mississippi River. Travel the route of Jean Lafitte.
Here is found the long-searched-for treasures of Jean Lafitte
along the Louisiana and Texas gulf coast. It's been there all
along, disguised in the form of the beautiful places and incredible
scenery. At Riverbarge Excursions, children 12 and under sail
free and older children up to 18 sail half price. If you’re
a teacher (active or retired) you travel for half price as well.
For information contact RiverBarge Excursions, 201 Opelousas Ave.,
New Orleans, LA, LA 70114; 888-BOBARGE (462-2743); www.riverbarge.com.
| Rascals
in Paradise specializes in family vacations, including
grandparents. These specialized group trips include three
to six families and travel to such places as Mexico, the
Caribbean, the Bahamas, Europe, New Zealand, Thailand, Australia,
the Canadian Rockies, Africa, Hawaii, Alaska, and ranches
in the Western |
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USA.
Escorts plan activities for older children and arrange baby-sitters
for the little ones. Visit Akumal on the Mexican Caribbean near
the heart of the Mayan ruins. This resort includes villas or hotel
accommodations right on the beach. Snorkel over an underwater
museum filled with artifacts from shipwrecks along the Mexican
coast and swim with dolphins. For information contact Rascals
in paradise, 1 Daniel Burnham Ct., Ste. 105 C, San Francisco,
CA 94109; 800-872-7225; www.rascalsinparadise.com.
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Try something new this year—a new place, a new season,
a new diversion, a new group. Whatever your vacation dreams
may be there is an adventure awaiting you.
Special
thanks to each of the websites listed above who allowed us to
use their pictures.
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Watch
it Made in the U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide to the Companies
That Make Your Favorite Products, by Karen Axelrod, Bruce
Brumberg (Contributor)
This book guides travelers to more than 290 factories throughout
the United States offering all the practical information needed
to select and locate tours close to vacation destinations or near
home.
Inside America: The
Great American Industrial Tour Guide, by
Jack Berger, Eunice Berger
Find more than 1,000 Free Industrial tours open to the public
Covering More Than 300 Different industries
Little Museums: Over 1,000 Small and Not-So-Small American
Showplaces, by Lynne Arany, Archie Hobson (Contributor)
Along the superhighways and backwoods roads of America -- in
megametropolises and one-horse towns -- hundreds of little museums
are ripe for discovery. Complete with websites, exact directions,
and invaluable tips on when to go and what to know, this book
is by far the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide available.
Civil War Battlefield Guide,
by The Conservation Fund, Frances H. Kennedy (Editor)
Definitively depicting the 55 major battlefields of the Civil
War, this complete guide describes each battle vividly in an
essay by a distinguished historian. Color photographs show the
battlefields as they are today, while detailed maps plot the
movements of the armies as well as the topography of the land.
Along the Trail with Lewis & Clark,
by Barbara Fifer, Vicky Soderberg, Joseph Mussulman (Illustrator)
This then-and-now guide takes modern tourists along or near
where the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled. Brief, accurate
text recounts the expedition's adventures.
Family Fun:
Fodor's Great American Learning
Vacations, by Caroline Haberfeld (Editor), Glen
Berger (Editor), Matthew Lore (Editor)
This book is a great guide to vacations with a purpose in the
United States, from restoring a 19th-century hand-hewn log house
in Florida to painting desertscapes in Taos, New Mexico, and
searching for humpback whales off the Alaska coast.
Volunteer Vacations:
Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You & Others,
by Bill McMillon
A volunteer experience is the best way to travel, combine personal
growth and philanthropy, and get to know other cultures and
people by helping them. The seventh edition of this classic
adventure travel guide lists more than 2,000 projects worldwide
that need volunteers. Detailed organization profiles provide
contact information, project locations and objectives, costs,
dates, and application instructions. Cross-referenced indexes
help travelers plan according to cost, destination, length of
vacation, season, and type of project.
Outside Magazine's Guide to Family Vacations,
by the Editors of Outside Magazine
Whether your children are toddlers or teens, this compendium
of family-vacation ideas from America's premier adventure magazine
is packed with scores of trips throughout North America and
beyond that will get the whole clan into the big outdoors.
Great Adventure Vacations with Your Kids,
by Dorothy Jordon
This is a great book for families interested in exploring nature
on their vacations. The author defines an adventure vacation
as one "that offers physically challenging activity in
an outdoor environment..."
Great Nature Vacations with Your Kids,
by Dorothy Jordon
This book will take you through scores of nature vacation experiences
perfect for families. These include exploring rain forests,
digging for dinosaur bones, trekking in the Arctic, taking a
safari, swimming with dolphins, camping in the desert, plus
many other great vacations. This unique guidebook is more than
a listing of vacation possibilities. Dorothy's conversational
style provides readers with a feel for each of these vacations.
Farm, Ranch & Country Vacations in America,
by Pat Dickerman
A steady seller for 41 years and still the most complete reference
book available for safe and easy rural vacations. With descriptions
and comments for 230 different places. This is a marvelous handbook
for anyone contemplating a refreshing, unusual vacation.
Horse Lovers Vacation Guide, by Lynne Johnson
This guide brings over 25 categories of riding vacations to
the traveller so they can easily find vacation sites all over
North America. Each listing offers contact information plus
a descriptive writeup of the site.
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