Travel can be educational, too!

by Tim Larison

We’ve taken our sons Andrew and Josh all over the World on our vacations – from the glaciers of Alaska to the canals of Venice. These trips have not only been great fun, but educational, too! Here are Andrew and Josh sampling bananas right from the plant on a December 2006 visit to the Caribbean – they’ll never eat a banana again without thinking of how this fruit is harvested in St Lucia. ... Read More

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A Traveling Mom’s Tip: Keeping kids entertained on the journey

by Anne Larison . We have been traveling as a family for over 8 years. We spend time prior to each trip preparing not just for the destination, but also for the journey. That’s me at the left with Andrew and Josh in their younger days (age 6) all prepared for a new trip. Here are a few ideas about keeping your child entertained on the journey. At least two weeks before we leave, the twins and I start preparing. First we make sure that the traveling backpack is in good shape. If it has been a while since your last trip, make sure that your child won’t object to the pack you plan to use for the trip. For several years the cute, bright little boy backpacks were great. At a certain age, the boys grew out of that pack and informed me they were too ‘old’ to use the ‘baby’ back pack.

I let the boys decide what they will bring on the trip… with supervision. I had to intervene the year one of the boys wanted to bring the 3rd volume of the Harry Potter series (hard back) to read on the plane. This book, at over 450 pages, weighs more than most small appliances! ... Read More

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First time snorkeling

On our Southern Caribbean cruise in December 2006 12 year olds Josh and Andrew experienced snorkeling for the first time (pictured to the left are Josh and Andrew snorkeling with Anne near the island of Antigua). What did the boys think of this experience?

Josh:

“My first time snorkeling was really fun. After we looked at some different islands, we came to Bird Island. Instead of playing on the beach, we got snorkeling lessons from a crew member of the boat. It was really fun and better than I expected. I thought it was going to be hard to breath, but it was easy. We even saw a crab walking on the ocean floor next to the boat. We had a great lunch with barbeque chicken, pasta, and banana cake for desert. After we left, we came to a snorkeling spot where there was lots of fish and coral. I saw some fish swimming around in the water and it was a really enjoyable experience. I hope I get to go snorkeling again sometime!” ... Read More

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Crown Princess Southern Caribbean Cruise (2006)

Our family has taken a number of Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises in recent years, but until December 2006 we had never sailed a Southern Caribbean itinerary. We were anxious to try out a Southern Caribbean cruise on the newest ship in the Princess fleet – the Crown Princess.  The cruise exceeded our expectations! In this report I will describe some of the features of the Crown Princess and the ports we visited. Anne will contribute her comments on various parts of the trip preceded by the words “Anne’s take:” And we’ll get a kids view of the trip from our sons Andrew and Josh. ... Read More

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Josh rates video games on different cruise lines


by Josh Larison (age 12)

On all of the cruises that I have been on, there have been great video games. On Disney there were a lot of computers with a bunch of games on them. The only bad thing was that I didn’t get to play on them very much because there were a lot of people that got there before me. Royal Caribbean had computers like Disney and they also had a few Playstation 2s. ... Read More

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