Charlie and Doug had a blast climbing the "look-out towers" of the Alhambra Palace when we were in Granada, Spain, three months ago.

by Wendy Perrin

Several moms I know (including my own) have insisted I link to today's recording of The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC Radio (New York's flagship public radio station). I'm on the show every Thursday morning in May as part of its month-long travel series, and this morning our topic was how to survive vacations with the kids (and are they truly vacations or just changes of venue?). It was quite an entertaining half-hour, I have to admit, partly because Brian (who also has two sons) is such a great interviewer, and partly because the other guest on the show was one Hollis Gillespie, a former flight attendant (with an amazingly well-traveled daughter) who shared some pretty horrifying stories about what she saw parents doing with their tots on planes--everything from overmedicating them so much that the plane had to make an emergency landing to tucking them away in the overhead bins! 

You can listen to the segment by clicking here (just scroll down past the pic of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid--that was the interview before me--until you get to the segment called "Unraveling Traveling: Are We There Yet?").

The pool deck during my family vacation onboard the Norwegian Gem last month.

by Wendy Perrin

Yesterday I mentioned that I already spent my tax rebate . . . on a cruise. In actuality my vacation, onboard Norwegian Cruise Line's new It Girl, cost a helluva lot more than any rebate check I'm gonna get, but that's because I opted for one of the few ships sailing out of New York City (our backyard) in winter and because I splurged on a "mini-suite" with a balcony. And boy, was it worth every cent.

That's me and the kids on our cabin balcony in New York Harbor, March 15, 2008. We loved getting to the warm weather of Florida and the Bahamas without having to get on a plane.

As I wrote the other day, I don't think mammoth cruise ships are the best vehicle for seeing Europe's world-class sights and absorbing its culture. I DO think they're a great way for exhausted parents to get some R&R. For this particular vacation, you see, our goal was not sightseeing. Our goal was sleep. That meant we needed a ship with (1) a great child-care program in which to park the boys, (2) sports facilities for exhausting the two little Energizer Bunnies, and (3) a been-there-done-that itinerary, so we wouldn't feel pressure to race around each port trying to see as much as possible in our limited time.

The water slide was key: It allowed us to exhaust the whirling dervishes with minimal exertion on our part.

I can't tell you more about our cruise because it would give away my article in Conde Nast Traveler's upcoming August issue. My husband, Tim, has therefore graciously offered up the top ten reasons why HE loved the cruise. After the jump, a husband's perspective.

Let your child phone his imaginary friends with the TV remote. :) That's my four-year-old on a flight to Spain, Feb. 2008.

by Wendy Perrin

Yesterday's USA Today reported that "air travel is slower than at any time in the past two decades. . . . Congestion on the ground and in the sky is adding more than an hour to some routes as planes take longer to taxi and fly to their destinations. . . . Airlines are building extra time into their schedules, adding as much as 50% to expected flight times."

All that extra time we get to spend on planes is particularly enjoyable for parents of young children. Since this week the blogosphere has been big on games you can play with your travel companions--over at Vagabondish, Amanda Kendle offered up 5 Games for the Road: How to Pass the Time with Nothing but Your Fellow Travelers for Entertainment, and Debbie over at DeliciousBaby shared her tips for Surviving Flight Delays With Kids by engaging in imaginative play and thinking games for which no toys or electronics are required--I figure I oughta join the club. So here are my top ten tips for child-friendly games you can play on an airplane that take up zero space in your carry-on:

(10) If your child can read, play the "Find the city" game using the airline route map in the magazine in the seat pocket in front of you.

(9) Child can't read yet? Take out the aircraft safety card--it has lots of pictures--and play "Find the red X's," followed by "Find the yellow swim floaties," "Find the giant slide," etc. This is good for learning the alphabet too: "Find the A" (as in Airbus), "Find the B" (as in Boeing), "Find the C" (as in "EmergenCy Exit").

If YOUR family were stranded at the airport, what would YOU do?
AP Photo/Ric Francis

by Wendy Perrin

American Airlines canceled 570 more flights today, putting the total number of canceled flights this week at about 3,050 and the total number of displaced AA passengers upwards of 170,000 or so (I've lost count). The groundings are expected to continue through Saturday.

If I were one of those stranded passengers, I'd be buying a one-day pass to the Admirals Club for $50 and waiting out the delay in the club lounge. You can't do that with young children in tow, however. (If you have to ask why not, you're clearly not a parent of preschool boys.) Which brings me to the strandees who are likely having the toughest time of all: The parents trying to keep their young kids occupied, napped, exercised, fed, hydrated, and tantrum-free. After you've worn out every Crayola marker in your carry-on, read every Dora the Explorer book, and sung the Thomas the Tank Engine song 15 times, here are some ideas for killing the hours left:

10. Go on a family scavenger hunt through the terminal in search of: emergency diapers, juice boxes for sale, a newsstand that has not run out of The New York Times, and an empty electrical outlet.

9. Use the cot and blanket supposedly provided by AA to make a fort. (You can build a wall out of leftover McDonald's Happy Meal boxes.)

8. Buy ten packs of Starburst Fruit Chews and use all the colorful little blocks to build towers, castles, and parking garages. 

7. Ride anything that moves: the train between terminals, the escalators, the shuttle bus to the long-term parking lot. As for the baggage carousel . . .

Whenever I hit the airport with my two whirling dervishes -- Doug, 4, and Charlie, 5 -- we spend most of our terminal time on the move, burning off energy in preparation for all those hours of having to sit still on the plane. That's us at Newark, Feb 14, 2008.

by Wendy Perrin

Many thanks to all of you who, before my dreaded overnight flight to Spain with the kids two weeks ago, generously offered your tips for relieving children's ear pain inflight. I'm happy to report that, despite ear infections and head colds, our trip was tears-free.  Sucking lollipops (in combination with antibiotics) did the trick.

On our descent into Madrid, we may have been sleepy and disheveled, but we were free of ear pain. Charlie and I played Uno.

I heard another great tip yesterday -- from Carl Schwartz, director of marketing for Cheapflights, who was in my office sharing war stories about flying with children.  He has three of them -- ages 7, 5, and almost 1 -- and his best earache-prevention tip comes from Cheapflights' Air Travel And Families section:  Ask the flight attendant to soak a couple of paper napkins in very hot water, wring them out, stick them in the bottom of plastic drink cups, and put the cups over your kids' ears. This creates a vacuum, reducing the ear pressure. Who woulda thunk?!

Cheapflights has equally nifty advice for entertaining, exercising, and otherwise occupying kids in airports. Its Kids' Airport Diversion Guide lists child-friendly features of and facilities at 22 U.S. hubs. At Boston's Logan Airport, for instance, there's the Boston Children's Museum's Kidport in Terminal C, and at Chicago's O'Hare there's a Kids On the Fly interactive exhibit, as well as a restored F4F-3 Wildcat, in Terminal 2.

Whenever we fly through Atlanta, we ride the underground train back and forth from concourse to concourse. That's Doug and Charlie the last time we were in Atlanta, August 2007.

Hard to believe, I know, but my favorite hotel night this year was at The Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun, PA. Hey, when the kids are happy, I'm happy.

by Wendy Perrin

It's time to wrap up 2007 by sharing my best and worst travel experiences of the year. Perhaps you can benefit by learning from both my good fortune and my worst mistakes.

BEST HOTEL NIGHT:
The Great Wolf Lodge, Pocono Mountains, PA.
Before kids, I wouldn't have come within ten feet of an indoor waterpark resort. For an exhausted mother of two inexhaustible young boys, however, it's what the doctor ordered. (That's Doug in the pic below.)  There are ten Great Wolf Lodges around the country; we chose the one closest. I could list the many child friendly touches such as the abundance of conscientious lifeguards, the bedtime stories in the lobby, the kids' buffet, and the childproof room design, but here's what really made it parent friendly: By day's end the boys were so worn out that they were asleep in bed by 8:00.  Now that's what I call vacation.

WORST HOTEL NIGHT:
The Pudi Boutique Hotel, Shanghai, China
At a brand-new five star property in a futuristic city where business is so booming it's practically on steroids, there is no excuse for rooms lacking WiFi.  Imagine my frustration when I arrived at 11:30 pm desperately needing to email a document from my laptop to my office, I plugged my universal plug adapter into the electrical outlet (the same adapter that worked in every other hotel room in China), and it blew out the power in my room, leaving me in total darkness with no electricity (meaning, no phone with which to call for help).  I walked down to the front desk, got the hotel engineer to come . . . and he managed to blow the fuse twice again. He eventually brought a different plug adapter, but that didn't solve the no-WiFi problem.  When I tried connecting by wire and still couldn't get on the Internet, the engineer wanted to go into my computer and change the IP address (if you're in Conde Nast's Tech Support Dept. you know what a disaster that would have been). I switched hotels the next morning ... to a little three-star inn nearby where my laptop connected just fine.

BEST DEVICE FOR STAYING CONNECTED:
Palm Treo with AT&T service
I could not have survived 2007 without wireless email in the palm of my hand.  I had it 24/7 -- whether I was on a train in China, at an ancient ruin in Algeria, on a ship hugging the coastline of Spain, or in the mountains of St. Lucia --  thanks to my Treo 650.  The 650 is a dinosaur, I know, but it fits like an old glove.  True, I could gripe about the phone sound -- which is often weak and unclear -- and the Internet access -- which is slow and incomplete. But that's why I also carry a SYNC by Samsung phone, also with AT&T service. I use it not for email but when I need strong, clear sound quality or need to get on the Web.  For some reason, even though the service provider for both is AT&T, there are a few spots around the world where the Treo works but the SYNC doesn't, or the SYNC works but the Treo doesn't. Between the two of them, though, I can always reach my kids to sing them their bedtime songs, no matter what time zone I'm in.

WORST TRAVEL SNAG:
When our Dream Trip winner's ship sank
Remember that ship that sank in Antarctica over Thanksgiving? That's the ship that Gene Pembroke, the winner of Conde Nast Traveler's Dream Trip Contest, was supposed to board this coming Friday for his Antarctic cruise. Since it's my job to make sure his $20,000 dream trip does indeed turn out to be a dream and not a nightmare, I had to scramble to get Gene and his girlfriend Arlene booked onto another ship sailing out of the same port around the same time -- no easy feat, considering that Antarctic cruises sell out a year in advance and that everyone else who was booked on the sunken ship was also looking for a replacement. Well, I got Gene and Arlene onto a great ship that sails out of Ushaia, Argentina, on Wednesday (yes, the day after tomorrow). Then the latest potential snag hit:  Argentina decided, at the last minute, to introduce daylight savings time starting yesterday. There have been a slew of international flight changes with little advance notice, including Gene's flight tomorrow from Rio to Buenos Aires. It's now leaving an hour early.  If he misses it, he'll miss the cruise!  So at this moment he's in Rio, celebrating New Year's Eve on Copacabana Beach, while I'm home spending New Year's Eve trying to reach him on his cell phone. Correction: MY cell phone. I leant him my SYNC for his trip, in case of emergencies like this one. God, I hope he gets my messages.
Update on Jan 1 at 12:30 pm: The SYNC saved the day!  Gene got my messages, and he and Arlene are happily en route from Rio to Buenos Aires on Aerolineas Argentinas. What a relief!  Starting next week, Gene will be guest blogging here, by the way, as he continues his dream trip traveling the length of South America from tip to toe.

More bests and worsts, after the jump.

This photo, entitled "Sarah and the Sea Lion," captures a 6-year-old befriending a sea lion pup in the Galapagos Islands. It was shot by reader DGlass and submitted to our Dream Trip contest.

by Wendy Perrin

Attention, readers with children: Got any advice for DChirichella, who wrote in wondering where to take her three kids on vacation?  The catch: Her husband can't go, so she must wrangle the kids solo, yet doesn't want to drop them off in children's programs. Here's her question:

"My husband cannot get away for a vacation with me and our three children -- ages 9, 7, and 5 -- during February break, so I am planning on taking them somewhere on my own.  I need something fun like a ski trip, only more doable for a single parent.  We generally like to be active on vacation - we're not just "sit on the beach or by a pool" types - although there's definitely room for some of that.  I'm not a fan of dropping my kids off at a kid's club while I go off on my own; however, I am hoping to go somewhere where there are activities that we can do together or that they can participate in while I watch so that I am not their only form of entertainment (never fun).  Most of all, it needs to be something I can handle successfuly solo without turning into psycho mom - which would kind of negate the whole idea.  Any suggestions on places or travel agents I should consider would be greatly appreciated."

Boy can I ever relate to taking kids on the road solo and trying to avoid "psycho mom" syndrome!  I've got only two children to contend with -- ages 5 and 3 -- but, since I'm usually working at the same time, my laptop is like a third child.

Sounds to me like you need an activity-based group trip.  I'm thinking a Galapagos Islands cruise (see Lindblad Expeditions' family-friendly trips), a river rafting trip (a "family adventure" with O.A.R.S. would be perfect, if only one were offered in February), or perhaps -- if your 5-year-old bikes well enough -- a family multi-sport trip with Backroads (to a good February locale such as Belize or Costa Rica). Why?  Read on.

One of a kind: The Hackney Basecamp Expedition Vehicle.
Photos: Courtesy Douglas and Stephanie Hackney

by Stephan Wilkinson

Most of us rent a car, maybe even an RV, if we're traveling by road far from home.  Not Doug and Stephanie Hackney, who are two of the most intrepid and far-ranging travelers I know.

They built a BEV.

What's a BEV? Well, you're lookin' at it, but it stands for Basecamp Expedition Vehicle. It's a totally self-contained and autonomous global exploration module, at the same time a base camp and a traveling machine, designed to be self-sufficient and "self-extracting." Meaning that since you can't call Triple-A in the middle of Mongolia, you'd better be ready to winch or otherwise extract yourself from a wide variety of emergencies.

The Hackney BEV is equipped to voyage for two or three years without any outside support other than the necessary fuel, food, and routine maintenance, and to do it in the Third World, far from North Face outlets, Zagat Guides, Lexus dealers, airline ticket counters, high-test gas (or any gasoline at all, in fact) or HBO.

Here's what went into it:

Kids will love taking a double-decker bus around London.
Photo: Stockbyte Silver, Getty Images

by Brook Wilkinson

Question from reader LQB43:

"Before we had kids, my husband and I were very serious travelers. However, they are now 9 and 14, and we've traveled only in the U.S. recently with them. We now discover that we have 10 free days over Thanksgiving. We want to take them overseas but simply cannot focus on where to go: Costa Rica or Belize?  A cold and rainy but free-of-tourists London or Paris? Portugal? We're not really up for a full-blown adventure trip, but I don't want something too canned (and I'm leery of dragging the 9-year-old to too many museums). Any ideas?"

I ran your question by Kay Merrill, a family travel expert, and Richard Edwards, a Central America expert, both on Conde Nast Traveler's annual list of the world's best travel planners. It'll certainly be chilly, and quite possibly rainy, in Europe, but there are plenty of inside activities, and you might get lucky with the weather. However, November is a prime time to visit Central America. Says Richard:

"Costa Rica has a wide variety of activities and attractions and more tourists than neighboring countries, though November is much less crowded than high season. Panama is a better choice if water activities and a more pristine cultural and wildlife experience are important. It has most of what Belize can offer in terms of crystal blue Caribbean waters, but lower prices."

Here's Kay's perspective on your European options:

"London and Paris are the easiest first-time European cities for children. There are many landmarks and references that they may have seen in school or on TV; I took my son there for the first time when he was 7. With 10 days, you could see both cities and take the Chunnel in between."

More info about both destinations, after the jump.

Mom, Dad, and me at the Amber Fort in Jaipur, India.

by Brook Wilkinson

What's the best trip that your family ever took together? Stephen J. Dubner over at the Freakonomics blog just asked the opposite question, "What's your family vacation nightmare?" and while many of the answers are quite humorous in retrospect, I thought we all might learn something from our collective family-trip triumphs.

(If you're not already familiar with Freakonomics, it was first a book written by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Dubner back in 2005. In it, they aimed to explain everything from baby names to crack gangs via economic models. They're now "continuing the conversation" on their blog. Check it out. Who knew that in 19th-century Europe, people kept growing well into their 20s?)

I'll go first: My parents might well remember it differently, but the trip we took to India together three years ago comes in at the top of my list. Yes, I got violently ill on my very first night, my father caught a vicious cold from our guide, and I spent several hours in the back of an SUV that was careening around dark mountain roads, clinging to my mother's hand for what I was sure would be the last time in my life.

But despite all the foibles, India was the first time that I traveled with my parents as a full-fledged adult, no longer consummately embarrassed to be seen in public with them. I was actually in charge of much of the trip, and when things went wrong I knew how to fix them. Plus, since we were no longer all living under one roof, spending every day together was once again a treat. So don't let the family trips stop once the kids leave the nest. The best years of traveling together, in my opinion, are yet to come.

What's your favorite family travel memory?

Rambling about "The Iraq" and "U.S. Americans," Miss Teen South Carolina attempts to explain why so many of her countrymen can't find their country on a map.
Photo: The Associated Press/Patrick Prather

by Wendy Perrin

"Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?" asked a judge in the recent Miss Teen USA Pageant.  The brainless reply from Miss Teen South Carolina -- which millions of people have now viewed on YouTube -- was so incoherent that yesterday The Today Show gave her a second chance to answer the question.  Even after three days to mull it over, however, she still barely answered it. "I believe there should be more emphasis on geography in our education."  You don't say!

Any parent who's viewed the video may be wondering (1) how they can keep their kids from growing up so geographically challenged that they can't locate their own country on a map; and (2) how they can keep their kids from growing up to be Miss Teen South Carolina.

To that end, and just in time for Labor Day road or plane trips with the kids, I hereby offer up my five favorite geography-teaching games for youngsters:

(1) Sticker Set Play Scenes: both the Map of the USA and the Map of the World. I picked these up last month at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, and as a consequence my five-year-old now knows the location of every state in the U.S., as well as each state's capital. (Now if only he could tie his shoes.)

Charlie and Doug with Eartha, the rotating globe, at DeLorme in Yarmouth, Maine, Sept. 2006.

(2) Kids Travel: A Backseat Survival Kit: I found this at the DeLorme Map Store in Maine and now, thanks to the "Geography Bee" and "Life List of License Plates" sections, Charlie spends our car trips "collecting" license plates from as many states as possible and checking them off on the map.  Boy, was he thrilled this summer when he spotted a Hawaii plate!

Sunset drinks at Newport's schmancy Castle Hill Inn & Resort is a surprisingly kid-friendly experience. Aug. 11, 2007.

by Wendy Perrin

Remember my surprise at learning, when I was in Rhode Island last week, how child-friendly Newport's historic Gilded-Age mansions can be?   An even bigger surprise was how kid-welcoming some of the town's most sophisticated restaurants are.  The Castle Hill Inn & Resort's outdoor tables, for instance.

At Castle Hill, the kids can run around to their heart's content . . .

. . . while grownups sip sundowners with a killer view of Narragansett Bay . . .

. . . and then enjoy a gourmet dinner. (Do not try this in the Inn's indoor dining rooms.)

The Breakers, a Vanderbilt mansion, offers tours specifically for children.
Photo: The Preservation Society of Newport County

by Wendy Perrin

Who woulda thought that Newport's elegant turn-of-the-century mansions, built by the robber barons and their descendants as "summer cottages," could be child-friendly? But last week in Rhode Island I happened upon two that anyone sightseeing in New England with tykes should know about. 

The Breakers, the 70-room palazzo built by railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1895, actually has a family tour geared specifically to children.  Offered daily in summer, the tour starts at the Children's Playhouse. (Imagine having McKim, Mead and White design your kid's playhouse!) 

The Vanderbilt tots used to hang out here in the Children's Playhouse. Our tour was led by the fabulous guide Ellen Sadlier (right). Aug. 14, 2007.

Our guide must have been a kindergarten teacher in a former life. Charlie, 5, and Doug, 3, were riveted by her stories about the Vanderbilt children, and especially by the silk-carpeted grand staircase down which the kids used to slide on sterling silver trays. (Speaking of Vanderbilt progeny, a bit of trivia I learned:  Did you know that CNN's Anderson Cooper is Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-great-grandson?) A parent-friendly bonus: For ages 5 and under, the tour is free.

More on Newport's kid-friendliest "summer cottages," after the jump.

by Brook Wilkinson

Question from reader Patricia Caballero in Monterrey, Mexico:

"My husband and I would like to take our 11-year-old daughter to Asia next summer for about a month. We would like to find a way to go from one city to another whenever we are ready (in case we decide to stay longer or leave sooner). Any suggestions?"

Wouldn't we all love that kind of flexibility!  Unfortunately, it almost always comes at a price. You can sometimes get away without reservations on trains (as I mentioned in a previous post on Eurail passes), but most cities in Asia are quite far from each other, and flights need to be nailed down well in advance, right?

Not in all cases. You can book a circle-Asia ticket (like the one shown above) and in most cases change the dates, for a fee, depending on availability. Here's how:

Atlanta's new World of Coca-Cola provides oversized balls, frisbees, and horseshoes to occupy kids while their parents wait in line to get in. That's Doug, my 3-year-old, on August 3, 2007.

by Wendy Perrin

Just back from Hotlanta, where my family and I spent several days trying to beat the heat with a variety of air-conditioned indoor, and the breeziest possible outdoor, activities.  Four train/tram rides, three 4-D movies, two trained-animal shows, and one planetarium later, I can assure you that the best thing to do with kids in Atlanta is still The Georgia Aquarium.  Since I reported on that last summer, however -- and Stephan just added his report last month -- instead I'll list the top three other activities I'd recommend to families with more than one day to kill and preschoolers in tow:

1. Ride the Ducks at Stone Mountain Park.

The "Ducks" are actually DUKWs -- 1940s-era amphibious trucks used in World War II.

You start out riding through the park and then splash into Stone Mountain Lake, where each kid onboard gets a turn in the driver's seat. That's Doug and me, August 1, 2007.

Every rider gets a duck necklace that quacks loudly when you blow into it. You get to keep it as a memento. My kids accidentally "lost" theirs (ha!) soon after the ride ended.

Kids will love "finding Nemo" at the Miami Seaquarium, on Key Biscayne.
Photo: Miami Seaquarium

by Brook Wilkinson

Question from reader Jojob:

"I'm looking for a place to go -- maybe Florida? -- over Thanksgiving where we could celebrate my dad's 70th birthday while my husband and I have a relatively relaxing time with twin two-year-olds. Ideally it'd be a short flight from New York and a place that is ultra kid-friendly and hopefully has some character."

"Relaxing" and "twin two-year-olds" -- is it possible? According to family travel expert Kimberly Wilson Wetty of Valerie Wilson Travel, yes indeed. She recommends the Ritz Carlton on Key Biscayne, a barrier island off Miami. Why? It's got a "zero-entry" pool with sloping slides so your tots don't have to climb a ladder to get in. While the kids are too young to join the children's program (as will be the case at almost any hotel), you can use the children's center's games, crayons, and the like, or check out the Miami Seaquarium, also on Key Biscayne. Plus, you can hire a babysitter while you adults have a fun birthday celebration at a restaurant in Coconut Grove or South Beach.

Just make sure you book soon: The Sonesta on Key Biscayne recently closed, making the Ritz the only hotel on the island, so it's sure to fill up quickly for Thanksgiving week.

Once the twins hit 3 and are potty-trained, you'll have a lot more options -- that when many properties allow kids into their group programs.

Beaches Turks & Caicos is where I'd take my preschoolers . . . if only I could afford it!

Question from reader Nandamom:

"Our nanny just announced she is taking off the last week in August, so my husband and I are scrambling to plan a last-minute weeklong getaway for ourselves and our two girls, ages two and four. We'd like to try an all-inclusive family-friendly beach resort in the Caribbean. We're in the New York area and can spend up to $5,000 for airfare and accommodations, with some child care and activities included."

August is rainy season in the Caribbean. That doesn't mean it rains every day, but it does mean you need a resort that will keep your kids entertained and off your hands should the weather turn inclement. I think your smartest option is the Beaches chain of all-inclusive family resorts. The property I've heard the best feedback about from other parents is Beaches Turks & Caicos, but a seven-night package (including airfare from New York) for the four of you for the last week in August would cost about $6,000.  Beaches Boscobel -- which gets an excellent review at the dependable family travel site WeJustGotBack.com -- is more affordable. The seven-night package at the Boscobel property, which is in Jamaica, comes in at just under $5,000.

There's a right way and a wrong way to perform every driving task, but a good start would be to consider a partially battery-powered car like this Ford Escape Hybrid.

by Stephan Wilkinson

Mother never told you...because she didn't know:

*Never drive onto the breakdown lane of a major highway -- or, far worse, one of those areas like the triangular no-man's-land between the Interstate and an off-ramp. Your chances of getting a flat or a blowout are greatly increased there.  These are the places where everything that has fallen off cars and trucks gathers -- wayward nuts and bolts, jagged pieces of metal, nails, broken bottles, old hubcaps, all blown there by the 80-mph passage of a steady stream of traffic.  Don't go there if you can help it, and if you can't, look very carefully where your tires are treading.

*If you see a car ahead waiting on a side road to merge with or cross oncoming traffic, keep your eye on its left front wheel, not the car itself.  You'll see that wheel beginning to rotate precious microseconds before you sense that the entire vehicle is moving forward because the driver doesn't see you.

Want more?  Read on...

Charlie (then 3), Doug (not yet 2), and me on a transatlantic flight 2 years ago. Note the Sit 'n' Stroll car seat that Doug is sleeping in.

by Wendy Perrin

Last week we learned about the mom and tot who were booted off a plane after the aircraft's flight attendant objected to the 19-month-old's behavior:  He kept saying, "Bye-bye, plane" during the flight safety instructions and preparations for takeoff.  The mom, Kate Penland, says the flight attendant suggested giving her son Benadryl to quiet him down. "I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight," responded Penland.  The flight attendant then told the captain that Penland had threatened her.  He returned the plane to the gate, and Penland and her son were forced to disembark, even though by then the boy was sound asleep.

The incident has stirred up passionate opinions.  There are nearly 2,000 comments about it on MSNBC.com, and loyal Perrin Post readers have added their two cents to Stephan's post "Bozo Flight Attendant Tosses A Toddler." 

I've got far too many unanswered questions about this incident to opine on who was right and who was wrong, but I can tell you, as a mother of two preschool boys who were toddlers not long ago (they are now 5 and 3), that there are steps Penland could have taken that likely would have prevented the entire unhappy incident in the first place.

My tips for any parent taking to the skies with an active or fussy (in other words, normal) toddler this summer, when planes are so packed and delays so rampant:

1. Buy your child his own seat on the plane.
Kids under age two can fly for free if they sit in a parent's lap, but most of the one-year-old boys I've observed on planes are far too squirmy to sit happily on a lap in the close confines of an aircraft for a prolonged length of time. In Diane Sawyer's interview with Penland and her son, Garren, on Good Morning America, Garren was "fussy" (Penland's term), wriggling free from her lap, kicking, climbing onto the coffee table, and being such a busy wiggleworm (normal for a child that age) that he was removed from the set by co-anchor Chris Cuomo. Penland told Sawyer that Garren's behavior on the show was similar to how it had been on the plane before they were kicked off. This tells me he would have been better off in his own seat.  Once my own sons turned six months old, I found I had absolutely no choice but to buy them their own seats.  The reasons for strapping a toddler into his own seat:

At Safari West near Santa Rosa, California, giraffes come right up to you . . .

. . . and may try to give you kisses.

by Wendy Perrin

Kudos to Kiwiwriter, who won yesterday's WHERE'S WENDY? round by guessing I was at Safari West, a wildlife park in Sonoma County where the kids had a blast:

Touch a skate at the Georgia Aquarium. It won't sting.

by Stephan Wilkinson

     An update to Wendy's review last year of the fabulous new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta:  A visit on a sunny Monday late this June suggests that the initial crowding and gotta-be-there hysteria has slowed down, and that visitors can now be more casual in their planning.  We showed up at 10:15 a.m., and the ticket line to several automated credit-card kiosks was almost nonexistent, with no specific entry times required.  The security line was slightly longer, but I'm sure the Aquarium is well aware of what a backpack bomb could to to the enormous viewing window of a fish tank the size of a hockey rink, which is the Aquarium's main attraction.  (Hollywood, are you listening?)
     I'm sure it's different on weekends and holidays, but it looks like there are plenty of times to visit the Aquarium when you'll find it...well, busy and crowded, but not stressful.
     Tip: there are plenty of private parking lots just a block or two from the Aquarium that will take your car for half the price of the Aquarium's own $10-a-car garage.  Look for the touts flapping red flags.

     Why am I so enthusiastic?  Read on...

A red-letter day, when Delta canceled my flight.

by Stephan Wilkinson

     The steady implosion of the U. S. air-transportation system could mean the slow death of the fly-by-choice travel industry. Domestic air travel is becoming so stressful and unreliable that there's a danger our airlines will become simply a mass-transit system for people who must fly, whether on business or at major holidays.
     Those with a choice, even if that choice is staying home or driving, will no more choose to fly than would leisure travelers ride a New York subway for the fun of it.
     Here's how a simple, nonstop round trip between my Upstate New York home and Atlanta convinced me the end is nigh...