the only way for to manage as a dad has been to take his wife and two daughters with him. With this blog, Matt shares some of the insights he’s gleaned along the way, as well as tips, tricks, reviews and other fun stories.

My new family travel obsession: SafetyTat

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SafetyTat. In action.

SafetyTat. In action.

I might as well just come out and say it: I’m a sucker for a good temporary tattoo.

This means I’ve become a huge fan of Tattly for everyday designs. It also means that one of my new family travel must-haves is the flagship (and eponymous) product from a company called SafetyTat.

The product is exactly what it sounds like it would be—a temporary tattoo that helps keep kids safe. The concept is perfect in its simplicity, blending the fun of a temporary tattoo with important identifying information that can help authorities reunite you with your child in the event that he or she gets lost.

SafetyTat tattoos either come customized with your mobile phone number or blank so you can write in your cell phone number on them. When applied to the arm of your child or loved one, the SafetyTat provides an immediate, highly visible form of child identification that stays in place—even after it gets wet.

The product was invented by Michele Welsh, a Baltimore mom of three kids who felt overwhelmed when she took her youngsters to a crowded amusement park.

As the story goes, Welsh wrote her mobile phone number on each of the kids’ arms with a ballpoint pen. Throughout the day, she had to rewrite the numbers several times. That’s when it occurred to her there had to be an easier way.

I’m not going to lie—the SafetyTat tattoos are spendy. Original SafetyTats (the ones that you can customize to come printed with your number) are $20.99 for a pack of 24. This price doesn’t include shipping, which starts at about $3.30 per order (and goes up to $22.50 for overnight delivery, if you’re really in a hurry.)

Still, especially for summer trips to theme parks, this tool can prove to be invaluable. Check it out.

All potty, all the time

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Potty. At Gott's in St. Helena.

Potty. At Gott’s in St. Helena.

We’re deep into potty-training here this month, as we’ve been trying to get R to ditch the diapers and embrace the toilet like the rest of us. She got the whole peeing thing down quickly. Poop, on the other hand, has proven to be a significant challenge. As in, we’ve lost an average of five pairs of undies a week.

This explains why Powerwoman and I have been toting a portable potty with us wherever we go. Into town. To the doctor. And, yes, even on road trips.

Case in point: today’s pre-Mother’s Day excursion to St. Helena, one of the fanciest towns in the entire Napa Valley. While tourists enjoyed hamburgers and milkshakes at Gott’s Roadside, I was looking for a place to stash R’s portable throne. While other visitors wandered up and down Main Street in Prada and Vera Wang, there was yours truly, pink potty under my arm.

A handful of passersby (mostly younger folks) were oblivious to my accessory. The rest, however, looked at it quizzically, then glanced at the girls, and smiled.

The smiles revealed a certain familiarity; it was as if many folks were saying, “Dude, I was there, too.”

On one hand, these knowing smirks reassured me that our recent lives of Potty 24/7 are not that unusual. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but wonder: Generally speaking, why don’t I see more parents schlepping around potties in today’s day and age?

I’m being serious here, people. Every kid learns how to use the potty; why isn’t potty training more of a common sight with regard to family travel? Is it just that families don’t travel when their kids learn? Do most parents prefer just to put their kids in pull-ups when they’re on the road? Are we the only ones ridiculous enough to lug around a full-on potty (instead of a potty seat R can just use in a rest room)?

Obviously, I’d love your input on this issue. In the meantime, I intend to stick to my guns. The girls and I have a picnic date on the Sonoma County Coast this Tuesday. I’ll be the guy with the pink potty.

Dream family travel destinations, by RV

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One potential set-up (thanks, GoRVing.com, for the photo).

One potential set-up (photo from Go RVing).

Summer is road-trip season in our family, which means we’re in the midst of planning where we’d like to drive this year.

Considering the breadth and depth of this planning process, when Go RVing (and my friends at Scholastic Parent & Child magazine) recently asked me to blog about RVing, I jumped at the chance. The only problem: I’ve never actually been anywhere in an RV. So instead of writing about adventures I’ve taken in a recreational vehicle, I decided to write about trips I’d love to take.

No. 1 on my list: The Alaska Highway, the 1,700-mile road that connects the contiguous United States to Alaska through Canada (by way of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, both in Canada). This road, also called the ALCAN, has intrigued me since I got my driver’s license back in 1992. Scenery is spectacular. Wildlife is abundant. And side trips—to places such as the otherwise-inaccessible Tok!—are second to none.

Obviously this would be the choice if time were no object. It also would be a heck of a lot easier if the girls were a bit older; the trip is beautiful but can get monotonous at times.

Another trip on the list: Interstate 10 along the southern part of the United States. This drive, which stretches (west to east) from Santa Monica to Jacksonville, Fla., is another one I’ve just always wanted to do—since it spans a number of states neither I nor my daughters ever have visited (namely, Mississippi, Alabama, and New Mexico).

It’d also be a great opportunity to introduce the girls to New Orleans, and beignets.

Finally, of course, is a drive MUCH closer to home; a drive I’ve actually done before: the California Coast. I’d start in the north, near my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, and work my way south, past Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Monterey.

From there, we’d hit the central coast, stopping to check out Hearst Castle, to see friends in San Luis Obispo, and to marvel at the big boulder in Morro Bay (which, by the way, has a great tidal flat).

We’d end our journey in the heart of SoCal, with family in the San Diego area. Before returning the RV, we’d spend a day at the world-famous San Diego Zoo, and at least a day at LEGOLAND California, which my LEGO-obsessed daughters would love.

Sure, these destinations would be *part* of the fun. But because we’d be in an RV, the real joys would be in the journey—in driving leisurely to enjoy the sights, in spending nights at parks and campgrounds, in having the opportunity to bond as a family in style. Yes, we can do these things on a road trip in Powerwoman’s Prius. I just think they’d be more fun in an RV.

Where would you go if you had an RV and one month worth of vacation time?

The ultimate family travel splurge

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The pic (from our nanny) that inspired it all.

The pic (from our nanny) that inspired it all.

It’s fun when you’re traveling as a family to indulge in something unusual. For some clans, the splurge might be a larger-than-normal hotel room. For others, it might be pay-per-view movies, a double-wide pushchair, or mani-pedis for everyone.

For us, the biggest indulgence usually is room service.

I’m not entirely sure why this has become our go-to splurge. Maybe it’s because neither my parents nor Powerwoman’s parents ever sprung for it when we were kids. Maybe it’s because it’s hard to justify $20 for a hamburger. Heck, maybe it’s because the whole notion of having a meal delivered to you IN YOUR HOTEL ROOM is so utterly decadent.

Whatever the reason, we *love* rocking the room service. And we do it at least once on every family trip. (Even if the room service isn’t that great.)

Thankfully, the girls don’t take it for granted; instead, they see it as a total treat. On some vacations, they plan their room-service meals days in advance. On others—especially this one, with L—they order stuff they never normally would order during particular meals (example: French fries with breakfast).

L and R also know that if they misbehave while we’re traveling, room service is the first to go.

Two separate incidents this week reminded me about our love of in-room dining. The first: A Twitter chat on behalf of Expedia (the weekly #Expediachat), during which a few listeners and I talked about the wonders of splurging on dinner under the duvet. The second: An Instagram photo from our nanny, who just this week took her 10-year-old daughter away for a) the girl’s first plane trip and b) her first taste of room service.

In short, for us, family travel wouldn’t be family travel without the once-a-trip splurge on room service. In our clan, the ritual is a celebration of the wonders of being away from home. It’s another way in which we attempt to get the kids excited about something new. Most of the time, it works like a charm.

On what do you splurge when you’re traveling with kids?

Dumb stuff people say (and write)

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I fly solo on business trips, but I am not a pedophile.

I fly solo on business trips, but I am not a pedophile.

Believe it or not, Donald Sterling—the racist owner of the Los Angeles Clippers—wasn’t the only person to say something really dumb in the last week.

Nope, in the world of family travel, Tracey Spicer, a mommy blogger from Australia, scored some serious stupid points, too.

Spicer, who has A RECURRING COLUMN in the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote Sunday about how she doesn’t want her “kids sitting next to a man on a plane.” In a nutshell, her post alleges that men are more likely to commit child sexual abuse on planes.

One of the final lines reads: “Sure, not all men are pedophiles [sic], but offenders are predominantly male.”

(Seriously.)

If this line isn’t offensive enough, the rest of Spicer’s argument certainly does the job. She cites “data” from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that indicates “90 percent of all child sexual abuse is committed by someone in, or known to, the family.” Then she goes on to write: “However, stranger danger is a risk and women are perpetrators in only about 8 percent of the cases.”

Spicer cites other “information” to support her case. One incident—an obvious outlier—was from 2001. Another, from 2012, widely was accepted to be a case of an airline behaving badly. She mentions a third incident, but that one was from 2012, as well. And it also wasn’t cut-and-dried.

Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the author for trying to raise awareness among parents that you never know who your unaccompanied minor might get as a seat-mate on a long flight.

Still, to do it and besmirch all male travelers in the process—that’s just irresponsible and dumb.

Here’s a novel thought: If you’re a parent and you’re spazzing out about who your child might sit next to when he or she flies solo, how about you just FLY ON THE PLANE WITH YOUR KID?

More important, why do so many people wig out over issues relating to family travel by air? Why do kids on planes prompt people to do and think and say such weird stuff?  What is it about family airplane travel that makes so many sane humans sound nuts? Every time an item like this hits the news, I ask: What could we be doing differently to change the perception of kids on planes?

Let’s hope we find some answers soon.

‘Storybook’ Yosemite post comes to life

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Little R, seeking a cozy hideaway.

Little R, seeking a cozy hideaway.

As I have noted here in the preceding weeks, we’ve just come back from our biggest trip of 2014—a family excursion to Yosemite National Park.

We took the trip as part of an assignment from Expedia, for whom I serve as (senior editor and) a contributing writer to the Expedia Viewfinder blog. Now—finally, IMHO—my main narrative piece from the trip has been published for all to read.

The piece, titled “Family adventure in Yosemite” appeared on the Expedia blog today—just one day after Earth Day.

It kicked off the blog’s “Storybook” campaign.

In the story, I detailed the best parts of our four-day excursion from our home in Northern California to Yosemite. Some of these highlights:

  • Our day “hiking” with the girls to Mirror Lake
  • Our game of “Pooh Cones” in Tenaya Creek
  • Our trip to Lower Yosemite Falls
  • Our rock-tossing session on the banks of the Merced
  • Our nighttime stroll under the starry sky

Perhaps the biggest personal milestone: The trip was the first time the four of us had visited a national park as a family, and the first time my lovely bride ever had stepped foot in the park (considering she has spent nearly half of her life in California, this is a big deal).

Yes, regular readers of this blog have read portions of the Viewfinder recap before. But there’s new stuff in there, too. And there’ll be more; I plan to publish two additional installments over the next few weeks. Please give it a read! Please check back often! And please follow along with the rest of the campaign, as my colleagues will be writing their own “Storybook” posts between now and July.

What to do when the kids won’t fly

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Our L would rather just pick poppies all day.

Our L would rather just pick poppies all day.

We pride ourselves in this house on being a family that can go anywhere at any time. We’ve traveled as a unit to multiple continents and multiple countries. We’re old pros at just about every type of transportation. Heck, our kids have more stamps in their passports than about 90 percent of the population of the United States.

Imagine, then, our surprise this week, when L declared that she did not want to fly on airplanes anymore.

(Her exact words were: “I’m done with planes.”)

The Big Girl’s last flight was more than four months ago—our return trip to London. Neither Powerwoman nor I is entirely sure what prompted the kid to put her foot down like in this fashion. Some of the theories we’ve discussed:

  • She reflected on the duration of the flight home from London and decided it was too long.
  • She really hated running out of lollipop on the descent and does NOT want her ears to hurt like that again.
  • She just wants to stay closer to home for a while.

Whatever the reason, her declaration definitely has complicated matters. On one hand, we want to take her wishes seriously and at least make it seem like we’re listening to her. On the other hand, travel is what we do in this family, and a handful of our upcoming trips inevitably are going to involve airplanes of some kind.

(For instance, we’ve got upcoming vacations to Hawaii and Walt Disney World, in Florida. You can’t really get to either of those places from California without flying.)

Ultimately, I think we’ll compromise—slow down a bit on the air travel (we’ve already booked more road trips for the summer, including one that involves an RV) but also make sure L understands that some of our family vacations necessitate a plane.

Privately, Powerwoman and I also will hope L’s current stance on airplane travel is nothing that a few Dum-Dums can’t cure.

How do you respond when your kids say they don’t want to travel a certain way?

A family travel Twitter party worth attending

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KidsNTrips_Bahamas_BubbleBadge3-1024x1024The coolest things about Twitter parties? Everyone’s invited. The coolest thing about family travel Twitter parties? Everyone’s invited AND you can learn neat stuff.

That’s why I was jazzed this week to hear about the new #KidsNTrips Twitter parties from (friends and) inspiring family travel bloggers Jen Leo, Colleen Lanin, and Katie Dillon. According to the organizers, they’ll be tweeting away with the #KidsNTrips hashtag once or twice a month to bring useful family travel tips and useful destination information.

Oh, there also will be giveaways. (Because, really, what would a Twitter chat be without giveaways?)

The first #KidsNTrips chat was this week—April 17—at 9:30 a.m. PDT. According to Lanin, the next one is slated for Thursday, May 22, also at 9:30 a.m. PDT. I’ve already got the May 22 event in my calendar, and I suggest you do the same. See you there!

The map of all maps

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The base map for Kidsmap.

The base map for Kidsmap

Despite the fact that we live in an age of GPS navigation and Google Maps, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for old-fashioned, fold-‘em-up-and-stick-‘em-in-the-glove-compartment paper maps. I’ve raised my kids to know them and appreciate these travel aids. Call me a dinosaur. I don’t care.

This archaic obsession of mine has prompted us to keep the folks at our local AAA office busy with requests before big road trips (or, I guess, big international air trips).

It also is the reason for my rabid love for The Kidsmap, from German cartographer Simon Schuetz and his company, Awesome Maps.

This map—which (it’s important to note) exists in physical, not virtual, form—comprises three main parts: A super-simple base map showing nothing other than continents, deserts and major mountain ranges; sheets of re-attachable stickers depicting natural wonders and indigenous animal species from around the world; and a deck of quiz cards with questions about different sites and people and lands.

Because the map has both stickers and cards, it can be used as a sticker map, or as a full-on geography game.

Of course if you’re like me, you also can use it to teach your kids about which landmasses are where.

The most delicious irony: This map isn’t available yet, and only will be available later this year if Schuetz can get the project funded through his Kickstarter campaign to do so. (In case you’re wondering, I don’t know this guy at all; I just think his project is REALLY REALLY kick-ass. And, yes, I’ve contributed.)

Schuetz is no stranger to cool maps. In 2013—also through a Kickstarter campaign—he created the bucketlistmap, a map that depicted most of the must-see places in countries all over the globe. As part of that project, he also created world maps featuring all of the best places to surf, take snow trips, and see football/soccer matches.

IMHO, this latest map—the one for kids—is by far the most awesome of the maps from Awesome Maps. In this house, we’ll stop at nothing to incorporate geography (and cartography) into the stuff we teach our girls every day. The Kidsmap is a great tool to do just that.

Doing is believing

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Tossing rocks (and pinecones) into the Merced.

Tossing rocks (and pinecones) into the Merced.

There are logical reasons why touch tanks always are kids’ favorite part of the aquarium. The exhibits are at kid-level! They’ve got stuff kids can reach in and grab! Most important: They are one of the only places in the facility where kids can DO instead of just SEE.

This last reality is one we traveling parents often overlook. Yes, it’s amazing to expose our kids to international cities and world-class museums and great music and all sorts of cultural phenomena like that. It’s also a big deal to let ‘em get down on their knees, roll up their sleeves and interact with stuff for themselves.

I was reminded of this last weekend, during our storybook family vacation to Yosemite National Park.

Sure, the kids loved it when we hiked to Mirror Lake. And yes, they loved it when we traipsed around Yosemite Valley for different perspectives on Yosemite Falls, the highest measured waterfall in North America.

But they were happiest when they were able to get their hands on the nature around them.

The first example of this came during our hike (from The Ahwahnee hotel) to the lake. About halfway out, L and R insisted on wandering off-trail, exploring the granite boulders around us for “cozy hideaways” for fairies. I monitored these activities closely; technically they weren’t supposed to be off-trail at all, and the terrain wasn’t exactly easy to navigate. Still, amid the boulders, picking at moss and leaves and all sorts of other stuff around them, the girls played for hours (literally).

The second example of the importance of doing came toward the end of our visit, on a day when L and I went out to explore while R and Powerwoman napped back in the room.

My older daughter and I wandered out of the hotel and back toward the Merced River. There, along the riverbank, we spent 15 minutes tossing pinecones into the current and watching them head downstream. I could tell L was curious about something, so I asked her if there was anything else she’d like to do. Her response: “I want to feel the water, Dad.”

And so, I let her. I held her jacket while she leaned out from the side of the bank and dipped her hands in the Merced. Once her hands were wet, she pulled them back and wiped the water on her tiny face. As the droplets ran down her cheeks, she stuck out her tongue and giggled.

“It’s cold!” she commented. Then she dipped her hands in again. And again.

To be honest, I had no idea how meaningful that moment was until the drive home. Somewhere around Mariposa, my wife turned around and asked the girls what they liked best about our trip.

R’s answer was simple: She loved the waterfalls. L’s response, however, caught both of us grownups off-guard. “My favorite part was feeling the river,” she said. “It was fun to see the waterfalls but touching the water itself was amazing.”

I’m not sure I could have said it better myself.