I look around all the giggling kids, the the Goofy and Grumpy hats and think maybe Disney is the antidote to the economy--for a few hours anyway. Sure it is expensive, but the kids will only be this age once, one grandma told me, and she's right. www.disneyland.com

People seem so glad to be here they don't even seem to mind waiting on line. "The kids just play games," one mom shrugs. They eat frozen lemonaide while they are waiting too.

There's one more week to enter a contest to win a free summer vacation and to ask Congress to declare a national vacation day in August. Watching the crowd here, I figure we can all use more vacation--or any vacation at all. Visit www.saveoursummervacation.com

My husband and kids say I turn into a witch the day before a trip. Sometimes, packing and organizing is overwhelming, especially when, like me, you are organizing stories to do along the way--as well as fun for the rest of the gang.

This time, I think I've tamed the inner witch. We are leaving tomorrow for two weeks--a stop down memory lane in Disneyland and then a sailing trip in Tahiti with my newly minted high school graduate daughter, her three closest camp buddies and thank goodness, another set of parents. Did you know Tahiti is only seven hours from LA--not too much farther than Hawaii. (www.tahititourisme.com)

This time, I inisisted we pack a few days ahead (well, at least my husband and me) so I'm not running around like a crazy woman getting sunscreen and other last minute necessities the night before we leave.

This time, I'm bringing a lot of quick-dry (though hip) clothes from my new favorite companies like www.Hornytoad.com, www.Cloudveil.com and perennial favorite www.llbean.com (I've also got my shirt from LLBEAN that is treated with www.insectshield.com that will keep away pesky bugs.)

I'm taking fewer pairs of shoes. I love my new Chacos (www.chaco.com) that are both comfortable in the city, on the trail and in the water.

I remembered my trusty rain jacket that really does repel water. (though we are hoping for sun!) My first aid kit is overstuffed, as usual.

But I'm sure I've forgotten something essential. I just can't think what at the moment. The difference: I've resolved not to sweat the details. Instead, I'm determined to enjoy the anticipation of this trip as much as the trip itself. We've been planning for months!

I'm going to stop thinking of all the things that can go wrong and focus on what is going to go right and thoroughly enjoy this trip with our daughter and her gang before they are off to new adventures in college.

SO next time the inner witch threatens you before a trip, take a deep breath and smile, thinking of the adventure ahead. She'll leave. I promise.

Every day, especially in summer, parents put kids on planes without an adult. They are flying to visit divorced parents, grandparents, friends, to go to camp. I've done it many times. On most airlines, we pay and extra fee for the service and expect our children to be handled like the precious cargo they are.

That's why it's mind boggling that not one, but two youngsters flying to different places were both put on wrong planes by Express Jet, which is under contract with Continental. According to published reports, An 8-year-old College Station girl erroneously ended up in Fayetteville, Ark., and a 10-year-old Massachusetts girl was mistakenly sent to Newark, N.J., causing their families undue stress and frustration untill the mixup was straightened out.

Continental, which charges $75 per child on a nonstop flight and $100 on a connecting flight, now says it is reviewing its policies for unaccompanied minors and chalks up the two mixups to staff "miscommunication." That's not good enough, when we're talking about children flying solo.

What can a parent do? Insist that you walk your child down the jetway to the correct plane and if the airline balks, point out this case as your reason. Make sure your child knows where he is going and double checks with the flight attendant as he boards (We are going to Cleveland, right?) Sounds silly, but it can make a difference. Also make sure the kids have a card in their pocket with their correct itinerary and everyone's contact information--the people who are meeting them as well as those dropping them off.

If they suddenly realize they are on the wrong flight, teach them to speak up and immpediately identify themselves and the problem. The crew should be able to radio ahead to the waiting family. You'd hope so anyway.

If your kids are young teens and traveling alone, make sure they speak up and let the crew know they are traveling solo. Should their flight be diverted or they miss a connection, they need to immpediately tell airport personnel that they are traveling solo and need help. You don't want them to end up wandering around an airport alone or trying to check into an airport hotel alone--as has appened in the past.

You can't return a vacation so it's important to get it right--where to stay, what to do when we're there. And these days, it's important for the destinations to get it right too. They need our business.

I just got back from the Cayman Islands (www.CaymanIslands.com). Their Summer Splash promotion is getting it right-kids can fly free on Cayman Air (non stop from NYC and Miami) eat free at many Island restaurants (where they aren't limited to kids menus) and get in free to many island attractions. Air Tahiti Nui www.airtahitinui-usa.com also has kids fly free and ski resorts have begun offering this in the winter.

But what I like about the Cayman deal is that it seems the entire Island (actually three islands--Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac) have banded together to welcome families so they aren't nickeled and dimed everywhere they go. I also love that the kids aren't limited to kids menus. Even seven year olds don't want to eat chicken fingers every meal!

Come on travel industry! Can you get it right for families?

So The First Lady is doing what millions of moms and dads do every day--tacking on a few days of R&R with the kids after a business trip. Of course most of us--well, any of us--don't charge around Paris or London in a multi-car entourage, sirens screaching. Churches don't close to tourists when we arrive and thousands of adoring fans aren't waiting wherever we go, cameras at the ready. President Obama lamented that this wasn't the way he would like to show his family Paris. It just goes with the territory, of course.

admire Mrs. Obama for making the effort when she could just esconce herself behind walls at some fancy vacation estate. I'm sure the girls--and their grandmother--are having a blast, seeing the Lion King in London, eating Fish and Chips, shopping in Paris. They have been, the newscasters say, celebrating Shasha's eighth birthday.

Whether you are the First Lady or the first lady of your block, it's important to remember that your kids will ondly be this age once. It's important to grab whatever opportunity comes our way to share the world with them--at least a little piece of it anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised if the First Daughters were giggling about the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame when they visited the magestic cathedral in Paris. I wonder if they had a scavenger hunt for the cathedral's famous Gargoyles as my girls did when they were about the same ages.

I wonder if they were game to try unfamiliar foods or they turned up their noses at escargot and pate. I remember one trip when my older daughter Reggie was 12 and we had brought her friend Emily along. The two tried to outdo each other ordering "weird" food--frogs legs, giant three-tiered platters of raw shellfish, escargot. The kids thought it was hysterical when I mistakenly tried to order from the "dog menu" for my younger daughter Mel. I thought it was a children's menu but I've since learned that the French, especially in Paris, are more likely to bring their pooches to dinner than their kids!

We have lots of memories from that trip, as I'm sure the Obamas will--cartwheels on the grass outside Napoleon's tomb, different varieties of crepes everywhere we could find them, the chocolates in the shops that seemed too pretty to eat, the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, guessing what the Mona Lisa was really thinking, just-baked croissants in "our neighborhood" where we'd rented an apartment.

This weekend, while the Obama girls were exploring Paris, my daughter Melanie went to her Senior Prom dressed to the nines, of course. As we snapped pictures of our happy, beautiful, soon-to-be-off-to-college daughter, I smiled thinking of that seven-year-old little girl--the same age as Sasha Obama--cartwheeling and dancing her way through Paris, sporting an "umbrella hat" she'd bought from a street vendor that she was convinced would be just the ticket for rainy days at school.

I hope the Obama girls bring home souvenirs they'll treasure as my girls did. The umbrella hat didn't last too long, but the little Eiffel Towers are still on their shelves. But more important, of course, are the memories.

A recent AP poll suggests that 56 per cent of Americans are forgoing summer vacation. Sad! Even if you can get away just for a few days, vacations are fodder for some of the best family memories--the time it poured when your were hiking, your seven-year-old found the way when you got lost in an unfamiliar city, your preschooler caught the fish you ate for dinner...I can go on and on because I wouldn't trade our memories for anything.

That's why I think it's great that there is a new movement that is asking Congress to proclaim Aug 7th National Vacation Day. Go to www.saveoursummervacation.com You can also enter a contest to win a $10,000 vacation. All you've got to do is explain why you deserve a vacation more than anyone else!