A bike ride with grown kids to a unique distillery in Basalt CO

A bike ride with grown kids to a unique distillery in Basalt CO

In summer, it’s all about bikers, runners, walkers. Many people opt to bike from the trailhead in Aspen about 10 miles as far as Woody Creek Tavern; today we opt to go another 10 miles to visit the new Woody Creek Distillery—where vodka is being made from potatoes grown in Woody Creek.

Reaching out and touching a penguin at Sea World Orlando

Reaching out and touching a penguin at Sea World Orlando

The adults are busy catching up while the kids swim and play, but this isn’t any waterfront playground on a late summer day. This is a unique playground for penguins — “Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins” — the largest expansion ever at SeaWorld Orlando.

Cooking up a storm at a rental house in Snowmass Village CO

Cooking up a storm at a rental house in Snowmass Village CO

I spent all day in the kitchen—on vacation. But maybe because it was my choice and maybe because it’s a spectacular kitchen at a Portico Club house overlooking the mountains in Snowmass, CO, I didn’t mind a bit.
In fact, because the kitchen was so well equipped—and the house so spacious—we decided to host a barbeque for folks we know who live here and who always are hosting us when we visit.

A hike in the rain in the beautiful mountains near Aspen CO

A hike in the rain in the beautiful mountains near Aspen CO

Snowmass is a great family ski mountain—one of the biggest and best in the country, in fact. But a visit here—and to neighboring Aspen—is a treat any time of year. There’s hiking, biking (road biking and mountain biking), fly fishing, rafting… even a scenic helicopter tour.

Great memories of an epic hike in Colorado

Great memories of an epic hike in Colorado

I’d always wanted to do the famous hike between Crested Butte in Southwest Colorado and Aspen –12.2 miles along the West Maroon trail, crossing the Maroon Pass which is 12,500 feet high. And in the year since— as we get ready to meet up with family for a week at a Portico Club rental house in Snowmass, up the road from Aspen–I’ve thought a lot about that hike.

To Lake Placid and a resort that gets it right for families

To Lake Placid and a resort that gets it right for families

I like to see a resort get it right and, I think, the Whiteface Lodge does. The 94-suite resort is spread out over 40 acres reminiscent of the historic “camps” of the Adirondacks with rough-hewn logs, big stone fireplaces, oversized leather furniture and whimsical décor evoking the outdoors.

Kids and grownups discovering The Wild in New York’s Adirondacks

Kids and grownups discovering The Wild in New York’s Adirondacks

Inside the expansive Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY are interactive exhibits whether you want to open boxes of bones in the Naturalists Cabinet, mimic bird calls, take a stroll on the indoor Living River Trail past lakes, bogs, streams , rivers and waterfalls and forests to the summit of a high peak with more than 2,000 live creatures—frogs, fish and of course the Otters.

Whiteface Lodge: a summer camp for families in Lake Placid, NY

Whiteface Lodge: a summer camp for families in Lake Placid, NY

I like to see a resort get it right and I think The Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid, NY does. Sure the place is expensive—a two bedroom unit in peak season can be upwards of $900 a night—but I can’t even count all the activities that are included

Four days in the Adirondacks begins with a stop at Fort Ticonderoga

Four days in the Adirondacks begins with a stop at Fort Ticonderoga

All summer and into the fall, there are Soldier’s Life programs, family hands-on activities and Fife & Drum Corps performances. We’re immersed in the year 1755 when French soldiers began construction of the Fort, called Fort Carillon. Ticonderoga, we learn, in the Native language was “The place Between the Great Waters.”