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 "Disney is offering a free day's admission to 1 million guests who complete a day of volunteer work next year," according to USA Today. Beginning January 1, 2010, when you sign up online for the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program and volunteer a day of service with a participating organization (and your service is completed and verified), you'll receive one day admission to a Disneyland or Walt Disney World theme park. ( Click here to sign up.) You must be at least 18 years of age to sign up, and you may sign-up up to a maximum of 8 additional members of your same household. Children must be at least 6 years of age to volunteer under this program and receive a theme park ticket. Children ages 6-17 must be accompanied by an adult when volunteering. Other age restrictions may apply to certain eligible volunteer opportunities.
 You have probably heard the theory that people start to look like their pets over time. Well, Best Western is tying into this idea with its new "Friends Forever Inseparator." The Web application allows you to upload a photo of yourself and one of your pet--and then you watch as both photos are merged. Above you can see a sample of photo that was created by the Inseparator. Below is a sample of an image created by the app. Why has the world's largest hotel chain created? They want to remind you that they have more than 1,000 around the United States that welcome you and your four-legged friends. “Best Western is known for being pet friendly and we wanted to create a fun way for pet owners, and pet travelers, to share their love for their pets,” said Troy Rutman, director of external communications for Best Western. “We hope the application will remind travelers that pets need vacations too!” To try out the Inseparator, click here.
 Dreaming of a tropical island for Christmas? Or are you hoping to visit the family over the holiday? Next week, the first week of October, is the time to start shopping for airline tickets. According to a recent USA Today article, there has been a three-year trend of Christmas travel prices dropping during the first two weeks of October.
Goby (pron: "GO-be") is a new search engine that will help you find something to do. Whether you're at home or on vacation, the site directs you to museums, hiking trails, restaurants, local events, kids' activities... How does it work? Goby asks you what you want to do, and where and when you want to do it. The site trolls through hundreds of databases and Web sites preselected by the Goby team and then offers up results that are organized in a meaningful way. In other words, the results are better than what you'd find on Google. Instead of just giving you a list of Web pages, Goby converts all those pages into human-friendly information, so you can see things like locations, phone numbers, photographs from around the Web, links to nearby points of interest—basically any information that might help you plan your adventure. "Goby, unlike Google , understands the concept of a general area; if you search for hiking trails in San Francisco, it'll alert you to ones in Marin, too," writes Harry McCracken for PCWorld. "Unlike Google, it can figure out the dates in results-if you're going to New York over a specific long weekend, you can search for gallery shows taking place then. And Goby does a good job of winnowing out Web pages that don't relate to activities and events-in my tests, it never returned results out of left field." I took the site on a test drive for an upcoming trip to Charleston, S.C. We'll be traveling with the kids and looking for things to keep the little ones busy. A search turned up 117 results including the South Carolina Aquarium, a couple bowling alleys, and dozens of public parks. The cool thing is that there are photographs for each of the playgrounds so you can check out the play structures. A more refined search for children's museums offered up a listing for the city's one and only children's museum. A search for family events happening over Thanksgiving turned up no results, and a search for family friendly restaurants was also unfruitful and provided only two options, a Chinese restaurant and a sandwich-ice cream shop. From the reviews that came out last week after the site launched, it sounds as if the Goby team is continuing to refine its search and add to the list of Web sites it mines for information. Before we leave for our trip, I'll definitely check out Goby again.
 Yelp, Chowhound, and TripAdvisor—These Web sites are hugely popular with travelers because they offer up insider advice through the highly opinionated (and entertaining) content developed by their readers. Want to eat at the best taco stand in San Diego? On Chowhound, for example, you can read a long string of posts from readers who have sampled and reviewed all the tacos in the area. Now the California Tourism Bureau is offering travelers a Web site where they'll find similar content. Friday Fives (www.CaliforniaFives.com) is meant to be a place where you can track down tips on what to see and do in the Golden State from locals in the know. The site features lists of fives revolving around topics, which are as broad as California’s five best beaches and as narrow as the five preferred wines in Sonoma County. The lists are submitted by readers and others have the opportunity to rank someone else’s California Fives (giving it the appropriate stars), or provide their own twist on a subject. The site launched with a few lists from well-known Californians. You'll find Slanted Door owner Charles Phan's list of top five favorite California markets and Surfrider Foundation CEO Jim Moriarty's favorite surf spots for beginners. I submitted a list of my favorite family friendly restaurants in San Francisco. You can find it by clicking here.
 After road-tripping with my kids this summer for 17 days straight, I felt as if I had played every car game possible with my children. License plate bingo, I-Spy, 20 Questions--you name it, we played it. We recently visited the California Sierra for the weekend--a four-hour drive from our home--and I knew that I would need to come up with something new for the car ride. On the Cookie magazine Web site, I stumbled upon a list of 21 road trip games to keep your kids from saying "Are we there yet?" Here I found a few new games to try. My daughter kept herself busy with "100." You pick one thing--red cars, trees, whatever--and try to find 100 of it. My son had fun playing "Castle in the Sky" and trying to pick out clouds and deciding what they look like. And both of my children loved playing Slug Bug, which is actually a game I remember playing with my brother as a kid, but I had completely forgotten about it. See a Volkswagen Beetle and call out, "Slug bug!" One point is awarded to whoever calls it out first, but beware—a point is deducted if one is wrongly called out. Traditionally, this game involves the administration of a gentle "slug" to the shoulder of another player as the bug is called, but depending on the energy level and age of your children, you may select to forgo this part. Click here to find the complete list of road-trip games in Cookie.
 For decades the Nut Tree in Vacaville, Calif., provided San Francisco travelers heading to and from the Sierra with a pleasant respite. It was a place to stop for honey-baked cookies shaped like bears, pineapple marshmallow delight, and huge homemade lollipops in its restaurant known for its treats. It was also a place to ride the little red train that circled the shady grounds, and to shop for unusual trinkets in the gift shop that specialized in items from around the world. Opened as a fig stand in 1921, the Nut Tree evolved into a major tourist complex on Interstate 80. Queen Elizabeth, Bing Crosby and presidents Nixon and Reagan all stopped by. Then in 1996, the Nut Tree closed due to a decline in business. Travelers mourned. But in 2006, a developer revived the roadside attraction and opened a small children's amusement park featuring the same little steam engine and many of the other original attractions such as the giant hobby horses that children could sit atop and rock back and forth. And then that closed--and then more recently a smaller version of the Nut Tree was revived. The original train circles a small park surrounded by some restaurants. There's the original carousel and some rocking horses. The kids and I stopped by on our way home from the Sierra on a recent weekend. We grabbed tasty thin-crust pizza at a place called Amici's and then rode the train and took a whirl on the merry-go-round. The Nut Tree certainly is not what it once was but if you have kids and have been in the car for hours it's worth the stop.
 It's time to put on my spokesperson hat: Best Western just announced it's fall promotion. Now through November 22, Best Western Rewards members who pay with their MasterCard earn double, triple or quadruple Rewards points, after staying any two, three, or four nights this fall. This makes it possible to earn a free room night after staying as few as four nights. Members who opt to receive airline rewards receive the double, triple or quadruple rewards after any two, three or four stays. In addition, Rewards members who book online at www.bestwestern.com during this promotional period will receive 250 bonus points, or up to 500 points after two online bookings. For more information and to register for the points promotion, visit www.bestwestern.com/fall; and for bonus airline rewards, visit www.bestwestern.com/fallair. Or, call 1-800-WESTERN. To join Best Western Rewards, visit www.bestwesternrewards.com.
 A wild rumpus has come to San Francisco's urban jungle. Last week, the Contemporary Jewish Museum opened a retrospective of over 100 works by children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, including rare and original pieces from his 1963 classic Where the Wild Things Are, the book about an angry boy named Max whose mom sends him to bed without dinner. "There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak," which runs through January 19, 2010, features original watercolors and drawings from Sendak's books, rare sketches, never-before-seen working materials, and exclusive interview footage. You'll find a final drawing from Pierre, A Cautionary Tale with the mischievous boy standing in front of the lion who eats him; a photograph of Sendak's real-life German shepherd, Agamemnon, who was a model for the dog in Outside Over There; and a preliminary drawing of the Where the Wild Things Are wild rumpus scene in which Max tries to tame the monsters as a way to control his own anger. An exhibit spotlighting a children's book author seems like something for families to enjoy, but is it really kid appropriate? To find out, I brought my 5-year-old son Dante to a press preview of the show. I'm not going to lie and say that Dante was deeply engrossed for hours. This isn't a hands-on children's museum exhibit. It's an art museum-style experience with framed pictures hanging on the walls (though they have generously hung the works a few inches lower for little people), and after 45 minutes Dante asked to leave. Yet our visit was worth it because there were plenty of ah-ha moments when he connected with the works. The best being when he saw the giant mural of the Wild Things and he made scary faces, showing his "terrible claws" and "terrible teeth." When you see that mural, the words from the book pass through your head but only a child would actually act them out. The exhibit offers a great opportunity for parents to expose their children to a "real" museum environment. The material is presented in a sophisticated fashion, but it directly relates to kids and welcomes them. What's more, the museum has planned several family days when Sendak-themed activities, performances, and art projects will keep kids engaged and entertained (see below for list of upcoming events). You can also pick up a copy of a gallery guide designed for kids that makes the exhibit a more interactive experience, grab a bite to eat at the cafe where the menu features a Max's Sandwich, and visit the gift shop selling Wild Things slippers and stuffed animals. On a typical, weekend, a family could easily spend an entire afternoon at the museum, taking in all the Sendak stuff. We spent most of our time in the gallery where Dante was a huge fan of the children's book nook. He plopped right down on one of the bean bag chairs and flipped through a copy of Where the Wild Things Are. This is a great spot for kids to hang while their parents read the exhibit display copy that recounts the history of the author who was born in Brooklyn in 1928 and who is still working today at 81 years old. Dante was excited when he spotted a final drawing from the Little Bear book. "That's when Little Bear pretends to go into outer space," he explained. "He jumps really, really high and thinks he's in space. But he's not in outer space. He wears that funny hat because he thinks he's an astronaut." This is when another journalist previewing the exhibit started to quickly write in his notepad and came over to ask me what age my son was. He seemed impressed that this 5-year-old kid knew more about the art pieces hanging on the wall than he did. And it was Dante who spotted the giant Sendak characters pictured high on the walls (I never would have even noticed them). "Look at that big moon up there, Mommy!" he said. "It looks so mad. Why is it so grumpy?" Associate curator Dana Solomon told us these characters as well as the murals were intentionally installed to make the exhibit more playful and appealing to children. "I think it's a fabulous show for kids," Solomon said. "It shows the process of illustrating a book for children learning to draw. He's a great author for kids because he wasn't afraid to show a full range of emotions. He didn't candy coat things. He shows that kids get mad and jealous, something many authors are afraid to do." My son actually got mad when I was deeply engrossed in some display copy, after we had been at the museum for nearly an hour. "Let's go Mommy!" he growled. "Let's go! Come on!" This is a moment Sendak would appreciate and I envisioned the author sketching an illustration of my frustrated son. I wasn't ready to go but I left knowing that I would return with my 6-year-old daughter who loves to draw and make her own books. We'll try to visit during one of the many events listed below. Upcoming family events Preschool Gallery Hours: Sunday, September 13, 10 a.m.-11 a.m.; Sunday, October 11, 10 a.m.-11 a.m.; Sunday, November 8, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. The museum opens early for preschoolers and their families. Risers will allow little museum goers to see the art up-close, and movement classes and performances will keep them entertained. Kids receive free admission. Free Target Family Day: Sunday, October 18, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Families get into the museum for free and can wander through the galleries, make art, and sing and dance along to lively musical performances inspired by Sendak's stories and characters. A Wild Rumpus! Family Gala: Saturday evening, November 14 Dinner, cocktails for all ages, performances, and a private viewing of the exhibition. For more events, click here.
I find that there are travelers who don't ask their friends for travel advice, and those who do. One isn't better than the other; they're just different. Some travelers like to discover places on their own. They wander the streets of Paris and when they're hungry they step into the cafe that smells the best. Later they discover that it's owned by one of the city's top chefs and a starred recommendation in the Frommer's guidebook. These travelers get great satisfaction in sniffing out the best restaurants on their own. These travelers will tell you about their upcoming trip to Australia and even though they know you visited the Land Down Under last summer, they won't ask you any questions about where you went, stayed, ate--or maybe they'll courteously ask for advice but then they never act on it. These travelers feel burdened and bogged down by tips. They want to explore freely, without an agenda, a plan. And then there are those travelers who actively seek recommendations. Their trips are based on the advice of others. They post "Going to Manhattan: Where should I eat?" on their Facebook pages and send out Tweets requesting lodging tips. They're hungry for information. These travelers don't want to risk trying a place on their own--because what if the food is bad? The rooms dirty? The beach polluted? They fear wasting time and money. These sorts of travelers also tend to pack more than one guidebook and waste lots of time on TripAdvisor and ChowHound. They're researchers. I'm the later sort of traveler. Before I visit a destination, I email everyone I know who has been there and ask for recommendations. I'll court friends in hopes of getting insider advice, arranging dinner parties where they can put on slide shows, taking them to lunch so they can show me their photo albums and pass off guidebooks. Before these meetings, I do a lot of online research upfront, creating lists of the best that a place has to offer--and then I run my list by a friend in hopes of getting an endorsement. I leave for my trip with a folder full of scraps of paper, magazine clippings, printed out emails. We recently went to Barcelona, and I had so many bits of paper that it was hard to keep track of everything. But nearly every night we ate at a restaurant that came recommended by a friend, and every night we were completely satisfied. On only one night, we stumbled upon a place owned by a comical Frenchman who seemed to know every person sitting in his restaurant. He walked around giving diners hugs and kisses. We ordered salads and fish, and enjoyed what may be our favorite bottle of wine ever. We brought home the cork so we could try to find the same vintage (El Perro Verde) at home. I can only hope that a friend who is going to Barcelona will ask me for restaurant recommendations so I can direct him to the same place. Do you ask friends for travel advice or do you prefer to discover places on your own?
 This past summer, the media was convinced that families would stick to short, close-to-home vacations. "Weekend getaways" is the term journalists often used. But the results of Trekaroo's 2009 summer travel survey found that many moms and dads were taking off with the kids for more than five days. And while California and Florida were the top two favorite vacation spots, international destinations came in at No. 3. Canada was particularly popular with the family crowd. Here's a summary of the survey results from Trekaroo, a Web site that's dedicated to all things related to family travel. 1. Budgets were top of mind. - At least 54% of families were on a budget;
- At least half were more concerned with this year's budget than last year's;
- Budgets were on average $1,200; median $600
- Lodging, travel, and food were the top three vacation activities most impacted by budget;
- About 62% found planning activities in advance was the key to staying on budget;
- Nearly 60% used sites like Trekaroo to research budget friendly vacation activities, and
- Approximately 59% used coupons or other travel incentives.
2. Families didn't just stay local. - Approximately 62% of families traveled to another state or abroad. The top 3 destinations were Florida, California and international.
- Beach vacations and theme parks were the top preferred vacation destinations;
- Cars were the vehicle of choice. Nearly 68% of families preferred driving to flying or train travel; and
- Canada was the number one international destination for families this summer.
3. Time wasn't a factor. - Nearly 40% of families planned vacations of five days or more.
Did you go on a family trip this summer? Were you on a budget? Were you on the road for more than five days? Where did you go? Did you stick close to home?
 Over Labor Day weekend, the kids, my husband and I escaped to California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. We stayed with friends at their rustic cabin on Silver Lake, a quiet spot tucked behind Kirkwood Ski Resort. The cabin was unplugged, without Internet and phone access, and even electricity. The kids were dependent on the outdoors for entertainment—and they found plenty to do. They paddled a canoe across the lake, watched an osprey dive for a fish, hiked (pictured) three miles to Sandy Beach, collected pine cones, made homemade fishing poles with sticks, and constructed a gigantic Lincoln Logs-style house with branches from a fallen tree. I taught my son how to skip rocks and I helped my daughter fill a garbage bags with pine cones for a teacher at her school to use in an art project. Every night, the kids easily fell asleep at 7:30 p.m. They were exhausted from running, jumping, building, paddling, climbing, rolling, galloping, collecting. They were also filthy dirty and covered in scratches and bug bites, but they were as happy as can be. This was our first overnight trip to the woods this summer--and it's sad to think it happened over the last weekend of summer. Of course, my husband and I had big plans to go camping and backpacking with the kids but work deadlines, house projects, birthday parties, play dates, and family commitments got in the way. We're obviously not the only family struggling to get our kids outdoors. The Outdoor Foundation, a Boulder, Colorado-based nonprofit organization, recently published its 2009 Outdoor Recreation Participation Report indicating that outdoor activity among children ages 6 to 17 declined 8 percent in 2008 from 2007. The 2008 report, found an 11 percent decline from 2007 to 2006. “This study revealed that although overall participation in outdoor activities is rising year after year, children’s participation is declining,” Chris Fanning, executive director of the Outdoor Foundation, told Health Care News. “This means parents and role models must start sharing their love of the outdoors with children.” It's important to expose children to the outdoors for so many reasons, according to a lengthy list of studies compiled by Leave No Child Inside, a Chicago-based nonprofit. People who demonstrate a commitment to protect the natural world identify childhood experiences in nature as a critical factor in their actions (Chawla, 1999). In a study of 400 youths, a majority reported that wilderness challenge programs had major impacts on their physical, emotional, and intellectual development and well-being (Kellert & Derr, 1998). Participation in outdoor activities allows children to connect with themselves at the same time as it strengthens their family relationships (Harris, 2003). Participation in green outdoor activities such as fishing was associated with reduced Attention-Deficit Disorder symptoms in a sample of children from the Midwest (Faber Taylor, Kuo & Sullivan, 2001). Children report that being in a natural setting allows them to escape the pressures of everyday life (Harris, 2003). Kindergarten students who spent 1-2 hours everyday playing in a forested area improved their motor skills more significantly than students who played at a traditional outdoor playground (Fjortoft, 2002). Ninety percent of adults who describe themselves as active started their favorite outdoor activity before the age of 18 (Harris, 2003). On the drive home my husband and I agreed that we would go on similar trips next summer. We talked about back-packing in Yosemite, rafting on the American River, and fishing at Putah Creek. We even fantasized about renting out our San Francisco condo for a month next summer and moving to a cabin in Truckee, where my husband's colleague works from his home. With Internet access, my husband and I could both work while the kids go to some cool summer camp in the Sierra. In the evenings, we could all go for a hike and roast marshmellows in the backyard. Is this just a dream? How can we actually make it happen?
 Traveling on a budget with kids? Download the new KidsEatFor iPhone app and you can easily track down restaurants in the United States where little ones eat for free or at a discounted price. The app costs $2.99 and is available at the iTunes store. Handy features allow you to: —Automatically find your current location and call up nearby deals — See where the deals are being offered on a map —Search by restaurant name or location if you are looking for something specific —Enable driving directions to the restaurant —Add restaurant deals to the database —Vote up or down once you arrive if the deal has changed —View all locations of a restaurant chain, even if the offer varies among locations KidsEatFor is a community built, grassroots effort to build the largest collection of kids-eat-free and discounted kids meals in the world.
A recent article in The New York Times reports on the increasing number of airlines that are adding Internet access on flights for a fee: Every major airline except Continental, which has been coy about its plans for possible Wi-Fi or for installing satellite television on its planes, has announced plans to install Wi-Fi. And smaller competitors like AirTran and Virgin America already have their fleets wired.  But the question remains, Will passengers pay up to $12.95 for an Internet connection? We all know that travelers hate being nickel-and-dimed. A survey released commissioned by Wakefield Research indicates that "yes" travelers will pay. The survey polled 480 frequent business travelers, including 150 who have used in-flight Wi-Fi, from Aug. 11 to Aug. 18, according to the Times. About three quarters (76 percent) said they would choose an airline based on Wi-Fi availability. More than half (55 percent) said they would shift a flight by one day to get on a plane with a Wi-Fi connection. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.47 percentage points. Would you choose an airline or a flight based on Wi-Fi availability?
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"Disney is offering a free day's admission to 1 million guests who complete a day of volunteer work next year," according to USA Today.
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