A Dad’s Guide to Water Parks
In the heat of August a young dad’s mind turns to annual pilgrimage to the local water park. Water parks are the one amusement park where the whole family can find attractions that they can play in together without having to endure costumed characters. However, if you’re making your first trip to a water park as a dad there is one thing to remember. You’re a dad, act like it.
Be Responsible.
Your not a teenager anymore. OK, most dad’s aren’t teenagers anymore, maybe you are, but you still need to act like a dad. That means if you’re in charge of the little ones, don’t leave them to their own devices while you climb the stairs to the highest slide. That also means regularly applying sunscreen, taking them to the potty(please, please don’t pee in the water-enough other people already are), and all the other mundane things necessary of parenthood.
No Flirting.
This means no flirting with the lifeguards, ladies in bikinis or even that old lady at the sunscreen station. You may think you’re being cool, but you’re only embarrassing yourself, and your kids. Ok, you can flirt with your wife, but that’s it.
No Oogling.
You are surrounded by fit bodies in skimpy bikinis but you are a dad. The only chica in a bathing suit you should be watching is your little girl in the kiddie pool. Could you imagine having to explain to the lifeguard, or your wife, how your kid ended up sucking water after falling into the deep end? “Um, yes, I was watching her, but then this sweet thing in a strappy bikini walked by and well. . .”
Yeah, be the good dad, don’t oogle.
Brag-able Travel
You’re a guy and lots of people smarter than me have told me something about us guys. We like to brag. You know it’s true. That’s why you have to have the biggest truck, the biggest house, and the best kids. We’re the same way when it comes to vacation. You always have to have bragging rights. Here are three alternatives that will definitely give you bragging rights at the next barbeque or family get-together.
The Outer Banks
Did your neighbor just come back from the beautiful beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and tell you stories about sea kayaking over the rough waves of the Atlantic? Don’t believe him. The Atlantic’s waves that gently brush across the sandy cottage filled beaches aren’t very impressive. Sure, you might see a dolphin. But really, how scary is Flipper? What you want is some real dangerous kayaking.
Take the bridge to Manteo, grab yourself a kayak from one of the outfitters in town and continue to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Instead of avoiding dolphins and fisherman, you’re keeping your eyes open for black bears, wild wolves, alligators and the trifecta of poisonous snakes: cottonmouths, copperheads, and timber rattlers. It will be a great story to tell, if you come back in unharmed! (Ok, it would be an even better story to tell if you do end up injured!)
The Central California Mountains
Yosemite is the quintessential American park. Beautiful and overcrowded. If you live anywhere east of the Rockies you’re bound to see some preppy dad walking around in his Yosemite t-shirt or hat. If you go up and ask him how he experienced the park, he will probably brag about rafting the wild Merced River through the middle of the Valley. As exciting as that might sound to your neighbors at the cul-de-sac barbeque, a quick Googleing reveals that it is nothing more than a float down a lazy river. To get your bragging rights, head to Yosemite’s often overlooked Southern neighbor, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park and the Kings River. This isn’t some predictable damned river like the Colorado or the Gauley-this is a man’s river. It does what it wants when it wants to and nobody is going to tell it otherwise!
The Kings is such a wild river the section in the park is off limits to outfitters! To experience it you have to travel outside the park, where the river calms down to Class III rapids, which means even a responsible Dad can let his kids experience the white water.
Baseball
Ah, the summer tradition of sitting in the heat and watching players you don’t know hit a ball you can’t see. What makes it worse is your father (or grandfather)-in-law talking about how great the game used to be before steroids and multi-million dollar contracts for a utility infielder. The next time he brings this up, you can shut him up by bragging about seeing old school baseball during your last trip to St. Louis.
Just west of the Cardinal’s venerable Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis is historic Lafayette Park. Surrounded by beautiful old homes and trendy restaurants, this park is home to the St. Louis Perfectos. The Perfectos play according to the 1860’s rules, so things are a little different. A ball is considered fair as long as it lands inbounds. If it roles into foul territory after that, its still in play.
You won’t find bulked up players or bulked up salaries. You will find people passionate about America’s pastime and America’s past. You will also find bragging rights the next time your in-laws start talking about how great things used to be!
Back To School Travel
It’s early August in Nashville which means summer is officially over. Sure, it’s still as hot and humid as always and the tourists in their cowboy hats and shiny new cowboy boots are walking up and down Broadway. But for us locals, school has started and vacations have stopped.
Right?
Wrong!
As happy as I am to have the kiddies watched over for eight hours a day, school puts a damper on travel because I get a guilt complex about taking my kids out of school for a day or two to go on a short vacation. To get past this, I do what ever guy does when he can’t change a situation-I rationalize my point of view.
1) It’s alright to take them out of school because they’ll learn more on vacation.
This can be true, to a point. I can rationalize a long weekend to Huntsville, Alabama, if we visit the the U.S. Space & Rocket Museum for Physics and Engineering, the Little River Canyon National Preserve for Biology and Geology, Constitution Village for Social Studies, and the Unclaimed Baggage Store in nearby Scottsboro, AL, for Economics.
I can’t rationalize taking a long weekend to go to Six Flags-Kentucky Kingdom. (As much as I love seeing an oversized Bugs Bunny and an overweight Batman, they don’t do much for the kiddies knowledge quotient).
2) Only the kids with OCD parents get the perfect attendance award.
The first time we took my oldest daughter out of school for a trip I was heartbroken that she wouldn’t receive a perfect attendance award that year. A few months later she ended up getting sick and had to miss school anyways, so she wouldn’t have won it anyways. Besides, do you remember those kids who would get that award at the end of the year? How many times did you get sick because Junior’s mommy refused to keep him home so he could win that award?
Hmm, so you still are having a hard time rationalizing the advantages of pulling your kid out of school to go on a trip and you want to avoid hot summer travel and the accompanying sweaty crowds? You have a couple options.
1) Travel during odd breaks.
Our school shuts down for two weeks in the fall and two weeks in the spring. Check the school schedule of your destination. If school is open there, chances are you can enjoy a peaceful off-season vacation without a bunch of snot-nosed little kids running around (except for your own, of course!).
2) Don’t forget teacher workdays.
If you’re lucky, your school will schedule teacher workdays (or in-service or whatever the new term is) on a Friday or Monday. This will give the family a nice three day weekend to travel on without the normal holiday travel hubbub.
There you go, guilt free school year travel. If you’re still feeling guilty, e-mail your problem to traveldads@gmail.com and I’ll help you rationalize your actions!
4th Of July: Go Big or Go Home
Guys like things big. That doesn’t stop when you become a dad and it definitely doesn’t stop on the Forth Of July. There are two ways you can make the 4th a big event for you and your family: go big or go home!
Go Big
Find the biggest and best fireworks display that you can. Check out what the different cities do, check out what the different baseball teams do, even check out what the local shopping center does. Don’t be afraid to drive a little ways to get to the biggest show. Remember, you’re patriotic and there’s no better way to be patriotic that cheering at huge explosions in the sky and the more times you cheer the more patriotic you are. Book a hotel on the outskirts of a big city and take the special bus or train in to the fireworks display. Most cities have these, just find the website and look for transportation or parking information.
Go Home
You’re a man. You want to do things yourself. Why wouldn’t you put on your own fireworks display at your house. Yeah, be careful, it’s definitely not patriotic to end up in the emergency room. But, with a little work you can have a big fireworks display at your house. The first thing you need is fireworks. Not those little spark spitters, I’m talking about those big things that they keep behind the counter at the roadside stands. The ones that whizz up in the air and then make a huge bang as sparks explode in every color and direction. It would have made sense to plan ahead and buy them last July 5th for half off, but you didn’t. Suck it up and go down to the local firework stand and drop several hundred dollars on explosives. On July 4th while everyone else is dealing with traffic and crowds you get to put on your own fireworks display. Just make sure your wife has 911 on speed dial.
Family Business Travel: 3 Steps to Avoid Disappointment and Find Fun
Have you ever taken your family on a business trip? You thought it would be a great way to save money on hotel and travel costs while still experiencing a fun family vacation. Instead, it turned into a ruined trip because of miscommunication and poor planning. Here are three steps I’ve used to avoid disappointment and find fun on business trips with my family.
1. Set Expectations
There’s nothing worse than a disappointed child, except maybe a disappointed wife! Be sure that you communicate to your family when you will be in meetings and when you will be available for family time. With expectations in place, each family member knows when you will and won’t be available.
2. Plan Ahead
Since family time will be less than a normal traditional, it is extra important to plan ahead. Pick your favorite activities you want to do as a family during each time slot when you will be together. It could be something as simple as enjoying some time at the pool or as complex as a guided kayaking trip. By planning ahead you know that you will be able to do what you want, even on a tighter schedule than the traditional vacation.
3. Be Prepared
It’s possible that you might have an unscheduled meeting or a chance to meet with someone to further your business. Remember, this is a business trip first. Make sure you have a way to communicate with your family in case something comes up. (Yes, everyone should have their own phone!) A quick phone call to say you’ll be an hour late because the president of your company invited you for lunch is better than having your family waiting at the gates of the water park wondering where you are!
Welcome!
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but its good to be back! I started off blogging about cheap eats around the U.S. at davescheapeats.wordpress.com. After a while, I realized I wasn’t eating out at enough good cheap restaurants to do the blog justice. Plus, UrbanSpoon had done a wonderful job of finding cheap restaurants and on a much larger scale than I ever could so I stopped blogging. About the same time Collinson Publishing started paying me to blog about Franklin, TN (click here for one of my tastier posts) and NationalParkTrips.com bought a few stories from me, too. However, it just wasn’t the same writing what someone else wanted me to write (even though being paid real money was really nice!) so I hung up the keyboard to focus my attention in other areas.
Of course, the keyboard kept calling out to me to write about something, anything. In the age of Twitter and status updates on Facebook it is tempting to vainly write about me and what I’m experiencing. But I want this to be interesting and useful, not an effort in vanity. So I figured as a dad of three, husband of one, and traveler since birth the world could use a travel blog from a Dad/Husband perspective and TravelDads was born.
The goal of TravelDads is to bring a male/father/husband voice to the world of travel blogging. Part first hand experience, part practical advice, part fun. Like a child, it’s a work in progress. The format will change, posts and pages will grow and develop, it will make friends and enemies.
So come, help TravelDads go by contributing stories, ideas, comments, pictures, and videos. Either through comments here or to my email traveldads@gmail.com. By the way, weekly posts will start tomorrow (unless I’m out traveling).
