July 26, 2006
A Vacation Newsletter for Families who want to save time and money. ____________________________________________________________
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Welcome to The Vacationer newsletter, our mission is to provide useful ideas for family vacations, offering you tips for finding the best vacation deals and providing web-links to save you time and money.
Inside this newsletter:
Late Breaking Summer Vacation Ideas
Our Alaskan Vacation Experience
Announcing our new BLOG - The Best Family Vacation Destination Blog
Recent Updates to The-Best-Family-Vacation-Destinations.com
Request for Vacation Ideas
Vacation Deals ____________________________________________________________
Late Breaking Summer Vacation Ideas
Summer is here; hope you have found your best family vacation destination. For those of you looking for more local vacation ideas here are a few events through out the USA you might want to take in should you be in the area:
Grand Prix Denver August 11-13
Each summer the streets of downtown Denver undergo a serious transformation as the Grand Prix circuit is built. The 1.6 mile course winds its way around Pepsi Center with plenty of grandstand seating to bring the viewers close to the 700horsepower car racing action! www.gpdenver.com.
Seattle SEAFAIR Torchlight Parade July 29
Everyone loves a parade! This 57 year tradition is an exciting night for the entire family. This year's parade will have more then 100 participants including Macy's style helium balloons, elaborate floats and much more but, be on watch for those shifty SEAFAIR pirates!! www.seafair.com
Seattle's SEAFAIR festival August 4-6
Seattle is home to the unlimited Hydro-plane (race boats that can travel up to 200 mph) the race is held on Lake Washington every year. In addition to hydroplane racing SEAFAIR fans will find plenty of land based activities for the entire family. www.seafair.com
Stone Mountain Park August 19th at 9:30pm. Atlanta, Georgia
Kick back and relax and watch the world's largest laser show spectacular. A Stone Mountain Park and Atlanta tradition the Laser show combines colorful lasers, surround sound patriotic music and special effects into a 40 minute light show. The show concludes with a fireworks finale. The laser show is free with your $8.00 vehicle fee to the park.Stone Mountain Park.
Maine Lobster Festival August 2-6 Rockland ME
Love lobster? Well this is the festival for you, last years festival-goers ate 12 tons of lobster!! There is fun here for the whole family from a diaper derby race (babies only) to a partially submerged lobster crate race for adults! Go early and don't forget your bib! www.mainelobsterfestival.com.
Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival August 25-27 Littleton CO
Do you have early risers in your family? It can pay off in a big way here this festival starts at 6:00am with 60 colorful 10 story tall hot air balloons taking off all at once! For those of you late risers they also do the ALL A Glow Saturday night where all the balloons light up at once in the dark kids will love it! http://rockymountainballoonfestival.com.
National Buffalo Wing Festival September 2 and 3 Buffalo New York
Founded in 2002 you can get chicken wings any way you want them, including some wacky contests like bobbing for wings in blue cheese. There is a kids zone with craft areas, prizes and fun things for kids to do as well as chicken kids meals! www.buffalowing.com
Mitchell Corn Palace Festival August 25-27 Mitchell South Dakota
The building is decorated with giant murals made from corn! This festival has carnival rides, live music and fun for the whole family. Each year the exterior panels of the Corn Palace are decorated with locally grown corn. The process usually starts in the spring and is completed by the end of September. A different theme is chosen each year, and murals are designed to reflect that theme. Cherie Ramsdell is the current panel designer. Ramsdell is an Assistant Professor of Art at Dakota Wesleyan University. This is one off the beaten path attraction worth the extra gas! http://www.cornpalacefestival.com.
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Our Alaskan Vacation Experience
Quite often Jeff and I will do a mini vacation, (2 days max), to a location to see if it's compatible for our family. It allows us to have personal time away from the kids for our relationship and also allows us to do the necessary research for our website.
What we haven't shared is we were blessed with a special needs son who is speech delayed, he is a joy but is not always compatible with most vacation locations, so we survey locations a head of time just to be sure.
This month we went to Juneau, Alaska and had a wonderful time on a day long boating adventure thanks to the "Adventure Bound" to see the Glaciers in the Tracy Arm Fjord located about 45 miles south of Juneau. It was truly a fantastic adventure and we took over 700 digital photos in one day. The icebergs were amazing, as well as the glaciers and the wildlife.
Juneau itself was also very inviting, it is rated as the best stop for the cruise ships who offer cruises on the inside passage. The port at Juneau had at least 4 cruise ships docked each day.
We will be adding additional pages to our website detailing our great Alaskan Vacation and addressing is this a place for the kids - watch for them soon.
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Announcing our new BLOG - The Best Family Vacation Destination Blog
Since our last newsletter we have started a BLOG to go with our Site.
It is a way to share more easily ideas and the research we are doing for our site. We introduce pages to our website, post pictures and capture our experiences in real time.
You can get a sneak preview of our Alaska Vacation pictures there.
Check it out here: The Best Family Vacation Destination Blog.
Stop by and leave us a comment!
____________________________________________________________ Recent Updates to The-Best-Family-Vacation-Destinations.com
We've added the following pages for your use in planning vacations:
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Request for Vacation Ideas Please - we have received numerous e-mails from our visitors asking for more vacation recommendations. If you have a favorite family vacation we'd love to share it with our readers and feature it in the next newsletter. Just think you could e-mail all your friends with the link to where you vacation experience is on the web! Please share your experiences and recommendations with our readers use this link to make your input: Vacation Recommendations.
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Vacation Deals
As a subscriber to this newsletter, you get great exclusive money saving vacation links:
Save $200 on Orbitz instantly to Hawaii, Mexico, Caribbean, or Europe!
Is Saving $ On Flights Important To You? If So Book With Cheaptickets!
Book Your Great American Vacation on Orbitz!
We'd love to have your ideas for future newsletter topics feel free to e-mail them to me.
Happy Vacationing!
Kathy
Senior Editor of The-Best-Family-Vacation-Destinations.com