I just don't get it.

Parents stress more about their babies annoying other airline passengers than whether they are safe on board.

They wouldn't think of driving anywhere without securely strapping their baby in an appropriate safety seat and spend countless hours considering which safety seat to buy. But on...

If you think your preschoolers are too young for Orlando's parks, think again.

Of course there is the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and the chance to not only meet your favorite characters and princesses but be transformed into one at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutiques, complete with...

Ask my daughters their idea of a dream trip and they'd say climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro or helicopter skiing in British Columbia or returning to the amazing Galapagos Islands

Ask my son and he'd say exploring an exotic city while staying in a hip, luxe hotel.

Even in the same family,...

I'm face down on a massage table being slathered by honey -- locally produced no less -- and I'm enjoying every sticky moment.

To be specific, I'm at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in Orlando, part of the sprawling 500-acre Grande Lakes Orlando hotel complex that includes two...

If there is ever an ancient site to use your imagination, the Coliseum is it.

No wonder kids (especially boys) love it: Gladiators fought to the death with animals and each other.

Today of course, it's just a relic of its ancient glory but our guide Maria...

We succumbed to the sales pitch for a gondola ride on Venice's Canals and paid 80 euros for the 110 euro tour, but our gondolier didn't sing -- or talk much either. I don't think he spoke English.

Still, it was fun gliding on the narrow canals past Marco Polo's...

I'm gently squishing the top of a 1,400 pound Beluga whale's head.

The whale's name is Juno and I can feel the combination of muscle and fat that enables the eight-year-old to direct sound. He's able to use ricocheting sound from his "melon" to figure out his location, where food...

It is 34 degrees and the gusting wind makes it feel a lot colder. I'm hiking behind a man with a rifle, my hands freezing inside my two layers of gloves. I'm wearing four layers of clothes. We hike through ankle-deep snow.

Ahhh, July.

I'm on Nordaustlandet (northeast land), the...

Everything changed that trip in one fell swoop.

My kids -- aged 21, 19 and 14 at the time -- decided after years of following us on vacation, it was time for them to lead mom and dad on an adventure, they said (though they expected us to pay for...

Some vacation.

The young mom spent more time washing baby bottles in the bathroom of her expensive hotel room than basking in the sunshine on the famously beautiful Bermuda beaches.

Not that she could have enjoyed the beach much. Her fair-skinned 6-month-old couldn't tolerate much sun and liked nothing better...

The kids are climbing up a 32 foot ladder, squeezing through a tunnel, walking in toe holds carved into the sandstone.

They're having a blast and learning a little archeology, Native American culture and ancient history as they go. Who says learning can't be fun?

We're at Mesa...

It may be chilly and drizzly, but the penguin families are out for a day at the beach -- literally.

It's New Year's Eve in 2009. We're in Patagonia, Chile, at the bottom of the hemisphere (a four-hour flight from Santiago) and a destination that is becoming more...

"Can we keep any dinosaur bones?" the boy asks the National Park Ranger Marker Marshall, who has heard this question many times in her nearly two decades at the Grand Canyon National Park. She smiles.

"This is Grand Canyon National Park, not Jurassic Park," she says, holding up...

What a big baby -- literally.

Elephant seals weigh 75 pounds when they're born and now, a little more than a month later, these guys should weigh more than 300 pounds.

That the elephant seals at the Marine Mammal Center don't, is one reason they are here in...

We've never seen so much luscious -- and unusual -- produce in one place. Have your kids ever seen a cranberry bean? There are heirloom tomatoes, white peaches, plums, big and tiny grapes, almonds and walnuts, various varieties of chili peppers, eggplants, potatoes, all kinds of apples.

Welcome to

We're standing in a dusty square trying to conjure up an image of a bustling gathering place with white marble floors, gleaming columns and fashionable people buying and selling wine, beautiful fabrics and exotic treasures -- imagine SoHo in New York, I tell the kids. Powerful politicians work just across...

Persistence is the key. So is patience.

Step out of your comfort zone and you'll be amazed at what you can do.

Who would have thought snowboarding could teach kids such life lessons. But that's exactly the point of CHILL, the foundation started by Jake Burton Carpenter, the...

The wines are exquisite. So is the food --course after course at the new French restaurant where the menu has been designed by two award winning chefs, one American and one French who has two Michelin stars.

Dinner stretches for more than three hours -- lobster with vanilla bisque,...

It's early Saturday morning, and I wished I was still in bed. Instead, I was making my way down and across a deserted Colorado mountain on my skis in a heavy snowstorm so that I could watch my 17-year-old daughter Reggie ski down a slope so steep and rocky that...

If you thought heading to the slopes this winter would be a budget buster or no fun for mom, think again.

Not only has there been so much snow, but large and small resorts across ski country are pulling out all the stops for families, featuring increased programming off the...