We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium on our recent trip to California and were introduced to the Sea Food Watch program there. The program seeks to educate little and grown folks alike about the environmental impacts of our fish choices through their interactive exhibit and website.  Sea Food Watch also offers a well-researched and regularly updated regional pocket guide that you can access via your iPhone or download and print for your wallet to remind yourself which seafood choices are most sustainable.

While on their website you can bookmark the activities and printables for a rainy day. Have fun & pass the word along!

Here’s a glimpse at our other favorite exhibit at the aquarium in which a simulated wave breaks above and around you while you stay dry:

On our trip to Pennsylvania way back in October, we caught the 2008 Franklin Applefest. This was the biggest arts & crafts fair I have experienced since the Midwestern holiday bazaars my mother participated in back in the 1980s, and now that I have holidays on the brain I really wish I had had the foresight to do more of my Christmas shopping there.

I would not recommend driving all the way to Franklin from the DC Metro area just for this festival, but if you have another reason to be in the area it is definitely worth stopping by.

We don’t have any fantabulous pictures from this adventure, but these two might begin to give you a sense of the crowds and the hold the fire trucks had on my four year old…

Tips for your visit

Here’s my advice for your visit next year:

• Strollers might be hard to navigate in the crowds.
• Take the first parking spot you see.
• Make sure everyone in your party has a cell phone because it is easy to get split up in the crowds.
• If you are not in the mood for fair style junk food or want to sit down somewhere to eat, some of the local churches sell lunches. If you choose to eat at St. John’s you can also get a tour of the famous Tiffany windows while you are there.

And my wishlist for the fair organizers: it would be great if you could include the vendor websites on your handouts or on your website…

Just rounding out my blog updates with a little nepotism… You can support my favorite photographer by purchasing one of his custom 2009 calendars as a gift for someone on your list this holiday season. Adam specializes in landscape photography and has captured The Rockies, The Pacific Northwest, Yosemite, and even some flowers for us this year. Enjoy! And tell him I send you…

We kicked off October with a trip to explore my Pennsylvania roots. In addition to quality family time with my really cool aunts, the kids experienced their first touristy weekend in Venango County.

Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad & Caboose Motel may not be worth the 6 hour drive from Northern Virginia on its own (unless you are really into trains), but if you are headed through the region anyway it is definitely a fun stop.

409 S. Perry Street
Titusville, PA (map it)
814–676-1733 (beware busy signals, they seem to have only one line!)

The kids’ favorite things about the train ride:

• seats that can be turned around depending on which direction the train is going.
• buying ice cream when the train stopped (not that we needed to drive all that way and buy $15 tickets for ice cream!)
• leaves flying off the open car (No throwing allowed! We just happened to be around when they escaped…)

My favorite parts:

• pondering the age of the cars
• enjoying the scenery

Tips for your visit

The brochure reminds you to dress for the weather, and it bears repeating. If you travel during the cooler months make sure to bundle up. The station is chilly, and although it was somewhat warmer in the indoor cars, the most fun can be had on the open air car in the back. Burrr!

If you want a healthy lunch pack your own. If not, they have lots of tasty treats in the front car.

Changing a diaper on those old train cars is even less fun than changing a diaper on an airplane without a changing table. Enough said.

We did not try out the motel, but it is definitely a fun idea for a unique family vacation.

We think we discovered paradise in Crested Butte, Colorado. Can you imagine taking your children to this playground every day?

Despite the allure of this seemingly utopian mountain resort town, we are happy to be home in Northern Virginia, and are almost ready to start inundating you with a series of posts about local places to take your kids. Stay tuned!

My family and I are preparing for the end of a ten year relationship with a well-loved station wagon. In replacing it we are saying goodbye to the vehicle that carried us through our twenties and are embracing a new type of family adventure vehicle for our thirties, which we hope will facilitate carpools, daycare field trips — 5 carseats (ack!) — and an evolved version of the road trips of past years.

Like many others out there, we are trying to do the impossible: minimize the price and fuel usage and maximize the passenger capacity and durability of the vehicle. We also want to make sure we have space inside for dogs and room on top for boats, skis and large pieces of furniture bought via craigslist. In a perfect world, maybe we could even find a way to not give up the all-wheel drive.… It goes without saying that we require a safe and dependable vehicle.

I googled and googled and couldn’t find a great online solution to appease our obsessive need to analyze and research without pressure from a salesperson. When I didn’t find what I wanted I went to the wise women of the local moms clubs and was given a list of useful websites. The one that seemed to be exactly what I could not find on my own was motherproof.com. It is an excellent resource for researching a mommy car that combines the raw numbers with readable narrative from actual moms.

I would still like to find a database or spreadsheet listing what carseat combinations fit in what vehicles.… if anyone knows of one I would appreciate a tip. Until I find one I would love to use the comments feature on this post to collect your impressive carseat combinations. Please include make, model, year, order of carseats, and any tips you have for fitting them in there.