Backroads & Byways of Minnesota highlights various driving itineraries, keeping to the aforementioned back roads of the state and avoiding the Interstate highways.  It’s arranged geographically, and each trip covers a two- to three-hour stretch of road if you drive it straight through.  Within each trip, however, Rea points out stopping points from which you can pick and choose to make the trip your own–restaurants, museums, points of interest, and places to stay.  Places are highlighted in the narrative of each chapter, which concludes with contact information about each location.

The true test of a Minnesota travel guide for me is to assess the coverage of areas I know best.  Backroads & Byways of Minnesota highlights my favorite in New Ulm and introduces me to a bird-watching museum in Henderson that my son would love.  It highlights the features of Fort Ridgely and Flandrau State Parks for the same reasons our family visits those places.  It takes readers down two of my favorite scenic byways in the state, Nicollet County Road 21 (aka the River Bottom Road) and Sibley County Road 6 from Carver to Henderson.  Rea has done a good job of uncovering the best things in my area.

The fun, then, is in reading about places in the state I haven’t yet been.  New on my list of places to go is Ely.  I’ve wanted to visit the Root Beer Lady’s museum for a while, but I didn’t know that Ely also has the International Wolf Center and the North American Bear Center.  Our family enjoys factory tours, so a stop in Roseau could result in tours of both Polaris and Marvin Windows.

Many of the shops and some of the restaurants and lodgings in the book will best enjoyed by adults traveling without children, but the author has also pointed out activities that are family-friendly, such as a bed-and-breakfast in train cars on the North Shore, or warnings about scenic overlooks which require caution when traveling with children.  While the book is not marketed as being just for families, parents will find plenty of kid-friendly ideas in its pages.

Just enough history is included in the text to give background information on the locales without sounding textbookish.

On the downside, there’s no index, so you’ll have to flip through the whole book if you remember reading about something interesting but can’t remember quite where it was located.  There are a few places I expected to read about that weren’t in the book–the lumberjack restaurant near Park Rapids, Ed’s Museum in Wyckoff–leaving room for Rea to write another book, or for me to turn back to the other books in my collection.

Backroads & Byways of Minnesota is an excellent resource for the next time you want to get away for a day or two, but don’t know where in Minnesota to go.  It will give you plenty of ideas for a nice drive and some interesting things to do along the way.  It’s earned a spot on my Minnesota bookshelf.

Note:  I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.  The author is also one of my twitter friends, and we had enough twitter conversations about Minnesota backroads things to do that I was mentioned in the acknowledgements of this book.  While these were pleasant surprises, my review is my honest opinion of the book.  I hope you’ll enjoy it, too.

When we hit the road, one of the things that keeps our kids happy is music to listen to.  Since we don’t have a DVD player in our car, some good music helps speed the trip along.

We’ve moved past Cedarmont Kids and Wee Sing, though they provided many hours of entertainment when our kids were younger.  These days we look for a good mix of CD’s to load into the player or new songs to put on the iPod.  Our collection had been getting kind of stale, so when the folks from the Hullabaloo band offered us a copy of their new “Road Trip” CD to try, I was game.  We tested it out on the way to Sioux Falls, and at first I wasn’t sure the kids really liked it.  My husband and I were fine with it, though, with a nice country feel that is somewhat reminiscent of Johnny Cash, we got the humor of “Flying Towards the Light” and found that the music was pleasantly non-annoying, as some child-oriented songs can be.

On the way home, we had other music on, and I still wasn’t sure how successful our trial had been with the kids, until several weeks later when we were heading out on the road again.  They asked for Road Trip by name.  This time, they caught on to the songs and started singing along and requested that we play through the CD twice before moving on to something else.

Now it’s part of our CD-changer rotation (along with Kyle Dine‘s allergy songs, which you really should check out if you have kids with food allergies).  And not only that–it’s become part of the kids’ impromptu concert repertoire.  “Going on an R-O-A-D-T-R-I-P” can often be heard when we jump in the car, and they’re getting very good at adding new and creative verses to “I’m Hungry.”

All in all, it wasn’t an instant hit, but it’s certainly grown on our family, and it’s a now a familiar part of our road trip music.

We’re hitting the road again soon, and Hullabaloo’s Road Trip will be going with us once again.

Families looking for fun outings in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have a new resource available to them.  Dad’s Eye View: 52 Family Adventures in the Twin Cities, by Michael Hartford, is now available from the Minnesota Historical Society Press, and it offers activity suggestions for families, at a rate of one per week.

Included in each two-page spread is a description of the location or activity, price estimate, quick tips, and location of the nearest restrooms.  Many pages include photos taken with vintage cameras, a hobby of Hartford’s.

For the most part, these are not day trips, but two- to three-hour outings that are family friendly.  The Como Park area, for example, which could be a full day’s worth of activity, is broken into the zoo, Comotown, and conservatory as three of the 52 entries, and then suggestions are given for “making a day of it.”  The book ranges from the obvious (Minnesota Zoo, Mill City Museum) to the more obscure (Hmongtown Marketplace, Lock and Dam No. 1).  I’ve always wondered if I could take my kids to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting, and after reading Hartford’s entry about it, I know the answer.  I love that libraries are included as fun places to visit.

The book is arranged by season, as some of the activities are time-sensitive, such as festivals that are held annually, seasonal activities such as outdoor swimming, or water towers that are only open to the public once per year.  (And, speaking of water towers, Hartford likes climbing these with his kids, as three are included in the book.)  I like the map that is included at the front of the book to show where each of the sites is located.

Our family has been to half of the places Hartford included in Dad’s Eye View, and I agree with his assessments of the ones we’ve visited, leading me to add the rest of his sites to our to-do list as good family options.  The book is about the size of a thin toddler’s board book, making it easy to keep in a glove compartment or backpack for easy reference while on the go.  It’s quick to read it from cover to cover, yet the arrangement of the content and index make it useful as a reference as well.

A unique feature of the book is its free companion iPhone app, which includes all of the information from the book, along with the ability to check in and rate the sites.  Those who have an iPhone or iPod Touch may wish to forego the book and download the app instead unless they like the idea of paging through a physical book.  For those who can’t use the app, however, the $15.95 cover price may be worth it for the memories created by going to some new places as a family.

Parents looking for family fun may also wish to follow the Dad’s Eye View Facebook page for additional ideas.

Overall, I find Dad’s Eye View to be useful for some new family fun ideas in the Twin Cities.  The blurbs in the book are short but informational, and it includes a variety of activities that families will find helpful the next time they think, “What family fun can we find today?”

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the Minnesota Historical Society Press.  All opinions are my own.

My husband and I have been on two cruises, one on Carnival Liberty to the Western Caribbean and eastern Mexico, and the other on Carnival Splendor to the Mexican Riviera.  We enjoyed these cruises as a couple, but wondered what it would be like to cruise with our family.  For our family vacation this coming winter, a cruise is something we seriously considered, so when I was offered a review copy of Cruising with Kids: A Guide to the Perfect Family Cruise Vacation, I jumped at the chance.  I hoped that I’d get some advice on what it’s like to cruise with kids in order to help us make a good decision.

What I did not expect was just how good this guide would be.  It isn’t just a book saying, “This is why we cruise with our kids and what we like about it, and by the way, here are a few tips.”  This is an excellent reference book for anyone who’s planning a cruise, especially if they’re taking their kids.  The author, Randy Poisson, has done his research and has specific information and examples to back up his ratings and recommendations.

Separated into sections that include everything from planning for a cruise to disembarking the ship, the book outlines the major cruise lines that make up the bulk of the U.S. cruise industry, and rates the lines on their family-friendliness.  Ratings are based on items such as cabin size, children’s programs, food, amenities, and more.  Cruising with Kids doesn’t just lump “kids” into one category; you’ll find reasons why one cruise line is great for infants and toddlers while another may be better for tweens and teens.  It also discusses ports of call and excursions that are best for families.

Perhaps my favorite part of the book was the information contained in charts regarding each ship in the major cruise lines.  When I was looking at cruise options for our family of six, it was difficult to find ships that had family staterooms or even connecting staterooms that would fit us.  The charts in this book are a quick reference for those who need to fit six or more in a cabin, like waterslides or ziplines, want a special program area for tweens, or are looking for special adults-only areas on board.

While I’m by no means an expert on cruises, I found that the author’s opinions about the ships and ports I’m familiar with were in line with my experiences, leading me to believe his assessments of other cruise lines, ships, and ports would be exceptionally helpful to me in planning future cruises.

The information in the book is very current, including events such as the Splendor fire and eventual recovery that occurred just a few months ago.  I hope that updated editions will be offered frequently, as changes occur quickly in the cruise industry.

I urge anyone who’s planning a cruise with children to pick up a copy of this book.  It will save you time in planning your cruise as it compiles information you’d otherwise have to scour several sites for.  While the book will be particularly helpful for first-time family cruisers, those who have cruised before will also find new information that may open up some new cruise ideas for them.

I was truly impressed with this book — it covers many aspects and angles of cruising with families in its 473 pages and is a useful addition to my travel guide collection.

To learn more about the book, visit the Cruising with Kids website.

Not that this is a bad thing.  It just wasn’t what I’d expected.  The book’s introduction explains, however, that this is quite intentional.  There are many State Park guidebooks available, but nothing quite like this, with its photos and stories rather than statistics and maps.

The chapters of the book are thematic, focusing on parks known for their waterfalls, for example, or rock climbing.  The tales told in the main text describe our state parks and their many uses in general terms, to go along with the photographs of parks from around the state.  Readers learn about a couple who have found geocaches in all 66 state parks.  They read about the few moments each January when photographers line up in an attempt to capture the full moon over Split Rock Lighthouse.  And they become familiar with the bison herd at Blue Mounds State Park in southwestern Minnesota.

Although the book claims not to be a guidebook, I found many useful pieces of information in its sidebars.  I loved reading the history of the parks’ names, learning which parks have waterfalls, and the difference between cart-in and pack-in campsites.  These straightforward lessons are not only interesting, but something I’ll refer to again.

As a family who’s recently begun camping in Minnesota’s state parks, we’re learning which parks we want to visit, and this book brought several new parks to my attention as places I want to visit.

While it’s not a guidebook that you’ll likely throw in your backpack for your next camping trip, Prairie, Lake, Forest may well find a place on your bookshelf until you pull it off midwinter to relive the summer memories from your time in Minnesota’s state parks.

Now that I’ve read it, the biggest question is this:  With so many choices, which park should we go to next?

Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota’s State Parks:  Photography by Doug Ohman; text by Chris Niskanen.  Published by Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010.

I was provided with a review copy of this book, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

I’ve been wanting to attend I_Blog since it was announced, but I’ve been Favreing on it all along.  I’m going.  No, I’m not.  Yes, I can make it.  No, maybe not.  But everything has aligned and I’m on my way, and Creative Memories has helped to make it happen.

What is I_Blog, you may ask?  It’s a two-day blogging conference in Perry, Iowa, near Des Moines.  Many blogging conferences are either huge and/or far away, so it’s going to be nice to attend something (relatively) close to home and on a smaller scale.  Jody of Iowa Geek and Have Kid Will Travel has put together a nice line-up of speakers; I’m especially interested in the tax expert who will talking about how to report blogging income and freebies when it comes to tax time.  There will be time to relax at the conference home, the historic boutique Hotel Pattee in Perry.  Creative Memories is sponsoring a pizza and scrapping party, which includes a free copy of their new Storybook Creator 3.0 digital scrapbooking software.  I’m looking forward to learning, connecting, and having fun with other midwestern bloggers.

As part of my sponsorship, I’ll be writing a few posts about Creative Memories and its products, which I’ve been using since 1998.

Would you like to attend I_Blog?  You can register until November 1.  Hope to see you there!

In the past, I’ve used Windows Movie Maker because 1) it’s free and 2) it’s what I have on my computer.

This is a video I did of the threshing demonstration at Farmamerica’s Fall Festival, done in Windows Movie Maker.

This is a video of the same day, done in Muvee Reveal.

Then I made a few quick changes in Muvee Reveal (style and music–took less than 5 minutes) and it’s quite a different film:

Do you prefer the finished product of one over the other?  Keep in mind that the video quality isn’t terrific; I took the video using my super-small Canon SD1000 digital camera.  I estimate that I spent about the same amount of time on each.  Windows Movie Maker allows some stopping/starting of clips that you can’t do in Muvee Reveal, but I found it just as easy to split the Muvee Reveal clips apart and delete the parts I didn’t want.

Muvee Reveal is definitely easy to use; you just import the photos and videos that you want to use, tweak a few settings, add some music if you wish, and it will create a video that matches the music in length and tempo.  If your clips are too long for the song(s), it merely picks out portions of each clip or drops out some.  At first I was frustrated by this, but after playing for a few minutes, I figured out how to highlight the areas that I definitely wanted used, or to delete the frames I didn’t like.

I tend to like the basic styles, but there are fun and crazy styles that can be used as well, and if there aren’t enough in the basic software, you can purchase additional styles online.

I like the ease-of-use of the Muvee Reveal software, and how it mixes the photos with the videos to show the entire experience, without me worrying so much if I’ve taken video footage or still photos.

Windows Movie Maker, however, seems to allow more flexibility for captioning, including putting captions between frames, and more options for credits and titles.

I’m sure it’s possible to add background music in WMM, but I didn’t look into how to do it.  Muvee Reveal makes it very easy, so once I found some royalty-free music to use, I’ll use background music with most of my videos.  Is it a good addition, or does it detract from the video?

Thinking that I wanted to do more with videography, I purchased a JVC camcorder and quickly learned that neither Windows Movie Maker nor Muvee Reveal would read the .mod format.  There are format translators available, but I’m just not excited enough about video to go through a lot of steps for it.  My little Flip records in a .mp4 format and Muvee Reveal can read that, although Windows Movie Maker cannot.

The program has shut down on me suddenly a few times and I’ve yet to find a pattern for that, so I need to remember to save often.  On the other hand, it’s not a big memory hog and I can have it running with several other programs on my mediocre computer.  (I downloaded a trial of a Corel movie editor and it overwhelmed my resources.) It also takes quite a while to save the finished product to your computer, so be sure you save time for that before promising you’ll have it on YouTube in three minutes.

For a novice who wants to do basic video editing and come up with a quick finished product, Muvee Reveal is a good solution. While it doesn’t pack the punch of more sophisticated video-editing software, it is easy to use and produces a nice “muvee.”

I own a lot of travel books, but most of them I use as references when we’re looking for a new place to visit. It’s rare that I buy a book and then read it from cover to cover. However, when I heard WCCO Radio’s Eric Eskola promote a new book by his wife, Cathy Wurzer, and it sounded like something I would really enjoy. I treated myself and ordered it that very day.

What a delightful book! Tales of the Road: Highway 61 is part history lesson, part travel guide. In short, 1-2 page segments accompanied by photos old and new, it describes landmarks, businesses, and ghost towns along Highway 61, which runs along Minnesota’s entire eastern border. Some of these sites remain, and others are long gone.

I was saddened that I had missed seeing Two Harbors High School overlooking the town by only a few months. I was disappointed that I hadn’t had the book before my recent drive up the North Shore, because there were things along the way that I missed. I learned more about places I’ve visited, like Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse. And I added a lot of new entries to my “places to see” list.

Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, this book is a delight from start to finish, providing a glimpse into Minnesota’s past along one of its earliest and most important roads.

Factory tours are often fun, interesting, and educational, and they’re something we enjoy doing when possible. Tracking down available tours, however, can be a challenge. There are a few websites that list tours by state, and I’ve used that information in the past.

Recently, though, I came across a book called Watch It Made in the U.S.A.: A Visitor’s Guide to the Best Factory Tours and Company Museums by Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg. This book is a comprehensive listing of factory tours around the U.S. Each operation gets a full page and includes a description of the company and its tour, plus contact information, cost, freebies, hours, reservation requirements, and more. The “minimum age” listing is particularly helpful if you’re traveling with children.

Nearby attractions are also listed, and if they are included in the book, page numbers are referenced.

The book is organized geographically, with tabbed sections “Great Lakes,” “South,” “Heartland,” etc. I find navigation to be difficult at times, although the table of contents lists the states in each section and the beginning of the sections shows a map of all the tours in that area. The index lists companies alphabetically and by type of product.

The entries are written in language interesting enough that my five-year-old asked for some pages as bedtime reading. We’re looking forward to three or four tours from this book on an upcoming trip, and found some closer to home that we didn’t know about before. It was even interesting to read about places we’ve already been, such as Jelly Belly and the Spam Museum. Watch It Made in the USA is well worth the price if you enjoy company tours and want a comprehensive guide at your fingertips.

I’m happy that my children have had more and varied zoo experiences. From Chicago to Columbus, from St. Paul to Sioux Falls, and from Apple Valley to Winnipeg, we’ve taken them to several zoos.

We know the kids always enjoy the zoos, and when we’re vacationing, a zoo is a nice change from museums or amusement parks, but my husband and I always had the same thought in the backs of our minds: Aren’t zoos pretty much all the same?

America’s Best Zoos: A Travel Guide dispels this myth. With detailed entries about 60 zoos in the U.S., and “best of the rest” mentions of another 39, this isn’t just a zoo directory. The authors have a lifetime of zoo experience, and personally visited all of the zoos in this book. Because of this, they have been able to list specifics about each of the zoos highlighted in the book, including don’t-miss exhibits and animals that you won’t find in many other places.

In addition, they point out various animals and the best places to see them. I’ve noticed that Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo tops several of the lists, and thus I have added it to our list of things to see if in Omaha. (Those of you who read my Travels with Children blog can guess that a trip to Omaha would not be out of the question.)

While the bulk of the book will likely be used as a reference, arranged geographically so it can coincide with travel plans, the beginning pages are helpful in outlining the history of American zoos as well as their purpose and tips for visiting. This introduction to zoos is concise yet complete in telling the story of zoos in the U.S.

America’s Best Zoos is subtitled “A Travel Guide for Fans and Families” and families are indeed included. Each zoo entry includes specifics about things kids will enjoy, and the introduction contains many tips especially for visits with children.

With a list price of $15.95, this book deserves a place on bookshelves of traveling families. I’ll be using it to help plan our future trips so that when we visit zoos along our journeys, we’ll find the best of the best.

Disclosure: I was provided a review copy of this book at no charge by the publisher, The Intrepid Traveler.

Then, a few weeks ago, I received an e-mail about a fabMap contest, in which the prize is a scooter or a $500 gift card. (They also generously offered to send me one to try out.) I requested the Minneapolis-St. Paul fabMap, and it arrived a few days later.

So, what is a fabMap? It’s a map made from microfiber fabric. The fabMap folks claim it’s soft enough to clean your glasses with. The map is about 8×10 inches, double-sided (two layers stitched together), and printed with surprisingly good detail.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul map included downtown Minneapolis, downtown St. Paul, and the Mall of America. Streets are shown, as well as attractions in the area. I was disappointed that the St. Paul map didn’t go north far enough to include the State Capitol. The Mall of America map had listings for some things I didn’t realize existed. (I need to double-check them to see what I’ve been missing.)

I handed the fabMap to each of my kids and asked them what it was. At first they were confused, but once they caught on, they thought it was pretty neat. So neat, in fact, that my fabMap is currently missing. I suspect it’s in my second-grader’s backpack.

I can see using fabMaps when in an unfamiliar city; instead of having to spread out a big map, you can just pull the fabMap out of a pocket or purse to get your bearings. I’m also considering getting them for my kids on our upcoming trip to Philadelphia; they have a hard time re-folding maps so this would be more convenient.

Rand McNally could improve on a few things: 1) give a better description of the maps on their website so consumers know what they’re getting. The fabMap for Columbus, Ohio, says it’s for OSU and “Short North.” As a visitor, I don’t know what areas that will include. 2) Include more cities/areas. Currently Chicago and San Francisco have two maps each, but the other cities only have one segment represented. It’s a good start, but I hope it expands in the future.

Rand McNally Fabmap / San Francisco / Golden Gate Park / The Haight / California

Rand McNally San Francisco/ Fisherman’s Wharf/ Chinatown Fabric Map

Rand McNally FabMap Washington, D.C. Georgetown

Rand McNally Fabmap Downtown Chicago Illinois

Rand McNally Fabmap / Key West, Florida

Rand McNally Fab Map New Orleans and the French Quarter & Garden District

Rand McNally Fab Map Denver, Colorado: Featuring the 16th Street Mall

Rand McNally fabMap Philadelphia

Rand McNally Fab Map Austin and the University of Texas (Rand McNally fabMap Austin and the University of Texas)

Rand McNally Fab Map San Diego, California: Balboa Park to the Gaslamp Quarter

Rand McNally FabMap Branson, Missouri

Rand McNally FabMap: Ohio State University and the Short North

Rand McNally FabMap Santa Fe, New Mexico

Kids love the antics of the two teenage character/narrators, but it’s not all fun and games. After watching this movie, my kids can tell me all about caves, gristmills, and landmarks around the country. They’re also begging to go to places like the “four corners” after learning about it on TripFlix.

The segments are organized geographically, and at the end of each segment is a trivia quiz about that area.

Want to see for yourself? Watch this Tripflix clip:

Find more videos like this on TripFLIX

We’ve enjoyed the TripFlix video for several months, and are hoping a sequel is produced with even more places to see in the U.S.

I recently became aware of a website called Dealbase, which attempts to search out deals and let you know if they’re really money-savers. “Hotel Deals, Hotel Discounts, Hotel Packages–We scour the web for the best hotel deals, packages and special offers and help you determine the good deals from the bad” is what the website claims.

My first test of the site was to see if it would come up with better prices that those we had paid on our recent vacation, so I began by entering the city of our longest stay, Audubon, PA. Nothing was returned in the results, so I went to the bottom of the page and browsed for the Philadelphia area to see if our hotel, Homewood Suites Valley Forge, would show up.

There were two pages of entries for Philadelphia, and I soon learned that I was taking the wrong tack with the site. This isn’t like the sites that find you a great rate. Instead, it analyzes hotel packages to see if they’re really a good deal.

Armed with this insight, I gave it a second try. In a few weeks, I need to find a stay-and-park package in Minneapolis. Browsing through the five pages of Minneapolis-area entries, I found two that looked promising.

The first was the Country Inn and Suites-Mall of America. Dealbase spelled out the deal with its deal analyzer, beginning with the room rate (found via hotels.com and the same as the hotel website’s AAA rate), and adding the value of the free parking, grab-n-go breakfast, and airport shuttle. Their bottom line: the deal saves the traveler $42/night.

The math didn’t quite add up for me, though, nor did the deal say if a stay on either end of the flight was required or if one night’s stay would secure the deal. By my calculations, the quoted savings of $35/night of parking for seven nights would more than cover the “deal” cost of $189/night. I set the math problem aside and continued on to the Country Inns website to see if I could find the deal there.

At first I couldn’t find it; I had entered AAA for the rate type and only basic rooms showed up. When I went back and looked at all the rates, though, the package was there, for either a 2-queen room or a 2-room, 1-king, suite. The price of $139 matched Dealbase’s listed price.

The nearby Radisson’s package was similar, but allowed for up to 14 nights of parking. Here, though, Dealbase listed the package at “$189/nt and up”, but the hotel’s website put it at $159. This time, Dealbase calculates the parking savings at $112 for an unspecified period of time and shows the package savings at $12.

Cancellation policies were laid out on the hotels’ individual websites, but not on the package pages at Dealbase.

Next, I tried to see if I could do better since I knew there were other hotels in the area that offer such packages. A quick Google search took me to ParkSleepFly.com where a lot more hotel options were listed. For the Country Inn, ParkSleepFly returned a rate of $149 plus a $5 “transaction fee.”

Deciding to give it a try, I clicked through to book from Dealbase, where I was taken to a page that said the promotion had expired.

I fared better with the Radisson, which took me directly to the Radisson site to book the deal, at the rate of $159.

I like the fact that booking through Dealbase goes directly to hotel sites rather than third-party sites; it is just a preference of mine to deal with the hotels directly.

What I like about Dealbase:

• The variety of packages available, featuring several hotel chains in a metropolitan area., rather than having to search hotels individually.
• The setup of the site in laying out the math and savings on the “deals” (even though the parking math didn’t always come out right; something with museum passes or shopping coupons likely would fare better)
• The fact that reservations are made directly with hotels.

What I didn’t like:

• Navigation–The metro areas are buried at the bottom of the page or on a long “destination deals” page; the bottom of the home page lists general metro areas but the destination pages list more specific cities; it’s hard to move from one to the other or narrow the location of a metro area.
• Tags–I couldn’t search for “Minneapolis” along with a tag to narrow my search. Tags are inconsistent–one listed “free parking,” another “free airport parking.”
• Search feature returned “no deals found” for Bloomington, MN.
• Incompleteness–for the package I was looking for, only a small portion of hotels were included.
• Prices–Some of the “deals” I browsed cost thousands of dollars a night. I hardly consider that a money-saving effort.

Will I use Dealbase again? It’s likely, especially if I’m considering some attractions in addition to a hotel stay. Our family of six may complicate things, as it usually does when booking a room, but this is a good starting point in locating fun-and-stay combinations.

I finally logged on to Netflix with the intention of canceling the account; $8.95 a month isn’t a bad price, but if it’s not being used, it’s money wasted. I started poking around the site, thinking there had to be a way that we could use the account more. The “watch instantly” program seemed like the key, so we could sit down when we finally got a free evening, and watch what suited our fancy at that time. Still, watching on a computer just wasn’t going to work.

While looking at options on Netflix, I came across the Roku Netflix Player, which connects to a wired or wireless network and plays instant movies from your queue. At $100 with no monthly fee, it sounded like something to try. If it worked, it would allow us to make better use of our Netflix account; if it didn’t, we’d take advantage of the 30-day return policy and send it back. My biggest concern was that we wouldn’t get a good signal; a computer near the TV requires an extra antenna to receive a decent wireless Internet signal.

The box arrived, and I was surprised at how small it was–about the size of three DVD cases stacked on top of each other. It was easy to hook up to the TV, and simple to set up via its small remote. The biggest dilemma was choosing which type of connection I wanted to use, as it supports HDMI, S-video, component video, and more.

In order to watch a movie, you have to first create a film queue on Netflix using a computer. The player simply pulls up this queue, and you can cycle through the movies and choose the one you want. Netflix remembers how much you’ve watched, so you can pick up where you left off using the Roku player or another computer.

Buffering takes only a few seconds to start the movie, and rarely it will take a few seconds midstream to buffer again. We are on a very basic DSL connection and the box sits on top of the computer that requires the antenna for signal strength. There is no place to connect an antenna to the Roku box, but we haven’t needed it. Our movie quality and speed have been fine from the little box, even though our wireless router is several rooms away.

If I’m working on my computer while the kids are watching a movie, I notice a definite slowdown in my Internet speed, but using the Internet doesn’t seem to affect playback quality.

The remote is simple to use; my kids are already pros at finding movies they want to watch. There are currently about 12,000 Netflix movies available to watch instantly; they range from new movies to older releases to TV shows. In addition, the functionality has recently been added to view rental movies from Amazon.com Video on Demand, so if we can’t find what we want on Netflix, we can pay a few dollars to watch something from that route. The software update was done automatically when that function was added, and it’s now just another option on our menu.

We’ve had the Roku player for about a month, and already we’ve made better use of our Netflix membership than we did in the previous year. The Roku Netflix Player isn’t big or fancy, but it does its job, and it does it well.

Update:  Roku has since added Amazon videos on demand.  For a rental fee, usually $3-$5, we can now watch new-release movies on the Roku.  Hi-def rentals look great on our HDTV using our DSL connection.  We use the Roku player frequently.

The kids wanted to open the package and play it right after breakfast. I had a headache and hadn’t eaten yet, so I wasn’t overjoyed with their timing. The game instructions were just a little too complicated for them to figure out on their own, so I sat down to play a few rounds.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

I did realize that I needed to read the instructions from start to finish. (I’m a reading/visual learner, so this is typical.) The instructions are clear, though, and it’s easy to find the answers to questions that come up during the game, like “Do I need to start on Home?” or “Is a rock counted as a space when moving?”

Then we got started: one mom and four kids, ages 8, 6, 5, and 3. It didn’t take long to catch on. Like any game of Hide & Seek, there’s an “It” and some hiders. When the hiders are “found,” by roll of a special die, It begins to chase them around the board. I first thought it would be impossible for It to chase us all around the board, but there are enough special spots, determined by roll of the die, that could put It right next to you or suddenly safely far away, that it keeps the game exciting.

The game is listed for ages 6 and up, but my 5-year-old had no problem with it, and my 3-year-old caught on quickly and could play on her own with help from the other kids. There’s nothing to read and there are numbers, not dots, on the die, so little ones can easily do the counting involved in the game.

There are eight, yes eight, game tokens, so large groups of kids or bigger families can all play together with no one being left out. This is a refreshing change from the many games on the market that are for 2-4 players.

There are two options for play included in the instructions; one is a series of quick rounds and the other creates “It” helpers and involves keeping track of points on the included score pad. I like that the rounds go quickly, so young kids can play a game or two without becoming bored halfway through. (It would also be easy to add an extra player midway through the game; it would be as if that person hadn’t “come out of hiding” yet. It always seems that someone wants to join the game after they see how much fun the others are having!)

This next point will be important to any family with a shelf full of games with taped-up boxes: The box is thick and sturdy and will be much more difficult to destruct than most game boxes are. It’s such a little thing but it really impressed me.

On the con side, I don’t have much. I wish there were a little more contrast between the green colors for the playing spaces and especially the clovers. These old eyes had a little trouble finding the clovers at first. I know it’s nitpicky, but it’s really the only downside I found.

This is a brand-new game, and is available directly from LemonTree Games as well as a growing list of retailers. (Retailer information can be found on the website.) If you’re looking for some new family-game-night fun, I recommend Hide & Seek.

Update: After two weeks, the kids are still pulling the games out and playing. Sometimes they ask me to play with them, but often they just play on their own. Because there aren’t a ton of pieces involved, it’s also easy to get them to clean up afterwards.

Note: I was provided a review copy of this game by LemonTree Games at no cost to me.

Unknowingly, my apartment in Cedar Rapids was a mere block from the Lincoln Highway route, and the road I took to the grocery store, to church, downtown, and even the mall on the other side of town was the Lincoln Highway.

At that time, the restoration of Youngville Station was merely a dream.

This winter, our family traveled to Pennsylvania, and part of the thrill of that trip was driving on the Old National Road in Ohio and on the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania. I love old roads; even while driving closer to home, I try to veer off the main road onto the county roads that still go through the towns instead of around them.

Before our Pennsylvania trip, I had purchased Brian Butko‘s Greetings from the Lincoln Highway and obtained information from the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in Pennsylvania so we could be as prepared as possible for our trip.

This summer, I’m hoping to drive the Lincoln Highway in Iowa from end to end, and so it was that I became interested in Brian Butko’s Lincoln Highway Companion: A Guide to America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road.

Whereas the Greetings book is coffee-table sized and details the history and past landmarks of the Lincoln Highway, the Companion book is small, the size of a vehicle owners’ manual, and will easily fit in a car’s glove box. The Companion’s contents include maps of the original routes and their present-day alternatives, as well as current places to stay and eat and things to do along the way.

The book includes brief information about the history of the road and photos of some landmarks that are now gone, but its primary purpose is to showcase the places that drivers of the old road should be sure to take in. Whether recommended by the author or by local Lincoln Highway enthusiasts, the Lincoln Highway Companion will tell you where to get a good piece of pie or find a unique place to rest for the night.

By reading the Lincoln Highway Companion, I learned of all the landmarks that I drove past in my former travels, and when we revisit the Lincoln Highway with this guidebook in hand, we’ll know where to stop.

People driving across part or all of the United States via the old Lincoln Highway will certainly want to have this book along for the trip.

Note: Thanks to Stackpole Books, publisher of the Lincoln Highway Companion, for providing a copy of this book for me to review.

Even though I’m comfortable traveling with my children, when I was given the opportunity to receive a review copy of Wanderlust and Lipstick‘s Traveling with Kids, I jumped at the chance. Perhaps I was a little smug, wondering what I could possibly learn that was new (and hoping that I would indeed gain new tips and insight).

I found the book to be well-organized into sections about various parts of traveling with children: preparation, planning, flying with kids, staying healthy, and so on. Within each section, the authors offered their expertise, but also included anecdotes and tips from other real-life traveling parents. (I was surprised to see one of my own tips listed, as I had forgotten I’d submitted it months earlier.)

The other thing I particularly liked about this book was its extensive referencing of websites and other resources. Not only were they mentioned in the text of the book itself, but also in an appendix for ready reference. From Travelocity to the Association of Children’s Museums, the website references are why I will be keeping this book handy as I plan our future travels.

As I read the book, I found my self nodding in agreement at times, and saying “why didn’t I think of that” at others. Written traveling moms Leslie Forsberg and Michelle Duffy, Traveling with Kids will be a useful resource for families traveling around the world or within their home state.

Note: I was provided with a review copy of this book.

Wheels on the Bus

Have you ever needed a 5-minute diversion for a toddler in a doctor’s office, restaurant, or grocery line? Have you found yourself without crayons or toys just when you needed them most? Have you wished that you had something in your purse or pocket that would keep your child entertained for a few minutes when “I Spy” and the alphabet game have failed you?

If you happen to have an iPhone or iPod Touch, there’s an application you might like for just those moments. Wheels on the Bus is an interactive kid-friendly app available through the iTunes App Store.

It’s simple enough: It plays “Wheels on the Bus” in several languages (or your own voice, if you’re brave enough for that), and with each verse, there’s a brightly-colored picture that kids can tap or slide to make things happen.

The pictures are bright and clear, and the variety of languages and instruments for the song can break up the monotony if your five minutes turn into ten or twenty.

At $2.99, it’s a pretty cheap piece of insurance; all you need is to have your iPhone or iPod Touch available and you’ll be set.

The biggest problem for me was having two or more kids trying to play it at the same time; this is definitely best-suited to individual child-parent time. My six-year-old enjoyed it as much as my three-year-old.

Wheels on the Bus is found in the “Education” section of the iTunes Apps Store; you can find more information about it at DuckDuckMoose.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this program to evaluate for review.

One is of Brian Butko’s Lincoln Highway Companion, which is a gloveb0x-sized book that will guide you to the best stops along the Lincoln Highway from west to east.

The other is of Wanderlust and Lipstick’s Traveling with Kids, an excellent guide to planning and executing a trip with children, whether it’s close by or across the world.

Head over to check them out!

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I own a lot of travel books, but most of them I use as references when we’re looking for a new place to visit.  It’s rare that I buy a book and then read it from cover to cover.  A few weeks ago, however, I head WCCO Radio’s Eric Eskola promote a new book by his wife, Cathy Wurzer, and it sounded like something I would really enjoy.  I treated myself and ordered it that very day.

What a delightful book!  Tales of the Road: Highway 61 is part history lesson, part travel guide.  In short, 1-2 page segments accompanied by photos old and new, it describes landmarks, businesses, and ghost towns along Highway 61, which runs along Minnesota’s entire eastern border.  Some of these sites remain, and others are long gone.

I was saddened that I had missed seeing Two Harbors High School overlooking the town by only a few months.  I was disappointed that I hadn’t had the book before my recent drive up the North Shore, because there were things along the way that I missed.  I learned more about places I’ve visited, like Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse.  And I added a lot of new entries to my “places to see” list.

Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, this book is a delight from start to finish, providing a glimpse into Minnesota’s past along one of its earliest and most important roads.