vacation w/ Kids

My boys are seasoned Mooney travelers. This year I'm considering adding
a trip to either Victoria Island or Catalina Island. My boys are 9 and
10 so I'm not sure if either of these could actually be made
interesting. We've done so many trips, I'm having a harder time trying
new things. Last summer we went to Vancouver and the boys had a great
time canoeing and seeing the sites. Last March we went down to Mexico
again and got to pet baby grey whales. Last week we went to D.C. to see
the capitol. Would Victoria or Catalina Island offer anything
interesting to boys of this age?

-Robert

I agree but I've done Santa Barbera (my brother graduated from UCSB a
few years ago) with the kids several times as well as San Diego and
Long Beach. Two summers ago I Priceline'd a hotel in Long Beach and
ended up staying at the nice hotel right next to the Queen Mary (on the
"island" side of the ship) for only $60/night (regular was around
$200/night). Our room looked out across the little bit of water at the
city. So we were able to walk to the Queen Mary. That was actually a
last minute trip because we were in Tucson and scheduled to visit
Albuquerque and that fell through so we thought we'd see Long Beach. I
actually picked up some unexpected ice on the descent into Long Beach
in the middle of summer. It melted off coming through 10,000 though.

A couple months ago I stayed in Oceanside. In the morning the fuel
pumps were broken (one of the reasons I'd stopped there was because of
the great fuel price). Since I only had an hour of fuel I jumped over
to Carlsbad. The only fuel is from the truck. I bought 60 gallons at
$4.00/gal. I didn't even look at the credit card receipt until I got
back. That is some expensive gas.

-Robert

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
My boys are seasoned Mooney travelers. This year I'm considering adding
a trip to either Victoria Island or Catalina Island.

Is it possible that you mean Vancouver Island? Canada has a Victoria
Island, but it's a long way away (Artic Archipelago) and may not be the best
place to take your children. California has a Victoria Island, but it's a
little chunk of land in a river near Sacramento; not much in the way of
tourism there.

If you mean Vancouver Island, then sure...there's lots of stuff to do there.
Victoria (the large city on the southeast end of the island) is smaller than
Vancouver, BC but has a wide variety of tourist interest stuff. Lots of
marine activities, nature, government (BC's capital), and the usual general
urban things. The rest of the island is more rural, but surely there's no
shortage of activities. Worst comes to worse, you're an easy flight or
ferry to activities elsewhere.

Pete

You assign high expectations to your sons, causing you unwarranted angst!
Have them fly commercial and rekindle their appreciation for the privilege
of having a Super Dad with your skills. They should be thrilled just
getting into the plane and going anywhere without being treated like
criminal/cattle on an ..."air-bus"... with cloth seats laden with the
lingering odor of a thousand sweaty-smelly butts having been sat in them,
attended by angry dowager amazons, whilst sitting next to snoring fat people
that haven't bathed in a fortnight. Then perhaps they might say: thanks
poppie, anywhere is fine with us!!


"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
My boys are seasoned Mooney travelers. This year I'm considering adding
a trip to either Victoria Island or Catalina Island. My boys are 9 and
10 so I'm not sure if either of these could actually be made
interesting. We've done so many trips, I'm having a harder time trying
new things. Last summer we went to Vancouver and the boys had a great
time canoeing and seeing the sites. Last March we went down to Mexico
again and got to pet baby grey whales. Last week we went to D.C. to see
the capitol. Would Victoria or Catalina Island offer anything
interesting to boys of this age?

-Robert

The Victoria airport is about 20 miles from the city, so once you land you
will have to either rent a car or use something like Gray Line buses. The
downtown area is located on the Inner Harbor, with plenty of motel rooms
within walking distance. I defer to the Victoria website for details. Ten
miles or so north of the city (but not directly toward the airport) is
Butchart Gardens, which is well worth a visit at any age. Long time since I
was 9 or 10, so it's hard to remember what was important back then. The
flight up, over the San Juans, is priceless...you might even consider
stopping at Friday Harbor.

Catalina pretty much requires signing up for a tour. Much of the island is
controlled by the Wrigley estate, and some roads are not open to casual
traffic. There are buffalo to be seen (from the tours) and another beautiful
harbor. The airport is miles away from anything.

My choice would be Victoria, for the number of great side-trips that would
become available.

Bob Gardner

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
My boys are seasoned Mooney travelers. This year I'm considering adding
a trip to either Victoria Island or Catalina Island. My boys are 9 and
10 so I'm not sure if either of these could actually be made
interesting. We've done so many trips, I'm having a harder time trying
new things. Last summer we went to Vancouver and the boys had a great
time canoeing and seeing the sites. Last March we went down to Mexico
again and got to pet baby grey whales. Last week we went to D.C. to see
the capitol. Would Victoria or Catalina Island offer anything
interesting to boys of this age?

-Robert

Snorkeling at the marine sanctuary is pretty good a Catalina. They will
need wetsuits.

Mike
MU-2

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
My boys are seasoned Mooney travelers. This year I'm considering adding
a trip to either Victoria Island or Catalina Island. My boys are 9 and
10 so I'm not sure if either of these could actually be made
interesting. We've done so many trips, I'm having a harder time trying
new things. Last summer we went to Vancouver and the boys had a great
time canoeing and seeing the sites. Last March we went down to Mexico
again and got to pet baby grey whales. Last week we went to D.C. to see
the capitol. Would Victoria or Catalina Island offer anything
interesting to boys of this age?

-Robert

That sounds interesting! Is the water really clear? Who would I contact
for more information? Do you have to pre-register? I would **LOVE** to
take the kids to do something like this. They are really into marine
life (they've visited numerous aquariums, etc) and they love to swim.
I've never actually been anywhere where the water was actually clean
enough to see stuff.

-Robert

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
My boys are seasoned Mooney travelers. This year I'm considering adding
a trip to either Victoria Island or Catalina Island. My boys are 9 and
10 so I'm not sure if either of these could actually be made
interesting. We've done so many trips, I'm having a harder time trying
new things. Last summer we went to Vancouver and the boys had a great
time canoeing and seeing the sites. Last March we went down to Mexico
again and got to pet baby grey whales. Last week we went to D.C. to see
the capitol. Would Victoria or Catalina Island offer anything
interesting to boys of this age?

-Robert


Geez, when I was that age I was excited to set the tent up in the back yard.

We actually attend 3 boy scout camps per year. At least one of them is
"Residence Camp" which means the boys get to do archery, BB gun
shooting (with NRA/BSA certified instructors) canoeing, fishing, etc. I
want to give my guys the best little-boy experiences I can. The funny
thing is that my boys think they are deprived because we don't allow
them to have video game systems and we restrict their T.V. access. We
also live in a town where they aren't the only kids in their class that
take lots of vacations per year.

-Robert

We actually took our first airline trip last week. Our plane has been
down for a long annual (fuel senders, gov, prop, etc overhaul) so it
wasn't available. My youngest son (9) was too afraid to look outside.
He loves to look outside in our plane. He said something about looking
outside with so many people on board. I don't think we can understand.