Travels with Baby is giving away a three night, all-inclusive vacation for a family of four, complete with a personal Vacation Nanny at Franklyn D. Resort & Spa on Runaway Bay or FDR Pebbles at Falmouth, both on Jamaica.  Did you see the “Vacation Nanny” part?  I entered after reading her review of the nanny assigned to each family to assist you during the day.  Through January 5, 2010, details at http://travelswithbaby.blogspot.com/2009/12/all-inclusive-family-vacation-giveaway.html.

We Just Got Back is giving away a four night stay for a family of four at the Nickelodeon Suites Resort in Orlando, Florida.  Two words – green slime.  Enter once a day through January 11, 2010 at http://www.wejustgotback.com/default.aspx?mod=giveawaynickhotel.

Lonely Planet has joined forces with the movie Nine and Alitalia for a sweepstakes where you can win an Italian getaway including business class air and a four star hotel.  (If only Daniel Day Lewis was part of the grand prize. Sigh.) Competition ends January 31, 2010.  Details and entries can be found http://www.lonelyplanet.com/campaigns/nine/

Don’t forget Backpack to Buggy’s own Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics giveaway.

Know of another great giveaway?  Leave the 4-1-1 in the comments.

Hilton has generously offered two great prizes you can win  here to get word out about their Official Guest of Team USA Sweepstakes.  The Sweepstakes grand prize includes a five-day, four-night trip to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver for four and a $10,000 check for two lucky winners along with three guests each.

If you plan to stay at any of Hilton’s U.S. hotels before December 31, 2009, just book the Go For the Gold™ rate online at http://www.hiltonhhonors.com/officialguest for an entry in the Official Guest of Team USA Sweepstakes.  Hilton has some great brands including Waldorf Astoria Collection®, Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels, Doubletree®, Embassy Suites Hotels®, Hilton Garden Inn®, Hampton®Hotels, Homewood Suites by Hilton®, and Hilton Grand Vacations®.  Your New Year’s getaway could get you to the pageantry and excitement of Vancouver 2010.  Details including rules and the list of prizes can be found at http://www.hiltonhhonors.com/officialguest.

Future freestyle skier like her uncle?

The Winter Olympics have always been a favorite for me.  Starting with Ice Skating and Ski Jumping as a kid, then the Super Slalom as I became a more active skier and most recently Freestyle Skiing, I follow the Winter Games more closely than most sports.  Something about the smaller crowds, laid back attitudes and really cool athletes appeals to me.  In my early twenties, one of my lifetime goals became to ski all of the Olympic ski areas.  So far I have enjoyed Lake Placid, Squaw Valley and Innsbruck,  but Vancouver 2010 leaves 15 more to go.

Riding the gondola at Squaw Valley, home of the 1960 Winter Games.

What is your favorite memory of the Winter Olympics or favorite competitive winter sport?  Leave your story in the comments below for a chance to win a $250 Visa gift card or a voucher for a complimentary one night stay in a Studio room at any Hilton Grand Vacations resort in Orlando, FL or Las Vegas, NV.

For additional chances to win, tweet about this contest including a link to this webpage and #olympics or tell a friend to enter and make sure they give you credit in their comment.  (Max three entries per person.)  The winners will be randomly chosen on January 4, 2010.

Disclosure: I have received no compensation for this promotion.

Rediscover the true spirit of giving by making a donation through Passports With Purpose.  For as little as US$10 you can help build a school in Cambodia and win prize of your choice.

A holiday in Cambodia where the slums got so much soul.

This year’s beneficiary is American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC), an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving opportunities for the youth and rural poor in Cambodia.  Through their rural schools project, Passports With Purpose has raised enough money to build a school in rural Cambodia.

So you been to school for a year or two and you know you’ve seen it all.

Children biking to school in Bali.

After reaching the goal of $13, 000 in the first few days, the goal was doubled and improvements including water filtration and a school nurse can be added to the school with your help.

Passports with Purpose is an collaboration of travel bloggers who give back through this unique fundraiser.  This year they have wrangled over 50 prizes which are being raffled.  Every US$10 donated is also a chance to win a specific prize.  This year’s prizes are awesome, ranging from cameras to luggage to vacations in Costa Rica and St. Lucia.

Now you can go where people are one, now you can go where they get things done.

There are only a few more days to reach the new $26,000 goal and we are getting so close.  Enter to win Contribute to this great cause before December 21, 2009, 11:59PM PST to win some cool stuff to help AAfC and children in Cambodia.  Winners will be notified by email on January 5, 2010.

It’s a holiday in Cambodia, it’s tough, kid, but it’s life.

(I am showing my age, but the lyrics are from one of my favorite Dead Kennedys’ songs taken somewhat out of context.)

So what is a family to do if they are headed to Bali in winter, Squaw Valley in spring or San Francisco in summer with fast growing kids?

Boo on Bike in dress from eBay

EBay has been my first stop.  Year round you can find both new and gently used clothes and shoes at reasonable prices.  I used eBay to buy sundresses, sandals and a sun suit for our winter trip to Bali and I found a fleece in June to get us through the San Francisco summer.  With eBay, express shipping is not always an option and auction time and the potential to be outbid should be factored into timing. I start looking for needed items six weeks in advance, but four is usually enough.

Another favorite stop is Sierra Trading Post.  This discounter sells closeouts and overstocks of high quality brands with a huge selection of outdoor clothing and gear but a increasing selection of casual and dress items plus travel gear.  I have found a good selection and great deals year round.  Last January I was able to buy some Keen sandals for our trip to Hawaii at 30% off retail. (If only finding the next size up in August was as easy.)

If you are traveling to a location popular with your neighbors, always check local consignment shops.  For example, in northern California, you can find snowsuits in April or jackets in June.  Selections are limited and other parents are looking for the same thing so it is hit and miss.

Why was I surprised? Many of the children’s museums I have visited seem pricey: our local children’s museum is $11, our old local museum was a bargain at $8 for under 17 and $10 for adults, the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose is $10.  Don’t get me started on the Cal Academy of Sciences at $25 for adults (though free for under 6) or our new CT Science Center at $16 for adults and $13 for kids in a city where the median income in 2007 was only $27,654 and over 30% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Are high prices at museums leaving kids out at sea?

So a family of four needs $60 to visit museums which are often supported with public funds and whose missions are all about kids? How many families can afford a $60 visit these days?

Many museums have “free” days, but crowds can take away the fun, if a family is even able to get in.  Another option is membership. Travels with Children has an excellent example on how to find memberships that are valuable.  “Pay for itself” not withstanding, the buy-in for membership is steep at over $100 for reciprocal privileges with other member museums through the Association of Children’s Museums.

Our local library has a great program where you can “check out” free museum passes for a day which I think is a fantastic solution.  (Please recommend it to your local library or tweet @whpl for more information). On a school holiday, I went to check out passes to our local children’s museum and the librarian informed me that they had chosen to stop participating in the program a few years ago. I skipped the $22 admission.

Are most children’s museums too expensive?  Are they pricing out the people they should be serving?  What’s your opinion? Does your community have any programs to make the museums more accessible regardless of means to pay? Do you think they are working?

Check out:
*Another parent’s point of view
*An affordable children’s museum

Why have a picture with a mall Santa, when you can have a picture with a Lego Santa?

Lego Santa

Mirielle with Mom hanging over her.

I want you to see how you fit into the big wide world (heads up kid, you are a teeny weeny piece of it and not at the center.)  I want you to see how you are different, how you are the same, and how you will always have more to learn.  I want you to explore the big wide world through travel, food, language, music, books, and most of all friends and family. I want all this to be easy and enjoyable for you.

Learning to explore the world.

In the past three years I have learned that all I can do is provide love, support and opportunities for you.  You are already your own person with strong (and vocal) opinions of what you want and don’t want and what you like and don’t like.  (The mango does not fall far from the tree.)

When the mango does fall, at least enjoy it.

• We picked a name for you that paid homage to your grandmothers’ French maiden names and your American birthplace. You now teach grown ups how to pronounce that name.
• We travel with you as much as we can to places near and far. You always surprise us with how you adapt, the new people you let us meet, and how you cry when we pull in the driveway at home saying you “want to take airplane” or go “back to hotel” or ask mommy to teach you to drive so you can travel by yourself. (Seriously.)
  

  Running off to the next adventure.

• We keep you away from a diet of chicken fingers and spaghetti so you eat chicken satay and noodles (and BOO-ee-toes and arepas and salmon and rice and whoopie pie).
  

  Who needs chicken fingers?

• I put you in a bilingual daycare when I went back to work.  Now you understand Spanish and tell mommy not to speak it as you can hear she does not do a good job.
• We play music from around the world.  You are a rock and roll girl, but started singing along in Arabic to Shara’a Simsim from the Sesame Street Playground CD on the drive to school.
  

  Singing off to school.

• We buy you beautiful children’s clothes (mostly from Tea) avoiding the standard bubble gum pink and licensed characters.  You pick out what you are going to wear each day and have a sense of style that even tweens complement you on.
• We buy you interesting toys and no matter where we go, you find a rock to play with and don’t need anything else.
  

  Rocks are a girl's best friend.

• We love you so much.  You have a special love that you share with almost everyone you meet, bringing smiles to their faces and ours.
  

  Bringing smiles.

It’s only been three years together little girl.  You have experienced so little of what the world can offer.  But, together, I think we are on our way to making you an independent thinking, fully engaged, little citizen of the world.

This is an entry for a blogging contest from Tea Collection.  I am a groupie of their clothing which you can probably see in 75% of the photos of Mirielle on this site.  Check back next week  for a review (which I wrote before this contest) and visit the Tea Collection blog if you would also like to participate in this contest.

What happened in Backpack to Buggy’s first year?

• 52 posts (including this) – Averaging one a week is a good start. Though, I am sure you noticed my posts drop off: when anyone in my house gets sick, when I am traveling, when I am moving cross country, and, when I am a working from home while being a full time caregiver to a 2.5 yo.
• >200 comments – Thank you for the dialogue.
• >6000 page views (since 1/1/09) and >2000 in the past 30 days
• >70 subscribers
• 4/10 Google page rank
  
• Was one of the top ten Family Travel blogs according to Trip Base.

The most read posts over the year:
Bali or Hawaii? Bali may be cheaper.
The Safest Sunscreens for Kids
Travel in a Time of Epidemic
How to eat out with a toddler.
Disney is an OK destination, if it’s free.

And for a laugh, my top search term is “wine poo”.  I should be upset, but the napa picture sill makes me laugh.

Seriously though, the opportunity to meet so many interesting and talented travel and other writers has been a pleasure.  It was also a thrill to write for multiple publications under my own byline.  (I did a lot of ghost writing in Washington, DC in my past so I carry chip on my shoulder.)

Proud as a peacock.

Good first year, but how am I going to improve?

Well some changes you will see over the next year:

• A new tagline.  While I think “An avid traveler adapting to being a mom”  will always be relevant, this blog is less about adapting than it used to be.
• “Taking Travel Home” – an occasional series on the things we bring home from travel including recipes, books, toys, art and more.  Guest posts are encouraged.
• More on travel deals, resources, travel without the kids, product reviews, and editorials.
• Lots more on food.  I am a foodie.  I want to share my passion.  Food and travel are natural partners.  Oh, and food includes beverages in my world.
• Improved grammar and punctuation?  Seriously, corporate America and slide presentations are changing the “written” word in a dangerous way.  After 14 years of working in that world, my writing has suffered.  I hereby pledge to take some refresher courses (or hire the local high school English teacher everyone fears to grade my work).

Any other suggestions?

If I can get internet up and running in our new home (I struggle with the choice of insufferable bureaucracy or extortion pricing, neither of them prompt) then I have a lot to share with you including: a review of the new book Traveling with Kids by Leslie Forsberg and Michelle Duffy, a preview of my New England Summer, a guide to visiting San Francisco from a resident turned visitor, and more.

Off to the hardware store for a wire brush and then to meet with an electrician.

Most parents know that the only chance to change seating so the family can sit together is to check-in 23 hours and 59 minutes before the flight.  (And even that is a long shot because some airlines would rather have you pay to upgrade than seat you together.)  Now really, a day before you flight do you have any idea how many bags you will be checking? Have you even pulled the suitcases out of the attic?

I don’t know about most parents, but I am packing right up until the minute we leave the house.  Between getting the toys, diapers, snacks, change of clothes, electronics, and children on the plane, I check as much as I can.  And, despite my resolution to travel lighter this year, when you have to leave the house in 15 minutes and realize there has been an “accident” that you have to clean up, I just throw whatever I think I might need into any bag that doesn’t seem to be over 50lbs.  If I fly US Airways with my family, I will always be paying the extra coin.

So you see, US Airways is really trying to discourage all but the most organized parents, (who maybe they assume have the most perfectly behaved children?) to fly their airline.  And all anyone is talking about is the latest fee.