Billy Joel sings it best....Pressure!

Yahoo briefly had a lead on my homepage that wanted to inform me of the some places kids should see.  I had some trouble with my internet (Bright House, you are killing me!) and by the time the Computer Guru got me up and running the article had poofed.  I googled it and found something from CNN Travel about the 15 places children should see before they turn 15.  I clicked on to it because I was curious and because I'm looking for summer vacation ideas.  I also wondered if I had seen these places.

1. The Grand Canyon - check for me - check for Madison - I went to the Grand Canyon first with my mother and grandparents as witnessed by some slide photos previously posted.  I then went again with my mother and my friend Kim when we took a little trip to visit my Auntie Marilyn who was living in Arizona.  The third time I went to the Grand Canyon I took Tom and Madison.  Tom had never been and so on a visit to Arizona with his Aunt and Uncle we took a side trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon.  Madison wasn't quite two.  Still counts I guess even though she has no memory.  

2.  The Redwood Forest - check for me - Again another thing I did on that trip out west when I was seven years old.  I really only remember looking at tall trees. 

3.  Monticello - check for me - I don't have photos of this trip because I was young and with our friends the Smiths.  We visited Monticello and watched the crossing of wild horses from Assateague Island to  Chincoteague Island.  I actually remember visiting Thomas Jefferson's house and have a vivid memory of walking up to the house on a pathway.

4.  Freedom Trail - check for me - This was yet another place Kim and I visited on our excursion through the New England countryside.  We had met up with a tour group led by a guy named Al from Boston.  We ended up in a couple of youth hostels with this group, and when Al heard we were going to be through Boston he invited us to stay with him.  He worked in Hingham in the shipyard.  He lived in a dormitory warehouse where he supervised the kids who worked there in the summer.  The kids lived in this dorm then, but since it was October the dorm was empty and so Kim and I stayed a couple nights there.  It was the craziest thing I've ever done and the most fun.  We took the ferry into Boston and walked the Freedom Trail.

5.  Niagara Falls - There is some discrepancy in this one.  I thought I had been here on my way to or from Europe the summer before my 8th grade year.  My mother swears that never happened.  I have a photo of some roaring water that I always thought was the falls, but....guess I will have to put this on my list.

6.  The National Mall - check for me - check for Madison & Darcy - Another stop on my trip with Kim.  We did the city proud.  We rode the trolley and hopped off and on viewing attractions.  It was a great way to get around the city to see everything.  I later went again with Tom when he ran the Marine Corp Marathon.  I seriously have very few memories of touring D.C. then with him, but we went again with Connie and the girls a few years ago.

Trip with Kim in the 1989

Trip with Tom in early 90's

Trip with the girls 2006

7.  Williamsburg - This too is another one that I'm sure I've been to and so I'm checking it for myself.  When I did this I'm not sure, but I remember exploring Jamestown.  Perhaps with Karl Smith?  Hmmm....perhaps I should still go through Williamsburg on my way to the Falls.

8.  Walt Disney World - check, check, and triple check - You live in Florida and can afford it you go to Disney World.  I'm glad to see it made the list because it truly is the most magical place on earth.  Okay, maybe that's stretching it some, but you will definitely forget about your worries when you visit here.






9.Independence Hall - Now there is a slight chance that I have been here, but I'm not going to count this.  I visited Philadelphia years ago while visiting my once Pennsylvanian neighbors the Smiths.  I flew out of Philadelphia on my first solo plane ride and so we stayed there with my friends' grandparents.  We might have done some touring of the city, but I have no memory of any of it save for sitting around the Dilg's house.

10.  Alcatraz Island - Never been and San Francisco is on my lists of places to visit.  I'll just add Alcatraz next to it and make sure my daughters are along for the ride.

11.  Ellis Island - Although I visited New York with Kim on another traveling adventure we did not see Ellis Island.  I was more interested in seeing David Letterman at the time I was there.  My kids have only driven around New York City as we made our way to Washington D.C. so that certainly does not count.

12.  Yellowstone National Park - check for me - On my trip out west.  This is probably the park I remember the most because we had a bear come up to our car window and it was oh, so exciting and yet oh, so scary.







13.  Fenway Park - Never been, and I found this one to be the oddest of all the places listed.  I like baseball, and I understand it is the oldest stadium still around today, but wouldn't the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown be a better place to visit?  And I have visited that and could have checked it off, darn it!

14.  Crater's of the Moon National Monument and Preserve- Huh?  Never heard of it.  It is located in Idaho and known as "the only officially weird park".  Apparently there were volcanic eruptions there some 15,000 years ago and it has a 618 square mile lava field that was once used by astronauts as a training site.  Interesting.  Guess that will have to be a stop on my way to California.

15.  San Diego Zoo - Nope.  Along with San Francisco, San Diego is a place I've never been, but is on my list.  I'm not a big zoo person, but I've heard this is the zoo to tour in the U.S.

Okay, so I've been to eight out of the 15 places (and maybe more depending on who you believe), but I've got a long way to go in making sure my children get to these attractions.  Madison will be 15 in November so it looks like I've got my summer already planned.  You would have thought they would have done a better job of not spreading them all around the map of the U.S., wouldn't you?  I guess I'll have to group them and take the next few vacations to hit the north, south, east, and west attractions.  Anyone want to join me?