Countdown!

Only 4 more weeks!

OK, What To Bring

I'm excited to have this finalized.

Things we need

• Car seats for Hayden, Marlo, and Kinsey
  
• Pack and play for Marlo and Kinsey(?)
  
• Portable high chair for Marlo
  
• Sunglasses
  
• Sunscreen
  
• ?
  

Things we want

• Fun stuff
  
• ?
  

We can make more plans when everyone is here in Minneapolis (I mean Plymouth!) a few weeks.

What are you looking for?

Hey, why are you looking here? It has already been decided and reserved!

Or maybe we should convert this to a "what to bring" blog?

Whatever! I am excited and can hardly wait!

The houses in Barnstable

I'm pretty sure I found the locations of both of the houses in Barnstable on a map. The two are within a couple blocks of each other!

Here's a link to a map that's centered around the 161021 house:
House map

Here's a screen-shot with the exact houses/lots and beach access outlined:


The 161021 house was completely renovated last year, and they must have added the dormers.

The 146606 house is brand new construction in 2007, so it's just an empty lot in the picture.

Based on this picture, it seems like 161021 is MUCH closer to the beach access, which is more attractive. If the bed situation works out for that house, then I prefer that one.

2nd barnstable house

The 2nd barnstable house has only one open week available in August, and one in June.

Cape-ish

Well, the property that John posted looks really nice. That view is amazing! There seemed to be a discrepancy in # of bedrooms though...somewhere it had conflicting info. Maybe when I went to check the availability? I'll have to go back and look.

Here are some other properties that are interesting for one reason or another:
These 2 are in Barnstable. If you look at a map, Barnstable isn't very far out onto the Cape. The house information says it's about an hour from Boston. I agree with John--I don't think it's worth it to travel all the way out to Provincetown or whatever. Too much time in the car.

Here are the places in Barnstable:
http://www.vrbo.com/161021
http://www.vrbo.com/146606

One nice thing about the Barnstable places is that they appear to be within walking distance of restaurants, wine shops, etc. For the second place, be sure to check out the additional pictures at: http://capecodhouse.us/.

Looking around areas off the Cape, I found this place in Marion. Marion isn't on the map I posted above, but it's on Buzzard's Bay south of Plymouth. It sounds like a cute little town. Ah, scratch the one I was about to post...minimum 2 week rental. Boo! It was a really cool place.

Near Plymouth is Manomet. This place looks great, but it's spendy: http://www.vrbo.com/21773.

There are so many nice places on this vrbo site. I think the hard part will be choosing. I'll look again too and see what else I can find.

At the Cape, but not ON the Cape - Plymouth, MA

Plymouth is an hour from Boston, so it's much closer than being out on the Cape.
Here is an interesting historic house in Plymouth, with a lot of amenities: http://www.vrbo.com/120132#photos
But I think the Cape may have better beaches...

Decision Time!

Okay all, it is time to get moving on this vacation planning for real!  After much discussion with Jeff (ha ha- he does not care what we do), reading all posts, talking with Ben, Dad and Mom, I think the Cape area is our best fit.  After thinking more about the Lake Lure or other lake options, I am afraid that we will not have enough access to activities that we all love.  Especially the afternoon latte idea!  My idea for this trip is for everyone to feel as though we are doing something different, but have the familiar luxuries we know we like as well.  I'm sorry if I have been a delay in this process, I just want everyone to have a great time.  Having said all this, if everyone is in agreement, we should decide on a place to stay and book it so we don't miss out for this summer.  Should we do more investigating on the area or book one of the places Ben found earlier?

chetola resort

I also found this place:
http://www.chetola.com/index.html

It looks nice (4 br condos, kids' activities, nearby village, etc). The lake is dinky, but the accomadations, programs, grounds look good. Here's a map of the area: http://www.blowingrock.com/documents/BlowingRockMap01.pdf I haven't looked at it much...just surfing while Marlo plays. It also isn't a quick drive for you guys--probably over 5 hours. I'm not sure where we would fly into either. I'd have to check a map. It actually looks like there are a lot of resorts, rentals in this blowing rock town. The Hounds Ear Club (whatever that is!) has some really nice rental houses, but I can't tell much about the location. It also appears to be a resort community, but the waterfront stuff is limited. Some general rental info for that area (blowing rock) is here: http://www.blowingrockresortrentals.com/

Anyway, I just stumbled upon it. It appears there is rafting, canoeing, hiking etc all around the area, so all of that sounds fun, but I haven't had much luck figuring how close the rentals are to some of that stuff. Parts of the area sound charming.

that's all i can check now---squirmy baby.

lake lure

Ben and I looked at the site and I agree--it is a beautiful setting. For us (in lake country), however, it's a bit like Duluth, but hotter, and instead of 3 hours away, it's a plane trip. It's probably why I gravitate to the beach--I haven't been for an extended time to a beach in many years. We're a long ways away from the coasts! Still, if everyone else prefers lake, I'm not going to argue. For the lake lure resort in particular, I like how there are amenities on site, but it looks like you'd have to drive to get to most of them because of the mountain. That can be a challenge with 3 kids in car seats and 2 still napping (and there's a good chance Marlo will still be on 2 naps a day). With the nap thing in mind, I'll be stuck at the house for 3-4 hours each day while M naps, so my concern with the Treetops place is that there didn't seem to be a sunny place to sit outside with the monitor. Ben and I also wondered if there were nearby towns to go get ice cream, etc. Ruttgers (here in MN) had a similar setup as Lake Lure, but had a little town where we got coffee drinks and so on and the kids enjoyed that. That was one reason I liked the NE (cape cod, etc) because of the little towns all over. Oh, but I do like that Lake Lure is relatively easy to get to. Marlo will be challenging to travel with so that's always a consideration. Anyway, that's my feedback. Some positive, some negative I guess.

Near Lake Lure

I have been checking out rentals in Lake Lure Resort, and many are nice, but most of the larger houses seem to be mountain or golf course settings. However, within the Lake Lure Resort is another lake - Bald Mountain Lake - which has rental houses right on the lake. This lake is much smaller (about 30 acres) than Lake Lure (over 700 acres). I found this house (Treetops Cottage) on the lake that comes with a private dock, personal use of a fishing boat, a 2-person paddleboat, swimming off the dock, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, etc. It has all privileges of Lake Lure Resort guests too, including indoor/outdoor swimming pools, beach, marina, golf, and tennis.

Check it out here:
http://www.rumblingbaldrentals.com/rentals/details.php?id=694&a=&d=

The house is booked all summer until August 16. There is a 7-night minimum rental, and the cost is only $2,100 for the week.



Let's discuss this one, but I think we would need to act quickly to get it.



Grandpa Doodle

Side note

I just wanted to mention that I don't have anything against the Cape area, I just would prefer to go to a lake instead of the ocean.  I like the NC idea because of the mountains in the area as well.

Anyone for North Carolina?

So, Mom and I came up with a great plan if we go to NC.  We can drive from here and bring lots of equipment for kids and fun (car seats, crib, kayaks, bikes, etc.).  Then the MN group can fly direct to Charlotte.  There is a great area called Lake Lure that I have looked at briefly.  Hopefully, I can do more this weekend.

Multiple Authors!

I invited John, Rachel, and Tiff (and myself) to be authors on this blog. That way we can log in as ourselves (although I think you have to use a gmail account to log in) and still post new blog entries.

Notice that it says "Posted by Ben" below. :)

Oops!

I wrote the following post, but forgot to put my name on it. -- John/Dad

More Discussion On Options

I checked out some of the Cape Cod options and also Ruttgers in Minnesota.

I like the idea of Cape Cod, even with the travel time from Boston. The travel time could be drastically reduced if we stayed somewhere like Plymouth, which is on Cape Cod Bay, but not on the Cape itself. Plymouth has beaches and is one of the 3 Cape area towns where whale watch boats depart (which would be a must-do attraction for us if we are in the area, I think). If we go anywhere in New England, I strongly prefer July or August because the temps are highest then.

The only Ruttgers lodging that would house us all in one place appears to be Black Bear House, which is a 4-bedroom, 2-bath secluded house. Otherwise we would need to be in separate cabins, and the cabins are only on the Modified American Plan, which includes breakfasts and dinners - which I don't think we would want. I can't seem to find a good view of exactly where Big Bear House is on the property, so I don't know if it is on the lake or away from it. Here are some photos and other details of Big Bear House: http://www.ruttgersresorts.com/baylakelodge/vacations/blackbearhouse.htm

Whatever we do, I think planning and reserving soon would be a good idea, both to get what we want and to reserve the times on our personal calendars. I am going on a Canadian fishing trip July 26 thru August 3, and I'm sure others will be making additional commitments too.

cape cod comment and other stuff

I couldn't comment for some reason so I'm just starting a new post--wanted to add that for nerds like me, the New England area has a lot of cool history/literary stuff. Shun me if you must, but it's interesting.

As far as Ben's travel time deal--I agree, but a possibility would be to meet in Boston and stay the night and then caravan it the next day.

Also, I agree with John's comments. We need a good headquarters where there is room for the little ones to sleep and play. A house/townhouse rental sounds great. I think we want to minimize the potential inconveniences with small children.

I have briefly looked at Minnesota resorts/lakes. There are a lot of big resorts with on-site things to do.

Grandview Lodge is one of the big resorts here. Supposedly it's fancy and has lots to do. There are many options for housing. There's watersports, golf, tennis, hiking, fishing, etc etc. The small towns around this area always have good ice cream, food, and so on. We've never been there, but I have heard good things. We did go to Rutgers's resort and it was really a great place, but it doesn't look like there are big enough rentals there. I like the idea of a lake vacation, but feel a little guilty because obviously Midwest travel is a little easier for us.

--Tiff

Initial Ideas from Ben

So far I've only looked into two ideas for location:

• San Juan Islands
• Cape Cod area

San Jan Islands have some nice features, such as potential whale watching from a deck/patio. However, there are too many drawbacks:

• Travel time: fly to Seattle, drive 1.5 hours to a ferry, wait 2 hours to get on the ferry, looks like a long ferry ride to the main island, then drive from the port to the cabin/hotel. If you're not staying on San Juan Island itself, then you have to get on another ferry that goes between the other islands.
• Weather: highs in July are around 70, which is lower than I would like.

Here's the address of a web site that I used for reference: http://www.guidetosanjuans.com/


Cape Cod is still an option for me. If we go in the summer the weather should be nice. There are lots of rental houses with plenty of room. There are quaint little towns and lots of beaches. The only bad thing I can see so far is the travel time. It's an 1.5 hours or more from Boston.
If Cape Cod itself is not attractive, what about other areas of New England?

Got it now!

OK, I figured out how this thing works, and I changed the blog's picture to one of the entire family. Now we can really get started!

My opening thoughts on a vacation destination: I am interested in...

• Warm/hot weather
• Water sports close by, like swimming, fishing, kayaking/boating
• Inside living space large enough to comfortably play games, lounge, read, etc. w/o getting in each other's way
• Relatively short drive from nearest airport

I hope to suggest some specific possibilities soon.

Did I screw up already?

I put our (Roxy's and my) picture on the blog, but I think I might have done it so it is the only one for the entire family... I don't know?!? Anyway, this "blog thingy" is pretty cool, and I look forward to brainstorming online about our family vacation. Let's get started! I am so excited!

Instructions for posting

This blog is for posting information, ideas, links, etc about our family vacation. When you post an entry or comment, you should manually sign your entry with your name so that everyone else knows who wrote it. You can add pictures, videos, links, text, or whatever you want. It's easy! Just use the toolbar at the top of the Compose box. If you need help, click the Help link in the upper right corner of the window.

-Ben