Smart Travel

South Floridians drive to Orlando regularly, it’s understandable. Our family has done it nearly a dozen times in the last 5 years. Visiting Disney World or other amusement parks, with just a 3-4 hour drive is manageable, especially when traveling with the family. One of our more more memorable drives up was when we took Route 27 from Miami to Disney. 
This drive, mostly a divided highway with traffic lights, is a sharp difference from the dull drive of the Florida Turnpike or I95. Although longer because of the lights, the Route 27 drive is far more scenic as it takes you through the “countryside” of Florida, passing through the towns of Clewiston, Moore Haven, Lake Placid and Lake Harbor, often right alongside Lake …

Eyes wide open. See the sites. The weather is gorgeous. There is so much to enjoy in and around Miami.
The year at the infamous Great Taste of the Grove, Transition Lenses will help you keep those sightseeing eyes in check with a FREE vision screening and more!
The Sights of Miami
Miami is filled with some of the most beautiful attractions. The sights are breathtaking. As a tourist or resident, a camera on hand is always necessary when visiting the Miami area. Three sights that have caught my eye and camera are Ocean Drive, the Everglades and the Deering Estate. Here’s why…

Breathtaking views of the of the art deco architecture as you stroll down Ocean Drive in South Beach is always a must. It is one of the most popular attractions in this area and you understand why at first glance.The classic architecture melded with the …

It’s time for the Biggest Baby Shower for Miami Moms! Yes, the Big City Moms are hitting the Magic City on April 2 with an event all moms – expecting and new – must attend! Held at the Jungle Island Treetop Ballroom, The Biggest Baby Shower is a fantastic celebration!

There will be delicious food, mocktails, pampering and educational seminars. Over 60 retailers will be there to show off their gadgets, including Sage Spoonfuls which is one of our favorites in this home.

Moms will get to listen to seminars from leading pediatricians, like Dr. Jana Myers, and learn from top vendors on the latest must-haves for their babies.
I Am the Maven will be there – always stocked with fabulous coupons! Plus retailers like SkipHop, BornFree and

Zingers Deli – NY Deli Hits Streets of Boca

Living out of the NY tri-state area doesn’t mean depriving oneself from the delicacies we find in a quality NY deli.  A Reuben, matzo ball soup, latkes, rugelach, and egg salad are staples in delis in NY but are often hard to come by, in good quality, when out of the area.
I recently visited Zingers Deli (ZingersDeli.com) in Boca Raton, FL.  This restaurant opened last year.  It’s where you go to get phenomenal pastrami on rye, a very satisfying warm bowl of beef barley and a HUGE slice of chocolate cake!
The bread is homemade, including many other pastries, soups, and more. They are quite proud of their cheesecake.  I must admit, after having a bite, okay several bites, I would certainly recommend it. The menu is stacked with sandwiches galore.  Their veggie burger is made of …

Miami Resident Turns Tourist!
When traveling in and around Miami, no need for planes or trains…just automobiles!  Have you ever just looked at the tourist map for your metro area and realized the number of tourist destinations residing within an easy drive-able distance from your home?

I recently set out to see the sights of Miami.  I live in a cultural mecca.  Miami is a metropolitan hub filled with beaches, outdoor shops, attractions, gardens and more.  Yet, we rarely visit these sites that others consider must-stops on their vacations.

Comfortably seated in a 2011 Chevy Cruze the 4 of us hit the road in search of something super Miami-like to do!  We drove around, admired the scenery and ate lunch at Montys – a very Miami-like Coconut Grove seafood restaurant! At lunch we looked through a Miami tourist book & map. We couldn’t believe the number of tourist attractions we …

This year’s summer family trip was a Marco Island vacation.  This island sits less than 2 hours west of Miami, just south of Naples.  Traveling to Florida, with the exception of Disney, is slow season during the summer months.  Intense heat and possibility of hurricanes makes it not always ideal when traveling.  However, slow season does mean DISCOUNT PRICES!  Plus, a mere 2 hour drive makes Southwest Florida perfect for summer family travel!
Staying in a suite style hotel, which includes a kitchenette at the minimum, is ideal with a family.  The Marco Island coastline is filled with hotels, timeshares and condos most with kitchens and more.  The hotels are beautiful, including the popular Marco Island Marriot Beach Resort.  I’ll get into the amenities of that one later.
Marco Island condos and timeshares are the most popular with families.  Most rent for a …

Finding great breakfast choices in Miami isn’t too hard, there are some great one’s to pick from!
We love Sunday mornings.  With a child in our house and one arriving any day now (I’m 37.5 weeks preggo,) waking up early isn’t much of our choice.  On Sundays, we get out the door by 8, head to church and then typically head out to breakfast.  I grew up going to church around noon each Sunday followed by lunch at a local restaurant, Leo’s in Garden City, NY, for much of my life.  It’s a tradition that I now maintain with my own family.  Since we are far earlier risers than I guess my parents and I were, breakfast/brunch is our weekly meal rather than lunch.  I also must admit that not only do I love our yummy family breakfast; it also tends to be a little …

This week I shared 5 games that we play in the car. http://smartypantsmama.com/2011/04/smart-home-5-car-ride-games-to-occupy-the-time/
My daughter’s favorite is #2 The Humming Game (just like the classic Name That Tune).   Here’s some video proof of the made up songs she hums and tries to get me to figure out!

 
Do you think she’s an aspiring songwriter?  LOL!

We are the weekend getaway family, as you may remember from Smarty Pants Daddy’s post this summer.  We getaway when we can, especially when we find a good deal and have a free weekend!  On most trips, I am able to pack our clothes in 2 suitcases, often a backpack comes too if we’re heading to Disney.  My 2 suitcase strategy meets several purposes.
1st it keeps me from over packing.  As long as the trip is less than 5 days, and I’m only packing for the 3 of us, I’ll only allow one rolling small suitcase and one duffel.
2nd it helps in organization while we’re on the trip.  After we unpack at our hotel I set one of the two, typically the rolling suitcase, open in the closet or some other unnoticeable location.  This suitcase now becomes our dirty clothes “hamper.” All clothes …

A Bag, Wrapping Paper + Cheap Toys = happy child on plane
We’ve flown to NY several times with my daughter since she was about 1.  It can be an exhausting expedition in the air, especially when she’s tired, unruly, or bored, or even worse, all three!   Before my 1st adventure aboard a plane I received tried and true advice from my cousin, a mom who at that point had flown Miami-Madrid several times with a toddler and a preschooler.  I never could understand how she did it. I was exhausted thinking of it. Thirty minute car rides can be a nightmare sometimes, what would a 3 hour flight be like? How did my cousin make her 6 hour flight bearable?  She shared great advice about using the bathroom, changing a diaper in the air, what to have in the diaper bag, good snacks to bring and more.  …

Guest Poster: Smarty Pants Dada
I guess about a year and a half ago, our family started doing weekend getaways.  It was one of the best decisions we have ever made.
As a dad who works all week it is nice to get away from home for the weekend.  It doesn’t have to be extravagant to be perfect.  Our family getaways have run the gambit, from going to Disney and staying at the Grand Floridian to hitting the Florida Keys at a random Holiday Inn in Key Largo.  Although quite different in both experience and price tag, both hit the spot after an arduous work week.  Getting away with the wife and kids for these mini vacations gives me an opportunity to spend quality time with both, without having to worry about the grass being mowed or fixing whatever broke most recently.  Now don’t get me wrong this …

There parks aren’t necessary for fun family vacations. Did you know that a 2010 Family Vacation Survey found that 97 percent of parents who go on family vacations want a trip that both they and their children will enjoy?   I can’t imagine what the other 3% prefer!
Travel Ticker®, a leading inspirational travel website, today announced the results of its 2010 Family Vacation Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive®. This year, 80 percent of parents who go on family vacations say they would prefer to visit a non-theme park destination for their next family trip if cost and planning efforts were comparable. To help, the experts at Travel Ticker have done all the planning work for them, finding affordable family trip ideas for an experience better than any theme park.
Here are Travel Ticker’s top five theme park free family vacation ideas:
1.       Adventure: Hike through the Amazon, swing on …

Key Largo Conch House
100211 Overseas Highway
Key Largo, FL 33037-4418
(305) 453-4844
www.KeyLargoCoffeeHouse.com
We expected a lot and were pleased.
The Key Largo Conch House on Overseas Highway in Key Largo (MM 100.3), comes recommended by nearly every online guide of the Florida Keys.  It was even fortunate to be reviewed by both the Food Network and The Washington Post, giving it lots to gloat about.  It is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7 AM – 10 PM.

We arrived around noon on a Sunday, and weren’t surprised to wait around 10 minutes for a table. The scenery is beautiful.  The restaurant is in an old home tucked behind some local greenery.  There were around 7 or so tables inside, with around the same number outside along the wraparound porch.  The patio area was being used for a private party, and …

Who says you can’t reuse parade toys?
You certainly don’t buy new beach towels each time you go to the beach?  Do you?  I’m thinking you buy them ahead of time and then reuse them with each beach trip.  Well, you shouldn’t go to a parade, particularly a Disney nighttime parade, without your pre-purchased parade toys!
I know it sounds very frugal, especially since the little ones are involved, but honestly, the $13.95 light saber will soon be forgotten (at least until the next parade!)

We purchased our preschooler a somewhat overpriced Minnie Mouse light toy 4 parades ago.  She loved it that first night.  The smile on her face made the purchase perfect!  Not surprisingly, she fell sound asleep with it in her hands moments after the parade.  That night I carefully packed it in the suitcase and when we returned home I …

Fish Bowl
83230 Overseas Hwy
Islamorada, FL 33036
(305) 664-9397
Traveling to the Upper Florida Keys with a preschooler, or any young kids for that matter, really limits your options for nighttime entertainment.  Live bands and tiki bars aren’t the preferred venue for most families.  Luckily The Fish Bowl in Islamorada has met the demand for that.  Located at MM 83.2, it is a standard, old school bowling alley, with some more modern flares including a computerized scoreboard, which certainly entertained us one late afternoon when our bodies just couldn’t handle another minute in the sun, pool or beach!
The alley was clean. Staff was very nice and helpful.  We were quickly assisted with getting the lane bumpers automated for when my daughter bowled, and within a few more minutes another employee came over with a ramp for her to use to roll the ball.  The bowling alley had 3 lanes of …

I remember how ecstatic we were when we could ditch the “pain the butt to buckle” car seat and start using the booster instead.  What a relief!  I gained minutes back a day, since she could do everything, minus buckle herself.  She could climb in, she could unbuckle and climb out.  Now, I was warned that long trips may create some stiff necks.  What?  Well, here is what the warning must of have meant:
Well, these are the moments that I miss the car seat – the seat that allowed a little more head support.
I felt so bad, we were en route to the hotel after a long day.  It was less than 45 seconds (I timed it) and she was out. Look at her!  Passed out like a college kid after a keg party. Her head slumped over with even a little drooling. I tried to readjust her, but within …

Heading back to the hotel from Magic Kingdom, I sat with Isa passed out on my lap, next to a mommy and her 2 year old little girl who seemed delirious and exhausted.  With the clock quickly approaching midnight, the reason was obvious.  My nosy ears heard the little one ask her mom, “Fishies?” Obviously, asking for some goldfish.  The mother, in a sweet kind voice, responded, “No, sweetie.  We are out of food. You ate all the fishies.”  Less than 20 seconds later, the little girl once again asks, “Fishies?”, with her voice getting a little whinier.  The mommy once again responds in a sweet, patient voice.  Again, now maybe 10 seconds later, “Fishies?” Mommy’s voice changed quickly.  I chuckled in my head (did I just use the word chuckle?!) hearing the mommy respond the way I wanted to.  “No, there are no fishies.  Stop asking for fishies.” Within the next …

What a weekend!  Spent three great nights with family in Disney World.  Yes, we travel to Disney A LOT! We actually went 6 times just in 2009!  It sounds a bit excessive, don’t you think?  There are lots of reasons for our repetitive WDW getaways.  First and foremost, we were given season passes last year – thank you mom & dad.  We obviously felt the need to go and make good use of the passes.  Secondly, we live in South Florida, so a weekend trip to Disneyworld (3 1/2 hours driving) equates to DC – NYC trip that I have done a-million-times!  So with passes, an easy drive, and a toddler/preschooler how can we go wrong?
We budget our trips.  Sometimes we have a tight budget (yes, one time we went and only spent $100 in 3 days! Impressive!) and sometimes we get a little more carefree (we’ve stayed at all “monorail” …

One of the best gifts have I received as a mommy was a membership to our local zoo, Miami MetroZoo. It was a present back in Fall of 2008. We got such use out of it. The Zoo’s Dual Membership pass pass let me bring one child under the age of 2 (my daughter, obviously!) and another adult. It worked great. On the weekends, my husband was the adult and on the weekdays I could easily invite a friend with her child to come, free of charge! Great deal, right?!
A few weeks ago we hit the zoo after a few months of just not having the time. We had a BLAST! The animals were moving, the weather was perfect and we got a ridiculous amount of exercise in (the zoo it’s HUGE!) Best of all, we renewed our pass!
Check out this …

Have you ever used TripAdvisor.com to help decide which hotel to stay at for your next vacation? I have. Tons of times. Actually just this summer we were planning a summer getaway with my parents to Boca Raton. My mother, a corporate travel agent, had wanted to stay a the Boca Raton Resort and Club. I, the tech-savvy family member, went online to see what what others thought of it. Throughout the TripAdvisor.com website I read dozens and dozens of review, great, good and even some bad. Some where so good that I started wondering who wrote it, others were so bad that I started thinking if the reviewer just was in a bad mood or may be even the hotel’s competitor faking a review. Well, we took our chances and enjoyed 4 wonderful days. The hotel was great, …

This past weekend we had a fantastic time vacationing on the west coast of Florida, in Naples. We stayed at The Edgewater Hotel in a 1 bedroom suite. It was fantastic. You truly begin to value the advantage of a suite when you are no longer traveling with just the hubby. The suite, beyond the roominess, king size bed, balcony, & dining room table…had a full size fridge, toaster, enormous sink and cupboards. It was ready for my haul of Cheerios, graham crackers, milk, fruit, cheese, bread, turkey breast…you name it!
So, my Smart Mama Move was packing lots of munchkin food, and even mommy/daddy food, for our suite. We saved time and money by enjoying toasted english muffins and Cheerios in our room for breakfast and homemade turkey sandwiches poolside for lunch!
PS – Turndown service was provided every night when they even cleaned the …