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There are several things to like about this museum. Number one is its manageable size – big enough to make for a good long outing, but not so big as to be overwhelming. (Although I’ll also admit that we didn’t get to everything, partly because the museum was very busy the day we were there). It makes smart use of its space too, with thoughtful exhibits offering lots of interaction. And at least on the weekends, there seem to be ample education staff moving throughout the museum answering questions and offering kids a chance to engage with different types of experiments and tools. Over the course of our time there we were invited to build with blocks and paper cups, to try and solve a tricky geometric puzzle, and to use a paper tube to create an optical illusion.

We started our day in the on the top floor of the museum in the Science Arcade where the boys explored exhibits having to do with magnets and light and sound waves. Tommy especially liked this large dish – if you whisper into that small circle, a person standing across the noisy, crowded room by the other dish can hear you perfectly.

The Peanuts…Naturally exhibit offered a creative way to learn about the environment and our impact on it, mostly through different examples of the comic strip, one of the earliest to use its national platform to raise awareness about issues like pollution and endangered animals during the 1960s and 70s. It also gave us a chance to teach Teddy why they call it “dialing” a phone (I’m still not sure he got this concept, although he did enjoy the giant Snoopy).

A small stage nearby was the setting for a really fun and interactive demonstration about optical illusions. We learned how are brains and eyes do (or do not) work together and about things like the Stroop Effect (that’s where you write the word “pink” in yellow letters and ask people to read it – they almost invariably say “yellow”).

Demonstrations like this are offered throughout the day – you can pick up a schedule when you arrive at the museum, or check out the website in advance to make sure you don’t miss anything you want to see.

The dinosaur exhibit on the main floor is particularly impressive given the museum’s smaller size. There’s tons of interactivity here from games,

to a large “dig” area,

to chances to assemble a dinosaur skeleton or color your own dinosaur.

We also spent a long time in the TerraLink exhibit. Tommy used a Google Maps tool to locate our house, much to his delight (the satellite photo even showed our car parked in the driveway). We were able to look at large maps that showed us where we live in relation to the Chesapeake Bay and to talk about why that watershed is so important for us. A mini-tornado swirled inside a case and Matt said he could have spent all day watching the video about every that is going on below the Earth’s surface.

Mid-afternoon, we gathered in the lobby to watch the “Spectacle of the Day”. The lesson had to do with the flammability of hydrogen and involved setting four different balloons full of the gas on fire to dramatic effect.

Then we moved onto what may have been my favorite exhibit of all: Our Place in Space. This floating globe shows a rotating series of fascinating films having to do with different aspects of the Earth, from how scientists use computer models to predict the path and intensity of storms to where on the planet you’ll find the most lights at night.

In the SpaceLink room kids could build their own space rover, check out a space suit, learn about the possibility of life on Mars and see what it would be like to work in mission control.

The very last thing we did was visit the museum’s small planetarium for the holiday laser light show set to a medley of old favorites. This was just as hokey – and magical – as you might expect it to be. While there may not have been much science learning going on, seeing Teddy’s eager face as he watched Rudolph spinning across the ceiling made for the perfect end to this lovely outing.

I had the chance to visit Keystone in October, when the golden aspens were at the height of their glory. I loved everything about this family-friendly resort from the old-school vibe to the glorious views. The resort is basically its own self-contained ski town and it’s clear that the entire place was lovingly created with respect for the beauty of the surrounding area. I knew that I liked Keystone when I realized that it’s a bit of a hidden gem – less well-know than nearby Vail, Beaver Creek, or Breckenridge and with a mission to get families outside enjoying the beauty of the Rockies in all seasons, but especially the winter. Keystone felt like a place that inspires the kind of loyalty and devotion that I really appreciate as a Mad River skier (on the weekend I visited Keystone, the resort’s founder Max Dercum died at 98; I saw more than one person placing flowers on the statue of Dercum that stands near the base of the gondola).

If you’ve followed my family’s skiing adventures in the past, you know that we have a tendency to spend dawn to dusk on the mountain skiing up a storm. I’m a terrain junkie, and when I visited in October I found myself drunkenly ogling the trail maps (some of that woozy feeling might have been the altitude – Keystone’s base elevation is 9300 feet). Although I haven’t yet had a chance to check out the skiing personally, I’m pretty certain that the three mountains don’t disappoint in this regard, with their 3128-foot vertical, 135 trails, and two terrain parks.

The Ski and Ride School has a new program this season called Camp Keystone for kids aged 3 to 14, offering daylong lessons for kids of all ability levels and using kid-friendly learning areas. If you sign your children up for three or more days of lessons, they are guaranteed the same instructor. The school also offers a parent/teacher conference program where parents can spend an afternoon skiing with their children and the instructor who has been working with them to get tips on how to offer instruction and support (I’d love to give that a try as I’m never quite sure how to help Tommy improve). And for one more fun and motivating tool, check out the Epic Mix App, which allows skiers to track the feet and trails they’ve skied and put pins on a digital map. This year the resort will also have photographers on the mountain taking pictures for free and allowing guests to use Epic Mix to share photos on social media sites.

Throughout the winter, during weekends and holiday periods the resort offers what it calls Kidtopia. As part of these programs families can enjoy many of the non-skiing, kid-oriented activities at the resort like the huge snow fort that’s constructed there every winter and the tubing park. Included also are indoor activities like arts and crafts, live music, and entertainment.

Oh, and did I mention the cozy condos? When I was there in October, I stayed in the family-friendly River Run Village. The comfortable units here are individually decorated and feature gas-burning fireplaces, fully equipped kitchens, ski lockers, and laundry facilities. And the best part? River Run is fully ski-in, ski-out on Dercum Mountain, the easiest of the resort’s three peaks (there’s a gondola at the top of Dercum over to North Peak, where you’ll find some of the more challenging terrain). The adorable village has a local coffee shop-bookstore-bar, a small grocery store, and a steakhouse restaurant as well as a brand new 7200 square foot outdoor skating rink with a chocolate shop selling hot beverages right next door.

River Run is just one option when it comes to staying at Keystone; for example, you can also stay in more of a traditional hotel setting at Keystone Lodge (word to the wise: This is where you’ll find the spa). But no matter where you stay, if you’re arriving at the resort by car you can park when you arrive and then use the resort’s shuttle services to get around to the various areas. And while you can certainly bring your own groceries if you are staying in a condo, there are also lots of choices for dining, from fondue at the top of North Peak at the Der Foundue Chessel to pizza by the resort’s large lake near the Keystone Lodge. Families with foodie kids like mine will want to make reservations the intimate Ski Tip Lodge, housed in an old stagecoach stop that also served as the Dercum’s home and has been a bed and breakfast since the 1940s. Offering a changing four-course menu, the food here is thoughtfully prepared using local ingredients – I enjoyed an excellent dinner that finished with dessert and coffee by the large stone fireplace.

We’re not going to make it to Keystone until March, but if you’re looking for a destination for your next family ski trip, I definitely recommend you take a look. They offer lots of great deals throughout the season. If you book before December 15, they’re offering rates as low as 67 percent off stays of four nights or more. Keystone is easily accessible from the Denver International Airport with affordable shuttles running regularly.

Full disclosure: Vail Resorts and Keystone covered my lodging and some of my dining expenses in October and will be doing the same when my family visits in 2012. But the opinions I express here are my own. All photos in this post courtesy of Vail Resorts.

Looking for more posts on downhill skiing with kids? Be sure to check out these favorites:

• What we loved about Smuggs (and what we’ll be back for)
• Family travel tips: How to get kids ready to downhill ski
• Family travel tips: Skiing on a holiday weekend

This road trip followed a pleasant week – we started out in Northampton, Massachusetts, where we paid a visit to an old favorite, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art; ate what may possibly be the world’s most perfect foodstuff, the carbonara pizza at Pizzera Paradiso; and bumped into old friends from graduate school while purchasing ice cream (mine was Butternut – maple, butter, squash, and spices – oh my!). Then we continued to Vermont where nearly a foot of snow had transformed the landscape suddenly into winter. The boys reveled in the chance to build snowmen, sled, and have snowball fights. Thanksgiving looked like an antique New England postcard and we enjoyed our traditional walk along the Common Road in Waitsfield. There were cows and barns. Later, of course, there was turkey and pie.

Yes this is a blog about family travel, but today I’m happy to say that there’s nothing new to report here. No exploring or doing anything we haven’t done many times in the past. We’ll leave that for another day.

As part of the Bootsnall 30 Days of Indie Travel Project, I was prompted to write about a “perfect” day of travel that I’d had the past year. Being a stubborn person with clear ideas of “perfection,” I choose instead to write about a less than perfect day we’d recently had. The prompt, however, made me reflect about a time when our family did have a “perfect” day on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I always knew when I was planning our family trip to Hawaii to celebrate:

1. my husband & I both turning 40,
2. our 15^th wedding anniversary, and
3. my husband’s “all-clear” notice after finishing chemotherapy & radiation treatments for his cancer

that I wasn’t going to fly all the way to Hawaii and miss out on a chance to see volcanoes. And if the volcano on the Big Island was still erupting (as it had been since 1983), I was also going to figure out a way to see the lava flow despite the fact that every government website I visited told me I couldn’t. Instead, I made our reservations at Kilauea Lodge, a charming B&B in Volcano, Hawaii, and hoped for the best.

Our perfect day began with a visit from the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt at the Kilauea Military Camp, a recreation center open to retired and active military personnel and their families within Volcanoes National Park.

My kids lined up with their hastily-put-together Easter baskets (also known as plastic bags) and ran off searching for eggs when the signal was given. They didn’t win any of the big prizes, but they got enough candy to make it memorable.

By the time the hunt was over, everyone was starving. We were too late for breakfast at our B & B (and really, what’s the point of a B&B if you can’t have a late brunch on Easter) so we headed over to the Lava Rock Café for an excellent breakfast and some unexpected advice.

When our waitress asked about our plans for the day, we told her we were going to spend the day at Volcanoes National Park. She then nodded at the kids (or keikis as they’re called in Hawaii) and said we shouldn’t miss the nightly lava flow since it was “really flowing.”

Trying to be as laid back as the waitress, even though inside my mind I was jumping around saying “Woo-hoo!” I casually got the directions to the lava flow, which was currently flowing over land not owned and controlled by the government and was thus open to the public.

Our happy family headed back inside Volcanoes National Park to attend an Easter mass service at the Kilauea Military Camp (where the kids got even more candy) then began the serious business of sightseeing. With the Crater Rim Drive partially closed due to Kilauea Crater spewing out methane gas and small rocks, we headed to the Steam Vents and a safer overlook of Kilauea Crater.

The rotten-egg smell from the steam vents was intense and the knowledge you were looking at an active volcano was slightly terrifying – especially when we saw the destruction caused by Kilauea Iki – our next stop in Volcanoes National Park.

From the overlook, Kilauea Iki is desolate. It erupted for 36 frightening days in 1959, spewing lava 1900 feet in the air. The floor of the crater is a flat, black nothing and the burn line rises up the hillside. But it wasn’t until we walked into the crater that I fully appreciated how powerful a volcanic eruption could be.

To be fair, I had originally thought we would just hop out of the car at the Kilauea Iki Overlook, snap some pictures, and be off to our next spot within the park. My husband had other ideas when he spotted people on the floor of the crater. Using the argument that “you can’t go to a National Park and not take a hike,” we walked the Kilauea Iki trail (a four-mile loop) into the pit. Happily, the hike down is pretty easy for kids. The forest keeps you cool, the trail is nice and wide, and there are several switchbacks so the incline isn’t severe (which is important when you have to hike back up).

When we reached the bottom of the trail, we were met with a black landscape. Huge cracks in the earth emitted eerie vapor trails of steam and the ground was hot. Our kids tossed around huge rocks the size of their heads since lava rocks, when cooled, are light from trapped air pockets. We explored the crater, then headed back up the trail – a much harder walk than the way down.

After our long hike, we were hot and sweaty. A short stroll into the Thurston Lava Tube sounded like the perfect way to cool off. By a sheer stroke of luck, we were able to time our visit between two giant busloads of tourists from nearby cruise ships, allowing us to take our time walking through this unique geologic wonder.

When the lava erupts and travels to the sea, a thin layer of rock forms around it as the lava passes underground creating an insulating tube (think of a straw). Once the lava stops flowing, the layer of rock hardens and you have a tube-like cave. And without hordes of people shoving past us, we were able feel the tube’s spookiness – perfect for a couple of boys craving adventure.

By now, it was mid-afternoon on our perfect day and the sugar rush from all the Easter candy had worn off. We were all hungry and headed to Volcano House (a hotel within the park) to see if we could find a late lunch. Nothing was available…except ice cream! There was nothing for it but to get some.

Tummies semi-full, we (okay, I) made the decision to drive the 19-mile long Chain of Craters Drive down to the ocean and the road’s end where it had been obliterated by the lava flow.

The drive was beautiful, but in hindsight, I would have forgone the extra miles since we had to take yet another hike (about a mile roundtrip) to get to the area where the lava had actually hardened and covered the road. And in the distance, we could just make out a plume of smoke where the current lava eruption was hitting the ocean. This was our next destination.

Tired (we had walked at least 4-5 miles), hungry (our last meal was an ice cream sandwich), and faced with a long drive (50-plus miles along darkened roads) you would think that we would give up, turn back, and head to our room for the night. At the very least, the kids should have been whining (although we sort of lucked out because they slept on the drive over) when faced with several more hours of:

• No food
• No water
• A two-mile walk in both directions…in the dark…with the last quarter mile over hardened lava

But we didn’t turn back and the kids didn’t whine (although my husband did carry my oldest son for the first part and both boys got piggyback rides on the walk back to the car).

And we saw lava flow into the ocean…

Behind a roped off area near the wiped-out town of Kalapana, we stood and watched nature’s fury. Occasionally, the lava would spurt into the air before arcing down to flow into the water. The heat even from about 50 yards away was intense and I felt no desire to get any closer than I already was.

After about thirty minutes of watching in near silence, our family held hands and picked our way back to our car. We drove in silence to a local 7-11 (the only business open late at night on Easter Sunday), bought Cheerios and Goldfish for our kids, and listened to them fall soundly asleep over their open containers on the drive home.

A perfect day.

So in case you hadn’t noticed, because perhaps it snuck up on you, next week begins the holiday travel season. My first-born (who is now on the downward slope of nine heading for ten so fast it makes my head spin) was half a year old for his first Thanksgiving and Christmas. At that time, blogs were in their infancy and I also hadn’t quite reached the stage in my relationship with the Interwebs that I automatically sought parenting information there. Which is to say that I never once looked up anything online about traveling with small children at the holidays. Some of this may have been hubris because we had taken a six-week road trip with Tommy during the preceding summer and I thought I knew it all. Some of it may have just been willful ignorance. And some of it may have been blinding fatigue.

In any event, I don’t remember seeking advice about planning or packing or gear or any of that – we just piled things into the car and went. Looking back now I realize that we had enough with us to amuse, clothe, and feed a flotilla of babies. My methodology was less “what essentials should I bring?” but “why shouldn’t I bring diapers for a month? Give me one good reason!”

I do wonder now at our fearlessness and energy. For Thanksgiving that year, we drove 9 hours each way to and from Vermont. And this was only a warm-up for Christmas, when we drove (in our small, smelly, stick-shift Saturn sedan) from Delaware to Wisconsin and back again. If you’re counting, that’s about 14 hours each way, probably more like 17 if you add in stops for nursing and diaper changes and so forth. My favorite part about this latter journey is that Matt and I decided there was simple no way we could go for ten days without Tommy’s exersaucer, which he loved to play in. So we actually borrowed a box to strap to the top of the car for the sole purpose of carrying this unwieldy piece of equipment. Could we have borrowed one in Wisconsin? Purchased one and donated it to a church for less than we paid in extra gas? Simply done without for that vacation? I’ll never know the answers to these questions, but I do know that the poor handling of the car gave us something to bicker and complain about for the duration of the drive.

It’s obvious that I didn’t need any travel advice!

Now that my children are older, it is in many ways much easier to travel with them. They are both used to long car trips (as I think I’ve made clear here, we started them young) and complain little even during marathon sessions on the New Jersey Turnpike when things have slowed to a crawl. They don’t require nearly as much special gear – huge car seats have been replaced with small boosters, there are no bottles or jars of baby food to think about, and diapers are of course a thing of the long-ago past. And (Hallelujah!) they can both read to themselves.

But if the physical side of family holiday travel is easier, the emotional side is less so. Like me, the boys now have memories and expectations. They want things to be the same from year to year – even when that is not possible. And they now pick up on the inevitable tensions that arise when lots of family members who don’t share the same opinions about much of anything are under one roof for days at a time. I love our holiday trips. But the shedding of baby gear has not necessarily meant that they any less complicated.

In any event, I’m grateful to all of those wonderful bloggers out there now telling parents how best to travel with their children at the holidays. There are so many amazing and practical tips that truly will make your life easier! But I still stay that the most essential pieces of holiday travel advice I have to offer those of you with little ones are these: Fear Not and Live In The Moment.

For ultimately, no matter what you forget, or how runny your child’s nose is, or whether or not naps get missed, or even if you have to listen to hours of yelling in the car, you will inevitably be glad that you went and you will remember and by grateful for the good and simple things. As I page through the photos of Tommy’s first holiday season and see him pictured with loved ones, especially those who are no longer with us, I know that this is true. And there is part of me that longs for that time, when I indulged in hours of worry about his sleep schedule and the ability to find the right brand of organic baby food, when wrapping paper was a toy, and when the holidays were distilled into the simple essence of a baby’s smile.

There are several things that make the Mom Blogger Camp a dream-worthy opportunity. Obviously number one is the location. Velas Vallarta offers beaches, pools, snorkeling, fruity drinks, a spa…and all the rooms for are one-bedroom suites that sleep four people, so if you’d like to bring your entire family, you can for only $300 per night – this rate includes not only your room and the conference sessions, but your meals as well. There’s also a kids club with activities for children aged 4 to 12 that’s included in the resort rate.

The second thing that makes me smile thinking about this conference is the chance to learn about everything from monetizing your site to taking better photographs to improving your writing from some top bloggers who are not only experts but really nice people (having been fortunate enough to meet a number of them on other occasions, I can vouch for this fact). In my experience, there’s really nothing like the chance to learn in person from people who are doing it right when it comes to blogging. That this conference will let you do so in a gorgeous setting is an added bonus.

I can’t make it to Mexico in January, but if you’re a blogger who writes about family travel, or just about your family, I recommend checking out this fabulous and very affordable opportunity (see here for more details on the pricing and what’s included).

In early November 2010, my then 14-month-old son Dek walked more than two feet for the first time. No he didn’t walk three feet, he walked clear across a room. Up until then he had just stumbled from one chair to another. Very hesitant, very unsure of himself. My husband Mike and I generally had to carry Dek most places when we traveled.

I was so relieved the day Dek took that stroll. We were leaving on a three-week trip to China at the end of the month and I didn’t want to have to carry Dek through the major and minor sights of Asia. I charged into our 14-hour plane ride ready to do some pacing up and down the aisles as Dek got his sea legs, so to speak.

After nearly two weeks of work for me and walking practice for Dek in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, we headed to Beijing. Now most people would not recommend Beijing in early December. While the southern part of the country is enjoying pleasant t-shirt wearing weather after a hot and sticky summer, the north is already bundling up in their best winter gear. Dek was about to learn how to walk in multiple layers and mittens.

The benefit of traveling in Beijing in the winter months is that you avoid a lot of the crowds. We got to explore sections of the Forbidden City all by ourselves. And I actually have photos from a popular section of the Great Wall with no one in the background.

With Dek more confident in his walking every day, we were able to explore many of Beijing’s historic sights in ways we never had before. I’m a “got to get there now and see it” kind of girl. Dek slowed us down. He had to check out the engravings we hadn’t even noticed on the steps at the Temple of Heaven. He most certainly needed to walk on over to the tiny windows and stick his head out at the Great Wall at Mutianyu. He needed to peer down into the frozen lakes of the Summer Palace and say hi to the ducks at Jingshan (Coal Hill.)

We brought a stroller most places, but for the most part it was useless. Ancient cobblestones and strollers just don’t mix. Plus, with the newfound use of his legs, Dek was pretty hesitant to be rolled along when there was so much to explore. We were happy to let him do it. In a land of some of the happiest people I have ever met, we could let him wander a few feet, testing his freedom and ability to finally take a few steps away from mommy and daddy.

Walking wasn’t always the smoothest ride of course. Little legs tend to stumble and oh boy did he take a fall our first day exploring. We were halfway through the Forbidden City when we stopped for a snack. Dek was making his way over to me, caught his foot on a stone and smacked the underside of his eye on a ledge. Wails could be heard for miles around. People stopped what they were doing to see what was happening. We were standing outside of the restroom so I’m sure more than a few people were a bit disturbed. There was nothing to do but scoop him up, give him a lot of hugs and kisses and make sure he hadn’t taken his eye out. No sooner were his tears gone that a giant purple welt started to appear. My beautiful boy was now going to have a black eye for the rest of our trip. The photographer in me cringed, the mother in me was so thankful it wasn’t worse than that. I’m not sure I was ready to take on the Chinese hospital system.

As far as memorable trips go, this one sure tops our list. How many mothers can look back on pictures of the Great Wall of China, get a little weepy, and say “this is where my son really learned how to walk?”

This week I’m recovering from a bit of minor surgery and have invited some of my writing friends to share their stories with you. This post comes from Amie O’Shaughnessy, the editor of CiaoBambino.com, a family travel blog and guide to the best kid-friendly hotels around the world. I’ve always dreamed of visiting Morocco and hope that you find these photos as inspiring as I do! Thanks Amie.

I’m still experiencing post-travel bliss after our recent 10-day adventure in Morocco.  Despite the significant political turmoil in North Africa, Morocco has remained stable and as a consequence, the flow of tourists is still strong.

This is good news for Moroccans as tourism is an important component of their economy. We quickly discovered that Morocco is a fantastic destination with school-age children as there are countless opportunities for cultural engagement like bartering in a souk and sharing a couscous tagine with a family in their home.

Thanks to the wondrous planning services of Kensington Tours, this was a family trip we’ll talk about forever. From trekking in the High Atlas Mountains to driving through spectacular, exotic scenery to camel riding in the Sahara Desert, there was never a dull moment.

For more Photo Friday posts, head over to Delicious Baby. And read more about Amie’s trip planning for Morocco.

Happy Monday dear readers. This week I’m recovering from a bit of minor surgery and have invited some of my writing friends to share their stories with you. This post comes to you courtesy of Debra Moffitt, author of the The Pink Locker Society series of books for tween girls and mother to three boys ranging in age from 5 to 15. She recently took a dreamy drive down to the Delaware beaches. Thanks for sharing Debra!

When you live in Delaware, the beach is always whispering in your ear.

Come on. Pack your bags and go. Everybody’s doing it.

The same I-95 highway sign that points to our biggest mall also says “Beaches.” Seagulls descend on the Acme parking lot, even in the state’s northernmost county where I live. But the shore isn’t exactly around the corner from my house. And beach traffic can be as off-putting as a bunch of mean girls standing at the door of a party. Sure, you want to go in, but really, have you got the guts?

Before you know it, a whole summer can blaze by without stepping a toe on the home state sands. So a recent summer-like Saturday in October basically screamed: YOUR LAST CHANCE.

I set out with my three sons, ages 5, 13, and 15 after packing lunch and a range of clothing options – from bathing suits to sweatshirts and long pants. Over empty roads, we zipped by harvested fields that had turned the color of straw. Our minivan sped to the coast in record time. We left at 11:43 and by 1:01, a sign welcomed us to Delaware’s beaches.

We stopped in Lewes, where the beach patrol office was boarded up, the restrooms were closed, and sand had drifted like snow over parts of the parking lot. There were plenty of spaces and no need to pay the meters, which were decommissioned on September 30.

We ate our peanut butter bagel sandwiches and hit the beach. A light ocean breeze and 75-degree temperature intoxicated. Being anywhere in the off-season feels like getting away with something. Ha-ha, no crowds, cheaper prices, and we have all this beauty and glory to ourselves!

The boys found a big patch of open sand and played football. I was able to drop into a chair and close my eyes, something I wouldn’t do in high season. I’d be too busy tracking and lifeguarding, scanning the surf for the bobbing heads of my three sons.

A good 15 minutes passed before the first argument broke up the football game. (Brotherly unfairness and bad calls abound even when only a flip flop marks the end zone.) So Nick, my 13-year-old, and Will, my 5-year-old, took a dip in the chilly ocean. They pretty much had the Atlantic to themselves. Lewes barely has any waves, an excellent choice when the beach is lifeguard-less.

As the boys splashed around, the sun overhead was already dipping west, another reminder that this was not July. When day tripping alone with the kids, I know full well that I ought not overdo it. The smart mom would have set some reasonable departure time and stuck to it. But after a couple hours in Lewes, the boys lobbied for the Rehoboth boardwalk, 10 minutes away. They changed into dry clothes in the van and we headed farther south.

On Labor Day, nearby Bethany Beach bids farewell to summer with a jazz-funeral-style parade. But as we rolled into Rehoboth, summer seemed alive, if on its last legs. Parking meters there were shrouded with blue sailcloth hoods, yet the boardwalk was buzzing with people and dogs. Rehoboth’s shops, from the upscale to the scrubby, were open for business and having a sidewalk sale. Half off all sunscreen and sand toys! Sunglasses and beachy bracelets could be had for $6. A black apron bearing the message – in rhinestones – “Martinis make my clothes fall off” was a standout on the clearance rack.

Wow, I thought, time to do some early Christmas shopping. But my 5-year-old wanted one more ocean encounter. I granted the older boys a half-hour of freedom on the boardwalk and Will and I took off for the beach. He roundly ignored my pleas of “We don’t have any more dry clothes!”

The boy cannot get enough ocean. We learned this a couple years ago in Maine, another time we visited the beach off-season. Come to think of it, we’ve traveled off-season quite a bit: New Orleans when it wasn’t Mardis Gras, a summer week at a winter resort in Pennsylvania, Thanksgiving in Baltimore. But this October day at the beach stood alone in a peculiar category of off-peak travel. We were helping shut down the place and it was as wistful as closing time.

My sons felt none of my melancholy. Time for dinner, they declared. We went to Nicola Pizza for the first time. We are usually Grotto Pizza people at the beach. The sign at the door said “Please wait to be seated,” but there was no wait at all, even at peak dinner time on a Saturday. The sweet, fresh tasting sauce distinguished this pie from its competitor across the street. Delish. We now have two pizza options in Rehoboth.

After dinner, the sky had darkened a shade and neon lights flickered on. I offered dessert and my older sons picked – what else? – Thrasher’s Fries. Some things were not on sale, even in autumn, and these fries scalded in peanut oil were one of them ($4.50 a cup). While they ate, I required one last stroll down the boardwalk, one more gaze out into the ocean with pink skies overhead.

Suddenly, I was as moony as Daisy in The Great Gatsby asking “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?” I had tried to soak in all the elements of our October beach day as we experienced them – the serenity of my eyes closed on the beach, the feel of warm sand giving way to cool sand underneath, and the imperfect brotherhood of my three sons. They had fought over football and French fries and who got to sit on which side of the table at the pizza restaurant. All in all, not their worst day.

Of course, we should have hit the road two hours ago. I don’t even love summer or hot weather and here I was hanging on too tight. The half-price taffy didn’t lie. Summer was gone and you had to look it in the face. The pang felt a little like watching my children get older. I usually avert my eyes. I don’t linger on questions like “When did my sons get old enough to walk the boardwalk alone?” or “How did our baby morph into a kindergartner who swims in the ocean?”

The ride home might have been a good time to mull it all over. But before we even clocked a mile, Nathan, my 15-year-old, asked to stop at the Rehoboth outlets. He wanted to look for something to wear to the homecoming dance. Sun-weary and dreading the drive, I said OK. He was, at least, a quick shopper.

Back on the road and finally pointed north, I said, “Nate, I wish you could drive home.”

“Next year,” he said, “I’ll be able to.”

Debra Moffitt is an editor at KidsHealth.org and the author of The Pink Locker Society series of books for tween girls.

This week I’ll be profiling some museums – both new to us and old favorites – that my family has visited over the past few months and which I haven’t yet written about on the blog. But today I’m dreaming of some all-time favorites, a collection of museums that my entire family would happily return to again and again if we had the chance.

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (Amherst, Massachusetts)

Don’t be fooled by the name of this museum: It’s not actually dedicated to the work of Eric Carle (although certainly his art is well represented in both the collection and the museum shop). No, this museum concerns the entire process of creating picture books and features many different artists and authors. Not only will you find the original paintings, drawings, and collages that ended up in some of both your own and your children’s favorite books, you’ll also have an opportunity to explore the history of individual picture books and see how the artists developed their ideas, then drafted, sketched, and mocked them up. There’s also a wonderful picture book library that you and your children can easily spend hours in as well as a light-filled studio space where children are encouraged to create their own enduring works of art.

Oxford Museum of Natural History (Oxford, England)

When this building was constructed as a temple to science, it was an era when people believed that the grandeur and meaning of a collection should be reflected in the building that housed it. Wander through this lovely museum and you’ll see carvings and ornamentation of leaves and other natural forms on the airy columns that hold up the glass ceiling, through which natural light pours. This exquisite building has been the happy destination of many a budding scientist for the past 150 years. Any child who loves dinosaurs, insects, sea life, rocks, or just collections of nifty natural things will be enchanted by the treasure trove to be found here. And of course, there’s the thrill of seeing the dodo famously encountered by Alice on her adventures in Wonderland, both in skeleton and stuffed form. There may be other natural history museums that are more up to date, but few that are more charming and engaging than this one.

Petersen Automotive Museum (Los Angeles, California)

What better place to explore the history of the automobile than on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles? Even if your child isn’t car crazy, I guarantee you’ll all enjoy this museum, which shares the evolution of car culture in what is arguably the world’s most car-centered city. You can check out the exhibit of famous cars from TV and the movies (including my own favorite, Herbie the Love Bug) and ogle the huge number of Hot Wheels cars on display. The Discovery Center on the third floor offer hands-on exhibits where kids can explore how cars work as well as the scientific principles of motion and force. Oh, and they can also sit on a California Highway Patrol motorcycle. (And if you’ve got a fossil lover in your family, the Page Museum right across the street has enough on display to satisfy any budding paleontologist.)

Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)

This may be my favorite art museum in the world to visit with kids. For one thing, It’s housed inside a former train station and so the building itself is a fun to explore. (Be sure to check out the interior views of the huge clocks that used to tell passengers arriving along the Seine whether or not they were late for their trains or other planned assignations.) Fans of the Impressionists will have a very happy time here, as the collection includes hundreds of paintings by artists like Monet, Degas, and Renoir; the lovely thing about this school of painting is that so much of it concerns everyday life in ways that children appreciate and enjoy. I also love the sculptures in the majestic main hall, at the back of which you will find an amazing scale model of the ornate Palais Garnier, Paris’ elaborate opera house. If your child gets tired of looking at the paintings and sculptures, you can go up on the roof and watch the boats passing on the Seine.

Delaware Children’s Museum (Wilmington, Delaware)

I’ve visited children’s museums across the United States from the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia to The Magic House in Saint Louis and I have to say that the First State may be small, but its children’s museum rivals bigger, more well-established children’s museums in a couple of ways. For one thing, there’s plenty of room to move around, and even when it gets crowded, it doesn’t feel claustrophobic. For another, the individual areas of the museum are designed to engage kids of varying ages, including older kids. I like that I can take my 9- and 6-year-old there together and they both have a great time without the older one losing interest. And best of all, the exhibits are kept up well and are spread out enough that children actually can (and do) focus on one thing at a time.

Wondering about how to keep your kids engaged at more “grown-up” museums? Here are some tips for taking your kids to art museums. You can also browse all of my posts about museums in the Museums and Zoos areas of my site.