Family Friendly: January 2007 Archives

Snow in southwestern Pennsylvania has been scarce so far this winter, but that didn't stop senior editor Norie Quintos and her sons from enjoying a late December visit to the Laurel Highlands:

Okay, so it wasn't as white and wintry as I would've liked, but the optimistic, hard-working folks at Seven Springs Mountain Resort were assiduously making snow and determined vacationers were skiing on it. We opted for the far-less-technical snow tubing down ice-slick runs—get there before 10 a.m., as tickets ($11 per person for a two-hour time slot) can sell out.

We love it when chief researcher Marilyn Terrell shares her family's travel tales and tips. This week, she gives the scoop on unaccompanied minors on Amtrak:

Have you ever had a week when your friends abandon you and refuse to sit with you at lunch? Well, our sixth-grader James recently had a week like that, and my husband and I were trying to think of something that would cheer him up when his big sister Emma (who lives in New York) called with the perfect solution: She had scored two awesome seats to the Giants-Eagles game that Sunday afternoon in the Meadowlands, and asked if James would like to go. The problem was getting him to New York and back. His older siblings had flown alone when they were nine and ten, but further away than New York. A train made more sense from D.C., but they have multiple stops with people getting on and off, and there are no flight attendants; who would keep an eye on him?