I actually got to visit alot of places while on vacation with my family when I was young. For several years, we had a big family vacation each summer. Once we went to Colorado, once to Michigan, once to New Mexico and once to Florida (that was actually for a funeral but we went to Disney World so we could call it a vacation). By far, the place I visited most was California. Usually I would go to Disneyland but, once upon a time, the family car packed with 9 people went to San Francisco.

We’ve all heard Bill Cosby talk about San Francisco (if you haven’t, you MUST) and he does not exaggerate when he talks about the hills. Of all the things to do in San Francisco, my dad decided we would go down the curviest street in the world and so we proceeded to Lombard Street. The curves are tiny and they plant flowers along the sides to mark where your grave will be when you die there. At least that’s how we felt as we slowly snaked our boat of a station wagon HAULING A TRAILER down the street. Even if my dad had not chosen to ignore the sign that says trailers aren’t allowed, we couldn’t have turned back since everybody else who went on vacation that summer also decided to go down this street. We were all white knuckling it but we finally made it to the bottom without running down the flowers.

Now if you actually want something fun to do, go to the San Diego zoo. What I remember most about that place was the fact that it was beautiful. I’m perpetually exposed to ‘beautiful mountain vistas’ (read: dead hills) and ‘gorgeous sunsets’ (read: smog filled air) of Arizona so I know ugly when I see it. I saw no ugly at this place. It was the perfect temperature (I suspect they ran air conditioning out there) and all the animals were out (which they won’t do during an AZ summer). For the first time, I actually saw the animals my local zoo claims to have but which I had never seen.

Summer is coming up so if you need family vacation ideas, now is the time to start looking. Trusted Tours and Attractions can be one of the resources you use. You can sign up for their newsletter and have them think up ideas for you. If you sign up soon, you’ll be entered in a drawing for an iPod nano. The offer ends March 31, 2008.