Recently in Diversions Category

What makes or breaks a summer vacation? In my experience, it's all about the hotel room layout.

I once spent three sleepless nights in a San Diego hotel with my twins when they were 4 months old. The room was a standard, double-queen studio, with the babies in portable cribs at the foot of each bed. Nobody got much sleep, with all of us in one square room, and it took me several years to pluck up the courage to try again.

Since then, I have learned that a separate alcove, sitting area or adjoining room, where the kids can fall asleep in their own space, makes a huge difference in how well everyone sleeps.

Here are five Southland destination hotels that offer a little something extra for traveling families:

Harbor House Inn
104 Bath St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
888-474-6789
http://www.harborhouseinn.com
This hotel has nontraditional rooms that feel more like small apartments. To boot, they keep a fleet of bikes and beach cruisers for guests to use during their stay.

Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort 3075 Carlsbad Blvd.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
800-235-3939
www.carlsbadinn.com
Junior Suites have a kitchenette and separate seating area with a sofa bed. Plenty of free entertainment and activities.

Blue Iguana Inn
11794 N. Ventura Avenue
Ojai, CA 93023
(805) 646-5277
www.blueiguanainn.com
I have not actually stayed here, but they seem to have a lot of rooms with separate sitting areas and fold-out futon beds. That makes sense because the owner told me that the building was once an apartment complex.

Best Western Hacienda Hotel Old Town4041 Harney St
San Diego, CA 92110
619-298-4172
http://www.haciendahotel-oldtown.com/
This hotel is perfect for a family of three. Most of the standard rooms have a small sitting area with a twin-size pull out couch. It didn't work well for us - my daughters kept falling into one another all night and kept everyone awake.

Anabella Hotel
1030 W. Katella Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92802
(714) 905-1050
www.anabellahotel.com
Most hotels located near Disneyland have multiple room options to accommodate large families. But the Anabella stands out even among this group of lodgings, with online diagrams of all six of its room configurations.

See my full story from Sunday's paper: http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_9292447?IADID

We ran a story yesterday about summer camps nationwide seeing enrollment drop. I called around to local camps across the region and they say campers are still coming, either because camp is one the last last expenses parents cut, or because families have cancelled big, pricey vacations are are doing camp instead. Here's more:

Despite job worries and rising expenses, parents in the San Fernando Valley are scraping together the money to send their kids to camp - even if it means scrapping the family vacation.

"When the economy is recessed, there are many parents who cancel a big family trip that they would take when times are good," says Saul Rowen, owner of Cali-Camp, a 53-year-old day camp located on 20 acres in Topanga Canyon.

He's expecting about 500 children this summer, up from 420 a year ago.

Eric Naftulin, whose Aloha Beach Camp at Paradise Cove gives kids an introduction to marine life for about $100 a day, also is expecting an increase in enrollment.

"People cut back on this or that in an economy like this, but they still want to give their kids child care and a day-camp experience," he said.

Tumbleweed Day Camp saw a spike in the number of parents who made $500 deposits in December to take advanced of an early-registration discount, said Herb Toplan, assistant executive director.

But he said parents also cut back on the length of time their kids will be attending the camp, in the Santa Monica mountains above Brentwood.

"Last summer they may have done nine weeks; this year they may do four."

At $690 a week, that translates into big savings.

Since my kids started preschool more than a year ago, I’ve been meaning to blow off everything and go to the movies at least once while they are in school. I still have not achieved that dream, but I’m still hoping. What would you do with three hours to yourself? Vote in our poll:

Thoughts of how much work I'll need to put in to my daughters' tea party have kept me up the last few nights. I'm not kidding -- planning a really cool kids birthday party without spending a lot is tricky. It's all the details that scare me.

So imagine my excitement when this press release landed in my email: a new cable series, "Cool Kids Parties'' premieres March 8 on Fine Living Network (somehow, I don't think we get that one at our house, but I'm looking in to it). There are episodes on a cooking party, mad scientist party, and a surprise teacher appreciation party (a spa theme, complete with relaxing chair, robe, slippers and fanning - would this go over in the LAUSD?)

Anyway, any help is appreciated in the party department. Oh how I long for the days of pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs and cake.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR BECOMING A PARENT

Lesson 1

Go to the grocery store.

Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

Go home.

Pick up the paper.

Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already
are parents and berate them about their:

Methods of discipline.

Lack of patience.

Appallingly low tolerance levels.

Allowing their children to run wild.

Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding,
sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it, because it will be the last time in your life you will have
all the answers.

Lesson 3

To discover how the nights will feel...

Walk around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing
approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or s ome other
obnoxious sound) playing loudly.

At 10PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until
1AM.

Set the alarm for 3AM.

As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink.

Go to bed at 2:45AM.

Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

Sing songs in the dark until 4AM.

Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years.

Look cheerful.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...

Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all
summer.

Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

Then rub them on the clean walls.

Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

Buy an octopus and a sma ll bag made out of loose mesh.

Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang
out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a jar of paint, turn it
into an alligator.

Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape
and a piece of aluminum foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas
candle.

Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty packet of Cocoa
Puffs.

Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower .

Lesson 7

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it
out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like
that.

Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.

Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back
seat.

Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

There. Perfect.

Lesson 8

Get ready to go out.

Wait outside the bathroom for half an hour.

Go out the front door.

Come in again. Go out.

Come back in.

Go out again.

Walk down the front path.

Walk back up it.

Walk down it again.

Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.

Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6 questions about every
cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect
along the way.

Retrace your steps.

Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors
come out and stare at you.

Give up and go back into the house.

You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9

Repeat everything at least (if not more than) five times.

Lesson 10

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can
find to a pre-school child. (A full- grown goat is excellent).

If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.

Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight.
Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.

Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having
children.

Lesson 11

Hollow out a melon.

Make a small hole in the side.

Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the
swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month old baby.

Lesson 12

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney,
the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on T V for at least five
years.

Lesson 13

Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost pile. Dig down about halfway
and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a day for at least two
years.

Lesson 14

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying "mommy" repeatedly. (Important:
no more than a four second delay between each "mommy"; occasional
crescendo
to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your
car
everywhere you go for the next four years.

You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 15

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually
tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the "mommy"
tape made from Lesson 14 above. You are now ready to have a conversation
with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is very last minute, but I was at Children's Book World today (buying birthday presents of course -- for kids not my own) and saw that L.A. Parent magazine is soliciting 1,000 word essays by mothers who have something to say about the hilarious absurdity that is parenthood. The deadline is Friday, Feb. 15! So if you have a funny story to tell, go to http://losangeles.parenthood.com to enter the contest. The winner will get to read with Momcelebs -- could be a way to start that stay-at-home career.

Hanging around my neighbor's house this evening, I had what I'll call a mini-epiphany: Moms -- and Dads too -- aren't having much fun these days. I got to thinking about this after spending a pleasant hour or so talking to said friend as all the kids, and there are a lot of them, watched a video. It is so rare that we simply hang out, let the kids be kids, and just talk among ourselves. But it seems so necessary, too.

I remember my parents' evening ritual. It would start around 6 pm, when my Dad got home. They would take a good half hour to enjoy a drink and share some undivided attention together before the chaos of dinner, bath, homework and whatever else broke the mood. The kids were not to be in the living room during that period, and they didn't have videos to put us in front of. We just did it, because if we didn't, there were consequences. Why have things changed?

I went looking for answers at the Web site of Christie Mellor, an L.A. mother of two and author of "The Three-Martini Playdate.'' In her book, she asks: ''How did children become the center of the universe? You were here first. Parents, it's time to right the balance. Time to take charge. TIme to enjoy your life.''

I could not agree more. What's your view?

Here's my story in today's Daily News, about all the mommy TV shows in development:

Suddenly, moms are hot.

And not just the size-zero, sex-goddess moms stereotyped to perfection in shows such as "Desperate Housewives" and "The O.C." Now, real-life mothers are being wooed by television producers and marketers.

FULL STORY

TV execs see big potential in daytime programs such as "The View" and reality shows pitting hypercompetitive alpha moms against one another.

"Do you expect the best for yourself and demand the same for your kids?" a casting call sent out by NBC Universal last month asks.

As Peachhead's Linda Perry e-mailed earlier, this weekend wraps up Spa Week and many spas are offering special $50 treatments.

Example, LeSpa at Sofitel (across from Beverly Center) has a 50-minute Radiate Freshness Facial for all skin types on special for $95, originally: $125.

I'm still dying to try a chocolate treatment, like they do at the Gauthier Total Image Spa in Sherman Oaks. Mmmm. Don't know if they are participating.

Chill Out L.A. has a list of participating spas, so what are you waiting for? Of course you deserve it!!!

Is it me, or have museums, theaters and parks finally realized that their only hope of getting busy L.A. parents out to spend some money on the weekend is if they make things super kid friendly? A quick glance this morning at GoCityKids' event listings revealed a dizzying cornocopia of things to do - and that was just for events today.

There's a faery hunt in Franklin Canyon, a bunch of movies (I love Jungle Book) and a family smoothie-making session at The Huntington Library. Barbie will make an appearance at the L.A. Zoo to promote her new movie (she has to stay competitive with her archrivals, the Bratz), and kids can win Mattel toys (what else are they going to do with all those recalled plastics?)

Of course, I probably won't actually go to any of these things. I'll be lucky if I make it to the 99 cents only store to buy a bottle brush. But just reading about all this culture makes me feel like I'm participating!