Staycation Ideas » Indoor Staycation Ideas

Green Staycation Ideas

Paul — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:21:26 +0000

Happy Earth Day!

In celebration of Earth Day and school vacation week in Reading, Massachusetts, Wickedlocal.com has provided some “green” staycation ideas.

Start a garden – Besides saving on your grocery bill, this is a great way to help reduce pollution.
Build Habitat – Make houses for birds
Walk or Bike – Find a bike trail or park and explore your town.
Take Transit – Use public transportation to local family friendly staycation destinations
Try a recycled craft – Use items that you would normally discard and turn them into unique creations. Recycle old clothes into quilts or make your own new craft paper by tossing your old paper into a blender.
Energy scavenger hunt. Use a kill-a-watt meter to test your appliances and electronics. Encourage your kids to participate and help identify which items can be unplugged when not in use.
Explore your town – be a tourist in your home town. Go spend time at the top tourist destinations for your local area. Greenhouses, park and playgrounds are great options for enjoying the spring weather.

I’d encourage your to read Wickedlocal.com other thoughts on enjoying a green staycation. You can do so here:

Green thoughts on vacation week – The Reading Advocate

Build a wooden toy boat

Paul — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:02:58 +0000

I remember once as a boy staying at a friend’s house when his dad helped my friend and me to build a small wooden toy boat. We built the toy boats in my friend’s garage and took the boats down to local canoe landing on a small creek. 20 years later and it is one of my fondest childhood memories.

Yesterday afternoon I had the kids to myself for a few hours while my wife went shopping with some of her friends. For the first hour, we kind of stared at each other trying to think of something to do to keep us busy for a few hours, when suddenly my childhood memory came rushing back.

We headed down to our local Home Depot for some free scrap wood. When Home Depot custom cuts wood for customer, they leave the scrap wood in a cart. If you ask nicely enough you can usually pick through the scrap wood and pick up some good small project wood for free. I also picked up a wooden dowl for the stack and some eyelets to attach some string to when we decide to water test our craft.

I kind of had a template in mind when I started this project. I wanted our boats to look something like this:

I’ll be honest with you, our wooden toy boats are still a work in progress. I’m hoping to complete them today and I’ll post some pictures of our results. Hopefully, I can also take some pictures of us launching our boats in a local stream. I wanted to get this post up so you can start working on your own boats as well.

By the way, I grabbed the photo above from http://www.craftkitsandsupplies.com which has the above kit for $3.60. Here is a link to the boat kit: Woodcraft Kit – Tug Boat Kit.

Staycation Ideas for Kids

Cincinnati Staycation Ideas

Paul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:39:40 +0000

Are you looking for some ideas for things you can do in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio and northern Kentucky on your summer staycation. Here is small list I put together. I have to give credit to the CincyMoms.com forum for some of these ideas:

Visit the Cincinnati Zoo (voted #1 family attraction in Cincinnati)
Newport Aquarium
Stay a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason (indoor waterpark)
How can you forget, King’s Island ?
Drive to the Kentucky Horse Park
Mammoth Caves
Six Flag’s Kentucky Kingdom
Columbus’s COSI isn’t too far away.
Hocking Hills makes a nice weekend getaway
Hueston Woods State Park is a great staycation destination
The Beach Water Park is a great way to cool off on your hot staycation
Have you been to CoCo Key in Cincinnati yet?
We love visiting the Cincinnati Museum Center
Coney Island is home to Sunlite Pool – the world’s largest recirculating swimming pool!

Do you have some other ideas? Be sure to submit your staycation idea or you can comment on this post to let me know of other great staycation ideas for Cincinnati.

Stay at a Bed and Breakfast

Paul — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:50:05 +0000

One staycation idea that has had quite a bit of popularity is to enhance your local vacation experience by staying at a local hotel. In fact, I’ve mentioned before how hotels are providing discounts and coupons for local residents.

Now, I am a professional piot. As a professional pilot, I have stayed in A LOT of hotels. After a while, they all start to look the same. Same beds, same food and same pool. So when I get a break from professional traveling, and get to travel for fun, the last thing I want to do is go stay at just another boring hotel.

So why not trying stay at a bed and breakfast?

I remember when I was young, one of my most memorable vacations was staying at a Amish Bed and Breakfast in Berlin, Ohio. As a kid, I enjoyed the fact that it felt like you were visiting a long lost relative’s home. I loved meeting and talking to the owner’s of the house and also the other guests. It is a much warmer, friendly environment than a hotel chain.

Find a local Bed and Breakfast.

A great tool for finding a local Bed and Breakfast is to go to Bed and Breakfast.com. You can enter a destination, enter a date and do a search. You can also purchase Bed and Breakfast gift cards, what a great gift idea!

Here’s a good example of a recent local bed and breakfast staycation search. I’m in Indianapolis, Indiana on a business trip and did a search for a local Bed and Breakfast. I discovered the Wheeler House Bed and Breakfast. Located only 20 minutes south of Indianapolis,IN and 40 minutes north of Bloomington’s Indiana University. The Wheeler House is the boyhood home of well know Indiana Empressionist Artist, Clifton Wheeler. Thought to be his first mural, is panoramic view of the Mooresville countryside in the late1800′s/ early 1900′s. Other aminities in this restored 1895 Victorian Home are a Tea Room, Book Store, and Antique Store. All three B&B rooms are decorated with antiques, antique furniture, and collectibles. they each feature private baths and inroom movies. Included with your stay is a 50% dicount at the Silver Owl Teriputic Massage located on property. Massage services are also available in room at no extra charge. For your shopping pleasure, four other Antique Stores are only 2 blocks away.

See how easy that was? Find a local Bed and Breakfast near you for your staycation today!

Reading Staycation

Paul — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:26:57 +0000

When my wife and I go on vacation usually we have much different ideas about what makes a great vacation. On my ideal vacation, we do as much as physically and humanely possible in a single day. We visit every site, every attraction and take in as much as possible of our new location. My wife’s ideal vacation? Sit by the beach and read.

Although we won’t be able to sit by beach and read this summer, we will be able to sit in our backyard and read while on our staycation. I actually just finished a book by John Grisham and I highly recommend it, it was The Innocent Man and unlike a lot of the books by Grisham, this one was non-fiction!

I think my next book that I will read will probably be one of these. You can use this Amazon carousel widget to browse through these bestselling books. Enjoying your reading staycation.

Have a International Food Week!