Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

  After arriving in Nairobi the day before we headed out early to our first camp- the Elephant Bedroom Camp in Samburu National Park. I knew this would be a rough day. I usually build in a couple days of low key activities in a house where we control food and activity after a long haul flight to help with jet lag. But given the location and nature of this trip, we set straight out after less than a day in this time zone 9 hours ahead of ours (eek!). The big kids felt this hard and were really struggling the first couple days. Ollie got pretty sick on the bush flight and the first order of business upon arrival to the airstrip was an outhouse clean up- clothes unsalvageable. Ollie was an incredible trooper with no complaints when he then had to get in the safari car to get to camp. Plunge pool on our porch We were advised during our camp talk that the elephants would come right up to our tent and want to drink from our deck plunge pool. Sure enough, day 1, we are hanging out in the...

  Best part of HI- lanais I love Hawaii. It is a joy of a place to travel to. Weather is (almost) always fantastic. There are so many wonderful natural areas to explore. And because it's in the US it's so gosh darn easy to plan- or even wing it- on a trip to this place. For that reason, the Nelson Lilly's go there every 2 years and the kids and I LOVE it. This trip was no exception. Over the years we have gravitated to repeat Maui trips for a few reasons but in large part because of the incomparable Honua Kai condo resort in Kaanapali. It may seem a bit unlike us to love a destination because of the lodging but in Hawaii part of the game is relaxation and family time and when this can be combined with an incredible lanai from which one can watch whales breaching and the sun rising or setting? Well, that's perfection. So the states were high as I scoured the Big Island for a (nearly) equivalently marvelous condo resort. Thankfully I found a winner in the Halii Kai in the...