I want to get an early start on planning our vacation for this year, but I don't know what/where to go this year.
Got any suggestions? They have to be suitable for a 7 year old girl.
These are out:
Disney cruise - wife already went on a cruise and had a bad time.
Bahamas - No way I want to be there in the middle of summer, too much humidity and way to many mosquitoes (sp?).
Disney World - Went there in '04.

How bout an educational vacation. Washington D.C. see all the museums and monuments?

The two trips that have been in the back of my mind have been D.C. and Yellowstone.

Yellowstone would be fun. Always wanted to head out west.

Years back when I was about 14ish my family took a long vacation and basically looped around the united states in our van. It was the best experience ever. There are LOTS of great places to check out:

Badlands Nat'l Park, SD ( www.badlands.areaparks.com )

Yellowstone, of course.

Area 51 surrounds. Rachel, NV. Lots of touristy things and stuff. Neat.

Roswell, NM. nevermind, its kinda lame.

Carlsbad Caverns Nat'l Park. NM. http://www.nps.gov/cave/
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=Carlsbad+Caverns
VERY cool. Theres like an underground football field sized room, too. And huge underground giftshop and stuff. Elevators with clear walls take you down.

There were several mines (gold / limestone)between these places. One of them we actually 'mined' for gold and got to keep it (very tiny pieces sifted from dust). Another mine took us WAY down, it was awesome, but I can't remember where it was.

We also stopped in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City (stunk real bad) just to see it.

Come out to Oregon. Meet Crimpton and myself.

Actually Oregon is beautiful. Lots to see and do if you like nature. Also many great breweries.

Yellowstone and DC both sound great too. I need to visit both.

Depending on cost, you could also take a trip to Alaska. Everyone I know who has gone there loved it.

If your going to take a summer vacation head to Canada ,the weather scenery are beautiful ,head up to Calgary for the Stampede then drive to the rockies and stay at Banff .Chico.

Take a cruise to the Caribbean. I just got back a while ago. It was beautiful.

Or just come to Florida, the beaches are really nice down here.

I'd love to go on a cruise, but as stated above, the wife went on one in 05 and had a horrible time. Don't know if any of you remember, it was on the national news, but she went on a cruise on the Carnival Ecstacy. The news story was about how they loaded the ship up with passengers and went to dry dock in Progresso Mexico to have the engine repaired, without telling the passengers until they were nearly half way there. Well the wife was on the previous cruise, that the engine broke on.
I've always wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise, but, well, that's a cruise (see above paragraph).
I've thought about Oregon, don't they have tree houses you can stay in up there?
I'd love to go to Niagara Falls, but from what I saw, planning 6 months in advanced isn't enough time. Just about everywhere I looked was booked.
I would also love to go to the Carolina's, but the wife thinks I want to go there for other reasons (NASCAR shops). I've always wanted to go to Myrtle Beach.
I've thought about Vegas, the last time I was there was on our honeymoon, 13 years ago.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Myrtle Beach is pretty cool. I go down there with a group of friends every summer. Its full of shops and stuff, and I'd recommend renting moped bikes to scoot around town on, its a blast. Myrtle Beach is filled with lots of routy young people, so if you need a relaxing family vacation I'd recommend North Myrtle Beach, about 20 minutes north. You can still head down and see the attractions.

If you hit up yellowstone, make sure to give it at least a few days (we stayed there 2-3 days on our 3 week journey, and didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted), and take lots of hikes. Nothing like it in the world.

Chicago??? Had to say it.

Austin,

I had never heard about the tree houses, but wow you were right!:

http://bandb.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=bandb&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.treehouses.com%2Ftreehouse%2Ftreesort%2Fhome.html

In Oregon you also have:
The ocean (really cool getting a hotel there and waking up early at low tide and checking out the starfish and crabs. Lots of shops, small town feel)
Crater Lake (deepest lake in the world. Absolutely stunning)
numerous hiking, camping, kayaking places (do a google search for Hellsgate excusions (www.hellgate.com/splash). It's pretty cool).

There are plenty of things to do in Portland, and you could even drift to Seattle, Mt. St. Helens, or Mt. Ranier.

There are also smaller things like taking a trip to Marys Peak which is a 45 min windy drive up a mountain from where I live. Here is a photo of my grandfather and I at Marys Peak last summer.

56k Warning...HUGE photo:
http://www.msu.edu/~schaef60/MarysPeak.JPG

Ok I rambled enough.

Come to the Riviera Maya, in Mexico, Beautiful beaches, you coul'd visit, Xcaret, Cancun...youll love it.

Northern California is VERY nice. Biggest trees you'll ever see, too. I went a couple of years ago, and the coastal drive is very beautiful, with a few neat coastal towns along the way.

Colorado is also a pretty sweet place to go. There's plenty of places to visit there; we go almost every year. We've taken to Jeep trailing the past few times, and let me tell you what an awesome trip that is. My sister is nine, she loves it. It takes you to some really awesome places that not many people bother seeing. I really REALLY reccommend going. There's a pretty good book you can take with you if you do: http://www.4x4books.com/cb.htm

It's got a rundown of what the trail is like, what you'll see, and how hard it is to run it. It has more than several family trails you can visit, and maps to guide you.

And if trailing isn't your thing, places like Buena Vista, Telluride, and Ouray have tons of tourist attractions and beautiful views. Telluride is a pretty expensive looking town; I believe a few high profile people own homes in the hills there, and there's a rather nice golf course there, too, as well as having downtown, which is full of specialty shops and diners. There's two ways to get there, one is driving, the other is taking the air gondola! It's like a glass-enclosed ski lift that takes you down the mountain into Telluride itself. Really neat.

Ouray .. or somewhere near it .. I don't remember, but it's where they shot a scene for a John Wayne movie in a park located there.

Course, on the other side of the mountains, it's a bit drier, and there's less to see, but there's a national park there for the great sand dunes, which I went to last year. Those are some BIG piles of sand, too.

Colorado's full of stuff, and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a complete change from the norm, too, and you'll never forget it. I know when I was a kid, going my first time, I always wanted to go back. It's a truly memorable family vacation.

I found the pictures we took under a different user name on my computer!

Sand dunes - http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/_phoenix3/Colorado/e9d3546e.jpg

That's my sister and her friend that she met while we were there the year before. We met the girl's family on a trail and we've been driving trails with them ever since.

Jeeping Photos - http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/_phoenix3/Colorado/DSC01480.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/_phoenix3/Colorado/DSC01573.jpg

Snow in July! - http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/_phoenix3/Colorado/DSC01566.jpg

My sister with the chipmunks at St. Elmo - http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/_phoenix3/Colorado/DSC01470.jpg

St. Elmo is one of the family trails in that book. It's an old ghost town that's being rebuilt. Part of it burned a couple of years ago, after we'd been there that year.

There's a couple more here: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/_phoenix3/Colorado/

I think there's one of Elephant Rock, a completely natural rock formation, and an old railway tunnel, plus some scenery.

Sorry, kinda hijacked the thread, but I LOVE Colorado every time I go.

my wife and I are planning to visit Oregon in the next year or so. She is interested in the Sisters Quilt show but I need to get up to Mcminnville to the Evergreen Aviation museum, which houses the largest aircraft ever made, Howard Hughes H-1 Hercules, more widely known as the "Spruce Goose"

Badlands National park is another spot we intend to hit in order to take in Mt Rushmore, the Crazy Horse memorial and Devils Tower.
We're also intersted in checking out Las Vegas (I wanna go for the SEMA show) but there is also Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and close enough to the south rim of the Grand Canyon (which I think everyone oughta see before their time is up) Grand Canyon is the one sight they say will never disappoint...no amount of pictures can ever do it justice.
The Carolina beaches are awesome. Myrtle Beach is beautiful in the spring and fall but crowded as all heck in the summer...the Outer Banks in NC is like the beach that went on forever, and dont miss the Wright Bros Memorial park while in Kitty Hawk.
Washington DC is great if you dig the museum thing (you can check out the various Smithsonians until you drop in your tracks) but there are a huge amount of things to see...your 7yr old would probably love the National Zoo...just be prepared for tough traffic and parking (big hint...leave your car in the hotel parking deck and take the tour tram)

I'm really looking forward to Chicago in a couple months (1st week of April)
hope you guys pick a good one!

Tbat,

The Badlands sounds awesome. I'd like to visit.

The Grand Canyon was awesome. I loved it.

I'm going to Vegas in early Feb.

Chicago is the best. You'll have a blast.

You're not alive until you pass trough an express kidnap in Mexico City, so if you like xtrem sports come to visit...

Cleveland!... rock and roll hall of fame.
just kidding. not a whole lot around here.

Chicago was really cool when I went for Formula D drifting & auto show (with exception to being a bit too ricey, it was pretty cool). The Sears Tower is quite neat as well. I'm not really sure what else there is to do in the city. We camped at Indiana Sand Dunes State Park, about 35 minutes from downtown.

Forgot to mention Mt. Rushmore and Grand Canyon, too. Note: Unless you're going down into the canyon for hikes and stuff, don't plan more than two days there. Theres nothing to do except say "oooo neat" from the rim of the canyon.

Alaska!!!

Beautiful place, and the only down side is the drivers in anchorage got their DLs out of a cracker jack box they are some of the worst drivers I have ever seen. side note, you can drive down a street in the middle of Anchorage, and literally be close enough to wild moose that you can almost reach out and touch one!! pretty cool

I've been to Anchorage many times and have yet to see a live moose!

Alaska is a nice place to go. If your go to Anchorage may I suggest staying at the Hotel Captain Cook, have a halibut sandwich at Humpy's and a brew at Glacier Brewhouse it's down the street from the hotel.

hey don't forget to go to the fantasies on 5th for a drink and tell me how it is...wait, you can't go there, I forgot it's an "adult establishment" but seriously, Humpy's and the Glacier Brewhouse are excellent choices, also the Chair 5 Restaurant at Alyeska Resort they have great food and an awesome view! and don't forget to check out Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine there where you can pan for gold!!(If you decide to go to AK)