Socal Stuff: Reviews by Donna Schwartz Mills

Summer Travel: Get Road Ready Contest

We had big plans for our summer vacation this year: We were going to visit my husband's family in Wales.

That may not sound like much (given how many times we HAVE traveled to see my in-laws over the years). Let's change the emphasis: We had big plans for our SUMMER vacation.

You see, we have not been to the UK in the summer since Megan was a 1st grader (she just finished her first year of middle school). We tend to go in the winter, when flights are cheap. Unfortunately, that's also when the weather is cold and dreary, many of the tourist attractions are closed, and the sun starts to set around 4:00 p.m.

I really wanted to go this summer, but it was not meant to be. With crude oil at record highs and the American dollar at record lows, traveling to Europe is simply too expensive for our family this year (even though we save on hotels by staying with family).

So instead of one big vacation, we are taking several little road trips.

The folks at Ask Patty (the women's automotive website) and GetRoadReady.com produced this nifty video with tips to help you prepare for a family road trip:

GetRoadReady.com is a terrific resource for planning a vacation on the road: It's got a Rand McNally trip planning tool, which offers suggestions of attractions to see along the way... checklists... and games you can download for the kids.

I'm fortunate that my daughter is an excellent traveling companion. She has to be: We've been packing her off on trans-Atlantic flights since she was an infant... and she has to sit quietly in a car for seven hours to see my side of the family.

She's good. She's really good. But she's still a kid, and an only child at that -- and she gets bored. For years, I resisted the idea of buying her any kind of handheld game consoles (after all, I didn't have anything like that when I was growing up; why does she need one?)...

...and then, the kind folks at Nintendo gave us each one. And the first time we made the drive from Los Angeles to Sacramento, I was in shock: The DS kept her occupied and happy. We were even able to play games together, using the WiFi function (and made up some of our own using PictoChat).

All I could think was: Why didn't I get one of these for her sooner?

And now, we prepare for a family road trip by getting the car checked out... packing lots of snacks... and including lots of games for our Nintendo DS.

So, in honor of the start of summer road trip season, I am having a contest. I will be giving away TWO first prizes of a Nintendo DS PLUS their new Crosswords DS game (where your kids and YOU can test your word play skills on a variety of puzzles, word searches and anagrams)... AND I'm giving away one second prize of a Get Road Ready kit, with a variety of products to make getting there easier.

To Enter: I want to hear about YOUR most memorable road trip! You may tell me about it in a comment to this post, or write about it on your own blog and then link to it in a comment on this post.

Each comment with a road trip story (between now and June 30) will be an entry in a random drawing, with winners announced on July 1.

Get ready - get set - go!

Driving Miss Peachy: Mario Kart Wii

Disclosure: I am one of the blogging moms who is part of the Nintendo Ambassador program, and have enjoyed receiving review copies of their games for the Wii and the DS.

I would write about the games more often, but for one thing: the minute my daughter sees that a new one has arrived, she pounces on it -- and I'm lucky to ever see it again.

I've been trying to convince her that SHE should start writing game reviews for me, but so far, that sounds too much like homework to her. So you will just have to wait for my somewhat late reviews of the ones I eventually get to play with.

But if Megan and I are often found fighting over who is going to play with what game, my husband manages to stay out of it. He's just not that into it. Sure, he enjoys challenging himself to downhill skiing on our Wii Fit (a thorough review to be published here later)... and he has been known to actually beg the rest of us to play Wii Tennis with him (when he remembers we own a Wii). But game playing just isn't first on his list of fun things to do with the family...

...so I chuckled to myself when my friends at Nintendo asked if my husband would enjoy opening a Mario Kart Wii on Father's Day.

"I don't know," I told him. "But I do know my daughter would enjoy it."

So when the new toy arrived last week, I did not hold it for Father's Day. Sure enough, the kid glommed onto it immediately, and pronounced it "way cool." Then she began nagging the two of us to play it with her.

And now, my husband is a Mario Kart Maniac.

WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT MARIO KART WII:

* It's a classic.Who doesn't like playing Mario Kart? (I realized after seeing the game that it had many of the same tracks as the old Mario Kart for the GameCube, which my husband has played many times with our nephews in the UK. He loved it several years ago; of course he's loving it now that we have our own updated version for the Wii.)

* It's got several cool new tracks. All your old Mario Kart favorites are there (with updated graphics) plus several new ones.

* The Wii Wheel adds a new dimension to the game. This is a wonderful innovation. Of COURSE a driving game should be driven with a steering wheel. Duh.

* You don't actually need the Wii Wheel. Additional wheels may be purchased separately, but you can use the Wii remotes and nunchuks you already own to enjoy multi-player local games of up to four people.

* You don't actually have to be in the same home to play against your friends. You can connect with up to 12 friends over the Internet.

WHAT WE DON'T LIKE ABOUT MARIO KART WII:

So far, I've got nothing to report here! I think we're going to have to play it a lot more... Let me get back to you AFTER Father's Day.