Imagined Thoughts

By Roger Munns

 Choosing the right holiday destination can be a nightmare - but for a family holiday Santo Tomas could be the answer.

Santo Tomas is located in Menorca, the second largest of Spain’s three Balearic Islands - the other two islands are Majorca and Ibiza.

Daytime summer temperatures are often in the mid seventies farenheit to low eighties, and the weather in Menorca usually stays consistent for the peak tourist months.

Santo Thomas is some 15 miles frpm Menorca’s Mahon Airport. and is between between Cuitadella and Mahon, both larger towns and both worth visiting during a holiday in Menorca.

Staying in peaceful Santo Thomas allows for relaxation, and the opportunity to take side trips to these municipalities. This resort town is also within walking distance of a beautiful beach at nearby San Bou.

The town is actually on the south coast of Menorca and is quite popular with Spanish and British tourists. The lure of the beach and its attendant tropic-like charms see tourists regularly return for second, third and more holidays.

The beach area in Santo Thomas offers popular busier stretches and quaint hideaways. At 3 km long, it’s never overcrowded and offers protection with its surrounding sand dunes. The beach, patrolled for safety, is long and narrow. It offers an excellent swimming habitat, fine sand and warm surf. Scenic countryside and woods provide a backdrop to the sand and the Mediterranean waters.

There are small shopping centers in the area and mini-markets. Supermarkets are available for stocking your villa or studio apartment - there are also good hotels in Santo Thomas that offer nightly entertainment after a day of sun. Hotel restaurants offer a variety of Spanish eating as well.

Local shopping for island souvenirs is available. There is also bus service during peak season to Mahon and Ciutadella for more extensive shopping. You can also visit the Wednesday market in Migjorn Gran or the Sunday one in Mercadal, two areas close to Santo Thomas.

Because it caters to families, Santo Thomas offers activities to suit all tastes. There are organized activities for children, as well as tennis, mini-golf, and horseback riding. Because the island is surrounded by water, you can choose from many water sports. Certainly you can fill your day in a variety of ways that only a beach community can offer.

Menorca and the quiet, easy-paced town of Santo Thomas encourage R & R in a beautiful atmosphere. When a hyper-paced holiday is exactly what you do not want, this town provides the alternative. Here you can walk and wander, away from the hectic routine that spurred your vacation in the first place.

A beach paradise, Santo Thomas is downtime and fun time combined. While the kids cavort, you can catch rays and read as a Mediterranean breeze wafts over you.

That’s what Santo Thomas is all about: surf, sun, sand, and refreshing Mediterranean sea.

So if you’re not sure yet where to take your family holiday this summer - consider Santo Tomas on the Mediterranean island of Menorca.

Photographs and more information for Menorca are at yourmenorca.net

The holidays information site has details of Menorca holidays including Mahon airport photos for familiarisation before a trip and airlines who have Menorca flights plus a category for Menorca property

Perfect as They All Come in a Travel Stroller
By Chris Jensen

 After 13 hours of labor, my daughter arrived. Since she’d gotten wedged around the pubic bone and took two hours to get out, there was a whole team of doctors there to make sure she was OK. And she was OK. And she had two severely clubbed feet. The doctor described it as a “packaging defect”. It wasn’t genetic. It wasn’t environmental. It was merely a symptom of how she’d sat in utero. That didn’t make it any easier.

Precious perfect firstborn she had golf-club shaped feet at 90 degree angles to her legs. We sat through the lectures and advice. We took her to her first orthopedist at 5 days old. She was in corrective casts up to her hips before she was a week old. Being a January baby, we managed the first weeks fine. She wore long dresses and onesies that concealed the feet.

With spring, however, she couldn’t wear so many layers. The worst moment was when taking her for a walk at the mall, and a nice matronly woman started cooing at my daughter. My daughter beamed up at her. The woman then said, “Oh, and let me tickle those cute little toes.” Her face changed when she pulled the blanket back and saw the two casts. “Oh, my God, how on Earth did you break these baby’s legs?” And everyone in earshot stared at me.

Stammered that she had a specialist, it was doctors’ orders, but she had already marched off from what she deemed an abusive mother. Later took to carrying my pediatrician and orthopedists’ cards along to whip out if confronted again. If they had questions, they could ask the doctor. Fortunately, no CPS worker ever came by.

After six months of corrective casts and another year of corrective shoes, my daughter’s feet were pronounced “fixed”. She learned to walk late, but was running and climbing everything within weeks. She is now an active acrobatic two year old who has climbed everything in the house but the fridge.

Unlike other birth defects, ours was “fixable”. Downs’ syndrome can’t be undone. Heart defects require terrifying surgery and constant worry. In that regard, we are utterly blessed. It wasn’t until my son was born that I realized how different it was to have a “normal” baby. It wasn’t until I had him screaming that I realized the depression I’d had with my daughter. And how much easier it was to take him into public, without the fear and worry that taking her into public had wrought. “Perfect”. Ten fingers. Ten toes. All the body parts in the right place.

It’s such an amorphous ideal. Yet we don’t realize how much can possibly go wrong until it does. And how precious that health and vitality is until you realize how tenuous it is.

Chris Jensen is a contributing author and editor of Jetfly Blog. For more related articles and views visit Jetfly Family & Parenting Blog now. Also, for the best up-to-date related online products, check out Jetfly Travel System Strollers Shop for todays current online deals.

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How to Ensure Your Florida Family Vacations Go Smoothly
By Joe Collinsworth

 Clark Griswold may have been a crazy man, but he sure could’ve used our family travel tips when it came to their family vacations.

When you bust your butt (well, some people) working hard throughout the year, always going, never stopping, ensuring a smooth family vacation is something that you must have. Otherwise you will be excited to go back to work just to get a break.

Although vacation time is coming to an end, family travel and the holidays are right around the corner and planning those vacations now along with spring breaks are always a smart way to go.

Therefore, we have listed discount Florida vacations top family travel tips and how to make sure your vacation is memorable, not disastrous.

We know all families differ in size, age, and such so these will be generalized and common sense tips anyone can use.

**Start planning early and make sure you use lists. If this is mom reading, then you know how important this tip is. This will also help you do things in stages, make sure you have everything, and you aren’t pulling your hair out just for vacation.

**Be sure you have tools to keep everyone happy. Airports have long lines and delays and driving can be wearing on any of us. Toys, games, videos, music, books, magazines, ipods, etc.

**Know your destination well. Are you taking small children to a place like Vegas where you plan on gambling the whole time? That personally doesn’t make much sense to me even though there’s a lot to do. Be sure there are things to do so that everyone enjoys each experience.

**Travel with all the latest gear. Update your luggage, be sure everything is in a safe, secure place, invest in a GPS unit (this will save you tons of time and headaches), and so forth. Traveling will be a lot more fun if it’s easy and you understand where you are heading.

**Take care of your home before you go. Items such as mail, pets (if they don’t go), a trusted person to watch for things, and more can help you relax without worrying about what’s going on miles and miles away.

**Don’t and I repeat, don’t take your work with you. This is time to enjoy family and quality time together. Personally, the only reason I go to work is for my family and to take care of them. The last thing I want to do on vacation (especially since you usually get paid), is work.

**Be safe. This is a no brainer, but we all know that bad things happen to good people. The more well-prepared you are, the better your vacation will be.

**Finally, have fun. Our biggest of the family travel tips is to have fun throughout the whole process. Get everyone involved. Get excited. There is nothing like vacation time and to make it memorable means enjoying yourselves!

This is just a start for family travel tips. We know how much fun going on vacation is and we also know the nightmares that can happen thereby ruining your once exciting trip. Just remember, no matter what happens, you’re still on vacation!!

This family travel tips article comes to you from a family man who has been there, done that.

We’ve had great

family vacations and some less than stellar ones.

Come travel through Florida with

Discount Florida Vacations

imagination

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