Hey Gardenbysarasota, It seems like Florida has had some unusually cold weather over the last 12 years. I lived in Coral Springs on the northwest side of Ft. Lauderdale for a couple of years (2000-2002). In January of 2001, it got down to 32F where I lived, but in Homestead an hour south, it got down to 28F and they are only 25 miles north of Key Largo! It is weird how it got so much colder further south than it did in Coral Springs. In the northern part of the Everglades, though it got down to 19F and wiped out 40,000 acres of sugarcane! I am afraid the over-development of Florida, especially South and Central Florida is drastically changing the climate there for the worst rapidly with unusually cold winters and extremely bad droughts. Our Texas coconut palms do not reach the 70ft.+ height like they do in South Florida and the Keys. We are looking if we can grow them to 20ft tall in overall height, with a few in the 30ft. height range in the Rio Grande Valley. I posted a couple of photos on another thread here of one in Brownsville that is approximately 40ft. tall to the top of the crown. That is about the maximum height we cold ever expect to grow on on the extreme lower Texas Coast. I think the palm in front of the coconut palm in the yard in South Padre Island is a Thatch Palm. I have seen a few in the area that are about 10-12ft. tall.

Annie, was thinking of someway for you to fill in a few days with something that might be of interest. If you travel a bit north from Harlingen you'll bump into San Antonio. SA is about a 3 1/2 hour drive north of Harlingen - pretty wide open driving and nothing to slow you down. The King Ranch owns most of the land along this route. About 1/2 way between Harlingen and SA is one of the best BBQ places in Texas. There are several Motel 6's in the SA area. You might find bargains on the Riverwalk this time of the year (off season) and maybe you'd be nearer many of the major attractions/history. There are many things of interest that would keep you moving and out of the motel several hours a day. There is a hop on - hop off trolley that's convenient and easy to use. Might be less expensive to stay downtown than parking and lot fees on a daily basis etc. Austin is about a 1 1/2 hour drive from San Antonio. If it appealed to you both and was an easy fix, you might choose to drive to SA, spend a couple of days then drive into Austin for a couple of days before picking up your return flight. A few sites below for you to check out for interest. http://www.segcity.com/ http://www.lsjunction.com/facts/missions.htm http://www.sanantonioriverwalk.com/photo.html http://www.sanantonioriverwalk.com/tourism.html http://www.buysanantoniotours.com/index.html I didn't include the museums, zoo etc. Included only what is unique to this area. The next address is of a very pretty cavern between SA and Austin - not a Carlsbad, but very pretty in it's own right. You could pick it up on your trip from SA to Austin for the return flight. http://www.buysanantoniotours.com/tours/sa-natural-bridge-caverns-north-cavern-tour.html I hope this gives you another option for those precious vacation days. Niene

I purchased a Smartstrand style named Atlantic Shores which is a 50 oz. I am familiar with South Padre Island and you should be very pleased with it. Jeff

We have two kids and are departing soon for a trip to Europe, we will be in the south of France for two weeks and in Holland for one week. In the south of France, we are staying in a house that is located in the Luberon. I drew a circle around the town we're staying in and basically researched the towns within a one hour driving radius. We are then flying via Ryan Air to Holland and staying in an apartment in Amsterdam. The house we're staying in in the south of France is a relatively simple place. My kids are older than yours, but we've made it a priority to pack books and simple arts activities they can do. I expect to buy a jigsaw puzzle. We are bringing a deck of cards, an IPod and a Nintendo DS. There is no TV or internet connection at the house. We've talked to the kids a lot about flexibility. The biggest hassle with the electronic games, is that yes they have the advantage of being small and light, but they need a variety of chargers and power adapters to work with the European electrical current. Radio Shack had the highest prices around, Best Buy was better, but believe it or not, I found electrical equipment in the men's section of Marshalls where they sell things like um, power golf ball washers and the like. I also have purchased and wrapped small items for the children to receive at various times through the trip. Little clay kits from JoAnne bought on sale, they like these, and they cost about $2 each. Calvin and Hobbes books collected from garage sales for about 25 cents each. I sleep mask and ear plugs set, two bucks on sale at KMart. I assemble these and wrap them before we leave -- unwrapping the 'gifts' makes it even more fun for the kids. Oh, crayons and paper are another must. I had my daughter down load a lot of young adult books on CD onto her eye-pod and got an ear phone splitter so two kids can listen to the books on tape on the same Ipod player. Ideally, they'll listen to these in the back of the car while my husband and I talk or listen to our own music up front. We enjoy having down time while we're away, and plan on doing only one 'big' touristy thing a day. When traveling with kids, I like to have a sort of big picture plan, with info about all the sights available in a specific region, but like to play it by ear on a day to day basis, being responsive to people's moods, energy levels, health, etc. I also know in advance that I want to show them certain things, as in categories of things, like in the south of France, it'll be something like one cathedral, one abbey, one art museum, etc. I have a child whose into nature so we've made sure to research natural habitats and will probably get him a book so he and his sister can identify bugs and birds while we're there. I've also taken out library books on the countries we're visiting and left them lying around the kitchen table and we've done some casual thumbing through the pages. I don't force it. I just try to get them thinking a little, and looking at pictures really does that. It's important to remind them that travel is fun but it's also work and some days may be challenging for them. Oh, one more thing, we bring addresses for their friends so they can write postcards. I also take pictures of their friends and keep them stored on the digital camera so they can scroll back and look at the pictures when they feel like they're missing the kids back home.