Looking for Summer Vacation Ideas

[Northendzone]

We are a family of 4 - will be 12, dughter will be 9 at vacation time. We will go hiking and biking as a family. Hard to golf yet as a family because age of dughter.......we are looking for some vacation ideas for august 2014.

we would like the vacation to be somewhat active (i.e. biking/hiking), near a beach/water, warm temps (last year we went to Kelowna). It would be nice to drive there as well but we are open to flying if need be.

Vacation would be limited to North America

Wife and I have also considered the following spots:

* Mexico - this would be a lazy vacation of lying around mostly, and we are not sure if we want to go there in August
* Chicago - never been, but I wonder if we'd spend a lot of time inside at museums and stuff and the wife and I wonder if it would be more enjoyable for us to go w/o kids
* San Francisco - have read it can be expensive there, also kids don't like seafood very much
* Florida - Disney and Other stops.....this would likely be a very hectic vacation where we are on the go a lot.........
* Penticton - meets much of our criteria, except I am having trouble finiding enough info about biking - other than the Kettle Valley RR (which as I recall is not that smooth in that area)

I'd like to go somewhere in Colorado mostly for the biking (but I'd have to find trails we could ride on as a family as well), but that seems like it is a few more hours in the vehicle than the wife wants to spend.

We have been to Seattle, whitefish, Invermere and Portland was on the radar, until I found out most of the good biking is 1 or more hours away.

[undercoverbrother]

Moab: hiked the the delicate arch (our kids are 7/9 at the time they did it no worries)

Spoiler!

Durnago: stayed in Purgatory, really cool kids stuff, zip line, alpine slide, also short amazing day trips.
Mesa Verde: WOW, middle of nowhere, but holy crap amazing, my kids loved it

Spoiler!

Great Sand Dunes National Park: cool area, rent sand toboggan

Spoiler!

Four Corners: didn't think it was worth it, went becuase our family from the states wanted to stand in 4 states at once, it is in the middle of nowhere.

[Buzzard]

Sorry to hijack here, but yeah I'm kind of looking for ideas too. Might as well ask here rather than start a new one.

Our daughter is going away for a couple weeks in July so my wife and i thought it'd be a good time to escape alone somewhere. We like road trippin so that's a possibility. Was considering Vegas, Grand Canyon, etc. then work our way back. I dig mega heat, so not too concerned about the desert in the summer. The idea of doing nothing but laying around somewhere also turns me on. We've missed out the last couple winters going to Mexico and that thought has crossed my mind even though it'll be hotter than hell, which like I say, I sure dont mind. Anyone been to PV in July? How was it for rain? Any other great ideas out there?

[MRCboicgy]

San Diego?

Zoo, Beaches, Legoland (well that's Oceanside), Mexican Food, Segway tours - can probably find biking tours somewhere (Torrey Pines? Coronado?)

Go protest SeaWorld for an afternoon

[J epworth]

I'm so confused, I swear I responded to this thread like 3 days ago and there were like 25 other replies...

[Northendzone]

Somehow the thread was started twice.

Mr boings - we have been to San Diego once, and we enjoyed it.

[Phanuthier]

Vegas and Utah would be HOT in July.... unless you guys are ok with 50 degrees heat. (I'm not)

If you stay along the coast, temperatures are more reasonable. Even Boulder is ~30-35 degrees... a bit hot. Boulder is awesome though, its like an outdoor playground, and the culture there is awesome.

Judging by your descriptions, I would say your best option is probably Squamish/Whistler. For some bonus hiking, Bugaboo's looks awesome (never been, might try going next year).

[macker]

Maah daah hey trail on the way to Rushmore. Could get you in trouble in many ways
http://www.singletracks.com/bike-tra...-daah-hey.html