Snow Tubing at Heavenly Mountain Resort, Lake Tahoe

by: Elizabeth Sedway, Famplosion.com

The tubing venue at Heavenly Mountain Resort is not your ordinary sledding hill. More suited to thrill-seekers than little ones, this hill is akin to a five lane luge run; it's fast. Each of the five lanes is approximately 500 feet long. One lane is set aside for those preferring a more gentle ride. Tubing guests are delivered to the top of the hill by the deluxe covered magic carpet.

The ''high end' nature of this tubing venue explains the $30 price tag to ride for one hour. Add to the sledding hill price the price of the gondola ride. You can't reach the Adventure Peak, where the tubing venue is located, without taking the gondola first. The gondola ride is nothing short of spectacular. The views of the Lake Tahoe area unprecedented.

Here are some tips to make your sledding adventure at Heavenly Mountain Resort's Adventure Peak the best it can be:

1. Dress warmly.



2. While helmets are not required for tubing, you might choose to put a helmet on children. You can't rent a helmet at Adventure Peak, but you can rent them at most any sporting goods store at the base of the gondola.



3. Buy your gondola tickets at the base of the gondola. You'll buy your tubing hill tickets at Adventure peak.



4. On your way up the mountain on the gondola, make sure to jump off the gondala at the first stop: Malcolms deck. Don't save this stop for the way down, it can only be accessed going up. There you'll be able to grab a coffee and really take in the amazing views. At Gondola Sports, you can find fun Heavenly gifts and accessories. Reboard the gondola to get to Adventure Peak.



5. At the bottom and at the top of the gondola you can rent a locker for anything you don't want to wear on the sledding hill.



6. Arrive early in the day to make sure you get the chance to go tubing. If you arrive later in the day, the tubing venue may have sold out for the day. Before purchasing your gondola tickets, ask the folks selling the gondola tickets if the tubing venue is still available for the day. Hopefully, they'll be able to let you know if the tubing venue is sold out before you get on the gondola. The tubing venue is open from 11:30a to 4p on weekdays and from 11a to 4p on weekends. The gondola operates from 9a to 4p on weekday and 8:30a to 4p on weekends.



7. Use caution at the end of the tubing run. Listen to the Heavenly employee's there to help you cross the other tubing lanes.



8. Make sure you have the ribs at the Smokehouse Grill. Honestly, you just can't pass them up.

Cruising Lake Tahoe in the Winter

by: Elizabeth Sedway, Famplosion.com

Visiting Lake Tahoe in winter brings to mind skiing, snowboarding, sledding and generally playing in the snow. A well-kept secret at 'the lake' is how amazingly fun, beautiful and educational it can be to take a cruise on the M.S. Dixie II in the Winter. This boat, reminiscent of the steamers that graced the lake nearly one hundred years ago, departs from Zephyr Cove Marina.

M.S. Dixie II was captained by Ozzie Gonzalez, on the day of our visit. He greets passengers at the gangway with a delightful smile and an eagerness to share his knowledge of this unique boat. Captain Gonzalez began his career on the M.S. Dixie, in 1994, when the it was new.

The two hour tour of Emerald Bay is gentle, comfortable and scenic. The boat travels an average of 7.5 miles per hour. There are 3 levels. Guests enter on the first level, where you'll find plenty of indoor tables and chairs. The indoor tempature on this level is set at a cozy 72 degrees ferenheit. There is a small outdoor deck on the first level bow (front of the boat). There is no seating outside on level one.

By taking 12 steps up, either indoors or out, you can access the second level bow of the boat. Indoors, on the second level, is where the food is. (and it's good family-food too) In addtion to the snack bar and grill, the second floor also has restrooms and abundant indoor table/chair seating. You can place your order at the counter and your meal is brought to your table by friendly staff.

The third level is entirely outdoors, and provides an awe-inspiring view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Dress warmly to enjoy the outside decks, where the views are the most spectacular.

The highlight of the cruise at the half-way point, as the boat arrives at the mouth of Emerald Bay. The view of Emerald Bay in the Summer or Fall is a completely different experience from seeing this natural wonder in the quiet of Winter.

In Winter, the bay is much more majestic. This might be because, most often, you are likely to be aboard the only vessel in the bay. In the Summer, the bay is filled with many boats.

As the history of Emerald Bay, from how it formed to the construction of the Vikingsholm, plays on the ooat speakers passengers are treated to the rare beauty of Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe in the Winter aboard the M.S. Dixie II.

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Best Ghost Tours in America

by: Elizabeth Sedway, Famplosion.com

Do you believe in ghosts? Even those that don't, admit to loving a good ghost story. Here at Famplosion.com, we've searched behind countless creaky doors to find the 'Best Ghost Tours in America'. Featured here, are just a few of the chilling ghost tours listed on Famplosion. To see a list of ghost tours by city, click on the city names in this article.

In Nashville, there are a number of ghost tours to enjoy with your family. Nashville Ghost Tours, an event suitable for all ages, is a comfortably paced ninety minute walking tour of 'the shadow-filled streets of downtown Nashville'. At Hermitage, the one-time and maybe present home of Andrew Jackson, guests of all ages are invited to have a frightfully good time. Tour former President Jackson's plantation at night, and enjoy Tennessee ghost tales

Like Nashville, San Francisco offers countless grim, grinning ghosts of their own. Families with children 8 years and older, can go on a real guided ghost hunt. The one mile walking tour 'in a safe quiet neighborhood on tree lined streets with fine Victorian architecture' is lead by an experience story-teller.

Also for families with older children, the Winchester Mystery House, offers the 'Flashlight 'Ghost' Tours. Each Friday the 13th, and around Halloween, guests roam the rambling halls of this unique home, aided by nothing more than a souvenir flashlight.

The 'Not-Too-Spooky Halloween', at the Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley, California, is likely to be more to the liking of families with children 6 years old and younger. While paranormal encounters are unlikely at this event, kids are invited to arrive in costume to play miniature golf in the infant-toddler garden graveyard and to conduct experiments with slime in the Art Studio. Paper ghost will fly in the wind tunnel and Halloween stories will be recounted in the 'Witch's Tent'.

The RMS Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach, California, offers a number of chilling potentially paranormal experiences. Beginning in the dark of night on October 16th, guest can brave the perils of the '15th Annual Halloween Terrorfest'. Families with kids 12 years and older can, if they dare, experience the 'Shipwreck: 15 Days of Terror', described by previous survivors as 'terrifying mazes located both on and off the haunted vessel'.

At Lake Tahoe, visit the former haunt of the charismatic 'Rat Pack', the Cal Neva Resort. Take a private guided tour of the Secret Tunnels below the resort:

Learn about Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior, Dean Martin and Al Capone's more private moments as the Cal Neva staff takes you on an historical tour of time gone by. See where Marilyn Monroe slipped away with political favorites and spent some of her last hours overlooking this Lake Tahoe resort from its rustic cabin decks. Don't forget to ask about the paranormal activity that still exists
today!

In Salt Lake City, guided ghost tours take a two hour guided tour by a professional storyteller, as you travel by bus to the great "haunts" of the City. Learn about the ghosts who reputedly dwell in these historic buildings and cemeteries.

Seattle also has some great ghost tours--including one at the world-famous Pike's Place Market.

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Living History Day at Sugar Pine Point State Park

The public is invited to visit the Sugar Pine Point State Park, for Living History Day on July 25th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to enjoy a variety of family activities for free. These include guided tours of Pine Lodge, nature walks through the park’s 2,000 acres, use of its two-mile beach, music, games for children, and a display of antique cars and famous wooden boats. Parking is $7 per car.

This is our 26th Living History Day, said Ranger Heidi Doyle of the California ParksDepartment, and already it is one of the larger summer events in the Tahoe
Basin. There’s fun for everyone in the family.

Pine Lodge, also known as the Ehrman mansion, is a three-story American CraftsmanStyle home built in 1903 for Isaias Hellman, a pioneering California banker. The estate is about10 miles south of Tahoe City on Highway 89.

On Living History Day visitors walking through the mansion will watch volunteers inperiod costumes portray members of the Hellman-Ehrman family, as well as the family’s butler,the upstairs maid and the cook. Admission is free for this event only.

Elders of the Washoe tribe, whose ancestors were the original residents of the TahoeBasin, relate their people’s history. Visitors can take guided nature hikes through the Edwin L.Z’berg Natural Preserve to the “highest lighthouse in the world” or along the Washoe Path ofthe Water Babies.

For younger visitors, Living History Day will offer a Kids Zone, with story telling, perioddress up and the opportunity to create pictures of the lodge to take home as souvenirs.

Living History Day gives visitors their only opportunity to go inside General Phipps’sCabin. Frontiersman William Phipps came to Tahoe in 1860 to homestead 160 acres thateventually became part of Sugar Pine Point State Park. Guides playing Phipps’s friends will tellstories of pioneer life as they demonstrate use of their tools and black-powder rifles.

Visitors will want to bring swimwear and towels to take advantage of the estate’s beach.A bathhouse is available for changing clothes. Those who would like to picnic on the vast lawnoverlooking the lake can bring their own lunch or, buy hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecued chicken and soft drinks from one of the participating vendors.