Our family has set a goal to hike the entire Appalachian Trail... eventually. We started out a few years ago, took time off for a sprained foot, then broken ankle and are back at it again. 3000 miles before the kids grow up is a big goal, but even if we don't make it all the way, maybe they'll finish it someday with their kids or on their own. We aren't expert campers (or even average) - we stay in comfy hotels and meet our taxi driver where we want to leave the trail and she drives us to our starting point. I think our highest rate was about $20? I tip very well though - it's so worth it not to have to double back! We run into hikers maybe once an hour and they're the nicest people we've ever run into on hikes - these people are usually trying to do the entire thing in one shot and don't see new people very often. We've discovered so many little creatures and flowers - a lot of the time you feel like you're walking through something out of the Hobbit - it's really incredible. Shortest hike (so far) was about 3 miles, and the longest (this past weekend) was 8. My kids are 8 and 11 and so that's about as much as we can get away with right now.

We have a blog if you want specifics as to how we did each section and I'm going to keep it up the whole way so that hopefully it will be easier on the next family that wants to try this - hope you'll set the same family goal - we have spent many hours just talking and playing word games - it's really precious time that is going to disappear too quickly! Here's our blog page: http://justus3appalaciantrail10yearjourney.blogspot.com/

My best piece of advice that I've learned with hiking with the kids is to go at their pace - they want to stop and explore in the little streams, and everyone has a better time if you just go a little more at their pace than we're used to!

A fantastic deal! We went to all 5 of our choices (Aquarium, CNN, Coke, Fernbank & Zoo) in 2 1/2 days for just a bit more than the cost of the Aquarium alone. We've never done this before but will definitely use for cities we visit in the future!

For example - kids ticket to aquarium is $44.50 - citypass is $49 and includes everything else too.... you can't go wrong in my opinion. Also - if you don't use the whole booklet, hand to someone else when you're leaving and make their day - there is no ID needed... but you have to keep the tickets in the booklet so hand to someone when you're truly done with it....

A small zoo - we would have felt we had wasted our whole time had it not been included in our CityPass - the only thing that saved the day was 2 baby tigers who attacked each other like kittens and were so fun to watch, and a baby panda (although we caught it at nap time). Everyone is very nice and we visited in January on a 50 degree day so it may be different in warmer weather - but a lot of the animals just weren't on "display". My kids were too old for the petting zoo & rides. Lots of kids having melt downs and a few parents too (always lovely to experience!).

Kids meal almost as big as adult - so if you can choose, go with the kids meal!

Pizza was fantastic, and we had garlic knots that were very popular too. We were in Atlanta for 2 nights - my kids loved it so much that we had to go back the second night. And it was so good I was ok with that choice... (and we have never done that before...)

Fantastic tour - both my kids and I loved it and were completely fascinated the entire time. It doesn't take that long and there is action everywhere. Would recommend to anyone with kids over 7 or 8.... Younger kids would be bored the entire time. We got to see 3 live broadcasts - CNN, HLN & CNN Latin. Very funny to see the anchors munching on food while they were off camera for 10 seconds and completely back to business when the camera came back to them.

A "mall' food court on the ground floor.