For Those With Only Summer To Travel

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan (stay IN Platte River campground), take a gentle canoe ride on the Platte down to Lake Michigan - a couple of hours time), the dunes, themselves, are awesome. Take the ferry from Leland over to South Manitou Island for a day trip (part of Sleeping Bear) and tour the lighthouse and beachcomb, another day trip to Traverse City for tourist stuff. Then head north to the Upper Peninsula. Stay at one of the campgrounds at the Mackinac Bridge and take the ferry to Mackinac Island for a day - rent bikes and buy fudge. Then further north into the Upper Peninsula to Taquamenon Falls State Park and do a day trip to Whitefish Point and tour the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (Edmund Fitzgerald). Sault Ste Marie for another stop and watch the big ships come by. Lots to do in this section of Michigan!

In 2008 our 10 year old granddaughter flew by herself on a direct flight from Detroit to Anchorage. We drove to AK earlier in the summer and picked her up at the airport, then she spent a month with us in our fifthwheel seeing the sights of Alaska. Because of a wedding we had to attend in August, we flew home with her, then returned to start our journey home. She is 14 now and still talks about our experiences that summer, from the bear we saw, to fishing in Valdez, riding the tram in Girdwood, etc. It was priceless!

I would definately give thought to Alaska.

Kathy

Us out West wrote:
If he enjoyed Yellowstone take him back but then take him to different places to give him the experiece's that will last forever.

Doing this will make him a future RVer...like what happened to me....thanks Dad!

Agree. We've also had our kids to all of the Lower 48 but I've got to tell you there are literally hundreds of things we had to pass up (lack of time) that we hope to get back to someday. We always tried to balance the visits to national parks, historic attractions, short hikes, biking, boating/kayaking, etc. with stuff that was fun (Cedar Point, Holiday World).

No matter where you may go, throw in some geocaching with him !! We went to Alaska this past summer ourselves. Beautiful country and a trip you will never forget. We have learned about geocaching and now will be including this in all our travels. Try it out with him, he may like it !! www.geocaching.com Also something we have continued doing since we have been home ! :B

Great ideas everyone; thanks kindly. I'm sure we'll come up with a fun summer from all your suggestions.

We went to the Mammoth Caves right in your area. A young boy would love to explore the caves. There are a number of different tour from easy to extreme and kid friendly educational. Look into it you might be surprized.

When I was a kid, my Mom would take us on Theme vacations. We did GOLD and toured Northern California and we did Native American and toured the southwest. What about New Mexico. Carlsbad Cavern, Rockhound State Park, Gila, White Sands, Pecos State Park, then north to Santa Fe and Albaquerque and Gallup.

Thanks again everyone.

A 12 year old boy should love Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. You also have Busch Gardens amusement park, Jamestown, and Yorktown right there in addition to nearby maritime attractions. Along the way to get there, there are many Civil War sites.

X2 on the suggestion of GeoCaching!

What fun it is to get to use maps (and a GPS unit) to get to look for hidden treasures and then to be able to leave something for the next people!

There are geocaches EVERYWHERE urban and the countryside!

You can use the website, or an Apple app or a Android SmartPhone app;

GeoCaching.com

Or use other websites!

Fascinating and ultimately educational stuff and a 12 year old boys interest would probably be piqued!

There is also a GeoCaching type activity called CHALLENGES:

Here is a description:

From GeoCaching.com wrote:
Geocaching Challenges turn every location into an adventure. Go somewhere, do something. That’s the basic idea behind Geocaching Challenges. You might be challenged to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, sing a song in the middle of Times Square, or take a picture of yourself walking through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Are you up for it?

This also sounds fun to do on any vacation!

Challenges

WoodGlue