#Holding rapt series

Iced with changing leaves, the boat afforded a misty view of the property, with its craggy outcroppings of rocks and fierce stone structure staring into the glassy water. One gray morning, we rowed out onto the glacial lake. That was my fatherвЂ™s vacation, perhaps, but in dragging me along, he made me his co-conspirator, a lover of a world that catered not just to children, but to everyone. I was 12, and rapt not by the island trip to Alcatraz, but, instead, by the bustling carts and foods I couldnвЂ™t describe. The first time I visited San Francisco was also the first time I learned what dim sum was. ItвЂ™s the moments where we did very little, sitting by a cerulean crescent of sea in Eleuthera, or playing a hand of cards on a long-haul train through AlaskaвЂ™s spiny interior. But when I think back on the things I loved best about vacationing with my own parents, itвЂ™s not the trapeze course in Club Med that I am wistful for (though it was fun). I wondered if theyвЂ™d enjoy themselves, or if the role of a traveling parent should dig deeper into the corporeal delights of being a child. I had concerns, in choosing an adult place for a childrenвЂ™s vacation. Five hours into our ill-fated trip, I was on the phone with the concierge at the Mohonk Mountain House, in nearby New Paltz, begging for an extra night. Met with long lines, closed rides, and concessions reminiscent of the worst American mall, we cut our two-night stay short. It wasnвЂ™t so much the arsenal that bothered me - what parent, after all, can truly enjoy a hotel room strewn with cruelly sharp-to-the-naked-foot objects - but the parkвЂ™s sadness. I booked the trip for an October weekend, but the reality of Legoland did not live up to its promises.

#Holding rapt series

My toddlers, then 2 and 4, were enraptured by the glossy photos: entire cities erected in miniature two-bedroom вЂњbunkвЂќ accommodations, with bins filled with Legos a series of themes to choose from that could reasonably live out the latent desires of even the tiniest of Lego enthusiasts. GoshenвЂ™s Legoland, a sprawling monstrosity designed to capture the minds and hearts of little kids, seemed like an apt fall fit for my family of four. In the middle of a hot, safer-feeling summer, a new amusement park opened in my home state of New York.