Patton's Sausage

The California theme parks, but where can you take the children in California Besides the usual trips to Disneyland or Sea World?

Here are three examples of great getaway for the holidays, or for any other time of year you can take the kids along.

San Francisco

San Francisco has a plethora of attractions for the small fry from the theme parks, museums aquariums in the islands where you can enjoy great hiking and spectacular views over the bay. While many see as San Francisco a city of romance, the truth is that you can have as much fun when you take the children along.

Start by booking a suite for children, like the one we booked at the Hotel Union Square in the heart of the city. It is unlikely that you'll see a bunch of kids running in the hallways, or teenagers who congregate in the lobby. It is a sophisticated hotel, which just happens to offer some of his accommodations in a special format that appeals to families.

While parents appreciate the fact that this is a boutique hotel - with all the extras that the term implies, as brick walls, mosaic murals, warm colors and elegant furnishings - the children who share the Kids Suite with Mom and Dad are in an extra special treatment. The result is actually a spacious corner room with high ceilings that was subdivided into a zone of family and a children's corner. A free-standing partition is also a storage device where the games, toys, dolls and anything else your children might want are ready to use at any time.

There is a bed for children and children on the desktop is a Mac ready to fire and play games on the internet. But the piece de resistance is the 47 "HD flat screen TV hanging on the wall with a Wii game system attached - an incredibly fun diversion for children and adults. The system allows you to play Wii tennis, baseball or golf or other sports taking remote in your hands and "hitting" the ball with the same physical movements you would use in the real sport. We literally spent hours playing these games with our eight years - one of most unusual and fun experiences we have ever had with our children in a hotel room.

When you do venture out, there are many family activities in the city, especially near Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 Aquarium of the Bay, an arcade-type atmosphere and real animals up close, as the sea lions lounging by the pier. From there you can take a ferry to Angel Island, an island where visitors popular hiking trails and visit over 100 historic buildings. Another major attraction of the city is the hands on science center called the Exploratorium, located near the Presidio, at the end of the waterfront near the Golden Gate Bridge. And then there's Golden Gate Park, where there is a playground for children including a carousel restored, Alcatraz Island, where you can take a self-guided tour of the notorious prison that was closed in 1963 and the San Francisco Zoo, which offers hours of fun for the whole family.

For more information on Hotel Union Square, phone 1-800-553-1900 or visit www.hotelunionsquare.com.

Resort Indio

Another "adult" site that can also be fun for children is the largest area of Palm Springs. On our recent trip to the desert, we based a few miles east of Palm Springs to Indio, a nice area, but perhaps less extravagant than other parts of the valley. On the eastern edge of the valley cities, this area is currently undergoing a major transformation with several new housing developments that are modern, spacious houses, alongside the man of the lagoons and canals, all five minutes from the motorway. In this same area a major new resort - the station in Indio - was built right in recent years.

This group of buildings includes 453 condo-style units altog.