Next year our middle daughter is graduating from high school, and she and I are going on a 4-night mother/daughter cruise (leaving from Port Canaveral, Florida) with some of her friends/moms. We will return to Port Canaveral on June 3.

Our 16-year-old son is scheduled to have some major surgery on Monday, June 13, so have the 10 days between those two dates to have our family vacation, which has always been a precious time for our family. I'm sort of stumped as to what to do. We were thinking about going out west (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion), but I wanted to have about 12 days for that. We do a lot of tropical vacations (last year Grand Cayman), and we were thinking about staying somewhere in Florida this year. We used to go to Florida every year, but now the kids are used to more active/exotic vacations, and I'm not sure if a week lying on a beach in Florida would be that much fun. Any ideas from anyone? Our kids will be ages 21, 18 and 16 next summer.

We are sort of watching the budget because of all the medical expenses we'll have. We do have frequent flier miles, and we could possibly use those to fly somewhere, but again, we need to be back by Sunday, June 12.

Thanks for all your help.

How about renting a houseboat in the Florida Keys? Or renting a condo and a boat in the Florida Keys? The kids can dive, snorkel, fish, swim, kyak etc. Lots to do and you can always take day trips to explore all of the keys and the Everglades.

By my brand of practical math, I think you really have 8 days, not 10. Since you return on 6/3, you still have to get home, unpack, etc. And your son's surgery on 6/13, he will likely not want to return home last on 6/12 and then be off to hospital in AM.

I am not sure from where you are originating (first I thought Florida, but now I am not so sure).

What about some place in California - we loved San Diego, but argument could easily be made for San Francisco or Las Angeles areas.

We used frequent flyer miles last summer and flew in to St Thomas (USVI) then took a ferry to St John. You can rent a "villa" on St John for a reasonable price and can save money by cooking some meals versus eating out. There isn't much as far as movies, malls, etc but lots of hiking and fabulous beaches (3/4 of the island is a National Park) - lots of good snorkeling too. Dh and I went w/o kids but plan to return in a few years w/them when they are old enough to really appreciate it. It is great for relaxing, natural beauty, and outdoor activities. It is definitely exotic as well!

We did Yellowstone last summer with kids ages 16, 19, and 22, and everyone really enjoyed it. My only regret was that we were there too early for the Roosevelt chuckwagon dinner, which I think we would have all loved.

costa rica?

Thanks for all the suggestions. We live a little north of Atlanta, Georgia, but the cruise returns to Port Canaveral, Florida, so we could either go home and then leave or meet up with the rest of the family.

GoTravel, how do you go about renting a houseboat in the Keys? Or a boat? We always do boat trips on vacations, but we don't own a boat ourselves, and I'm not sure if we'd feel comfortable 'driving' it ourselves. I'm going to do some research on that.

We've thought about San Diego, because some good friends of ours just moved there. We've also thought about St. John. My husband and I have been there and loved it.

We do love tropical vacations, so we might look into the Caribbean. We've been to Hawaii, and we want our next trip there to be a 2-week trip, so Hawaii is out for this year.

If we spend the week before our son's surgery on vacation, I was hoping he wouldn't be thinking too much about the upcoming surgery. He will spend the rest of the summer recuperating, so that week is our only chance next summer for a family vacation.

San Francisco. Your 16 year old will love it. If you stay outside of San Francisco (Burlingame), there is an Embassy Suites that has a seperate bedroom and so you only need one room. The rates are good. There is so much to see and do that does not cost a lot. Take BART over to Berkeley on a Sat. (BART goes under the bay, so that is fun). Berkeley has a street fair every Saturday, it's like going back to the 60's (great for teens). SF is GREAT. We went to Key West and we did not like, very expensive, people unfriendly.