All year long people take car trips, and while a good road trip is an awesome adventure when you're in college, it can be hours of grueling punishment when you're traveling with a carload of bored, frustrated children. Even short rides can stretch a parent's patience tissue paper thin when the kids are in a mood.

Giving them something to do is a parent's best friend, but after awhile even their favorite video game can grow tiresome. That's when folks need to dig deep and find something “different” that will keep them engaged and change the overall mood in your vehicle. Nothing can revitalize a trip like a good sing-a-long. Yeah. I went there.

Singing, and music in general, has a mood lifting effect for everyone involved, and sharing in a ridiculous, spontaneous sing-a-long can get everyone back on track, and what better place than in the car? Nobody else will hear you belting out “Danny Boy” with your offspring, so you can make it as soulful or wacky as you want. Read more about All-American Car-i-oke

When my wife and I were planning our first trip together, we went to a travel agent. Neither of us had ever been anywhere without someone else making the arrangements, so we didn't want to make any mistakes.

The first lesson we learned was that all travel agents are not the same. Some are more honest than others. The second lesson we learned was to always come right out and ask if the time we want to go to a given destination coincides with say...a hurricane season.