This is cool — The Boston Pops is celebrating its 125th Anniversary with a special contest to bring a family of four to Boston to celebrate Fourth of July with the Pops. Yep, airfare, hotel, fireworks and music on the Charles River Esplanade.

How are they picking that lucky family? Submit a 125-character-or-less message – via text, Twitter or Facebook – explaining why they should choose you. Deadline is May 15. And wow, 125 characters is not very much. (That last sentence was 41 characters, in case you’re wondering – and yes, spaces count.) Deadline? May 15. Details? www.bostonpops.org/125.

So, we’re just back from Disneyland with the scoop on what’s new, what’s under construction and what’s still to come…

A great big chunk of Walt Disney’s park is under construction at the moment – more than usual, even for the depths of winter. Among the areas that are shut down: the entire Rivers of America waterfront area in Frontierland, including the riverboat and sailing ship Columbia and Tom Sawyer Island. All the water has been drained, and walls erected to screen off the area.
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Remember Flat Stanley? He’s the hero of that 1964 children’s classic by the same name, written by Jeff Brown. Stanley is a normal little guy until one morning, he gets flattened by a bulletin board. Suddenly he’s flat as a pancake. But life as a flat kid isn’t all bad. It’s much easier to travel, for one thing, he can fly like a kite or go by airmail – and his escapades have delighted schoolchildren for more than 40 years. For the last decade, classrooms of school kids have made Flat Stanley paper dolls and mailed them off to pen pals around the world, enclosing notes recording their adventures with the little guy. (That’s Josh Greenhut, one of the authors of the Flat Stanley Worldwide Adventure Series, pictured above, reading “The Japanese Ninja Surprise” to third graders at the Library of Congress – AP Photo/Disney)

Now, Disney’s getting in on the action too. Children ages 7-12 can win an Adventures by Disney vacation by creating a Flat Stanley paper doll and writing a 150-word story about his “Next Big Adventure.”
Deadline’s Nov. 30 and details are here.

Walt Disney World just opened a new ride, “Sum of All Thrills,” that lets kids design their own thrill ride, then actually ride it — aboard a robotic simulator. How cool is that? And how potentially barf-inducing? It’s sponsored by Raytheon, the defense and homeland security contractor, as part of Epcot’s Innoventions Pavilion. Raytheon’s VP says their goal is to boost middle schoolers’ interest in math and engineering. What do you think. Cool? Not?

In the mood for a little free Disney fun? Roll up your sleeves and don your mouse ears. Disneyland’s “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program will give 1 million volunteers a free day to play in any Disney park in Anaheim or Orlando in 2010. Disney is working with the HandsOn Network, a clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities, to connect people with projects at 70,000 agencies, including Habitat for Humanity and county food banks. As soon as the volunteers’ work is done and they’ve got the HandsOn OK, they get a certificate good for admission to Disneyland or Disneyworld. Volunteers must register online with Disney – and kids ages 6-17 can join in the fun and earn a free ticket, as long as they do their volunteer work with a grown-up helper.

Oh! Oh! Oh! The new Harry Potter Theme Park opens at Universal Orlando next spring, but they’ve just released a sneak peek at some of the attractions. Among them:

• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey: A high-tech ride that takes happy fans whizzing through an immense Hogwarts Castle and its rooms.

• Hogsmeade Station: The entrance to the park goes through the Hogsmeade railroad station.
• The Dragon Challenge: A roller coaster thrill ride inspired by the Triwizard Tournament.
• The Flight of the Hippogriff: A family-paced roller coaster.
• And shops and eateries inspired by the books, including Honeydukes, Ollivander’s, Zonko’s and the Three Broomsticks. And yes, you can buy Quidditch supplies at Dervish and Banges.

Last year, we spent some time chatting with the Higham family – a rocket scientist, his wife and their two kids, who spent a year traveling around the world. Now they’ve got a book out about their wild adventures and lovely experiences – “360 Degrees Longitude: One Family’s Journey Around the World” – and a web site filled with advice, in case you’re contemplating an extended trip with your kids. And they’re doing talks at various Bay Area REI stores over the coming weeks:

• Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. at the San Carlos REI

• Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at the Saratoga REI
• Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Marina REI
• Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley REI

When it comes to zoos, everyone has opinions. Some prefer grandiose spectacles. Others seek out the toddler-friendly attractions of a small, low key, zoological park. And for still others, it’s the panda allure or gorilla glory. So when we asked you guys to name your faves, the results were very fun indeed. Here’s your top five list. Now click “comments” and add your nominees.

1. The St. Louis Zoo, Missouri

2. The Oakland Zoo, California

3. The Bergen County Zoo, New Jersey

4. The Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Washington

5. The Houston Zoo, Texas

Related family travel posts:

• Roller Coasters & Halls of Fame
• Dishing on Oktoberfest
• Big Family, Small Hotel Rooms
• Greece with Teens

By now, you’ve probably downed your green eggs and ham, read “The Cat in the Hat” a few times, and admired Google’s particularly darling logo today. Can we interest you in a Pink Yink Ink Drink as a little afternoon pick me up? It tastes more like a strawberry-yogurt smoothie, but we find the Pink Yinkiness of it particularly apt for Theodor Geisel’s birthday. We’ll have to be content with Seuss-inspired cuisine, but if you’re really lucky, you can spend the day with the Cat in the Hat at one of these Seuss hot spots:

If you’re in Florida, you can do your Seuss celebration in style – Universal Studios has an actual theme park section, Seuss Landing, devoted to all things Loraxian, from a Cat in the Hat ride to a Red Fish, Blue Fish challenge and an “If I Ran the Zoo” interactive play area. Naturally, the cat himself makes appearances (see photo, above).
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Interested in a tropical vacation with a little educational value thrown in? The Baquerizo family gives us the scoop…

THE TRAVELERS: Ed Baquerizo, Virginia Kosydar and their 8-year-old twins, Laura and Thomas, from San Rafael.

THE TREK: The Baquerizos’ 3-week trip to Ecuador included visits with family in the coastal city of Guayaquil, a cruise in the Galapagos Islands, and trips to Cuenca — a World Heritage Site in the Andes — and the capitol city of Quito.

COOL SIGHTSEEING: “Ecuador is a very, very beautiful country with a widely diverse geography. We spent time on the beaches in Salinas near Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands, visited the Andean highlands along the north-south line of volcanoes that separates the coast from the Amazon jungle, and hiked in a spectacular nature preserve. We visited the historical monument that marks the equator, north of the capital city of Quito. Afterward, we traveled a few hundred meters to the actual equator line, determined recently by GPS survey. Both monuments were great to see, and there are many science experiments at the ‘new’ equator line to entertain the family.”
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