On your next outing, choose these rentable get-abouts for the whole family.

By China Williams

Instead of carting the family around in a car to see the sights on your next vacation, skip the traditional get-abouts and cover ground with these curious contraptions that provide amusement no matter how far you travel.

Rent a Funcycle in Cannon Beach, Oregon

Pedal power gets a playful makeover with these recumbent tricycles, perfectly suited for cruising Cannon Beach's nine-mile stretch of packed sand. The trikes come in all sizes: minis for the toddlers and stretches for tall grownups.

Two locally owned companies, Family Fun Cycles (503-436-2247) and Mike's Bike Shop rent recumbents and cruisers for around $12 per hour.

Wait, you've never heard of Cannon Beach? It's one of Oregon's most adorable beach towns, and the humpbacked figure of Haystack Rock had a cameo appearance in the movie "The Goonies" — a favorite for parents who were once kids themselves back in the dark ages of the 1980s. Plus, Cannon Beach is an easy daytrip from Portland, Ore., only 69 miles away.

Rent a Segway in Washington, D.C.

You might look like a futuristic geriatric on these strange electric scooters but they are a green dream when it comes to conquering D.C.'s far-flung monuments and museums. Guided tours led by City Segway Tours and Segs in the City cover the must-sees, the too far to get to on foot, and the little-knowns on their two- to three-hour tours (costing $70 per person).

The price to ride might seem high, but you'll reduce your carbon footprint and glide past the sunstroked families marching from the Capital to the Jefferson Memorial.

Rent a Canoe in North Conway, N.H.

New England is filled with beautiful canoe trips but the Saco River, which runs from New Hampshire's White Mountains into Maine, is one of the easiest and prettiest paddles around. Even city slickers will agree. The clear shallow river has a gentle current that does most of the hard work for you but there are enough hairpin turns and a few rapid boils to kick up the adrenaline without overturning the boat.

Along the meandering route are sandy beaches, where you can dock for a picnic and hunt for blueberries. There are numerous outfitters based in North Conway that rent canoes and provide shuttle services for around $40 a day. Trip lengths vary from one to four hours, depending on the pick-up point. A particularly scenic and placid stretch is from North Conway to Weston Beach in Fryeburg, Maine.

Rent a Tube in Harpers Ferry, W.V.

The Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers meet in a boulder-strewn valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains beside Harpers Ferry, where John Brown made his famous anti-slavery raid on a federal armory. These days, workaholics from D.C. launch their own assaults on the rivers from a reclined position: flopped out in an inner-tube — no paddling or resisting gravity required. If the summer sun gets too hot, just slip out of your floating doughnut for a dip.

Choose from whitewater, flatwater, half-day and full-day trips (from $20 to $40 per person), any of which will earn you the bragging rights of "tubing the 'Doah."

Float houses (local slang for gear rental shops) are posted along the highway leading to town.

Rent a Pirate Ship in Baltimore

The Urban Pirates tour assembles a crew of swashbuckling kids decked out in period costumes, faux facial hair, and temporary tattoos to plunder the high seas of the Inner Harbor. Hourlong trips aboard the masted Fearless ship harness all of its half-pint heroism to load and fire the water cannons at a marauding band of "bad" pirates. There's plenty of pirate pretend to fill the kids with days of reminiscing.

Weekend trips cost $20 per person but you can test the waters during the ship's free story time on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10:30 a.m. To make a full sea-rover weekend out of it, time your visit with the annual Privateer Day in mid-April when Fells Point is overrun by salty dogs hunting for family-friendly treasures.

Rent a Jalopy in Boulder, Colo.

Bus tours are indeed informational if you can resist the nap-inducing effects of the soft padded seats and the warm sun streaming through the windows. If you'd rather a pick-me-up than a snooze, check out Banjo Billy's Bus Tour, which trundles through the streets of Boulder in an old school bus outfitted to look like a rolling hillbilly shack.

Banjo Billy demands full crowd participation, from spontaneous "yee-haws" to votes on what to see and what to skip. The hour-and-a-half tour ($20 for adults, $10 for children) is one part history and many parts humor that revels in the folk tales of ghosts, gunslingers, and gold miners. The tongue-in-cheek approach might even awaken a love of history in older children.

China Williams is a freelance writer who has tubed, paddled, and pirated her way across the country. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and their 2-year-old son.

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