New Orleans Trip Report - coming soon!

I'm so sorry that I didn't liveblog this trip as promised - I left home with the wrong camera cord, so I have not been able to download any of my photos to my computer! And there's really no point to a liveblog of Mardi Gras without photos - so I'm putting it on hold until I return home tomorrow and can give you the full picture.

For now I will just say that it has been an amazing experience! I highly recommend it. It's been fun with the kids (although Tom & I now really want to come back without them at some point in the future!), and you really can avoid the "worst" of the excesses if you try. Mardi Gras is a family event for New Orleans natives, and at some points really has a picnic atmosphere.

Anyway, more to come soon!

Travel Advice - When to Visit Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. More than 17 million people visit the Magic Kingdom each year! And although a surprising number of people choose to honeymoon in Disney World, it is safe to say that the vast majority of those visitors are families with children. Taking the family on a pilgrimage to see the Mouse is practically an obligation! With a bit of advance planning, a Disney World vacation can be a joyous experience for everyone. However, too many families are overwhelmed by the size and complexity of Disney World, and find themselves standing in an endless series of long, hot lines wondering when the fun is going to start. Drawing on my experience both vacationing at Disney with my family, and planning dozens of Disney vacations for my clients, I am beginning my Travel Advice posts with some of my favorite Disney World planning tips. I'm going to start with one of the most basic considerations - the best time to visit Walt Disney World.

There are a number of different things to consider as you decide when to plan your Disney vacation. Let's consider a few of the most important ones.

Crowds
I am told that there once was a golden age, long before I started taking my family to Disney World, when there were whole months during which you could visit Disney and find almost empty parks, walk onto attractions with no lines, and dine at any restaurant without a reservation. Alas, those days are no more! While there is no "perfect" time to visit Disney World, if avoiding crowds is important to you you should definitely consider planning your trip at certain times of the year.

Because most families prefer to schedule a trip to Disney World when school is out of session, the busiest times of year are invariably during school vacations. The very busiest times at Disney are the week between Christmas and New Years, and the two weeks before and after Easter. This doesn't mean that you can't enjoy a vacation during those weeks, particularly since Disney extends hours and adds lots of special events at those times. However, you will need to plan ahead and decide what is most important to you, and not try to see and do everything in the parks. Do what you can and enjoy the atmosphere! Other very busy times of the year are the 4th of July holiday, the week after President's day, and Thanksgiving.

The summer months are also a very popular time to visit Disney World. The busiest months are mid-June through late July. If you would like to plan a summer visit, but want to avoid the heaviest crowds, try to schedule your vacation when some schools are in session. Southern schools typically have their summer vacation from late May to early August, while schools in the Northeast are dismissed in mid-June and return in September. Both late May and late August are good times to visit Disney World, and late August also typically has some of Disney's best discounts of the year!

If you want to visit during the Spring Break period of mid-February through mid-April, just try to avoid the busiest weeks around President's Day and Easter; you will still encounter larger crowds during these months, but with smart touring decisions it shouldn't be overwhelming.

If you have young children, or don't mind taking your children out of school for a few days, you can plan your visit for the lowest crowd periods of the year. If you avoid Martin Luther King weekend, early January through mid-February have the lowest crowds of the year; if you don't mind the possibility of cool temperatures that's a great time to tour the parks. Another good time to visit is the first 2 1/2 weeks of December - the crowds are low and the holiday decorations and parades are up and running, so you can have the best of both worlds! Finally, September and early November are also periods with lower crowds.

If you can't avoid going during the busiest periods, do your homework or use a Disney-certified travel agent to help you plan your time (I provide itinerary planning free of charge to all of my Disney clients). Get to the parks early, don't try to overdo things, and enjoy all the extra entertainment that Disney provides during those months - and have a great time!

Weather
As you can see from these photos from our family vacations, weather in Orlando can vary quite a bit, from very hot, humid and sunny:

Disney in August

to wet and rainy:

A rainy June day at Epcot

and even occasionally quite chilly:

Bundled up for a chilly day in January

It's good to be prepared!

If you really hate hot and humid weather, you should definitely avoid Disney from late May through early October. However, most people can tolerate a visit during those months as long as you keep hydrated, take frequent breaks in air-conditioned attractions, shops and restaurants, and avoid touring during the hot afternoon hours (that's what the pool at your resort is for!). You can get rain during any month in central Florida, but the rainiest months are June-September. Finally, while freezing temperatures are quite unusual in Orlando (although they do happen occasionally), you can encounter a cold snap any time from December through February.

The best months to visit if you are looking for moderate temperatures and low rainfall are March through May, and late September through November.


Cost
The most expensive times to visit Disney are also the most popular times: the week between Christmas and New Years, Easter week, and the spring break and summer months. So if you can find a way to visit during the less crowded months, you can also save quite a bit of money on your vacation. During the recent economic downturn, Disney has been offering excellent deals on packages during much of the year; however, there are indications that this will not be the case in 2012. You will find the best values during late August and September, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and during the month of January.


Special Events

There are special events scheduled throughout the year that may lure you to Disney. Here is a list of some of those events:

January - Disney's Marathon Weekend
May - Epcot Flower & Garden Festival
June - Star Wars Weekends at Disney Hollywood Studios
October - Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
November - Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
December - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Visit the following links for more information about special events at Walt Disney World:
For general information: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/
For information about Disney Marathon Weekend and other running events at Disney World: http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/sports/rundisney

Running a Half Marathon thru the Magic Kingdom

Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

When planning your vacation, you need to balance all these different considerations with your family's work and school schedules. Knowing what to expect and planning ahead gives you what you need to have the best Disney vacation possible.

I hope this is helpful! My next Travel Advice topic will be enjoying Disney at every age - from babies to grandparents and everything in between! In the meantime, next week I will be live blogging from my family's trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Have a great week!

Kira Gartner
Blue Sky Destinations
kira@blueskydestinations.net
267-481-2930

Reviving the Blog!

Hi! It's been a really, really long time since I've even visited this blog. I really didn't think I had it in me to start blogging again - to be honest, it just hasn't been something I've been thinking about.

But I've been reading so many blogs lately, and they contribute so much to my life! And I want a place where I can send my clients and friends who are interested in travel tips & tidbits about my life. So I am going to get this going again.

This time around, I am going to focus more on travel topics. I may sprinkle in some family news every once in a while, but mostly I am going to use this as a forum for education and communication. My plan is to blog weekly. I'm going to try to be pretty eclectic in my topics. My current ideas include

• using Disney's Fastpass (changes are coming soon), and other Disney topics
  
• topics about traveling with children, including getting through security gracefully, what should go in their backpacks, taking children to Europe, etc.
• running on vacation (or "don't let a vacation ruin your fitness program"!)
• how to shop for the best airfare prices
• destination & restaurant reviews
  

I'm open to any suggestions and requests for topics!

Look for my first post on Tuesday! And thanks for stopping by again!

Running plans for 2009

So, I have amazed myself in the last 12 months by doing something I never, ever thought was possible for me - becoming a distance runner. I have run 2 half marathons, several 5K races, a grueling 10K trail run, and logged more miles in my running shoes than I ever imagined. So what do I do now?

I have to admit, my enthusiasm for running flagged somewhat since the Disney Half. I met my goal, which I had worked towards for a full year, and had a wonderful time doing it. Add to that mix having a miscarriage in mid-January, and the cold damp weather, and I have not laced up my running shoes nearly enough in the past 2 months.

What the cure for that? Why, creating the next set of challenges of course! There's nothing like putting a race on the calendar to get me moving again!

So what's on tap for this year?

Well, the first major race I am planning is the Broad Street Run. This is a very well-known race in Philadelphia, although probably not much outside of the city. I think that's because it doesn't fit into the usual categories - as a 10-mile race it's more than a 10K, but less than a half marathon. You start at the top of Broad Street (actually, at Central High School, where my daughter goes to school), and run down to the Navy Yards. Essentially you see the whole North to South arc of the city, and run through many different types of neighborhoods. I think this is going to be really cool, since I have driven up and down Broad Street so many times in my life.

Because this is a 10-miler, I am going to do a modified half marathon training for it. I'm a bit behind since it's now about 10 weeks away, but hopefully the miles I've already put in will stand me in good stead. Oh, and it's all flat or downhill! You park at the Navy Yard, and then take the subway up to Olney. The only flaw with this race is the sad lack of a finishers medal (no bling), but I think I'll live!

The next major race(s) in my plans are the Beach to Bell - the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach on September 6th, followed two weeks later by the ING Philadelphia Distance Run (another half) on September 20th. Knowing how I have felt after my last 2 half marathons, I think I am a tiny bit crazy for doing this. However, the challenge of it is making me really excited! And if you do both you get an extra medal - thus making up for the missing medal from the Broad Street Run. And it's a really cool medal too:


Don't you want to sign up now too! LOL - it's all about the bling, isn't it!

I'm going to be looking for some advice about these races from my WISH friends, since I have never tried to do two major races so close together. I think this is the closest I am ever going to get to doing the Goofy (i.e. doing the Disney Half on one day followed by the Disney Full on the next) - but never say never, right?

I am saving the really big challenge for last. I have officially signed up to do the Full Marathon at Walt Disney World in January. Yesterday I mapped out my training plan for that race - it is going to be a whole different animal from training for a half marathon! Many weekends I will be spending 3-4 hours on my long runs, with the longest runs in that relaxing time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm not sure how I will feel as I get closer to the event, but right now I am just amazed by myself for jumping in.

In between these big runs, I have a couple of smaller races in my plans. There are some nice 5Ks around here in the spring, and I will probably repeat the (rather grueling) Wissahickon Classic Trail Run 10K in June as well, since the people that do it are so great! We'll see what else comes up that I feel like doing.

One of the great things about putting races on the calendar is that it gives a kind of order and structure to the year. Now we get to see how it all plays out!

OK - off to the gym. I need to get started!

Getting caught up

I've been a bad blogger again, and while I could resolve to be better, I'm not sure what I can promise right now! I'm finding myself so busy between work, my kids, running and my business, that lots of things have fallen by the wayside. This includes housework and blogging. Add my facebook addiction to that mix, and you have a recipe for neglect.

Let's see, shall I try to summarize the past 5 months?

There's the trip to Disney in August I never blogged about:



We had a financial windfall, which was great but strange since it came the same week as the failure of AIG and Lehman Brothers.

I ran the Philadelphia Distance Run (which I did blog about, see below).

Halloween and another beautiful fall in Philadelphia:





The Phillies won the World Series!



A certain election happened here in the US!

We went to Maine for Thanksgiving.




Annika & Ally danced in the Nutcracker.




We went to New York the week before Christmas, and then we had Christmas.



In early January Tom and I ran the Disney Half Marathon, and had a blast! I plan to post a full trip report in the near future, but here are a few teaser photos.






We finished up January with a one-night "Cruise to Nowhere"out of New York with my wonderful sister and her husband, and 2 of our best friends. Sorry, no pictures of that - I just forgot to take any.

In the middle of all that I found out I was pregnant and had a miscarriage, which was a big deal (to say the least!). Also during the past few months: we had both of our cars hit by our neighbor - one totalled, the other fixable; Hannah started at a new high school; I went to several travel industry conferences and learned a lot; joined BNI which has been amazing; took a 10% pay cut and (hopefully very temporarily) lost our family's health insurance; booked a summer trip to Europe for all of us; Will applied to high schools; we bought a new car, drove the kids to a million activities, and generally were in a whirlwind of activity.

There, now you're all caught up!

The Philadelphia Distance Run

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of pictures to go along with this, but I did want to put together my race report while it was still fairly fresh in my mind.

I registered for this race ages ago - probably in February when I was just starting out with my running. It has been so helpful and motivating to me to have the PDR to shoot for. I know what works for me, and one of the things that really works is to have a goal or an event that I'm planning for. I have progressed with my running much faster with this race on the schedule than I would have if my first half was the WDW race in January.

I began my training late in June, so preparing for this has taken my whole summer. During that time I only missed one long run - the 8-miler I was supposed to do during my trip to Disney in August. Given that I was dealing with the hot & humid weather of a Philadelphia summer, and multiple vacations during that time, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. My longest run (a 10-miler I did on August 23rd) was great, and I felt well-prepared and ready as the PDR got closer.

A bunch of us at the WiSH Boards were doing this race, so we made plans to get together on Saturday for late lunch/early dinner in Chinatown. My husband Tom also joined us. I went to the expo to pick up my packet, and also switched corrals (my pace had improved a lot since I registered, so I moved up to corral 14 from corral 16). I hardly looked at the Expo at all since I had gotten there pretty late, and then joined Terri, Cam, Howard, Cindy, Matt, Karen & John for the walk to the restaurant. Anne, Robert & Pat were already there, and my husband joined us a little late.

Here are some photos from the lunch:

John, Cindy, Matt, Howard & Cam:


Terri, Robert, Anne, Pat & Karen:


One more after Tom got there - he's the one in the green shirt:


It was really great to get to know everyone, and we had a wonderful time. What a great bunch of people! Thanks, Terri, for organizing the meet!

Tom & I left because we had another pre-race event to go to! My brother Mike was also running, along with a friend of his, so he planned a get-together in his house with pasta and a showing of Chariots of Fire. We got there around 6:30, and enjoyed some great food and beer. Tom & I enjoyed the movie, but I think it was a little boring for the kids (Ally was complaining loudly!). We made arrangements for Mike and his entourage (his friend Yelena who was racing, and his girlfriend Susie who was cheering) to pick me up in the morning. The plan was for Tom & the kids to get there in time to see me finish, but avoid getting up at the crack of dawn with me!

We got home around 9:30. I still needed to finish some laundry for the race (whoops - poor planning on my part), so I got going on that, and got everything else ready for the morning. Over the years I've done lots of things that involved getting up early for events, and I knew I would have a happier morning if I took care of everything the night before. So I pinned my bib to my shirt, took care of my chip, put together my fanny pack etc. before I went to sleep.

I actually was in bed by around 11, and slept pretty well. I have to say, I did have some pretty weird dreams though! When my alarm went off, I was not in a great mood. In fact, I did not feel particularly like getting up and running 13.1 miles, but of course I got up anyway! Had coffee, a bowl of cereal, and finished getting ready. It was a beautiful morning for a race - clear, low humidity and about 60 degrees.

Mike picked me up, and we got there around 7:15. If it had just been me I would have arrived about 1/2 hour sooner - I think next time I'll drive myself so that I can be sure to get there with plenty of time. The WiSH group was meeting at the Rocky statue for photos and good luck wishes, and I made it just in time to get in the last photos! I then dropped off my bag at the gear check, and went to stand in the LOOOONNNGG portapotty line.

I was actually still in the line when the race started, but I made it to my corral with a few minutes before our group started to move.

Honestly, the first half of the race is a bit of a blur. I really enjoyed running on the streets of the city I have lived in most of my life. Everything was familiar, but it was also transformed by the context of seeing it through the eyes of a distance runner. I think it was really great to run my first major race in my own city. I never, never, ever thought I would be running a half marathon - until last January this would just not have occurred to me as a possibility - so running the streets of my own city was proof of my transformation.

Poetry aside, I felt pretty good! I was keeping to a 10 1/2 - 11 minute pace, which had me on track to complete under 2 1/2 hours (my goal time). I did end up using my i-pod after about mile 2. I just really wanted my running music! This ended up helping a lot later in the race.

It was also a real highlight to see the Kenyan/Ethiopian runners coming back down the Parkway as we were heading up it! Amazing!

The first five miles really flew by. There was a lot of crowd support on the streets. We then headed up West River Drive. I was running most of the time, and then walking through the water stops. This kept me more or less on the pattern I had established in my most recent training runs - I have been running about a mile and then walking for 30-60 seconds. By the way, the water stops were terrific! They were frequent, and well-manned. I had a Luna Moon at about 6 miles, and that kept up my energy level.

On both West River Drive, and then Kelly Drive there was much less crowd support, and I found that made a lot of difference. Nonetheless, I was feeling really good for about the first 9 miles - about where you cross the Schuylkill River at Falls Bridge. After that I had a tough couple of miles. My longest run had been 10 miles, and I think I was having difficulty mentally with going past that limit! I knew I was going to finish the race, but I found myself needing to do some mental bargaining to keep going strong. For instance - "If you keep running to the next mile marker you can walk for the next minute after that" or "All right, you can have a walk break now, but then you have to run for 5 straight minutes." It's funny to think about now, but it was very challenging while I was living through it! I felt tired, but I was still pretty strong. I think I had another Luna Moon around mile 11, and that perked me up a bit.

My slowest miles were Mile 11 & 12, and then I picked it up again when I had just one more mile to go. I was feeling a bit of chafing from my shirtsleeves, which was bothering me, but I knew I would make it, and that I would meet my goal time! It felt great to round that final bend, and then make it past the finish line! My official finishing time was 2 hours, 26 minutes 41 seconds, average pace 11:12. I got my medal, grabbed water, a bagel and some other food, and went off to find my family.

Here's the medal. I really like it!



Unfortunately, Tom and the kids missed seeing me at the finish line. I guess I went faster than he expected! I wasn't upset about it, but I think they would have enjoyed the whole experience more if they had been there for the finish. As it was, they arrived shortly after, and then we found my brother, Susie and Yelena and compared notes. I was tired, and a bit sore, but felt pretty good. In fact, the only thing that was really bothering me was all the new ways my clothes had found to chafe me. Yikes!

We stayed for a little bit longer, and then headed home. I took a much-needed shower, and then a short nap. I was tired, sore and very satisfied! In fact, I was so happy with the experience that I've registered for the half-marathon option at the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23rd!

My pace at the splits:
Mile 1 - 10:57
Mile 2 - 11:17
Mile 3 - 10:28
Mile 4 - 10:33
Mile 5 - 10:42
Mile 6 - 10:43
Mile 7 - 10:42
Mile 8 - 10:48
Mile 9 - 11:17
Mile 10 - 11:07
Mile 11 - 11:35
Mile 12 - 11:44
Mile 13.1 (I didn't separate the last .1 mile!) - 11:11

Overall:
- This is a great race! It's well-run, flat and fun! I definitely want to do it again.
- Right now, a half-marathon is plenty of race for me! I'm not going to even think about running a full marathon until late 2009, if ever.
- I live in a beautiful city.
- Running with people you know is more fun than running a race alone.

It was a great experience, and I hope for an even better one in November.

I've been a bad, bad blogger

I can't believe that I have let it go so long between posts!

Let's see, since my last blog post
- my oldest daughter came home from Spain
- I booked 2 new (expensive) vacations for 2 new clients
- I took all 4 kids to Disneyworld by myself
- I completed my training to run my first half marathon
- school started, and my schedule heated up at work
- my youngest daughter had her 8th birthday
- I ran the Philadelphia Distance Run
- oh, and lots of other things too!

Some of these really deserve a bit of attention, even though they are now in the past. In particular, I want to post some of our pictures from our great Disney trip, and give a full report of the Philly Distance Run. Also, I think Ally would like a bit of attention paid to her birthday!

In the meantime just know that I haven't died, fallen off the face of the earth, or given up on this blog. I'll be back soon with more!