Beth Blair

Archive for June, 2010

Last month photographer David Bowman arrived at my Minnesota home with his lights and cameras for a photo shoot with my family. The August issue of Woman’s Day is featuring my family in their travel column, “A Woman’s Day in…Minneapolis” (you can read it online now).  Every month the city changes and a different woman and her family is featured. Editor Angela Ebron interviewed me about Minneapolis highlights, secrets and best-of the area suggestions. It wasn’t hard answering the various questions since my husband and I like to get out with our little people every chance we get. As for the photo shoot, it was great fun. We even had professional hair and makeup artist Rene Rattler helping out. We had many good laughs considering we were shooting for a summer issue but the weather was very, very cold. The kids were fantastic, too.

Update: The print magazine is now on store shelves and doctors’ waiting room tables. You will find our feature on pages 56-59. There are more photos and a different version of our family photo.

This past week has been filled with some of the most spectacular scenery. My mom and I are being hosted on Princess Cruises Alaskan Cruisetour and we’re posting about our experiences on Twitter. This is my first time on a cruise and to visit Alaska. The days have been full of delicious culinary delights, especially halibut and salmon, and we’ve been on some pretty incredible excursions. We took a ride in a helicopter and landed on Yenert Glacier and took a scenic summit flight around Mt. McKinley. The next day we went ATVing in Sunshine, Alaska through trails lined with ferns and Alaskan Roses. It has been pretty remarkable to see Alaska from so many different perspectives. Here are few of my favorite shots.

Ready. Set. Go! Today I’m on my way to Alaska for the Princess Cruises Twitter Cruisetour. My family is staying behind with my (brave) inlaws, but you can be certain I’m going to be scouting for family-friendly adventures for next time when they will accompany me. In the meantime, I’m hoping the weather is appropriate for all of the exciting excursions my mom and I plan to partake in. Rumor has it Alaska weather is extremely versatile and rain tends to make frequent appearances. I’m happy to have found the perfect London Fog hooded raincoat for my adventure (thank you Sam’s Club).

Here are the land and shore excursions we selected:

Land:

• Denali Glacier Landing by Helicopter
• Mt. McKinley Glacier Landing by Plane
• Black Bear ATV Adventure

Shore:

• Alaska Sled Dog and Musher’s Camp in Skagway
• Whale Watching and Salmon Bake in Juneau
• Rainforest Canopy and Zipline Expedition in Ketchikan

Follow along on our Alaska adventure at: http://twitter.com/BethBlair

Follow everyone in our group by searching Twitter for: #FollowMeAtSea.

Blog posts to come on The Vacation Gals.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with some fabulous ladies from The Blog Pantry (a Twin Cities, Minnesota blog/networking site). This group of bloggers meet every so often for various social, fundraising and networking events. The blogging topics range from culinary to health to PR to parenting and everything in between. Local businesses frequently sponsor the events, including this particular gathering. Mom’s Best Naturals offered samples and cereal boxes to take home and France 44 supplied the delicious wine, goat cheese and crackers. Photographer Elissa Bean Kadue kindly opened up her colorful Little Bean Photography studio for our event and was extremely generous to offer every blogger a fresh, professional headshot (see my photo on the left). Most of the ladies, like me, were using random photos for their social media avatars, but now I’m seeing the other ladies’ black and white shots popping up on Twitter and Facebook. They all turned out gorgeous. I’ve updated my Gravatar and other social media sites with this new photograph so you will be seeing my new photo around too.

If you live in Minnesota and are thinking about family photos, I’d highly recommend Elissa, so give her a call. She makes the process painless and if you’d like to see her work, check out her amazing online portfolio. She has a sure talent for working with kids.

A big thank you to Elissa and the other sponsors for their generosity.

If you’d like to see what the The Blog Pantry ladies are up to – follow Twitter hashtag: #MNBlogPantry.

I’m extremely excited to announce that I’ve been invited to partake in the Princess Cruises Twitter Cruisetour June 15-26 along with several other travel bloggers and their guests. This 11-day Princess Cruises excursion starts off in Fairbanks, Alaska. We (my mom is joining me) then journey through Alaska, staying at three Princess’ wilderness lodges: Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge, Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. We have the opportunity to partake in various land excursions and ride on the Princess Rail.

After our days on land we will set sail on the Coral Princess for our seven days at sea which includes viewing Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay National Park and ports Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Vancouver, Canada.

I’ve booked our land and hore excursions which was no easy decision for this adventurer: Alaska Sled Dog and Musher’s Camp in Skagway, Whale Watching and Salmon Bake in Juneau and Rainforest Canopy and Zipline Expedition in Ketchikan. As for our land excursions, it looks like a Glacier Landing by flight and helicopter is in our future and an ATV adventure!

Here’s a glimpse of our daily itinerary:

4-Day Land Tour

Tuesday, 6/15  Arrive Fairbanks; overnight at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge

Wednesday, 6/16 Depart for Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

Thursday, 6/17  Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

Friday, 6/18  Depart for Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge

Saturday, 6/19 Depart for Coral Princess

7-day Cruise Aboard Coral Princess

Saturday, 6/19   Anchorage (Whittier)

Sunday, 6/20   Hubbard Glacier

Monday, 6/21   Glacier Bay National Park

Tuesday, 6/22   Skagway

Wednesday, 6/23  Juneau

Thursday, 6/24   Ketchikan

Friday, 6/25   Inside Passage (scenic cruising)

Saturday, 6/26   Vancouver (Head home)

I’m  looking forward to learning about cruising and passing along my discoveries to my readers and followers – and taking photos!

Wish to follow along?

Follow me at: http://twitter.com/BethBlair

Follow everyone in our group by searching: #FollowMeAtSea.

I will also be vlogging and writing blog posts from sea and posting here on BethBlair.com and on TheVacationGals.com.

See you at sea!