Beth Blair

Last month my husband and two children took one of our whimsical family road trips through the East Coast. We drove through Chicago and ventured up to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Lake Placid, Hershey and several other towns and cities. One of our stops was Philadelphia. As a PBS Sprout Expert, I’ve written for the site, and as a Band of Bloggers member, we were invited to stop in the Comcast building, the tallest building in the city, to see the PBS Spout office and studio. I was hoping  for a quick hello to the staff, but we were offered more than that. We had the chance of a lifetime – especially for my young children.

We had met the sweet host of the PBS Sprout Sunny Side Up Show Dennisha Pratt and her puppet friend Chica during a live filming!

While my son’s spinning wheels tried to figure out the logistics of the set and Chica, my daughter was completely enthralled with the experience and said meeting Chica was the best part of the trip.

Even my husband and I were intrigued by the visit. We discovered the Sunny Side Up Show is show is extremely cost-effective and while the show is produced in Philadelphia it is transmitted from the Comcast Media Center in Denver. Our biggest surprise was how incredibly small the set was, especially because it looks so much more spacious on TV. It was quite an event seeing the show in the works and seeing the cheery and colorful PBS Sprout office.

Before our departure we had a fun photo op, we sat in the former Good Night Show chair (see photo) and already have the picture in a frame at home.

Thank you PBS Sprout for inviting us to meet Dennisha and Chica and see your magical world. What a wonderful memory it was for our family!

We couldn’t have picked a prettier day to visit Niagara Falls and take a ride on the Maid of the Mist. The mist wasn’t too bad on the boat ride, but the walk up to the falls was another story – we left drenched! My husband took some beautiful photos during our journey as you can see below.

Niagara Falls

Rainbows

Maid of the Mist

Stairway along American Falls

Before departing on Maid of the Mist

American FallsHorseshoe FallsBase of Horseshoe FallsDream come true! Visiting Niagara Falls and riding Maid of the Mist

Wet and Wild at Niagara FallsRainbow Bridge

The last time my husband, kids and I were in Chicago my sister-in-law was showing us around her beloved town. Unfortunately, as she was giving us a tour of Millennium Park it started to rain and the kids never got to experience the Bean firsthand. This time as we cruised though Chicago we decided to give it another shot. The kids had a blast and it was a great way to stretch our legs and break up the monotony of the road miles. Here are some of my favorite photos from this stop:

My family recently cruised through Wisconsin during our travels to the East Coast. Along the way we came across this random elephant next to a gas station somewhere in the middle of the state. He is pink and fully equipped with geek glasses. Knowing us, we had to stop a check him out. Here are a couple of the photos my husband and I shot of our kids and this random Wisconsin elephant…

Amongst the numerous highlights of my Alaskan Princess Cruisetour this summer our summit flight around Mount McKinley was indeed one of the more memorable experiences. Flying around this massive mountain was humbling, especially when I felt I could reach out and touch the snow resting on the peaks, only to discover the plane was still at least two miles away.

View from Denali National Park – looks like a cloud

Talkeetna Aero Services

Pre-Flight

From a distance

Oxygen

Getting Closer

Summit

14ers Camp (14,000 feet climber base)

14ers Camp

Returning

After the flight

The other side of the mountain: View from Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge

“I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean“

This is one of my favorite lines in Lee Ann Womack’s song I Hope You Dance. Every time I visit the ocean I feel so free and relaxed and indeed “small.” Here are some of my favorite beach and ocean photos from my recent travels. It never ceases to amaze me how no two photos ever look the same, even of the same ocean.

Fort Bragg, California

Puerto Rico – San Juan Marriott

Grace Bay, Turks and Caicos – Ocean Club West -

Huntington Beach, California

Kauai, Hawaii

Mendocino, California

After “National Lampoon’s Vacation” Clark Griswold became an American road trip icon dad while the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (aka the Griswold station wagon) represented the the 80′s popular mode of transportation (the Swagger Wagon of yesteryear). It’s special to me because my parents drove a very similar station wagon. My folks would pile us five kids in our own wood-panel wagon and drive us through the byways of Louisiana and Mississippi or to the Alabama and Florida beaches. Those trips are what inspired me to pursue travel as a career.

More recently though, you might remember the HomeAway Super Bowl advertising campaign featuring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. Well, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster featured in the commercial is on the road this summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day promoting HomeAway vacation rentals.  The wagon is stopping at destinations across America and this past weekend it came though the Twin Cities. The timing was perfect because it was the weekend of the Minnesota Red Bull Flugtag (homemade flying contraption competition) and there was an entry called Team Griswold, aka Team 20. The Family Truckster Team designed the green station wagon with wings!  We attended the event and even saw Team Griswold “fly.” It looked great and even came in 3rd place (the world record was broken by the 1st place winner). After that we headed over to Minneapolis restaurant Joe’s Garage where the Truckster was parked.

HomeAway had asked me if I’d like to be part of their promotion and ride in the Truckster as one of their bloggers this summer. I had to decline but my friend Jennifer Miner is going to be representing The Vacation Gals on a stretch of the trip departing from Seattle this weekend. She’ll have a great time.

While I didn’t get to ride in the Truckster my family did snap some photos with this famous station wagon. If you do the same as it comes through your town, be sure to enter the contest on Facebook. HomeAway is giving away a few vacations this summer.

If you receive HARO you may have already seen this call-out. For SheKnows.com: I’m looking for advice and quotes on these four topics. If you have insight or advice, I’d love to hear it. Here are the topics I’m covering:

• 3 Quick daytime up-dos
• Easy ways to tell your hair style isn’t working for you
• Simple hair styles for your little girl
• Real women share their simple haircare tips

Please email me: bethblairwrites @ gmail.com.

Thank you!

I_Blog 2010 is officially scheduled for November 5-7 in Perry, Iowa. I’m particularly excited because I have the opportunity to present at this second annual convention on a topic I know very well. My session is called Pitch from Your Passion: Get Paid for Writing About What You Love.

The Midwest was in need of a conference geared toward the new wave of blogging and mastermind Jody Halsted deserves a standing ovation for all of her hard work and dedication to creating this conference. Talk about passion!

Other scheduled  speakers and sessions include:

• Blogging Basics — Melanie Nelson, co-author Typepad for Dummies

• SEO and Why It Matters — Angela England, editor Blissfully Domestic

• How to Utilize LinkedIn — representative from LinkedIn

• How to Use Social Media to Build Your Online Presence — Claire Celsi, the PR Princess

• Intellectual Content vs. Owned Content — Brett Trout, P.C.

• How to Make Money from Your Blog — Melanie Nelson and Angela England

• How to Use Your Camera to Add Great Content to Your Site — Darcy and Randy Milder from His N Hers Photography

One of the conference’s cool features is Destination Midwest. This event is scheduled for Saturday night and will bring together attendees and Midwest destination representatives. The bloggers will have the opportunity to discover several Midwest destination and learn what makes these locations great. It’s a social media match made in heaven and being that I’m fairly new to the Midwest I can tell you that I’m certainly looking forward to hearing more about new places in my region.

Registration is $199 for a full conference ticket but you may choose to attend “a la carte” via the following breakdown:

Saturday only: $100

Friday evening social: $50

Destination Midwest Saturday evening event: $50

Interested in attending? Purchase your ticket to I_Blog by clicking on the badge above. It will take you right to the online ticket information.

The I_Blog conference is going to be held at Hotel Pattee. This isn’t your average lodging or meeting location. This hotel opened in 1913. Today, each guest room in this boutique hotel is uniquely and eloquently decorated with a story to tell.

In addition to the conference I can’t wait for the face-to-face meetings, networking and socializing that goes along with such an event. If you’re planning on attending I_Blog let me know. I look forward to meeting you in Iowa!

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.