Beth Blair

Archive for the ‘Fun Stuff’ Category

The Mall of America is one of Minnesota’s most popular attractions and it happens to be my local mall. As a flight attendant I frequently meet people flying into the Twin Cities simply to shop and play at this massive mall that has every store imaginable and much more including my kids’ favorite, Nickelodeon Universe. Now that the holidays are in full-swing the parking at Mall of America is going to be rather, well, competitive.

Today you have the chance to win one of twelve parking places on December 21st for the 12 Days of Parking at Mall of America. What this means is if you’re a winner, you can bypass the holiday parking situation all together with a VIP parking spot and win a gift card to help with your shopping!

Details: 12 winners will receive a $25 Mall of America gift card and a coveted parking spot in the north surface parking lot for the entire day of December 21 (see the photo above). As a winner, you can come and go as you please the entire day. The parking lot will be patrolled as well as a huge sign announcing that violators will be towed at owners expense (that means so sneaking in!).

How to enter:

• You may enter by leaving a comment below telling us where you will spend your $25 gift card if you’re a winner (enter daily) or why you should be a parking spot winner.
• You may increase your chances by tweeting the following on Twitter: I entered to win the @MallofAmerica 12 Days of Parking giveaway with @BethBlair http://bit.ly/moabb (You must come back and leave a message in the comments below that you entered this way to earn your extra entry.)
• Contest ends at 5 p.m. Central Time on December 16, 2011.
• The winners will be chosen via random.org and will be contacted by Mall of America. Please make sure you have a working email and be prepared to give your name, car make/model and license plate to valid your parking pass.

Good luck!

Congratulations to the 12 winners. You will be notified by Mall of America!

It’s that time of year again when gift givers are scrambling for the perfect gift for their friends, co-workers and loved ones. Lucky for you I have a brilliant idea: California Wine Club. I can speak from firsthand experience. This year I was invited to try a three month membership to California Wine Club and has it been a fantastic experience. I can’t say enough about what a great gift this makes. Let me tell you why…

1. California Wine Club is the gift that keeps on giving year-round. While most Christmas presents are opened and put away, a subscription to this wine club is like a new gift month after month. This gift is a fun way to help someone grow their wine collection or give them the opportunity to try something new and you don’t have to worry about wrapping any gifts or going to the post office to ship it.

2. Good wine. I don’t know how they do it, they must really know their stuff. Every wine I’ve had from the California Wine Club has been delicious. This month – my last California Wine Club shipment – was outstanding! It was no surprise that the Reserve Chardonnay was wrapped in winning stickers, I can never pass up a good Chard and this one didn’t disappoint. And as a regular red wine drinker the bold Cabepulciano went to my “to buy again list.” Both come from Tulip Hill Winery.

3. You have choices. Everyone has their own wine preference – red or white. But did you know you can choose from four great wine-of-the-month clubs? And they are affordable for all budgets:

• The Premier Club is the most popular wine gift, featuring monthly shipments of two bottles of award-winning wine from California’s best “mom & pop” wineries and our entertaining 12-page, full-color newsletter, Uncorked. Wine gifts start at just $36.45.
• The Signature Series, offers only the rarest and most coveted wines from California. Shipments include two to four bottles of highly rated wine and detailed tasting notes. Wine gifts start at $124.
• The  International Selections features small wineries from around the world. Shipments include two bottles of outstanding wine and an engaging full-color newsletter. Wine gift prices start at $71.
• The top shelf gift is called the Aged Cabernet Series. The newest and most exciting club features finely aged Cabernets from Napa’s most prestigious wineries. Wine gifts start at $182.

4. You’ll be known as the cool gift-giver. Giving wine is always a sign of a classy, thoughtful person and the California Wine Club is one gift that will impress all of your friends and family.

5. It can help with your wine country travels. Being that I’m all about travel you…I like to look at the big picture and that’s why I think this wine club is brilliant for finding some great wineries to explore on your next visit to California – and for the person your gifting the wine to. It’s like having your own personal travel planner who is an expert of the wine region and lets you taste the wine before you go.

Be sure to follow California Wine Club on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news and promotions>

Thank you California Wine Club for asking me to partake in this fun holiday promotion. I can truly say it has been an impressive experience and I highly recommend it.

Facebook has two faces: personal and business. But I’ve always had a hard time distinguishing the two for my personal/professional use. Almost everyone likes – or loves – to travel but not everyone wants to hear about my son’s hockey game or that my daughter went rock climbing for the first time. I know many people who won’t accept friend request from people they haven’t met in person, but I also know people who befriend everyone who asks – after all, networking is what social media is about. So what’s a freelancer to do?

Last week I met my friend Teri for coffee. We love to brainstorm together and I always leave our get-togethers rejuvenated and inspired. As we discussed our careers, the topic of Facebook came up and how social media fits in. Teri explained that she started a Facebook fan page in addition to her personal profile which she recently revamped. I admit that when FB first came out with fan pages as an option, the term “fan” turned me off – at least for individuals. Sure it seemed appropriate for businesses and celebrities but not for random people – and we do have one for TheVacationGals.com now. As we chatted I realized how wise she was to choose this avenue. A fan page can focus on one topic without blurring the work and too-much-personal-info lines. And so, I launched my own Fan page – Beth Blair Travels – to focus on my career and travels and other interesting topics and I don’t have to bore people with my personal life.

I’m really excited to be building my page and adding photos and blog posts links that are fun to share. Please bear with me as my page evolves. If you have any advice or tips I’m all ears! In the meantime, I’d appreciate a “like” and let me know if I can do the same for you.

Happy Travels!

Every region and destination is known for something…food, music, culture. But there’s one thing that’s guaranteed…each location also has its famed beverage: cocktails, martinis, beer, wine or, as we experienced, even chocolate milk. Here are some photos of the liquid delights I’ve encountered over the years…

Lake Placid…Classic Shirley Temple at the Boat House

Hershey Lodge is known for its Chocolate Martini. How could they not be…

And Hershey Park sells their classic Chocolate Milk…

Princess Midnight Sun Express Rail Alaska

Quebec’s Hotel Glace…Vodka cranberry in an ice glass

Turks and Caicos Ocean Club….Turks Head Beer

Bahama Mama

Cocoa Caicos

Turquoise Dream

Sunset Sail Rum Concoction…

Puerto Rico…Pina Colada

And another one…

Sangria at the table-side guacamole place…

Park City, Utah…whiskey and more at High West Distillery

Bourbon tasting on the Bourbon Trail, Kentucky

Huntington Beach…Brewbakers

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!

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.

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.