Travel Weather Craziness

Hey guys! Sorry I have been MIA but I had a blast in Disney and was supposed to go home yesterday, but due to some severe weather, I wasn’t able to make it home. 

Yesterday was quite the draining travel day and I will be happy to be home today. It started on Monday when I checked in for my Tuesday flight and I realized there was going to be severe weather when I was supposed to be flying into New Orleans. I then became nervous the rest of the evening and even tried to get an earlier flight but they wanted $170 extra dollars. 

Tuesday morning I took the shuttle to the airport and kept an eye on the weather the whole time. The plane was on time and we were to be landing right as the bad weather approached…and approach it did. 

It got bumpy as we went to land, and when we were less than 1,000 feet altitude, all of the sudden we heard people’s tornado alarms go off on their phones and the plane quickly pulled up into the air. I was freaking out a bit, and after 30 minutes of circling we finally landed only to find out the reason we pulled up is because there was a TORNADO a couple blocks from the airport when we were trying to land. 

Ok, so I escaped death once, got my bags and headed to my car. I proceeded to drive across the huge lake (24 Mile bridge) and heard reports of huge water spouts on the radio. When I made it to my parents, I saw on the news a video of the water spouts. So scary they were there right before I came through! 

  
I escaped danger yet again, and decided to spend the night at my parents house because the bad weather was straight up and down the interstate I would have to drive to get home.

About an hour after getting home, my phone beeps and we are under another tornado warning and there was a tornado on the ground headed straight for my parents area of town. We had pillows, blankets and other items ready to hide out in the hall bathroom. It was not fun. 

  
Thankfully the threat passed and there was just a ton of rain filling the ditches and my parents backyard. 

  
I was pretty exhausted after this crazy day  but am also happy to get home to my family! I can’t wait to share all the details of my fun trip over the next week so stay tuned! 

QOTD: anyone have a crazy weather story? 

 

A Week From Today…

I WILL BE A MARATHONER!!! AAAHHH!

I can’t believe it is finally here! We leave in 4 days for Disney, and I feel so unprepared/excited/anxious/nervous all at once! To top off my nerves, I just found out the Saints playoff game is Saturday night, the night before the race. Yup! Not only did I freak out and hurry and change my 5:30 dining reservations so I won’t miss the name, but now I know I won’t get much sleep the night before the race!

A few housekeeping items today. If you would like to follow my progress during the race, you can opt to get FREE texts or emails by going HERE. It’s easy to sign up! enter in my full name, HEATHER MONTGOMERY and you can follow me!

You can also follow me on twitter or join either of my facebook fan pages on my RIGHT toolbar. I will be tweeting and posting pictures on FB and twitter during the trip, after the race, before the race, etc. So that is a good way to keep up with me over the course of my trip!

Also, don’t forget, I am a travel agent! I booked mainly Disney and Universal, but I do other things and cruises, too so just ask! My services are free to you! Contact me at heather@travelwiththemagic.com for a free no obligation quote.

and now, for a couple of flashback pictures from last year’s race!

QOTD: Do you have any race goals for the year? Run a 5k? Get a new PR?

 

Race Weather Woes

Happy Hump day everyone! It’s beautiful and 67 degrees here! I went for a walk with my mom and may go for a run in a little while. Tomorrow will be 74!

Today while I was walking with my mom, I started to panic, this trip and marathon have totally snuck up on me! We leave a week from TOMORROW! I haven’t packed or organized a THING! I decided it would be easiest if I made a list of all race related things and put them all in one separate bag away from everything else. Since my husband and I are both running, this could be a BIG bag!

First things first. Weather. Orlando weather seems to be very finicky in January. For example….

Marathon weekend 2007. This was on our honeymoon. note the shorts and short sleeved shirt. I am very cold natured, so you know it was warm!

Fast forward December 2007. I know its not quite January, but this was the end of December, Christmas week. it. was. freezing. So cold I cried and we left a park.

Fast forward, again, to January 2009.  I went with my friend Karen for a girls weekend and to watch Jen and Crystal run the marathon. The day of the race was warm and beautiful.

Me and Jen…I even got sunburned!

 

Karen, me, Crystal:

But…the day we left, was freezing!

Ok, and one more time…January 2010, I ran the half. It. was. frigid. in the low 20’s and sleeting/freezing rain.

Don’t we look thrilled? (Bobby, me, Jen, Jeff)

It was a FUN race but miserable at the same time. When the sleet stopped it just turned to freezing rain, pelting us in the face. Then we were soaked which made us more cold! I was cold for DAYS after the race!

I have been watching the weather like a hawk…praying for not to hot but not too cold temps. Could I be so lucky? We will find out! So, as you imagine, I am a little worried, and packing will definitely be a challenge! With that being said, I will come back tomorrow with a list of things to pack for a destination race. Until then, I am thinking mild weather thoughts!

QOTD: What is an ideal race temp for you?

 

 

Early Anniversary Cruise

 

I feel like I am losing my mind. No, not because I can’t run…well, yes because I can’t run, but that’s not what I am talking about. I can’t remember if I told yall or not…but if I did…sorry, you get to hear about it again! Bobby and I are going on a cruise as an early anniversary gift to ourselves. (Anniversary is January 6) I got a great unbelievable travel agent rate I could NOT pass up, and so we are heading to the Western Caribbean for a 7 night Disney cruise! I am so excited, life has been a mess lately and so it will be nice to get away before the madness of Christmas, the marathon, and our house being built/finished.

We will be sailing on the Magic, which I have not been on before.

We will be in an oceanview room, not sure the room number yet. (actually annoyed I am still having to wait!)

We will leave a day early and spend the night halfway down (we are driving) and then we will get to the port early so we can hopefully get on the ship early!

Our cruise is going to Key West, (never been) Grand Cayman, (never been) Cozumel (have been) and Castaway Cay (have been twice.)

We have decided on Key West we will walk around on our own and site see, not sure about Grand Cayman yet, and we are heading back to paradise Beach on Cozumel.

Here are a couple pics I took almost 3 years ago at Paradise beach:

I was ssooo sunburned. Look on the edges of my arm along my halter top line and underneath. Ouch! Caribbean sun on the water = sunburn.

I am also super excited about something most would find silly…Formal night! I LOVE dressing up and I have all my old college formals and am hoping to still fit into one to wear to dinner. You will just have to wait and see.  

I am so excited to be able to go on this trip with my SLR and take some awesome pictures to help me with booking cruises for my clients! (Did you know I am a travel agent? check out the travel quote tab at the top of my blog.)

I am still resting…doing strength for my legs and arms but no running yet. I MIGHT test it out with a walk run tomorrow of a mile or two and just see if it tightens up. But now, I must ice and go watch the Saints game. I hope everyone has a great Sunday!

QOTD: Have you been to Key West or Grand Cayman? What are some must do things to do or see? (We are thinking beach on Grand Cayman?)

 

Pronoun updates

 

   Good afternoon! I hope everyone is having a great day! Another beautiful cloudless one here. Our state is officially under a burn ban, we haven’t had rain in WEEKS. Let’s just hope it all doesn’t decide to start Saturday during my race! Speaking of burning, this is what I am burning right now. yum!

and this is snoozing on the floor in the sun.

 

next, this came in the mail yesterday! My all time favorite, I can’t wait to watch it! Any other fans out there? You know as a little girl you always pick the Disney princess you wanted to be? Well, I always (and still do!) wanted to be Belle.

I finally bought one of these at the store. yay! Now I can hopefully have some motivation to do more yoga.

Speaking of the store, we also bought these for packing because they were on sale at Wal Mart!

Speaking of packing, I had this all cleaned up until Bobby started looking for something and make it a mess!

So now, he is outside doing this while I blog and clean up his mess!

Later we go to the Chiropractor and dinner with a friend. I just wrapped up a 20 minutes yoga video and now I guess I will go clean up, pack more, and help with the washing of the vehicles. Have a great day all!

QOTD: I love English and History, what were your favorite subjects in school?

 

Pre Trip

Happy Sunday all! It’s really overcast here but only 77 degrees, I can’t believe it! It’s supposed to be raining…but it’s not. Just home from church, and have a baby shower to go to later on today!

I thought that since I am so excited about my trip I would spend some time telling you all about it! I can’t wait, we need to get away so badly!

We are staying for 7 nights at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in the main building, concierge level.
(yes I took these pictures!)

For those unfamiliar, concierge at the Grand involves food being out most of the day..breakfast, afternoon snacks, tea and scones, dinner appetizers, champagne, wine, cordials and desserts later, etc. The lounge is so nice, I love sitting there listening to the piano or orchestra play in the evenings, overlooking the lobby.

All of the fall decorations will be out

We will be attending the first Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party of the season! We went two years ago and had a blast. Nothing like trick-or-treating in the Magic Kingdom!

We will be on the Deluxe Dining plan, which means lots and lots of food!
Bobby savoring his lobster at Narcoossees

We will be going down a day early to drop the girls off with my parents who are so graciously dogsitting for us! Then we are driving halfway, to Talahassee, to spend the night in hotel. The Saint home opener is that night and there is NO WAY I was missing it! Friday morning we will drive the rest of the way and be in our happy place for 7 nights!

I will be twittering and updating my FB pages, so if you are not following me youcan do so on the right sidebar of this blog. I will try to blog if I can but I will have to do it on my phone and may not be very successful. (I am too cheap to pay 10 bucks a day just to blog, sory guys!)

Today is a rest day, tomorrow marks my first official day of marathon training! eekk! I will be updating my marathon training tab/page so you can keep track of my workous on there!

QOTD: what do you do with your pets when you go out of town?

 

Pics Pics and More Pics

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! In case you were gone, here is what you missed:
Home Sweet Home
Fun Filled Weekend
Now, go catch up!

ok I am determined to finish showing you all my cruise pics before my next Disney trip!
We left off With leaving Castaway Cay after our first day, so here we go!

dinner

dessert

sunset

relaxing

The next morning we woke up about to dock in Nassau

We took a cab to Atlantis

big chair

we walked around for a bit then took a cab back and had lunch on the ship. Believe we took naps that afternoon as well!
I also think this is the day I ran at the gym

Pirate night will be in the next picture post. AARRRGGHH!

OK I am heading to the gym, have a good day all!

 

Disney Packages Are Out!

2011 rates and packages are now bookable!

If you are going to Disney at all in 2011 I can book for you, my services are free! I can find you the best rates out there, and plan everything for you, so you don’t have to!
If you are going to run a race or just for fun, I can help you! You pay me nothing, I get paid through Disney, and I would love to help you plan your next vacation!

E-mail me at heather@travelwiththemagic.com for a free quote. If you book a package you only pay a small deposit now, so if you change your mind it’s not a big deal, you just get your money back up until 45 days before your trip. I am so excited about this! Start sending those emails!

Even if you are just considering going, I would love to help!

Also, don’t forget, if you already have a trip booked through Disney, you can have it transfered to me for free and I can take care of the rest!

Hope everyone has a good day!

P.S. In the right sidebar make sure you follow me on twitter and join my FB fan page!

 

Castaway Cay take…3?

Ok so I figured it has been a couple weeks since I updated the pictures fom my cuise, so I thought I would shae more today, especially because it is raining here now and I wish I was there!
here are a couple pictures from lunch on the island I forgot to post
They had fresh fruit, ribs, hot dogs, salad, etc.

after lunch we took the tram up to the main beach to see what was going on and to buy some souvineers. You didn’t have to carry them with you, you just bought them and then picked them up on the ship that evening which was nice.

I had to try out the hat.

By about 2:30 we had had enough, 6 hours in the sun is a long time! So we packed up and headed back to the tram. I took a pic with these guys

We got cleaned up and went and sat in the adults area and just relaxed until time to get ready for dinner.

Ok photobucket and I do not get along, so that’s all for now. At least I finally got through Castaway Cay!

I may do some yoga later tonight, and for sure run tomorrow! Have a good night all!
Also, don’t forget Caitlin from Operation Beautiful will be on the 8:30 eastern hour of the Today show tomorrow morning!

QOTD: What is your favorite fruit?

 

Boarding day continued (again)

Ok so back to Mickey boat pictures!

The last set I posted were of our room, and lunch and some exploring of the ship. Here we go with more!

This is the Quiet cove (adult) pool. aaahh

Mickey kid’s pool

eerr…random shot of the deck!

by that time it was time to head back to our rooms for the wonderful boat drill. Here is the obligatory picture…oh Bobby

Mom likes to wave at the camera

It was quick and painless, then it was time to get on the deck for the sail away party! Which honestly wasn’t that exciting and it was SO HOT I had sweat dripping down my back. eewww

As the party was ending we knew the boat was leaving soon and my dad wanted to see us leave the port so we went to the front of the ship and heard the most wonderful sound, the ship horn! For those of you you don’t know, the ship horn is the first 7 notes to the song “When you wish upon a star” it makes me tear up every time! We watched for a few minutes as we floated away, saw a couple stingrays in the water, then realized we had to go change for dinner, we had a 5:45 seating.

We ate at Animators Palatte, and met Ricardo and Allwyn, our awesome servers!

Bobby got the kids mac and cheese as one of his like, 3 entrees. They have the BEST mac!

This is a cool place. The walls start off as black and white and the waiter’s vests as well, then it changes to color by the end and they have colorful vests, too!

After dinner we went to the shops, Bobby broke his Oakleys so he had to get new sunglasses. Then we went to the show, it was the Golden Mickey’s, it was so good! I of course cried..We were pooped so we went to bed early if I remember correctly. Tomorrow we would be at Castaway Cay!