Another PTR - Let's Make it a Half!

[zanzibar138]

Gosh, I'm impressed by how well you have figured out the system.

Definitely worth getting those free domestic flights. Are they business as well?

DH has spent many an hour perusing the frequent flyer forum. The US programs are great because they just use whole areas to work out their points redemption. The redemption we got was South Pacific to North America. So you can go from Perth to Montreal for the same amount of points as Fiji to LA.

The trouble is, with the merger of US Airways and American Airlines, the system will change and we'll have to learn it all over again But at least we have these ones locked in

The domestic flights are in first, but DH says it's reportedly nowhere near as good as our domestic business. Still, I'm sure it will be a step up from economy!

 

[zanzibar138]

So for the east coast part of our trip, I've realised that we'll realistically only have time for New York and one other destination. I've been tossing around a few and it's soooooo hard to decide! DH is no help. We can get to all of these destinations on the train, so getting there isn't really a factor. We think we'll have 3 nights to spare.

Here's a short rundown of what I've come up with so far.

Option 1 - Boston
DH has expressed an interest in Boston, and it looks like a nice city to spend some time in. He's also keen on checking out Rhode Island on the way through. This would kind of be me sacrificing what I really want for DH to be able to go, although if we had enough time to see some countryside as well, I'd be quite happy to spend a few days in Boston.

Option 2 - Washington DC
I think DH would love it there with all the history, and it has been on my list for a while too. While I wouldn't get to see any countryside as such, there do seem to be a lot of nice parks and gardens. However, while it does interest me somewhat, the thought of spending what little time we have there doesn't fill me with enthusiasm.

Option 3 - Niagara Falls (Canada side)
This would technically get us to another country too I like the idea of seeing Niagara Falls, and I'm sure there is plenty to do there for 2 days. However, with such a limited time frame, I'd rather get a wider variety of sight-seeing.

Option 4 - Saratoga Springs
Bear with me. When I was a kid I used to read a series of books for tweens called Thoroughbred. It followed the adventures of Ashleigh, a girl who lived on a racehorse breeding and training farm in Kentucky. Her adventures took her to racecourses around the country, including Saratoga Springs. I remember in the book they made a big deal about it, and made it sound really pretty and historic. Also, there is a Saratoga Springs Resort at WDW, so it ties in with 2 of my favourite things

Aside from that, it looks like a pretty area with some nice trails, lots of history for DH, a car museum for C who may or may still be coming with us (to be honest, I'm kind of assuming they won't come), and horsies for me. However, I realise it's just to the edge of the real pretties. Which leads me to the next option.

Option 5 - Adirondacks (specifically around the Lake Placid area)
Looks like a natural wonderland up there, with many mountains to climb and lakes to see. Also, being further north, there may be more chance of pretty foliage. Plus there's the Olympic history at Lake Placid (I've learned throughout my travels that ski jumps are pretty cool things to see). My main problem here is that it's such a large place with so much gorgeous scenery, it hardly feels worth going for just a couple of days.

Now my next dilemma is this. Our flight to Newark is due to land at midnight. I've pretty much written that night off and we'll just stay as close to the airport as we can. However, do we then do NYC or our other destination first?

Pros for NYC first:
* We can have a more leisurely first morning without having to worry about missing trains etc
* I feel the other destination would be a more relaxing way to end the trip

Cons for NYC first:
* We will then be visiting our other destination over the weekend, along with everyone else (I imagine this would be especially problematic for Saratoga Springs and the Adirondacks, which seem to be more local getaways)
* Some of the return trains are brilliant timing for our next flight departing from Newark, but would be getting us into NYC too late to really do much

So, seasoned east coast visitors, I am looking for your input

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great range of options you have!

Firstly, I'm sure that you are aware that the East Coast of America is lot more populated and built up. That stretch from New York along the coast up to Maine will be filled with buildings. You really have to go inland a bit to find outdoorsey places.

If you head towards Boston/RI and Washington, there isn't a lot of countryside to see. So if you choose one of these options, it'll be about history and parks.


Niagara Falls is one of the natural wonders of the world. I quite enjoy being at Niagara as it gives me a bit of natural outdoors and small town feel but it does come at the price of being in one of the tourist traps in that part of the world. That Clifton Hill area on the Canadian side is billed as Street of Fun. It's filled with Wax Museums, Ripley's Believe it Or Not, amusement arcades and mini golf....and restaurants. If you decide to head here, perhaps you might have enough time to head to Toronto as well.



Knowing your preferences, I would think Saratoga Springs and the Adirondacks would suit you better.


Personally, I would recommend Boston. There is lots of history there. It's not a super large city and you can always look at taking a boat ride out to see if there are any whales out and about. I think September is a good time for whale watching in Massachussetts.


And if you were looking for another option, I'd recommend you take a look at Quebec City.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Yay for choices!

Having been to none of the above, my advice is near useless, but I think I would pick Washington.
Normally I wouldn't pick a city over a place with lakes and mountains, but there is quite a few things in Washington that I think I would find interesting, such as the Smithsonian. In saying that, the fall colours North of NY will be quite nice that time of the year. Tough choice.

 

[zanzibar138]

What a great range of options you have!

Firstly, I'm sure that you are aware that the East Coast of America is lot more populated and built up. That stretch from New York along the coast up to Maine will be filled with buildings. You really have to go inland a bit to find outdoorsey places.

If you head towards Boston/RI and Washington, there isn't a lot of countryside to see. So if you choose one of these options, it'll be about history and parks.


Niagara Falls is one of the natural wonders of the world. I quite enjoy being at Niagara as it gives me a bit of natural outdoors and small town feel but it does come at the price of being in one of the tourist traps in that part of the world. That Clifton Hill area on the Canadian side is billed as Street of Fun. It's filled with Wax Museums, Ripley's Believe it Or Not, amusement arcades and mini golf....and restaurants. If you decide to head here, perhaps you might have enough time to head to Toronto as well.



Knowing your preferences, I would think Saratoga Springs and the Adirondacks would suit you better.


Personally, I would recommend Boston. There is lots of history there. It's not a super large city and you can always look at taking a boat ride out to see if there are any whales out and about. I think September is a good time for whale watching in Massachussetts.


And if you were looking for another option, I'd recommend you take a look at Quebec City.

You've pretty much confirmed all my thoughts. I guess I'm leaning towards Saratoga Springs at the moment. If we had time for both, I'd quite happily do Boston or Washington as well, but I'm just not happy about spending ALL that time in cities. I might have to give DH the choice of Boston or NYC instead I'm not really into history generally (it has to be history of something I'm specifically interested in, like Disney or horses ), so that aspect of it doesn't really mean a lot to me. DH on the other hand, loves history and learning about wars etc.

Yay for choices!

Having been to none of the above, my advice is near useless, but I think I would pick Washington.
Normally I wouldn't pick a city over a place with lakes and mountains, but there is quite a few things in Washington that I think I would find interesting, such as the Smithsonian. In saying that, the fall colours North of NY will be quite nice that time of the year. Tough choice.

I'm pretty sure we'll be a tad early for the fall colours (from what I've read online at least). But it looks so pretty regardless.

Either way, I'm definitely sold on the east coast now and will have to go back to do ALL of these things

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow it's been a while! But I finally have a couple of updates.

First of all, we have our travelling party. It will just be me, DH and my parents again. However, my parents will mainly be doing their own thing and only going to DLR for the few days surrounding the half marathon.

We booked a 2 bed 2 bath condo in the complex just opposite Magic Way. All the running stuff is over that way, so it made sense to choose that location over Harbor. If we want to save our legs when we want to go to the parks, we can walk to the carpark and take the tram, or the monorail if going to DL. We have it booked for the week, and my parents can stay in the kids bedroom when they join us for a few nights

Things I'm most looking forward to... comfy lounge area with gaming systems and DVDs for mooching around between runs, adults only pool area within the complex, our own personal laundry with supplies provided, and watching the fireworks from the patio.











And speaking of running, my parents have finally decided that they will 'just' do the half. DH and I are still planning to do the 5k as well.

FWIW, my parents are going to spend their first few days in San Diego, then head up to DLR for the weekend to do the run, then head onto Vegas and the Grand Canyon. They don't have much time, but are playing around with the possibility of Yosemite or Lake Tahoe to end their trip.

We are re-considering our flights, and are now thinking of ditching the east coast idea since we really don't have enough time to make the most of it. DH is playing around with status runs, and we're also looking at Vancouver. Still very much up in the air at this stage (no pun intended).

I'm not doing too many run updates this time around, because I'm now able to just train like any normal person would and it's not really that exciting. But for those who are interested, I have decided to aim for a sub 1:07 10k before 2nd June (proof of time deadline) to get into the sub 2:30 corral for the half (which would put me about mid-field - ahead of about 9000 other runners!). On my last official 10k I came in at 1:17, so I've got a bit of work ahead of me. My next 10k is this weekend, and I'm aiming for 1:10. Realistically I probably won't get there, but it doesn't hurt to aim high! I'm registered for one other 10k at the end of February, and have 2 more pencilled in for mid-April and the end of May, so still got plenty of opportunities to reach my goal.

 

[lffam]

sounds like a fantastic trip. I'm in awe at being able to do all that running! Washington & Boston are places I would love to go to.

The apartment certainly looks great and roomy. I think its always nice to have an apartment as opposed to a hotel room much more comfortable.

What airlines are you traveling? We have used Virgin America and American Airlines,both were great. AA was in First but it is more like business than a First. Virgin was Economy but at the bulk head so really good leg room and service was great also. the points thing is a great way to do it if you can work out the best way to maximise. We have been lucky enough to get two return trips on points for 3 (1 trip in Business) and another upcoming later this year (not that I have booked flights yet!)

 

[zanzibar138]

sounds like a fantastic trip. I'm in awe at being able to do all that running! Washington & Boston are places I would love to go to.

The apartment certainly looks great and roomy. I think its always nice to have an apartment as opposed to a hotel room much more comfortable.

What airlines are you traveling? We have used Virgin America and American Airlines,both were great. AA was in First but it is more like business than a First. Virgin was Economy but at the bulk head so really good leg room and service was great also. the points thing is a great way to do it if you can work out the best way to maximise. We have been lucky enough to get two return trips on points for 3 (1 trip in Business) and another upcoming later this year (not that I have booked flights yet!)

All our international flights are with Cathay Pacific. If we end up with domestic flights they will be either AA or US Airways (which might be the same thing by then anyway...). If we come back a different way, we might change airlines, but it would still be a OneWorld partner.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Changes!

At least you're tweaking the plans for the better. The East Coast deserves more time than you have for this trip.
Aside from Vancouver, where else are you considering?

Great looking accommodation. You will all be very comfortable there.

 

[zanzibar138]

Changes!

At least you're tweaking the plans for the better. The East Coast deserves more time than you have for this trip.
Aside from Vancouver, where else are you considering?

Great looking accommodation. You will all be very comfortable there.

I'm sure we all knew there were changes coming

I'm not really sure what else is on the agenda other than Vancouver. I'm kind of letting DH investigate the flights at the moment. He did mention New Orleans, but I'm not so keen on heading down there right in the middle of hurricane season. Chicago might be an option. Maybe elsewhere in Canada, or even Alaska. It will have to be somewhere reasonably far, to either take full advantage of our free domestic first class flights (for simplicity I'm counting Canada as domestic ), or have a decent status earning capacity. I like the idea of heading north from LA to work with the weather patterns at that time of year.

So we're really back to square one! But at least we don't need to consider anyone else's preferences anymore.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Have you considered......Orlando????


Otherwise, knowing that you prefer to be outdoors, what about Colorado (Durango might be right up your alley) or even towards Yellowstone?

 

[zanzibar138]

Have you considered......Orlando????


Otherwise, knowing that you prefer to be outdoors, what about Colorado (Durango might be right up your alley) or even towards Yellowstone?

Actually apparently Orlando is pretty good for a status run at the moment, so it could be an option lol! But as much as I love Disney, I'd actually like to see some more of the country while we're there, and do WDW on another trip when we've got more time. Especially since we'll already be doing HKDL on the way there/back

After reading Wanderlust's report, I was pretty keen for Yellowstone, but DH says it's not far enough Colorado is the same. It will have to be either further north of the main US states (so Canada or Alaska), on the eastern half of the country, or south of the US (apparently there are some good status runs to Mexico and the Caribbean). I have to admit I'm a bit put off the south option by the weather at that time of year.

 

[Keels]

Hi!! I met you over on the Half Marathon board, started reading your TRs and thought I might chime in!

Have you thought about Seattle or Vancouver? Or even a combo of one of those cities and an Alaskan cruise? September is the latest you can do an Alaskan cruise through the glaciers. There are a bunch of wonderful excursions you can do that involve hiking and sightseeing in Alaska, even fishing. Don't know if y'all have cruised before, but with such an active, action-packed trip - it might be nice to be in the same room for a week and just wake up in a new spot!

Also - New Orleans is AMAZING. We go 6-8 times a year (it's just an hour from DFW). But it's downright miserable in September - take the heat of Disneyland and add in 100% humidity. You'll feel like you're swimming everywhere once you walk outside.

There's also Grand Canyon, Las Vegas to consider. But - again - talk about massively hot. We do Mexico in the summer, but we're pool/beach people.

 

[zanzibar138]

Hi!! I met you over on the Half Marathon board, started reading your TRs and thought I might chime in!

Have you thought about Seattle or Vancouver? Or even a combo of one of those cities and an Alaskan cruise? September is the latest you can do an Alaskan cruise through the glaciers. There are a bunch of wonderful excursions you can do that involve hiking and sightseeing in Alaska, even fishing. Don't know if y'all have cruised before, but with such an active, action-packed trip - it might be nice to be in the same room for a week and just wake up in a new spot!

Welcome

We've definitely thought about Vancouver and Alaska as possibilities. Pretty sure an Alaskan cruise will (unfortunately) be out of our budget. DH is pretty keen to stick to flying anyway. It might be worthy of some extra research on pricing, schedules etc though

Wherever we go, we won't have time to do too much moving around anyway, so we'll probably stick to the one place, maybe two, and just do local sight-seeing and maybe a couple of day trips. Having said that, after the half marathon weekend last year, we did a week long road trip visiting 5 different destinations in California, so it's definitely not out of the question

 

[Keels]

You can come to Texas and I can show you around!!

 

[zanzibar138]

You can come to Texas and I can show you around!!

Lol! I actually went to Texas for a DisMeet on my last trip - loved San Antonio and the hill country

 

[Keels]

That's so awesome! Our lakehouse is actually in the Hill Country (between Austin and San Antonio) - it's my happy place.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Had rellies that lived in Vancouver so have been there a couple of times and it is lovely with lots of outdoors places close to the city!

We did the Inside Passage in Alaska from Ketchikan (which we flew in to from Seattle) to Juneau, not by cruise boat, but by the local ferry staying in B&Bs in 1999. We did Brisbane via Vancouver then connecting flight to Seattle then to Ketchican in one haul. Had about 6 or 7 nights all up (need to look up diary for exact length of time). As DD was little we booked a cabin for the part-night stretch. It was a great boat - clean, big, but food buyable from the canteen was pretty awful. This was one of our best ever hols. We travelled in September - the big cruise ships were doing their last run. Did a day trip ex Juneau to Tracey Arm Fjord at the recom of our hosts, rather than Glacier Bay, and it was totally amazing. Saw whales, bears, seals, ice calving off a glacier. Also lots of great hikes in and around Juneau. So I presume it still runs as the only way other than flying for locals to get about. Its a much cheaper alternative (and shorter if you want) to a cruise.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Actually apparently Orlando is pretty good for a status run at the moment, so it could be an option lol! But as much as I love Disney, I'd actually like to see some more of the country while we're there, and do WDW on another trip when we've got more time. Especially since we'll already be doing HKDL on the way there/back

After reading Wanderlust's report, I was pretty keen for Yellowstone, but DH says it's not far enough Colorado is the same. It will have to be either further north of the main US states (so Canada or Alaska), on the eastern half of the country, or south of the US (apparently there are some good status runs to Mexico and the Caribbean). I have to admit I'm a bit put off the south option by the weather at that time of year.

Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula is a spectacular holiday. Problem is that it is hurricane season there as well.

 

[zanzibar138]

We're in! Half marathon registration completed this morning One of the perks of being an AP holder is that I get early (and discounted) RunDisney registration. Unfortunately my parents have to wait for general registration in 2 weeks, but they shouldn't have a problem. It was the 10k and the challenge that sold out within minutes this morning.

In other news, with the addition of another US trip this year, we have decided to stick with Plan A for this one. We will probably spend a couple of nights in New York, and round off the trip with Boston.