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Did she fall off of a (blogging) cliff?

Sorry, faithful readers, but I’m a victim of my own success. 

Between finishing up two print media stories, launching another new blog (link to come soon — promise!) and other work, I have just not had enough time to put up any posts this week.  I do apologize.

Please feel free to surf over to my Disney family travel blog, Kid Trippin’, for the scoop on my secret Travel Killer App, and sometime in between my drag racing work this weekend for Fast Machines and Texas Highways magazine, I promise to get some new stuff up!

Meantime, all of you road trip and car enthusiasts, take a gander at the brand-new online magazine Automotive Traveler; I’ll be working on an assignment for them in May 2007 on Charlotte, North Carolina and its NASCAR roots, so stay tuned.

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Blog Tips

iPod and audio tours: The death of tourguides?

Podtours company logo

Right now, I’m wearing a T-shirt that says, “Your Podcast is Lame.”

No, I’m not doing podcasts and I rarely even have much time to listen to them myself, but I went to a speaker panel at SXSW Interactive called “5 Tips to Make Your Lame Podcast Listenable” and thanks to a few really dorky questions from me about travel podcasts, they tossed me a T-shirt. 

I wanted to know more about this communication tool, and panel members Steve Mack from Lux Media and Jose Castillo of thinkjose did a great job of highlighting some podcasting do’s and don’ts.

I’ve written about using travel/tour podcasts before (just think, your kids are plugged in but they only look like they’re not learning anything as you walk the streets of New York or Paris.) There are language podcasts, a whole list of travel podcasts on the UK’s Guardian site, podcasts from Europe expert Rick Steves, plus a bunch more tips here on iPods and family travel.

Just yesterday, though, Andrea left a comment on one of those posts, with a link to her UK company Podtours.  They have a good selection for European destinations; pretty heavy on the cathedrals but if you’re going to drag your kids to, say, Chartres in France anyway, she has an audio tour to keep them occupied.  She blogs as well, including posts for those looking for good beer in Europe (bonus!)

She also wrote:  “I suspect the days of the ‘guy with the umbrella’ could be numbered. I’ll never take a guided tour again because at only 5 foot 4, there’s always someone taller in front of me!”

Do you agree? Have you used audio/mp3 tours with your kids?

Tell us about it….

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Blog

Disney’s Family site is now live

In a post earlier this week I talked about some interesting writing and blogging opportunities that have come my way, one of which is the new Disney Web site and community on Family.com.  The site is now launched and live, and we’d love for you to visit and see what you think.

All of the blogger contributors to the site (on a variety of parenting topics, not just travel) can be found here, and my own family travel blog, Kid Trippin’, is here. 

I’m still building content, but there are new posts on using Internet cafes when you travel and 6 steps to travel planning Nirvana.

As with any new venture online, there are going to be problems with suddenly-dead pages or other weird technical burps, but I can assure you that Lauren and Mark and all of the other Walt Disney Internet Group folks are working overtime to clear up any glitches.

Thanks for visiting.

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Blog

I’ve had some secrets

It’s time to spill the beans, I think. 

I’m still at Austin’s SXSW Interactive tech conference until the end of the day today (my final posts are here and here over at Successful Blog) but there are some great things going on in my writing life that I’d like to take a quick moment to share.

First, I’m happy to announce that I’m the family travel blogger for a brand-new Disney Web site and community called Family.com.  It was a lead Yahoo! tech story yesterday in this article, so my Mouse-eared bosses told us this morning that we could tell everyone about it rather than wait until the official launch, scheduled for this Thursday, March 15th.  (Update the evening of 15 March — as with so many things technical/online, Disney is pushing back the launch until the new site is tweaked a bit more. Hang in there!)

Ignore the Yahoo! headline that says the site is just for Moms — that drives me nuts as the wife of a guy who was a full-time Dad with both of our kids.  He has just as much interest as I do in parenting issues.  Grrrr, my pet peeve.  Guys are great parents!

Anyway, my blog is called Kid Trippin’ and my username is Mother_Road (a play on Route 66, of course.) I’m populating the blog as fast as I can given all the other activity I have going on, and there may be a bit of repetition between this blog and the Family.com blog until I really get going.  My plan is to have enough differences between the two that readers will find useful info on both, or can just pick one to read regularly.

Second, I’ve long admired Tim Leffel and the great work he does with Perceptive Travel, a Web site/online magazine (whatever term you prefer) “for independent travelers with open senses and open minds.”  Tim is starting up a new blog on Perceptive Travel, and I’m proud to have been selected to write for it, along with some other wonderful talent.  Stay tuned for the URL and the launch later in March.

Finally, please look for my article about north central Florida in the print version of the March 2007 National Geographic Traveler, and another article in the March/April 2007 print version of Transitions Abroad, about taking my daughter to “Flanders Fields;” the historic World War I battlefields in Belgium, near Ypres.  Of course, don’t let me forget about the latest Carnival of Cities that I host over at Home Turf Media; it posted yesterday.

Sleep is highly overrated, they tell me.  

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Blog Texas USA

I’m off to Geek Heaven

Keys to the digital kingdom, courtesy Flickr's DarkSideXThere won’t be a whole lot of family travel blogging out of me in the next few days….I’m going to Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive.

It’s the first of the 3-part annual SXSW insanity, which also includes a music event and a film event.

It started out as more of a trade show for musicians (this is the “Live Music Capital of the World,” after all) and just took off over the years. There will be panels, speakers, parties and concerts nonstop for the next few weeks.

SXSW Interactive is for “digital creatives” and anyone else interested in computers, networking (both computer and human) and blogging/online communities. The official word is that it’s “ground zero for the world’s most creative web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators and new media entrepreneurs.”

Hey, I’m just a writer and blogger, but I’ll be the “world’s most creative” something-or-other for awhile!

I also have a social event with fellow BlogHer folks plus another party hosted by my BlogBurst syndication company, Pluck.

If you want to know more, I’m the official Roving Reporter for Liz Strauss over at Successful Blog, and I’ll be writing a few guest posts for her on what I find at SXSW, and whether a Mom (and Dad — it’s a date!) can actually go to a Pluck party at Club de Ville, with the turntables spun by DJ Mel, that doesn’t even start till 9 pm. Have we lost our young mojo?

Check back here to find out….

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Blog

Grab Bag: Over-used travel words and latest carnival

Here’s a mashup — a terrific thread from the Travelwriters.com BBS of most over-used words in travel writing, and the latest Home Turf Media blog carnival. 

For the first topic, I must say that, yikes, I’ve been guilty of a few of the cliched expressions that are panned on the BBS, like “a step back in time” or “nestled.”  This is a fun discussion and should be required reading for English composition classes. 

For the second topic, let me commend the Carnival of Cities #3, Urban Planet to your reading pleasure.  Topics submitted include:

Houston, Texas, USA    Bill at Wisebread wants you to know why a bad first job is good for you. It’s the first in a series of articles about how to break into Houston’s advertising industry.

Seattle, Washington, USA    Mary Jo Manzanares tells us about the thought-provoking photography exhibit “Captured Youth” at Pioneer Square’s James Harris Gallery.  She writes at The Seattle Traveler.

Des Moines, Iowa, USA    Doug Mitchell wants to know what would happen if “Little House on the Prairie’s” Charles Ingalls had venture funding (or How America’s Heartland Is HOT.)   

Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA    Alli Crumley extends a warm welcome to Chattanooga visitors (it’s natural that you will love it here.) 

San Francisco, California, USA    The Silicon Valley Blogger is appalled that this old house is worth US$ 1.23 million compared to a gorgeous home in another attractive Western US city. 

Bellevue, Washington, USA    Steve Madsen tells us that in Bellevue, Seattle’s younger sister is growing up. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia    CJCM discovers that Zass!!, the world’s first mobile hair salon, is in Kuala Lumpur.   

Tokyo, Japan    Yours truly presents a detailed itinerary from Asakusa to Odaiba in Tokyo. 

Preston, Lancashire, the United Kindom    Riversider argues against excessive development and barrage construction on the historic River Ribble, near the town of Preston.  His post asks, “Riverworks, who stands to gain: property consultants or the environment?”   

Berlin, Germany    Steve presents Five Favs – Berlin, Germany posted at Exit Row Seat

Fribourg, Switzerland    Jul describes colorful Fribourg in words and lovely photos at her blog This non-American Life.  

That’s it for today; the week is rapidly getting crazier as I prepare to attend Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference (for “digital creatives”) starting this Friday.  I’ll be blogging about it over at Liz Strauss’ Successful Blog

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Blog Tips

Family Travel is a “Best of the Net”

The UK's Guardian

Oh, boy.  There is nothing like sitting down at the beloved laptop on a Saturday morning (sorry, I’m a sicko and I wrote that with a straight face) with my first cup of coffee, popping open the ol’ email and finding the nicest note from Stuart at the UK Web site The Family Adventure Project.

He and his wife Kirstie found this blog today in the UK newspaper the Guardian, because — taa-daa — the paper listed Family Travel as a “Best of the Net!”  In a list of proposed alternatives to the just-announced Travvies, there is FT in all its glory as a “Best Practical Blog.”

Wow! What an extraordinary honor….or for my other English readers, an “honour.” 🙂

I often link to the Guardian because they have a great online travel site, plus it’s always good to troll non-US publications for a new slant on travel and a different point of view (my RSS feeds also include the Telegraph, the Independent, the Times, Canada’s Globe and Mail and the Sydney Morning Herald.)

Thanks so much to Stuart for letting me know about this, and also for the chance to check out his site.  He put a Family Travel link on his page “Inspirational Stories Online,” which is simply chock-full of the most amazing stories of families on bikes, families on boats and families in Africa. It’s a thrill to be listed with such company.

In my thrumming practicality, I must now go to the grocery store because we are low on cat litter and cereal. What a comedown, but the glow remains. 

Thanks so much.

Update 4 March: I should have put this in the post in the first place but wasn’t thinking straight — here are the other travel blogs recommended by the Guardian:

Best Travel BlogTravelPod
Best Destination BlogMetroblogging Berlin
Best Single Author BlogTony Wheeler’s Blog
Best Group Written BlogWandalust
Best Photography on a BlogTokyoShoes 

Technorati tags:  family travel, bloggingtravel