Based on the advice I received from this post, and the direction in which my life/writing/career is going, the best choice for me was to create and develop myself as my niche

So change your RSS feed to AbbieMood.com and head on over – there are some big things going on!

Or maybe it’s to travel.

Why?  Running is one of the most intimate ways to get to know a city, and within 3-5 hours (for most people) you get a pretty good tour of the major attractions, without worrying about traffic.  Besides the major attractions, you can usually see some of the lesser known parts of the city or the suburbs, too.

A marathon is a half to full day event, so you might as well make it a weekend trip (or longer).  Marathoners burn thousands of calories, so it’s also a great reason to splurge at a new restaurant.

Checking my watch sometime towards the end of the L.A. Marathon

When I run the Marine Corps marathon in October 2010, it will be my 4th marathon.  San Diego Rock ‘N Roll was my first marathon in June 2007, followed by the Los Angeles marathon in Spring 2008 (both with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program), and the Athens Marathon in Greece in November 2008.

After finishing the Athens marathon, at the top of the Olympic Stadium with the Parthenon & the Acropolis in the background.  Oh and an olive branch in my visor

I haven’t been to Washington D.C. since high school, and don’t remember very much of it.  When I run there in October, I’ll get an up close and personal view, and am actually training and running with a couple friends from high school.  D.C. is also close to Delaware, where I grew up, so it will be the first time my mom will be at any of my races!  Training starts in February

Photo Credits: LA Marathon photographer, and Eric Lang

I was tagged by JoAnna of Kaleidoscopic Wandering in a “best travel secrets” Tripbase Blog Tag started by Katie over at TripBase.  That’s it, the whole background.  Now the moment you’ve been waiting for…

1.  Lub*d – The best hostel in Southeast Asia, if not the world.

Granted I haven’t stayed in any other hostel, Lub*d came highly recommended and there’s even a Matador article about it.  When I went, there was a buy 1 night get 1 free offer, so I was able to get a two person room for the cost of one.  At the time, I didn’t have my netbook, so the computers in the lobby with free internet came in handy.

2.  Order a special meal on international flights.

Vegetarian, kosher, low-calorie, any special meal that strikes your fancy, go for it.  Here’s why – you get your meal first.  The flight attendants will bring you your special meal and you can practically finish before your neighbor even catches a whiff of his meal.

3.  Try not to look like a tourist.

Take a map, but never look at it in public.  This will automatically mark you as a tourist, therefore leaving you open to harassment by vendors, drivers, and anyone else.

Don’t EVER wear the typical American tourist outfit – hat, polo shirt (tucked in), khakis/jeans, sneakers, and a fanny pack of some sort.  Or any kind of shirt with one of the other places you’ve visited on it, much less the location you are currently visiting.  Again, it will automatically mark you as a tourist.

Exhibit A:  This tourist thought sunglasses vs. a hat would make him “less American”, but the tucked-in Harley shirt, khakis, and map sticking out of said khakis is a dead give away.  Thanks, robby-T.

I now tag 5 other bloggers to share their travel secrets:

miss.adventure

Candice Does the World

Lonely Girl Travels

The Travel Nerd

Dirtbag Writer

Run a 4:30 (or faster) marathon – Lead 5.13 – Climb V8 – Be a certified yoga instructor – Be considered a professional freelance writer – Be an editor at an online magazine – Be a regular contributor to a print magazine/paper – Be published in National Geographic – Boulder in Font, the Rocklands, & Albarracin – Backpack Europe by riding the EuroRail and Couchsurfing – Complete a ½ Ironman tri – Volunteer in Africa & South America – Visit Moscow – Hike Macchu Picchu – Float down the Amazon River – Visit my uncle in Germany – Live in the present – Explore Cuba – Walk through the ruins in Turkey – See the pyramids in Egypt – Get married – Write a book – Go skydiving – Face my irrational fear of icebergs up close and personal – Stand next to a giant Redwood – Hike the Grand Canyon – Stay in a sphere on Vancouver Island – Watch the Olympics in person – Positively impact another’s life everyday – Hike to the Everest base camp – Hang out on a Greek Island – Learn another language – Start a non-profit – Get another Master’s degree – Go on a yoga/meditation retreat in India – Visit a Tibetan monastery – Walk the streets of Tokyo at night – Get LASIK – Participate in National Novel Writing Month – Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity – Volunteer at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary – Run the Safaricom marathon in Kenya – Run a 50 mile race – Learn to surf and actually ride a wave – Live debt-free – Own a house – Master social media

This is sure to be an ever-growing list, so I will have to update it as new things come up…

The Erechtheion at the Acropolis in Athens

Visiting the ruins in Greece was on my previous (informal, unpublished) life list!

Photo Credit:  Eric Lang

I will be the first person to admit that I have a bit of OCD (although my boyfriend may argue the “a bit” part), so in spirit of the topic, I thought I’d share my own travel OCD’s.

I’m a list person.  I always makes a list of what I need to pack and cross them off as I pack them.  I even put it on my bag and double check it before I go out the door.  (On a side note, check out this list or submit your own over on the Matador Network.)

I also usually have a folder in my carry-on with my itinerary, boarding passes, or any reservations I might have (car, hotel).   I’m going to blame this on my excellent organizational skills, being a teacher and all.

Starbucks is practically a must have.  Starbucks can be found in most airports (except Philadelphia apparently), and is actually the only fast food/drink place in John Wayne Airport in Orange County, so I usually don’t have much trouble with that one.

Even after the traveling is over, the OCD tendency continues!  One of the first things I do when I get home is unpack and put away everything.  If I put it off, a week will go by and it will still be sitting there.

So there you go, I’ve put my OCD tendencies out there, now it’s your turn – fess up!

Photo Credit:  Flickr

For $9.95/month, you get unlimited wi-fi across North America, global wi-fi is $59/month.  10 bucks a month sounds like a good deal if you travel frequently, or even if you work out of a Starbucks often (I was at a Starbucks the other day that only supported AT&T customers and couldn’t use the internet).

I’m definitely considering trying this out – has anybody heard of it or used it?

Photo Credit: Flickr

Although I have a list places that I’d like to go (and more are added to it everyday), the one place that has been on my list since I was probably 10 years old is the Amazon Rainforest.  I remember reading something back then about the deforestation and about the plants and animals that can only be found in the rainforest and desperately wanted to go before it was gone forever.  But I was 10, how was I going to go to South America?  I’d barely been out of the state.  Now that I’m an adult it’s something that can become a reality for me.  Someday… hopefully before it’s too late.

We were 10 minutes into the hike through Malibu Creek State Park to go rock climbing last weekend when we saw all of the emergency vehicles.  Living in Southern California, my immediate thought was that there was a fire and we had driven almost 2 hours to Malibu to be sent home.  But there was none of the telltale black smoke rising from the trees, so we went with what we were hoping was the truth – emergency response training.

We continued along the tree-lined trail and passed two emergency response guys saying to another hiker, “we can’t get in there, but no problem, we have a helicopter.”  My first thought was, crap, someone is really hurt.

At this point in our hike, we had arrived at the Rock Pool.  They call it a pool, but I would call it a small lake.  It’s deep enough that there is a rope swing on one end.  The only way across is by a boat of some sort (which we obviously did not have) or by traversing a boulder that goes around the edge of the rock.  Mind you, the traverse itself is not too difficult, but the concern about falling into the water made me a little nervous.  But, it’s the only way, so we got on and starting moving along.

I took a deep breath and told myself to relax as I found the hand holds to be quite large (known as jugs in the climbing world), and I had my rubber-lined hiking shoes on so my feet were sticking, too.  Maybe it wasn’t that bad after all.

Then the helicopter came.

Helicopters are really loud.  And they kick up A LOT of wind, even when they are quite far above you.  Not a great combo when you’re (now) holding on to a rock for dear life while there are hurricane force winds, leaf and dirt particles flying at you, and “pool” water spraying at you.  The helicopter went around for another lap so I hauled it to get to the other side.

Turns out the person in question was on a cliff just up the hill from us, so whenever the helicopter came around, we had to hide behind a rock, or just duck and cover (like I did when I was trying to cross the creek by rock hopping and almost got blown over).  At one point we looked up and the helicopter came into view from the side of a cliff action-movie style, which was pretty exciting, except we couldn’t look for long with the debris flying all over the place.

Eric snapped a pic with his phone

We continued scrambling to get to the routes and out of the helicopter zone.  After awhile the helicopter noise subsided and it was finally peaceful.  Until some other climbers came with a stereo…

*We later found out that a climber had decked (fell and hit the ground), breaking her ankle and possibly hurting her back.*

After careful consideration, I chose the Dell Mini 10v, primarily for it’s value.  Starting at $299, it has one of the lower starting prices even for a netbook.  I plan on using my netbook primarily for internet and word processing, but someone who wants to do a bit more might want to look into the Mini 10 model.

For the techy-readers out there, the Dell Mini 10v includes:

Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
1 GB RAM
Windows XP or Ubuntu
Microsoft Works *I immediately removed Works and loaded Office
160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
24WHr Lithium-ion 3-cell battery *I upgraded to the 56WHr Lithium-ion 6-cell battery
Wireless 802.11g (1397) Mini Card
Webcam

The only thing I chose to upgrade was the battery from a 3-cell to a 6-cell, giving my netbook about 8 hours (or more) of battery life.  Dell offers different color choices, but I didn’t think $40 to change from the basic black was really worth it.

I think I made the right choice.  The 10v weighs around 2.5 lbs and has a 10″ screen, making it great for travel and I can fit it into my medium-sized purse!  The 6-cell battery sticks out a bit, but it still fits into a mini laptop sleeve with no problem.  It took me a couple days to get used to the smaller keyboard, but the full-sized shift keys are clutch.  There was an extra cost to get an external cd drive, but I found one at newegg.com that was on sale for $50!

Photo Credit: Tech Ticker

1.  No assigned seating.  Love it or hate it, if you print your boarding pass and get in the “A” group, you’re pretty much guaranteed a window or aisle seat.  Indecisiveness leads to a bit of a delay in getting everyone in and sitting down, but it’s not a significant delay.

2.  No checked bag fee.  While other airlines are charging $15-25 per bag, Southwest still lets you check a bag for free.  And have the carry-on+one personal item.

3.  Seemingly unlimited snacks.  Sure they don’t sell those overpriced meal boxes, but I was allowed crackers AND cookies AND peanuts.  Later in the flight, the flight attendant even asked us if we wanted more!  (And I totally took advantage of it even though I wasn’t even hungry!)

4.  Low prices.  I flew from Orange County to Philadelphia for $99 each way, which is practically unheard of.  My total roundtrip ticket from coast to coast was $240.  Excellent!

After the trip, I get home to find out that my beloved airline is debuting a “green” airplane!  The full article is here, but the short of it is carpet installed in sections so just the sections can be replaced instead of the whole thing, e-leather seat covers, life vest pouch instead of a metal container, a lighter weight foam fill for the seats, and passenger seat rub strips, which are supposed to increase durability.  Woot!

Photo Credit:
Plane on Flickr
Dollar Sign on Flickr