My California Adventures: Part Two

Posted on November 6, 2025 by Tara Lynne

In part one of this two-part California Adventure “series” (if you can call it that when it’s only two parts, ha) I talked about the many cool things I did and saw local to the Inland Empire and Los Angeles areas, overnight trips we took, and my jaunts down to San Diego for SDCC. Those explorations were of course tons of fun and I saw and experienced a lot of awesome places and things, but I have to admit that I’m most excited to talk about the vacations – even the shorter ones – that I went on from my California ‘base camp’!

*ACTUAL* ADVENTURES
While I would love to say that I would have gone out of my way to travel to the places I’m about to mention even if I hadn’t lived out in California, the reality is that no, I probably wouldn’t have. But I cannot express how grateful I am that I was able to do so with such ease because I was already there, and I cannot stress enough that all of these trips were beyond amazing and (with one small exception, which I’ll get into) would have been worth it even if I’d had to fly out here to take them.

The first real, true California adventure that I had was actually not until the end of 2023 – I’d recently taken a job with a company that gives employees the week between Christmas and New Year’s off, and because of the way those holidays were situated that year, it actually gave me more than a week straight off work. So I planned a full trip for Dean and I, where we left home the day after Christmas to spend three nights in Sonoma, followed by a full day driving down the PCH from northern California to Solvang, with a night spent there before returning home (at a leisurely pace) the next day.

I cannot truly describe how much I loved, loved, LOVED, Sonoma. The town square, the nearby wineries…but most especially, the Jack London Historic State Park. When I was a kid, I LOVED White Fang and Call of the Wild, and while I’ve since read other books of his (Valley of the Moon, Marftin Eden – neither of which I really liked, TBQH)…and have also read his wife Charmian’s Our Hawaii and The Book of Jack London (volumes 1 & 2), which are definitely skewed versions of their travels and his life…visiting his ranch, which is now a historic state park, was worth every minute we spent there.

We got to explore the grounds and the original house they lived in, featuring his famous desks (one for ranch work, one for correspondence, one for writing) and his bedroom with a recreation of his note papers that he would wake up and write on throughout the night, plus the ruins of Wolf House, which burned down just before it was completed, and the house Charmian built after Jack died that showcases all sorts of items from their life together…I would go back there in a heartbeat and can’t stress enough how meaningful it was to visit these beautiful grounds, even outside of their historic significance to one of the greatest classic American writers (even if you disagree with some of his seriously stilted late 1800s/early 1900s views).

Not to mention the fact that on our first full day in Sonoma, we met a lovely couple on our wine tour and even ended up meeting them for dinner the following evening!

ageeksaga california adventures sonoma pch solvang

While our drive down the Pacific Coast Highway happened on a pretty gloomy, windy, and sometimes rainy (though thankfully just sprinkling) day, that road trip was absolutely something to BEHOLD. We made a couple photo stops as well as some brief pit stops in Monterey Bay, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, and at Elephant Seal Beach and Hearst Castle. Sadly our drive and previous stops made us too late to actually visit Hearst Castle proper, but we did wander around the little museum and store at the entrance before making the last leg of the drive down to Solvang (a.k.a. “The Danish Capital of America”).

And y’all…I *loved* Solvang. Maybe it’s the Disney person in me, and I KNOW that Solvang is super touristy and kind of cheesy, but just the evening and following morning that Dean and I spent there actually led me to plan a subsequent trip the following year, also between Christmas and New Year’s. That time around it was just my younger stepson Cam and I who were able to go, but we got to explore the town a bit more, ate a lot of good food, and went on the most amazing bicycle tour of the surrounding wine country.

…Also, if anyone ever wants to purchase and send me Sylah Salt Patties from Ingeborg’s Danish Chocolates in Solvang, I will love you forever and always 😉

As for that ‘one small exception’ that I mentioned, this is not in any way a dig on Palm Springs, but the ONLY reason we actually spent a weekend there was because I got lucky and won a raffle at work for three nights at a Wyndham resort…unfortunately I had to use those nights within a month or two of my winning, and at that point I didn’t really have the money or PTO to travel to the other location options (all of which were VERY far away). That said, while I wouldn’t have made a special weekend (or longer) trip to Palm Springs, we had a great time relaxing at a gorgeous Wyndham near Palm Springs, and of course also explored downtown Palm Springs, which is a really neat little place even if it’s not (in my opinion!) worthy of a whole trip to California just to see this one city/area.

Oh, and just like with other trips I took around California, we got to stop at a couple neat little roadside attraction type places that I almost certainly never would have seen otherwise – specifically the Cabazon Dinosaurs and Hadley Fruit.

ageeksaga california adventures palm springs

I don’t really want to say that I “saved the best for last” because it’s basically impossible to decide which was better, mine and Dean’s Sonoma/PCH/Solvang trip or the one I’m about to describe…so I guess it’s more like “last but ABSOLUTELY, certainly not least”: for Cam’s high school graduation, we took him on a trip to Yosemite, and while my type A self regrets not doing more specific planning for said trip, seeing that national park and the surrounding areas over the course of about 3 days was another experience of a lifetime that I’m fairly certain I never would have had if we hadn’t been able to just pack up the car and drive about 5.5-6 hours to get there.

We drove up to the Yosemite area on a Friday, stopped in Oakhurst and had a really good dinner (and beers!) at South Gate Brewing Company, then made our way to the Yosemite View Lodge, which is located just minutes outside of the park’s West entrance. The hotel itself is fine – the rooms are very, shall we say, aged, and the restaurant is okay at best – and the location can be both a huge plus and also kind of, well, meh. Basically on the day we were actually able to get a reservation to get into Yosemite, the ‘main’ (aka South) entrance had an hours-long wait, while we waited just 15 or so minutes to get in via the West entrance. And the hotel’s surroundings are beautiful, as it’s situated right on the Merced River. Plus it was nice having a kitchenette and a HUGE spa tub in our room. BUT…it IS very much in the middle of nowhere – the “closest” town is probably Mariposa and that’s about 40-45 minutes away.

ageeksaga california adventures yosemite 1

Setting aside my [somewhat minor] qualms with where we stayed and the fact that we were only able to get a park entry reservation for one full day of our trip (even with making reservations to get into the park within a day or so after they opened), we at least got to see a lot of the surrounding areas. We took a ride on the Sugar Pine Railroad, spent part of an afternoon exploring the aforementioned Mariposa (which is a historic gold rush town), and were able to enjoy dinner at the Ahwahnee Dining Room in the park.

On our [sadly, only] full day in Yosemite National Park, we thankfully got into the park pretty quickly, though it took us awhile to find a place to park – eventually we had to pull into a small dirt lot that was situated pretty far from any of the shuttle stops, which meant that we unfortunately spent quite a lot of our day just walking to get to and from stops and then later back to the car. At first this did at least allow us to see the beautiful El Capitan Meadow, and we did have a nice easy, quiet hike in the forest from one of the shuttle stops to Bridalveil Falls, but by the time we’d made it from Bridalveil (which was of course gorgeous!) to the nearest stop, waited for a shuttle that had space, and made it up to Curry Village, we needed real food and some time to rest our feet.

ageeksaga california adventures yosemite 2

Honestly, after that brief rest I could have kept going for a lot longer, but as the only one of us who puts in regular workouts I was a lone wolf in that, haha. We decided to check out one more place – the nearby-ish Vernal Falls – and that after that we’d head back to the car. The hike up to Vernal was by far the toughest thing we did all day, so even though it wasn’t a big deal for me, it was understandable that I couldn’t convince Dean & kiddo to keep going after that 😉

(And to be fair, it being a holiday weekend and the shuttle waits being long/those being crowded, combined with the fact that we had a good 15-20 minute walk back to the car from the closest shuttle stop, in the end it was probably for the best even for yours truly that we wrapped up our day when we did.)

While that just about wraps it up for my “actual” California adventures, I did want to at least briefly touch on a few additional trips we took that were at the very least far easier to take from California, and in some cases only happened at all because of how much easier it was to get where we were going…

OUT OF CALIFORNIA…

As these weren’t technically California adventures, I’m not going to go into any great detail, but some of the fun things I ended up doing thanks to living in California include:

Vegas trips! With Vegas being only about a 3.5 hour drive from us (depending on traffic as usual, ha) I got to go there twice for Very Important Events. Those being, we were legally married in Las Vegas, which had actually been something I’d ALWAYS wanted to do – and we celebrated my 40th birthday there as well, which felt kind of necessary considering I had celebrated my 30th there ten years prior 🙂

Honeymooning in Hawaii! Not that this would have been an impossible trip, but being so much closer obviously meant less time wasted traveling and cheaper flights, and even if it hadn’t been one heck of an awesome honeymoon, our trip to Maui was overall practically perfect in every way <3

ageeksaga california adventures out of california

Experiencing the first ever Red Dead-centric event, Tombstone Redemption! I found out about this so late in the game that I didn’t have a ton of PTO left or the vacation funds that flights and a rental car would have added to the cost had I lived farther away…but when we got lucky and were able to snag someone’s canceled hotel room, Tombstone being only about an 8 hour drive meant we could make a weekend out of it, and we made friends and memories that were more than worth 16-ish total hours in the car over the course of three-ish days 😉

What can only be called a ‘trip of a lifetime’…visiting Japan! Both Dean and I had always wanted to go to Japan, and I made it probably my biggest goal of my time in California to take advantage of direct flights from LAX to Tokyo before moving back east…and we finally made that dream a reality in late 2024, spending about 8 days exploring Tokyo and the surrounding areas – adventures that I’ve detailed in two solo travelogue podcast episodes, “Best Laid Japlans” and “TOTALLY Tokyo (& Beyond)” 😀

So yes, while I’m glad to be back on the east coast, closer to my family and most of my friends, I am beyond grateful for so many of the experiences I had in (and because of living in) California, especially those I likely never would have had otherwise. Hopefully I’ll make it back there some day – just for a visit, of course – but in the meantime I can at least treasure these adventures!

My California Adventures: Part One

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Tara Lynne

While I had been to California many times prior to living there – both on vacation and for work – my California adventures REALLY began in early 2021, when I half-moved to California to be with my partner Dean and his kids.

Dean and I had spent just over a year suffering through a long-distance relationship – and I *do* mean suffering, because about three months into our relationship the pandemic hit, which of course messed up so many of our travel/meetup plans. And at the end of the day, him moving to the east coast with a kid who had just entered high school simply didn’t make sense.

I won’t say that the approximately four and a half years that I spent in California, working east coast hours and being so far from my family and most of my friends, were easy. I think that if I had headed out there to live in, say, San Diego, or northern California, my enjoyment of life there would have been far more positive. Not that I hated it; I didn’t, and I certainly like the politics of California far more than those of South Carolina, which is where I have (temporarily, at least) returned to. But the place where I lived out in California is a suburban wasteland, an hour or more from anything interesting (in my opinion anyway). Not to mention the $600+ power bills in the summer, gas being nearly twice as much as it is most other places I’ve lived, and a nearly psychotic group of HOA people in our neighborhood that yes, have made for some hilarious conversations and memories, but who sure as hell will NOT be missed.

All of that said, I have to admit that I was extremely lucky that in my time there I was able to see and experience so much of California that I probably never would have seen or experienced otherwise. And so this blog is going to be about the amazing things that I did simply because I could.

LOCALLY[-ISH]
As much as I didn’t love Rancho Cucamonga as a place to live and certainly never could or would see myself spending much longer living there than I already did, there are some quintessential California experiences that I never knew about until I lived there. First, a thing called “The Pumpkin Patch”, which is a place you can go to in the fall/leading up to Halloween to buy overpriced pumpkins, ride crappy carnival rides or play in gigantic bounces houses (which I never bothered with, but the kids – even being teenagers/in their early 20s – enjoyed), and eat carnival-type food.

Then there’s this whole idea of “going to the snow”. This remains an absolutely HILARIOUS idea to me, mostly because the phrase “going to the snow” is even a thing. And even though we only did it once during my time there, the idea that we could leave RC and drive about an hour or an hour and a half (depending on traffic because LOL everything out there ALWAYS depends on traffic) and go from let’s say 50-60 degree weather to FEET of snow is crazy to me. After all, I grew up in New England where snow was just a constant thing from November/December through March or sometimes even April, and most of my adulthood has been spent in upstate South Carolina, where sure we GET a bit of snow now and then, but if you want to see REAL snow you have to drive hours north in the dead of winter.

Another thing we sadly only did once was taking the pups to the dog beach in Huntington. Another situation where it’s about an hour and a half away *depending on traffic*, it was still fun to see my pups experience the ocean for the first time, since both of them were born and raised (Ellie for 3.5 years, Sokka for 1.5 years) in upstate SC, which is several hours from an actual ocean beach. (P.S. Ellie didn’t care for it, but Sokka LOVED it, and I am honestly sad that they only got to go once.)

Weirdly enough, one of the little half-day trips we took was thanks to a friend of mine from SC, who had told me all about this gorgeous southern California hotel that she and her husband had a little getaway at. Turns out that the hotel she was talking about was the Mission Inn in Riverside, only about a 35-45 minute drive from where I ended up! We spent a long afternoon exploring the inn and grounds and having a delicious lunch, and I only wish I’d made time to go back before returning to the east coast…and I definitely regret that we didn’t wear Red Dead costumes and get photos around the hotel, though we DID do so on another day trip that we took out to Calico Ghost Town (a place that we visited twice in the years I spent in SoCal, though I do regret that both times we visited were basically during summer and it was errrr kind of miserably hot, haha).

We also went to Pasadena a few times (usually to meet up with friends), and got to go to a House of the Dragon exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, PLUS a Paleyfest presentation in Hollywood, celebrating Amy Sherman Palladino of Gilmore Girls/Marvelous Mrs Maisel fame. This involved us seeing said presentation in the theater where they host the Oscars and having a bit of time to walk around the extremely touristy section of Hollywood Boulevard around that theater. Which to be fair I had visited before, but the ability to do this in an afternoon/evening – and most especially to see the Amy Sherman Palladino presentation – was so great.

Then there were the ‘little things’ – evenings out at a local winery, and, more often, evenings out at local breweries; some local hiking; checking out both Renaissance Faires in the area; experiencing a Golden Girls pop-up followed by a walk down Rodeo Drive; meeting my first WDWCP roommate for dinner at Downtown Disney; and even visiting Golf n’ Stuff of Karate Kid fame! Needless to say, as I’ve been writing this I keep thinking of more fun little Inland Empire and LA things that we did throughout the years and realizing that as much as I might have missed checking off a number of things on my “to do while living in California” list, I also fit a whoooole bunch of really cool experiences in 🙂

Anyway, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my absolute FAVORITE thing about living in RC – or really more so, specifically living in our neighborhood. Because we did Halloween BIG, there. Our neighbors on one side did so as well, and in 2024 our neighbors on the other side picked up on the vibe too, which was so much fun. For my first Halloween here in 2021 we were Cobra Kai themed; in 2022, we went with “Taco Hell”; 2023 was Mario; and 2024 was Ghostbusters. After the first couple of years we became known as a house that would provide not just candy for the kiddos but entertainment and other fun options for older kids and adults as well, and that’s the one thing I will miss the most about living there.

ageeksaga california adventures halloween

NOT-QUITE-DAY-TRIPS
While I suppose some of the things I’ve already mentioned might not technically be truly local experiences, they were things we did in a single day (often less)…and I also got to go on a couple of overnight ‘trips’ to nearby places that almost certainly never would have happened if I wasn’t living so close.

First, I highly doubt I ever would have traveled all the way out to California to run in the Disneyland half marathon. (And to be honest, having run that race, I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for flights and more than one night in a hotel to do so, heh.) Instead we drove in the day before, got a hotel right across the street from Disneyland, picked up my bib and wandered the tiny runners’ convention, ate at Downtown Disney, went to bed early, then I ran the marathon the next morning and we were back home by dinnertime.

A much more fun overnight trip was when we got to meet up with my good friends Rachel and Josh when they came to California for vacation 🙂 We picked them up from LAX and headed over to Venice, where we checked out the touristy beach area, had a touristy lunch, wandered the canals, had more drinks and food, stayed in a lovely little boutique hotel (you can actually see the building it’s in in the video game Dead Island 2, ha), and then walked all the way to the Santa Monica pier the next day – which was a weird culmination of my route 66 trip that began in January 2021 and only finished at the actual tail end of route 66 in October 2023.

ageeksaga california adventures overnight

And then – pretty much JUST before I left California – a good friend of mine, Jonathan, who I hadn’t seen in something like 10? 11? years was in San Diego for a work conference…thanks to proximity and Hyatt points we were able to head down there for an overnight to meet up with him. We had a blast eating at one of my favorite SD restaurants, Bencotto in Little Italy, and visiting the Ballast Point brewery in Little Italy, AND a really cool tiki bar called False Idol, plus brunch the next morning at Werewolf in the Gaslamp (though I would have preferred Cafe 21 in the Gaslamp, sadly that location was closed – at least temporarily – when we visited ::cries::). Dean and I even stopped at Tom’s Farms, a sort of famous roadside attraction, on the way back from San Diego…so basically fun things that I never had the time and/or energy to fit in when I was in San Diego for…

SDCC
I’ll be honest, if I hadn’t been living California during the summers of 2022-2024, I don’t think I would have bothered going to San Diego Comic-Con. The expense long ago started outweighing the benefits when it came to flights alone, not to mention the amount of PTO I had to expend to fly out even for a long weekend. Being only about a 2-2.5 hour drive away (depending on traffic! lol), combined with friends who lived in San Diego who I could stay with, or a hotel room I was gifted one year by some much beloved and truly generous friends, or even paying for a spot in a hotel room last year, was the only way it was truly…well, maybe ‘viable’ isn’t the right word, but certainly the only reason I was willing to spend the money to be there.

And wow did I have some GREAT times at SDCC the past few years. More than worth the drive, any money I spent on food and drinks, etc. Of course I spoke on panels each year, but I also got to meet up with old friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time, got TONS of free books (well, in 2022 anyway), was able to attend a meetup with fellow Red Rising fans, had some absolutely amazing times with my friends Paul and Orion and Fahad, among others…and then last year (2024) even had the privilege of hanging out with my friend Tore (who wrote Red Dead’s History) and the one and only Roger Clark, the actor who brought Arthur Morgan to life and did the audiobook for Red Dead’s History. And listen…if that was my last trip ever to San Diego Comic-Con, it was a GREAT way to wrap up my 9 years of attending that event!

Of course, there is SO much more to California (and to LIVING in California) than the Inland Empire, LA, and San Diego…so stay tuned for part two of my California Adventures!

The Geek Saga Podcast Episode 131: Impulsive Hyperfocus “TOTALLY Tokyo (& Beyond – Travelogue 2)”

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Tara Lynne

geek saga podcast impulsive hyperfocus japan 2

Episode 131 of The Geek Saga Podcast is the 8th episode in my “Impulsive Hyperfocus” series – the second of two parts featuring my thoughts on my recent trip to Japan!

Find the Geek Saga Podcast on:
SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCASTS, AMAZON MUSIC, YOUTUBE, & more!

While this episode is called “TOTALLY Tokyo”, we did in fact make some forays out of that city, and it covers many of the experiences we had, including the 8 shrines and temples that we visited, the Hakone Golden Course (or Route), Tokyo Disney theme parks, and much much more! That said, I highly suggest listening to Geek Saga Podcast episode 126 “Best Laid Japlans” prior to checking this one out 🙂

Geek Saga Podcast Episode 131: Impulsive Hyperfocus TOTALLY Tokyo (& Beyond – Travelogue 2)

Please consider checking out the Geek Saga Entertainment Patreon and supporting us for early access to our episodes & some other great perks!

Mentioned in this podcast:
Gōtokuji Temple
Ueno Park – including Gojoten Shrine & Toshogu Shrine
Meiji Jingu Shrine
Senso-ji Temple
Asakusa-Jinja Shrine
Hanazono Shrine
Hakone Golden Course/Route
Tokyo Disney Theme Parks
Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Imperial Palace/East Gardens
Golden Gai
Takeshita Street
Tokyo (Tokyu?) Plaza Harajuku

Music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay

The Geek Saga Podcast Episode 126: Impulsive Hyperfocus “Best Laid Japlans (Travelogue 1)”

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Tara Lynne

geek saga podcast impulsive hyperfocus japan 1

Episode 126 of The Geek Saga Podcast is the 7th episode in my “Impulsive Hyperfocus” series, and my first ever travelogue episode on just SOME of our recent experiences in Japan!

GEEK SAGA PODCAST ON SPOTIFY

In regard to this particular episode’s name – just to be clear it is a silly play on words, specifically my Best Laid PLANS for JAPAN. This is just part 1 of what will be a 2-part story about my first time in Japan, covering some insight into my trip planning (both in general and for Japan specifically), transportation experiences, where we stayed and what we ate (and drank!).

Geek Saga Podcast Episode 126: Impulsive Hyperfocus Best Laid Japlans (Travelogue 1)

Please consider checking out the Geek Saga Entertainment Patreon and supporting us for early access to our episodes & some other great perks!

Mentioned in this podcast:
Hotel Perrier – Kabukicho, Shinjuku City, Tokyo
Klook Tokyo Disneyland Shuttle Bus
Tsujiki Fish Market
Doutor Coffee
Toriyoshi Shoten
Ichiran Ramen
Kyushu Ramen Hakatakko
Memento Mori
Kunisawa Brewing Co.

Music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay

Disneyland Half Marathon: My 5th RunDisney Half Marathon Experience!

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Tara Lynne

On January 14, 2024, I completed the Disneyland Half Marathon, which was my 5th half marathon – all of which have been RunDisney races! Overall I had a decent experience, but let’s just say it did NOT add up to the races at WDW…

rundisney disneyland half marathon castle pic 1

Normally I would would write up a story version of ::gestures:: alll of this, but I have a LOT to say about my first RunDisney experience at Disneyland, so this time I’m going with pro and con lists 🙂

BIB PICK-UP & FITNESS EXPO

PROS:

Because this is a much smaller race numbers-wise, check-in/bib pick-up and the fitness expo were all in the same building – the little convention center attached to the Disneyland Hotel. This made the process very quick, and it was neat that we were able to walk right over to Downtown Disney from there.
That said, if I had known how quick it would be and how small the expo was, I would have checked into our hotel (the Camelot Inn & Suites right across the street from the main park entrances) first and therefore only had to pay THEIR parking fee instead of also coughing up the money to park in the Disneyland garages. True, it was a reduced rate of $10 (from I think $35?!), but it’s $10 I didn’t really *need* to spend, and only did so because we arrived in Anaheim at about 2:45 PM and I was worried about having enough time to both pick up my bib and wander the expo.

rundisney disneyland half marathon fitness expo

CONS:

The expo was tiny and pretty lame compared to the one at WDW – and therefore not really worth spending more than 15 minutes checking out. I knew it would be smaller, but the only really neat thing about it was the Percy Jackson photo op…and that only because my younger step kid was with us and is obsessed with that series.

HOTEL – CAMELOT INN & SUITES

NOTE: We did NOT stay at an official Disneyland hotel, so what I have to say here – the good and the not-so-good – obviously isn’t a reflection on Disney or RunDisney.

PROS:

This hotel is SUPER convenient if you are ever going to Disneyland and don’t want to cough up an additional $100+ more per night to stay at a Disneyland hotel – it’s literally across the street from the main park entrances.
Furthermore, I got very lucky, having booked this hotel right after I registered for the race and then finding out right before race weekend that it was at most a 5 minute walk to the corral staging area for the half marathon.
The room itself was spacious and the beds weren’t completely uncomfortable, at least.

CONS:

We were ‘upgraded’ to a room on the 4th floor over Harbor Boulevard so while we had a view of the fireworks, the glass on the windows was weirdly cloudy or warped or something and it wasn’t exactly a great one, heh. Admittedly those aren’t really cons because it was a free ‘upgrade’, but I wouldn’t want to stay in one of those ‘park view’ rooms again. The noise from the road (and possibly the stairwell right by our room) was so bad that I barely got any sleep at all…which would be frustrating just about any time, but even more so when I only had about 6 hours TO sleep before getting up a little before 4 AM for the race.
Granted, some of this was surely a problem of thin walls/improper window sealings/etc. But I’m pretty sure that if we’d been staying at the back of the hotel we at least wouldn’t have experienced the noisiness of Harbor Boulevard [being right outside our window].
While the parking fee wasn’t too terrible, I don’t like that I had to hand over my keys in a valet-type situation for a parking situation where I could see my car in the lot. It was inconvenient, especially when we were putting stuff in the car for check-out purposes prior to heading over to Disneyland after I finished the race.

HALF MARATHON START

PROS:

Many [non-Disney-owned and therefore somewhat cheaper] hotels were within <10 minutes walking distance of the half marathon corral staging area, including (as mentioned above} my own! So I was actually able to get at least 45 minutes’ more sleep 😀
Because there were fewer people running the race as a whole, the corrals were of course smaller (numbers-wise) which meant that despite being in corral E *and* them starting about 5 minutes late, I crossed the start line at 5:33 AM. (Meaning even if they had started on time, I would have only waited 33 minutes instead of the 45 I waited the last time I was in corral E for a RunDisney half marathon…seemingly a million years ago, ha)

rundisney disneyland half marathon start

CONS:

This might have been better served in a “pre-race planning” section, but as most of the info for that is never available until the race guide comes out fairly soon before the event, it seems a bit silly to separate it out. Essentially, they needed better-labeled maps in the race guide for where you could enter the staging areas. I had to compare (1) my pinpointed location in the maps app on my phone to (2) the map my partner brought up in Google maps to (3) the graphic in the race guide that only had the cross streets labeled just to figure out APPROXIMATELY how I could walk over to the staging area…and even then was [granted, pleasantly] surprised to walk out of my hotel on race morning and realize that the entry (which at this point had an A-frame sign pointing where to go) was between my hotel and the Tropicana hotel next door. So yeah, the ‘where to go’ maps for pre- and post-race were terrible, haha.
*If* there were any pre-race photo ops or anything of the sort, they weren’t at all visible from where I entered the staging area, and as cast members were very pointedly directing everyone right to the corrals I didn’t feel comfortable wandering around to try to find any pre-race photo ops etc. that might exist :-/
I will say that I saw posts in the big RunDisney Facebook group that the security lines to get into the staging area were terrible for the 10k. One person said they got in line for security at about 4:15 AM and I believe claimed they didn’t get through it until around 4:45 AM. Whatever the issues were for the 10K, they were either (a) for another entrance, (b) they fixed them before the half, OR (c) the security lines were just cleared out if you arrived a bit later, because I walked right through when I arrived at about 4:35 AM through the entrance between the Camelot and Tropicana on Harbor.

THE RACE ITSELF

rundisney disneyland half marathon park pics

PROS:

Having experienced 4 previous RunDisney half marathons at WDW, the park portions of the course I ran often left a lot to be desired – the Princess Half is my personal least favorite course, because while sure! you get to run around Magic Kingdom!…the only other park (at least for the two I ran) was EPCOT and then only the front portion of it. So while there’s a lot to be said about the ‘meh’ organization of the Disneyland half marathon course, at the very least you got to run through a huge portion of both parks 🙂
As for the rest of the course, in this section I’ll just say: hey it was kinda neat to run by the Ducks arena and Angels stadium?
One thing I noticed that was really great was the number of spectators. I’m guessing the frequency of spectator groups along the course was due to so much of the course being on [fairly] easily accessible public property, versus at WDW where you can tell it’s really difficult for spectators to get to most portions of the course due to it all being on Disney roads and there not being publicly accessible side roads and parking lots. So as far as I can tell, if you want to cheer on a RunDisney racer, Disneyland is THE place for this! My amazing partner was even able to take a brief walk from our hotel to a spot on the last 0.1 mile of the course to support me 🙂

rundisney disneyland half marathon anaheim

CONS: (Ohhh where to start.)

While I admit that the logistics of a half marathon where most of the race has to be on public roads – meaning Disney has to work with the city of Anaheim, which was the reason the Disneyland races were put on hold from 2017 until now – have to be really difficult, the fact that most of the first mile of the race was on city streets, followed by miles 2, 3, and 4 in the parks, then hitting 5 as you exited Disneyland and spending the rest of the time on Anaheim roads…I don’t know, I expected it to be something like this, but it was still disappointing ::shrug::
Despite being warned of the problems with bottlenecking, I don’t know that any number of warnings could have truly prepared me for how often they happened and how bad they really were. The absolute worst was at the first water station – I came around a corner at a run, in that ‘dodge and weave’ zone as I tried to keep the pace I wanted to keep (but was of course having trouble with because I was randomly placed in corral E after having not seen a corral below C for any Disney race since the WDW Marathon Weekend half in 2019)…and then BAM! had to quite literally skid to a stop because there was a dozens-of-people-deep crowd shuffling along as they tried to make it through an already narrow path made even more narrow – and slow! – by the fact that THIS was where they chose to place a water station?! Argh. And there was at least one other in-park water station placed about as terribly after that!
I haven’t bothered to stop for a character photo op during a race for a long time. I don’t want to eat into my time by waiting in long lines, and the last time I stopped for a character that didn’t have much of a line the photopass person took two extremely blurry and unusable photos so it was a wash, anyway. Still, even I recognized that the character stops were often in odd places and badly lit to boot, making them really hard to notice – in fact, I ran by all but two of them and the rest of the ones that I DID see, I only realized after the fact that I had actually passed them by. While this might not be a big deal for ME, I’m frustrated on behalf of those who DO want to pause for photo ops.
And it wasn’t just the character photo ops! The only race photogs who had their places well-lit and obvious were the ones shooting people coming out of the castle. Granted, these were for sure the most important ones, but yet again I ran by the rest of them and only realized was doing so when I saw that the people I was passing were hamming it up for a camera. And while this might have caused me to miss some of the photogs along the course, I still doubt there were many more than a half dozen of them total. In fact, there are just 8 total photos in my photopass account, and only TWO of them are actually from the course itself.
Once we were out of the parks, no character stops, no course photogs, and I saw at least one person eat it BAD when they tripped over the white pavement markers in the center of the roads…not to mention reading numerous comments in the RunDisney Facebook group about others falling because of those, potholes, or railroad tracks. Thankfully for me the rest of the course was whatever because I was just trying to make up some of the time I’d lost in the park bottlenecks and while pausing for more photos than usual, and as previously mentioned the spectators were numerous and GREAT…plus it was neat to run by the Ducks arena and Angels stadium. But otherwise, meh, because at least with even the worst WDW courses, you get at least a bit of time in a park before that last tenth of a mile or so to the finish line.
Some of the mile markers in the parks (including the much-panned mile 3 marker) were in bad places, for sure, but the mile 13 marker was an effing TRAVESTY. As awesome as the spectator situation was for the rest of the race, the fact that they didn’t block off an area around THE FINAL MILE MARKER was *terrible* planning/a really bad decision…and also really disappointing.

rundisney disneyland half marathon 13 mile marker

THE END/POST-RACE SITUATION

PROS:

I was able to get back to my hotel room to get warm (because wow we had a cold snap here in CA and this was in the top 3 coldest RunDisney races I’ve ever run, of 11 total) in just a few minutes after exiting the post-race staging area…though let’s be real, this was entirely by chance, as I had no idea when I booked it that my hotel would be that close to the start/end point of the race. Sad to say, I legitimately have zero other pros for the post-race situation. So much so that I’m calling it a “situation” rather than an “experience”, ha.

rundisney disneyland half marathon post race

CONS:

Maybe other people have better photos, but I don’t have a single finish line picture that shows the finish arch.
No merch tents. No food/drink options other than the Powerade, water bottle, banana, and snack box they hand out (WDW has food and drink carts). No character photo ops that I could find (this is the time I usually stop for them 🙁 ) Not even the little “I did it” signs to hold in front of the RunDisney backdrops. I felt bad that my partner got up to meet me at the end of the race because if I had known the post-race staging area would be this lame, I would have told him to stay in bed, heh. (Note: I do understand that the area they use for post-race staging is much smaller than what is available at WDW, but at least when I was there it wasn’t really crowded at all and it looked to me as if they definitely COULD have had some of the aforementioned things available.)

rundisney disneyland half marathon finish pic — Seriously this is the best image they took of my finish. By far. ::sigh:: (I was flat-out running, too…weird that it looks like I’m walking haha)

IN CONCLUSION…

My official time was 2:39:19 – my third best half marathon time (again, out of five half marathons, and by about 5 minutes, to boot)…which to be honest isn’t bad considering the bottlenecks and my extra photo stops. And this race did teach me something – to allow myself some grace: by actually stopping for some photos (since I had obviously never run through the Disneyland parks before), and by listening to my body, including making a restroom stop but even more importantly, pausing for some additional stretching when my left hip started feeling tight at around the 11.5 mile mark. These things all served as reminders that no race is ever the same, and no matter what, I’m still proud AF of what I accomplished – including finishing 2,959th of 11,186 runners 🙂

Would I do another RunDisney Disneyland race? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not entirely ruling it out, but I do feel for the people who traveled from afar (vs. my 50-ish minute drive to Anaheim and one night in a hotel that, with parking, cost $300). I think that if you’re a HUGE RunDisney fan and you’ve never experienced a Disneyland race, it’s…let’s say mostly worth it. But to be completely honest, if I had been on the east coast and paid not just the race registration fee + 60 miles roundtrip in gas + one night at a hotel, but instead, the current insane flight prices + rental car or rideshare fees from an airport + more than one night in a hotel…I would have been less in the “I’m glad I had this experience” boat and more in the “why did I do this to myself” boat, heh.

rundisney disneyland half marathon finish

Whirlwind NOLA: Mardi Gras Trip Part 2

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Tara Lynne

I already wrote about the awesome first part of Lundi Gras in my post detailing my absolutely amazing trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras…but now it’s time to talk about what we did that evening, because it was probably the best 6-ish hours of our vacation!

Our hotel was on Canal Street, but future experiences (read: the very next day) and my anxiety about being pressed in among strangers for long periods of time (or well, ok, at all – NOT my thing) made me SUPER happy that I ignored the “advice” I received on Reddit to not bother with stands.

Knowing that we only had these two days and needed to make the most of them, I took a chance – despite the aforementioned “advice” – and booked two spots in the stands at a hotel on St. Charles Ave. My ONLY complaint is that they advertised that there would be local food available for purchase, and I…don’t believe that was the case. (You could go inside the hotel to use the bathrooms, which was a HUGE plus, and also purchase drinks at the bar – and there was also a food cart outside, but it appeared to just have the basic fried chicken, burgers, etc. type options – no big deal, but maybe don’t advertise you’ll have true NOLA food if you, ya know, don’t.)

But hey, at least we got very close seats for these parades!

Anyway, we got to sit in the stands with a great mix of people – locals and tourists alike! – and we made a LOT of friends! (Let’s be real, that’s what two extroverts do, right?)

It was a LONG night, by the way – we arrived at the stands around 6 PM and waited quite a bit for the first parade – Rex – to come by. But WOW, was it worth it! As I already mentioned, we met so many friends – including the Australian couple who was sitting next to us (and who we convinced to check out our favorite brewery, Brieux Carre, the next day)…

….as well as a local woman who was there with her two little girls 🙂

Because by the way – us being tall people, we caught a LOT of throws from both Rex and Orpheus that night – which meant we also got to pass them around to the little kids who weren’t quite tall enough to catch them. Let’s just say that I caught a seahorse plushie from Orpheus that I absolutely wanted to keep, but let’s be real, the kiddo wanted/needed it more 🙂

But that’s the true spirit of Mardi Gras, isn’t it? It’s celebration, it’s giving, and it’s loving the city and the people around you. And when one of the little girls was admiring the hat that I’d made especially for this trip, I realized…what was the point of bringing it home, when I could give it to a child who lived in this amazing city, a child who appreciated it and would hopefully continue to appreciate it for years to come? So…I did 🙂

At the end of the night – and it was a WAY later night than we prepared for, considering we had to get up pretty early the next morning – we realized that we’d had the best experience we could have, well, experienced. We met new out-of-town friends who had never been to NOLA and were able to give them suggestions about the places we loved…and we got to meet a local who was actually part of the Zulu crew the next day, and were able to give her two amazing little girls a great night by making sure they got the throws they wanted and passing on my hat to a kiddo who was super excited to perch it on her adorable little head 🙂

Needless to say, as much as we enjoyed the next day, I think our Lundi Gras experiences were the highlight of our trip!

Whirlwind NOLA: Mardi Gras Trip Part 1

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Tara Lynne

For Christmas 2021 I surprised my partner Dean with a trip to Maui for his big present, and while I knew I would be hard-pressed to outdo that, for Christmas 2022 I surprised him with a trip back to what we affectionately call “our place”: New Orleans, of course!

But not just ANY trip to New Orleans – a whirlwind 3 night/2 day trip for Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras!!

So unfortunately, our trip did NOT get off to an auspicious start – before I even got through security at the local airport, the connecting flight was delayed by 30 minutes. This was the first time I had flown Southwest since their holiday meltdown, and when we flew to and from Hawaii with them in March 2022 we had experienced delays (albeit minor ones), so I wasn’t feeling super great about actually getting to NOLA in a timely manner.

In the end, I was right to be concerned. I was supposed to land in New Orleans at 11:10 PM….but it was after 1 AM before I arrived. I’d already planned on collecting my bag, grabbing a rideshare to the hotel, checking in and going to bed…but there’s a big difference between a just-after-midnight and a nearly-2-AM bedtime at my age, haha.

But hey, no need to let that ruin a vacation as a whole! We were up and at ’em by mid-morning on Lundi Gras, and hoping to grab some beignets at Cafe Beignet on Canal…unfortunately, the line looked like a 30+ minute wait, and as my layover had happened in one of those airports that had next to no food options later in the evening, I was STARVING.

And truth be told, I also wanted bergnerts. Begnets. BINYAYS. (Okay listen you had to be there.)

Luckily, we found “Hot Benny’s” on Canal – which to be honest didn’t have the local feel we love, and also had very few drink options outside of hot/iced coffee type drinks, but the bergnerts were great and my iced latte hit the spot…plus, there was basically no wait, even on Lundi Gras 😉

After that, it was back to the hotel to stock up – aka grab a mixed drink from the bar – before we meandered through the French Quarter on our way to our favorite brewery, Brieux Carré!

Now to be fair, I knew that the Krewe of Red Beans was parading through this area starting at 2 PM, but also, I will never pass up a 90s Power Ballad or one of BC’s delicious schwarzbiers…so it was a fun midday break with great beers while we waited for Red Beans to make its way through the Marigny 🙂

After Red Beans, it was time to make our way back to the hotel to freshen up and head to the Zulu Lundi Gras Festival! This is where Dean and I parted ways for a bit because his aim was seafood (and I can’t eat most shellfish, unfortunately) and my aim was making sure I saw the the Zulu King and Queen arrive…but hey, I got some amazing King Cake bread pudding along the way!

I also met some awesome people who hung out and chatted with me while we watched the Zulu King and Queen give their speeches. I’ll just say that I had some incredible experiences over the two days we were there, and this was absolutely one of them.

That’s just part one of our amazing first of two days in NOLA for Mardi Gras…stay tuned for more fun, because we LOVE this city and it’s always an amazing time when we experience it 🙂

Red Dead IRL: Saint Denis/New Orleans, Part 1

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Tara Lynne

New Orleans has always been one of my favorite places to visit, so I’m sure you can imagine how excited I was to see so many familiar places copied over into RDR2’s Saint Denis. From the moment I first rode through those streets as Arthur Morgan, I knew I had to go back to NOLA and place as many of them as I could in real life.

And hey, this is me, so ya know, why not do it in cosplay?

Also me being me – that is, super type A – I did a TON of research prior to going on this trip. Not just a lot of googling and searching through every Red Dead subreddit that I could find; I also talked to people I know who live in (or are frequent visitors to) New Orleans, poured through an old NOLA guidebook that I own, and even went back through photos from my past trips there.

I definitely didn’t get to map every single spot that exists both in game and in real life, but I added the following locations – plus a few other fun photo spots – to a Google Map for sharing purposes.

Starting from the ‘top’ of the French Quarter and working your way down through it, here’s what I found:
– LaLaurie Mansion – Bastille Saloon
– 1041 Royal Street – Doyle’s Tavern
– Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop – Random building
– Jackson Square – Tailor, statue, etc.
– Napoleon House – La Riviere Cafe
– Latrobe’s – Lemoyne National Bank
– New Orleans Police Department – Lemoyne Supreme Court
– Ochsner Urgent Care French Quarter – Barbour & Crosby Real Estate

Next, a few quick stops in the Garden District can be sandwiched between visits to Lee Circle and St Stephen Church.

– Confederate Memorial Hall in Lee Circle – Quincy Harris Memorial Hall
– Seven Sisters – Random homes in game
– Women’s Opera Guild Home – Random home in game
– Morris Israel House – Random home in game
– Commander’s Palace Restaurant – Random building in game (on edge of Saint Denis)
– St. Stephen Church – Larger cathedral in St Denis

Despite spending the better part of a day wandering around New Orleans, we still didn’t even get to make stops at all of the places I marked on my map…but hey, that just means I have an excuse to go back to “Saint Denis” and finish my explorations, right?

I’m still in the process of gathering decent screenshots of the Saint Denis versions of these buildings, as well as marking them on a game map, so stay tuned for part 2 of my Saint Denis/New Orleans comparison!

A Last Minute (But Awesome!) Day at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival

Posted on November 18, 2017 by Tara Lynne

Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2017

I’ve been to Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival many times throughout the years…in fact, I’d have to sit down and really think back to figure out the exact number of times.

In the past, I went to eat my favorite samples (escargots from France, fried goat cheese with honey and pistachios from Greece, and the cheddar cheese soup from Canada)…but more than anything, I went to drink, because all those extra Food and Wine Festival booths allowed for a great change of pace for someone who has gone Drinking Around the World as many times as I have.

To be honest, the past couple times I went to the Food and Wine Festival I wasn’t all that impressed with the food samples. They changed the way they served the escargots, the fried goat cheese just wasn’t as good, and while the soup was fine, by itself it wasn’t worth braving the crowds and long lines that have plagued the festival much more than they used to.

I also remember hearing complaints about the portions not being worth one’s money, and while I personally didn’t actively complain about this, I also didn’t disagree. So imagine my surprise when I visited Epcot this past weekend – on the second-to-last day of the 2017 Food and Wine Festival – and experienced not just large portions but also cast members who kept things flowing so that we never waited more than 5 minutes to order (and rarely more than a couple minutes to get our food).

My one rule this year was that I would try different samples, and having someone to share them with allowed me to order a lot more than I have in the past…

epcot food and wine festival 2017

Clockwise from top left:
The Cheese Studio – Savory Caramelized Onion and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs Cheese Tart
Flavors from Fire – Smoked Corn Beef with Warm Crispy Potatoes, Pickled Onions, and Blonde Ale Beer Fondue
Refreshment Port – Croissant Donut
Australia – Lamington
Brazil – Pao de Queijo

I also got to taste the Grilled Beef Skewer from Earth Eats, the Loaded Mac-n-Cheese from Active Eats, and yes, the Croissant aux Escargots from France. While none of my samples were bad, the only ones that really stood out were the Croissant Donut (I’ve had “cronuts” before but this one was the best ever, trust me) and the Grilled Beef Skewer (it was a pleasant surprise, especially as it featured apricots and feta).

Overall, I was really happy with the food this year…which does a good job of making up for the fact that the drink options were average at best. In fact, nothing that I drank was particularly memorable; mostly I’m just sad that I missed out on trying the Chilled Coffee from Belgium and the Mmmhops Pale Ale from Block & Haus (yes, “Mmmhops” – it’s from the Hansen brothers’ brewery, and yes, I’m as shocked as you probably are that this exists). But hey, there’s always next year!

Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2017

RunDisney: What I’ve Learned & How I Got Hooked

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Tara Lynne

For what seems like half my adult life, I’ve had friends who participated in RunDisney events, but even though I’ve been running on a regular basis since 2004, I never really thought about participating myself.

In fact, I didn’t even run my first 5k until 2012, and while I really enjoyed it and ran several more throughout the years, I never really planned on doing longer races. Between that and the expense involved in traveling to Orlando on top of the cost of the RunDisney races themselves, I couldn’t really justify doing any of them.

Of course, fast forward several years and here I am, once again living in the Orlando area. And yet if it weren’t for the Star Wars Half Marathon weekend, I’m still not sure I would have entered a RunDisney race. But this is me we’re talking about here – obviously I couldn’t pass up doing a Star Wars themed race! I actually wanted to do the 10k, but by the time I heard about these races at all that one was already sold out. (Seriously, that’s RunDisney Lesson #1: Register as early as possible!)

Thankfully the entire weekend wasn’t sold out, and I was able to run the 5k. Honestly even with the money I paid to run the dang race, I’m still surprised I dragged myself out of bed for it…there were a lot of 5k’s I would have liked to run back in Greenville but could never bring myself to sign up for because they started at, say, 8 AM on a Saturday. (I’m just not one for getting up that early on the weekends.) The race time for the Star Wars 5k at Disney was 6 AM…with participants required to be in their corrals by 5:30 AM.

I live 45 minutes away from Disney. It was a very, very early morning.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! The day before my race I had to go to Wide World of Sports to pick up my bib, and because I didn’t read everything they sent me when I registered, I had no idea that there was a whole expo going on during bib pick-up hours! Tons of running gear and RunDisney merchandise, on-site massages, even freebies here and there – I never thought I’d walk into a marketplace for runners and have to spend the entire time reminding myself that I’m a broke artist who can’t afford $100 compression running tights or an $80 shirt that says “Running + Wine” on it. Talk about RunDisney Lesson #2: You’ll want to buy a lot of stuff, so save up that money! (Or if you can’t/don’t save up money, maybe don’t go wandering through the expo.)

They even had RunDisney vacation planners there! Now, you can’t simply register for the races – they’re there to help you plan a full RunDisney vacation , which I learned only after talking to one of them for about 20 minutes. However, I’m still glad I spent that time talking to them, because if I hadn’t I wouldn’t know RunDisney Lesson #3: If a race is sold out, there’s a chance you can still get in if you book a vacation package with it. In fact, that’s how I was able to register for the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February – it was sold out online, but I booked two nights at one of the All Star resorts and was able to snag a race spot along with that. Now I’m just trying to convince myself it’s worth the expense because I’ll get to sleep about an hour longer and not have to drive home right after running 13.6 miles.

I’m sure you’re wondering how this is all worth it, when RunDisney race registrations cost three to five times more than your average race registration. The thing is, I know that for most people it’s probably one of those “you won’t understand until you try” things. That’s how it was for me, anyway, even though for years now I’ve had several friends telling me how fun these races were…which I guess makes that RunDisney Lesson #4: You have to experience a RunDisney race firsthand in order to understand it [and likely – possibly inevitably – get hooked].

The excitement was palpable the morning of the Star Wars 5k. There was music, a fun announcer, participants dressed up in fun outfits (and sometimes even costumes)…it was impossible to not be excited. And then along the race course there were photo ops with characters and tons of photopass employees snapping pictures of the runners…not to mention the fun of running through Epcot at dawn.

And if that’s not enough to convince you, at the end you’re handed an actual medal! (No other race I’ve ever run has given out participation medals, and the RunDisney ones are AWESOME!) Not only that, there’s plenty of free bottled water and gatorade, fresh fruit, and snack boxes…and then even more photo ops, both in front of a RunDisney background and with more characters…and in my case those character photo ops were a huge plus because yes, they were Star Wars characters!

My one regret from my first RunDisney race was that prior to the run, I didn’t know RunDisney Lesson #5: They don’t time their 5k’s. So just keep in mind that if you want to know your race time one of their 5k’s, you have to clock it yourself.

As much fun as I’ve had running races in the past, none of them even come close to how amazing that Star Wars 5k was…and not just because it was Star Wars. I loved it so much that when I got home later that morning, I immediately signed up for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend (which took place just last weekend) and the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January 2018. For Wine & Dine, I had to sign up for the Two-Course Challenge, as that’s all they had left. This meant running a 10k on Saturday 11/4 and then a half marathon on Sunday 11/5, which seemed crazy at the time and unfortunately still seems crazy now, as I ended up with a bum hip prior to the race weekend and was only able to run in the 10k, anyway.

I keep trying to tell myself it’s okay that I listened to my body and didn’t overdo it by running the half last weekend…and anyway, I’m registered for the half marathon – and only the half marathon – in January. I have over two months to heal and train, and if I’m honest with myself, I need that time in order to run the best race I can for my first half marathon EVER 🙂

With the Wine & Dine 10k, I also got to run through another park, as both Hollywood Studios and Epcot were part of the course. And despite the problems I’ve been having with my hip and the fact that the RunDisney courses are far more crowded than most of your average local road races, I ran my first official 10k in 1:13:03. (Although that’s the official RunDisney time; my personal ‘stopwatch’ on my phone says 1:13:00.18!) And as a side note, that brings me to RunDisney Lesson #6: People will cut you off – a lot. Most of the time they aren’t doing it on purpose, but it will happen. People will also pass on the left. I passed on the left. If you’re running in one of these races and care about your time, you will inevitably cut someone off (hopefully not on purpose!) and/or have to pass on the left. If you don’t care about your time, don’t get too frustrated or yell at people for mistakenly cutting you off or for passing on the left. (I personally did not get yelled at for cutting anyone off, nor did I yell at anyway, though I did definitely get frustrated a couple of the times it happened…and yes, I did pass on the left and get yelled at for it.)

I’m sure that I’ll learn more lessons when I run in the half marathon and the Princess half marathon early next year, but for now I’ll leave you with RunDisney Lesson #7: Be prepared for some fun outfits/costumes. And if you’re so inclined, definitely wear one yourself! I personally probably won’t wear a crazy costume, but I have tried to wear fun yet comfortable running outfits for both of my races…and I’m still trying to come up with some more fun outfits for the next two. Any suggestions?

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Category Archives: Travel

My California Adventures: Part Two

My California Adventures: Part One

While I had been to California many times prior to living there – both on vacation and for work – my California adventures REALLY began in early 2021, when I half-moved to California to be with my partner Dean and his kids.

Of course, there is SO much more to California (and to LIVING in California) than the Inland Empire, LA, and San Diego…so stay tuned for part two of my California Adventures!

The Geek Saga Podcast Episode 131: Impulsive Hyperfocus “TOTALLY Tokyo (& Beyond – Travelogue 2)”

Episode 131 of The Geek Saga Podcast is the 8th episode in my “Impulsive Hyperfocus” series – the second of two parts featuring my thoughts on my recent trip to Japan!

The Geek Saga Podcast Episode 126: Impulsive Hyperfocus “Best Laid Japlans (Travelogue 1)”

Episode 126 of The Geek Saga Podcast is the 7th episode in my “Impulsive Hyperfocus” series, and my first ever travelogue episode on just SOME of our recent experiences in Japan!

Disneyland Half Marathon: My 5th RunDisney Half Marathon Experience!

On January 14, 2024, I completed the Disneyland Half Marathon, which was my 5th half marathon – all of which have been RunDisney races! Overall I had a decent experience, but let’s just say it did NOT add up to the races at WDW…

Whirlwind NOLA: Mardi Gras Trip Part 2

I already wrote about the awesome first part of Lundi Gras in my post detailing my absolutely amazing trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras…but now it’s time to talk about what we did that evening, because it was probably the best 6-ish hours of our vacation!

Whirlwind NOLA: Mardi Gras Trip Part 1

For Christmas 2021 I surprised my partner Dean with a trip to Maui for his big present, and while I knew I would be hard-pressed to outdo that, for Christmas 2022 I surprised him with a trip back to what we affectionately call “our place”: New Orleans, of course!

Red Dead IRL: Saint Denis/New Orleans, Part 1

A Last Minute (But Awesome!) Day at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival

I’ve been to Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival many times throughout the years…in fact, I’d have to sit down and really think back to figure out the exact number of times.

RunDisney: What I’ve Learned & How I Got Hooked

For what seems like half my adult life, I’ve had friends who participated in RunDisney events, but even though I’ve been running on a regular basis since 2004, I never really thought about participating myself.