The Maha Strap by Patagonia is a nice mix of both shoes. The shoe is made of nubuck leather and mesh breathable fabric.  The inside lining is soft so that the shoe is comfortably worn without socks. The strap wraps around your ankle and through a hook and loop velcro closure. It can be removed if you choose but I left the strap on when I wore the shoes. The shoes come in Black and Espresso, a brown and tan color combination.

When I first pulled the shoes out of the box, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the style of the shoe. After putting them on, I decided that I did like the style. I was also concerned that the barely there, recycled rubber sole would not be supportive enough for my foot. I wore the shoes on a recent cruise while I was taking a self-guided tour of the ship. I walked for about three hours without stopping except to snap a picture here and there. They held up well and besides a small blister because they are just a touch too big, my feet were happy. When it was time for a more formal dinner that night, I was able to pair the shoes with a long black skirt and blouse without looking sloppy. I also wore them throughout the airport as I raced from one side to the other. They are supportive, yet stylish.

This pair of shoes seemed to run a little bit big but I don’t think the size below would have fit as comfortably as the original size I tried.

My favorite part about this shoe is that they are compact and can be easily packed into a small suitcase without taking up too much room.

The Patagonia Maha Strap is available through PlanetShoes.com for $95. From now until April 2, Patagonia will donate $10 to the Appalachian Mountain Club for each pair of Patagonia shoes purchased.

Thank you to Planet Shoes and Patagonia for offering a pair of shoes to facilitate this review.  As always, opinions are all my own.

Visit Delicious Baby to see other Photo Friday submissions.

Most Beautiful Post

Traveling Mom, Traveling Daughter is a tribute to my mother and our love of travel.  This post epitomizes the very reasons why I love all things travel.  It is why Two Kids and a Map is here!

Most Popular Travel Post

I don’t pay attention to my site analytics as much as I should.  Awhile back I started to obsess over how many people were visiting the site, how much time they spent, etc so I had to stop looking before I went nuts!  While preparing for this, I logged in to Google Analytics and was surprised that A Day Trip: Five Things to Do in Mobile, Alabama with Your Kids is my most viewed post to date. 

Most Controversial

Like many of my other fellow family travel bloggers, I don’t really do controversial here.  I try to keep things positive around these parts.  I am honest but I don’t want to be negative and this showed even when I typed up Monday Dreaming: Clean Beaches on the Gulf Coast.  We had just spent the day participating in a beach cleanup to prepare for oil spill that was bound to hit our beaches. 

Most Helpful

I chose Traveling with Kids – Mishaps and Disasters as my most helpful post.  It didn’t really help anyone per say but as I mentioned above, I try to keep things upbeat andhappy around here.  The truth is that family travel can get ugly…fast.  And we have had our fair share of mishaps, disasters, and bizarre incidents.  In this post, I shared six disasters that were pretty traumatic at the time as family travel goes.  Not only did I get some hilarious comments, it was tweeted numerous times, and I got some great personal messages about how nice it was to read that it is ok to laugh when family travel disasters strike!  We laugh, we go home, and then we start planning the next trip!

A Surprise Success

Even though it has only been up since June 30th, the second most viewed post to date is Trip Expenses – 5 Day Road Trip to Asheville, North Carolina.  I wrote this post and then held on to it for awhile debating whether it was braggy, annoying, tacky or all of the above to share our trip expenses.  I finally decided to hit publish and was so surprised at how much attention it got.  I think that a lot of times we read these travel blogs and think that there is no way I could ever afford a trip like that.  I think it too when I read posts from fellow travel bloggers and we travel a lot!  This post helped show that a five day road trip for a family of four can be done for less than 1000 dollars (which is no paltry sum).  The post was such a success that we kept track of our Disney World expenses from our trip last week andI will be sharing that here later this month.     

Didn’t Get the Attention it Deserved

The post that I wish got more attention was Hurricane Ivan: 5 Years Later.  I wrote this on the five year anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, a hurricane that blew through and devastated the Gulf Coast in 2004.  One year later, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the devastation of Ivan is often overshadowed by that. 

Post I’m Most Proud Of

So I played by the rules up until this point but I couldn’t decide on just one post that I am most proud of.  The first, titled Appreciating What I Have in Front of Me, was a quick post I typed up during the time period when we were waiting for the oil to roll on to the Pensacola shore.  I was mesmerized by a post by Lucia at Dim Sum, Bagels and Crawfish where she shared some beautiful little shells she found.  We go to the beach and see these types of shells all the time but don’t really notice them.  I made sure to look for them on our next trip.  I think that as a lover of all things travel, I also need to make sure that I take time to appreciate the things that my own area has to offer.  It was one of the posts that caught the eye of Southern Living and got me nominated for Southern Living Mama Blogger of the Week…an accomplishment I am quite proud of!

The other post is titled I am a Southern Transplant.  I wrote this post as part of a Gulf Coast Blog Carnival, Hope Remains.  I reminisced on my move, my college days, and why we have stayed in the south so far.

Now it is your turn!  I am nominating Go Explore Nature, Outdoor Gulf Coast, Dim Sum, Bagels and Crawfish, Find and Go Seek, and Atlanta with Kid!

All rooms will accommodate 2 adults

When I looked into using Priceline after having children, this kept me from actually bidding.  It isn’t that we aren’t willing to stay in a hotel room that only has one bed, it is that I don’t want to show up with my two children and be told that I have additional costs associated with my room (which, according to the Priceline online helpdesk is entirely possible).  Since finding that out, I have been wary about using Priceline.

When we were planning our trip to Asheville so that I could attend a conference, we decided that the $149 conference hotel room was not in our budget.  I started looking at different websites and pricing hotels but I found that because it was summertime and I was trying to get near downtown that I was having a tough time finding a hotel for less than $129.  At that rate, we might as well be comfortable in the conference hotel.

At this point, I did what every good social media chick does and I turned to Twitter and Facebook to see what they thought of Priceline.  I immediately got lots of good feedback and stories about how much money they saved.  And the highlight of this conversation was when the Negotiator sent me a tweet telling me to just Priceline a hotel already!

Who am I to argue with the Negotiator?

After two weeks of bidding daily (my starting bid was $50 for a 4 star downtown hotel), we eventually won a bid of $65 for a 2.5 star hotel.  Here are a few things that I learned during the process.

Start bidding early

If you have several weeks before your trip, you will have time to start your bid low and work your way up to an accepted price.

Start your bidding low

The only way to get a super low price is to start your bidding low.  The only harm done will be that you have to wait 24 hours to bid again and if you start bidding early (see above!) you will have the time to rebid.

Know the area before you bid

I had been to Asheville a few times but was not really familiar with what Priceline meant by Downtown-Biltmore.  To research this, I visited Better Bidding and read the posts about the Downtown-Biltmore area.  I visited websites for hotels that accepted the bids so I had a feeling about which hotels might accept, how far away they were from the conference hotel, etc.

24 hour wait period in between bids

I didn’t know this so imagine my surprise when I tried to rebid and it said thanks but no thanks!  You can rebid one time immediately if you are willing to raise your bid price by $15 and change one of your options (hotel star, location,etc.).  I wasn’t willing to change any of this so I waited the 24 hours in between each bid.

2.5 star does not necessarily mean poor hotel

I started bidding with a 4 star hotel at $50.  I figured there was no way it would be accepted, but hey…you never know until you try!  I increased the dollar amount every day until I hit 90 dollars for a 4 star hotel with no luck.  At this point, I changed my bidding tactics and started bidding for a 3 star hotel at $50 and worked up to $90 still to no avail.  I headed back to the Better Bidding website to see what qualified as a 2.5 star hotel in Asheville.  Keep in mind that the star ratings on priceline aren’t gauranteed and that they can change. The 2.5 star hotels listed for the Asheville Downtown-Biltmore area included a Holiday Inn Express and a Country Inn and Suites so we decided to try that.  I bid $65 for four nights in a 2.5 star hotel and the bid was finally accepted by the Country Inn and Suites on Tunnel Road.

Don’t Give Up

If you really want to priceline a hotel, don’t give up the first time.  Remember that the bids accepted are ever changing.  Your $65 bid might not be accepted on Tuesday but it might get picked up on Thursday.

Do you have any Priceline experiences or other bidding experiences?  Share with us in the comments!

This rocker stands 35 feet high and after some research, I don’t know if it is the world’s largest according to a few websites I found but maybe the world’s largest wooden rocker should be its name!  The Magnolia State Rocker is made of Southern Pine and is located in front of its maker, Dedeaux Furniture.  It has recently been voted into Hampton Hotels “Save a Landmark” program.

 Thank you to Debbie at Delicious Baby for hosting Photo Friday!

Smart Destinations now introduces Go Select, the first customizable “build your own” multi-attraction pass!  After checking out the pass, I am thrilled with the flexibility that it gives travelers.  There are lots attractions to choose from and you only add the attractions that interest you and your family.  You will see the savings pile up as you add the attractions and then you purchase your pass when you are finished!  I chose to walk through the purchasing steps of the Oahu pass since my husband and I went about 6 months ago.  Many of the activities we did were on the list of choices and we could have saved a lot of money with this pass.

This week, Go Select has offered a chance for Two Kids and a Map readers to be a part of the Pre-Launch Private Sale!  The first 100 readers who head to Go Select and use the code TWOKIDS will get the opportunity to purchase a Go Select Pass at the lowest possible price!  Right now, the Go Select Pass is available for New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Diego and Oahu (I am hoping to see Orlando added to that list soon since we will be traveling there soon!).

Happy exploring!

Disclosure: I was offered one complimentary Go Select Pass of my choice that I have yet to order.  I am sharing this because I think it is a great deal and would have helped us out on our last major trip to Oahu.  As always, all opinions are my own with no outside influence.

 The Austin-Lehman Adventures  is a travel company that designs small group adventures (you won’t have more than 18 people on a family adventure) to destinations in North, Central and South America, Europe, the Pacific Rim and Africa.  They specialize in adult and family multi-sport, hiking, biking vacations that emphasize history, culture and nature’s charms and have a bit of luxury thrown in as well.

When I was browsing the trips available, the first one that caught my eye was their Alaska family vacations.  We have been talking about a multi-generational family cruise but I think that a trip like the Alaska Family Kenai Peninsula would be right up our alley with kayaking, looking at waterfalls, hiking, and eating fresh off the boat seafood.  Another adventure I would love to do is the Arizona adventure where we would get to visit the Grand Canyon and Sedona, two places we haven’t been yet!  There are also Montana family vacations, Yellowstone family vacations, and so much more!

How to Enter:

Entering for a chance to win a $5000 credit towards an Austin-Lehman Adventure of your choice (depending on availablitiy) is easy.  All you have to do is fill out the entry form and be sure to put www.twokidsandamap.com in the Which Blog Did You Come From? field  because the blogger that the winning reader heard about this contest from will also win a $5000 credit!

What are you waiting for?  Head over there and enter to win!

Guides include fabulous hikes like these throughout Lassen Volcanic National Park, a park that I used to visit with my family when I was little.  I would love to do this cupcake crawl or Brooklyn Bridge walk in NYC someday!   EveryTrail is also adding family friendly outings like this one in Boston. 

Recently, I have been doing some work for Every Trail and have been busy writing some family friendly guides for some of our favorite Southern cities.  I hope you don’t mind if I share them with you today!  So far, they include Jacksonville with Kids, Panama City Beach – Family Fun in the Sun, A History Lesson in St. Augustine with the Family, Pensacola with Kids: A Fantastic Family Friendly Destination, and Biloxi with Kids.  I look forward to putting together more guides in the near future and I hope that you will stop by Every Trail and check it out! 

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Stop by Delicious Baby to see other Photo Friday participants!

The Travel Blogger Show was attached to the beginning of The Tradeshow, a travel retailing and destination expo, which is why it was scheduled on a Sunday morning from 9am to 12!  

Things I Loved:

• Sitting in a room with 165 other bloggers or travel industry people who want to start a blog
• Listening and getting to meet 2 speakers that I have read and admired long before I started my own blog
• The fact that with the exception of a minor mic issue during the niche panel, there was little to no technical difficulty that I noticed and I could hear the speakers.
• Listening to real bloggers tell what they do and how they do it

Things I Did Not Love:

• I doubled this trip as a girl’s weekend away after I wooed my friend with thoughts of poolside drinks sans the 50SPF so we explored Orlando together all day Saturday.  This means I skipped the tweetup at the Rix Lounge Saturday night.  I also have never met anyone who was going on this trip so when I walked in about fifteen minutes before the event was scheduled to begin I felt kind of like I did when I walked into the first staff meeting of the year at a high school that had over 100 faculty members and staff with that deer caught in headlight look/feeling.  
• My plans were already set in motion when I learned that there were going to be activities throughout the day Sunday.  I am sure it was written somewhere, but I guess it just wasn’t clear to me.  I was disappointed that I had to leave town and miss out on the rest of the evening activities.
• To me as an outsider looking in, it looked like there were two very distinct groups that morning-the people who had already met in person and said hi and the people that didn’t know anyone and were sitting by themselves.  I wish that there had been some time for a forced mixer of sorts.  I am not normally a shy gal but for some reason, I felt like a wallflower.   
• The conference room was warm and the tables were tight.  With my broken booted foot, I had to sit on the outside table so I had a little bit more room but not much.  I did notice the room cooling off once things settled down. 
• Even though the program was put together well, you could tell that it was the first annual event!  Christopher Elliott got up and introduced himself to get everything moving.  There were supposed to be 15 minute breaks in between each part of the program but all three ran right up to the next section.  This meant that bathroom breaks/water and coffee refills had to be taken care of while the speakers were doing their thing.
• Because I only arrived about 15m before the event started, lots of seats were taken and I had to sit towards the back of the room.  There was lots of talking during the presentations.  There were also lots of people that obviously had somewhere else to be about halfway through the morning because the place cleared out…all while the speakers were presenting.  The teacher in me just has no tolerance for this!
• There was no family blogger representation on the niche panel.  Granted the niche speakers didn’t necessarily talk about their own niche but it would have been nice if family blogging was represented (I am sure lots of other types of travel bloggers felt the same way).  There are lots of us family bloggers out there but it seems like we are always in the back of the line behind backpackers, solo travelers, and round the world trippers (then again, other types of travel bloggers probably feel the same way about their own niche!).

Things I Learned About Blogging Conferences/Programs in General:

• Take notes.  There is so much information coming at you in all directions and when you leave the conference you aren’t going to remember much.
• Get a phone that has data capabilities.  I feel like I missed half of the conference.  After my six hour drive back home, I logged onto Twitter to catch up and it seemed like there were two different conferences going on…the program itself, and all of the #trvlblog10 tweets.  We have been going back and forth on whether or not to take the plunge, but this sealed the deal.  Daddy J and I are going to upgrade our phones this weekend (then maybe I won’t be the last travel blogger with a phone from 2006).
• Jump in head first.  I was so excited to meet The Mom Maven and because I didn’t jump right out and introduce myself I found out at the end of the presentation I had been sitting one seat away from her the whole time!

Things I Learned at THIS Presentation:

• Creativity – This blog and my Pensacola with Kids blogs are your basic this is where we went, this is what we did, this is what you can do blogs.  I like it this way.  That was why I started this blog.  I was tired of never being able to find real experiences from families who had been there.  I do some narrative writing but the majority of the posts read on these two sites are places to go, things you can do there, and how much it cost (example: one of my most viewed posts on my Pcola with Kids blog is how to have a successful blueberry picking trip!).  That being said, I can be a little bit more creative with my posts.  A lot of the places we go have been covered 1000 times so I need to come up with a better angle to make it stand out.
• Advertising – I need to start researching advertising options and look into things like Google Adsense.
• I learned about the Google Keyword Tool and how to utilize it.
• Ebooks can be a very effective moneymaker and even a marketing tool.  I have been working on an Ebook…ok…not really…I have an outline and I am not sure where to go with it now…but this has motivated me a bit to get back to work.
• I learned that I need to clean up my site a bit (well, I already knew that) and add a PR pitch page about what I expect in a PR relationship.
• Trademark – There were mixed feelings on the niche panel about this, but trademarking is something that I am going to look at doing.  If you have been there done that and would like to share advice with me, please let me know!
• I need to look at plugins I am not using.  One that was mentioned several times was What Would Seth Godin Do?  I came home, looked it up and realized that this is exactly what I have been looking for but just didn’t know what it was called!

Bottom Line: Would I go again?  I answer that with a resounding yes!

I am sure that there is much more that I can share.  I think I walked away with more questions than answers.  I am glad that I was able to attend this three hour program before I head up to Type A Mom in Asheville, NC at the end of this month.  What about you?  What was your experience at this conference or another?