Summer ended suddenly in the Midwest. We went from 95+ degrees every day on Labor Day weekend, to cool days in the 60s & 70s immediately after. Kids are back in school, our neighborhood pool is closed, and trees are beginning to change color. With families tied-down with homework, school activities, and Friday Night football games, it is the perfect time to get away for … Continue reading Shoulder Season Travel Time
I’ve been booking a lot of travel recently. We’re heading to Europe in September for a biking trip and going back to Florida next winter. Between those two big trips there are a few smaller trips in the midwest. All together, I booked an amazing 91 nights away from home across the 4 trips. (71 of those were for our winter snowbird trip alone). I … Continue reading Award ‘Winning’ Travel
My son and I went on an epic road trip last weekend, crossing 4 states with 75 sports cars in a charity rally. We were in the car about 16 hours / 1,000 miles through the Midwest – navigating through 20 checkpoints & activities. That’s our car in the picture above! The rally is like ‘The Amazing Race’ show on wheels. Great father-son activity. We … Continue reading Road Trips Midwest
Today I am up on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula on a road trip suggested by frequent reader, Randy. It’s the part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that juts up into Lake Superior. Definitely Paul Bunyan land. I drove my Jeep for 6+ hours yesterday to get here. Randy was up here last summer and sent me some flyers highlighting the many waterfalls in the area. You might … Continue reading Unexpected Hobby …
I flew out to SmallCorp this week for our spring board meeting. On my way out, I stopped in to check out the new Delta World Club (above) that just opened at MSP – a benefit of my new airline credit card. Related: Taking Flight It was the first time I had stopped in an airline club since I stopped working 7+ years ago. I … Continue reading Back In The Club?
The media is promoting tips for a “Low Carbon Footprint Travel” for the upcoming summer vacation season. I saw it posted in NerdWallet and a couple other places. The facts & thinking look like they are pulled from an insipid White House press release. They highlight that cars emit 3x as much carbon as trains per passenger mile (.47 vs .17). There is no reference … Continue reading Dubious Green Summer Travel Tips
(This is NOT a sales pitch / associate link article) I’m back to trying the travel hacking again. I started rotating credit cards and banking miles before the pandemic interrupted everything, but quit when everything shut down. A few friends suggested I start again, and I just signed up for a new Delta/American Express Reserve Card. This is the first card I’ve had where I … Continue reading Taking Flight
In Celebration, Florida – not far from where we stay in Margaritaville resort – there is a great looking Italian restaurant. We have never eaten there. For me, Italian food is perfect for cold weather, not the Florida sunshine. I can think of a number of good comfort, food restaurants like that in Florida. Never been to any of them. For me, the four food … Continue reading Florida Four Food Groups
Our friends and us sometimes debate the “vibe” of snowbirding in Florida versus Arizona. I would guess that about 2/3rds of our friends opt for Florida and 1/3 opt for Arizona. We were undecided until a few years ago when my wife noted that although we’ve been to both many times, when we’ve chosen Florida over Arizona at about a 3:1 ratio for vacations over … Continue reading Sunshine State Snowbirding Vibe
Our January-March snowbirding trip was sadly interrupted by a family emergency two weeks ago. My wife’s father passed away unexpectedly, but peacefully. After the funeral, we decided to come back to Florida for a couple more weeks and flew back yesterday. In doing so, we found ourselves oddly packing for the same exact trip we packed for last month. I consider myself an expert packer, … Continue reading Packing – It’s Always Something
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