February 2014 - The American Travel Project

JW Marriott Ihilani with Kids : Hotel Review

February 27, 2014 by Kirsten Leave a Comment

JW Marriott Ihilani, Ko Olina, Oahu

JW Marriott Ihilani Review

Where: Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii

When: July 2012

Who: Family of 2 adults and 2 young school aged kids (that would be the 4 of us!)

The Hotel:

We spent 5 nights at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. It is a large, oceanfront hotel in the resort area of Ko Olina (about 30 minutes from Honolulu Airport). We used 120,000 Marriott points for our stay of 5 nights (this was the price in points at the time we made our reservation). It is right next to Disney’s Aulani Resort, and even shares a lagoon with Aulani.

Disney’s Aulani Resort next to the JW Marriott

The JW Marriott Ihilani was a beautiful, well-maintained hotel in a gorgeous setting. Just thinking about it kind of gives me butterflies in my stomach, remembering my first view of a Hawaiian sunset from our balcony.

Sunset view from our balcony at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The rooms in this hotel are large (average 640 square feet), and ours had plenty of room for the 4 of us. The bathroom was huge! We were given a Deluxe Ocean View room (we didn’t have any status with Marriott, but got upgraded anyway). There was a very large balcony with a chaise lounge and a table and chairs where we could enjoy the view.

Balcony in an Ocean View room at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The Lagoon:

The hotel has a man-made lagoon with a beach area (this is shared with Disney’s Aulani next door). There are rafts and other toys for rent at the lagoon. This was our first stop on our Hawaii trip, and I am glad that it was. If I had compared it to other beach and ocean areas we visited, we would have been disappointed. The water is very, very calm. This can be great for babies, toddlers, and non-swimmers. For my kids, it was a bit boring. They like some waves in their oceans!

Swimming in the lagoon at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The Pool:

The kids had tons of fun at the JW Marriott Ihilani pool. This pool doesn’t have the bells & whistles (aka water slides and lazy rivers) that many other resorts have, but the water was clean and warm. There were plenty of pool chairs and towels. The service was very friendly, and they even gave out water ice and popsicles to everyone at the pool. There were also fruit-infused water dispensers, which is a nice touch.

Pool at the JW Marriott Ihilani

JW Marriott Ihilani for Kids:

This is definitely an upscale resort hotel, but it was very family friendly. There were lots of other families there, so we did not feel out of place at all. In fact, with Disney’s Aulani being right next door, the whole area felt like a kid-fest. The lagoon had tons of kids and families playing in the water and the sand. I am sure that this hotel was a much quieter option than Aulani would have been (plus this one was free for us, so a no-brainer). They have some activities for kids, like feeding the fish in the lagoon and the stingrays in the marina.

View of marina water feature from our balcony

View of marina water feature (and stingrays!) from our balcony

Checking out the stingrays at the JW Marriott Ihilani

The Ko Olina area:

Ok, so it’s Hawaii. It is fabulously beautiful. With that said, this was not our favorite area. It was more contrived than other places we visited. Don’t get me wrong, we loved our stay here. But it was far from many of the places on the island that we wanted to visit and explore. The restaurants in the area tended to be more expensive, so we ended up driving to a shopping center a few miles away to eat many of our meals.

The grounds of the hotel itself are gorgeous, but there are other areas in Hawaii that ended up being much more appealing to us.

One of the walkways at the hotel

Checking out the rocks and pools near the JW Marriott

Checking out the rocks and tidal pools near the JW Marriott

Overall….

We adored the hotel itself & Hawaii is probably our very favorite destination. However, we are returning & are not going back to Oahu at all this time. It was our least favorite of the islands that we visited (although that’s like saying chocolate is my least favorite ice cream among chocolate, chocolate marshmallow, and chocolate peanut butter….can you really go wrong with 3 great choices?). The Hawaiian islands each have their own special and unique features. My favorite was Kauai and my husband’s was Maui. So we are going back to Kauai:)

National Parks Annual Pass

February 26, 2014 by Kirsten Leave a Comment

Hi, I’m the Grand Canyon & you can use your National Parks Annual Pass to visit me

America the Beautiful National Parks Pass

In July and August of 2013, the 4 of us set out on an adventure to explore some of this country’s most beloved and mind-blowingly beautiful National Parks. We had only been to one National Park (Assateague Island) prior & had purchased an America the Beautiful National Parks Annual Pass while we were there. It is actually called America The Beautiful – The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass. But that’s too long, so here is some information about the AtBNPP (just made that up):

America the Beautiful National Parks Pass - Things to know

$80 Annual Pass provides access to 2,000 parks and recreation areas

Annual Pass can have 2 owners, and kids up to age 16 are always free (so one pass was good for our whole family!)

Can be purchased at many parks (in Visitor Center), by calling 888-275-8747, option 3, or online here

Military and their dependents can get a free pass! Doesn’t apply to us, but I’m happy to hear about this because they totally deserve it.

You show your photo ID and pass in the booth or location where you would normally pay for your park ticket

Ours was good for more than the year because we bought it in July 2013, and it expires in August 2014

Most parks cost $20 so we saved some decent cash by purchasing the pass

If you are 62 or older then you are in luck, it’s really cheap for you. More here.

National Parks Annual Pass – Some places where we used ours:

How to Use Shopping Portals : A Tutorial

February 25, 2014 by Kirsten Leave a Comment

Tutorial: How to Use Shopping Portals, Step-by-Step

As I wrote about in this post, I always use shopping portals to earn extra miles, points, or cash back when shopping online. And I try to always shop online if possible, even when I do the in-store pickup (as you will see below). I had some questions from readers about using the Shopping Portals, so I am going to give you the following step-by-step tutorial showing how to use shopping portals. This is a demonstration of a purchase that I am making for my niece’s birthday (don’t worry, she will not read this & it will not spoil her dollhouse furniture surprise).

The Easy (Level 1 Travel Hacker) Way:

Go to Portal Finder (ex. CashBackMonitor) – I start by using a portal finding website to decide which shopping portal I am going to use. I know it sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through, but it does become second nature after a while. I used to use EvReward all the time, but after reading this post by one of my favorite Miles & Points bloggers (The Frequent Miler, definitely check him out) I started comparing the accuracy of EvReward versus another portal finder – Cashbackmonitor. Although I prefer the look of the EvReward website, I can force my eyes to deal with Cashbackmonitor for the sake of all things accurate. Plus it only takes a few seconds before you are on your way to spending your hard-earned money at your chosen store.
CashBackMonitor results for Kmart and Bank Rewards points

EvReward search for Kmart – was not accurate for UR Mall today
I clicked on Chase Ultimate Rewards – As you can see, Cashbackmonitor gives me choices for Cash Back, Airlines, Hotels, and Bank/Credit Card Points. Your decision about which you want to earn will be based on your own needs at the time. Sometimes I am scrambling to add extra miles to top off a particular balance & sometimes I just want to pad my pockets with extra cash. This time, I chose the Chase Ultimate Rewards (3x per $1 at the moment) just because I felt like it
Will Chase UR make me as happy as these people?
The Shopping Portal (my example here is Chase UR Mall) will take me to Kmart (my chosen store for this purchase). It will look exactly the same as if I just typed in Kmart’s website, except magically behind the scenes in the web underworld, they will know that you clicked through the Chase UR mall to get your 3 extra points per dollar (don’t worry mom, they are not stealing your identity…probably). This isn’t a huge purchase (sorry to my niece), so I will earn about 75 bonus points ($25 x 3 points = 75 points). Plus the 1 point per dollar I would get for putting the purchase on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Total = 100 Chase UR points. If I went directly to the store to buy the dollhouse furniture, I would earn 1 point per dollar for using my credit card, so I get an extra 75 points by doing it this way.

The Crazier, but still easy, (Level 2 Travel Hacker) Way:

This is what the crazy people (including me) do: In order to earn even MORE points/miles, you can sometimes go through the portal to buy a gift card (sometimes an e-gift card that will be emailed to you) for the same amount of money as your purchase. For the sake of simplicity, I went through the Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping portal:

Went to Staples (2x points per $1) to purchase a $25 e-gift card that was sent to me by email (total = 50 points)
Used my Chase Ink Bold card to pay for gift card because I get 5x points at office supply stores like Staples (total = 125 points)
Went (via portal) to Kmart to make purchase using my gift card (chose in-store pickup, so no shipping cost) for 3x per dollar (total = 75 points). As an extra precaution (usually for a big purchase when I really want those points) I will make the gift card value to be less than the total so that I can pay off the remaining balance with my credit card just, just in case.
The total in this example (which I actually did) is 250 Chase UR points (which I will probably transfer to Hyatt for an upcoming redemption I am planning).

Some notes & tips about using Shopping Portals:

Sometimes the payouts are much higher, and it becomes especially exciting with a large purchase (we got lots of points for our refrigerator from Sears & television from Best Buy).
I will usually go to the store website first if I need to browse around before filling my cart. Once my cart is full, I close the window. When I go back through the shopping portal, my cart (always, in my experience) has the items in it still. Then I can just click right on the cart to complete the transaction. It may be paranoid, but I don’t like to take the chances with all of the random clicking around I do when I am browsing through online stores.
It can take several weeks for points/miles to post, so don’t panic. Just make a note to check your AwardWallet balances ~~several~~ a few times ~~an hour~~ a week to see if your points have posted. There are times when people have to get in contact with the shopping portal because the points aren’t posting, but that has not happened to me (or I missed it if it did).
Sometimes you can use coupon codes (I usually do) and sometimes you can’t, you have to read the fine print
If you return the items, you will lose your points.
If you are going to order the e-gift certificate before your purchase, make sure you aren’t in a hurry because it can take time before the gift certificate is emailed to you.

Mono Lake to Mammoth Lakes, CA : What is that smell?

February 24, 2014 by Kirsten 1 Comment

Our Route from Yosemite to Mono Lake to Mammoth Lakes, CA

Mono Lake to Mammoth Lakes, CA

As part of our National Parks Road Trip that I keep mentioning, we drove from Yosemite National Park to Mammoth Lakes, CA, stopping along the way in Mono Lake. While I was researching this monster of a trip, I came across this information about the Mono Lake tufa towers, and I knew that we had to see this phenomena for ourselves. It was along our route, and I was able to convince the family that this would be worth the detour. As we left Yosemite via the Tioga Pass, we made our way to Mono Lake while seeing some amazing scenery along the way. We parked the car in the lot and paid a cash donation to support the restoration of this ecosystem (I think that’s what it said, but I can’t really remember).

Walking to see the Tufas – Mono Lake, CA

What are Tufas? What is Mono Lake, for that matter?

As we approached, we started to see the tufa towers sticking out of the lake (cue my excitement at seeing something new and different). Mono Lake is ultra salty and it’s one of the oldest lakes in North America. By some magic of science and calcium, the tufa towers form and make this a really special place (see here for a much more scientifically accurate explanation if you care). There are different places around the lake to view the tufas, and unfortunately I didn’t get photos of the really cool looking ones. Because we definitely did not choose the best viewing area available. As we walked we noticed that we were kind of getting stuck in the “mud”.

Mono Lake Tufas – the white things sticking out of the salt water

And then….what is that smell?

We tried to ignore it for a few minutes & act like the naturalists that we so clearly are not. Like, this is just nature kids, hold your noses and enjoy the looks of these cool limestone piles sticking out of the lake. God created this beautiful lake and these neat looking pillars for some reason, and I’m sure there is some amazing scientific fact behind the horrid stench that we are mouth-breathing right now. Luckily there was a naturalist onsite who was happy to answer the question we were dying to ask. What is that smell?

I think we caught Mono Lake on a bad day, because she told us that it isn’t usually as strong and awful as it was that day. The water levels were very low, and because of that what used to be covered with water was exposed. Therefore, the smell was basically rotting sea creature carcasses (or something like that). Oh, and the bird poop. Birds LOVE Mono Lake and the area where we decided to view it was their personal favorite toilet. And the billions of flies.

Stepping in bird poop at Mono Lake

Mammoth Lakes…a new kind of smell

So we hopped back in our (thankfully) rental car with our bird poop covered shoes and drove to Mammoth Lakes, where we were spending a night at the Westin Monache Resort (yes, it was free, in case you had any doubts) before heading on to Las Vegas. We knew that there were forest fires in the area, as we could see the smoke in some places. However, as we got closer to Mammoth Lakes it was very, very smoky. We were visiting as the Aspen Fire (a wildfire caused by a lightning strike) was happening, and the air was thick with smoke. The smell wasn’t unpleasant the way Mono Lake was, but it was definitely disturbingly smoky.

Eating ice cream in Mammoth Lakes, CA

Our short Mammoth Lakes visit

Since we were only stopping for one night along the way, we didn’t have a lot of time to spend in Mammoth Lakes. We walked a very short distance from our hotel to a pretty shopping and dining plaza nearby. There were tons of places to eat. There was also a festival with live music going on, and there were games for the kids to play. This was off-season for this ski resort town, but there were still lots of people out and about. I imagine it is a wonderful place to be in the wintertime if you like to ski (or drink hot chocolate while everyone else goes skiing).

Westin Monache Resort

Steps from Westin leading toward the shopping plaza

This is an SPG Category 5 hotel, which is normally 12,000 points per night. We were able to use an additional 1,500 points to guarantee an upgrade to a suite. We planned ahead and figured we would want the extra space after our 2 nights in the Yosemite Curry Village tents. The hotel did not disappoint. The room was very large and comfortable, with a separate King bedroom, a living room with pull-out sofa bed, and a kitchen. It had a large bathroom. It felt like heaven after 2 practically sleepless nights prior to this stay.

So, our tips for going to Mono Lake and Mammoth Lakes: Take this review with a grain of salt (get it?) and just do it. Be prepared for some interesting smells. And go to the less bird-poopy part of Mono Lake (hint: there’s a visitor center and a boardwalk to walk on…doh!).

Free Disney Hotels : How to Use Miles and Points

February 23, 2014 by Kirsten 6 Comments

Free hotels at Disney using Miles & Points – it’s possible!

Free Disney Hotels

We have been ~~crazy~~ lucky enough to visit Walt Disney World in Orlando about a million times. One year in the not so distant past, we even had annual passes (and we live in Pennsylvania, so that’s some pretty hardcore Disney devotion). One of the ways that we have made this work for us is by staying for free in our Disney hotels using our Miles & Points. Many of the hotels have been off-property, and we are totally fine with that, often preferring to trade proximity to the parks for lots of extra space. That is a whole debate in itself though. I will show you how to use Miles & Points for both on-property and off-property Disney hotels to make them free. The following are places we have stayed & points we have used.

Disney Hotels where we have used our Miles and Points to make them FREE -

Christmas in July at the Swan & Dolphin

1. The Swan & Dolphin

The Swan & Dolphin are 2 adjacent hotels that are located right in the heart of Walt Disney World, but they are operated by Starwood and not Disney. This is great for you because it means you can use your SPG points to stay at this hotel for almost free (you usually still have to pay a resort fee). At the time of this writing, The Swan and The Dolphin are each 10,000 points per night, with the additional benefit of the 5th night free when using points. 40,000 SPG points for 5 nights at a Disney “on-property” hotel is a fabulous deal. You can even call the reservations department to ask if they have any suites or larger rooms available. If so, they will often let you use extra points (like 11,500 vs 10,000) to book one of the larger rooms. We have stayed at both of these hotels a couple of times, and will be reviewing them in another post (But a little hint: Thumbs Up!).

Walking around the grounds at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando

2. Sheraton Vistana Villages

This is another great hotel near Disney World (and also near Universal Orlando) that you can get for free using your SPG points. It is also 10,000 points per night or 40,000 points for 5 nights. Although not on-property, you will get lots of space plus a kitchen. You will need a car, as it is about 10 miles from both The Magic Kingdom (some of the other Disney parks are a bit closer), and 10 miles from Universal.

One of the pools at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando

When we stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Village, it was a better deal for us to use American Airlines miles to “pay” for our hotel. We had tons of AAdvantage Miles that we were not planning on using for flights, and the value was much better than using our SPG points at the time. We were also able to choose a room type, since AAdvantage uses your miles to book through a travel agency. The miles correlate to the price of the room, so you can sometimes just use more miles for a larger room type. We were able to use our miles to get a huge 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with a full kitchen and washer/dryer.

Liki Tiki Resort in Orlando, FL

One of the pool areas at Liki Tiki in Orlando

3. Liki Tiki Village

Similar to the Sheraton Vistana Village, we were able to book this timeshare resort hotel using our AAdvantage Miles. It ended up being a very, very low amount of miles per night for the room that we booked (something like 6,000 miles). We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, living room, and lanai. It was about 15-20 minutes by car from the Main Gate to Disney. Not a bad drive at all.

The Pirate Pool at the Marriott Harbour Lakes in Orlando

4. Marriott’s Harbour Lake

Marriott has several properties in the Orlando area, and this is consistently ranked as one of the best. Once again, we were able to score a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit with full kitchen, washer/dryer, living room, lanai. It was one of our favorite places we have ever stayed, and we have friends who just got back and loved it as well. It is close to Sea World and Aquatica (so fun), and an easy drive to Disney and Universal as well. While you will need a significant amount of points to stay at this Category 7 property, you can often get 70,000 points just by signing up for the Chase Marriott card and completing the spend requirements, which is enough for 2 nights on a regular reward (or 4 if your significant other or travel companion gets the card too).

Nights Stay	Points Needed	Point Savers*
One night	35,000	30,000
Two nights	70,000	60,000
Three nights	105,000	90,000
Four nights	140,000	120,000
Five nights	140,000	120,000

* Some locations offer these limited-time, reduced-point offers.

Using Miles to Book Disney Properties

You can also book some on-site, Disney-owned properties using your American Airlines miles. This is something we almost did last time we visited Orlando, but we decided to (gasp!) go to Universal Orlando for the first time instead. More on that later. Here are some tips for using miles to book Disney Properties:

Assuming you have AAdvantage Miles in your account, you should make sure you log in to get the best prices. For some reason, the price (in miles) always goes down once I log in (and I have no status of any kind on AA, as I haven’t paid for an airline flight in 10 years). For example, when I go to the website (without logging in) and put in June 7, 2014 for Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, it gave me the cost of 27,467 miles per night. After I log in, the cost is 16,500 miles per night…huge difference!

Here are some examples of some more of Disney’s own hotels that show up on the AAdvantage site, searching the random date of June 7, 2014. (TIP: since there are hundreds of hotels in the area, type “Disney’s” in the search box, and the Disney-owned hotels will pop up like this):

Disney’s Hotels on www.useaamiles.com

As you can see, the miles for each of Disney’s hotels vary widely, but so does the cost in dollars. You have to make your comparisons for your dates based on many factors. As an example, I checked the same date on the Disney reservations website for Port Orleans Riverside. The price was $205 (which included a promotion discount). The cost in miles would be about 19,000. It’s not a stellar points redemption value, but maybe you have millions of AAdvantage miles that you earned on your company’s dime? Sometimes we are points-rich and cash-poor and we just would much rather use our miles. We tend to save more money by using miles/points to stay offsite (and even more when there is a kitchen to help cut down on food costs). We have paid to stay in many on-property Disney hotels though (Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Port Orleans French Quarter, Boardwalk, Grand Floridian). There are so many factors that go in to making the choice that is best suited to the family’s needs at the time, so it is helpful to evaluate all of your options.

The Wilderness Lodge – probably our favorite on-site Disney hotel

There are also many, many more options for free Disney hotels using miles and points, and I will explore this further in a future post.

Have you ever used your miles and points for a free Disney hotel?

Magnet Collection: Bring Memories Home

February 22, 2014 by Kirsten Leave a Comment

My son’s travel magnet collection

Our Travel Magnet Collections

We love having things around our house that help bring back memories from our travels. One type of collection that is easy to start and keep up with is destination magnets. Almost everywhere we have gone, we have found lots of magnets to choose from. These collections belong to the kids, and we let each of them choose a magnet for each of the places we visit. You can start your memory collections at any time. If your kids are too young to choose for themselves, just pick them out yourself & stash them away until they are older. If you have traveled to lots of places and haven’t started a collection yet, that’s OK too. It’s never too late to start!

I like to write their initial (so we don’t get them mixed up) and the year on the back of each magnet. As time goes by, it’s so easy to forget what year we went to each of these places!

My daughter’s travel magnet collection

Magnet Collection Display

Our Magnet Boards

The red and black circle magnet boards are wall mounted on my son’s bedroom wall. The red ones were purchase at Land of Nod and the black ones were purchased at IKEA years ago (no longer available). Don’t forget to go through Ebates like I did to earn cash back from the online purchase. You can also check the other kinds of shopping portals to see which has the best payout at the time of your purchase.

Round Wall-Mounted Magnet Boards

My daughter’s magnet boards were purchased at IKEA. They are the SPONTAN magnetic boards in the white color. Luckily they fit perfectly on the sides of her shelves that surround her desk area (desk top and legs also from IKEA).

IKEA SPONTAN White Magnet Board

One thing to note: There can be some concern with young kids and swallowing magnets, so if your kids are at that age, you might want to stash their magnet collections away until they are old enough to have them displayed without trying to eat them.

Yosemite Curry Village & The Bear Pee Incident

February 21, 2014 by Kirsten Leave a Comment

Our Yosemite Curry Village Tent

Curry Village Tent Review

As part of our National Parks Road Trip in the Summer of 2013, we spent 2 nights in Yosemite National Park. I usually plan our summer trips about 10 months to a year in advance, which generally ensures that I will be able to get the flights and hotels that work best for our family. For this trip, we were going to so many different places that it took me a while to plan it all out. October came around, and I was planning our accommodations for Yosemite. Too late! All of the places I wanted to stay were booked up, and we were left with the Curry Village Tents. There was a part of me that was excited. We had never stayed in a place like this & it would be an adventure. We are always up for trying new experiences, and the kids were looking forward to “camping” in the woods. I don’t need luxury, as I said here, but I do like heat and warm water for my shower.

About Curry Village:

From their website: “Tucked right in the heart of Yosemite, below the towering majesty of Half Dome and Glacier Point, Curry Village cabins offer guests a unique and magnificent place to stay. Scattered throughout the village, guests will find 46 comfortable Yosemite cabins with private baths, plus 18 standard motel rooms, and 319 canvas tent cabins. In addition, there are 14 cabins with centrally located bath houses.”

We stayed in one of the “319 canvas tent cabins” and paid about $150 per night. I would have happily forked over the additional dollars for one of the cabins or motel rooms, but there were none to be had when we booked. My expectations were pretty low, and I think all in all, it was a mixed bag.

Curry Village Tents : Pros

I like to start everything from a positive, strengths-based perspective (10 points if you can guess what my graduate degree is in), so let’s start with the good.

- Location : Curry Village itself is located right in the heart of Yosemite Valley. You can start your day with a beautiful view and fresh, clean air

Yosemite Curry Village View

- The Price : This is the least expensive option among the in-park lodging

- The sense of adventure : This is huge and the reason why I would even consider doing it again (although probably not)

- The programs : So this is for all of Curry Village (just like the location and view), but I am listing it here to make the “pros” list longer and because I don’t want to seem like a hater. We attended a nighttime ranger program, where we got to hear about the history of Curry Village (fascinating) and we also heard a talk about bears (which probably saved our lives…well, not really, but it led to a great story…see more below).

- The blankets were wool

- The kids slept through everything

- The bear lockers (the big black boxes in the photo) – I guess they worked

Curry Village Tent Cabins

Curry Village Tents : the Cons

- The NOISE – Ugh! This was really the worst part. Unless you are the soundest sleeper in the world (or a kid – see under “Pros”) then you may get a half hour of sleep in increments of 3 minutes. As you can see from the photo, the tents are REALLY close together. And they are canvas. So you can literally hear everything that is going on in the tents around you (which are on both sides, and behind you as well). I felt like there was a strange French speaking guy in bed with me because I think his head was on his pillow about 10 inches from my head on my pillow separated only by a couple pieces of canvas. There were babies crying in the night, people laughing really loud, coughing, snoring, you name it. Oh, and the bear.

- The cold showers – there are bath “houses” where you have to wait in line to take a cold shower after a sleepless night. Even my daughter was like “take me to the Hyatt!”

OK, so the cons list isn’t as long as I thought it would be. I think that the noise was enough to just put me over the edge. Note to self: next time bring earplugs and sleeping pills, oh wait, there won’t be a next time because I will book a year in advance so we can get a cabin – because we really did like Curry Village itself.

The Bear Pee Story

Remember how I told you we liked the Ranger program about the bears? There are bears all over the place in Yosemite, and the Park Rangers take safety very seriously. We are on the bears’ turf, so we need to respect them and do everything we can to keep everyone safe (hence, the bear-proof lockers). So, one of the things that we learned is that the Rangers will scream “GO AWAY BEAR!” and try to make loud noises whenever they see a bear in the camp area. They are trying to scare the bears away as best they can, and there are even some kinds of tracking devices to tell when a bear has made his (or her) way into the camp.

At some point during the middle of the night, during one of our 3 minute sleep increments, we hear the shout “GO AWAY BEAR!” right in front of our tent cabin door. We (the adults) sit bolt upright, hearts in our throats, waiting for a bear to burst through the canvas tent. Time passed, no bears came in, and we may have fallen back to sleep (or heard babies crying, etc). Our kids somehow sleep through all of this.

As morning comes, we open our door to find this:

I guess “GO AWAY BEAR!!!” really does scare the pee out of the bears

True story.

Miles for Dining : Free Travel Basics

February 20, 2014 by Kirsten 1 Comment

Miles & Points for Dining

There is another easy way to earn Miles & Points – The Rewards Network Dining Program. Similar to the Shopping Portals, you can earn Miles & Points for doing something that you would normally be doing anyway…eating! In order to earn miles from this program, you sign up and register the credit card(s) you will use to pay for your restaurant bill. You dine at one of the participating restaurants, and you earn the miles per dollar listed on their website. You can also often get bonuses from time to time for signing up for the individual programs.

This is how it works:

Join a Rewards Network program

1. Join. The Rewards Network has many different frequent travel programs as partners.:

- Alaskan Airlines

- American Airlines

- Delta Airlines

- Hilton Hotels

- IHG Hotels

- Southwest Airlines

- Spirit Airlines

- United Airlines

- USAirways

Decide which of these you want to earn (hint: you can sign up for more than one, but see more info about that below). Sign up here. You will want to make sure that you already have a frequent traveler number for the program(s) you want to use (more on that here). You will sign up by giving your information (name, address, etc). You will also have to give the information for the debit and/or credit card(s) you plan to use to pay for your dining.

Here is one important part: Only register any of your cards for ONE program. For example, you can’t use your SPG Amex for BOTH the Southwest Dining and the USAirways Dining. You can sign up for both Southwest Dining and USAirways Dining, just make sure that you use 2 different credit cards when you join.

Eat at one of the Network Restaurants

2. Dine. You can search for participating restaurants by zip code, city, state. I have found that there are generally lots of choices in my area and also in places where I am traveling. I have also been surprised by points showing up in one of my frequent flyer accounts after dining at a participating restaurant without even knowing it was in the network. All of the restaurants within the Rewards Network will be the same, no matter which frequent travel program you sign up with. Some are available for points earning every day & some black out the weekends or other days.

Earn Miles & Points

3. Earn. After you dine and pay with the linked credit card (don’t forget that part, it’s important), you will get your points…up to 5 points per dollar. I usually get an email right after the payment processes saying “thank you for dining at xyz” and asking me to leave a review.

At different times, the programs will have sign-up bonuses as well, so don’t sign up for every program right away. For example, at the time of this writing, Southwest has a 300 mile bonus for signing up for their program and completing the dining requirements.

Our Travel, Miles & Points, and Blog Philosophy

February 19, 2014 by Kirsten 1 Comment

Gotta love Hawaii

Our Travel Philosophy

Travel is a passion for us. It comes in very high on our life’s priority list. It comes before things like new cars, gym memberships, and house cleaning services. We buy lots of our furniture used (and fix it up – another passion of mine, but I digress). We could probably afford a bigger house, but we don’t want one. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, it’s just a matter of priority. I don’t know about you, but we do not have unlimited funds. Therefore, we have to make choices about what we are going to do with those funds. Travel is a choice we have made. Organic/local food is another choice we have made. Both of these are unnecessary & could be cut back in times of greater need. Your list will be different than mine (and vice versa, obviously) and that is OK. We are both right.

Our travel style is budget with some splurges thrown in for good measure. I like luxury at times, but I don’t NEED luxury. And I don’t want to become a person who needs it either. I don’t want my kids to end up being bratty travelers, expecting a Club Lounge and First Class plane seats. There is a danger of that happening with young kids. On a trip to Hawaii a couple of years ago, the only 4 award tickets available when we booked were 2 coach and 2 first class. My daughter LOVED first class (because they gave her ice cream). And lo’ and behold, next time we flew she was complaining about the small seats and lack of ice cream. Nuh uh. Not happening. Same thing has happened when I have heard one of my kids say with a whiny voice “where is the lounge?” So, for us, and our parenting (and our points pocketbooks) we need to switch things up. We often need quantity over quality (or at least fanciness) because we tend to take long trips. We need to stretch things out and sprinkle in the other stuff when it makes sense for us. I will happily stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai (my fav) for a few nights on points and then rent an inexpensive condo for the rest of the time. If it weren’t for this hobby, we would NEVER get to stay at the GHK and the like, so I am grateful for every opportunity.

The focus is also heavy on family travel because we are a family. The kids almost always go where we go. We are lucky that they have grandparents who can babysit sometimes, but the most we can handle without missing them too much is 3 days once in a while. So we will not be flying solo (or duo?) very often. And when we do it will be a relatively short flight or drive, because why waste time in transit? That means that we almost always need 4 plane tickets wherever we go. It means getting creative and planning trips using miles & points to offset much of the cost of our family trips.

Our Miles & Points Philosophy

When it comes to how we choose to use and accumulate Miles & Points, preference once again comes into play. I admit that I don’t analyze the numbers too much. I want a great deal, but I also want to do what I want to do. So if I am getting less “value” for my miles than the next guy, so be it. I don’t want to lose money, of course, but we are just a regular American family with a house, jobs, and 2.2 kids (well, 2 kids and some fish). Sometimes we are “points rich” and “cash poor.” I like to read other blogs, and I think it’s interesting when they obsess over whether a point is worth 1.1 cents or 1.2 cents. But there is a reason I’m attracted to humanities instead of math/business stuff. In the end, did we have fun? Was it a memorable experience for my kids? Did we enrich our lives, either by learning something or by attaining some much-needed relaxation? If the answer is yes, then it was worth whatever it “cost”.

Do you know what aspirational travel is? It is a term that gets thrown around a lot among people in this hobby. It generally refers to travel that would be far out of reach for lots of people (Maldives, anyone?) unless you are a celebrity or have a reality show. There are people who “aspire” (get it?) to travel to these places using Miles & Points to fund their lifestyles of the rich and famous (not that there’s anything wrong with that). And you know what…it can work! But in my real life reality, our aspirational trips are more like getting the 4 of us to Hawaii a second time in 2 years (yep, it’s happening) plus getting a free beach vacation somewhere close-by. It means taking the kids (for practically free) to Universal Studios to see Harry Potter world because they are obsessed (it happened). So our miles & points philosophy is…doing what makes us happy with our own miles & points and not to aspire to be someone else’s form of happy.

The Focus of this Blog

I think that learning about and understanding varying perspectives and lifestyles is nothing but helpful and mind-expanding. I enjoy reading about the travelers who are exploring the globe, sleeping in tents for months at a time, flying in ultra-first class, living out of hotels, hiking to practically unknown places, and/or traveling as a full-time job. More power to those adventurous souls. That is not what you are getting here, people. This is kind of like the fesitvus (for the rest of us) style of travel. Sure, it may not be glamorous to fly Frontier or Southwest or to stay in a Country Inn & Suites. But if we are enjoying ourselves, who cares? And I’m just happy that I can still fit into pretty much any tiny airline seat & not be too uncomfortable (now my 6’4″ husband, that’s another story…)

The focus is also (at least for now) on the newer traveler/points collector. This hobby has changed our lives, or least made them better than they would otherwise have been without it, and I want to help others to have that same opportunity if they want to take it. I like to learn things in a clear and direct manner, and that is what I hope to accomplish here in the teaching. I also like to learn things by doing lots and lots (and lots) of research, so I plan to learn as much or more than I teach.

The point is, I plan on focusing on getting us from Point A to Point B (and often C, D, and E since we tend to move around a lot on our trips), having places to sleep while we do it, and having fun adventures along the way. If we can get greater than 3.14159265 cents per mile while do so, then more power to us.

Yosemite National Park with Kids

February 18, 2014 by Kirsten 2 Comments

Yosemite National Park – Mother Nature at her finest

Yosemite National Park with Kids: Trip Report

As part of our 3 week-long National Parks road trip in the Summer of 2013, we drove from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park, where we spent 2 nights in Curry Village in one of their tents. I don’t really have words to describe the beauty of Yosemite. These kinds of trips make me feel more connected to the world, at the same time feeling small and insignificant compared to the vastness of these spaces, and also important enough that I live in a time when places such as these are accessible to me. It’s often a spiritual experience for me, this feeling of being connected. Yosemite was one of a handful of places where I have felt this way.

I mean:

We spent 2 days in the park, doing a few beautiful hikes and exploring the gorgeousness. The Park Rangers were super helpful with suggesting hikes that would be family-friendly. My kids have a decent amount of stamina (not saying they don’t complain though), but it’s best to know their limits and plan accordingly. The also participated in the Junior Ranger program and earned their badges!

Mariposa Grove

We drove to Mariposa Grove to hike among the ginormous trees. Totally worth it, but heed this advice: if the sign says that the parking lot is full & you need to go to a lower lot to catch a shuttle, take that with a grain of salt. We took the shuttle (very crowded & had to wait a while), and when we got to Mariposa Grove, there were tons of empty parking spots…grrrr. Other than that, it was just amazing to see trees so tall and old.

Mariposa Grove, really, really big trees

Doing tree yoga?

Holy Roots!

Yosemite Valley

We explored the valley and did some great hiking. The view of El Capitan from the El Capitan meadow are breathtaking. There is endless space for the kids to run around and places for them to climb.

El Capitan from Yosemite Valley

Glacier Point

This is one of those not-to-be-missed viewpoints. From the National Park website “From the Glacier Point parking and tour unloading area, a short, paved, wheelchair-accessible trail takes you to an exhilarating (some might say unnerving) point 3,214 feet above Curry Village, on the floor of Yosemite Valley.”

Glacier Point View

After our second night spent at Curry Village, we drove through the other side of Yosemite via the Tioga Pass road, on our way to Mammoth Lakes, CA. Along the way we made lots of stops, including these:

Olmstead Point:

Olmstead Point – no photo could ever do it justice

Tenaya Lake:

Tenaya Lake – nice place for a picnic

We left the park via the Tioga Pass, which is the highest highway in California and the Eastern entrance to Yosemite. You have to check road conditions, as weather can close the road, even in the summertime.

Have you been to Yosemite? Did you love it as much as we did?

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