Golden Cow Barn- Vermont

My wife and I were driving a back road along the Quechee River when we came across this barn in Vermont. After hiking the Quechee Gorge we decided to drive around looking for covered bridges. This barn really caught our eye! We have no clue if it is still used but it looked to be maintained very well. The plaque near the door says Golden Cow Barn circa 1840.

Dancing House- Prague, Czech Republic

This was a really cool building to see in person. It was designed by Frank Gehry and is really odd & unique.
It was originally called Fred & Ginger after Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, the house resembles a pair of dancers so I've read.

Keeping Tabs on the Kolsch- Cologne, Germany

While visiting Germany I visited many breweries and beer halls. In Cologne they serve beer called Kolsch which is served in narrow glasses, much smaller than the average beer. You tend to order a lot more due to this. To keep track of how many beers you order, the bartenders will keep adding marks to your coaster! I thought it was pretty cool & interesting.

Hanuman Murti Statue- Trinidad



The Desert of Maine - Freeport, ME

After a day shopping at the outlets near LL Bean in Freeport, Maine you can visit a real desert! This is definitely an odd site and a bit cheesey but the tour is fun and it makes for great pictures to mix in with all of the lighthouses you visit.

If you are interested in visiting the Desert of Maine, you can get all of the details at http://www.desertofmaine.com/

Congratulations E-Mail For Reaching AA Lifetime Gold

I received an e-mail today from American Airlines congratulating me for reaching Lifetime Gold status! My AA account was updated last week to show that I was Gold but it was nice to see a letter stating that I now had lifetime status.
I look forward to receiving my AAdvantage Gold membership card! Hopefully I will also get a couple of AAdvantage Gold luggage tags like I have read people received in the past but the e-mail does not mention aything about that...

US Airways Grand Slam Update #2

I had a bit of activity today on my US Airways Dividend Miles account:
-The 12 hit bonus posted, which was for 5,000 miles
-My hit for Thanks Again also posted.
I have now earned 15,000 miles from the Grand Slam promo and that does not include miles earned for doing each hit.
My goal is to get to 16 hits which would give me a total of 25,000 bonus Dividend Miles. I have completed 15 hits so far but am waiting on two hits to post. I am planning to contact Share Builder & Super Shuttle in the next couple of days to see what is holding up these hits from posting.
For my 16th hit I am hoping to earn enough e-miles to make it a freebie. Hopefully this happens before time runs out!

Maasai Woman with Stretched Earlobes- Maasai Mara, Kenya

On our visit to the Maasai Mara we had the opportunity to visit a Maasai tribe. I figured it would be a bit on the touristy side but definitely worth a visit. 
Many women in the tribe had stretched earlobes which I had heard about but never seen in person. It was really interesting to see & made for some great pictures.

Sky Tower at Night- Auckland, New Zealand

Sky Tower is New Zealand's tallest man made structure. There are some great views from the top. We had dinner at Orbit which is a 360-degree revolving restaurant. The idea of the restaurant sounded pretty cool but my wife and I both did not enjoy eating while revolving!

Sunset on the Amazon River

This photo was taken while we were heading back to our lodge after a long day of piranha fishing, swimming and spotting dolphins on the Amazon River in Peru. We had flown into Leticia, Colombia the day before and thought we would be basing our trip from there. Day trips didn't seem like the best option so we booked a 2 night private trip that took us a couple of hours down the river into Peru.

A Visit to the Crown of the Statue of Liberty

I've lived in Brooklyn,NY my whole life and never thought much about visiting the Statue of Liberty. When I read on NewYorkology (http://www.newyorkology.com/index.php) that the statue would be closing at the end of October for upgrades,I figured why not go before it closes.
Originally we went on our visit in July but due to extreme heat that day the crown was closed. We rescheduled and visited today.


To get to the crown you need to climb up 350+ steps. It take only 5-10 minutes to get to the top but can be a bit claustrophobic on the spiral staircase. They space out the amount of people allowed to do the climb very well so no one should be in your way. 

When you get to the top and inside the crown,  a couple of rangers will be there & will try to answer any questions you might have about it. Also, the views are really great!

Update- Citi AA Card Retention Bonus-Success

I decided to call Citi one last time to ask for a retention bonus to keep my American Airlines Business Card account open. The rep was very helpful and had two offers for me
  1- 2,500 miles to keep my account open & do nothing
  2- 10,000 miles to keep my account open & spend $5,000 in 6 months


I went with option 2. Spending $5,000 in 6 months will not be hard to do and is well worth 10,000 AA bonus miles!


If you are thinking of closing your Citi AA credit card don't forget to ask for a bonus to keep the acount open. Take the bonus offer and then close it a couple of months later!

Daraw Camel Market- Daraw, Egypt

I really wanted to visit a camel market on my trip to Egypt. The guy we hired to drive us from Aswan to Luxor was not too happy to make this stop along the way. I thought it was well worth it and an amazing site to see! There were hundreds of camels of all ages & sizes and my wife and I were the only tourists there.

American Airlines-Frommers Sweepstakes- Win 280,000 Miles

Three prizes of 280,00 miles are being given away in a new AA/ Frommers contest. You get to pick one of five cities to explore. Then select five points of interest and explore them using Google Maps. It is a fun contest & you could win a lot of miles!

You get one entry for entering the contest, earn another for sharing with friends & you can earn one more for booking a trip.

The sweepstakes started on 10/17/11 & ends on 12/14/11.

https://secure.fly.aa.com/journey/?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=journey

Ridiculous Street Signs- #1 Tallinn, Estonia

I love seeing ridiculous/ funny street signs! This sign was spotted while wandering around Tallinn, Estonia. We were walking near a park and it was near a patch of grass. I guess there is no better way to get the message across not to pee or poop in public than in a nice sign! They were nice enough to also have a sign pointing to what direction the bathroom is.

One of My Mileage Goals Reached- AA Lifetime Status

I finally have Lifetime Gold status on American Airlines!!! 

I didn't think that I would get there when changes to the AAdvantage program were announced in August. I did a couple of things to make it happen just in time.

I transferred a bunch of Starwood points to AA miles and then had my wife apply for the Starwood 30,000 point promo over the summer. I then linked my wife's Starwood account to mine and transferred her miles to my account to turn into AA miles. This got me within around 130,000 miles. I had already received two 75,000 bonuses from Citi AA cards this year & read that Citi AA cards were only churnable every 17 months give or take. I decided to take a chance and apply again and was instantly approved within a few minutes for a Citi AA Visa! I then decided to open a new browser and apply for a Citi AA Amex card. I crossed my fingers and what do ya know, I was approved!

I did not have much time to reach the spend needed to earn each 75,000 bonus before the AA Advantage program changed. The AA Visa has a $1500 spend requirement, the AA Amex $4000. I ended up "charging" $1000 to myself/ my wife on each card for free through Amazon Payments, used an app called Square to charge $3000 to myself (which cost $83) and then actually used the cards to pay some bills.

Hopefully Gold status will be useful when I decide to fly with some of the AA miles I have earned! 

Swimming & Kayaking with Manatees- Crystal River, Florida

I first read about kayaking with manatees on Crystal River in Nat Geo Adventures Magazine. I looked into doing it and found out that Crystal River was the only place in the world where it was legal to swim with manatees. We decided to go swimming & snorkeling the first day and the following day we did the kayak trip. We were lucky to find this friendly & curious manatee that kept coming over to us to play!

If you are interested in kayaking, contact
Lars Andersen at http://www.adventureoutpost.net/index.html Lars is an author & naturalist. His tour was lots of fun and full of information. The tour was a few hours long and included the necessary gear.

If you are interested in swimming/ snorkeling, contact
Captain Stacy Dunn at http://manateesinparadise.com/index.html 
Stacy runs a personalized tour on her pontoon boat. Her husband Mike also runs tours but was out on a manatee rescue the day of our tour. We spent a nice amount of time on the water, the tour was not rushed & Stacy really cares about the manatees and the river.

US Airways Grand Slam update- Office Max Hit Posted!

I have been waiting for a few more "hits" to post to my US Air account before going any further with the Grand Slam. My second bonus posted last week so I have now earned 10,000 miles from the promo.
After sending a couple of e-mails to Office Max my miles finally posted from a purchase I made over 3 weeks ago! This now gives me credit for 12/14 hits so I should be due for my next bonus this week. The 12th hit will give me 5,000 more US Air miles so I am getting close to my goal of earning 25,000 miles.


If you are still waiting for Office Max to post to your US Air account, you should send an inquiry to https://www.officemax.com/customerservice/generalInquiry.jsp?tabType=general . My points posted within 2 days by doing this.


To get to the next bonus level I am now waiting on miles to post from Thanks Again and Share Builder. I still need to get two more hits after that which I think will be a Super Shuttle ride that I will never take and hopefully earn enough e-miles to transfer to US Air for free.


If you are thinking of trying to earn some miles in the 2011 US Airways Grand Slam make sure to register at
http://shopping.usairways.com/promotion/DividendMiles/Registration.aspx?PromoCode=GS11&cint=hptxtus_21051

A Tuk Tuk speeding by-Bangkok, Thailand

Are Citi American Airlines Retention Bonuses Still An Option?

I currently have a few Citi AA credit cards active and don't really have a need for some of them. Before closing a Citi card, I always try to get a retention bonus.
A few months back instead of closing one of my cards I received 3,000 bonus miles and an offer to earn an additional 750 miles for spending $750 or more per month for up to 16 months. Not a bad deal if you ask me!
I have another older card that I'd like to cash in for a retention bonus but have had no luck with my calls after two tries so far. Each time I was placed on hold and the rep could not reach a retention specialist. I was told that I have two options- close the account or call back. I've been going with the call back approach and am now hoping that the third time does the trick! I am going to keep trying until I am given a flat out "no" to giving me a bonus to keep my business.


For personal cards you can reach the Citi Retention Line at 800-444-2568.
For business cards just call the # on the back of your card & you will get transferred if you are lucky.

Uluru / Ayers Rock- Northern Territory, Australia

Update- Trip Alertz- Referrals now only $1

That was fast... A few days back I wrote about http://www.tripalertz.com/ offering a generous $10 trip cash referral bonus per friend that signs up. Now they are only offering $1! The trip cash earned had a 2 year expiration which now has been changed to only 1 year. The referral bonus is only good on vacation packages so I am betting that most of the money earned will never get used.


If you still want to sign up, here is my referral link http://www.tripalertz.com/pages/curtain/?friend_u=10974

The Little Mermaid- Copenhagen, Denmark

Ex Officio Underwear Giveaway Contest- I won something!

I really enjoy reading the blog www.uncorneredmarket.com . Most of the travel I have done during my life has been with my wife so I enjoy reading about the travels of married couple and full time travelers Daniel & Audrey on their blog.


In September they did a nice write up of Ex Officio travel clothes. They also had a contest giveaway for Ex Officio underwear from which I won a pair! Ex Officio Give-N-Go are the only kind of underwear I use when traveling so this prize is definitely appreciated.


I want to thank Daniel, Audrey & Ex Officio for the prize!


Here is a link if you want to check out Ex Officio- http://www.exofficio.com/products/details/mens-give-n-go-boxer-brief

Cloud Gate aka The Bean in Millenium Park- Chicago, IL

Tripalertz.com- Refer a friend & earn $10 Trip Cash

Tripalertz.com is offering $10 Trip Cash when you invite your friends & family to join. All they have to do is sign up. They do not need to spend any money. You can earn an unlimited amount of trip cash with this offer.
If you do not have an account yet please sign up using my referral link and then send your own link to your friends and family!


Here is my referral link
http://www.tripalertz.com/pages/curtain/?friend_u=10974

US Airways Grand Slam- Is it worth playing?

I am not really into spending money or buying miles but after reading about the US Airways Grand Slam, I thought it made sense for me to play a bit. For a small investment I figured I could really see a nice gain to my account.


Up until the Grand Slam I had a little over 36,000 Dividend Miles in my account with US Airways due to a credit card sign up bonus. 36,000 miles will not get my wife and I very far so I figured the Grand Slam was the perfect opportunity to add to my account.


My goal for the Grand Slam was to earn 25,000 miles by getting 16 hits for as cheap as possible. By getting to 60,000 total miles with US Air it will get my wife and I each a free flight! A bunch of the hits are virtually free.


I started playing the Grand Slam on 9/20 and as of 10/13 I have completed 14 hits which cost me $59.20. 11/14 hits have posted to my Dividend Miles account and the first two bonus awards have posted for 10,000 Dividend Miles so far.


My next 2 hits to get to my goal should cost me between $10-$35. So in the end I should be able to earn 25,000 bonus miles for about $94.00. In addition to the bonus miles, I have also earned 1190 miles for all of the purchases as well we have enjoyed cookies, peanut brittle and some other randomly not so useful items!


If you want to play, here is the link for Grand Slam Rules:
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/grandslamrules.html

Lunchtime at the Market- Pisac, Peru

Lion cub looking up at mom @ Etosha National Park, Namibia