There may be one more full Buzz post and then TBB is going on vacation. And yes this one I REALLY need it! No guest bloggers stepped up so this place may get quiet. I never made any progress in my Norway trip report, still stuck at my first morning in Stavanger, sorry! I need the break and most bloggers I like to comment on (always constructively…I think, not my problem if they get angry!) also need the break. I need to ponder where TBB goes from here…I really appreciate you sharing a part of your day reading my blog, I am honored. And if you think someone else may like it please let them know. Thank you.
TRAVEL
19 Spectacular Landscapes. By memolition. If you know the locations please tell us in the comments!
Incredible Timelapse video about Iceland. The 2nd half of it is awesome as it picks up speed! There is a creepy airplane wreckage at 2.25. Darn countries up there, why do they have to be expensive only big time bloggers can afford to go? 🙂
Expedition Iceland from Eric Hines on Vimeo.
The Ocean Tornado. By Twisted Sifter. This thing is a “waterspout: an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water, connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water.” Never seen or heard anything about this!
Some nice pictures from the Tour de France. Bring your own dope in case the riders run out! By DC Rainmaker
Eccentric England: The Headington Shark. By Gadling. Only those English will do this…Maybe this inspired that stupid Sharknado crap:-)
Avoiding pickpockets in Paris. By Heels First Travel. This is really good advice. Note to Mrs. TBB who is an avid reader of this blog: Read this!
MILES/POINTS
The Points Guy wrote “Airline and Hotel Elite Status Matches and Challenges“. Nice comprehensive post on the subject, even with some omissions per the comments. Good to have in one post!
You want to blow your miles and loads of cash to the Maldives? Not me. So many more beautiful places on earth to go imho. Just Another Points Traveler has one of the most down to earth reviews of her trip to Maldives I have read!
Looks like the earning of miles/points with purchase of Vanilla Reload cards via 711 stores is over? Personal experience last night: Used 3 different cards, only to go through and immediately refunded on ALL three! Dang it, I will never fill up on “gas” in these stores again if that is true! Your experience?
ON MY MIND
I was busy arranging the travel plans on Monday. Made some changes. It looks like my 2 free night certs from the Visa spend will not make it to me in time. So I have booked 2 nights in Fairmont Banff Springs and 4 nights in Fairmont Lake Louise. All are free except the final night in LL in a Lakeview Junior Suite for “only” $610 CDN all in. In between the two stays we drive back to Canmore and stay at a Holiday Inn for 25,000 IHG Rewards points. Why? Because Lake Louise is sold out that night (Saturday)! I will check again. We are not sure if we are going to keep the final night in the Lake Louise property. I will do my best to bump up the upgrades at check in like I always do.
That leaves another 2 or 3 nights that I still need to book. Not sure what to do. Some people say go up to Jasper area. Hotels there are not that cheap. There are two Holiday Inn properties in Hinton. How are they? They do not appear too far from Jasper Park. Or we can head back down towards Canmore again and stay at the Radisson to get the free award night and then we can still drive to parks nearby. Looks like we may not stay in Calgary city another night. Maybe head down for dim sum on August 3 and then go camp out at the airport before our 6 pm flight…We should be well rested lol.
I counted all my trophies bennies and this is what I have: $350 in Fairmont gift cards and $500 in dining/breakfast certs. Of course complimentary 45 minute manicure session for Mrs. TBB is already booked at the fantastic Banff Springs spa! A free dessert too and of course the Platinum amenity. Wow, I think I have done well, high five!
I can see it now:
ODDZ & ENDZ
Weirdest Athlete Meltdowns of the Past 15 Years. For sports nuts, these are awesome!
BLOG BUZZ
Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) is on a major campaign to…get more people to click on their merchandise! “Introduction: The Top 30 Rewards Credit Cards”. Top 30 is the new Top 10! Deep stuff, so innovative! Unbelievable. I understand how others (not me) can get angry for such blatant displays of in your face credit card pumping!
Hoping to be first?
YES! We have a new first! Congrats. I would send you a Southwest drink coupon if I had one:-)
Thanks.
No! I am in the US for 3 nights and thought I might be able to sneak in first … then you go on holiday!
Sorry! Please keep checking, I may have some surprises.
TBB
shamelessly trying to pad site hits:-)
Darn.
You are slacking Jeff, come on!
Hmm. Where is everybody? I am barely managing to get online between intermittent internet access due to Comcast troubles and only one bar on my iPhone. How is it that there appear to be no people lining up to be first? I sure hope that there has been no new catastrophe – the news sites don’t load quickly so I am pretty news deprived too!
What a relief! I figured there was either a crash or you all were busy reading about the newest royal! TBB, you are currently high in my regard because your site loads quickly on my iPhone which is not something I can say for the NY Times or CNN!
I never ever imagined to learn that my site loads faster than NYT and CNN! Thank you, you made my day.
Final comment for the night – I did successfully buy one VR at a 7/11 in Mt View, CA yesterday at about 5pm, after a great time at the Computer History Museum. The clerk had to run the card twice but it worked. Then she asked me what it was – apparently she’d sold a lot of them yesterday. I guess there must be a good number of points people in Silicon Valley. OK, that’s it – it just takes too long to type out and upload a comment on my phone, which is why the comment I wrote about where is everybody posted after Jeff and TBB had showed up! Good night!
My experience was late last night around 10 pm. I will try another 711 today & hope my luck is different. And I also was asked about them by the 711 Clerk. I think they are definitely on to us!
Your 10PM in A2 would be 7PM here. The clerk didn’t seem to care; she was just curious. Meanwhile my cousin who hosted us for the last four days may be joining the ranks of us points peeps. She likes the idea paying her mortgages with BB. I have been asked a lot about my new hobby and she’s the first who actually may get involved. Didn’t hurt when she heard that we are leaving the valley to enjoy two free nights courtesy of US Bank and Club Carlson in San Fran. Frugal Travel Lawyer posted about his stay at the same hotel yesterday.
OK, hopefully we can move on from Starbucks and head north; Mr. TWA44 seems to be winding up his conference call. Meanwhile, I have never been so appreciative of working internet as I am this morning! Between our Santa Cruz friends with no wifi, our cousins with Comcast troubles, and the poor coverage of cell phone providers in this little pocket of Los Altos, I have been in withdrawal. And it isn’t just reading blogs or news. Simple things like verifying our reservation online, calling the hotel about parking and Mr TWA44’s conference call were a huge pain! Hope the net works at the hotel.
TWA44: I can hear you about internet withdrawal. You should catch the story about the CEO of Swisscom who at 49 yrs old commited suicide…he had blamed he could not disconnect!
So…disconnect is ok and I will try to do the same in my vacation…really!
Purchased two yesterday in Ann Arbor at two different 711s near campus/downtown and they went through at around 3:30pm EST.
Used another store today, all is good. Must have been a tech glitch it appears.
I have a morning flight out of LGA – hoping it’s open after today’s nose dive. Heading up to Maine.
Did you know that the Hinton Holiday Inn is on the Point Break list?
It’s ok to take a break from blogging while on vacation. We won’t forget you – but we’ll miss you.
THANKS for reminding me about the PB list, I need to definitely look at it now, just can’t turn down a 5k/night opportunity! If there are any PB nights left that is!
As to pick pockets a money belt is your best friend when traveling overseas. Then you don’t mind when a pretty girl puts her hand in your pocket!
I am sending wife and daughter to Paris in a month. They would probably mind that; I wouldn’t (it depends of course), lol.
Add one: If a girl comes up to them and asks “Do you speak English?”, especially around Latin Quarter or Notre Dame, it’s probably a scam. Tell them to be rude–in August, In Paris, “rude” is to be expected anyways…. 🙂
Neighbor went to Paris and Barcelona. Ran into his kid shooting baskets in driveway. “Hey how did you like the trip?”. Kid says “I much preferred Barcelona to Paris!’. I smiled…
This part of Canada has always been on our short list of places to visit. Since it’s so close, it always falls further down the list of vacation destinations. Let’s not forget that it’s a 25,000 mile redemption in coach on a legacy carrier. I ‘only’ spend my miles on international business! Why ‘waste’ my miles to go to Canada .
George, I hope your search functions well, because one of these days I’ll be using your info to plan our trip. We’d go sooner if I was able to click on a Fairmont link on TBB. LOL.
Yeah I hear you about burning 25k. But I have always wanted to visit this place and these Fairmont hotels so it is about to happen finally! A friend just came back from there and sent me a private link to his 600 photos (email me if u want to see them). Amazingly beautiful place indeed!
I hear you about them links. Will likely happen one day…when I get around to it;-) It will likely happen when the whole cc affiliate bubble collapses due to my impeccable timing lol!
Loved that post about Maldives. After seeing all those bloggers fawn over it, I would always think “what for?” That place is just SO far away and the “payback” is so relatively little. Same for Tahiti, btw.
Hey, we have some very beautiful islands of our own that are much closer! Why waste 3extra days of travel and jet lag recovery to the Maldives when The Big Island or Kauai is so close. Price to payback ratio, baby!
If you must travel far, I say go see something you can’t get elsewhere…like an African safari. How come these travel bloggers never write about Africa?
Agree totally. Frankly I never heard of the Maldives until I started in this hobby. I love, love, love Kauai and while I am excited to be heading to Israel and Istanbul in a few weeks, it is an African safari or a river cruise that sounds most appealing to me. BTW, we spent time in Banff and Lake Louise a few years ago, when Mr TWA44 had a conference at the Banff Conference Center. Celebrated one of our anniversaries – our 30th, if I remember correctly. It was fabulous. Walked around the fancy Fairmont but did not stay there. Did do some hiking in the area. You will have a great time. But watching Mr TWA44 try to blend work and vacation, I say just forget about your work and your blog and enjoy. We’ll be here when you return.
I have no interest for Maldives either but ya never know. Maybe a huge mistake fare happens or something…Never say never in this hobby!
I have been to Tahiti only for one reason! I won a Starwood promotion 10 yrs ago, two air tickets and 6 nights at Tahiti Sheraton. Borrowed some SPG points from brother in law and did 2 nights at the Sheraton (now Hilton) Moorea. Very nice and very expensive. If no prize, no thanks.
I have done Oahu and Big Island. Next trip will be Maui. It is on the radar, maybe 2014! Loved the Big Island, totally loved it, so diverse!
I will enjoy the two Fairmonts for sure:-)
I will try to totally disconnect, no promises lol.
@ bluecat: I blog about Africa, have just been doing a series on my trip to Kruger National Park and some of the birds you see there. Plus I am planning “the mother of all African adventures” for 2015, will take me awhile to save up for it. The problem with Africa is you can’t get everything with miles and points, a lot of it requires cash. http://www.milestothewild.com/tag/kruger/
@George: This won’t work for your reviews of blogs, but did you know that you can write posts in advance and schedule them to show up at any given time? I do this when I am traveling as I don’t like my blog to look like “no one is home”. You can do it with trip reports, photo links and hotel reviews, etc that isn’t time sensitive.
Yes I know about doing that. This is how I have been working on the Norway trip report for…ever:-)
I need to rethink my thorough Buzz posts, they are exhausting…
Speaking of exhausting, my site has been on and off IN MY END only for many hours. GoDaddy tech support says nothing wrong on their end. Nothing wrong in my end for EVERYTHING else but the blog site. This tech stuff is getting to me. I think God is trying to send me a message. It is 2.36 am and still up:-)
Enjoy your vacation, it’s well deserved.
Thank you, I will do my best!
first is greece (mellessani cave), 2nd is washington state (palouse falls). Surely, you knew the first one?!
Watch someone kayak off those falls: http://youtu.be/mrveNdW_sj0
Guy has some serious huevos.
Oh yeah, mellisani cave. For some reason I was not thinking Greece at all last night!
Hmm, what a great video, I may use it!
Thank you!
Have a great vacation TBB! Your site did get many hits from me last night, but I gave up and went to bed 🙂 Thanks.
Health comes first always! I could use a nap right about…now!
Leff must have something against PenFed. They have a card that gives 5% cash back on airfare, with no annual fee. They have another card that’s 5% on gas. Their 5-3-1 card is going to 3-2-1 in October, which is a shame. Gary repeatedly fails to mention these. Also, one’s personal ethics should probably guide one as to whether to pay the voluntary $20 fee every year to support PenFed’s charities.
Excited about the FMiler post tomorrow on Discover, and nodding my head at today’s post. Glad Greg gave Matt a plug.
Reducing my blog reading, because so much makes me… yawn.
Congrats to Penelope Cruz for giving birth. That’s one kid that won’t be disobeying her father.
Enjoy vacation.
Penfed 5-3-1 will remain a 5-3-1 if you have loan products or CD from what I read on CreditBoards. Penfed cards don’t get the air they deserve but easy to know why because it doesn’t earn them commission(don’t have to single out Gary for this I think). Actually I think it’s perfectly alright because I’d hate to see a blogger play phony ethics and make pretend that they care about the audience by writing about these. Last thing we want is Penfed inundated by gamers who don’t respect the establishment.
Penfed 5/5 ARM is a great mortgage product too, the go-to product that I recommend to family and friends who are good with their finances.
Thanks for the feedback on PenFed card. Just when I started to look at it (I am slow) they announced the devaluation so I have not bothered to add yet another card to my “portfolio”. Diversification is good but too much of it may hurt lol.
Yeah, glad he gave Matt a no but not glad he gave MV a nod too. I will stop contributing to his experiments for the…duration of my vacation:-)
I think I need to stop being so thorough going through my Feedly blog feeds…why keep giving so many blogs a chance to surprise me when they repeatedly have not done it. It will help cut down on the research time…which is very welcome indeed!
Not sure about the 5/5 ARM product these days with interest rates so low. Fixed rates fix things which adds a certain layer of peace of mind to devote to focus on more important things. Yeah, rates picked up a little recently but still good times to lock in a low rate for the duration!
Enjoy your vacation!!
Gracias!
FWIW it seems this post was a little earlier than usual. You must be crossing things off the list so you can get your packing done.Have a great trip George!
This post? You have one more coming for July 23. And then you get rid of me.
But keep checking I may do some crazy stuff, soundbites of wisdom, more Top 10 or 30 lists, or stuff like that:-)
Yeah, I am ready, so ready to give me a break from blog reviewing non stop all day:-)
I think July 23 may have posted prematurely? I have had awful time with the site in MY end only all night long! Not sure what you guys were seeing because, well, I could not see much of it myself! GoDaddy tech support said nothing wrong on their end….Beyond frustrating. 2.42 am & still up. I think God is sending me a message lol.
Hello, please credit me at http://jesselsummers.com for the shot of Palouse Falls in WA. Thanks!!
Done and linked back to your site. Awesome photos! Thank you!