Live Blogging: 4 Trips/5 Months 10/3/17 Update

I've been quite busy handling life this past week, but I did manage to get a few things done. (Both for life and for trips.) Anyway, here's what is new this week. I apologize that it is all in list form, but even still maybe you will find a few useful tidbits here and there.

For Trip #1 (October leaf looking):
• decided on a NYC hotel. The one I ended up with was far from my first choice, but my first choices were disappearing like hot cakes. Turns out my husband and I will be in NYC during a big travel weekend. (Or so the hotels seem to think.) Every time I'd research, the prices would sneak up on me. $200s … which ouch, but okay. Then $300s … then $400s. At some point, I was starting to wonder if I could even afford to go. (I probably can't at that price, but what other option do I have?) So, lesson learned. Book as far in advance as possible for hotels.
• Ordered and received Lonely Planet New York & the Mid-Atlantic's Best Trips (Travel Guide) and National Geographic's Four Seasons of Travel: 400 of the World's Best Destinations in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall for research purposes. I'm getting quite the collection of travel books for someone who never wanted to purchase any since they go out of date so quickly!
• I pulled out my copy of Moon's Road Trip USA to see if any of our drives line up with any of their recommendations. For our drive down from Boston, we will be hitting both the Atlantic Coast drive and the Appalachian Trail. I wish I had seen this before I started booking hotels. While most of the hotels we have booked are cancelable, I'm afraid to start over in research since we only have about a week and a half left to work out our itinerary.
• I considered buying tickets for the Chihuly exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens, but because I'm not sure how long a meandering drive down from Boston to NYC will take, the $56 price tag has me a bit worried. I did get Taste of DC tickets, though. They were free.
• I tried the Seated app, so that I would know how it worked before using it to potentially book restaurants in any of the cities we will be visiting during this road trip. The idea is that you get $15 to use toward Starbucks/Amazon/Uber just for trying out a restaurant and booking reservations in advance. Everything went well, got my giftcard, so now I will just need to figure out how to take advantage of this app.
• Moved all of my images onto a USB drive that plugs into my cell phone. Can't wait to blog about it!
• Used pruvo to track my hotels, so that I will be notified if the price goes down.

For Trip #2 (November in NYC):
• Tried to book a top of the crown Statue of Liberty visit. Turns out they are fully booked until December. :(

For Trip #3 (November in New Orleans):
• umm … nothing?

For Trip #4 (December in ??):
• received an update from Google Flights that my (potential) London flight dropped in price to the $900s. Painful compared to the $500s I was looking at, but better than the $1,100s before the drop. Is it a go?

For Trip #5 (April? 2018 in California):
• figured out which parts of the Pacific Coast Highway were blocked.
• Also learned more about California from someone who actually lives there. #WIN!

Anyway, until next week!

Let me know if you learned anything new in this post or if you have any suggestions (both regarding travel as a general topic as well as for individual places, like New Orleans, for example) for me. I always enjoy learning something new!

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Alternatively, if you are interested in hearing more about something I've mentioned in this post and would like to see a longer blog post on the topic, let me know that as well. I love sharing the tips and tricks I've discovered for booking travel.

Matt Redman Glory Song Album Review and Giveaway

Gospel choir in your living room?

That is just how I felt listening to the new album by Matt Redman – Glory Song.

Born in the UK in 1974, Matt Redman is no stranger to the Christian music industry. The singer/songwriter began his career simply at St Andrews, Chorleywood, moving to help found Soul Survivor alongside Mike Pilavachi. He then became a worship leader for the Soul Survivor Church in Watford. This was not the last time he was to lead worship; he has continued to be involved in various church conferences in the time since, including helping to plant churches in West Sussex and Atlanta, Georgia. In the midst of all of this, though, he has not lost his true love – taking the opportunity to record various albums for the Christian music industry. He has topped the Billboard Christian Songs Chart as well as reaching No. 1 on American Contemporary Christian Radio.

While I can't say the album was an absolute favorite, having gotten somewhat away from the Christian music scene, I know that it would fit right in for just the right person – a God loving, Christian who enjoys the sounds of gospel music in the church and wants to bring that sound home to their family and friends.

Songs featured on the album include:

1. All Glory, featuring Kierra Sheard

2. Gospel Song, featuring Guvna B

3. Greatest Hallelujah

4. Gracefully Broken, featuring Tasha Cobbs Leonard

5. One Day (When We All Get to Heaven)

6. Redemption Ground, featuring Madison Cunningham

7. It is Finished

8. Questions (You Are Faithful)

9. Still I Will Sing

10. Place of Praise, featuring Kim Walker-Smith

11. Hope is Marching On

12. Simple Pursuit/Glory Song

13. Your Ways

Ready to buy the album? Click here. You can also check out Matt Redman's "Gracefully Broken" video here or learn more about the artist at his website here.

GIVEAWAY

I also have one cd up for grabs thanks to my wonderful partner FlyBy Promotions. Just leave me a comment below and be sure to include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. A winner will be chosen on October 11 at midnight.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Friday so far! And best of luck to all who enter! :)

Winner guidelines:  Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days on the same blog, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Wordless Wednesday #23

Honolulu in O'ahu, Hawai'i (February 2017)

Live Blogging: Planning 4 Trips in 5 Months

Goal: 4 trips in 5 months
Time Left: 4.5 months
Completed: .5 of 1 trip, ideas for the other 3

As I write this post, I'm listening to the Moana soundtrack on youtube. What better inspiration?

… "Who knows how far I'll go?" …

For those new to my blog, I recently got a new job. My time for planning, researching, and blogging has been cut in half. Furthermore, my vacation time will be cut even more following January 1st, 2018. So, I'm trying to take advantage of the time I have available for travel. Unfortunately that leaves little time to focus on the blogging of past trips. I will get to them eventually (like in 2018 when I don't have time to travel), but in the mean time I've decided to live blog the trips I'm currently working on.

A little background:

I've known about my limited travel time since the first week in August, but in August I was planning travel for the (1) eclipse, (2) Labor Day, and (3) my nephew's birthday. Yes, three trips in just under a month. Overwhelming to say the least, especially when you are working and commuting 13 hours a day.

Now, all of that is past, and I can focus on the next four trips. My work day has decreased some, to nine hours, so I have a little bit more time to research and devote to blogging. (Especially now that I've mostly caught back up on sleep.)

Trip #1: Road Trip from Boston –> NYC –> DC –> Asheville (Leaf Looking) in early October

The plans for this trip have been all over the place. I knew I had time off and that I wanted to go leaf-looking, but I didn't know where. Or, rather, I did know where, but I didn't know if the leaves would cooperate. As it turns out, according to the Smokey Mountains website, apparently, my preference (Vermont) was out of the question. So, then, I settled on Oregon. But prices for flights out west remained high, so the new top choice was NYC. Not the city, exactly, but more a cheap-ish place to begin a road trip. Of course, as it does, the prices jumped overnight before I was able to book. The next cheapest place for me to fly to, Boston, was only four hours away, so my husband and I opted for that. Who knows when and where we will find peak fall leaves, but at least we are giving ourselves plenty of time (five days) and space (approximately ten states) to find the color that we seek.

After booking the flight to Boston, I researched rental cars. Turns out a rental car from Boston to Atlanta would cost upwards of one grand. Umm… no thanks. Back to the drawing board I went. Could we use Amtrak? Or take a bus? But those options wouldn't provide us with any flexibility in leaf-looking. Turns out the price of the rental car was greatly reduced if we agreed to return our Boston rental to NYC and pick up a new rental car in NYC to drive down to Atlanta. That worked out for me. I mean who wants to pay the high tolls and parking fees inside the city of New York? Just … no.

Now, I'm focusing on hotels. I broke our travel up by city, because it was the easiest way I could think of to balance the 17 hour drive time. According to Google, NYC is approximately four hours away from Boston. It will probably take us more as we meander slowly and make our way south. DC is four and a half hours away from Boston… So on and so forth. (I think you get the idea.)

Right now, I have booked a hotel in Boston, one in D.C., and one just north of Asheville, NC in Little Switzerland. Of course, most of the rooms I've booked, save the Boston hotel, are cancelable, so you can be sure I will be continuing to seek out the best deals as I firm up my travel plans. It's just really complicated when you are trying to put together a predictable itinerary around something as unpredictable as leaves. Along with that, I will work out other details – like whether or not my husband will be going to see the Chihully exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens.

Trip #2: NYC in November

This trip is the easiest to describe. I want to see NYC. That's it. I've booked two hotels so far, I'm watching plane ticket prices with the Hopper app, and I know that Billy Joel will be hosting a concert at Madison Square Gardens. End of story.

Trip #3: New Orleans in November

Right after Thanksgiving my husband and I will be making the five hour drive to Louisiana to see the land of creole and jazz. I know that I want to stay at The Roosevelt New Orleans for one of the nights to see the Christmas decorations, see Christmas lights, eat beignets at Café du Monde, and maybe go to a jazz concert. Aside from that, I'm open to suggestions. Have any of my readers been to New Orlean before?

Trip #4: ???!? in December

In December, my husband and I are looking at making our way to Europe … perhaps to London. We've also talked about Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, and Berlin. Of course, I've also been watching flight prices to Hawai'i, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and French Polynesia. Basically, we want to get out. Preferably to somewhere with a good fireworks display, though I'm open to beaching it up instead. Or dancing New Years night away in Vienna (not that I dance). SO hmm. If the airlines would lower their prices on any of my chosen destinations, I could actually make a decision. :)

Finally, Trip #5: Road Trip to Grand Canyon –> Las Vegas –> Los Angeles –> San Francisco (in April 2018?)

Trip #5? I know, I know. I said four trips in five months. This one is a bit of an outcast, though, since I am only thinking about it in preparation for next year. I think the plan right now is to explore these areas in April. And I only recently added the Grand Canyon to the trip details a few hours ago. I have no flights, no rental cars, no hotels, no dates for this trip. I'm not even sure if we will visit all of these places within the same "trip". Maybe we will go to the Grand Canyon another day. Anyway, this is just a rough outline. Has anyone I know made the drive down the Pacific Coast? What about a trip to the Grand Canyon? Does this all sound feasible within a 7 day period?

SO, yes. This is what my next few months will amount to. Then, I have no idea… I don't know what 2018 will look like as far as travel goes. It will be a totally new experience for me to not be able to request vacation time off at my whim.

I hope you will follow along as I work my way through planning these trips, and I hope it will help you learn something new along the way: whether it's about the locations, a way to save money, or something I can't even think of right now! Because, that's what blogging is about, in my humble opinion: learning from one another and becoming better versed in the ways of the world.

Wordless Wednesday #22

Honolulu in O'ahu, Hawai'i (February 2017)

I haven't had the chance (or taken the chance?) to talk a lot about my trip to Hawai'i this past winter. I think it was because I was busy sharing about past adventures, preparing for the April A-Z challenge, planning future trips, looking for a job, and (as of recently) working at said job. There may have also been some time in there spent feeling sad about my old job ending. (It happens when you work with kids and make connections.) I think the last time I really had any free time was July. Even weekends that I think are free end up getting filled somehow.

But I do want to tell you all about Hawai'i … and Miami … and Key West … and all of the other places I end up going in the next few months. (Travel will be greatly reduced in 2018, so I'm trying to take advantage of my free time while I can.)

I think Hawai'i is everyone's dream vacation. It's that place you want to go but never think you can afford. That is until Delta runs a promotion and you are able to book with points. (My experience.)

I follow a bunch of travel blogs, so when a post about the promotion popped up, I mostly ignored it. Use all of my Delta points for one flight to Hawai'i or use some of my points to travel to NYC or San Francisco or anywhere else? Make those points last?

Well, technically, those points were my husband's. He signed up for the credit card, he got accepted. His points. His choice.

I offhandedly mentioned the opportunity. "Want to go to Hawai'i?"

His answer?

Yes.

So, that's what we did. I spent a good six months planning the trip. I used Google Maps, Visit A City, books… Every activity, every meal was carefully planned and worked into an itinerary to get us the most out of our very precious time. And, honestly, it was one of the most amazing trips of my life. (Of course, I say that about every trip.)

The picture above was taken during a transfer from Molokai (island) to O'ahu (another island). I scheduled the flight right around the time sun was supposed to be setting. Up until this point in the trip, I hadn't really gotten to see Hawai'i from above. (Our arrival to Maui occurred at night.) Going from the tiny island of Molokai (7,404) to O'ahu (953,207) was a stark contrast and had me looking at (and photographing) the city of Honolulu in ah. If I loved Molokai so much, would I like Honolulu? Was Honolulu and the island of O'ahu too big for my tastes?

I won't go into details in this post, but I will say that there is something for everyone to love in Hawai'i. And one of the things I loved most was the stark contrast of people, experiences, beaches, and history you could find on each of the different islands. (I still have two more to visit!)

What do you seek when you travel? Does the contrast of different islands appeal to you? Or would it send you into culture shock?

I'm hoping to start blogging more frequently again soon, but, in the mean time, I appreciate the support of my followers who are continuing to comment and engage. You all are awesome and truly make blogging worthwhile. :)

Wordless Wednesday #21

O'ahu, Hawai'i February 2017

IWSG #8

It feels like this outside, and I'm ready for it!

At the beginning of every month, as part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, I take a look at my successes (not just in writing), share the ways I hope to improve in the next month, answer the IWSG question of the month, and provide inspiration (if I have any).

August Goals –
✓ Return dress to Von Maur.
✗ Pay for program so that I can recover Hawai'i pictures.
✓Finish planning for Labor Day trip.
– RELAX. (Don't stress.)

Additional Successes –
✓ Twitter and Facebook follower counts went up!
✓ Got caught up on comments! (That was a struggle.)
✓ Didn't go over cell phone data limits! (Also a major struggle!)
✓ Made it through my first month at my new job.
✓ Sold washer and dryer for additional money. (We've been meaning to for a while.)

September Goals –
• Plan travel for October, November, and December.
• Talk to dent guy about getting my car fixed.
• Get back into blogging.
• Contact Chase about a double charge.

IWSG Question: Have you ever surprised yourself with your writing? For example, by trying a new genre you didn't think you'd be comfortable in??

I have definitely surprised myself with my writing but not because I was trying a different genre. Rather, the big surprise was being able to conform my interests to the topic of my paper for a class in college. It was kind of a lightbulb moment for me. I was struggling and struggling and struggling until I realized how to work with my topic. Honestly, I don't remember what the topic was, but from that point forward writing for school (or writing in general) simply became that much easier. I was not longer restricted by my topics; I felt more free when writing.

Your Turn

I'm a little late responding to the IWSG post of the week, but I look forward to seeing how other IWSG'ers have responded to this question. Have you ever surprised yourself in accomplishing anything? … whether that's writing, art, a really hard or complicated math problem, a new solution to a problem, etc? How did you discover your new way of doing whatever it is? Were you inspire by someone or did you find the solution on your own? Do you have any recommendations for others who are struggling with something in their life? (i.e. Think outside the box … but how?)

Click here to learn more and

link up with IWSG!