Los Angeles and California make the news a lot and a lot of the news is not good now days. You see reports of rampant homelessness and extreme crime throughout the larger cities. You also see reports of very strict Covid restrictions and in the past one of the strictest lockdown in the US. Donna and I had not visited California for some of these reasons other than a brief stop at Donner Pass and Lake Tahoe. After a short weekend cruise was canceled due to Covid we decided to use our airline credits to head over to Burbank and spend some time in the Los Angeles area. We drove…

2021 was another difficult year in the pandemic. I remember watching the muted New Years celebrations as 2020 came to an end thinking with vaccines coming this terrible time will come to an end and things will get back to normal. I was hoping that people would no longer have to deal with the illness and worse. While things are better than they were in 2020, 2021 has not been easy especially for the many hit hard by the pandemic. We have been blessed this year by not being adversely effected by Covid-19. Before I get into 2021 from a travel perspective I want to wish the best to all…

There is no surprise that we love to cruise. It is one of the most economical ways to travel internationally. You have great food and entertainment as you sail to beautiful new places. Its a safe way to travel despite the constant “floating petri dish” comments that are made by some. Before the pandemic we would try to go on at least one cruise a year. For us as of December of 2021 it had been over a year since we had been on a cruise ship. After our planned December trip that was a Christmas Market tour of Austria, Germany and Switzerland was canceled due to Covid lockdowns in…

Traveling in general today is much different than it has been in the past. There are restrictions and then you have to watch for Airline related cancelations and issues. International travel is the trickiest kind of travel there is right now. This past week I traveled internationally for the first time since January of 2020. I took a trip to Costa Rica for five days. This post will be about what I did to prepare and what I experienced when traveling internationally to Costa Rica Before The Trip – Costa Rica research A couple months before our trip I began researching what the current situation was in Costa Rica including…

Donna and I have continued to travel some during the past couple of months and we have encountered some more challenges this summer mainly due to the extremely wild weather that has been going on across the United States. An Eventful Trip A few weeks back we were scheduled to travel to Puerto Rico for the first time but after monitoring weather conditions in Puerto Rico that was forecasted to get hit by a tropical storm we decided to cancel our trip to Puerto Rico. We have been stranded in places in the past due to unexpected weather issues so we are working to be even more cautious and prudent…

I want to give a quick update on what all is going on in the travel world today. We have continued to do some traveling so I’ll go over some of what we have experienced and some of the different things I have heard from others while traveling. The crowds are back Since the Spring break time flights have been pretty much completely booked. Its even more so now during the summer as there have been few flights we have been on that has any empty seats. With that the airports have become crowded as they had before the pandemic. With all the crowds I heavily recommend giving yourself plenty…

I want to give a word of warning and some travel advice related to what the current situation is in travel today. We have continued to travel in the past few months and have run into multiple delays and more flight cancellations than we have ever encountered in our travels. The situation with rental cars is also an issue. Flight Related Issues During the pandemic airlines reduced staff and retired some of their older aircraft. Now that travel has come roaring back (we can confirm that there are MANY more people traveling now than a few months ago) airlines are struggling to handle the load. There also has been a…

If you are like me I fly Southwest (I fly a variety of airlines) pretty often when I travel domestically. For some routes you will have to change planes and one of the Southwest Hubs you might fly through is Dallas Love Field. Dallas Love field is a really nice airport with some great places to eat and very modern and nice décor. Its also very easy to navigate the airport and they have great technology pointing you to your gate. There is an issue right now though when connecting through Dallas Love Field as we have encountered. Dallas Love Field usually has two runways they use but one is…

Donna and I recently took flights from Houston to Salt Lake City and then a Delta Connection flight to Grand Junction in Colorado. We found that Delta is going above and beyond to keep people as safe as possible and we were impressed with each step of the process. Like I always say during these times it is up to you to decide if you want to travel or go anywhere based on the risks but we found our experience to be safe and enjoyable. Check In: Like other airlines we have flown Delta requires everyone to wear masks while checking in at the counter and plexiglass shields help keep…

I know this is not really a travel post but I wanted to share our experience visiting the movie theater recently. We saw Tenet, New Mutants and Unhinged. We visited AMC Theaters where we used our A-List pass to see the movies. We found it very easy to social distance and felt very safe. In all reality we felt safer than when visiting some stores or restaurants (we generally do take out for safety reasons at the moment). Here is what we experienced while at the theater. As I always say this is what we have experienced and you could have a different experience Entry and ticket taking: We always…