As most of you know, this past April’s Frequent Traveler University took place less than 10 minutes from my house. This was great for me since I could save on hotel costs, sleep in my own bed every night, and give people recommendations of places to eat and things to do. I was able to attend the Freddie Awards and the whole weekend of seminars at FTU. I connected with old friends, met many new friends, and overall had a great time. If you haven’t been to one of these events yet I would highly recommend it. I won’t be able to make it to the FTU in Tampa this fall, but myself and most of the First2Board team will be at the Chicago Seminars in October, so you can come out and see me there.

One thing that this crowd of travel fanatics is really good at is giving back to their communities, whether that be local, national, or worldwide. Money is raised through raffles and auctions at every event I have been to, and the proceeds of all of the seminars are donated to various charities. What I am writing about today is one of the smaller donations of the FTU event. In fact, until now, only a handful of us even know it happened.

As things were winding down on Sunday of FTU, everything was getting packed up and decisions were being made about what items were going where. For those of you who weren’t there, for most of the weekend, there were presentations happening in three rooms at once. For the two smaller presentation rooms, the event organizers had purchased two 10 foot (I think) projection screens as they were setting up for the weekend. When time came to pack up, no one was quite sure what to do with the screens. It didn’t make sense to ship them across the country, but they didn’t want to just throw them out either.

Luckily, I happened to overhear the conversation, and mentioned that donating them would be a good idea. I was sure that the school my kids go to and my wife teaches at could use the screens, and with schools, any type of donation helps out. A few quick confirmations later and I was given the go ahead by Tommy and Randy to donate the screen to the school. It took them almost no time to decide that the school would be able to get more use out of the screens than they would, and donating them would be the best thing to do.

At the end of the event, I loaded the screen into the back of my truck and for the past couple weeks, they have been hanging out in my living room. Today, I finally had a chance to take them over to their new home. I met with the principal and she showed me where to put them. She thanked me for the donation and I was on my way.

I am writing this post today because we often see the big donations to charity such as checks for thousands of dollars. I wanted all of you to know that there is more going on behind the scenes that you don’t even hear about as well. This community of miles and points friends really is a giving group and most of us will go out of our way to help anyone we can. Will those screens make a huge impact on the education of the kids at Haycock Elementary? No, but they will mean that a few hundred dollars can be spent on something else. Every little bit helps and the more we can do to help, the better this world will be.

Haycock Elementary, the new home for the FTU presentation screens.

Out of the four of us, my wife is the only one who had ever been to southern Florida before. It has been many years, but there were still several things she remembered from the family trips she took as she was growing up. One of those things was an airboat ride through the Everglades. The boys and I had only seen such a thing on TV shows and in movies, so when Chrissy mentioned it as an option, we all agreed it was something we had to try. That was the easy part. Picking a tour company would be a bit more difficult.

As you leave Miami and head out into the Everglades, you will find yourself driving along the Tamiami Trail. This road is also known as State Highway 90 and US Highway 41, but we found Tamiami Trail to be, by far, the most fun to say. After a few miles, you will start to see signs for airboat tours. Then you will start to see airboat tour companies. Then you will see more airboat tour companies….and more….and more….

Unless you plan ahead, choosing a company could either be very easy or very hard. It could be easy if you are not concerned with getting the best experience and you just decide to pull into whatever company you come across first. It could be hard if like us, you want to choose the best option, because there is almost no way to tell the difference between all of these companies from their signs.

Luckily, we tend to plan ahead and Chrissy had read lots of reviews before leaving home. This happens for most of our trips and she always knows just where to take us to get a great experience. In this case, we were looking for Buffalo Tiger Airboat Rides. As we passed other companies, we saw their huge airboats and full parking lots. We continued on. Several miles later, we found our destination.

We hadn’t made reservations because we weren’t sure what time we would be getting up that morning. This turned out to be a good thing because we were all exhausted after our late night arrival and ended up sleeping a couple hours later than we planned. Unfortunately, we managed to pull into the parking lot just as a tour boat was pulling out. This meant there would be a bit of a wait. We were ok with that and paid for our tickets.

About 15 minutes into the estimated 45 minute wait, another airboat pulled up and a few people got off. After a brief conversation among the guides/workers, they told us that if we could fit along with another family, they would take us out in that boat, instead of making us wait for the other one to return. The 8 of us squeezed into the seats and off we went. We would later find out that the boat we went out on was their private tour boat. Trips on that boat usually cost more than twice as much and you don’t have to share with anyone. I guess that explains why we had nice padded seats instead of the aluminum benches we saw on the other boats. Sometimes, you just get lucky.

It turns out that snuggling close was something we needed to do not only to fit on the seat together, but also for warmth. You will notice in the pictures that we are wearing hats, gloves, and the warmest coats we brought with us. We were lucky enough to be in Florida for one of their coldest weekends of the year and although it was sunny, it certainly wasn’t warm zipping across the water in an airboat. It was windy, loud (we all wore earplugs as suggested), and cold.

The good news is that with the weather (and water) being cooler than normal, the alligators were trying to get as much of the sunlight as possible, so we had plenty of viewing opportunities all weekend long. Our first gator sightings came a few minutes in to the airboat tour and we ended up seeing quite a few before the hour long tour was over. If we knew how many alligators we were going to see later, this might not have seemed quite so cool, so I would suggest taking the airboat ride as one of your first activities in the Everglades.

Part of the tour took us to an old Indian village and from the description of the tour, we were excited to see it. That excitement led to disappointment as the “village” turned out to be a couple of pavilions and dock on a small island. It was kind of cool hearing about the history of the island from the man who lives there and keeps the fire going during the day, but overall, there was nothing special to see. At least the path into the dock was cool and the fire helped us warm up a bit before the second half of our tour.

After leaving the village, we had time to seek out a few more alligators before heading back. One thing the kids loved about the tour was how close we were able to get to the alligators. On several occasions, our guide used calls and slapped the water to get the gators to come over closer. It was neat to see, but we had to wonder why these wild animals would come so close if they didn’t recognize the boats as a source of food. There were signs all over and our guide assured us that they never feed the gators, but after seeing the actions of the animals, I’m just not sure how believable that is.

When it was time for the tour to end, we were both grateful and sad. It was definitely a cool experience, but after an hour of wind and water, we were all pretty cold. If you are there on a warm day (pretty much every day except the weekend we were there), I would definitely recommend an airboat ride through the Everglades. I’m not sure it is an experience that I need to pay to do more than once, and I wish it had been warmer, but I am glad that we had the experience. It was a great way to kick off our visit to the Everglades.

Before I finish up, I should mention the other cool part about our tour, the other family that was on the boat with us. If you have ever been around me, you know that I have a hard time not chatting with strangers, so before we even left the dock, I had introduced myself to our tourmates. It turned out that they were from a town just outside of Copenhagen and I had actually spent a day in their town when I was studying in Denmark during college. On top of that, the father was a pilot for SAS. He had flown MD-80′s for years and after their vacation in the US, he was headed to Airbus school to learn to fly the A-320. Obviously, we had a ton to talk about and we ended up chatting every chance we got. You never know who you might meet in your travels and in this case, I made a pretty cool connection. Hopefully when I take my family back to Denmark to see the country that I enjoyed so much, I will have a chance to grab a meal or a drink with my new friend.

For read more about our Everglades and Keys trip, check out the following links:

Everglades and Keys – All I Want For Christmas is a Trip

Dinner Time – Anhinga in the Everglades

Everglades and Keys – First Flight as Delta Elites

So here we are in the middle of May and I find myself just getting into writing about the things we did on our January trip to the Florida Everglades. In fact, the only reason I am getting around to writing about this trip is because I am home with a sick kid and have a free day off. My trip reports are just not getting done in a timely manner and this has led me to two conclude two things.

First, I suck at getting trip reports done (pretty obvious). I take lots of pictures and many notes during my trips so that I can tell you all about them, but when I get back home, the reports just keep getting put off. In addition to my regular life and subsequent trips getting in the way, I think this might be because I have so much information to share and I get overwhelmed. We tend to pack every day of our travels full of awesomeness and this results in an incredible amount to report on. Hence, me being two major trips behind on a blog that is only 2 1/2 months old (since I started writing again here at F2B).

Second, the above reasoning is not a good excuse. In fact, it is a terrible excuse. I write a travel blog. When I travel, I am supposed to tell you about it. I need to find a way to get these trip reports done without quitting my job, leaving my family, or giving up on sleeping.

I mentioned above that we pack a lot of activities into each travel day. I also take a ton of pictures almost everywhere we go. If any of you have ever tried to put a picture into a blog post, you know that the formatting and editing of the image can take quite a while. Multiply that by 10 or 15 pictures in a trip report post and you just lost a good part of your evening. Once the images are ready, I also have to write up the details of all the different things we saw and did. If I include everything, the posts get quite long and can take hours to complete. The final product is something that has a lot of information, but is probably too long for people to read all at once. This clearly isn’t the best way to do it.

Another option is to do a specific post for every flight, hotel, and activity during the trip. If done this way, trip reports end up being way too many posts and by the time you are done, people are starting to lose interest in the trip. This isn’t good, because sometimes the best parts of a trip come near the end. This doesn’t seem like the way to go either.

There has to be a way to get the information out to you without overwhelming me or boring my readers. My solution is something that I hope will work for me, and more importantly, I hope will work for all of you. From this point on, I am only going to report on the notable parts of a trip. You probably don’t care about the Toyota Camry that I rented in Fort Lauderdale, so unless I have horrible or wonderful service from the rental company, you aren’t going to hear much about it. The same goes for flights, hotels, and meals. If something is outstanding, you will see all the details. If something is just what would be expected, it might get a sentence or two. If something is terrible, I will let you know as a warning to stay away, and will give the details of how we handled the situation.

In addition, my trip reports might not go in order. You have seen a little bit of this already with my grouping of our flights to and from Costa Rica, together in the same posts. If different activities fit well together, they will be in the same post. If one part of a trip excites me more than others, you will probably read about it first. I will try to give an idea of when during a trip different events occur, but everything will not be reported in a sequential way. In fact, if there is more than one trip that I need to write about, I will not be afraid to start on the second one before I finish the first. It doesn’t really matter if you hear about my trips in the same order I take them. Alternating pieces of different trips will keep things fun and keep you from getting bored with a single destination.

I am hoping that by breaking things up in this way and cutting out the boring parts, my trip reports will be more interesting to read. I should be able to do smaller pieces of a trip each time and if it is not something that interests you, feel free to skip it and wait for the next piece. If it is something that you want to read about, you will only see the important parts and you should be able to quickly understand what it is all about. This should help all of us to make better use of our time. Instead of reading a super long post to find the information about an airboat tour, there will be a dedicated post. If you have no intention of ever setting foot on an airboat in the Everglades (you should – they’re fun) and don’t really care what our experience was like, maybe the next post in the series will be better for you. If you are planning a trip next year and want a good recommendation for a company to tour with, you can bookmark the post for a quick and easy reference.

As I go through my reports for the Everglades and Costa Rica, let me know what you think of this new format. Hopefully it will mean that the reports come out on a more regular basis and that everyone will be able to enjoy as little or as much of our experiences as they want. The most important goal for me in doing trip reports is to inspire others to go out and see the world. This will help me to spread the wanderlust and share with all of you, the amazing places that miles and points can take you.

With only a little over 12 hours left (Ends at 11:59 PM EDT on May 10, 2013) to make a donation and enter to win, I thought I should remind everyone about this super cool opportunity to help out a good cause and get yourself an incredible experience.

Below are the details from the original FlyerTalk post about the contest, including details about the prize and details on how to enter. Unfortunately, I won’t be available to take a ride in this amazing plane on the scheduled date, but that is even better news for all of you. If the winner can’t take the flight, he or she can donate/gift the ride to someone else. That sounds like a great Indulge The Wanderlust contest to me. So get on over and make your donation to enter. Here’s hoping that one of you wins, and if you don’t, here’s hoping that I win so that one of you will be guaranteed to win.

Screenshot Image Courtesy of Golden Wings Museum

Prize / Entry Details

Last year, FlyerTalkers raised $8444 for the Jason Dahl Fund and three lucky people were able to ride in a 1929 Stinson Tri-Motor.  Would you like a chance to ride in this historical aircraft, the oldest surviving plane flown for American? Give to the Jason Dahl fund and get a chance for you and a friend to ride in it on June 1^st.  The ride will be donated by Greg Herrick from his private collection of planes.  The money raised goes to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship, which is the 7^th largest aviation scholarship in the United States.  Captain Dahl was at the controls of Flight 93 on Sept 11th when his life was tragically taken by terrorists. The scholarship gives financial assistance to young men and women interested in an aviation career to honor Captain Dahl’s memory.  The Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund is a IRS qualified 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation. 

The winner and his or her guest wins the opportunity to take the flight on June 1^st.^.  Winners must make their own way to the Anoka County Airport, roughly 30 miles south of Minneapolis/St Paul. There, they will take a ride in the Stinson Tri-Motor and be given a private tour of the Golden Wing Museum. The museum houses close to 30 unique and one-of-a-kind aircraft from America’s Golden Age of Aviation (1920′s-1930′s).  June 1^st will also be the airport’s Aviation Days event. The civilian flying communities have “DOs” called FLY-INs. When an airport announces they are having a FLY-IN, everyone flies their small aircraft in for a pancake breakfast. That will start the day off and they have a weekend schedule of fun activities. Check out the events calendar on the Golden Wings Museum web site for more details.  Anyone who donates to the fund will have the opportunity to tour the museum at the same time and to watch the ride.  A second winner will be drawn if the FT donations reach $6,000.

Increase your chances by donating generously. Chances will be

$25 each
4 for $50
10 for $100
40 for $200

Make your contributions by 11:59 PM EDT on May 10, 2013, at the Dahl Fund contribution page and use PayPal.  It is important that you note your donation is for the FlyerTalk raffle in order to participate.  Use the “More Info: Send a Note to Seller” link on the final page and note: “FlyerTalk raffle.”  Please also include your handle (if you have one—friends and lurkers are welcome to participate) and your preferred email address.  We have a goal of raising more than last year’s total of $8444.  Remember, many companies will match charitable gifts.  We tested the FT App to the PayPal link and it shouldn’t cause any problem this year.  The winner, as in the past, will be able to donate/gift the ride to someone else, if they are unable to attend.

The drawing will be held on May 11^th  at Captain Tom Bush’ nature store in Littleton, Colorado, during the Birding Festival. He has raised funds for the Dahl Fund since 2005.

Captain Denny will keep us informed on the amount of donations. You can see the latest updates on the FlyerTalk thread. Last I checked, they had just passed $5000 in donations. If they get up to $6000, there will be a second winner (and guest) drawn. Let’s see if we can help them get over that amount.

Please help spread the word about this by forwarding a link to your friends.  You do not need to be a member of FlyerTalk to participate in the raffle and there are only 12 hours left to secure your chance at winning.

A few years ago, our group of friends in Pennsylvania decided that we wanted to vacation together. We all agreed that a long weekend without the kids would be the best way to relax. To make everything easy, everyone wanted an all-inclusive resort somewhere in the Caribbean.

If you know me and my travel style, you know that an all inclusive is just about the opposite of what I look for in a place to stay. However, with our big group of 11 couples, it ended up being the best way to go. One couple in our group had honeymooned in Jamaica several years ago and they suggested we return to the resort that they loved so much.

That resort was one of the Couples Resorts, a small family owned group of resorts in Jamaica. I won’t get into all the details of the trip, but I will say that it was an awesome time and perfect for our group. We had so much fun that several of our friends returned the next year. Then in January of this year, we all went to St. Lucia and stayed at a Beaches Resort. Again, a great time was had by all, but many times throughout our stay, people commented that they wished it was more like Couples.

Although Jamaica wouldn’t be my first choice for a vacation in the Caribbean, it was beginning to look like one of the Couples resorts in Jamaica would be our next destination. Then, a few weeks after we got home from St. Lucia, I got an email from Couples. They had bought a resort in Barbados, were putting it through a huge renovation, and it would open soon as the first Couples Resort on another island. We haven’t finished planning the next trip yet, but you can bet I will be making a huge push for Couples Barbados.

If you are like me and want to go and experience this new resort, Couples might just let you stay for free. All you have to do is help them out by naming their new oceanside restaurant.

You can get all the details and enter the contest via the Couples Website HERE or through Facebook HERE. You should know that if you win, the prize will give you 8 days and 7 nights at the all-inclusive Couples Barbodos, but it does not include airfare. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem for most of you reading this. Either burn some of those award miles or buy the ticket and earn a few more.

I am hoping to be able to convince our group to travel to Couples Barbados next time we vacation together, and if one of you wins this contest, I fully expect you to provide me with all sorts of pictures and details to help me make my case. So get those creative juices flowing and best of luck to all of you. One of my readers is about due to win a wicked big prize. You have until May 31st to enter.

UPDATE: If you just can’t wait to plan your trip to Couples Barbados, or if you never win anything and are pretty sure you won’t be able to name the restaurant, head over to First2Board Deals and check out the awesome package for Couples Barbados offered by Cheap Caribbean.

Since moving to the DC area last summer, the number of weekend visitors we have seems to have increased quite a bit. Both sets of grandparents come down as often as they can, friends from back in PA have make a few trip to see us, and this summer we are expecting some friends from farther away as well.

Anyone who has had houseguests for the weekend knows that the experience can vary greatly depending on who is visiting. Sometimes by the end of the weekend, you are ready to say goodbye, and sometimes you just wish your guests could stay longer. We have been lucky in that all of our guests so far have been wonderful. They have all been excited to see our new home and all of the interesting things around us.

That having been said though, I have to tell you that this past weekend, we had the best houseguests we have ever had, and I didn’t even know them until they came in the door. No, we didn’t sign up for airBnB or couchsurfing. We didn’t take in random travelers from off the streets either. Chrissy and the boys simply brought home some visitors that needed a place to stay for the weekend.

I’ve written before about how awesome the school that my wife teaches at and my kids go to is. Well, one of the cool things that they do is that they almost always have some sort of pets in each classroom. Right now Chrissy has seahorses in her classroom and the kids love to watch them swimming around. Ryan has fish that they are raising and plan to release into the wild when they are big enough. Cole’s class, along with the other kindergarden classes, has been raising ducks. They started with eggs in an incubator, and early last week, the ducklings made their first appearance as they cracked through their shells, just as the kids were arriving at school.

Other grades have other animals, and all of these classroom pets mean there are a whole lot of animals to take care of. In fact, the school’s science coordinator comes in every day over the weekends to make sure there is enough food and water and all the habitats are clean. To help with all the work, teachers are asked to take certain pets, including the ducklings and chicks, home for the weekends to care for them and make sure they are safe and happy.

Luckily for us, one of the kindergarden teachers was going to be out of town this weekend, so my wife quickly volunteered for us to care for the ducklings she was leaving behind. Chrissy decided a surprise was the best way to tell us, and the kids didn’t find out until the end of the day at school. As I was mowing the lawn on Friday afternoon, Chrissy pulled in and two super excited little boys jumped out and came running over to tell me the news. Then we unloaded the car and brought our new friends inside.

Over the course of the weekend, we spent plenty of time just watching the little ducklings eating, drinking, and playing. Sure, keeping their home clean was a bit of work, but it was absolutely worth it when we got to teach the ducklings how to swim. I guess teach is the wrong word to use there since they needed no instruction at all, but at least we got to give them their first chance to play in water. On Saturday, we put them in the bath tub with just a couple of inches of water, and then on Sunday, they got to swim around in the kitchen sink (yes, we sanitized everything afterwards).

To say they liked the water would be a gross understatement. Within minutes, they were diving under, splashing around, and having a wonderful time. They were super cute even as they were soaking our kitchen floor with their splashing. After swim time, they went back into their home and continued with their busy schedule of eating, drinking, and sleeping.

This morning, as I got ready for work, I had to bid farewell to our little friends. They will be going back to school today and probably won’t be coming back to our house again. I was a little sad as I patted their super soft heads and said goodbye. These little ducklings cheeped their way into our hearts and I think the whole family will miss them when they are gone. It may not have been the most active weekend spent with guests and they may not have been the best conversationalists, but am confident in saying that these four little ducklings were the cutest weekend houseguests we have ever had.

Hilton HHonors has been getting a lot of bad press lately, and rightfully so. First they gutted their award charts, especially at the high end, and many people instantly said they were cutting Hilton out of their lives. That announcement was several weeks ago and lots of people made reservations before the changes went into effect. I have a reservation next April at the Conrad Koh Samui that is using up a good portion of the points I had at the time. (If you have suggestions for flights, let me know, since I’ll be booking soon.)

Then this past weekend, while I was playing with travel friends old and new, Hilton and American Express dealt us all another blow. New redemption levels for the AXON awards that we love so dearly were announced and it hurt just to look at the new numbers. Top tier properties more than doubled in points cost. After June 15th, it will cost a whopping 300,000 points for 4 nights at a top tier Hilton property. This is, of course, still a “deal” because Hilton has raised their top tier to 95,000 points per night. Needless to say, you won’t find me booking high end Hilton nights again any time soon.

So why would you still care about the Hilton HHonors program? Why wouldn’t you just burn the last of your points and move on to greener pastures (SPG, Hyatt, etc.)? Maybe there is still hope.

If you read travel blogs, it’s hard to go a day without reading all about someone’s first class flight or their stay at a high end hotel. Some people even go as far as saying that miles and points should only be used for these types of aspirational awards. Until recently, Hilton HHonors was a great program to shoot for the stars with. Points were easy to earn and redemption levels weren’t too high, especially if you had access to GLON or AXON award pricing. Some of the most frequented high end points hotels in the world were Hilton brands. But those days are behind us now and many people think that there is no good left in Hilton HHonors.

I have to disagree. If you are a single traveler who never needs a night at a hotel other than when you are in an absolutely amazing location, maybe you should be done with Hilton. However, if you are like many of the rest of us and you occasionally need to travel for work, travel to see family, or stay at a hotel the night before a flight, there is still great value in the program. Why is there great value? Because many of their low and mid tier awards didn’t go up, some actually went down, and Hilton HHonors points are still very easy to come by.

On our trip to the Everglades in January, we stayed one night at the DoubleTree in Naples, Florida. I used points for the night and since we would only be there for about 8 hours, I didn’t really care where we stayed. I had a lot of HHonors points, and I didn’t want to pay for a room for 8 hours, so we ended up at the DoubleTree. It turns out we were pleasantly surprised. The DoubleTree in Naples was one of the nicer hotels we have stayed at in quite a while and the staff was fantastic. I would not hesitate to go back there or recommend it to others and guess what. Award nights at that hotel now cost fewer points than when I stayed there.

I am sure there are lots of other properties like that out there and as long as Hilton keeps some of their properties reasonable, I am not ready to say goodbye. We are often so busy on vacation that we just need a place to sleep for a few hours. Most of the time, I don’t need a 5 star hotel for a quick night’s rest, and I am guessing that a lot of you feel the same way. As time goes on, I will certainly use other hotel programs to splurge on high end nights when I am on vacation, but for all those other nights, I will definitely be happy to keep earning Hilton HHonors points as quick as I can.

Now that you have read my reasoning, if you are like me and haven’t completely written off the Hilton HHonors program, here’s a quick positive reminder/note to help you out.

As you can imagine, many conversations this past weekend at FTU were centered around CVS stores. If for some reason you don’t understand why, a simple search of the web should do the trick. With American Express ending the 6 points per dollar at drug stores this month, many people were sad. One thing I did notice was that no one seemed to know whether a statement had to close before May 1st or if all transactions before May 1st would earn the 6 points per dollar, even if the statement closed later. This was something I needed to know since my statement closes in the middle of the month.

Not able to get my answer, I went home and dug out my old bills. I knew that the information would be on there somewhere and what I found was pleasantly surprising.

The important part of that is the part that says “Effective with your first billing period that begins on or after May 1, 2013.” You can see in the picture above that they even bolded that sentence. So for all of us who are dreading the end of the 6 points per dollar bonanza, we still have a few more days. Well, maybe not all of us. If your statement closes in the first part of the month, you don’t have much to gain. But my statement doesn’t close until the 15th and between now and then I should have time to buy a whole lot of toothpaste, shampoo, or any other useful item that CVS sells, if you know what I mean.

For now, for me, Hilton HHonors is still alive and well. It may have taken a few hits, but there are still plenty of ways for me to get value out of the program, and I am will to bet the same is true for you. So bottle up that anger. No one liked what they have done to their award charts. But if you keep on earning, you will still be able to have plenty of free nights on them, and that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Cutting your travel costs any way you can.

I mentioned the other day that I was lucky enough to be invited to attend this year’s Freddie Awards, which took place at the USA Today headquarters here in Tyson’s Corner. There are plenty of places for you to see the results of those awards, so I am not going to spend the time writing all of them out here. Those of you who follow me on twitter probably noticed that I also didn’t tweet every award as they were announced. There were also a couple of people doing that and they did it far better than I would have. I just can’t type that fast on my phone.

Instead of telling you about the winners, I am going to talk a little bit about the experience of attending the Freddie Awards Ceremony. This was my second year at the event and this year’s was even more impressive than last year. A couple of people asked me yesterday what was so special about the Freddie Awards and why would I want to go. I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you all why I like to attend.

Last year, The Freddie Awards was the first frequent traveler event that I ever attended. I walked in to the cocktail hour knowing no one and was quickly welcomed into the group. I met several bloggers, some industry executives, and had a blast sitting with The Points Guy team. In fact, we had so much fun (and maybe got a little rowdy) that his group of guests mysteriously were seated at all different tables this year. Coincidence?

This year, when I walked in to the lobby of the Hilton to catch the shuttle over to the event, I immediately ran into a group of 4 or 5 people that I knew. As time went on, more and more people I had met arrived and by the time we got on the shuttle, I knew about half of the group. It was great to catch up with people especially because a few of them were only in for the Freddies and wouldn’t be sticking around for FTU.

We got to the USA Today building after a shuttle ride that was at least 3 times longer than it needed to be. It included two parking garage entrances, 3 gates that had to be opened for us, and a loading dock. It would have been so much easier if the driver had just pulled up in the front, but at least now I know where the deliveries come in at USA Today.

As more and more people arrived at the cocktail hour, I was surprised at how many faces I recognized. Not only bloggers and other travel friends, but many of the Airline and Hotel representatives that I met last year. This year was the 25th Freddie Awards and it seemed that they tried to make things a little bit fancier. Not that last year wasn’t Impressive, but it was the little things that were added this year that I thought really upped the game.

During the cocktail hour, there was string quartet playing off to the side. The facility was gorgeous with high ceilings and walls of windows. Perhaps my favorite part was the live band that played during all the down times, just like award ceremonies that you see on television. Our meal was ok, but nothing special, and the conversation was great.

After dinner was over, there were a few words from the event sponsors and then an award for the USA Today Road Warrior of the year. When the Freddie Awards presentation finally began, it went smoothly and was very professional. I love seeing how happy the company representatives are when they win an award. They streamlined the process this year and I was surprised at how quickly the awards were given out.

I had a chance to check out the redesigned awards by sneaking over to the table next to us and talking to the ladies from Accor Le Club after they had accepted a couple of awards for their brand. I told them how much I love their twitter team and one of the ladies let me know that she was in charge of that team. I said she was doing a great job and should keep it up.

Freddie Awards Celebration

After the awards, there were dessert tables set up and open bars once again. Mingling continued for another hour or so and then the crowd started to break up. I walked back to the Hilton, made a quick stop in the hotel bar, and then walked back to my truck. After hours of not checking my phone, I scrolled through my emails and twitter interactions before heading home. There was a message from Jeanne from Heels First Travel and next thing I new, I was back inside chatting with her and Kathy from Will Run For Miles. Pretty soon we were joined by a few others and we ended up talking well into the night.

Overall, my trip to the Freddies was a great time once again. I was definitely grateful that I didn’t have to work and could sleep in on Friday morning. As I finish up this breif write-up, I would like to send a big thanks out to Randy Petersen for inviting me to the event. Hopefully next year, I will be invited back again and will be able to report to you all from the 26th Freddie Awards, all the way over on the other side of the country.

This weekend is shaping up to be a great time filled with airlines, hotels, miles, and points. Of course, by “this weekend”, I mean from tonight until Sunday evening. Doesn’t everyone take a 4 day weekend every now and then to just talk about travel?

That’s right, I am not actually traveling. In fact, all of the events I will be attending are happening within 10 minutes of my house. I will be driving myself, sleeping in my own bed, and it will still be one of the best travel weekends of the spring for me.

Around this same time last year, I went to my first Frequent Traveler University weekend in New Jersey. I was lucky enough to win a seat at The Points Guy’s table for the Freddie Awards and I also attended the Travel Executive Summit on Friday morning. Since then, I have also been out to the Chicago Seminars, and between the two events, I can not even count all of the great friends I have met.

Tonight around 5 PM the fun gets started again. The 25th Freddie Awards Ceremony is taking place at the USA Today Headquarters in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This year, my experience will be a little different. I didn’t win the opportunity to attend. Sure, The Points Guy was giving aways a few seats at his table, but I thought I should give others a chance, so I didn’t enter the contest. Instead, I turned to my favorite travel helper, twitter. I put out the request that I wanted to attend and got a reply back from Randy Petersen himself.

We have since talked about the details and agreed it was silly for him to actually come out and pick me up, but he did confirm that I am on the list and a welcome invitee at the Freddie Awards.

Last year, I arrived knowing no one, hoping that I would be able to find The Points Guy in the crowd. I quickly met Kathy, who writes Will Run For Miles, and talked with several others during the cocktail hour. Once we sat down for dinner and the awards, our table had a blast. I still keep in touch with several of the people I met that night, and I am looking forward to meeting many more tonight. Of course, I am also really excited to see everyone I already know.

I won’t be attending the Travel Executive Summit tomorrow morning, but I will be lurking around the host hotel well before the MilePoint reception begins tomorrow night. Saturday and Sunday, I should be around all day. I may sneak off to do some writing, but other than that, I will be sitting in the presentations, wandering through the crowds, and meeting and talking with as many people as possible. I am sure that FTU will be an event to remember once again.

I mentioned before that I have previously met a lot of friends through these types of events. I wanted you to know that these aren’t all just acquaintances who I see once a year. Many of these people I am in daily contact with, through twitter and other means. One of those friends invited me back to attend the Freddies again this year, one of those friends invited to me to join First2Board, and I will be traveling to Oktoberfest in Munich this fall with another (bonus points if you can name all three). It may be tough to tell where this crazy world of miles, points, and travel is going to take you, but if you go out there and get involved with the wonderful community we have, it is sure to be an amazing ride filled with friends, laughter, and unbelievable experiences.

For those of you who will be at FTU this weekend, I look forward to meeting you. Please take the few minutes to find me and come say hi.

For those of you I already know and haven’t seen since last year’s events, I am excited to catch up.

Finally, for those who are lucky enough to be attending the Freddie Awards tonight, get ready to have a great time. I can’t wait for this incredible kick-off to a weekend of talking travel, and look forward to sharing this special event with you.

Whether you are headed to DC, off to some far away land, or just hanging around home this weekend, I wish all of you the best. Happy travels, and make sure to stop back by here to see updates throughout the weekend. I might just give live blogging a shot if I can figure out the best way to do it on my iPad mini.

For now, I am off to do a few hours worth of work, donate some blood, and then head home to get ready for the Freddie Awards. Looking forward to four days of fun.

I had a bit of a hard time paying attention to my work yesterday afternoon. All I could think about was how badly I wanted a helicopter. Not necessarily a reasonable thought because I have nowhere to put one if I had it, but let me explain how I came to the conclusion that I need one.

A tweet from @DCist caught my eye as I was eating my lunch and scrolling through my twitter feed. For anyone local to the area, DCist is a great source of information about what is going on. From food and festivals to sporting events and community news, they cover it all for the DC area. I love following them on twitter because I get to read all the headlines and can click over to get the whole story for anything that looks interesting. In this case, the tweet looked like this:

Now I told you the other day how much I like the Smithsonian, and you can probably figure out that one of my favorite museums is the Air and Space Museum, so how could I not be excited about this tweet? Of course I want a helicopter! Of course I want a rocket ship!

I immediately clicked on the link and it took me to the DCist story page. It explained how the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum was going through a process called deacessioning, during which they give away items from their collection that they can not use anymore. That’s right, I said GIVE AWAY, as in FREE! As I read the story, I got more and more excited. Then I got to the part saying that in order to receive any of the items, you have to be a museum or educational institution that will agree to keep the items on display for the public.

The sadness set in. I have been called a lot of things in my life and held a lot of titles, but never once has anyone said I was a museum. It wasn’t looking good for me. I was starting to think that the Sikorsky UH-34D Seahorse that I had planned to display in my front yard was not going to be mine.

Then I started scheming. Maybe there was a loophole. My wife works at a school. That is an educational institution. All sorts of thoughts went through my head.

I went over to the Smithsonian page and read all the details. I downloaded the request form. Finally, after reading everything, I came to the conclusion that there was no way around it. They just aren’t going to give me any of these items. Of course, that didn’t stop me from going through the listings and drooling a little bit.

So if you want to see some of the cool items that the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is giving away, take a look at this list. There are planes, helicopters, flight suits, satellites, missiles, and lots and lots of engines and rockets. If you are coming in to DC for FTU next weekend, just stop by the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center out by Dulles, and you can see that helicopter pictured above before it’s given away. Some of the other items might be on display still too, but whether they are or not, you are sure to enjoy your visit.

For now, I am off to wallow in my sadness. So close to having my own rocket, only to be thwarted by the details. If anyone has any bright ideas about how I can become a Museum or Educational Institution really quickly, please feel free to share them, and I will be forever grateful. Who knows, maybe I will even take you for a ride in my new helicopter.