Ain't enough money or vacation days available...

I soooo want to go to the Food Network's Food and Wine Festival in Tennessee next month.

Darn. If only I was bankrolling and didn't have to slave at a 9-5 ...

I checked online for the ticket prices and it's a little rich for my blood. *sigh*



I love almost all of the food Network Stars but I'm a stan for the Neely's. If you don't know who they are, you better ask somebody! Better yet, just follow them on Twitter: @the_neelys.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I would so love to see this happy, fabulous, pork loving couple in person. I love it when Gina Neely tells her husband: "You're always stealing my sugar!" whenever he comes in for a kiss. They just keep it REAL on tv.

Okay, lemme shuddup now...

Thursday Travel Tip

Sign up to receive weekly emails from top Travel sites.

Every Wednesday, Travelzoo.com emails the Top 20 travel deals of the week. My favorite deal for this week is the California Wine Country 4 Diamond Hotel for $89. This deal is good for travel until October.
Click here to see more details

Up until recently I have been trying to plan a Hawaii trip for my birthday next month. Just last week I threw in the white towel in defeat because I couldn't come across any airfares that pleased my budget. Until... today! Travel zoo emailed me this fabulous deal!

Talk about being a day late and a dollar short.

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Picture of the Day

One of the best things about vacation: FOOOOOD!!!

E and I went to this restaurant that had a crab boil. (I don't remember the name of the restaurant because teh crab boil wasn't all that fabulous) The "Sombrero Crab Boil was a bucket of king crab legs, lobster, steak, chicken, and veggies for a cool $69 bucks.

Oh -- they ate every last bit. With extra butter and lemon.

Imitating Eddie Murphy in Delirious: "You ain't got no ice cream... you ain't got no ice cream...!"

Instead of ice cream E ordered these delicious tacos in Old Town. I was not impressed. I mean the woman was serving them from this lil shack. Oh my heavens! These were sooo good. I discarded my ice cream and ordered two more of my own. Yummy!

When I'm on vacation, my diet goes out the window. When I return home I try to return to my old eating habits. I'm still trying to keep the 4pack from ballooning up. I guess that explains why I haven't eaten dinner in the last 2 days. That should more than make up for the crazy diet I had in Diego. No, no, No, I'm not starving myself on purpose. I've just been too lazy to cook.

Here is a pic of the 4pack that E took last weekend... not too shabby if you ask me.

What I learned during my recent trip

San Diego

* I can never grow tired of that city. Every time I visit, there is always a new place to try.

* There is no such thing as "too much beach time".

* Travel with people who enjoy the beach and sun as much as I do. Those who can't stand the beach for longer than an hour are truly vacation buzzkills.

* I must drink water. Lots of it. One sip of alcohol and I'm dehydrated and the migraines start. Another vacation buzzkill.

* Traveling with a group of people can be a drag. If arranging such trips, keep them short. Two-four days is sufficent.

* Unless I'm travel with a group of people that I'm highly compatible with, then go ahead, book longer stays but no more than 5-6 days. I get sick of people easily.

* Withdraw all the money you intend to spend on the trip and not a penny more. Document all expenses in my blackberry notepad to keep track. When I am out of cash, I'm out of luck. This plan worked really well for me this time around.

* The beach is the most funnest, cheapest, way to spend the entire day doing something fun without spending very little money.

* Jumping pictures are so much fun to take.

* Paying $220 per night ($170 my share for 3 days) for a vacation home on the beach is not the business. Especially when you hardly spend much time in the home.

* Paying the same above amount to hear the ocean crashing against the rocks every morning when you wake and every night before you sleep is sooo the business.

* I gotta start charging folks for my itinerary creation services. Hours of research and not utilizing my efforts is a waste of my precious time.

* Shopping cures all blues (I knew this already)

* Traveling with E has always been fun. Traveling with E and has family puts me in the fifth wheel. Sometimes I didn't mind. I'll just make a mental note to not make this kind of excursion a frequent thing.

Tonight's dinner...

Sometimes I just feel like eating a plate of vegtables.

- - Jonez

Thursday Travel Tip

Keep all your travel docs in one place so you can have quick access.
I just used a clear sheet protctor which holds my trip details, boarding passes, and discount coupons.

- - Jonez

Thursday Travel Tip

I paid for the membership. I need to start reaping the benefits. How excited I was to learn I could save up to 30% off airport parking using my membership. I'm going to try to whip out my card for everything this weekend just to see if there is a discount behind it.


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The "biggest sale" of the "year"

All the major airlines are having a huge sale with flights ranging from $30 - $90 for one way travel in the fall.

Southwest started it yesterday. Soon after Frontier, AirTran, and Priceline jumped in the pack. (click on any of the links to go the airlines sites)

BUFFALO ain't on sale!!! Ain't that a b*itch?!

Seriously, can Buffalo folks get a break here?? *whines* I wanna see my babies!!! Don't say every city your airline flies to is on sale when you ain't giving Buffalo a hand out. I need to go back and work for the airlines again...

On a (insert sarcastic tone here) happier note: Airtran is still beating the pack. The recession is going to force me to start liking Airtran again. I dunno how I feel about this. If I keep it up, I'm going to need to sign up for their rewards program again cuz if I'm going to give them my hard earned money. I want something in return.

PHX - BUF $119 each way on Airtran (current sale)

The cheapest sale I've seen PHX-BUF was $84 on USAirways. They haven't even came close to being that cheap in over 6 months.

Excuse me. I need to go sedate myself before submitting my credit card information to AirTran.

Checklist

Mandatory items needed for beach trip:

* New dress

* New Shoes

* New bathing suit

Fabulous full length summer dress @ Ross $12.99
(Check)

Not 1, not 2, but THREE new pairs of shoes for $42 bucks. A thong sandal, a peep-toe wedge, and a gladiator wedge.
(Cheeeccckk!)

Bathing suit - still on the mission. Problem is I got a flat chest and a big booty. *sigh*

- - Jonez

I've got to get me one of these!

This would be sooo perfect for my beach trip this weekend. I just stumbled on to this TODAY. Ugh!! It's such a cool product and it's sold by one of those independent companies that don't have their products available through mass retailers. What's even more frustrating is beach thingy's website doesn't have a platform for ordering. You have to "contact" the company and he or she will get back to you whenever they feel like it.

/ start rant /

Excuse me, I'm a bit disgruntled at this company for that very reason. I haaate ordering stuff online because when I see something, I want it N.O.W. Instant gratification. I am almost willing to pay for express shipping to have this thingy in my mailbox before I get on my plane Thursday afternoon.

It's been about 8 hours since I've contacted the company about purchasing and I've not heard back from any one. I guess I could call it a blessing in disguise as I should not be shopping so impulsively. But still!!! Ugh!

/ end rant /

All of that aside.... Isn't this not a fabulous, simple product? Available in 4 different beachy colors. I'll let you know if I ever hear from the company... probably by tomorrow my desire to own this product will wane.


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Image 2 Credit

Thursday Travel Tip

Today's tip was swagger jacked from Martha Stewart online. I love hanging pictures on my wall. These shadow boxes with my travel souvenirs will definitely upgrade my living quarters.


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What I learned during my recent trip

1. Do not even bother to bring my laptop. Not only does it weigh 10 pounds, I usually never end up using it. My family had four laptops in the house. Plus I didn't really log online much.



2. I really need to stop visiting the same spots whenever I return to a beloved city. Instead of Potbelly's for lunch, I had Taylor's deli. Yummy -- but no match for Potbelly's.



3. My visit was just way too short.



4. I love, love, love, DC. Do I really want to live there? If not, consider Philly.



5. If someone is sitting in yourseat assignment, don't sweat. Simply move to the back of the plane and wait it out. You just may find a empty row available.



6. Rely on the kindness of strangers. Especially when I am too short to reach the overhead bins and there is a 10 pound laptop in my suitcase.

7. Instead of spending the last 2.5 hours in town shoe shopping, I should have used the time to head to the local passport office.

8. Pack extra hearing aid batteries.

9. It's hard to find nutritious meals in the airport terminal.


Most importantly, there is NO place like home. I really thought I would have a thriving life in Phoenix. I love the sunshine but it's lonely as hell here. Four years in the game and I'm ready to throw in the towel. In the next upcoming months I'm putting a game plan in place to prepare to move back East by Fall 2010.





- - Jonez

Picture of the Day

Remember the good ole days when your family and friends could meet you at the gate when you arrived or see you off?

My sisters .... just yesterday there were this little. Now they got cars, jobs, and driver's license. They are meeting me at the airport to pick me up.

Gosh...

My new summer tote ...

Remember that summer tote I was gushing at a few days ago? I was going to make it my mission to find a duplicate (real or fake) so that I can sport this for the summer. I ran into such a bag yesterday at my local Juneteeth festival. I declined it because 1) Serious budget cuts to prepare for travel in July and August and 2) The flower on the fake tote was different from the flower displayed on the real tote.

Forget all of that. I'll drool at the Coach tote from afar. This is the bag I've been sporting for the last couple of weeks.


It started by accident but now I rock this bag with every outfit. I don't care if it's fashionable or not. It's convenient.

Now if you want to get me the Coach tote for my birthday, (*ahem* *cough*) By all means, please do so!

Message to the kind folk at Airtran

Dear Airtran,

The only reason why you got $156 of my skybucks was because your competitors wanted to charge me an extra $100-$150 to travel home for my sister's graduation party. Which she informed me that my presence was mandatory.

Paying you is worth the price of not hearing the disappointment in her voice if I were to tell her I couldn't come because airfare was too expensive.

You still suck, but thanks for saving me $100 bucks.

~ Jonez

P.S. I read that article on which your CFO bragged about how well you guys were peforming financially. That's great news, but ya'll still suck.

How many countries have you visted?

Does a layover count? (click here for article)

My answer: 2

*SMH*

Experience Louisiana - Sweepstakes

EbonyJet.com is hosting a giveaway. Win a trip for 2 to Louisiana, in addition to $500 spending money. Winner announced August 1st.

Doesn't hurt to try and enter... Enter Here

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Twittering your travel plans ... Is it a good idea?

An article I read in my local paper yesterday:

Mesa Couple Tweets Travel Plans, Gets Robbed

Like a lot of people who use social media, Israel Hyman and his wife Noell went on Twitter to share real-time details of a recent trip.

Their posts said they were "preparing to head out of town," that they had "another 10 hours of driving ahead," and that they "made it to Kansas City."

While they were on the road, their home in Mesa was burglarized.

Hyman has an online video business called IzzyVideo.com, with 2,000 followers on Twitter. He thinks his Twitter updates tipped the burglars off.

"My wife thinks it could be a random thing, but I just have my suspicions," he said. "They didn't take any of our normal consumer electronics." They took his video-editing equipment.

My first tweets documented my travel to D.C. for inauguration. Since then I made it a habit to randomly tweet during my trips. (Never mind the fact that I haven't been on a trip since April. That will all change very soon!) This article is making me think twice. I'm already selective about my followers. Most of my followers are folks I know IRL. Some of them know my address! I'm not tripping but I'm definitely taking heed behind the message of this article. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. Half the time I don't even tweet about travel anyway.

Thursday Travel Tip

I mentioned a while back on Twitter that a few friends of mine are currently in the middle of a 4-pack challenge. By the end of July 4th, whoever has the most defined 4 pack will earn $150. One chyck dropped out a week into the challenge. The three of us are still trucking on. We email each other daily detailing our workouts and meals. It's great motivation for us to stay on track.

We all had the common goal in mind: Get our bodies ready for the beach. ATD left for her trip to the beach today. LBH is going on a family beach trip July 4th weekend. I am taking a beach trip with E on July 10th weekend.

ATD has three more weeks into the challenge. Hopefully the below tips will help her stay in shape during her vacation. While she rather use her exercise time running on the beach or playing with her adorable nephew, the equipment below can help her to stay in tip top shape during her vacation.

Aquabells Travel Weights (click on link for source) These are compact and can fit in any suitcase or carry-on. Simply fill with water for up to 16 pounds of resistance per dumbbell.

A resistance band is your friend and very inexpensive. I use mine at home when I'm too lazy to go to the gym. Again, this can easily fit into your suitcase or carry on. You can attach the band to a chair or door frame to perform different exercises.

Any other suggestions?

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Picture of the Day - Meet Darnell

E likes to call the homeless folks "bums" or some other name. I particularly don't feel good about that title because it just sounds degrading. These folks are human beings. They are just in a not- so- good situation. I like to humanize these folks by giving them names. Once I name them, E usually follows suit and refers them by their "given" name from that point on.

The black guy in the background is Darnell. He resides in San Diego. There's Ernesto in Santa Barbara and Lamar in Boston.

Just one of our little travel quirks.

Do you have any "quirks" or games you participate on every trip?

Random Rambles

My heart goes out to the friends and family of the Air France crash. The last I read, only 41 bodies have been found. I shudder to imagine what has happened to the rest of the bodies.

I'm four months past due on the whole passport thing. I came across some passport pics I took four years ago. Me no likey. I will take some newer pics. I just gotta figure out what to do with my hair first.

Speaking of passport, I'm ignoring all the articles I see online stating the new passport rules being into effect. As far as I'm concerned, they do not apply to me. It's not that I cannot afford the passport, I can. I just don't want to pay the guvment $100 effin dollars for it. I really need somebody to email me the cost breakdown of the passport fees. Why does the application cost $75 and execution cost $25?! That's just some highway robbery. As long as my name is J.C. Jonez, I will neva understand this. I didn't even have to pay that much for my own birth certificate. That's something else I feel should be free, but I'll save that discussion for another day.

I found the perfect summer tote. It's so cute! It's last season, so Coach doesn't feature it on their website. Off to Ebay I go. I'm usually iffy about knockoff purses. I rather not sport the handbag at all if I can't carry the real designer bag. With this particular style, I don't mind the knock off as long it doesn't look too fake.

I have seven trips that need to take place between now and October, including blogalicious. No financial game plan in place how I'm supposed to make that happen. Man, I need a dolla and a dream.

Bf and I are itching for a beach trip. We are in discussions about going to San Diego next month for his birthday. With seven pending vacations on the docket, I want to be frugal as possible. I suggested we drive the 6 hours to get there, hang on the beach all day, sleep in the rental car, and drive back to Phoenix. Can you believe he ain't having none of that? Since when he became too good to sleep in cars?

Southwest is having another one of their crazy summer sales. I checked earlier today and I can go to San Diego for $49 each way. I can foresee me skipping the rental car. That's five hours of my life I can be spending on the beach with a bottle of vodka.

Originally I planned to celebrate my birthday in Seattle. None of my friends could give me a definite confirmation. I love my birthdate. I wouldn't change my birthdate for the world. I haaate my birthdate too. Why do all of my friends gotta work in the school system and not be available to celebrate? I canceled the party because the lack of confirmed invites brought back memories of my 18th birthday party. I invited about 40 people and only 3 showed up. That was a big let down. Ten years later, the pain of that rejection is still fresh in my mind. I can't handle another one.

- - Jonez

#3 words - Travel Edition

A few weeks ago on Twitter, the most popular trending topics of the day was 3words or a variation of some sort. Including #3words-lie boys tell, #3wordsafterse... You get the idea.

Anyway, last week while I was asleep, the whole #3words came to my dreams. I lost like 2 hours of sleep that night because I kept coming up with #3 words pertaining to travel. Drove me crazy. I'm still thinking about that dumb 3word thingy so I'm releasing if off my mind and on to this blog.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Where's my passport?

We there yet?

Mile High Club

Crazy for Jetblue

I need gas

Check your luggage

What luggage surcharge?

Planes, Trains, Automobiles

You're going westbound?

Where's the subway?

All inclusive resort

Room Service, Please.

The Holiday Inn

Transportation Security Administration

Turks and Caicos

On-board meal

I could go on and on... I'll pause here. What 3 words can you come up with? Leave them in the comments.

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Thursday Travel Tip

Don't leave home without one of these...

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Do

Picture of the Day

Yesterday's post I mentioned about my "fantasy". Come to think of it, it already happened IRL.

I was indeed at work when I received a call that someone backed out of a cruise trip and the boat leaves the following day. It took a "Praise Jesus!" miracle to pull this off. I frantically called every available co-worker to cover my shifts, my mom assisted by booking me on the red eye flight to Miami. With only a few hours to spare after work, I quickly packed, boarded the plane, and arrived to to my destination just in time to catch the boat.

Good times...

Just in case...

{Channeling Sophia from Golden Girls}

Picture this. Summer 2009. I'm slaving away at the day job and I get a text from a friend asking me to join them on a weekend trip because ____ (insert dramatic reason here) and the plane leaves tonight! Just pay for your personal expenses. Everything else is covered. Can you join?

I can think of very few reasons to say no to an offer like that...

Soooo... just in case my "fantasy" ever comes true, I'm prepared. What you see here are the contents of my weekend bag. A dress, a long skirt, a mini skirt, bermuda shorts, and several tank tops. Along with my most important garment, the bathing suit. This is assuming my friend is going to a tropical or beach destination. A winter or cold climate destination is one of the few NO answers you'll get from me. Jonez don't do cold.



As you can see, I've made this simple by color coordinating my outfits. When I rush home to grab my bag and read the note inside which explains the other misc items I need to pack quickly including shoes, accessories, and unmentionables. After I grab those items, I'm out the door before you can say "Now boarding: Zones 1 -3".

Note to self: purchase a more fabulous weekend bag! (This will have to do for now)

For now this bag with the contents will stay tucked away in the back of my closet until I get that call.

Okay... somebody call or email me now....