It felt like March arrived out of nowhere. Right away, it seemed like spring showed up with it. Suddenly we enjoyed sunnier days and warmer temperatures. I came down with a cold that I battled for the first part of the month. Our “little efforts” paid off in the form of a cleaner apartment with... Read More
This post completes our series reviewing our holiday trip to South Florida. With all that's happened in the world since, it feels like a lifetime ago. I have some thoughts forthcoming about the pandemic we are currently experiencing, but until those are ready to publish, it felt right to stick to my editorial calendar and... Read More
In January, we spent a weekend with another couple at a ski resort. The resort is within driving distance for both of us, so it made for a simple short getaway. The resort has downhill and cross country skiing opportunities, in addition to other winter activities like tubing, snowshoeing and fat tire biking. This resort... Read More
During our holiday vacation to Florida, we stayed at a vacation condo with a full kitchen. Because we have traveled to this resort on several previous occasions, we were comfortable with the kitchen amenities. We also knew where the local grocery store was located and what to expect. As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy cooking... Read More
This post may contain referral or affiliate links. See our full disclosure here. We don’t consider ourselves expert points hackers. Maybe we just don’t like labels. In any event, we use a carefully curated credit card collection to help squeeze a little bit more out of our travel budget. We carry a couple of cash... Read More
The month began in sunny Costa Rica. The trip was the perfect dose of Vitamin D for us. A full review will come in the future. Until that review is posted, we paid for the Costa Rica trip with some travel hacking. We tried something a little different with this travel schedule--we departed on a... Read More
Our flight arrived slightly behind schedule on Friday night, around 9:30 p.m. We flew into Jacksonville and planned to spend Friday night at Mr. Vine’s parents’ home in St. Augustine. I had a rougher flight than usual. It had been a long day for both of us by the time we landed. It took about... Read More
We have done some travel hacking in the past (namely, our hotel stay in Tokyo in the fall of 2017). But for the most part, we are stockpiling travel rewards to cash in during early retirement. Our expectation is that we can take better advantage of our flexible schedules for valuable redemption. Also, it will... Read More
What is with these winter months lagging? We had a full and busy month, but it still feels like the month dragged by. The good news is that we feel a bit more settled and like we are finding a routine. That does make for somewhat boring monthly updates. Half of my immediate family celebrates... Read More
As discussed previously, we booked a hacker fare to Florida. This meant that we booked one way flights on two different carriers. On our return flight, we also booked separate itineraries due to gift card redemption. All of the details on our airfare pricing are included in this post. Today, we’re going to talk about... Read More