Getting Closer

Only 76 more days until our trip to Britain, Scotland and Ireland. I’m looking forward to checking out Delta’s BusinessElite Flat-Bed Seats.

Good Start to 2012

Today I’m starting the year off right with my first international flight of the year to Guadalajara. Unfortunately this year will probably be much slower travel-wise than 2011, so I’ll have to see if I can work in a couple extra vacations at some point.

Guadalajara, Mexico

About to head out to Guadalajara for 8 days, time to see what the non-resort side of Mexico has to offer.

2011 Travel Recap

Looking back on my travel this year, I have to say, 2011 has been one of my busiest years ever. So far this year I’ve went on vacations to:

1. Cozumel, Mexico
2. South America (Peru, Argentina and Brazil)
3. Washington, DC
4. Allentown, PA
5. Hawaii (Maui and the Big Island)

I’ve thought about trying to fit another vacation in, but with a few upcoming work trips to Guadalajara, Mexico, I don’t think I’ll have the time. For next year the only thing we have planned is a 17 day tour of Great Britain and Ireland, which means I need to start planning another vacation at some point. The places I have in mind so far for next year are San Juan, San Diego or Salt Lake City. I haven’t come across any good deals yet, hopefully sometime in the next few months something will pop up.

With all of this travel I was finally able to earn Delta Platinum Medallion status (along with quite a few MQM’s I’ll be rolling over next year). I was also able to maintain my Hilton Diamond status, SPG Gold status and earn Hertz 5-Star status.

Big Island - Day 7

For our seventh and final day of our trip we decided to take a helicopter ride over the Big Island before taking our red-eye flight back home. After doing a bit of research on the best helicopter tour company I decided on Blue Hawaiian and we chose the Big Island Spectacular as our tour. This tour took us from Waikoloa up to the volcanoes where we were able to see some active lava flows…

From there the helicopter took us up the coast line where we were able to see some pretty spectacular waterfalls…

After being in the air for about an hour and a half we flew back to Waikoloa to end our tour. This was my first helicopter tour in Hawaii and I have to say, it was well worth it. From the ground we never would have had the opportunity to see an active lava flow or the waterfalls along the coast of the Big Island.

Overall this trip was action packed with a ton of different activities every day, but it was well worth the long flights to get there. Sooner or later I’ll have to make it back to check out some of the other islands!