Testing the Google “My Tracks” app to see how it works to post where we have been traveling to use on our next Hawaii vacation. I am hoping to be able to post daily maps of our travels. Maybe not air miles, but at least road miles…

This is our return from Tanger Outlets at Riverhead, NY to Joe’s Crab Shack at Tanger outlets at The Arches in Deer Park. About an hour’s drive, but a good test, I think…

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4llnjWad3w7MEctODhEcTJnVzg/edit?usp=drivesdk

Well, as of 6:00am this morning, we were exactly two months (or 63 days) from our departure date for our next Hawaii Vacation. I have completed the 2015 Editions of the O’ahu Travel Guide and Big Island Travel Guide, and they are available for download if anyone is interested in reviewing them.

All of the information contained within the guides has been compiled from online sources, mainly the Official Tourism Website for Hawai’i with some items from other locations. We will use this information during our travels to facilitate our visiting the attractions we are most interested in seeing.  Since this will be our fourth visit to both O’ahu and the Big Island of Hawai’i, we will be more selective on our sightseeing, and maybe a bit more relaxed in our daily activities. It is definitely not like our first visit in 2007, when we thought it was likely our one and only visit to the State of Paradise…

I have added the 2015 Travel Information page, which includes:

• Our Hotel and Flight Information, which will be updated as United makes any changes (already changed our departure times on the flights between Syracuse and Chicago!)
• Our tentative travel Itinerary, which is really just things we might do, nothing set in stone, and we will “go with the flow” and enjoy ourselves. I just like to have an idea of travel times to various parts of the islands and what we can do to maximize a day, if we choose to do so…
• Oahu and Big Island Route Maps, which parallel the written itinerary above, used to determine what we can do in the allotted time….

I am still working on the Oahu Travel Guide, thinking about what else I might like to add to it, and if there are any items I would like to add, edit, change or delete from the Big Island Travel Guide I updated for the 2013 Trip.  I am thinking of adding a “Restaurants” Section to both of them for this journey…

This past Thursday, we stopped back at AAA in Cicero to pick up our Travel Paperwork. This time we booked through Travel Impressions instead of Pleasant Holidays, as they had a slightly better deal than Pleasant Holidays and we could get the Turtle Bay Package that included two Full Breakfast Buffets at the Hula Grille every morning of our stay. ($420 added value!)

We also paid for the travel package with out United MileagePlus Explorer Card to avoid the $25 first bag per person baggage fees, and then found out Travel Impressions did not use our credit card for paying for the airfare, they buy everything in bulk with their own AMEX card.  When our AAA Agent talked to them, they tried to work it out with United to no avail, so instead, they just refunded us $180 on the package to cover the baggage fees and our inconvenience (baggage fees = $150, $30 inconvenience payment)

We also booked our flights from Syracuse to San Francisco and back using our United Mileage earned from previous flights and credit card purchases, so that saved over $1000 in the trip cost.  We thought about upgrading to First Class instead, but just figured it was better to get the free flights….

And to top off the savings, we booked our San Francisco hotel (Hampton Inn San Francisco – Airport) and Alamo Rental Cars for both outgoing and return stays with our Chase Freedom Rewards Points, which covered about two thirds of the cost, all just for buying our regular every day items over the past year or so 🙂

Now, to use our Discover Card Rewards to buy some gift cards for restaurants, etc for use during our travels 🙂