Family Camping at Interstate Park

This past weekend I made a trip back toward home to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary with a family camping excursion to Interstate Park.  It's been far too long since we did this type of activity together, and despite a few downpours managed to have a pretty enjoyable time.  The mosquitos also tended to stay away for the most part!

The park itself is quite large - you can find out more info here:

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/interstate/

I'm looking forward to doing this again in the future.  Nice to be outside and enjoy nature!

Switzerland from South to North

A much needed vacation week has now concluded and overall the trip was very successful.  Given the current events happening in Nice and Turkey, I'm glad that there were no flight delays or other impacts.

From a travel planning perspective, I couldn't have been more pleased.  2nd Class Swiss Travel passes were used for four days and provided excellent value traveling between Bellinzona, Murren, and Zurich.  A side trip to Baden was even possible.  I chose Booking.com for the lodging reservations and points for the final night with no problems (I've found excellent value using the site in the past) - the train pass also included the Swiss Museum Pass and access to all local transport.  Flights were booked using United miles (60,000 r/t) with limited taxes on Swiss and UA.  Choices for stays this trip included:

Fattoria Amorosa

Hotel Jungfrau

Hotel Sunnehus

Holiday Inn Express Z Airport

The weather cooperated for the most part and there were splendid views and pictures possible.  The time always flies by too quickly - looking forward to another excursion back soon!

3rd Quarter Chase Freedom bonus now active!

We are now into the 3rd quarter of the year, so if you have the Chase Freedom card you can now earn 5x points on all Restaurants and Warehouse Club stores.  (Don't forget to register!)  I'm especially looking forward to the restaurant earnings since even the cafeteria on campus qualifies for the bonus.  Between that and normal gift card use it's a great way to earn bonus for your everyday spend!  And if you don't have the card, there's no annual fee and a very minimum spend requirement.