My Travels

I had taken advantage of a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass promotion in the prior quarter and so I used my earned companion pass to Maui. I had hoped to used it more than once but it worked out this way. I was able to find a Jeep through Enterprise . I didn't know if I would need a Jeep but there are parts of Maui that a 4x4 is easiest and I was able to get the new hybrid Rubicon.  I checked into the Hilton Grand Vacations Club Maui Bay Villas . It is one of Hilton's newer timeshare properties and still in construction on their final phases. If you are expecting a full resort, this isn't quite the property. I characterize the property as a high scale apartment complex with beach access. Unfortunately for me, the week prior the island experienced a mudslide due to heavy rains. Between the fires last year and the mudslides this year, Maui is not having a good time of it. The hotel was in the path of the mudslide but they cleared alot of it during the weekend. The mudslides...

 My international trip of the year is to Bali, Indonesia! For this trip, I had to really think through how I was going to get to Indonesia and in what ways. So I ended up on two itineraries, one with United and the other with Singapore Airlines . There is no real easy way to Indonesia, most flights from the US will force you to layover somewhere. I was traveling with family on this trip and they opted to fly Eva Airways (even getting the Hello Kitty plane). Airline On this trip, we splurged to get onto Polaris Business Class on United from the US to Singapore and offset the cost with using points on Singapore Airlines Business Class from Singapore to Bali. Because of the Polaris flight, I was able to spend some time at the Polaris Lounge in San Francisco International Airport. Compared to the Los Angeles International Airport Polaris Lounge, I find the SFO location appealing because of the bartenders. The Asian gentleman that works there has probably worked there for decades. I alw...