Free Travel with Bonus Miles

Probably everyone in the USA who has a Social Security number get unsolicited mail (actual and electronic) from banks with credit card offers.. There are all kinds of lucrative offers in these brochures like 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers, cash back, or rewards points good for merchandise and free travel.  Usually, I would just throw these letters straight into the trash.  You see, I never really liked to have a lot of credit cards.  I mean, what if I loose track of one, forget to pay it on time and my credit history gets bad. Or someone gets hold of the credit card number, starts using it and I won't even know about it until its too late... Who needs this trouble?!

That is until I started to receive offers from Chase offering me a Continental Airlines credit card with a sigh on bonus of around 30,000 miles. As I kept ignoring the offers, they were getting better and better: 35,000 free miles, 40,000...  One day I got an e-mail with a 50,000 Continental miles personal offer.  This I could no longer ignore.

Now, a little bit of a background about me.  I was born in former Soviet Union republic of Azerbaijan.  When I was 17 years old I emigrated with my family to the United States.  For more than 20 years I consider USA my home.  Still, I haven't lost contact with my school friends who, just like me, also got scattered all over the world.  A lot of them settled in Moscow, Russia, while some stayed in Baku - the capital of Azerbaijan. To be able to see them would have been a tremendous financial undertaking.  I did visit my friends in 2000 when I was still single. When I got "married with children" things became different.  It is difficult to justify spending several thousand dollars just to hang out with friends when your first priority is your family. An so I kept postponing the trip, you know - maybe next year...

When I received the above mentioned offer I realized that maybe - just maybe, I will not have to wait one more year to see my friends. I already had some miles with Continental Airlines from my business travel.  This bonus would make it totally possible for me to make a free trip to Russia and Azerbaijan.  So, I took a deep breath and filled out the credit card application.

A couple of weeks later I had just enough miles to make a trip that I was dreaming about for 10 years!

Stay tuned for the trip report and more stories on free bonus miles...

Азербайджанская кухня, блюда: Пити, Кюфта-бозбаш, Дюшбара, Довга, Собза коурма

Азербайджанская кухня одна из самых интересных кухонь мира в целом и Востока в частности. Она в чем-то схожа с традициями кавказских и среднеазиатских народов, но имеет свои самобытные особенности. Она примечательна обилием всевозможных мясных, рыбных и овощных блюд, дополняемых ароматной зеленью и специями.

Самые искушенные гурманы, приезжающие в Азербайджан, стали ценителями национальной кухни. Изделия и блюда азербайджанской кухни оригинальны и неповторимы. Не секрет, что сугубо азербайджанские блюда, как долма, бозбаш, бозартма, чыхыртма, хашил, шашлык, пити, плов, говурма включены в национальные меню соседних кавказских народов.

Jersey Shore - Pt. Pleasant NJ, July 2011

Day trip to the beach...

Camping at Colonial Woods Family Camping Resort, Upper Black Eddy, PA

Going camping is always a very exciting event for our family.  We look forward to it most of the year, yet only go once or twice during the summer months.  It involves a lot of preparations, a lot of discussions as to where to go, and what to take with us.  This time was no different.  I was trying to find something close such as Timberland lake campground where we went last year.  Being in the "wilderness" and at the same time very close from home creates a very safe feeling about the trip.  My brother, who at the time of planning was going to join us was insisting on going a bit further into the woods of Pennsylvania.  Since last year we went camping in "our neighborhood" we decided to follow my brother's advice and booked a site at Colonial Woods Family Camping Resort.  This campground had everything we were looking for:  clean bathrooms and showers, big swimming and spray pools, mini-golf, open space and playground for kids.  He also picked a date for the trip.  Unfortunately, due to a family event - his daughter's birthday, he did not join us in this trip.  Luckily, our friends decided to join us.  They have never gone camping before, but were very interested in trying.

Philadelphia International Auto Show - 2011

Philadelphia International Auto Show - 2011

Every year for the past several years our family visits the New York International Auto Show.  We like to see whats new in the auto industry and the kids love to jump from one car to another and touch every button possible - something they are not allowed to do in my car.  This year we decided to visit a neighboring city - Philadelphia.  Philadelphia hosts this show a couple of months before New York.  While it is about as close to us as New York, it is much easier to get to and costs a lot less!

The full photo-report will follow soon...

The Bremen Town Musicians (Бременские Музыканты - Мюзикл)

Last Friday our family went to see The Bremen Town Musicians (Бременские Музыканты) the musical.
The show was performed by the group of dancers from Moscow at the Whitman Theater located in Brooklyn College.

To make sure we get there on time and don't get caught in rush hour traffic we decided to leave home well in advance.  However, to my surprise, there was no traffic anywhere - not in New Jersey, not in Staten Island, not even in Brooklyn!  Unbelievable! The only slowdown happened near the Brooklyn College, but not due to traffic but because of all traffic lights and poor road conditions.  The snow removal is still not 100% in New York.

Anyway, we got the theater one hour before the show.  Needless to say, we were first!

By the way, this was a really great performance.  The singing, dancing, and humor that the actors injected into the show was fabulous.  They did a great job at making it fun not only for kids but also for adults.  And since this show was attributed to the 40th aniversary of the very popular animation movie, it made the adults, myself included, feel like kids again!

Here is a YouTube clip that shows you just how fabulous this show was.  Enjoy...