Museum Day Live is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine, coming up this weekend on Saturday, September 29, when participating museums across the country give free admission to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket.
Smithsonian magazine hosts the annual event to encourage people to revisit their favorite local museum or try a new one in the area. The deal is simple too. Go to the Museum Day website and register to download a free ticket good for free admission for two people at one of the museums on the list.
In addition to the Smithsonian facilities in Washington, DC, free every day of the year anyway, a number of museums all around the United States are participating in Museum Day. Among them is the Aerospace Museum of California exhibiting 40 military and civilian aircraft, an engine collection from early aircraft to rockets, motion ride simulator, F-16 simulators, art, aviation and aerospace exhibits. In Florida, the Harry S Truman Little White House in Key West is included too. Used as Truman’s residence for 175 days of his presidency, Presidents William H. Taft, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton also called the place home.
Special exhibits, parking and Imax presentations are not included.
The Smithsonian is a diverse organization with many interests and surely worth a visit if not a lifetime of study. This video, typical of the Smithsonian’s diversity, features “Photography Changes Everything,” a new book from the Smithsonian and the Aperture Foundation, which uses the visual assets of the museum to explore how photographs impact our culture and our lives.
“How do you afford to travel so much?” This is the question I get all the time from disbelieving friends, colleagues and relatives who want to travel more but think they can’t afford it. No one’s ever come right out and said it, but I know some must wonder if my wife and I are drug mules, or if we have some other illicit source of income we’re not owning up to (the answer is no).
After returning from a three-month working trip in the Mediterranean a couple months ago, I told a good friend that we were heading off for a camping trip on Cape Cod and he quickly shot back a text, which read: “I don’t understand your lifestyle. Please explain.”
We are fortunate to be able to work from just about anywhere because for those who want to see the world the problem is always time, not money. The other day, after spending around $200 at Target on a whole cart full of random items, it suddenly dawned on me how affordable travel can be. When we were traveling, I didn’t need most of the items that were in my shopping cart. We put all of our things in storage prior to our long Mediterranean trip and cut out a lot of non-essential items we wouldn’t need while out of the country. So while we were traveling, we were paying $248 per month to store about 7,500 pounds worth of household goods (for a family of four), but we had no rent/mortgage, utilities, mobile phones, cable, or Internet service bills.
In calculating how much a trip will cost, we tend to estimate our total expenses and then consider that the cost, but that’s not really fair because it’s not as if you spend nothing while you’re at home. If you live in an expensive city in the U.S., like us, you might actually save money by being somewhere else.
When I looked through our cart at Target, there were so many items in there that we either didn’t need while on the road, or simply didn’t bother to buy, because we like to travel as light as possible. Napkins, paper towels, household cleaning products, light bulbs, zip-lock bags, condiments, snacks of all sorts, toiletries, toilet paper, spices, Kleenex, hair spray (for my wife), coffee and humidifier filters, a printer cartridge and a dozen other miscellaneous things at least.
When traveling, especially without a car, you have to carry all your belongings, so every time you consider a purchase you are forced to ask yourself if you really need it and if it’ll fit in your suitcase. But while at home, we can accumulate as much junk as we like, so we tend to buy more random stuff we don’t absolutely have to have.
I can’t tell you how much we would have spent had we remained in the U.S. for the three months we were in the Mediterranean, but I’m pretty sure we spent less while in the Greek islands and about the same or perhaps slightly more in Italy. In Greece, we spent about 50€ per night to rent budget hotel rooms with kitchenettes or apartments and we could have gone cheaper than that. We also traveled by ferry and lingered in each place for at least a week, which is usually the key to getting a good deal.
If you look online, renting apartments by the week in many destinations both here and abroad can seem very expensive, but if you spend a night or two in a hotel and then negotiate in person, you can often get a much better deal.
To be fair, there are some expenses, like laundry and car rental, for example, that crop up on the road but not at home. But the bottom line is that travel, especially overseas travel, can be cheaper than staying at home if you travel smart and eliminate your rent or mortgage by renting your place out or putting your things in storage while you’re away. And even if you can’t or don’t want to give up your base, even temporarily, don’t forget that your utility bills will be cheaper while you’re away.
Now for the hard part: finding the time to travel. The truth is that these days, many of us have jobs that can be done anywhere via the Internet. The problem is that many bosses are control freaks and they want to have your close by, supposedly to facilitate communication, but maybe also just to keep an eye on you to make sure you aren’t slacking off.
Here’s my suggestion. If you want to try a working holiday somewhere, start modest and tell your boss that if he feels that your work suffered while away, you’ll consider those days to have been vacation days upon return. It might not work, but it’s worth a shot, and if that fails, make the case for unpaid leave.
And when it comes time to plan your next trip, look around your house and just think about all the things you aren’t going to need while you’re away. It’ll make you feel great about getting the hell out of town.
Museum officials said, “Sustainability in the current economic climate, with reduced funding for the arts, was a significant factor in the decision.”
The museum tried to put a brave face on the announcement by highlighting its past achievements. It was founded in 1982 in San Francisco at a time when artists carrying on craft and folk traditions were generally overlooked by the art market. The museum was instrumental in changing that, the release said.
The closure is scheduled to coincide with the end of its current exhibition “Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers.”
There is no word yet on what will happen with the museum’s collection. The museum is the only one of its kind in northern California.
It may be hard to believe but a new ski season is closer than you think. The mountaintops of Colorado have already started to receive light snow and ski resorts across the Western states are already busy preparing for opening day. One of those resorts is the legendary Arapahoe Basin, which is generally amongst the first hills to open each year and the last to close as well. That long season makes A-Basin an extremely popular destination for avid skiers and snowboarders who have become accustomed to getting their moneys worth out of their season pass.
This year, the folks at the resort have actually made it even easier for us to cash in on the savings. Until the end of the year, they’re offering their new Double Down 2-Season Pass for just $499. The pass grants unlimited and unrestricted access to Arapahoe Basin for the entire 2012/2013 season as well as all of the 2013/2014 season. Yep, just as the name implies, the pass will take care of all your skiing needs for the next two years.
But that’s not all. The pass also entitles the holder to 10 percent discounts on food and beverages, with the same discount applying to any retail items bought in the ski shop. It also allows for reduced ticket prices for any friends and family members who happen to tag along, not to mention special pricing on lessons and performance tuning of skis or snowboards too.
Last year wasn’t a particularly good one for snow at most of the Colorado resorts. But A-Basin averages 350 inches of fresh powder each winter, which means even on a down year it’s still a pretty good place to hit the slopes. The mountain features 900 skiable acres with 108 total trails, the longest of which is more than 1.5 miles in length. With that much room to roam, there are enough runs for everyone to explore no matter if they’re a beginner or an expert.
Arapahoe Basin is expected to open in mid-October and typically doesn’t close until May, giving it one of the longest ski seasons of any place in North America.
As American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights through October, passengers were left scrambling for alternate flights or airlines to handle their travel plans. Those actually flying experienced more flight delays than normal too. Savvy passengers with travel insurance came out on top though, thanks to a normally unused feature common to many policies.
Blame it on American Airlines bankruptcy issues, labor problems, maintenance problems or layoffs, in a week’s time the troubled airline had canceled about 300 flights, mostly in and out of Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) airport.
“Prior to the recent issues, American had been running a good operation, with on-time performance and reliability measures at their best levels in many years,” American Airlines spokesman Bruce Hicks said in an LA Times story. “The recent disruptions are primarily due to the significant increase in maintenance write-ups by our pilots, many right at the time of departure.”
It’s a situation totally out of the control of passengers but one that can be made a bit easier to swallow with some basic travel insurance that covers flight delays or cancellations and, most importantly right now, offers traveler assistance.Travel Guard, for example, has a single trip plan and an annual plan for frequent travelers.
Their Savvy Traveler plan covers trip cancellation, interruption and delay, emergency medical treatment or evacuation, lost, stolen or damaged baggage or personal effects and baggage delay on any one given trip. The cost? About $25 for a $500 flight in October.
Frequent fliers can get Annual Travel Insurance for personal or business travel that covers trips or vacations throughout the year. This one includes everything from trip cancellation and interruption to unannounced strikes, weather delays and more – plus it comes with coverage for medical expenses that might be incurred away from home. That’s especially important when traveling internationally.
I bought one of their annual plans last year for about $200. It paid off when some medical expenses I incurred sailing on a cruise in international waters added up to over $2000, little of which was paid by my primary health insurance. The travel insurance paid the rest.
Say a flight booked on American Airlines was cancelled. The airline would do its best to reschedule. Frequent flyers know the drill too: flight canceled, stand in long line at airline customer service counter and hope to get to destination at a reasonable time.
But what would my travel insurance have done for me? We asked Travel Guard to find out.
“In addition to the 24-hour assistance Travel Guard provides customers in rebooking their flights, accommodations and other pre-planned travel arrangements, in the event that their trip is delayed five or more hours, travel insurance can reimburse for expenses incurred until travel becomes possible,” Carol Mueller, VP of Travel Guard North America told Gadling.
That could come in handy when a late, weather-delayed flight causes a missed connection and the next flight out is tomorrow. Weather-related flight delays? Technically, not the airline’s problem. The travel insurance company, much like a travel agent, is on your side and ready to help when needed.
“Cancellation would be covered when due to mechanical/equipment failure of the carrier, or when inclement weather causes delay or cancellation of travel,” added Mueller. “We recommend customers contact us at our toll-free number as soon as they know their trip is going to be delayed, interrupted or cancelled and we can help with alternate solutions to their travel plans.”
Regardless of which travel insurance company we choose, having that protection along for the ride when traveling can pay off. Liability-limiting reasons for airlines to cancel or delay flights due to weather events and “maintenance” issues seem to be on the rise. That takes travel insurance from an optional extra not likely to be used to something that may be seriously considered.