It occurred to me that posting some wonderful travel stories in the midst of the LA fires seemed tonedeaf, to say the least. Hence the pause since my last post.  We are a resilient city but have a positively herculean road to recovery in front of us. Again, stating the obvious. And now the immense tragedy of the planes over D.C.  Godspeed to the families of the victims.

On to something wonderful to report (at least for me): one of my Antarctica photos was selected by travel guru Peter Greenberg as his site’s Photo of the Week!  I proudly share this forthwith, posted on my birthday no less — also the date most associated with the fires. Talk about a dubious distinction.

Photo of the Week — January 8, 2025

More travel news:  The Wall Street Journal recently published their annual Best and Worst Airlines of 2024. So who were the winners and losers?  Delta by a country mile for the winner, followed very closely by Southwest and Alaska. Frontier by the same metric for the loser. Next to last?  Spirit Airlines.  One must wonder what the upside is for Spirit and Frontier merging.  The aspects judged:  Fewest cancelled flights, delays, mishandled bags; and best on-time arrivals.  Does this impact which airline you choose to fly?

On that point, we’ve always been part of One World with American, British, Iberia, etc.  But it has gotten increasingly impossible to have enough miles to cover international business class seats.  I now often “bite the bullet” and factor in airfare with the cost of our travel.  It kills me but such is life.  Fortunately there are some pretty saavy tools for shopping the best fares. Everything just takes a bit longer and often more research is required. In the end, it is worth it — at least for me and the hubby!