How Many Trips Did We Book This Month?

Once we decided to travel again, we lost no time in booking trips, as you can tell from the previous posts. Here’s a quick recap of what we booked in April.

• Iceland – We made reservations for a week-long road trip in Iceland for August 3, 2021.

• Seattle – We booked a four-night trip to Seattle for August 19, 2021, so that Tim could visit his high school friends.

• British Isles – We booked a 15-day British Isles Explorer cruise, thereby creating a 29-day back-to-back itinerary with our previously-booked Viking Homelands cruise from Stockholm to London for May-June 2022.

• Fall Train Trip – We made a reservation for a two-night trip on Amtrak’s California Zephyr from Denver to Glenwood Springs and back for September 27, 2021, to see the fall colors.

April was an expensive month since many of the reservations had to be pre-paid. We put our travel fund to good use!

Let's Make Plans to See Fall Colors

Thinking about fall colors in April may seem a bit odd, but some trips require advance planning. I had always wanted to ride Amtrak’s California Zephyr during the fall, and this seemed like a good year for such a trip.

Although one never knows when colors might peak, we took a chance and booked a round-trip from Denver to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, for the last week in September. We decided to leave on Tuesday, September 28, to avoid the weekend crowds. We would spend Monday night in Denver since the train leaves so early, and one night in Glenwood Springs.

Now, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that the leaves cooperate.

This Is What I Hope We'll See (Photo Courtesy of Amtrak)

Let's Cruise to the British Isles

After booking our Viking cruise in January, I continued to look at the Viking website to see what other cruises might pique our interest. Lo and behold, one cruise in particular fit that bill.

I noticed that the Viking Venus, the ship we will be on for our Viking Homelands cruise, was scheduled to sail next to the British Isles. Wouldn’t it be cool, I thought, to stay on the ship for an additional 15 days? Plus, the itinerary for the British Isles Explorer looked fabulous and ended in London, one of my favorite cities.

British Isles Explorer Cruise

At the same time, we were also thinking about traveling to Iceland on our own this summer. This idea for Iceland began to make even more sense when we thought about adding the British Isles Explorer cruise to our original cruise, which meant that we would not be able to do a post-cruise extension to Iceland. Traveling to Iceland on our own this year and cruising to the British Isles next year seemed like a perfect idea.

After hesitating for two weeks to convince ourselves we were not being too impulsive, we booked the 15-day British Isles Explorer, adding it to our Viking Homelands itinerary, to make a 29-day, back-to-back cruise from Stockholm to London for May-June 2022. We also cancelled our pre-cruise extension in Stockholm, deciding we would just explore there for a few days on our own.

Our New Itinerary

Let's Send Tim to Seattle

Tim has kept in touch with many of his high school friends, several of whom have settled in the Seattle area. It was high time for him to plan a mini reunion. I decided to stay home so that Tim could have a fun, long weekend with the boys.

We booked his airfare, hotel, and car rental, and he’ll leave Colorado on August 17 for a four-night getaway.

Let's Go to Iceland

When Tim and I booked our Viking Homelands cruise in January for travel in May 2022, we tacked on a post-cruise extension to Iceland. This was a three-night package that included time in Reykjavik, a day touring the Golden Circle, and a visit to the Blue Lagoon. Tim had always wanted to visit Iceland, and I thought it would be a cool place to explore.

In April, we read that Iceland was opening to vaccinated Americans, and we started to think about traveling there on our own during this coming summer.

We began to look at ways to visit Iceland. At first, we were just going to base ourselves in Reykjavik and take day tours to the major sites. Plans soon evolved, however, to the idea of renting a car and doing an independent, self-guided road trip in South and West Iceland. We decided to spend seven nights there and leave Colorado on August 2. We were ready to book flights and hotels. 

Icelandair offers a nonstop flight from Denver to Reykjavik, a true bonus for us, and when we checked availability, we found that business class seats were just a few hundred dollars more than coach on the outbound flight. We decided to treat ourselves, as this would be our first trip to Europe since our honeymoon. We weren’t so lucky with prices on the return flight and settled for coach.

We then went ahead with planning our route and booking hotels. Although that limited any spontaneity, we didn’t want to spend time looking for hotels while we were on the road. Plus, we had read that availability in some of the remote areas where we would be traveling could be limited. By the end of April, our trip was pretty much set.

Our Tentative Route through Iceland

Points, Miles, and Credit Cards

During the first several months of 2021, I developed a new hobby – the points-and-miles game. Although I had taken advantage of frequent flyer and hotel reward programs in the past, I had never collected points via credit cards.

When Tim and I had opened credit cards in the past, we had opted for cash-back cards, since we knew we would not be traveling by plane or staying in hotels while we were RVing.

However, in the last year I began reading more articles and blogs about credit card points and the huge bonuses available after opening new accounts. So, I convinced Tim to apply for a new card, and on March 31, he applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Less than a month later, I applied for the Capital One Venture card.

Learning All About Points, Miles, and Credit Cards

The “game” had begun. Now the fun part – “spending” the points we were earning.

A Cold, Snowy Winter in Colorado

Tim and I had been unable to find a museum project for the end of 2020 or early 2021, so we spent a cold and snowy winter in Colorado. Our biggest snowstorm of the season occurred on March 14. I’m sure glad I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be, except inside our warm, cozy condo.

During the Snowstorm

I Think There Are Cars Under that Snow

The View Through Our Window

Tim occupied himself with another GIS class at Front Range Community College during the winter. I think he was happy that the class was held via Zoom so he didn't have to drive to Longmont in weather like this.

I also kept myself busy during the winter. Reading has become a real passion of mine, and I seem to finish at least two books every week.