Halloween at Legacy Travel

Philip is dressed up as Tom Petters


Here is Briana doing her best imitation of Mr. Petters long time assistant who helped the feds by wearing a wire to gather evidence against Petters.


Here is Marty as a Mongolian Monk. (I will say that this is the first year that it wouldn't be awkward to explain Marty's costume to my children.)


And here is Terrah as a Gangsta....

Happy Birthday, Philip

I Voted

Huh?

I just got this email:

Hi Catherine Banks,


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===========================================

Rest assured...anything you read here? I wrote it....

Me at Age 2 (?)

Consumed

I attend Chase Oaks Church in Plano. (Formerly Fellowship Bible Church North) Right now our Senior Pastor is doing a sermon series called "Consumed"

I know that the sermon series are planned for well in advance. What Godly timing for this one.

Click here to watch the sermons.

We were on the news again last night.

This time the story was about Destination Weddings.

Legacy Travel on CBS 11 Last Night

As promised, here is the link to the story for which we were interviewed yesterday.

Cathi on TV

CBS 11 News came today to interview me for a story about Holiday travel. They tell me we'll be on at 5pm on Channel 11 at 5pm today. Of course, we could get bumped by breaking news.

Tune us in!

Morgan is Back!

We are so happy that Morgan returned to school today!

London and Paris...coming soon...

In just 17 days I'll be winging my way to London and Paris. Here is an email I sent to my niece today to further the discussion of what we'll do while we're in London:

Our London Hotel:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1925

I've been reading my London book and am asking you to consider the following:

(The Unofficial Guide to London rates attractions based on a scale of 5 stars and they break it down by age group. I think you would qualify for the "Young Adult" category and I, sadly, qualify for the "Over 30" group)

1. The British Museum
http://www.britishmuseum.org/default.aspx
Admission is free (always good) and it is rated 5 stars for both of our categories

2. Changing of the Guard
http://www.changing-the-guard.com/
It is free (of course) we didn't see it last time. It is a quintessentially London sort of thing to do..however it is only 2 stars for each of our age groups. I don't feel strongly about it....to get a good viewing spot would require hanging out well ahead of time and might eat up half of one of our days. But if you feel strongly about it we can certainly do it.

3. Houses of Parlament
http://www.parliament.uk/
This is 12 Pound Sterling...($25.00US). I saw it one one of my prior trips. It is rated three stars for young adults and four stars for my age group. The main reason I mention it is because you mentioned wanting to see Buckingham Palace and since that is not available I thought I'd mention this.

4. London Zoo
http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/
14.50 Pound Sterling (US$30). Rated 4 stars for both age groups. Just sounded a little cool...thought I'd mention it.

5. Museum of London
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/
Free (YAY!). 5 Stars for both. This museum is about the history of London which sounds cool. Another good part is that since it is free if we get there and hate it we can leave. :-)

6. Tower of London
http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/
16 Pound Stering (US$35ish) Kind of expensive. They do have a 45 pound sterling admission for families..so maybe we could do that. I have never seen this and it is rated 5 stars for both. I would really like to see this.

On second thought:
http://www.hrp.org.uk/supportus/membership/default.aspx

I think I'm going to buy us a joint annual membership. It's only a few pounds more than it would take to get us into the tower of London and it also gets us into 4 other palaces one of which is Kensington Palace which has a display of some of Diana's dresses...so I'd like to do that too.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/stories/dianasdresses.aspx

7. Victoria and Albert Museum
http://www.vam.ac.uk/

Free and rated 5 stars for both age groups...it is, however another museum

8. Gastropubs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropub

I think we need to hit at least one of them...they sound like a good inexpensive good quality place to eat...

9. Half Price Ticket Booth
http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/tkts/

I don't see anything I care enough about to buy in advance...half price is our friend.

10. The Comedy Store
http://www.thecomedystore.co.uk/index.php
Near our hotel 15 pound sterling..might be fun..

11. How much of a shopper are you? There are outdoor markets on various days of the week. Portobello Road Market...Camden Market...street vendors...kind of fun. Tell me how you feel about it.

http://www.portobelloroad.co.uk/
http://www.camdenlock.net/


Here is a link to a google map I've prepared with all of these things indicated.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

Love, Sass

Lindsey's Fam Video

It is going to be fascinating....

Being in Europe the day after the US elections. I was in Italy the day of the last US Presidential election. Talking to people and how they felt about what was going on here was so interesting.

I think Europe is leaning Obama from what I can read.

Debates Tonight

I'm so tired of the whole process. I wish the elections were tomorrow so we could get this over with. All that either of them talk about is the talking points provided by their aides. I wish they would just get real. And..they probably both badly need a nap. So, how about if they take a nap tonight and leave us all out of it.

Destination Weddings

I had an interesting conversation with a bride today. One of our agents had worked extensively to understand her desires for the site of her destination wedding and recommend appropriate destination and resorts. Additionally the agent had made international phone calls to secure the desired date at the resort (no small feat..make no mistake about it).

Finally, the agent received an email from the bride that they had decided to do the actual booking with a family friend who happened to be a travel agent.

WHOA! Are you kidding?

I've been trying to reach the bride for the week or so since this came up. Finally today I was able to begin an email interchange with her.

After determining that the agent hadn't done something to offend the bride and had done a fine job in working with her I replied thus:

The whole reason I'm being so diligent with this that, (and you probably already know this) unless we charge professional fees, we are only compensated when we actually sell a trip. The free services [the agent] provided to you (consulting, making international phone calls, using our contacts at the hotels to secure the wedding date, etc) at no cost are only compensated to her when you and your guests actually book their trips. The work done at no charge is with the understanding that the trip will ultimately be booked with the agent doing the work.

The prices for the trips are set by the wholesalers and not by the agency. Generally speaking when there appears to be a price difference of one agency over another there is a good reason for it. (One includes a different room type, a different air schedule or whatever).

So, my whole reason in following up on this is so that we put practices in place so that we do the very best job for our brides while at the same time paying the light bill."

The bride replied that it had never occurred to her to consider how [the agent] was compensated.

I guess we need to do a better job of educating people on the front end of the process.

London and Paris

You wouldn't think it would be so hard to find someone to take with you on a free trip.

I think I mentioned that I won a trip to London and Paris. Finally I have someone to come with me. My 23(?) year old niece will be going with me. We've been to Europe together before right after she graduated from High School. The night before our last trip she got engaged. Now that she's an old married lady :-) I'm hoping she won't long for home as much as she did last time.

I'm thinking that during this trip I'll keep track of everything we spend and try to keep it under $100/day including food and sightseeing. I'll update my blog every day along with the spending for that day.

Here are some of the ways we'll keep spending down:

London Walks
Paris Walks
Paris Greeters


More Soon!

Friday Night Lights

It will be a strange Friday Night Lights party tonight. There was no school today so we won't have the normal troop of friends coming in after school.

I'm making a banana pudding. I hope someone comes to eat it!

Doctors

It's been a big doctor week at our house. Daughter has been coughing for about a month. The doctor gave her an inhaler, nasal spray and Allegra. He also looked at her ankle, her knee and her heel.

Son went to the dentist and got his teeth cleaned, got sealant on his teeth and had a filling done.

I went yesterday and was prescribed old lady hormones. Oh, and we all got flu shots on Tuesday.

Introducing Briana

Briana is Philip's new assistant. Here you can see her delight in the prospect of reigning in Philip's mess.

Charging for Seatbelts

American Airlines to Introduce Ala Carte Pricing

This is how the discount carriers in Europe do things. I don't really have a problem with it except that I'm sure that AA will keep the price for the flight as high as they've ever been and then charge additional fees for the things that the original price always included.

With EasyJet, RyanAir and the like, you feel like you're giving up the normal inclusions because you're getting a deal. With AA I'm betting you'll feel like you're getting gypped.

Iberostar Fam Video

Honeymoon Suite at Iberostar Paraiso Grand