2015 Travel Year In Review

Well, it's the last day of 2015, and we've had another amazing year. Click here for the 2014 recap.

Since my father's an Asian math nerd, according to his excel spreadsheet, I have:

1. Flown approximately 33,825 miles this year (vs. 51,422 last year)
2. Taken 23 flight segments (vs. 26 last year) with only 2 longer than 8 hours
3. Flown out of 14 airports (vs. 16 last year)
4. On 2 different airlines (vs. 6 last year)
5. Traveled to 4 foreign countries (vs. 6 last year)
6. Earned United Silver status

The biggest takeaways were that we really decided to stay "local" this year oftentimes driving instead of flying. Further, unlike 2013 and 2014, we only left the country a few times in 2015. Once was a spring break to Cancun. Then we had our annual trip to visit extended family Israel (stopping in Belgium on the way home). The other was our early Christmas trip to Costa Rica a few weeks ago.

On the hotel side, we have:

1. Stayed 52 nights in hotels this year
2. Across 20 different cities
3. In 14 unique hotel brands

Our most frequent brand was Westin (18 nights across Orlando, suburban Chicago, Cancun, Kansas City and Scottsdale). We re-qualified for Starwood Platinum status, and matched to Hyatt Diamond and Hilton Diamond statuses for 2016. And we didn't realize until just now that this year we went to see baseball games at the stadiums for each of the World Series teams, the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets.

 So as we close out the year, here's a photo snapshot of our favorite lapchild adventures this year.

Maternal Grandmother's Visit

We just booked my maternal grandmother a trip to visit us from Israel for most of November.

This week, Israel's national airline, El Al, announced a Winter sale for travel to/from the United States. Normally, non-stop flights cost anywhere from $1,200-1,400 per person.

However, El Al was offering them for as low as $815. And guess what? United decided to match them!

So we confirmed prices and dates on United.com and then went to Citi Thank You's travel portal to book using our valuable Citi Thank You points. We redeemed 65,148 TY Points from my mother's account at 1.25 cents/pt, saving us $815.

Additionally, it pretty much clears her Citi Thank You account of all her points, so we can close her $95/year Citi TY Premier card next time the annual fee comes up.

But I'm more focused on getting to see my grandmother again. We usually only see each other once a year, so I'm happy I get to see her again. And we can show her an American Thanksgiving!

Spending Time While You Can

A few months ago, we took a trip to Israel to visit my extended family on my mother's side. Thank goodness we went, because my sweet great-grandmother Lida passed last week, so I'm very thankful we were able to see her before it was too late.

Lida was the last of that generation in my family, as my paternal grandmothers in South Korea passed away a few years ago as well. A Holocaust survivor who was orphaned along with her 4 younger siblings, Lida went onto have 3 children in Uzbekistan and immigrated to Israel about 20 years ago.

2012

2013

2014

Unfortunately, I didn't have any photos with my great-grandmother on this recent 2015 trip, but I'm very thankful that I was able to see her as much as I did even though she lived 5,000 miles away.

Researching New Airlines - Brussels Airlines

Flight #112 - Brussels Airlines 3290
Tel Aviv (TLV) – Brussels (BRU) 
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Depart: 3:55PM / Arrive: 7:45PM
Duration: 4hr 50min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 13A, 13B, 13C (Economy)
Earned: 2,022 miles 
Lifetime Miles: 206,861 miles 

Later this afternoon, I'll be flying back from Israel via Belgium. While I've flown several of the Star Alliance Airlines (Aegean, Air Canada, Asiana, Lufthansa, Swiss, Thai, Turkish and United), this will be my first time flying Brussels Airlines.

While the flight is relatively long (almost 5 hours), there aren't many large planes in the Brussels Airline fleet. On this particular flight from Tel Aviv, we're on an A320 aircraft, which runs pretty small (~175 passengers). Normally, we don't really care what kind of plane we're flying on (provided it seats more than 8 passengers), but we did care about what our on board experience might be like.

Specifically, we wanted to see what flight amenities (or lack thereof) we should prepare for, so my father jumped on Seatguru.com earlier this week.

Scrolling down, we saw that our Row 13 seats were right behind the exit row in standard Economy seats. No huge red flag so far...

But then we went over to the side to see the In-Flight Amenities and clicked on Video. Uh oh...

1. Video
The small A320 didn't have individual entertainment systems for this 5 hour flight. Apparently, this aircraft still has the "shared video monitor" system that opens from the ceiling.

I'm not a fortune teller, but I'm pretty confident saying that they won't be showing "My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic" on the big screen.

So we'll just have to make sure that all our iPads are fully charged and loaded with a few hours worth of movies/shows for this flight segment.

2. Food
When you click on the Food tab on Seat Guru, we saw that there was only a snack given to Economy passengers. We could have also seen the absence of an on-board meal on the View Reservation page on United.com.

So while slightly disappointing, at least we know in advance that we need to (a) try to eat before we board and (b) bring snacks on board in case we get hungry. Ideally, we'll have a big enough lunch where we can hold out for a late dinner in Brussels (~9PM Tel Aviv time), but chances are, my toddler tummy will start grumbling well before that.

3. AC Power Outlet (or lack thereof)

The challenge with not having individual video screens will undoubtedly put pressure on our iPads to keep us entertained for the 5 hours flight. Now, I don't know about you, but my father can only play Bubble Witch for so long before he gets frustrated by Morgana.

I suppose we could download a few full length movies, but chances are, our batteries will not last more than 1 film, so having an AC outlet would be huge. Unfortunately, it would also be unavailable. Nothing worse than getting to the final 15 minutes of a movie, only to have the power cut out.

4. Wifi (or lack thereof)

The other main in-flight amenity that we were looking for was wifi. However, there was no tab for this feature, so we'll just assume the aircraft is not equipped for it. Not a huge deal as there's not that many productive things to do on the internet for 5 straight hours.

So this Brussels Airlines flight will probably be a good reminder to appreciate how spoiled we've been flying on well-equipped United flights and the occaisional premium cabin award flights!

Dado Beach with Grandpa

We wrote last year about the great Haifa beaches along the Mediterranean Sea. People love talking about the French Riviera and the Greek Islands, but Israel's not to be overlooked either. So when we visit my mother's hometown, we just have to spend some time at the beach.

The weather here on our trip so far has been pretty mild for June standards. Not super hot enough to want to run into the water. But 80 degrees is perfect for some nice walks along the beautiful promenade area of Dado Beach.

Here are some photos from my recent day at the beach with my grandfather.

 

Shawarma Amir

Last year, we posted something about the delicious street food you will find in Israel. I'm not going to re-hash the details, but one of our favorite meals here in shawarma (also known as doner kebab in some cultures).

For those of you that don't know what shawarma is, it is meat roasted on a rotating spit where it is then shaved off into a sandwich or wrap. The meat can be lamb, beef or chicken. Lamb seems to be most popular here, but that's not based on any statistical evidence a 3.5 year old could track down.

Introduction
Whenever we visit my grandparents in Haifa, we always make a stop at Shawarma Amir, located on a busy road (Hahistadrut Blvd), across from the Lev Hamifratz shopping mall and the Yes Planet movie theater.

This place is my father's favorite. First, because their shawarma tastes great and fresh. Second, because the place is always kept very clean. Third, because the workers there speak English.

And also, because the staff members seem to "remember" my father as a loyal, returning customer. I use quotes, because we always think they remember my distinctly Asian looking father whenever we come in, but then they always ask questions suggesting they really don't, such as "Hey! Did you just arrive into town?" when we were actually there a few nights earlier. Nevertheless, we'll keep going back.

Oddly enough, Amir doesn't seem to have a website or internet presence at all. Not even on my father's beloved TripAdvisor. So on this trip, we decided to take a few photos and write Amir's first review.

Location
As I mentioned, Amir is located on a busy street (Hahistadrut Blvd) across from the Lev Hamifratz shopping mall and the Yes Planet movie theater. In fact, if you ever wanted to find this place, searching for "Yes Planet Haifa" is probably the easiest way as you cannot find Amir on Google Maps.

Plus, the storefront is quite nondescript and would not be easy to find unless you could read Hebrew. There's limited parking outside

Interior

Whatever the exterior lacks in "welcome factor," the spotless interior really makes my American-side feel comfortable as there's always a worker constantly cleaning up each table after a patron leaves (unlike many other shawarma places you're lucky if there's only a few pieces of food on your chair). And speaking of chairs, there is plenty of seating available at Amir. 

Ordering
Since the place only has shawarma, it's not too hard to order, but here's the menu (in Hebrew) just in case. Apologies about the glare, but that's where you would start reading. Going from the upper right corner and reading left, the first item is shwarma with options for pita (sandwich) for 31 sheckles, laffa (wrap) for 36 sheckles or platter for 47 sheckles. That would be about $8.23, $9.56 and $12.48 USD at current exchange rates. So definitely not cheap by street food standards, but infinitely better than going to McDonald's.

My father orders a pita each time as the laffa is pretty big. After you tell them the size, you tell them what toppings you want (like at Subway). A variety of vegetables come with the shawarma which include: cucumber, onion, tomato, lettuce, eggplant, parsley, pickled turnips, pickled gherkins, pickles, rhubarb and cabbage. Amir has a large variety of toppings, including several sauces (including garlic, hummus, amba and hot oil).

Customer Service
After you order, while they're packaging the food, one of the workers there will offer you a complimentary shot of Arabic coffee. Seems to be an Arabic tradition at shawarma places. My mother loves the strong Arabic coffee. My father loves the "free" part.

We ordered take out, so they filled a bunch of containers with the popular vegetables, such as pickles, olives, pickled cauliflower/carrots, cabbage, tomatoes and onions. We also ordered a side of french fries and asked for a few cups of tahini and amba sauces.

The Food
The photo here won't do the shawarma justice because it's hidden inside a fresh pita along with a coating of hummus, cabbage and hot sauce. But trust my father when he says it was absolutely delicious.

And just in case my father wanted to explore a second career...