I finally got the pictures posted on Flickr, so without further ado: here is the slideshow!
travel
Southern Greetings: Hilton Head, SC
Greetings from the South! On Friday Bethany and I boarded a plane to Atlanta and eventually wound up in Savannah to join her family for a southern trip. This is the first time that I’ve vacationed in the south (aside from Florida, which I consider a different experience). We spent the day in Savannah, Georgia before making our way up to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Savannah definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting a small little southern town, but Savannah was definitely bigger and more touristy that I originally thought. I also didn’t have an appreciation for just how much American History is present in that small southern town. Going around the Old Town area, it was amazing just how many old buildings have been restored, as well as the history associated with each building. We took a trolley-bus tour around the downtown area, which turned out to be a very educational and interesting experience.
I Twittered it earlier, but I didn’t realize that for a period of time that Catholicism was prohibited in the Georgia colony. I guess fears of being extremely close to the Spaniard Colonies prompted fear that Catholics in Georgia would have a disposition towards Spain – thus prohibiting Catholicism would eliminate such concern.
After our Savannah tour we made our way to Hilton Head, South Carolina where we will be until we head home. The resort we’re staying in is very beautiful! After skipping lunch, we had an early dinner in Charley’s Crab Restaurant. I can’t appreciate the experience of eating seafood while watching the sun set over the water.
Tomorrow we’ll make our way to the beach and do some bike-riding around the area, so I’ll hope to take more pictures and share them.
Speaking of pictures, I’m having trouble uploading them to Flickr this evening. I’m sending them to my home computer now and will try uploading them there. Watch for a follow-up post with pictures!
United finds another way to screw travelers [WTF]
Bethany fired this story off to me this morning:
9News from AP:
United Airlines will begin charging domestic travelers $25 for a second piece of checked luggage unless they belong to some frequent flier programs. United’s parent — U-A-L Corporation — says it hopes to earn more than $100 million in revenue and cost savings a year from the new plan. It will take effect May 5. A United spokesman said Monday the new policy will help keep United’s fares competitive. The $25 fee won’t apply to customers who have premier status or higher in the Mileage Plus program or silver status or higher with Star Alliance.
Is the airline industry (which could very well follow United’s lead) really out to make flying as miserable as possible? I realize they’re hemorrhaging money, but they need to find a better way than nickel-and-dime passengers for every option. Have you seen that low-cost airline commercial where everything on the plane from the reclining chairs to the overhead compartments have a coin-slot in them. I bet some of these airlines like United looked at that commercial and said "Theses guys are onto something?"
There’s nothing I hate worse when you’re flying and they won’t give you the whole Coke can, as if some bean counter somewhere figured that if they only served 60% of Coke to you then they would save Y amounts of money per year. This is just the next evolutionary step of this. I’ll admit to being a notorious over-packer, but when they’re weighing your bag to the ounce to their limits, you now have the gall to charge for that second bag that we’re really using just to defer this policy.
When will the airline industry realize that charging for those stale peanuts is not going to save their industry. They need to fix their business model, utilize better technology (get off of radar and onto satellites) and get away from the notion that every empty seat on a plane is equal to a company-wide loss.