@American_Latino Expedition Looks To Bring Diversity To National Parks

The @American_Latino Expedition project will focus on education, park stewardship, outdoor recreation and exploration inside Olympic and Mesa Verde national parks in Washington and Colorado respectively, as well as the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area located in Arizona and Utah. With that in mind, the ALHF is looking for groups of bloggers to visit each location and share their experiences with readers. That includes using outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to creatively engage their audiences as well. In exchange for their efforts, all expenses – including airfare, lodging and most on-site excursions – will be completely covered.

The deadline for applying to take part in this program is June 14, and the ALHF is quick to point out that you don't have to be Latino to be selected. Any group with an active social media following, or even adventurous families, are encouraged to apply. To find out more about the project and to download the applications, click here.

It should be noted that the ALHF has partnered with both Aramark Parks and Destinations and outdoor gear retailer REI on this project. Aramark will handle lodging and other accommodations while traveling in these parks and the selected bloggers will also be fully outfitted for their adventure with some great equipment from REI.

Link: The theme park Ferrari in Abu Dhabi

Point Me to the Plane - United Debuts MileagePlus Small Business – 1,000 Miles for Sign-Up

From UA's press release – United Airlines today announced the launch of the MileagePlus Small Business Network, the first U.S. travel loyalty program that enables businesses to earn and redeem miles. Participating businesses earn award miles by purchasing goods and services from more than a dozen of the program's vendor partners, including leading providers of printing, shipping, credit card payment processing, office supplies and computing services.

United also today launched a bonus offer through which companies can obtain 1,000 bonus miles for enrolling in the MileagePlus Small Business Network and conducting transactions that earn at least 100 miles. Businesses may use their earned miles to purchase travel awards and upgrades, bid for experiences through the MileagePlus Headliners auction program and shop for merchandise, newspaper and magazine subscriptions and dining awards. Companies can also buy, transfer or gift their miles or donate miles to a MileagePlus charity partner.

Unfortunately, to receive the 1,000 bonus miles you'll have to earn at least 100 miles with any of the below partners and none of their earning rates are all that spectacular. You'll also need to earn those 100 miles by August 17, 2013. It's quite a bit of work (and potential $) for only 1K miles but here are the current partners:

Additionally, this is a separate MileagePlus account and the miles earned will NOT accumulate in your personal MileagePlus account. However, it seems that the ability to transfer fee free to another account (perhaps your personal account) is coming soon!

More Info: Boeing Dreamliners again in the air after long ground

Israeli PM Pays $127K For one Night���s Sleep.

Have you ever ordered something without checking the price first and then previously had a rude surprise as soon as bill arrived? You were probably thinking, "How much can it possibly cost? " or "Let's just jump on with this. " It's happened to most people, but probably not on the extent that Benjamin Netanyahu is normally taking his lumps when paying $127, 000 to get a place to sleep designed for five hours.

Needless to speak about, the Prime Minister from Israel is taking a lot of political flak over the staggering cost of affixing a bed for him to settle on his five-hour airline ticket to England for Maggie Thatcher's funeral. Israel lacks a private jet to get use by its top notch officals, and so aircraft are chartered to handle its big wigs. Netanyahu's aides defended her busy schedule and depend on for a good night's rest before meetings with other society leaders, however it was also revealed of the fact that Prime Minister was unaware of price of his asleep cabin, and has ever since decreed that such lodgings not be requested just as before.

Stephanie Spencer is some freelance travel writer from Canada with been held captive by the travel industry for around 13 years. An not curable smart aleck, notorious purple fanatic, hat person, together with ukulele player of debatable abilities, Stephanie explores the nerdy side of travel on her behalf blog A Nerd Most importantly, and dispenses random quirkiness like @ANerdAtLarge on Twitter. She truly believes that anything is possible with enough determination and copious amounts of chocolate.

Better Know A vacation: Buddha's Birthday.

When? The second Sunday in May OR manufactured of the full silent celestial body in May OR the Sunday nearest for the day of the maximum moon in May OR EVEN the eighth day in the fourth lunar month OR problems decided all that calendric work is excessive hassle, like the Nippon, April 8.

Public visit to: Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Chinese suppliers, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The indian subcontinent, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bhutan, Laos.

Reason with regard to celebration, then? The birth for the Buddha, of course. Though for many, the Buddha's birth, death and enlightenment are lumped together per big holiday. So...

Beginnings: Some 2, 500 long ago, Queen Mahamaya of this Shakya Kingdom in modern-day Nepal gave birth inside of a grove of blossoming trees. As the blossoms lost his balance around mother and infant, they were cleansed as a result of two streams of water with the sky. Then the newborn baby stood up and stepped seven steps, pointed up with one hand and down while using the other – not as opposed to a Disco Fever Tom Travolta – and declared that she alone was "the World-Honored One. "

The rest is normally Buddhist history. The kids, named Siddhartha Gautama, grew up to end up being the Buddha and the founder of one of many world's major religions. He attained Enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree in precisely what is now Bodhgaya, India. Later on, after amassing many followers, he died, either from food poisoning or mesenteric infarction, relying who you ask, along with reached Parinirvana, the last deathless state of Buddhism.

How will it be celebrated now? Bathing little statues for the baby Buddha with green teas or water, hanging lanterns, extensive temple services.

Affiliated food: In many venues, varieties of porridge, of which commemorate the dish that Buddha received that lost his asceticism phase.

Linked commercialism: Certain companies like McDonald's may even offer solely vegetarian possibilities on Buddha's birthday to stick with the spirit of your festival. Precious little, in fact. Though sales of lotus lanterns together with baby Buddha statues rocket make your best effort, the celebrations are shockingly uncommercial.

Associated confusion: There is no reliable record for when the Buddha was actually produced, thus the wide choice of celebratory dates. This for no reason puts a damper upon festivities, but does create a bit of awkwardness when you can find two full moons around May, which happens regularly enough. Most recently the idea occurred in 2007, together with Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia decided to celebrate during the first full moon with the month, while Singapore and Thailand celebrated right at the end of May.

Best destination to enjoy the festivities: Seoul really takes it up a notch, planning a week involving events and celebrations inside lead-up. It kicks off along with the Lotus Lantern Festival the weekend in advance of Buddha's birthday, when 1000s Korean Buddhists parade by way of Seoul's main roads with colorful lanterns, bringing metropolis to a standstill. The municipal government really pulls out all the stops, offering music, dance and theater performances in public areas that are jammed by using revelers. Take a evaluate the celebrations in Seoul and elsewhere globally in this gallery:

Registered under: Festivals and Incidents, Asia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nauru, Hong Kong

Via: How to make a cruise on the River in France

Ghetto IFE - Southwest Airlines launches 737-MAX 7.

Southwest have begun planning for their future fleet as they today are announced as the launch customer of the Boeing 737-MAX 7 series aircraft.

The airline will take 30 of the class, converting orders of 30 Boeing 737 NG's to the new aircraft, along with 5 737-800NG aircraft. Southwest were also the launch customer of the 737 MAX-8 series – with orders of 150 aircraft.

The 737 MAX-7 is the smallest member of the 737-MAX family, which will measure 110ft long – and will be be powered by CFM International LEAP-1B engines. The new plane is meant to have a longer range of 400nm longer than the existing 737-700.

Southwest operate a total of 574 Boeing 737′s four different subclasses (-300, -500, -700, -800) and were also the launch customer for those classes – making Southwest the largest operate of the Boeing 737 in the world.

For the airline, there is a major fleet renewal in progress with older 737-300 and -500′s being replaced with 737-770′s, -800′s – and now MAX-7/MAX-8′s. They have 137 Boeing 737NG aircraft in a backlog and now 180 Boeing 737MAX's.

The 737MAX is going to be an interesting development in the battle of the next generation single isle aircraft – with promises of longer ranges and lower costs.

The big question is – can it's competitors keep up? Airbus have already showing off their next generation single isle aircraft (the Airbus A320 NEO Family), with competition slowly growing in China from the Comac C919 and Russian Irkut MS-21.

More Info: What to see in Normandy -? The former Jumièges Abbey

Deals We Like - Marriott’s Summer MegaBonus

Marriott's Summer MegaBonus promotion just started yesterday and will run from May 15 through September 2, 2013. While Marriott is calling this promotion the "Unexpected Bonus," it is really the same exact promotion that they run about 3 times a year for the past many many many years. With all MegaBonus promotions, each individual is targeted for a different promotion depending on their stay pattern. In the past, members were able to call Marriott and get moved to another promotion, but unfortunately they have stopped this practice and the promotion you are targeted for is the only one you can progress towards.

Registration is required by July 31, 2013. If it takes you to "Session Timed Out" page, make sure to sign into your Marriott account and re-click on the registration link.

I personally was targeted for the stay twice, earn a category 1-5 certificate which I was pleased about. With the recent massive category changes the category 1-4 certificates are getting to be close to useless and devalues this particular promotion.

Even with the recent category changes, the other hotel summer promotions are sub-part, so this might be an enticing promotion (especially if you can get the free cat 1-5 night after two stays). I also like that they started extending the expiration date to 1 year for the certificates. Since I won't be traveling much this summer, I'll probably have two different stays which will still get me a free 1-5 cat certificate.

Via: Five things that I can't take London (III): the stairs as death

Marshall Fitzgibbons on Travel - Lodge Elite Status Progress Assess and Thoughts For all of those other Year.

I recently wrote about my periodic progress pay attention to earning and maintaining air carrier elite status. Typically, I can do the same meant for my progress towards hotel elite status. This year I haven't found myself as dedicated in maintaining elite status using a particular hotel chain. Frankly, I've never been as attracted to hotel elite programs when i have that of this airlines. Perhaps I'm unique, or maybe it's because I recently see a hotel being place to sleep and just don't value the perks of status with hotels as highly when i do an airline. Surely, I place some price on hotel elite position, but I used to "care" even more about it than I now. What happened?

I do believe the biggest change for me within the last few year was the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card. You might ask why? For a $95 $ annual fee, I get Hilton Gold status which includes points bonuses, the photo at room upgrades, breakfast if not upgraded to a location with lounge access, together with complimentary wi-fi. In short-term, I can get mid-level status instead of set foot in a Hilton property. Of course, I wouldn't bother together with the card if I do not ever stayed at Hilton friends and family hotels. Hilton has turn into a nice backup plan in my situation, if you will, just because of Reserve Card.

In other words, I can experiment along with different hotels that appeal to my tastes ( see Kimpton and more Kimpton) and not bother with losing a respectable amount of elite benefits with your chain that has properties just about everywhere. As quite possibly the last travel blogger on earth to join the Hyatt bandwagon, it may be time to try these too. I've had fantastic experiences with Marriott, and will stay with them when it feels right, but I'm probably planning to loose my Marriott Rewards Gold status after that year. Hmmm….. wonder if perhaps Hyatt will status go with me?

In summary, I don't feel the same about elite status with hotels as i do with airlines, and in my event the Hilton Reserve card account changed the game just a bit. As a result, it's not likely that you're travelling to find me on any sort of mattress runs this year to verify I maintain status or purchase a higher level of status by having a particular hotel family. I'm sure many you feel differently regarding this than I do. Would enjoy hear alternative points of view inside the comments.

CONNECTION: Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card (Disclosure: If you apply for and receive a card through the link provided in this post, I will receive a commission. As always, I appreciate your readership whether buy my links or not really. )