The Excitement of Billary

There they were last night, Hillary in all her glowing orangeness, and Bill in all his glowing red-nosedness. Colorful, I'll grant you! The class of the family to my eye was Chelsea, whose quiet elegance represented the family well. I remember that gawky little kid in the white house, but she's certainly grown into a distinguished woman who carries the Clinton badge proudly.

Congratulations to Hillary's Girl Power Ranger speech. Extremely well done, and not read off a teleprompter like so many of the rambling heads we've seen up there. She was direct, eloquent, to the point, and made it appear to come from the heart, which you have to respect whether you like her or not. I do. For all the negatives people write about her, she has been through a LOT with Mr. Bill, and is still standing strong in the National spotlight. You go, Girl! Speaking of which, there was an America's Funniest Home Videos moment for me last night. When she was waiting for that terrible musical intro to stop (which took an eternity), the camera panned up to First Hubby W.J.C. He had a sweet "that's my girl" kind of look on his face, and for those of you who are not as adept as The Cap'n at lip-reading, I'll fill you in. Here is the exact text of his comments:

"I love you I love you I love you are the cameras still rolling I love you I love you."

Yes, I got weepy too! I haven't been that emotional since the mean old hunter shot Lassie. What? That was Bambi's Mom? BAMBI's MOM?? SAY IT AIN'T SO!

Gustav The Evil continues to plague the radar maps in the Caribbean. The storm weakened a little bit as it crossed over land, but is expected to gain strength and become a much larger storm over the Labor Day weekend. It's unfortunate that on Weather Underground, they show 6 computer models, and 5 of them have the storm turning directly at New Orleans. Let's all hope that's not the case, although rooting for it to miss New Orleans only means misery for someone else, further east or west. Cap'n Bob has seen the strength of hurricanes up-close-and-personal on the high seas, and they are no joke. Watching from the deck while the waves and lightning are crashing all around you, well....all I can say is there are no Atheists on board. If there is any good news here, it's that New Orleans knows its own recent history, and if the track remains true, everyone has plenty of time to get out this time. Please, no heroes. Or fools. Get out.

It happened again today. Happens every year at this time. EVERY year. We got a call for travel over the end-of-December timeframe. There are 2 types of families who book travel over the Christmas/New Year's timeframe. Yes, it's a crowded time to travel, and yes it's the most expensive time you could possibly ask for, but people DO GO when schools and offices are closed. The 2 types of families are "The Planners", who go on nice vacations every Holiday season, and "The Wannabees" who always wind up watching Clay Aiken's Christmas re-runs from the comfort of their den with some Mac 'N Cheese. So what's the difference? The Planners bought their trip months in advance. They recognized the fact that airfare is NOT coming down the closer you get to the Holidays. If you think about it, you've got millions of people trying to get away, particularly to a warm-weather destination like the Caribbean, and each plane only holds 130-175 people or so. OK, get out your pocket calculator and do the math....I'll wait.....(whistles the theme from Popeye). Anyhoo, The Planners know hotels and cruise ships fill up many months in advance. So they bought their trip back in February, and they're all set! In fact, they are now working on a cruise over Christmas 2009. Meanwhile, The Wannabees are absolutely POSITIVE that nobody travels over Christmas....everybody stays home with their families watching TV specials right? Eh, no, that's just you Wannabees. They're equally as certain those ultra-high rates will come down when the cruise lines or hotels realize they are half-empty, or people canceled, right? Hmmmm. I see a pattern here. The ships might have a handful of cabins left that hold 2 people, but there are only a limited amount of cabins on any cruise ship that can hold Mom, Dad and the kids. And even if there might be a hotel available in Jamaica, there are no more seats left on any flight at any price. You Wannabee there, but you can't. The Cap'n is making that clicking sound with his tongue, even though you can't hear it.....

Mann Travels can always get you the best value that exists when you try to travel, but if you decide to go during peak demand times, the rates won't be the same as that cheap-o cruise you saw advertised for September in the middle of hurricane season when schools just went back in session. Cruise Lines and Hoteliers know exactly when your kids are in or out of school (along with their teachers, professors, etc), and if you try to travel when everyone else does, you'd better be a Planner family. We can also offer you some alternate ideas, to maximize your trip with minimum damage to your budget!