My husband and son are taking their 2nd annual road trip to In n Out in just a few days.  Yep, that's right they drive over 8 hours to the nearest In n Out for a burger, and a little site seeing.  This year they are adding in a Brian Regan concert.

We had to book a hotel, so I did my little trick and matched the amenities to the list that Hotwire gives and sure enough we matched it perfectly.  Now it does help when you head into an area that is not heavily populated with hotels.

The hotel was $105, on sale for $75 through Hotels.com.  We went through Hotwire.com and got it for $69, then we went through Ebates then to Hotwire and will get an additional 2% cash back THEN I put it on my Chase Freedom credit card and will get 5% cash back.

I'm making money right now!!!!  Just so you know that's a line from Brian Regan.

As much as I love my kids and as much as I dread the day they leave home, I am also counting down the days when we can travel in September.  Just so you know, it's 4 more years.

JetBlue just did their big promotion with the "All You Can Jet".  Or there is the Delta, American and AirTran airfare war going on.

I like the illustration I saw today that says Fall sales are like the cousins you rarely ever see.  They show up out of now where, stick around for just a short time and are gone before you know it.   It's all true and the best part is the deals are usually killer deals.

This year, it's good and bad news.  The deals are there, but prices are higher this year than they were last year. Average round trip domestic airfare this fall is $320 compared to $284 last year.  Average round trip for an international flight this year is $769 and in 2009 it was $643.

One thing that is always a given is the the lowest prices of the year traditionally hit right after Labor Day and  run to mid November.   Some of the beachy bargains this time of year are in Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Even though June through November is hurricane season, many travels are willing to risk a storm in exchange for a great price.  I know I would risk it for a price.  Of course I say that now.

I often show you Groupons as great ideas for getaways or even to watch in cities you might be visiting in the future.  They offer everything from food, to spas to touristy things to do.

This weekend we finally cashed in one of our Groupons and went out on the town for the afternoon.  The best part was, even though we were in our city, it felt kind of like a vacation.  We don't normally do touristy things in our city.  I should say, we never do touristy things, and renting a pedicab in the city, felt like a touristy thing to do.

Thanks to PDX Pedicab we had a great time being biked from distillery to distillery sampling some great vodka, gin and even some sake.

There are so many things you can do for a fraction of the price in your city that you need to take advantage of.  I know my friend in San Diego took her mom on tour with these mini cars you rent.  She said it was a blast. Another time she took her son on a 2 hour Segway tour.

If you haven't already signed up for Groupon you need to.  As I have said before and will say again, also check out the cities of places you plan to visit.

Not going anywhere, that's fine.  Watch for great Staycation ideas in your city.

This was a deal that was offered last year through Jet Blue.  Since it was such a success that have brought it back this year.  If you plan on traveling at all in September this is a deal you might want to check out.

For $499 you can travel any where on Jet Blue (domestic flights only, no Puerto Rico and no international flights) for a whole month.  This price includes all taxes and fees. You can travel on Monday through Thursday and Saturday.

You can upgrade to travel all days for just $699.

You can start booking flights as early as August 23rd.  All flights must be booked at least 3 days in advance, and you can start traveling on September 7th through Oct 6.  This deal will sell through August 20th or until it's been sold out.  Last year it never made it to the date.

Do the the math and see if it's worth your money to purchase.  Will you travel enough times to make it worth it?

I don't know about you, but I think all kids are going to be on board for this one.

A family suite for only $169 a night. This deal is running October 15-17.  Want all the details?  Head on over to Money4ThisNot4That and get yourself signed up.

I hear spots are limited to and registration has to be done by September 14, 2010.

What are you waiting for?  Get over there and check it out.

I was surfing around the web as usual and came across this bit of information that I thought I would pass along.

Apparently, in past years Disney World raises the prices of their tickets in August.  If you are planning a trip anytime later this year or next it's a good time to buy to get the better deal.  For all the information please head over to Thrifty and Thriving as she has all in the inside information and great places to buy these tickets.

Thanks for the tips Christy!!

What are you waiting for??  Get yours today.

I am an avid couponer and I make my way to Coupons.com often.  Just today I noticed that you can click and print a $7 off coupon to Cedar Point.

All you will need to do is install a coupon printer on your computer. This will do nothing to harm your computer. Trust me, my husband is an IT guy and he has even allowed me to put it on his so I can print more coupons.  I am not sure how many people can use the coupon.  Just know that if you need more you can print 2 coupons per computer.

Enjoy the ride!!

1.  Do some investigative work. If you look through all the hotels in the area you can find some matching descriptions.  The one that set mine off was 100% smoke free.  Look through the list of amenities and you can kind of figure it out.  Need more of an explanation?

2.  Book a package and it will show you what you are booking.

I did number 2 and it was the one I actually booked.  I booked a car/hotel package.  Not only did it show us the hotel, but it was the best price we had found.  Even adding the car it ended up costing us less.

You will need to do some math because it breaks it down per person.  That's fine, it was costing us $71 per person to have the motel with no breakfast and no car.  I got motel, breakfast and a car for $80 a person.  Break that down, for $9 more a person or $36 total, we are getting a rental car for 3 days and breakfast for four for 2 days.  Sweet!!

I looked at rental cars, even through Hotwire and it was cheaper to do the package.

Are you a little curious what we are booking??

We really wanted to do Kingda Ka, but it's so far away.  Our window is so small that we decided staying on the West Coast was our best option.

We decided to hit Six Flags Magic Mountain.  We really do love this park.  Our only hang up is that it's kind of got a lot of gang activity, but they are watching it closely and we won't be there during the night hours. By staying on the West Coast and having such a short flight we will be able to hit the park the day we fly in and the day we fly out.

Before we booked the trip we did what we always do and that is check the school calendar for the school districts in the area.  They all go through the week that we are there.  We might run into some bus loads of kids coming in for end of year, but nothing like it could be.

We just booked our airfare, and we had lots of miles.  Not quite enough to get it all for FREE, but the four of us are flying for $150, not too bad.

I know it's a crazy idea, and it's just days before my surgery, but the kids have really wanted to go.  My daughter has been asking for a vacation this summer and we just were sure if it was possible and today I decided to throw caution to the wind and book it.

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Cedar Fair is doing something special to honor the military and that is giving them FREE admission to any of their parks.  For Memorial Weekend, May 30 and May 31 also  the 4ht of July weekend, July 4 and July 5 Military can get in for  FREE. This for active or retired military.  You just need your Military ID to get in.

It doesn't stop there.  They are also offering discount tickets to immediate family(max 6) those days as well.  For all the details check it out HERE.

Check out the 14 parks you can choose from.

Thanks for all you do!!!  Enjoy your day of fun with your family.