by Jim Bellomo | Dec 16, 2019 | Uncategorized
To celebrate my one year posting anniversary, I wanted to grace you with what I believe is the best travel photo I took this year. This shot with all the incredible light was captured in Vancouver, BC (one of our favorite cities) where we were celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. It is exactly what I took out of the camera with no post processing.
A year ago today, December 16, 2018 I tentatively started this…blog. My first post was about how much I don’t like the word blog. A year later I still hate the word blog. It sound so blahhhhgggg. But no matter, here I am one year later. In that time there have been 116 posts which averages out to two a week. Of course, I fully realize that when traveling I often do seven in a week and when we are home I might only do one, but I hope it all evens out for you, the readers.
Writing these posts (see how I avoided the word blog there ?) has been a great outlet for my creative side and helped me share my love for travel. It’s been a good year for us in the travel game as we got to take a bunch of trips with more planned for the future. I promise more about the past year before January 1 and then a look ahead after the first of the year. As great a travel year as 2019 has been, 2020 will be even better.
Lastly, I need to thank my friends and those who have discovered my travel passion and stuck with me. I am thrilled that so many of you have read me on a regular basis and especially to those of you who comment. I only hope to grow this number in the future, so if you know anyone who loves travel, recommend it to them if you think they would like it. (But please wait until I write about something more interesting than this anniversary post ?.)
PS: One other thing. If you are on Instagram I would love to have you follow me at (www.instagram.com/jimbellomo13). I recently took a photo class from the great Scott Kelby and his advice was that “to get your photography noticed, you need to be on Instagram.” So after trying to avoid it for years, I am now on Instagram, posting only travel pics from my library with comments about when and where the photo was taken. So if you are on Instagram, I would love to have you follow me and to let me know so I can follow you.
How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time. —Fred Brooks
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 6, 2019 | Uncategorized
Well, Seth and I have recorded our last Adventures Await radio show. And you don’t have to wait to hear it. It’s at the bottom of this page. And since I recorded the show on my iPhone, there are no commercials, weather or newscasts. We just talk for about 25 minutes about travel (funny that an hour radio show without commercials, weather, newscasts and traffic is only around 25 minutes).
First, an explanation about why this is our last show together. That’s because on the morning KOMO-TV news today Seth announced he was leaving KOMO. That’s sad for us who watch him every day. One of my favorite thing is to carry on texting conversations with Seth while he is on the air in the morning. I know that if I send him a text, he will read it on the next commercial break. And I know that he is probably only going to be getting texts from me because it’s 4:30 am and I am riding my indoor bike. We have had many early morning conversations like this.
Seth is leaving KOMO to become the Director of Communications for Holland America Cruise Line (HAL). In that role he will be cruising…A LOT! But he says we can still text to stay in touch but I won’t know if he’s available like I do now between weather updates because I won’t be able to see him on TV ?. But we (Kathleen and I) are thrilled for him. I will certainly miss seeing him and doing the show with him.
Our last show was super. It was my fifth time on the show and Seth let me choose the topic so I said let’s do the Top 5 Things we have talked about on the first four shows I have joined him on the radio. You will have to listen to the show to find out what they are but suffice it to say, it’s not anything you haven’t heard he…or I mention before.
By the way, if you would rather hear it with all the music, weather, news and commercials, etc. you can do that on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm on KOMO radio AM 1000 here in Seattle or on KOMO Radio 1000 on Tune-in online.
Here’s the show—there are three shows on the page. The latest one is at the bottom of the list: CLICK HERE! I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed doing these shows with Seth. He is a good friend, one of our favorite people and maybe the only person who loves talking about travel as much as I do.
A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.—Charles Darwin
by Jim Bellomo | Nov 30, 2019 | Uncategorized
Thought I would put up this post-Thanksgiving note to remind all my traveling friends why it is so important to get travel insurance when you travel. Take a second and read this story (that you may have seen already, as it got a LOT of press) about a couple who were being “held prisoner” by a hospital in Mexico, then close the window and come back here. If you haven’t read this before, you should know that the couple eventually got to go home, thanks to the coverage on Good Morning America (GMA). Actor/Director Tyler Perry saw the story and paid their hospital bill.
If you don’t know Tyler Perry or think you could get coverage on GMA you should definitely make sure you have travel insurance when you travel. I can’t believe the number of people who think that travel insurance is only for those who might have to cancel their trip and want to be reimbursed. I have had clients tell me that “We can afford to lose the money on this trip if we can’t go.” But travel insurance covers so much more.
For instance, a good travel insurance policy should cover the following:
- Trip Interruption (example: covers you if your flight gets cancelled or rerouted).
- Trip Delay (example: your plane is grounded due to weather and you miss your cruise—they will get you to your ship).
- Missed Connection Baggage & Personal Effects Baggage Delay
- Emergency Medical & Dental Expenses (this one is the biggie, especially if you are over 65 and from the USA).
- Emergency Evacuation & Repatriation (they will fly you home if you are sick or injured).
- Accidental Death & Dismemberment
- Travel Assistance & Concierge Services (The best companies provide this—for instance, they will help you find a good doctor in another country).
The biggest of these benefits are the Emergency Medical and Dental. As the couple in the story found out, costs for medical treatment can vary drastically in other countries and on cruise ships where a doctor visit and an aspirin can run over $100. If the folks who were rescued by Tyler Perry had travel insurance, they would have contacted their insurance company who would have made arrangements for payment with the hospital and everything would have been just fine. But they didn’t.
BIG MESSAGE—in bold so my friends who are US citizens and over 65 all see it: If you are sick or injured outside the USA, Medicare will NOT pay your medical bills. You are on your own. I had an 86 year old client going on a horse tour in Israel who didn’t get travel insurance???
I watch for these kind of stories and I am building a long list of them for the next time a friend or client tells me, “We never get travel insurance. We will be fine.” Well they might not be. I am sure the couple in the story didn’t think they would finish their vacation with 14 nights in a Mexican hospital. And the people who tell me they “never buy travel insurance” may not have Tyler Perry to bail them out.
Traveling anywhere in the world involves some risk. You could always opt to spend your life cowering under your bed. —Joe Haldeman
by Jim Bellomo | Nov 24, 2019 | Uncategorized
Almost forgot I wanted to write this post today. Shame on me. Originally I thought it wasn’t going to be about travel but I guess in a way, it actually is. The trip of my life. It was 22 years ago today that my travel life was born.
Today (November 24) is what we (Kathleen and I) refer to as Lucky Day. It’s the day that back in 1997 my close friend Jocelyn came to my office in downtown Leavenworth to cheer me up. I was in the middle of a divorce that I was not sure I wanted. Jocelyn (who always speaks the truth—the most truthful person I know) told me to get over it. To move on! She said that I should look at a new website she had found called Northwest Personals. This was before Match.com or pretty much any other dating site. Jocelyn had the weekend before met someone on the site and was going to meet him that coming weekend.
She suggested I take a look and at least see if there was someone that I could at least correspond with. So I said I would. She wanted to make sure I did so she got me logged in and looking before she left. I looked for about five minutes before I saw this listing:
This one interested me. See the part about the Mariners. That got my attention. I was (and kind of still am) a Mariner fan. Then, much more then now. But that’s what I noticed. As I read it, this person sounded perfect. The only problem was, this person was more than 100 miles away but I said, what the heck and decided to respond. That was the ABSOLUTE BEST DECISION I HAVE EVER MADE IN MY LIFE!
Why, because Kathleen (the love of my life, my travel companion) placed that listing. My first wife hated traveling. Kathleen and I love traveling. At that point I had been to exactly two countries—the United States and Mexico (I went while in high school to help an orphanage that my church supported). The only places in the US I had been to were for business meetings. Since that day, she and I have traveled to forty countries and 30 states together and loved pretty much every minute of it.
So you see, this really is about travel. That day I met (online) the incredible woman who would become my partner is so many things, but definitely in travel.
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Travel is a lot like love.—Alain de Botton
by Jim Bellomo | Nov 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
Just a short blurb today about a subject close to my heart.
I think I have mentioned the column written by Chris Elliott before. Chris runs a website and is an advocate for travelers. He and his people help those who have had problems or been scammed while traveling. He has helped people who have need a refund from an airline, had to bail from a bad vacation rental or had any of hundreds of other travel problems.
This morning Chris and his staff take a stand on a subject that is near and dear to my heart (being six foot two)—reclining seats in airplane economy sections. His attitude is EXACTLY the same as mine…STOP DOING THIS! Stop reclining. He makes some incredibly important points about why people should stop reclining (it isn’t because he’s tall or doesn’t like it personally) and I hope you will take a minute to read his article which you can find by clicking here.
You can’t be truly rude until you understand good manners.—Rita Mae Brown
