Lisa’s Travels

The Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  It is a 700 acre urban wildlife refuge.  The Sanctuary is open to the public year round and is a great place to take your kids.  Not only is it free, it is a ton of fun too!  It was started in 1935 as a waterfowl rehabilitation site.  It continues to receive over 3,000 injured, orphaned, and sick animals each year.  Their goal is to return as many animals back into the wild as possible.

There is a three story building there called Nature Education Center.  There are hands on animal pods, discovery rooms, and even an estuary room.  As you can see from a few of the pictures below, my kids truly enjoyed it!

The adults even got involved:

The Observation/Rehabilitation building has a conservation wing, live prey and waterfowl exhibits, animal nursery viewing, wildlife rehabilitation area, and shelled corn for sale to feed the waterfowl.  My kids love feeding the waterfowl.  At 50 cents a bag, you can’t go wrong!

If you are in the Green Bay Wisconsin area, this is a great place to take your children.  Besides the cost of the corn to feed the waterfowl, it is free.  There are 6.5 miles of trails you can hike besides the two buildings to check out.  You can picnic there too.  It is a great place to check out!

As a user of Twitter, I often see people reaching out and asking one another who they should use for cheap flights, cars, airfare, etc.  I know I am always looking for the best deal out there for my family.  With four of us, it can get quite pricey.  I recently came across a cheap discount holidays site that if you are looking for vacation in the UK and want to save a few bucks, you should check out.  They have several links to sites that will give you quotes on everything you will need for the perfect vacation.  They have some links for places here in the United States like Las Vegas and Orlando too.  I think I even saw a link for Mexican vacations (we almost went to Mexico instead of Arizona this last Feb. but Arizona was cheaper).  They make it super easy for you to compare and for you to get the best deal since you are cutting out the middleman.  The site is super easy navigate and find what you are looking for so check it when researching your next vacation.

Jason’s Deli is available nationwide.  However, this review is being done on the Jason’s Deli in Oak Lawn, IL. (This review is also being posted over at Lisa Cooking.)

I went with my two kids on a Thursday night about 6 pm by myself.  (Needless to say, my hands were full).  I found that staff there the most helpful.  When you walk into the door, there is someone there to greet you and let you know how this all works (since this was my first visit, I was pretty clueless).  She got me a highchair for Will (my one year old), so I didn’t have to hold him while we were standing there trying to figure out what we wanted.  The high chair had wheels, so I was able to roll him around quite easily and get him where we needed to go.  I was able to take a menu, sit down with the kids, decide what we wanted, and get back into line, so we could order (which is what I did).   Ordering was painless.  After you order, they give you a number and your drinks, so you can go sit down.  They then bring your food to you when it is done.  The restaurant is a very open concept.  You can see where they make the food.  Another thing that impressed me was that the apples and apple juice that I ordered with the kids meals were organic.  Also, everything that they serve is free of artificial trans fats and MSG!  I personally found the prices quite reasonable.  Granted, it would have been cheaper to take the kids to McDonalds, but we would have been hungry an hour later (and this was not all that more expensive either!  Maybe a couple of dollars is it!)  They have an excellent kids menu too!  If you can’t find something for your little one off their kids menu, they are too picky.  They even have a dessert menu!  Madison (my 4 year old) wanted an ice cream cone, but since she didn’t finish her food, she didn’t get one, so I can’t comment on how good their ice cream is.  Our food came quickly and it was good.  The sandwiches were much bigger than I expected!  There was always somebody walking around cleaning off tables or checking on how you were doing, so you could definitely get help when needed (for example, 2 napkins just doesn’t cut it when you have 3 people and 2 of the 3 are under 5!).  I easily was able to get more napkins for us.

The food was great (and healthy!).  The service was great!  Jason’s Deli also has a blog which makes them stand out even more for me!  If you are looking for a great alternative for fast food, you definitely need to check out Jason’s Deli.  It is a five star place in my book!

If we ever go back to Arizona, I have heard that we should check out rocky point rentals. It is located about an hour drive from the Arizona border. These condos and house rentals are located on a beach in a resort town also known as Puerto Penasco. I have heard that they have some great fishing (for the boys) and great shopping (for the girls). It is a resort town, so there really is something there for everyone. I also heard that the gas prices there are more than a dollar cheaper per gallon (which makes it worth the drive)!  Who wouldn’t want the view above from their room?  This will be a place we are going to check out if we head West again.

Even though its still summer here in Chicago, I like to think about how I would love to spend our winter vacation. While its below zero here, I would love to go to a place like the French Polynesian islands. Tahiti sounds absolutely wonderful. Did you know that there are 2 volcanoes there (which I would love to go see) and that by car it takes about 6 hours to go from one end of the island to the other (and this is without stopping)?  You could easily spread out traveling the island over a week or more. There are several places to stop like their colorful market, art and history museums, botanical and flower gardens, animated nightlife, and cultural exhibitions. The picture to the left is one of the three waterfalls that can be found here too.  The resorts are spectacular.  I was not sure what I was expecting when I was checking out some of the amenities, but a lot of their resorts have high speed internet, babysitting, currency exchange, etc.  Pretty much, they have every kind of hotel that will fit your needs.  If you want fancy, they have it.  If you want one that just has a bed for you to sleep in at night, they have that too.  I can definitely see my family and me spending a few Tahiti Holidays here.  How about you?

Did you know that if you are traveling abroad, Visa and MasterCard charge issuing banks a standard fee of 1% percent of the total price for items purchased outside the country. This “currency conversion charge” is then passed onto you the customers.  For ATM cards, there is the same currency conversion fee.  However, they also charge you a transaction fee of up to $5 per withdrawal.  Some countries have have low withdrawal limits, so you will be having that charge on multiple transactions to get the amount of money out that you want.  There are ways to minimize foreign transaction fees or eliminate them altogether. It all depends on where you bank, which ATM you use, and where you are when you use it.

Citibank customers traveling in 46 countries can use Citibank ATMs and pay a 2% conversion charge but no transaction fee.  At other places in the world, customers still pay the 2% conversion charge, but the transaction free is $1.50.

Bank of America belongs to the Global ATM Alliance. Their customers can withdraw local currency from ATMs in eight foreign countries and pay absolutely no transaction fees. The alliance includes Barclays Bank (United Kingdom), BNP Paribas (France), China Construction Bank (China), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), Scotiabank (Canada) and Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).  At banks not listed, their customers pay a $5 ATM withdrawal fee and 1% currency conversion charge.

Now, if you have a Capital One card, you are in luck.  They don’t charge you the currency conversion fee.  You still however have to pay $1.50 per transaction fee.

American Express is another alternative. Cardholders can walk into any of 2,200 American Express Travel Services locations worldwide. They can then write a personal check for as much as $1,000 per card. This service is free.

Before you travel abroad, make sure you contact your ATM and credit card company. You don’t want to be surprised on vacation after you have run out of cash.