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Weekend Nights from $31.99 - Extended Stay Hotels
August 31, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 09/02 through 09/04) and next weekend (stays 09/09 through 09/11) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like San Jose, Denver, Chicago, Portland, Austin and many others.
For Arrival Dates 09/02/2011 and 09/03/2011
* San Jose, CA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $35.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $51.99/night
* Portland, OR - Rates from $45.99/night
* Austin, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Washington, DC - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 09/09/2011 and 09/10/2011
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $43.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $35.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $35.99/night
* Indianapolis, IN - Rates from $37.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Seattle, WA - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
Beyond Paper: Electronic Business Cards
August 26, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The paperless revolution has begun making inroads into one of the last hold-it-in-your-hand forms of networking: the business card. Some folks have jumped right in (one less thing to pack and carry); others are fighting against it; and a huge number are in a sort of midway position, using modified paper business cards that link to electronic devices. It’s hard to keep up with the rapid changes, but here are some options to get you moving in the right direction.
Totally Off the Tree
There are already a few options for those who’ve decided to go completely paper-free, at least from their own end of things. At the relatively low-tech end, folks send one another email addresses via cell phones and exchange Twitter names. Contact apps like LinkedIn.com’s mobile app let you share and receive users’ business experience, background and contact information (including social media), and they are relatively user-friendly.
The more cutting edge folk make use of tools for creating virtual business cards, like Snapdat (for iPhone only), Cardcloud (for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Nokia), Hashable.com (for iPhone and Android) and Contxts.com (still in Beta form). The reason is pretty simple: as Hashable’s home page notes, with this tool, you can “save and remember everyone you meet.” These apps allow you to not only share and continually update virtual business cards with all contact information (and picture, if you wish), but also to be able to track interactions with your business contacts, including text reminders, follow-ups and thank-you’s.
Do you want to add a playful touch? How about using a cellphone “fist bump” to exchange information? Bump, one of the most downloaded free apps out there, has gotten enthusiastic reviews since it came out this past January (and it’s already been updated since then). Available for both iPhones and Androids, this app lets you tap phones with someone who also has the app and confirm “contact,” and then, you can send social network, business and visual items and information.
Enhanced Paper Business Card Apps and Sites
For those of us not ready to go totally paperless, but who still want to be have at least some of the techno edge, adding a QR (Quick Response) code to your paper business card (or even just to your own phone) may be the way to go. These barcode-like images allow a cellphone that has downloaded a QR code reader to collect information that you’ve linked to it. Generating the QR codes and loading the information to be transmitted is fairly easy through such sites as Jumpscan, Qurify, Kimtag and Kaywa.
If you want to get fancy with your cards, there are a number of sites online that show sample business cards that incorporate the QR code images into a classy reflection of their companies’ focuses. Some even include company logos within the scan code box. Other sites provide templates for you to use to create more basic design-them-yourself QR business cards on your own.
Organizing the Oldies
Have you been wondering what to do with all the old-school paper business cards in your Rolodex? Do you want to have all those cards that you’ve collected over the years at your fingertips, no matter where you are? The CardMunch app, owned by business networking site LinkedIn, translates the pictures of business cards that you’ve taken with your iPhone into a searchable electronic file of cards. CardCam provides a similar app for Android phones.
Most of us are already fully onboard with digital address books via mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Isn’t the digital business card the next logical step?
Rates from $30.99 /night - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
August 24, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 08/26 through 08/28) and next weekend (stays 09/02 through 09/04) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Sacramento, San Jose, Chicago, Charlotte, Memphis and many others.
For Arrival Dates 08/26/2011 and 08/27/2011
* Sacramento, CA - Rates from $33.99/night
* San Jose, CA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $47.99/night
* Charlotte, NC - Rates from $46.99/night
* Memphis, TN - Rates from $31.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 09/02/2011 and 09/03/2011
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $46.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $35.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $35.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $34.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $30.99/night
* Washington, DC - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
Rates from $27.99/night - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
August 17, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 08/19 through 08/21) and next weekend (stays 08/26 through 08/28) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Los Angeles, Sacramento, Denver, Orlando, Austin and many others.
For Arrival Dates 08/19/2011 and 08/20/2011
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Sacramento, CA - Rates from $33.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $35.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Austin, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $30.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 08/26/2011 and 08/27/2011
* Phoenix, AZ - Rates from $27.99/night
* Miami, FL - Rates from $47.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $34.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $47.99/night
* Seattle, WA - Rates from $39.99/night
* Washington, DC - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
Wacky, Wild and Wonderful Car Collections
August 15, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
For true auto aficionados, the big (and big-name) car museums like the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, the Harrah Collection National Automobile Museum in Reno, Charlotte’s Nascar Hall and the Henry Ford Museum in Deerfield, Michigan, are prime travel destinations. However, even those who don’t live and breathe struts, camshafts, and rpms will find plenty of entertainment in some of the smaller, specialty tributes to motorized travel. In fact, these museums are filled with unusual, quirky and nostalgic exhibits.
Famous Folk, Famous Cars
In Roscoe, Illinois, just ninety miles from Chicago is Historic Auto Attractions. Owner Wayne Lensing has spent years assembling a collection of more than seventy vehicles, as well as celebrity memorabilia, that includes a Grateful Dead tour bus, Stalin’s 1937 Packard, several of U.S. presidential limos and items from Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and others. When you’re there, check out the Famous Stars & Cars, Legends of Racing, Movieland and TV Land exhibit rooms.
Another collection of Hollywood-themed vehicles—and the biggest collection of muscle cars in the world—is down the road in Volo, Illinois. The 50-plus-year-old Volo Auto Museum houses the George Barris TV & Movie Car Collection, with dozens of cars from such movies and TV shows as Dukes of Hazard, Batman Returns and The Cat in the Hat. There are also creations designed by Hollywood auto artist Jay Ohrberg (designer of such icons as the Back to the Future and Knight Rider cars).
Automotive Art
Auto as art and individual expression is the focus of the Art Car Museum (called by some the “Garage Mahal”) in Houston, Texas, the “Art Car Capital.” These cars, according to curator James Harithas’ “Art Car Manifesto,” transform the “automobile into a potent new personal symbol” that is “subversive,” and “revolutionary in the sense that it reclaims the vehicle for the individual and proclaims an independence and diversity” that often has “an earthiness, a witty or exotic appearance” through which an artist can “express either political, social, personal or purely decorative objectives.” Yep. If that piques your curiosity, visit this free, non-profit museum Wednesdays through Sundays between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Weird and Wonderful
If odd auto stuff grabs you, you can hardly do better than the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. Featuring the largest American collection of European vehicles, the real attention-grabbers are one-of-a-kind vehicles that fold in half, go on land and in water, and are even propeller-driven. Lane’s also has on display the smallest street-legal car (just over four feet long and tall, and only 39 inches wide) and a French fire and rescue vehicle designed for tight spots that can drive forward no matter what direction it’s facing because it has no back end—just two front ends with an engine in each.
Playtime
While youngsters (and the young-at-heart) can enjoy all of these unusual car museums, for pure kid-appeal, Elmer’s Car and Toy Museum in Fountain City, Wisconsin, is a great stop. While the museum does have hundreds of cars, trucks and motorcycles on exhibit (oldies and classics), Elmer’s five buildings also include rooms filled with hundreds of antique pedal cars and other kids riding toys, as well as antique and wind-up toys of all kinds. The location itself, on Eagle Bluff along the Mississippi River, is worth a visit just for the gorgeous view.
Regardless of the level of interest in the nuts and bolts of cars, these museums are just about guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of just about any Road Warrior.
20% Off - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
August 10, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 08/12 through 08/14) and next weekend (stays 08/19 through 08/21) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Los Angeles, Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and many others.
For Arrival Dates 08/12/2011 and 08/13/2011
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $43.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $34.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $47.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Washington, DC - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 08/19/2011 and 08/20/2011
* Sacramento, CA - Rates from $33.99/night
* Fort Lauderdale, FL - Rates from $35.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $47.99/night
* Memphis, TN - Rates from $31.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Seattle, WA - Rates from $39.99/night
* See all locations >
Travels with Rover: There’s an App for That!
August 8, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
If your dog is part of the family, odds are that you want to take him or her with you on your travels whenever possible. Bringing Rover along, however, does raise some issues and concerns. Even for short trips, you want to be able to find dog-friendly rest and recreation spots. And for longer travels, having ready access to listings for nearby pet-friendly hotels, veterinary services and pet stores makes everyone’s trip more relaxed. Once again, it’s cell phones to the rescue—there’s an app for that!
Winner of Best in Show
We might as well start off with a sort of spoiler alert: while there are several apps for Androids—you guessed it—most of the top dog apps are for iPhones.Perhaps the best all-around app is My Dog, produced for iPhones by Dog Info USA.Touted as “The App your dog wants you to have,” My Dog provides you with easily accessed information on everything from dog-friendly parks and beaches to pet stores, grooming shops and pet photographers. The free app also includes a travel-specific section where you can check out regulations regarding dog travel on planes, trains, lodging and local rescue and shelter facilities (in case of a lost pet). The “My Dogs” profile section lets you enter just about every detail on your pet that you might need while on a trip (or at home), including description (including photo), insurance information, license and microchip numbers, inoculations and veterinary history. Runner-up (again, for iPhones) may be PawTrotter. At $2.99, it gives you access to lists and directions to more than 130,000 dog-related businesses and sites.
Food, Fun and More
Locator apps are available for both iPhone and Androids. Need to get out for an off-leash run? DogFriendly.com has apps for both iPhone and Android, to help you find dog-friendly parks, attractions and businesses, ferries and other forms of transportation and even emergency vets. Many of the listings include user reviews. If you’re still in the trip-planning stage (and Rover has a vote), you may also find their ranking of friendliest cities for dogs useful.
If you’d like a little support in training and understanding your dog while you’re on the go, consider Cesar Says, the legendary Dog Whisperer’s app, free for [sorry] iPhones only. What’s the coolest thing about this app? Shake your phone and you (and your dog) will hear Cesar’s commanding “Tssst!” (Some owners also mention this feature’s usefulness in business meetings, but we’ll leave that idea open.)
Health and Safety
Maybe the most information for important quick access when traveling is first aid and safety, and for this, the top app, Pet First Aid ($5), is fortunately available for both iPhones and Android. With this reference tool,you can immediately find out, for example, whether the sandwich your dog just gobbled down off the ground poses a health risk (yes, if it contained avocado). This app, which includes text, pictures and audio, can guide you through such life-saving emergency procedures as pet CPR, properly immobilizing an animal with a possible bone or spinal injury, stopping bleeding and more. The app also lets you input information on your pet so that in the stress of an emergency, you don’t have to struggle to remember any allergies or the phone number of the dog’s regular vet.
Traveling with your canine best friend can add so much joy to a trip. And knowing you can easily find whatever she or he needs means that both of you can just stick your heads out the window, let the wind blow across your faces and grin those free-and-easy Road Warrior grins.
Rates from $28.99 /night - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
August 3, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 08/05 through 08/07) and next weekend (stays 08/12 through 08/14) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Los Angeles, Sacramento, Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta and many others.
For Arrival Dates 08/05/2011 and 08/06/2011
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Sacramento, CA - Rates from $33.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $42.99/night
* Tampa, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $34.99/night
* Washington, DC - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 08/12/2011 and 08/13/2011
* Orange County, CA - Rates from $49.99/night
* Fort Lauderdale, FL - Rates from $35.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $47.99/night
* St. Louis, MO - Rates from $28.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Seattle, WA - Rates from $47.99/night
* See all locations >
