I’ve not posted here in over a month. That’s partly due to not really traveling much at all this summer. Other than a weekend in New York for a World Cup match with my brother and last weekend in Nashville for the Liverpool preseason match, I’ve mostly been at home working, watching the World Cup and attending some matches here in Atlanta.

I grew up in England until I was 11 so I’m still a big fan of the England team at international tournaments. Before the World Cup started, I was able to buy tickets to two matches using American Airlines miles. For my brother’s 50th birthday, I bought two seats to England v Panama in New Jersey for 145k miles and I also bought two seats for Spain v Saudi Arabia here in Atlanta which I attended with my older daughter who lives nearby.

If England won their group, I knew they would play the round of 32 match here in Atlanta. I was able to grab two tickets on Stubhub for that match before the World Cup started. I got $200 back from Capital One Shopping on those tickets so they were relatively reasonable (for World Cup knockout stage tickets). My brother flew down for the day from New York for that match, which England came from behind to win 2-1. Then England made it all the way to the semi-final, which was also here in Atlanta. Against my frugal nature, I bought a ticket to that match when FIFA put some extras on sale that week at eye-watering prices. In the end, England lost in the last minute to Argentina. Was it worth it? Probably not, but it’s a once in a lifetime experience to attend a World Cup semi-final.

Last weekend, I met a friend in Nashville for the Liverpool v Sunderland preseason match. I’ll have a review of our hotel, the Thompson Nashville, in my next post. I drove to Nashville as it’s only four hours from here.

We are now counting down the days to our big Japan trip in August. I look forward to reviewing the flights, hotels and activities over our two week trip. Following that, I have several weekend trips booked for the fall, including Tulsa, Chicago and Las Vegas for points and miles events, Seattle (and possibly northern New York state) for work and Orlando for a guys trip (not my choice but easiest place for us all to meet up). I’m sure my wife will also work in yet another trip to Florida for us at some point. I hope those of you that have been traveling have had a safe and enjoyable experience through these disruptive months of bad weather, heat and crowds.

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