Weigh your luggage before you go to the airport with the Eatsmart Voyager Digital Scale to save time and money. Weighs up to 110 pounds.Just clip the scale’s handle to your suitcase and lift.  The digital scale shows the correct weight almost immediately. It is small enough to fit in your bag and bring along on your trip so you can reuse it when you return home. Make sure those souvenirs you bought won’t cost you extra money in baggage fees.

The EatSmart Voyager Digital Luggage Scale is a hot product! Launched in March 2011, this scale has received a five star average review on Amazon.com. (Stats as of July 14, 2011). And, it has recently been named ”One of the best travel gadgets of 2011” by FoxNews. Keeping in the spirit of the holiday season, EatSmart is donating 100% of proceeds this month (December) to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Actually, each month, a new nonprofit is chosen.

Giveaway – Please use the Rafflecopter method to enter to win one of these luggage scales.

I was given my own EatSmart Voyager Digital Scale for review and one will be provided for the giveaway winner.

The weather is cooling down in Branson Missouri, but there’s some hot travel deals! For someone like me, who loves to travel, travel deals are like finding gold. But I don’t mind sharing this type of gold with my readers.

The Silver Dollar City Package – the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing is offering a room for 2 adults and 2 children with 4 tickets to Silver Dollar City. Rooms start at $275/night. Expect a fun-filled time!

The next two packages take place at the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel:

The Santa Claus Package -  features accommodations for 2 adults and 2 children, breakfast with Santa in the Level 2 Steakhouse and a gift for each of the children. Room rates start at $228/night. Imagine your child’s eyes when they see Santa!

The Shopping Package – includes your hotel accommodations, a $25 gift card to Branson Landing, a $25 gift card to Tanger Outlets and a breakfast buffet for 2 to give you that extra energy you need to shop til you drop! Room rates start at $204/night.

Branson is a gorgeous area, nestled in the Ozark Mountains.  There’s all types of attractions for families – from patriotic shows, to Branson Landing on the waterfront of Lake Taneycomo. Enjoy hiking trails and the World’s Largest Toy Museum. You can even have Thanksgiving brunch at the Level 2 Steakhouse or Turkey to Go to enjoy in your hotel room.

The Hiltons of Branson round out your trip with large rooms and suites and gracious staff. Both are located close to attractions that are must see’s when you visit Branson.

You can enter the Win a Vacation to LEGOLAND Florida Sweepstakes held by Atlantic Luggage. The sweepstakes ends October 30 and celebrates the grand opening of Legoland in Winter Haven, Florida, another exciting attraction in the central Florida area!

I’ve been reading about Legoland and have just recently started to see commercials, TV news spots, and online ads for this new park, which opens October 15th. How exciting! I’d love to win a trip there since the park is brand spanking new and offers family fun! It’s a 150- acre theme park with more than 50 rides, shows and attractions. And it features Lego’s, one of our family’s favorite toys.

Go ahead and enter the  Atlantic luggage and Legoland sweepstakes  where a family of four can win admission to the park, hotel accommodations, plus more! The park is geared towards families with children aged 2 – 12. Wouldn’t a family vacation to Legoland make your child’s dream come true?

Atlantic Luggage, part of the Travelpro® family of brands, and sponsor of the Win a Vacation to Legoland Florida Sweepstakes, is known for lightweight, durable bags. Perfect for family or professional travel, Atlantic is made for stress-free travel and offers various collections to fit your needs.

A $100 Travelocity Hotel Giftcard for only $50 -Choose from 55,000 hotels and resorts worldwide. This includes all of the major chains such as Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham, Best Western, Hilton, Intercontinental, Four Seasons, and Choice Hotels – plus thousands of independent hotels and bed and breakfasts, too. You’ll receive a voucher through email with  19-digit promo code for redemption. Offer ends October 12th.

Plan your Fall travel now – Prices are lower for fall travel, so take advantage. Take a weekend trip or a week long adventure. Bring the kids to see some place new or spend the time with your husband to rekindle the love. From fall leaves to swimming at the beach, it’s the perfect time to get away.

Look online for travel contests – Win a trip to Ireland from Titanic Museums, win a trip to Disney World and stay at one of the Downtown Disney resorts, win the Ultimate Family Reunion trip from Wyndam Vacation Rentals. Don’t think it’s not possible to win. I won a fantastic trip to Hawaii by just tweeting, posting on a Facebook page and entering on the contest site.

Always ask for discounts – When you book your flight, hotel, rental car, etc. ask for a discount. It can’t hurt. When you arrive ask for an upgrade. Why not? And if you’re a blogger, write about where you’ve stayed, how you got there, all the brands you used to travel. Don’t forget to use their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. Let them know you’re a fan. You may get something in return…something even better than savings the next time you travel.

Enjoy every adventure!

Affiliate links included in this post.

For more inspiring photos, check: 5 Minutes for Mom, High Impact Mom, The Bonafide Life, Shanamama, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Mom Blog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, Brain Foggles and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

I can tell you that it’s really, horribly hot and I probably won’t be able to visit the parks during the day. I’m still going through a big Myasthenia Gravis flare up. I hope to get out during the evening though. We have dinner reservations that I’m looking forward to – Via Napoli in EPCOT, the 50′s Prime Time Cafe in Hollywood Studios and Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom. We’re also going to the Disney Vacation Club Vacation with Character.

Old Key West

We’re staying at one of our favorite resorts – Old Key West, which is peaceful and quiet. We’re close to the Hospitality House and main pool. Today we had lunch for the first time at The Turf Club Bar in Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. We will be back! The food was fabulous and the service impeccable. I had the Roasted and Stuffed Mushrooms (an appetizer) which not only looked great, they tasted even better. And the sweet tea is some of the best I’ve had anywhere.

You know that I’ll be sharing photos and some reviews of the restaurants in the days to come. Let me know if you have any questions about Disney World or Old Key West where we’re staying and I’ll be on the look out for you.

It’s summertime and the living is easy in Branson, Missouri. Branson is located in the Ozark Mountains and is a vacation hot spot for couples and families. In the summer, there are lots of planned activities, especially to help you enjoy the outdoors.

We vacation close to home too often and I’m trying to convince my husband to go outside of his comfort zone. With the special vacation packages held at the Hiltons of Branson,the great prices and deals may tempt him enough to go. The Branson Best Value Vacation Package includes the third night free with a two night stay, two adult and two children’s tickets to the Legends of Kung Fu show, two adult and two children’s two-day passes to Silver Dollar City, a $25 gift card for shopping, and a $25 food credit for the Level 2 Steakhouse. Choose from the Hilton Branson Convention Center, which offers condos including a microwave and refrigerator or the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing, which offers suites with full kitchens. The Package is available at both hotels.

And some more of the activities that are available just for the summer are Ducks Celebrate America, where you ride a land and water vehicle through the Ozarks. You can go white water rafting at night during Night Water, and see large animal sculptures made of branches at the Titanic Branson Museum.

Now this is family fun at Branson!

Our Travel

When we travel, we take lots of battery powered gadgets with us including our digital camera, gaming systems, headsets, portable radio, flashlights, an mp3 player and a storm radio. That’s a lot, but we want to have our normal things with us for fun and for safety. Of course we want to save money when we travel ant time. We don’t want to have to take the time to buy batteries and have to buy them more often than we need.

Energizer Lithium Batteries

Energizer Lithium Batteries are lightweight and work well in extreme temperatures. Think of car trunks, air planes, camping, beaches, theme parks, hotels, etc. Energizer Ultimate Lithium Batteries have a 15 year storage life, are recommended by Nikon for their Coolpix L14 camera and by Bushnell for use in their ONIX200 GPS unit.

Energizer Advanced Lithium Batteries have a 10 year storage life and last up to 4x longer in digital cameras, 20 hours longer in wireless gaming accessories and up to 30% longer in personal audio devices vs. Energizer Max depending on device and usage patterns.

Energizer Lithium Gas Reward Program

1. Visit www.facebook.com/energizer
2. Click on tab for the Lithium Gas Reward and follow the instructions to input your battery pack codes.
3. A $10 Prepaid Discover Gas Rewards card will then be mailed to you from the fulfillment company.
4. The last day to redeem codes is 1/31/12 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Giveaway – One pack of Energizer Ultimate Lithium Batteries and one pack of Energizer Advanced Lithium Batteries (choice of AA or AAA) with a special code to get your own $10 Prepaid Discover Gas Rewards card. The Reward Card may be redeemed for any merchandise offered by a retailer that accepts Discover.

Rules

1. Contest starts now and ends July 6th midnight EST.
2. Open to adults 18 and over within the USA
3. One submission per household (not entry).
4. Winner will be chosen by Random.org.
5. Winner have 2 days to claim prize via email.

How To Enter

For One Entry For Each Below: (please leave a separate comment for each entry)

1. Leave a comment about what battery operated gadgets you take with you when you travel or go away for a long day.
2. Use the Facebook Like Button under this post. Leave a comment that you did so.
3. Follow ConnieFoggles on Twitter. Please leave a comment that you did along with your Twitter ID.
4. Like BrainFoggles on Facebook. Please leave a comment that you did along with your Facebook ID.
5. Follow this blog on Bloglovin’
6. Subscribe to my RSS feed or email feed. Please leave a comment that you have done so.
7. Leave a comment on another blog post that isn’t a giveaway. Let me know which post please.
8. Tweet this exactly. You may tweet this daily: (leave a link to your tweet)

#Win @Energizer batteries @ConnieFoggles and get a gas card http://bit.ly/ksZb8D #giveaway PL RT

I was provided with the same gift pack (2 packs of batteries) by Energizer. All opinions are my own.

Giveaway Ended

Our Hawaii Vacation

Visiting Hawaii is a trip of a lifetime. It’s something that my husband and I have planned on doing when he retired, but we were lucky to win a trip to the Big Island! We stayed one week, swam, relaxed and took in the sites. The relaxing lifestyle of Hawaii rubbed off on us as we got to know the staff of our hotel. Soon we were saying, “no worries” when something didn’t go the way we planned.

Although we live in Florida, there’s nothing like the beaches of Hawaii. They are so gorgeous that sometimes I thought I was dreaming when I looked at them. Our hotel had a huge lobby that was open to the pool area and the beach. Most of the restaurant had just a roof over it. Our room overlooked the pool and beach. No matter where we were at the hotel, we had a view of the beach. And believe me it was magnificent!

We visited some local restaurants, a seahorse farm, a nearby resort, shops, a number of beaches and drove up the mountain roads. We woke up early, took a nap in the middle of the day and stayed up late. We took suggestions from the staff that we came to know about what to see and what to avoid.

We definitely plan on another trip to Hawaii. We learned some things to make our next trip more enjoyable, if that’s possible.

Tips for a Hawaii Vacation

• Break up your flight to Hawaii (depending on your starting point, of course). Stop in Las Vegas or California and spend some time there, then finish your flight there and back home. The jet lag we had from flying to Hawaii to Florida in one day was pretty bad.
• Stay at least a full week. If you want to see the sights, you’ll need time. If you want to relax, it will take time to get comfortable.
• Make sure the Luau you attend is authentic – pig roasted in the ground. Do your research in advance or ask your travel agent.
• Go with the flow. The weather in Hawaii can change suddenly. Have some indoor activities planned.
• Take tons of photos and videos.

About JetSetVacations.com

• JetSetVacations.com is a travel wholesaler with 15 years of experience that can serve all of your travel booking needs whether you’re looking for a family adventure, quick weekend away, or romantic trip for two.
• Every booking provides you with white glove service which includes a vacation concierge to assist you with your needs while you are on vacation.
• They guarantee the lowest rates to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Costa Rica and specialize in helping families travel on a budget.

JetSetVacations.com Twitter Party

Learn more and enter to win $1,000 vacation credit, flip camcorders and digital cameras by participating in the JetSetVacations.com Twitter Party this Wednesday night from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET. For more information visit: http://bit.ly/ijMbgq

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