Hotels With Free Wifi

It's ridiculous that in 2011 we still have to have to pay for wifi in public places.

And hotels are some of the worst culprits. The most expensive luxury hotels tend to be the ones more likely to charge for wifi while budget hotels give you free access.

We found a list from Wifi Free Spot that lists every major hotel or chain that offers free wifi. Here are a few notable hotels where you can score a free connections. With some exceptions, they're nothing fancy, so free wifi could possibly be the only true perk:

• Fairfield Inn
• TownePlace Suites
• Best Western
• Country Inns and Suites (select locations)
• Courtyard Marriott
• Days Inn (select locations)
• Econo Lodge
• Hampton Inn (free in the lobby)
• Holiday Inn
• Red Roof Inn
• Super 8 Motel
• W Hotels

The 10 Most Downloaded Free iPad Apps Of All Time

iPads are the way to travel now.  No longer do you have to pull the device out of your bag as you go through security in the airport and for portable or short-term use you just can’t beat their convenience.  Add all those reasons in with the fact that you can still get more apps from apple than any other provider and why wouldn’t you use one for travel?

Apple recently released a list of the top ten free iPad apps downloaded from the App Store.

Just because you spent serious cash on an iPad doesn't mean you need to spend even more to take advantage of various games and utilities for it.

Have a look and see if anything suits your needs.

1.   Solitaire is the definitive one-player card game. Play it anywhere you go.

2.  The Bible app is exactly what you'd expect it to be. Choose different translations, search words and phrases, or just read from it.

3.  iBooks is Apple's exclusive online bookstore and eBook reader. Start reading differently.

4.  Use Remote to control your iTunes library over wifi. Adjust volume and change songs effortlessly.

5.  With Fandango, you can read reviews and buy movie tickets before you ever get to the theater. Stop waiting in line!

6.  Yelp finds establishments near you and provides you with user reviews. Make an informed decision for your next impromptu dinner date.

7.  Use Google Earth to help you arrive at your destination, or simply browse interesting satellite photos of the entire surface of the world.

8.  Movies by Flixster sets you up with trailers, showtimes, and critic reviews of new movies. Know what you're getting yourself into the next time you head to the theater.

9.  Search Google by voice, check your email, access your calendar, and more with the Google Mobile app from everyone's favorite search engine.

10. Pandora builds a radio station customized to your liking and streams it to you for free.

Watch out for these Car Seats

As we have many traveling families staying with us and as a parent myself this article in USA Today stood out to me as something to take note of:

Half of children's car booster seats can't ensure a proper fit with all safety belts, an insurance industry-funded safety group says in a report out today.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said six were so bad that it recommended parents avoid them.

Booster seats, which are recommended for children who have outgrown forward-facing child seats, are designed to raise kids up so adult-size safety belts fit properly.

"Not all boosters are doing that well," says Anne McCartt, the institute's research chief.

Children ages 4-8 in booster seats are 45% less likely to be injured in a crash than those using only seat belts.

Booster seats were rated based on how well they fit the roughly 20 million 4- to 8-year-olds with the lap and shoulder belts in a wide range of vehicles.

IIHS says its ratings are important because it's impossible to tell which booster seats are better just by comparing prices or features.

Although IIHS says booster seats have improved in the three years it has been testing them, it is concerned that those requiring parents to check the fit still outnumber the good ones. Of 83 seats tested, 41 got a "check fit" rating because they don't consistently fit well with belts and 36 were rated "best bets" or "good bets" by IIHS.

"A lot of parents don't understand that the purpose of the booster seat is to ensure the vehicle safety belts fit the child, because if they don't there is a potential for injury," says McCartt.

Child-safety advocate Joseph Colella calls it "a very significant regulatory shortfall" that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn't evaluate booster seats based on how well they position seat belts, as "that is their primary function." Colella, of Traffic Safety Projects, says while IIHS' ratings put pressure on manufacturers to improve belt fit, it should be required, not voluntary.

Four booster seats made by Evenflo and two by Dorel's Safety 1st brand were rated so poorly that IIHS recommended consumers not use them. They are: the Evenflo Chase, Express, Generations 65 and Sightseer models and Safety 1st's All-in-One and Alpha Omega Elite. IIHS said the seats don't "provide proper belt fit."

If seat belts aren't positioned properly, children can hit parts of the vehicle in a crash and even be injured by the belts, which can slice into internal organs.

Dorel spokeswoman Julie Vallese notes five of the company's other seats were "best bets" and says it stands by all of its seats, which "have been proven to protect children" in the real world.

In a statement, Evenflo also pointed out that four of its other seats were "best bets" and one was "good," but still called the study "misleading." The company said IIHS used a "generic testing method," and noted it has sold 10 million booster seats in the last 10 years and doesn't know of any injuries due to improper belt fit.

Underscoring booster seats' effectiveness: IIHS said states that raised requirements for booster seats to cover children through ages 7 or 8 had 17% fewer fatal or debilitating injuries to booster-seat-age children.

IIHS singled out the Canadian company Harmony Juvenile Products as a "standout" in booster-seat design because all five of its seats were "best bets." The first inflatable booster seat, the BubbleBum, also got the top rating.

Booster seats that can be used with or without their high backs were tested both ways and often had different ratings. Fourteen of these "dual-use" boosters were "good" or "best" when backs were used, but got a "check fit" rating when backless.

"The best protection is not provided by 'a booster' but by 'the right booster' for the child and the vehicle," says Colella.

Packing Tips

Knowing how to pack a suitcase is essential to being a good traveler. Ever wonder how to pack light and still stay in style, my suggestion is to pick a basic color that you enjoy wearing and then add two other accessory colors and when you do this it will look and feel like you have several different outfits, for the males it is easy just a different shirt or tie and they are set.

The first think you want to do is start making a list of all the different items you will need for your trip, mentally take a note of all the activities and places you will be visiting and what you will be doing there so that you can gather all the items you will need for them. Pack a couple of plastic coat hangers in your bag, it seems like they never have enough hangers in the hotel rooms, if you pack plastic ones they weight almost nothing and are very handy to have.

When packing liquids remember they can expand under pressure, so never fill to the top and/or take some out if it is a new container. Toiletries should be as small as possible, and packed in sealable plastic bags for protection against spillage.

Pack each outfit in its own large re-sealable plastic bag, the rolling method works well for this packing style. If you have bulky items like for skiing use space bags that suck out all the air, you can fit so much more in your suitcase. The only word of caution here is that you want your suitcase to be packed firm so the contents won't shift and also you want to keep in mind to pack so your clothes will unpack wrinkle free.

Guard against lost luggage woes by packing your plastic bag(s) of toiletries in your carry-on bag, along with your most valuable items, and one change of clothes. Put all of your camera and computer items together in one carry-on bag, it will be easier during inspection, and then easier to put it all back together again after inspection.

Be vigilant in removing metal and in packing your carry-on. You also need to be aware of metal and batteries etc in you checked luggage, as that sometimes sets off an inspection alarm and may delay your luggage, it is easier to carry these items in your carry on so they can inspect them during your personal check in, rather than delay your checked in luggage.

No matter what type of bag you are packing, you will want to avoid spilling any liquids on your clothes or equipment and when you arrive at your destination unpack your bags as soon as possible after you get into your hotel room.

Youth Athletes and Diet

We have quite a few youth groups stay at our hotel and I quietly root for them to do well at their tournaments.  I Know that the team getting the proper fuel to make sure they keep their energy levels up is a trick all unto itself.  One that is even trickier with teen athletes.  Here is some great advice on how to maximize their energy from the food they get!

Eat Extra for Excellence

There's a lot more to eating for sports than chowing down on carbs or chugging sports drinks. The good news is that eating to reach your peak performance level likely doesn't require a special diet or supplements. It's all about working the right foods into your fitness plan in the right amounts.

Teen athletes have unique nutrition needs. Because athletes work out more than their less-active peers, they generally need extra calories to fuel both their sports performance and their growth. Depending on how active they are, teen athletes may need anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 total calories per day to meet their energy needs.

So what happens if teen athletes don't eat enough? Their bodies are less likely to achieve peak performance and may even break down rather than build up muscles. Athletes who don't take in enough calories every day won't be as fast and as strong as they could be and may not be able to maintain their weight. And extreme calorie restriction could lead to growth problems and other serious health risks for both girls and guys.

Electronics by our Pool?

While you’re enjoying our hotel, you may want to take a bath, but expect a call? Or want to read an e-book by the pool? Hate the very idea of getting your gadget wet? Don't want sand in it? No problem!

1   Dig around in your kitchen for a zipper storage bag and keep this in your suitcase just in case. (For most cell phones, a sandwich sized bag works well.)

2   Stick the device in the bag and seal it up. Make sure it's sealed completely.

3   Fold the excess behind it.

4   If it has a touch display, make sure there's some air in the bag to keep the plastic off the surface where you are not touching it. The touch display on most devices will work fine for single-finger taps and gestures.

5   Enjoy your phone or reader or tablet device with no worry about it getting accidentally splashed or dipped.

When you're done, don't reuse the bag. The zippers aren't really made for repeated use, and some sliding switches (like the power switch on a kindle) will tend to abrade the bag where your finger operates them.

Protecting a Folding Phone or Device1

You say it folds? Not a problem! Devices like flip phones can simply be folded with the bag around it.

2   Get a bag a little bigger than the device.

3   Put the device into the bag.

Classic Halloween Movies

If you’re like me you want to take in a couple of classic horror films around this time of year.  I’ve compiled a list of some of my GO TO movies that never get old.  Hope you like them.

The Shining, 1980

What's scarier than a haunted house? Try a haunted hotel. Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film centers on the young Torrance family — writer dad Jack (Jack Nicholson), homemaker mom Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and clairvoyant son Danny (Danny Lloyd) — who've taken on the task of caring for the remote Overlook Hotel in Colorado during the off-season. However, isolated in the snowed-in location, it isn't long before cabin fever and writer's block (not to mention the hotel's ghosts) begin to drive Jack murderously insane. Despite being markedly different from the Stephen King novel it was adapted from, The Shining is widely considered to be one of the scariest movies of all time, full of creepy twin girls, decaying corpse ladies, blood-spewing elevators and one hell of a hedge maze.

The Haunting, 1963

It's no surprise that a movie based on one of the best haunted house tales ever written (The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson) would be this good. A scientist and two women with psychic gifts visit an evil-looking mansion named Hill House, a place where everything is just slightly wrong, where the angles at which walls meet are off by half a degree, so that doors are always closing on their own. The trio is accompanied by the skeptical young heir to Hill House. As directed by Robert Wise (who had a delightfully diverse career, helming movies from The Sound of Music and West Side Story to the first Star Trek film, as well as being the editor on Citizen Kane), The Haunting perfectly demonstrates the power of suggestion. We never see any ghosts. We hear them — banging, giggling, crying behind walls. We feel them. But they always remain just on the other side of the door. Which is where they are scariest. For the second after we first see the thing is the second at which the fear begins to fade.

Poltergeist, 1982

The brilliance of Poltergeist isn't in its special effects or its Steven Spielberg-branded movie magic. It's in the film's mundaneness. The Freeling family home is an ordinary house inside an ordinary suburban community. The characters aren't overly likable, special or interesting. The Freelings could be any typical American family. Therein lies the terror. While the film lends itself to some wonderfully quotable moments, it also brought the good old fashioned haunting into the modern suburban home. As the Freelings got sucked into closets and harassed by electronics, audience members began to glance suspiciously at their own TVs, and white noise began a reign of terror that reached its apex with 2002's The Ring.

The Lost Boys, 1987

"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire." That says it all! This one is just plain fun. The cast features Kiefer Sutherland as a punky teen vampire, Jason Patric as the newest reluctant convert, and the two Coreys (Haim and Feldman). Feldman plays one of two wacky brothers (Edgar and Allen) who insist the town is crawling with vampires. They made the phrase "vamp out" famous.

The Evil Dead, 1981

Filmmaker Sam Raimi first hacked his way to notoriety with 1981's The Evil Dead. The film follows a band of students on a weekend getaway to a rickety Tennessee mountain cabin, where they plan for the typical sex and booze-type debauchery. Unfortunately for them, the gang encounters a group of demons and quickly realize these are no idle spooks. Even the forest greenery is under their control. (Is it possible for a tree to be misogynist? Watch and find out.) The gore fest, in which all the usual horror appliances get ample screen time (by film's end, the dagger, ax, chainsaw and shotgun get more than their share of screen time), was widely criticized as too gruesome by critics and theaters alike, which only seemed to hasten the audience's desire to watch the corn syrup flow.

The Others, 2001

Grace (Nicole Kidman) is alone with her kids. Stuck in a giant, fog-shrouded manor on the British isle of Jersey during World War II, Grace can't leave because her son and daughter suffer from extreme sensitivity to sunlight. She's isolated and anxious. But Grace and her kids are not alone, because there's something with them in the house. Kidman shines as a mother incapable of connecting to her kids, a mother who hides her fragility behind a stern countenance. The film begins with Kidman shrieking loudly and near the end, she breaks down in hysterics. The Others is as affecting as it is chilling.

Nosferatu the Vampire, 1922

Let's start at the beginning with F.W. Murnau's silent film featuring the creepiest looking vampire ever -- Max Schreck. Rumors at the time of the film circulated that the strange looking Schreck was indeed a real vampire. That became the inspiration for the film Shadow of the Vampire. But you can decide for yourself.

Arachnophobia, 1990

Spiders. John Goodman with a blowtorch. Who's scarier? I'm sure we could ask Roseanne, but that's the subject of a much more frightening movie. Anyway, as anyone who has ever squashed a spider can attest, things with eight legs are creepy. Gross. Big ones that fly through the air when provoked? Even worse.

Amityville Horror, 1978

A family moves into a perfectly nice house in Amityville, N.Y. Then things begin to happen: black goo comes out of the toilet, flies appear (does this have anything to do with the toilet?), a voice tells a priest to "get out," and something with glowing red eyes peers through the windows at night. Sure it was an "Exorcist" rip-off, but it was "based on a true story!" That's got to count for something.

The Exorcist, 1973

Spinning heads. Vile expletives. Buckets of vomit. Sound like your last blind date? It was worse for Ellen Burstyn and Max Von Sydow, who had to play opposite Linda Blair in "The Exorcist." When this puppy first hit the silver screen, people were running out of the theater in droves. Now we call those people sissies. But as approximately 6,453 previous "Scariest Movies of All Time" lists have noted, this movie is scary.