Saturday Sojourn...

St. Paul, Minnesota



This weekend I am on a vacation with the hubby and some good friends in St. Paul, Minnesota, so I thought this would be the prefect time to introduce you all to a really fun place to visit.

Cathedral of St. Paul

St. Paul is located on the banks of the Mississippi River and was named the capital of the Minnesota Territory in 1849.  The original capital was located at Lambert's Landing and was called Pig's Eye after a local tavern of the same name. The Pigs Eye Tavern was run by  Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant; a retired fur trader-turned-bootlegger.  When Father Lucien Galtier, the first Catholic pastor came to the region, establishing the Log Chapel of Saint Paul (shortly thereafter to become the first location of the Cathedral of Saint Paul), he made it known that the settlement was now to be called by that name.  St. Paul also has original Native American burial mounds believed to belong to the Hopwell tribe.  These mounds date back over 2000 years, to put that in perspective, there were still Pharaohs ruling in Egypt.  According to tradition the dead were buried with artifacts. The Hopewell mounds are very distinctive and including burial of the deceased's ashes. Later the Dakota Indians used the same site to bury their dead; wrapping the bodies in animal skins.

The St. Paul Hotel

Now that you know a little of the history of St. Paul lets find a place to stay.  We are staying at the St. Paul Hotel because we are history buffs.  The St. Paul was built in 1910.  Besides being host to the general public the Hotel has had Presidents, international leaders, royalty, gangsters, movie stars, athletes and business leaders among its guests.  It's one of the Historic Hotels of America, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, if you are a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation you can get 10% off your rate when you book on line plus discounts on various attractions nation wide.  The Saint Paul Hotel is listed at the #1 spot for places to stay on Tripadvisor, but if you are looking for something a little less pricey the list features the Best Western Kelly Inn as the #2 place to stay in St. Paul and the County Inn and Suites as the #3 spot.  Both are wonderful for families and feature indoor swimming pools, the Country Inn and Suites also has a water slide but the Best Western allows pets.  A huge bonus to both properties is that they offer complementary parking, that can add up to a big savings you can spend someplace a lot more fun.  Remember to check out the rewards for each of the vendors as well for more savings and freebies.  Both The Best Western Gold Crown Rewards program and the Carlson Club reward you with points for your stay that can be used for additional nights.

Landmark Center

Como Park Conservatory



Since we splurged on our hotel we strived to keep extra expenses to a minimum and found quite a few things that were either free or very inexpensive to keep us all amused.  Most of buildings we wanted to see offer free tours and have quite the history, first is the Landmark Center which is located right across the street from our hotel.  This building was completed in 1902, originally served as the United States Post Office, Court House, and Custom House for the state of Minnesota and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.  Next stop is the Minnesota State Capitol, construction started in 1896 and was completed in 1905.  The building features a beautiful rotunda and the golden quadriga (the horse sculpture) which you can go up to the roof to view.  An architecture tour wouldn't be complete without visiting the amazing Cathedral of St. Paul.  The church has spectacular stained glass windows, beautiful shrines, paintings and two fresco's.  The Cathedral welcomes over 200,000 visitors per year and photography is allowed, but please be mindful of mass and other religious services that may be going on at the time.  Finally we decided to visit the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory.  Admission is a suggested $2.00 which is used to house, feed and care for the animals as well as take care of the plants in the Conservatory.  This is a fun place for folks of all ages, they have programs and rides for the kids and relaxing strolls through some of the most beautiful gardens for the adults.  The zoo features a California sea lion exhibit, a big cat display, gorillas, yaks and giraffes. Another great stop is the Science Museum of Minnesota,  they have both adult activities as well as quite a few different children's programs.  Now through September 5th they have an exhibit featuring the treasures of King Tut.  The price for the whole package is $38.00 on weekdays for non members and $43.00 on weekends for non member adults, but you can save a bit by opting out of the Omnimax film about Mummies and the audio tour, this will save you $13.00, which you can use to grab a snack.

Mickey's Dining Car

There are so many different dining options in St. Paul.  We all decided we wanted one dinner that was a little glamorous so we chose Moscow on the Hill, a place that compares to nothing we have back home.  (Blini and Borscht were a must for me.)  Another stop that is a must is Mickey's Dining Car on 7th Street. The diner was designed to resemble the railroad dining cars of the period. It is unique in that it is one of the first diners to be built in the Art Deco style.  Not surprisingly it is also on the National Registry of Historic Places.  Mickey's serves breakfast all day, so any time your in the mood for pancakes stop in and check it our for yourself.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!!

C.Q.

Friday's Freebie...

Today I have a couple of freebies for you.  First up is a sample of Emergen C, just fill in your information on the online form and they will get a sample out to you in about 4 weeks.  I have done this one before and they always have fulfilled their orders.  I use this stuff in the spring to keep away colds, it works nicely and tastes good.

Next up is one for those of you that LOVE Dunkin' Donuts, did you know they have a perks program?  Just register your Dunkin' Donuts card, it doesn't matter where you got it, then for every $20 you spend you earn one Dunkin' Dollar, for every $20 you spend on an auto recharge of your card you will earn two Dunkin' Dollars, then you'll receive your Dunkin' Dollar coupons in the mail by the end of each month following the month the rewards were earned.  Just go to the DD Perks page and enter your card information and your on your way to earning.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to Java over at Never Growing Old!! I was lucky enough to  be drawn as the featured blog today and love love love the new button she came up with for me, its wonderful!  If you don't have a button for your blog its obvious Java does a wonderful job with them!!  Thank you so very much, you made my day. :)

Enjoy your day everyone, the weekend is just around the corner!

C.Q.

Saving a bundle on your bundle of joy...

I found out this week that one of my friends is going to have a baby and she asked me if I knew of places to find coupons, discounts and free baby items, and while this isn't my specialty area, I am going to give it my very best shot this week.  So, here is what all I found, if you have more items to add and share please feel free to post them for everyone.

Coupons for babies are pretty easy to find and I was able to track down; the Gerber website offers a sign up for their coupons as well as special offers, articles and tips for you and your little one.  Registering at PlanningFamily.com for free will get you into the site to use the interactive tools and download coupons.  Diapers.com is a site designed very much like Alice.com except its for babies, right now they have a few great coupons, the first is for 30% off diapers for three months using coupon code BCDIAPERS30PCT, the other is for 10% off anything on the site using coupon code BC10PERCENT.  The great thing about this site is that they offer everything you could need and deliver it right to your door, no fuss no muss, you can save that part for baby.

The next thing I got to thinking about was the diapers, I did a little research and found that the cost of using cloth and cleaning them at home saves a ton of cash.  I found a great comparison at Baby Cotton Bottoms and I was utterly stunned at the cost difference, not having kids myself I never realized what a gargantuan expense this was!  For those times when disposable is the only way to go I was also surprised to see that Huggies has a reward program, all you need to do is enter the codes from the packages on to the web page and they track your points for you, you can redeem them for a bunch of things from the reward catalog.  As long as you're visiting the Huggies site, why not enter to win free diapers for a year in their sweepstakes?  Pampers also has a program called the Pampers Village & Gift and Grow.  To sign up you just need to enter your information on the web page and then enter the codes from Pampers products.  You will also get a free kit with $329 of offers as a welcome gift. Need a cute little nursery bag for organizing the changing area?  Every day at 11:00 Central time Nursery Water puts up an number of bag they give out for free, just be one of the first to click and they will get one out to you, if you miss it that day check back tomorrow, they reload this every day.

Another big expense is the car seat, with so many companies out there offering different models I really can't tell you who's to buy and who's to avoid, but what I can tell you is that no matter which one you ultimately pick be sure to register it with the manufacturer, that way if there is ever a recall you will know right away and can keep your child safe.  In looking at the many models out there I also found a few sites that said to check with your health insurer to see if they will cover the purchase of a car seat, I was surprised to see that some of them will.

If you plan on using formula you can register to join the Enfamil Family Beginnings.  By filling in your information on their web page they will send you gifts up to $250 which includes up to $60.00 in Enfamil savings as well as samples of their products.  The Similac Strong Moms program is similar, just sign up on their web site for up free offers, samples and coupons. 

The third expensive item I tackled was clothes.  I think kids grow a full size in a day when they have growth spurts so clothes are always in demand.  I found a wonderful site called thredUP, they understand that kids grow, clothes don't so they have a program where moms can swap clothes and toys on line.  The program costs nothing except what it costs to ship the clothes to the new mom, in turn your box is mailed to you free from another member.  This is a wonderful idea and with the price of children's clothes could possibly save the equivalent of a semester at Harvard, OK, not that much but you know what I mean.

A few sites I stumbled on that I felt were worth checking out and joining for coupons, freebies, tips, tricks and networking were Zulily which offers discounts kind of like Groupon, except for children's needs. Planning Family which offers free baby stuff, sweepstakes and contests as well as access to professional advice videos.  Baby to Bee which has savings on diapers and formula as well as a nice area to print coupons.

Have a great weekend everyone!

C.Q.

Its in the cards....Part three

Yesterday I had some problems with the blogger program dropping some of my loyalty programs links so I have included them in today's information. I am also posting the information about discount programs that offer savings up front but often are not free to join. Its important with discount cards that charge fees to know if your going to use it enough to make back the fee over the course time until the next fee is due. Barns and Noble for example charges a $25 annual fee, for me this is not a problem, I can usually make up the $25 in under 2 months, but if your not an avid reader this program would not work.

Wyndham Hotels

Choice Hotels

Hilton Hotels

Priority Club which has Holiday Inn Hotels and a few others like the Indigo Hotels which I am looking forward to trying sometime when I can't find a Kimpton Hotel where I am staying.

Hyatt Hotels

MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas

Amtrak

Every major US airline has a reward program and it can be hard to sort through all the information to find the one that's best for you, especially since they all partner with different hotel chains, car rentals and some even with cruise lines and department stores. There is a web site dedicated to helping you find the one that is right for you, its called Frequentflier.com

Discount Cards:

Barns and Noble again, there is a $25 annual fee for the card so make sure you can save at least that much per year. The discount card also works in the coffee shop section so be sure to use it for any snacks as well.

F.Y.E. you can only join at the brick and mortar store but you can use the discounts on line, there is a $25 per year fee.

PetCo is free to sign up.

PetSmart is also free to join.

Starbucks Coffee, they have several levels to their program, each offering different discounts. The cards are free at the base level but there is also a Gold level which has a $10 fee for the year.

Sears offers a program for all their Craftsmen products.

Spencer Gifts

GNC Nutrition stores, there is a $15 fee for this card and it is very limited in its use.

There are quite a few different grocery stores that offer discounts, in the Midwest where I live there are only has a handful that offer any type of frequent buyer program, but if you have one near you its worth checking out, they are all free to join to the best of my knowledge.

Harris Teeter

Winn-Dixie

Ingles

Safeway

Giant Eagle

This will be the last blog until after Thanksgiving to give me time to prepare the feast. I am going to try to make as much from scratch as possible, frozen fruit salad, cream of carrot soup, zucchini bread, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce all from scratch, hopefully the house will still be standing when I am done.

Hope you all have a fun and safe Thanksgiving, and for those of you heading out for Black Friday I wish you all the best.

C.Q.

Its in the cards....Part two

As I promised yesterday, today is the continuation of reward cards because the list was rather long.

There are some considerations with all reward cards:

* Is it free? Although most are free, some rewards programs charge membership fees to enter. If you're considering one with a fee, make sure you've weighed its benefits carefully and will be able to get out of it what you paid to be a member.

* How easy is it to earn points? Earning points shouldn’t be complicated. Find out how much you need to spend in order to earn a point. The easier it is to earn, the faster you get your reward.

* Do the points take to expire? In some programs, the points you earn will expire after a certain date. Before you sign up, find out how long points take to expire. If you have a few sites that have expiration dates it’s a good idea to put a reminder in a calendar so you won’t forfeit them.

* What can I earn with my points? It’s important that the type of rewards you can redeem with your points are of value to you, if you get a free steak but are a vegetarian then that’s not going to be of value to you. Personally I don’t fly so the rewards for miles don’t interest me, however a lot of the miles can be converted to other items, be sure to check if you can interchange things you don’t want for things you do want.

* How do I track my points? Your points should be easy to track either online or by phone.

I hope that these will help you on your quest for the perfect holiday gift this season!

AMC Movies

Regal Cinemas

CVS

ACE Hardware

True Value Hardware

Auto Zone

Tops Grocery store

Staples, Inc

Office Depot

Block Buster movie rental

Max and Erma's Restaurants

Blackwoods Restaurants are local to Northern Minnesota and there is a one time $10 fee which you get back at the time of purchase as a gift certificate.

TGI Friday's Restaurants

Lawry's Restaurants, there is a $25 enrollment fee but you get a $25 gift certificate back right away.

Lettuce Entertain You has a wide option of places to dine, here is the full listing of their restaurants.

iDine

Kimpton Hotels

Marriott Hotels

Wachovia

I am having some problems with the Blogger program so tomorrow I will post some additional reward sites as well as discount cards, which are different because you get the savings up front instead of having to wait for a reward.

C.Q.