Going for the Gold: Travel Advice from the Sarcastic Medalist

Let's be real, if sarcasm was a sport, I'd win.

I have two very important pieces of travel advice for you, my dear readers, and both of them are things I figured out today.

Before that, however, you should know that I got a monstrous piece of red velvet cake today and a really pretty coffee drink. Even though I don't like coffee, it was too pretty not to try! It was a brownie coffee concoction that was covered in whipped cream. It was basically made for instagram. Since it didn't turn me into a coffee person, I passed it off to the guy and gals from our hostel who'd joined us for lunch (Mick, Mary and Ashley) and got the cake. Like I said, it was red velvet but in a change of pace, there was a caramel filling in between the layers and it was surprisingly good, better in my opinion that the more traditional cream cheese frosting that coated the outside.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I shall impart some of my wisdom.

1. Fly home on a Monday -- Pinterest will tell you that Tuesday is the cheapest day to fly, but Monday is the smartest day to fly home. By the end of your trip, you're going to be tired and ready for your own bed; it doesn't matter how amazing the trip was -- because this trip really was superb -- you will be ready. Flying home on a Monday means that your last full day will be a Sunday, when everything will be closed. San Jose basically shut down today! Even if we'd wanted to do more than walk a half mile for  we wouldn't have had anything to do! You get to the last day of your vacation lounging in paradise without any guilt that you should  "doing something." It's liberating.

The one exception to this rule would be Israel, where everything shuts down for Shabbat on Saturday. Then you should fly home on Sunday!

2. Travel during sports -- I know that sounds weird since I know very little about sports and typically care even less but Whitney and I have been parked in front of the TV all day and have made so any friends! Everyone has at least a passing interest in the Olympics and is willing to sit and watch with us. It is also a great conversation starter! I noticed the same  when Whitney and I were in Europe during  FIFA World Cup in 2014. We instantly bonded with so many people and a lot of my favorite memories from that trip have something to do football. Now if only they gave out medals for sarcastic blogging, because I would be the Michael Phelps of the internet.

We are packing up now. Our flight leaves at 2:45pm and gets to Charlotte at 9:10pm and then we have a long layover but Whitney has friends in Charlotte so the plan is to leave the airport for a few hours and make a pilgrimage to Cookout for shakes!

 I cannot begin to describe how wonderful this trip had been so I'm not going to try right now but maybe I'll be feeling more sentimental on the plane tomorrow.