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Who says patience isn’t a virtue? After almost 20 years, Weber has finally given an overhaul to its tried and true Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker.  The old 2820 model is replaced by the new Weber 18.5″ inch smoker which finally has a built-in thermometer as well as improvement to the legs, water pan and door design. Weber has also added a second bigger smoker to the line called the 22.5” which is the radius of a large Weber Kettle grill and has three cooking levels. If you have held off on getting a smoker, now is the time.

Read the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Review

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Yapta is a very cool new website tracks fluctuations in airline ticket prices, similar to a stock ticker and notifies you when a ticket you have already purchased or are interested in buying drops in price, so you can get the best deal. If you have already purchased a ticket, Yapta will tell you how to contact the airline to for a refund or will make the request automatically. I saved $80 the first time I tried it. It couldn’t have been easier, I got an e-mail telling me the price had dropped and they also sent me Jet Blue’s phone number and told me what to say. The price went back up the next day.

See More Travel Tips & Deals

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There is a lot of debate these days about when toddlers should move out of a traditional car seat with a five point harness and into a booster seat. The issue for most parents is that the kids outgrow their convertible car seat before they are really ready for a booster. The much talked about Radian 65 from Sunshine Kids helps fill this gap and also also a great seat for travel and/or a second car. It has many of the features of a booster seat with the security of a five point harness. Thanks to BabyCenter and Sunshine Kids for providing the demos.

Read the full Sunshine Kids Radian 65 Car Seat Review.

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On the heels of a recent trip to Europe, I had the chance to test out some new products and have also updated the Bobby’s Best Travel Section. Here are some tips based on my own experience in Europe:

Do’s

Bring a GPS System (if you will be driving a lot)
We purchased the Garmin Nuvi 670 which is a widescreen model that comes loaded with European maps and it was a lifesaver. It is essentially the same model as the less expensive Nuvi 650; however, it includes European maps which can often cost several hundred dollars more. Honestly it’s hard enough to drive a golf cart sized stick shift diesel around Europe without having to try to read a map at the same time. The Nuvi 670 was very accurate and was also helpful for locating gas stations and parking lots, the latter of which was key for tourist towns and major cities. A portable GPS is a great investment for travel and it’s something you can enjoy when you return home or travel domestically as well.

Scan Important Docs
Scan all of your important documents (i.e., passport, travelers checks, medical information, etc.) . Then e-mail a copy to a friend or relative, or relative and then copy your own e-mail account to a USB Keychain Drive and bring it with you. This way, if anything is lost, you can retrieve the file either locally from your keychain or from your e-mail account at an Internet café. For the copy you leave at home, you can also include your credit cards, but don’t carry this information with you on the keychain.

Call Home with Skype
If you are traveling with your laptop and will have internet access, put money in your Skype account before you leave. You can also buy an inexpensive headset to use with your pc. While there are many options now for purchasing mobile phones that will work overseas, roaming rates are still very expensive, often averaging 50 cents a minute. With Skype you can make calls to the US for less than two cents a minute.

Don’ts

Check Your Luggage (unless you absolutely have to)
The airlines just can’t seem to reliably put bags on planes these days and starting off your vacation without your clothes is a real bummer. Also, if you think that the airlines will reimburse a shopping spree to replace your items so that you can begin your trip, you will be very surprised by their draconian reimbursement policies. Do what you can to fit your luggage into a 22-inch carry on, being mindful that international weight and carry-on restrictions are often more stringent that domestic. Two great choices for luggage are the Travelpro Crew 6 22” Series and the Eagle Creek Tarmac ES 22 bag.

Bother with Travelers Checks
If you are going to a major city, ATM’s are the easiest and cheapest way to get money. Travelers checks just aren’t what they used to be and you will probably get a worse exchange rate. Carrying a few as a precaution is fine, but on the last three trips I brought them on, I never used one of them.

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Then there is the issue of food. With the exception of JetBlue, most airlines don’t even offer free snacks anymore. So like many parents, we bring our own snacks, especially on long flights. Two months ago, in Ft Lauderdale, at 6:30am, the TSA confiscated my daughter’s breakfast, which was a small yogurt that they claimed was in the “gel” family. Needless to say, she was hysterical and we could not find another yogurt within security. Last month, we made sure to stock up for a 6 1/2 hour flight to Los Angeles, given that American Airlines does not serve any food other than paid snacks. However, the TSA folks confiscated our six packages of diced peaches, which the kids live on, because they were suspended in liquid. They also took our ice pack which was keeping the kid’s sandwiches cold and we had to dump out the kid’s cups full of water and juice. We were told by the TSA folks that the ice pack would have been allowed if it had been keeping milk or formula cold, but we could not have it for food. I’m sorry, but how does that make it less of a threat? Anyway, we fought hard about the peaches, offering to eat them and asking the TSA rep to run a bomb detection test on them, but it was to no avail.

Common sense really needs to prevail with respect to airline safely. It’s hard enough to travel with kids, but these blanket TSA rules, combined the lack of food being served on the airlines, creates a major headache. Parents are essentially forced to take their chances on overpriced stores within the security area. It’s time for the airports to consider a special dedicated family screening area, where the parents won’t be as rushed and some more senior TSA officials can help make judgment calls on which breakfast and snacks items are or are not a threat to national security. It’s been well documented how Israel’s flagship carrier, El Al, focuses on personal interviews and human judgment to provide what is considered the best security in the world. This is far more effective than blanket rules which are likely ineffective because they are targeting yesterday’s terrorist tactics. Instead, they make an already difficult situation even more so for parents who travel with young children.

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As someone who has been frustrated by the big carriers and their tactics for years, it’s refreshing to see someone doing it right. On a related note, a friend was telling me last night that they are trying to fly from Boston to Dayton, Ohio on Delta and found that it was actually less expensive to connect though Cincinnati and go to Dayton than it was to simply get off in Cincinnati. I’d love for someone to explain to me how this makes any sense as they are paying less to take up four extra seats on another flight.

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Also, check out Kayak.com, the latest edition to the Bobby’s Best Travel Section. Kayak is a very cool travel search engine site which shows you the best the possible prices based on your preferences from many different travel websites. As you change your variables on the left side of the page, the results automatically change on the right side without having to refresh. It’s cool stuff and extremely useful.

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The biggest hit of the trip however was the Go Go Kidz Cart which turned our Britax Roundabout Car Seat into a stroller for maneuvering our two year old around the airport.

A nice feature is that it can stay attached for use on the airplane (you must remove it for automobiles). We were stopped by no less than 10 people who noticed that Britax doesn’t make a car seat and asked us about the Go Go Kidz and where they could get one. My daughter loved it and it made it a lot easier to get her around the airport, especially with a connection.

I wish I could say that flying American Airlines was as pleasurable as my experiences on Jet Blue. On our return flight, the gate agent in Dallas refused to let us pre-board, saying it was their “policy” even though we had been offered that option on our previous three flights. This was extremely frustrating given the amount of equipment we were lugging around and in general the Dallas gate agent seemed to go out of her way to be rude to passengers. My favorite moment was when she came on board and was yelling at folks to sit down so that we could “take off” on time. However, anyone on the right side of the plane could see that there were still 150 pieces of luggage to be put onboard by a gentleman who must have been orchestrating a union slowdown because it was not humanly possible to load bags any slower. It was about 10 more minutes until he had any help and 25 minutes later until we left the gate. And you wonder why the traditional carriers are struggling?

One last note, Skype was a lifesaver for me on this trip. I purchased $10 worth of credit for the Skype Out service, which let me call regular phone numbers from my computer. The cost was about $.02 per minute versus $1 per minute of roaming charges for my cell phone. The calls were very clear and I was able to keep up with all of my work and check in with friends. If you are planning to travel out of the country and have a laptop, Skype Out is an amazing service.

bobby’s best

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