Riley's Thrifty Adventures

17/04/2025

So excited. 🤩🤩🤩 We bought tickets last night...General admission is $35/person ($210).

*Travel hacked our hotel via credit card points ($700 cash price)
* 6 flights to Oregon on Southwest points ($1080 cash price).
*I had to rebook our son's flight to Mexico for his study abroad because he will leave from Eugene, Oregon now so I did that using United points ($831 cash price).
*Booked myself a free flight (using United points) with him back to Denver so I can see him off on the first leg of his trip. ($160 cash price)
* And finally signed up for a United Airlines credit card to help cover other 4 flights home. (Once those are booked it will save another $640)

🤞🏼🤞🏼 We get to see a World Record. We are all soooo stoked!!!! And thankful for travel hacking making these memories happen for our family. 🥰🥰

OFFICIAL: The Bowerman Mile returns for its 25th running at , with three of the fastest men in the world headlining 💎

🇺🇸 Cole Hocker returns to the track he once called home, this time as an Olympic champion
🇺🇸 Yared Nuguse holds the American mile record and is fresh off an Olympic bronze medal
🇳🇴 Jakob Ingebrigtsen is back with new world records, Olympic 5000m gold, and unfinished business

Since 2000, this race has been where legacies get written.
On July 5, they chase greatness.

🎟️ Tickets are moving fast, don’t wait: preclassic.com/tickets

29/03/2025

Took the pooch to the Colorado Rapids game "bark at the park"- it was super fun!!! Tickets were cheap, and the dog could be added for $10. Great social outing for our pup and we love soccer! 🥰

Rapids for the win!!! 2-0 They have a few more bark at the parks this season and the colorado rockies also do it!

24/03/2025

I'm a little late sharing this year, but always good info to know!!

24/03/2025

Last summer my oldest went to Spain for two weeks with PuebloIngles for basically free. He was a volunteer English speaker for their camps. 🇪🇸

This summer he applied for a scholarship with CIEE and was accepted. He will be studying Spanish in Mexico for 4 weeks this summer through a student exchange program. 🇲🇽

Opportunities are out there even on a budget!!! Don't be afraid to encourage your kids to reach out and grab them!!! 🥰🥰

12/11/2024

Homeward bound...

Stayed the night in Paris on our way home. (Used points for hotel. It was either spend the night in Denver or Paris...of course I went with Paris!)

Arrived to our hotel around midnight only to be greeted by Police. Some "special people" were staying there. We were searched before we even got to the parking lot. It was quite an experience.

This morning electronic passport control went down in the airport and we were running to our gate. Very very long lines.

We are onboard now, and waiting to take off. Phew!

10/11/2024

Today we went to Vatican City. Climbed to the top of St. Peter's basilica, checked out the inside. Then hung around to see Pope Francis for the Sunday Angelus (a greeting and prayer).

Really amazing experience. Then off to Castel Sant'Angelo

Of course daily gelato.

09/11/2024

Today we hopped down to Ercolano for a visit to some ruins. (Think Pompeii but smaller and better preserved). We also hiked up Mt Vesuvius.

Herculeum ruins are closer to Vesuvius and were actually covered in deeper ash which caused them to be preserved a lot better than Pompeii. It's a smaller site, but I really enjoyed it more than my trip to Pompeii a few years ago. (And that was a bucket list item for me).

We ate pizza for lunch and then took a bus from Ercolano most of the way up Mt. Vesuvius. Than had 2 hours to hike and explore.

Still haven't had the promised gelato yet, so we will grab some when we get back to Rome in a little bit. We are currently on the high speed train from Naples. :) Current speed is 186miles/hr

08/11/2024

Transportation strike in Roma made for a lot of walking today!!!! Today I handed google maps to a kid and had them lead us to our destination. Great way to teach them map skills and confidence. Too often I just take care of it, but I want them to be confident travelers!!

Started the morning on a walk by the colosseum and the Roman forum. Then past the Victor Emmanuel II monument. Lots of walls up due to construction of a new metro line.

Then over to the Pantheon. It was originally a Roman Temple that was converted to a Catholic Church. Currently still the largest unsupported dome in the world.

We then stopped by the Trevi Fountain which is under restoration, but there is still a water spot to throw your coins in. Which we did because legend has it if you throw in a coin you'll return to Rome. (I'm always up for that!!)

Did a little shopping and then off to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. (I created that tradition when we visited the very first Hard Rock in London).

After lunch we rented bikes and rode around Villa Borghese. That's was full of laughs!!! A great family experience.

Our legs were tired at this point so grabbed an Uber back to our rental since public transit was still on strike.

Definitely also had pizza and gelato today. :)

07/11/2024

Today we took a train to visit Assisi. It's one of my favorite places. We saw the Basilicas of St Francis, and St Clare. Ate gelato of course. And tried truffles....ew was the general consensus. Damian also had wild boar. 😝

It was quite special to visit where St Clare lived and was buried. Our daughter's middle name is after her. She lived a life full of prayer serving God which is our hope for our girl. :)

We also wandered down to San Damiano church. And took in a few more parts of St Clare's life.

Also bought a couple soccer/futbol jerseys ⚽️⚽️. Finished the evening at McDonalds to try it out in Italy. Good balance after the truffles.

06/11/2024

First day in Roma. We slept in and laid around after arriving at our rental at 1am and settling in, we needed to relax this morning. We also had a kid wake up puking throughout the night. It was a sign we needed to have a slow day. So we did laundry, grocery shopping and stayed at sights within a few minutes of us. Of course pizza and gelato for those of us not feeling sick.

05/11/2024

Phew....still in Florence might make it to Rome today. Lol. A last minute train strike has really made today interesting. We arrived to Florence about an hour later than expected which wasn't too bad. But our train to Rome was canceled in the afternoon and we are currently on a 3hr + delay. 🤞🏼Hopefully make it to our rental before midnight.

Florence was great though!! Might of planned our day differently had I known we would be here so long. But a worker was attacked yesterday afternoon so train workers went on strike.

Visited the cathedral, ate the gelato, had lunch at Bistrot Damiano 🥰, saw the "David", took in Florence at sunset, and then spent hours in the train station. 🤣🤣

04/11/2024

Another sunny day in Italy! Rode the vaporetto today! Visited San Giorgio Church on a nearby island for a bell tower view of Venice.

Picked up a tourist sim card for me. My Google fi sim card crapped out on me, so I bought a tourist card for 35euros.

Then we enjoyed some Gelato before taking another vaporetto (water bus) to Murano to checkout all the glass. We tried our hand and making some trinkets and have a new level of respect for the artists. It was tough!!!!!! And we made small items.

Headed back to our hotel in Mestre and are packing up to leave tomorrow.

Ciao Venezia!

Only downside today was when I bought train tickets for the wrong time. 🤣🤣🤣