Considering the size and prominent location, I thought the architect did an excellent job in blending the structure into the hilltop. A dream property.

Bump for current conditions.

"A bottle of rum, cigars and cheap souvenirs" - memorize it and say the same thing every time. You never know when you're going to get a new/overzealous customs agent and it sounds a lot more honest than being unprepared or saying "nothing".

Our friends buy waaaaay too much jewelry every year and they declared it once not knowing any better. After wasting a bunch of time and scrambling to find $39 or whatever like the OP (they would only take cash) one of the agents whispered to them saying not to make a declaration like that ever again.

Hurricane Ian's eyewall passed directly over the Dry Tortugas yesterday evening with 120mph winds, making it the first unofficial Florida landfall. Irma damaged some of the moat wall back in 2017, and that storm was about 100 miles to the east.

Wishing everyone affected by the storm the best.

I felt bad calling when all the airlines are busy with Ian, but, after some unpleasant exchanges with a completely incompetent agent via chat I went ahead and plugged my phone in on speaker and listened to elevator music for 45 minutes while working until I got a live person with Delta. After the initial attempt of them trying to keep me on a redeye, and the person clearly understanding what my complaint was, she said yes she should could put me back on the afternoon flight to ATL that was only 13 minutes different than what I previously booked. She just had to go get override codes. 10 minutes later she was back on and fixed everything.

I can't think of any reason other than trying to get me on cheaper flights that they would try such a thing seems how the price has doubled since I booked in May. Complete scam IMO.