Who currently travels or has traveled as a part of their job? I am among those who are required to do a fair amount of travel for my job. While I have been fortunate recently to have received many local or west-coast opportunities, it is not uncommon to hop on the plane to fly to the east-coast or another country on a weekly basis.

As frequent traveler, there are only a few benefits of this lifestyle, the most important being the point accumulation for hotels, airfare, and car rentals. As frequent travelers you should never, ever have to pay for your vacations. Of course, like many the last thing you want to do is head to the airport for your vacation. I am more than willing to make the exception for some place tropical or European.

You are rewarded for your frequent travels by obtaining different elite levels, each one granting you more privileges and opportunities than the previous. With programs like Platinum-members, Premier-Executives, 1K members, MVP-elite, and so on. . .it is easy to start to look down upon those poor individuals who are holding a “group 4″ boarding pass or get to stay on the second floor when you are offered the 47th floor with concierge service. One needs to remember that at the start of our traveling, we too had the opportunity to guard the lavatory back in row 36. I guess it is easy to look back simply because the rewards appear to diminish as you climb the ranks. Sure there are plenty of perks, but they become less significant. Does the 47th floor really offer a better view than the 45th floor?

It hit me the other day that I have been overlooking an aspect of traveling elite-ness. As I boarded a flight to Atlanta, I noticed that I recognized one of the crew members. I had seen Jim and the rest of the crew for this flight on a few other previous flights. Now this got me thinking, what type of status do you acquire when you get on a first-name basis with TSA members? The airport coffee shop staff?

I think that this should serve as a reality check, if you know too many people (especially those that are not from your home airport), you may be traveling too much!

The following is a brief summary of the events as Natalie and I experienced them from our vantage point at home. More pictures can be found at www.andyandnataliepics.com.

SUNDAY 12/14: This started on Saturday with the rapid drop in temperatures. Finally on Sunday we got a bit of snow, which was little more than a dusting mostly affecting east Portland. West Portland was slammed with a couple of inches and ice, but once you crossed over the river there was nothing, very disappointing.

THURSDAY 12/18: We finally got a good inch in the morning. I woke up around 6:00a and there was nothing, but after the shower and some breakfast it was accumulating fast. Natalie had to work from home, I was not so fortunate.

FRIDAY 12/19: More ice accumulating than snow, it was not a tough drive to Beaverton for the Gingerbread Party.

SATURDAY 12/20: Oh wow, now the snow came down, and it did not give up all day. We have 4-5 inches on the ground by the end of the day.

SUNDAY 12/21: The snow kept going through the night, but later changed to freezing rain leaving a 1/2 inch of ice all over everything. Took about 30 minutes to de-ice the truck. Definitely enjoyed driving in this! Kept snowing into the night.

MONDAY 12/22: Got a few more inches of just snow during the night. Surprisingly the commute to downtown was not too bad, did I mention my truck rocks? Natalie headed out in the afternoon to build the snow bear.

TUESDAY 12/23: Well the roads have greatly improved, of course still have not needed chains. The downside is that everyone decided today was the day to go to work, made for a bad commute.

WEDNESDAY 12/24: Well it is snowing very heavily again, nice for driving and snow creatures. Going to make Christmas more interesting though.

THURSDAY 12/25: Started out warm, but the temperatures dropped quickly and we received at least an inch of fresh snow right before the Christmas party.

SATURDAY 12/27: The great thaw has begun, the temperatures have increased to 48 degrees and the snow is rapidly disappearing. Too bad!