Based on an American Express survey of vacation trends for this summer, 67% of us who plan to travel this year will spend at least as much or more this year on their vacation as last year. Coupled with improving hotel occupancy-looks like we picked the wrong year to have a 500-year flood-and increased demand for air travel, the results indicate that either Americans' financial circumstances are improving or a significant number of them are throwing caution to the winds.

In any event, Summer's unofficially begun!