want to help me plan a vacation?

Each year my husband's company has an Awards Trip for its Top Salesmen.  Because Mr. Steady is an Executive for the company we get to play Hosts and help plan the trip.   Or...actually, the wives get to help plan the trip!  (which we enjoy!!!) 

Mr. Steady sent me an email today asking me to come up with 3 possibilities for our 2012 trip.  My budget?  $300 or less per room per night and airfare must be reasonable…say $450 or less.  If we can get by without having to rent a car, that adjusts either of these or both.

In the past we've been to Longboat Key, Captiva Island, and Key West (all Florida beaches), another Florida beach that I can't remember (it was my least favorite), Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, and this past year was to Rockport, Maine.  

Since most of us are in the Southeast we'd rather not go to Florida since it's right in our backyard.  Going out of the country is an option, but going on a cruise is NOT an option. 

Our trip usually goes something like this.  The executives arrive on Monday and the Winners arrive on Tuesday.  We have a casual cocktail party on Tuesday night at the hotel/resort bar or restaurant.  When everyone gets back to their room that night they have a gift waiting for them.  Wednesday is golf or spa treatments with a dinner that night (usually off-site).  After dinner drinks at the hotel bar and then more gifts in the room.  Thursday is normally an excursion during the day and then a nice dinner with nicer gifts presented at dinner.  Everyone goes home on Friday.  

So -- one requirement is to have golf on-site or very nearby and a spa.  We won't be bringing children with us and there will be about 40 people total.

I would LOVE to have your ideas.   Please let me know of places you've heard of or have visited yourself that you think might work for an Awards Trip.

Thank you!!!

we've got tickets to go to...

Italy!  

Vacation Plans - April 2012

And I'm super excited!  Some of our dear (military) friends were sent to Rome and will be stationed there for a year.  Since we LOVE Italy, and next year is mine & Mr. Steady's 20 year anniversary, we thought it would be the perfect excuse to go visit them in Rome!

All we have done so far is book our airplane tickets.  Have you spent much time trying to book international flights using "points"?!?  Well...it can be a nightmare.  We had enough points (300,000) to fly first-class.  But, some days I'd look and the ticket would be 200,000 points each.  Some days it would be 250,000 and others it would be 125,000 or 150,000.  Finding the perfect flight was harder than I imagined and I spent about 40 hours on-line looking, and constantly refreshing my search.

But, it's done and I can move on to other projects.  Our plan is to fly into Florence and spend a couple of days there.  Then we'll spend about a week in Chianti and then go down to Rome and spend a couple of days seeing our friends and then fly home from there!

One of my goals since booking this trip was to lose weight prior to going in April.  Not only do I have this vacation as a motivator, but I also have the fact that I need to lower my cholesterol motivating me as well to lose the extra weight that I'm carrying!  And, for those of you who remember that I wanted to log 10 hours of lessons using Rosetta Stone...now you know why!  :)

road trip #2

This is our week to split up again as a family and take our one-on-one trips with the boys.  We did this for the first time for Winter Break, and now that Spring Break is here, we're doing it again!  This week my husband is taking my 12 year old to Pensacola.  They're planning on fishing with a guide for 3 days and catching some very large fish!  My 12 year old LOVES fishing and can hardly wait!  I'm anxious to see what kind of fish they come home with for the freezer!  When they're not fishing, I'm guessing they'll be hanging out on the beach or going to the the National Naval Aviation Museum. 

My 9 year old and I are going up to the mountains to do some hiking!  I can't wait!  There is nothing I love more than hiking and I'm so glad that my youngest loves it too!  We'd looked into staying at a hotel, but the hotels in the area were all motels.  Very expensive motels!  The going rate for a 1-star motel was around $80.  I tried to negotiate a better price at priceline.com, but I couldn't get a price that I was comfortable paying for a 1-star motel.  So...we rented a small house that was very affordable.  And I was able to negotiate a better price than what was published!  I think it'll be perfect and very comfortable.  There is a hot tub that we'll be able to enjoy after those long days of hiking, and also an outdoor fire place for some s'mores!   (My son is very excited about both of these things!)   We're going to be hiking on both the Appalachian Trail and the Benton Mackaye Trail.  We're also going to go to Dahlonega to pan for gold and we're going to a couple of attractions in Atlanta.

One mistake that I made with our Winter Break trip was not having something planned to eat for dinner on the night we got back home.  I remember spending so much money at the store that night getting easy, convenience foods.  I've already planned ahead and we'll have Sloppy Joes on Saturday night and Steaks on Sunday night.  Everything I need is on hand already, so that should eliminate a "panic trip" to the grocery store on Saturday evening!

So - that's what we're up to this week for Spring Break.  I'll let you know more details of the trip next week and share a couple of pictures too!

one-on-one vacation - road trip #1

I mentioned that my oldest son and I took a road trip to Tennessee 2 weeks ago.  We had an absolute blast!  I never expected to have so much fun.  My husband has taken one-on-one trips with each of the boys several times but I always stay at home with the "one left behind" and we do something fun locally.   We had a great time bonding, sightseeing and being silly together.  Best of all, he LOVED me saying yes to everything!  I even said YES to staying an extra day!  We went a little bit over budget (too many souvenirs!), but nothing that we can't make up by cutting back on entertainment and restaurants for a month.  It was definitely worth it!

"Vacations" is the third largest line item on our Budget after "Savings" and "Mortgage".  Spending time together and exploring new and different places is something that we enjoy doing and that is important to us.  We would rather cut back on other things throughout the year in order to take a few trips. 

Here are some pictures...

Ruby Falls

Ruby Falls

A Mocs Basketball Game

A great trip and great memories!  And the best part of it all?!?  We get to do it all again in 5 weeks!  Spring Break is the first week in April and we're switching kiddos and heading out again!

What about you?  What is something that you absolutely love that you make "work" within your budget?

"yes money"

The vacations that we're taking this week were planned and put in the 2011 budget so that we would have the money in the bank and not go into debt!  (I love knowing that there will not be a credit card bill waiting for us when we get home!)  But before we left I "found" some extra money here and there that I've tucked away for our Chattanooga trip.

I'm calling it my "yes money".  My 12 year old is SOOOOO used to hearing me say "no" when he asks me to buy something that I thought it would be nice for him to hear "yes" for a change.  My thoughts are that the "yes money" will go towards things like extra souvenirs, snacks or sightseeing things he might like to do that I hadn't already planned.   He has brought his own money to spend as well, but it'll be fun for me to treat him to things that I normally wouldn't at home!

So where did I find my "yes money"?
$95 - an insurance check for his braces (that were removed 7 months ago) that I wasn't expecting to get
$6 - sold a movie on half.com
$7 - found in my coat pocket
$19 - survey money
$5 - sold a book on half.com

So...to my 12 year old, "Yes honey, you can get that!"  ...but once it runs out....

road trip!

This week my kids are on Winter Break from school and we're trying something new as a family.  One-on-one vacations with the boys.  My husband had originally planned to take the boys on a trip, leaving me home to enjoy a week of peace and quiet...ahhhh! (now that would be heavenly!)  The more the boys talked about where they were going and what they wanted to do, it was evident they had very different ideas on how they wanted to spend time with Dad. 

So?  They each are getting a trip with Dad!  And they each get a trip with me!  This week my 9 year old is skiing with Dad in Colorado and my 12 year old and I are taking a road trip to Chattanooga!  Come Spring Break, we'll flip it around and my older son will be fishing in Florida and my 9 year old and I will be taking a road trip!

We've never vacationed this way, but I'm really and truly looking forward to it.  My husband has taken 1-on-1 trips with the boys before but I've never done it.  I'm not sure if going on a road trip with mom is something they'll always want to do, so I'm taking full advantage of it while they are eager!  I'm so excited!

Plans for us in Chattanooga?  We're going to be HUGE tourists!  First stop is a private hiking tour through one of the caves.  Then, everything else there is to do in Chattanooga...the aquarium, Rock City, Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain, Incline Railway, battlefields, and a college basketball game!

More details when we return!

home sweet home

Home from vacation!!!

We had back to back vacations this year.  One week in Punta Cana without the kiddos and then one week on North Captiva Island WITH the kids.  Needless to say, we had a GREAT time and came back with some brown skin.  It's been 4 years since we've had a long vacation with the kids (where it was JUST the 4 of us) and we had the best time.  Lots of fishing, shelling and island hopping.  And...a little bit of relaxing.

Now we've been back for a solid week and the laundry is caught up and we've made it through the long 4th of July weekend.

One thing that I wanted to do this summer and that we just started working on last week is eating FRESH and LOCAL food.  We're lucky in the fact that we're kinda in the country so finding roadside farm stands is pretty easy.  We're on the search for the best farm stand this summer.  We stopped at 6 last week alone...we had a "tomato tasting" between 3 of the stands!  Anyway, it was a great week back and we had fun shopping on the "outer aisles" and farm stands and getting some really good, local fruits and vegetables. I'll post some of our menus and recipes another day.

Another thing that we're focusing on this summer is driving less.  We live in a golf cart community and are able to get anywhere within the city limits on a golf cart.  Since Memorial Day, we've had 20 days where we've only driven the golf cart.  I'm hoping that we can get the number to 40 by Labor Day!

Anyway  -  this is a short post.  We're on our way to the swimming pool (in the golf cart...) and the kiddos are waiting.  Just wanted to check in and say that I'm still here (or that I'm back from vacationing...) and am looking forward to sitting down and catching up on all of my favorite bloggers posts!

suntanned toes...

...tickling the sand. 

Cold drink chilling in my right hand...

We're headed to the Dominican Republic this week for our "work vacation".  I call it a "work vacation" because it's an awards trip paid for by my husband's company.  Be back in 5 days! And did I mention we're kidless this week?  Woo Hoo!!

Nothing to do but breath all day until the big moon rises and it's time to play...

vacation spending

We took a reunion trip with some of our best friends to California's wine country. We rented a beautiful house in Calistoga (Bellisimo Vineyards) and spent 3 nights there. We spent 2 full days touring the wine country and eating quite well. We rented a limo bus one day and spent 6 1/2 hours on that -- so that was a bit pricey. We ate at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Market and Taylor's Refresher. All terrific restaurants. We visited 8 wineries/vineyards. All were remarkable! After we left wine country, my husband and I spent the rest of the day and night in San Francisco. Great time there too! And a great Italian restaurant for dinner...E'Tutto Qua. I anticipated the entire trip costing us about $3500. All in all, we spent about $3200.

Here's a breakdown of how we spent our money:
Flight - $0...we used miles to fly first-class from the east coast to the west coast
House - $610
rental car & gas - $219
Limo Bus - $284
Food - $728
San Francisco hotel - $164
parking in SF - $50
wine - $1050
Misc - $100

It was a great trip and just the right amount of being gone from home. Two full days with friends was a nice balance to the 2 days we had just the 2 of us. Can't wait to go back.

Cheers!