16 posts tagged “travel”

This is seriously the BEST time of year to live in Florida.  The weather has been SOOOO NICE lately!  I love being able to wear a light sweater, and open all the windows, and turn off the air conditioning, and just enjoy it.  We were thinking about going out to the Magic Kingdom this weekend so we could spend some time walking around in the glorious fresh air, but apparently this is a really busy week at the parks because a bunch of schools in New Jersey have the week off or something.  TouringPlans.com is calling this weekend as a 7 out of 10, whereas next weekend is averaging as a 5 out of 10.  So we're definitely going to go next weekend, as long as the weather holds up.

Tadd is helping Ryan and Rick move into their new place today, so I'm pretty much on my own.  This morning I went on a little shopping spree.  JCPenney is having a huge sale, so I got 2 sweaters and a shirt for about $40.  Then I went to Bath & Body Works, because I had a $10 off $30 coupon burning a hole in my pocket.  I got a 2-pack of Cinnamon Pumpkin plug-in air fresheners, a Christmas Tree scented candle in a festive glass holder for Tadd's man den (he LOVES pine/forest-type scents), a Creamy Nutmeg scented candle for me, and a three-pack of trial-sized lotions in the limited edition holiday scents (Vanilla Bean Noel, Twisted Peppermint, and Winter Candy Apple) that I'm going to bring into work and split with some co-workers.  All of that for only $22!  Then I went to Yankee Candle, where I got four holiday scented tarts (I think I got Egg Nog, Holiday Apple Wreath, Jack Frost, and one other scent...can't remember).  Then I got a small jar candle with a new scent called Silver Bells, which smells SOOOOO good!  I think we are now FULLY stocked on Thanksgiving/Christmasy fragrances!  But that's ok because I love all the holiday scents for this time of year.  And luckily Tadd does too.

Tadd just found out that he might have to travel to Atlanta for work for a few days in mid-December.  Unfortunately, it might mean we have to cut our WDW holiday weekend getaway short.  He wasn't supposed to go until January, but they just opened up a session in December, and they would really rather him go sooner than later.  I'm really hoping it doesn't work out.  I've been looking forward to this little getaway for months.  I don't know why they assume that they can give a month's notice for something like this right smack in the middle of the holiday season and expect people to be able to go.  But if he has to, he has to.  In this economy, I'm just glad he has a job and don't want us to do anything to jeopardize that. 

Lots of fun stuff going on right now...

• This weekend, we pretty much finalized our cruise plans.  October 4th on the Carnival Glory!  I absolutely cannot wait.  We'll be going to Cozumel, Belize, Hondouras, and the Bahamas!
  
• Tadd started up a fantasy baseball league, and I decided to give it a try.  I named my team the H-Bombs.  I'm not really up on the stats and figures, but it's all just for fun, so I'm just going to do my best and learn as I go.  I'm currently putting together a list of my top 25 players for when we do our live draft.  Bet, Ryan, my dad, Richard, and a few others will have teams as well.
  
• We get a short day at work tomorrow thanks to Presidents' Day.  All of the companies that use us for their benefits administration for are off tomorrow, so we only have to work 9-2.  Nice!  It would be even nicer if we got the whole day off, but I'll take what I can get.
• I never knew how much you could save by shopping at CVS until today.  We finally got one of those Extra Care Bucks (ECB) cards, and bought a ton of cleaning supplies and other essentials today, including one of those automatic shower cleaner machines.  We saved a total of $26 off of an approximately $50 purchase with sales and coupons and then got an additional $21 in ECBs towards our next purchase!  Even better...I found that there are whole message boards devoted to getting as much value out of those ECB cards as possible.  People are walking out with $80-worth of stuff, while only paying like $0.11 out of pocket because they know how to work the system.  This totally appeals to my bargain-shopper tendancies!  I love it!  So I have a feeling I will be shopping a lot more at CVS from now on.
  

I've been researching dates and airfares, and I think there is a good chance we might be going to Tennessee to visit the in-laws in May.  I feel bad because in the 5+ years since they moved up there, the only time we visited was when Cliff (stepfather-in-law) passed away back in 2005.  We've made tentative plans to visit here and there, none of which actually came true.  For awhile, there was talk of us going up to visit last Thanksgiving, but Peggy (mother-in-law) decided she wanted a vacation in Florida instead.  So plans switched and they came to visit us instead.  Considering the turmoil we were going through at the time, I think that was definitely for the best.

I know my experience there during the days following Cliff's death was surreal, strange, and not entirely pleasant, but I'm hopeful that this trip will be a lot different.  They live in a pretty rural area, and that type of place isn't really my cup of tea.  But, being in the mountains, it is scenic and a definite change of pace from what I'm used to on a daily basis.  Central Florida might be bright, shiny, and new, with easy access to the kind of entertainment that leaves your senses overloaded...but it thoroughly lacks the historic charm that Cookeville and the surrounding areas do have to offer.  I know that due to the circumstances of my last visit, I wasn't able to really give the area a chance.  I know this time Peggy will be taking us to some interesting places and doing her best to keep things fun.  So I'm really looking at this as a fun vacation of sorts, instead of just a family visit.

So I found this great airfare on Southwest.  With taxes and fees, it would be a grand total of $355 for the two tickets.  We'd fly out on May 22nd, my birthday, and fly home on the 27th.  And thanks to Memorial Day, I would only have to use 3 vacation days.  I think the flight is only about an hour.  We were going to drive, but with such a short amount of vacation time, plus the cost of gas, I don't think driving for 12 hours each way is the best way to go.

I think it's time Tadd and I start planning another cruise.  We talked about it last night and think we just might go for it.  This whole year has been full of all these micro-vacations over weekends, which has been lots of fun, but I am dying for a real week-long getaway.  Weekend trips are great and we have had a great time this year, especially our trip to Savannah, but by the time you get into vacation mode, you're already on the drive home!  I hate that.

So, we're thinking of booking an October 2008 cruise, so if anyone wants to go with us, we all have plenty of time to save.  I found one that sounds REALLY good.  It's 7 nights on the Carnival Glory, with stops in Cozumel, Belize City, Costa Maya, and Nassau.  The Inside Guarantee rate is currently only $439 per person.  I really want to see the Mayan ruins, so this itinerary would allow for that.  And it sails from Port Canaveral, so it would be a quick drive to the port. 

We aren't exactly 100% sure that we are definitely going to do it yet, but I'd say we're 80% sure.  If any of our friends decide to join us, that would certainly help sway our decision.  If all goes well and we decide to go through with it, we're aiming to put our $250/person deposits down in January.  Then I believe we'll have until July or August to come up with the other half of the fare. 

Sorry it took me awhile to write about my trip.  I haven't been feeling 100% lately, so I have been putting it off.  We had a great time and the game could not have been more exciting!

I came home from work around 11:30am Friday morning, and Tadd was already home getting everything ready and doing some last-minute packing.  We made sure the kitties had everything they needed, loaded the car, and then we were off!  Just for fun, and because we got such an early start, we decided to make a little stop at Downtown Disney on our way out of Orlando.  We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich (which is SO good...I love their bread!), and then browsed around a little bit in some of the shops before getting back on the road to the Tampa area.  Stopping there really helped break up the trip and it seemed like no time at all before we saw the Tampa skyline looming overhead.  We got totally lost on the way to the hotel, but after Tadd caving in and calling the front desk for directions, we made it!

The hotel was indeed very old-looking, but also quite charming and beautiful.  We were given a room on the 2nd floor, and were somewhat surprised to find that the front desk clerk handed us real brass keys instead of keycards.  Our room was on the smaller side, but just fine for us.  It also had a walk-in closet, which I'm sure was leftover from the days when people would literally spend the entire winter at this resort.  We had a lovely view of a really pretty victorian garden; and the first time I went to the window to admire the view, an adorable brown bunny hopped across the lawn.

We got settled in the room, and then got ready to go to dinner.  My idea was for us to go to John's Pass (a small fishing village in Madeira Beach with shops and restaurants) and hopefully find a good place to eat there.  We spent a little while walking along the docks and admiring the view of the water, before settling on dinner at the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant.  The wait for a table was about 20 minutes at that point, so Tadd got me a delicious sangria at the bar and we sat outside and waited for our name to be called.

This is a great little restaurant!  We really enjoyed our food, which surprised me, since I'm not a seafood person.  Tadd got the clam chowder, house salad, and a plate of fried shrimp, fried scallops, and fried oysters.  I got a cajun chicken sandwich with fries and a house salad.  I also tried my very first ever hush puppy.  Yum!  After dinner, we wandered around some of the shops, and watched a school of VERY large fish hang out around the docks, then headed back to our hotel.  We knew there was a British pub in the basement of the hotel, so we headed down there to find some very entertaining kareoke going on, plus the TVs were tuned to two different baseball games!  They had a pool table too, so Tadd was a very happy camper.  We got some drinks and really enjoyed ourselves, just hanging out in the corner, talking, laughing at the awful singing, and watching ESPN.  I even played a little pool with Tadd (something I NEVER do).  By a little after midnight, we were feeling pretty good, but tired, so we headed back to our room and called it a night. 

Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early, but took our time getting ready for the day.  We wandered around the resort for awhile, just to explore.  Then we headed out in search of breakfast.  We ended up stopping at Steak N Shake, and were shocked to find only one other table taken (on a Saturday morning at 10am!).  After we ate a quick breakfast, I got a call from my dad saying he and my mom, brother, and grandparents had arrived at their hotel.  The Steak N Shake was actually just down the road from their hotel, so we drove down and met them in the lobby.  We hung out there for awhile, and waited for my sister to arrive with her boyfriend.  Once everyone was together, we took a nice scenic drive out to St. Petersburg Beach to a place called The Hurricane. 

After lunch, we went up to the roof to admire the view of the coast.  Then we got back into the car and drove to downtown St. Pete, to the gelato shop where my sister works.  We had some delicious gelato (Tadd and I shared a cup of chocolate peanut butter, tiramisu, pistachio, and banana caramel), and wandered around the shops for awhile, then we walked down to the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, where the Red Sox were staying during the three-game series.  What a beautiful hotel!  And absolutely chock-full of Red Sox fans.  We probably saw a lot of the players' families too.  They were having a leather/jewelry show, so we poked around for awhile, but soon we ran out of things to do, so we decided to head over to Tropicana Field a little early.

 

When we got there, people had started lining up at the doors, but we still had about 45 minutes before they would let us in.  It was SOOOOO hot and humid!  But it was also really neat to look around and see all the red and blue that people were wearing.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that for every one Tampa Bay fan, there were probably about 20 Red Sox fans!  Soon enough, they opened the doors and we flooded inside.  This is a NICE stadium!  So many shops and food stands and neat things to look at.  I think they served every single beer under the sun between all the different stands.  We found our seats, which is when I realized just how good the seats my dad scored really were.  We were in a special section where only people with tickets for that section were allowed.  We had our own bathrooms and concessions catering to a much smaller crowd of people, and our seats had a perfect view of the entire field.  I loved it!

The game itself was amazing.  By the end of the 9th inning, it was tied 6-to-6.  The Rays were in good form that night...even Papelbon (our favorite pitcher) couldn't keep them from scoring the last few runs they needed to tie it up.  He actually allowed 2 homeruns, which I could tell really pissed him off.  So then, of course, we went into extra innings.  No scores during the 10th, no scores during the 11th, and finally in the 12th we had some great luck!  We got six runs to make the final score 12-6 in favor of the Red Sox.  We were all dancing and cheering and celebrating.  By that time all of the Rays fans had gone home!  I was glad, because whenever they did something good, they would all ring cowbells and it was starting to get on my nerves.  We had a cowbell-ringer right behind us and I was so glad when she left! 

After we got back to my family's hotel, we said our goodbyes to everyone and, after a quick stop at Sonic, headed back to our hotel.  When we got back to the hotel, we realized how exhausted we were.  Pretty soon after eating our midnight snacks, we drifted off to sleep.

Sunday, we really weren't sure what we were going to do with the day.  I hadn't planned anything specific.  Tadd's only request was that he was craving some eggs benedict from IHOP, so we checked out of the hotel and headed to the nearest IHOP.  While eating breakfast, some seriously dark clouds started rolling in.  We were both still exhausted from the last couple of days, so we decided to just start driving back to Orlando.  We thought about stopping at the Premier Outlets, near Disney, since neither of us had ever been there and we had heard some good things about them, but when we got off the interstate, the traffic was NUTS!  I don't know what was going on, but we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.  Tadd was quickly losing his patience, so we made a u-turn and got back on I-4.  He decided he just wanted to go home.  So we stopped at the grocery store, picked up a rotisserie chicken, carrots, pasta salad, and garlic bread, then went home and had a nice easy dinner while vegging on the couch.  Thus ended our Red Sox weekend.

I'm on my way to beautiful Clearwater, Florida in a few hours.  I can't wait to see the Red Sox beat the Devil Rays! 

I think tonight we're going to go to John's Pass and watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico while enjoying dinner and maybe a little shopping.  Tomorrow, we'll probably sleep in a little bit, explore the resort, take some pics, maybe walk for a few minutes out on the beach if the weather is nice enough.  Then we have to meet up with my family at their hotel in the early afternoon.  My sister wants us to see her school (she goes to Eckerd College and lives over on that side of the state), then where she works (a gellato shop).  At some point, we'll have a late lunch, then start heading out towards Tropicana Field.  The game starts at 7:10pm. 

Not sure what's in store for Sunday, aside from checking out of our resort in the morning.  I figured I would leave that open and we can decide how long we want to stay in town before heading back to Orlando.  It's only a 2 hour drive, so we can pretty much stay in the Tampa area as long as we want.  John's Pass has some neat charter boat tours, so while we're there on Friday, I thought maybe we could see if there are any that fit our time schedule and budget, and we could do that on Sunday.  There's also the Tampa Bay Aquarium, the Salvador Dali Museum, and several other fun places in and around Tampa.

 

 

I did in fact pass on those concert tickets.  I hope I did the right thing!  I think I did.  It just doesn't make sense for the Pumpkins to completely miss performing in their beloved hometown, and I read somewhere that they plan on visiting every single state at least once during this tour, and that it is expected to stretch on into the winter months.  The current confirmed tour dates stop at November 5th.  So that gives me another glimmer of hope that they will still add more dates, and that one of those will include a city in Florida.

This weekend will probably be pretty boring.  We don't really have anything planned.  We might go see Knocked Up, Transformers, or Harry Potter.  Maybe we'll see more than one.  Not really sure yet.  The less money we spend this weekend, the better.

So...what is going on with me, you ask?  Nothing too exciting.  I'm pretty much just working and letting the way-too-hot summer months pass me by as quickly as possible, with a few things to look forward to here and there.  Been good about going to the gym three times a week, which I'm really happy about.  Also, our third wedding anniversary is a week and half away.  I can't believe it has already been three years!  And two weeks from today, we leave to spend the weekend in Clearwater Beach to see the Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  I'm looking forward to spending a fun weekend away.  My parents, grandparents, siblings, and my sister's boyfriend are joining us for the game, but most of the rest of the weekend we will be on our own.  So it will be a nice mix of "romantic getaway" and "family fun time".  And I'm also looking forward to staying at the historic Belleview Biltmore Resort.  I stumbled across a book on historic Florida hotels while shopping at Borders Bookstore a couple weeks ago and the entire last chapter of the book was devoted to the Belleview!  It was neat to see 100 year old pics of the hotel we will be staying at in a few weeks.  There was one particularly endearing picture of men golfing in knickers, while a row of women in white frilly Mary Poppins dresses and huge floppy hats watched from the sidelines.  Supposedly the hotel is haunted as well.  Not sure how I feel about that yet...  I know that by most of the country's standards, 110 years old isn't all that old for a building, but in Florida, where everything is new, a 110 year old hotel is ancient!  I found a wikipedia article on the hotel, if anyone is interested in reading about it.

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, we also booked a weekend at Walt Disney World.  I know we only live about an hour away, but after having such a great time at Epcot's Food & Wine Festival last year and enjoying the Pirate & Princess Party at the Magic Kingdom last Februrary sooooo much, we decided we wanted to do Food & Wine again this year, as well as the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom (which is a lot like the Pirate & Princess Party, just Hallween themed).  Both events occur around the same time of year, so we thought about making a weekend of it and doing the Halloween Party Friday night and Epcot Saturday.  And then while we're at it, why not make it a full weekend and go to Animal Kingdom (which neither of us have been to since it first opened) on Sunday?  Tthen I happened to run across a great Florida Resident hotel deal...$64/night to stay at Disney's value resorts through the end of September.  Food & Wine starts September 28th and there was a Halloween party that Friday as well, so if we were going to take advantage of the tail-end of the Florida Resident hotel deal, and go to both the Halloween party and the Food & Wine Festival, the last weekend in September would have to be it!  So I just went ahead and booked it.  I wanted us to stay at the Pop Century resort (the newest of the value resorts), but apparently lots of other Florida residents had the same idea I did and the only value resorts left with the special pricing were All Star Sport and All Star Music.  We ended up with 2 nights at Sports, which is fine with both of us.  We aren't picky and due to our tight schedule, we'll only really be there to sleep.  It's kind of silly how excited we both are about this!  We both plan on chucking our adult attitudes out the window and totally embracing our inner child that weekend! 

I have to make a tough decision in one hour.  I have a passcode for the Ticketmaster presale for the Smashing Pumpkins' show in Atlanta.  The presale starts at 10AM this morning and the rest of the tickets go on sale Saturday.  They expect it to be one of those instantaneous sellouts.  To get a ticket for Tadd and I will be approximately $100 after taxes and fees.  On top of that, we will need a hotel room and will be missing 2 days of work.  Not to mention the gas for the 16 hour round-trip from Orlando to Atlanta. 

Of the shows they have announced thus far, Atlanta is the closest city.  But I just have a feeling that there will be a second leg of the tour.  Chicago, the Pumpkins' hometown, isn't even on the current list of confirmed dates.  So, now I'm thinking about putting my money on the fact that they will have a second leg, and passing up the Atlanta show.

It wouldn't be a big deal either way, except between our weekend in Tampa for the Red Sox game, our just-booked weekend at Disney for Epcot Food & Wine, Animal Kingdom, and the Halloween party at MK, and also starting to plan a week-long trip to Tennessee for Thanksgiving to visit the inlaws, our travel budget is pretty much spent for the year.  The second leg of the tour probably won't be until after the holidays, so we'd have some time to recover.

It's a tough decision, but I think I'm going to hold off.  They have GOT to go to Chicago during their tour!  That gives me hope that they are not done adding tour dates.  If they add more, I really think they will at least come to Miami, which would cut our travel time in half.  Maybe they'd even come to Orlando, which of course would be ideal.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  If I take this gamble and it turns out that they aren't extending the tour, I will be heartbroken.

Show us your favorite photo from last summer.

What kind of camera(s) do you own?

We have a little Olympus D-565 Zoom digital camera that we bought for about $250 with several Target giftcards we got as wedding gifts back in summer of 2004.  So by technological standards, at nearly 3 years old, it's pretty obsolete.  But it still takes decent pictures and until we have the spare cash to afford another one (and to tell you the truth, we have a whole list of other things that we want to buy when we have the spare cash, and most of them rank ahead of this), it will remain our only camera.  This little baby has traveled with me to Boston and back several times, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Midwest, Tennessee, Atlanta, Savannah, and several major cities around Florida.  It has taken 63246874417 pictures of our cats.  And very rarely has it ever disappointed me.  It's a good, solid camera.