Work At Home Musings

The first week of my vacation is over and it went super fast! Unfortunately, I am going to have to wait until I get home to post some good pictures, but here is where we stayed the first week:

The home was right on the golf course in Kahler Glen (near Leavenworth, Washington). We were able to go horseback riding, tubing and visit the cute Bavarian town of Leavenworth. We also picked up some Turkish Delight from the Applet Cotlet store in Cashmere (more about that delicious candy later)!

I am finally on vacation and blogging to you from the great state of Washington! The trip was pretty uneventful but my husband and I had to travel on separate airlines due to the cost and I got to travel with the two young ones by myself. They were pretty well behaved though.

My husband almost didn’t make his connecting flight as they had given away his seat to someone else. I think if he had been traveling with one of those indestructible Zero Halliburton briefcases instead of the soft sided one he was carrying, I think he would have bonked a few heads!

I hate the last minute preparations for vacation! I get so stressed out that I feel like I am hopped up on Phentermine or caffeine. I also think that I will forget things and I do make lists, but sometimes I forget to put something on the list!

Fortunately, we are only traveling to Seattle, so I know that can buy whatever I forget. Still, it stresses me out! In fact, I had a dream last night that we arrived at the airport at 5:15pm when our flight was due to leave at 3:00pm!! Aggh!

I have mentioned before that I would like to visit Branson Missouri at least once in my lifetime. I recently came across a vacation site that offers Branson vacation packages. For example, they have a Family Package that offers 4 days/3 nights at the Presidential Condo, plus tickets to three great events. The total price for family of four is $925. Not a bad deal. If you just want to travel their with your one other person, you can get a similar package for just $423.

Since there is so much to do in Branson, I don’t think 4 days might be long enough! They have museums, water rides, go cart track, miniature golf courses, caves, shows, golfing and of course, SHOPPING! They also have some famous headliners with their own shows - Andy Williams, Bill Medley, Bobby Vinton, Gaitlin Brothers, Mickey Gilley, Oak Ridge Boys and even Tony Orlando! If country music is not your thing, you can go to an Elvis Show, a show with a tribute to 60s music, or other varieties of shows.

I have one last item on my vacation list to do - car rental. Renting a car has been such a pain. It has become harder and harder to find good vacation deals for rental cars. I don’t need a really large car, but when you add in all the fees, the price is quite hefty. If you want to take the car out of state, you will paying either additional fees or a cost per mile.

What is the best company for car rental deals?

Has anyone ever had their teen travel alone on an airplane? I am planning on having my teenage daughter fly by herself twice this summer (both one way trips). I plan on getting her some travel supplies, such as a travel wallet that will hold her boarding pass, etc. I don’t think that she will have any problems, but I just want to make sure that she has everything that she needs and knows what she should be doing!

I purchased my airline tickets for my trip out west this summer. We ended up finding the best deal at AirFareWatchdog.com. All you do is sign up at their website and enter in your email address and the airport you want to fly out of. They will also send you deals from any surrounding airports. You need to check the email every day as the deals disappear fast. We were able to get tickets to Seattle for just $226 round trip. I think this is the best deal I have ever received! This takes a load off my mind, since my only other option was to rent one of those travel trailers and drive to Seattle!

Now I just need to make hotel and rental car reservations.

That’s right, winter is wearing us down. I long for the warm summer, the beach and vacation. My daughter asked me if we could move to a place that was warmer, and I wish we could! We had friends, who after researching Wilmington NC real estate, decided to up and move. North Carolina is a less expensive place to live than New Jersey and with our Governor deciding that we are too much in debt and we need to raise money (i.e. taxes), it looks like it will just get more expensive.

We are trying to plan our vacation for Seattle this summer and airfares are outrageous!! I tried to convince my sister that we should look to stay in a Vegas hotel, since flights to Las Vegas are much cheaper, but she won’t have it!

I did find two airline sights that have been useful:

Sidestep.com. Sidestep.com searches all major airlines for the best available price. If you create an account (it is free), you can search based on flexible dates. This is helpful if you want to try and find the best price possible. I haven’t tried their other searches, but you can also find deals on car rentals, hotels, cruises and vacation packages.

AirFareWatchDog.com. Sign up for their free newsletter and they email you the travel deals every day. When you sign up they ask you for the airport of your choice. Surrounding airports are sometimes included as well. Every day, AirFareWatchDog.com will email you the deals from the city to other cities in the US and around the world. All major airlines are included.

While thinking about talking a break - my own personal vacation - I started thinking about places I would like to visit. I have a long list and I definitely would like to visit Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is Portuguese for Saint Paul and is located in SE Brazil. It’s population of 11 million makes it the most populous city in the southern hemisphere. There are many cool sites to see including the Pinacoteco Do Estado which was originally built as a secondary school in 1895, but is now a museum, and the Jardim Botanical, a botanical garden that is home to more than 3,000 plants and 340 species of Brazilian flora.

Of course, Rio is not very far and I would love to visit there as well!