HAWAII DAY OF TRAVEL ( Valentines day!)

I'm slightly behind on the blogging as we've had a busy week, and then 2 days of amazing sunshine and I could not bring myself to sit down and just write.

I had big plans to blog through our wedding and honeymoon in Maui, but we ended up not bringing our laptop ( we had so much other crap there was no room!) and typing a blog on the iphone or ipad is ridiculous, so we squashed that idea. I did however, write snippets so I could remember what we did and on what days we did them so when we got home I could get it all documented for us to read in the future.

I'm not sure how other people could lug around a huge camera, because I absolutely could not. We were in and out of the water so much, and had a convertible jeep we didn't feel comfortable leaving our big camera in, so a lot of our photos are through our iphone. Looking through all the blurry photos now, I sort of wish I would of just sucked it up and brought the big camera. Oh well.


DAY BEFORE LEAVING


The day before leaving to Maui, I had a prenatal appointment, and a hair appointment. Everything was running late ( stupid doctors that 'm now no longer with!) making me late for the next appointment and overall we had an extremely busy day. We decided to spend the night at my inlaws house so we could drop off the dog, and sleep in a little later as they live closer to the airport then we do. When we arrived my mother in law had decorated up the house, and made us dessert. I was already so tired, and exhausted from the day I really just wanted to go to bed. It was incredibly sweet what she did, and I couldn't be more thankful for a their well wishes.








Dessert was a multi flavored sherbert ( tropical!) with fresh fruit and a wafer cookie. It was really yummy! Shortly after we got everything cleaned up we headed to bed around 12:30am only to be up for our 7am flight at 4:00am. ugh



DAY 1 HAWAII

Once our alarm went off at 4 am I was still so sleepy I could hardly pull myself from bed. I woke Carlos up to start moving, as we still had an hour drive to the airport. We loaded up the car with a few things, then got on the road around 4:30.

We got to the airport with zero traffic and proceeded to park in the economy lot. ( at $ 15 a day I don't think it was really "economy") The parking shuttle picked up up and dropped us off so we could proceed to the check in counter to Hawaiian Air. One thing that was kind of annoying was I had checked us in online the day before. I paid for bags, had the receipt and expected them to just have a bag drop off counter. We ended up having to stand in line for 30 minutes with the people checking in just to drop off bags. What the heck is the point of getting things done early if we still have to start at square 1? Annoying, really.

One of our bags ended up being 2 lbs over weight and 1 bag ended up being 4 lbs underweight so we had to switch a few things around which just made me more antsy. By this time it's 6am and I wanted to make sure we could get breakfast before our 6 hour flight.

We moved toward security, made it through with no problems and found some breakfast. We stopped at a chili's which was nearest to our gate. C got a breakfast combo of french toast, eggs and bacon. I ended up with a breakfast burrito and home fries. Both were disgusting and $30 to end with. I couldn't eat more then 3 or 4 bites before I gave up. UGH

Within 10 minutes of getting to our gate it was time to board our flight.



I couldn't wait to get up in the air so I could attempt a nap. So SO tired.


Once we were in the air, Hawaiian Air made the announcement they would be serving breakfast. We had NO idea as every airline we've been on in the last 5 years no longer serves food, especially for free. The attendants brought us our breakfast and wouldn't you know it? a dang breakfast burrito. YUCK. I gave mine over to C and just ate the muffin. He liked the food better then in the airport but still wasn't the best.



5 hours and 30 minutes later ( we arrived early!) we were on the ground in Kahului. We found our bags and headed to the rental car counter where we picked up the keys to our convertible jeep. We actually didn't reserve that particular car because it was SO expensive, but they upgraded us for $24 a day which we couldn't pass up. We got the 2 door soft top, loaded up our bags and we're on our way to Wailea.








I decided I was starving so we looked through our Maui Revealed book and found a thai restaurant called Saengs nearby. it was pretty good, and the scenery was beautiful!





Once finished we made it to our condo in Wailea called Hotel Wailea The condo was beautiful and really spacious inside ( we plan to do a condo review as we stayed in 2!) We got situated, relaxed a bit and headed up to the pool. I think we were there 3 hours, and decided to head back to our room and shower to get ready to go out to dinner.

We knew with it being Valentines Day, we'd have slim pickings for dinner without a reservation. We decided on something simple and opted for a pizza place near our condo. Matteo's pizza was decent and really good in price. We walked right in placed our order cafeteria style, and never saw a waiter/server from then on. It was sort of odd to have to ask the busboy to fill our water glass and grab us plates, etc. But we got food, it tasted good so we really couldn't complain.


( horribly blurry photo!)


We were so exhausted, and headed back to the condo and got ready for bed. It was already midnight our time!

We have a lot planned for tomorrow, including getting our marriage license ( eeek!)

TRAVELING ON A BUDGET

I'm very surprised by how many people that don't travel. It's our very favorite thing to do. We don't spend a lot of money on ourselves or our house simply because we'd rather use our time and funds to explore.

We've been to a lot of places over the 9 years we've been dating.

- Los Angeles
- San Diego
- Chicago
- San Antonio
- St Louis
- North Dakota
- Oregon (before we moved here)
- Detroit
- Las Vegas
- Seattle

( I also went to Hawaii with a family I babysat for)

We also visited many, many states on two huge road trips. One going from California to Michigan ( for business) and one going from California to North Dakota for a wedding. I don't really count driving through states as "traveling" there because we didn't stop in most of them.

We've obviously been to quite a few places and a lot of those places we've been multiple times ie ( Los Angeles hellllo Disneyland! and Las Vegas)

We're not rich. And we don't have any credit card debt. We never go anywhere unless we can pay cash, and it's in our budget. So here's how we budget our trips every year.

First of all, when we start throwing idea's about places we want to go, the first thing I do is look at numbers. I want to know what airfare ( or gas) is going to cost, how cheap we can get a hotel, and what our food/activity budget will be.

Once I have a game plan I present to Carlos.
side note Carlos does NOT plan. He absolutely hates the process and would rather leave that all to me. Sometimes it's a pain in the ass,  but we get through. I give him a few different options, tell him how much they cost and that's it.

We frequently use sights like Sidestep.com  Priceline.com and Orbitz.com.  We're on SouthWest airlines mailing list, so when they run deals, we know. In general though, I use Priceline for most of our hotels since we can "name our own price" and I use sidestep to narrow down flight choice. It's all about shopping around.
We set aside every year 5K for travel. Sometimes we can make that spread into multiple trips, and sometimes we make it into a bigger trip.
I know not everyone can afford to save that much every year, but even if you can save $ 1000 you can travel.

So I encourage you all to start looking. Start planning. Even a little weekend getaway. It's so good for your soul. For you relationship. It makes life feel a little less chaotic.

On that note 46 more days till Florida. sqeeeeeeeeee.

FLORIDA HERE WE COME!

Well after many arguments and going back and fourth we finally decided on our spring vacation in Florida.

I'm sure you're thinking; Why the heck would you argue about vacation? In short answer. We're both very opinionated.

He wanted to go on a cruise. I wanted to be stationary on an island and enjoy beach life. I'm all for cruises and would have had no problem going on one, except C's entire family (including C) has opinions on what islands are the best, choosing the best boat, don't go here, or there. ugh. I wanted our first "big" vacation to be some place we've both never been.

I think it's no surprise that we're pretty big Disney fans. Neither one of us has been to Disneyworld, so that's our first stop. Well, technically San Francisco is our first stop. We'll be driving down to SFO for a week to spend some time with C's family, run a few business errands and leave the dog.

 We'll fly into Orlando, spend 4 nights. Out of those 4 days 2 will be spent at Disneyworld. We'll then pick up a rental car and head down to Key west for 3 days. Can I just say for the record how EXPENSIVE hotels are in the Keys? Holy crap. I've had mini heart attacks just looking at the prices. Apparently we're going down at the tail end of spring break, so prices are probably inflated.  I can't justify spending $300 a night for a room that you don't spend much time in. We have other vacations going on this year, so my frugal self is going to continue looking and waiting to see if prices will go down. After Key West we'll be picking up another car and heading to Miami Beach for 3 days.

We have absolutely no plans as far as attractions goes ( well, other then Disney) but I'm really interested in snorkeling, para-sailing, and lounging on the beach. We're also pretty stoked to try Cuban cuisine and key lime pie!

So there you have it. 10 days of vacationing bliss on the other side of our world. Now I just have to figure out how I can make it 57 more days. Our high today is 16 degrees. Florida? 80. oy

SUNDAY TIDBITS

>We're preparing for a mini vacation on Tuesday to Southern California. We're going with a good friend down to Disneyland for 4 days and I can't freaking wait! We decided to stay home for New Years Eve, so we were able to swing this mini vacation into our budget. The best part is; We're Flying! We usually just drive, but since it's a short trip we're going to fly. Instead of a 16 hour road trip it will take us 4 hours of flying ( with a few hours in SF for a layover!)

> I'm going through major mommy guilt about leaving Spencer at a dog kennel. We've always got to leave him with our family and friends, and this time we just don't have that available, so he has to stay in a kennel. We've checked a few out and ultimately decided on one based on the fact they offer suites and potty breaks. He literally has his own "hotel" room equipped with a radio, TV & outside access. He gets 3 walks, and a kong toy before bed. If I didn't feel guilty about leaving him, I'd be laughing at this ridiculous situation, but none the less, he'll be well taken care of I'm sure.

>I am doing 2 gym classes today, 2 tomorrow plus a personal training session. I'm really trying to knock out some major work, since we'll be on vacation. I know we'll be on our feet 16 hours a day walking around the park, but I just don't want to have to start back at square one when we get back. It will be interesting to see what my body band tells me I've burned while walking at Disney.

>I'm going through short hair withdraw. I've taken a year to grow my hair out, and then I dyed it brown. But I'm now wishing I had short blonde hair again! I think the hair debacle with forever be a love hate relationship.

>I still have Christmas decor up. I know, I'm lame and lazy. But we literally put it up 4 days before we left for all our Christmas travel. So I feel like I needed a few more weeks to enjoy it's festiveness. But now? it's just mocking me, and begging me to put it away. Maybe before our trip. Maybe not. LOL we'll see how that goes.

>Valentines day stuff makes me sick. Especially when it's in stores the day after Christmas.

>I'm addicted to playing angry birds on my iphone. It literally consumes hours of my time.


It feels good to empty out my brain!

WOW, I'M FINALLY HERE!

Okay, so I know I've been slacking. But almost a month of no blogs? Seriously? My time is going by SO fast. It's nearing towards the end of May which means starting in June my busy season starts. It means we'll actually have money coming in instead of going out. It means we can afford to live without having to watch every single penny ( although we always have a budget). You get the idea... We only make money 6 months out of the year, so it's always nice when that time of year rolls around again.

So what have I been up to?

Well I know I need to do a big recap of our vacation, but truth be told I haven't even gotten the pictures off my camera yet!

As soon as we got home we had to deal with Spencer. He somehow cut his paw open right before we left C's parents house. the poor guy wasn't happy and kept trying to lick it which resulted in loss of fur on his paw. It was a horrible situation. All is well now, and it's healing great!

Then we had various appointments with a new business opportunity we came into ( I can't disclose info on it right now, but soon enough!)

Of course there was mothers day. Again, I need to do a recap on this and get those darn pictures of out my camera!

Leading us to a very hot weekend in Oregon. I'm talking 90 degrees hot so C and I decided to go on a fast little boat ride!



We rode on  Willamette jet boats. It was a spur of the moment decision to go last Saturday but we just wanted to get out of the house. We actually ran into a little problem as we arrived. Apparently in order to reserve a seat you should call a few days in advance, which we didn't (obviously) so we had to wait until everybody who had reserved their space was seated to see if there was enough room for us. Luckily they had 2 seats left.


Once on the river, they took no time to get that boat going at speeds over 40. The breeze was nice, but within the first 5 minutes the boat slammed on it's brakes drenching every single person on the boat. It was really fun although the first taste of river water wasn't pleasant.


( and just a side note, I was more worried about my hair, as I had just took the time to dry and straighten it mere minutes before! ugh!)


The trip lasted a little over 2 hours. There were lots of e-brake stops and quite a few spin outs. it seemed like just when you were starting to dry off and get warm the guy would get us all wet again. Toward the end I was really starting to freeze and actually began getting pissy that he needed to stop doing that since the sun was going down and the weather was changing.

The scenery was amazing and only viewable by boat. We passed some huge mansions on the water that i didnt even know Oregon had! What's even more amazing was that in 1996 Oregon experienced the worst flood of it's life time and most of the homes




Can you imagine your 15 millon dollar home under water?  Or how about your grocery store?






It was amazing hearing about it, and still being able to see some of the damage that was never fixed. What was even more amazing is the addition to the river are river houses.






I don't know about you, but I don't think living in a state where water falling from the sky seems to be endless, all the while sleeping on a river that is known to flood. And these houses aren't cheap! I can only imagine their home insurance is through the roof!

Anyhow, the experience was awesome, and we'll absolutely be taking some out of town guests on it again this summer.






I'll try to be a better blogger here the next few days as I have a small break from work.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

We're more then likely on the road driving to California!

We decided to leave at 6:00am so we could get use of all the day light. We're headed to the Napa valley to visit C's family for the weekend and then heading out early Monday morning to Disneyland.

We're taking a few friends with us and I seriously can not wait!

We'll be in Disney for 4 days and then saying good bye to our friends and heading to San Diego to spend some much needed one on one time for the weekend. We're staying at a resort where we are renting snorkel gear, and jet skis! I've never done either one, so I'm hoping the weather is warm!

Expect lots and lots of pictures when I return!


Have a fabulous week!!

WEEKEND RECAP

 



The week I had was exactly like The week I had before. It has seriously not stopped raining for 12 days straight. And i'm talking massive down pours, hail storms and feet upon feet of snow in our mountains.

We had a really mild winter, with very few freezing days and only 2 days of actual snow in Portland. But I think it's making up for it in Spring....I know I'm doing quite a bit of complaining about the weather, and normally I LOVE rain, but I have stuff to do people, and when my tulips are dying because I can't get them planted, or when I can't vacuum the massive amounts of hair out of my car because i'll get drenched I become an unhappy camper.

And to tip the cow, Mm nieces and nephews are in town, over at my moms, 3 hours away and over 1 mountain that just so happened to get almost 10 feet of snow during the week. I was hoping to spend Easter with them, have a little family get together since we can never seem to have everybody in the same place at the same time. But nooooo...Mother nature can suck it!


Okay, okay on a happy note..

I made C an Easter basket. I usually do every year, and this year being no different. I got him a few of his favorite goodies and the new Super Mario wii game. He was pretty stoked!

While browsing our local thrift shop, I also came across a first edition Stuart Little book. I snatched that baby up for $ 2.00 and got home, looked it up, and found out it's worth almost $1000. They have quite a few for sale right now, so I'm going to hold out for a few years and see if the value will increase more. But still, talk about a great find!

Since it's been crummy weather I've been doing quite a bit of cooking. You'll be getting lots of recipes and pictures this week! I hope you'll give them all a try, because every single thing I made turned out awesome!


Only 3 weeks until we leave for Sunny Southern California. We'll be spending 3 days at Disneyland and 2 days a little more south ( I can't mention the second location yet, because it's a surprise for C!)


I hope everyone had a great weekend and very happy Easter!