Too Much Excitement!

It's very hard to set the mood for a nice relaxing vacation for all of you when there is so much excitement going on around here.  In the last few days I have gotten a new kitten who is a little bundle of energy.  Jingle surprisingly is the more accepting of the two older cats.  He is now coming around her and sleeping when she is in the room.  I really thought he would be the one who would have nothing to do with her.  It turns out that Shiner won't have anything to do with her.  He still hisses and then runs away everytime he sees her.  Then she looks up at me with this What did I do? expression on her cute little face.  I think Shiner is just mad that he's not the baby anymore.

Then yesterday my first great nephew was born.  Jacob and Jeni welcomed Joseph Tex Meyers into the world at 12:53 yesterday afternoon.  He is precious!  He wasn't due until the middle of September so he was a little early.  But he still weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 oz.  So he is a nice size boy and very handsome!  You be the judge...

So anyway, that took me away from things for most of the day yesterday and was very exciting.  So now I'm trying to get back into a state of mind so that I can write about a relaxing place for you to spend a week or so this year and it's not so easy.  Plus Mrs. Beasley is currently rolling around on my desk trying to get me to pet her belly.  With all that said, this might be difficult.  But I am determined to present you with a great place to spend some time this winter while it is cold and miserable in Texas.  So go get a cup of coffee, sit back and prepare to be Wow'd!

Today we are going to Hawaii.  To be specific, we're going to the Big Island.  When I went to Hawaii a few years ago, we were able to spend one day on the Big Island and after having been there, I was sorry that we didn't spend much more time in this wonderfully slow paced part of Hawaii.  Also, I saw a special on NatGeo or one of those other networks in which tourists were doing night swims with manta rays off of the Big Island and I thought that would be amazing!  Plus you can go up to the observatory and we didn't get to do that either!  There is so much to do there that I decided it is worth a week on it's own.  So off we go!

First of all, I've decided that to make the most of this trip, we need to go in February when the weather in Dallas is really brutal with a possible ice storm or two.  So we'll be flying out on Feb. 22nd from DFW via US Air at 8:20 AM.  We have a stop in Phoenix with an hour and a half to change flights.  Then we'll land on the Big Island at 3:21 PM.  So we'll still have part of a day to explore or just relax with the first Mai Tai of the trip.  Now, I've booked us in the Royal Kona Resort which is a solid 3 star hotel.  I sprung for a partial oceanview room which includes a daily free breakfast.  There are specials for just about everybody at this hotel.  If you are on a honeymoon or anniversary trip, you'll get a free amenity upon arrival.  Persons 50 and over, get a free amenity and kids stay and eat free.

A taxi ride from the airport is about $55 each way. So, I've included roundtrip airport transfers, so your shuttle will be waiting for you when you arrive at the airport.  Then you'll be off to your beautiful resort where the hotel's bar has won awards for it's Mai Tai's.  Just sayin'....  The hotel bar is the kind of place that you really can't get enough of.  So I think for myself, this is where I will unwind after that long flight from Dallas.  Maybe I'll FB a photo or two from here while I'm at it just to make all the suckers back home really miserable.  Hmmmm... wonder if there is ice on the ground in Dallas....

A Mai Tai from the hotel bar.

On the first night I'll take it kind of easy but after that, I'm going to have trouble cramming all of the fun and relaxation that I want into only 7 days.  On my first full day, I think I'll spend the first half of it by the pool. But in the afternoon, I'll have to take off on my Mauna Kea Summit Adventure. The coach will pick me up at 2:25 in front of the Buns in the Sun Bakery and from there, we will start up the mountain for our sunset and evening stargazing tour which includes a 3 cheese lasagna dinner, coffee and hot cocoa.  On top of the mountain it will be cold.  So, you need to bring a hoodie or even jacket and long pants with you for this excursion. You can bring your own drinks, but no alcohol is not permitted.  But who needs alcohol when you can get drunk on the views that we will see?  The trip is 7.5 to 8 hours long depending on our pick up point and I've decided to bring a thermos of coffee for the cold night.

Our altitude will be 13,796 feet above sea level.  So we're up above a lot of clouds on this trip.  That makes for about 325 clear star gazing nights per year.  The dinner takes place before the sunset. Then you spend the rest of the evening just taking pictures looking through the high powered telescopes that the tour provides and enjoying your coffee or hot cocoa and the view as you ooohhhh and aaaahhhh.

Afterward, you might even get a nap in during the dark ride back down the mountain.  Arriving back at the hotel, there's plenty of time for a nightcap and some live entertainment in the outdoor bar before turning in.

Those are the coaches our tour is using.  The great big windows allow for some amazing views.

The next day to recover from all that stargazing it might be necessary to spend a little extra time at the pool. And with views like the one below, why wouldn't you?  In fact that might be all I would be able to make myself do after an evening of stargazing.

Later in the day, I would probably move to the sandy area with the ocean view.  Yeah, I could get used to this. Maybe later still, I'd go up to my room with it's partial ocean view and sit on my balcony enjoying the view through the trees.  But I wouldn't want to move around too much because I need to rest up because I'm thinking a night time manta ray swim is in my immediate future.

I honestly would like to get a scuba diving certification before making this trip, because I think the night swim with manta rays would be much better as a dive rather than a snorkel.  I've looked at photos of both on line.  the divers go under the rays and really get to see them from every angle.  The snorkelers look like they hold onto a ring on the surface and just watch as the ray swims by below the ring.... BORING!  I want to actually swim with them.  So for the sake of this blog, we'll just assume that I am doing the dive.  The really nice thing is that we will be leaving right around sunset which means we'll get to enjoy another Hawaiian sunset on the water.  Once we arrive to the spot where the rays do their nightly plankton feedings there will likely be several other boats there and the area is lit pretty well so that we can see the rays feeding even from the boat!  Could you ever get tired of views like that?

This is going to be another late night.  So tomorrow will probably require a lot more pool time.  Then maybe the next day we'll plan to spend the entire day up at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  Now, I've been there before as you may already know from the photos that I am constantly sharing.  But we didn't really have too much time to spend that day hiking.  I'm thinking that you really need two days to hike the area and spend all the time you need in the lava fields.  Plus, I hear the lava is flowing into the ocean again finally so, you've gotta spend an evening or two watching that!  While we were there a few years ago, it was not flowing but we were able to see the glow from the caldera which was pretty cool.

Below are some of my photos from 2011 to Kilauea.  It really is amazing even when the lava isn't flowing.  I can't imagine what it must be like now!

Thurston Lava Tube

So after 2 days and evenings of hiking and exploring all there is to see in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we are down to only two days of our trip left and we haven't even seen a beach yet much less a black sand beach!  With two days left we will spend all of our time checking out all the beaches on the island so that we can determine the best beach on the Big Island.  After all, I feel like it's my duty to figure this out and report back to my loyal followers... both of you.....

I love this picture of Jenny, but I need to go back so that I can get one of myself in this same spot.

You can see where the lava once flowed into the ocean.  Now I guess if you went back, maybe this location would be bright orange with flowing lava.

I guess you might be wondering what an amazing trip like this would cost to take.  Well, as I said earlier, I priced if for leaving DFW on Feb 22nd.  You'd be returning home on March 1st leaving Hawaii at 11:45 PM and making it back home to Dallas after one stop in Phoenix to change planes the next day at 1:17 PM.  Your roundtrip ground transfers are included along with travel protection, breakfasts, and of course my expert travel advice for the low, low price of $3,499.29 per couple.  Now remember, I upgraded us to that partial oceanview room with breakfast.  So the trip could be done for less.  But what's the point in going to Hawaii if you can't see the ocean.  By the way, did I mention that February is whale season in Hawaii?  You never know when you might see a whale swimming right past your hotel room.  So don't forget to carry your binoculars along for this trip.

That's all I've got for you today.  Have a terrific hump day and watch out for camels roaming your office. Let me know if you are interested in a trip to the Big Island or if you want to talk about going anywhere else!

Honeymoon? Anniversary? Pssst.... Let Me Tell You About This Place!

I hope your morning is going well.  Things are beginning to settle down here at Places You'll Go.  Jingle is beginning to accept the new kitten Mrs. Beasley.  He has been in the same room with her all morning and once when she ran across the floor after a toy, he forgot that he is supposed to be the big tough alpha male and chased her for just a second before he regained his composure and re assumed his stoic I'm barely interested demeanor.  It's just a matter of time before the two of them are rolling around on the floor. Shiner, on the other hand, is pouting out on the patio right now.  He still wants nothing to do with her.  I guess it's that middle child syndrome. He's just mad that he's no longer the baby.  But I'm pretty certain that he will get over it in another day or two.

I have a lot of mailings to do today for the business and it seems that there could be a cause for making a trip to Denton to see a baby in the not too distant future.  So, I'm just going to get this thing underway.  Today's topic has to do with honeymoons and anniversaries.  I write about this today because it is my brothers 25th anniversary and so it is top of mind.  I know I wrote about anniversaries not too long ago.  (See Advice From a Marriage Expert - Not!)  As I may have mentioned in that blog, I write these blogs because I care! They're sort of like a public service message.  Don't think of it as a hard sell.  Think of it like those "don't litter" commercials from the 1970's with the lone Indian brave who had a single teardrop sliding down his face. I want you to have the happiest marriage possible.  So, I post these blogs to help give you ideas about making your spouse happy with a nice anniversary trip.  

Now, I may have mentioned once or twice before that I am especially partial to cruises for my own vacations.  But I know that cruising does not suit everyone although I don't really comprehend why.  So, today I have some thought starters for other types of suitable honeymoons and anniversary trips that might interest even the least adventurous spouse out there.  So how does this grab you?  Think all inclusive adults only resort in Cancun.  Now how are you feeling?  Better, huh?

Are you on a tight budget?  Worry not! We can do this including roundtrip air, ground transfers to and from the hotel and travel protection starting at just $1,020 per person.  Now, I know you see those deals on Cheap-O Caribbean and all those other sights for $599 per person and I could tell you about those.  But do you really want to stay at a 1 star hotel with no travel protection, fighting the bedbugs for a spot on the pillow after having paid $150 to get from the airport to the hotel because it's a 50 mile drive and you're the only sucker who didn't get the ground transportation included in his reservation that came off that last tin can that landed at the airport?  I didn't think so.  So here's the deal. For that price, you leave on Dec 7th from DFW at 10:20 AM arriving at Cancun at 12:50 PM on a direct flight.  When you land at the airport, collect your luggage and head outside and there a guy will be waiting for you with a van or bus.  He'll take you and several other guests to the all inclusive Ocean Maya Royale.  It is an adults only resort 37 miles from the airport. 

When you arrive at Ocean Maya Royale at check in if you're a honeymooner, you'll show a copy of that fresh off the press marriage certificate and be upgraded to an oceanview room.  If you aren't a honeymooner, don't worry, you still have a deluxe room and for just $210 more we can book you that oceanview room before you leave on your trip.  Honeymooners you're also going to get a free late checkout on the day of your departure, a welcome gift in your room when you arrive, 10% off the spa, special daily turn down service, one candlelight dinner for two with a bottle of wine, and a continental breakfast which will be brought to your room on your first morning.  

Once you're settled in, you won't be greeted with 1000 kids playing in the pool splashing, crying and calling for their mother to make Johnny stop.  No, you'll hear none of that because no children are allowed at this resort. What you will hear is "Ummm waiter, could you bring me another beer?" to be answered by, "Yes, of course!"  Or perhaps you'd rather hang out on the beach.  Don't worry, you don't have to fight the kids for a spot on the volleyball court either, because it's all adults. Sounding good?  Well let me tell you about the all inclusive amenities.  First of all, you'll obviously get breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  Additionally, you'll have 2 to 3 themed dinners per week.  Now, I have you staying for 5 nights leaving on the 12th, which probably means 2 themed dinners.  There are of course, unlimited domestic and international drinks, nightly entertainment and live music, non-motorized water sports, an intro scuba lesson in the pool, day and night tennis, daily sports and social activities and all your taxes and gratuities are included.  

The Ocean Maya Royale is a 3.5 star resort.  There are also 4 and 5 star adults only resorts available to choose from in Cancun at higher prices.  But this is a really nice adults only resort for the price.  As i mentioned, you'll be leaving on the 12th.  Your flight leaves at 1:35 in the afternoon and it's another direct flight landing at DFW at 4:27 PM.  The same service that drove you from the airport to your hotel will be driving you back to the airport.  So you won't need cash for a taxi or have to worry about arranging transportation.  You see, when you travel with Places You'll Go there are no worries.  It's all about helping you to relax.  So, kick back, order another beer and leave the worrying to me!  Have a good day and call me when you are ready to get away. 

New Pets and Pet Sitting Issues

I'm having a very difficult time posting today.  The next several days could be quite a challenge.  I got a new kitten over the weekend.  Her name is Mrs. Beasley.  She is very young and curious.  Meanwhile her "big brothers" currently resent her and are actually apparently very frightened by her.  After all she is nearly 5 inches tall and ways upwards of 14 oz.!  So they won't have anything to do with her.  That means her entertainment falls to me.  It's not easy keeping a 9 week old kitten entertained!  Sure, cat toys work for a while.  But then when it gets too quiet she begins to explore and she can really get herself into trouble pretty easily.  Wait, I hear hissing... be right back.  All is well.  She has discovered the stairs.  Since Jingle and Shiner are totally freaked out by her, they are staying upstairs.  So, when she makes her way to the top, they get slightly pissy.

So, anyway, that isn't what I was going to write about today.  My planned topic for today was to again touch on pet sitting while you travel.  I know I have talked about this before.  But since it's been a while and today it is top of mind, I thought I would do so again.  If you are fortunate enough to have pet grandparents to leave your furry four legged friends with while you are on vacation, you are a very lucky person.  For those of us who live far away from family what to do with the critters when you are away can be quite a conundrum.

You can rely on friends to come by once or twice a day.  But I hate asking friends to drive out of their way in unpredictable Dallas traffic just to come over and care for my cats especially when I know they are thinking....  They're CATS!  Just give them a fresh litter box and several bowls of food and water and they'll survive for a week on there own!!!!  I know and understand that.  But they are MY cats and my cats are pretty spoiled from having lived with me all these years.  That means they have come to expect things. And when they don't get what they expect, it can be a little traumatic for them.

Additionally, last year the vet put the two older cats on a canned food diet.  He doesn't want them to have ANY dry food at all.  I have to admit that I cheat and give them some dry food each day, but it is limited.  He says that dry food is very high in carbs and is making them overweight.  Both of my adult cats weigh between 12 and 13 pounds.  He wants each of them to lose 1/2 a pound.  Quite frankly, I think they look perfect.  But he says you should be able to feel their ribs easily when you pet them and there should be an indention where their belly is.  To be perfectly honest, if I were in perfect shape, I might be a little more concerned with my cats near obesity of 1/2 a pound too much weight on their frames.  But since I myself could stand to lose the equivalent of a 3rd grader, I think their 1/2 a pound is okay.  By the way, the vet could stand to lose a 5th grader....  Just sayin'....

So the canned food thing twice a day means two visits from friends OR I have the option of removing food from the cans, portioning it out into single servings for each cat and putting it in ziplock bags labeled with their names and freezing it.  Then when my friend comes over to feed the cats, they can give them one can of fresh food portioned out and they each get a portion of the frozen food.  By the time it thaws they are ready for their second meal of the day.  That has been working well.  But then when I took them in for shots last week, he suggested that I feed them the same amount but go to three feedings a day rather than two spreading it out more.  I swear this man is trying to make cat feeding a full time job!  This suggestion was a result to me fessing up to the fact that I give them dry treats during the day when they come up to me while I'm working and tug on my shirt with their claws.  My cats are already high maintenance enough thanks to my spoiling them without any further help from the vet.  So I've decided against the vets advice to continue giving them dry treats and keep the feeding schedule as is.  Most of the reason for maintaining the feeding schedule is to make things easier when I travel.  Because let's face it, I work 10 feet from my kitchen.  Getting up in the middle of the day walking to the kitchen and feeding cats is not that difficult.  But I travel way too much for this to work out when I am away from home.

When I don't want to take advantage of friendships and that happens a couple of times a year usually, I use a pet sitter.  I don't mind telling you that the pet sitting racket seems to be pretty lucrative.  With the service I use, a single visit for one pet is $22.  Now, I must say that when they come over, they spend a minimum of 30 minutes.  They will do everything from picking up mail and papers and scooping litter boxes to watering plants, filling bird feeders and sweeping up any messes the pets have made.  Many times I have come home from vacation to a cleaner house than I left.  I guess the pet sitter assumed that no self respecting human would ever leave the mess I did, so the cats must have done it.  Oops!  They add three dollars for each additional pet.  So, for the last several years, I have been paying $25 a visit.  I used to have them come over twice a day which meant I was paying $50 a day for cat sitting.  Now, granted that is less expensive than kennel fees for two cats.  But it still adds up.

Mrs. Beasley found a spot on the stair closest to my head to sleep while I work.  :-)

I mean if I go on a 7 night cruise, I'm paying $350 for pet sitting.  You can get an inside cabin on a ship for $350 in some cases.  So, I'm immediately thinking... maybe I could take them on a cruise with me and get them their own cabin for about the same amount.  Then I could go visit them each day....  Nah!  That would never work.  I don't want to pay $350 extra for my vacation and still deal with scooping litter boxes, cleaning cat dishes and portioning food a couple of times a day.  Then there is also the guilt feeling I would get each time I left their cabin and locked them inside while I went out to the deck or off on an excursion.  They do allow service dogs on ships.  You have to have a service dog certification for them.  I'm sure there must be service cats.  Right?  I wonder if they certify them.  Then the cats could travel for free.  Of course convincing the cruise line that I required 3 service cats could be a little tough.  And again, you would have to deal with cat food and cat litter all cooped up in that tiny little cruise ship cabin.  Ugh!

So I guess adding $350 to the price of a 7 night cruise to include cat sitting isn't such a high price to pay for knowing that I get a week off from litter box duties, they are well taken care of and my friends don't have to come over every day to take care of my spoiled cats.  I have, in the last year gotten that price down to $175 by reducing the visits to 1 per day by freezing food before I leave.  Of course, now with 3 cats that price will go up by a total of $21 for 7 days.  I hope this new little girl is worth $3 a day!

I'd Rather Be Planning A Trip

Just one hour and seven minutes before I have to be at the vet's office with my two cats for shots.  I hate taking the cats to the vet.  I always feel like by putting them in the carriers and taking them to the mean man with the needles I'm betraying them.  They look at me like it was a betrayal too.  I don't think it's fair the way they look at me as though I am the one who was supposed to save them from horrible experiences like a trip to the vet's office.  After all, I'm doing it for their own good.  But I have put it off for as long as I could. The shots were due in April.  It is now August.  I couldn't have drug my feet any longer.

The only thing that lit a fire under me this week is that I am supposed to pick Lily up on Sunday and then in the next few weeks I'll have to take her in for her first shots and to get spayed.  If I took her in and the vet noticed that he hadn't seen Jingle or Shiner in more than a year, he would have questioned me.  So, this is going to be another reason for Jingle to resent his new little sister.  Hopefully, he won't put two and two together.  After all, he's a cat.  He's a smart cat.  But I don't think he does math.  At least not in his head....

When I have to do things like this that I hate doing, I think of so many other things I'd rather be doing.  Like for instance, I'd rather be getting ready to head to the beach right now than getting ready to head to the vet's office.  In fact, I'd rather be getting ready to drive to El Paso and back in August with no air conditioning than be getting ready to go to the vet's office.  There are countless other things I'd rather be doing... Pretty much anything would qualify.  I mean who wouldn't want to be getting ready for vacation?  Right?

I could list all the things I would rather be doing but I don't have much time for writing today.  After all, I'm doing the vet thing this morning.  This afternoon, I'll be running queries on a couple of trips for clients.  Then after that, I have my fantasy football draft today.  It's a big hump day at Places You'll Go.  So, I better get busy.  Have a good day and if you need help getting over your hump today email me.  Maybe we can plan a trip for you to look forward to.

Holiday Cruising on Princess.... Well, Almost Holiday...

Good morning all!  I found a couple of winter cruises worth consideration yesterday.  I'm still not sure which if either I will be on.  But I am hopeful that I can do one of them.  The dates to look at are Dec 7th and 14th. Both are 7 day cruises on the Caribbean Princess out of Houston's Bayport Terminal. Each of these cruises will visit Belize, Roatan and Cozumel.  In case this is the first time you are ever seeing my blog, Roatan is my favorite Caribbean port.  So, winning!

I chose this one mostly because of the price.  They have cabins on sale with a balcony starting at $699 per person. Yes, you read that right, it's a balcony! Now, the catch is that the cruise is non-refundable since it's on sale.  But you can put 2 people in a balcony cabin for a total of $1,755.84 once taxes, fees and so on are added in and that comes with a $25 ship board credit per person.  Seven nights, all meals paid, three countries, people running around cleaning up behind you and bringing you things just because you want them and it's still well under $2K.  You can't beat that.  If you wanted an aft facing balcony, it could be yours for $1,971.84.  Need I remind you what the view looks like from an aft facing balcony as you are leaving port?

And look at how many people you can put on one of these balconies comfortably....  Slightly nicer than your typical 1.5 person port or starboard balcony, huh?  There's room left over! We could have fit two or three more people along the railing.

One of the other great things about this cruise is that you have one day at sea on the way out.  Then two consecutive days at sea on the way home.  I love when this happens.  It gives you time to just relax.  There's no snorkeling that you have to hurry up and cram in. If you are a cruise shopper, you can go down to the shops anytime but that is pretty limited, so it takes about 20 minutes.  All you really need to get done on those two days at sea is you've gotta work in some pool time.  And you may have to flag a waiter down to bring you another bucket of beer.  But even that is questionable.  I mean, chances are, he's going to stop and ask you if you need anything and you won't even need to raise a hand to flag him down.  Two days of total relaxation.  Who couldn't use that in December?

But here's the really cool thing about a December cruise.  One time, my mom and I went on a Princess cruise that left the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  In each Caribbean port, the towns were decorated for Christmas. You just don't know festive until you have seen a palm tree with Christmas lights wrapped around it.  And you can't beat Santa wearing board shorts!  Plus they decorate the ship too!  On that cruse we took the week after Thanksgiving, as we disembarked they were bringing all of the Christmas decorations on board.  So we didn't get to see it all decked out.  But I bet it is magnificent.  Because you know, they don't do anything small on a cruise ship.

Dickens on the Strand takes place in Galveston on the weekend of the 7th and 8th.  But you will be sailing out of Bayport, so you don't need to worry about the traffic associated with that.  So you're not going to be able to use that as an excuse not to go on this remarkably priced cruise.  C'mon, give me your best shot.  You're going to have to think harder than that to get out of this cruise.

So start thinking about it.  Feel the in-laws out.  Can they come stay with the kids for a week in December while you and the spouse give yourselves a little "me time" for Christmas?  Think about how nice it will be to go on a ship with practically no kids on board.  I know you love yours, but every now and then you'd like to get away and when you do you sure don't want anybody else's precious little ones throwing a fit at the next dining table over.

Consider it your opportunity to have your very own Calgon, take me away moment.  Have a great Tuesday.  I'm networking today at lunchtime!

Cruise Searching Time!

Hmmm....  I think my parents are a bad influence on me.  I told them about shopping for an April birthday cruise the other night while I was upset about my plumbing problem and they said, they wanted to go sooner than April.  So now we are looking at doing a Princess cruise out of Houston between November and February.  So today I will begin shopping for the least expensive 7 night cruise leaving from Houston during that time period.

My dad and I like taking winter Caribbean cruises for the same reason.  You leave Texas while the temperature is kind of cold and miserable and wake up the next morning to 80 degrees and sunny.  I'm not a cold weather person.  I'd be happy if the temp was 85 degrees here all year long.  So, at the first signs of winter, I start thinking about getting away to the Caribbean.  I think one of my all time favorite memories from a Caribbean cruise was walking around the market area once in Costa Maya and overhearing someone's phone conversation with a family member back home in Austin as they were being told that there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground.  I was sweating at the time and was so happy to be shopping for Mexican chotchkies in the 90 degree sunshine.

We're going to look at Princess cruises for a couple of reasons.  I've only been on one Princess cruise and I'm interested in doing it again.  The first one I went on was out of Galveston probably 10 years ago.  Mom and Dad's Alaskan cruise was on Princess.  My single experience with Princess was really nice so I'd like to see what's changed, if anything.  Mom and Dad loved their Alaskan cruise with Princess but it also was several years ago.  So we are all anxious to see if Princess is still as nice as we remember.  The other reason for looking at Princess for this cruise is that Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas will be in dry dock for the entire month of January which is one of the prime months we are looking at going.  So that will limit options on Royal Caribbean.  That's not to say that we definitely won't do Royal Caribbean.  If it turns out to be the best deal and the timing is right, it is not out of the question.

Anyway, once I find an inexpensive week to go, I will let all of you know.  I think it would be a lot of fun to know 10 or 20 people on the ship.  The most people I've ever known on a ship I have been on was my last cruise.  I knew 8 people on that one.  It was kind of fun to run into someone that you know from your everyday life on an excursion or while walking around the ship.  And the nice thing about ships is that they are sort of like Vegas.  What happens on the ship stays on the ship.

I'm going to get busy now searching for cruises.  You guys have a great week.

Calgon, Take Me Away!

Do you ever have those "Calgon, take me away!" moments?  I get them a lot.  In fact, I think I've had more than my fair share of them in the last year.  For instance, things were going pretty good this week.  Sure, I had a migraine on Tuesday that pretty much incapacitated me for most of the day.  But after about half a bottle of ibuprofen and 6 hours of sleep, I was fine.  When I say, I had a "Calgon, take me away!" moment, it's a real moment.  Like last evening around 6:30 when I went in the kitchen and decided to clean the refrigerator out.  Actually, that wasn't the moment at all.  The moment didn't really happen until 30 minutes later. Here's how it went down.

I had 5 or 6 bowls of leftovers in the fridge that needed to be emptied and washed.  My parents are coming up today and I am cooking tonight and it sucks when you finish dinner with friends or family in the house and you can't fit the leftovers in the refrigerator because there is stuff sitting in bowls from 1977 that probably couldn't be identified with a microscope and a petri dish.  So, I decided it was high time I tested out my brand spanking new garbage disposal that was installed about 6 weeks ago.  Obviously, it has been slightly used since the installation.  But I generally only use it to wash the scraps down when I am cleaning out the sink.  I throw all chunks of food waste in the trashcan.  

You see, over the years I have had too many plumbing issues to put something as risky as an onion peel or a piece of meat in the disposal anymore.  It seems like every time a plumber has ever sat on my kitchen floor peering at me from beneath the kitchen sink he has added another item to the list of things that shouldn't go down the garbage disposal to the point that I'm not sure it can handle water anymore.  So, I've been very careful with the new one.  I had a goal of going 3 months without seeing a plumbers muddy footprints on my entryway floor.  I'm such the optimist!!!

So, in my frenzy of cleaning the refrigerator out I came across a bowl of mashed potatoes and another bowl of gravy.  Surely a garbage disposal can handle those two things, right?  I mean they are practically liquid.  And in there current state they were even more liquid like than normal mashed potatoes and gravy.  So, I tossed them in with the water running full blast and the disposal switched on.  The next item was a bowl of green peas.  How much harm can they do... really?  So, in they went.  Then I got bold.  I had a bowl of this potato and sausage skillet dinner thing that I make.  There wasn't much and the only chunks were sausage cut into bite size pieces.  I was feeling wild and carefree, so I threw it in.  Once all of that was done, I rinsed the bowls and put them in the dishwasher thinking to myself that I would turn the dishwasher on just before going to bed.  

Then I made my way back into my living room.  I had nothing to work on for clients.  So, I sat on the couch and began to flip through channels hoping to find something good on TV.  After a few minutes I went back into the kitchen to get a glass of tea and stepped in a puddle of water.  It wasn't a little splash of water, it was a puddle.  I followed the puddle and it seemed to be coming from under the kitchen sink.  So, I opened the cabinet and everything was wet.  Boxes of dishwashing detergent were soak clean through.  The box of trashbags came apart in my hand when I pulled it out.  Boxes of light bulbs fell apart when touched.  So, I pulled everything out dried things off as good as I could and then turned the water on and looked under the sink with a flashlight.  The water was coming directly out of the garbage disposal.  Nice.

So, I called the plumber who installed it and he said he had a completely packed day on Friday.  But he can come over on Saturday before I have to go to a shower in Keller and fix it.  So here's the situation I face.  My house was spotless prior to pulling everything out from under the kitchen sink.  Now, there is junk stacked around my kitchen, the cabinet is still soaked and the cabinet doors are open to help it dry.  The floor is filthy and needs to be re-mopped.  I have a dishwasher completely full of dirty dishes and my mother who could find major fault in Martha Stewart's homemaking capabilities will be here in 5 hours.  

I can't turn the dishwasher on because it drains through the garbage disposal.  So, I'm thinking that I'm going to have to empty the dishwasher and wash those dishes in the side of the sink that isn't leaking.  But last night when the "Calgon, take me away!" moment actually happened all I could think about was actually being taken away.  So, I got a glass of wine instead of the tea that I had originally gone into the kitchen for, came back into my living room, sat down at the computer and started researching cruises.

There are two non-Carnival ships leaving Texas ports on the weekend before my 51st birthday.  One is a Royal Caribbean ship and the other is Princess.  They will both be headed to Belize, Roatan and Cozumel.  Following my ordeal with the garbage disposal, I fully intend to be on one of those ships.  Currently, a balcony is starting at $1099 on Princess and $1049 on Royal Caribbean.  I'm thinking I'll go on Royal Caribbean's newly renovated Navigator of the Seas and check out the upgrades.  (It will go into dry dock in January and the renovation will be complete by the first week of February.)  I mean, really it's my duty as a travel agent to check it out once the changes are complete anyway, right?  I could just go spend a couple of bucks on a box of Calgon if I didn't think that it would damage my plumbing and end up costing me even more in the long run.  Nope, I'm pretty certain that a cruise in April will be cheaper in the long run. So, who's with me?

Can You Spend Too Much Time on Vacation?

Are there vacation spots you feel like you could go to over and over again and never grow tired of visiting? It seems like I feel that way about most of the places I have visited.  Granted, there are those places that I spent a single afternoon at and I feel like I have done them justice and never intend to return.  But for the most part, I almost always leave a vacation location thinking about what I'll do next time I come back.

I've been wondering what causes this.  I think for me, it is the fact that I visit so many locations while on a cruise.  That means you have part of a day in that location.  Part of a day isn't enough time to even decide if you really like a location or not.  Some of the places that I have spent upwards of a week in, still require more time before I'll be able to really say, I've seen it all, I don't need to go back.  That's my goal.  I'd like to get to that point about a lot of places.  But then I wonder, if I get to that point, am I going to look back and be like, Ugh! If I have to go to Rome again, I'm going to throw up!  Quite frankly, I don't see it happening.

I think of the time I spent in Europe in 2008 both on land and during the cruise the only place I am certain I don't need to go back to is Palermo, Sicily.  It's not that it's a bad place.  I just think that a day is plenty of time to spend there.  It was very pretty.  Maybe if you are into all the mafia movies, you would be more interested in it than I was.  But I hate those movies and since Sicily is soooo proud that it is the birthplace of the mafia, it just didn't seem to be my kind of place.  I think Whitey Bulger would probably really enjoy it. He's like in his 80's now and what will he spend like 1000 years in prison?  Hmmmm... Hope he got to go earlier in life.

I used to think that I had also seen all of Florence that I needed to see.  We were there on a very rainy Monday in November.  I think we may have had about 4 or 5 hours there since we visited both Florence and Pisa in the same day and we managed to have a sit down lunch in that time.  So, you can imagine how much time we actually spent seeing the sights.  Plus, since it was Monday everything in Florence was closed.  I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but in Florence the shop owners learned years ago that tourists come into the city and want to spend massive amounts of money over the weekend.  Closing on Sundays for religious reasons was cutting into the bottom line.  So the shopkeepers all began to stay open on Sunday's and close on Monday's for religious reasons.  So now, it's like a ghost town on Monday.  If you add rain and 50 degree temperatures to the equation, it's a pretty dead place.

I think before I go back to Florence, I'm going to need to study.

 So while we were in Florence we saw the Ponte Vecchio and a small part of the Church of Santa Groce where Michelangelo, Rossini Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei are entombed. We didn't even go into the baptistry because we were in such a hurry.  That night at dinner back on the ship some of our dinner mates were talking about how beautiful it was and and I was like, oh... yeah... um-hmmh....  I had no idea what I had missed. The parts of Florence that I saw were lovely.  But I was pretty convinced that it was just about shopping since we spent an hour or so walking past closed Gucci and Versace shops taking pictures of the store fronts.  I thought to myself, I would hate spending a week here and just gazing at shops where I couldn't even afford to buy a disposable shopping bag.

Seriously, I was so put off by the possibility of spending time in those horrible pretentious shops that I totally glazed over the fact that Michelangelo, Dante and all of those guys were a major part of Florence's history. Then if you add to that the fact that The David was undergoing restoration while we were there so we didn't even get to see it, I think my misconception about Florence should totally be excused.  My travel buddy, Jenny has been saying since the moment we left Florence that she wanted to go back.  But I really thought it had to do with all the shops that were closed that she walked past taking pictures of.  Now, I realize that there actually is a LOT to see there and the shops just threw me off the scent of really great sights.  I guess if I did go back and spend a few days there, we could split up and I could go sit at an outdoor cafe sipping wine while she visited Versace and such.  I'd be willing to make the sacrifice.

I know that I need at least another week in Rome to see all that I need to see there.  Honestly, I'd really like to just move there for 6 months and totally be absorbed in Rome.  I think that there should be a program for people age 50 and up where you do a home exchange for 6 months.  You both continue paying your own mortgage or rent and all your other bills but you exchange homes for 6 months.  So, I'd go to Rome and live in their house and take care of their pets while they come to Dallas and lived on Meandering Way and take care of Jingle and Shiner.  It'd be a great program.... You know, if you could find any person in Rome who was willing to spend 6 months in Dallas.  How would you sell that to someone in Rome?  Hey!  Come to Dallas!  JR's not dead!!!!  REALLY... We'll introduce you to him AND Sue Ellen!!!!  Yeah, I don't see that working.  Even if you got someone in Rome to agree to it initially after the first 105 degree day in summer or the first icy day in winter they'd be out.

Places that I feel like I need to spend a lot more time are not limited to Europe.  There are multiple places in the Caribbean that I need to spend at least a week in.  It doesn't even matter what place we are talking about really.  Is there water?  Is there sand? Then I haven't spent enough time there.  I always laugh when I hear someone on a Western Caribbean cruise say, Ugh! I've been to Cozumel a million times, I never want to go back!  Really, 'cause last I checked they still have water, sun, sand and tequila.  What's your problem?

Of all the places in the Caribbean the one that I really want to spend a lot of time in the most is Roatan.  I know that everyone else feels that way about those Eastern Caribbean islands and honestly, if you told me you'd pay my way I wouldn't turn any of them down.  But if I have to pay and can pick anyplace to spend some serious island time in, it would be Roatan just because the snorkeling is amazing, I'd really like to learn how to dive and it would be a great place for it and you could probably get the most bang for your buck there.  At some point, money has to come into play, right?

Yeah, why would anybody want to go back to a horrible place like this?

As far as inside the US, I can't count all the places that I either haven't been to at all or haven't been to enough.  Just two weeks ago I spent 2 days in Boston and feel like I need at least another 5 days just to see all that I missed.  Granted, I feel like I have officially seen all that there is to see in New York.  But I'd still go back anytime I got a chance.  There are always new plays to see and it's a blast to go with someone who has never been to see their reactions to everything.  Plus, the most time I have ever spent in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one day and I feel like I could spend a week there!  I will tell you that if I never have to go up to the top of the Empire State Building again, I'll be very happy.  But otherwise, there's really not too much that could become a beating for me as far as NY goes.

I could kind of do without Vegas completely.  If you aren't into gambling then it's sort of a waste.  But if you are into gambling and you want a travel companion, I'd go to Lake Tahoe with you anytime!  I've only been there once and I really want to go back.  Somebody told me once that you need to just lay by a pool in Vegas.  But I can tell you that I don't need to be laying by a pool with a bunch of beautiful high rollers.  And if it gets right down to it, I have a pool in my condos that I can lay around.  Why do I want to fly half way across the country to lay by one?  What a waste!

I've never been to Washington DC.  I know what you're thinking... How is that even possible?  But when we were kids all of our vacations were spent driving West rather than East and as an adult, I've just never gotten the chance.  I really want to go.  But I can't decide if I want to go with someone who has been there multiple times and it seems like everybody has been there multiple times.  Here's my dilemma.... If I go with someone who has been there multiple times, are they going to stand behind me bored looking at their watch while I'm walking around something like the Lincoln Memorial or strolling through a particularly riveting part of the Smithsonian and inadvertently making me feel rushed.  Or will they say things like "Oh, you don't need to waste time doing such and such, you need to see THIS instead" when such and such is what I realllllly want to do.

I know that no one I travel with would want to rush me or cause me to miss something that was really important to me.  But I know from personal experience that I have stood at the top of the Empire State Building on several occasions calculating all the time that was wasted going through security, standing in line for elevators and then standing at the top waiting to get close enough to the edge to see anything at all and looking at my watch thinking I can't believe I am wasting another 3 hours of my life on this....  You can't help but have a horribly bored look come over your face when you are at a terrible tourist attraction that you have been to 100 times and never want to go to again especially if you had to pay money to get into it! When I look up and see that expression on somebodies face, I want to make it go away.  So then I know I'll say something like "Let's go!  I can go to the top of the Washington Monument anytime..."  While in my mind, I'm thinking... really?  'cause I've had so many opportunities in the past...  That's the chance you take when you go somewhere with a person who goes regularly.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you have a travel bug, there really aren't a lot of bad places to travel.  Some just require a little more time than others.  But here's how you know if you've really got it bad.  Have you ever gotten in the car in East or North Texas and thought to yourself,  Woohoo!!!!  In eight hours we'll be in West Texas!!! and still been exited after having that thought?  If so, you've got it bad and we need to talk.

Head Toward Dark Skies!

I don't normally write a Saturday travel blog.  But I have a very good reason for doing so today.  It's almost like a public service that I feel I must provide to you all.  You see, Monday and Tuesday morning will be the best times this year to view the Perseid Meteor Shower.  If you don't know what I'm talking about prepare yourself to be amazed.

The full moon will set around midnight on Sunday night.  So, the best hours for meteor viewing will be after that moon set until dawn and then again the following night from about 1 AM to dawn.  If you set an alarm and get outside a little after midnight, it will give you time to get yourself situated lying down on a nice blanket and give your eyes some time to adjust before the best part of the show begins.  At the height of the meteor shower you can expect to see up to 70 meteors an hour.  These aren't just little flashes in the sky, these are those good old fashion "shooting stars" that go all the way across the sky in some instances.

When I was 12 my family was driving across West Texas coming home from Oregon during this meteor shower and we all woke up to watch the show.  Let me tell you, it was definitely a show!  The dark sky with meteors flying over every minute or so, sometimes with two or three in the sky at the same time was unbelievable!

But here's the key and the reason that I am putting this on my travel blog and not just on my personal blog. You've got to get out of the city in order to see it.  Now, there are a lot of places you can go for viewing a meteor shower.  But the rule of thumb is that when you look up in the sky, you must be able to see each star of the big dipper clearly for optimal viewing of the meteor shower.  There are 7 stars in the big dipper if you were wondering.  If you live in Dallas and you think the 6 stars you've been seeing in the constellation all these years are all that's there, you're going to be in for a big surprise when you drive 90 to 100 miles outside of the city and see all the stars that actually exist in a dark sky.

If you have an RV, this would be the perfect opportunity to use that sucker!  This could be the answer to all those times you've looked out of your kitchen window at the eyesore in your driveway and thought, why did we spend all that money on that thing?  Maybe it was necessary for this exact weekend!

So, here's my suggestion.  Grab a blanket, a couple of bottles of wine and if you are so inclined a camera with a tripod.  Pack it all up in the car or RV on Sunday.  If you don't have an RV get on line or you could even call me before you leave and find yourself a nice little bed and breakfast some place in East Texas or the hill country and spend a night or two.  In case it's cloudy one of those nights you'll want an extra night to make sure you see as many shooting stars as possible. Have dinner at a quirky diner wherever you stop for your meteor viewing.  Be sure to order the chicken fried steak at the diner.  There's no point in doing all of this if you aren't going to do it right.  Go to bed early on Sunday night, after all you're in a small town in east or central Texas, what else are you going to do?  Then set an alarm for 12:30 AM. Go out in a field somewhere open your bottle of wine (hope you remembered the corkscrew and glasses). Spread your blanket out and lay back and watch the show.  You might have to call in sick on Monday and Tuesday (so you should probably start practicing your raspy voice now).  But here's a small sample of what you might see....

While you're out there in east or central Texas, be sure and stop at a DQ once or twice.  You'll thank me for this advice after you've done it.  Also stop in at a diner that serves homemade pies.  I personally could be talked into to doing this myself around Ben Wheeler or Edom.  If you go to Edom, you can eat at The Shed. Of course, Edom's not big enough to have a DQ, but there is one in Van and Canton.  So, you'll be okay. And the Chicken Fried Steak and pie at The Shed are to die for!  Believe me, I've had both.... in one sitting...

Don't worry, you're not going to get hit by a meteor, these are mostly tiny little things that totally burn up in the atmosphere before the ever actually reach earth.  But if you do, think of how famous you'll be!  Maybe they'll even change the name of the annual meteor shower to your name in memory.  I've always wanted my own meteor shower.  Have a great weekend and happy meteor viewing!

Advice From a Marriage Expert (NOT!)

Are you in a vacation rut?  Do you go to the same place year after year?  Maybe you own a time share and it's just easier to go there for two weeks every year than to exchange your two weeks for a different location or you're just afraid that you won't like any other place as much.  You might be like me; you have discovered how easy and inexpensive cruising out of Galveston during the fall, winter and spring is so you just keep doing it once or twice a year even though you end up in the same places time after time.

If you are like me, you probably don't even consider it a rut.  I mean how could a vacation possibly be a rut? Right?  It's a vacation and you are getting away from your day to day life whatever that consists of.  Whether you work outside of the home in whatever capacity, you are a stay at home mom with small children, or a retiree.  Sometimes you just have to get away and you really don't care where you go to get that change of scenery as long as it's not at home and you aren't cooking and cleaning.

But if you've fallen into a vacation rut there are things you can do about it.  Maybe you love going to that time share in Mexico for two weeks every year and you don't want to stop but you also want to see what else is available.  If that's the case, maybe you should check out some of the last minute weekend deals in another part of the Caribbean.  Maybe you are looking to see a little bit of the the good ol' USA.  You can get to Colorado or into the mountains of New Mexico easily for a long weekend from north Texas. Just think about how much cooler it is in the mountains right now.

Another issue that a lot of people face is the out of state relatives.  If you have close family out of state, you probably spend a lot of vacations traveling to see them and just do your family duty.  If you're a woman there is no way you can consider this vacation.  Seriously, I know what these vacations can be like.  First of all you probably travel in a mini van for 10 to 15 hours each way with 2 to 3 arguing kids in the back.  If they aren't arguing, how many more times can you possibly listen to that stupid Pixar movie that keeps playing over and over again in the backseat?

Once you finally arrive, you're with family, so you have to make nice and help out in the kitchen each time a meal is cooked, you are probably chasing your kids around the house trying to make sure they don't break anything and threatening them within an inch of their lives.  You're making your family's beds and picking up after them so that your host isn't horrified that you might never leave.  Fellows if this is your idea of a vacation, maybe it explains some of the nagging you get all year long.  I'm just sayin'.....

I'm thinking that your life might be a little nicer if you and the wife got away from ALL of the family for just a short period of time.  Sure the investment might be more than a dozen roses costs you.  But the pay off is slightly better too.  A lot of my married friends now try to take big anniversary trips to celebrate the significant ones, you know... 10, 20, 25 and so on.  But guys, if you are only letting your wife know how much you appreciate her every 10 to 15 years... Yikes!  I'm not trying to pressure anybody into anything and I am not doing this simply because I could make a few bucks by planning your trip for you.  I was recommending anniversary trips to my guy friends long before I ever became a travel agent.  You want to see your friends happy.  You want their marriages to last.  You get tired of listening to their wives bitch....

So men, if you think it's time you took your wife somewhere special even if it's just for a long weekend, I have some ideas.  And ladies, if you think it is time your husband let you know how much he appreciates you... it's not entirely unethical to print a copy of a blog out and leave it lying around haphazardly, like say in his golf bag or propped against his bike rack.  You never know it could result in that second honeymoon you've been dreaming about for years.

I could go on all day about the benefits of taking your wife away and leaving the kids with family for several days.  After all, I talk to your wives all the time and you should hear some of the things they say!  But I'll just make one suggestion.  Look at her Pinterest account.  Is she pinning lots of photos of full laundry baskets, screaming kids with peanut butter covered shirts, sinks full of dirty dishes?  Or is she pinning pictures of hammocks on exotic beaches, sunsets over beautiful bodies of water and luscious landscapes?  Now you be the judge.

If anybody needs help printing this and ideas for placement, please give me a call at 469-828-0254.

Wrapping Up Rebecca's Graduation Trip

Wednesday morning we once again went to Thornton's for breakfast.  We had the waiter from lunch our first day in Boston and he remembered us....  It was sort of like we were going to a place "where everybody knows your name...."  We chatted with him briefly and had another great breakfast before heading out on our list of places to visit that day.

The first thing we had to knock out was Trinity Church.  So we walked there first.  It's a beautiful old church in the middle of Boston surrounded by big glass office buildings.  We had driven by the church a couple of times on the Trolley, in fact the picture to the right was taken on Monday from the Trolley as we passed but didn't have time to get off.  We walked around the area briefly mostly just because we were slightly disoriented. There is a fee to go into the church.  I think we paid $8 per person.  Most days they have a guided tour once or twice during the day.  Check the website before you go for tour times.

After leaving Trinity, we went back over to Hunnington Ave. to visit the Christian Science monstrosity that we had been walking past all week.  As we drove past in the Trolley on Tuesday, the driver pointed out the reflection pool where if a person walks in just the right place, it can look as though they are walking on water.  So it was something we had to try.  We wanted to go inside and see the famous pipe organ, but when we tried to enter, we were told that we couldn't until 1:00 PM and we had to be at the airport by then.  That was not an option.  So we ended up just taking pictures outside and then heading back to our hotel to get our things and checkout.

Upon checking out of the hotel, we took a taxi to Logan airport. We ate lunch at the airport, it was uneventful, just typical airport food.  On the way home we had a single stop in Washington DC at Dulles airport to change planes.  I've never been to DC before, so I'm thinking this counts as a trip to our nations capital even though I never left the airport.

Walking on water?  Not so much....

This looks a little more like walking on water....

They wouldn't let us in!

Kids and a few adults playing in the fountains.

The one thing I can tell you about Dulles airport is that those people need to invest in a freaking moving sidewalk.  When a person has been traipsing around New York and Boston for five and a half days, the last thing they want to do is walk a mile or two through an airport carrying a bunch of luggage and in a hurry.  I'm not really sure why we were in such a hurry, we had two hours to change flights, but Rebecca was rushing and rather than walk alone, I was trying to keep up with her.  So we practically sprinted to our next gate and then sat there and waited for a few hours....  Ugh!

We were back in Dallas by 9:45 or so on Wednesday night and at my house by 10:30.  Thursday we met Rebecca's Mom in Athens so that Rebecca could get home.  Overall, it was a great trip.  We've been back for a week now and I feel like I have almost recovered.  I have one nephew left to take on a graduation trip and then I will be done.  He won't graduate until 2015 and I am holding out hope that he will agree to do a rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.  But we'll see.  I've been trying to get one of them to agree to that for about 4 years with no luck.

Try to stay cool today!  Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike What day is it Mike?