Our vacation

I spent this weekend "getting my bearings" after being gone for a week on vacation.  We were all pretty tired by the time we got home on Friday evening. 

On our first day of vacation we got up early and we were on the road by 6:15 a.m.  We drove 780 miles from our home in Iowa to my hometown in Western New York.  I packed ham and turkey sandwiches made on freshly baked buns.  We also had plenty of snacks such as chips, crackers, cookies, apples, Twizzlers and Tootsie Roll pops.  We also had bottles of water.  We did stop for breakfast that first day and then from there on out until reaching our destination in New York we ate as we were hungry and stopped only for gas or bathroom breaks. 

After a couple of days in New York we spent three days in Ohio visiting the Football Hall of Fame, McKinley Presidential Museum and tomb, First Ladies Museum, President Hayes Presidential Museum and tomb and President Harding's home.  Yes, we love history and of course my DH and DS love sports.  So, we mix the two up on vacations.

We stayed in hotels our entire vacation - 6 nights  - and for the first time, we received AARP discounts.  We stayed at Comfort Inns and spent a few nights at a Hampton Inn.  The Hampton Inn gave us such a great deal as it ended up being the cheapest hotel for us to stay at in my hometown.  Okay, I'm only 51 and my DH is only 52 but if they are going to allow us to be members of AARP at our ages, I will take the benefits.  All the hotels offered free breakfast.  When booking hotels we look at the price and then we double check to see if breakfast is included.  For breakfast we had quite a variety of foods to choose from each day - eggs, omelets, french toast sticks, waffles, donuts, bagels, muffins, fresh cut up fruit, sausage and gravey with biscuits and more. 

We ate in restaurants except for one meal that my mom cooked for us.  I noticed some major differences from prior vacations.  1.  Each hotel that we stayed at was not full, not even close.  Because of this they offered quite a few discounts from their normal fees.  2.  The restaurants that we ate at all had specials more than ever before. 

The economy has hit the hotel and restaurant industry pretty hard and we were the benefits of quite a few discounts.  The bottom line is that it still cost money.  We were careful how we spent the money that we had set aside for our vacation. 

All in all we had a great time, stayed within our budget and I only spent $8.00 on myself for the entire trip, which is unheard of.  I bought an Ohio State spoon - okay, it's kind of kitchy but I do collect them.  I also bought a book for $2.00 that had pictures of the President McKinley museum.  I mainly bought it because they had quite a few displays on Victorian living and I want to duplicate some things in my own home.

We came back with a lot of memories including laughing and teasing each other a lot during our travelling.  I do not remember one moment that we got upset with each other.  We had a great time.

This was the first vacation that I didn't have to come home to a job outside of the home.  Usually as we are driving home I start to think about all the work that is on my desk that I will be facing the following Monday.  Not so, this time, it was only a lot of laundry.