Holly’s Happenings

I’m sure you’re probably tired of hearing about our recent road trip to Baltimore, but I’m sorry, there are still more things about the trip that impressed me that I want to talk about, so you’re just going to have to bear with me…LOL! Besides, it’s been YEARS since my husband and I have taken any type of road trip, that alone is worthy of at least a few blog posts…LOL!

Since it’s summer time, the roads that we took were filled with miles and miles of road construction areas, which is to be expected! I remember as a kid when we’d take family road trips, dad would be cruising down the road with traffic when all of a sudden traffic would almost come to a stand still, and we’d have no idea what was going on. After driving slow for a few miles we’d suddenly discover the reason why was because of road construction that was going on.

While we did have several areas during our trip where traffic was slowed down because of road construction, the use of digital signage prepared everyone driving down the road well in advance, and I honestly think it does help in the prevention of accidents as well. We drove over 1,000 miles round trip and, knock on wood, didn’t see a single accident. So yes, technology does have it’s benefits!

OK everyone, we’re all packed and ready and will be hitting the road in just a few minutes! Hubby and I are driving out to the Baltimore area to take the kids for a month long stay with their older sister! We’ll spend the night out there tonight then head back home tomorrow. It’s only an 8 hour drive so we’ll be home before nightfall!

Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow!

We’re just two weeks away from the date we take the kids out to spend four weeks with their sister. I know it’s going to be very strange around here with the kids gone, it’s the first time in their lives that we’ve been apart for more than a week or so. But I think that the break from each other is going to do us all some good, or at least I hope it does!

Anyway, if things go well over the next few weeks, my husband and I have decided that we’re going to take a little get away of our own while the kids are gone. Nothing expensive or glamorous, just something fun that will let us get away for a few days! If we can swing it financially, we’d like to go somewhere that’s a few hours away by plane.

I was sitting here talking to him about it when our daughter came out. The minute she heard something about us wanting to go somewhere that would require us to fly I swear she almostt had a cow! She started going on and on about how she didn’t want to be out at her sisters and get the news that something had happened to us, but that in case it did we really needed to make sure we had good term life insurance so that she’d at least be financially set and could afford this and that and this and that….LOL!

She’s a fruitcake, but I love her! She just worries about things that most kids her age don’t worry about! I know it’s because of the fact that we haven’t gone away from the kids, but she really needs to just chill out! So anyway, cross your fingers and think good thoughts, we’d really love to be able to do something like this! It’s just a matter of being able to afford it AND being able to find someone that could some and stay with the dogs or someone that lived close enough that they could actually stop over every few hours to let them out and make sure they had food and water!

Although I’ll post most of the information about my trip on Just Simply Holly, I decided that I’d do my post about my thoughts on our hotel lodgings over here, gotta share the love ya know? LOL

We left NW Ohio on Monday May 26, around 8:30 in the evening with the plan of driving through the night as well as the next day and stay the first night in Amarillo, Texas. Now anyone that knows me knows that I’m NOT a frequent traveler. As a matter of fact, my hotel stays last week were the first ones I’ve had in several years. That being said, here are my thoughts on the hotels that we stayed at. I will rate each hotel on a scale of 1 to 5 with a 5 being the best.

Our first night, Wednesday, was spent at the Travelodge in Amarillo, TX. The room was very clean and comfortable as well as having an excellent layout/set up. The toilet and shower were in a separate room, with a very nice and long vanity being outside of it. The vanity only held one sink, but it allowed ample room for the many toiletries and makeup items that women carry when they are traveling. The beds were so-so, one was firmer than the other, but with as tired as the three of us were, I think we’d have slept like babies if the mattresses would have been made from cement…..LOL. They offer free WiFi and it was very easy to connect to with a very decent speed! For breakfast they offered what they call their “Bear Bites Breakfast” which consisted of bagels, toast, mini muffins, cold cereal and fresh fruit as well as coffee and juices. The fresh fruit was an added plus, but it was a very nice continental breakfast! The hotel staff was VERY courteous and helpful and the entire facility was clean and very well taken care of. According to their website their nightly rate for a queen double room for 3 is $62.10 after taxes. On the 1 to 5 scale, I give the Amarillo, Texas Travelodge a rating of 4.
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With just a few hours left until I leave for my California trip and TONS of things to do, the only thing I can think about is how nice it is going to be to get away from the hectic things that I deal with on a daily basis! I love my husband and kids with all my heart, but sometimes they can bring a lot of stress into my life, and I’m sure I do the same for them at times too!

I’m about 98% packed, with just a few last minute details to take care of before we hit the road this evening. It’s going to be such a fun trip and I’m so excited to be making this trip with one of my best friends and her daughter as her daughter embarks on the latest journey of her life!

We’ll be making a few stops along the way and seeing a few of the finer sites this country has to offer. I won’t having to think about things like whether or not the dogs have enough food and water, dealing with my daughters latest melt down about how her hair looks or even things like the latest political news or home theater sconces. Nothing like those things will be a part of my life for the next 8 days, and I’m honestly really looking forward to it.

I hope I come home from this trip with less stress and a little more appreciation for the important things in my life as well as a stronger bond with a very special friend and her daughter for allowing me to be a part of such a special time in their lives!

I have a friend that is going to post my email updates to my other blog Just Simply Holly, so if you want to hear about how my trip is going please be sure to check in over there. In the mean time, after I submit this post, I’ll be setting it so that all comments are moderated, so if you make a comment to me please note that after about 10:00 PM tonight all comments will be left in moderation until I return home from my trip!

Take care everyone, see you in 8 days!

OK, this post is for those of you that have either traveled recently, or who travel frequently. My trip out west is less than 2 weeks away. For the trip to San Jose we’re driving out, but for the trip home, my friend and I are flying. It’s been almost 28 years since the last time I was on a plane. The flying part really doesn’t bother me, but with all of the changes in what you can and can’t take on a plane since 9/11, I find many of the regulations confusing!

For instance, here’s one of my questions. When I go to put my carry on bag through the scanner thingy, do I need to take my memory card out of my camera? Will the scanners delete the pictures from my memory cards? I know, to many of you that probably sounds like a totally ridiculous question, but I honestly don’t know.

One of my other questions involves the bag that I’m using for my husbands laptop. It has several pouches and pockets in it. Will I be able to put non computer related items in them, or can the things in that bag only be related to the laptop? Since I’m not checking my bags, my plan is to find a small enough bag that will hold the clothes and personal items I’m taking. I’m then only allowed one other bag which leaves me choosing between a purse or a brief case/laptop case, and I’ve decided that I’m going to leave the purse behind on this trip, I have other options that will work better. So my hope is to be able to fit everything I need to take into my carry on bag and the laptop bag, as long as I can put non computer related items into the laptop bag for the flight home.

SOOOOOOO many questions, and I know that the next two weeks are going to totally fly, heck, the past week flew by in no time flat! So if you have the answers to any of my questions or suggestions, PLEASE let me know, I would very much appreciate any help or tips that I can get!

For the past 6 weeks or so, my husband and I have been in the planning stages with my step daughter for our two children to spend some time with her this summer. We’ve got the date for them to fly out to the east coast down, but had never really talked about a return date. My husband and I were thinking a week, maybe 10 days, but I was totally blown away when I was talking with my step daughter last night and she said “I’d like to keep them for the month”. Even now, twelve hours later, I’m still not sure what to think…LOL!

I honestly don’t have a problem with the kids spending a month with their big sister, she’s an awesome young lady who is very responsible! The things that I worry about include the fact that the kids have never been away from home for that long of a period of time and it’s been many years since they’ve spent any significant amount of time with their older sister. Yes, they are teenagers and they do need to learn to be away from home like this and I know they’ll have a wonderful time with their sister, she has a TON of stuff planned to do with them, I just worry.

One of my options is to shop around the different airlines for the best buy on flights that would allow a flexible return date, or I could just simply purchase one way flights for the trip out there, talk to them after the first week to see how they’re doing and how they’re feeling about being so far from home, and decide then when they’ll come home and but one way tickets home for them.

It’s just nerve wracking, and yes, I know that I’m probably making more out of it than I need to. Maybe a month away from each other is exactly what we need, especially my husband and I! But WOW, hearing the words really put me in shock!

So, before I actually walk out the door with my bags in hand, there is obviously a TON of stuff I need to go first! Thankfully I’m not leaving the US, so I don’t have to worry about getting a passport or things like that. But the main things that I have to do are all housework related! So, here’s my list!

1. TOTALLY catch up the laundry!
2. Get the rest of the kitchen trim painted
3. Do a THOROUGH cleaning of the living room, including washing the curtains
4. Make lists of all the important phone numbers I use for the kids for my husband
5. Make sure friends/family know that I’m going to go out of town so they can call or stop in to check on the hubby and kids
6. Find someone that can keep an eye on all of my blogs for me
7. Make sure to charge all my camera batteries and possibly pick up an extra set or two
8. Convince my sis or a friend to let me borrow their video camera
9. Make sure hubby knows where all of the pertinent info is for stuff around the house and for the utility companies
10. Make sure the kids KNOW that if they don’t behave while I’m gone, I won’t be bringing them back ANYTHING, not even a T-shirt that says “My mom went to (wherever I go) and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” LOL

So, the next few weeks are going to be busy, but for a VERY good reason, don’t you think?

It didn’t hit me until this morning that there are less than two months until my wedding anniversary. My husband and I have never really had a chance to celebrate our anniversary in the years that we’ve been together. That probably has quite a bit to do with the fact that by our first anniversary we had custody of his daughter and I had given birth to our son. When you have children, getting away and doing things without the kids can sometimes be a challenge, which has always been the case for us! Now that the kids are finally older, rather than dealing with having to find someone to watch them, we now face the challenge of what to do with our three dogs…LOL!

I love the dogs dearly, I really do, but it would be wonderful if we could make a last minute decision to go away for our anniversary this year and do something like spend the weekend in one of the many exciting hotels Las Vegas has to offer! I’m not one to gamble and neither is my husband, but we love to people watch and I think it would be facinating to watch the reactions of peole as they look at the sights or play the slot machines! My brother and his wife have taken a few trips to Las Vegas and listening to him talk about Las Vegas has really made me want to see it for myself!

If you read my previous post, you’ll know that my husband and I aren’t getting along too well today, to the point that we’re not talking to each other. That’s too bad because if we were I could show him the great deal I found on an Orlando rental home that’s available the week we plan on taking our vacation. It’s a nice rental house with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and it’s own private pool, which would allow us to relax by the pool in private, once we were doing running around for the day.

One day it’s Branson, the next it’s back to Florida, who knows what it will be the day after that. My husband and I were talking about vacation again last night and he told me that he’s back to leaning more towards Florida because of the great deals he’s seen online for Orlando vacations. I can’t say that I blame him, I know that we’d get more vacation for the money if we snagged up a great package deal! And I know that the kids REALLY want to visit Disney World, and remembering my own experiences when I went to Florida as a child, I also really want them to see the ocean! So, as of right now Florida is back on, but that may change, so stay posted!!

Raleigh, North Carolina has some AMAZING things going on this fall that you really should know about! The one that I want to go to is the Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. That exhibition starts at the end of October and is going to run all the way through the beginning of March, so even I don’t have any excuse for not having enough time to make plans!

Some of the other things going on in Raleigh that would make for great Fall Getaway vacations include the North Carolina State Fair, which is going to be held October 12th through the 21st, the Autumn Arts Festival which is on October 13th, and A Celtic Halloween which is going to be held on October 27th. They also have many other stage performances and concerts going on through out the months of September and October, so no matter what your taste is, you are sure to find something that will wet your appetite.

OK, I know, you want to know more about the FREE getaway, don’t you? OK, here’s what you need to do! Head on over to FREE Raleigh Getaway right now and get signed up! If you are the lucky winner, this is what you’ll get: One night of accomdations for two at the Courtyard by Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley, a $25 gift certificate to Bloomsbury Bistro, Free VIP admission for two to Rum Runners, 2 tickets to the North Carolina Theatre, 2 tickets to the N.C. Museum of Art’s Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism and 2 tickets to Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.

So what are you waiting for? Get over there and get signed up to win a Raleigh Getaway, and while you’re there, go ahead and plan one as well because I guarantee that you won’t regret it!

I’m sure, over the next few months, you are going to get VERY sick of hearing me talk about our upcoming trip to Florida. If you do, then I’m sorry, but this is a huge thing for my family and I want to do what I can to make it a trip we all will remember for years to come!

It was suggested to me that I check out an online trip planner to help me plan a trip that all four of us would enjoy. So I headed over to RealTravel.com to see exactly how their trip planner worked.

I liked that fact that they offer trip planning for all areas of the world, not just the United States. That might come in handy if I do decide to pull up roots here in the United States and move my family to Europe since the jobs seem to pay much better there than they do here in the US. But, back to reality, their trip planner will definitely come in handy for planning our trip to Florida!

If you go through RealTravel.com slowly you will find neat features such as other travelers blogs giving tips as to where the good places to visit are, as well as the places to avoid. I also found out that it is less expensive to stay outside of Orlando, rather than right near Disney, which is something we were thinking about doing anyway. For instance, accommodations are about 2/3 of the price if you stay in Kissimmee or Deltona than they would be if you stayed right in Orlando. So I guess my experience with checking out travel planners has been a good one and I’m very glad that it was suggested to me!

I have a large extended family! I have 1 brother and 1 sister myself and I also have 2 step brothers and 1 step sister. All 6 of us are married and we all have children as well. As much as I don’t want to admit it, many of my niece’s and nephew’s have already graduated from high school, and a few have even graduated from college. I currently only have on niece that is married with a child of her own, but that is soon to change because my nephew, her brother, became engaged last year at Christmas.

My nephew and his fiancée have been having a hard time deciding what type of wedding they want to have and even where they want to have it. They are both outdoors people, my nephew is a HUGE hunter and his fiancée enjoys being out in the woods hunting with him. So they’ve thought about having an outdoor wedding in the fall somewhere near a beautifully wooded area, which I think would not only be gorgeous, but would also be a beautiful background for their wedding photos.

But the talk I was hearing at our family reunion on Labor Day was that they are now leaning more towards going to Las Vegas and getting married there. So, just in case this is the option they decide on, I’ve been checking out Las Vegas Hotels. I’ve heard many good things about the MGM Grand Hotel from my brother and his wife, they stayed there the last time they went to Las Vegas, but I have to admit that the lure of the luxury at Four Seasons is tempting too!

Yes, I know, I sure do a lot of dreaming don’t I? But tell me, what’s life without having some dreams? If you don’t have dreams, what do you have to work for in life? For as long as I can remember, taking a trip to Australia has always been a dream of mine. One thing that I had never really thought about, however, was where in Australia I would go. That was until I seen images of a few cities like this one of Perth, Australia:

Perth is a gorgeous city with many different types of attractions, but I’d really love to be able to go to the Perth International Arts Festival . I was thrilled to find out that Hotels in Perth were priced much less than I imagined they would be!I’ve also checked out Hotels in Adelaide and Melbourne Accomodation prices and was pleasantly surprised by what I found out! For instance, if I wanted to fly to Perth right now, I could get a 4 star Hotel for only $107 a night in US dollars, which I think is fantastic! If I decided to go to Adelaide instead, I could get a 4 1/2 star Hotel for only $123 US dollars per night. And in Melbourne I could snag up a 5 star Hotel for a mere $120 US dollars per night.

So, now that I know where to shop around when I’m looking for great Hotel prices in Australia, the only thing left to do is pack, anyone want to come with me?

The other day, at one of the game sites I play at, one person was mentioning that they were a retired military person and they were talking about all of the places that they had been to during their years in the military. We all ended up talking about Paris, France for quite some time which ended up making me start thinking about how awesome it would be to be able to visit France.

So, being the person that I am, I started checking out Hôtels en Paris (bet you didn’t know I could speak a little French, did you?). I was actually quite surprised at how reasonably priced Paris Hotels were. And the more I looked around for information about Paris the more I truly wanted to visit “The City of Light”.

Although Paris is most notably known for it’s attractions like The Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral, it also has a fantastic nightlife with unlimited attractions, bars and restaurants catering not only to it’s French residents, but to the millions of tourists that flock to Paris every year. If you or someone you know are considering a trip to France you might want to check out this wonderful Guide to France. It is filled with all types of great information about Paris and many other areas in the French region.

With everything that I have read about Paris and after seeing photos of the many beautiful my desire to take a French vacation is even stronger than it was before. And since I know that my husband isn’t willing to travel to foreign countries, this will be a trip that I’ll take with my daughter, whom I’m sure would appreciate it more anyway!