Tuesday, February 7, 2012

No problem, mon.

AHHHH!!!!  Hit the EZ button, my life is a mess!  Well, okay, not really.  But the last few months have been stress a rama in my world, and I need a break.  It's so much fun to paste the nice n pretty on the blog, but sometimes, okay, often, there is way more goin' on beneath the surface.  (Like everyone's real life, right? Well, except for Cinderella, but even she had shoe issues.)
Sooo.....with all this shnizzle going on, who gets the short shift?  Me.  And the hubster.  We're stretched to the max with work, unnecessary drama, and in general, life.  And chocolate's a temporary fix for a much bigger problem (not swimsuit friendly!).  We need to relax.  Big time.  But who has a million dollars for vacation?  Nope.  So, we turned to everyone's favorite friend...the Internet.
Our cousin has a timeshare with several locations across the US, and was kind enough to give us access for a week, wherever.  We narrowed it down to....
San Diego.  Zoo.  Sun.  Beaches.  My aunt lives not too far away.  And fun races in April to sign up for.
Phoenix.  Grand Canyon.  Dessert.  Desert.  Horseback riding.  Warm.  Mountains.
St. George (Utah).  Ironman St. George.  Okay, fine.  The hubster took away my credit card when he saw me on that site and put the kibosh on that.  Smart man.
Maui.  Paradise.  With mad expensive plane tickets.

It really looked like San Diego was the winner....cheapest flights, nicest perks, affordable.  Then I did the math.  $800 plane tickets.  $200 car rental.  $100 race.  $150 gas.  $100 groceries.  $100 eating out (at frugal estimates!)= $1500 roughly.  Not too bad, but what started out as a free vaca got expensive!  (No complaints on the timeshare-we were super grateful....but could we do this better?)
So...we went back to the drawing board.  our original pie in the sky vacation when we thought we might have a bit of money coming in (no such luck) was a Caribbean all inclusive.  But man, are they expensive!
Well...unless you are patient and do your research, that is.  So, I channeled my inner mother in law, the queen of all that is frugal, and went to work.  Not so many hours later, I found it.
7 nights.
Source
Saturday to Saturday.
All inclusive. (aka no stress!)
With airfare. And transfer to the resort.
In April.
For both the hubster and I.
for less than $2000.
To....
JAMAICA!
Off we go.  Only 10 weeks till bikini time.  And sandy beaches.  And no "real world".  And snorkeling.  And yummy food.  And Red Stripe.  And my first Caribbean vacation!
Feel the rhythm!  Feel the rhyme!  C'mon hubster, it's vacation time!  (wow, I need help). 
Anyone ever been to the Caribbean?  An all inclusive?  Any tips?

4 comments:

  1. We have been to two all-inclusive's in Mexico. We had to go back a second time because we felt that we didn't do it "justice" the first time around. My best advice is to NOT hold back. Yeah, yeah...you're a marathon, dieting guru! BUT all inclusive's are meant to be done UP! Drink early and often (our first Corona was around 10am every day), hit up as many of the restaurants per day as you can (the portions are actually, usually relatively small so that does help the whole not-going-overboard-thing), attend as many of the scheduled shows/events/lessons/activities that seem interesting to you (they can be so memorable and amusing! We saw a Michael Jackson Tribute Concert performed by Mexicans...it doesn't get more memorable than that!) and do nothing but RELAX. When I say "relax," I mean full out laziness. I'm sure they have a gym on the resort but don't allow that to eat up at your relaxation time! There are gyms at home to enjoy, what you can't enjoy at home is what you're paying for while you're there...sun, sand, booze, your husband to yourself, no annoyances, no stress and well, paradise! Enjoy it!

    ~ Allee ~

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  2. I went to an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica with my family my senior year of high school. Hands down.. best vacation ever! You'll have a great time! Like the above commenter, make sure you participate and make friends! It will make the vacation 1000x better. It's not a vacation if you are doing races so I am glad you are going somewhere totally relaxing!

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  3. Thanks guys! I will follow your orders, Allee and Alexa :-) No races this time around...i guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!!

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