Please forgive my brevity on this post.
Typically, I crank out words at the rate of about 1,000 per hour and like to write posts in the 2,000 word range that take me the better part of two hours to write.
I have nineteen minutes until my wife and daughter return from her music lesson, then I am off to drop my dear baby off with my dear old mother so we can head up north for the next three-plus days.
The folks at Project: Time Off would probably be proud of me and us, but not too proud.
As they recently reported, we Americans are taking more vacation time than we have in the past seven years, and I am striving to do my part as I take my tenth day off this year, with two more scheduled for tomorrow and Friday.
Due to having to book our family's main summer vacation in great haste on July 1st due to our aspiring musician son landing a paying gig in an orchestra pit next week, the week that we had intended to go on a more typical vacation, we had to find something quickly.
Our daughter volunteered to search, preferably for a beach house on Lake Michigan, but the nice ones have all been booked for quite a while and the ones that she found on VRBO were in the $400 to $500 per night range, which is more than I should spend.
Ultimately, she found a farm house for rent in the area of Wisconsin Dells, an area that I have never visited despite having spent nearly 4.8 decades residing in the Chicago area. Mind you, my family vacationed for a month every year in the U.P., so we drove hundreds of miles north of the Dells. For quite a few years when our children were very young, we vacationed in Door County which, again, goes well north of the Dells area and is much nicer in my mind.
Long story short, my daughter pointed a few houses out, I saw one that looked pretty good, I asked my wife to take a look and we booked it.
Thus, we are expected at a farm house on the outskirts of the Dells five hours from now. I am hoping for the best. I hate mice and I mean really hate them.
The last three times we rented homes in the U.P., we had to share the house with mice, some of which skittered over us while we tried to sleep. I spent about five days not able to sleep two years ago, but had a great trip anyway. I really hate mice.
Also, the house lists air conditioning as included, but I am skeptical and would not be surprised if it is not up to snuff.
Anyway, I'm sure that whatever complaints I have about the lodging will be something or things that I am not even anticipating at this point.
What About the $$$?
I read an article in the latest edition of Kiplinger's magazine this morning while dropping a deuce urging vacationers, like us, to look at the extra taxes and fees before booking a getaway.
This could not be truer in the case of our rental. Observe:
Check out the extra $120 fee for an "additional guest," our son.
Check out the $72 "service fee."
One would expect taxes since everything is taxed by someone.
I was just a bit more than surprised when our reasonable $175 nightly fee, which adds up to $525, jumped up by about $200 with the additional fees. Maybe if we don't make our beds when we leave or leave some bread crumbs on the counter, we'll get dinked out of the $200 deposit and I can spend nearly a grand to sleep in an old farm house for three nights.
Although I usually pay for everything on vacation from gas to bottled water to dining out to activities using a credit card or debit card, I feel better with a decent amount of cash in my wallet. I do not really want to charge everything. If a meal is in the $80 range or less, I prefer to pay cash.
So how much am I bringing?
The final number is $523, consisting of twenty-five twenty dollar bills, a ten, two fives and three singles. Of course I had more in my wallet last night, but had to dole some cash out for a few things, reducing the $600 that I intended to bring.
Unlike finding an unexpected $191 last week, I am not feeling a sense of abundance. More like a sense of nervousness right now.
Of course, a family vacation, and a short one at that, is not about the money. But it certainly does cost some. Instead of earning about $1,200 at work the next three days (which I will anyway by being paid vacation days), I will spend about that amount.
I do not expect this to be the one and only summer getaway that we do. Soon after we return, I am going to look at some short one- or two-night beach rentals, perhaps even some of those in the more expensive range. But probably at a hotel.
We have a massive amount, for us, of spending on things ahead in the next two to three weeks. There is not a financial adviser on earth who would advise us to spend over a grand during a three-day stretch right now.
But I think that every single adviser of how to live a better life and enjoy family time together would say that it is not long enough, and I always have the ability to make more money.
Gotta go!
Typically, I crank out words at the rate of about 1,000 per hour and like to write posts in the 2,000 word range that take me the better part of two hours to write.
I have nineteen minutes until my wife and daughter return from her music lesson, then I am off to drop my dear baby off with my dear old mother so we can head up north for the next three-plus days.
The folks at Project: Time Off would probably be proud of me and us, but not too proud.
As they recently reported, we Americans are taking more vacation time than we have in the past seven years, and I am striving to do my part as I take my tenth day off this year, with two more scheduled for tomorrow and Friday.
Due to having to book our family's main summer vacation in great haste on July 1st due to our aspiring musician son landing a paying gig in an orchestra pit next week, the week that we had intended to go on a more typical vacation, we had to find something quickly.
Our daughter volunteered to search, preferably for a beach house on Lake Michigan, but the nice ones have all been booked for quite a while and the ones that she found on VRBO were in the $400 to $500 per night range, which is more than I should spend.
Ultimately, she found a farm house for rent in the area of Wisconsin Dells, an area that I have never visited despite having spent nearly 4.8 decades residing in the Chicago area. Mind you, my family vacationed for a month every year in the U.P., so we drove hundreds of miles north of the Dells. For quite a few years when our children were very young, we vacationed in Door County which, again, goes well north of the Dells area and is much nicer in my mind.
Long story short, my daughter pointed a few houses out, I saw one that looked pretty good, I asked my wife to take a look and we booked it.
Thus, we are expected at a farm house on the outskirts of the Dells five hours from now. I am hoping for the best. I hate mice and I mean really hate them.
The last three times we rented homes in the U.P., we had to share the house with mice, some of which skittered over us while we tried to sleep. I spent about five days not able to sleep two years ago, but had a great trip anyway. I really hate mice.
Also, the house lists air conditioning as included, but I am skeptical and would not be surprised if it is not up to snuff.
Anyway, I'm sure that whatever complaints I have about the lodging will be something or things that I am not even anticipating at this point.
What About the $$$?
I read an article in the latest edition of Kiplinger's magazine this morning while dropping a deuce urging vacationers, like us, to look at the extra taxes and fees before booking a getaway.
This could not be truer in the case of our rental. Observe:
Check out the $72 "service fee."
One would expect taxes since everything is taxed by someone.
I was just a bit more than surprised when our reasonable $175 nightly fee, which adds up to $525, jumped up by about $200 with the additional fees. Maybe if we don't make our beds when we leave or leave some bread crumbs on the counter, we'll get dinked out of the $200 deposit and I can spend nearly a grand to sleep in an old farm house for three nights.
Although I usually pay for everything on vacation from gas to bottled water to dining out to activities using a credit card or debit card, I feel better with a decent amount of cash in my wallet. I do not really want to charge everything. If a meal is in the $80 range or less, I prefer to pay cash.
So how much am I bringing?
Unlike finding an unexpected $191 last week, I am not feeling a sense of abundance. More like a sense of nervousness right now.
Of course, a family vacation, and a short one at that, is not about the money. But it certainly does cost some. Instead of earning about $1,200 at work the next three days (which I will anyway by being paid vacation days), I will spend about that amount.
I do not expect this to be the one and only summer getaway that we do. Soon after we return, I am going to look at some short one- or two-night beach rentals, perhaps even some of those in the more expensive range. But probably at a hotel.
We have a massive amount, for us, of spending on things ahead in the next two to three weeks. There is not a financial adviser on earth who would advise us to spend over a grand during a three-day stretch right now.
But I think that every single adviser of how to live a better life and enjoy family time together would say that it is not long enough, and I always have the ability to make more money.
Gotta go!
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