Mini-Vacay

We just got back from a short vacation in Destin.  Brad had a pharmacy conference so Paige and I tagged along; we seem to be doing a lot of tagging along these days.  I love making bulleted lists to organize my thoughts, so here is a recap of the trip in list form.

Why we are not staying at Sandestin again (unless someone else pays)…

1) No internet service. What hotel in this day and age does not offer internet service, even for a charge? The book said we MAY be able to get dial up.

2) The place is overpriced. The conference rate was $180 a night for a “village studio” not on the beach. This “studio’s” kitchen was the size of a dorm fridge. This was nice to have a fridge and microwave but most studios I’ve seen are larger, especially when you are paying $180. There was no view whatsoever. There were bushes outside our window. Luggage carts were hard to come by. In fact, we couldn’t find one when we first got there and had to make several trips to the car. We saw some the next day

3) The parking garage was so tight! It would have been hard to move a Honda Fit around in that thing, much less my big bus (I cannot imagine moving a Suburban around in there; I would have just given up and parked somewhere else). I ended up taking up 2 spaces every time and when I was driving I had my “spot” that made it easier to get in and out of.

4) Housekeeping took our snacks! I don’t want to accuse them of stealing but the snack bag went missing. I had a Winn Dixie sack hanging on one of the door knobs and in it there was a full coffee container, 2 boxes of breakfast bars and 2 boxes of the 100 calorie packs. When I went to get a snack Monday afternoon I couldn’t find the bag. I searched every nook and cranny in the room and it was nowhere to be found. When I tell people what happened the first thing they say is could the bag been mistaken for trash? It was nowhere near the trash can – so, in my opinion, no it shouldn’t have been mistaken for trash. Good thing there was a Starbucks right outside our room; that was breakfast for me. Also, the staff was very professional when I told them and they reimbursed us for our loss.

Why I had a great time on our mini-vacation…

1) I got to spend time with Paige and Brad!!! There is nothing better than family time! One of my favorite things to do is to ride in the car with Brad. It seems like we have some our best conversations there and we were in the car for about 4 hours total so we got some good conversation in. Paige and I also got some good time in together while Brad did the conference thing.

2) Paige and I got to go shopping! We hit up the outlet mall and found some good deals. I was able to get 8 outfits for Paige for $60. One of those was a splurge and it was $13.50. That means I got her 7 outfits for less than $7 each. I thought that was pretty good, at least for me (and I am not good at finding deals). I also got me some cute stuff – I got this really cute dress for $13 (Ross) and I got 2 cute t-shirts for $3 each (Old Navy). I also got Paige this really cute 4th of July romper. I can’t wait for her to wear it! I saw some other really cute 4th of July outfits but resisted and stuck with the one outfit (the girl already has so many things wear for this summer!).

3) I got to finish a good book! More on this in another post…

4) I didn’t have to go to work for 2 days! Need I say more?

5) We got to eat dinner with Matt! Our friend, Matt, was at the conference too so we had dinner with him Monday night. It was actually his and Emily’s anniversary. Nothing like celebrating your 7 year anniversary with your friends and their 4 month old – ha! Great food and great conversation. Matt is good to keep Brad up to speed on the latest and greatest Iphone apps and they conversation never runs dry with pharmacy talk. Emily, I missed you and Paige missed Ben and Kate!!