California Here We Come!

Eeek! I am so excited! I just booked two non-stop plane tickets from Cincinnati to San Diego, and from Los Angeles back to Cincinnati! We have the beginnings of our summer vacation booked! (Too many exclamation points in one paragraph? Can you tell I'm excited?)

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For the past few weeks months Derek and I have been going back and forth about plans for a summer vacation. There is really only one week out of the whole summer that we could take a vacation, so we knew when we needed to go, but deciding on a place was much harder. My original thought was to fly into San Diego, spend a couple days there, take the week to drive up the coast, a few hours at a time, staying in little beach towns on the coast, until we arrived in San Francisco where we would spend a few more days before flying home. And while it sounds awesome, it is a lot of driving, which Derek wasn't a huge fan of, and we wouldn't get to stay at any one place for very long.

So then I started thinking about just going to San Diego and Derek started thinking about going to just San Francisco. I began tracking airfare for both of these options, but as gas prices have gone up, airfare even to California has gotten more expensive.  We also started looking at all-inclusives to the Caribbean. Our 5 year anniversary is in a few weeks, so while it would be a splurge, we could claim it is a 5 year anniversary trip. I found some great deals on several all-inclusive hotels, however airfare would nearly double the cost of the trip.

Finally, this morning, I looked at flights to southern California and by accidentally searching for a flight leaving Friday (instead of Saturday, which is what I meant to look for) and coming back on a Saturday, I found some non-stop flights that were cheaper than anything else I've seen in a long time, and got super excited.

Next, I found some hotels that we could use some of our Marriott rewards points to stay at for free, and maybe get my parents to donate a few of their extra points to the cause - mom - you reading this? :) and I sent a tentative vacation package to Derek via e-mail with dates, costs, links to hotels, etc. I listed all of the super fun things we could do in Souther California (go to a Padres game, go to Sea World, Lego land, maybe take a boat ride around San Diego Bay, go to Disney Land, Knotts Berry farm, etc.) and clicked send hoping he would feel as excited as me. And this is the e-mail I got back:


"I don't even have to look. Sounds great. Let's do it. Let's look at it later tonight together!"


At which point I did a little happy dance at my desk. I proceeded to book airline tickets, since I wanted to snag those before they got more expensive and tonight we have a date to talk about hotels, Go Cards, rental cars, etc. I'm so excited!!!!!


And now I am off to spend my lunch hour meeting my friends Eric and Rachel's brand new baby, Parker. Oh happy day!