August 4, 2015

Tanya's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 3 DAYS

Islands ISLANDS Islands and MORE...

Well well well! Tuesday is FINALLY here!

While in general Tuesday is not my favorite day of the week, but here on Travelin' Cousins it is definitely a favorite!

It's so difficult for me to keep button lipped on sharing all of my travel plans as I plan them and as I book them. So when TRAVELIN' TUESDAY comes around I am just bursting with excitement to share all of my travel news!!!

The very next trip coming up in 3 DAYS is to Puerto Rico and then on a Southern Caribbean Cruise - read all about it HERE!

While we are very excited about the vacation, I still have to confirm our flights for FRIDAY!!! UGH $$$
Crazy huh?!
We have our hotel booked in Puerto Rico, a car reserved and our itinerary set...
I've narrowed down all of the excursions, and I think that we are all ready to go with the plans.

Puerto Rico 2010

I will begin our packing efforts today, and hopefully at least finish up with Dave's packing by tonight.
(Can you believe that I STILL need to finish unpacking from the last trip?!)

Once we get back from the islands and before we leave again for more islands, Dave and I will venture off for a biking and baseball weekend in San Diego! All reservations are made and I am ready to pedal away!

The trip that follows is going to Las Vegas for Labor Day Weekend. As of right now it is just the 4 of us confirmed. Jet, Andrew, Chaplin and possibly even my mom might come... But I've heard this story before.
Anyhow, we have figured out what are plans are for entertainment and dining. 
In fact, I made all of our dining reservations at the Wynn and Encore restaurants just yesterday!

Vegas Trip April 2012

A couple of weeks later, we were planning on meeting with Elisa and the girls...
However, the kids and I were quite disappointed to find out that Elisa, Giana, and Kelsey won't be joining us after all. (insert sad faces here)
We were looking so forward to sharing an amazing vacation in together on the beautiful island of  paradise - Kauai, Hawaii.

Kauai 2013

Our trip to Hawaii has been on the calendar for a while and our accommodation reservations were made early on (the hotels are all FULLY BOOKED now), but I only recently just booked our flights and am still deciding if we will go to Oahu for a day trip or not... We shall see.

Another trip that I can now report is confirmed with flights is our ski trip to Vail and to Breckenridge, Colorado! 
This is not until the winter - January 2016 to be exact, but with all of this summer heat - I'm over here dreaming of the cold and the snow!
NOTE - that I still need to reserve the Vail accommodations.

Breckenridge 2013

And with the winter in mind, we went to the Quebec Winter Carnaval this past February and fell in love with this festival! 
I was already in love with Quebec City, so this wasn't a far reach for me, and I'm so glad that Dave and the kiddos also had a great time!
The reason that I'm mentioning it to you, is because we are hooked and going back again this coming February!

Quebec City - 2015

Of course there will be plenty of other ski trips and other get-a-ways that I'll discuss at a later date!

Another vacation that I am super EXCITED about is our late spring get-a-way to the Azores/Mainland Portugal/Spain/France/Andorra!

Dave and I have been looking at which of the Azores islands that we plan on visiting and the is what we have come up with:

Sao Miguel - But of course!

Terceira - Can't wait to explore more of the Azores!

Sao Jorge - So excited!

and

Santa Maria - Looks dreamy!

By that time, getting a good feel for both the Central and Eastern groups of islands.

Read about my recent visit to the Azores HERE!

This May/June 2016 trip is gonna be sooooo freakin' AMAZING!

Azores 2015

And a new one that has been added to next summer is a mountain biking trip to Crested Butte, Colorado!

Now for a wee bit about yesterday, which was filled with shopping and choir. 
We also went to Veggie Grill to grab a bite and both Cosette and Dave ordered this crazy Nacho order, where the chips were replaced with fries, and the taco meat was replaced with buffalo chicken! WEIRD. 
Then once the order had arrived, they realized that there was a mistake - the fries had been replaced with sweet potato fries!

Hmm...I think they liked it. So it was a happy mistake!

Lots o lots o chores today and then a night full of Dominic's classes.

I hope that Tuesday treats you well, and that I see you back here tomorrow!

-T

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: SEPTEMBER

Terrific Tuesday

Happy Travelin' Tuesday!!

Did you catch our newly launched page yesterday: 
Travelin' Cousins Kids!!

If not, CLICK HERE for the link to that page.

Tanya and I thought it would be a great addition to our Travelin' Cousins site, to have our four kids blog away too about what it's like to be part of a traveling family.  

We hope you enjoy it and look forward to your feedback!!

Yesterday, Kelsey did great at horseback riding! She managed to get by with her sneakers, until we were able to get over to the saddlery to get her new riding boots and chaps.

Boy, is this kid growing like a weed!!

Gianna hung out with me during the day, while Kelsey was at camp, and I took her and Sarah (and Bella) for lunch in West Hampton Beach prior to an afternoon swim and then picking up Kelsey.

Lunch in West Hampton Beach

Buying Kelsey's new riding boots and chaps

Now, for a little Travelin' Tuesday news...
I was so darn excited the other day about some traveling int he works to none other than Hawaii.  I was completely on board to join Tanya and her gang for a late September/early October trip to the Aloha State.

I spent most of Sunday researching flights and accommodations; going back and forth on travel dates; debating whether to do one island or two.  

Since Tanya has had Hawaii on the calendar for quite some time, it was a long shot for me to assume I could easily get great airline rates, but it was even more of a stretch to think I would be able to availability using frequent flyer mileage.

My initial thought was to see if I could snag 3 round trip economy tickets and upgrade using frequent flyer mileage.  

But, all the seats were sold out for upgrades.  Then I thought, "ok, I'll pay for my tickets with frequent flyer points, (which were available) but they were 185,000 miles per ticket.

Now in the end that would not be so bad, except that I began to think about the amount of time we had for this trip.  Considering that I would be taking the girls out of school or a week, I thought, it's a long trip with more than 6 hours time difference and for a week, it might be tough for any of us to really enjoy such a condensed trip on one island. (I certainly wasn't going to island hop with so little time.)

So, in the end, I was very dismayed with the whole trip.  I suppose if I had more time, say...12 days, I would go for the coach tickets and use mileage for upgrading.  

Makes me kinda sad, but I'm going to be checking into some other possibilities for a one-week trip in October with the girls.

I really never get too crazy when plans fall through, as you guys know from my little train adventure in Bratislava (when we missed our train stop!), because I always trust there is a bigger plan that God and the universe have in store for me!!!

That brings me to today...
I'm heading back to Nassau with Gianna, to oversee what the plumber has in store for my master bath - they will be working on it today and tomorrow.

Since Gianna is still not up to horseback riding, I thought I'd let her visit with Grandma and Grandpa (and their teacup Yorkie, Mikey).  Then tomorrow, she will have her friend Bella over the house so the two girls can bake cupcakes together.

The rest of the day today, I'll be tending to my veggie and herb garden and working on my Throwback Thursday article.  It's my turn this week!!

That's pretty much my day!!

Tomorrow we have a guest blogger for W2GW!!

Have a magnificent day!!

-E
xoxo