Rental Car? Check!

Just finished reserving the rental car from Budget off Travelocity!

Next up? Anchorage Lodging for the first night!

Girls' Weekend in Coralville, Iowa (April 15-17, 2011)

Friday

lots of driving, clothing exchange, supper at Monica's, drinks at Old Chicago, visiting late into the night

I took a half day off work and was on the road by 11:30am to meet my friends Amanda and Carrie down in Coralville (near Iowa City) for the night. To my surprise, I made it in just under 5 hours (instead of the 6+ I planned on), just as they were pulling in. After unloading for a few minutes, Amanda and I decided to drag out our clothing exchange items and proceeded to have our own little mini shopping session through each others' give-aways. Let's just say, I came home with some fantastic stuff, and you can beat the price tag!

After the exchange, we decided to go on down to the front desk to get supper recommendations and decided to try Monica's, right down the street.

Monica's is a sort of mid-range place that has some pretty delicious food! They have everything from burgers to pasta to seafood to pizza. All 3 of us decided on the pasta, and we weren't disappointed!

Carrie tried the Black Fettuccine with Lobster, I tried the Brick Oven Baked Ziti, and Amanda went with the Fettuccine Primavera.

The only drawback we found in Monica's is that we were able to drain an ungodly amount of grease from our leftovers the next day for lunch, which left me a little queasy thinking about how much of it we had consumed the previous night.

After supper, we went back to the room to drop off our leftovers in the fridge, then headed over to Old Chicago for a few drinks.

It was nice to have Old Chicago right there in our hotel's parking lot, so we walked back to our room and enjoyed catching up over a glass or two of wine before finally hitting the hay in preparation for our big shopping day on Saturday.

Saturday

Shopping at Tanger Outlet Center (Williamsburg), leftovers for lunch, shopping at Coralville Mall, sushi at Three Samurai

Saturday morning we were up somewhat early, got ready for our day, then enjoyed some breakfast at the hotel before heading on our way to Williamsburg to find some deals at the Tanger Outlet Center there. We enjoyed a few hours of shopping there before returning to the hotel to enjoy some leftovers from the night before.

After lunch, we made our way over to Coralridge Mall to do a little more shopping. After shopping, and some freshening up at the hotel, we headed down to the front desk to get a good recommendation for sushi for supper: We decided to try Three Samurai and definitely weren't disappointed!

Sunday

Breakfast, packing, heading home

After a quick breakfast and lots of packing stuff back up, we loaded our cars up. We had the lady at the front desk take a couple pictures in front of the fireplace, then said our goodbyes and headed home :)

Flights? CHECK!

We just booked our flights less than 20 minutes ago :) Now to start the long, tedious process of figuring out lodging. Oy!

To add a little "beef" to this anemic post, I might add that we used Ebates to save between 1-3% cash back on our flights, and then booked through Travelocity. We aren't generally the type to buy trip insurance, but we figured the $40 might give us peace of mind, so we went with it this time. We figure on any purchase over $1000, it's probably a good idea.

Alaska, here we come! It really is starting to feel real now!!

Planning a Trip

I have planned a number of trips - big and small - and while at first it might seem daunting, I've come to a basic methodology that works well for me! I'll admit - even after multiple vacations - it still is a bit overwhelming at first, but if you follow these steps, it will come together.

First (General Ideas)

you need to decide where you want to go in a general sense. For example, in the general sense, you might decide "somewhere warm", or "somewhere exotic". You might also narrow it down by deciding if you want to travel within the U.S. or Internationally. Decide how far away you want to travel, and if you want to fly. For all of our trips, we've had a basic destination in mind: "Ireland" or "Hawaii" or "Alaska".

Second (Narrrowing it Down)

you need to pick out specific area within the destination. After reading some travel blogs and travel internet forums, we narrowed it down to "Southern Ireland", "Oahu, Kaua'i, and The Big Island of Hawaii", and "SE Alaska".

Third (Specifics)

you need to pick out the specific citie(s) you plan to stay in. Again, based on information you can gather from the internet (i.e. use a search engine such as google or msn), travel books, forums and reviews, you can determine which cities sound the most appealing to you. For instance, if you're a big city person, in Ireland you would want to look at Dublin, Galway, Cork and Belfast. If you're more interested in the small town countryside, you would want to look at the smaller towns in between. In Hawaii, if you're a lay on the beach and party type, Oahu is your island. However, if you're into rugged hiking and magestic views, you might consider Kaua'i and The Big Island. If you are dying to see volcanoes, your only option is The Big Island.

Fourth (Lodging, Dining and Activities)

you need to pick out lodging, dining and activities for each part of your trip. Granted, if you're a "fly by the seat of your pants" type of person, this might not seem nearly as important as actually finding the place.

Fifth (Booking)

Once you have a good idea of where you want to go and what you want to see, start booking! I tend to want to wait a little longer than others, perhaps, but it seems the second I start booking a trip, something comes up, so I try not to actually book anything until 2-3 months out, stalking the prices beforehand to know what the deals are. I generally use websites like www.travelocity.com, www.hotels.com, www.hotwire.com or www.1800flyeurope.com to get some great deals. However, sometimes the deals are better if you go directly to the accommodations' websites or call them directly.

Good luck with planning your next trip! If you have any questions, I can try to help :)

What not to forget when visiting Alaska

I've been compiling a list of things to remember to bring when we go on our Alaskan Adventure in late August. It may grow over time, but here's a start!

• bug spray with deet
• rain jacket
• maps from each park
• binoculars
• camera and different lenses
• waterbottles