We Take Ourselves With Us

This summer's vacation began with Harper's desire to go to Greece--really, Santorini.  A desire borne, of all things, by the Mamma Mia! movies (the popularity of which apparently extends far beyond the Rose set).  So, we decided to make it an early (very early) graduation gift and set about researching a cruise that would take in as much of Greece as possible and that worked with her existing commitment to be a camp counselor.  Which is why we booked a 12 night cruise with Holland America that had only two sea days and visited almost every island (including Santorini) and took in a bit of Italy, too.  Over several months, I tracked flights on Google, researched excursions, and read reviews, and by July 5, we were ready to make the trek to Toronto to grab our direct flight to Rome. Something happened in those eight plus hours in the air though.  Maybe it was the stormy harbinger of Kawhi's decision to bolt from the Raptors to the Clippers, but the flight was...

So, we took a quick weekend trip to the City.  It began as a Father's Day gift for Ned: tickets to see Penn & Teller in their six week Broadway residency.  We figured we'd go down for that and maybe TKTS another show or hit up some museums.  A nice, relaxing weekend in New York City. Have you read this blog?   Yep, that wasn't going to happen :) We rushed from the airport through the very congested, summer traffic, road constructed streets of New York ... to our hotel: this time the Intercontinental Times Square .  Let me insert this: as may have become clear, I LOVE TO PLAN TRAVEL but what may not always be clear is that I LOVE TO DO IT AS CHEAPLY AS POSSIBLE.  So, I spend a lot of time late at night comparing various sites, identifying hotels on Hotwire and Priceline so I can compare these "discounts" to website rates, finding the lowest costs and figuring out if it's cheaper to buy it all separately or book a package.  If th...