Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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We’re thinking about going to New York City in the Spring

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My husband and I seem to watch a lot of TV shows that are filmed in New York city and without fail … every time my husband sees a shot of the city he starts talking about visiting New York.

He’s been there once before, back when he was in college they had a weekend trip to New York and he loved it. However, I’ve never been there – although I’ve always wanted to go.

So … we decided that maybe next spring, if we’re doing a little better on the financial front, maybe we’ll go to New York for a long weekend or perhaps even a week. I’ll do some searches for new york cheap hotel and hopefully find other inexpensive things that we can do while we’re there.

For those of you who live in or near New York or who’ve been there a few times – do you have any suggestions as to places we should see or things we should do while we are there? Keeping in mind of course that we probably won’t have much money to spend so free or cheap ideas are best.





I keep saying no to an invitation and it’s driving me nuts!

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My sister-in-law is driving me nuts. She’s been calling just about every week for the last month or so to ask my husband and I to go up to their trailer for a weekend.

Now normally I love getting holiday invitations but …. I don’t like their trailer … or well the area it’s in. It’s in some kind of members only Lutherian ranch. I don’t have anything against that of course, but the few times I’ve been up there I found it boring and the place had so many rules you couldn’t do anything!

It’s not that I’m a city girl. I love the city life, but when I was growing up we had a cottage that we went to almost every weekend and when we were weren’t at the cottage on holidays we were traveling around North America camping, staying in trailer parks with our own trailer or cabins … so I’m a little bit country. LOL

I guess it just comes down to the fact that I don’t like where their trailer is or the fact that when my husband his brother in law get together the party begins! Oh yeah, they like to drink together and it’s like taking care of two little boys. The last time they had a really good drunk together was when I tripped on a curb at a friends house and really damaged my knee and they just laughed at me instead of taking me to the hospital! (It took my knee 8 months to heal! so yeah, it was damaged).

Maybe you can see why I’m leary of having these two get together … somehow I’m the one who suffers. LOL

So far we’ve been able to turn them down because we’ve had other plans or my Crohn’s has been acting up (truth!), but we’re running out of excuses … how do I turn her down for good without hurting her feelings?

Do you ever get holiday or party invitations that you just have to turn down because there’s no way you want to attend?

Reminiscing about our trip to Vegas last year

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Do you ever think about holidays you’ve had in the past? Lately I keep thinking about our trip to Las Vegas last year. It’s hard to believe that just over a year ago I was in a hotel in las vegas actually, I was in Vegas for the first time in my life.

I had a good time meeting bloggers that I’d known for a few years. Well known them interacting with them on their blogs or my own blogs and talking with them on forums.

Unfortunately my trip to Vegas wasn’t the best holiday I’ve ever been on. My Crohn’s was acting up and I also partied a little too hard on the first night I was there. I’m sure the combination was what did me in for the rest of the trip. In fact, on the second day i ended up being so ill (not hungover, ill with abdominal pain from the Crohns and bad fevers) that I had to stay in bed all day.

I did manage to make it to the blogging convention that I’d gone to Vegas for in the first place, but I didn’t do much else. I didn’t even try my hand at the casinos!

Even though a good portion of the trip was kind of lousy for me I enjoyed the atmosphere in Vegas and I’d love to go again … sometime when I’m feeling really good so that I can do as much as I want!

Have you ever been to Vegas? If so did you have a good time?

I’d rather stay in a vacation rental than a hotel

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When I was a kid my parents would always take two or more weeks off in the summer and we’d go on road trip vacations. I got to see a lot of Canada and much of the Us in this manner. Of course as a kid I didn’t really like being stuck in the car as we traveled from one destination to another, but the memories of all the places I’ve been and the sights I’ve seen are still fresh in my mind and I’m thankful that my parents chose to vacation in that manner.

We rarely stayed in hotels or motels when we took our road trip vacations. My parents would plan our trips ahead of time and we’d stay in cabins or vacations homes that they’d rented from the owners.

Now that I think about it I don’t know how they were able to plan our vacations and where’d we’d stay so efficiently. It must have been a lot harder than it is to now that we have the internet.

These days you can just get on the computer and go to sites like VacationHomeRentals.com and look for vacation rentals pretty much anywhere in the world.

In fact I was thinking of looking for vacation rentals by owner for Chris’ vacation time. We haven’t been on a real vacation in ages! I’d thought of renting a vacation home or cabin in cottage country for a week or so, but when our dog went into heat and a few other things happened we just decided to stay home for his holiday time.

There’s a blogging convention in Florida next weekend and while I’m not going this time, if I were I think I would have looked at some Florida rentals rather than staying in a hotel if I’d been going. I mean, since these vacation rentals are usually homes or cottages you have access to a full kitchen, a laundry room and all the amenities of home. Plus, if you are short on cash you can always share your rental with another couple. We might have done that had we been going to the blogging convention – shared a space I mean.

VacationHomeRentals.com is an easy site to use. Just type your destination area in the search bar or click on the map of the US or Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, Hawaii or the world and start narrowing down your search by clicking on city or area links. Just as an example, if I were going to Orlando next weekend for the convention there are plenty of beautiful vacation rentals in the area. I found a few for as low as $70 a night – beautiful condos and homes. That’s cheaper than most decent hotels and motels! If I go to the blogging convention next year I’ll be looking onto vacation home rentals. That’s for sure!

Have you staying in vacation rentals when you’ve been on holiday? How was your experience?

Save money on your vacation with lowfares.com

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Summer is just about here and I’m sure that quite a few of you are beginning to plan your summer holiday. I don’t even know what we’re going to do for our summer vacation this year, but I’m sure I’ll try to find an interesting place for us to go soon.

If you are going to be flying anywhere you should visit lowfares.com where you’ll be able to find cheap flights to destinations all over the world.

Just type in the city you’ll be departing from and the city you’d like to fly to, plus the date of your planned holiday and LowFares.com will give you a selection of low fares a wide variety of travel sites. You can compare prices and flight details and chose which one works best for you.

You can also take a look at vacation deals or build your own vacation package by booking hotels and renting a vehicle directly through the lowfares.com website.

With the economy down and gas prices rising I’m sure you’ll be looking for ways to save money this summer. Yet everyone still wants to have a vacation, don’t they? So why don’t you visit lowfares.com and see if you can book a great holiday and save money at the same time?

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