Plan a Romantic Getaway to St. Augustine!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of St Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches, Florida. All opinions are 100% mine.

I'm dreaming of another vacation. One place that I was doing some research on is St. Augustine.This place looks absolutely amazing. Florida is one of my favorite places to visit. And St. Augustine looks like a totally different experience then I've ever had. It would really be perfect for a romantic getaway.

St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and the Beaches, Florida is a getaway unlike any other. There you will find brick streets, that lead to historic churches, living history museums, antiques stores, charming restaurants and B&Bs, and shops. A centuries-old fort stands guard, horse-drawn carriages clip-clop through the historic district, and ghost tours show you the area’s secrets.

There are so many great attractions to see in St. Augustine. Such as some great historical sites and muesuems. Including:  At The Oldest House (enshrined as a National Historic Landmark dating from the early 1600s), The Authentic Old Jail, and the Dow Musuem of Historic Houses. There is also some very nice beaches and natural attractions to see. There is great fishing, beaches, and great places for birders.

Right now there are a lot of great deals to plan your vacation to St. Augustine. Visit the website http://www.romanceliveshere.com/ to see what they have to offer. There are many hotels and bed & breakfast places where you could stay. Such as Carriage Way Bed & Breakfast. From $99, you will be able to stay at a Victorian Style Inn, located in the heart of St. Augustine. Another hotel that looks fabulous, that I would really love to stay at is the St. George Inn. Starting at $119, this intimate Euro-style hotel is close to St. Augustine's historical district, shops, dining and attractions.

My itinerary for a trip to St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and the Beaches :

The Oldest House

Fishing the Old City

And doing some birding:

So visit http://www.romanceliveshere.com/ to start planning your dream vacation to St. Augustine.

Kissimmee Freedom Sweepstakes

If you are thinking about taking a vacation, but are worried about spending a lot of money, then you should consider Kissimmee.

Kissimmee, Florida is a great place to take a vacation, and it's in the heart of Florida. You may or may not know that there are a lot of free things to do while in Kissimmee. Yes, I said free!

One of the things that you could do for free in Kissimmee is visit the Old Town Shopping, Dining, and Entertainment Complex. Admission is free, and it's a great way to spend the day. On weekends Old Town is a great place for car buffs. Fridays you can see some exotic and custom cars. And Saturdays there is a "Saturday Nite Cruise," which is an 18 year old tradition. There you will be able to see some real nice classic cars.

Another thing to do in Kissimmee is visiting some Nature Preserves. This would be right up my alley. I love to go hiking and sightseeing at Nature Preserves. There are a few different ones in the area, including the Lake Lizzie Nature Preserve. There are nesting bale eagles and endangered Whooping cranes there. That sounds like something I would really love to see.


And there are a lot of other fun, free things to do while at Kissimmee! And just think with the money you save on doing a few free things, you may be able to do a few fun filled carefree things too. Like going to the Orlando Museum of Art, or something I always wanted to try, Hot Air Ballooning. You could take a ride on a hot air balloon! That sounds like a lot of fun.

So now that you know that there are a lot of great things to do in Kissimmee, you should start planning your vacation. And luckily Kissimmee is giving away three weekend getaways for 3 days/2 nights for two; and two week long vacations for four. Drawings will be held on or around 4/15/09 and 5/21/09. So enter the sweepstakes and you could maybe win a great vacation to Kissimmee!

Dreaming of a Vacation!

Right about now, with about a foot of snow on the ground, and maybe a foot more today, I could really use a vacation. There is some really great deals on cruises right now. In fact, with Vacations To Go, you can save 75% on last minute cruises.



Today being the first day of winter, I could seriously go for a cruise to anywhere warm. Possibly the Bahamas or even Jamaica. I know times are tough economically but at the prices Vacations To Go is offering it is possible to go on a cruise for a real discount.

Now that I'm older I usually like to plan a trip way in advance. But in my younger days I was a little more spontaneous. One time right after I had graduated from college a few of my friends and I planned a trip to California. It was so last minute, I even booked the trip before I even had asked for the time off from my job. My boss almost wasn't even going to give me the time off, but I had already paid for the trip! That was really spontaneous!

I'd love to be that spontaneous again. And with Vacations To Go you can explore what kinds of deals you can get for a last minute cruise using their 90-Day Ticker tool. What are you waiting for, go check it out!

Blogging Just Got Harder

(pic. from camping trip -last summer)



Oh no! Today is my kids last day of school! Not even a full day. My son gets out at 11:30, and my daughter gets out at 12:30. Where did the year go? It went by so fast! I can't believe my son is going into 7th grade next year! And my daughter will be going into 3rd.

One thing that has dawned on me the past couple of days is that it's going to be harder to do my "Blogging Thing," over the summer. I'm not complaining to a point, because I love Summer. It's my favorite season of the year. I love the hot weather, doing outdoor activities and spending time with my kids.

Since I started this blog back in January I have spent a lot of time doing all the things that go with blogging. Probably too much time! Between doing stuff on Entrecard, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, SocialSpark, to name a few, and actually writing the posts on my blog! I spend a lot of time doing all this.

Now that the kids will be out of school, I think that is about to change. Because we'll be busy doing those summer activities. Another reason is because my son also loves to spend time on the computer, and I think we will be fighting for time on it!

I think I'm addicted! And will probably have withdrawal symptoms - lol. I actually have cut back since my return from Disney World a few month ago. It was actually nice to not deal with it for a week while I was on my vacation. So who knows maybe summer vacation will end up doing me some good! (Don't worry I'll still be blogging - just might be a little more difficult until school starts again)

Remembering My Trip to Los Angeles

I was thinking recently about one of my wildest vacations. About 17 years ago, right after I had graduated college, 3 of my friends and I went on vacation to Los Angeles. We all sat down before we left and reviewed our list of Things to do in Los Angeles.

When we arrived there we realized there was so much to do. My friends and I spent every day doing something fun and exciting. One day when we were there we went to Universal Studios Hollywood. We had a great time going on the Universal Studio Tour. I remember seeing "King Kong", "Jaws", and the "Psycho" house, it was really cool.

While we were in Los Angeles we also saw the "Hollywood Sign", and the "Hollywood Walk of Fame," which I've always dreamed of seeing and finally got to see! Somewhere near the Walk of fame I remember going into a Wax Museum! It was the first one I've ever been in. It was so neat. They had replicas of everyone from Elvis to Madonna! Some of them looked so real, you felt like you were really seeing the real celebrities!

One day we even had a wild day in Tijuana, Mexico, since it's so close to Los Angeles, we took a bus tour there. We had a very exciting day shopping and seeing different sites in Mexico!

Remembering my trip to Los Angeles makes me want to plan another trip. I was recently looking at Trusted Tours & Attractions for some ideas on where to go. I was looking at sightseeing tours and Things to do in Las Vegas.

I've always wanted to go to Las Vegas and see some shows! I also just learned that if you sign up for Trusted Tours & Attractions newsletter you will be be entered to win a $150.00 iTunes gift card! My husband would love that!

Do you have your next vacation planned?

My Family'sTrip to Disney World (Part I)

(***As I started to write this I realized that I have a lot to say on this subject, so I decided to break this up into at least two posts. Continue reading for Part I***)

My family's trip to Disney World was great! We had so much fun. The weather was perfect (at least for me) 80-85 degrees everyday! I loved it! Summer is my favorite month, and it was like Summer down in Orlando everyday! I could totally live down there! I love the weather. When we got home we found out it was raining the week we were gone and in the 40's! I was glad I missed that.

Enough about the weather. Like I said in my previous post (I Got a Loan, Now what am I Going to do) we stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort. Which was quite nice. The kids loved all the funky decor they have around the hotel. It was actually a lot bigger than I had expected. We stayed in the "90's," with a big cell phone stairway (we walked up to get to our room), floppy disk, and walkman surrounding us. Cool! Before I left I thought there was only 1 pool. But there was at least 3 or more pools, throughout the hotel. So we had a "computer" pool very close to our room. And it wasn't ever that crowded. My daughter, especially loved the pool. And would even be swimming at 9 o'clock at night!

The Pop Century Resort also had a very nice fast food type restaurant and gift shop area. So you could get some of your meals there and even some souvenirs. As I mentioned before included in my package was the "Disney Meal Plan." If you are going to Disney World I highly recommend purchasing this. I know this saved us a lot of money, and I'm not lying when I say that I think it saved us maybe up to $1,000.00 of our own money in food costs.

How it works is as part of your package you can purchase the Meal Plan. I think it cost me around 740 dollars. Then when you get to Disney World they give you what they call "Your key to the World." You use that as your ticket for entrance in the Parks and for your Meal Plan. With the plan we had you get one meal (per person) a day at what they call a "Quick Service" restaurant, one meal a day at a "Sit Down" restaurant, and one snack a day. And you can use them in any combination throughout your stay.

Before I left I was worried about if this would be enough food for everyone. But believe me it is! The quick service places serve everything from Chicken Salads to Burgers. And The sit down places are everything from Italian Restaurants to Buffets. You can really get a lot to eat especially at the "All you can eat" Buffets! Probably too much! You also get non-alcoholic drinks included and desserts. (And what we would do is desserts that we didn't finish like packaged cookies or brownies, we would save for later and the kids could eat them as snacks later) And you get snack a day too extra (that you can purchase at your hotel or at various vendors through out the parks) anything from big soft pretzels to ice cream!

One thing I was wrong about before I left I thought "tips" were included. They are not at the "Sit Down" places. On your "key to the world" though you can add your credit card info. and then any extra charges (like tips) you make can be added on. Even with paying our own tips we still saved a lot of money with the meal plan, because the food down there is fairly expensive a quick service meal for four (if you pay with your own money) will cost you at least $40.00 and sit down meals cost at least $100.00-$150.00! So by my calculations I feel we saved at least $1000.00 with the meal plan!

Also another thing about the restaurants, for the "sit down" places a lot of them require reservations. Before I left I did make reservations at the Contemporary Hotel for the Mickey and Friends Character Breakfast.(See pictures taken from that breakfast Here) Because I heard it's quite popular. So if you want reservations, especially for any "character meals" you can make reservations up to 120 days in advance! So if you are super organized you can make all your reservations before you even get to Disney World! If not when you get there you can call a 1-800 number they give you to make your reservations. There are over 100 restaurants to choose from in the meal plan!

So thats a few tips and information about my fantastic trip to Disney World, for now. Stay tuned for Part II about my trip!

Below is a few more pictures (my husband took with our new Canon DVD Camcorder, that also takes stills)

I Got a Loan, Now What Am I Going To Do?

That's right, I'm going to Disney World! I am so excited. We are leaving tomorrow, April 27th.This will actually be my fourth trip there. But it will be my kids first. They are very excited.

We are staying at The Pop Century Resort. Which is one of the hotels right in Disney World. And looks cool, with fads from the 20th Century. Like they have a display of a giant "Big Wheel" and a giant"Yo-Yo," things like that. I chose that one because it looks like fun for the kids, and it is actually one of the least expensive hotels they have there. It doesn't matter to me where we stay, because you're not in the room much anyway, just to sleep - lol! I tried to get everything as cheaply as possible.

One other thing that I think will save us money is I purchased the food plan they have. This is something fairly new (they didn't offer this last time I went.) But what it is, is you get one meal in like a take out place a day, one meal in a sit down type place a day, and one snack a day. For everyone! And Tips and Gratuities, are included. I think I paid a little over $700.00 for the meal plan, for four people. That sounds like a lot, but believe me that is a good deal. Last time I went with just two of us, we spent I think at least $1000.00 on food. So I think this food plan is worth it, especially not having to pay the tips and gratuities, that should save us a lot of money.

But after we get back it will be back to being frugal, because I'll practically be broke after this - lol! I'm some what worried about the money we are spending on this trip, but I love Disney World and want my kids to get at least one chance to go there, while they're at a good age to really enjoy it! My husband says don't worry, let's just enjoy it! So that's what I'm going to try to do! I'll worry later!

So I'll be gone for a week. Don't miss me too much! While I'm gone I was supposed to have my friend RV David, do some guest blogging for me. But that's still somewhat of a mystery, since I haven't heard from him in awhile. So check back later this week and see if he shows up. If not I'll "see" you all when I get back! And I'll tell you all about my trip, with some tips on going to Disney, and more ways I tried to "do it cheaper." Bye for now!