My Vacation Story

My wife and I just got back from a short getaway to Ocean City Maryland.  Vacations make you a better person and a better employee, so taking a vacation is good for you.  I can say I feel a lot of stress has been lifted from me.

We always stay in the same hotel.  It has ocean view rooms above the boardwalk.  We like it also because off duty police officers are the security and the hotel has a strict policy when it comes to loud guests. 

We had to experiment with finding the right hotel.  The first time we went down, we went with a hotel because it had a word in the name which would make you think it was superior to other hotels.  We were wrong.  We have since learned to do research about where we are staying.

At any rate, being a writer and a bit chatty, the best part of the vacation was talking with our housekeeper who cleaned our room.  She was a very kind and dignified person who loved her job.  She had had a job with an American company for years that closed down U.S. production and took the pension the employees had thought they had accumulated when it was bought out.  The company moved to Mexico.  Denise, our housekeeper was offered a paid move to Mexico providing she worked for $2 an hour down there.  She declined.  Denise instead got the job she has today.  She is moving to a new job in the same field for better pay and now benefits.  She loves where she works, but the new place is open all year round and offers more benefits.  Good for her.

I will say the frustrating part of our vacation was the internet connection.  The hotel system kicked you off the internet if your computer showed inactivity for more than 30 minutes.  This meant if I listened to MP3 websites I lost the connection.  So what you say you big baby, reconnect.  Let me tell you, I was in the U.S. Navy and worked on the black boxes to weapons systems so I am no dummy on this stuff.  I would have had an easier time when kicked off reconnecting to a top secret secure NASA website than to the system.  It fought me tooth and nail.

I complained in a nice way and was told that if they did not kick people off the computers every 30 minutes, it would crash the system thinking this was reasonable.  The problem is the Hilton lets you on 24/7 and you connect in an instant.  (In other words, me thinks the owner may be perhaps be tight with his bucks and figures why be like the Hilton).

We believe on vacation that it is OK to spend money.  We also have learned to say no to ourselves a lot and shop at Wal-Marts that are close by for those things we forgot or for the milk for the fridge.  We still buy boardwalk gifts for our friends and loved ones, but small inexpensive saltwater taffy and door magnets say love as much as tee-shirts or surf boards. 

Even with the little downs as every vacation has, it was still like an angel sprinkled moonlight and silver dust along our path.  It was a great time which in a blog I don’t have the space to go into detail on.  Being with my wife, laughing and just walking with her without responsibility was what I believe was the best part. 

What do you like to do on vacation?  Have you found an unusual way to save money on your getaway?  Let me know in the comments.