Lone Black Spider

My mother is as we speak, in Germay having a wonderful time. I want to write her a letter, but that would take forever to arrive, so I think I should call her instead. However, since I only have a Cell phone here in the States, it would cost me .99 a minute! Yikes! I know she has a calling card for Germany, as she does not like to use her friends home phone. Plus, it is rather cheap to use international phone cards over there. She can use them from a private home, a place of business or even a payphone. And yes, the still have payphones over there, because I was just there couple years ago. They are all in German, so luckily the phone cards have prompts for English.

Just a really quick post cuz our tent is sitting in our living room stinkin’ up the place as it is still soaking wet! We got back from our lovely camping trip in the Uinta; man was it cold! As you can see it hailed. More notes later, we have TONS of work to do putting away all the gear.

Since I have been taking these long weekends away from work, I have been wanting to travel outside the State again. We are due a week long vacation. So today I have decided to check out some online travel guides. I always plan our trips in advance. We have been wanting to check out Vegas again as I know there are many things to do in Las Vegas. Vegas, if you know where to go, is also a place for kids! My son and I had a great time there a few years back. We went to the M & M factory, watched the Knights battle it out at the Excalabur show, walked the Strip and of course, lounged in the terrific hotel pool! If we were to go again, we would prob book our trip through Trusted Tours & Attractions. I hear these days, that if you go through a travel agent, they can get you better deals, since the economy is not so hot these days. Plus, they offer a newsletter so you can get up to date deals on the places I want to go.
My son and I have also been looking at going back to California. Maybe we will make it a really long trip and combine Vegas with the variety of things to do in San Francisco! Now that would be a great trip. If the West Coast doesn’t work out there is always the East Coast and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Since I am planning things to do on our next trip, I might as well sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter and enter to win a $150 iTunes gift card! Gift Cards are always a good thing, especially when its free to enter.

Today is my Friday, so fun! We are going camping this weekend with Scouts. It is our annual Family Camp and they have projected about 150 people in total. We will definitely not need a Cat5e Keystone jack, as I don’t even know for sure if they have toilets up there! Anyways, I guess they have it all planned out pretty good as we only have to provide 2 meals for ourselves. So it will be easy camping for me. Since the kiddo and I don’t have a camp stove, we have to cook it all over a fire. Fun and tasty, but lots of work as well. I can’t wait!

So much for the weekend! It is already over and I am once again stuck at work. That’s okay though as this past weekend was so nice that we have been thinking of going on vacation again. However, we will need to stay close by and not spend too much of my hard earned money. Vegas is still an option and so is the Dinosaur Park in Vernal Utah. Since both me and my son love hotels, we have been checking a few of them out on line. Best Western Hotels are pretty reasonable and the next step up for us would be Sheraton Hotels. We would love to stay at either Hilton Hotels or Hyatt Hotels too. If we stay close by when vacationing, we would be able to stay an extra night or two and of course, the hotel would have to have a pool for me to relax. Aahhh.

We are finally able to open the windows today. It has been so cold lately we’ve had the heat on, but today is not bad; 62 degrees right now. Since the weather is getting better I have been thinking of traveling again. Right now in Germany they are having a really big Flower show in Bingen. Bingen is near Frankfurt am Rhein; a beautiful town. I was there just two years ago this month. It was a good trip. Next time I go though, I want to visit other countries as well, and perhaps stay in some Rome Hotels. Last summer I even took a French class in hopes that I might even get lucky enough to check out some Hotels Paris.

Since my parents are essentially both from Europe, I have always dreamed of crossing The Pond, as they say and check out some London Hotels; see what the UK has to offer. I hear it rains there a lot, so I would only stay a while as dreary weather makes me depressed. Which I know is totally ridicules, but I have learned to accept. I could never live in Seattle either! Dublin Hotels would be nice too. I have always wanted to see that green green country even though my lineage is mostly German.

Days like today are good to dream about Travel. Never hurts to plan ahead!

I was watching the news last night and heard that Aloha airlines went under. They are no longer in operation after something like 64 years! Hard to believe, and sad too. I hear they were like an island hopper airlines. I wonder what really happened. I personally have never been to Hawaii, as its a little out of my price range, but I still want to go. My friend at work is going to NYC next month and she got a really good deal on some cheap flights. I thought perhaps, that prices might be up, but going from SLC to JFK seems to be okay. I have always want to see the Statue of Liberty….

Yesterday an very old friend and his daughter came into town for a visit. Most of our family got together and as usual, my mom starting talking about the old times. She is from Germany and I love hearing her stories. I was there couple years ago, and I would really like to move there. Well, for about five years is all! I don’t want to live there forever, but I would love to improve my German language, learn more about my heritage and culture. I might even look for some French property to rent and perhaps live there for a bit. I took a French class last summer, so I need to improve my French as well as German. Luckily we have a website (see the below picture!) that are in English where I could rent a home until I got the languages down.