Travel - Pocketful of Joules

Our Williamsburg Trip, Part 1: The Timeshare

One of my favorite things in the world is vacations – whether it be a week on a sunny island, a one-night getaway to a B&B or a three-day weekend somewhere within driving distance. It really doesn’t matter WHERE; I just love to get away for a bit. Especially if there is a beach nearby!

I am frequently (ahem… always) the vacation planner. I’ve planned every single vacation that my husband and I have taken. Ever. I have a spreadsheet I use for our packing lists, I do a bit of research before we go to find fun things to do, I remind Travis to ask off of work, and I even PACK for the entire family.

It can be a bit exhausting, even if I do love traveling.

I may have mentioned a time or two (or twelve) that I’d love it if my husband surprised me by planning something. I’d honestly be happy with ANYTHING if he took the initiative and planned a getaway.

Well, apparently my husband was listening because one day when he and Jack were shopping at Bass Pro Shop he was approached by a man asking if he’d like a 3 day/2 night vacation package for just $199. The man told him what a GREAT DEAL it was, because for the price of $199 you go on the amazing vacation AND get a $25 Bass Pro gift card today. Oh yeah, AND an additional $75 in Bass Pro gift cards when you go on your trip!

Sounds pretty great, right?!

My adorable husband thought it sounded pretty great too. He can be the hero by planning a fun vacation and it will hardly even cost us anything! He signed some paperwork and went on his way.

When I noticed the strange charge on our credit card, Travis told me about the AMAZING DEAL he had purchased for us. He handed me the paperwork and that is when I saw that we had gotten snagged for a timeshare presentation. Yup, the amazing deal with a timeshare weekend where you are required to attend an “approximately two-hour sales presentation and tour.” After a bit of googling I found that many of the presentations lasted much longer than two-hours… which is when I started to worry.

But then, I found it. The magic words in the teeny tiny print: “Maryland residents are not required to attend a timeshare sales presentation in conjunction with this promotion.”

That’s right, Marylanders are exempt, which means we can enjoy the trip, receive the gift cards and mosey on our way! YAY, Maryland!

We booked our weekend for the Bluegreen Patrick Henry Square in Williamsburg, Virginia. It did cost an extra $50 to have a weekend reservation, but it was worth it. The suite was BEAUTIFUL with two bedrooms, a large sitting area, two bathrooms and a full kitchen.

Our room had a king-sized bed that I wish I could have brought home with me. We set up Jack’s pack-and-play in the other room… but soon realized that this will probably be his last time sleeping in it. My kid is a GIANT! And I’m not sure why he’s doing a kissy-face in this picture…

The hotel was located within walking distance to Colonial Williamsburg, which was fantastic. There were tons of restaurants around too – including 5 pancake houses within about a half-mile. Apparently Williamsburg visitors love their pancakes!

There were also horses across the street, which Jack LOVED! Basically every time we walked out of the hotel doors he started yelling, “Horse, HORSE! Neigh! Neigh!”

When we checked in we were informed that we’d have to show up at a 8:30 am timeshare meeting the next morning. I told them that we were Maryland residents and would be passing on the blabbity blab, but they said that we still had to show up and prove our state residency.

Um…okay.

The next morning I was all fired up, ready to fight the good battle to get out of there with our gift cards. I had my game-face on. Imagine me entering a room in slow motion with Turn Down for What blaring* and maybe an explosion behind me. It was totally like that. I instructed Travis to keep from smiling and being nice (it’s really hard for him, because he is one of the nicest guys in the WORLD). Jack was ready to spazz out because he hadn’t had his morning cup of milk yet. We were READY.

And it was totally anticlimactic because it took about 10 minutes total. We filled out some paperwork, got some mild snootiness from the receptionist, and went on our way with $75 of Bass Pro money.

Yeehaw!

So there you go, our timeshare experience was SO MUCH less horrible than we were expecting! We actually loved the hotel, even though you’d have to either buy another timeshare weekend or purchase the actual timeshare to stay there again.

I’d love to hear about your timeshare experiences – have you ever bought a timeshare weekend? Did you get sucked into a super long presentation? Are you as confused by the Turn Down for What video as I am?

3/4/16 Update: I published this post on 2014 and in the last couple months I’ve gotten a few emails that Maryland law has recently changed to allow time share presentations. When we dealt with this, it was right in the small print on the offer that we were not required to go… so be sure to check the small print for your particular ‘deal’ before committing.

*I JUST watched the Turn Down for What video for the first time and that is EXACTLY how I imagined I’d enter the room. You know, like a crazy man humping a TV. Obviously. Also, what the hell is happening in this video and why is it making me laugh so hard that tears are streaming down my face?!

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47 Hours in Savannah

I was asked a couple weeks ago to fill in for one of my co-workers at a conference in Savannah, Georgia. I pretty much jumped at the chance because I had just been snowed in the house for 4 days with a cranky 2 year old. Also, I figured that Savannah would give me the chance to experience some warmer weather AND a bed all to myself.

Of course, I had no idea that I’d come down with the stomach bug from hell on Wednesday morning. It was the most LITERAL 24 hour bug I’d ever had – lasting from exactly 5am on Wednesday until 5am on Thursday when I woke up for my flight. One moment I was curled up in bed fighting off chills, fever, aches and another visit to the bathroom… the next minute I sat up, swayed a little and thought, “Wow, I don’t feel like I want to die anymore!”

So, off to the plane I went. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from BWI to Savannah, so I had 2 flights with a ridiculously small layover to get from one flight to the next. The flights were pretty short too; however, I did have enough time to pick my two favorite items out of the Sky Mall catalog.

Winner for “Who Buys this Stuff?” is the Decorative Toilet Flush Handles in the shapes of dolphins and seashells. Yes, these are actually a thing and they sell for $19.99! My favorite part of the description is a tie between the line “to withstand the most demanding flushing needs” and that these handles will “simply add something that will make friends and family members say, Wow!”

Wow, indeed.

Winner for “Why this Combo, WHY?!” is the Bidet Sprayer/Digital Accessory Cady/Toilet Paper Stand:

Because OF COURSE you’d want a bidet to also hold your iPad. Duh. Also, am I confused that a bidet is to wash your sassy downstairs bits after using the toilet? Because, the picture shows someone washing their leg and… that seems a bit excessive, right?

Anyways, a truck ride + a shuttle ride + two short flights + a taxi ride and I finally ended up at the Hyatt Regency in Savannah. I only had to work for a couple hours that evening, so I was looking forward to doing some exploring.

It was cold and rainy though, so I figured that was the perfect excuse to order room service and eat it while snuggled in bed with a new book for my kindle (Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, suggested by my buddy Katie at Words for Worms).

The plan for Friday was to hang out at my work booth all day. Which would have been fine, except my box of supplies didn’t show up until 2pm, so I was rocking out at an empty table for most of the day.

Yes, I am actually that pale. I mean, part of the problem was the light shining in… but I could use some time in the sun (preferably on a beach with a frosty drink).

I had a 90 minute break for lunch, so I took the opportunity to check out The Paris Market. I had heard so much about it online and couldn’t wait to see it myself. Only to realize once I got there, that I had actually been there before (and loved it) last time I was in Savannah about 7 years ago! It’s like a beautiful French version of Anthropologie and I pretty much wanted to buy EVERYTHING there.

Or just move in to the store for the rest of my stay.

I resisted buying everything and walked away with only two purchases – a pretty scarf for myself (picture further down) and a signed copy of Scampering Through Savannah for Jack.

I then stopped in a random storefront restaurant for lunch and was BLOWN AWAY with the BEST chicken fried rice I’d ever had in my entire life. If you’re ever in Savannah, go to Aroy-Jung Asian Fusion because it totally rocked my world.

After stuffing myself full of ricey goodness, I returned to the exhibit hall to hang out by my empty table for a few more hours. That evening was my last chance to really explore Savannah before my morning flight, so I mapped out my attack so I could be sure to hit as many places as possible before they closed. For some reason, many of the shops I wanted to visit closed at 6pm (even on a Friday night) so as soon as the conference ended at 5pm I ran up to my room, changed my clothes, and ran back out the front door.

Of course, before I ran out I had to take a picture of my new scarf from The Paris Market, STRIPES EVERYWHERE! And no, I haven’t gotten rid of my bangs… I just didn’t get a chance to trim them before I left due to the stomach bug.

Within my one hour deadline, I was able to make it to all of the stores on my must-see list before they closed. My favorite was Red Clover – the salesgirls were so incredibly friendly and the clothing was gorgeous. I could have ended up with an entire bag full of jewelry, but only purchased one shirt that was SO SOFT that I couldn’t resist it (it’s this one). The store has an online shop, so I’m definitely going to keep it on my radar.

I also enjoyed The Salt Table and sampled a ton of different flavored salts and sugars. My favorite was the coconut sugar and I’m kicking myself for not buying some to put in my morning coffee.

While I was walking around town, I made it a point to stop by Leopold’s Ice Cream and wasn’t sorry that I did. I had a small cup of their Chocolate Chewies & Cream ice cream and it was amazing. So CREAMY and the chocolate chewies were the perfect addition. I’m kind of craving some now actually…

Even though I’d just had ice cream, I figured that it was a good time to grab some dinner and went by Rocks on the River at the Bohemian Hotel, which was right next to my hotel. I have to send a shout out to my wonderful bartender, Amy, who made me a delicious Champagne Cobbler. YUM.

I also had their white pizza, which was super yummy. Lots of cheese, garlic and pesto – which is a perfect choice for a girl going back to her hotel room alone. Not that my husband would have minded the garlic breath, he would have probably devoured the leftover pizza and smelled just as bad!

After my dinner, I was ready to go back to my room to warm up (and finish my book) but still needed to get a souvenir shirt for Travis. We have a tradition that I buy him one from every business trip I go on, which ironically started with a trip to Savannah 7 years before. Well, the shirt I bought him on that trip was worn so many times that it has holes, so I bought him an almost identical shirt at a shop on River Street.

And then I was DONE.

So done. I trudged back up to my hotel room, threw on my pajamas and wrapped myself in blankets with my kindle for my last night on my own before returning to normal life. I was up by 8am, packed up my little suitcase and got home on Saturday afternoon.

When I opened the front door, I heard “oooh, who do you think is home?” and was then greeted with a running hug from Jack. The perfect end to a pretty great trip!

Have you been to Savannah? Did you think that everyone was insanely nice? What are your favorite things to purchase when you’re looking for souvenirs?

Disclosure: There are a lot of links in this post, but only one is an Amazon affiliate link (for the book). Pocketful of Joules is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. All the rest of the links are just to make your life easier if you’re planning to visit Savannah!

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Celebrating our 5th Anniversary in Hershey Park

Each year on our wedding anniversary, we like to take a little vacation away. We’ve previously gone to Jamaica (honeymoon), Deep Creek Lake (year 1), Universal Studios (year 2) and a Caribbean cruise (year 3). We had planned to go to Atlantic City for an Oktoberfest last year (year 4), but that trip was cancelled at the last minute because everyone got sick.

This year, we decided to do something that was fun for the whole family… Hershey Park. So we left town on Friday after work and spent the weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The park was opened especially for their Hershey Park In the Dark celebration, so the whole park was decorated for Halloween!

Instead of giving you a play-by-play of each moment of the weekend, let’s just talk about some highlights and share some pretty pictures…

The Good
We had an awesome time at the park and Jack LOVED the rides. I had dressed him up in a lion costume (from TJ Maxx for less than $20) and we could not go 5 feet without someone complimenting him. What can I say; I made a pretty darn cute kid!

It was nice to just spend a weekend together as a family, without work, DIY projects or any other distractions hanging over our heads. It was really great watching Jack experience rides for the first time and the weather on Sunday made it the perfect gorgeous fall day. A lot of kids were in costume and they even had Trick or Treat activities in both the park and the Hershey Story museum.

Also under the “good” is our dinner at the Hershey Grill. So. Darn. Good. I had the Crème Brulee Martini and if I could have licked the glass, I would have. Actually, I DID lick the edges of the glass where it was dipped in deliciousness… but that’s totally acceptable behavior.

The Bad
Tantrums. So many tantrums. Because of the excitement of being in a new place and the lack of privacy in the room, Jack didn’t get any naps over the weekend. So yeah…there were tantrums. And tears. And instances of head-butting. You know…normal behavior for an overtired toddler.

This isn’t a tantrum… Jack just likes licking things.

Even worse than a grumpy toddler is a grumpy mommy. When we tried to go to sleep on Saturday night (around 9:15), we found out how THIN the walls are at the hotel. Every 10 – 15 minutes from 9:30 to midnight or so, another family screamed their way down the hallway, many times stopping right outside our door to make their plans for the next morning.

Loudly.
With lots of yelling.
LOUD yelling.

I strongly considered calling reception to have them do something about it, but each screaming conversation would last about 5 minutes until they moved on…only to be replaced by another family’s yelling 10 minutes later. I have no idea how Travis and Jack slept through this, but I’m really happy they did because I had NOTHING left to give at that point.

So there you go, our 5 year anniversary celebration. It was a big change from previous year’s, but fun in its own way. I remember 5 years ago we thought that a trip to Hawaii would be the perfect way to spend our fifth anniversary. Now I’m thinking that might be a great 10 year anniversary spot… for a GROWN UPS only trip.

We haven’t actually been away without Jack since he was born. Since my mom helps us out by watching him three days a week, we wouldn’t want to ask her to do more on the weekends. There will be a day where we can go away alone though… right?!

How old was your kid when you were able to go away for a weekend on your own? Do you have an anniversary tradition that you keep up every year?

Just so you know, this was NOT a sponsored post. All thoughts, comments and complaints are my own. However, we did get free tickets for Saturday’s visit to Hershey Park in the Dark. We liked the experience so much that we purchased additional tickets to go back on Sunday.

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