I finally got around to making a Shutterfly photo book. At first, I found all the options like backgrounds, fonts and border styles a bit overwhelming, so it took me a little longer than anticipated to finalize my choices. I did love how easy it was to manipulate my photos - like cropping and shrinking. So overall I was very pleased with my book when it arrived in the mail.
I never got into scrapbooking but I think these photo books could totally replace them if they just add a few more options like sticker-looking images you could drag anywhere on the page. They may even replace my Flash slideshows…since I can share my book online. This book was a birthday gift for my mom (aka Nana).
I finally forced myself to finish my pictures from our vacation. It was so overwhelming going through the 600 or so photos I took. Sometimes I miss the restrictions of film cameras. I need to remind myself that just because I can fit hundreds of photos on one digital card, it doesn’t mean I have to. Anyway, we had a great vacation and I could see us visiting Florida every year. Especially with the new non-stop flights JetBlue offers us. I can get roundtrip airfare for $200, whereas it’s about $160 to the Los Angeles area. Florida offers nicer hotels for cheaper prices and warm beach water so it’s a winner to me.
I’m still working on the slideshow but I thought I would go ahead and share our videos from the trip. All 21 of them. A few of my favs are below. The rest can be viewed on Flickr : Click Here
We’re still recovering from our Florida trip. We had a fabulous time! We were on the go the entire time so we saw lots of places. I’m still reviewing all the pictures I took. Hope to have them up by this weekend.
Mike’s mom left this morning so now our real vacation starts. Mike is off all week, as well as Peter. I had wanted to drive to Tahoe for a day but it’s supposed to rain all week (which means snow in the mountains). So we’ll just be staying home all week. Today, we’ll be working on part 2 of my Christmas present. Part 1 was taking off the kitchen cabinet child locks (done!). Part 2 is fitting my car in the garage. We’ve got a lot of organizing and cleaning to do but I hope we can end up at least fitting 1 car in our 2-car garage. Am I’m asking too much?
Peter and I took a quick trip to Yosemite earlier this week. Peter is off school all week for Thanksgiving so I thought it might be a good time to go. It’s about a 3 1/2 hrs drive - 2 hrs of which are windy roads into the mountains. Thanks goodness for the car DVD player!
We stayed one night at a hotel inside the park. We had a nice time walking around and viewing the waterfall and mountains. Although walking isn’t quite the right term - walking with Peter is like walking a chihuahua. He stops every 5 seconds, usually for no reason. It drove me nuts. Peter had the most fun climbing on all the big rocks.
I definitely want to go back again soon (when it’s warmer). Next time we’ll take Mike since he’s never been and so he can help Peter climb all the really huge rocks near the waterfall.
Peter and I decided on a quick vacation to Lake Tahoe. I purposely left on a Monday morning thinking it would make things easier. I was wrong. It seemed everything that could go wrong, did. Some of the highlights:
- Tons of road construction adding an extra hour - making our drive over 4 hrs long. I thought California was broke. Where are they coming up with money to pay for all this construction?
- We arrived at the hotel at 1:30. I had booked the room online for 2 nights but the hotel clerk tells me the room is only available for 1 night and that they don’t pay much attention to online bookings. Why have online registration then! So I said I’ll take a room for just one night. Overall, the clerk was being really rude and she snapped at me when I asked if our room was ready. “Check-in is at 3:00!” she said very sternly, glaring at me. I glance in the parking lot and there are maybe 2 cars. The hotel has over 50 rooms.
- So then we head to the beach a few blocks away. I had Peter in the stroller stocked with our lunch, swim clothes and toys. We got to the beach entrance but there was no ramp to get down to it - only stairs. So I ended up having to go a few more blocks and walk down the parking ramp. Annoyed there is no ramp for strollers or handicap.
- Luckily, they had public bathrooms at the park (as the hotel wouldn’t let us use theirs). We changed into our suits, which was not fun maneuvering in a bathroom. I then started to lather us up with a new tear-free sun lotion I had just bought. Turns out it is the kind that comes out white and is impossible to rub in. I couldn’t even get it to wash off my hands with soap. So we come out of the bathroom looking like a couple of ghosts.
- Yay time to relax in the water. It was in the high 80’s so I was ready to swim and relax. Then confusion set in. Why were people a mile out and still looking like they were in only ankle deep water? And why does everyone have shoes on? I had combed the Internet on tips about this beach and not one website mentioned it’s a rocky beach, and you can’t actually swim here unless you hike an hour out. Again, annoyed. I totally didn’t get to cool off - it was more work trying to walk in the water without falling. Peter fell twice, cutting his leg both times on rocks. Plus there was an oil slick that clung to the surface of the water. I guess it’s from all the boats anchored further out. Just not relaxing at all.
- We had lunch on the beach, then headed back to the hotel around 3ish. I just couldn’t wait to get into our air conditioning room and relax watching some TV.
- This time our room was ready. As I’m about to sign the receipt, I notice a small sign on the counter. “Like most Lake Tahoe hotels, our rooms do not have air conditioning.” WHAT! I’ve stayed in about a dozen (Best Western-type) hotels in Lake Tahoe and they have all had A/C. Actually, I’ve never even been to a hotel that doesn’t have A/C. And let me note this hotel was over $100/night (and nowhere on their website do they mention no A/C). I told the clerk that I wanted to check out the room before signing because I wasn’t sure I could handle it without A/C. Of course he told me that they have a 48hr cancel policy so I would still lose a night’s charge. So now my Internet reservation counts! I was so mad but the guy assured me that they had a fan in the room that would provide enough cool air.
- We get to our room. I’m already not liking the privacy issue that everyone walks past your room - knowing I’ll have to leave the window and curtain open. The window was already open but it still felt like 85 degrees inside. I told Peter he had to take a quick bath to get all the sand/rocks off him. We walk in the bathroom. Oh, no bathtub. Again, never been to a hotel without a tub.
- After our showers, we sit down on the bed to watch TV. I’m not sure how with the new digital reception, but half the channels were fuzzy. No movie channels, no pay-per-view, nothing. Meanwhile, all we hear is traffic from the street below. On top of that, I killed 3 ants on our bed. No, not relaxing at all.
- We then head out for dinner. The town is cute and we find a place to eat. Still the traffic is annoying and there are no stop lights, so you take your chances crossing the street. Still, not relaxing.
- Head back to the hotel and go into the heated pool. The pool is located right on the street - only a fence separates it from people walking on the sidewalk. The pool water felt great, however it was filthy with dead bugs. The entire time I just waved my arms around in the water to keep them away from me. Peter didn’t notice though and had fun swimming around. We stayed for about an hour. So this was the most fun we had on the trip. Of course the bugs were still grossing me out so not relaxing.
- I thought for sure the room would be cooler by now - it was 7pm. Nope. Seemed even hotter. Another shower, fuzzy TV channels, traffic noise, and listening to our neighbors chatter through the wall. I go into the bathroom to dry my hair. I pick up the (full) trashcan to move it and the entire trash bag falls out from the bottom spilling everything. There was no bottom on the trash can. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap. ENOUGH! I turned to Peter and asked, “Are you ready to go home” and he answered “YES!” So at 9pm, we packed up the car and headed home. We got home at midnight and surprised Mike. I have never been so happy to be home.
Maybe I was expecting too much from our vacation but I’m still annoyed 3 days later after being home (can you tell?). Worst vacation ever! I did learn a lesson - never assume a hotel has A/C or a bathtub.
We took a much needed break to the coast. We stayed in Monterey and visited the aquarium, took a whale watching cruise and played on the beach. It was just what Mike needed to refresh his mood for all his upcoming interviews.
We first stopped at the aquarium:
Then, we took a 3 hour whale watching cruise. This was the first time we’d been on something like this. It was really cool seeing all the dolphins and whales. Not so great was feeling nauseous the whole time. I even threw up overboard. I guess boats and rough seas don’t fare well for me.
Heading out - those are 2 sea lions on that tiny buoy: (I threw up shortly after this)
