Family and Vacation Update
January 4, 2008
Unfortunately, my extended holiday vacation is drawing to a close. The last day I worked was Dec 6 and I have been on vacation since. This is the longest vacation in my career that I have taken from work. I will be back in the office on Monday.
My company has a “use it or lose it” policy on its vacation time given to employees. We can carry a maximum of five days of personal time off to the next year. Business conditions made it hard for me to take any time off the last third of the year, so I had a bunch of time to burn or lose. I normally plan to take off three weeks around the end of the year. This year it was four. I had originally been thinking about going back this past Wednesday and ensuring the maximum carry over time off, but the kids were off school so I extended.
I cannot count the number of board games and video games that we as a family have played over the last month. We have also caught up a bunch movies. I was also able to give Cruise Talk Central a new face lift and put in some serious hours on developing the next version of an internet forum application that I contribute to.
All in all, it has been a wonderful vacation. The time with Suzanne and the kids has been well spent. They have also had some time off from the dance studio. I think they were a bit burnt out on that and needed the time off. Next week, we all get back in the swing of it as the kids also start back at school.
The upcoming year will also be a busy one for us. it starts with Showstopper Regional Dance competition in February. In March, we head off to the San Antonio area of Texas for a Pechuls family reunion. June has us traveling to Michigan for a Klasen family reunion. When July rolls around, its off to Anaheim or the Showstopper National Dance competition. Currently, the rest of the year is clear for us from a travel standpoint. Just might have to consider booking a cruise to fill that gap.
Vacation Home Rentals Tool To Help Plan Our Next Family Reunion
December 29, 2007
Suzanne’s family is trying to plan a big family reunion for the summer of 2009. For years, her family has been renting beach front houses at Gulf Shores, Alabama through a local realty company. This company has been difficult to deal with and has very strict rules for when and how houses can be booked.
With the family every growing in size, it has become nearly impossible for us to book a property that will accommodate all 30 plus members of our extended family. We’ve started to utilize sites like vacation home rentals because they allow perspective renters to contact the owners directly in order to book the rental. Cutting out the middle man is a nice benefit of this vacation rental site. Vacation rental properties make an excellent alternative to the typical hotel room.
This site features a powerful search tool. I like the way that I can narrow down my search results on this website. Using the Gulf Shores example, I can click on Alabama, then Gulf Shores, and then click on “sleeps 13″ or more option in order to see the options that are available that might accommodate our large group. Once I click on the selected property, I can see pictures of the property and get the owner contact information for the property. This makes the whole rental process much more user friendly than going through the real estate company that we used to use.
We also have a week long trip to Anaheim planned during the summer and we will definitely be looking into a vacation rental home for the week rather than being cooped up in a small hotel room.
If you are looking for a vacation rental property, our just planning your next trip, be sure to check out Home Away From Home.
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