So in my never ending desire to go on a vacation, I was looking at different European cruises. Yet another pipe dream, but it’s fun to dream. I love to see the different things you can do, things that you can see.

Vacationing in Europe won’t work for me, I don’t have a passport and no intention to get one either. That means I’ll never be leaving the US and I’m okay with that. There are plenty of things that I can do here that most people forget about.

I keep looking at different trips that I could possibly take. I find all kinds of travel deals all over the place, yet I never see the ability to go. I wish I did, but what can I do? I don’t have the money to go on a vacation. I wish I did, I’d like to take a day trip even. I’d love to go to Atlantic City, and that’s just a few hours away. Even a day trip to New York City would be amazing.

Oh well, maybe next summer when Rob takes his vacation, we can afford to go on a trip for a couple days.

I think of all the trips I’ve taken, my favorite has to have been the extended vacation that I took to Las Vegas. Originally I was supposed to be there for two weeks, but I ended up there for 5 months. There are several fun Las Vegas tours that you can go on if you’re visiting the city and don’t want to gamble.

I went out to meet Rob and stayed. We were always doing something, on the go finding fun touristy things to do. It was fun to sit and people watch, more than anything, especially on the Strip itself. I like to people watch, you learn a lot about human nature that way. It’s definitely a fun city to visit. It’s not the only fun city to visit, though.

Another fun place to visit is the Top of the Rock in New York City. New York is the next city I want to visit, especially since it’s close to home. Everyone chides me for not having been there other than passing through on my way somewhere else.

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I seriously wish that I was heading South. I’d like to take a trip. The Orlando vacations are looking good, really, other than it being hurricane season. I don’t like storms at all, so storm season in the South wouldn’t be fun. I just need some sort of vacation, some time away from here, time to be free of responsibility.

Not going to happen, I know, but it’s nice to think about.

With vacation season winding down, it’s getting cheaper to travel. Why is this? Most places are trying to draw in last minute vacation goers with great deals to boost their numbers a bit to make it a good vacation season. This isn’t unusual, so that’s why you need to take advantage of the best deals you can find.

For instance, if you’re headed to Branson then you need to check out the packages that are offered and see if you can find one that fits your vacation needs. Packages offered by Branson Getaways start at $455 for a 3 Days/2 Night stay at Clarion, 2 adult tickets to Pierce Arrow and Mickey Gilley. You can go so far as to purchase a package for $782 for a 5 Days/4 Nights stay at Branson Settle Inn, 2 adult tickets to Magnificent Seven, Dixie Stampede and Shoji Tabuchi.

That’s not even the family packages. If you’re looking to take a family trip to Branson, you can pay $824 for a 4 Days/3 Nights stay at Presidential Condo, 2 adult & 2 kids tickets (ages 4 - 11 yrs) to Haygoods, Ride the Ducks and Hamner Barber Variety Show.

Those are just a few of the packages, you can find great deals for your vacation that suit your needs.

So every year when it comes time for Rob to have his vacation, I sit down and think about where we can go and what we can do. One of the things that came up this year was the idea of exploring New Jersey waterparks since it’s not that far of a drive to New Jersey.

The idea of a family beach vacation sounds like a lot of fun, since I rarely ever spend time out in the sun. I haven’t been to a beach before, so that would be different for me. I have been to a beach front lake, but that’s a totally different type of beach. It would be a great thing to take a real vacation away from my home town.

The idea of driving a few hours to New Jersey to explore beaches and waterparks sounds like a great idea. Summer is wrapping up, however, so perhaps it’s an idea for next years vacation plans. I know I’m going to do it one year, I just haven’t figured out what year it’s going to be, since money ends up being tight every year. Maybe if I plan early, I can get the money saved up by next June to take a small trip like that.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing and research for a few articles about Las Vegas. Now, most people who know me, knows that I lived there briefly back in 2000/2001. I miss living there, to be honest, and keep looking at these great Vegas vacations that I see advertised. I would love to go see my in laws, as strange as that sounds. I would love to go see how much has changed, since Las Vegas is the city of constant change.

I miss Las Vegas, but I don’t want to live there again.

In the season of travel, everyone has their plans of where they want to go and what they want to do on their vacation, but not many people think about what they should do before leaving on their vacation. For instance, how many people invest in travel insurance before heading out on vacation? I know that I never have. I never knew it existed, really. It’s a great concept, hopefully more people will take advantage of it in the future.

So I’ve been giving a lot of thought to travel and even moving, but one place that keeps coming back to the forefront is Las Vegas. I lived there for nearly a year with Rob before we moved back east and I loved it. I’ve thought several times about picking up some Las Vegas travel guides online and planning a trip back. I know he’d love to see his brother and I’d love to see our niece again. We didn’t get to see the family before they moved back to Las Vegas.

I wish it were in the cards, but it’s not. Oh well.

Sometime, long time down the road, I’d like to rent or buy one of those travel trailers and drive around to see my online friends. I think it would be absolutely amazing to just take off for a month and go see the people I’ve come to know and love online.

Pick up people here and there that we know and bring them with us, make a real adventure out of it. Doesn’t that sound like something fun to do before you die? I really do.

Are you taking a vacation to Branson? Take me with you! Kidding, but seriously, if you visit Branson, there are a lot of things that you can do, outside of the normal tourist-y things that there are to do. If you like to play golf, you can visit StoneBridge Village. This Branson private golf course has, not only a championship layout, but it’s absolutely beautiful to look at. What could be better than playing 18 holes surrounded by the beauty of the Ozark mountains.

Someone asked me one day what my ideal honeymoon would have been, had Rob and I taken one. I was really hard pressed to answer the question because I had never really given it much thought. I finally decided that, had I gone on a honeymoon, I would have chosen to take a cruise.

This got me to thinking and researching different cruises as a possible getaway sometime soon. We’ve been married going on 5 years now, we’ve not ever gotten away. In fact, he and I haven’t had any real chance to get away. When we moved back here, life became work. We go out, we do things together, but we’ve never taken a weekend to get away from everything.

In hopes of finding some leads on how to be able to take a cheap vacation, I saw that Coop Travel had just relaunched their website. Co-op Travel’s new website is a fantastic resource for people in the United Kingdom who want to plan cheap holidays without having to worry about not getting the best price.

They let you package your own holiday, including your hotel room. Want to take a cruise? You can set it up with Co-op Travel to go anywhere from two days to seven days. Want to take a ski trip? You can just pick your dates, ski resort and get yourself ready to ski. It couldn’t be any easier.

Co-op Travel is your one stop travel planning headquarters. No matter where you want to go, no matter how long you want to be gone, Co-op Travel can help you get there. Just take a few minutes to figure out where you want to go and pack your bags. Let them take the stress out of your next vacation.

If I had a penny for how many times I’ve thought about running away on vacation, I’d be a rich woman. But, I’m not rich, so I guess I’m out of luck, huh? I do want a vacation and I think it’s time to start seriously considering taking one. I kind of want to go visit Las Vegas again. Go see Chad and Heather and Anna. Maybe we can find a cheap flights and go visit over the summer or in the fall.

It would be nice to get away for a few days and he does have vacation time coming. Maybe we can do it… It would be nice, for sure.

One of the places that I breezed through when I was traveling from New York to Las Vegas was Branson, Missouri. We were on the outskirts of the city, but I’ve always wanted to go back and properly explore.

One of the reasons that I wanted to go there was because Branson is the new home to Country Music. Nashville will always be the major hub, but Branson is where a lot of the stars have chosen to make their new home. For instance, the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum is in Branson.

There’s also Silver Dollar City, where you can step back in time to see how people lived in the Ozark Mountains in the 1800’s. Learn what it was like to live a much simpler life and learn about history as well. But if that isn’t what you’re interested, there are plenty of museums, parks and shopping.

The main draw for me, though, is the music. Being able to see people like Buck Trent or Bill Medley or even Bobby Vinton is more appealing to me. For me, a lover of older country music, Branson is like paradise and I would love to spend a week there taking in the different shows.