Couldn't Ask For More: Get Away From It All And Enjoy America's Favorite Past-time

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Get Away From It All And Enjoy America's Favorite Past-time

Last year, my hub packed up the car and took us on an adventure to Arizona so we could experience Spring Training. Despite my protests, reminding him of ALL the things we NEEDED to do, he insisted we get away from it all and relax.

Much to my surprise we had a fabulous time and committed to return for another week of rest, relaxation, sunshine and baseball.

This year, once again our calendar was full with practices, commitments, long "To Do" lists and the like, but we managed to escape for 5 days of wonderful family time. I'll try to recap our week in sunny Arizona where we enjoyed baseball games and time by the pool, all while building lasting memories.

If you're traveling on a budget, I highly recommend Priceline's Name Your Own Price. If you're staying in the Phoenix area, I'd definitely choose Scottsdale OVER Phoenix. We stayed in Phoenix last year. The hotel was nice, but the area was sketchy. This year I put in for Scottsdale and it was FABULOUS! I'm confident you can stay at a 3.5-4 star hotel for about $79-$100/night. We stayed at a hotel that was a 4-star, clean, great pools, awesome grounds, fitness center and across the street from Starbuck's, shopping, and restaurants. If you're willing to go less than 3.5 stars, I think you may be able to get prices as low as $49. The beauty with Priceline Name Your Own Price, is you can throw out your offer for an area, and if your offer is declined...nothing lost. Just change your parameters and price.

Here are a couple photos of our hotel and grounds in Scottsdale---

Must photograph the flags

Entrance

The kids taking photos of the clouds. We just learned about the different types of clouds,

When making your first offer on Priceline, keep your area limited as you need to expand your parameters with subsequent offers.

For affordable meal options, we're all about Costco. We headed to the local Costco, bought a rotisserie chicken for $5, some seaweed salad (because I love it!) for $6, and sushi for $6. Dinner for 5 for a mere $17! The complete fixings for Parisian Salad for the following day's lunch was also purchased for about $4. In addition, we also bought some muffins (a treat for the kids as they rarely if ever get them at home), and bananas($1.39) for breakfasts. I know Costco muffins ($7) don't even register on the healthy breakfast option list, but it was vacation.

In addition to Costco, we made a stop at Trader Joe's. We bought a box of cereal, 1/2 gallon of milk, nuts, snack bars, popcorn, and beef jerky.

I brought vegetables and fruit from home to round out the daily snacks and we were set. Lunches and breakfasts were taken care of, with exception to the daily run to Starbuck's for the Venti drip coffee at about $2.

While on this vacation we also had to keep up the schoolwork. Staying in a room studying is definitely not as enjoyable as studying outside in the warm sunshine.