Our Beach Vacation 2012

We took a short trip to Nag's Head Beach in NC in the Outer Banks. We are hooked. We loved it so much. I think each member of our family came to me separately and said that they want this destination for our beach vacations from now on. If you haven't been then give it a try! It's so pretty there and quiet, but there is plenty to do if you want to do more than veg out on the beach. The beaches aren't overcrowded. Plus...it's pet friendly! Our dogs got to walk on the beach early in the morning and later in the evening. I won't say that they loved it but they did find it interesting. Neither dog wanted to go into the water but they loved running on the beach (as far as their flexi-leashes would go, anyway).

Betsy travels very well and enjoyed the trip. She's still young at just 1 yr old.

Typical view of the road

Going by the marshes

Moonrise over the bridge

We found the Wright Memorial by happy accident

Katrina and Andy doing their flight impressions

Rascal needed a nap after a long walk

I made a new friend in the hotel bird, Sabrina

It was always easy to find a spot for our towels on the beach

The hotel had a great grassy area for the dogs to walk and do their "business"

Some of the parking lots had spots like these. We assumed it was for runoff from rain.

The hotel had beautiful landscaping.

I had so much fun with my new camera!

Mini rainbow!

And this is why I keep going back to the beach...

There really is a Farmville!

Vacations on a Budget

You can still travel and take vacations when you are on a budget, just remember to cut expenses where you can. We go to visit Fred's family every once in a while and we drive to save money. Of course, with gas so expensive, I had to wonder, but it's still cheaper for us to drive. We were able to take our two dogs with us, so that's less for me to worry about with them at home and us not there. We have wonderful neighbors who took care of our cats and kept us updated on things in Tennessee.

  
 




























We go to low-cost motels which are still nice. Most motels offer a free continental breakfast so take advantage of that if you aren't having to watch your diet. Sometimes they will have fruit available but it's mostly high-carb food.


We stayed at a motel that has a kitchenette and we cooked some meals at the motel and ate in. Restaurant food is expensive, and while we still ate out a few times, this really helped us out.


We packed snack and sandwich foods in coolers and boxes, so that kept down expenses while traveling. It helped us on our time, too. Our lunch only took as long as it took us to make sandwiches, eat and then clean up. Much healthier than fast food. Not to say that we ate no fast food at all. But we kept that to a minimum so that it was a treat, which is what fast food should be in my opinion.

















We skipped amusement parks, but we did splurge on a train ride into Boston and a trolley tour of the city. How often are kids from Tennessee going to be able to ride a train anywhere? So our kids have that experience now, of reading train schedules and helping to figure out which train we need and how long we have to wait. The trolley tour was wonderful - great lessons in history. Since we home school I counted that for a school day: Field Trip! We learned stuff that not even Fred and I knew - and he's from that area of Massachusetts! It was great. I highly recommend the Old Town Trolley Tours (orange trolleys) in Boston. Not cheap-but worth every penny.

We only charged our hotel stay, everything else was paid for by cash or our debit card which helped us keep our bills to the lowest amount we probably ever charged. We were so fortunate with the timing. Gas stayed reasonable until the afternoon we got home and then the hurricane had everyone scrambling and gas running low at the stations. I was so glad that didn't happen while we were away from home.