Things are shaping up for our summer vacations; NT booked our flights and accommodation for our little Barcelona jaunt, which will happen during the 2nd half of our UK trip. The plan is to leave the kids with NT's parents for that whole week. Very exciting! He put the AirBNB on our credit card, and our friends will pay for half of it by transferring money into our UK account. Hopefully we can then book our car rental via UK credit card and pay for it with that money.
Inspired by that, I figured out child care for our earlier June trip, to New York for my 20-year college reunion. We'll be without the kids for this trip as well, though it's only for 4 days, 3 nights. Our downstairs neighbors will take care of them Thursday and Friday, and another best friend will come stay at our place and take care of them Saturday and Sunday. What can I say? We have incredible friends!
I imagine many parents who have family nearby have times away from their kids much more often, but save for a few sleepovers (with our daycare and with our downstairs neighbors) and one 2-night trip where we left AA with our friends who are now our downstairs neighbors (that was to NYC in 2011 for my 15 year college reunion), we haven't really been apart from our kids. But those few times, they've always seemed to enjoy themselves, so I'm hoping both upcoming jaunts away from us will go well for them as well as us.
Anyway, I saw that our Chase Sapphire rewards had hit, and the bonus plus what we'd earned through spending had given us about $740 in travel rewards. I found some cheap flights (leaving early, getting back late--but that will give us more time to explore NYC, so it's a trade-off) and booked them. The grand total out-of-pocket for the three of us to fly from MN to NYC and back? $20.80!
That savings made it a lot easier to decide to book a hotel instead of on-campus lodging. It was about $100 more, but so worth it for the added comfort! And if I recall, the hotel I chose is a decent walk from campus, so we may not even need to take cabs much.
Last year, the only real travel I did (besides a business trip) was going to see my mom, an impromptu trip when my sister mentioned her health is in gradual decline. This year, I've already been to see my mom once, will be going again in April, and also have the NYC, England and Spain trips planned. Big year for travel!
3 flights to NYC for less than $7 each!
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