Mandyland

For our first full day in Ocean City, we definitely wanted to hit the beach. We got up fairly early, packed up our beach stuff, and headed out. We ran across some traffic heading towards the island and on the island itself, but it honestly wasn't too bad. We did make the mistake of going to a Dunkin right after the bridge, and had to wait in a line for twenty minutes or so. It would have been much smarter to go through the drive through at the one in Berlin, so lesson learned. We stayed in the middle of the island and avoided the boardwalk end. We found the parking to be free in this area, and I'm sure the beaches were less crowded as well. We ran across the busy road carrying our beach ... read more

Our departure began about 4:30 pm from Oswego NY. As soon as my friend Theresa was finished with work, she came to get me, then Beth. After stacking our luggage and bags into the car in Jenga-like fashion, we took off. Our goal was to drive about half way, since two of us were up early for work that morning. When I was planning for this trip, I found a casino in Wilkes-Barre PA and thought that'd be a good place to stay. We'd have something to do and many options for dining without having to drive around. We reached Wilkes-Barre in about three and a half hours and entered the enourmous Mohegan Sun Pocono casino parking lot. There is a racetrack, casino, hotel and convention center all on the propterty,so finding out exactly where to ... read more

Ah, we finally arrived! Vienna's airport seemed way smaller than O'Hare, and wasn't at all busy. We made our way to baggage claim, and easily found the taxi stands. We took a pretty expensive taxi ride to our hotel. That's the thing when travelling with Mom; she is almost 79 and is over the skimping in life. I probably would've taken the 16 dollar train, but the taxi was quite nice after such a long, sleepless flight. Our driver was nice enough, but we did hit some traffic and it took us about an hour. I didn't have much of an impression of Vienna yet. My mind was so tired, it could barely form thoughts. We finally made it to Holiday Inn Vienna City, and checked our bags. We weren't able to check in for three ... read more

The day finally came! I was off the whole day, had the house to myself and not much planned. Since I'd be gone for two weeks, I wanted to make sure I had all my bases covered. Bills were paid, the fridge was cleaned, I even stocked up on some freezer stuff so I don/'t have to shop right away upon returning. I took my time finalizing all my packing, and finally left the house at noon. I had a reservation at Comfort Suites Cicero/Syracuse North, but could not check in until three. I stopped in Clay for some last minute shopping. I lucked out and finally found a good spring coat for my trip, and a smaller wallet. When three rolled around, I finally checked into the hotel. I only paid 125 USD for one ... read more

With so many girls in the family (myself, mom, two sisters, three daughters, one niece), it is inevitable that there would be a day of shopping. Our favorite place to go is Crocker Park in Westlake. Again, we piled in the van (bringing a reluctant boy with us this time!) and headed out. Josh was pretty happy with the two-story Dick's sporting goods store, which even had a golf simulator to play with. The daughters and I hit up our favorites, like Charming Charlie's and Lush. When we had our fill of shopping, we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory, where my sister and I enjoyed some overpriced but delicious mojitos. On the way out, we stopped at Trader Joe's for some groceries. I'm telling you, this outdoor shopping area has something for everyone, and plenty of ... read more