http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/P05/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from P05 en-us Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:58:27 BST Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:58:27 BST One of the characters on my favorite 80's TV show The ATeam used to always say I love it when a plan comes together. Well Hannibel would have most certainly revoked my honorary membership in the ATeam after today's staycation to the Toronto Zoo. I've admitted in past blogs that I'm a compulsive over planner but I was off my game today.We chose this Friday to visit the Toronto Zoo beca http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/Canada/Ontario/Toronto/blog-305175.html Our family decided that our annual summer road trip had to be temporarily shelved due to rising gas prices but that doesn't mean our love of budget travel had to be shelved as well. I bought a guide book to Western New York at the local bookstore and decided that instead of going away on vacation we were going to take a summer staycation. This summer I will attempt to bring my family to local http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/New-York/Niagara-Falls/blog-294636.html My boys are blissfully unaware of the mania that surrounds the Jonas Brothers. That name was not lost however on the thousands of other people at this year's White House Easter Egg Roll. Apparently the boy band is why the line formed so early Friday morning for tickets. So although they were already on stage playing when we arrived at the event we didn't feel the need to fight our way through http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-259715.html This entry is for the compulsive over planners out there. I know who you are and how you think because I'm just like you. So here it is friends I am going to spill the beans share the trade secrets give you everything I know about getting tickets to and attending the White House Easter Egg Roll. Hopefully this will help another family plan their Washington DC vacation.The Saturday before Ea http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-258615.html Washington DC is a fantastic location to take a budget vacation. Most of the attractions in the District of Columbia are run by the government and free of charge. The kids are out of school so we piled into the car this past Wednesday and headed down to the MarylandDC area where I have lots of family. We usually get to visit this part of the country twice a year. Each time we come I try to fi http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-258171.html While researching the Statue of Liberty I learned it was always best to reserve your tickets for a tour online beforehand because they go fast at the ticket window. Unfortunately what I didn't realize is that you need to reserve them at least two days in advance. When I logged on Sunday night to get our tickets for Monday morning I realized we had passed our window of opportunity. Without the http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-212706.html This weekend was one of the best and worst weekends of my life. It was the best weekend because I got to see relatives that I love but don't see nearly enough. I consider it the worst because obviously I buried my grandmother. I was not ready to let her to go yet and I told her that this summer but she was definitely ready to take her leave as she told me this summer. She was tired and i http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/New-York/Long-Island/blog-211863.html We got a later start than we hoped leaving Buffalo Friday morning. But eventually we made it to New York City...or as my children affectionately consider it The Toy Store Mecca. Our first job was to find our reserved parking spot. Yes you heard that correctly you can reserve parking spots in Manhattan and have them waiting for you when you arrive. There is this great website at www.iconpark http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-211858.html Ok maybe I'm being a little melodramatic. I'm sure this isn't the very last time I'll get to New York City but it might be the last time for a few years anyway. My beloved grandmother passed away and we're packing the family up to head out to Long Island for her funeral this weekend. I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that I tried to take the family out to the Hamptons once a year to see he http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-210252.html Since the main purpose of this blog is to show my relatives who rarely take vacations and those of you like them that it is possible to vacation affordably with the family my Chicago entries wouldn't be complete without a spending wrapup.Knowing we'd already gone away this summer I didn't allocate a large budget for this getaway. I wanted to spend no more than 500. The good news is we d http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-193203.html Wednesday was the last day of our mini vacation to Chicago. We packed up all our stuff and got an early start because we had one more attraction to hit on the way out The Museum of Science and Industry www.msichicago.org.This was another cheap activity for us because of the reciprocal admission. This museum also has lots of unadvertised free parking. If you follow the signs to the museum's http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-193193.html There was no way on earth that I would be able to drag the in laws to another museum today...by now even their children were balking at the idea. So we had to split up a little and go our seperate ways. I really wanted to get down to see the Field Museum www.fieldmuseum.org which is right next to the Shedd Aquarium. We were too exhausted yesterday to see it. The cousins wanted to play base http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-192586.html On Monday I took my kids down to the Shedd Aquarium www.sheddaquarium.org while my husband hung out with his cousin at his office. I have found that my husband's cousin and his children are just not that into musuems. Chicago is a city of world renowned museums but the inlaws aren't really that interested Maybe since they live here they feel they can see them anytime they want. Either way http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-192584.html On our first day of vacation we slept in and the boys got to play with their cousins. We hung out at the house and enjoyed our down time.The next day was Sunday and we decided to head down to the Navy Pier www.navypier.com. We had a lot of people going so we had to take two cars. That limited us when it came to parking. It is possible to find a spot on the street on a Sunday in metered space http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-192579.html Well if you've read this far you must be wondering if our family of five was able to do all that for under 1500. The truth is I came in slightly overbudget but I was pretty darn close. The grand total worked out to be 1556.04. Friday's splurges on food and unplanned attractions put me 56 over budget. But I guess the most important part is I don't feel like we skimped on anything. We had a http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Cape-Cod/blog-189002.html My husband's cousin has invited us to his house in Matteson Illinois. We're excited about going because the kids will be able to see relatives they haven't seen in a long time. If you know me personally you'd know I couldn't take my family to the state of Illinois without a few day trips to Chicago. My husband and I haven't been back here since we had children. When we came to visit his co http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-188897.html If you've clicked the link to read my travel blog recently you've realized that the site has been down for a few days now.Thankfully it got back up today but the bad news was all of my entries were deleted I was able to recover most of the ones that were published on the web. The only one missing now is the entry called 1500 Cape Cod Challenge Vacation's over here's how we did. That ent http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/blog-188895.html We decided to leave tonight and head out to the east end of Long Island. I've been thinking about going out there all summer but just hadn't put any definite plans together. I try to get back to Long Island once a year. I grew up in Quogue a little town just east of Westhampton Beach. I have family out there and it's important to me that my sons know them. I also get a kick out of showing them th http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/New-York/Long-Island/blog-176845.html Well we're in the car driving back to Buffalo as I type my last few entries. My husband hooked up the laptop to his cell phone so I could feed my internet obsession during the 8 12 hour ride home. This morning we checked out of our condo by 10am. I took parting pictures like I promised and posted them under Accommodations. After check out we headed back to Plimoth Plantation. I think I mention http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Cape-Cod/blog-175684.html Day 7 was the last full day of our vacation before we start travelling home. I was determined to get to see the JFK Museum on the inside today. Also while looking through the Kids on the Cape travel magazine found in local store foyers I came across a coupon for the HyLine Harbor Sightseeing Cruise. Usually the cost of the cruise is 14adults and 7children. The coupon said kids ride free a http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Cape-Cod/blog-175428.html