Back in May I wrote about our travel plans for the next year.  We want it to be a full year with lots of traveling before we settle down into a life of responsibility hopefully to include a dog and maybe some kids eventually.  I mentioned in that post that all plans were subject to change and here is the first revision already.

7/10 – Chicago long weekend for a friend’s wedding Done
7/10 – Added a fishing trip to the cabin! Yes!
8/10 – Fishing trip at the cabin
9/10 – LONDON! Bird’s 30th b-day/our first anniversary
9/10 – North Carolina (Bird’s homecoming)
10/10 – Going to Greece instead of London
11/10 – Long weekend up North
2/11 – Myrtle Beach to visit Bird’s grandparents
3/11 – Spring Break – Maybe Florida?
4/11 – We got invited to a wedding out in LA
5/11 – NYC for my 30th birthday

During the last week in July, Bird has a week-long MFA class/workshop where she will be out of town, so rather than sit at home alone and play on Twitter, I’m heading up the cabin with my Dad for a long weekend of fishing.

On the seven hour drive to Chicago, the decision was made to hit up the Greek Islands rather than London this fall.  You may recall that we almost went to Greece for our honeymoon.  Our anniversary is just as good of a reason to go.  Much more on this to come.

And we also got a save the date for a wedding in April 2010.  This is a college friend of Bird’s and traditionally the girls in this group do not bring their husbands to these weddings, but I’m trying to buck that tradition!  I really want to see LA!

We arrived at Bird’s grandparent’s place around 10 pm on Wednesday night after driving through a wicked thunderstorm near La Crosse.  Nice to be safe and sound in bed while the thunder and lightning lit up the room and shook the house.  It was quite a storm, dropping 4.5 inches of rain overnight.

Total spent on Wednesday:  $25.45 on gas before we left and $10.82 at McDonald’s along the way.

Grandma made us a great breakfast Thursday morning and then we were off to Wisconsin Dells.  I haven’t been there since I was a little kid and it has changed a lot.  Bird’s grandparents used their pull to land the four of us free tickets on a Wisconsin Dells Boat Tour.  We tipped the guide $5.

Standing Rock

This dog jumps from rock to rock.  It’s awesome.

After the 2 hour boat tour (gorgeous weather by the way), we had lunch and then headed off to play mini-golf.  I lost to Gramps by 3 strokes but beat Bird by 1 stroke!   So far no money spent on Thursday.  Grandparents spoil us.

After golf we stopped by the outlet mall and things got a little crazy at the Banana Republic outlet.  Between Bird and I we ended up spending $174.04 but we got a lot of clothes (I got 4 shirts and a new wallet) and we ended up saving $165 off the original prices.

We stopped at the grocery store for dinner supplies and we paid $1.06 for the Redbox movie while Grandma bought groceries.  We got When in Rome which was pretty terrible.

Thursday night was a great night full of lasagna, learning new card games (hand & foot) and watching the movie.

On Friday morning, we walked the dog together and grabbed breakfast at a little deli in town.  Again, Grandma’s treat.  Then it was time to continue on to Chicago for the 4 pm wedding.

We left with plenty of time but by the time we hit Chicago traffic (way outside of Chicago), we were getting a little nervous.  Check in at the hotel was 3 pm and we arrived around 2 but the hotel didn’t have any rooms ready, so off to Jimmy Johns for lunch $17.21.  By the time we finished our late lunch, the hotel had our room ready and we got prepped and headed off to the wedding.

No air conditioning in the church, but other than that, a great wedding and a great night of fun.

Total spent on Friday: $29.40 at the gas station (gas/snacks), about $5 on tolls, $17.21 for lunch and $50 for a wedding gift

With the wedding festivities over on Friday, we planned on spending Saturday in downtown Chicago.  We hit Dunkin Donuts in the morning (I know, we ate great didn’t we?) for about $10.  Then train tickets to downtown ($4.50 each way so $9 total).  Plus $4 for parking at the train station.

We got downtown and it was HOT!!!  Such a hot day…long story short…we spent most of the day trying to keep cool or complaining about the heat.  I don’t know what else we could have done, but we were ill-prepared.

They were shooting Transformers 3 downtown, so that was kind of fun.  We didn’t see anyone famous, but we did see some guys running around by some cameras.

Spoiler alert: At some point in the movie, there is an upside down city bus.

We ended up going on an Architectural Boat Tour which was pretty cool.  A friend came with us and we paid for her, so the boat tour was $91.56 for the three of us.  Every time we went under a bridge, the shade was like heaven.

After the tour we headed to Navy Pier for air conditioning and lunch.  $26.98. Then we walked to Millenium Park and took pictures with the bean.

Cloud Gate (the bean)

We spent the afternoon wandering the stores on Michigan Avenue to cool off and then we split with our friend at dinner time.  Bird and I had reservations at Bin 36.  I had the swordfish.  It was delicious.  Unfortunately, I think the heat put a crimp in our day and dinner was probably less enjoyable than it could have been although because we were so exhausted but it was still fun.  $114 for dinner and wine and cheese flights.

Grabbed the train back to the hotel and crashed with what was probably heat exhaustion.

Sunday morning we packed our bags and headed home.  $13.42 on breakfast, $30 on gas, $5 on tolls again, $2 for ice cream at McDonald’s.

Two nights at the hotel was $230 after using the name your own price feature on Priceline.  I used credit card miles to pay for it, effectively canceling out the largest expense of the trip.

In conclusion, it turns out Wisconsin Dells was more fun than Chicago which isn’t what we were expecting but it was a pleasant surprise!  So good to spend some time with Bird’s grandparents…and there will be future trips to Chicago I am sure.

Total spent:  $628 but $175 of that was on clothes and $50 was for the wedding gift.  So really only about $400 of it is going to come out of our Travel Fund which is important because I have a travel update coming up in a future post.

Hitting the road in about 20 minutes.  We’ll be staying the night at Bird’s grandparent’s near Wisconsin Dells.  Spending the day with them tomorrow and continuing on to the city Friday.

Wedding is Friday night and then we have all weekend to explore.

As of right now the only plans we have are an architectural boat tour and dinner reservations on Saturday night.

Full recap upon our return.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I don’t know if anyone else likes to do this, but when I travel to a place, I like to read a book set in that place.

For example, on our honeymoon in San Francisco and Sonoma, I read The Maltese Falcon and East of Eden.

This weekend, Bird and I are heading to Chicago for a Friday night wedding but then we have Saturday and Sunday to explore the city.  I recommended Devil in the White City for Bird and she is about halfway through.

I’m still working on Moby Dick, but I am on the lookout for books set in London (there are just a few of them out there *sarcasm*).

The other day I used an Amazon gift card I earned through Swagbucks to pick up Imagined London by Anna Quinden.  I plan on reading that in August to get me in the mood for our trip to Europe in September.

Also on the topic of books and traveling…Bird and I are driving to Chicago and it’s approximately a 7 or 8 hour drive from Minneapolis so we are thinking about getting an audiobook or two to pass the time.

Does anyone have any good recommendations?

Is there somewhere online to get audiobooks for free?  I think we will check out the library to get some books on CD but it’d be convenient to just load up the ipod.

Do you all remember when I posted about my upcoming travel plans?  Over the past week we’ve made a little progress and while you’d assume we’ve booked our Chicago trip since it’s only 3 weeks away, you’d be wrong.

Yesterday I booked us two roundtrip tickets to Washington DC for $430.60.  What’s that you say?  Washington DC isn’t included in our travel plans?  Before all you DC PF bloggers get excited that Bird and I are flying out to join you for one of those infamous PF blogging happy hours…let me burst your bubble by telling you that it’s actually our late-September NC trip that we booked. 

The plan is to attend Bird’s homecoming in NC, but we saved over $200 by flying into DC versus Raleigh.  It just so happens that Bird has a college roommate (M) who lives in DC but is also attending homecoming.  We’ll stay with her on Thursday night and on Friday the three of us will follow in MPP’s footsteps and head from DC to NC.

Now, it also just so happens that M has grandparents that live in Durham which means free lodging for the duration of our stay! 

We’ll take in all the events of homecoming weekend.  I’ll hear all kinds of college stories about my wife and meet all kinds of people whose names I will instantly forget (hate that).  It’ll probably be a blast.  Full recap in a few monthsso check back then – haha. 

On Sunday, we’ll drive back to DC to catch a flight home to MSP.

Expected Costs

• 2 Plane Tickets:  $430.60 – I tried to use a promo code but no matter what code I tried, I could only get $3 off.
• Gas money for M:  $100?
• Food: $200?
• Entertainment: $100?

The numbers are a crapshoot at this point, but let’s just say I’ll budget about a grand for the trip.  Doh, I forgot those pesky luggage fees.  I’m sure other things will add up as well.  As for now, I’ve transferred $430 out of the ING Travel Fund so I can pay the CC which leaves the Travel Fund sitting at $1,000 for now.

Of course, our Chicago trip in July will take a bite out of that so we’ll have to find a way to refill it before September…especially considering we still want to make it to London a few weeks before we go to NC!

A few weeks ago I created a Places to Go page on the blog.  Kind of a bucket list for the rest of my life.  I’ve been spending my time lately mapping out our near-term future travel plans.

7/10 – Chicago long weekend for a friend’s wedding
8/10 – Fishing trip at the cabin
9/10 – LONDON! Bird’s 30th b-day/our first anniversary
9/10 – North Carolina (Bird’s homecoming)
11/10 – Long weekend up North
2/11 – Myrtle Beach to visit Bird’s grandparents
3/11 – Spring Break – Maybe Florida?
5/11 – NYC for my 30th birthday

So there you have it….a pretty exciting year coming up, especially when you throw in trips to friend’s cabins or or local camping trips, etc.  And of course, these are just plans and plans always change…so we’ll wait and see what happens!

The travel fund is sitting at just about $1,500 right now, so I better get out and sell some more books!!!

Over the MLK Day weekend, Bird and I traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida for a friend’s wedding.  It was a lovely weekend and worth every penny we spent.  Although there were definitely a few ways we could have saved.  Let’s get to the numbers.

Flights:  $415.25  - Flights were actualy $578.42 for the two of us, but I used $163.17 in Credit Card rewards put towards the cost.

Checked bag fee:  $40 ($20 each way) - We saved some money by only taking one bag for the both of us, but I still hate baggage fees.

Rental car:  $155.68 – I was basically the driver for the group all weekend so we rented a bigger car than we normally would have.  I did use a coupon from an Entertainment book to save $36.  We were an hour late turning in the car, which cost us about $20 extra, but it was worth it because we got an extra hour at the beach.

Gas:  $50.57 – We did quite a bit of driving and covered a lot of territory.

Lodging: $704.58 – This is where we could have saved the most money.  We stayed in a really nice place because that’s where our friends were staying.  And while it was nice to stay near friends, I don’t think it was absolutely necessary and we maybe should have stayed somewhere else.  Since Bird was in the wedding, she was busy all weekend and we didn’t even get to spend that much time enjoying the place.  I hate to admit this, but we went to the breakfast buffet one morning and I should have known better, but when the bill came upon checkout two days later, we found out that we paid $52 ($26 each) for our breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and french toast.  That’s the worst I’ve been ripped off in a long time.

Groceries: $7.89 – I bought some treats and some cold medicine because I was feeling a little sicky.

Date night:  $48.23 – On Sunday night we went out for dinner and a movie.  We had some pizza (and ice cream) and watched Sherlock Holmes.  We liked the movie more than the pizza.

Biking:  $48 – On MLK day, we left West Palm and headed toward Miami.  We went to the Everglades and rented bikes.  Entrance fee was $10 and then I paid for 3 of us to rent bikes ($38).  It was a very fun outing and fun to get up close to the gators.

Lunch in Miami:  $25 – We stopped in a little Cuban restaurant for lunch but we didn’t love the food.

Beach parking:  $1.25 – On the way back to the airport we stopped at the beach because it was finally sunny.  We spent about an hour walking and getting sunburned just in time to drop off the car and catch our flight home.

Tolls:  about $10 – We were on tollways all the time and I think it added up to about ten bucks though we didn’t keep track.  It was just a dollar here, a dollar there all weekend long.

Total cost: $1,506.45

Ouch.  We did some good things to save money like using a coupon for the car and checking only one bag, but we could have done better.  The best cost savings would have been staying at a different place (or at least not eating breakfast there!).  We probably could have rented a smaller car for less money and then also saved on gas money.  Also, if we could have turned the car in time, that would have been a good savings.  The good news is, we had budgeted this trip ahead of time and we had enough money in our travel fund to cover it.  Now we’ll start replenishing the travel fund for our March trip to Florida!

Bird and I spent the past long weekend down in Florida attending a friend’s wedding and then relaxing with some alligators.  And Boy oh Boy did we spend some money (I’ll write about it later).

And now, we are going back in March but that trip should be much cheaper as we get to stay with friends!  More to come…

Read Part 1 here about our week in Mexico.  From Mexico, we flew up to San Francisco for another week of honeymoon bliss.

Flights to San Francisco:  $397 + $31 baggage fees

We arrived at SFO late on Sunday evening and caught a cab to the Argonaut Hotel ($58 cab ride).  I had scored four nights (Sun-Wed) through Hotwire for $742 including taxes, fees, etc.  After checking in, we headed out to explore Fisherman’s Wharf and to find a pizza place (because that was the one food that wasn’t done well in Mexico!).  After pizza ($28), we wandered back to our hotel, soaking in the new sights and sounds.

Monday

We explored the city like the tourists we were, map in hand.  We headed to North Beach and stopped at Caffe Trieste for breakfast ($15).  We wandered through Chinatown, up Nob Hill and through the financial district.  We walked all over the place.  Even though we bought 3-day MUNI passes, allowing us unlimited use of public transport ($36 for two), we found that SF is very walkable and it was a great way to get an overview of the city.

All that walking made us hungry and we went to Butterfly ($30) for lunch.  We wish we wouldn’t have.  It was merely mediocre in my opinion.  For dessert, and a pick me up after the lunch let down, we got a sundae from Ghirardelli ($9).  I know that is a total rip, but we were on our honeymoon so rational thought doesn’t count and it was a very good sundae!

On Monday night, we loaded onto a boat for the night tour of Alcatraz. ($66 for 2 tix).  It was incredibly foggy on the bay, so we didn’t even see the island until they parked the boat next to it, but in a way, that added to the ambience.  It was pretty creepy.  The Alcatraz tour was Awesome and we highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.  We didn’t get back from the tour until about 10 pm, so we stopped at In-N-Out for a late dinner ($11).  It was my first time at In-n-Out, and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed.  We also stopped at Walgreens to grab some bottled water and snacks. ($11)

Tuesday

We hopped a street car and headed to the Ferry Building to check out the Farmer’s Market.  It was fun and Bird bought some coffee and fruit ($8).  Funny story:  Bird wants a peach.  I go to buy her said peach and it costs me $3.  I told Bird it better be the best peach she’s ever had.  I think it may have been, but it still wasn’t worth $3.

We took a bus and headed for the Castro and the Mission District.  We stopped at Haight/Ashbury for about 2 minutes until we realized we didn’t care about hippies.  We care much more about Full House so we went to Alamo Square.

In the Mission District, we had lunch at Pancho Villa Taqueria ($22).  This was Bird’s favorite meal of the whole trip (better Mexican food than Mexico).

After lunch, we headed back towards the hotel and stopped off at Coit Tower.  We paid the $10 ($5 each) each to take the elevator to the top for the view.  It was underwhelming and not highly recommended.

In the evening we took a bus out to the Golden Gate Bridge and we finally got to see it.  There was a brief break in the fog for a few hours and we took some pictures and hiked around.

The hiking was awesome.  We hiked the bluffs overlooking the Pacific and ended up at Baker Beach.  It was an amazing time.  As the sun set, the fog rolled in and we didn’t get a photo-op, but we got those in Mexico.

From the beach we caught a bus back to the city and we hopped off to have dinner at Yukol Place Thai ($29).  We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Wednesday

We were up early (730ish) with the intent to rent bikes ($54) and ride across the bridge to Sausalito.  We wanted to beat the crowds and we did, but that’s because they were probably smart enough to wait for it to warm up.  It was foggy and cold.  We warmed up quickly by biking up all the hills and crossed the bridge in a thick fog.  This was a great experience and one we recommend, but it was a bit sad to be biking through the fog.

But what a difference geography makes.  We crossed the bridge, headed down the hill into Sausalito and were bathed in glorious sunlight.  It’s the strangest thing.  We wandered through Sausalito, admiring the beautiful homes and eventually stopping at a deli for lunch ($21).  We did some shopping and bought ourselves a nice little San Francisco Christmas ornament ($24).  It seems like a lot for a Christmas ornament, but again, it’s just one of those things that hopefully we’ll have forever and it will be such a fun memory.  We decided we may try to get Christmas ornaments on all our vacations.  It will be a fun tradition.

From Sausalito we opted to ride the ferry back with our bikes ($16).  It was a fun way to see Alcatraz and the city since our boat ride on Monday was in a total fog.

To reward ourselves for the bike ride, we got another sundae ($9)!  The rest of the afternoon we just killed time wandering the wharf and then headed back to our hotel to get dressed up for our big night out.  We had reservations at First Crush and tickets to Wicked (my wedding/birthday gift to my wife).  Dinner was very good, not necessarily the greatest $104 meal I’ve ever had, but very good.  And of course, Wicked was AMAZING! We loved it.  After the show, we had a very romantic cable car ride back to the hotel.  It was just us and the driver and we snuggled close against the late night chill (Bird and I did the snuggling, not the driver).  It was a perfect way to end our time in San Francisco.  The next morning we were renting a car and heading to Sonoma.

Thursday

We checked out of the hotel, but left our bags at the front desk.  The plan was to walk to the rental car place and then drive back and get our bags.  We stopped for breakfast again at Cafe Trieste ($20).  We stopped at City Lights bookstore and browsed around.  We stopped in Chinatown and bought some t-shirts ($12).  Then we picked up our car and drove it back to the hotel, making sure to drive down Lombard (crooked street) on the way.

We grabbed our bags and we were gone.  We took Hwy 1 up the coast hoping for a very scenic drive.  Instead, we got fog.  We arrived in Santa Rosa in mid-afternoon and stopped at the 5th St. Grill for burgers ($23).  We drove to the Armstrong Redwoods Reserve and hiked around the giant trees.  It was lovely.

As night began to fall, we left the park and headed for our hotel.  One night stay at the Fountaingrove Inn ($99 – I got a deal on TravelZoo).  After checking in, we ran to the grocery store for a few things ($7).

Friday

We checked out of our hotel and headed for downtown Sonoma.  We ate breakfast at the Sunflower Caffe ($23) and then wandered around town.  We stopped at a photographer’s studio and ended up buying a print ($44).

Then it was time for winery tours.  Our first stop was at Benziger because I had heard they had the best tour.  And it was awesome.  $30 for two tickets, and I think it was worth it.  We rode through the vineyard, stopped in the wine cave, and learned about the crush pad.

The price of the tour also included a tasting.  We bought a bottle for us and one for Bird’s parents ($52).  The next place we stopped at was Kenwood.  Bird did a tasting here ($5).  Kenwood was kind of underwhelming after coming from Benziger.  Our third and final winery was Buena Vista.  As we walked in, a kind stranger handed us a 2 for 1 tasting coupon.  After the tasting, we ended up buying a bottle and they didn’t charge us for the tasting ($30 for a bottle).  As the afternoon turned to evening, we found ourselves back in downtown Sonoma.  We had dinner at The Red Grape ($53) and then headed for the airport.

One of the reasons we chose the car rental place that we did is because they allowed us to pick up in the city but drop off at the airport.  There was a $30 fee for that convenience but it was well worth it.  Total car rental cost including extra fee and gas was $109.

I had booked us the redeye back to Minneapolis, so we had a while to wait at the airport.  I bought a book and we finally bought some sourdough bread ($40).  We went 4 days in SF without ever eating sourdough–shame on us.  And shame on me because airport books are ridiculously expensive.  I only brought two books with me (The Maltese Falcon, East of Eden) and I had finished them both.  Sidenote:  East of Eden is my favorite book I read this year and in my top ten of all time.  I LOVED IT!

Flights home – San Francisco to Minneapolis:  $249 + $40 baggage fees

Summary

Total Spent in Week 2:  $2,567

Total Spent in Week 1:  $2,826

Total Honeymoon:  $5,393

Over budget by $393  Oh well.

It’s been over a month now since Bird and I have returned from our honeymoon and it’s about time I get around to writing a post confessing to you all about how much we spent on our trip.  As I have previously mentioned, our honeymoon consisted of one week in Mexico and one week in San Francisco.  We wanted the week in Mexico to be all about relaxation and pampering.  Sitting on the beach.  Reading by the pool.  That kind of thing.  No worries, no worries, no worries.

That’s EXACTLY what we got.  The weather was beautiful.  Our resort was gorgeous.  The service was fabulous.  In fact, the resort had such low occupancy that Bird and I were treated like celebrities.

The View from our Balcony

Our little friend, the baby sea turtle.

We did a lot of this on the beach…

…and by the pool.

The Good Stuff

• Flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from Minneapolis (One-way):  $437
• Magazine and candy while laying over in Dallas:  $5
• 5 Nights/6 Days stay at the Vallarta Palace (all-inclusive):  $2,328
• Gift for Bird’s grandparents (picture frame):  $11
• Bird’s cool Mexican hat so she didn’t fry on the beach:  $15
• Tips throughout the week:  $30

Week 1 Expenses: $2,826

And that was pretty much it for money spent in Mexico.  Our total budget for the two-week honeymoon was $5,000.  If you remember, we budgeted $25,000 for the wedding, but had saved up $30,000 just in case we went over.  We planned to use the extra $5,000 for the honeymoon.  And I was really hoping we’d have that $5,000 because I wasn’t planning on going over for the wedding. 

Turns out we did go just a bit over budget for the wedding, but it didn’t effect our honeymoon spending at all.  We didn’t even know we were over budget until we arrived home and found the wedding bill waiting for us.

So did we go over our $5,000 budget for the honeymoon?

Check back tomorrow to read Part 2 as we head to San Francisco for the second week of our honeymoon.