To Be or Not To Be......Spontaneous

What's on my mind most right now is our recent summer vacation to Galveston. We hadn't planned on Galveston. Actually, we hadn't planned anything AT ALL. We were inspired by Kelli and Jason, the King and Queen of spontaneity, to NOT plan our trip in advance this year. They always wait 'til the last minute (literally, decide the night before that they're going to take a 10-day road trip throughout the Midwest) and get really great deals. Case in point -- their last trip to S. Padre. They paid 1/2 of what the "planner-type" guests paid in the same condo. Kelli booked a couple days before and the others booked months ahead.

I was inspired!

So....here's Miss "Plan Ahead, Make A Checklist for Everyting" Katie, trying to be spontaneous. The week before our scheduled time off work, we still didn't have anything planned so we started looking, thinking that we'd definitely get some great steals. We started with Port Aransas but there were no decent-priced condos available, so we tried South Padre. Again, nothing bargain-priced like Kelli got. We called a couple of cruise companies....booked! I tried to convince Bud to go to Florida, but airfare 5 days out is insanely expensive. So I tried to convince Bud that we could drive to Destin, FL --- it's only like 13 hours. Kelli and Jason do it all the time. Bud's response? "NO!!! Driving 13 hours does not sound like vacation to me!"

So there I was...about to give up, preparing my mind for the possibility of settling on a Staycation and going to Sea World. We do have passes after all, and have only gone once this "over-100-degree-everyday" Summer. Then Bud suggested Galveston. My first thought? Yuck! The beaches are gross and what is there to do in Galveston? But we found a really nice hotel - the San Luis Resort & Spa - and I was sold, so off to Galveston we went.

I know you're wondering if we got a great deal on the hotel since we booked it 4 days in advance. The answer is a resounding NO! Paid full price, of course.

In the end, we had a fantastic time in Galveston. We spent a lot of time at the beautiful pool (it had a water slide that we couldn't keep the boys off of), went to the NASA Space Center, Schlitterbahn and the Dino Alive exhibit at Moody Gardens. I will be posting pictures and stories over the next few days.

So in the end, I learned two very important things:
1 - Galveston is a great place to vacation with lots to do, and
2 - You cannot PLAN for spontaneity.
Lesson Learned! Next time, I'm planning ahead.