Weekend Getaway!

As everyone in the country knows, today is the anniversary of September 11th.  I didn't forget.  As the saying goes, I will never forget.  However, just because I'll never forget does not mean I have to relive it every year.  I don't need to watch the videos of the falling building and listen to the screams of panicked people.  Last year I spent hours cryings and remembering how bad it was.  I brought myself back to that day, I felt the pain all over again, I more the remembered: I relived.  This year, I chose not to do that.  Instead, I thought about the day as I wrote the date numerous times while QC'd yesterday's work.   Aside from that though, I made today just like any other day. 

My weekend off was approved which meant that Dave and I could seriously consider going away for our anniversary.  We had been thinking about it for some time now.   According to the experts, peak season for Vermont is going to be early this year so we decided to go up to our favorite place for our first anniversary.   Of course, staying in our favorite hotel in a top destination during peak season is far from cheap.  When our ridiculously rich cardholders in Bermuda chose to stay at the same hotel during the same season, I knew we were probably going to spend more than we wanted to for our hotel.  

Still, my Bermuda people stay for weeks at these hotels.  Dave and I will be staying for one weekend.  A part of me wishes we could have taken days during the week as that would be far cheaper but that would require Dave to take even more days off.   Still, we jumped online to book our anniversary weekend to find that the absolute cheapest we could get this hotel was for $1000 for the weekend!  Yes, 2 days = $1,000!   We could have a balcony room on a 7 night cruise from Boston to Bermuda this May for the same amount.  I couldn't justify $1000 for a weekend- even our anniversary weekend. 

Then I thought about our credit card and our Ultimate Rewards.  Let me try calling them, I thought.  Our travel guy found us the same hotel for the same weekend for $760.  Still that was bit expensive so Dave and I decided to trade in some of our points.  In the end, we will be staying in a 5 star hotel during peak season at a top destination for just under $400.  Who knew our credit card would save us $600?  Technically we could have taken this weekend for free but I didn't want to use that many points.  The best part, we still have plenty of points to use for future getaways!