Jambalaya

Travel

My goal is (was) to save up x amount of dollars and take a luxury family trip to NYC.  We will stay in a 2-bedroom suite, with great views or maybe a one-bedroom suite.  Mr. A thinks the kids won't care about not having their own room, and will be fine in the sofa bed.  I feel like I will need a travel agent for this. I am so excited I can barely look at hotels online. I want a spacious apartment with great views, not a hotel room. Traveling with small kids requires lodging with space to move.  I also want a boutique hotel.  Chains are great but I like the vibe of  boutiques, it seems less tourist like.

I would like to see a kid-friendly broadway show.

The kids are young. QT may not remember the trip, but he will enjoy it while we are there.

. I think L.A., NYC, Miami, SF, are cities where you splurge to get the full experience.

While I was talking about the trip to NYC, Mr. A commented if I really wanted us to do both Virgin Islands and NYC this summer.  He mentioned the islands in passing, but apparently I missed hearing him saying he wanted us to go.

I am sure the kids will love the beach.  I think we'll be staying in a house while there.  I need to work on airline tickets.

So we'll save NYC for Christmastime. That will be great and the kids will be a little older. TR will be able to share her holiday excursion with her classmates. I expect those kids will probably take
vacations at holidays. (in jr. High a girl told me off and part of her speech said her family didn't take yearly vacations.  It was then I realized some families don't  vacation during summer breaks or holidays.  I also realized that in some circles kids resent other kids telling stories of family trips .)

When we were in L.A., most of TR's ballet class mates went to private and I would hear the mothers discussing planned trips to Europe or Israel for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I do wonder where folks get so much money.  I want to have some too!  The side of L.A. we were on kept me insulated.  Now that we are back in Oakland, I have been slapped in the face with the reality that things got much worse for black folks in the 6 years I lived in L.A.  It is unreal.  Thank goodness I moved and was able to build my business.

On our Martin Luther King Holiday, we took a family trip to Fisherman's wharf.  I felt like a Jersey person driving into NYC as we crossed the bridge.  We usually take Bart so driving felt like a tourist. I usually go to S.F. to work or see a doctor, its rare I go there just to experience the city, so it was
different.

That San Francisco Sourdough bread is superb! *kissing my fingers*.  I think I could live there, if I
can get over the uber- liberals and the taxes.


In other things, these governments are crooks trying to tax me on my gross income.  Gross income is not what I get to keep.  Tax me on funds I hold, not on what passes through my hands and I have to pay to others, who will also have to be taxed on it.

Small business really does have it rough at tax time.  I really think these burdens are created to benefit large corporations.  Once small business dies, big business controls. Small is usually local and big businesses aren't accountable to communities.


Have a lovely weekend!