I’m a day off this week, because we started the week by taking a mini-vacation from Sunday overnight until Monday. Our first one-night getaway in October was so successful, we decided to try it again. This time, we journeyed a little further (three hours each way), and made arrangements to meet friends at our destination.
It all started when a girlfriend found a Living Social deal for a water park/hotel. Even though we don’t live six hours away from each other, it would take us each three hours to get to the hotel. We snapped up the deal and started planning our escape.
Two things to keep in mind when snapping up deeply discounted hotels and attractions:
1) Find out about the hotel’s availability. There were technically no blackout dates, but the waterpark portion of the hotel is only open on weekend throughout the school year. Huh.Those weekends in the spring were booked quickly once the deal was on, so we ended up going on Father’s Day.
2) Find out about the area around said hotel. Turns out, we were staying at “The Amish Country Inn,” which was quaint, and if you’re a fan of country charm, then by all means, this is your place. We arrived on a Sunday, however. Guess why the hotel was called the Amish Country Inn? Because it’s in an Amish farm town, population 500. Guess who doesn’t operate their businesses on Sunday? You got it — the Amish. Thankfully, in the next town over, an Italian restaurant was fully operational, including the bar. The restaurant was actually kind enough to sell us a carry out bottle of wine, since it was Sunday and the one liquor store was closed as well.
All in all, it was a fun trip. We got to visit with friends, the kids got to swim until they were tired out, and we had a change in scenery. The drive time did make our time at the hotel shorter– we were actually on the property less than 24 hours. In the future, I think we’ll stick to the 1-2 hours away rule for these quick overnights. We’ll also be sure to see what’s happening around our destination before we leave, so we can at least pack a deck of Uno cards if it turns out the town doesn’t roll out their red carpets on Sundays.