Vacation with gas prices

If it wasn't for my husband getting a new job, we wouldn't be going on vacation. Gas prices just make my head spin. But, we would still go to some place like Omaha because it is not too far away and the zoo is wonderful. The zoo is so big that you may want to stay the night. I can see what I can do for you on hotel rates if you let me know when you are going...I have connections! LOL!
~What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy.

Luckily we have my husband's per diem money set aside for a couple of mini trips this summer. It really sucks that gas is so high- I just filled up this afternoon and it was $79.... holy cow!!!!

We are going to Wisconsin by ourselves to hang out with my bff's and go canoeing. Then later we will take the kids to KC to go to Ocean's of Fun. I wish we could go one other place but we will have to see.

Pam,dss Jadeyn-11,ds Kristofer-6,dd's Bethany-3 & Emaleigh-1

We have already turned down 2 trips because of the price of gas. First, my husband's cousin is graduation from high school next weekend. They live in Hill City and the commencement is at Mt. Rushmore, so it would be really cool to go, but we just can't. Next, one of my cousins is graduation from high school and they live in Wichita, we figure that would be at least a $500 weekend by the time you figure gas, hotel and food.
Since we are replacing all the windows in the house and hopefully the siding all of our extra $ is going to that. The trip to Wichita is 2 windows.
I have decided that I will just not put more than $20 of gas in my car. 5 gallons will get me about 100 miles in town in my car. My husband jsut said it was up to $3.63 a gallon tonight. Rediculous!
The Cake goddess - Cakes for all occasions, desserts and cookies, too!

I hate how much gas costs these days. to make matters worse we have a horrible gas guzzeling suv. we will soon trade it in for something more gas efficient. which sucks cause we worked so hard to get that vehicle, you know we like the space! my husbands family lives in arizona and they still haven't met our 10 month old baby, they really want to see her but a one way trip(i have plane phobia, among others)would be at least 300 bucks. anyway we are looking into motorcycles.

We are leaving in early June for a week long vacation to the Black Hills. It is sad to think that we will probably spend nearly the same amount on fuel as we will on our lodging (only about $250 difference).

The price of gas has forced me into actually planning my weekly trips into Sioux Falls, having to combine errands with Dr's appointments and so on. Normally I am pretty much a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl - I hate having to follow an itinerary, especially if the kids are all at school and I can actually shop by myself. But with the price of gas you (or we can't)justify making the 30 mile trip into Sioux Falls more than once a week, being my husband commutes their 6 days a week.

We were joking with our kids that instead of taking our Suburban to the Hills we would be taking my husbands 1999 Chevy Cavalier that he uses as his work car. You should have seen their faces - it was like we said we would be flying to the moon, they were mortified!!! Far from the days when we had to fight about who gets the "hump" in my moms old Plymoth.

We didn't want to cheat our kids out of a vacation so we are just biting the bullet and paying whatever it costs to tour the Hills. Would they ever look back and remember the summer we didn't get to travel somewhere? Probably not. It's just that we really want to give them all the things that we didn't have or get to do when growing up.

Obviously everyone's situation is different and there is no right or wrong about should we cut back or not but this is just what our family has decided to do.

Go Flyers!!!

I'll be vacationing in England - where gas is over $8 a gallon. Ouch !! Fortunately, places are alot closer together, so it shouldn't hurt me TOO much ! :)

Jenny ~ www.LittleHouseChildcare.com

We are carpooling! We go to our lake cabin two and half hours away every weekend and then a wedding in Rapid but we will ride with my parents. It will get cramped but worth the savings....I think anyways ;)!
Listen to your heart, it whispers softly so listen closely.

mom of 5
I have been wondering if Sioux Falls plans to offer more options or routes for public transportation. I could save a lot of money by not having to drive everywhere now. Plus my husband and I are sharing a vehicle (Urrrg!) But, there is only one bus stop in my area and the bus only comes there 2x a day, so that isn't an option for me now either.
As far as vacation goes, for 2 yrs now we planned to go to MT to see my family, but that is canceled because of gas prices. Omaha is a consideration though.

The Omaha Zoo is worth the trip. We stayed at a hotel near the zoo. We brought stuff for lunch like deli meat, bread, chips, etc. Our room had a fridge but you could always bring a cooler. We left the zoo and went back to our room for lunch, let my daughter get a quick nap and then back to the zoo. That worked great for us. Our daughter was rested and we stayed at the zoo past closing. A zoo trip with no meltdown was wonderful. I have had really good experiences with Priceline. I've alway paid between $35-$50 for a nice hotel. I almost always try for the 3-star hotels but sometimes to get the price I want I have to go 2-1/2 stars. Look for coupons for the zoo online. Consider bringing your own food an beverages. That is a way we have always saved money on trips. If you go earlier in the summer you might be able to drive to Omaha without the A/C on which would save money too. It is awful to have to think like this but the zoo is awesome and you would really be glad you stayed overnight. I hope it works for you.

One of my close friends from HS is getting married the first weekend of June in the Black Hills. Since I have to go to the wedding, we are going to try to ride Thomas on the 1880 train. My oldest is really, really into trains, so I think it’ll be worth it. I would love to do reptile gardens, bear country and all of those, but I think it’ll just be Thomas and the fish hatchery (free!). Since our family lives in Sturgis, we will be back again. The other tourist things will have to wait until next year.
My husband is doing a wedding in CO mid July, so we are going to try to do some tourist things there, too. The only downfall is it will be so stinkin’ hot! One of my boys has a hard time in the heat. Should be interesting!

i was going to go to the great smoky mountains national park...emphasis on was...now will be lucky to get to the black hills...i hope opec is enjoying their record profits..greedy jerks.

I'm really glad we (DH, DD, DD and I) took our trip to the Black Hills last fall, when gas prices were a little lower. With fuel, admission costs for all of the sites: Mt Rushmore, Jewel Cave, Great Bear, Reptile Gardens, etc. etc., food and lodging (campsite rental), it was quite an expensive adventure. I know we won't be doing anything quite as extensive this year. We have talked about getting a State Park pass and taking our camper to some of the local parks this year, less travel with hopefully the same 'getting away' feel. We'd love to go back to the Hills to camp and relax with out doing the tourist traps, but with fuel costs, we'll be staying closer to home. Maybe next year.

It's not really effecting our vacation plans too much. We've never gone on a vacation with the four of us, and so basically we're going no matter how much we have to pay. Money is just paper, and you can't put a price on family memories, so we're going to just suck it up and go. We're going up to Mpls next weekend to check out the new Nickelodeon Land for my daughter's 2nd birthday. She is going to flip out when she sees all the rides and giant Nick Jr. characters (particularly Dora). We'll go swimming in the pool the night before, and then head to the Mall of America in the morning-I think I'm just as excited as the kids! But we certainly couldn't afford to go to, say, California or Florida or anything-that would be way out of our price range this summer (and not a car ride I'd personally want to go on with 2yo and a 4yo--5 hours to Mpls is my max).
The Omaha Zoo is definitely amazing, but honestly, our zoo here in Sioux Falls is very, very nice also. You have to walk A LOT in the Omaha one, and here everything is very kid-friendly and less spaced out so less walking is involved. We prefer this one. Why pay lots of money in gas and drive for hours when you could just stay here in town and go to a really nice zoo? My mom was just telling me how our Great Plains Zoo was recently rated as one of the top ten "kid" zoos in America-did anyone else hear that? That's pretty cool!

We WERE going to go to my bro and SIL's over Memorial Day weekend, but since it would cost $100.00 just for gas, we decided against it. We hadn't seen them since Christmas, but now we will see them this weekend at a family get-together, so it's not quite as disappointing that we won't be going. It sucks that we can't do the things we want because of gas prices. Hopefully we will find some things to do close to home this summer.

1st time mommy to our "princess"

We just took MaKayla to the Omaha Zoo a couple of weeks ago and made it a day trip. We filled up before we left Soo Foo and we didnt even go through a full tank going there and back, so actually it was a pretty cheap trip for us. The only spendy part was eating at the resturant they have at the zoo that was spendy but if you eat at a fast food place that are located pretty much a block away you could probably still make it a pretty cheap trip as far as getaways go..