By Neena Strichart
Many folks are doing without summer vacations this year. Back when finances were a bit better, some of us took one- or two-week trips during the year and some of us traveled even more often. My friend/coworker Barbie and I refer to those days as “back when we had money.”
Having to tighten our belts, Steve and I haven’t taken a vacation in years— until a couple of weeks ago. We took what we call a “staycation” and got away without traveling more than 15 minutes in any one direction. Here’s how it went:
Gal pal Shari Blackwell gave us a two-for-one coupon for the Long Beach Airport Marriott. We made reservations for two nights— a Saturday and Sunday night.
Check-in time was 3pm on Saturday, so we kissed the dogs goodbye and headed for the hotel. Making it to the room around 3ish, we had time for a nice nap before heading out for dinner. Staying within our own community and using a $50 gift certificate we had for Delius Restaurant made for a great start to our Saturday night.
After dinner we headed for home and let the dogs out for a bathroom break. While there, we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed back to the hotel. In the room, we cracked open the wine, poured it into two plastic coffee to-go cups and headed down to the pool area to relax and chat about our plans for the next day. The patio at the Marriott is absolutely scrumptious. The waterfalls are soothing, and the swaying palm trees made us feel like we were in Maui. We reclined on chaise lounges, drank our wine and counted stars. The only interruption was the occasional jet doing a fly-over before landing at the airport. No big deal.
Back upstairs, we spent some time together and then!wait for it!Steve went home and I stayed put. What? Well, we have dogs at home who have developed a bad habit for needing to “go out” in the middle of the night. Not having a budget for a dog sitter, we agreed that I would sleep at the hotel one night and Steve would stay the other. Once Steve left, I sprawled out on the king-size bed, finished my wine, read a magazine and then attempted to go to sleep. Tossing and turning, I looked at the clock; hmmm, not yet midnight. I had time to place my morning coffee order on the outside doorknob of my room.
The next day, with coffee on my nightstand and a smile on my face, I called Steve at home to find out what time he was coming to take me out to breakfast. Within the hour he was back at the hotel to pick me up and we headed down to Two Umbrellas on Broadway for eggs and French toast. Note: we had a “buy one get one free” offer that we had received for my birthday back in May!no expiration date, yippee! After a yummy breakfast (thanks to owners Tom Wheeler and Manny), we then headed to the beach for a first try at treasure-hunting with Steve’s new metal detector. That excursion ended up costing us just 25 cents— 75 cents for parking minus the two quarters we found with the metal detector.
Now it’s about 1:30pm, so we headed home to let the dogs out and then off to Signal Hill Park for the Sultans’ free car show. We spent a while there and then headed back to the hotel for a nap and then got ready for dinner.
Keeping with our low-budget weekend, we drove over to Shenandoah at the Arbor (in Los Alamitos) and used a gift certificate we’d received from Steve’s brother for Christmas. The dinner was great, and we sure enjoyed dining on the patio. Thanks to Mom, we didn’t have to go home and let the dogs out; she did it for us. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed coffee out by the pool. Around 10pm I was ready to head home and let Steve have his night at the hotel alone. Monday morning I went to work as usual while Steve had breakfast in bed at the hotel. All in all, it was a lovely experience. That’s what I call a staycation on a budget!
