New Year's Eve in New York

New Year's Eve is a time of renewal and making of resolutions.  There are many ways to celebrate for all budgets.  You can go all out and plan a trip to New York and going down to join the festivities at Times Square; along with 500,000 other celebrants.  You are looking at airfare of $1000 for two, along with one or more night's lodging for over $500 per night, meals and cab fare.  You may end up with an investment of over $5000.

If spending that kind of money to spend an intimate evening with 500,000 of your not so close friends isn't your idea of fun, there are other options you can buy into much closer to home.  Many local establishments have New Year's Eve entertainment packages that cost less than $100 per couple.  Some hotels work with local restaurants to create packages that include a night's hotel so that you don't have to share the road with unintelligent inebriated party goers.

This allows you to enjoy the evening, stay up as late as you want dancing and enjoying your evening and then sleep in the next morning and take your time going home.

Valentine's Day Staycation

Valentine's Day is a holiday for all ages.  My kids love picking out character valentine's for their friends and putting together treat bags for their school parties and bringing home a ton of candy.  Teenagers take the opportunity to express their feelings for their significant others by making reservations at local restaurants and picking out floral bouquets as expressions of their affection.  Married couples with children use the holiday as an excuse to actually have a meal where they aren't being interrupted by their kids every 5 seconds.

It becomes difficult once you have children to keep the spark alive, but you need to use whatever you have at hand to work at keeping the romantic fires bright.  Putting some effort into the evening will buy you a great deal of bank that you can use later on by reminding your significant other about how well you planned the evening.

Taking care of the babysitter, making a good reservation, planning the flowers, dessert and entertainment afterwards are all steps to ensuring a memorable evening.  Your significant other will appreciate you taking the time to create memories.  Make sure that all details are handled so that your significant other has nothing to do on their part.  A well planned evening will result in a wonderful next several days in your life.

Valentine's Day in Indianapolis

A key to keeping marital harmony is making sure as a husband that you plan on keeping the romantic fires burning by scheduling regular nights out away from the family.  You need to keep in mind a few things before planning your special events.  Each and every event must be handled by yourself without any help from your wife.  Your first requirement is to arrange the babysitter.  The babysitter must be on an approved list from your wife.  There is nothing worse than arranging a babysitter your wife doesn't know or approve of.

You also need to make sure that you have actually made a reservation and haven't left the restaurant choice to chance.  A great place in Indianapolis is the Keystone Grill.  You need to schedule at least two hours for your meal and your reservation needs to be made at least by the end of October for Valentine's Day if you want your table.  Keep in mind that everything is A La Carte when ordering at Keystone, but everything is excellent.

Keep in mind that when the waiter asks if you would like a lobster tail with your steak that it is "Market Price".  Market Price means you may need to add a second mortgage just to afford your check at the end of the meal.  If price is no object you will want to have an after dinner drink and have a Cognac from the time of Napoleon.  You can expect a 4 figure check when you are done after that drink.  It will make an impression on your wife, if you can finally afford that drink.




Stewart Falls

There is a great resort near Salt Lake City that offers great skiing in the winter and great hiking in the summer.  It also was the home to a film festival.  Maybe you have heard of it Sundance?  The lodge is quaint with a great deal of hiking trails.  There is a moderately difficult 1.1 mile hike to Stewart Falls.  After walking to the falls we decided we didn't just want to hike back along the way we came, so we chose a trail that started on the far side of the creek that came out of the falls.

Little did we know that there wasn't a full trail back to the lodge on that side of the creek.  After successfully getting ourselves lost on the mountain we decided we needed to find a ski lift and follow it down the mountain.  After another half hour of hiking we saw a lift in the distance as clouds were rolling in and the temperature was dropping rapidly.  Having dressed for a 90 degree day, we weren't prepared for a down pour and adverse temperatures.

The rains came and as we slogged our way towards the ski lift our spirits were raised by the fact that it was running and we could ride it down to the lodge and home.  As soon as we got there, they shut it down due to lightning.  There we were soaking wet and no way down the mountain.  Shortly they brought a stake bed truck and had as many of us that would fit get into the back and they brought us slip sliding down a narrow mountain road back to the lodge.

As we drove away from Sundance we vowed to pack our backpacks the right way with rain suits/ponchos and some energy bars and water bottles.  As we drove out of the park and into the valley, the temperature was 90 again and sunny.  We had been the victims of a freak mountain storm that never came out in the valley.

