Have you always wanted to travel, but felt you could not afford it? So did I until I discovered cruising!

My family just returned from a trip to Spain, where we boarded the MSC Fantasia cruise ship and sailed the Western Mediterranean for seven nights and eight days.

How did an average American family afford this? Planning and careful monitoring of costs! I discovered MSC Cruise line last year and found out that children under the age of 18 sail free. That made it possible for us to take our nine year old granddaughter with us for only the cost of the airfare and tax on the trip. There is also a discount for baby-boomers, and we took advantage of that by booking in my name. Well, there should be some reward for admitting to being a boomer, right?

When we started planning for this trip the cost of the airfare was nearly $1500 per person! By watching the airlines almost daily I managed to catch the round trip flight we wanted for less than $500 per person. That was a great savings.

The next thing we did to cut costs was to share a cabin with our adult daughter. Four of us to the balcony stateroom was a bit crowded, but we didn't stay in the room very much anyway. Sharing cut the cost of the trip considerably. When you cruise, you don't have to spend extra on meals, there is plenty of food available on board.

We also cut costs by opting to hire taxis in the ports we visited to tour the city rather than the more expensive organized tour offered by the cruise line. The one we did participate in was a tour of Pompeii and a bus trip down the coast to Sorrento. All in all it was a wonderful trip and we have lots of memories.

Stop by again later, I'll be posting more pictures next week along with more money saving tips. Now go and plan your dream vacation using all the info available on the internet!

Well, it’s finally arrived! Summer's here and not a day too soon for all the teachers at my school. Where does the time go? It seems like barely a couple months ago we were starting a new school year and now, it’s finished, over, done!

Now, to the question that is of greatest importance: what to do with the free time afforded me by the end of the school year. I plan to do several things this summer. Three are really big ones, but the most import is to complete my current wip. For those who don’t know that's writer lingo for work in progress.

I’m setting goals, making plans and lists and hoping for the best. My goal is to have my current wip completed before RWA’s National Conference in July. My plan to accomplish this includes meeting regularly with my critique partner, going to Starbuck’s several times during the week to write, but most of all, applying butt to chair and working. My list looks something like this:
Fly to Spain, cruise the Mediterranean (for real, I leave early today. If I’m absent from the fuzzies for a few days, you’ll know why!)
Return home, upload pictures of trip to the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers blog.
Apply butt to chair and write.
Go to Starbucks and write (It helps to stir my creativity to get away from the usual all by myself where I can wear my “writer’s persona” --family just doesn’t get this one.)
Set schedule to meet with Critique Partner. (I’m one of the luckiest people in the world when it comes to my partner. ( MM is the greatest.)
Apply butt to chair and write.
Attend National with completed manuscript to pitch.
Apply butt to chair and write.
Clean the deck and sit outside to write.
That's about it, I’ll hope for the best outcome. What about you? How do you plan to attack the lazy hazy crazy days of summer?