WALTZING DOWN THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE

                   

                              VIENNA                                                            

A brochure for Viking River Cruises came in the mail the other day.  But instead of wishing that we could do something like that--but can't because it is too cost prohibitive--we really went out on a limb and booked a cruise.  After all, it is BOGO--but only until the end of January.  That spells big money savings         when it comes to this kind of a vacation.

My vacation award with United is the last two weeks of May.  That is not changeable.  I chose that because Mackson is graduating from high school at 2 pm on Thursday, May 25th.    Louis gets about four weeks for anything he wants--sick, vacation, personal time.  However, his time isn't set in stone a whole year in advance like mine is .  But we did want to make sure we are around                   for Mackson's new beginning.

So, we decided to do a river cruise on the Danube.  I will have to finagle days off, though,  from the 12th-16th in order to make everything work.  We will begin May 13th and spend three days in Prague before the cruise, then we will begin the cruise on May 17th in Passau, Germany, and spend eight days going east from there through five countries, including stops in Vienna and Bratislava before ending in Budapest and coming home on the 24th from there. Just BARELY in time for Mackson's graduation on the 25th.  Whew!

I decided to take the money out of my 401K.  I could have spent the same amount to pay half of the loan I financed for my new car.  But....I looked at all the pros and cons of VACATION vs. PAYING OFF MY CAR.  The vacation won.                     For better or worse.

And it is MY kind of vacation.  No beaches.  No sand.  No hot, humid weather. No tropical sun.  No bathing suit.  Since it is May, it could be cool.  Cold even.  And rainy.  But I know how to deal with those kinds of contingencies.  Another layer.  A warmer sweater.  Hot chocolate. Dry shoes.                                      Hey!  I can do this!

You may think it irresponsible.  And probably it is.  Just wanted to see how the rest of the world did their vacation time.  I think it's going to be fun.           Interesting, at the very least.

Dancing school, here we come!