Donna and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary this month. 15 years. Yes, it amazes me that someone would put up with for that long as well. Still, in all that time, we’ve never been on a honeymoon, or even a vacation with just the two of us.
I started planning a vacation for our 15th anniversary quite a while back, but then our house burned down, construction costs skyrocketed, and now every last bit our our savings has been spent on our new house. That’s not a complaint, as our house is wonderful, but it makes a vacation impossible this month. We also planned a tropical vacation, somewhere with a beautiful beach where Donna could lay in the sun and I could stare at her read a book. The more we talked about it though, the more we thought a traveling vacation would be fun. So after a brainstorming session with my friend Kyle, we figured out what sounds like the perfect vacation, at least for us:
Sometime this summer, we’ll fly to San Diego (or somewhere in SoCal), where we’ll take a cab to the Volkswagen Beetle we will have purchased in advance. We considered renting a convertible, but a one-way rental of a sports car is really expensive. So we’re going to buy a car and keep it. Plus, driving home we save on half the plane fare, so in the end we get a car as a souvenir for little more than a rental would cost.
We’re going to take 10 days or so and travel north along the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping along the way to see the sites, visit with friends, and just enjoy ourselves. We plan to end our northerly trek in Seattle (again visiting friends and checking out the things to see), and then turn east to head home. It will take 4-5 days traveling cross country to get home, but since it’s part of the vacation itself, it will be fun!
Granted, a two week vacation driving across country will be expensive, especially when buying a classic car is part of the cost — but we have some time to save up for the journey, and I suspect the memories we’ll have will be more exciting than 6 days and 7 nights in a bungalow on a beach. (Not that we can’t do that someday as well!)
Anyway, making it public here will help motivate me to really make it happen. If you live in southern California, please keep your eye out for a classic convertible bug, please! (UPDATE: A 1975 or older model, to avoid the crazy California emissions stuff, thanks Dr. Phil!) I’m so excited about this trip, I can’t wait until summer!
I see you’ll be coming through Minnesota. If you want, veer up north a bit and come visit for a day. I’ll put you two up, feed you, and show you the sights!
Is there a downside to getting a car with California emissions for use in Michigan? Because you could buy it in Arizona or another state.
Dr. Phil
Possibly, so I guess I’ll have to search for a Bug that is 1975 or prior. (1975 would be my birth year, so that’d be cool anyway) I actually had to look it up, I though any car from the 70′s would be exempt, but alas it’s 1975 and older only. Thanks for the reminder.
Sounds like a fun trip! Congratulations!
Ya know, you could fly to Colorado, have your Dad (Meet your wife, for the FIRST time.) take you to the place you pick-up your car. And, it won’t even have the tougher California Emissions.
You might want to check to be sure, but one-way tickets may be as much as 2/3 of a round-trip ticket. You will want to budget accordingly…
Bob – You’re correct of course. The big savings will be in the cost savings of not spending thousands on renting a convertible. Plus, we get to keep the car. And I think a car buying adventure coupled with the road trip is what will make it so much fun. Way to burst my bubble though.
Chuck – we may take you up that. It will be the end of our trip, so I can’t make any promises though. We might just want to get home.
Dad (Pool Dragon) – It’s a possibility, and it would be great to see you! Once I have the money for the car, I’ll start shopping around, and see where the best deal is.
Looks like you are coming through Montana on I-90. Look me up in Butte, we’ll tour the upstream end of the largest Superfund site in America, some neat museums, the tallest freestanding smokestack in the world, and we even have a supercomputer in town!
Be careful about the sales tax. Buying a car in one state and end up registering it soon after in another can get expensive. I ended paying sales tax twice one time when I bought a new car in Texas, moved to Maryland and move the registration before the care was 9 months old. Maryland required me to pay THEIR sales tax on the original purchase price of the car in Texas.
What you need is a nice Land Rover (Series IIA or III). This couple drove from WA to VT in one. Im sure you could do it too
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