To say that we’re into Halloween would be the understatement of a lifetime. We’ve been throwing Halloween parties for twenty years now and every year we add a few more decorations, so we’ve accumulated a lot of really cool things. For the ten years, the parties were for the kids, but now we’re all about the adult Halloween party. This year’s party is tomorrow, so we’re frantically getting ready since our remodeling work didn’t finish until two days ago. It normally takes us two weeks to decorate the entire house, so the pressure has been on to finish and get everything done in time.
Party SignPumpkin JackFront Yard Scene
We decorate both inside and outside and every year the theme for the outdoor decorations change. This year’s theme is spiders, so we had fun building a giant spider web that spanned the entire front porch. We even have a body wrapped in spider webs hanging from the top of the porch. We always do a small cemetery scene, so spiders are crawling throughout. We also match our costumes to the theme, so we’re dressing as Frodo (assuming you get the reference from the Lord of the Rings) and a Black Widow. Inside the house, we go as far as changing out our artwork and even change some of our curtains.
Animated WitchCreepy CatMantelpieceGiant Spider
We’re making marinated mushrooms, antipasto spears (with olives, marinated peppers, prosciutto, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese), tea sandwiches, pumpkin sage shrimp, and a variety of other snacks. Obviously we’ll have plenty wine and beer on hand as well. We wish you could all join us for the party, but we’ve added some pictures to help everyone get into the spirit of the party.
Rising CorpseScarecrowWitch with CurtainsSpiders in the Yard
There is nothing better than doing a wine tasting, especially when travelling to foreign countries. Two years ago, we spent two weeks in Estaponia, Spain in the Costa Del Sol. It was an amazing time travelling throughout the region and exploring the many sites that the area has to offer. We rented a car while we were there, but when we visited Ronda, we hired a guide to drive us and take us to an organic wine vineyard as well as one of the many olive vineyards that dominate the hillsides. It was probably a wise decision not to drive that day as the wine tasting was rather generous.
Wine TastingVineyards
We traveled to Spain in November, so it was the off-season as far as tourists goes, so we ended up with a private tour and tasting at the Joaquin Fernandez Vineyard. The wine was amazing and the views from the vineyard were spectacular. The vineyard was completely organic and at the ends of each row of vines were a variety of plants that attracted bees and insects that were natural predators to insects that could harm the grapes. After the tour was the tasting. For each wine, we were poured a full glass and the owner explained which grapes were used and why. In addition to the wine, we had a meat and cheese tray as well as bread sticks to help cleanse our palate. The owner would not continue on to the next wine until we finished our glass, so we were feeling quite good by the time we finished several glasses of wine.
Wine TourJoaquin Fernandez Vineyard
From there we were off to visit an olive vineyard where they still hand press the olive oil. It is a slow process where they continuously add pads to the press as they slowly crush all of the oil out of the olives. Tasting freshly pressed olive oil was amazing, there is truly nothing like it. It is truly a labor of love, but at the same time, it is definitely labor intensive. In addition to pressing their own olives, the surrounding vineyards would sell their olives to them to be pressed and sold by them. Everywhere you go in southern Spain, you are surrounded by olive trees and we were tempted several times to just pull our car over and grab some fresh from the branches. After being spoiled by having such fresh olives, we have found ourselves to be very picky about the olives that we eat here in the States.
Olive PressesDona at Olive Vineyard
Ronda, itself, is a beautiful town with an incredible bridge that connects the old and new parts of the city. It is home to the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain, although it is much smaller than ones that you can find in Seville or Madrid. Sitting high upon the cliffs, the views from Ronda of the surrounding area is unbeatable. It is certainly worth making Ronda a destination to visit if you’re in southern Spain. It has all of the charm one would expect of a village, but has the amenities of a small city. We sat and had coffee in one of the hotels and simply soaked in the atmosphere.
Bridge at RondaBullfighting Ring in Ronda
There were many things about our trip to Spain that were remarkable, but visiting Ronda and doing the wine tasting was definitely one of the best experiences of the trip. Living in Colorado with all our mountains, it was surprising to us how similar the terrain of Spain was to much of the southwest. The drive to Ronda, through the rugged mountains, was an adventure itself, but well worth the effort. We look forward to our next opportunity to sample wine and tour a vineyard in another exotic location, it is an experience that can’t be beaten.
First of all, we know that timeshares aren’t for everyone. The year that our youngest daughter went off to college, one of our parents gave us one of their timeshare weeks because they weren’t going to have time to use it that year. So two weeks after dropping our daughter off at her dorm, we were off to Cabo San Lucas. When we arrived at the resort, which was gorgeous, we were asked about scheduling a tour of the property and listening to their timeshare pitch. We decided to go ahead and schedule the tour, only because of the discounts, free drinks, and other offers. The morning of the tour, we both woke up repeating the mantra, “just say no”. We were determined that we weren’t going to be duped into buying a timeshare and we wouldn’t give them more than the sixty minutes that they said the tour would take us. We looked at the rooms, ate breakfast with the salesperson at a table overlooking the private beach, and eventually made our way to the sales office. Our room was spectacular, the beach was gorgeous, and we were feeling relaxed, perhaps too relaxed. Our resolve had wavered, we were no long able to “just say no”, but we were now firmly embedded into the “maybe” camp. We called our parents who had given us the timeshare week and asked their opinion, after all, they had several timeshare weeks with different companies and traveled constantly. Their response, “if you had to go there every year and you couldn’t trade it, would we go?”. We looked out at the resort, the ocean, the beautiful blue skies. Yes, we could do this every year, happily, so in the end, it was “just say yes” and we had purchased our first timeshare. There are a lot of questions that you need to ask yourself before you decide to purchase a timeshare, but we actually are big fans of timeshares after having had a couple of them for several years now.
Sunset over the Pacific OceanSuite at Villa Del Arco
The most obvious and important question is can you afford it? Timeshares aren’t cheap and you need to understand all of the expenses that are involved. First, unless you’re in the position to purchase outright, you will have a monthly installment payment as well as interest charges. If you decide to exchange your week (we’ll talk about that later) there is a cost for each week that you trade. If you’re not able to use your week, most timeshares allow you to “bank it” or “rescue it”, which allows you to move your week to the following year and gives you longer to use your week, but again there is a cost to do that. The biggest additional expense is for your maintenance fees, which is what they charge for cleaning and general maintenance of the property. It is a big investment, so you need to think about it carefully. One potential benefit, depending on the timeshare that you’ve bought is that it is buying property and you can write off the interest on your taxes and when you’ve paid it off, it is yours and you can will it to a child or relative.
View from Our Room at the Villa Del ArcoResort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic
The next question to ask yourself is how often can you travel? If you travel consistently, one week every year or at least every other year, then perhaps it might be a good choice for you. The way that we look at it is that we’re “pre-paying” for our hotel or resort in advance, which is usually the most expensive part of the trip anyway. For us, we know that we will travel at least a couple of weeks a year, with at least one of those trips being out of the country. We find that it reduces our stress when we start planning a trip, knowing that we don’t have to think about the cost of our room and our only expenses will be for food, activities, and airfare.
Suite at the Resort in Punta CanaSunset in Puerto Vallarta
If you’re leaning towards purchasing a timeshare, the next question is probably which one is right for you. There are lots of them out there, Marriott, Hilton, Disney, and a variety of other hotel groups. We’re not going to make a recommendation, although we have two different timeshares at the moment and are happy with both. Find out if they are affiliated with a timeshare exchange company. One of our timeshares is associated with RCI and the other is associated with Interval International. These companies allow you to deposit your timeshare week with them and exchange it for any available timeshare property in their catalog, which provides properties all over the world, making your timeshare a passport to travelling the world. A couple of years ago, we spent two weeks in Estapona Spain simply by trading weeks that we had in our current timeshares. Also, check to see if you can convert your timeshare for points in a regular hotel rewards program, that way if you can’t travel, you can at least convert your timeshare into hotel rooms that can be used anywhere the hotel chain has a presence.
Suite in Puerto VallartaFlamenco Dancers at the Resort in Estapona Spain
In our opinion, the younger that you are when you decide to purchase a timeshare, the better it will work out for you because it is that much longer that you will own it after it has been paid off. If you do decide to go on a timeshare tour or accept an offer for a cheap hotel room if you’re willing to listen to their pitch, be prepared for a pushy sales experience. Unfortunately they are sales people and that is what they do. Only buy a timeshare if you feel that it is the right decision for you, which it may or may not be. If you do decide to buy a timeshare, hopefully our advise will help you find the one that is right for you.
