One Love. One Life.: Travels!

This summer has turned out to be a spectacular one full of many travels and ohhhh how I LOVE TRAVELS! First, I planned a trip to the Florida Keys with my sister and nephew (3 weeks ago). The ocean heals me and it was so much fun being around my little love nugget, Rylan.

This Sunday I'm heading to O'ahu, Hawaii with my husband. He has a job there and I get to go with, playing the part of a nicely kept wife! Ohhhh how I love being a wife! We will be staying at the Courtyard Marriot in Waikiki for a week. Mr. Miller will be working while I play, but he'll have some play time too. I plan to hike waterfalls and sniff flowers at the botanic gardens and swim with the Humuhumukununukuapua and eat pineapples and make Leis and dream and read and be thankful.

Then back to Denver for two weeks and we'll be heading to Charleston, South Carolina for our one year wedding anniversary! This is one sweet life <3

I must say, these travels are eating at a nice chunk of our fundage but guess what? WHO CARES?! You only live once and ya can't take it with ya when you die! Working is not living. Traveling, experiancing new things, challenging yourself to be bold and free IS living and I suggest you get off your hiney and go somewhere. PLEASE, go! Just. Go.

A few travel tips:

Set a budget and stick to it. Even if its an itty bitty one, you can make an awesome weekend trip happen if you do your research and get creative.

Read up on free things to do: hiking, swimming, visiting historic sites
Pack a soft cooler and a few essentials (cups, wine key, small knife, napkins, a few plastic bags to fill with ice). Then stock up on a few things you can make meals from so you don't have to eat out every time. We get hummus, fruit, cheeses, lunch meat, bread, yogurt and that lasts us a few days.
Go to an early happy hour instead of a late dinner. Most places have really great drink and eat specials for 1/2 the price! Do that a few days and then you can splurge on a fancy dinner out one night
Coupons! Sounds dorky but there are SO many coupons online for all kinds of things, like 2 for 1 admission or wine tastings. $1.00 off here and there adds up when you are jet setting

Use your legs! Seeing things by foot gives you a real sense of "being here now", feeling the pulse of the new place you are in.
Tripadvisor Reviews: Its a free travel guide where you can gather travel information and see what others are saying about the places you want to eat, sleep, or play at. Its VERY helpful, especially when picking out hotels. The bad reviews save you from being dissapointed in a place and have suggestions of other places instead.
Sign up for Choice Hotels and other frequent travel sites (Frontier, Delta, etc) so you can start collecting points for free stays. It might take a while but you earn for every stay and it will add up eventually. Book all travels for you and your significant other under your log in and start working towards free trips!
Go to http://www.budgettravel.com/ and read articles on insider tips to save money and have a BLAST wherever it is you want to go! These people do this for a living, isn't that an awesome job?!
Ask the locals. They will tell you what is a rip off, what is a must do, and what you should shell out some change for.