My Stampin' Trip

So....as many of you know....my lovely customers who support the heck out of me and my fantastic down line....who are amazing in every way.....helped me earn the Great Getaway Trip that Stampin' Up! offered this year.

The Grand Vacation is 40,000 points......and has never been in my reach.  But, this year, they offered a Getaway for 30,000...and that was do-able.

So, last Thursday, the Dairy Farmer and I boarded a plan and took a whirlwind trip to South Carolina.

It was a long day- we went to Charlotte, had a layover and then landed in Savannah.  We chose to rent a car, wasn't sure how the hubs felt about being stuck on a resort for 3 days.  We got a great deal on a car, that seriously....could've fit in my pocket...but hey, it was wheels!

We checked into our room and Praises!  We had an ocean view!!

This is the view from our balcony.  It was pretty warm and we had had a long day, so we opted to go to the grocery store...get a few things for our mini fridge, grabbed some pizza and my favorite- Lime a Rita's and enjoyed a balcony picnic. 

Stampin' Up! didn't plan anything for us.....it truly was our vacation to do what we wished.  The Dairy Farmer and I had had a rough few weeks.....harvesting and a child struggling through public school for the first time ever....so we really just decided to chill.  Sleep in, eat like pigs and lay around.  Good times!

SU did rent bikes for us to use as we wished.  We found out that 150 demos had earned the trip, and they all brought someone....so 300 of us descended upon the Westin.  They had a conference room full of bikes.  And each one had a SU flag on it.  Chris was a good egg and sported his dork flag proudly.  They also had the BEST cookies and desserts ....with milk!...for after our rides.    The beach is quite large and very hard packed, so it's a cinch to ride bikes on the beach for miles.

 

 

 

 

The water reminded me so much of the gulf of Mexico.....warm, almost like bath water and hardly any waves.  I was hoping to see dolphins, but no luck.  I did find these though:

 

And this:

 

 

After our bike ride, we did go to the beach for a bit.  They had chairs and umbrellas you could rent for 32.00 for the day.  Well, my man is cheap and no way was he spending 32.00 on an umbrella and chair when we'd only be there for a few hours.   That hard packed beach is a bit uncomfortable without a chair..........

 

 

So, we went hot tubing.  Then to the pool........then hubs said, if you want me to hang out down here with all these other demonstrators, you better get me a drink.  You can only have Westin cups around the deck/pool area, so we had to buy drinks. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dairy Farmer came back with two strawberry daiquiris.

Which cost my penny pinching husband........$21.00.    We headed back up to our room to drink and watch tv by ourselves!


The one thing I was a little bummed about was no pillow gifts.  I always hear about these pillow gifts.  SU sneeks into your room in the evening and gives you a fun gift on your pillow.   The vacations that SU offers......all the demos always hoot and hollar over pillow gifts.  So, I was a little sad.  Then I spoke with another demo and she said...oh yes!  We got pillow gifts...awesome Land's End tote bags!  Then I realized, the hubby had put the Do Not Disturb sign up!  

So, the next night, I kept hearing knocking at the door.  Chris looked out the peeper hole and said...nah, they were knocking across the hall.  The knocking continued...at the neighbor's door.  I figured.....pillow gift!!!!  I opened the door and they said- so sorry, you have a do not disturb sign, we're not stalking you!  Do you want your amenities plate?  I learned that is a fancy name for fruit and cheese.  

 Here is what they gave us:

And it was good.....we scarfed it down and went out to dinner!  Told you we were eating like pigs!  My mom and her boyfriend were there for 10 days, so we met up with them for dinner.

When we came back to our room.......I found this:

 

 

 

YAY!!!  They snuck into our room and gave me my bag!  The Dairy Farmer was very disconcerted by this since his underwear where strewn about.  We weren't just eating like pigs, we were living like them too!

So, the next night, before we went out to dinner- he made the bed and cleaned up the room!

Here is what I got on our last day:

 

That little box was chock full of stamps, ribbon, paper, pads, buttons etc......eeeeek...I was like a kid at Christmas!


I didn't take pictures of the hotel- I wish I would have, it was lovely, especially the decks and pools.  But, honestly, it was such a fast 2 days.  I visited on the beach with Sondra, she's in my group and at breakfast one morning, there was a line to get in the restaurant.  The hostess asked if there were any groups of 4....they could be seated immediately, of course, Chris grabbed the couple behind us and we met Lori and Zane Bowerman from Idaho!  It was nice to visit with another demo. 

I did steal a couple pics from the website!  Here is the Westin:

Here's to hoping for another 30,000 points and taking a trip to San Diego in 2013!