Spending on Experience

So as usual I’ve been thinking a lot about money. Specifically on spending money on intangible items. Like for example, vacation. We spent approximately $2,400 on Mexico. That includes everything up to the tip for the bartender. Which in the grand scheme of vacations isn’t very much. But it is almost 2 mortgage payments, 11 weeks of daycare or 6 car payments. Other than pictures and a sombrero I won I don’t have anything to show for it. But I don’t regret it one second. The experience was well as Mastercard puts it priceless.

In general I don’t like to spend money on experiences because I don’t feel like I have anything to show for it and unlike an item I can return experiences if they go bad aren’t exactly returnable. However, lately the experiences I have chosen to spend money on seem to have been worthwhile. For example yesterday the H, our son, and our friends L & L (lets call them L^2) went to the Holidazzle parade and to Macy’s to see Santa and the store display.

• Parade: Free
• Macy’s “A Day in the Life of an Elf” display: Free
• Picture with Santa: $14
• Treats from Mrs. Claus’s Bakery: $10
• Parking: Free (because we spent $20 or more at Macy’s)

So in total the whole experience cost us $24, and other than my frozen feet was well worth it. Our son lit up when he saw the parade go by, and excitedly sat on Santa’s lap and proclaimed that he wants a dragon castle for Christmas. Plus, we got to spend our frozen experience with our two friends.

What do others think? Do you like to spend money on experiences, or objects or both/neither?

Mexico – Day 8

(A Belated Post)

Woke up surprisingly un-hungover considering the debauchery of the previous night. Even though we were unpacked I managed to pack us in a subhuman rate so I could get the most of my pool/beach time before the 10:30 AM pick up for the airport.

The H declined to go swimming with me siting his lobster body as his reasoning (it was our last day! An unfit excuse in my opinion!) so I made him be my paparazzi for the morning.

First it was a final swim in the private pool.

Then it was off to the beach. Since it was a cloudy and windy day the waves were HUGE. Probably the biggest they had been yet, the H was clearly missing out!

And then I decided to get a little cutesy.

Then we rushed back to our hotel room so I could shower and change before the hotel transport could pick up our luggage (the resort is that big that you need a car to take you back to the lobby, at least if you’re carrying luggage. We walked everyday all around).

Then it was our final breakfast at La Marche where I sneakily made sandwiches and snacks into some ziploc bags for the airport ride.

Then the car came to pick us up.

When we arrived at the airport we realized we were on the same flight as the WI people we met in line at the Lobster Pot Thursday night, so that was quite amusing. I also realize, I don’t really understand what Duty Free means because everything seemed pretty expensive to me. I did enjoy how they market their cigarettes though:

I also really enjoyed the security line:

And then sadly at 1:25 our United Airlines plane left for Chicago. We arrived in Minnesota at around 9:25 PM after a long day of travel. We arrived to sub zero weather and snow, leaving 85 and sunny was the worst thing ever.

Definitely working on the H to move to a warmer climate, this winter thing doesn’t cut it for me anymore!

Mexico – Day 7

We contemplated doing an excursion today being our last day, but in the end money (and my desire to take a picture with a monkey) prevented us from doing so. Though I have to say I regret not going snorkeling with Turtles or doing Explorer (ziplines, cenotes, etc).

Instead we spent the morning at the main pool where we hadn’t been yet since that’s where the monkey man said he would be. I managed to find him and both the H and got pictures with a spider monkey. It was the cutest/coolest thing. He had such soft hands and feet! The monkey guy came around again when I was in my suit and without sunglasses so he must not have realized I had already done a photo so I did another one. This time the monkey fondled me and grabbed my boob (and squeezed!) 3 times!

Afterwards we went to the beach for our final swim =( ! I became a lobster like the H, my entire front side is crisp leaving an uneven line down my side where my normal slightly tan backside is.

Then I had my spa appointment! It started out with a steam room, then sauna, then shower and then an hour aromatherapy massage. It was absolutely amazing despite my extremely sunburned skin. Ah, I can’t even explain it! I’ve only had a massage once before in Cancun (4 years ago) and I fell asleep during it so I don’t feel like it counts.

We went to dinner at Ginger, even though we’ve been there before, but I really wanted to do the hibachi grill at the expense of not trying all the restaurants. (We never went to Tamansari, the Indonesian restaurant).

The H got picked to try and spin this egg and crack it in half. He was also one of two people that was able to catch a shrimp in his mouth. It was quite impressive.

We ate with 8 French Canadians, and I ate both my sushi and the H’s, then shrimp bisque, then this fried rice thing and then the main course of shrimp, beef and vegetables. I thought I was going to explode. I in fact, had to go home and change out of my now immensely tight shirt and lay down at the expense of going to another Casino night. Which really sucked because the H was really looking forward all day to it. I offered that he go with out me which he refused, and when I felt better an hour later to go, but he still wasn’t willing. Probably because his lobster body was hurting him. He fell asleep while we watched Indecent Proposal (btw for one million dollars, I’d sleep with pretty much anyone).

I woke up the H and we went down to see the Las Vegas show. Which I’m glad we did because it was my favorite show to date.

What I have neglected to mention was that during all the shows the women are almost always wearing thong bottoms, which I have to say really enhances the viewing pleasure.

Then things got a little rowdy. I convinced the H since it was the last night we needed to take a tequila shot. Then I made him dance with me to the live Imperial Band. Then he had more rum and cokes and I had more tequila sunrises. We also reunited again with all of the people we were pretending to know: The Captain and his wife, Casino Couple, Nasty Couple, Polish Couple, Russian Couple. Sadly never saw the Faux Asian’s again. (He looks Asian at night, white during the day, its very confusing!)

Our rowdiness turned into deciding to make use of our free champagne this way:

And yes, I’m wearing my winning Sombrero.

Obviously what all drunk people need is room service:

Those buffalo wings were SO SPICY. They essentially made my mouth feel like the rest of my body.

These are how many matches it takes a drunk person to light a cigarette:

And then we fell asleep.

Mexico – Day 6

Morning was greeted with another wild animal by La Marche, I think this one is some sort of anteater/rabbit thing.

Apres breakfast it was off to beaching and pooling again. The H burned himself into the same shade as the lobster’s we ate the night before.

Before dinner, I took a hot bubble bath and then sat on the balcony with my book and tea. Is this the relaxing the H has been talking about?

We went to dinner at La Hacienda, which has been my favorite to date. Who can refuse guacamole (my absolute favorite thing!)! There was also a mariachi band. I ordered the seafood combo that was just so amazing I had to take a picture of it.

After dinner was the fire show, which was ridiculously awesome. I couldn’t get my camera to take that great of a picture of it, but here’s the best I’ve got:

Then it was the Mayan Show, which probably was great, but I was so unbelievably drowsy I kept closing my eyes during the soothing Mayan music. They had people in authentic wartime ritual costume, and it was amazing costumes, but just soooo sleepy!

Mexico – Day 5

After breakfast at La Marche, we decided to take the Shopping Trip to Playa Del Carmen. I had wanted to do Playa and Cozumel, but it was $30 total for just Playa and we would have paid way more to rent a car, and then take the ferry.

We met some nice people on the bus from Indiana, and my Polish folks were on the bus as well. (We met/stood next to a Polish couple at Casino night, that I’ve been looking for just to be like “Hey I’m Polish too!”)

Playa was half overpriced American stores and half vendors yelling at you from the street. I bought a hat (that I think the H bargained poorly for and we paid too much for) then we went to beach a little, which was nice. Then we had extremely overpriced Haagen Dasz that was delicious. I was on the hunt for real tacos and with the very little money we had left was able to get chicken tacos and a cerveza. Yay!

6 people were late to catch the bus, so we left without them, which was unfortunate for those people! We then beached and pooled some before going to Lobster Pot for dinner where we waited 2+ hours to be seated. We went 15 minutes before it opened to beat a line, and apparently everyone else had the same idea. We missed the Michael Jackson show because of it.

It was worth the wait I think. The fried tuna I had to start with was AMAZING. The H got “surf and turf” and I got a seafood mixed grill. I quickly learned that eating Lobster for the first time with someone who also hasn’t eaten it isn’t very helpful. I had no idea what I was doing.

Also, my greatest fear is food  that still has a face and  there were prawns that freaked the hell out of me with their eyes and little feet things. I had to close my eyes while the H removed them from my plate and hid them behind his glass.

After waiting so long for dinner, and being so full, we just went back to the Hotel room and watched Four Christmases which was a nice little rest.