Hotwire

I'm excited...we just finished booking our rooms for our Chicago trip. Now, anyone who knows me probably could tell you that I like to get a deal and that somehow I usually find one. I have been looking at rooms for a few weeks now, but hadn't booked them (good thing) because we weren't sure if Josh would be able to be off. This has been scheduled for 8 months now, but up until a few days ago. I have checked every site I know of...expedia, travelocity, orbitz, the hotel sites etc... Well, I was going to book through Expedia back in July, but decided that the price would be the same regardless and the room was non-refundable...I don't like that part. In the meantime, I think I saw a commercial for Hotwire.com. I decided to check it out. WOW--I was surprised. I found that the rooms were at least $60 cheaper per night and some even more. Now, I know what you are going to say...what kind of rooms?? Well, on Hotwire, you select the area you want to say and the class (star) of hotel you wish to stay in. You don't find out the room til after you reserve them. I was a little scared about that too, but when I read about it and read which hotels they use at the 3 and 4 star price I was not so afraid. You see, if I have searched correctly, Priceline you don't get to choose your stars.
Anyway, we narrowed down the area to Streeterville or Gold Coast of Chicago and 3.5 or 4 star. Well, I went on this afternoon to plunge in and do...the 4 star was cheaper than 3.5 star. We reserved them and immediately it told us that we are staying at the Hyatt. It is close to everything we want...train, Michigan, Lakeshore and it sits along the Chicago River. The coolest thing is that it is $400 cheaper than what we originally were going to do. Another way we saved $$ on the trip was, we are riding the train. Train=cheaper than gas & NO PARKING FEES (which is almost $50 per night).
Other than that, my husband is on cloud 9 this weekend because he got something he's been wanting for awhile...a new TV. Don't laugh when I say this, but he kind of had good reason to want a new one. In our bedroom, we had a 13 inch television...okay you can laugh. We've had it for like 7 years or more. As far as that goes, it wasn't like our LR tv was very big either and both of them are kind of like dinosaurs in the way of TV's. Anyway, he got a new SONY Bravia LCD and I must say...it is pretty cool and I'm glad we got it...just in time to watch the ending of the Olympics =(. I'm sad they are already over.
Speaking of the Olympics, a man in our church is a gold-medal Olympian from the 1952 Olympics. He was on the basketball team. We got to see his gold medal and hear his story today at church--pretty cool. A few things I will note...he was in the Olympics when they had to RAISE MONEY to go there, there were not NBA'ers on the team & it was all tall white dudes. It was a pretty cool story and pretty cool pictures. He said there are only 2 of them from that team that are still living. He looked pretty vivacious to me.
Well, I need to go...I need to look in some totes for shoes that we should have for Kiki (shoes of Aliyah's). Now, I don't know if they will fit, but we shall see. Beautiful day it has been, we enjoyed some time in the fresh air. The girls really needed it since they were a little overly energetic yesterday.