Monday, January 08, 2007

Got it!

We have a place to sleep!

Oakland Cottage
July 3-6 (nights)
Check in July 3 @ 4pm
Check out July 7 @ 11am
A la carte (maid service and breakfast NOT included)
3 nights @ $445
1 night @ $495
lodging tax $73.20
state sales tax $123.53
pet fee $90
grand total $2116.73
$1058.37 paid 1/8/07
$1058.37 due 6/3/07


Our reservation may be cancelled for refund of deposit less $35 processing fee up to 30 days prior to check-in date. After 30 days, cancellation forfeits the entire deposit.


Let's start thinking about all the other arrangements that we need to make before we get there -- food, menus, cost split, entertainment, who-sleeps-where, etc. Please post a comment to this post with any suggestions that you might have and I'll put together a master post with all of 'em in it for us to "vote" on.

5 comments:

susan said...

Food: Are there any special items that are must haves? Any "absloutely not"s? Allergies?

Menus: How about if each (paying!) sib is responsible for planning the menu for a day?

Cost split: 4 ways or 5?

Entertainment: What are we going to do when we're not running?

Who-Sleeps-Where: 'rah requested the Music Suite; Lenka & Jacq called dibs on the Rose Suite... any objections? Ma 'n Pa, which one do you want?

That's what I have... let's discourse!

Jacqueline said...

ummmm as for food, most things are welcome...but I would request that some of them don't contain mushrooms and spinach. So, I guess we can't eat Quiche all the time.....:-)

I would like to help pay for my part in things...I don't care how I go about doing it, whether it's helping with food or splitting the cost 5 ways, but I want to pay for SOMETHING!!!

As far as entertainment, I thought that maybe we could set up a ring, put some candy in the middle and set the kids loose...that might be fun!!! (actually, in reality, is there anything like hiking trails that we could do?)

I don't remember saying anything about the Rose Suite, so if Lenka wants it, go for it...I can sleep on an air mattress.

susan said...

Lord love you, Jacq, they must have run you over today for you to be so sacrificing!!!

I think there are enough beds to be had that no one will have to sleep on an air mattress unless that is their preference. I should have written that Lenka called dibs on you and her having that suite since it's really like two full rooms with an adjoining door. The puppies can stay together, that way, too!

So you're under no obligation... but you get to tell her if you choose to defy her. I'm all for helping you out, but I'm not woman enough to save you at the risk of my own backside!

SheBear said...

What is up with the pet fee? Is that per dog?? We could board our dog for a week for that price! Anyway, not a big deal for us, really, as we won't be bringing her.

As far as room arrangments, we don't care which suite we have, as long as we have enough floor space for our kiddos.

Unless it makes a difference in the dividing of costs, I vote we just all agree to be flexible until we get there and see what's going to work best for everyone. I mean, the photos on the website are lovely, but it may look a bit different in person.

Not at all against a bit of prior planning, but I don't see any reason to carve the room assignments in stone at this point, YK?

As for food, we are currently doing some diet restriction stuff (low-tech allergy testing) with Maggie, but it won't affect the overall menu planning. If we are still restricting her (dairy, etc.) at that point, we'll just bring suitable substitutes.

Menus: I like the idea of each family "hosting" a day's menu. Or, since mom said she wanted to provide a significant portion of the food, maybe we could ask her to take care of all breakfasts (Because she DOES make the best breakfast EVAH!!), plan on leftovers/sandwich type stuff for lunches, and then each sib/family be responsible for a nice dinner?

Just one of many ways to work it....

Entertainment: We're up for anything, as long as it's kid-friendly. We'll bring Trivial Pursuit.....you are all invited to a friendly game of no-holds-barred, to-the-death dueling, LOL! (yeah, she talks some smack.....she must be planning to bring the Noggin version!)

Cost split: Up until now, everything we've discussed has been based on a 5-way split, hasn't it?

susan said...

Some requested info and my two cents…

Pet Fee: I believe the pet fee is per day, rather than per pet. I will double check with the manager to verify that. The total for the entire time that we will be there is $90, which works out to $22.50 per night. Since the pets that are coming are kind of being boarded for a week, maybe that price isn’t so unreasonable? We pay about that for the Monster Minders to come and check on the kitties once a day when we’re away from home…

Food/Menus: No dietary restrictions here. And of course I think taking turns planning the menus for a day is a great idea since I came up with it!

Cost split: The numbers that we’ve talked about up to now have been based on a 5 way split, based on my original assumption that we would do it that way. However, ‘rah asked whether would be splitting the cost 4 or 5 ways in one of her previous posts, so I think we need to discuss which way is going to be better for all of us.

Entertainment: Jacq, check out this link for a pretty good list of hiking/backpacking trails. There are also links to other popular out-doorsy activities at the bottom of that page.
‘rah, J is always up for a good board game challenge!

Rooming: Personally, I would much rather know which room to drag my bags to as soon as we get there. I don’t have a particular room preference, but with as many of us as there are, I’d prefer to get details like that figured out up front. I think it will really help to cut down on the time we have to spend smiling, nodding, and telling each other “It really doesn’t matter to me… what do you want?” My guess is that after a long day of driving, I’m just going to want to go to my room, grab a shower, and not have to negotiate. Naturally, if a swap is necessary for some reason or another once we get there, I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with that. For me, pre-planning these types of things gives us a “recipe” that we can then tweak as needed.