Aaron Ewer
Aaron Ewers thoughts about everything

School will be starting up again here. Some neighboring counties are actually starting back this week, and by the end of next week I believe all the kids in the area will be back in school. That doesn’t worry me too much other than having to spend a bunch of money on school uniforms and supplies this month.

The upside to this is that if we can still get away for a short vacation, the beaches won’t be near as crowded yet there are still two months left of great beach weather at all the Gulf of Mexico beaches.

I checked online for a condo rental in Destin or anywhere along the Florida panhandle and found a great site, Rentalo.com to help book a condo. I was pleasantly surprised to see all the listings they have for Destin condos and I think we can find the perfect spot tonight and make our plans.

This same site handles condo rentals for all over the U.S., so I checked out what they have listed for Kissimmee vacation villas because we want to go back to Disneyworld for Thanksgiving and visit the grandparents in New Port Richey.

With air travel costs going up every week, we should probably book our spring break trip, too. So I checked the condo listings for Cancun and compared those with villas Puerto Vallarta deals and as long as we can get the new passports for the kids, we’ll have all our travel booked in some great spots for really great prices.

I love Chicago. It’s my favorite “big city” to go for business or for pleasure. I’m booking our flight and getting tickets from a ticket broker so we can go watch the Cubs vs the Cardinals this summer.

There’s so much to do and see in the Windy City - and hundreds of good places to eat all kinds of food, especially steaks and chops. One of my favorite restaurants in Chicago is the Chicago Chop House. It is a classic Chicago bar and restaurant and a must do for anyone who loves steak with lots of atmosphere. Anything on the menu is guaranteed to be great, and the wine list is spectacular.

In the summer you can charter a sail on one of the tall ships out on the Lake. Put that on your “bucket list.” And if you can’t fit that in on your first trip, at least take a river and lake boat tour - it’s great fun and you learn a few things about the city, too.

I read the Chicago Tribune for news you can’t get in the other daily papers. If nothing else, read the great weekly column by Garrison Keillor, humorist, author, and perhaps best known as the radio host of “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Around here a trip to the beach is a major undertaking, as it is an 8 hour drive, one way, and with the cost of gasoline it will probably cost as much as $250 or even $300 just for gas to get there and back. The beach means Panama City or Destin to the people here, and many have regular beach houses or condos that they rent on an annual basis for their summer vacations.

On the other hand, the beach to me has always meant Virginia Beach, in the Norfolk area. And now that Southwest Airlines flies into Norfolk with direct flights every day, it makes sense for use to just fly to Norfolk, rent a car, and enjoy the familiar beachfront of my childhood.

If we have to rent a car, I want to get something small, good on gas and a cheap daily rate. I was searching the online discount coupon site for cheap deals on daily, weekly or monthly auto hire and think I found what we need.

I found some other deals on the coupon site that we’ll want to use, too, such as a new portable DVD player for my son to watch DVD’s on the airplane. My daughter wants to get a couple of new outfits from Banana Republic before she “can be seen in public,” and the wife wants to get a couple pairs of new sandals to go with her beachwear.

So even though this trip is going to cost me some money, we’ll be saving some by using the online coupons and we can use that savings on fun at the beach this summer.

Of course, the old saying goes, you have to spend money to make money. Sometimes that’s true for you have to spend money to save money, too. That’s why I buy in bulk at the warehouse clubs and shop for end of season sales, like the snow ski and snowboards that go on sale in May every year.

My son is great on a snowboard - we’ve been taking him to the ski resorts with us every winter since he was born. He has a lot of friends that skateboard but have never been to the slopes, so I know he will be a natural on a skateboard, and perhaps some of his friends will have the chance to try a snowboard now that they are getting older.

The snowboard that we bought last year we got online from a great site, called Christy Sports, that specializes in snowboards and ski gear. Right now there are huge savings on snowboards - I saw prices at up to 40% off the list prices we paid last fall at the start of the season. Of course, paying the full list price at the beginning of the season means you get the newest styles and the latest technologies. But when I’m buying Burton snowboards for my 6 year old, it’s OK for the snowboard to be last year’s style when I can save a lot of money.

The site I used has down gloves, all kinds of jackets, boots and bags. I like the way you can shop by brand name or by product, and their clearance tab is the first place I look.

School will be out for the summer after next week and my son is really pumped about having the whole day for play instead of having to sit in a classroom all day. He’s a very active kid, so we are making plans to keep him busy for the next two months of no school.

One thing he really likes is skateboarding. The kids down the street are really into the sport and they’ve let him ride their skateboards a few times. We are thinking he’s old enough now to get one of his own. The wife wanted to pick up a cheap skateboard at the toy store, but I think I’ve talked her out of that. I used to ride my skateboard all over the neighborhood when I was a kid, and I know that they have a lot of new designs and technology that are specific to the rider’s age and weight and the type of riding he’ll be doing.

I found a website that has a great assortment of skateboards and all the other gear we’ll need. I’m going to let my son sit with me and pick the board design that he likes, and we’ll order it this weekend so it will be here about the same time that school lets out.