R.I.P. Kia

The Kia has died; gone onto car heaven, kicked the bucket, gone down in a blaze of glory (almost!) All of you who know me also know my little Kia that could. It was my first car that I ever bought and it has been my old faithful for many years.

Now, Dennis and I have often had the car debate. I am a fan of buying a car and paying it off and living the life of no car payment. Dennis belongs to the "shiny and new" club. He would get a new car every year if he could. I have said for a long time that I will drive it until I no longer can.

That day came Wednesday.

Dennis called me at work on Wednesday night...

"How's your car driving today?"

"It's usual kinda crappy self."

"Well there's a questionable spot on the driveway."

The spot in question:

Yeah this was after the rain. And you can't see the nice trail from the street into the driveway. So anyways, I drive the car home from work and it's making these terrible noises and the engine is smoking by the time I get home. I took it into the garage the next day.

To make a long story short, the power steering system blew out and leaked fluid all over the engine and electrical system. I was basically told that if I drove the car it would catch on fire. The fix for this was going to be incredibly expensive, so it was time to pony up and go to the dealership to buy a real grown up car.

A Toyota Camry woohoo! It has power locks and windows, keyless entry, all the speakers work, and somehow the steering seems much easier to me. I will now proceed to drive this baby into the ground...

A decision has been made

Thank you all so much for your great input and help with the vacation plans. We have decided to take two mini-vacations. First stop is Pittsburgh to see Riz, T, and the new baby. We will stay there for the weekend and then next stop...Washington DC.

We wanted to go somewhere we could drive to, as flights are crazy. The finger lakes were a good idea, but we just did the wineries last weekend. We love the Adirondacks, but also have a trip planned there in the fall for work. We have always talked about going to DC, but haven't gotten around to it. I found this awesome hotel deal yesterday for a place called Hotel Monaco. It was just remodeled and sits in Old Towne Alexandria, VA with Metro service to DC. Here's a pic:

Now that it's booked we can't wait to go!