If you remember I posted awhile back our plans to go camping over vacation. Well, that didn’t happen. We decided to take the tips that I wrote about and do a staycation. If you did not get to read those tips you can click here to read them or review them.

I’ll admit I had mixed emotions. I wanted to get out of the city, away from the apartment, to escape the routine, but the thought of packing everyone up and camping was a bit exhausting. The weather wasn’t looking that great either, so Leaky Tent Phobia took over. We stayed home.

What did we do?

1. Celebrated 100 years of ROC.  We stood with the other few thousand gathered around the intersection to watch the military drive by. I would call it a parade, but it wasn’t really one. The real parade was invitation only. We caught the line up after the show on their way back to base. It was still pretty spectacular with the face paint, fighter jets flying by, and the parachuters jumping out with their red, blue, and white parachutes.

Frog Men armed and ready...

This guy scared me and intrigued me all at the same time!

"The French have landed! The French have landed!" was what my husband wanted to shout as they glided down to the ground. =)

Watched the show from our rooftop!

2. Beach Trip. Went to the beach for half a day. We forgot the boogie boards, but kids caught some waves anyway. Any day at the beach is a good day, sand and all.

3. Cable Car Ride. We rode the cable car up to the tea farms. Our cable car had a glass bottom. Yes, it did! To say the least, it made for an interesting ride as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain. I wasn’t sure if it was really that hot inside our glass death trap or if my body was reacting to the little bit of stress I felt every time Jie Jie would get excited and start jumping. We survived the 30-minutes and took the glass bottom box back down. All for the love of our kids, cause it ain’t gonna happen again!

4. Zoo Trip. A few hours with friends at the zoo is always fun. I officially called our group, The Crazy Mom Club. You know 5 moms take out 14 children. No more needs to be said, except that we didn’t loose any kids and we all were laughing and having fun.

I’m really glad we didn’t go camping. We would have missed the “parade”, the fireworks, and probably would have had to sleep in the rain. It was the best decision we could have made. Bonus points: we saved money. Now I’m planning Christmas vacation with more money in our budget.

If you had a fall break, what did you do? What other staycation ideas do you have? Share in the comments below.