Wednesday the Wife and I leave for Las Vegas, baby! This will be her first time in Sin City, and who better to spend it with than me? This will be the fourth year in a row I’ve traveled out to Vegas, first time without the guys. There probably will not be a nudie bar runs at two in the morning this time, but it will still be a great time.

We’re off for vacation tomorrow. Pretty excited about it too. Our last vacation was to go skiing back in January, so we packed up our ski bibs and snowboard goggles and heavy winter coats. This time, we’re definitely traveling a lot lighter! Shorts and t-shirts are what we’ve got, and we’re ready to enjoy some cooler temps. Highs in Toronto this week are in the upper 70’s - sweet stuff after sweating it out here in Florida. And the rain that Weather.com was predicting seems to have gone away as well, so here’s hoping for cool, dry days.

We’re going to be in Montreal this weekend, and while the humidity is high (56%) the weather there should be cooler than here in Florida too. And if we get too hot, it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to Niagara, where we can get wet in the falls. I’m stoked.

Only two weeks until vacation and we visit the Great White North. I can’t wait to go and the kids are getting geeked up, too. I just hope Toronto and Montreal are kid friendly enough. We have some sights we know we will hit in Toronto, and Montreal will have their big festival going on while we are there, so it should be good. The Hockey Hall of Fame will be a top priority. My son is really getting into learning about the Great One. Taking him to see “99″ in the hall will be cool.

I’ve been to NYC, but without Wife. She’s been to NYC, without me. Before you wonder why we took separate vacations there, we didn’t. I went on a trip to see family when I was dating Wife, and she went before we met. I’d love to go with her, and stay in the city. Maybe I can convince her if I promise to take her to see a Broadway show, and a taping of Saturday Night Live? If I take her to see things she wants to see, it will be easier to convince her to let me contact a New York ticket broker about some high priced seats for a sporting event at Madison Square Garden.

I’ve got a buddy I’ve known since high school who is still living the bachelor life, and because of that, he’s got the time and money to go traveling around the world. You never know where he’ll be off to next, a hotel in Vegas, a cruise ship in Greece, or cheap holidays to Egypt. It must be nice not only having the time to take great trips like that, but the cash too.

As a family man, my next vacations won’t be so glam. We go to Disney a lot, and we’re going to Canada this year. Would I like to go to a beautiful all inclusive resort in the Egypt desert? Duh. But it’s not exactly a quick getaway the wife and I can make, and it’s not a place I’d want to take my kids right now.

Wife and I spent this past weekend away from the kids for our anniversary. We went to the Port Orleans Resort at Disney which is where we spent our honeymoon. AWW! We had dinner Friday night at Victoria & Albert’s at the Grand Floridian. It was very, very, very nice. Once every ten years ni$$$$e.

I’m only 37, but I’m already thinking of retirement. I hope to retire from my company early enough to enjoy the fruits of my labors, my kids, and my future grandchildren. My retirement will be a time for me to catch up on travel and one of my favorite pastimes, golf. I’m not sure that Wife and I will stay in this area or not when we retire, but it’s something to think about. One area I wouldn’t mind moving to would be Sin City. I’ve been to Vegas a few times, but my trips have mostly been for gambling and the nightlife, and they didn’t allow me any time to check out Las Vegas real estate. I do know there are a lot of beautiful golf course communities being built in Las Vegas though, and that’s something I’d love to check into. The idea of living in a golf course community is very appealing. Summerlin real estate in particular offers a huge retirement community that is very golf focused. I love the idea of walking right into my back yard and onto the links. Or sitting on my patio at night watching neighbors hit a few balls. Golf course living is only going to get more popular I think, and the homes are going to get even more luxurious, and the neighborhoods even nicer. I’d love to check them out sometime.

As a state, Washington has it all. You’ve got your pro football (Seattle Seahawks) and pro hockey (Seattle Thunderbirds), lots of outdoor sports (hiking, fishing, rock climbing, mountain biking, camping and more) and nice weather (most of the time!). In addition, you’ve got easy access to Canada (making it easier than ever to enjoy even MORE hockey games) skiing, Bill Gates, and much more. While you may be priced out of a home in Seattle, lots of suburbs and small towns across Washington offer you more bang for your buck, like Marysville real estate. The town is bordered by the Cascade mountain range, and you can fish in Puget Sound. Hike in the mountains, or ski down them in the summer. Visit Seattle for Seahawks games or a little hockey.

Marysville Homes offer easy access to Boeing and Everett Navy Base, so you have access to excellent employment options. Marysville is building a new high school and the local economy continues to do well. Me, I’d just enjoy being close to so many different sporting venues. And of course, I’d enjoy the break from the oppressive heat we have here in my home state of Florida.

My mother in law went to Chicago this month and brought back a souvenir for my son. An official hockey puck, with the logos of the Original Six on it. I was explaining to him who the Original Six are, when it occurred to me, on our summer vacation we will be visiting three of the Original Six cities. Detroit, Toronto and Montreal. Pretty cool, and we are planning to go to the Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Wife and I love to travel, but with three kids, we just don’t get to do it as often as we’d like. I’ve got a single buddy who gets to travel a lot, in fact, he went to Greece most recently. I was checking out Cyprus holidays online, and there are some real steals if you live in the UK or Europe. You pay less, and don’t have to travel as far - win win. This site in particular has lots of offers that include airfare and hotel, and package deals are a great way to save some cash.