Thank You President Bush And Congress For A Wonderful Vacation

This is a Thank You to President Bush who proposed the Stimulus checks and to the Congress members who voted for the Stimulus package. You gave us a great vacation!

Our vacation included traveling by car from Erie, Pennsylvania to Newark, Delaware for one day - two nights of sightseeing; to Wilmington, DE for sightseeing and on to Philadelphia for sightseeing; back to Newark to sleep; on to Washington, DC for two days - three nights of sightseeing; on to Penn's Cave near State College, Pennsylvania for sightseeing and on to home.

If you fear gasoline prices, get this: All this traveling cost a total of $165.00 with three-quarters of a tank left over. That's a five-and-a-half-day trip for about $130.00 in real gas use for the trip. Now, I should mention, we got a $50.00 free gas card from Expedia.com for booking the three nights in DC. Deduct that $50.00 from the $130.00 so our final out-of-pocket gasoline cost was actually $80.00.

Just about every tourist we talked with voiced the same sentiment - Ignore media and go on vacation! I also want to point out that there were thousands of tourists from all over the USA and the world there and it was during the week of June 23rd, 2008.

So, what did we see? The list of historic sites we visited is long. The highlights include: Old Historic New Castle, DE; Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's burial site, Betsy Ross House, and Christ's Church in Philly; The Capital Building in DC, Supreme Court, National Archives, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Washington Monument, tour of the White House, Air and Space Museum (including two Imax movies), Smithsonian Castle, Natural History Museum (including Hope Diamond - WOW!), Spy Museum, and much more!

By the way, don't miss eating in the cafeteria in the Supreme Court building. It's a plush dining area but the cost is very reasonable and the food is excellent! My wife and I had breakfast, freshly cooked, including coffee and orange juice, for a total of $11.45. They also serve a lunch menu, equally fresh and equally reasonably priced.

We paid $122.00 for the Old Town Trolley to get around DC for two days. This is a hop-on-hop-off trolley with stops at all the key sights. You just get off where you want and get back on where you want anytime between 9-am and 4:30-pm. This is a must and an easy way to get around because on street parking is nearly impossible.

Special Thanks to our Congressman, Phil English, and his staff for a private tour of the Capitol Building and getting us tickets for the White House tour. The private Capitol building tour was unexpected. Intern Greg did a great job taking us through the areas not generally open to the public. Staff Assistant Kathleen got us the White House tour even after we were first rejected because we had not made our request far enough in advance. You need to apply for White House tour tickets at least four months in advance if you want access. They are free but in limited supply.

So, what did our trip cost?

Gas, tolls, food, lodging, tours, parking in DC ($17.00), and sightseeing, totaled less than $1,100.00 for my wife and I. Our Stimulus check was for $1,200.00 with a $100.00 left over to spend here at home. Not bad at all.

We had planned to stay very close to home this Summer due to media scaremongers and then the Stimulus package was proposed by the President and Congress followed through, for once, to give us something back instead of squandering our tax dollars on "pork". This time we are the "pork" and the money is not squandered.

Take your Stimulus check and give your loved ones a great vacation!

Jim DeSantis is a member of the Online Business Alliance. If you think you have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to start a business with excellent profit potential, think again! Get your own Internet business for Five-Dollars here - http://onlinebusinessalliance.biz/?id=JimDeSantis