Thank you/Apology

Thanks Travis and Tafe for your insight. I did not even consider that we need to pick the right place by the right beach (I did check the La Jolla property and found it is by Windansea, by the way). I'm definitely the out-of-town idiot - I see the word "beach" and assume it's going to be beautiful, which is certainly not true in many cases. Thank goodness we have locals in the family!

Also, thanks Travis for putting me in my place. Besides thinking that we could find great deals if we book well in advance (which turns out to not be true - they'll rip you off any day of the year. The best deals are last minute, actually), I admit, I've been eager to find a spot because I am starting a very competitive Masters and PhD program in the fall (not completely sure why I'm choosing 7 more years of school...) and after August, I guarantee I won't be able to spend any time planning this trip at all. I feel a little responsible for seeing this through because I started the blog* and I do want this to happen. I think it would mean a lot - to Grandma and Grandpa especially - to gather together with our whole family. It's been a long time since we've all been together and it would be great to see everyone, meet your kids, enjoy some good card games and conversations, etc.

So, where do we go from here? If we "decide to not decide" for now, will someone (or a group of people) agree to do all the planning in the winter when the reunion is 6 months away (while I'm struggling to keep my neck above water in a "Multiple Regression Analysis" course)? Also, I agree with Aunt Tafe - I think that a vacation with a couple days with all the Glausers, then the rest of the time as smaller family groups/individual families is a great idea. So, with that in mind, here is what I have learned:

-It is really hard to find vacation rentals by the beach that only rent for a couple nights. 99% of rentals are Saturday to Saturday in the peak season, and the 1% that aren't are really ugly (aka - Girl's Camp - not even glorified - at least that's what I've found on vrbo.com and similar sites - there might be great stuff out there that I haven't found). Even if we scooped up a few condos or timeshares that people are selling, those are also weekly things.
-Hotels by the beach are really expensive! I did get a quote from the Holiday Inn Orange County airport for $99/night for group rates, but that's 8 miles away from the beach. It has been remodeled recently and is really nice, though.
-I also received a quote from UCSD for $285/night for a family of 4, including food, and $189/night from Holiday Inn San Diego Bayside for a family of 4-5, including only breakfast.

So, anyway, I agree with Travis - let's just take a break. It'll give us time to decide exactly what we want to do and save up to make it happen. Whoever is volunteering to do the planning, feel free to give me an email at kristafrederico@gmail.com. I'd be happy to share with you all the research I've done so that you don't have to start from square 1. Or maybe we'll just decide to stay with family or each cousin buy their own hotel rooms, which is great, too. As long as we can meet to enjoy each other's company and have a fierce card game at some point (seriously, Burk and Kelly, Nathan and I have been practicing Nerts so we don't get schooled again by you both), I don't care where I'm staying.

Thanks for being such good sports. I'm sorry for being hasty. I know this is a costly venture and I realize now that it was very irresponsible for me to throw around vacation plans like that. I appreciate your help in getting my feet back on the ground. We do have such a great family. :D

*I am really sorry if I have pushed anyone away or made anyone feel like they can't post here. I sincerely tried to preserve anonymity (with anonymous voting in the polls), as well as space for people to talk publicly if they'd like to. To those out there who have felt like the blog was a bad idea, I sincerely apologize. Blogs are so popular these days, I just went for it on a whim without thinking about others' feelings. I'm sorry.