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For our one-year anniversary, my husband and I knew we were only going to have a long weekend to spare between our two schedules.  To throw a little excitement into the mix, I am about 3 months pregnant, so a budget-conscious trip was also important, in light of impending baby bills.  Luckily, we live in San Antonio, so options abound when it comes to road trip vacations.  We recently featured a list of Top Get-Aways in Texas on my blog, Haute in Texas, and my husband discovered one of the resorts we mentioned was a Wyndham property!  Where was this fabulous destination, you ask?  We were headed for the Hotel Galvez, a lovely little gem on the Galveston, Texas shoreline.  Check out my list of the top 5 things to do, and if you notice nightlife activities are absent, I will refer you to the aforementioned pregnancy, and therefore my incessant need to sleep these days!  Enjoy!

Our third day in San Jose we dedicated to relaxation in the hotel.  It was the first sunny day we had experienced, so I was anxious to put on my swimsuit and head to the pool.  Due to the rain, and start of the rainy season, the water was cool, so I spent most of my time soaking up the sun and reading some books.  The poolside service is excellent, and drinks and towels are available.  In the evening we enjoyed playing a few rounds of poker at the casino, which also features a jazz bar on the weekends.

Tip #11: The sun is quite powerful in Costa Rica - put on plenty of sunscreen, even when you do not expect to get burnt.

Tip #12: Due to the ecological sustainability practices, the hot tubs are not kept at high temperatures, so prepare for cool waters.

As soon as I read that I was a winner of the Wyndham Women on Their Way Local Nation travel writing contest, I began planning.  Typically planning a vacation means AAA road maps, exploring campgrounds online, and taking an inventory of my gear.  Just knowing that my head would be resting on a comfy clean pillow, and not on a leaky air mattress, got me excited to plan my travels!

I searched through Wyndham's extensive list of resorts and hotels and dreamed of luxurious vacations in exotic places.  I decided to tone things down with the rising cost of airfare and chose an exotic place with a reasonable airfare budget.  I chose the Ramada Herradura in San Jose, Costa Rica due to the great online reviews, their eco-tourism and anti sex-trafficking policies and the reasonable airfare price from D.C.

When I first received the amazing news that I was chosen as a Local Nation winner by Women on Their Way, visions of Europe and the Caribbean started dancing in my head.  Of course, as it turned out my first trip was a little less glamorous, but nonetheless fun.  My husband and I needed to move all of my college furniture in Indiana to our new apartment in San Antonio, Texas.  And what better way to accomplish that then with a good old fashioned road trip, complete with U-Haul and puppy in tow.  The latter addition to our voyage might have added more stress, but a little preparation went a long way to making sure our trip was smooth, for our fur baby and us.