Ad-Stalking

Let me start by just saying this: Google Ads, please stop looking at my cookies!

I was doing a little online research for a hypothetical vacation I'm planning to [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!] before work this morning. I was bouncing between Travelocity, Hotwire, and generic internet searches for hotels in the vicinity of [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!].

What a coincidence that, as I was going through various blogs this evening, I kept seeing the same ad for La Quinta popping up on sidebars. This happened to me once before that I was actually aware of, when I was window-shopping for faucets and then all of a sudden the same faucet I had clicked on on overstock.com suddenly appeared in a banner ad, and then another banner ad, and another.

I suppose it's really smart marketing. In this case though, it's kind of ridiculous. I checked into it - the La Quinta Inn in [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!] is $199/night. I think I'd rather stick with a bed & breakfast for half that, even if it means Scott will have to grit his teeth and play nice with strangers.

As for [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!], I don't want to give it away quite yet. For now, I'll just tell you that it's somewhere in the map below:

By the way, it's not that I'm being coy. I mean, I guess I am. But right now this is one of those things that seems full of magic and adventure, and it's all mine and Scott's. Once I tell the rest of the world, then it's like we have to share with everyone else. And politely accept input. And pretend we care that {insert obscure relative here} once planned to go there, but {broke/ruptured/sprained} {his/her} {body part} and had to cancel the trip.

Plus, it's a pretty major trip that I'm basically hypothetically planning with a month-ish window. I may get overwhelmed and decide to just get a plane/hotel/car package deal to a major city - NY, DC, and Chicago top that "b" list.

Oh, and I can't share too much, lest we get robbed while we're on vacation like all those morons who advertise all sorts of personal crap on the internet. I could quite possibly be one of those morons. But I'm really trying hard not to be.