When a Sister Comes a Visiting…

My sister Carmen and her 13yo son Ben flew in from Kansas and visited us for a few days. Quote from Carmen,

“I don’t want to end up on your budget blog as to how expensive it is to have your sister visit!”

Ah, come on! Having family is the perfect excuse to go out and have some fun…

We started with the Air Force Museum by Wright-Patterson AFB.

The museum itself is free. But we also took in the IMAX show, Fighter Pilot.

• Three IMAX tickets for one adult, one student and one child (with military discount): $15.25

(Our whole family went, but The Hubs opted out of the 45-minute show and took 4yo Peter with him to look at more planes instead.) (Both were perfectly happy with that option.)

• Dancing in the museum to WWII Big Band music with your aunt? … free of charge.

We were starving by the time we left the museum, so we opted to stop at Arby’s rather than wait to grill out when we got home. Arby’s is a bit on the pricier side as far as fast food is concerned, but who can resist their curly fries?

Olivia and Peter easily share a meal between the two of them, including a lemonade.

• Arby’s for a family of four five: $19.90

The Girls took in a local concert one evening featuring The Menus and some good old classic rock.

• Cost of outdoor concert: free of charge.

We took the boys to King’s Island for a day…Where they gave a thumb’s up after riding the Diamondback…
And we splurged for soft frozen lemonade…
And tried on silly hats.
We also flubbed up getting a locker at the wrong end of the park and ended up having to get another locker when we went to Boomerang Bay, King’s Island’s water park. Whoops. Live and learn, eh?

• Stopping at Wendy’s before going into the park: $12.25
• My share of parking at King’s Island : $5.00 (Carmen pitched in another $5.00)
  
• Two tickets to King’s Island (with military discount): $65.98
• One soft frozen lemonade: $4.00
• One locker rental (Carmen paid for the whoops): $8.00
  
• Trying on silly hats (without leaving the store): free of charge

We met up with a good friend of Carmen’s in Columbus and took all the kids to the Zoo.Good grief. Can you tell it’s a bunch of boys? (With the exception of Olivia, of course.)

• Four tickets to the zoo (with military discount): $30.00
• Parking: Thanks, Carmen! (She paid the $5.00)

One tired-out teenager, not ready to leave his cousin…
But he perked up when I reminded him that he gets to see him again next week, when he flies out to Kansas all by himself. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

• After the zoo we stopped at Arby’s – again – before heading home: $16.19

• Carmen also took the boys putt-putting one afternoon: ~$4.00

Approximate Total for Four Days of Fun: $180.57

***
I totally get that it cost gas to travel hither and yon to these places, “local” or not. But, quite frankly, I don’t have the brain power to compute that expense right now.

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Tagged as: Travel and Vacay