Review of Rover.com

My heart is aching as I write this...I missed my dog! I never thought I would be one of those people. Before we got a dog, we would see others' post and think, "man those people are really attached!" Well now I'm one of them.

We normally have a family relative take care of Buddy when we travel, but she had too many pups to watch over this last Thanksgiving. So we had to branch out to other sources and weren't loving the idea. Someone suggested to use Rover.com, and we started looking people up. The interface was nice and it was very easy to see others' reviews.

We quickly discovered that there was a large selection of people on Rover.com; some living in small apartments and others with their own homes. We started to narrow down our search to fit the needs of our very large dog, and came up with our top five.

After reaching out, our top five was narrowed down a little more, and we set up "meet and greets." This was an important part of choosing who we liked, as we could see how our dog liked the environment and person who would be watching him. After that we decided on the best fit, and booked our pup's stay.

We had to pay immediately when booking, so a couple of months before the planned visit. The payment was done through Rover.com, and we didn't have any issues with our pupsitter cancelling after receiving the payment.

After the reservation was confirmed, I was able to fill out the specifics of Buddy. I provided his vet's name and information, a description of Bud's personality, and some "heads up" items. These items were like: don't let me get anywhere near socks if you want a pair, he goes nuts on the leash if he sees a squirrel looking at him the wrong way...you know, those "heads up" items.

Drop off was super easy, as I pulled up and Buddy ran off to find said squirrels, and I provided the food to the sitter. He asked me a couple of confirmation questions like how much food he ate and where he slept, and then I was off!

During my vacation I received a photo of Buddy running around in the sitters yard and wrestling with other dogs. He looked like he was having a blast, and it put me at ease while on my trip.

When I arrived at the sitter's home, Buddy looked super happy, and he was dirty from playing in the yard that day. Apparently the owner needed help digging a hole in his yard, he just didn't know it. This was completely fine, as I told the sitter I planned on taking him straight to the groomers after his stay. So the sitter wasn't super worried about cleaning him up. The sitter even gave Buddy a toy to take home with him which was super sweet!

Buddy slept the whole way to the groomers, and then rested for many days after our visit. It appears that the dog had a great vacation, as well as us! It was a great experience, and I would recommend it to many people! It is a much better alternative than having him cooped up in a boarding kennel and not getting any exercise. Extra bonus, the price was less than the kennels in our area!

Let me know if you have used Rover.com and share your experience below! I would love to hear others!

Hotel Indigo

On our stay in Washington DC, we were visiting family up in Baltimore and had to find a hotel. We wanted to stay close to family, but also wanted to be close to things to do while we weren't visiting everyone. The Hotel Indigo was the perfect location; it was in the Mount Vernon district, very close to Inner Harbor. We could take an Uber quickly and cheaply to my relatives and fun things to do in Inner Harbor, like Little Italy.

When we arrived, the staff was really friendly and explained to us where to park our car in the garage across the street. We actually arrived before check in and were just planning on hanging out in the bar, but the front desk attendant was so nice, she gave us an early check in with no problems.

We had requested a corner room when making the reservation, but we were amazed that we actually got it! Normally we put in this preference halfheartedly, but don't really expect to get what we asked for. The room, 701, was so bright, and had windows all around. There was a long hallway that made you feel like you were staying in a studio, rather than a cramped hotel room.

My husband and I always intensely check the cleanliness of the room before settling in, after getting "burnt" a couple of times. We looked around and were impressed that the room was recently renovated and very clean. We didn't have to request different pillows or anything, and quickly unpacked.

The room had so much space that we were able to find a place for our three suitcases, two backpacks, laptops, and other items we like to have out. There was a great cabinet where we could put our suit and dress for the wedding we were in town for as well. I do wish that the room had a dresser so I could have unpacked and not live out of my suitcase, but loved the extra space in the room due to there not being one.

We stayed for four nights and slept comfortably every night. You do have city noise occasionally, but it wasn't disturbing as we were on a higher floor and slept soundly each night. Even my brother, who plays music loudly, was in the room next to us, and we couldn't hear him at all.

When we were checking out we requested a late checkout since our flight wasn't leaving until the evening and my husband had to work remotely. The front desk attendant happily helped us with that request, and we didn't have to find a place where my husband could work and store all of our luggage during the day. When checkout time did come around, my husband was able to finish the day in the hotel's office center and the hotel stored our luggage.

We were so happy that we will be staying back at Hotel Indigo whenever we need to visit family in Baltimore, and we will be assured that we will have a great experience. We have stayed at many hotels, some claiming to be high-end, and we have been very disappointed. Hotel Indigo was not only not like this, but supremely exceeded our expectations! If you would like to book a stay, visit Hotel Indigo's website!

Burger Calculation

Ever struggle when you are having people over for a BBQ, and you are trying to figure how much to buy? You don't want to buy too much as BBQ's can be surprisingly expensive, but not having enough is even worse. This is my fool proof calculation to make sure I buy the right amount!