Oh dream on...

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

You think I'd have learned that by now, oh, but no. I will always be a hopeless romantic.

We have been planning and planning and dreaming and dreaming on how to invest some money that I received this year. I knew right away that I wanted to own some real estate but just where, I didn't know. Did I want to buy a little condo and rent it out? I wonder what kind of a landlord I'd be...

Did I want to buy this condo locally, so that Elizabeth might be able to live in it one day (and we could keep her nearby?) Or did I want to buy it in a big city, giving us somewhere fun to go when there were no tennants occupying it?

OR... did we want to buy something just for US??? Somewhere to go to when the weather got too cold or too hot? Did we want a highrise in downtown Dallas with a spectacular city lights view? Or did we want to follow Rick's heart and buy something in our beloved Hawaii, where we could escape to in the summertime?

Hands down, Hawaii won. And I immediately began researching places for us to visit, to check out and to possibly buy.

I found place after place in Honolulu - with an ocean view - that would make your head spin. And not in a good way. It made you dizzy at how small the places were. We could afford a little condo that was smaller than a small motel room. I kid you not. But heck, it had an ocean view!

Rick eventually decided that he didn't want to buy in Honolulu and had me check out our favorite island - Kauai.

THERE IT WAS! The place we were destined to buy! It was in our price range, had a spectacular (and I mean SPECTACULAR!) view of the ocean with a balcony to boot, and it was even close to shopping and a waterfall that we loved. It was too good to be true.

The price was higher than most, but it was bigger than most, too. I was willing to pay more to have more.

But it was still too cheap. I mean, think about it. If I could afford this piece of paradise, why wouldn't a million other people try to own it as well? Something was wrong.

Further research done, I then discovered that this prime piece of real estate could definitely be ours... from Jan. 20th to Feb. 1st.

Yep, it was only a time share.

Yep, it was too good to be true.

Sigh.