What is your favorite souvenir purchased on a timeshare trip?

[clifffaith]

I've bought tons of Christmas ornaments and I enjoy revisiting the memories of their purchase every holiday season. But the photo below is of an item hanging in our hallway. I'll walk by it hundreds of times, but at least once a month it grabs my full attention and I stop to admire it and pat myself on the back. I passed it by without making a purchase (very, very unlike me) and then went back to the antique mall in Palm Springs to plunk down my $40 the next day. Someone visited Israel or maybe Jerusalem in March of 1963 and I'm guessing bought these bookmarks from a sidewalk painter (my made up origin story). They then came home and mounted them, leaving me to find them years later. So my favorite souvenir actually started life as someone else's souvenirs.

 

[Fredflintstone]

I got this picture when I was in SAN Diego. I bought it at a Garage Sale for 10 bucks. On the back it says,

To Lucy,

I drew this to show my love to you as a mother, lover, and my best friend. You and Samatha are the light of my life.

Greg XOXO

August 4, 1912.

Every time I look at it, I think of the wonderful people I met in SAN Diego that day at their garage sale. We talked for hours and they even invited me for tea. It also reminds me of a wonderful story of compassion, love and family.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[clifffaith]

Looking at my bookmarks made me take stock of other things in the hallway. My grandmother was a painter (born 1894, deaf from scarlet fever at age 2, her folks loaded her up with painting and sculpture classes), and four smallish paintings are in the hall. One is really ready for the trash, two we mounted in matching frames and mats, the fourth looks like it would be an excellent birthday present for my sister in May. They are all dated 1919. I immediately put a note in my April calendar to remind myself I'm handing off that painting to her. Every wall in our home is full -- so full I have a wall hanging I bought in Santa Fe last May tucked away in a closet. That's going to be an issue when we move to the old folks home.

 

[DaveNV]

Refrigerator magnets. One we both agree on, one per trip, that is an appropriate remembrance of a trip we took someplace memorable. We have more now than will fit on the fridge door, so we rotate them around, to bring the older ones into display from time to time.

This may have to end now, however. The new fridge door has non-ferrous metal, so magnets don’t stick to it...

Dave

 

[Passepartout]

I often bring back a T-shirt or coffee cups, but we've brought home some pretty good stuff. We've brought hand made rugs from Morocco, Art from artists all over Europe, but the biggest haul was from China. Silk 'paintings' made with thread we found on a Yangtse river cruise, Ancestor Prints from Shanghai-they're reproductions, along with the silk rank badges from old Mandarin tunics. Silk rugs and watercolors from an instructor in an art school in the hinterlands. I inherited a bunch of Chinese stuff brought back by my mom who was am interior designer and went to China within weeks of Nixon's opening to country to tourism. She shipped back rosewood furniture and LOTS of old silk from waaay before the repros took over the market.

Jim

 

[Carol C]

If somebody says their souvenir was another timeshare they purchased, I am going to LOL!

 

[slip]

I have to say our Niihau Shell Lei’s. My wife and I wear them often and my wife even has a Koa display box she shows her’s in. I just hung it yesterday as a matter of fact.

 

[clifffaith]

Refrigerator magnets. One we both agree on, one per trip, that is an appropriate remembrance of a trip we took someplace memorable. We have more now than will fit on the fridge door, so we rotate them around, to bring the older ones into display from time to time.

This may have to end now, however. The new fridge door has non-ferrous metal, so magnets don’t stick to it...

Dave

We started with mugs, and still enjoy using them. But then it became a balancing act in the cupboard, and then when Keurig came into our lives we needed bigger cups. I'll be putting at least half a dozen out at the next garage sale. Right now we have three refrigerators, two of which will support magnets. I'm hoping the single fridge we'll have in the old folks home will be nice and white and magnet-able. I tend toward 1/3 art museum repros, 1/3 hand made or hand painted metal and wood, and 1/3 more souvenir shop magnets. So much easier than mugs to bring home, especially on plane trips. Cliff has threatened me with flying to Albuquerque and renting a car for Santa Fe more than once because the car comes back loaded with Mexican and Southwesty decor by the time we hit Sedona-Santa Fe-Scottsdale.

 

[Carta]

I used to bring a beer from places I've stayed..I display them at home

 

[WinniWoman]

I would have to say my Smugglers Notch MUG I use every day for years. Made in China, though.

 

[Panina]

I love to bring home art, handmade items, painting, drawings, hand blown glass, beaded work, etc. Never know what treasure I will find at a farmers market, thrift store, street vendor, etc.

My favorite so far, this nice sized oil painting I picked up at the Bargain Basket Thrift store on Marco Island for, if I remember right, $14.

 

[Karen G]

Once we stayed in a studio at Cabo Azul that had no microwave, no cooktop & only a coffee maker. I had no way to heat water for tea so we went to the large grocery store in San Jose del Cabo where I found a nice electric tea kettle. I now use it every day at home & consider it to be my most useful timeshare souvenir.

Years ago I bought Christmas ornaments from our family timeshare vacations & it’s always fun to remember those trips. But now pictures on my phone are my souvenirs.

 

[Glenn2]

In May while in San Juan, PR I went on a tour of the Bacardi Rum factory in Catano. I purchased Bacardi themed bar supplies and Christmas ornaments.

 

[Passepartout]

But now pictures on my phone are my souvenirs.

Sure easier to store and dust.

 

[Jan M.]

We don't normally come home with mementos, souvenirs or gifts from our stays. That is until our recent trip to Hawaii. My husband loves his coffee and discovered Kauai Coffee Company coffee thanks to staying at Ka Eo Kai and Kauai Beach Villas. That is the coffee they put in the units. When we lived in Butler, PA he used to go to Prestogeorge's Coffee in the Strip District of Pittsburgh and buy himself some really good coffees as a treat once in a while. He said the KCC coffee was better than any other coffee he'd had. He did the tour at KCC but wasn't willing to pay $35 for a 24 ounce bag of coffee beans. The Costco in Lihue had the Kauai Coffee Company coffee as one of the Black Friday specials. While we were there shopping they were sampling the KCC single origin red typica coffee and it was also one of the Black Friday specials. He said it was even better than the kind in the blue bag.

In addition to buying enough of both kinds of coffee to keep my husband supplied for quite some time we also bought enough coffee to give to several friends, my BIL, his brother, his sister and our son. We came home with 22 bags/31 pounds of coffee.



I'm editing this to add that we had to go out and buy another suitcase to bring all the coffee and also the chocolate covered macadamia candy home. We thought to go to a thrift store and buy a suitcase for a couple of bucks or pick up a cheap duffel bag but ended up finding a good suitcase at a good price at Ross For Less. We had been planning to replace our big suitcase that is in sad shape so it worked out well. I'm not a coffee drinker but I love my chocolate. I only bought of few bags of candy, not a year's supply for 10 people, and somehow may have led my husband to believe my sister would get a bag of the milk chocolate coconut macadamias and his brother and SIL would get a bag of the dark chocolate Kona coffee macadamias that were also Black Friday specials. It boggles my mind that the man who has been married to me for 41 years would think for a minute, no make that a nanosecond, that I would bring myself to actually give an entire bag of either of those candies away unless they weren't all that great! After we got back from Hawaii, opened a bag of each to taste them and discovered just how good they are there wasn't a chance of me giving an entire bag away. However we did buy a bag of seaweed crunch with almonds, another Black Friday special, and everyone is getting a little snack bag with a few pieces of it. It looked like a healthy snack to have on hand. However eat even a small piece and it leaves a strong yucky fish taste in your mouth that will eventually go away but not nearly soon enough. We gave it several tries over the next couple of days thinking maybe we would acquire a liking for it. Since Costco sells it there are clearly people who like it but we concluded that we aren't two of them. We thought about returning it for a refund but decided for a little under $5 it would be fun to have our friends and loved ones share the experience of tasting it.