My First RoofSwap in Connecticut!
Nicole Frank is one of the leading experts of the home exchange community. Nicole has been an avid home exchanger since childhood and has completed dozens exchanges around the world with her family. Nicole’s "Key to Home Exchange" appears weekly on RoofSwap.com with do’s and don’t regarding house swapping and tips and advice on a wide array of travel topics. Have a question for Nicole or want to share some insight of your own? Visit Member Forum section and post your comments and questions.
How was your Memorial Day Weekend? Mine was amazing because I spent it doing my first home exchange through Roofswap.com.
We stayed in a 200-year old house near Connecticut's Mystic aquarium. We got to meet the very nice family who were leaving for a weekend at our apartment.
They showed us their home's special features like the finished basement with ping pong, billiards and every board game on earth. They oriented us to other interesting aspects of their home such as the tricky front door lock and the leaky shower. This is a real house and we expected a few quirks.
The swap home also came with built-in playmates for my two young children: the next-door neighbors have children the same age.
Within five minutes of our arrival my son was riding the other boy's scooter while my daughter chased him. The kids didn't even want to leave to go see the penguins at the aquarium.
The adults in my family were also happily ensconced. We had found the lounge chairs under a beautiful wisteria arbor in the roofswappers' back yard.
We did eventually make it to our Penguin Encounter event. And to the fancy casino run by an indigenous local tribe where we had a relaxing dinner.
Driving back to the Roofswappers' home we passed the hotel where we stayed on our last visit to the area. I remember it as clean but noisy with weekend revelers. our hotel room was crowded since we cannot put our little ones in another room.
As we drove past the big, ugly hotel we turned to each other and smiled. No need for words. We were both thinking the sane thing: home exchange is awesome!
