Adventure in the 21st century is not like hobbits going to dispose of a ring

With this being the long weekend, and my birthday coming up soon, hubby and I decided that we would attempt going away for a few days.  The parameters were something along the lines of driving distance and relatively cheap.

I sort of got set on the idea of Maine, just because I was kind of digging the idea of seaside and clam chowder, and it's about twice a year that I get to have lobster.  Well, now that I can cook them myself, I'm thinking that number will up itself a bit.

Anyway, Hurricane Earl dashed any sort of plans for Maine, and while I could probably do the travel search thing in a heartbeat, for someone else, professionally, on my own, I'm really quite useless when it comes to booking any sort of vacation.  Business trips seem to be a different story, because then you have a starting point of reference, like location of the conference, hotels and restaurants in close proximity, things to do according to the given schedule.


When we were planning our honeymoon, I was set on the idea of learning to surf somewhere.  I scoured for days, looking at places like Costa Rica, Hawaii ... all for nought, because we ended up going to the Bahamas on the great and fabulous recommendations of two of our best friends.  But also, hubby is generally quite good at planning travel stuff, and on other occasions, while I have been searching for days, he finds something in 15 minutes.

This, however, was not the case.  For various reasons, hubby was being all defeatist in his travel searching.  We have been thoroughly put off bed and breakfasts, and availability of "nice hotels" seemed to be dwindling as the hours went by.  Eventually, hubby called it quits on the search and declared that we would just be spontaneous.

Yikes.  I really don't enjoy being spontaneous.  I like knowing where we're going, I like knowing what to pack, and I like having a plan of action for stuff like nearby restaurants that I'd like to try.

ANYWAY ... we woke up late, and hubby says, "So, let's just get in the car and drive."
Me:  "Uhh ... okay.  We'll leave in two hours."

So I scurry around the house like some headless chicken on crack, flailing about trying to get snacks and grab things that I think we'll need.  I packed spinach dip (to use up the expired-but-still-good sour cream), tortilla chips, water, watermelon (1 pound eaten, 14 to go) and two apples which are sort of nearing their last legs.  (Yes, you do sense a theme here.)  I scurry around some more, grabbing things that I think we'll need, and what hubby should take but doesn't think he'll need.  Then the hallway looks like we are leaving for two weeks of camping.

We get in the car and drive west.  Armed with iPhones and a sat nav (GPS), we briefly enjoy the sites of small towns along the way.  There's a lovely beach near Turkey Point, there's a majestic lighthouse in Long Point, there's a cute little dock somewhere close by.  We stop in Point Stanley, and hubby gets completely turned off of the post-50s bed and breakfast crowd yapping about ponchos.

"We are not staying here," he says gruffly.

So we get on our iPhones and use a combination of the HotelPal, TripAdvisor and Priceline apps to find somewhere close by.  I tell him that the closest available and cheapest hotel is the Howard Johnson (Ho Jo) in London at $90 for the night.  He later tells me that his experiences with the Ho Jo have never been stellar, and which is why we were rushing off to find a Staybridge Suites in London.  We actually really like that brand of hotel - usually the suites come with a kitchenette, and the rooms are quite large.

While hubby drives, I get online to see if the Staybridge Suites have a vacancy.  Nope.  Determined, hubby plows on to London, where he decides that there has to be something available.  We get there, drive through, hubby saying all the while that he's looking for the nice downtown historic part.  We drive down what appears to be a main street, find "town", and decide that it looks too much like Hamilton.  A LOT like Hamilton.  Nevermind.

We keep driving through, and suddenly, London looks like it's finished.  There are just houses and side streets, then more and more farm land.  Oh, guess we went through it.

Eventually, having this wretched cold and blowing my nose every five minutes, I pass in and out of consciousness as the medication weakly kicks in.  When I wake up, we're still in farmland like area, and hey, it looks a lot like 10 minutes from where we actually live.

It starts to rain, and hubby sees a blue provincial sign for two inns.  We drive by the one, call and find out that there's no vacancy.  Boy, I can imagine a pregnant Mary swearing Joseph up and down on that donkey for not having called ahead.

Somewhere along the way, striking out on GOOD hotel availabilities, I did actually say, "This is what happens when you don't call ahead."  I don't think the Bible does justice for Mary in censoring what she probably said.

Eventually, we drove past the Stone Willow Inn.  I looked online quickly and found out that they had ONE room left with two queen beds.  $150 minus $5 for a CAA discount ... sold.  We were tired of roaming around southwestern Ontario.

It turned out to be alright ... no Hilton NYC, but decent enough.  The restaurant wasn't really stellar.  The beds were alright, they had free wireless.  They had a little fridge in the room stocked with bottles of water.  Umbrellas in the lobby for guests to use.  The toiletries were okay, but there was a big set-in stain of some sort on my bath towel.  THAT freaked me out.  And I wrote so on my comment card.

So we won't be visiting St. Mary's again.  It didn't really help that people were staring us down at the diner where we had breakfast.  (And the food was terrible.)  Usually, if you're a "foreigner" to the town, people will be friendly and greet you, or kind of stare until you engage them in some sort of conversation.  If they keep staring with the frowny face after that, well, then you sort of chalk it up to old-school racism.  Surprisingly, living where I do, it happens frequently enough that I'm fairly familiar with the drill.

Our "weekend getaway" wasn't great, but it wasn't disastrous.  Hubby agrees that we're relatively done with small town tourism, but that next time, we'll just have to do a proper vacation and go somewhere city-like.  And book ahead.

10 Things Worth Forking Out For

While I am the biggest advocate of not having to pay full price for anything, here is my list of the things I will spend the money on.

(This list is in no particular order) 

Upgraded travel services

My first train trip ride on VIA Rail was really terrible with cramped, worn-down seats, no food, loud passengers who insisted on talking loudly on their phones for 4 hours (both ways), and people who thought that watching videos without headphones was totally acceptable.

Perhaps I would have thought that the train was okay had I not stepped into first class by accident; thought travelling by train was really lovely; then gotten shafted to the economy class.

So the next time I travelled by train, I upgraded to VIA 1 (I had a coupon), which is like the business/first class of VIA RAil, and man, was that nice. I waited in the lounge instead of the huge long lineup to board on the train for the free-for-all, enjoyed a nice newspaper, food and drink throughout the ride, and the joyous silence of patrons who also did not want to be bothered by others. I highly recommend VIA 1, especially if you’re travelling alone.

I also recommend the business class of South African Airways. I got upgraded once. It was swank. 

Swanky hotels - even if it’s just once

Although he says he was paying it off for quite a while, there is a particular hotel in Miami where my husband proposed to me. It was a small luxury boutique hotel with only 9 floors and maybe 30 rooms in total. The butler-like service was the best I’ve ever had in my life, and though he probably got nickel-and-dimed for stuff, I’ve never stayed anywhere as gorgeous. Our suite had TWO bathrooms, with the bathtub in the main bathroom overlooking the ocean.

And that is why we just did it once and have the memories to last us forever.

A hotel as opposed to a Bed and Breakfast

For years and years, my sister and I had this tradition of staying in a different B&B for our annual sisters’ trip.

At the last B&B, we were awoken at 7:18 a.m. on a Saturday (AND Sunday) morning by this woman blasting Il Divo on her stereo system. This nosy/overly chatty woman insisted on having breakfast at 8 a.m. with a dining room table of guests who were forced to make strangers’ small talk. And that was the last of our B&B experiences, because in the past, we’ve put up with:

- too few or shared bathrooms
- the bathroom is next to your room, and you have to listen to (# of guests x 2 in night/morning) showers
- forced conversation with weird hosts and strangers
- dust
- weird decor
- driving around in the dark looking for an unmarked residence
- dictated schedule
- being told that we parked in the wrong spot on the driveway

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had fantastic experiences on these trips, but I think we’re done for B&Bs without recommendations from people we know.

A Mac

I actually bought my iMac out of spite because I had so many problems with my PC laptop in a short span of time. As I recall, I had to reformat the thing twice in 6 weeks since it just went haywire. I still use my laptop, but limit the number of applications on it, and keep its use to a minimum.

Macs seem to be fairly user-friendly, and knock on wood, I haven’t had any problems with mine, and I bought it in September 2008.

Macs never go on sale, but you can get Aeroplan points if you buy through the Aeroplan store.

Heinz Ketchup

Strange, I know. While I think it’s probably the same deal with bottled water as all the same ketchup goes into differently-labelled bottles, I dunno. I tried a generic brand once. It had a weird taste to it, so I switched back to Heinz.

Heated car seats

My friends outside of Canada won’t relate to this, but heated car seats are part of the winterizing packages available here. Even if you don’t turn on the car’s central heat (sometimes I don’t to keep myself awake), toasty buns make the ride much sweeter.

A new toilet - if you need it and can afford it

For all the stuff that home ownership makes you pay for, a new toilet is like a reward. There’s just something glorious about a new toilet that hasn’t been used by anyone but you. (And the plumber, if he was testing it out.)

We have ONE new toilet in this house, and then had to shell out to have the insides of the others replaced. The silence is much preferred to the sound of fairies splashing in the bowl.

A satellite navigation system

It’s just so much easier to know where you’re going with the aid of a sat nav.

Good bed sheets

Higher thread counts sometimes CAN really make a difference. Hubby loves this one particular set that we bought on clearance somewhere. (I had written something else here but I don't remember what it was.)

A personal/digital video recorder (PVR/DVR)

The catch is that once you’ve bought one, you’ll never go back. It totally saves having to look for VHS tapes and blank DVDs. You can set up series recordings and record two things at once.