Travel Blunders

Morro Rock. Truly impressive and fun to explore the beach when the tide is low.

There was a time when travel planning involved writing to Chambers of Commerce and consulting dated travel books from the library, perhaps a visit to AAA. Our recent three-week road trip up the California-Oregon coast, over to Portland then home through Boise, taxed me with weeks of online research, sifting through a plethora (I like that word) of subjective information, knotting my aging brain. It is no surprise that I made a few blunders.

The 90-minute boat tour from Ventura to the Channel Islands was available only on Tuesday, perfect for my agenda. After I booked tickets and inserted the information into my spreadsheet, I reserved rooms in Ventura for Sunday and in Morro Bay for Monday and Tuesday, noting with assurance cancellation within 24 hours.

On most road trips I book rooms as we go, allowing us the freedom to veer off course. Because we were traveling through a popular tourist region, I booked rooms in advance, having learned during a stressful hour at a ferry port in Canada that during the tourist high season, rooms can be scarce, risking a night in the car. Priceline is usually my choice, simply because I am acquainted with it. I appreciate I can cancel reservations.

Or not. If you are perceptive, you have already caught the error.  

Reviewing my spreadsheet just prior to hitting the road, I noted with alarm the boat trip in the Monday cell, confirmed the tickets were for Tuesday, and confidently logged into Priceline to change the hotels. Alarm grew into horror when I discovered I had not read the full sentence: ‘24 hours within booking’, not before check-in. Too cheap to cancel expensive digs, Mike and I donned our we-are-retired attitude, and, at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, left Morro Bay for the three-hour drive to Ventura. The positive: booking the room for two nights saved us from packing the car early Tuesday morning.

Our we-are-retired attitude dissipated at the harbor when the agent informed us that the reservation had been canceled. Did I do that when trying to change the hotel reservation? No idea. Thankfully, Island Packers fit us in. The 90-minute cruise was well on its way, and we were enjoying the cool air, the animal sightings, and the green-blue hues of the ocean, looking forward to a lovely seaside lunch on our return, when it became apparent that 90 minutes was one-way. Our return to the harbor would be delayed until mid-afternoon. Having left the hotel without breakfast, our stomachs were now crying. I gathered sugar and other carbs from the snack bar.

Satiated with chips, candy, and soda, we skipped lunch at the harbor and tackled the three-hour drive to Morro Bay. returning in time for a dinner and then another boat ride: an hour on the Sunset Tiki Cocktail Cruise through the harbor, admiring the sun setting not over the horizon, but behind Morro Rock. The bartender was good-looking, young girls diving acrobatically off the pier were inspiring, and the barking seals and sea lions wrestling on the rocks were entertaining.  

We were having a good time. Blunders were forgotten.