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16 Travel Blunders to Avoid!
1. Not calling your bank or credit card company before you leave Before our trip to China, we did very little preparation other than just pack our bags and water our plants. On our first night in Beijing, we thought, “No problem, we’ll just walk to the mall near our hotel, hit up an ATM and grab some dinner”. We visited an ATM with my debit card’s logo and, worst thing ever; it sucked up my debit card and kept it! We tried buying some small items at a grocery store and got rejected with every card we tried there as well. That night, we had to go back to…
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Panama Canal Cruise
Early 2017 found me happily retired and planning adventure after adventure. As we were planning our trip to China (in March and early April), I noticed a fantastic deal on a cruise through the Panama Canal with one of our favorite cruise companies, Holland America. (Yes, its for people like us who don’t stay up late partying and like some of the more “genteel” entertainments — cooking classes, academic lectures and classical music.) Anyway, the deal was so good, that I thought, “heck, why not?” and I booked our 20 day cruise and added an extra few days on our own in the Florida Keys since we landed in…
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Our Alaska Vacation
Whew, what a vacation — Trains, taxi cabs, a ship, a floatplane, lots of buses, and then more trains and airplanes! This Alaska cruise and vacation is something John and I have been planning for a long time. It started on Thursday, September 2, 2010. We got up early and had Hayley drop us off at the Pedley Metrolink Station. We took the Metrolink into Los Angeles’ Union Station. We got our Amtrak tickets, paid to have our luggage stored, and then walked across the street to have breakfast at Phillippe’s. Back on the train, everything was great. Because we upgraded our tickets to include a sleeper compartment, we were…
