Ups and downs, and fair to middling

If you've been around this blog for awhile, you know that I love to travel. My first foray into international travel happened in 2007, when a friend I did an all-inclusive vacation to a resort in the Dominican Republic. While there, we went on a tour of a local village including a tour of a house and a nearby cocoa plantation. By the way, we knew it was a typical Dominican house because it had a sign that read, "typical Dominican house". :) Despite the fact that this home obviously was better outfitted than many it was eye-opening moment for me. I haven't found the photos, otherwise I'd share a picture of the sign.

Trips to Cuba and Mexico followed in the next few years, and then another friend introduced me to cruising in 2011. We did a fourteen day Southern Caribbean cruise, which took us to a variety of countries. One island that stands out for me is Grenada. We walked up the street from the pier to a local Anglican church and the caretaker gave us a tour. The church itself had been damaged by hurricane Ivan in 2004, and restoration was on-going. On the nearby island of St. Vincent, we hopped into a van and were treated to a 'round the island tour by a local. He stopped at various points to allow us to take photos and shared a lot of information about his home island. We live such different lives here in Canada and those experiences provided insight and perspective. 

I was hooked: cruising means unpacking once and waking up somewhere different every morning (sometimes a day at sea). Cruising has taken me to seventeen Caribbean countries/islands, the Bahamas, a couple of Central American countries, a few New England and Canadian ports, several European countries, and most lately, Alaska. There are several locations still on the bucket list. 

When I was still working, I realized that travel may not be an option when I retired due to the associated costs. So, I started saving money and put it in a separate investment account. While the investments have taken a beating in the last couple of years, I still believe I can manage a trip a year until I'm 80...which was the goal when I started the fund. When I'm searching for travel opportunities, I generally look at the itinerary first and price second. Places I haven't been yet are definitely more desirable, but I'm also happy to return to ports that I enjoy visiting. Some people have said that I don't get to actually see these places. I disagree, as I often find excursions that allow me to see some aspect of the island life. There are places that I don't venture out but stay on the ship or near the pier - usually for safety reasons. 

Changing topics, here's a weird but true story for you. In an earlier post, I whined told you that I had misplaced my mom's mitten pattern. I spent a few days looking for it, in containers and shelves, and any bag I might have tucked a project into and could not locate it. On Thursday, I did a quick run to Value Village to find pj's for the grandson. While there I checked the yarn supply...and found some absolutely good stuff and came with three more bags of yarn (about 12 skeins) for just over $12. Definitely a bargain! I wandered around the store and did one more circle before heading to the check-out. As I did so, I found a plastic bag containing several knitting pattern books - the top one was a pretty sweater, and I could see there were at least three or four more in the bag. At $2.50 for all, I picked it up. Imagine my surprise, when I got home and opened the bag, to find a book of mitt, hat and socks patterns identical to the one my mother had owned. The only thing missing are her notes. It was all a bit surreal but oh, so welcome.

One other item of note from this week, was an issue with my credit card. (No I wasn't hacked, thankfully). I always review my statement in detail - it's the bean counter in me - though that wasn't entirely necessary this time. I was shocked at the balance when opened up the account as I had already paid off the cruise portion. I realized the cruise amount had been charged to the card, twice! I called my travel agent, L and she made contact with Princess. They checked their records and could confirm they had received only one payment. So I made a call to the credit card company....the wait time on hold was 2 hours and 57 minutes. I explained the issue to the young man who answered and he assured me that Princess had gotten two payments. I asked him how he could be sure, did he have access to Princess' account? No, but he could see the two charges to my card. Sheesh, that's only one side of the situation. In any event, a dispute has been filed, and within 72 hours the charge had been reversed so I suspect someone somewhere figured it out.

Now, I don't believe the rep from the credit card company that there is an issue with Princess. I suspect, based on the hours long wait time (it would have been four hours or more later in the week - I checked), that there was a glitch in the system and transactions on or around that date were duplicated and the company is dealing with many, many upset customers. I've been a customer of this credit card company for over 40 years. I'm seriously considering switching cards as a result of this situation. As I told the chat rep - if this is due an internal issue, the fact they are not being transparent with the customers is a bad look. Of course, neither the telephone or chat rep addressed that with me. I suppose I'll never know for sure. 

In other more mundane matters, I'm continuing to knit, watch baseball, football, and now hockey. My review of family history is also on the go. The weather has turned down right cool here, and windy. The other day we had gusts up to 90 km. an hour. Almost all the neighbourhood trees have lost their leaves, though my cross the street neighbour's tree is just changing color.

Oh, and before I sign off for the week, the photo on Wednesday is misleading. The silver vehicle wedged in between the two vehicles belongs to my brother. He spotted the car with the wisdom plate - the driver had parked into the next space over, so the brat maneuvered his way into the spot and took the photo. Yes, he's skinny enough to be able to get out of his car door. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!