Sometimes Itineraries Plan Themselves.
I don’t know how or why it happens, but many of the trips I take somehow seem to fall into place with almost no help at all from me. I read something or stumble on a TV program featuring a place that sounds interesting and the next thing I know, details start falling into place almost on their own and I have an itinerary.
I had one of those moments yesterday. It started when I went to the NARP web site for the dates of our annual Spring meeting. There they were: April 23-26 in Washington, DC.
Step Two, as always, is to check next year’s Major League Baseball schedule to see if the Boston Red Sox will be playing at home in Fenway Park in the few days after our meetings. (After the meetings is preferable to before. Even in late April, the weather in Boston can be sheer misery—cold and wind and rain.)
A few clicks later and I’ve found the Red Sox 2017 schedule. Whoa! What catches my eye immediately is a three-game series starting on April 18th next Spring: the Red Sox vs. the Toronto Blue Jays and they’ll be in Toronto!
That’s before not after the NARP meetings, but the Blue Jays play in Rogers Center, which can be closed to the elements, so the possibility of cold and rainy weather is no longer an issue. In fact, a hotel is built right into the center and you can order dinner from Room Service and watch the game from your hotel room.
The timing is right, too. I could see the Sox and the Jays in Toronto for three games, and still have two days to get down to Washington for the meetings. Now all I have to do is decide on the best way to get from here to Toronto.
Are you kidding?? That’s a no-brainer: I can take VIA Rail’s wonderful trans-continental train, the Canadian, from Vancouver to Toronto. (Getting its windows washed in Jasper, Alberta, in photo above.) A quick check of the train’s schedule and it all fits perfectly. The train leaves Vancouver on the 14th and arrives in Toronto on the morning of the first game.
See what I mean? The itinerary is half done and it only took ten minutes. I wonder how it’s going to bring me back home to Maui. No rush. It’s still months away and something will pop up.
