Note: TBB is on vacation at the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, Canada. Until his return, this blog site will likely not have any of the usually legendary Buzz posts:-) TBB is taking the opportunity to do his own filler posts. The eclectic journey through the blogosphere may return after vacation is over, stay tuned!
Spotted in Banff National Park, near the Banff Hot Springs
Trip Update: Checked out of Fairmont Banff Springs. Will elaborate on this later:-) Hiked Tunnel Mountain. If you are ever in Banff, find that tiny Greek restaurant Barpa’ s Souvlaki and try the Barpa burger, wow! Spending a night at the Canmore Holiday Inn. ‘We upgraded you to a loft suite with a jaccuzzi!”. Kids got excited and bang “Sorry I read it wrong, how about a room with two queen beds instead?’. Oh, they take you high and then they squeeze you down:-) Anyways, it is a nice hotel, almost new, full of Japanese tourists! Ate at the Rocky Mountain Flat Bread Company in Canmore. Organic pizza, go for the vegetarian pizzas. Expensive but super delicious! Off to Fairmont Lake Louise and shooting for an early checkin at 12 noon with a plan…in process;-)
My Best Redemption Ever
Note: This is a repost!
Mr. C and Mrs C came to see me back in 2007. Mr. C asked me the most challenging questions, it was very clear he had done his homework. He had done very well over the years as he rose up the management ranks of one of the Big Three companies. At the same time, both were two of the most gracious and down to earth people I have met. Near the end of the meeting I asked them: “Why do you want to hire me, you have done very well on your own all these years?”. And Mr. C said: “The only reason I am here is because I have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I don’t know how much longer I am going to live, I want you to take care of Mrs. C when I am gone, I need to find a good trustworthy professional to take care of her”. Wow, talk about being direct, huh?
As we got to know each other better I really enjoyed working with them. Mr. C knew so much (he was retired, career was in Finance) I was looking forward to our meetings because I always learned something from HIM! I started thinking of him as my father, always dishing out wisdom and life lessons learned.
So, where am I going with this? Mr. C did not like to travel much. Mrs. C’s dream was always to go to Hawaii with Mr. C. So I burned some Northwest Worlperks miles (yeah, back then there was no Skypesos crap to deal with, the Platinum line wonderful csr’s in MN handled it all, oh those were the days!) and flew them on First Class. They LOVED it! Mrs. C still tells me how she cherishes the memories of that trip. She now wants to travel more and always asks me for advice:-)
So…sometimes, in this miles/points world, you just can not be so anal about it ok? Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut, do what is right and what makes you feel good inside and make other people happy. So, don’t worry about trying to get the biggest bang for your miles like so many of you do, screw the calculators and the dillemas whether to buy or burn miles and make some people happy. Travel memories are precious, giving other people travel memories are even more precious!
Mr. C passed away a few years ago. Mrs. C is in good hands, rest in peace Mr. C!
first?
You were due!
MileValue at it again with the inferior US Airways offer with annual fee. Sad. Pathetic, really. He links to other bloggers on the speculation about when US Airways will leave Star Alliance and those other bloggers are not pitching the crappy offer. And US Airways departing Star has absolutely nothing to do with the end of availability for the Barclays card. Reading MileValue you wouldn’t know it. Crappy offer, wrong analysis = MileValue. Which is too bad, too, because a year ago it was a pretty good blog.
“gbert” in comments noted that and now his/her comment is gone.
So long, Scott. Give a holler if you ever feel like being trustworthy again.
I think this blog is unique in the speed that has gone from Top to Bottom! I bet that, financially speaking, the blog is doing better than ever….which is just….sad!
I actually really like that blog for its unique analysis in certain articles. Those pieces tend to be structured as more thoughtful stand-alone pieces that plug less than some of the posts. I think it best to avoid any article on the blog with ‘card’ in the headline, though.
Yeah…I had the same sense about it too…until almost every single post with “unique” analysis plugged a card at the end, usually Barclays:-)
So glad you reposted the story about Mr. and Mrs. C since it must have been posted before I discovered TBB. My sister died of pancreatic cancer 20 years ago this summer, so it has a personal ring for me, but what moved me more is the gift you gave this couple; that you didn’t just think of him as a father figure, but you treated him like one. Well done.
As I keep delaying the inevitable unpacking, laundry, mail catch-up and such after being away for 10 days, I marvel at how some of the points ‘n miles peeps come and go so much. I guess their often brief jaunts don’t produce as much work on the home end since they take less stuff and less snail mail arrives while they are gone. Car trips do lead to shlepping lots more stuff. Or maybe they are mostly single. Or just have a fine-honed system for getting ready to go, returning home and leaving again. I am really organized; if anything that can make more work for me. We got home pretty beat by the heat and the long drive and lazed around yesterday, but now I better get to it.
Enjoy!
Many of them don’t travel with kids. I (alone) just took my 3yo son to visit our family in EU for 9days. It took me days to recover (as of u really recover with young kids).
Indeed! My kids are grown and I am still in recovery 😉 .
Yes, the whole travel “mode” is completely different when kids enter the picture!! I just don’t have the luxury of having too many days available due to kids’ class schedules/camps and now Mrs’s new (reduced) vacation days due to new job. So, when I do finally put the trips together I want to make them count:-)
When I saw the title contained “Best Redemption Ever”., I was worried that I was going to read about: Mercedes Benz car on the tarmac, shower in the sky, hot nuts, first class lounge massage, fawning stewardesses, Maldives, and Dom Perignon,— all thanks to Amex, Chase, blah blah.
Your post was a very refreshing change from all that.!
You forgot hot nuts? 🙂
Glad you liked the post!