While a good deal of our entries have focused on the planning of trips, it can also be very fulfilling to just get up one day and take a long weekend trip with no planning whatsoever.
On one of my dad's designated weekends with me when I was about 10, he decided that we were going to just take a random trip to Toronto. We had taken a couple trips to Niagara Falls before, but nothing was ever this spontaneous.
The main focus of the trip was to go see a baseball game, since the Blue Jays were playing my favorite team at the time, the Seattle Mariners. Aside from the game, nothing else had been planned. Actually, since it was before the internets really took off, we didn't even know if we were going to be able to get tickets, but whatever happened, we were going to make the most of the time we had there.
Luckily, there were a tickets available which placed us right by the left field foul pole. I'm not going to lie and pretend to remember the outcome of the game, but after a while, we ended up movig to a lower section to take over some seats that had been vacated innings earlier. We got away with it for a while until an usher asked to check our tickets. We ended up leaving before the end of the game because we had yet to find a place to stay for the night.
For those who haven't been, Toronto has an amazing downtown area, and there were several options for places to rest after the game. However there must have been a Comic Con going on or something because the first 3 or 4 places we tried, were all booked.
Then, a couple hours later, we got a lucky break. Using me as a token to garner sympathy, one hotel manager took pity on us and allowed us to stay in the one room they had available; one of their luxury suites. And, he gave it so us at the regular room rate. I showed my appreciation for his generosity by clogging up the toilet, and in the morning, my father and I decided to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame and then ventured home.
It was a quick trip, sure, but it was one of the more memorable ones because of the spontaneity. While we stick by our travel planning scheme, it is possible to have an amazing trip just by pointing at a map and saying, "There. We're going to go there. We'll figure the rest of it out when we get to it."
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