Turnaround Day

It's turnaround day for us today, which means that everything gets dumped out, cleaned, and then repacked for our next adventure (Manually this time. No more Magic Suitcase.)  We are actually lucky enough to have two days this time, which is a bit of a blessing as I haven't quite got everything booked for our next run yet.  I don't like leaving things to the last minute, as it can leave me having to force flights or hotels at prices that I don't like, but sometimes there's just never a price that I'm willing to pay.  That's where it gets tricky.

For the last couple of months I've been trying to get a room in Vancouver for Tuesday night.  There's a big convention going on at the Hyatt and it's sold out, so I would have to use my Diamond force to get a room, and that's expensive.  I tried getting in on the convention rate, but apparently the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives have some kind of "credentials" that you need to be a member.  I looked around other hotels, but everything was either too expensive or not expensive enough ($69 is a good rate, but East Hastings isn't really where I want to spend my vacation).  So last night I threw in the towel, and asked Lori to call her parents and see if the farm was available.  Of course it couldn't have been 15 minutes after she told them we were coming that something fell together and I got a room for the night in Vancouver.  I frequently wonder how my wife hasn't killed me yet, but now I also wonder how her parents put up with me. 

In addition to finishing bookings for the next trip, turnaround day means that everything has to be recharged and reloaded.  I'm sure my kids would watch whatever is on their machines, but if I can get them new programming, it makes my trip that much quieter.  It also means that I have to catch up on some e-mail.  I do my best to keep up with things while I'm gone, but I do shut the data roaming off on my phone, so sometimes the e-mail piles up a little. 

The kids, on the other hand, love being home.  They always look forward to those couple of nights in their own bed (or in the boys case, on his own X-box) with their own space.  Sometimes I wonder how my kids will look back on their summers.  Will it be "Wow, we went a lot of places and saw so many things.  That was great!" or will it be "Mom and Dad dragged us everywhere!  We never got to enjoy our summers."  I guess time will tell, but at least their future husbands and wives will know that they know how to pull a suitcase.