Calling an Audible: Going Home 2 Days Early

Canada travelog #21
Back at the hotel · Tue, 26 Aug 2025. 10:30pm.

Today finished on a good note, hiking-wise. We hiked two two-fers, for a total of 4 waterfalls: Albion and Buttermilk Falls, then Sherman Falls and Tiffany Falls. All was not good, though, as at the start of the day we had a problem with dry balls. And it wasn't just Ball's Falls that were dry but several others we had on our list to visit, too. While driving around during the day we decided it'd make sense to cut our visit to Canada short as we'll run out of things we want to do well before Sunday.

Tonight, after dinner and a soak in the hot tub, while Hawk was snoozing (she hasn't slept well recently) I rebooked our flights and shortened our hotel stay and car rental. The plan now is we'll go home Friday night instead of Sunday night.

What's the Cost?

Hawk agreed to leaving early provided the cost of rebooking plans wasn't significant. Cost was a major factor for me, too. If going home early is just a cost sink, we could figure out something to do in Ontario. The numbers work out such that, at worst, it's a wash, dollar-wise— but we still get two days of time back. And, best case, we save a few hundred bucks. Here's the math on the costs:

• Departing hotel 2 days earlier: $327 savings


• Returning rental car 2 days earlier: $104 savings


• Figuring the cost of rebooking flights is a bit tougher as I bought one on cash and one on points. Mine, paid with cash, cost $260 more than my original flight. Hawk's flight I got for 15,000 points, with a travel credit of $271 net she can use within the next 11 months.


• If Hawk can manage to use that credit before it expires, it's a great exchange for the 15,000 points we paid. $271 ÷ 15,000 = 1.8 cents per point (cpp), much better than the average value of 1.1cpp I value UA miles at.

Curiously, the numbers work out to a wash if Hawk's travel credit expires unused 11 months from now. If she can use it, then $271 is what we'll have saved by going home 2 days early.

Goddammit, Verizon

Our phones have been on the blink. Again. Because Verizon is incompetent. And lies about it. 🤬

Several days ago, when we were traveling in Canada, both our phones suddenly couldn't find the network. We tried various forms of "turn it off, turn it on again" (airplane mode, turn off/turn on cellular network, reboot phone, etc.) but nothing seemed to work for 30 minutes. We had flashbacks to when a similar thing happened in Panama last December that took a hours to fix with the help of Verizon tech support. Fortunately when it happened last Monday our phones starting working again after about 30 minutes.

Then it happened again-again yesterday (Saturday). We were out getting lunch and shopping locally. First Hawk's phone went into "SOS" mode indicating it couldn't find any cellular network. She tried various forms of rebooting but none worked. Then about 2 hours later my phone did the same. I also tried various forms of restarting/rebooting. I even updated the software on my phone in case the glitch was related to older versions (though mine was less than 6 months old). It was all to no avail.

With Hawk's phone kaput for 3 hours and mine kaput for 1 hour, Hawk placed a call to Verizon tech support. Actually it wasn't a call, it was a chat session on their tech support portal. It went unanswered for 40 minutes.

At that point I started wondering, No response, not even a chatbot, on a chat service, for 40 minutes? Their tech support must be totally overwhelmed. That means likely this isn't just an "us" problem!

Hawk searched online and found lots of people complaining about the same problem.

Verizon, for its part, was responding that it was an "isolated" problem that affected "only a few people". The sheer number of people complaining online shot the shit out of that claim.

My phone came back online yesterday evening. Hawk's phone reconnected this morning. Is the problem solved? We're not sure. Verizon's continued downplaying of the apparently widespread outage gives us no confidence.

Plan B: Lazy Afternoons by the Pool at Home

When we decided to cut short our Canada trip several days ago I immediately started thinking, what else can we do instead? By coming back Friday night we'd have a whole, three-day weekend (Labor Day in the US) ahead of us. I feel like whenever we have an extra day like that we have to go somewhere, as time for travel is so limited for us US working stiffs. There are so many places we could go! And yet... I'm also ready for a break from travel. Thus enter Plan B— or is it more like Plan C at this point? Taking it easy at home.



Of course, "taking it easy at home" doesn't just mean moping around, sitting in the dark. It's summer, and the weather's beautiful. We're spending afternoons out by the pool!

Saturday we went out for lunch together, ran a few shopping errands, and came back to relax in/by the pool for a few hours. We grilled hot dogs for dinner.

Today (Sunday) is more of the same. Well, not the same, but similar. 😅 We went out for lunch again then relaxed in/by the pool for a few hours. We'll run a few errands late in the afternoon then come home for dinner. My plan for tonight is grilling burgers.

Dinner Out, Breakfast In

Canada travelog #22
Back at the hotel · Wed, 27 Aug 2025. 8am.

This morning we chose to eat breakfast in the room. No, it's not some sumptuous room service spread; it's groceries we shopped for last night and/or brought from home in our luggage. We bring our own because we're leery of hotel breakfasts. They're generally either cheap crap or eye wateringly expensive. Sometimes they manage to be both. For example, the breakfast buffet at the hotel near Toronto airport was $20 for bland scrambled eggs, lukewarm sausage, and an assortment of stale breads. And will they even have much we want? We're both picky eaters about traditional US breakfast foods.

On this trip the cost factor disappears. At Hilton Garden Inns I get breakfast for two for free as an elite status perk. So those bland scrambled eggs, lukewarm sausage, and assortment of stale breads are gratis. 😂 But we thought maybe we could do better shopping for ourselves. We bought a few items at the grocery store last night. Unfortunately the verdict this morning is that the grocery food is all bland, too. 😞 So tomorrow morning we'll probably switch back to the buffet.

It's odd that breakfast is weak here at the hotel as dinner was surprisingly on point. By the time we checked in two nights we were too tired to go back out— it had been a long day with waterfalls and waterfails—so we sat at the bar for dinner. Hawk had a plate of spring rolls as her meal with a slice of apple pie for dessert. I enjoyed a Caesar salad with grilled steak and a slice of cheesecake for dessert. Oh, and I washed it down with a couple pints of a local beer, Ambear Ale, and a glass of wine.

As much as we enjoyed dinner at the hotel restaurant two nights ago it was also spendy. I mean, not like financing options for DoorDashing a burrito spendy, but the kind of meal we only treat ourselves to maybe twice a month. So last night we went cheap. Like, fast food cheap. Ontario turns out to have plenty of franchises of one of my favorite fast food restaurants from back home, Popeye's. I enjoyed a chicken tenders combo with a side of freshly made onion rings. I don't think they've done fresh onion rings in the US for years now. And the combo was cheaper in Canada than back home— by about 25%. Wow.

Well, enough chatting about food. We've got another busy day ahead. Today we're driving down to visit Niagara Falls! That's the other part of why we decided to eat breakfast in the room. We figured it'd be faster, helping us hit the road sooner to have more time enjoying the falls.