Robert Reid, a blogger on the Lonely Planet website, has an interesting list of "47 or so Dumb Things I've Done Traveling." Worth a read (check out: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelblogs/68/1256/47+or+so+Dumb+Things+I) if for no other reason than to prime the pump of your own brain storage device and remember some of your own dumb things. I'm sure I can come up with 47 or so given time and a Mai Tai or two. But for now here's a start.
1. On a day trip during a visit to Washington DC, Greyhouding it to Williamsburg, Virginia and then refusing to pay the then outlandish fee of $10 or so for a day pass to tour Colonial Williamsburg. I ended up pay $3 or so to visit each of first 2 buildings in the complex and then looking through the windows of others - all to save $4. Chuck's rule #1 - don't skip on the admissions. After paying air/bus/rail/car rental/gas/hotels/visas/meals, don't skimp on why you're actually there - seeing and experiencing the place!
2. Not going back to the festival site in rural Bhutan (OK, OK, almost all of Bhutan is rural), wanting instead to nap and get over my cold. Actually, Nevada Wier, the master travel and cultural photographer and trip leader, talked my out of napping and encouraged me to grab the camera and go back to the festival. Her logic - you're in BHUTAN, for goodness sakes, likely a once in a lifetime experience - save the nap for later - see and experience now! Good advice! (I did pass, later on in the day, on an excursion to another temple, sans monks and festivals. Consensus of the group was that I had made the right choice - both times.)
3. Not going to San Miguel Allende for Holy Week several years ago, with family in tow, and joining up with a good friend for the festivities. While it made sense on one level not to go with a 7 year old, I missed an opportunity to visit with a photographer friend who, sadly, died a year later.
4. Making a reservation at a motel in Cortez, Colorado a day or two before our arrival because the lodge in Mesa Verde National Park was full. We passed the park entrance, drove to the hotel, checked in, and then drove back to the Park only to see the sign at the entry booth - rooms available at the Lodge! #*$)# Even more so when we saw the Lodge. %$(*&%
5. Passing up a stop in Bilbao, Spain to see the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry, because the weather was threatening, we were tired and didn't want to deal with the town's traffic. Over the next several weeks, the weather wherever we went was always threatening and we missed seeing one of the architectural highlights of the world.
Oh, well. Enough for now. I'm sure I'll think of others soon. And so will you.
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