| A few weeks before Thanksgiving 2008 we received a mail from DVC stating we had a confirmed reservation to stay at The Sanctuary Resort and Spa in Costa Rica! We would be there the week of Thanksgiving 2009. I was so excited! I immediately went to Borders and began searching for just the right travel book—one with lots of color pictures, maps, and touring suggestions. The next big hurdle was airfare. I had already called our airline company before we put in our search request with DVC and they did have an alliance partner that could fly us there enabling us to use miles to pay for the airfare. I called right away because we wanted to use frequent flyer miles and it’s often hard to get what you want if you don’t call early. This time though, I was too early. Those dates had not been released yet. Ok, back to waiting again.
A few days before Thanksgiving, my dad became very ill and had to be taken to the hospital via ambulance. It turns out that he had several infections and a whole host of other health issues. So he was admitted to the hospital and we had to scramble to try to re-arrange our holiday plans. We were all supposed to be together for Thanksgiving, but with him in the hospital should we spend it there? Would the kids be allowed in? This was the beginning of many phone conversations with my mom and sister (my only family nearby) about exactly what we were going to do. With all of this going on, I somehow forgot to call the airline on the exact day. Oh no—surely they will have something still available, right? I’m only a few days late in calling. I finally get through to the airline and tell them where we need to go, and that I had already checked on this a few weeks before, etc. They informed me that “all those seats are already sold out”. What? This far in advance? Was there some kind of special event taking place in Costa Rica at Thanksgiving? Did all of these people call in before me somehow? How could this be? This can’t be happening! I resort to asking him how much the airfare would be if I purchased it instead. He said $600 per person and I needed 4 seats. There’s no way I’m going to pay $2,400 just to get us there. I reluctantly thanked him for his time and sat stunned at my desk for a few minutes.
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