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Travel Photos I went to Maui with my university buddy Dave in November '94. We stayed for two weeks then stopped in LA to see Marcel and Diane for a week on the way back (sick of traveling and taking pictures by then so there's no photos of LA). During the Maui weeks we snorkeled, scuba dived, kayaked, drove around the island, biked down a volcano, went on a couple of catamaran day trips, and went to a luha. By the end we were broke and Dave was severely sick of having to stop the car for me to take pictures! (I'm glad I did, 'cause it's so nice to look at them and wish I was there instead of here.) I went to Jasper Park in July/August of '98, camping with my friend Dana and my pooch, Meika. We stayed for three nights and saw a number of elk in the camp ground and had two more bears than we would have liked, pass through our camp site! I think next time I would rather rent a camper instead of a tent. It's a good think Meika didn't see/hear the bears, better yet, they didn't See/hear her! I went to Suriname, South America for three weeks (work) in December of '98. We stopped in Curacao on the way down, just for one night. It was nice to stop there on the way down, since it is a total of 23 hours travelling to get to Suriname. We stayed the first night in Miami, but it was late at night and didn't have time to see anything. Curacao was good - we arrived early in the day and had tons of time to go shopping and take pictures. Didn't get too much time to sight see in Suriname. Most of the time was work, but we did get to go into the city a couple of times. I thought Calgary traffic was a nightmare (well it is), but its nothing compared to the trauma of driving down there (not to mention adjusting to the wrong side of the road too). I took a quick trip to Grail Springs Spa (near Bancroft Ontario) in Aug 2002, stopping for a 12hr layover in Quebec City on the way home. The spa was amazing - very relaxing and beautiful area; QC was hot and sunny so I got burnt to a crisp site seeing the old city all day. It was extremely hard to go home after that trip, leaving civilization to go back to the "uncivilized middle of nothing" where summer is almost over by the end of August and winter could start anyday. I went to Israel for 10 days in March '04. It was an incredible trip with so many moving moments, it's hard to remember them all (or just takes to long to listen to). It was with a group of 60 people from across Canada, meeting up on occasions with another Canadian group of 105. The weather, food, people and places were all great. We arrived in Tel Aviv & drove straight to Jerusalem, staying there for 4 nights. We toured the Old City a few times (seeing David's Tomb, the Wailing Wall and a bunch of other locations or holy sites), visited sites like the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, the Mt of Olives, the site of David & Goliath's battle, one of the hospitals where terrorist victims are treated, Bridges for Peace (a food bank for new immigrants), City Hall, had the Minister of Tourism give a speech and went to a gala dinner put on by the city/nation. Then we bused to the Dead Sea, stopping at Masada, Qumran (where Dead Sea Scrolls were found) and floated in the Dead Sea. Then we bused through the West Bank to the Sea of Galilee, staying there for a couple nights. From there we visited the Mt. of Beatitudes, saw a 2000yr old boat, drove through the Goland Heights to Ceasarea Philippii near the northern boarder, then back to Caupernaum and Tiberias to a diamond factory (yah, there's a good idea, take a shopoholic into a diamond store - not). As we left the Sea of Galilee, we stopped at the south end for a baptism service at the Jordan River, went to Migeddo (Armegeddon), drove through Mt Carmel on the way to Haifa and then to Ceaserea Maritima and finally back to Tel Aviv for a couple nights. On the last day we did a trip to an archealogical site and a mock "mini Israel" that had minitures of all the major sites in the country in one little spot. There was a final dinner with the two tour groups at the hotel in Tel Aviv, then we flew home early the next morning. It was a pretty whirl wind trip, but well worth it. I went to Chicago in August '04 for my brother Marty's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in a garden in Grant Park. I spent a week in Chicago - visiting with family & my brothers friends, shopping, catching some movies, eating out, and going to Starbucks everyday (I miss real coffee out here in the boonies). I didn't get to do any site seeing - would have liked to, but was a little hard to time with the wedding and shopping was a bigger priority this time I went to Australia in November 2002 for work - a two week trip to five mines in Western Australia. It was a fairly rush trip flying from Labrador to Toronto, then Hawai, Sydney and then Perth, all in 40 hours. We momentarily stopped (overnight) in Perth. Four of the five of us went over the Campbell & Kristy Baird's house for a visit and out for supper They had worked In Labrador for a couple years before I moved there and Campbell had come back for a few months when I was first hired to train me. Early the next morning we flew 3 hours north, grabbed a charter prop plane to the first mine, West Angeles Mine. We flew back to the first stop, Paramadoo, and then drove an hour to the second mine at the town of Tom Price and stayed there for a few nights. From there we drove to Marandoo Mine and flew for the day to Yandi Mine. We then flew to Pannawannaca Mine and on to the port facilities at Dampier. We stayed in Dampier for a couple nights visiting the port and also having a day fishing at sea with some of the planners from the port. From there we flew back to Perth, visiting the corporate office. I stopped in at Campbell & Kristy's house for a barbeque and more of a visit - the rest of the group stayed back at the hotel. That evening we flew back to Sydney and then straight back to Vancouver. I stayed there for three days for a visit with my friend Dana from university. The first day was a sleep day, trying to recoup from the jet lag. Then a bit of shopping and visit with Dana and a couple other friends living there. I didn't get many non-work pictures on that trip so you can view them on my Work page. |