Shortly
before Alisha and I went to Italy, I purchased a
Digital-SLR camera to document the adventure. Little did I
know, the camera would spark my inner-Ansel Adams and Italy
would spark my inner-Christopher Columbus. Below are a
collection of my favorite pictures from adventures along my
way through life.
RANDOMS
Let's
start off the pictures with a bunch of randoms -- from
Alaska to Georgia. These are a collection of photos I don't
have a specific folder for; some are just one or two
pictures from individual journeys, then there are nearly a
half-dozen places of in-and-around
Chicago.
ITALY
September,
2005. Stemming from a wine-filled night of playing poker in
a buddy's basement, Alisha and I decided to get away for a
couple of weeks to explore Rome, the Amalfi Coast and
Sicily. It was an awesome trip, especially considering it
was our first time on our own out of the country.
EGYPT
and
JORDAN
February,
2006. My friend Ken and I made a pact to head to Egypt if
we ever saw a package for less than $1,000. Apparently,
there are a lot of packages available for under a grand. We
decided to go through a travel agency given where we wanted
to go and what we wanted to do there.
ENGLAND,
NETHERLANDS
and
BELGIUM
March,
2006. For my friend Rik's 40th birthday, he chose to
celebrate out of the country. Namely, Amsterdam. With the
time difference, a three day weekend overseas is pretty
difficult. Alisha and I added a couple of days in the
United Kingdom and another couple in Belgium, making our
trip eight days overseas, planning everything ourselves.
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
(including
ECUADOR)
March,
2007. Instead of sitting around and being all depressed for
turning 60, my mom wanted to do something fun to mark the
occasion. The Galapagos Islands, or bust! We went with an
outdoor company my family has a good history with and
they've pretty much redefined adventure travel.
PANAMA
August,
2007. Alisha and I decided to take a quick
out-of-the-country trip before she starts school and flying
around taking trips isn't as easy. Time and money
restricted us to going South of the border, and hurricane
season narrowed our choices to south Central America, free
and clear of hurricanes.
SWITZERLAND,
LIECHTENSTEIN,
AUSTRIA,
SLOVAKIA
and
CZECH REPUBLIC
A
ugust,
2008. What started as an attempt to see the Czech Republic
before it gets expensive and all "Euro-y", Alisha and I
decided to take some time and see Czech and Slovakia.
Airfare was cheaper into Switzerland; then we added Austria
since we'd be in the neighborhood; and we had to hit tiny,
little Liechtenstein just because its there.
PUERTO RICO
(including the
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS)
February,
2009. Having no luck squashing our travel bug, and having a
couple of extra frequent flier miles, Alisha and I booked a
quick trip to Puerto Rico, just to see someplace we haven't
been before. We extended our lay-over in St. Thomas to
explore the U.S. Virgin Islands a bit, too.
SPAIN
July,
2009. My friend Rik celebrated his decade birthday in
Netherlands, Jim celebrated in Mexico and Canada, my mom in
the Galapagos. Keeping with the tradition, my decade
birthday was spent in Spain for the Running of the Bulls.
MAINE
(U.S.A.)
October,
2009. Every year I received the Maine Media Workshops
catalogue
in the mail and regretted not taking any classes. In
2009 that changed with "Maine's Fall Beauty," taught
by Neal Parent.
Spending a week as a photography nerd with a bunch of
other like-minded nerds was a riot!
BERMUDA
March,
2010. Taking a chance to break free from our cabin fever,
Alisha and I cashed in some more frequent flier miles to
wander around all 20.6 square miles that makes up the
island nation of Bermuda.
BRAZIL
March,
2011. Carnival for Alisha's decade birthday. 'Nuff said.
INDIA
2011.
When Alisha graduates her fancy-pants anesthesia school, we
want to explore India as a way to de-stress ourselves and
celebrate our graduation from school.
MY COMPLETELY RANDOM TRAVEL
TIPS
I've
learned a few things while skipping around the globe which
makes traveling a bit more enjoyable. Some are travel tips,
some are "while you're there" tips, and then there are the
occasional random thoughts which come to mind. Everyone
really needs to discover what makes them a better traveler,
and these are my things.
