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
Chicago Lightning
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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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August, 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)
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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
2009 Running of the Bulls
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.