Travel Blog

I just got in late last night from a two-conference journey that took
me from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. and back.  The first
conference was pretty good; the second part, alas, proved to be fairly
pointless.  Though it is always good to spend some time in
Washington and even better to be there when the weather was nice enough
to make some walking around a possibility.  Baltimore (to which I
had only made passing visits previously) was a pleasant surprise. 
Lovely architecture and a wealth of things to do and places to
visit.  A highlight undoubtedly was the Evergreen House, which
features a private theatre designed by Leon Bakst.

More another day when I am less exhausted and have the energy to sort through and upload my own pictures.

Visiting Manhattan Beach and Huntington beach this weekend really made me miss California. So Cal has always had this magic for me. It's nothing Fresno or the Central Valley ever really had, except that we were never far from the places I really loved. My childhood desire to live on the California coast was revived last night as we walked through perfect, crisp air on a pier that stretched from a beach all aglow with lights into an indigo night that felt almost like an eternity of space.

Maybe I'll return to California someday. If I do, I hope I'll be able to come back to a place like Huntington Beach or Irvine, rather than Fresno.

We have gotten a lot of work done preparing for the conference. It's hard to believe we still have two FULL days before delegates even begin showing up. It's good to have that buffer zone, though, while we're here on campus.

Funny thing: last night we were all eating dinner at a nice tropical-themed place on Huntington Beach, when "Uncovering America" on CNN came onto the big widescreen TV behind our table. The topic? "Gays Turning Straight". They replayed some of Alan Chambers' interview from Love Won Out in Phoenix. It was a really cool coincidence, and led to an interesting (positive) conversation with our waitress.

I really hoped these pictures would turn out better than this. Oh, well.

Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden. 1.00 pm. Tuesday 5 May

After my KL trip and looking at my work travel schedule for the rest of the year, I've been on the hunt for a new laptop bag.  Hauling around something that's equivalent to a 5kg sack of rice (more if I include my charger and cable lock) everyday is no fun so number 1 criteria is wheels!  The company I work for makes a laptop backpack with wheels but even with a hefty staff discount, it's waaay too expensive and unfortunately there's no policy to give staff that travel regularly one each.  Isn't it better for your staff to be seen using your company's product than something else from another company?  *sigh*

I'm eyeing this laptop backpack from McKlein, there's a new one on ebay that's being sold cheap but I'm hesitating since the seller will only ship to US and Vpost will be expensive.  I think the total cost might (just) come in under my budget

The nice thing about it is that the wheeled frame is actually removable so you can use the backpack on its own and it's got a strap on the top and side so you can pick it up both ways. 

I saw a cute Kipling backpack with wheels on a website, I'll have to get down to the Kipling shop at Vivo sometime this week to see if it's available here and if the size is right.  Otherwise, I'm going for Ebay and will keep my fingers crossed that the people at Vpost will overlook a few kilos here and there.

Here we are at Heathrow, waiting for our flight back to the U.S.  It was a great trip.  Yesterday we drove from the Villa in Tuscany to the Rome airport (about 3 hours).  We flew from Rome to London and stayed overnight in London to break up the trip back.

Hannah's watching Viva Pinata on the Slingbox as I'm typing this.  Here's my Heathrow tip:  T-Mobile hotspots are 1 pound cheaper per hour than BT's.  Who knew you could price shop for internet access in the airport.

That's all for now.

I went to Victoria for a few days this week.

Well, yes, the construction noise spoiled the hotel room experience. Otherwise it was good. Some of the highlights:

Went on a (free!!) tour of the BC Parliament Buildings where I saw the dining room's lunch menu, marble floors, the controversial murals, stained glass windows, the architectural drawings by Francis Rattenbury, the Legislative Chambers and the Mace (fortunately no longer needed by the Sergeant-at-Arms to defend the Speaker), plus narration by an actor playing the role of Matthew Begbie, the Hanging Judge.

People go on and on about the front view of the buildings in their Romanesque Revival glory. Personally, I like the fountain at the back.

Spent several hours at the Royal BC Museum which had a Titanic exhibit. I wasn't too impressed with the Titanic exhibit. It was ok but seemed light on artifacts and heavy on words written on the walls. The person named on my randomly selected boarding pass, Miss Jane Carr, was not among the listed survivors.

Upstairs in the museum, The First Peoples Gallery is truly amazing and I also visited the Woolly Mammoth. It was fun waiting for the thunder storm and then watching any kids in the room react to the thunder and lightning effects with the enormous Woolly Mammoth looming over them!

Hung around the Inner Harbour where an enormous sailboat, the Destination, was moored near the Pacific Swift, a replica 1778 fishing schooner. Watched whale watchers getting ready to go whale watching. Watched tourists trying to take pictures of a raccoon rooting around for goodies under the docks.

Ate out in several restaurants. My favourite was Pagliacci's. Insanely crowded, noisy and great fun! They had live music, a jazz trio, at 8:30.

Went to Munro's Books which claims to be "Canada's Most Magnificent Bookstore!" Went to Russell Books which is even better.

Shopping. Bought a new shoulder bag! It's made of bison leather and has lots of big pockets and zippers. There is room for my iPod, camera, wallet, $2.87 in loose change, tourism map of Victoria, eyeglasses, a couple of Canadian Business magazines, a paperback book (Darwin's Children), pen, lip gloss, a packet of toothpicks, eyeglasses wipes, 3 bandaids, a packet of Amosan, a bar of Purdy's dark chocolate, keys, receipts, and a bunch of papers with stuff written on them. How did my new handbag manage to accumulate so much stuff in less than 24 hours? Good thing it has a comfortable wide shoulder strap.

Broke in, really broke in my new orthotics. Results included one blister, a sore toe, aching lower back and a new pain I had never experienced before, shin splints. I didn't know that they were called that until I described it to my sister who's training for a half-marathon and has more familiarity with sports injuries than I. It seems unfair to have a sports-related pain and not be able to claim that it was caused by a sport. Tourism and shopping should be declared sports. Fortunately the shin splints were gone the next day. My chiropractor told me, as he yanked my ankle and foot bones back into their correct positions, that I'm "adjusting" to the orthotics. I'm so glad…

I had a dream last night that I was offered a kick-arse job overseas, and had to leave Australia IMMEDIATELY.

My response: "I can't move until later in the year, because there are awesome shows coming up and I've already booked tickets"

And it's true. Here they are. (scroll down to the upcoming events heading). I expect I'll be adding tickets to Magnolia Electric Co. and The Basics/Gotye to that list very soon.

I'll be going to Japan tomorrow! YAY~! I have been internet deprived so I haven't been able to read any of your fabulous updates or post anything! Not that I post much anyway. However, it's been fun this past week! 

I decided to fly home this weekend rather than make te 6 hour drive because taking 2 days off work for driving is not plausible at the moment.  I'm not a big fan of flying, but I have grown to really enjoy the 45-minute flight from Seattle to Spokane. When I was a drinker I especially enjoyed the fact that they give you free regional beer or wine on the smaller planes.

Joe got me to the airport exactly when I wanted to get there (9:30 for an 11:00) flight.  There was virtually no line at security and I was having my Starbuck breakfast and watching planes taxi by 9:40.  I admit that I love sitting in airports.  I really don't mind a couple of hours of people watching now and then.

The boarding time on my boarding pass said 10:30, and I joined the people flocking around the gate at about 10:35. At 10:45 the gate agent announced that our plane was just a few minutes behind schedule and we would be boarding in about 15 minutes.  I went for a browse in the book store across from the gate.

At 11:15 she announced that they were getting us a different plane.  OK, well, I don't want to fly on a plane they aren't sure about.  11:40  we finally got on a plane.  I handed my bag to the "a la cart" guys on the tarmac and climbed the stairs to find my window seat under the wing with a view of the propeller.  At noon we hadn't moved.  The pilot anounced there was an air traffic delay and we would be leaving in a few minutes. At 12:10 he annonced that they would know soon about the air traffic issue, but there was also a chance that we would need to change planes.  Change planes?

After several folks in flourescent orange vests came aboard to talk to the pilot he announced that we would need to gather our belongings and go back to the terminal.  So at 12:20 I was back inside, where they told us they were looking for another plane for us, so we should stay nearby.  At 12:40 we watched the 1pm flight to Spokane board on schedule.  We boarded again at 1pm.  This plane was definitely new-er.  After waiting in a long queue of departing planes we were in the air a bit after 1:30. That would be 2.5 hours late after rejecting two planes as unsafe to fly.  I suppose their concern is a good thing, but it''s not a very good rate of planes that work. 1:3?