The best thing about writing these trip pages is getting to relive our wonderful adventures and share them with you.  This page is a little text heavy as we went on quite a few trips before we were able to get digital photos.  We do have a scanner now, so I hope to get them added eventually.  So read on, click to see the trips with whole pages devoted to them and I hope you enjoy them and maybe even learn something too.  We did!

To get to our most recent trip, click here.

In early 1994 Joe asked me if I would like to go to Newfoundland with him in the summer to visit his family.  As we had been dating for only about a year, I was surprised and pleased that he would think to ask me.  I quickly agreed and plans were made.  When we discussed the dates, I said it would be great to go there in the summer and Joe said. "We're going in June, not the summer."  As it turned out we had spectacular weather the whole time we were in St. John's.  I had high hopes of seeing an iceberg, but there were none to be found that year.  But given all the luck we had with weather, I really couldn't complain.  We went back in July 2000 and this time we have picture disks!  So click below to get to some information on that trip.  I do hope to put the original trip online one day too.

Joe and I married in May 1996 and since I had little holiday time available (having taken some in preparation for the wedding) we decided to have a short getaway to Saltspring Island.  We stayed at a wonderful place, the Salty Springs Resort.  It consists of wonderful A-frame cabins with with a beautiful, tranquil view and hot tubs that draw from the mineral springs for which the island is named.  We also had access to a games room in the main building and massages at the spa there.  There were also bikes that we could use to get around.  There were no phones, no TV or radio and we had our own little kitchen and barbeque.  It was wonderful to be so isolated -- we read and cuddled and barbecued and thoroughly enjoyed our escape from the real world.

In April of 1997 RINA announced that a paper that Joe had co-authored had won a bronze medal.  Joe's company at the time offered to fly him to London, England to attend the dinner.  We arranged to have a week off and go together.  It was amazing.  I practiced my guerilla tourism to the extreme as we tried to see as many attractions as we could.  We planned well for the trip and got to see lots of things.  At the time Britain was in the midst of elections and the IRA was threatening to bomb things all over.  But we still managed to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (quite by accident, as it was our first full day there and we were wandering at random) and the British Museum.  We saw various sites around the city in the following days.

We also saw the Tower of London which was AMAZING.  We went that day (April 21) to be there for the Queen's actual birthday and so found the yeoman warders (aka "Beefeaters") in full regalia.  We didn't know how much there was to see there and were surprised at the cost, but it was well worth it.  The Crown Jewels were amazing and there was a great tour of the whole palace.  It is actually a whole complex of buildings, the white tower, the Chapel of Peter ad Vincula (where Joe sat in the queen's regular seat), Beauchamp Tower, Traitor's Gate, and so much more.  We ended up spending the whole day there, when we thought it would only take a couple of hours.  There was also a 62-gun salute for the queen  -- 20 guns for the city of London, 21 for the Tower and 21 for the Queen.  That was quite a spectacle!  We were intrigued by all the history there and the legend of the ravens.  One of the warders is the  ravenmaster and he takes care of the ravens because legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the tower, the monarchy will fall.  We found out when we got back to the hotel late in the day that the IRA had threatened to bomb major sites all over London and the city center was shut down for most of the day!

We went to Greenwich and saw the prime meridian -- we even stood on both sides of it at once.  We went to the Royal Observatory and saw some of the timepieces used in the attempt to solve the longitude problem.  There was a great display of items from Captain James Cook's journeys at the Queen's House and we even saw a little of the Maritime Museum (though Joe had just seen it the year before!).  We found a great pub there too!

We also took a day to travel to Bath and see that lovely city.  There is so much history there.  Jane Austin lived there and the "Royal Crescent" was amazingly grand -- a crescent shaped row of homes with a beautiful view of the valley below.  But by far the most amazing thing were the Roman Baths.  Still in working condition, they are a testament to Roman engineering.  The floor of the main pool is still waterproof after 20 centuries!  I especially liked the Gorgon's Head.  We also found a great Teddy Bear Store -- the English love their bears!

Just being in London was amazing -- the sense of history all around you.  Coming from Vancouver -- a city in the 'new' world -- where the oldest buildings were probably built just over 100 years ago, it was amazing to me to think you might live in a place many hundreds of years old.  We visited pubs, galleries, Trafalger Square (luckily Joe had been to London the year before and done his "Naval Architects Tour" of Portsmouth and all the ship-y places), Picadilly Circus, and so many more.  I would love to go back again with more time to spend there...

Now I know you think I'm kidding, putting a little jaunt to Kelowna on this list, but it's a wonderful spot, especially if you like wines!  There are lots of wineries in the Okanagan Valley including two of our favorites, Mission Hill and Quail's Gate.  There are many wineries within an hour of Kelowna and BC wines are becoming some of he best in the world.  Most are open for tours and wine-tasting.  It was a late summer trip, and the Okanagan Valley was hot, hot, hot and the scenery in and around Kelowna and Lake Okanagan was spectacular.   To read more about travelling in the Okanagan and wineries, check our BC 2001 trip below.

This was an amazing trip.  When Joe got the job offer in Houston, I asked if we could take a road trip to Houston as our vacation that year instead of just flying there.  We decided to go for it and we saw the most amazing things along the way:

• The Agate Shop in Seaside Oregon
• The Oregon Coast
• Redwoods
• Mendocino, CA
• San Francisco
• Las Vegas
• Hoover Dam
• Parts of Route 66
• The Grand Canyon
• The Petrified Forest
• the VLA outside Soccoro, NM
• Roswell, NM
• Pie Town!
• The Carlsbad Caverns
• and lots of Texas.

Here's the first trip for which we have a prepared page.  After living in Houston for close to a year, we still hadn't seen that much of the places around us.  A friend told us that San Antonio was wonderful, so since Joe had a few vacation days to use before the end of the year, we thought it wool be a good time to see it.  We weren't disappointed -- Come see!

March!?!?!? you say.  Why Ottawa in March?  Well my cousin invited us to his wedding and since Joe had promised to take me to Ottawa on many occasions (he lived there for three years) we accepted.  Pretty sad that I had never seen Canada's National Capital when we lived in Canada.  It was very cold and snowy when we got there and stayed that way the whole visit, except for when there was biting wind.  But what a great city -- come see!

So here we are, living in Houston, a mere 10 hours or so by car from us and it took us a year and a half to go visit it!  Well, that was partly because it is an expensive city to visit, but that's not a good enough excuse.  We decided to take advantage of the Columbus Day (Thanksgiving in Canada) long weekend and finally see the place.  We stopped the first night in Lafayette then took the back roads to New Orleans stopping in New Iberia along the way for the Gumbo Festival.  New Orleans was everything we hoped for and more (especially more humidity!).  Well, I still haven't managed to get this page up -- and we've done more travelling since.  I still have hopes for it, but don't hold your breath!

While there we stayed at a great bed and breakfast that we found through Gastehaus Schmidt called Heimplatz Am Fluss (Homeplace on the River) in Stonewall, just across the river from the LBJ Ranch.  It was a wonderful place -- we had the whole top floor to ourselves with a lovely little verandah in a very cozy traditional home.  We chose Fredericksburg partly for the scenic hill country location, partly for the quaint German town, but mostly because the Admiral Nimitz Museum and the Museum of the Pacific War are there -- Joe was in heaven!  I liked the Japanese Garden of Peace the most.  We also hoped to see some wildflowers since we were there during wildflower season.  Unfortunately it was a poor year for them due to the lack of rain.  Since that time we've had a couple of very god years with wildflowers, we just haven't been back this far into the hill country.  In March 2003 Lynda, Leah and Ross went to Brenham and Washington-On-The-Brazos and found lots of wildflowes around. 

It was past time to visit Newfoundland together -- we hadn't been in six years!  So we decided to go and found we had enough airmiles to get there.  So off we went to see "the Rock" and family there.  It was also the 1000th anniversary of the Vikings settling in Newfoundland, so time to see the Viking Villlage at L'Anse Aux Meadows.  We had a wonderful time in and around St. John's seeing Joe's family and Lynda finally got to see an iceberg (if only a little one!).  The weather wasn't as cooperative as the last visit, well come see for yourself!
Page 1: Arrival in St. John's and touristing around there.
Page 2: The West Coast and L'Anse Aux Meadows, Bud's cabin, back to St. John's and departure.