Travels

There are many places on Earth that I have not yet visited (and many more off of the earth :). So many interesting, beautiful and different things to see and do. It has been a long standing dream of mine to travel the world, meeting the wonderful people and viewing the many great places, for myself.

My wife, Charlotte, has had the oportunities to visit several parts of the world with her family, before we had met. We are looking forward to traveling together.

Business Trips

When I worked for Guru Labs, I traveled rather regularly. Here is the list of all the trips I took.

2007 (15 trips)
2006 (18 trips)
2005 (17 trips, 18 weeks)
2004 (24 trips)
2003 (14 trips)

Personal Trips

2004/12/14 - 2005/01/12

We went on a wonderful vacation to Australia and New Zealand for Christmas & New Year's. This trip was selected by our Niece, Brooke Gordon (married before we left, that's her maiden name). Several others joined us on the 14-day cruise which began in Sydney, Austrailia and ended in Auckland, New Zealand. There were 16 people total in our group.

Charlotte and I made plans to arrive in Australia several days early, to have some time to visit a bit more of the country before the cruise began (not to mention being completly "jet-lag" free by the time we boarded). After reaching Auckland, we also spent a few days in New Zealand before returning home.

We could leave closer to the cruise start date if we spent almost US$3,000 on airline tickets. As we can not afford that, we are using miles that I have built up in my business travels. Reaching Sydney in time for the cruise will be quite an adventure:

• 2004/12/14 -- Salt Lake City, Utah to Portland, Oregon
• 2004/12/15 -- Portland, Oregon to Tokyo, Japan
• 2004/12/18 -- Tokyo, Japan to Guam
• 2004/12/19 -- Guam to Cairns, Australia
• 2004/12/22 -- Cairns, Australia to Sydney, Australia

On the evening of December 22nd, we will attend a ballet at the Sydney Opera House.

The cruise itinerary [2004/12/23 - 2005/01/06]: Day 1 -- Sydney, Australia Day 2 -- At Sea Day 3 -- Melbourne, Australia Leisurely Melbourne (approximately 2.5 hours) Day 4 -- At Sea Day 5 -- Tasmania (Hobart), Australia Over the Back: a Tasmanian Eco-Tour & Wildlife Park Day 6 -- At Sea Day 7 -- At Sea Day 8 -- Fiordland National Park Scenic Cruising, New Zealand Day 9 -- Dunedin (Port Chalmers), New Zealand Natural Wonders of Dunedin (approximately 6 hours) Day 10 -- Christchurch (Lyttelton), New Zealand Horse Trekking (approximately 4.5 hours) Day 11 -- Wellington, New Zealand The Storm Coast (approximately 3.5 hours) Day 12 -- At Sea Day 13 -- Tauranga, New Zealand Rangitaiki River Adenture (approximately 4 hours) Day 14 -- Bay of Islands, New Zealand Dolphin Encounter (approximately 4 hours) Day 15 -- Auckland, New Zealand America's Cup Sailing (approximately 2 - 2.5 hours)

After a couple of days in Auckland, we will be returning home. This journey gives us a second chance to see a couple of places:

• 2005/01/09 -- Auckland, New Zealand to Cairns, Australia
• 2005/01/10 -- Cairns, Australia to Guam
• 2005/01/11 -- Guam to Tokyo, Japan
• 2005/01/12 -- Tokyo, Japan to San Francisco, California
• 2005/01/12 -- San Francisco, California to Salt Lake City, Utah

I never got around to buying any radios that I could take with me, so I never bothered applying for a reciprical Amatuer Radio license for either Australia nor New Zealand. During the "long" strech at sea (days 6, 7 & 8), I had hoped to operate HF aboard ship. I would have printed a special QSO card for this event, which would then have been sent to each completed contact. Perhaps next time.

I did purchase a digital video camera, just before we left. Unfortuneately, I couldn't afford to also purchase a couple of small (maybe 2M pixel) digital photo cameras, as well. I have started posting images and maybe I'll also post some video.

Summer or Autumn 2006

UPDATE: Since Charlotte's parents are currently serving a mission in Mississippi, this trip has been postponed until the Summer or Autumn of 2007

Charlotte's parents will have their 50^th wedding anniversary in this year. Charlotte's sister, Delinda and her husband, Jeff will enjoy thier 25^th anniversary. Charlotte & I will reach our 5^th anniversary during the year.

In celebration, another cruise vacation is being discussed. As of this writting, however, no destination nor region has been selected. Personally, I am leaning towards a South American cruise.

Corrine suggested Finland/Norway, which I think would be wonderful. Given the general climate in that region, however, I would rather take the trip there during the warmest part of the summer.

Plans & Projects

I am writing a historical database application that will store all sorts of historical information. For example, each month (perhaps weekly) I intend to place descriptions of the most signifficant events into the database. These events will be on the scales of Global, National, State & Local (and Personal?). There will be several categories including Family/Personal, Political/Secular News, Scientific, Music/Movies/TV and others that I will come up with as I enter in the data.

At the end of each year, I will filter through that year's events and list the most significant (at each level), for each month, as a "Year In Review." I hope to add photographs and even audio and/or video segments for many things.

I will also work backwards, adding such entires on a monthly basis going all the way back to May, 1974 (for me) and November, 1971 (for Charlotte).