Category Archives: Travel

A bunch of new photo galleries

I had some time today so I was able to get through editing a bunch of RAW photos. I’m including the brand new galleries as well as photos from recent trips that I’ve been on.

Loew Lake Unit – Southern Kettles

Home in May/June 2010

Pike Lake Unit

Riveria Maya, Mexico

Boulder, Colorado

Sylvania Wilderness Area Canoe Trip

Nova Scotia

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

After I had finished my summer research project and Ross finished his summer classes in Madison, we were fortunate enough to have another great family vacation. This time we went to Nova Scotia, Canada. Passports are required to travel into Canada now. We all remembered ours, but Ross’ had expired. Fortunately, they allowed him on the plane, into Canada, and, after the week long trip, back into the United States. I bet if we had been going anywhere but Canada, the airline/customs people would not have let him board the plane.

Photos of the trip to Nova Scotia.

Whistler Blackcomb Ski Trip

We just got back from a ski trip to Whistler, British Columbia. The snow was incredible! I’ve never skied powder that was so deep and fresh as I did at Whistler. Numerous people that I talked to on the slopes said that this was the best snow that they’ve had in a long time.

Here are some of my favorite photos from this trip:

Chair lift going over the cliff

(See more photos here…)
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A Phone Call From Nicaragua

I just received an incredible phone call this evening. The caller id on my cell phone said “Unknown.” This usually means that someone on Skype is calling me… So I answered, expecting a friend. Instead, I hear: “Hello, Scott? Scott? How are you?” I have no idea who this is, so I ask who is calling and how he knows my name. It is pretty difficult to understand him and the line is crackly. Then I hear, “My name is Jose Manuel.” I could not believe it. This was a guy that I had met over a year ago (same summer when I went on the trip to Cyprus) in the small town of Comunidad El Bonete, Villanueva, Departamento de Chinandega. I had practiced my Spanish with him and he had worked on his English with me. He even had a CD player and had phonetically written out the lyrics to some American songs that he had. At the time, I would say that my Spanish was quite a bit better than his English. It was amazing how far along he had gotten in his English because he did not have an English-Spanish dictionary.

I was in Nicaragua doing a medical mission trip with a bunch of pre-med, med, dental, and vet students. We actually started in Costa Rica and then made our way up to Nicaragua. Staying in El Bonete was one of the highlights of the 2-week trip. The people of the village were very kind to host us in their homes for the 2 nights that we stayed there. It was a very interesting experience. Most of us slept in hammocks over the home’s dirt floor. I was fortunate enough to stay with Jose Manuel’s family…they were quite well off and had wood floors and access to a boombox. (I’m hoping that Jose will eventually have access to a computer because at that time he had not heard of it, the Internet, or email.) Some of our medical team actually slept with chickens running on the floor below their hammock!
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Top 10 U.S. Road Biking Routes

There’s a place we all want to go when we climb into the saddle of a bicycle.

For some people, it has a name; it is the “there yet” destination that children whine about when hunger, impatience, and nature call. It is the slam of the inside door and whir of the A/C fans and satisfaction of knowing that the hot bath and unplugged phone await. However, for many others, it is the semi-transcendence of just being on the way to wherever “there yet” is; it is the rush of merely being in the saddle, legs spinning, heart pumping and wind catching the grooves and corrugations of a snug Rock-locked helmet. The bath can wait, as can the hug of privacy. There is satisfaction in the groove of consistent motion that makes the trip to point B just as (if not more) exciting than actually B-ing there.

But even for enthusiasts of the latter variety, every way does not lead to the Way (to borrow from a Buddhist axiom). The way along a shoulder on a commercial vehicle access road is a far cry from the way along a scenic and remote county path through the Fall-yellow thick of an aspen grove and the scarlet symphony of a maple swarm. The way through the crush of an urban jungle does not allow for the same introspection that the way along a mountain ridge road of breathless horizons does…

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Reminiscing of the Summer of 2006

Photos of my travels in the spring and summer of 2006:

Spring break: Chicago

I had never really been in Chicago except passing through or at the airport. We walked around the city, saw the musical “Wicked,” and saw the many attractions (museums, aquarium, navy pier).

Summer: Moab, Utah

Immediately after graduation we drove to Utah to see Canyon Country. The United States has an incredibly diverse landscape.

Summer: Immokalee, Florida

I spent one week volunteering at a food pantry in Florida.

Summer: Beartooth Mountains, Montana

My dad and I, and a friend, his dad, and his brother drove to Montana for some backpacking. On the way we stopped at Mount Rushmore and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. The trip was very memorable.

Back from Cyprus

Wow, Cyprus was amazing! I am so glad that I had the opportunity to take this class on social justice. As always, photos are available on my Smugmug Cyprus Trip Photo Page. (The more I use Smugmug, the more that I love it.)

I’m going to be leaving for a Costa Rica/Nicaragua medical mission trip this Sunday (July 3rd) but I’ll update this blog with more of my thoughts on Cyprus once I get back. I don’t have time to do it now because I have to 1) finish my reflective learning journal about the Cyprus class, 2) finish my medical school applications, 3) request letters of recommendation from various teachers.