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My travel experiences range from a weekend at Expo 86 in Vancouver to working in England for a year to a free cruise. I have travelled by air, rail, boat, bus and car; I've walked the hills of San Francisco and cycled the Gulf Islands.Many of the paths I've taken are well-travelled, but I tend to see things from a skewed angle. My ultimate aim here is to amuse the reader, so browse and enjoy. |
Travel |
Expo 86 ... Porsche Museum ... Disneyland ... Bakersfield ... Galiano |
Expo 86, Vancouver, BC (1986) | |
| My luck with free and cheap travel began here: two of my friends had four tickets to a show (Platinum Blonde!) and one of their other friends bailed at the last minute. Guess who got the ticket? They had also booked a room at the Georgia Pacific Hotel (steps away from the Expo site and about a hundred dollars a night) and graciously offered me the floor if I just paid the tax on the room. We spent the two days around the concert running from venue to venue getting our Expo Passports stamped. The night of the concert we used the complimentary limo service from the hotel to go out for dinner and bring us back to the site. On the return trip to Victoria, we scared some tourists by freaking out about the mechanical soundness (or lack thereof) of the ferry we were on, notorious for rough starts. | 
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| I travelled Europe at the tail end of a stint working in England. I was broke, but a friend from home had offered to loan me funds for my railpass and a few other things until I could get back home. One of the "other things" he agreed to pay for was a side trip to Stuttgart. He liked two things above all others: tall buildings and fast cars. The museum was adjacent to the factory, which was not open to visitors. Just before we left, we noticed a big fenced lot with an open gate. Curious, we took a peek inside and saw row upon row of fresh-from-the-factory Porsches of every imaginable model. We quickly took a photo then went on our way. The photo was over-exposed, so all I have left is my visitor badge! |
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| Having never been to the "happiest place on earth" I thought it would be fun. I was mostly wrong. Sure, there were some amusing moments: the haunted house, the electric parade (now retired), and the fireworks. Mostly I remember heat (over 106 farenheit), the crowds (over an hour in line for some rides) and all the smiling happy employees (if one more had told me to have a nice day I might have started punching randomly). Oh, and Mickey Mouse wouldn't stand still for a stinking photo with me.. I guess I wasn't cute and all-American enough!! Of course, I went with my boyfriend (we broke up a week after our return) in the middle of July (tourist season!) and I have never been the perky sort... so I blame myself. |
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My friend Greg was moving to California and he had to drive there. I was unemployed and bored.
Greg convinced the company to pay for me to come along and to send me back via Amtrak!
Getting there was kind of fun, except when customs assumed I was his wife and wanted me to fill
out all the requisite forms. I found Bakersfield to be a bit odd, because it was nothing like
the California I had seen when I went to Disneyland and we visited LA and San Francisco. It was
more.. well.... redneck I guess. I saw a whole lot more cowboy hats and 4x4s, but not a lot of
ranches. Dwight Yoakham is from Bakersfield so I guess that should tell you something. The train ride back was one of the worst travel experiences of my life. (Please note: I travelled by AMTRAK not Santa Fe -- which was waiting at Bakersfield Station as pictured!) I left in the late afternoon of July 4th and we had to change trains in a small town just east of San Francisco. My wallet contained a $20 canadian bill and about 85 cents in american coins. Peanuts cost a dollar. Well, when we pulled into the whistlestop, the announcer matter-of-factly stated we had missed the connecting train, but the next one would be along in about two hours. I set off to find a bank machine that would give me some US cash from my Canadian account. No luck. Plus the streets were full of firework-throwing half-tanked yahoos, so I went back to the station and sulked. The train finally pulled up about 11 p.m. I had told my friend in Vancouver, Canada, that I would be there by midnight, but not at this rate. I finally ate, deciding that the dining car couldn't call to check my Visa balance (in the days before cellular modems). After a nasty bus-ride through customs (Amtrak stopped in Seattle) we arrived at the bus depot in Vancouver at 2:30 am. After a late meal at Dennys, I staggered off to my friend's apartment at about 4 am. She buzzed me in and I collapsed on her floor. |
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| For our anniversary, Mike and I thought it would be nice to get away for a while. We took Alice too even though it should have been "our" weekend. We got a great deal on a small cottage on Galiano Island (a short ferry ride from Nanaimo, BC). We knew going in there was no TV.. we did take a small stereo, books, and other things to do... At least there was a full kitchen so Mike worked his culinary magic and whipped up some fabulous meals. But I really wasn't prepared for how little there was to do on the island with a toddler in tow. We did explore the island on the Saturday... there was a market (cute, but small), and a few stores (nothing too exciting)... and we did start to figure out what locals did for fun: every bookstore, grocery and corner store magazine rack had copies of High Times magazine. |
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