home in a foreign place

1998

spring break

tour of italy

picture taken in:

venice

picture of:

casey

found this place:

walking around

...we found a bit of home...

hotel canada

wtf mate?

sooo, you know when you go travelling and you get suckered into things. you spend too much money on a tour, or you are told you are getting something and end up getting nothing. those experiences haven't eluded me either.

went on a three day tour of the outback.

stopped at this ranch looked over and saw what looked to be llamas.



"tour guide will, are those llamas?"

(think aussie accent)"oooo no, in the outback they breed sheep and camels together, those are shamels."

"what are you talking about?" (fits of laugher) "why would you want to do that, what would be the purpose???"

tour guide will, "no purpose, just something to do."

two weeks later, another country, another tour guide, another ranch and more shamels...

"tourguide jo, you have shamels too? wtf? why why why?"

"wtf? what are you talking about, those are llamas, what the hell are shamels?"

(fits of hysterical laughter) "sucker sucker sucker"

the worst is the fixation on this subject for two weeks...the combos that came out~crocaroo (crocodile and kangaroo), kowallabee (koala and wallaby), and on and on....

a tale of two stories

TRACEY'S STORY
in 1996 the robertson family made the big trip to disneyworld. tracey had wanted to go to disneyworld for as long as she could remember. she loved anything disney: the animation, the magical aspect the place promised and especially LOVED LOVED LOVED the rides (you know the ones...the fast moving, upside down with your stomach in your throat ~ giving you that butterfly feeling ~ finishing off with the really big drop). luckily, tracey's father loved the same thrills. tracey and her dad went on all the jaw dropping, finger clenching, adrenaline rushing rides while tracey's mother stode contently on the sidelines.

however there was this one ride that tracey knew her mother would love: it was a show involving the adventures of brer rabbit with a little zip a dee doo dah day in the end. i mean it had a little bit of musical theatre in it, what's not to love? oooo it also had a 5 story drop. there was no line-up whatsoever as they rushed near the closing hours through the maze to get to the floating log. as they stepped onto the tarmack tracey's mom hestitated; she did not want to be in the front row as she did not want to get wet. the ride hosts completely understood. a log cart was pulled out for just the robertson ladies. the ride started and tracey pointed out all the fun things to see. tracey's mom seemed a little nervous but overall looked like she enjoyed it. as they came to the drop the ultimate irony hit them. the ladies did not want to get wet so maybe next time they needed more people on the ride to shield them?

JANE'S STORY

I am in total agreement with Tracey about the excitement of Disneyworld. Everywhere you turned there was something going on. As far as a vacation with my dear family goes this was a 10 plus on the fun scale...except for one thing. Miss Tracey likes hilly rides. Her mom does not. She loved loved loved splash mountain and (to my relief) got her Dad to go on it 2 times. However, she desperately wanted to share this delight with me. "No no no no " I kept saying. "Please please please please" was her response. We were going to another place the next day so if it was to happen it had to happen immediately. Finally to stop her from bugging me I gave in.

Secretly I thought I was quite smart as I fiqured it was 8:50 and the ride closed at 9. We would never make it. Unfortunately, Tracey was thrilled and did a power walk thing to get there. We arrived at the gate 2 min to nine with me very thankful as we were the only customers there and the ride seemed to be closing up. Old Walt would have been pleased with his workers. "No problem," said the crew, they would let us ride. I should have known~this is Disneyworld after all~where all your dreams come true. Darn Darn Darn, my head was saying. Ok, I thought, if I had to go on this stupid ride to please my daughter we must sit in the back so I don't get wet. Not the best plan~with no one in front we were in direct line of a whole lot of water. As the ride strolled along all I thought about was the big drop. Tracey was in happy mode yapping about all the neat things happening around us. I was in stress mode thinking at any minute I was going to drop from this mountain. Gritting my teeth and grinning to excited Tracey I saw it...THE FLASH OF THE CAMERA. This was it...the dreaded moment. I screamed so loud that I don't think it was possible to open my mouth any larger. When we dropped it felt like I was floating above my seat. Tracey was thrilled and so was I...it was finally over.

where's the snow, marmot?

so last year i went skiing A LOT. well maybe not that much, but more than i had ever before as i managed to make it to the mountains six times. this trip was the last one i made (i think it was close to the end of march) in attendance jeaninne, dj, sarah (with still to be born baby liam), brian, and jeremy. woke up at 4:30am left by 5 and home that night (very extreme...smirk).

so do you notice anything lacking?? as we drove up to marmot, a slight panic rose to my throat as there was zip/zero/nilch/nadda snow at the bottom of the hill. i think the suggestion of driving to banff was pleaded many times...i am so glad the driver (brain) did not listen as it was a fantastic day of skiing!! no exaggeration, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, no wind, and the snow was fantastic on the top. i mean so awesome that i skied till my knees started knocking and my skis were crossing left right and center...or the snow got really slushy and heavy because of the sun contributing to the knee knocking and ski crossing (yeah yeah, excuses excuses).

the best feeling was at the end of the day when you are at the point of exhaustion (but not yet cranky), your face feels wind/sun burn, you smell like fresh air, you are regaining feeling in your toes and you are in a supreme good mood after kicking the mountain's a#$ and having it kick you back!