by Diane | Sep 29, 2010 | Travel
I’m as excited as a kid at Christmas and as terrified as an adult about to fly across the world in a tin can. Starting tomorrow I spend 26 hours in airplanes and airports on my way to Cairo. Let’s stipulate that tomorrow is not the fun part of the vacation.
Yet all is calm tonight. I’ve been a bit frantic lately with preparations for the Egypt vacation, and work was frantic with preparations for the LA trip that immediately follows it, so calm is unexpected. I’m waiting for Chinese food delivery while putting my three piles of stuff into three bags – main bag, carry-on bag, LA-only-that-gets-left-in-Edmonton-while-I’m-in-Egypt bag – but packing is pretty much done.
I left work at 5 having only forgotten to change my voicemail – easily remedied remotely.
There’s a few things I need to pick up tonight, like contact lens solution – years ago I ran out in Bolivia and paid an astronomical sum for a bottle – and plane snacks.
A few loose ends with TV, eh? and the freelance work I’m doing on another website.
Maybe I should clean the apartment a bit more so I don’t come home exhausted to a disaster.
And … oh god. Time to stop writing. Will try to blog from the road.
by Diane | Sep 26, 2010 | Travel
The real preparations have begun:
Trust me, there’s a system. One pile is for Egypt, one for LA, one for carry on. I know it’s hard to detect three piles, but they’re there. Sort of. Now I’m whittling away to try to get them as compact as possible without sacrificing too many options. The most painful part is seeing how little I can get away with in the LA-only pile. I’m not going home between the two, but leaving the LA-only bag at my transfer point in Edmonton. So I won’t have to take the LA items to Egypt but I’ll have the Egypt wardrobe to pilfer from in LA. On the other hand, I don’t want to look like I just climbed off a camel while dining in LA. This is why I’ve started to say I need steamer trunks and manservants.
Besides packing, I’m now in this tug-of-war between the part of me that needs to plan and prepare in order to feel less stressed about an unknown future, and the part of me that finds planning and scheduling to be stressful. I keep talking about LA as a work trip, and it is, but I’m staying a few days after the tradeshow to visit friends, too. I also won’t get my tradeshow schedule until well into my Egypt holiday. So it’s a jigsaw puzzle of trying to figure out who and when in LA without prioritizing my need to schedule over some very busy people’s need to have a life that doesn’t revolve around me. The nerve.
Things are coming together, though. I’m thrilled to be getting a tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory courtesy my NASA friend Sarah, and to be meeting another friend for the first time in person over chocolate chip French toast. Now to sort out the rest without fully knowing my schedule. I guess I like a challenge.
Egypt will take care of itself – we’re booked on a tour and while there’s flexibility within that, Teresa and I have either already made the decisions or can make them as we go, depending on our whims on the day. We have a couple of extra days in Cairo but again, we’ll see what we feel like doing and have a 234 hour plane ride before we get there to make plans (all times approximate).
I am going to try to blog and tweet as I go, but that’s going to depend on Internet access and time. In the meantime, I will continue to be the laissez-faire stresscase I always am pre-vacation.
by Diane | Jun 29, 2010 | Travel
For my Canada Twitter column I talked to cool travel writer Lucy Izon, who runs the Canada Cool website and Twitter account:
- Twitter proves what makes Canada Cool
“With Canada Day coming up, it’s a great time to reflect on what makes our country so cool. Travel writer Lucy Izon can help. She created the website, Twitter feed, and now iPhone app Canada Cool.” Read more.
by Diane | Jun 5, 2010 | Travel
“British Columbia is heaven. It trembles within me and pains with its wonder as when a child is first awakened to the song of the earth at home. Only the hills are bigger, the torrents are bigger, the sea is here, and the sky is as vast.”
Overstatement? Let’s go with artistic license. In 1926, after co-founding the Group of Seven, the painter Fred Varley moved to what’s now Rice Lake Road in North Vancouver’s Lynn Valley and, like many of us non-native British Columbians, was awed by the province’s natural beauty in a way someone who grew up surrounded by it couldn’t possibly be.
Today, the Varley Trail connects two of the most beautiful hikes in a region full of the most beautiful hikes, a region that makes you wonder why images of heaven aren’t always snapshots of the mountains and forests and waters of British Columbia, and only be half-ashamed at that kind of hyperbole.
Day 1: Lynn Headwaters Regional Park
Lynn Loop/Headwaters/Cedars Mill Trails
The pouring rain didn’t diminish the beauty of the forested trek with misty glimpses of the surrounding mountains. It did muddy the shoes considerably, though. The Headwaters Trail part of this loop, the only one of the bunch considered Intermediate rather than Easy on the maps, crosses a few little debris torrents, but when you’re already soaked what does a little water and mud underfoot matter?
Rain and mud are the least of your worries, actually
Somewhere along the Lynn Loop Trail
Misty mountains from Cedar Mills Trail
The Grouse-area mountains
If rain stopped Vancouverites from going outside, we’d be mole people Day 2: Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve
Varley Trail/Rice Lake Loop
Several weeks later in almost-sunshine came part two, following the Varley Trail from the Lynn Loop Trail into the less rugged — but still remote-feeling — Rice Lake area.
Where Lynn Loop and Varley Trail meet
Varley Trail – In memory of Andrew Koch, lest we forget the power of nature
Lynn Creek from a bridge
Rice Lake toward Mount Seymour
Rice Lake
by Diane | Jun 1, 2010 | Travel
This weekend I got back from a few days ferry hopping along the Inside Passage up the coast of British Columbia, from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, with Scott and MK — friends, former coworkers, fellow Olympic survivors. They’re on their way across Canada before heading home to Indiana, and I joined them for the first leg of their journey to have one last farewell.
Day 1 – Vancouver to Port Hardy (Vancouver Island)
We took a morning ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, then made our way to Port Hardy, stopping frequently for photo opportunities, bathroom breaks, lunch, and pie.
Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island – oyster farming area, beach of shells
Sea star, Telegraph Cove
A hungry bear near Telegraph Cove
An eagle on a gazebo on a spit in Port Hardy, Vancouver Island
Port Hardy, Vancouver Island
Day 2 – Inside Passage from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert
Early the next morning — very eary — too early — like, BC Ferries is trying to kill me early — we boarded the ferry to Prince Rupert, a 15 hour passage through some of the most breathtaking scenery: ocean, forest, rocky islands, snow-topped mountains and even, as the day progressed, sunny skies. Very few glimpses of civilization along the way.
Along the Inside Passage
Lighthouse, Inside Passage
Fog rolled in towards sundownDay 3 – Prince Rupert to Vancouver
In Prince Rupert we got to sleep in, finally — though for me, 7:30 wouldn’t normally be considered sleeping in. We had one last breakfast together before Scott and MK began the long drive to Prince George and I wandered Prince Rupert taking pictures before taking the bus to the ferry to the airport on Digby Island, then home to Vancouver, where I took the train just to be transportationally complete.
Prince Rupert, BC – the cute industrial look
by Diane | Apr 21, 2010 | It's All About Me, Travel
I don’t think of myself as an optimist. More of a realist. I don’t think everything happens for a reason. I think life is chaotic and random and our job is to make the most of what we’re given. But I do think we have a choice no matter what: to play victims of fate or to own our lives. Guess which I think is more satisfying?
In that spirit, Teresa and I did our Edmonton is the New Egypt adventure. Now, the Edmonton Journal has picked up the story, so our goofiness fun lives on:
Since the cancellation, I’ve been straining to come up with ways to look on the bright side. Here’s a few:
- Fame and fortune … well, fame … well, we were featured in the newspaper.
- Double the anticipation!
- More time to finish my taxes before April 30.
- I now have a dry run of packing under my belt and won’t forget my brush next time. I’ll forget something completely new.
- I, um, probably won’t need a catsitter by the end of September. (I love my cat, and I’ll be crushed when he dies, but he’s a thousand years old and sickly.)
- How else would I have discovered there’s a camel named Hope and Valley of the Tombs in Edmonton? (Thanks Teresa!)
