The Wonderful World of Harry Potter

After arriving in Florida, we visited with Linda's ex-sister-in-law, Mary and Mike George. Together, we visited the Wonderful World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. We rode on two rides, the "Forbidden Journey" (Quidditch Match) and the "Flight of the Hippogriff." We shopped in Honeydukes Candy Shop and drank butterbeers at the Hogs Head Pub.

Transatlantic Cruise, October, 2010

We traveled from Dover, England, to Port Canaveral, Florida on a 12 day Transatlantic Cruise aboard the Norwegian Sun. We stopped in Lisbon, Portugal and visited the Sintra Castle. Hurricane Otto prevented us from stopping at the Azores but the sea days were very relaxing and the ship was quite comfortable.

Our car in Ireland, September, 2010

The roads in Ireland are very narrow. On this particular road, we were so close to the fence on either side that we could almost reach out and touch them. In fact, our rental car got scratched by bushes growing along side of the road several times. All the cars are very small....and that's a good thing.

During our week long bed and breakfast tour of Ireland, we drove from one bed and breakfast to another and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. This Celtic cross was at the Rock of Cashel which was a castle ruins. The view of the fields with the rock fence was quite common.

Banff and the Rocky Mountains

Here we are in our campsite just outside of the city of Banff in Alberta, Canada. We'll be exploring Banff, Lake Louise and Canmore from here. The campground at 4600 feet is surrounded by mountain peaks like the ones in the background. Weather is in the 70's and sunny during the day and low 50's at night. Have seen lots of wildlife and fields of wild flowers. We're up to 5000 miles and counting so far just on this trip.

Kenora, Ontario on driving trip

One of the nicest campgrounds we found by accident. We went to the campground that we thought we would stay at and it was full. He referred us to a city campground nearby which had a beautiful view looking out over a lake. Here are Gail and John sitting at a picnic table watching the boats move around on the lake.

Driving trip through Canada

This trip began with us escorting Beau from California to Michigan where he has now moved. We then met up with Gail and John Gorski and traveled into Ontario, Canada by crossing the bridge at Sault St. Marie. The drive around the Great Lakes was especially beautiful.

Zion National Park with Gail and John

When Gail and John were visiting, we also did a driving trip to Zion National Park in Utah. We took the shuttle bus through the canyon and saw some beautiful scenery. In this picture, we are standing in front of the Zion Lodge where we ate some lunch. Later, we drove past a herd of Big Horn Sheep along the side of the road.

Grand Canyon with Gail and John

Gail and John Gorski visited us in Las Vegas. We did an overnight driving trip to the Grand Canyon. It was two beautiful sunny days even though the drive was a long one. We saw elk, antelope and mule deer right along side of the road.

Curacao - with floating bridge in front of houses

Linda especially liked Curacao and Barbados. Curacao has a strong Dutch influence so the houses look a lot like the homes along the canals of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Aruba also has a strong Dutch influence.

Linda also like Barbados which has a strong British influence. The architecture looks like the island of Bermuda. The beaches and the countryside are beautiful.

Linda tends to like the cities with a large population, modern facilities and lots of shopping so both Curacao and Barbados fit those descriptors.

Cruise to the Southern Caribbean March 2010

Linda and Chuck went on a 14 day cruise through the Southern Caribbean on the Grand Princess from March 12 to March 26th, 2010. We began with a visit with Jeff and Ann Singer in Fort Lauderdale. Then we traveled to 9 islands: Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad, Barbados, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, San Juan, and finally Grand Turk. The picture to the right is Trinidad which is a very industrialized island - mostly petroleum processing.