Some Trips We've Taken
We have been fortunate to have many wonderful travels together. Our traveling mode is to take our time, enjoy local food, soak up some history and to meet other people.
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Glady and I were both working for Aramco Services Co. (ASC) in Houston in the early 1980s. We were friends. My feelings were starting to change in late 1983. In Feb. of 1984, we went on a business trip together to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Shortly after that trip, we started dating. We have been together ever since.
ASC was a division of Arabian American Oil Co. Glady's dad worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia in the 1950s. Glady grew up there. I had been to Saudi numerous times while working for Aramco, but it was different seeing the place from Glady's perspective. She saw the place when it was nothing. Now it was like a suburb of Houston.
I met some people Glady grew up with who returned to Dhahran to work. We saw houses she lived in as a kid. Our return flight was delayed and we had an extra day in Saudi. We went to the beach in Ras Tanura. I understood Glady a lot better after that trip.
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St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Our first trip as a couple was to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We went in July of 1984. It was much quieter then than it is today with all of the cruise ships.
We swam in the beautiful Caribbean waters on the north side of the island. We dined at some great restaurants. It was off season and easy to get in. One day we visited St. John's. Twenty year's later, we would sail around the north end of this island.
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Guadalajara, Mexico
Glady's father retired early from Aramco in Saudi Arabia. After a few years in California, her parents moved in 1973 to Guadalajara, Mexico. Her father died in 1980 and her mother stayed there.
We visited her in 1985. It was an old city with traditional open markets. It was not as industrialized as it is today. Glady had been there several times but it was my first visit. The downtown area reminded me of buildings I had seen in Barcelona, Spain. (I went to Barcelona in 1972).
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Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
This was a "family" vacation in a big way. Fifteen of Glady's family members went to Puerto Vallarta for Thanksgiving. The group was composed of her mother, siblings, their spouses, kids, nieces and nephews.
On Thanksgiving day we chartered a boat and cruised down the coast. Some people went up into the mountains on horseback. Other's had dinner at an open-air restaurant. The main course was Spanish mackerel. In fact, some people fished on the boat ride back and caught mackerel.
The highlight of the trip for me was a parachute ride behind a boat over the Pacific coast. The tow rope was quite long. It was a great view. (I had more vision then.)
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Kauai, Hawaii
Our friends Terry and Beth Anne Posey were stopping in here during an around-the-world trip. They asked if we wanted to join them at a condo in Princeville on Kauai. They didn't have to ask twice!
We took a helicopter ride around the island. Most of the ride was through an inland canyon. It was quite spectacular.
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Eastern Caribbean Cruise
As of 2012, this has been our only cruise. We went on Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas. I had never been on a ship that big before. Definitely felt like a hotel at sea.
We stopped in Barbados, Martinique, Antigua, St. Thomas and back to Puerto Rico. We spent two days in Puerto Rico prior to embarking.
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Meeting of The Minds, New Orleans, LA
Even though Larry is from Louisiana and he and Glady have been to New Orleans many times, this was a little different.
This was our first Meeting Of The Minds (MOTM). This is a gathering of Parrot Heads . It is more of an unconvention. It is four days of partying, music and raising money for charity. We also had a parade through the French Quarter. A group of people from our Northern California chapter also attended.
To get relaxed prior to MOTM, we drove to Tallahassee, FL to visit friends. Then we meandered along the Gulf Coast back to New Orleans (not on Interstate 10). We also visited Larry's relatives in Bogalusa, LA.
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Cozumel & Isla Mujeres, Mexico
This was probably the longest vacation we had while working. We spent eight days in Cozumel and three days in Isla Mujeres.
Our hotel was the El Presidenté in Cozumel. It was October and off season. The place was not crowded at all. Glady really loved being able to walk out of the room, across a short stretch of grass, into the water and snorkel around the barrier reef that goes all the way down to Belize.
One day we flew over to Chic-hen Itza on an organized tourist excursion. The guide was a professor from a local university. We arrived early in the morning around 8:00 AM. The buses from Cancun and other areas don't get there until noon, so we had the place to ourselves. Our guide was part Mayan and gave us a great tour and covered a lot of history.
Our mode of transportation to Isla Mujeres was via Aero Banana. It was a four-passenger, yellow Cessna with a pilot and copilot. We flew low along the Yucatan peninsula. Glady had been to Cancun in the 1970s and couldn't believe how built up it was. We landed on a dirt strip in Isla Mujeres. Our hotel had a marina but there were only a couple of boats docked. They said it would be full in a few more weeks.
The hotel was mostly empty too. We spent a lot of time around the pool with the staff. It was very relaxing. To return home, we took a boat to Cancun and a taxi to the airport.
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Aruba, South Carribean
Our friends Wayne and Sue Dewitt had a time-share condo and booked a place in Aruba. They asked us if we wanted to join them. It sounded great to us.
One surprise was a drive around the northern part of the island. We rented a jeep one day and started touring. The entire north side of the island is desert! There were cactus plants everywhere and barren, rocky areas. Another evening we got on a tourist bus that had a sunset champagne toast, dinner by the pool at the Protocol Minister's house, and dropped in on three local bars. It was fun!
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France
Glady took this trip with her two sisters about a week after retiring from Chevron. They had been talking about going to France together for years. I'll have to see if Glady has a journal of this trip.
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Key West, FL
Our first trip to Key West and Meeting Of The Minds there. We would repeat the trip in 2004. We stayed at the Casa Marina - the official hotel of the MOTM unconvention. Glady drove us from Miami down through all of the islands to Key West.
The best music was on the street that Friday. Mac McAnally played by himself for a while. Then Club Trini came out. There were quite a few people from our Northern California club in attendance. Many of them sacrifice vacation every year for MOTM. But, we had to leave several days early because hurricane Michelle was headed that way. They asked all tourist to leave.
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Grand Cayman
I had heard a lot about the Cayman Islands from my niece. Glady and I decided to try it out. As we often do, we went off season. It was laid back and relaxing.
Glady snorkeled, we toured the island (yes we went to Hell) and swam in the Caribbean. The most interesting thing we did was go on a two-person submarine ride. You are in a glass bubble with a 360° view. The driver is outside in a wet suit and there is two-way communication with him. It lasted about fifty minutes. It was definitely a different experience. Fun!
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Glady's Picture of Marina Cay, BVI
British Virgin Islands (BVI)
This was one of our most wonderful trips. We sailed in the BVIs with Wayne and Sue Dewitt for ten days. They are sailors and chartered a "bareboat". Glady and I caught on quickly and helped with the sailing. We would sail to a different island every day and moor in a different bay each night.
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Cancun, Mexico
This was our first trip to a Club Med . The resort is south of the long strip of hotels in Cancun. It's off on a peninsula by itself. The barrier reef that starts down in Belize comes into shore right at Club Med. Gladys loved the idea of just walking off the beach into the water and snorkeling. We also toured the Mayan ruins at Tulum and Coba. Our nephew, Billy McWood, was with us on this trip.
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Scotland & England
Another trip that ranks at the top. We spent two weeks in Scotland and two weeks in England. Our mode of travel was Brit-Rail. We would spend three or four days in a place and then hop on a train for somewhere else.
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The Bahamas
Our 2006 trip was to Club Med on San Salvador Island in The Bahamas. Club Med calls their resort "Columbus Isle". It is believed that San Salvador was the first island on which Christopher Columbus disembarked in the "New World". We visited the place where he landed.
We went there to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Our first trip together in 1984 was to St. Thomas, USVI a little to the south. As you can see from the list above, we have been to the Caribbean a number of times.
San Salvador island has a population of about 800 people. Club Med workers and guests nearly double the number of people on the island. All the Club Med buildings are two stories and spread out on a long beach. It is quite beautiful. The water is "bath tub" clear.
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Tuscany & Umbria, Italy
A wonderful trip. We spent five days in Perugia and four days in Siena. Most days we took short trips to various Medieval, hilltop towns. It was our first organized tour. Road Scholar is an offshoot of ElderHostel. We enjoyed it very much.
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Cancun Club Med with Alec
This was our second trip here. We spent some time in the local markets. Glady and Alec toured the ruins at Tulum. ( I had been there before.). We also went to Isla Mujeres on a catamaran. The crew was a lot of fun.
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Ireland
We spent the entire month of September in Ireland. We traveled by bus and train. Both were very nice. Cities visited were Dublin, Galway, Ennis, Limerick, Kilarney, Kinsale, Waterford, Kilkinney and the ruins at New Grange.
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Nothern Europe
We flew into Amsterdam and stayed there about three days. Then took an overnight train to Vienna, Austria. After that we meandered back through Salzberg, Koblenz, Koln, Bacarack, Luxemburg, Belgium and back to Amsterdam. We averaged about four days to a city and traveled with EuRail Passes.
Glady's Journal - work in progress
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England, Wales and Ireland
We flew Aer Lingus round trip from San Francisco to Dublin, Ireland. It's a nice airline with good service. The flight is ten and a half hours. But it's nice getting it over with in one flight.
We went to Manchester, Keswich, Shrewsbury, Cardiff, Bristol/Bath, Penzance, Conwy, Dublin, Galway, Westport, Sligo, Donegal, Carrick-on-Shannon.
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Cancun Club Med with Julian - 2015
This was our third trip here. We went shortly after Julian's high school graduation. We spent a lot of time in the water and doing activities at Club Med. One day we took an excursion to Coba. We had gone there twelve years before. Much more of the Mayan ruins there had been uncovered. Julian got to climb the highest pyramid.