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Travel
Page Here are some of our recent cruises and land trips. Sharlene and I really enjoy cruising and meeting people. |
2016 - Italy, Sicily & the Greek Isles We flew to Rome for a 10-Day cruise of the Mediterranean. |
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 Last day of our cruise/tour. |
 Dave at the fountain in Taormina, Sicily |
After arriving in Rome we rode to the port in a Mercedes we hired. We
cruised to Sicily, Mykonos, Rhodes, Ephesus, Athens, Santorini, Capri, Sorento, Pompii and back to Rome. Click on the photos for more pictures and the story of our cruise of the Mediterranean. Click here for a video of our trip. |
| 2015 - We went to New Orleans and then drove to Natches and up the Natches Trace to Nashville. Click the video to check it out. |
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2014
Alaska Cruise with
Sharlene's Sisters Seattle, Ketchikan, Tracy Arm Fjord, Juneau, Skagway, Victoria, BC and back to Seattle.
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We had a great time! We saw the frontier towns
of Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. we rode the
White Pass and Yukon Railroad train into the Yukon Territory of Canada and a small
boat trip into Tracy Arm Fjord (a very narrow passageway) for an up-close view of the Sawyer Glacier (it was cold!).
We were expecting much more wildlife than we encountered. It was not as rainy as we thought and we knew that would be good. NO, the ranger said. If it's not raining the salmon don't swim up the small creeks and tributaries. No salmon no bears. No salmon no eagles. In fact I think the eagles flew to Capistrano for the Summer. At Sawyer Glaicier we caught some large hunks of ice calf into the water with thunder like sound. We did not see any whales, no whale tails, no breaching, nothing disturbing the surface of the water. Click Here for more pics |
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2013 - Our Baltic Cruise with Sharlene's Sisters Flew to Copenhagen for an 12-day Baltic Cruise - Round trip to Amsterdam. | ||
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Sharlene and I flew from Atlanta to Copenhagen with no problems. Sharlene's sister Teri flew from Orlando to Copenhagen with no problems. Jacquie got caught in a rain storm in Huston with her luggage on the tarmac, her clothes were soaked, her flight was delayed so she flew from Huston to Atlanta, then to Paris and finally to Copenhagen. She was the last person to get on board the ship before the horn sounded.  Click the Boat for a YouTube video |
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2012 - Our 50th Anniversary Cruise - The Romantic Rhine We flew to Zurich for an 8-day River Cruise down the Rhine River to Amsterdam. | ||
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We took a quick tour of Zurich before the bus ride to Basel to board the Avalon river cruiser Felicity. The ship cruised to Strasbourg, Speyer, Heidelberg, Mainz, Rudesheim, through the Rhine Gorge with all of the Castles, to Koblenz, Cologne and then on to Amsterdam.  Click the Boat for a YouTube video |
Our 50th Anniversary Party (October 27th, 2012) |
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| Our daughters, Sheryl and Dawn, had an elegant party on our actual 50th anniversary! They invited our friends and family and most of them came. We had dinner in Old Towne Alexandria at Landini Brothers restaurant. Sheryl selected the menu and wine, baked a wonderful cake and arranged everything to perfection! She even made a movie from pictures of our past and created a sound track! |  |
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2009 Holy Land and Egypt Cruise Cyprus, Israel (Nazareth and Jerusalem), Egypt (Cairo, Gaza & Alexandria), Rhodes, Sirince Turkey and Istanbul!
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We had a great time! Flew into Athens and boarded the ship for our cruise. Walked in the footsteps of Jesus through the Holy Land, went into the Pyramids of the Pharos in Egypt, the castles of the Templar Knights on Rhodes and visited the capital of the Byzantine empire, Constantinople. |
| 2007 - Our 45th Anniversary We flew to Madrid for a 8-Day bus tour of Spain. | ||
 Our group of adventurers in Seville |
 Toasting with sherry in a bodega in Jerez |
After touring Madrid we
journeyed to Toledo, Granada, the Costa Del Sol, Gibraltar, the hill town of Rhonda, Jerez,
Seville, Cordoba and back to Madrid. As you can see from the picture we had a diverse group of traveling companions. Click on the group photo for more pictures and the story of our cross country Globus coach tour. |
| 2002 - A two Island vacation in Hawaii | ||
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We flew into Honolulu and stayed for a couple nights and then a short flight to Maui where
we stayed for another couple of days. Then back to Honolulu and our flight home to Atlanta. We played in the water at Waikiki Beach,
toured Diamond Head, sipped Mai Tai's on the porch of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, body surfed the Pipe Line on the North Shore and
saw Don Ho in concert (at the Ho House). We visited Pearl Harbour and the Arizona Memorial
and all of this was on Oahu. On Maui we rented a 4-wheel SUV and drove the "Road to Hana" past palm line blue lagoons, waterfalls in the rain forest, black volcanic sand beaches, and the famous Seven Sacred Pools before reaching Hana. We ate lunch in Hana and decided not to go back the way we came (recommended) and instead continue around the island in back of the volcano and back to the Marriott Ka'anapali Beach Resort. Well, the road was pretty rough with signs posted warning everyone with a standard vehicle not to continue. It was worth it. The adventure took us through rough roads, washed out gullies, through large cattle ranches and darkness that allowed us to observe several shooting stars. It was great! |
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Waikiki Beach from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel deck  |
| Lahaina - Where history and fine food meet. Lahaina was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom and the seat of power for the Kamehameha dynasty in the early nineteenth century. We ate at some of the fine seafood restaurants overlooking the harbor for both lunch and dinner. The town offered a great walking experience. We would stroll from gallery to gallery viewing art, meeting artists, listening to music, and sampling wine. 
By the mid-1800s it became a whaling town.  
This is Banyan Tree Park and the tree spreads across the entire city block. |
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On another day trip ... We drove to the summit of Maui's great volcano, Haleakala. The rim is over 10,000 feet above sea level and way above the clouds and humidity. On the way up we stopped at the Ranger Station to use the facilities and get some refreshments and a little Ranger info. Well, we were told about this special flower, the Silversword, and how it is protected and on the verge of extinction and is very rare, only grows on the outside cone of Haleakala above 7,000 ft and below 10,000 ft. and only blooms during the Summer. Well, it's the end of October, but we were excited to see if we would come across the Silversword. The entire drive up was very interesting with ever changing flora and fauna and humidity and now with our excitement at finding the elusive Silversword in bloom. We were sitting on the edge of our seats, having checked our cameras to be on the ready, when someone yelled, STOP, There's one! We all jumped out of the car with our cameras and began clicking away. Then we noticed a sign that read "Stay in your Vehicle, do not disturb the grounds" so, we all humbly turned around and tip toed back to the car and continued our trip to the summit. We saw a ton of Silverswords in bloom after that 1st one. Some were even next to where we parked at the top. We took a walking tour of the inside of the volcano's cone. Cool! The volcanic rock on the inside of the cone was very different from that on the outside, so I collected some of both types. I added them to the sand collection I had started on the North Shore. North Shore sand is basically white made up of a lot of small shells, whereas the volcanic beach sand is mostly black and Waikiki Beach sand is like our East Coast yellow sand. Sheryl suprised us with this trip, using airline miles and Marriott points to pay for it all. The four of us went to Hawaii for a great vacation! Click on the photos for more pictures and stories of our Hawaiian 40th Anniversary vacation. |
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2001 - The trip to the Costa del Sol and The Grand Canyon! This has to be one of the most screwed up travel SNAFU's anyone has ever gone through. In the Spring of 2001, Sheryl surprised me and Sharlene with plans to vacation in Spain, on the Costa del Sol, the Riviera of Spain on the Mediterranean coast. Great! Sheryl was going to use her airline miles and Marriott points to pay for everything. We were all so excited. We were going to fly into Madrid and on to Malaga for a week of Sun and Beach on the Costa del Sol. We all researched Malaga, Torremolinos and day trips we might take. A drive to the mountainous town of Rhonda, where bull fighting is still revered, a wine tasting tour of several wineries or perhaps a trip to Gibraltar. Sharlene, Sheryl and I all had our passports up-to-date and Roberto, a Cuban refugee had gone to Miami to the Spanish Consulate to secure the proper paper work for him to enter Spain and re-enter the U.S. without any problems. Everything was in order! We were ready for a great beach vacation at little cost to us. We were scheduled to fly out Friday afternoon and arrive late afternoon on Saturday, October 6th through Sunday October 14th, 2001. Well, then the 911 Terrorist hit the Twin Towers. Were we going to be able to make the trip? Should we fly should we not? 911 threw everything into chaos. We decided to take our chances and continue with our plan. Sheryl and Roberto spent the night with us before we were to leave so we could all leave together in a limousine she had arranged to take us to the Atlanta airport. We were all excited riding in the limo knowing that Sheryl's airline points and status would allow us to avoid the long lines and go right to the International Ticket counter. We were almost laughing at all of the other people standing in the lines to check and verify their tickets. There was only two people ahead of us in line. When it was our turn the Ticket Agent reviewed our passports and paperwork very carefully. He excused himself, took our passports and paperwork and disappeared across the isle. He returned with a supervisor telling us that Roberto did not have the proper visa and other paperwork to enter Spain and could not proceed. We argued the point until the supervisor said if we could get a statement from the Spanish Consulate on Consulate stationary that the paperwork was OK, Roberto could go. 6 hours different in time, the Consulate was closed, so we call the head of security at the airport in Madrid. He said that Roberto had the proper paperwork, but the supervisor would not accept that and wanted it in writing from the Consulate. We did not want to lose out on our free vacation and decided to call the Consulate on Monday morning and fly out that afternoon arriving in Spain on Tuesday, giving us a short but acceptable vacation. NOT! The Consulate would be closed on Monday because of Columbus Day. Our vacation was getting shorter by the minute. We argued with the supervisor and ticket agent some more, but to no avail. So we changed our plans and went to the Grand Canyon!
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In 2000 we went to Tahiti in August for Sharlene's Birthday. |
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We had a great time and met some wonderful people.
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1999 - A Greek Islands cruise for Sharlene's Birthday |
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In September of 1999 we cruised with Orient Cruise Line aboard the Marco Polo. We flew to Istanbul, cruised down the Turkish coast to Ephesus, then the Greek Isles, Mykonos, Santorini, & Delos, and on to Malta, Sorrento Italy and finally to Rome. We spent two days before the cruise in Istanbul and another two days after the cruise in Rome. What a great trip! |
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Check out our
Paris trip. Photo-booth at Atlanta airport. |
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One of Dave's interest has always been railroading. So, he's building a Garden Railway in the backyard. Take a look at the railroad page he's building. |
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A couple of '98 events on the site are our cruise with the Colby's and our high school reunion. |
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| Checkout our Great Cruise Adventure of 1998. |  |
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In October of 1998 we went back to Virginia for our high school reunion. They were having 40 years of classes together. |
Other Adventures we've taken and are going to detail here and trips we are planning
| 2010 - We attended a concert in Baltimore by Andre Rieu. Everyone thought we were crazy driving to Baltimore for a concert, but check it out. |
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Mother's Day Weekend 2013 |
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Sunday we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see a special exhibit of Structural Garden Art similar to topiary. Click here to see other exhibits. |
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Friday Afternoon we drove to Hiawassee to the Hamilton Gardens to see a the massive rhododrens in bloom. |
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Friday Evening we stopped in on Rich and Nancy at their house on Lake Chatuge. Click here for a boat ride. |
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Friday Morning we drove to the North Georgia mountains for a Waterfall Adventure |
2010 - Bermuda Cruise for Sharlene's 20 years working for her employer. This FREE cruise cost me a bundle.
2001 - Supposed to be Spain, but turned out to be the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas with Sheryl and Roberto and the strangest change of plans you could imagine.
2002 - Hawaii - A gift from our daughter Sheryl for our 40th Anniversary
1987 - Our 1st cruise. The Caribbean and Panama Canal. Going though the Panama Canal locks while sipping a cocktail was amazing.
We are continuing to build our site to communicate with our family and friends. We'll tell our stories with words and pictures. I like pictures and Sharlene likes words. We would like to link to anyone who has a Home page or Web Site. We'll share your stories and pictures on our site.
We are also collecting pictures of our family and friends. Some of the pictures have been emailed to us and others have been scanned in.
The link to the Web Camera page back.
I'm planning a page that tells how I built the pages and some of the tips and tricks I've learned along the way.
Last updated 5/1/2013