"Everchanging Points of View" Radiomom's Profile

America the Beautiful!

Been a while since I've checked in here...we are in the planning stages for another trip to Africa this fall. Flying in to JNB, a night at a guest house , then flying off to Victoria Falls for 2 nights at Ilala. Then the "real" safari starts - 3 nights up the Zambezi River at Imbabala, and then 4 nights at Davison's Camp in Hwange National Park. They we'll fly back to Vic Falls to catch the flight back to JNB. From there we plan to travel back to Cape Town and visit friends, plus tour around areas we liked back in '04 and some we didn't make it two. We'll have nearly 10 days before we will fly back home again.

The photo up top....Our 2008 Trip was nearly 3 weeks long, covering 3000+ miles in our rental car, and took us to most of the extraordinary National Parks in the Four Corners area of the Western United States. We flew in and out of Phoenix, AZ and visited Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Boulder UT, Mesa Verde, took the "Million Dollar Skyway" which runs from Cortez to Durango, CO and spent the night in Silverton, CO; we also visited Capitol Reef National Park, Taos NM, Chaco Canyon National Park, Bandelier, Los Alamos NM and Santa Fe.

Planning Place!

This is where I plan our trips. Very convenient!

China!

Xian

We took a marvelous tour of China in 2007. May was an excellent time to go. China is growing faster and faster and changing quickly. Instead of our usual independent trips, we opted to go with a tour -- China Spree (www.chinaspree.com) as the deals are simply too good to pass up. It was a leap of faith, as independent travellers we'd always shied away from organized tours, but this turned out wonderfully. I'll be building China pages, so keep tuned!

35 days is a LOOOOONG Road Trip...

Basque Coastal Leiketio

...spanning September and October 2006. Well, actually we only had the car for a month, but we took the opportunity to visit some places we'd yet to see in France as well as our first foray into Spain. I also discovered the Curse of the 1Gig Sandisk, as I came back with over 3000 photos. It has taken a long time to winnow them down for various sharing purposes, and I've only got pages on some of them....when I've now started to plan for a NEW trip!

Where we went:
The Loire Valley
Dordogne and the Lot
St Jean de Luz (FR)

(on to Spain) Pamplona, San Sebastian, Vitoria, Laguardia, Leiketio, Bermeo and Bilbao

Tarragona and Zaragosa

Barcelona!

Collioure (back in FR)
Cathar Castles
Provence
Le-Puy-en-Velay
And a return to Paris (fourth time!)

Durham Savoyards

One of the joys of being retired and living in the Research Triangle is the opportunity to be involved in fabulous groups like this one. This Spring I'm involved with the most professional (although it is a non-profit volunteer community theater group) and extraordinary musical theater experience

I had a link to YouTube here, but it was only one show -- if you want to see more, search on YouTube for Durham Savoyards and you should get peeks at recent productions of Pinafore and Yeoman of the Guards. Do not expect a reserved Gilbert & Sullivan performance, recreating turn of the century manners, be they somewhat satirical. Our Director goes for the unique and for wooing audiences who might never consider anything remotely connected with the term "Opera" or "Operetta."

This picture is from the scene in Pinafore where Ralph (pronounced Rafe BTW) threatens to do himself in...
If you'll view the video clip, you'll note that this show is staged in sort of a circus/cirque theme. (Not your usual Gilbert & Sullivan, for sure!)

Intro Updated Feb 7, 2012
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DaHongHua May 24, 2012 at 8:50 AM

A warm happy birthday greeting from Malaysia.
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kandoi May 24, 2012 at 1:29 AM

Happy Birthday
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BruceDunning Aug 15, 2009 at 11:44 AM

YOu 2008 trip to the canyons area sounds like you enjoyed it a lot. I am going for a month in September and tour 11 parks-hike many miles also. I lived in NC for 7 years and it is a great place
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mvtouring May 26, 2009 at 1:49 PM

Belated birthday greetings. Hope you had a great day ;-)
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tini58de May 23, 2009 at 7:53 PM

Have a wonderful birthday, Diane!!!! (And I know you will!)
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Hexepatty Aug 25, 2008 at 4:17 PM

Ed had the waitress take the pic and haven't heard from him yet. Can't wait to see it! ; ) The GTG was a great lunch. We Southerners (even us new ones!) are a good ole' bunch! Spring in the wine country sounds good!
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NCCruiseGurl Aug 25, 2008 at 3:19 PM

Diane, Your sunsets are magnificant. I hope next time we can chat more. Since I am close by, maybe we can have our own Reality Meeting of the VTs!! Beth
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olddude Aug 24, 2008 at 4:35 PM

Hi Diane! Great meeting you Saturday. I hadn't realized that you recently accomplished a trip my wife and kids once did...basically circumnavigating the US. They went to 40 states in 7 weeks.
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GaryGreer Aug 24, 2008 at 6:22 AM

Diane, Steve Enjoyed meeting your yesterday. We are close enough to visit whenever. I will write when Betty is mobile. Gary Greer
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balhannah Aug 23, 2008 at 2:43 PM

Hi, Like you, we have had to wait until our later years to travel overseas. Have done a lot in our own country. All I want to do now, is explore other countries