L-A's VirtualTourist Home Page

The Grand Canyon is truly beautiful! And it was only one in many places I've been in 2006, which was a real year of travel.

I love to travel and have quite a travelogue over the past years. Here is some of it:
Trips include England (London, Dorset, Devon, Norwich, Cambridge, Bath, Newcastle, Lindisfarne, Berwick on Tweed), Scotland (highlands, Trossachs, borders, Loch Lomond, Stirling, Glasgow, Melrose, Jedburgh and Edinburgh), N Ireland (Belfast, L'Derry, Antrim, Fermanaugh, Banbridge, Ballykinlar), Ireland (co Clare, co Kerry, co Galway, co Limerick, Dublin), France (Cote' D'Azur), Portugal (Algarve and Sintra). I've been to Kenya (Mombasa, Nairobi, Mt. Kenya, Samburu reserve, Marsabit), St Maarten, Yucatan peninsula, Mexico and various places in the US and Canada.
Later it was Argentina (Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Trelew, Puerto Madryn, Valdez Peninsula, Ushuaia/Tierra del Fuego and El Calafate / Moreno and Upsala glaciers). Also Brazil's side of Iguacu, and Colonia, Uruguay. Then Kenya (Nairobi, Marsabit, Bubisa, South Horr, Maralal (Kisuma), Rift Valley, Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Germany (Frankfurt) and England (London). I was to go up to the Ethiopian border at Sololo, but it wasn't safe. We were in England Xmas 2003: including London, Cambridge, Norwich, Coltishall, Shearingham and the north Norfolk coast.

May-June 2004- I was with my husband in L'Anse St.-Jean on the Saguenay fjord Quebec. We saw Tadoussac and Baie Ste Catherine for the whales, took a Saguenay fjord cruise, spent time in Chicoutimi, Jonquiere, St Felicien and Val Jalbert. We also spent time in the Charlesvoix region NE of Quebec City & Quebec City.

Nov 2004- With Tony-Central Florida and spent 2 days at the Kennedy Space Center, and also saw the Epcot Center, Holy Land Experience, Mount Dora (love that place!), Lakeland, Zephyr Hills, Kissimmee, Orlando & Cocoa Beach.

July 2005- With Tony - London, Cambridge, Norwich, Sheringham, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii, Migori and Kichwa Tembo in Masai Mara, Kenya. All were amazing. This was #4 trip for Kenya for me. The only negatives were that Tony's guitar arrived damaged and our suitcases were lost in Philadelphia airport.

Jan 2006, I was in New Delhi and Agra, India & Lahore, Pakistan. May 2006, Tony and I had a marriage retreat in Quebec City held at the Manoir Victoria in Old Quebec. We also visited Montmorency Falls & took the cable car up. We did not walk down into the spray - it was cold, but we did enjoy the view of these powerful falls.
Then I visited Lisa in San Antonio TX and did a whirlwind tour of Houston, then Space Center Houston, Spicewood (amazing scenery with Pedernales river/lake Travis on Texas Route 71), Fredericksburg, Kerrville (incl the folk festival), Comfort Winery, Port Aransas (fairly good beach, but there's a car ferry), Corpus Christi, and of course the San Antonio Mission trail, Alamo and Riverwalk. Truly a wonderful place to visit. :)

July was a Phoenix AZ conference, the Verde Canyon Railway and the Grand Canyon via Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. Then Tony and I were at a B&B in Picton, Ontario for my birthday, and we visited a cidery, Lake on the Mountain and Sandbanks Prov. Park. Then we camped on Manatee Island on Bobs Lake ON and stayed under an eagle's nest, then I was at Lake Rosseau in Muskoka.

Sept was a downtown Toronto conference. Mom joined me. Oct 8-9 Tony and I went to the Adirondacks and stayed in Plattsburgh NY. We enjoyed Lake Placid and Whiteface Mtn in perfect autumn weather before heading home.

2007- Miami, Miami Beach, Key West, Lakeland, Mt Dora, Orlando and airboat in central Florida in January, a special family birthday southern UK in March. Then in June I had a family wedding in Toronto, another conference in Phoenix -which included driving the very challenging but beautiful Apache Trail and also the Desert Botanical Garden- and then I flew to Winnipeg and Brandon MB for a board meeting... didn't have camera with me but I wish I did! Winnipeg was full of murals!

We camped near the Rideau River in July, and had a wonderful NYC weekend in August (staying in Upper West Side).

In December I was in London and Lahore, Khanewal and Shantinagar Pakistan for speaking engagements and family visit. I was there when Benazir was killed and during the riots/mourning, even the petrol pumps were shut down.

2008 began in Pakistan (Lahore), and I spent some time in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and a night at Holy Island/Lindisfarne in Northumberland, England. I returned to the area in late August to mid September - for a 15 day holiday with my mom in Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Trossachs, borders, and Stirling in Scotland and Berwick-upon-Tweed, Lindisfarne, Newcastle, Durum, Pennines and Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. It was wonderful except we had some very bad weather at times. The places and people were lovely though.
I also visited the Catskills in upstate New York, NYC, Sleepy Hollow and the Adirondacks in July with Tony, Lakeland Florida in July, Washington DC in August and the UK as mentioned above.

In July 2009 we went to London for a family visit, back to Lindisfarne and Berwick-on-Tweed on retreat, Paris for our 10th wedding anniversary, a short visit to Manchester and North Wales (Anglesey and Snowdonia) to see family, and back to London for our departures. We also went to the top of Mt Snowdon. :)

Other hobbies include art, music, reading and two radio shows you can check these out at http://www.ncf.ca/~eh202/window.html I also love waterfalls and folk festivals...

I had this photo taken at my hosts' home in Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, Pakistan, and wore this lovely shalwar kameez for a talk about the church being like a waiting bride for the bridegroom (Jesus and his return). What I didn't know was that this outfit I had bought in little India, in Toronto, Canada, was the very colour that a bride wears the day before her wedding - in Pakistani custom...

I would have bundled the shawl over my shoulders but decided to let it hang loose like a western bride does with her veil...

This sanctuary idea really was true. If you say stole something or committed some crime, you could ask for sanctuary from the law - they were to take you in for 30 days. After 30 days, they had two choices - 1 go to court, 2 take the next boat that was to leave the area and never go back. Apparently everyone chose to be deported... And I'm not really asking for sanctuary, just thought it would look good...

Gorgeous Canadian thanksgiving/US Columbus day down in the Adirondacks... amazing (although not cheap). We'll be back again... maybe for an anniversary!

This was a very hot Memorial Day, and I was allergic to something in the area. I didn't spend long there since I couldn't see much!! I did enjoy San Antonio TX otherwise though, very much, especially Riverwalk.

I didn't get to go on an airboat in the Everglades, but I did get on one in the headwaters of the Everglades, in Polk county, south of Orlando.

The airboats were loud but fun...