"Travel for Life" trvlrtom's Profile

Spain: Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido

San Francisco VT meet, March 2009 This was my first time meeting VTers. Hope to meet more in the future!
Check out this link to the San Francisco travelogue for pictures.

TAKE THE VT FORGOTTEN COUNTRIES CHALLENGE!

At the bottom of my homepage, in the last album, you will find pictures of stamps from countries that no longer exist. At least, they no longer exist as political entities that have their own post offices and stamps. The places may have been taken over by another, or they may have been colonies that changed names after gaining independence, or they may have broken away politically for some time. But for whatever reason, if you go there today and mail a postcard home, your stamp will have a different country on it.

Let me know if you think you can identify all eight. The first to do so will gain worldwide recognition on VT!
Stop by next month - I'll post eight more pictures

A little about me and my travels.

As with most who travel through these web pages, travel is my passion. I've had the good fortune to have opportunity match my desire, and have been able to take trips just about every year since I was a teenager. I relish in everything about the cultures and people I encounter: music, food, history, art ... getting lost along varied roadways.

Once when I was barely out of my teens, as I was getting ready for another trip overseas, a friend asked me what was it I was looking for all the time. I was dumbfounded. I had never questioned my curiosity about the world and desire to see everything I could. Over the years I have continued to come across people who haven't left the region they lived in, or didn't even use their paid vacation time from work to get away! I am still in awe of this, and am so happy to have come across this VT network of fellow travellers for whom travelling is what life is about. I never feel more alive than when i am experiencing a new place. I imagine a lot of you know just what I mean.

"A spell of peace lives in the ruins of ancient Greek temples. As the traveler leans back among the fallen capitals and allows hours to pass, it empties the mind of troubling thoughts and anxieties and slowly refills it, like a vessel that has been drained and scoured, with a quiet ecstasy."
Patrick Leigh Fermor, "Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese", 1958

I had been reading a little about Greece, and found this quote in a book about the Mani. I think it well expresses the special intersect of time and place that the traveler can experience, and through that, enrich his or her life.

TRIPS during 2010!

View at the Heian Jingu Shrine garden, Kyoto

In February we made a return to the Hawaiian Island of Maui with family.
Then in April, it was back to Mexico, to visit Yucatan sites based from Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
July, 2010 - We had a big road trip in our Airstream Bambi, from California, through Oregon and Washington and up into British Columbia.

Trips during 2009

Cayucos Beach, California

In July we were in France and Germany, starting in Paris, a week or so cycling in Alsace, and then some time in northern Germany and Berlin

Our first trip of 2009 was to the Hawaiian Island of Kauai in February. Then in November we went back to Maui

This past year we visited many places throughout Northern California with our German exchange high school student, showing her some of our favorite places in the state: San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Capitola.
Further south, to California's beautiful central coast, visits to Solvang, Santa Barbara, Morro Bay and Cayucos

Trips during 2008

England (July). My wife and I visited London and a saw some of England's beautiful outlying counties.

Kyoto and Tokyo Japan (April). A journey through the rushing metropolis of Tokyo, and the serene gardens, temples and shrines of Kyoto.

Maui (February). A family trip to a favorite relaxing location.

Green Bay (January). Family matters take me back into the heart of the midwestern winter.

Trips in 2007

This year ended with a brief road trip to Paso Robles and Cayucos, California. My wife and I also made several trips to the Sierra Nevada foothills, mostly to Nevada City, where my father-in-law recently moved.
In July we drove up to Washington State, to visit my sister who lives on Vashon Island, a quiet place outside of Seattle. Argentina was my destination in late July and August:Buenos Aires and the Mendoza area.
In April I was in Berlin, a great city I've been fortunate enough to visit several times since July, 1990.
In February my wife and I spent a week on the Big Island of Hawaii, a fascinating place for a variety of experiences: an active volcano, seemingly endless lava fields, isolated beaches, and historical monuments and towns.

Trips during 2006

Outside the Forbidden City, China, 2006

We ended 2006 with a quick trip to Mendocino, California, for New Years Eve. Our big summer trip, however, was to the Yucatan, Mexico. Based in Playa del Carmen, we took Spanish language classes during the weekday mornings and spent a lot of time exploring the region, snorkeling and visiting the Mayan ruins.

In April I had my first trip to China, visiting Shanghai, Xi'an and Beijing. It is just a quick impression of this extensive country, but everyone has to start somewhere.

We also had two trips to Hawaii in 2006, to the island of Oahu in May and Maui in February.

Trips during 2005

Window flowers in Culross, Scotland

My wife and I ended our travels for the year with a trip to Maui, Hawaii in November, a great time to see the island - after the busy summer months and before the winter holiday high season.

Apart from various excursions around California, we made one trip to Britain in July. A family from near Dundee, Scotland exchanged cars and houses with us - a brilliant way to have a more economical holiday and get to know a place more in depth. We enjoyed making day trips to Edinburgh and various places near Dundee, as well as a few overnight excursions to the Isle of Skye, the Borders and Inverness. We made arrangements for the exchange through an organization called Intervac.

We spend about one week in London as a part of our trip to Britain, and made an overnight stop in historic York on the train trip to Scotland.

Back in San Jose

Raggs

Places I've lived for a year or more: Green Bay, Wisconsin; Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Madrid, Spain; Santa Cruz and San Jose, California.

Yes to
Stepping from a train, bus or metro station to a new street
Coffee that tastes like coffee
Loud waves crashing on the shore
Roundabouts
Trying places to eat recommended by locals
A pint of bitter in an English pub
Meeting curious, mindful world travelers
Most New York pizza
Fresh bread from a bakery
Movies from varied countries
People from France

No to
Leaving a new place
Low fat mocha caramel frappe latte
Loud music coming from someone’s car
Stoplights
McDonalds, KFC, Burger King – anywhere!
Bud, Bud Lite; Coors, Coors Lite; Miller, Miller Lite…
Running into loud, impatient American (or other) tourists
Most California pizza
Sliced white bread from a store
TV
Americans who bash people from France but haven’t met any*

Sadly, our furry family doesn't get to go on trips outside of California. They've got good friends and family to stay with while we are away.
This one is a 16 year old border collie mix
Kiko, another fine mix, joined us in Sept., 2006 Our newest addition is Kona.
The cat, Jazmine, loves her old pal and is beginning to tolerate Kiko and Kona.

The English language

With students in Mendoza, Argentina, July 2007

English: interesting language.

A long time ago I taught and tutored English overseas to pay for living expenses on what was really an extended vacation. Learning a second language at the same time made me appreciate how odd and difficult the English language can be.

I found the following on the Internet some time ago. It is precious.

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or french fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

People, not computers invented English, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

P.S. Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

Intro Updated Jul 30, 2010
Report Abuse

Personal Pages (10)

1 - 4 of 10

Comments (132)

Reply
- Report abuse
hopang Nov 21, 2012 at 4:53 AM

Hi Tom, We wish you happy belated birthday. Hope you had a great day. Greetings from Sweden. ~ho & pang
Reply
- Report abuse
Vanity666 Nov 19, 2012 at 9:47 PM

Happy birthday! I wish you all the best :)
Reply
- Report abuse
balhannah Nov 19, 2012 at 1:47 AM

Wishing you a very happy Birthday!
Reply
- Report abuse
DaHongHua Nov 19, 2012 at 12:26 AM

Nice meeting a Californian friend on today's birthday list. A happy birthday greet to you. Wish you all the best to keep travelling interest years and years. Cheers from Malaysia.
Reply
- Report abuse
touristgal Aug 3, 2012 at 9:44 PM

Great photos!!
Reply
- Report abuse
hopang Dec 25, 2011 at 9:28 AM

Hi Tom, Wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012. Hope you have a wonderful time! ~ho & pang
Reply
- Report abuse
onlinerep Nov 19, 2011 at 6:14 AM

Happy Birthday Tom! Greetings from England :)
Reply
- Report abuse
MalenaN Nov 19, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Happy Birthday Tom! Have a great day!
Reply
- Report abuse
balhannah Nov 18, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, have a great day!
Reply
- Report abuse
vivithebeijinger Jul 27, 2011 at 1:37 AM

I suddenly saw your message to me back in 2009 about san francisco.
so i'm just dropping by to let you know, i did go to san francisco, and it was amazing! i did everything i wanted to do, went to napa valley, fisherman's wharf, chinatown... loved it. and