Years Ago

Travel adventures through the years

San Francisco in the Summer

We took a break from the COVID madness in Portland to visit San Francisco in the summer of 2020. The airport was as empty as I have ever seen. Once we got to the City by the Bay, it also felt nearly deserted. Between the emptiness and the constant haze of wildfire smoke, it gave everything an eerie feel.

Puerto Rico

Thanks again to HZK’s company we got an expenses paid trip to Puerto Rico in February of 2020. Crazy thing about it: when we were preparing to board the plane enroute to the island, the desk agent for our airline wanted to make sure we had our passports. Our passports to go visit another part of the US. Luckily, we both had them. When we asked why we needed them, she seemed a bit perplexed and didn’t have a real answer. I think she thought it was a foreign country.ANother interesting note. When we returned, we saw many people on the plane and in the airport with masks and respirators. Covid 19- then called the corona virus-was just starting to make headlines. We asked each other if we thought we should be worried and both thought it would blow over quickly. Little did we know.

Saint Petersburg

Continuing our trip, we took an overnight ferry across the Gulf of Finland to Saint Petersburg. It arrived in Russia just as the sun came up. On one hand it was weird being in the arch-nemesis of America, but it also felt very normal. The people were very nice and the city was very clean. We did have an “escort” for our trip, a very nice, well-spoken woman and a large non-speaking man.

Helsinki and Tallin

Two of the stops on our adventure were Helsinki (very expensive) and Tallin. I loved Tallin.

Reykjevik, Iceland

In August of 2019, we had an amazing trip. HZK found a deal where, if you flew IcelandAir, they would pay for your layover in Reyjkavik. We would stay there one night and then be off to Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallin, Estonia, back to Helsinki, then end our trip in Paris. Here are a few pictures from the Land of Fire and Ice.

Ireland

Italy 2014

This set actually starts with a picture from Monaco. HZK was on a work trip that ended in Nice, so I met her and we jetted off to Italy. We went through Florence, Venice, Rome, and Vatican City.

France August 2013

France in the summertime is not a visit I recommend. SO hot. The best day of this trip was when we visited Monet’s house. It was a little overcast and we finally had a break from the heat.

Cancun 2013

Another corporate boondogle. HZK won the President’s Award from her company because she is awesome. They flew us down to Cancun for a couple days of hobnobbing with all the C-Suite types, then we went on to visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum.

England May 2010

England in the spring! It was beautiful. We saw the Queen in her car drive into Buckingham Palace. We also got a private afterhours tour of Stonehenge. The trip took us from London through the Cotswolds, into a small village that played a pivotal role in a Harry Potter movie, to Bath, Bristol, and back to London.

Eastern Europe Part 1- Vienna

Eastern Europe Part 2-Prague

Eastern Europe Part 3- Budapest

Our trip through Eastern Europe in 2011 was a fantastic trip. We discovered “drinking chocolate” in Vienna, learned a ton of political history in Prague, and saw a guy go flying 20 feet in the air after getting hit by a car in Budapest. He seemed to be ok, he popped back up and started yelling expletives at the driver.