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Recent Travels

Escaping winter in Minnesota, hell just escaping Minnesota, is a constant challenge as well as a necessity. Not coincidentally our travels often coincide with the winter months. Here are a few pics of recent travels with friends and family. As you can see the locations are second only to the company.

Nicaragua

March 2008

Granada, San Juan del Sur, Rancho Santana, Punte Teonoste and Leon for Easter. We met with Nica Geeks to inquire about alternative sources of energy. Met with archetect, Luis. Met with a local contractor, Granados, in Rancho. Saw the property finally staked close to right. Saw the Easter processions in Granada and Leon. Caught part of Easter Mass in the largest Cathedral in Central America in Leon. Saw the murals on walls around Leon. Saw a whale off the coast at Rancho Santana. Stayed at Casa Merced in Granada, at Pelican Eyes in SJDS, at Punta Teonoste north of RS on the coast and in Leon stayed at El Convento. March in Nica is hot and dry. Just fine by us.

Granada

Omatepe volvano in Lake Nicaragua

Leon

Nicaragua

January 2008

Tessa and I had to meet with our archetect, Hal Sorrenti and so a short trip to Granada and Rancho Santana was in order. Luckily, we were able to bring the lovely Corey Dressel, daughter extraordinaire, with us. We had our first sunset party on our land and missed the worst deep freeze of MN so far this year.

Nicaragua

December 2007

Dear viewer(s), please do not get impatient with the repetative Nicaragua travel thing. Tessa and I are going back and forth often as we are involved in a home building project on the Pacific coast near Las Salinas. Fortuneately, there is no shortage of beautiful images to be gathered in Nica and I will try to only update favorites.

Netherlands
November 2007

We found ourselves in Amsterdam and Maastricht for four days. How outrageous. But low fares and a desire to visit Suzia and Martijn prevailed over common sense. Martijn has been through medical hell and it was good to visit and to see his great improvement. Amsterdam is quickly becoming one of our favorite cities.

Minneapolis, MN USA

August 2007

Tessa and I took our tourist skillset and explored our own city with maps and help from the concierage desks at hotels along the way. We explored the skyways and had lunch with our dear friend Chuck at 'Bank' a new hot spot in the old F & M bank lobby. We saw the new library, the Guthrie, the Mill City Museum. We were asked to cease and desist after photographing a sculpture in First Bank Place. We were kindly refused entrance at the Federal Reserve bank trying to see the Aldo Moroni sculpture. We saw the fallen 35W bridge from the Stone Arch Bridge. We saw the IDS, of course, the Father of Waters sculpture at the old courthouse, the fountain at Gavidae, the "running of the Elvis's" at Peavy Plaza and, finally, a bus ride down Nicollet Avenue to the start of our day.

Amsterdam and Italy

July 2007

Three weeks mid summer. First, a few days in Amsterdam, and the rest traveling through Italy. Rome, Chianti, Sienna, Florence, Trieste and Venice. We visited friends of Tessa's outside Rome and in Trieste and stayed in a lovely rented villa (Le Celle) as guests of her brother and sister-in-law in the hills of Chianti who were celebrating their 40th birthdays. It was hot. It was an eye-opening journey into the past (my judeo-christian, western civilization past). We ate extremely well, enjoyed many old and new friends, visited museums, stopped often at little outside restaurants in quaint piazzas for a cool wine or beer and walked and walked. We were so fortunate to spend a week with Patrick and Encarna from Spain who regularly kept us up well past 3am! I was awed by what I hadn't known before, what I hadn't seen. Never too late I guess.

Amsterdam:

Coffee shop "menu"

Rome:

Robert

Tuscany:

Patrick & Encarna Le Celle

August Ivan Julian Kit

Luca, Peggy Johno, Sara Julie

Florence:

Duomo ceiling

View from room

Trieste:

Roman forum

Venice:

Canada, Cuba & Mexico

April 2007

Travel to Cuba is more and more difficult now that Canada and Mexico both require passports. The entry stamps need to be carefully worried about. We decided to confuse things a bit by entering from above and returning from below. In between we had a marvelous 11 days in Cuba, surrounded by music where ever you turn, gleefully embraced by the lovely Cuban people. There is no shortage of tourists in Cuba just a shortage of U.S. tourists (which, all things considered, is a bit of a relief). We spent 1/3rd of our time in Havana, 1/3rd in the old Dupont mansion in Veradero and one third driving cross country and staying near the old spanish colonial town of Trinidad. Our first day in Havana Tessa had her purse snatched and we spent hours driving around the streets of Havana in a squad car. We were fascinated to see billboards lambasting bush and glorifying Che. Cuba is like stepping back in time 50 years in many ways. It is a complicated place, so close yet so far away. We fell in love with the people and the arts and the superb architecture.

Nicaragua

February 2007

Tessa and I traveled to Nicaragua for a look see around the country, well the parts of it that most immediately intrigued us. We spent time in Managua (not intriguing), Granada, San Juan del Sur, Lago Apoyo, and places in between and not so in between. We wound up purchasing an acre lot in a development on the pacific called Rancho Santana and after closing will commence the patient process of building a small warm weather retreat. We both love the people and the country and the weather and are not leery but rather intrigued by the recent election of Ortega as president.

our lot

Nicaragua

January 2007

I went to Managua for a conference on investment tools for Nicaragua and then a rapid 4 day run through Granada and San Juan del Sur. My head was filled with information and I met a number of very fine locals and gringos both. Had little time to sleep but managed to have a lot of fun along the way.

Managua slum Lake Managua

Granada cathedral

Kevin Lawrence & Christine Jim

Granada mkt

Sayulita, Mexico

December 2006

Ten days that drifted away, hidden in long beach walks, fueled by endless margaritas and buried in piles of paperbacks. This little town was the scene of Tessa and my engagement two years ago. It's never good to try to recreate a great experience but this time we were lucky. Sayulita, it seems, always treats us well.

Burning Man

Road Trip: U.S. Western States August / September 2006

18 days and 4,600 miles of exploring the great west by Rectangular Visitor (RV)

In Bozeman, MT we visited Peter and Vic. Outside of Jackson, WY we spent time with Lou and Chad. Even further west the Black Rock Desert in Nevada waited for 35,000 individuals like us to challenge and free ourselves for a week within the dusty playground of this annual experiment in temporary community which encourages radical self-expression and total self-reliance. Welcome to Burning Man!

Welcome to Burning Man, dust storm approaching, take cover!

inhabitants of Black Rock City

mass transit, DMV (Department of Mutant Vehicles)

INSTALLATIONS:

15,000 trees, work of 100 Danish Burners

Dusty departure South Dakota leash laws in effect

Honeymoon

Ecuador, Peru and Belize January / February 2006

Tessa and I decided to delay our honeymoon until nasty weather moved into MN. So in mid January we left for Quito, Ecuador. Our first two weeks were spent working on a service project with Global Volunteers. We worked with a local organization, Camp Hope, which is an orphanage and day care facility for special needs and poverty children. It was a wonderful experience and we greatly support the work they are doing. Next we went to the Galapagos Islands for a short but educational trip. Then it was off to Peru, to Lima, Cusco and to Machu Pichu. Again we did not have enough time but enough to know we will return. It lives up to it's hype. After a brief (all too brief) stay at Thermas Papalacta back in Ecuador we left for Belize. In Belize we spent five days in the jungle, spending a night in a cave and exploring the Maya ruins of the area. From there we went out to the beach for the sixth week of our honeymoon, a little slower pace and some reading time. To read the account of our travels click HERE.

Negril, Jamaica December 2005 / January 2006

A holiday with the youngest kids - all grown up. Shared interests, perfect place on the cliffs of Negril, perfect weather. Peter shone with his amazing cliff diving and his easy entry into the reggae world of Rastafarians and street culture. Greta was so sick on the way down. She suddenly understood the reason they put barf bags on airplanes. Vic spent the time being mellow and keeping us supplied with papaya, pineapple and bananas. Tessa and I buried our noses in books, turned on more than just the music and "chilled" in the sun. I love this family so much. What a perfect group to be with in the perfect place.

Winnipeg July 2005

Mosquitos? Sure. But they released thousands of dragonflies to eat them all up. Rain? Oh ya. Mud? Way too much mud. Hot? Uh huh. Any fun? Oh my god. Just a little too much fun, as usual. Our bus was finally kicked out of the main parking lot for life - ahh, things change.

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June 2005 Maui

Luxury accomodations thanks to Tessa and her family's 150th anniversary. Seven days of perfect weather and the opportunity to meet her closest 305 relatives.Thankfully her family is as cool as Hawaii's views are beautiful.

View from our room......