Travels

I love to travel and this page lists some of my more memorable journeys. Someday I hope to post some of the better photos I've taken.

Since I'm way behind on updating this page, here are some other places I've been in the last several years. It's from memory and is definitely not a complete list.

Washington D.C., May 2010

Dawn and I went to the nation's capital for a long weekend. I got to see a lot of sights I hadn't gotten to see when I was there before, but I still managed to leave a few sights for next time.

Phoenix, March 2010

Ryan, Murphy and I met up with our friend Todd for a baseball-packed adventure. We managed to see seven spring training games in four days, then hung out every night by the fire pit in Todd's backyard catching up on what's new and talking about old times.

Costa Rica, February 2009

Dawn and I spent ten days in the small village of Playa Hermosa in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. We spent much of this time relaxing on the beach, but we also hiked through a rain forest, checked out a volcano, went on an awesome river tour and flew through the trees on zip lines.

Vienna and Prague, May 2008

Dawn and I explored two of central Europe's best cities: Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic. We spent most of the time exploring them on our own, but in Prague we took NetBeans founder Jaroslav Tulach up on his offer to visit his favorite local pub. A lot of my friends from the NetBeans project joined us, including Geertjan Wielenga, Jiri Kovalsky, Jiri Rechtacek, Jiri Skrivanek and David Strupl.

Arizona, 2007

My friend Ryan and I met up in Phoenix to spend some time in the sun checking out some spring training (baseball) games. We also took a day trip to Flagstaff. Later we visited our friend Todd and the three of us hiked up Camelback Mountain.

England and Scotland, 2006

Dawn and I visited London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. This was our first time in the U.K. and we enjoyed every minute of it. The exchange rate was very much against us, but it was still nowhere as expensive as I thought it would be. We stayed a week in London (South Kensington) and then took a train to Glasgow where we stayed for several more days. We took a couple of day trips into Edinburgh, but the Fringe Festival made getting a room there impossible.

Eastern Carribean, 2006

Dawn and I spent some time relaxing in South Beach (Miami) first, then boarded the cruise ship and sailed to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and the Dominican Republic. We got a cabin with a balcony this time and it was well worth the extra money.

Cancun, 2005

This was the third time I'd been to Cancun, so there wasn't much new to see. Dawn and I spent a nice week mostly relaxing on the beach.

South Beach, 2004

After I left WebMD in January, I had a few days before I started my new job so I decided to take a quick vacation to the only place in the continental United States that was reasonably warm — Miami. It wasn't all that warm, but much better than the 5° F I left behind in St. Louis. I ate a lot of Cuban food, saw lots of expensive cars and probably walked ten miles a day checking things out.

Cabo San Lucas, 2003

Dawn and I finally made it to the Pacific coast of Mexico, about as far south as you could get. The landscape is much different than the eastern part of the country... it was more desert than jungle.

Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, 2003

The main purpose of our journey was to visit my friend Wes who was just stationed on a NATO base. We stayed at his house near the small town of Geilenkirchen in Nordrhein-Westphalia, but took lots of side trips throughout Northwestern Germany (Dusseldorf, Cologne, Aachen), Belgium (Brussels), and the Netherlands (Amsterdam). We saw a movie at a theater in Maastricht (Netherlands) and just like Pulp Fiction said, you can really get a glass of beer there. I didn't go into a McDonald's, so I cannot verify the existence of the Royale with Cheese.

Aruba, 2002

Dawn and I went to Aruba for our honeymoon. It was fantastic.

Italy, Tunisia and Spain, 2001

Dawn and I went on a Mediterranean cruise. It left from Genoa (Italy) and stopped in Naples (Italy), Tunis (Tunisia), Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and Barcelona (Spain) before heading back to Genoa where we stayed an extra night. I proposed to Dawn on this cruise somewhere between Naples and Tunis; according to my calculations we were somewhere near Sicily at the time. Fortunately she said yes!

Cancun, 2000

Dawn and I spent a long weekend at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. Aside from having a great time, I remember that this was a week or two after the 2000 presidential elections, so news reports were mostly about hanging chads and judges in Florida.

New York City, 2000

This was my first trip with Dawn and it was clear from the start that we traveled well together. We must have walked fifty miles over a long weekend. She'd been there many times before, but this was my first time in the city.

Aruba, 2000

My friend Ryan's aunt and uncle offered him use of their timeshare, so he invited me to head down to Aruba for a week. Three other friends (Aaron, George and Melissa) joined us and we had a great time. George and I went deep sea fishing — we had dreams of catching a giant marlin even though they're not widely seen in the area and we wouldn't know what to do with it afterwards anyways. Perhaps for the best, we caught a few small grouper and triggerfish.

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