Destinations

One Trip, Four Airports: Seattle, Doha, Nairobi, and Lilongwe

Traveling to Africa from the Seattle area is never direct. I was going to Africa for the third time, and the journey would be long and tiring. The first time I went to Africa I connected through London. The second time I traveled through New York. This time I though I would try a different approach and headed to Doha in the Middle East. While Seattle is my home airport, I was traveling with a new-to-me airline, Qatar, so I…

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Hiking Adventures on Blackcomb Mountain

When tourists come to Whistler in the summer, a ride up the mountains in a gondola is a must do activity. There are two main gondolas from the village, the Whistler Mountain and the Blackcomb Mountain. Once one is at the top, one can ride another gondola between the tops of the mountains called the Peak to Peak ride. This ride is world record breaking as it traverses 2.7 miles between the two mountains at 1427 feet above the valley…

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Discovering Whistler Village in the Fall

Whistler, British Columbia is set in the mountains north of Vancouver. Originally it was established as a ski resort, but over the years it has grown into a year round resort location with summer visitors surpassing winter visitors in recent years. There are a lot of things to do in Whistler depending on your interests and abilities. At our age one of the best things to do is walk, and so we did. We spent a day doing a lot…

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The Road to Whistler Through Squamish: Both Ways

Our main reason for coming to Canada was to spend time with my brother and his wife in Whistler. After a few days in North Vancouver we were ready to head farther north. Sadly Tuesday dawned cold and dreary again. While it didn’t rain much, the clouds hung low in the sky. The first part of the drive to Whistler is along Howe Sound which later changes to Squamish Harbor. I had hoped to take some photos along the way,…

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The Swinging Bridge of North Vancouver

North Vancouver is an interesting city becasue of its diversity of activities. It has an an interesting waterfront area which we had explored in the morning of our visit. There is also a busy street of restaurant and shops we experienced the night before. But travel just a little farther north, and visitors will find themselves in the forest. In fact one of the most popular destinations is here among the trees, Capilano Suspension Bridge. After taking an afternoon nap…

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North Vancouver, Exploring the Waterfront and its Views

After spending time on Sunday in the beach town of White Rock, Monday was our day to explore North Vancouver. North Vancouver is a separate city from Vancouver. People often refer to it as the North Shore since it is on the north side of Vancouver Harbor. It is also right next to the mountains so there are a number of activities related to the outdoors here as well. We split our day into two parts. For the first part…

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White Rock: A Canadian Beach Town on the Border

Although we don’t live that far from the Canadian border, it had been a while since we traveled north. COVID stopped all traffic for a while. However, the border has been open for some time, and we had talked about going up to visit. Then my brother and his wife invited us to spend a few days in Whistler with them at their time share so it seemed a perfect opportunity to cross the border and visit up north. After…

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Seattle’s Cheshiahud Loop: South Lake Union to Fremont

Last week I described the first half of our walk around Lake Union known as the Cheshiahud Loop. We started at the north end of the lake at Gasworks Park. From the park we traveled east and walked along the east side of the lake. This week I will share about the rest of our walk as we continued back to Gasworks Park. As we got closer to the south end of Lake Union, we came across a more industrial…

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Seattle’s Cheshiahud Loop: Pipes, Bridges, and Houseboats

Travel articles often suggest that one needs to look at their own region through the eyes of a tourist. Since I am not always traveling to distant places to write about, I often look around the Seattle community to find experiences and places to share. That recently led me to discover Cheshiahud Loop, a route that goes all the way around Lake Union. The online information stated it was a six and a half mile walk. We figured that would…

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Ballard Locks: Boats, Salmon, Gardens and History

Seattle is a city practically surrounded by water. To the west is Puget Sound while to the east is Lake Washington. Water activities are an important part of life here. Historically the early pioneers used the waterways for transportation. As a result one of the early decisions was to connect Lake Washington to Puget Sound by digging a canal. When they realized that Lake Washington was higher in elevation than Puget Sound, they knew they needed to built locks for…

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