Swanson's Travel History (1997-current)
Introduction
This is part of the Swansons' travel narrative
history. This section covers our travels together during
the years:
2009
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2008
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2007
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2006
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2005
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2004
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2003
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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1998
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1997
2009
The start of 2009 saw us taking the Tahitian Princess on a four-month world cruise.
2008
After our return from Australia, we drove the RV down to Florida, to get ready for 2009.
After the August cruise to Alaska, we drove to the San Francisco Bay area, and boarded the Dawn Princess for a cruise across the Pacific to Australia. Once in Australia we drove for about 3 weeks and saw lots of beautiful country. The people of this nation are wonderful.
Once settled into our new motorhome, we started visiting parts of the western U.S., such as Yellowstone, and Zion National Parks. All this travel positioned us to take a cruise to Alaska with family in August.
We met some full-time RV owners on the South America cruise, and decided to buy and move into a motorhome (RV). We relocated back to the mainland of the U.S. We now write a blog with our RV travels.
Sandi's retirement "party" and our first major cruise, took place in January. We were on the 68-day cruise on the Prinsendam completely around South America. The highlight was a week spent in Antarctica.
2007
We retired this year, so cruising will be a larger part of our lives. Our big cruise of the year was a combination cruise of 18 days, up to Alaska, and then back to Vancouver on the beautiful Sapphire Princess. The Butchart Gardens in Victoria were in amazing bloom, even in May. And, finally, we got to see Glacier Bay from the water. It was awesome. We have lots of photos on Flickr, since we are out of space with our ISP.
In July, we visited family in both the Kansas City area, and New Jersey.
2006
Having had such a nice time on the inaugural cruise of the Pride of America in 2005, we had the pleasure of taking the inaugural cruise of the new Pride of Hawai'i this year. The first cruise was from Los Angeles all the way to Honolulu, with stops in San Francisco and in the Islands. There are two sets of photos in Flickr, both interior images, and exterior images. On our own website, there is an extensive group of photos. We visited both families before this cruise.
2005
We FINALLY got to sail through the Panama Canal on the new ship Pride of America. We lost out last year when she sank at the construction dock. We had booked her for last year, 2004. We are booked again for the Canal transit as she relocates to the Hawaiian Islands for her regular voyages. See our photos of the June/July trip. Some images are also available in a set on our Flickr account. It is rare to transit the Panama Canal, or even to visit Central America in the summer, due to the heat.
Just to add to the fun, we took another cruise this year. It was quite unexpected, but the pre-Christmas prices for us on Maui were too good to miss. We enjoyed a week onboard the NCL(A) Pride of Aloha, visiting our beautiful islands. We spent most of the time onboard, and had the whole ship to ourselves! The photos are available on a Flickr set.
2004
We had planned a cruise through the Panama Canal on the new Pride of America, but unfortunately, she sank at the construction dock. Luckily, we found a Panama Canal transit on the RCCL Legend of the Seas around Christmas. We had a great time. This was the first cruise where dining was more traditional and often formal. We managed to survive. We had a great time, and the Panama Canal is a unique experience. Take a look at our webpage of our photos and trip description, as well as the photos on our Flickr account set.
2003
In December, we again took the Norwegian Star. Same trip, different time of year. We had such a great time in June, we just had to do it again. The weather was "bumpier" this time, but we still loved it. Nothing like cruising the open ocean. See our web pages of this cruise, as well as a set on our Flickr account.
In November, we both attended Supercomputing 2003 in Phoenix Arizona. There was enough free time to do some shopping (mostly at Fry's), and Trader Joes. Oh yes, we got to have some good Mexican food.
We enjoyed 2 wonderful weeks of vacation this May/June. The first week was spent on the Big Island of Hawai'i. We had not visited there as a couple since 1986. But the best week followed that land tour: we sailed on the "Norwegian Star" on her cruise of the Hawaiian islands. The cruise included a stop at Fanning Island. Wonderful. We're hooked.
2002
We spent some time in New Jersey, seeing family, but did no sightseeing or other travel-related things. We did get to see a genuine local Memorial Day parade in Rockaway, NJ. It was very moving to see both WW II soldiers marching, along with the community firemen. 9/11 is still a very strong memory in this area.
Bob attended the WWW conference in Honolulu, which would not be a vacation, except that he got to enjoy the Bishop Museum again. When you visit Honolulu, be sure to put this fascinating place on your schedule.
November saw both of us in the DC area on business. The tourist highlight was visiting the Air and Space Museum, as well as the National Postal Museum. That was enough of DC for us both.
2001
Take a look at our wonderful trip to New Zealand
Bob joined Sandi in Honolulu, while she took network training. He wandered all over town, using the helpful bus pass. The highlight of his mini-vacation was the Bishop Museum. Highly recommended.
Bob had a business trip to Seattle in early September. Again, it was possible to get out and visit fun places like Pike Market. He arrived there to buy a salmon, but encountered huge crowds, film crews, etc. Turned out that this was the anniversary of Starbuck's coffee. He still managed to get his salmon back to Maui...on September 9th.
2000
We finally got to Alaska. The place is awesome! Sandi needed only one more state to have stepped foot in all 50 United States, and it was this remarkable place.
We had excellent help in our planning, since a recent houseguest is married to a crewman on the Alaska State Ferry system. So, rather than take a traditional "cruise" we had a wonderful time travelling on the "blue canoe", the amazing Columbia. We stayed in Haines with her while her husband worked (we did get to meet him in Washington state before they sailed), and took a driving trip through BC and the Yukon Territory. Incredible scenery! We even saw some animals, such as eagles, but saw very few bears.
1999
Well, it was a pretty strange year. Bob lost his job in December, 1998, when the computer center shut down in Bay City. In March, we relocated to Maui, where Bob is now working at the Maui High Performance Computing Center. The driving trip from Michigan to Oakland, Calif, was taken pretty fast, but we did get to stay a day and night in Yosemite. The beauty of that place is still unmatched.
Our primary activity was to get settled in, and get into the tempo of the Islands. No big vacations in 1999, due to major lifestyle changes.
We did get out to Lana'i, well worth the visit. We travelled on a friend's sailboat from Maui, and stayed at Manele Bay. The beach near the boat harbor is fantastic. Some friends got up early and hit the beach at sunrise, and got to swim with the dolphins. We just marched to and from the beach and the boat, lounging under the shade and drinking sufficient beer. The walk around the point between the harbor and beach is spectacular and a very easy hike. We hope to explore more of Lana'i in the future.
1998
What to do during our non-boating time? Well, Sandi needed to attend more continuing education, so off we go to Kaua'i, our favorite Hawaiian Island. The trip was itself not a "trip from hell" but only a "trip from heck". We greatly enjoyed our 10 days on the island. It has changed from 10 years ago, but is still lovely. We took some pictures of Waimea Canyon while we were there. And, YES, we did go to Bubba Burger!
However, the trip was punctuated by many problems. At the very start, we had a nearly 9 hour flight to Honolulu. My tailbone will never forgive me. Then we discovered that we had been booked into a hotel at the wrong end of the island. Our attempt at a one day stopover in San Francisco (love that deem sum!) was less than fun when Sandi was felled by a stomach flu. Bob managed to get out of the hotel room and visit with old friends, but Sandi couldn't even eat a cracker in that wonderful foodie town.
The Kaua'i hotel problem threatened to ruin our vacation. The wonderful people at Gloria's Spouting Horn B & B on Kaua'i, saved the day. They are a highly recommended outfit. They helped us get booked into a clean comfortable room on Poipu, about 50 feet from the beach, all at a remarkably low price. We had to give up our hotel resort at Princeville, and forfeit most of the prepaid costs.
The flu problem was solved by time. When we finally got off the airplane in Michigan, Sandi could eat again.
The Kaua'i hotel booking problem was partially compensated by a Maui hotel stay over Labor Day 1999.
We managed to get "up north" in Michigan during January. And, yes we had to take a picture of the ice and snow decorating every branch of every tree.
In July, we once again visited our favorite cruising ground, the North Channel of Lake Huron, in Canada. We spent three weeks seeing some new areas, and revisiting some old ones. The weather was pretty nice, but the wind blew a lot. In spite of that, we have a lovely time on our new boat, and spent about half our time anchored out.
October saw us in Vancouver, BC. We spent a week, stayed in a very nice B & B, and ate a lot of Chinese food. The restaurant scene in Vancouver is amazing. We had a lot of fun on the SeaBus, a "bus" (boat) that crosses the harbor from Vancouver to North Vancouver. The harbor is very busy, in spite of the troubles in the Far East economies. As in our previous visits to Canada, the people were just great. Only the climate left a bit to be desired, but what can you expect in early October. It rained quite a lot. If we lived in that town, we would be eating at Hons Wuntun House every day!
As a precurser to 1999 activities, Bob spent a few days in Maui, interviewing for a job. See 1999 for results.
1997
Well, 1997 got us back in a traveling mood. Sandi's new profession of therapeutic massage requires her to attend regular training, so we trundled off to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a week of seminar and sun.
While the climate there is quite nice, we found the environment in Cabo not to our liking. There was a very young, rowdy crowd of Americans there, and the vendors were extremely aggressive. We could ignore the drunk Americans passed out on the street, but it was hard to leave our hotel room, without being hassled by people trying to sell us something. They even had a timeshare sales desk in the hotel lobby, masquerading as the "tours" desk! If we reacted negatively to this army of sellers, they just became more aggressive. Finally, our only way to cope was to ignore every person who tried to accost us about anything. Thus, we missed several interesting sights in the area, and were left out of the famous "laid-back atmosphere", as we tried to ignore everything around us.
As an example, one day we were eating lunch. As we ate, a total stranger sat down at our table without asking, and proceeded to try to sell us a timeshare condo. We couldn't get rid of her, and this intrusion ruined our relaxed lunch.
There were some good things about the trip: we got some sun, in contrast to Michigan winter; and we did get out on a boat. Cabo is a very important sport fishing center, and there were lots of fish to see. Our particular "sunset" cruise was very enjoyable. Once we convinced the Captain that we knew something about boats, he was more than generous with his time and explained with great pride all the features of the cruise boat. And, yes we did get to see some whales, completing their migration from Alaska to the Sea of Cortez.
That said, however, we have no plans to return to Cabo, which bothers our friends who own condos there. They say that you have to get out of downtown Cabo, which is easy if you have a car, but not so simple for travelers trapped by schedules and lack of "wheels".
We moved to Bay City in March, but moving yourself doesn't count as a vacation. However, just after we moved in, we took another vacation that was not a "working" vacation, and was definitely less stressful than Cabo. Back in December, we had booked a one-week's cruise on the sailing vessel Star Clipper. There are some photos on our Flickr account.
This cruise ship is actually a 4-masted barkentine-rigged sailing ship. Our particular cruise started in Barbados, and we visited some of the Caribbean, including Grenada. The captain and officers prefer to sail this ship, and sail they did. They only used the engine a few minutes out of the entire week.
The staterooms on this ship are just as nice as on other cruise ships, but there are some very important plusses: casual dress code, open seating for meals, no social director, relaxed cruising schedule that does not visit large cruise ports with mall-like duty-free shops. We told the ship's officers that we were interested in boating, and were immediately offered open access to the pilot house to use their navigation equipment (as long as they weren't docking or running other difficult maneuvers). There were some port visits (we enjoyed a day on Grenada), but for most of the week, we just spent long, lazy days and nights on deck watching the sails billow under sun and stars. We saw the "green flash" twice, the first two that I had ever seen, and Sandi's second and third. We worked with another boater as he shot the sun with his sextant on March 21st, the Vernal Equinox.
Our own boating event for the Summer, was a two-week visit to Lake Michigan. We had never boated there, and were curious to see the Door area. Lake Michigan had other plans for us, however, as the weather was pretty bad. Our most pleasant evening was spent at Boyne City, a very nice destination winter or summer. Early in the trip, we attended the Great Lakes Cruising Club rendezvous at Bay Harbor (near Petoskey) for 4 days, and had glorious weather. Of course, we were tied up for all 4 days. When we left, the lake turned nasty, and we had to spend a day and night on Beaver Island. It is well worth a visit, even if unplanned. Our next bumpy voyage took us to Fayette, Michigan, which is worth a detour by land or sea. Our final two days were spent at ports on the Wisconsin coast.
Manitowoc is a great town in every way, but is better yet for a wonderful maritime museum. It has a WW II submarine tied up by the museum, that was actually built in Manitowoc. We also bought a tape of the Happy Schnapps Combo performing their now-famous "I Don't Wanna Do Dat".
Port Washington is another nice smaller town, just north of Milwaukee. Interesting old architecture, an excellent marina, and Smith's fish restaurant. One morning near the end of our trip, the lake laid down and was flat. We wasted no time, and took off as fast as we could, got back to Luddington, Michigan, put the boat on the trailer, and headed for home. We now understand why people speak of Lake Michigan with such awe.
Our final big boat trip of the season was to trailer our boat to Port Severn, Ontario, and run down the Trent-Severn waterway as far as Peterborough. This was around Labour Day, so some things were closed, and the system became remarkably empty after that Monday holiday. There was nice fall foliage here and there, combined with unmatched scenery. For us, this was a chance to revisit this beautiful area that we had seen only briefly in 1995. Again, we cannot rave too much about this area, whether visited by boat or car.
Sometimes the spectacular sites you travel to see are already in your own back yard. About the time we put the boat away for the winter, we had spectacular fall foliage in Bay City.
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