2008 - Washington DC
2010 - Cuba
2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise
2012 - DR & Costa Rica
2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA
2014 - SE Asia
The Year Off 2015 - 2016
- Preamble
- Thailand & Malaysia
- Italy
- Germany, Belgium, & Lux
- Czech, Poland, & Germany
- Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary
- Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany
- England & Scotland
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Peru: Lima & Amazon
- Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail
- Peru: Cusco to Lima
- Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize
- New Zealand
- Australia & Thailand
2017 - The Balkans
2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland
2018 - New York
2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics
2019 - Costa Rica
2019 - France
2020 - Thailand
2023 - Mexico
2023 - Iceland & Cruise
2024 - Philippines
2025 - Japan
2025 - Iceland
Short Trips
Lists
Links
| 2011 | Various | Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Caribbean |
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I don’t have a day by day account of 2011, but I do have a bit of a
narrative: My first trip in 2011 was a one week trip to the Dominican Republic. I went to a small beach town on the north coast. Unfortunately I picked up a head cold on the day I flew down, so I spent the majority of my time here at the hotel, with a couple of trips to the beach. Due to my illness this trip was basically a waste. On September 17 I flew to New York. I arrived in the city after transferring by train from Newark airport in the early evening. Since I didn't book this trip too far ahead and being cheap, the only hotel room that I found reasonably priced was actually at the YMCA. I checked in and discovered that the room was about 6 feet wide and maybe 10-12 feet long. I could literally touch both walls at the same time. Think prison cell. But it was only for one night. I went and saw Grand Central Terminal, Times Square, and walked around the streets a bit. I was not impressed with New York. There were a ton of people and it smelled funny. Not like a sewer, but some other weird smell.  The following day I made my way west to the edge of the island, where I boarded a cruise ship, the Norwegian Gem. This was a very nice ship and I don't have any complaints about it. Pulling away from the shore I got an excellent view of the city and the Statue of Liberty. We then set course to Bermuda.  A couple of days later we arrived at the cruise terminal at the dockyards in Bermuda. I loved this island. The weather was great for the three days I was there. One day I went into the main town there, Hamilton. Nice little town, lots of expensive yachts docked there. I actually did see some men walking around in Bermuda shorts with ties and jackets. I also stopped off the bus on the way back to the ship at a very nice beach. Another day I visited the old fort. I really enjoy seeing military related stuff and this fort did not disappoint. The old dockyard area nearby is also interesting, and in one spot a glass blower had set up shop and beside that store was a store that sold Bermuda Rum Cakes. I bought a couple of these. Delicious. I also did an excursion from the ship aboard a catamaran which bought us to a couple of snorkeling spots. The ship eventually returned to New York and I went directly to the airport to fly home on September 25. These days I am all about seeing new places, but Bermuda is on the list of somewhere that I want to return to. 
 Sometime in 2011 Mom and Dad surprised my brother and I by telling us that as a family we would be going on a Christmas / New Years Cruise to the Caribbean. My brother and I departed Canada on December 22 and flew to Miami where we met up with our parents. The next day we went to the ship, the Oceana Marina. The Marina was a new ship, less than a year old. It is a higher end ship and smaller then the big behemoths that also sail the seas. The food on this ship was amazing. I never had a bad meal, or even an okay one. It was all excellent. One downside of the smaller ships however is the entertainment is not as good and there are less things to do onboard. But the ship had a great library and we stopped at seven ports so I was not complaining. The ports that we stopped at were Grand Turk (Turk and Caicos), Frederiksted (US Virgin Islands), Gustavia (St. Barts), St. Johns (Antigua and Barbuda), Bridgetown (Barbados), Fort-de-France (Martinique), and Tortola (British Virgin Islands). If I remember correctly, we did three excursions with the cruise ship, all three of them were sailing/snorkeling tours. On one of these I took a picture of some pelicans on the water that is now hanging in my house. I don't remember much worth mentioning about the various stops, other than Bridgetown was dirty, and Gustavia had a topless beach where the beach was made of shells instead of sand. Anyways, we celebrated Christmas and New Years and had a great time, returning home on January 3rd. 
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