Leaving on a Jet Plane (on Monday)

I've recently used Facebook covers to show places we will soon be visiting on our upcoming trip to the Near East. The idea has been successful. In fact, it has prompted a future reunion with a family member I've not seen for over forty years! I used to feel like a weird fanatic for social networking sites. (Okay, Orkut wasn't much of a smash success, after all.) I first joined Facebook in the summer of 2006 but I think it was only open for academic members at the time. I used to beg and cajole friends to participate, but finally much of the world caught up.

I still get blank stares when I mention my accounts on Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, and Flipboard. Yet, if you're reading this message directly via the blogger site, you can choose from the tabs which are directly under the title, my eJournal and images.

Personal Quote #70

"We just booked four nights in a hotel in Bethlehem at the end of May because we didn't want to find there was no room for us in the inn."

Dennis Sylvester Hurd (1959- )

Photo by Kevin McLaughlin

Call Me Carmen

In the never-ending quest to stand in front of world-famous sites in order to snap a few photos, we will be heading to this location in May. If you do not instantly know where and what this pin represents, you may click here.

The trip will have a few bucket-list entries too.

The Near East

The upcoming, big trip of 2014 will include an item from my bucket list.

Although I worked in the Persian Gulf from 1981 to 1996, I never took the time to 'do' Egypt. In particular, I have for some time harboured the desire to stand upon a vessel on the Nile River. So, this is one detail on the itinerary that we'll accomplish come late spring. It's probably better that I waited for years and years. I have had time to get a slightly better grasp on the ebb and flow of world history. I most definitely feel better able to put the famous ancient sites into a personal schema now. Maybe I'm just trying to say that I feel a hell of a lot smarter than I was during my 20's and 30's.

We plan on flying into Cairo and initially seeing the Nile River Valley and famous archaeological sites of Upper-Egypt. As well, it might be interesting to see the Red Sea from the south of the Sinai Peninsula. We will probably, then, head up through Jordan. We already have our return tickets showing departure from Israel.


Jay and I have travelled much of the world together. He has, in fact, seen Cairo and Alexandria in the past whereas I have not. This photo was taken on a solo trip he took during our last year in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He had accrued sufficient vacation leave whereas I hadn't. He has already seen the great Pyramids of Giza and will be my tour guide this time around, a full 27 years after his initial visit.

New Westminster Quay in February

Earlier this morning, I had been looking for photo spheres shot by ordinary people. They are a great way of getting the feel of a potential place to visit on a vacation. We already have air tickets that will allow us time to visit the only remaining site of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Thousands of 360 degree photos can be found on Google's expanding Street View site.

Views: Pyramids of Giza by Andrey Ilyin

I thought it might be an idea to make use of today's sun to go make one myself. I usually wear a jacket in February, but today I had to put on a thick coat. When it's clear like this in the winter it usually signals cold Artic air rather than a warm storm out of the Pacific tropics. I walked down to the New Westminster Quay and then on to Westminster Pier Park. "Practice makes perfect," I always tell my students. I definitely need more practice making photo spheres.

Views: The NewWest Quay in February by Dennis Sylvester Hurd

Help Us Choose an Itinerary

This is the fourth time in my eJournal and images, I've mentioned we're thinking about going on a late spring journey this year. I am going to use an egg metaphor: Our travel ideas are first laid and slowly incubate. This one seems about ready to finally hatch. We're getting a little more serious with all the possible dates and whatnot.

Below I've copied a screen slice from my tablet's Google Earth app. Consider the boundaries shown here as the extent of our geography for this trip. Let's say the upcoming trip can last one month. What cities, places, and sites are mandatory within these confines? I'd love to hear suggestions and opinions from others.

Trying Different Searches

We're always on the look out for interesting places for a journey. In this case it'd be worth the hassle of a bus trip and hotel to get lower prices from Seattle. Sometimes coming back through Europe directly to Vancouver makes sense though.

Weird Coincidences

People like to find patterns in apparent randomness. I'd even venture it may well be this tendency which drives human intellect.

It does seem strange that just yesterday, I mentioned we were thinking about destinations for a spring trip. And two strangely-connected things occurred today. First, I had a long message from Lynne Thomas. That is not unheard of but special. In it, she asked if were were planning any trips. Moreover, later in the afternoon, ex-colleague Pam Cashbaugh-Hewitt posted some old photos on Facebook. They were pictures from our teaching days in Kuwait the early 1980's. Strangely, the one below was taken in Jordan while we were stranded in a mountain village during a snowstorm. Due to the poor weather, we had to skip plans to visit Petra on that vacation. Petra is one of the very places we have been thinking of trying to visit during the upcoming trip.

I will take the occurrence of these two events as a good omen.

Planning Another 'Big One'

Except for that little week in Mexico last month, we've been sticking pretty close to home of late. This seems unusual, as long autumn or winter trips have been the norm for quite a few years. I feel happy now that we have started considering another big trip. By big, I mean satisfying two criteria: 1) leaving the continent and 2) spending at least a month away.

The contemplation stage has begun! Hooray! I'm glad to have a target as we learn a lot about an area prior to the journey itself. In fact, the planning process is fun and it surely takes much longer than the actually days abroad.

We have set a tentative date for a spring departure. We have also talked about the countries we might involve. We've even discussed a possible routing and itinerary. There are a lot of world-famous, must-sees along our potential vacation pathway. Click to load one 360 degree image and take a look: