What could 53 days buy you? Think of it. What if you had 53 days? What could you do in that time? That length of time could buy you half a summer vacation. Or maybe you would look at it as two months salary minus the interfering weekends. Not long ago I exchanged 53 days for 2,341 miles. I then took those miles and exchanged them for an experience that I think changed my life forever. I was between jobs, you see, and so I took a Canoe and … [Read more...]
A Story of Travel and of a Girl
This is a story of a travel and of a girl; of long ago memories. So long ago that I cannot even remember the girl's real name, nor many of the places; only that it inspired love. What better trip is there than that? It started as a mini-trip to San Francisco with a college roommate. He and I were to travel on a budget of zero dollars, excluding a full tank of gas. We wanted to see Haight-Ashbury, the hippy scene of '67. After collecting glass … [Read more...]
Sydney at a Glance
"What a view!" The flight attendants were gasping out loud as they peered out the window. All of us passengers who were within earshot of their enthusiastic review took a look out the window and couldn't find a single reason to disagree with their breathless endorsement. Down there, the coastline of Sydney, Australia, was basking in the glow of the morning sun. It was now 14 hours after we had taken off out of San Francisco, CA and were now … [Read more...]
My Foreign Language
The preparation for the trip back to Vietnam was almost as unsettling as the trip itself. Mom didn't want me to go because she was afraid something might happen to me. I had planned to go with several other people, including a Vietnamese guy who goes by his Catholic name of 'Matthew,' and I had assured mom that Matthew would look after me since he had gone back several times already. Father had demanded that I not go because he didn't want me … [Read more...]